As you know, we like to remind everyone that we’re just an informal Bible study. I emphasize informal, and we don’t want to pretend to be something we’re not. And all we hope to do is show people how to study the Word on their own, we show you how it is rightly divided, and we compare Scripture with Scripture, line upon line, precept upon precept. We’re finding, from the response across the nation, that it’s beginning to work; that people are getting excited about studying the Bible on their own. We trust you don’t depend on the quarterly or on books in the bookstores. Just get into the Book. The most exciting thing you can do is to get involved in some really deep Bible study.

Okay, we’re going to start a whole new series of programs. We finished Revelation in our last taping, and for those of you who are not aware, we taught the book of Revelation several years ago. That’s in what we call our books 11, 12, 13, and 14. At that time I was rather uncomfortable with the first three chapters of Revelation according to the traditional view, so I jumped in back there at book 11 with chapter 4. Now, in the last few months we’ve picked up the first three chapters in Revelation and finished it in book 59. And that pretty much takes care of the whole book of Revelation and there’s no need to redo it because even though those programs were made seven or eight years ago, from what we can gather from our audience, they are just as appropriate today as they were then.

As I mentioned in the last taping, we intend to do a study in the book of Isaiah because it’s a tremendous book of prophecy. And we won’t be staying in the Old Testament, so don’t worry, we’ll be jumping up into the New just as much as we do the Old. We’ll be starting in Isaiah chapter 1. But, as always, we need to do some background, because I’ve learned in my own study that the historical setting is almost as important as anything else you can put in it. Where are we in history? What was the setting concerning the children of Israel? Why does all of this talk about coming disasters and coming blessings? Because that’s just exactly the way God has been dealing with Israel, His favored Nation.

Now, the first thing I want to emphasize as we go through the book of Isaiah is you’re always looking at three different areas of time. Remember, Isaiah is writing about 700 BC. The other prophets will be writing from there on until Malachi winds up the Old Testament in 400 BC. Now, let’s back up our timeline again, at least mentally. You want to remember that Abraham came out of Ur of the Chaldees in 2000 BC; half-way between Adam and the cross.

All right, from Abraham until Israel has the Law and Moses was about 500 years. So you can say that from 2000 to 1500 BC was that period of time when Israel became a nation. They came out of Egypt, gathered around Mount Sinai, received the Law, and then years later finally came into the Promised Land under the leadership of gifted men whom we call "the Judges."

So, Israel was under the rule of Judges such as Samuel, Deborah, and Sampson. Well then, as you know the account, Israel wanted a king like everybody else. So, now, about half-way between Abraham and Christ’s first advent, Israel has their first king; King Saul. You all know the story of him. Then after 40 years with King Saul, Israel got the promised king, David. David ruled followed by his son Solomon. That takes us up to nearly 900 BC. Then, from 900 BC. until we get to Isaiah there’s that 200 year interval.

Now, in terms of Old Testament thinking, that’s not long, sort of a blink of an eye. But it is 200 years, and 200 years back then was just as long back then, if not longer, than it is today. So, here was a 200-year period of time - from the demise of Solomon’s kingdom until we get to the warnings now coming from prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah and so forth. Israel, after all the glory of Solomon’s kingdom, and by virtue of being divided now into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom consists of ten tribes in the North and two tribes in the South. This is all happening after Solomon’s reign, so we have a 200 year period in there where the nation is divided into the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.

They are separate entities. They have their own line of kings, but they’re still all part of the nation of Israel and the Covenant promises. So, God sends prophets into Judah and He sends prophets up into Israel and by-and-large everything they write fits. Although, the prophets writing up in the Northern Kingdom are addressing their demise and they are soon overtaken by the Assyrians, whereas Isaiah and Jeremiah are directing their prophecies to Judah and Benjamin who will finally be overrun by the Babylonians about 100 years later.

All right, here’s the setting now of Isaiah. He is prophesying about 200 years after David and Solomon, but he is 700 years before Christ’s first advent. Israel has now come to the place where she is going downhill so fast, morally and spiritually. Oh, the Temple is still going; they’re still sacrificing. The Temple is still the center of all the religious activity, but the nation, as a whole, is now succumbing to idolatry and pagan worship and they’re forgetting all about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So, the warnings that come from these prophets are of an immediate nature; its impending invasion by an enemy who will literally annihilate many of them. It’s also looking forward to another great demise of Israel, which would be after they’ve crucified the Christ and the Romans came in and destroyed the Temple and Israel was disbursed. Then, we can even go further, clear to the end of everything - that point of time that’s just ahead of us now, we feel, when God will once again deal with His covenant people in what we call the Tribulation.

So, in all of these prophecies you look at and the text will usually show – is it the immediate invasion that he’s talking about? Is it the intermediate, when Jerusalem was overrun by the Romans and the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Or, is it the long term, clear at the end of the Tribulation, which of course, from Isaiah’s time would be 2700 years into the future. But see, that’s what makes this Book so beautiful. This is why I maintain, without apology, it is the ONLY Word of God on earth. None of your other books of religion - the Book of Mormon, the Koran, the Book of Buddha, Shinto, none of them can prophecy things years and centuries in advance like this one does. That’s always my first comment if people have any doubt about this being the Word of God; there is no other book on earth that can do what this Book does concerning prophecy.

All right, we’re going to start in Isaiah chapter 1 and don’t forget the time element. It is 700 years before Christ. Isaiah is prophesying in the Southern Kingdom, he’s got all the advantages of the Temple worship and everything else. He’s also going to be addressing a lot of his judgments to the Northern Kingdom, as well, who will be going under the captivity a hundred years before Judah will.

"The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah,…" See how you can see right from the text, he is a prophet of the Southern Kingdom. See, now here’s how chronologists can date so much of Scripture from just little tidbits of information like this, "In the days of King Uzziah." Again, history can pretty much nail down the time at which King Uzziah ruled and reigned in Jerusalem. All right, so these are visions that he saw concerning:

"…Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, (all) kings of Judah." Now, here begins Isaiah’s controversy with the nation of Israel.

"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD…" Now remember, that term LORD in the Old Testament, with all four letters in capitalization, is Jehovah; the primary name of God concerning Israel in the Old Testament economy.

"… for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, (that’s why we refer to them so often as the children of Israel. They were the result of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but what happened?) and they have rebelled against me." Now, verse 3 is a classic verse. You all know it. You’ve heard it at one time or another.

"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass (or the donkey) his master’s crib:…" In other words, the donkey knew where his food was coming from. That’s why I love cattle ranching. I can drive out in the pasture and just give one yell, and here they come! Why? Well, they know where that little tidbit of tasty cubes is coming from. You know we feed cattle cubes. They know! But that’s more than a lot of people can do. A lot of people haven’t got enough wherewithal to come in out of the rain. But the animal kingdom does. So, it’s an example of Scripture, "The donkey knows his master’s crib," he knows where his next meal is coming from, but…

"…my people (Israel) doeth not consider." (or know) Now, remember, the "My people" here is Israel. We’re not talking about the Church. That’s another point I have to make. There is not one iota of reference anywhere in the Old Testament concerning the New Testament Church. Not one hint. The closest you can come is when Amos prophecies that God will call out a people for His name, which of course was a reference to the, I think, "the calling out of the Body of Christ."

But, other than that, there is not one iota of any reference to the Church, and we’ll look at that in just a minute. It was a secret held in the mind of God. All right, now I’m going to make a comparison Scripture. Jump up to Jeremiah chapter 8, and remember what we just read. Jeremiah is also a prophet writing and concerning himself with Judah, but he’s a few years later than Isaiah. Even though Isaiah dies before the Babylonian captivity, Jeremiah is still alive. Jeremiah was actually found by the Babylonians in a dungeon deep down under Jerusalem. That’s where the Jews had thrown him because they didn’t like his message. So, Jeremiah is writing some 75-80 years later than Isaiah, but he says almost the same thing.

"Yea the stork (the bird) in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people (Israel) know not the judgment of the LORD." Isn’t it sad? You know, I have said as long as I’ve been teaching, Israel could have known who Jesus was. Israel should have known who Jesus was, but now let’s see what the Scripture says.

Turn all the way up to the New Testament now, to I Corinthians chapter 2. Has anything changed? Nothing! See, this is why I love to compare Scripture with Scripture. Isaiah says, "the ox knows his master’s crib." Jeremiah says, "the birds of the heavens know when to migrate,", but Israel didn’t know. We’re not blaming the Jew only. My, we’re no different today.

You can go up and down the streets of any town and city in America today and ask the younger generation a Biblical question. Can they answer it? More than likely not. They don’t know what you’re talking about. In fact, I was just reading an article the other day on some of the clichés that we speak of, for example, "A Damascus Road experience." Do you know that most of our kids haven’t got a clue what they’re talking about? That’s just one example. All right, so it isn’t just Israel. We’re just as far down the tube, having begun, I think, on as high a plane spiritually when our nation was formed, as Israel was from their beginning. I think it’s almost a perfect parallel between Israel in the Old Testament and America since her inception. Now, compare this with what we just read in Isaiah and Jeremiah

"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, (or a secret. That’s the other word for mystery) even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world to our glory." Now again, Paul could have just as well said, "my glory" because it was to him that all this was revealed. Now, look at verse 8.

"Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." So why did they crucify Him? They were totally ignorant of who He was.

All right, let’s move on over to Ephesians chapter 3, and now we have another account from the pen of the Apostle Paul of why there is absolutely no mention of the Church, this Age of Grace, in the Old Testament, and we might as well cover it right up front. I may come back to it again before we get out of Isaiah, but here it is. Ephesians chapter 3, we’ll read several verses starting at verse 1, probably down through verse 9. And this is the exact reason that the Church is not in Old Testament writings.

"For this cause…" Where Paul has just come out of chapter 2, where he had said in verse 8 and 9 "for by grace are you saved through faith not of works lest any man should boast," Therefore he establishes that we’re now under Grace.

"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles." Not Israel. He’s the Apostle of the Gentiles, (Romans 11:13) like Isaiah was a prophet of Israel. Like Peter and the Eleven were Apostles of Israel, this man is the Apostle of the Gentiles.

"If ye have heard…" And we’re going to be using that word "If" when we get back to Isaiah after a while. Everything is conditioned on choice. You ever think of that? Everything you do, whatever your lot in life. Whatever kind of a marriage you’ve ended up in, whatever kind of a family you have raised, what’s it all based on? Choices! Nations make them. Families make them. Individuals make them.

"If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:" Maybe, by choice, you haven’t heard. You don’t want to hear. That’s a lot of people. They don’t want to hear it. In fact, someone just shared with me last night where they mentioned something to a customer that came into their store about eternity and you know what his answer was? (It didn’t surprise me one bit.) "I’ve never thought about it."

Isn’t that typical? They don’t ever think about eternity. In fact, I think I mentioned in one of my classes the other night, one of the pastors who we just ministered with up in Minnesota was telling me that when he was a young man going to the University of Minnesota, and many of you are acquainted with the ‘Twin Cities,’ there’s a hodgepodge of traffic coming in to what they call the "seven corners." I don’t know if it’s still there or not, used to be. Yeah, Bill says it’s still there! And he said that right there on the seven corners of Minneapolis was a huge billboard and all that was on it was the question, "Where will you spend eternity?" He said that thing just bugged hen and bugged him and he said, "I know that that’s what drove me into the ministry, knowing that most people have never considered the question, ‘where will you spend eternity?’ "

All right, so again it behooves us to understand that it’s a matter of choice. That was another conversation we had, I think when we were out in South Dakota. We were talking about God sending lost people to the eternal lake of fire. You know, a lot of people will say, "Well, how can a God of love and mercy send the vast majority of the human race to such a place?" He doesn’t send them there, they choose to go there. Never forget that. They choose to go there, and when they come before the Great White Throne Judgment someday, they’re never going to argue and say, "Well, you didn’t give me a chance." They’re going to know that they have chosen to go where they’re going.

All right, back to Ephesians chapter 3, that this dispensation of the Grace of God, which is given to Paul to us, now verse 3.

"How that by revelation (a revealing from His place in Glory) he made known unto me (the Apostle Paul) the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4. Whereby, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)" These secrets revealed to Paul that the world in general knew nothing of. Now, verse 5. Here it comes, just as plain as language can make it.

"Which in other ages (or generations) was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." Now remember, Paul is speaking of those prophets and apostles who associated with his ministry, not the Twelve or any of the prophets of Israel. He’s talking about those associated with his ministry.

"That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7. Whereof I was made a minister, (Paul’s apostleship is singular) according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8. Unto me, who am less than the lest of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9. And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, (this secret. Now, here it is again) which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, (the same God) who created all things by Jesus Christ:"

All right, now turn over a few pages forward to Colossians, and we see the same thing repeated, inspired of the Holy Spirit remember; Colossians chapter 1 beginning at verse 24. Now, this was all revealed to this Apostle and consequently the Old Testament writers couldn’t even mention it, they knew nothing of it. And we’ll be looking at what they were thinking when we get back there. All right, Colossians chapter 1 beginning at verse 24.

"Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh…" In other words, how the man suffered for 25 years to get the Gospel out into the Roman Empire. And remember what that Gospel of Salvation is? "How that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again." (I Corinthians 15:1-4) Now, continuing on in verse 24.

"…the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake which is the church: (or the Church, which is His Body) 25.Whereof (for the sake of the Body) I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God (or as he called it the dispensation of grace in Ephesians) which is given to me for you, to fulfill (or to complete or to bring the New Testament to an end) the word of God; 26. Even the mystery (the secret) which hath been hid from ages and generations,…" You see how plain all this is? All these things coming from the pen of the Apostle Paul were kept totally secret.

That’s why Peter wrote in his little epistle, "that in Paul’s epistles are some things hard to be understood." It was a whole new ballgame that Peter couldn’t quite catch, and this is the reason. It was kept secret. But now it was revealed to this Apostle. Iris and I decided last night that I’m going to have to do a program someday on the number of times that Paul uses that expression, "But now." I think it will easily make a thirty minute program. How many times Paul refers to the past with all of its misery and its sin and its rebellion, "but now" is on this side of salvation as a believer. All right,

"…but now (this which was kept secret) is made manifest to the saints;"

And you know how I’ve always explained the word manifest – put into the spotlight, where nothing is shaded and you can’t quite read it. It is all brought in just as plain as language can make it, but you know what? People don’t want to read it. They don’t want to hear it. It’s contrary to their normal comfort zone and I’ll never forget, years ago, a couple came into one of my classes and they had their eyes opened. The Lord saved them and they went back to their denominational people, and that was the first time I ever heard it, she said, "Les, they don’t want to be rocked out of their comfort zone." The comfort zone and isn’t that exactly it?

My, when we go on our seminars, people share with us constantly, "We pray for you and Iris and the ministry." They tell us they not only watch us every day, but they pray for us every day. I think that’s why the Lord has blessed our ministry the way He has. He has blessed us so abundantly, and as I’ve rehearsed with people, especially as we travel, that it just seems as though the Lord has reached out to so many men, older men, and not exactly good men.

In fact, I was just talking with a gentleman the other day up in Kansas, and I’m not going to identify him, but I imagine a lot of people up there will know who I’m talking about. He had lost his wife some time ago, and he called me on the phone and shared with me that he had just lost her, and he was so totally broken up I could hardly understand him. But anyway, he happened to be in one of our seminars last week and introduced himself. He shared how the Lord had opened his heart because of the loss of his wife. She had left two crucial verses for him in their bathroom, which he found two or three days after the funeral, and through tears he shared with me how the next day he caught our program and within one or two programs came to know the Lord!

He was a nice-looking fellow and you would never dream what he said, and I just said, "Well, why are you emphasizing how awful you’ve been?" He said, "Les, I’ve probably been in prison more than I’ve been out." He certainly didn’t look like that type of a person. But, you know, the Lord can save to the uttermost those that are willing to believe the Gospel of salvation that we find in I Corinthians 15:1-4. So it encourages us as we see this across the ministry.

Okay, we’re going to pick up where we left off in our study in Isaiah. As I said at the beginning of the first program, we’re not going to belabor the book, we’re not going to stay in it from now on, but we will spend a little while because it is such an appropriate book for today, because it’s a book of prophecy. And I’ll keep repeating, because remember, bear with me, we’ve got new listeners coming in every day. Our database is just exploding lately, and so for the benefit of new listeners, I’m going to keep repeating.

Isaiah is going to be prophesying to the nation of Israel in near-term events because of their falling headlong into idolatry. Even though they’ve got the Temple operating, it means nothing, and the rank and file of Israel has just become total rebels. So near-term judgments, such as an invasion by the Assyrians from the north – now while we were having coffee at the last break, I wrote a little bit of my makeshift map up here. Now, nothing is to scale; it’s almost a caricature so far as maps are concerned. But here we have the Euphrates River running all the way down through present day Baghdad down to the Persian Gulf. And here we have the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and the Dead Sea. Jerusalem, right off the northern end of the Dead Sea, and slightly north of Jerusalem is where the nation was divided. The ten tribes comprising the Northern Kingdom, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin comprising the Southern Kingdom are staying down here at the south where they have the Temple.

Now, as Isaiah is writing, the near invasion of the Ten Tribes by the Syrians is right at hand. It’s going to happen within a matter of a few years. Then, almost a hundred years later the Babylonians will come in from the east and they will besiege Jerusalem, destroy the Temple, and take the Jews back out to Babylon, which is present day Iraq. They will be there for 70 years of captivity. Now, I always like to emphasize that contrary to the teaching of Armstrongism in years back which said that the Ten Tribes were lost and became Europeans and Americans, that is as false as a three dollar bill. Because, if you go back into the account of the Kings and the Chronicles and study the civil wars, and they did have civil wars, the tribes of Judah would have a civil war with Israel and back and forth. If you will compare the wars from when they first started, Judah only had a few hundred thousand men of war, whereas the Ten Tribes had one million three hundred thousand. Five years later the numbers have come a little closer to equal but the majority is still leaning to the Ten Tribes. But then thirty years later, after the first civil war, Judah now has a million some hundred thousand soldiers, and the Ten Tribes of the Northern Kingdom have an army no bigger than a little flock of kid goats.

That’s the way the Scripture puts it. So, what has been happening over the years? They’ve been migrating back into Judah because, after all, that’s where the Temple is. That’s where the major activity is taking place. So, when the Syrians come in and take Israel captive, (the ten tribes) there weren’t that many left, because most of them have moved back down to the Southern Kingdom.

Now, when they are taken captive out to Babylon it figures how many Tribes went into the Babylonian captivity, two or twelve? Well, twelve of them. And when they came back, the language in Ezra and Nehemiah is "all" Israel. By the time you get to Christ’s first advent and Peter addresses in Acts chapter 2 what is his application? "Therefore let the whole house of Israel." So, don’t ever buy into that fact that there are ten lost tribes. They were never lost. They were always part and parcel of the nation of Israel.

Okay, let’s pick up where we left off in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 4. Just get the picture of how far down the tube the nation of Israel has gone just in the last two hundred years since Solomon’s death.

"Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters; they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger, they are gone away backward." Now, you remember in our last taping, I made the statement that nations, as well as individuals, are constantly given choices. For the nation of Israel it was choice after choice.

Now, let’s go back so that you’ll see what I’m talking about. Go back with me to the time of Moses as he writes the book of Deuteronomy and turn to chapter 28. This is just exactly what I’m trying to bring across in this study here in Isaiah. They had the choice. We Americans are in the same place. We’re going to be making a tremendous choice. Are we just going to pull off all restraint? Are we just going to open the floodgates to wickedness or are we going to try and hold it back?

Now, I’ve said everywhere I go, "We can’t turn it around." You will not turn it around, because we’re too close to the end. The best we can hope for is to slow it down. But you know, like one fellow in Minnesota put it, and I think he’s probably right. He said, "If it doesn’t slow down, then we’re just that much closer to the Rapture." Well, I’ll have to agree, because we as a nation are at the same crossroads that Israel was, and here’s the choice. Deuteronomy 28 and we can just start at verse 1. Now, this is even before they have gotten into the Promised Land and Moses is putting the choice before them.

"And it shall come to pass, (it’s going to happen however Israel chooses, and what’s the next word?) if (That’s the condition.) thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, and to observe to do all his commandments which I command thee this day that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth:" That was Israel’s prospect. You remember way back when they came out of Egypt, I’m always teaching in Exodus 19, what could they have become? A nation of priests. Every Jew would have the opportunity to bring Gentiles to the knowledge of their God. But, it was all based on whatever choice they would take.

"All these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if (you make the right choice. And what’s the choice?) thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God." Then he begins to show the blessings that God is going to shower on the nation if they’re obedient.

"Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field." Now, this is all in the normal events of everyday life. They’ll be blessed family-wise. They’ll be blessed in food production. They’ll be blessed in every way.

"Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, (children) and the fruit of thy ground, (crops) and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep." In other words, like Abraham and Isaac of old, it would just come rolling in. That was one prospect. All right, but now let’s come down to verse 15. What’s the first word? "But." Flipside! Here’s the other choice and it’s a choice.

"But it shall come to pass, if you wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes…" Now remember, this is Israel under the Law; this isn’t you and I under grace, but the whole concept of choices is the same regardless.

"…which I command thee this day; that all these curses (all these bad things) shall come upon thee, and overtake thee. (Then here he lists them) 16. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. 17. Cursed will be thy basket and thy store. 18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, (you see what an awesome choice we’ve got here?) and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep. 19. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 20. The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation and rebuke…" So, if they choose wrong, is that God’s fault? No. It’s not God’s fault. The same way today. When people choose wrong and they end up in a life of drug addition and sleeping under the bridge, is that God’s fault? No, they made choices.

All right, now jump back to Isaiah then, and I hope you got the picture. Israel now, for 200 years, has been choosing to rebel against the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and against the Law of Moses, they’re going their own way. They are falling under the influence of the pagan gods and goddesses of the Gentiles around them.

"Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick…" What’s he talking about? Their thinking is all fouled up. Is it any different today? You know, we got an interesting letter from a grade school principal out east in yesterday’s mail. She attached a paper and said, "This is typical of the kids down in the upper elementaries." I’m thinking sixth or seventh grade. She said, "This is typical of what we see everyday." It was just a blank sheet on which this kid had been doodling. And you know what the doodling was? Everything satanic. It was all satanic; death and hell. That’s some of our kids, their heads are sick. And that’s Israel, they’re sick in the head, so far as spiritual things are concerned.

"…and the whole heart faint." Now, this isn’t nice reading, I know it isn’t. It’s a warning. And the whole thing is, that if they respond to the warning, will the bad things happen? No. God will turn them into a blessing. But, if they do not respond, judgment’s going to fall.

"From the sole of the foot even unto the head (that is just a figurative word of speech so far as the nation is concerned) there is no soundness in it. (You don’t do anything sensible.) But wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (The nation is sick and getting sicker by the day.) 7. Your country is desolate…" Now, remember, what was the Promised Land really called? "The land of milk and honey." It was a tremendously productive area of the world; it was beautiful. But what have they done with it? They’ve made God bring the curse upon it and it’s no longer beautiful and productive.

"Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land…" Now, this hasn’t happened yet, but it’s going to, so it’s spoken as if it’s already done. I hope you catch that now. This is what’s coming to the land of Israel, because the Syrians are ready to march up into the Northern Kingdom. Old Nebuchadnezzar is sitting out there in Babylon getting ready to increase his empire, and God knows that within a hundred years Jerusalem will be laying in ashes because of Nebuchadnezzar.

"…your land strangers (that is the boots of invading armies.) devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8. And the daughter of Zion is left (in other words the people that are still in the land) as a cottage in a vineyard, (in other words, we would say, ‘an abandoned shack.’) as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city." Now, we don’t know what it’s like to come under siege, but in antiquity it was awful. You know that when Samaria was under siege, Jerusalem was under siege; no food comes in. They sooner or later run out of water. They become destitute and you know what happened.

"Except (or unless) the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant…" What’s that? It is that small percentage of faithful believers that God has always kept. And He’s never had much more. In fact, that’s a doctrine you can follow from almost the time of Cain and Abel all the way to the end of the book of Revelation. It’s what I call the "doctrine of the remnant." There are always those few.

I had an interesting letter yesterday. If the Rapture takes place today, will the world suddenly realize a catastrophe has happened? With millions and millions and millions of people gone? I wish that were true. I wrote back the answer this morning before I left, "Don’t you kid yourself. There are going to be so few believers raptured out of this world that they won’t even miss us. They won’t even cause a headline in the New York Times." Sad to say, but it’s true, because that’s the way it’s always been. It’s always been that small, small remnant.

"Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, (now we’re talking about Israel remember, Judah in particular but Israel as a whole) we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." We’d have been a Sodom, if it hadn’t have been for the remnant of believers to hold things together, God would have just had to wipe the whole thing off the map. "And we would have been like unto Gomorrah."

"Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom;…" Who is he referring to? Jerusalem. Jerusalem has become just about as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah and don’t you think for a minute that homosexuality didn’t ravage Israel just like it does other nations. It did. And this was one of their problems. That’s why it’s referred to as such.

"Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah." It’s still talking about Jerusalem. Now, verse 11. Here it really gets down where the rubber hits the road.

"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD:..." What did I tell you a little while ago? The Temple is going full blast. They’re killing animals by the hundreds in the name of "religion." Oh, they’re religious, but how much affect has it on their life? None! Is it any different today? Our churches are full, new ones going up every day. Is it changing the moral fiber of our country? I can’t see it. And so what is it? It is just emptiness; like Israel.

"… saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, (in other words, how do we put it? I’ve had it up to here!) and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.:" When it’s not offered by faith.

"When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?" Now, what do you suppose He meant by treading the courts? What’s the other word? Trample! Trample! They had, just like a mass of animals, trampled the approaches to the Temple.

Now, let’s give you a good vivid picture of what he was really talking about. Come back with me to Matthew 21 verses 12 and 13. Now, you’ll see exactly why I’m using the word trample back here in Isaiah. My, they were flooding to the Temple. They were bringing their sacrifices, but what else was going on? Well, here we have it here, and it’s the time of Christ at the Lord’s earthly ministry.

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, (there on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) and cast out all them that sold and bought (where?) in the temple,…" Not a block or two down the street! They were doing all this within the confines of the Temple compound. Now, they weren’t in the Holy of Holies. They weren’t in the sanctuary. That was just a little tiny building. But the whole complex made up what they called the Temple, you see.

"…and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves." What were they doing? Well, they were selling the stuff that they needed for their sacrifices.

"And he said unto them, ’It is written, my house (the Temple) shall be called the house of prayer; but ye (Israel) have made it a den of thieves.’" All right, now why does he call these moneychangers thieves? Well, they were selling animals that were probably lame or not quite healthy, which weren’t even acceptable for a sacrifice.

But, they were selling them for more bucks than they were worth. They were thieving from the poor people who couldn’t afford to go someplace else and buy something for a sacrifice. They were trapped. And they took advantage of them. That’s nothing new. My, we’re full of it today. They’re charlatans. They’re pulling the money right out of people’s pockets and they don’t even blink an eye. No shame. No guilt. And they think they’re doing it for God’s purposes. Well, I’ve got news for them. It’s not biblical; it’s not Scriptural. But this is what they’re doing. They’re thieving from the poor people that can’t help themselves. Okay, back to Isaiah verse 13.

"Bring no more vain oblations; (that is things that were brought for sacrifice and worship,) incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and the Sabbaths, (which meant everything to a religious Jew) the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." What’s He saying is so many words? I can’t handle it! I can’t stand what you’re doing. "It is iniquity, even your solemn meeting." What does that mean? Oh, they prayed. They bowed. They did everything that they thought their religion demanded, but where was their heart? As soon as they could get out of there they could go back out into the things of the world.

"Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them." Well, now you know that the new moons and everything were a part and parcel of the Mosaic Law. That isn’t what God hated. What God hated was what they were doing with it. They were just making it a trumped up, false religion, and thought they were doing God a service. All right, now then, verse 15 and this really gets close to home.

"And when ye spread forth your hands, (don’t you see it?) I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood." Now look, they weren’t there with a bunch of actual blood all over them, it’s a figure of speech. But if they had bloody hands, what did it show them? Their guilt. Maybe not of actually murdering somebody, but they were so deep into sin and rebellion, it’s as if they were no better than the murderer who has just walked away from killing someone.

Now, that’s how serious it gets when unbelievers try to placate a Holy God with their false approach, with their false worship and their rituals and their lifting up of their hands, and their heart is as far from God as it can possibly be. You think God’s going to stand for it? No more today than He did back here. Because we’re going to see, probably not anymore this afternoon, but a little later in Isaiah, what happened. The enemies come in, and the Jews suffer immeasurably. But was it God’s fault? No. He’s warning them and warning them and warning them, but they will not listen.

Okay, now we’re in Isaiah chapter 1, and we’ll just pick right up where we left off in our last program. We just finished verse 15, where we had the figure of speech "full of blood" which merely showed the nation of Israel’s wickedness, and their guilt. The remedy was in verse 16:

"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil; (and here’s the other side of the coin) 17. Learn to do well; seek judgment, (that is authority and good government) relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." Those are certainly good attributes for a believer of any time. Now verse 18, a verse that has been known throughout church history, and yet I think, a lot of times, it has been totally misinterpreted, where the verse says:

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD;…" Now, what does that imply? That God is willing to what? Compromise. He’s willing to discuss the matter. No, the Hebrew doesn’t imply that at all. It was an absolute – "Come now" – it’s a settled fact that if you want to deal with your sin, God is more than ready in mercy and grace, even back here under the Law, to forgive their sin, to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. It’s not a matter of compromising. It’s not a matter of saying, well maybe, you know, like approaching the judge in a courtroom. No! No! No, it’s an absolute. And the Lord says:

"…though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Now you see, the Apostle Paul puts it a little differently for us in the Age of Grace. Come all the way up to Romans, if you will, because like I mentioned when we first started in Isaiah, don’t weary that we’re going to be in the Old Testament; we’re going to jump back and forth as much as we possibly can. So, back to Romans chapter 5, where we have the same attitude from the same God. Now remember, God hasn’t changed. That’s why one of the terms we use for God is He’s immutable. He changes not. "He’s the same yesterday, today and forever." Whether He’s dealing with Israel back here under the Law or whether He’s dealing with us today under Grace, the attributes of God are the same.

"Moreover the law (the Ten Commandments) entered, that the offense (or that sin) might abound..." In other words, the Ten Commandments didn’t create sin; they delineated it. The Ten Commandments just simply shows the human race what’s right and what’s wrong. That’s the purpose of the Law.

"…But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" Now, that’s not license. Then he comes on down to verse 1 of chapter 6. If God’s grace is always greater than sin, does that mean that we continue in sin or do we practice how far down into sin we can go and still expect God to cleanse us and forgive us? Well, if that’s your attitude, you’re all wrong.

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" How can a believer even want to go down into the depths of lawbreaking? It’s contrary to us now. But you see, for Israel back here in Isaiah chapter 1 it was the same premise that God… In fact, I’m going to take you back under that same concept. Let’s go back to Exodus and it’s the account of Israel at Mount Sinai and the golden calf. I think you all know about it. It should be in Exodus about 32, if I remember right. Here they’re gathered around Mount Sinai; Moses has gone up into the mountain.

"And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, (now that’s explanatory enough, so where’s Moses? He’s up in the mountain) the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, ’Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.’" Now, you know the rest of the story, how they collected all their gold and Aaron created a golden calf. And they worshipped it. They danced around it. And they went into gross immorality in the example of the heathen. Now, what could God have done? He could have just wiped them away. But does He? No. Because, you see, in chapter 33 verse 1, now after all the fact,

"And the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it. 2. And I will send an angel before thee;…" Now, how in the world could a Holy and a Righteous God witness the demise of His chosen people who have brought about the creation of a golden idol and practiced the immorality of the pagans associated with it, and then He comes right back and He’s willing to still take them on up into the Promised Land. Why, He could have just as well ended it. But look why He does not. Drop on down in this same chapter 33, oh, I guess we can start at verse 18, where Moses now is confronting the God of Glory, and Moses says to God:

"And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. 19. And he (God) said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; (now here it comes) and will be gracious, (what’s the other word for gracious? Grace) to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." All right, now let’s just jump up to II Samuel, chapter 7, and, oh, the patience and the mercy and the forgiveness of God, first and foremost to His people Israel, but it’s no different for us in this Age of Grace. He’s the same God, with the same attributes.

Now, look what He says concerning the nation of Israel as He’s speaking with David, and of course Solomon will be following in David’s footsteps. Here we have the promise, now, of the Davidic family bloodline, and down through Israel’s history everything is going to be leading to the coming of the Messiah, the son of David. A direct descendent of David through Solomon. All right, and that’s what he’s really talking about in these verses.

"And when thy days be fulfilled, and shalt sleep with thy fathers, (in other words, he will die physically) I will set up thy seed (or coming generations) after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels (your innermost being) and I will establish his kingdom." In other words, it’s going to come down through the genetics of King David and God says, "I will establish his kingdom." Now, I don’t know whether we’ll get anymore this afternoon or not, but we’re going to start looking at these promises of this coming earthly kingdom promised to Israel. All right, now then verse 13:

"He (this king that shall follow David) shall build a house for my name…." Well, not a house of wood and concrete but a royal house, a royal family, a bloodline. And through that bloodline, now coming from Solomon, the son of David:

"…and I will establish the throne of his forever. 14. I will be his father, (that is this whole line of kings and the nation coming through the promises made to David and Solomon) and he shall be my son…." But now, look at the next word, "If". If somewhere down the line they make bad choices:

"…If he commit iniquity, (now He’s not just speaking about Solomon, He’s speaking about the nation of Israel who is going to be under the kingship of David and Solomon and all these kings that will follow) I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:" Now, that’s exactly what Isaiah is telling them, that if they do not straighten up and forsake their wickedness, the Syrians and the Babylonians will be coming in. That’s exactly what God promised way back here, that "if they would sin, God would chasten them with the rod of men, their invading armies and with the stripes of the children of men." But in spite of their punishment, in spite of the invading armies which would wreak havoc, bring in misery, starvation many times, but what’s the promise?

"But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took from Saul, whom I put away before thee. (Then verse 16, here’s the promise that the kingdom will never fail to make its appearance.) 16. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever" That’s God’s promise, that the Kingdom will be established forever. It won’t be just the 1000 years of Revelation, but it’s going to slip right on into the eternal estate so that this Kingdom will be established forever. Well, now, keep that in mind as we see the punishment and the chastisement that’s going to come on the nation of Israel; as we see it coming from the pen of the prophet Isaiah.

All right, back to Isaiah chapter 1, if you will, and verse 19; if Israel would just recognize that God is willing to forgive and cleanse their iniquity. These are further conditions, just like we saw in Deuteronomy.

Isaiah 1:19-20

"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: (God would bless them) 20. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." Now, here’s their choice again. I’m going to stay on that probably all afternoon – choices. And I can tell America the same thing today. If we do not change our direction, if our nation does not stop going in that way of rebellion, God’s judgment is going to fall. America’s doomed. We have the choice of going the other way, but it’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen any more than it did in Israel. But it’s not God’s fault. If America someday goes down the tube, it won’t be God’s fault. All right, verse 20 again:

"But if you refuse and rebel you shall be devoured with the sword:…" That is, by invading armies. Now, he comes back to Jerusalem, the so-called city of peace.

"How is the faithful city become a harlot!..." Now, you remember a harlot all through Scripture is a picture of something good that’s been adulterated, so even Jerusalem has been adulterated with all the sin and the wickedness that Israel could dream up. We’ve already touched on a lot of it in the last program.

"…it was full of judgment: (in other words, good government, good rule) righteousness lodged in it; but now (what?) murderers." What does murder and that type of behavior imply? A breakdown in law and order. Whereas once they had a beautiful city in which to live, now they almost had to be afraid to walk down the street. Sound familiar? Verse 22.

"Thy silver is become dross, (Now, not everybody will agree with me. You know what I think he’s saying? Their monetary system has become defunct. It’s worthless. Whether it was inflation or whatever, their silver, their medium of exchange, had become as nothing) thy wine mixed with water:" What does that speak of? Adulterating again.

Go back with me to Galatians chapter 1, because I use this constantly. I remember I did a word study on this several years ago when we were teaching, I think, in I Corinthians, where Paul said, I didn’t come to you as a huckster with an adulterated product. I didn’t come selling a bunch of junk that was worthless and charging a big price. That was the implication. All right, and when you chase that word study down you will find that the number one example of that is what we just saw in Isaiah; when they would take good wine and dilute it half and half with water and sell it as pure wine. Boy, that makes a good profit doesn’t it?

All right, now look what Paul says in Galatians 1 as he writes to these Gentile believers up there in Asia Minor, Central Turkey, what we call Galatia; who had been succumbing to false teachers who were trying to add to Paul’s Gospel. They were telling them that you couldn’t be saved by faith alone in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. They had to also practice circumcision and keep the Law of Moses.

"I marvel (I’m amazed) that ye are so soon removed from him (that is from the Christ of the cross) that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7. Which is not another; (It’s not something totally foreign. It’s not something totally different) but there be some that trouble you, and would (what?) pervert, (adulterate) the gospel of Christ."

Now, remember what the analogy was? You took pure wine, diluted half and half with water and still call it a pure product. Well, that’s what they were doing with Paul’s Gospel that we must believe for salvation. They were adding works, just like adding water to wine. They were adding works to Paul’s pure Gospel of Grace. See the analogy? It is a beautiful illustration. And they’re doing it today. Hasn’t changed a bit. My, how they want to add and add and add.

You know, I think it might have been already in the last taping, I had just gotten a letter and the question was, "Where does the Bible say Faith plus Nothing?" Well, that would be another program, just like the one I’m planning to do someday on "But now." I think I can put together a whole half hour program on that. Faith plus and there’s nothing there! So what is it? It’s nothing. I’ll just give you one example, you all know Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it (the Gospel) is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." Plus anything? No! That’s all it says.

Well, you can go over and over through Paul’s epistles and it’s the same thing. By faith; nothing is added. But here they were. They were adding works to Paul’s Gospel and the word then is – "you’ve perverted it." And then here’s the judgment on such people:

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, (which is you’re saved by believing that Christ died for our sins, He was buried, He arose from the grave alive evermore, and when you add to that it’s a perversion. And he says) let him (such a person) be (what?) accursed." That’s their end. Oh, they may sound pretty good. They may have a pretty good sermon, but if they’re going to add works to Paul’s Gospel, the Scripture has already condemned them. Now, that’s a hard pill to swallow. But I’d hate to be in their shoes. I really would. And then he repeats it for emphasis. God is serious!!

"As we said before, so say I now again, (this is the warning) if any (now the word man is italicized, that’s been added by the translator, so it’s any. It may be women. It may be younger men; it may be older men. Doesn’t matter. If anyone) preach any other gospel than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Let him be anathema is the Greek word and it’s condemned. My, what a judgment is going to fall on these people who are adulterating this glorious Gospel of Grace. All right, only got a couple of minutes left. Let’s come back to Isaiah once again, verse 23.

"Thy princes (in other words, the upper echelon of their society, the men that should have known better. The men that should have been examples to the rank and file) are rebellious, and companions of thieves: (Boy, now that’s a moral rottenness, isn’t it?) every one loveth gifts,…" What’s the other word for it? Bribes. Everybody was bribing somebody to get something for nothing.

You know, I read a good little thing the other day, and when I was looking at this last night I couldn’t help but think of it. Every lobbyist in congress should be able to walk around with a sandwich board on front and back that says, "I am bribing our congressmen." That might put a slowing on it, because that’s what they’re doing. Oh we’ve put a good name on it now, to be a lobbyist seems like somebody. Not in my book. A lobbyist is up there bribing our congressmen to get something for someone or something else! And that’s what they were doing here, and it brought about the demise of Israel. It’ll bring about the demise of our nation as well. So, this is the whole idea that they were trying to finagle, they were trying to bribe everything in the name of a buck.

"…everyone loveth gifts (or bribes) and followeth after reward: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. (That’s the least of their concern. All they’re concerned about is the big bucks) 24. Therefore saith the Lord,…" Now remember, I’m making the analogy on all of this; as Israel was, America is. And you can’t get away from it.

"Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah,…" Now ,that has a special meaning in the Hebrew. It’s an exclamatory word. Pay attention! God says:

"…Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies." Now, He’s not talking about the Babylonians and the Syrians. Who are God’s true enemies here? Israel! Israel, who should know better, Israel whom God is pleading with to turn from their wicked ways and come back and be obedient so that God can bless them. But they don’t want any part of that, just like the majority of humanity today.

Now, I think I’ve got a minute left. Let’s go all the way up to Jeremiah 44 and do it quickly, because this shows so perfectly how far down Israel had dropped. Now remember, like I told you, Jeremiah writes almost a hundred years later. So things haven’t improved. The prophets aren’t getting through to them.

"Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, 16. As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee (we’re not going to listen.) 17. But we will certainly do whatever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out our drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings, our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: and were well, and saw no evil." Isn’t that awful? That’s Israel. Right there in the shadow of the Temple. And that’s what they’re doing, they’re pouring our drink offerings, they’re worshiping the gods and goddesses of idolatry.

Again, we always like to remind our listening audience that we are just an informal Bible study. Our whole scope of teaching is to help people study on their own and be able to compare Scripture with Scripture, because a lot of times you can’t answer these things with just one verse. You have to take a composite of the whole, and our whole purpose for teaching is not to make ourselves something that we are not, but just to be able to help the average believer become a good Bible student by learning how to rightly divide the Word. My, when people learn how to do that, then this Book just comes alive.

Okay, let’s go right back where we left off in our last program which was still in Isaiah chapter 1, and let us look at verse 24.

"Therefore saith the Lord,…" Remember what he was just dealing with? All the bribery and all the conniving in order to make more for the individual with no concern about the widows, the fatherless, and the orphans.

"Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, (see how all this is strictly Jewish. We’re not dealing with Gentiles here one bit. This is God dealing with His covenant people) Ah, (pay attention) I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee, (that is the Nation of Israel) and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: (Now, these are material things.) 26. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, (way back before they had a king) and thy counselors as at the beginning:…" In other words, it’s going to go full circle. We are getting ready now for the earthly Kingdom that is going to be introduced in the book of Isaiah in chapter 2. Now, I don’t know whether we’ll get there in this half-hour, but if we do, all it will be is just an introduction to it.

But now, he’s showing, and I guess the point I want to make before I go any further, all the way through Israel’s history, first would come the judgment and then would come the blessings. Always remember that. Israel would always have to go through the judgment, because of their rebellion and their wickedness, but God never gave up on them. As we showed in the last half-hour, His mercy would not depart from them. After the judgment, after dealing with their rebelliousness, would come the blessings of God.

All right, now the same thing here, but it’s looking forward to the long term. Now remember, when we started the first program this afternoon, I told you everything in this book (Isaiah) is going to have a near term, a mid term, and a long term application. All right, now when we start talking about the Kingdom, of course, that’s a long term. That’s not going to happen after the return from Babylon. It’s not going to happen even after Christ’s first advent and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. It will not happen until the judgment of the Tribulation, which now today we can see the world is being prepared for.

"And I will restore thy judges, as at the first, (in other words, when they were in the place of blessing) thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, the city of righteousness, the faithful city." See what a difference? Now, instead of being a city of harlots, it’s going to be the city of righteousness, the faithful city.

"Zion (Now, remember, that’s another term for Jerusalem. Mount Zion is in the city of Jerusalem) shall be redeemed with judgment, (that is again with good government, good law and order.) and her converts with righteousness. 28. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, (God’s going to cleanse them of it) and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed." He’s going to remove them off the scene. Now, I can take you up to the Gospel account where the Lord said that at that day there would be two grinding at the mill, one would be taken, the other left. Now, for years, I think a lot of people thought that was a reference to the rapture. No, it was not. It was a reference to Israel being cleansed of the unbelievers. So it is the unbelieving Jew that would be removed, and the believer remains to go into the Kingdom. All right, so here we have the same thing.

"For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired,…" Now remember, we’re talking about two different classes of people now. Now we are talking about the believing element, the remnant. Use your imagination, if you can, a little bit. Where do you suppose the Jews preferred to put their idols when they would worship? Under the oak tree. The oak tree was almost an idol in itself because of its beauty and stamina. All right, so that’s the reference that under every oak tree there had been an idol. But now, for these believing, the remnant that will be coming into the Kingdom, they are going to be ashamed of what their forefathers had done.

"For they will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. (Because they chose them for idolatry.) 30. For ye (Now, remember, he’s addressing the unbeliever. He’s addressing the rebellious.) shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water."

What does that mean? What’s happening to the tree? It’s dying. A dead oak tree is worthless. Have you ever seen a garden in Oklahoma that hasn’t been watered, about the last week of August? It’s pitiful! Well, that’s the analogy. You will be just like an un-watered garden that hasn’t had rain.

"And the strong (those who were the imminent members of the nation of Israel) shall be as tow,…" Now, years and years ago, I looked that word up, and it has reference to the flax that is used to weave linen. Now, you know linen comes from flax straw. "Tow" was, if I remember correctly, the flax straw out of which they made their beautiful linen.

"…and the maker of it (that is the weaver) will be like a spark, (Well, what in the world will a spark do to flax straw? Poof! It goes up in a flame of fire.) and they shall both (what?) burn together, and none shall quench them." Now, if it’s a stretch, I think maybe, we can include the dead oak tree of the previous verse, I’m not sure, but I think it is all analogous; that all of these things that are coming to nothing in the life of Israel will go up in a puff of smoke in the judgment of God.

All right, now we’re going to break into the sunrise of a precious promise, and that is a coming, glorious, earthly kingdom for the nation of Israel.

"The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." (Now, remember, like I said in the beginning, he is a prophet ministering in the Southern Kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, but it also applies to the Northern Ten Tribes up in what we refer to as Israel) 2. And it shall come to pass in the last days,…" Now, I’ve said it over and over, what is that? That’s a promise, and what’s going to follow? The prophecy - the promise and the prophecy. Here’s the promise, and it’s going to happen!

"… in the last days, the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it." Now, in order to establish that he’s talking about this coming earthly 1000 year Kingdom, jump ahead with me to Daniel chapter 2, because everything is now going to be prophetically looking forward to this glorious, earthly Kingdom – on the earth. It’s going to be Heaven on earth. Of course, Christ’s first coming was a partial fulfillment of all of that.

All right, in Daniel chapter 2, when he has seen the vision of Nebuchadnezzar and how all the Gentile empires are pictured in that image; the head of gold, the chest of silver, the belly of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet and toes of iron mixed with clay which were representative of ten nations coming together in a loose democratic form of government as we see Europe doing today. All right, then he comes to the end of all that, verse 43:

"And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." I think that’s a perfect picture of the European community today.

"And in the days of these kings (or these ten governments in Western Europe, and that’s why I feel we’re getting so close to the end-time) shall the God of heaven set up (what?) a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed:…" It’s going to be Israel’s kingdom under Israel’s king.

Now, I think I mentioned in one of my classes, either on the road, or the other night in Oklahoma. You remember when the wise men came to King Herod? Who were they asking for? "Where is He that is to be born King of the Jews?" They knew what they were looking for, but did Israel? No. Then you get all the way to the crucifixion, what did old Pilate have put on the top of the cross? "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the (what?) King of the Jews." Even old pagan Pilate had a better understanding than the rank and file of Israel. Even Pilate had a better understanding than most in Christendom today. I trust you know that most of Christendom does not recognize a coming earthly Kingdom. They don’t know what you are talking about, but here it is. It will be a glorious Kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

"…and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, (No invader is going to come in and overrun it) but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. All right, now then, in verse 45 he interprets the dream in light of that Kingdom:

"Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone (that crushed the image, you remember) that was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold: (In other words, that whole image is bowled over, ground up by this coming stone which is a reference again to Christ, who is always the stone of Scripture) the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof is sure." All right, while we are in Daniel we might as well go over to chapter 7 where instead of interpreting someone else’s dream, Daniel has a vision of his own. He, too, is going to depict these same great Gentile empires. I won’t read them verse-by-verse, but they are the same ones.

The first Gentile Empire would be Babylon, just like the head of gold. Then comes another, and it is the Persian Empire and is likened unto a bear. Then comes the next one, which is Greece, in verse 6, and it is likened unto a leopard, because of its swiftness and its speed. Then comes the fourth great empire, which was the Roman in verse 7, and then, of course, he goes beyond the Roman and picks up the Revived Roman Empire. All right, now then, come on over to verse 9 of Daniel as Daniel continues explaining his vision. It is identical with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

"I beheld till the thrones were cast down, (all the Gentile empires have been obliterated) and the Ancient of Days did sit, (the God of Heaven) whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like the pure wool: his throne like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire." Then he goes on and gives a graphic description of the very throne-room of heaven. Come on down to verse 13. He continues on in his visions:

"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man…" Now, that’s a particular name of Deity concerning Jesus.

"… came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, (God the Father) and they brought him (that is the Son of man) near before him. 14. And there was given him (God the Son) dominion and glory, and a (what?) kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, and they will serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion,…" It is going to be for a thousand years on the planet as we know it. It will be interrupted for a little bit, and it slips right on into an eternal new heaven and new earth, but it is the same Kingdom over which Christ will rule and reign on the new earth.

All right, "And it’ll be an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. And his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Now, let’s go back and go a little further in Isaiah chapter 2, and we’re going to digress, if we have time and pick up some of the other prophecies that depict judgment followed by this glorious coming Kingdom. Back to Isaiah 2 verse 2, again. This is a key verse in prophecy.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days,…" (leading up to Christ’s return) Now, you’ve got to remember – did Israel have any concept of a 2000-year interval between the cross and the Kingdom? No. There was no concept of that whatsoever. They thought there would have to be a suffering Messiah, but they did not understand how or what for. They did not understand a crucifixion. They did not understand the Messiah would be crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. All they understood was that there would be a suffering Messiah. Isaiah 53 was full of it; how He would be like a lamb that before his shearers is dumb, and how He would be suffering for the transgressions of the people. But they did not know how, why, or when.

But, oh, they knew there was a coming glorious King. That is what Peter speaks of that the prophets search diligently, because they knew there had to be two concepts of Messiah – a suffering Messiah and a ruling Messiah. But they could not put it together. God did not expect them to, because Israel had no idea that because of their unbelief, the Kingdom would be postponed. Instead of coming in shortly after the resurrection, ascension, Tribulation, and Christ’s return, as all the Old Testament depicts, there would be another 1900 and some year interval with Israel out of the land in dispersion. But, they would be brought back to the land before the King and the Kingdom could come. We have seen them come back to the land in our lifetime. This was all hidden from them, so that they could not understand it.

"…that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, (The mountains depict kingdoms. It will be above all other kingdoms that have ever existed.) and it shall be exalted above the hills; (even smaller kingdoms and empires) and (Then, here’s the promise.) all nations shall flow into it." Now, remember, there is no concept here of the intervening Church Age. There is no concept except that Israel would be the evangelists bringing the Gentiles to the knowledge of their God.

Let’s jump all the way up to Zechariah chapter 8, and I’m thinking of this verse because of what it said, that all the nations will flow into this Kingdom which will be capitalized in Jerusalem where the throne of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will rule the planet earth. All right, in Zechariah, chapter 8, begin in verse 20. This is plain language, this is not gobbledy-gook. This isn’t imagery. This is not something you have to try to figure out what it is talking about. This isn’t figurative speech. This is literal.

"Thus saith the LORD of hosts; (the same God that is speaking back in Isaiah) It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities; (now don’t forget why I came here) 21. And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, (that is before Jehovah, before the Son of man, before Jesus of Nazareth, the exalted One) and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also." 22. Yea, many people and strong nations (plural) shall come to seek the LORD of hosts (where?) in Jerusalem. (Not in heaven, in Jerusalem, the same Jerusalem that is over there today.) and to pray before the LORD." Now, here comes a promise from God Himself.

"Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days (when Israel has the King and the Kingdom) it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all the languages of all the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: (Why?) for we have heard that God is with you." Now, is that plain enough? It is coming. Now, of course, since Israel dropped the ball at His first advent and rejected this opportunity, they won’t have the privilege of winning Gentiles to their Messiah during the Kingdom. It will now have to be done before the Kingdom begins because there will be no plan of salvation in the Kingdom. There will be no lost people per se. Satan is locked up, so there is no rebellion, that’s evident. So, this is something that has now been abrogated by the fall of the nation. But, I feel the 144,000 will pick up the ball in the Tribulation period and still make restitution for what the nation, as a whole, has dropped.

All right, in the couple of minutes we have left, let’s come all the way back to Psalms chapter 2. We use these verses, especially for those of you here in my Oklahoma classes; we use these verses over and over to depict the outline of this Old Testament program. It is so clearly stated, yet, I’m afraid most of Christendom ignores it. It doesn’t need interpretation. I don’t have to go and construct out of the Greek to understand what it is saying. It’s plain English! All right, verse 1.

"Why do the heathen (the non-Jewish world) rage, and the people (Israel, in consort with them,) imagine a vain thing? 2. The kings of the earth (now as it shook out, it was Rome, Pilate) set themselves, and the rulers (the high priests) took counsel together, (not just Jews but together with the Gentiles) against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3. Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords." In other words, they don’t want God ruling in the affairs of Gentiles or Israel. Just leave us to our own thing. Now, verse 4, this is God’s response.

"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. (Now, after they reject the King, they’ve crucified Him. Rome carried it out; Israel demanded it. It was accomplished, but He arose from the dead and went back to glory.) 5. Then (after His rejection) shall he speak unto them (that is the whole world) in his wrath, (Not love. Not mercy, this is judgment. This is the Tribulation) and will vex them in his sore displeasure." Now, remember the pronouns, who are we talking about? The whole world, not just Israel. Not Israel exempted. Jew and Gentile are going to come under the horrors of this final seven years of Tribulation, which here is called the ‘wrath and vexation’.

All right, now then what followed the wrath and vexation? The blessing. What’s the blessing?

"Yet have I set my king upon the holy hill of Zion." Now, isn’t that as plain as you can get?

There’s the process. Humankind rejects the Messiah of Israel. They put Him to death. We know from Psalms 110 verse 1, God calls Him back to glory to sit at the Father’s right hand until He makes His enemies His footstool; which will happen during the Tribulation. Then, comes the wrath and the vexation; the seven years that Daniel 9 depicts. But, when the seven years have run their course, Christ returns, ushers in this glorious Kingdom on earth, and He will rule and reign from Mount Zion in Jerusalem. That is the Kingdom and it is now promised from Psalms all the way up through until John the Baptist comes, and what does he announce? "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Why? Because the King was in their midst!

It is so good to be back. We’ve covered a lot of miles the last couple of weeks, but nevertheless it’s always good to be back in Oklahoma and carry forth and again have an opportunity to reach so many. Our audience is growing week by week; thanks to your prayers, your letters, and your financial help. We just trust the Lord will continue to bless every part of it.

Okay, we’re going to come right back where we left off in our study in Isaiah. We’re going to look at chapter 2 verse 2, but we might as well read verse 1, as well.

"The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." Now, the key word there is ‘concerning’. So, who is Isaiah really addressing? Well, the southern half of the kingdom which is split at this time, but nevertheless as we’ve made note in our previous four programs, Isaiah is predominately prophesying to the southern kingdom of Judah, but he also reaches across up to the northern kingdom, so it really implies the whole house of Israel.

Now, I just had a thought. I haven’t done this before, but I’m going to read something, and I’m going to read it because I don’t think I can do it justice by just quoting it. This is a quote by Miles Coverdale, way back in the 1500’s, probably shortly after Martin Luther came out of Roman Catholicism. Now, I’m going to read it in the Old English as it’s printed here.

Now, that’s pretty much in a lengthy term what I’ve always been expressing, that whenever you read the Scripture you have to determine – who’s writing it? What are the circumstances? Who’s it written to? Now, most of Christendom has failed to do 90% of this, and they have just assumed that once Israel faded off the scene after 70 AD all of Scripture became written to the "Church." (Quote unquote).

Now, I hadn’t intended to do this; I was going to jump right into verse 2, but after we’ve read verse 2 I’m going to have to give some background.

"And it shall come to pass…" Now, those of you who have been in my Tahlequah class, this is old hat to you, but I have constantly reminded that class that we have two concepts here. A promise – ‘it shall come to pass.’ What will? A prophecy! So, all your Old Testament prophecies are given with the promise that it’s going to happen. If it doesn’t, we might as well throw this Book away and go home and forget anything that was ever said in it. But it IS going to happen. All right, so what is?

"…in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house…." Now, the word mountain here is typically referring to a kingdom. It’s used that way throughout the Old Testament, a mountain in Scripture, if not otherwise stated, is a kingdom.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, (all other kingdoms) and it shall be exalted above the hills; (even smaller kingdoms) and (it’s going to be so great, it’s going to be so world encompassing that) all nations shall flow unto it." Not just Israel, but every nation on the planet is going to literally find Jerusalem as the capital of everything.

All right now, what this amounts to is the promise of what we’ve always referred to as a King and a Kingdom. The two go hand in hand throughout all of Scripture, but like I said, I just suddenly got the thought that so many of our letters and our phone calls are from people who have never heard of anything like this. They have never heard of an earthly Kingdom - a King and a Kingdom, a political system, a government? Yes. But it’s not going to be like any other kingdom that has every transpired. It’s going to be a heavenly Kingdom. It’s literally going to be Heaven on the earth.

This means, that the curse is going to have to be lifted. You can’t have Heaven in the midst of the curse. Satan is going to have to be removed from the scene. The earth is going to have to be regenerated. It’ll have to be made like it was at the beginning, and it will be. All of Scripture declares that.

But, now I’ve got to give you the reason that most of Christendom has never heard it. In fact, I had a phone call just this morning, and I guess that all feeds into my thinking then to digress from what I was going to do. A lady called this morning and she had been to her pastor to ask about the 144,000 in the book of Revelation. What do you suppose his answer was? We don’t pay any attention to the book of Revelation, that’s all past. That was all finished in the first century.

Well, yes, that’s typical of most of Christendom. I’m going to give you the background. We did it I think, way back in one of our earliest programs, but only a few people, percentage-wise, have ever seen that. I’m going to give you, in this first half hour, just a brief background of how did this concept ever come about; that there is no Kingdom, there is no King, there is nothing associated with the book of Revelation.

Well, it’s simply because in 315 AD, now you know I’m a stickler for history. You can’t really comprehend this Book unless you know history, and in 315 AD we had a Roman emperor by the name of Constantine, after which Constantinople was named. Now, Constantine’s mother, Queen Helene, became a believer. So she prevailed upon her son, the Emperor, to take the onus off of Christianity, the persecution and the pressuring of it, and declare it by an emperor’s decree to be the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Now, that sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, what did it do? It opened the church then to the masses, who literally became church members without benefit of any spiritual rebirth. It was just simply ‘the thing to do’ to become a Christian. Well, there was such a mass movement of the population of the Roman Empire that a church father back in Jerusalem, by the name of Origen (‘O-r-i-g-e-n’. Some pronounce it ‘O-re-gen.’ I pronounce it ‘Or-i-gen.’), came to the conclusion that since the Jews had rejected their Messiah and crucified Him that God, in His wrath against them, not only destroyed their Temple and destroyed their city, but He, for all practical purposes, destroyed the Nation of Israel.

Well, He didn’t destroy them, He merely disbursed them. He sent them into every nation in the then known world. But, you see, by the end of 300 years, the world had just about treated the Jew as ‘nothing’, just dirt under their feet. They were persecuted; they were hated. So, Origen came to this conclusion that since God had now destroyed the Nation of Israel, all of the Old Testament promises were now given to ‘the church.’ There are some now, in our present times, who refer to it as ‘replacement theology,’ which is a very descriptive term. But I’ve always called it ‘Amillennialism’. Another term is ‘Preterism.’ They all three mean the same thing. They maintain that with the demise of Israel, the destruction of the city and the temple, that God had now turned all of the prophecy promises over to the church.

Well, you see, following that line of teaching then, Augustine, who was a bishop in North Africa, the Bishop of Hippo, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, picked up on Origen’s teaching that indeed God was all through with Israel, and that He would just let the Jews slip into a disappearance act. So, he began to promote this concept that since there was no prophecy left to be fulfilled, (how can there be without Israel?) consequently there can be no end-time events. So, their thinking was that the church will keep going. Some kind of intimated that the church would actually take control of the world and ‘reconstructionism’ is the term for that, and that by force Christianity could literally overtake the planet. Well, none of that is according to the Book!

So, a lot of these other false ideas came in, but primarily that since the Jew is completely out of the picture there can be no end-time events. Well, that follows. If you haven’t got Israel in the land where God can judge her and deal with her in what we call the Tribulation, then that knocks that out. Well, if there’s no Tribulation, there’s no Second Coming. If there’s no Second Coming, there’s no Thousand-Year Reign of Christ, so they wiped all that off the slate.

See, that’s what this lady’s pastor told her just this morning; we don’t have anything to do with the book of Revelation because that was all fulfilled in the first century. Well, now what happened in the first century? Seventy AD the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and sent the Jews into dispersion. Well, that’s what they’re all hanging on to, and most Roman Catholics have never heard anything different than that. Of course, when Martin Luther had the awakening that ‘the just shall live by Faith’ and withdrew from Catholicism, he took this concept with him. He never for a moment changed the amillennial view. So, you’ll find that all the reformers followed Luther in that concept.

Consequently, as you look at most of your major Protestant denominations today, they, like the Roman Catholics, have never heard one word about this earthly kingdom. It’s a whole new concept to them. Then this old ‘rancher’ comes along and opens up all this. Some of them, of course, probably think that’s just, you know some crazy guy’s idea. But, all I maintain is that God never gave any hint that Israel would disappear; quite the opposite.

"Thus saith the LORD which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name; 36. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever." He makes the statement that the "sun will fall out of its position, the stars and the moon will fall out of their orbit before Israel stops being a nation." So, you see, these people have been, however you want to put it, they’ve been beating a dead horse so to speak, in trumpeting that there are no end-time events when this Book says,

"And it shall come to pass…" Now, whenever they take away all these prophetic things, then they’re telling me, they’ll never admit it, but they’re telling me that God lied. Because when God says, "it will come to pass" and they say it won’t, somebody’s lying, and I don’t think it’s God!

So, where are we? Yes, these prophecies are still valid. Yes, there is going to be an earthy kingdom over which Christ is going to rule and reign for a thousand years. Now, most of the Old Testament, only one exception that I can find, never mentions the time element. That’s left for the book of Revelation, but there is a hint in the book of Hosea, and we’ll come to it at a later time. Anyway, this is the first thing I want to establish. If you happen to be in a denomination where you’ve never heard this earthly kingdom taught, don’t think that I’m way out in left field concocting this, because you see…now, I’m going to have you turn with me to Daniel.

I think the Lord purposely waited until the last hundred years to open up this whole concept again of Biblical prophecy, because all the rest of the time it was moot. They weren’t about to be in the end-time scenario; it didn’t make any difference if they understood end-time prophecy, because God knew it wasn’t going to happen until now. But now, you see, in the last hundred years, as I have taught in seminars and so forth, everything that’s been happening in the world has now begun to set the stage for these final days’ events.

The increase in technology – well, it didn’t come just all at once. In the latter part of the 1800’s you had the simple inventions of the telephone and the telegraph, which compared to today was about as simple as you can get. You had the invention of the steam engine, which led to the invention of the internal combustion engine, which led to the automobile. But see, all those things just started in the last part of the 1800’s. Well, the same way with the scenario in the Middle East. God purposely kept the land of Israel desolate, for about 1900 years, saving it for the nation of Israel to return to it at the appropriate time. It was devoid of any real population; devoid of any production of any kind. How did He do it? He stopped the rain. He increased the earthquakes.

So, for 1900 years the Middle East was pretty much kept in turmoil with earthquakes. Malaria ran rampant in Israel because the Hula Valley swamps were loaded with mosquitoes. Well, all of those things kept the Middle East desolate for 1900 years. Then all of a sudden things began to happen. They drained the Hula Valley swamps and they licked malaria. The earthquakes stopped - miraculously. There hasn’t been a major earthquake since 1900, until the one a few weeks ago. It was the first major one they’ve had. Then the rains began to return. They learned how to irrigate and production began to increase.

Well, all of those things have happened since 1900, which gave rise to the return of the Jew to their homeland. Now, that wasn’t an accident, and that too started about 1900. It wasn’t the Jews’ idea; it was the Arab world that was forcing them out, persecuting them, and killing them. So finally, the Jews had no place to go but back to their ancient homeland.

When they got to their ancient homeland what did they do? Start getting it back into production. As soon as they get it into production, who comes in to get their jobs? Well, the Arab world. So, the two things come together. Well, all of these things have given rise, now, in our relatively memorable time that God is getting everything set for the last days. Well, there wasn’t any need to know that 200 years ago; they weren’t in the last days.

All right, now turn with me to Daniel chapter 12 where God tells Daniel an amazing thing. Daniel, in the first three verses of that chapter, deals with the resurrection of the Old Testament saints. We’ll look at that another time, but now in verse 4.

"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end…": So you see, all of Daniel’s prophecies were moot for almost 1900 years because they weren’t about to happen for a long time, and God knew that, and by the time of the end, here we have our first indication of a change in modus operandi of the world.

Daniel 12:4b

"…many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Now, that’s just a little indication of the change of the world’s population.

Now, I think I made the statement on the program a long time ago, that you could have taken a family from almost anyplace on the planet, transferred them to another place on the planet, and they would not have suffered culture shock, until after the middle 1800’s. Now, just think about it. Until the middle 1800’s most of the world’s population still carried their water from creeks or wells or so forth. They cooked with fire, and they did everything the hard way. Their clothes were homespun, and their food was homemade.

Then all of a sudden what happened? Well, the western world began to enjoy the advance in technology. Then your city people were enjoying all the good things of life, and you transport them out into a certain area of Africa or India – culture shock! But until that time, everybody pretty much operated the same way. So, here is an indication that there’s going to be a change in the knowledge and in the travel practices as we approach the end-time.

All right, now as you come a little further in chapter 12, you come all the way down to verse 8, and this is another amazing statement, where Daniel now responds to the Lord by saying,

"And I heard but I (what?) understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? That is, all these prophecies that he had been writing throughout the book of Daniel. Now, look at the Lord’s answer – go out and preach it Daniel? Publish it? No; quite the opposite.

"And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words (that is what he has just written in these twelve chapters) are closed up and sealed (but what’s the next word?) till the time of the end."

So, there would come a time when these prophecies would be understood. When was it? It was after about 1900. So, we can look back now and see that Amillennialism, Preterism, or Replacement Theology, whatever you call it, really didn’t matter that much, because there was no understanding of end-time prophecy anyway. But once we got past 1900 the pieces started to fall into place and Bible scholars could put together the fact that we’re going to have the rise of a revived Roman Empire.

They began to foretell that the Jews would be going back to their homeland. That had been unheard of! They began to have prophecy conferences teaching these whole concepts; that, along with the return of the Jew to Israel, it would bring about the final seven years of Tribulation that Daniel prophesied. That would bring about the Second Coming of Christ, which all the Old Testament referred to one way or another. All of these things start falling into place.

So now, absolutely, it’s important that we study prophecy. I don’t agree it should be the only thing we study. Prophecy alone will not bring salvation to the lost billions, but if it will sort of whet their appetite to get into the Word, and perhaps by getting into the Word find salvation, then it’s worth it. But, you see, prophecy for the sake of prophecy is not going to bring salvation to the multitudes of people that need to hear it. But, for those of us now who believe, it’s so encouraging to know that all these Old Testament promises and prophecies – they’re going to happen. They are going to happen because this Word says they will! I don’t care what the theologians say, I don’t care how many hundreds of years they’ve said it, I can stand here without apology and I’ll say, "We are seeing things come together so fast today, how can anybody refuse it?’

Now, I was reading one of these guys. I read them, don’t think I don’t know what they’re spitting out. One of them I read here awhile back made this kind of a statement:

"The Jews in the world today aren’t Jews at all. The real Jew disappeared shortly after 70 AD. These people that claim to be Jews came out of the steps of southern Russian, north of the Black Sea, the Czars and so forth and they simply saw all of this Jewish material laying around and they saw those empty synagogues and so they just sort of usurped them and formed their own religion around it and called themselves Jews."

Well, you know, I got to bed that night and I got to thinking, who in the world would be crazy enough to claim to be a Jew and come under all the suffering that the Jews suffer if there’s no real need for it? Ridiculous! The Jews suffer because they’re Jews. They can understand that that’s their reason for suffering.

I can show you plainly, from the very promises made to Abraham, that through this one nation of people would come forth, not only the Word of God, but the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Savior of the whole world would come through this one little nation of people.

So, what does Old Satan think? "Well, I’m going to show God a thing or two. I’m going to destroy that nation before He can use them." But, you see, he’s never quite succeeded. So, even today, I’m constantly reminding people wherever I go, don’t wonder why the whole world is against Israel over there today. Don’t wonder why the Palestinian and the Arab world hate them so, that’s Satan’s work. Satan is still convinced that if he can destroy the nation of Israel, he can destroy this Book. That’s his hope. But, I’ve got news for him; it’s not going to happen. God is going to spare the Jew, the nation of Israel, so that they will be there for these end-time results that are coming. So, I’ve made almost a complete study on this. What is the proof that this is the Word of God alone, of all religious writings? BECAUSE OF THE JEW!

The Jew is the promised fulfillment that this Book is true. Now, I’ve got time enough. I’m going to go back and show you. Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 30. We’ve done this before, but some things bear repeating, and this just says it all. This, remember, is written 3500 years ago. Moses is writing Deuteronomy chapter 30 at about 1500 BC. This isn’t gobbledy gook. This doesn’t take a rocket science education. This is plain simple language.

"It shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, (which are listed in 28 and 29) which (God says) I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee." Now, do you see what that says? Moses is prophesying; the day is coming when the Jews will be scattered into every nation under heaven. Did it happen? Yes! It’s proven, in every nation, none excepted. But, now look at the promise in verse 2, that after they’ve been scattered into every nation under heaven:

Now, they can’t return unto the Lord their God until they return to where? The homeland. That’s where they have to go. We’ve seen it in our lifetime; since 1900. Some of you almost go back that far. But anyway, we’ve seen the return of the Jew to the homeland; exactly as it was promised 1500 years before Christ. How can anybody deny that that is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, that the nation of Israel would be scattered first into every nation but at the point leading up to the end-time they would return, and they are exactly where God intends them to be, and God is never a day late.

We want to, again, welcome you out in television. I think I can safely say, now, we’re getting listeners in every state in the union from Alaska all the way down into the Caribbean, so our mail is interesting as well as the phone calls. As you know by now we don’t have any denominational connection, we’re just going to see what the Book says, and we have to let the chips fall where they may. Again, we want to thank you for your letters and your encouragement, your financial help, everything, because we certainly couldn’t do it without it.

Okay, during the last-half hour we introduced how and why much of Christendom doesn’t know anything about what we’re going to be teaching for the rest of the afternoon.

The Kingdom - this glorious earthly kingdom that is still coming. God has not given up on it and one day, as the book of Revelation puts it, "THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS" will be indeed just that, and He will rule from his throne room in Jerusalem. That’s what the Book declares!

All right, but let’s go right back to where we started last week in Isaiah, chapter 2 verse 2. Here’s the promise of the coming Kingdom.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, (in other words that’s when time as we know it will finally come to its end) that the mountain (or the kingdom) of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, (all other kingdoms) and shall be exalted above the hills; (smaller kingdoms) and all nations flow unto it." In other words, as I think I’ve put it in one of my teachings, Washington D.C. today is more or less the capital of the world. The entire world looks to Washington if they need money for a dam, if they need money for roads. Why? Washington is the logical place to go. Well, that day will end and Jerusalem will be the place where the entire world will have to flow and recognize the King.

All right, now before we go any further, I want to jump you all the way up to Romans chapter 15. I think I told this at one of my seminars on the road the other day, I don’t remember where it was, Chicago or Washington D.C., whatever. I made the comment, and some of you in my Oklahoma class have heard me say the same thing, that I can use Romans 15:8 as an introduction to almost any subject in Scripture because this is so foundational. Here the Apostle Paul is writing to a Gentile group of believers, but look what he reminds them.

"Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision (that’s Israel! And no one but. So, Jesus Christ was a minister of the nation of Israel) for the truth of God, (in other words in His eternal purposes) to (what?) confirm (or fulfill) the promises made to the fathers:" Now, who in the world were the fathers? Well, the beginnings of the nation of Israel – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then on up to David and Moses and the Prophets, they all had this same concept that one day God the Son, Israel’s Messiah, would be the King on this planet of a glorious regenerated earth.

Now, let’s chase down just a few of many references to this kingdom. Come back to Exodus 19. I think that’s about as far back as I can find a first real reference to a "kingdom." Again, we’re going to use the instructions that we used at the beginning of our last program. Whenever you read a portion of Scripture, determine a lot of things first. Who is writing it? To whom are they writing it? What are the circumstances? What is the purpose?

Well, here again, Exodus 19, what are the circumstances? Israel has just been brought out of Egypt. They’ve come through the Red Sea experience, and they’re gathered around Mount Sinai. God calls Moses up into the mountain. All right, here it is in verse 3:

"And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4. Ye have seen (just a few days past when they went through the Red Sea) what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, (in other words, it was supernatural exodus. They didn’t sprout wings and fly) and brought you unto myself. 5. Now therefore, (because of all that I’ve done for you) if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, (the covenant of law that is about to come on the nation of Israel. If you will do that) then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me (something of intrinsic value to God. And where’s he’s going to place them?) above all people: for all the earth is mine:" God placed them above all the rest of the nations of the world. This is one of the first clear-cut promises that Israel is the favored nation and they’ve always exemplified that, even in their unbelief. God never gave up on the Nation of Israel!

He blessed those people with talent like no other race of people on earth. Nobody can hold a candle to the talent and the intelligence and the abilities of the Jewish people as a whole. I just read an email somebody sent me the other day, maybe some of you have seen it, a whole page of names of Jews who had won the Noble Prizes for various things. All Jews. Why? They are a brilliant people, because God made them that way. Never forget that.

They aren’t like one Israeli told Iris and I, I’ve shared this with some of our smaller classes. The first time we were in Israel, and we came out of the dining room in one of the big hotels in Jerusalem and this fellow met us and he said, "You’re Americans aren’t you? Well, what do you think of our little country?" I said, "It’s fabulous what God has done." He said, "God didn’t have a thing to do with it. We did it." Well, I beg to differ with him. God is doing it.

So, here, again, the promise is that they will be above all the other nations of the world. Why? God’s Sovereign! God can do whatever He wants to do. He’s the Creator! He’s the Sustainer! He’s the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills; they’re His! So, He can do whatever He wants. He has declared Israel to be head and shoulders above all the rest of the nations. All right, but now here comes the real promise. This is the one we’re looking at.

"And ye (this little separated nation of people) shall be unto me a (what?) kingdom…" Now, what do you have to have to have a kingdom? A king. Or government. But usually we think in terms, at least in antiquity, of – a king was the government. All right, so this is going to be a Kingdom of Jews with a King, who will be the Son of God, we’ll see that a little later. Then finishing verse 6:

"…These are the words which thou shalt speak to the children of Israel." They were to understand that the day would come when Israel would be a separate entity under a separate government and that every Jew would become a priest of Jehovah, or a go-between. We’re going to see that the Old Testament exemplifies over and over that I