I Will Make The Lame a Remnant #2

[00:00:00] Turn with me again to that prophecy of Micah in chapter four. [00:00:14] I will only read two verses this evening. [00:00:22] In that day, saith the Lord will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted, and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation, and the lord will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even forever. [00:00:58] And then I want to add to that in the prophecy of Jeremiah in chapter 51 and from verse 19. [00:01:12] Jeremiah 51 from verse 19. [00:01:18] The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the former of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name. [00:01:39] Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war. [00:01:44] And with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms. And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider. And with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and him that rideth therein. And with thee will I break in pieces man and woman. And with thee will I break in pieces the old man and the youth. And with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin. [00:02:18] And with thee will I break in pieces the shepherd and the flock. And with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen. And with thee will I break in pieces governors and deputies. [00:02:39] Just a word of prayer. Beloved Lord, we are so thankful that when we come to the ministry of your word, you have provided a specific anointing, an anointing of power and an anointing of grace. [00:02:56] And into that anointing, grace and power. We want to stand by faith for the speaking of your word and for the hearing of your word. [00:03:09] Lord, we know that it cost our Lord Jesus everything to win that anointing for us. Us. [00:03:17] And we thank you for the person of the Holy Spirit that makes that anointing a living reality to us all. [00:03:27] Preserve our time together from being something in which we just observe or hear things in a distant manner. [00:03:40] Lord, will you step in with all the power of illumination and revelation and give us we pray, Lord, such an understanding of the times in which we are living. [00:04:02] Challenge us in a new way to prayer and intercession. [00:04:07] Lord, we are a poor people, but you are our glory and our power and our grace be everything we need in these days. We pray and we will be careful to give you all the glory for answering this, our prayer that we speak in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. [00:04:41] Amen. [00:04:47] I was asked if I would speak to you on this little phrase in Micah chapter four and verse seven, I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off or removed. Far away is another translation. [00:05:08] A strong nation. [00:05:12] And I said this morning that I would find it very difficult if this does not speak of the present day situation and of the little nation of Israel in that postage stamp of territory that we call the promised land. [00:05:39] When I read the first verses in Micah four from verse one to five, it is perfectly clear they have never been fulfilled, certainly not in the return from Babylon, nor at any time in the last 2800 years, nor have those words yet been fulfilled. [00:06:06] They remain unfulfilled. [00:06:11] But more surely than I stand here, they will be fulfilled. [00:06:17] Because the word of the Lord abides forever. [00:06:23] Everything else passes away. Everything else is transient. But the word of our God that stands forever. [00:06:37] And I find it tremendous, therefore, that we have this word about a people that are lame and a people that have been banished or removed far away, cast far away, becoming a strong nation. [00:06:56] I really cannot see how this has any other fulfillment than in the return of the jewish people to the land covenanted by God, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and to their seed for an everlasting possession. [00:07:30] I spoke this morning about the principle of lameness. [00:07:35] I thought I might be lynched because most charismatics do not believe in lameness or disability. [00:07:49] But I spoke this morning about this principle that is everywhere in the word of God. No matter where you turn, when God calls a man to a special task, he disables him. [00:08:10] And then when he has disabled him, he becomes his power and the grace to fulfill the calling. [00:08:19] It has always been so and will always be so. [00:08:24] I mentioned a whole number of characters in the word of God. Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Gedon, amongst many others. [00:08:42] I could have mentioned Paul, that apostle, who in my estimation, is the greatest rabbi that ever lived, sometimes called by some the founder of Christianity, as if Paul was the founder of Christianity and Jesus was something else. [00:09:07] I consider that to be absolute nonsense. [00:09:12] Some folks, especially some ladies, have told me that Paul was a woman hater. [00:09:22] I believe Paul was a champion of women. [00:09:26] I mean it. [00:09:28] He tried to safeguard womanhood from the deception of Satan. [00:09:46] Well, I've got one supporter I noticed it was a man and not a woman. [00:10:02] But I must tell you that the apostle Paul, to whom perhaps more revelation was given than to any other figure in the early days of the church, speaks of a thorn in the flesh given to him because of the exceedingly great revelations and understanding that God granted him to keep him humble, disabled, lame. [00:10:40] He says, I will therefore gladly glory in my infirmities because he said, when I am weak, then I am strong. [00:10:56] Isnt that amazing? [00:11:00] That God would go to such lengths with a servant of his to bring him to the place where he could not exult in his ministry and be jubilant and throw his weight around a thorn can be irritating. But in my estimation, Conybea's translation is far better. [00:11:27] He says, I suffer the agony of impalement, something far bigger than some small little irritant. [00:11:42] I don't think the apostle Paul would have ever sought the Lord three times for its removal if it was something small. He was used. A man who'd been stoned a number of times, left for death, dead at least once, once or twice, shipwrecked a number of times. Whos not the kind of person whos going to bother about some little pinprick in his ankle or in his hand. [00:12:06] The fact is, he thought it was the end of his ministry and he besought the Lord for its removal. And the Lord said to him, my grace is sufficient for you, for when you are weak, then I am strong. It is the principle of lameness. And just to add one other thing to what I said this morning concerning our Lord Jesus, who is the supreme example, crucified in weakness, and at the point when he was weakest and nailed by man to a twig, a power was released greater than any nuclear power, divine power, to save to the uttermost all who come to God through him. [00:13:02] No greater power in the universe was ever released than when Jesus was most disabled. [00:13:15] And I only have to remind you, and most of you here, good Bible students, I only have to remind you that when John the apostle saw that great vision into glory and saw that great multitude worshipping around the throne, you remember, and the voice at the very beginning said, who is worthy to break the seals on the seven seals on the scroll? John understood exactly what it was about. It was a will, it was an inheritance. [00:13:55] It was always sealed with seven seals. Because we're Jews and we know that seven seals are rather difficult to fiddle with. [00:14:06] One field can easily be fiddled with, but seven seals, you have to fiddle with every one of them to change the will or the inheritance. [00:14:19] And when he heard that, he burst into tears and an angel came and said to him, dont cry, John. Look. [00:14:27] And John saw something which thrills the heart of those of us who are of jewish background. [00:14:37] He saw the lion of the tribe of Judah. [00:14:45] But he didn't. It was the angel who said, see the lion of the tribe of Judah. So strong, so powerful. See the lion of the tribe of Judah. And looking, John did not see a lion. He saw a little lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the throne. I call that disabled. [00:15:18] A little lamb as it had been slain, its throat cut. [00:15:27] It's blood everywhere. [00:15:30] What a picture. [00:15:32] And then the whole universe broke into worship and praise. [00:15:40] What a wonderful picture. Well, I mustn't go on any further because we won't get on with what we have to say this evening. But you see, we talked about the principle of lameness. I hope it sank into you and those of you who didnt sink into make God get it into you. In the days that lie ahead, many a Jacob would do anything to escape his jabbok. You wont. [00:16:09] You mark my words, if God has his hand upon you. Hes got your jabbok already planned. [00:16:17] Hes got every relationship in your life planned, all the circumstances planned. [00:16:25] He is in the business of disabling you not because hes interested in disability or lameness, but because he wants to make you a prince with God and with men. [00:16:50] Could we say that this picture of Jacob and Israel, Jacob becoming Israel, is a marvelous picture of the jewish people and of the nation of Israel? [00:17:12] Everywhere you turn in the old covenant, you will find God speaks of the nation as Jacob and Israel. [00:17:24] It is everywhere. O fear not, for I have created thee, o Jacob, and form thee, o Israel. [00:17:41] I will bring your seed from the east and gather you from the west. [00:17:47] I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the end of the earth. [00:17:59] Jacob he created. [00:18:03] Believe it. [00:18:05] Jacob he created and Israel he formed. [00:18:12] Fear not, o Jacob, fear not, for I have created thee, o Jacob, and formed thee, o Israel. [00:18:29] Thou art mine. [00:18:35] Now, my dear friends, could we say this is a picture of modern Israel? Some will say immediately, no, no, no, we can see it is a picture of the church. Yes. I have been long enough a part of the church to know that it is very much a Jacob. [00:18:57] And if a church is a real church, that transforming work of God is going on in it whereby men and women are becoming Israel. [00:19:11] I find it very remarkable that people are all the time searching for the perfect church. [00:19:20] They will leave anything for something that is perfect. [00:19:27] I have never ever understood this mentality. [00:19:35] The church on earth by its nature is imperfect and has to be if it is the church. [00:19:45] So those of you who are searching for the perfect church. I think the whole thing is a fairy tale. I mean it. [00:19:54] Well, let me explain it a bit more. Supposing you could have 30 40 people. Supposing you could mollycoddle them, teach them, train them, discipline them, and get a group of 40 elite saints. And supposing they were so perfect and so elite that sometime at some point into their beauty and eliteness came a cry that God would save the people around them. [00:20:26] And then they get caught up with a burden and called upon the Lord. Lord, save the unsaved people around us. You've done such a work enough. We are perfectly one perfectly zealous, perfectly devoted, sound in doctrine. [00:20:45] And supposing the Lord were to save a thousand people that week, and into that little elite group of 40 people came pimps and prostitutes, alcoholics, drug cases, broken marriages, divorcees and a 1001 other things. What has happened to your perfect little church? [00:21:08] I tell you something, and I speak from years of experience in this matter. You have an imperfect church. [00:21:16] Suddenly you've got people who have problems of every kind. What are we to do? Shh. Shun them? Shall we push them out? Shall we expel them? Shall we sort of give them a chance for a couple of months? And if they don't come up to our elite standard, we'll tip them out. [00:21:37] Thats not the church. [00:21:41] If the Lord had done that with you, you wouldnt be anywhere today. [00:21:47] But the grace the Lord shows to me and to you is not the grace we show to one another. [00:21:56] And I find this very, very interesting, that here some people will say to me, yes, this is a picture of the church. No, I think it is a picture of the church, but I think it is also a picture of the nation of Israel. I believe it is a picture of the jewish people as well. [00:22:16] The Lord has always called them Jacob and Israel. [00:22:23] Well, you are not convinced. [00:22:30] Is this principle of lameness still valid for the nation of Israel? I say it is, I think, of jewish history. I can only describe the condition of jewry in Russia, in Eastern Europe, in Britain, in Western Europe over the last thousand or more years as lameness. [00:23:04] Do you know that every single one of the prayers in our festivals, they all talk about as if we're still in the land of Israel when we were scattered throughout the whole earth? They speak of pomegranates. Pomegranates don't normally grow in a place like Britain or in Scandinavia. Grapes and pomegranates and figs and dates. [00:23:26] And we're told to praise the Lord for all these things. And here we have everywhere, jews in jewish communities thanking God for figs and dates and putting up booths and having meals out when it's freezing. [00:23:49] Why? Because God never thought of the jewish people outside of the land. The land belongs to them. [00:24:00] And therefore the jewish people became, as it were, disabled. Disabled. They lived according to a calendar that was in the Middle east, even though they were in the farthest parts of the north, the south and east and west. [00:24:19] They praised the Lord for fruits that were never known in those areas. [00:24:23] And so many other things. If I had the time to explain fully to you, I call that disability. And when I think of the persecution and the fact that our rabbis taught the jewish people, you must accept all this persecution, you mustn't fight it, you mustn't resist it. This is a judgment on us, an exile. There was a judgment of us. We must embrace it and accept it. And into Judaism came something round shouldered, almost a kind of wavering note in prayer and in song. It was a lameness and a disability. [00:25:08] When those first pioneers went back to Israel, all of a sudden something amazing happened. Their backs straightened and their eyes had fire in them. And suddenly they started to till the ground. And the promise of God to turn barrenness into fertility came about and to restore the ecology and to rebuild the ruined cities and towns. Lameness. It's almost as if in unbelief, this principle of lameness still stands. Did you notice what the Lord said? [00:25:52] He said in that passage in Micah, he said, in that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away or banished, and that which I have afflicted. [00:26:15] I find that amazing, quite amazing. Let me give you another example, just to befuddle you. [00:26:29] I call the Holocaust the greatest disabling that ever came to the jewish people. [00:26:46] That was a lameness that turned hundreds of thousands of survivors into agnostics, because they could not believe that in some terrible way, God did not deliver them. [00:27:14] Broken heart, broken mind, a vacuum within. [00:27:26] But it was that lameness and that disabling that led directly to the recreation of the jewish state, to the state of Israel on the 14 May 1948. [00:27:43] It was the murder in the most horrendous manner of at least 6 million jews. And if we believe Simon Wiesenthal, the greatest expert on this matter, probably 8 million, it was that that made the became the catalyst for the state of Israel. [00:28:15] A recreated state, a rebuilt national institutions, universities, a police force, an army, a navy, an air force a parliament, a presidency. All these things came out of the Holocaust. What Satan did was to destroy the possibility of a recreated jewish state. And God turned what he did and made it the catalyst for the recreated state. [00:28:56] Does it make sense to you? [00:28:59] Here we have it again. [00:29:02] I will make that which was lame, a remnant and that which was removed, far off, a strong nation. [00:29:13] Well, I say, wherever you look, I mean, is it any. Is it. Is it not remarkable? I think of Theodore Herzl on the day that he stood up in 1898 in the Stadt casino in Basel and said, we are here to lay the cornerstone of the structure that will house the jewish nation. They chose a national anthem, which we sing today, Hatikva. And they chose a flag which is more or less the one we have today. And in his journal, I mean, the whole world howled with laughter about Theodor Herzl. [00:29:57] What they said, these poor Jews, are they crazy? They have no land, they have no territory. And here they are, of all places, in the Stadt casino in Basel, talking about a recreated state, choosing an anthem, choosing a flag. [00:30:17] But that night, Theodor Herzl wrote in his journal, this day, I have founded the jewish state. [00:30:31] The world may laugh, but perhaps in five years, certainly within 50, the whole world will know it was exactly 50 years, 1948. [00:30:50] Do you think thats coincidence? [00:30:54] Or do you think its the hand of God in history? [00:30:58] Or listen again. [00:31:01] When he was dying, he said to his doctor, he died, of course, as I think most of you know, of a broken heart, literally. [00:31:12] But as he was dying, he said to his doctor, do you see the young men who are guarding my bedroom door and this house? [00:31:21] They are a new race of Jews. [00:31:24] They are not like the previous generations. They are Maccabees risen from the dead. [00:31:34] They will go over and they will possess the land. [00:31:41] Isn't that amazing? Don't you think it's amazing? I do. I find it all so amazing. I get lost in it sometimes. [00:31:52] The whole land and people were so lame, so disabled. [00:31:59] I always find it amazing that God said to Ezekiel, go and prophesy to the mountains and to the hills, to the wadis, to the dry water courses. [00:32:14] He must have felt so strange ere he went and said, hear the word of the Lord, o you mountains and hills. I mean, we would have thought the man was a nutcase. He should be locked away. He got the Jerusalem syndrome. Something's wrong with him. [00:32:31] I mean, can you. Have you heard he's going out in the waddies, in the valleys and speaking to them as if they're people, hear the word of the Lord. O you mountains, you shall shoot forth branches for my people that are about to come. [00:32:54] For I will turn and you shall be multiplied and sown and tilled. [00:33:03] It's amazing. [00:33:05] Lameness. [00:33:07] I think barrenness is a form of disability. [00:33:13] I think that barrenness is a lameness. The land was never meant to be barren. It was meant to be fruitful. [00:33:30] My dear friends, I can go on and on if you want me to, but there is a limit, I imagine, to what we have to say this evening. [00:33:40] In 1967, when Syria and Egypt and Jordan sought to invade Israel and Israel turned to the rest of the world for help. And the United nations left within 24 hours in Sinai and left us to Egypt and to the west. [00:34:05] It seemed as if Israel was finished. [00:34:09] And then a miracle took place. [00:34:12] And the prayer that Jews have prayed three times a day, wherever they are and are observant about Jerusalem turning wherever they are toward Jerusalem and praying that God would remember Jerusalem and rebuild it in our day, it happened. [00:34:35] Jerusalem in its entirety came back to the jewish people on the 7 June 1966 heaven and has remained under jewish government till now. That's what all the roadmap's all about, going to try and take it away. [00:34:55] Dear friends, I think that this is tremendous. I will gather that which is lame. I will make that which was lame a remnant and that which is removed far off. A strong nation. [00:35:24] This quartet, the United nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States, the United Kingdom of course, is included in the European Union. [00:35:50] This quartets roadmap which they plan to impose upon Israel is to make her indefensible, to so weaken her, to so disable her that she will not be able to defend her borders. [00:36:12] Oh, someone says, but don't they have nuclear bombs? And what you going to do with a nuclear bomb in such a small area? [00:36:19] You let off a nuclear bomb, it will destroy all of us as well as them. [00:36:30] They know exactly what they are doing. [00:36:34] It is a strategy from hell. [00:36:39] And it is a further example of this evil spirit of antisemitism that has been in the world from the beginning and which the Bible calls the spirit of Antichrist. [00:37:02] It is the oldest of all the hatreds in this world. [00:37:17] I find it very interesting that everyone speaks of Abu Mazen, Mahmoud Abbas, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, as a marvelous man. [00:37:35] And I don't have any doubt that compared with Arafat, he is marvelous. [00:37:46] I have no doubt about it at all. I've watched and listened to Arafat for so many years. I've seen, I've been involved in all the things he's done. [00:37:57] It's not hard to be acclaimed as pure and sweet and loving compared with al Rafat. [00:38:08] But I have to remind you of two things about Abu Maasm. He got his doctorate by writing a thesis on the Holocaust in which he said no more than 800,000 Jews died in nazi occupied Europe. [00:38:28] And he said the Jews, for political reasons, exaggerated the figure to 6 million. [00:38:38] Well, maybe hes changed. We must give him the benefit of the doubt. [00:38:43] Maybe hes changed, but he got his doctorate on such a thesis. The second thing is, in my estimation, even more serious. [00:38:52] He was the architect of the phase by phase destruction of Israel adopted by the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1974. [00:39:07] Has he rejected the strategy that he himself evolved and produced? I doubt it. [00:39:22] Does that mean that he is prepared to go along with the road map? [00:39:29] Because he said in 1974, we will start with a little mini state. We will consolidate, and then we will make life so difficult that they will give us more, and then we will consolidate, and then we will make it so much more difficult for the Israelis that they will give us more. In other words, as long as there is an appeasement policy, they will phase by phase and stage by stage, destroy Israel. [00:40:06] That means that this afternoon, Israel is facing in these days the gravest crisis she has faced since the Holocaust. [00:40:26] Now, that may seem to you very exaggerated, but it is not exaggerated. [00:40:35] The world, the United nations, representing the whole body of the nations of the world, the Russia, the erstwhile superpower, the European Union with the United Kingdom, the rising superpower, and the United States, the only superpower at present in the world, are all united concerning a solution to the jewish problem? [00:41:17] Does that awaken something that those of you are old and white haired in your dear mind, something like a final solution of the jewish problem? [00:41:34] Beloved friends, if you are real prayer warriors, you need to get to work. [00:41:48] I am so tired of the anemia that has hit the church. [00:42:01] It is a disease that seems to me much more than pernicious anemia. It is leukemia. [00:42:13] It is a virus that has hit the christian church in Britain that will destroy her. [00:42:22] It is the same virus that hit the german church in the twenties and led to their support of the destruction of the jewish people. [00:42:37] There are so few christian leaders who are prepared to stand up and be counted on this matter because they are following an appeasement policy where we don't want to upset the Arabs. [00:42:54] We must be fair. [00:42:56] The British always want to be so fair. [00:43:02] We must be fair. [00:43:08] There's nothing new under the sun. [00:43:12] Weve seen all this before. We saw a gentleman called a great christian gentleman, he was a Unitarian actually, who went off with his umbrella to Munich and came back a day later with his umbrella and a little bit of paper that he waved and said, it is peace in our time. [00:43:34] And he was hailed as the savior of christian civilization. [00:43:40] Within one year the whole world was at war and it was to sweep away in the end 55 million people and this christian gentleman had sacrificed a sovereign nation for Britains sake. Czechoslovakia. [00:44:00] I call that immorality. And now Chamberlain has gone down as synonymous with all that is wrong, appeasement and Churchill that not a single christian leader would support and certainly had no respect for. He was called a drunken, I can't remember now the full phrase, but drunk came into it anyway. [00:44:34] Drunken warmonger. [00:44:37] All the leaders of the different denominations, they were all united in their view of Churchill, a drunken warmonger, an aristocrat who had no time for anyone else outside of his class. [00:44:56] He is now hailed as one of the greatest Englishmen that ever lived, if not the greatest. [00:45:05] Such is the fickleness of human nature, and we are now at present the witnesses of the same thing. [00:45:19] It is exactly the same thing. We are witnessing appeasement and appeasement and appeasement for moneys sake because of arab money invested in Britain, because of a whole world of business opportunities. I find it amazing that God said through Jeremiah the prophet, concerning Jacob and Israel, you are my battle axe. [00:45:56] I remember some years ago a sister who was an extremely difficult sister, and there are some in a prayer meeting suddenly saying, Lord, I thank you that you have made me your battle axe. [00:46:20] And there was a startled silence through the whole prayer meeting. And two brothers who had suffered very much from this sister said, amen. [00:46:37] A battle axe is not a beautiful thing. [00:46:41] A battle axe is not a beautiful sword engraved with an ivory handle or whatever. [00:46:49] It's not even a bow and arrow, beautifully formed with marquetry and other things. [00:46:57] A battle axe is an incredibly ugly instrument, a mace, a maul, a warhammer, you know, it's that thing that has a great ball with great spikes all out on a chain with a handle, swung it, and you had to be strong to use the thing. [00:47:20] And the Lord said of Israel, you are my battle axe and my weapons of war, my implements of war. [00:47:33] Oh, some christians say, oh no, no, that God's a pacifist doesn't believe in that kind of thing. [00:47:45] But the Lord said, you are my battle axe. You are my weapons of war. Isn't that incredible? And then listen to this. He said, with you will I break in pieces nations, with you will I destroy kingdoms. With you will I break in pieces the horse and the rider thereon, and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and he that rides in it? In other words, armies, nations, kingdoms, armies. With you will I break man and woman. With you will I break in pieces the old man and the young man? With you will I break in pieces the youth, the young man and the virgin. [00:48:34] That is social condition, the whole social order. [00:48:40] With you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock? With you will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke? In other words, economy. I will destroy economies through you. [00:48:53] With you will I destroy deputies and governors. [00:49:04] Beloved brothers and sisters, listen to me. [00:49:10] When was this amazing prophecy given? [00:49:16] When Israel was at her weakest, her most disabled and her most lame. [00:49:24] She was exiled. [00:49:27] All her royal family were either in dungeons or had their eyes put out and had been executed. [00:49:38] All her young men had been made eunuchs, the noble young men. [00:49:53] Daniel was one of them. [00:50:01] Her temple was no more. It was razed to the ground. The city of Jerusalem and its walls were raised to the ground. The cities, wherever you went, Nazareth, Capernaum, Bethlehem, were no more. [00:50:20] Is it any wonder that liberal theologians say he wasn't talking of Israel, he was talking of Babylon. [00:50:28] Of course, it sounds right, doesn't it? The Lord said, babylon, you are my battle axe. Well, the Lord does use such things as Babylon in judgment. He has used Marxism, he has used Maoism, he has used a 1001 things in judgment. But I dont think for a single moment that it was Babylon. It was little Israel. Can you believe that? A nation of some 3 million, 4 million people in a postage stamp of territory that compared with the vast area that was ruled in the babylonian empire, this little tiny people, compared with this monolith that simply governed the whole known world, that God should say to it, you are my battle axe, you are my weapons, my implements of war. And with you will I break in pieces nations and kingdoms, the principle of lameness, even when it's judgment. [00:51:43] Let me take you a step further, if you're still with me. [00:51:49] This word of the Lord concerning Israel was precisely, exactly, accurately fulfilled. [00:52:09] God used that little broken disabled people and with them he brought down the whole babylonian monolith. [00:52:30] I dont know if you believe me, but you can turn to the book of Daniel and chapter five and verse 23 and youll read it. Youll remember the story. [00:52:43] Belshazzar and all the others were there in a great celebration. All the notables of Babylon were there. The royal family was there. Everybody that was anything was there. Drinking, chattering, singing, dancing, celebrating. And suddenly an invisible arm. Only the finger showing vote on the wall. And Belshazzar saw it and he. He was panic stricken. [00:53:19] It says very beautifully, one knee smote the other. [00:53:26] That's the old version. [00:53:31] I bet it did. [00:53:35] He couldn't understand. He saw the finger, he saw the word. He couldn't understand. [00:53:42] He brought all the wise men in and not one of them could interpret it. And then someone said, what about that man that meant so much to your father, Nebuchadnezzar? [00:53:54] Isn't he still alive? They went for him and they brought Daniel. And he, with incredible courage, stood there and said, you are judged for what you have done. [00:54:11] You are drinking. Listen. From gold and silver vessels that belong to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. For this reason, God will judge you and bring you down because of your pride and arrogance. And then he said, this is the interpretation many, many, you weighed in the balances and found wanting. [00:54:41] Take Lopez in. [00:54:44] The kingdom is taken away from you this night. Now, it is a fact of history that the Persians dammed up one of the great canals going into the city of Babylon and came in through the water gate. And in one single night, Babylon fell, never to rise again, exactly as the Lord had said. [00:55:11] It wasn't that God used an israeli army or an israeli power in that sense. It was the very presence of a judged and lame and disabled Israel and Jacob that was the cause of Babylon's fall. Now, I have to ask the question. Is this declaration of the Lord still valid for today, for modern times? Is this little nation and this little postage stamp of territory we call the promised land still the means by which God judges empires and superpowers and ideologies? [00:56:04] And I say, without apology, yes, when the Ottoman Empire. So many people have never heard of the Ottoman Empire. It is a little better in Britain, in America. It's incredible. [00:56:23] Of course, many have never heard of the british empire in America. I reckon that's a joke. [00:56:33] I mean, the Ottoman Empire was one of the greatest empires of world history. [00:56:39] You've only got to go to Istanbul, Constantinople, and see the magnificence of the buildings to realize just what an empire it was. [00:56:49] But he came into conflict with the purpose of God. Theodore Herzl went not once but a number of times to the sultan and pleaded with him only for autonomy. That's all. He asked for autonomy for the jewish people in what was then called Palestine, the syrian province of the Ottoman Empire. But the sultan would not have it. [00:57:14] He touched the divinely ordained destiny of Jerusalem, and when he touched it, he ruptured his empire. [00:57:33] When you get a rapture, you dont necessarily die, but your lifting days are over. [00:57:45] Well, you have turkey today, but what is turkey? [00:57:51] Gone. [00:57:54] Isnt it amazing how poor the jewish people were? There was very little to them, yet they were the linchpin in gods judgment or I think, of the British Empire. Now I have to be careful, for I imagine that most of you are good whips. [00:58:25] But the british empire covered one quarter of the world's surface, and the sun, they said, never set upon it. [00:58:36] So vast was the british empire. [00:58:40] But when the British Empire, and Britain in particular, became the enemy of the jewish people in 1945 46, and even before then, she came on a collision course with the divine purpose for Jerusalem and for the jewish people. [00:59:06] If you can't hear me at the back, just put your hand up and I'll shout. [00:59:13] All I'm trying to say is very simple. [00:59:18] Who could have ever believed in 1946 that the british empire would disappear? Britain had come out triumphant in a terrible war. She'd stood alone. [00:59:29] But so important is this matter that when the League of Nations gave the mandate of Palestine for a jewish homeland to house the jewish nation to the british people, and they were the friend of the Jews to begin with, but then slowly, they became their enemy with the white paper, which we believe could have saved at least 2 million Jews, could have been saved from the Holocaust. But for the british white people of 1938, they became an enemy. And when they became an enemy, in the end, the air force and the navy turned against the Holocaust survivors, even bombing some of those unseaworthy vessels packed with the survivors of the Holocaust. Don't tell me it didn't happen. I have many friends in Israel who are on those ships. [01:00:38] I remember Alan Redpath standing in the pulpit in Duke street in the fellowship in which I was saved. [01:00:47] And I remember him saying, when I was only 15, I think 14 or 15 years of age, and I remember him saying he, as you know, you could speak very forcefully when he got excited. And he said very loudly, as surely as I stand in this pulpit, God will judge the british empire and Britain for what they have done to the jewish people and what they are doing. [01:01:13] And some people got up and walked out. I never found out why. [01:01:18] I thought, perhaps they've gone out for their lunch or it was a Sunday or maybe they have some appointment they have to go out for. I heard from others in the church later they didn't agree with Alan Ripaul. They were patriots. They could not believe. That's ridiculous to say that we who fought alone in a war and somehow or other have stood for something right, should be judged because of these difficult Jews. [01:01:49] I lived to see it. [01:01:54] In two years. [01:01:56] It began to happen with the secession of India. The whole british empire broke up. [01:02:05] And it is interesting, and it was exactly at the time that Israel was born. [01:02:15] With you will I break in peace's nations and kingdoms? I don't want to be unkind to you, and I certainly don't want to stop you who pray, especially Lydia. [01:02:26] But Britain is only an offshore island of Europe today. [01:02:32] Unless God works a miracle, and I don't think he will myself because of Blair's in import. [01:02:43] He's the one who's been behind bush going for the roadmap. [01:02:53] Now, my dear friends, I don't want to get into politics. All I'm just trying to tell you is, is this still valid? I say it is. Now listen to me more. You'll agree with this one. [01:03:03] There was another huge empire. It's called the soviet empire. It covered one third of the world's surface. It was violently anti jewish. It wouldn't allow Hebrew to be taught. It wouldn't allow Judaism to be practiced. It wouldn't allow any of its jewish citizens to emigrate to Israel. It was behind a number of the wars that had the destruction of Israel as their goal. [01:03:39] Isaiah said, I will say to the north, give up. [01:03:44] It took just a word from God. [01:03:47] Just a word from God. And that monolith fell as great a monolith, monolith as the babylonian empire. It fell. [01:03:58] Russia is all thats left. [01:04:02] Thats something, of course, and we shall hear more of Russia in the days ahead. [01:04:08] But that soviet empire is gone forever. [01:04:15] With you will I break in pieces empire? [01:04:22] I believe now it is militant Islam. [01:04:28] The first shots have been fired in the war on terror. [01:04:33] And then again further shots in the war on Iraq. It's only the beginning. I have no doubt at all that an enormous period of instability lies ahead for the whole world in these immediate years. [01:04:55] Militant Islam has an agenda. [01:04:58] And its agenda is the destruction, liquidation of the jewish people, of the state of Israel and the jewish people and the liberation of Jerusalem. [01:05:12] It's on a collision course with the Almighty. He thanked God, thank God. [01:05:19] I dont know how he will do it, but I know he will do it. And out of Islam will come millions of young men and women who will come to the Lord. [01:05:32] I have no doubt about it at all. [01:05:41] I think I am right in saying that 26% of the population in muslim countries is under the age of 25. [01:06:00] Now, I must tell you something more in this before I close. [01:06:07] I have an enormous burden for the United States and for President George Bush in particular. [01:06:18] I have no doubt at all in my heart about President Bush's conversion. [01:06:26] I have read his testimony, and I know people who know him very well. [01:06:31] He has a quiet time every day. He wants to do the right thing. [01:06:37] But he represents the large number of christians who have absolutely no idea about Israel and no idea about the value and preciousness of the promised land to the Lord. [01:06:57] Most christians in this country have absolutely no idea about this. What are you talking? Well, where do you have these meetings? At Westminster Chapel? [01:07:05] Singing Hebrew and this kind of thing? Quite ridiculous. [01:07:12] And what's it got to do with the church? [01:07:16] It's all in the past. God's not interested in territory or land, as one brother put it, a little bit of real estate in the Middle east. [01:07:30] Well, I have to tell you, God is interested in a little bit of real estate in the Middle east. [01:07:37] It may come as a shock to some christians, but he is very interested. [01:07:43] And anybody who divides that territory will come onto a collision course with the Almighty. [01:07:51] Well, that is exactly what it says in the little prophecy of Joel. It tells us about the pouring out of the spirit. We know that Peter said, this is that which the prophet Joel spoke of on the day of Pentecost, Shavuot, those couple of thousand years ago. You remember. [01:08:09] And if you read carefully the prophecy of Joel, and as it is quoted in the book of acts, chapter two, you will discover that it covers the whole of this age, because it speaks of that great and notable day of the Lord, when something will happen to sun and moon and stars and when things will appear on the face of the earth. And the Lord says, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. [01:08:35] But then, unfortunately, we have a chapter three. And because of that, nobody ever goes on unless theyre doing one of those Bible reading things, you know, they dont go on anymore. And they all end with chapter two. But this is what it says. [01:08:55] But in those days, and at that time, I will restore the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, and I will bring down all the nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat for judgment, because they have scattered my heritage and divided my land. Now, when did they divide the land? In the roman period, they did not. [01:09:28] When did they divide the land? In the ottoman period, they did not. [01:09:34] It is an interesting fact that this little phrase, the dividing of the land, is taking place before our very eyes. [01:09:51] I believe the United States has come to the same crossroads that Britain came to in 1945 46. [01:10:04] I fear that she has already passed over onto the wrong road. [01:10:11] If I am right, the United States is on a collision course with the Almighty. [01:10:21] No matter that there are many christians in the United States and there is still a residue of biblical conscience in the United States, no matter that she is the bulwark, I believe, against the coming of the Antichrist, at present the only bulwark at present in the world. [01:10:44] Europe is ready for the Antichrist. Britain is readying herself for it. [01:10:52] But the United States, there is still within her a residual conscience that comes from the Bible. [01:11:12] Oh, but you say, what about the number of christians that are there? What about the support for gospel work, the protection of christian and persecuted minorities? [01:11:30] Well, what about the british empire? [01:11:36] The argument is just the same. [01:11:40] So important is this matter to the Lord that he was prepared to judge the british empire and Britain. [01:11:55] He will do the same with the United States. [01:12:02] Well, I. [01:12:04] I must watch myself on this matter. [01:12:14] Sometimes people say to me, well, you can't believe we're so near to the end. [01:12:25] Well, no, I agree with you. I. There are two or three things I think need to be fulfilled before the end comes. But I remind you that this period of tribulation that is mentioned in the word of God is only seven years. [01:12:41] Seven years. [01:12:43] Think back seven years, will you? [01:12:47] How fast has it gone? [01:12:50] This seven years is divided into two, three and a half and three and a half. Think back three and a half years. Gone like a flash. [01:13:00] I have told you before, when I was a boy, I used to wait for my next birthday forever and ever and ever and ever. It was like a millennium. An endless millennium. I would worry my mother sick asking her, when's my next birthday? When's my next birthday coming? Mother would say, you've just had one. [01:13:23] Always waiting for my next birthday forever. I thought it was a very unjust world that it took so long to get from one birthday to another. [01:13:34] Now they go whack. [01:13:40] I mean, you can't turn your head and one's gone and then the next one, then the next, then the next one, then the next one. Isn't it true, the older you get, the faster they go? [01:13:53] I began to wonder whether it could be that the world itself is speeding up and nobody knows and I don't think that is true. I think that it is me that is speeding up. [01:14:06] Dear child of God, this antichrist is a very short period. [01:14:20] I didn't mention Hitler's thousand year Reich, did I, in the things I've spoken about. But you know, Hitler spoke of the institution of a Reich or a kingdom that would last for a thousand years. It lasted precisely twelve. [01:14:43] But in that twelve years he managed to kill at least 6 million Jews, 2 million gypsies and eight to 10 million Slavs. [01:14:59] So short a period. [01:15:06] Well, I keep on saying I must end and so I must. [01:15:11] But you see, this, this word, you are my battle axe, beloved friend. I got sometimes get a bit sort of, of hit up, a bit sort of neurotic about. I mean you can't help it, living in Jerusalem with everything happening all around you. When's the next bomb? When's this going to happen? When so, and then I think about why does Mister Sharon agree to this? Why does so and so agree to that? Why don't. And why don't they? [01:15:48] I have the greatest sympathy with him, of course, and I think the fact that the Lord gave us the wettest and snowiest winter in so many years and calls the Lake of Galilee, which they said would only rise 83 cm if we had a good winter, that it rose four and a half meters in one winter, I think its a sign, I think its a sign that the Lord understands the position that Sharon is in. [01:16:23] Because when Ahhud Barak was prime minister, we had a drought. [01:16:30] He was going to give away all the land. We had a drought. Now weve got Sharon talking about the roadmap. Well just wait for a while. Pray for him. Hes a wonderful man and he is a pragmatist and that means that maybe at present he feels we've got to go along with this thing. [01:16:51] But God has all the cards in his hand and although I should not speak of God as a card player, he has the winning cards in his hand and he knows just when to play them. [01:17:30] This is not the end of the matter. [01:17:34] And even if half the land is taken away and Israel becomes indefensible and weak, which I pray with all my heart, will not happen, she will yet be gods battle axe and implement of war. [01:17:52] Beloved friends, we have passed into the severest judgment period that we have so far witnessed. I am not talking about Israel, I am talking about the world. [01:18:08] God, I believe, has risen with such fierce anger that he will overturn and overturn and overturn and he will turn inside out social conditions and destroy armies and shatter nations and kingdoms and bring superpowers down to being just normal powers. [01:18:39] I have no doubt about it. [01:18:45] The challenge. [01:18:48] I say that I sometimes get neurotic. [01:18:52] In the last month, I suddenly felt like a weight went off me. I thought, this is so ridiculous that only God can deal with it, and he will. [01:19:09] You and I will be the witnesses of it. [01:19:13] I am very sad that we are also the witnesses of a tragedy unfolding before our eyes concerning the United States. [01:19:24] For if the United States loses its superpower status, the whole work of God on this earth will feel the draft and the whole household of faith will be weakened. [01:19:42] Make no mistake about it, dear brothers and sisters, I have no fear in my heart about Israel. [01:19:53] She will suffer, I have no doubt, but she will come, too. [01:19:57] But I am not sure about the rest of the nations. [01:20:03] Now, the challenge is, since you and I belong to a kingdom that is coming, the challenge is for us not to get into this in flesh and get all new rotation. We've got enough neurotics already, all neurotic, and have all these incredible prophecies that seem to get sparked off. And I'm not. I don't mean real prophecy. I thank God for every real prophetic utter, but I don't know what it is about times of instability. People get so excited and I don't know what happens. We got all kinds of things. I always remember that dreadful book, Adrian Plass's diary. [01:20:50] Do you remember the prayer meeting they had? [01:20:54] And suddenly a sister got a vision. [01:20:57] Of course, men get silly visions, too, but she got a vision. She saw a dartboard, and on the dartboard, an octopus, and he was pinned to the dartboard by the dart. [01:21:08] And then the whole prayer meeting, which had been praying so under the anointing, stopped, and everybody was trying to work out, what is the dartboard? What is the octopus and what are the darts? [01:21:21] The Lord preserve us from such. [01:21:27] And then I'm wholly with what Ron said earlier about you speaking out. But, brothers and sisters, just remember, be a functioning member of the fellowships in which you speak out, because so often so much problem is caused by people who are like critics, never really in, never contributing. May God help us. [01:22:08] We are now, I believe, in one of the most gravely significant periods of world history, and we need to be men and women of understanding of the times. Men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, and men and women who become intercessors. [01:22:34] May the Lord help us. Thank you.