Israel Is My First-Born Son

[00:00:00] The prophecy of Ezekiel. [00:00:05] The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley. And it was full of bones. [00:00:16] And he caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were very, very many in the open valley. And, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, o Lord God, thou knowest again he said unto me, prophesy over these bones and say unto them, o ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake. And the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I beheld, and though there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them from above, but there was no breath in them. [00:01:25] Then said he unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God come from the four winds, o breath and breathe upon thee. Slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, exceeding great army. [00:01:48] Then he said unto me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, o my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the lawn when I have opened your grave and caused you to come up out of your graves, o my people. And I will put my spirit in you, and ye shall live. And I will place you in your own land. And ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord. [00:02:33] The word of the Lord came unto me saying, and thou, son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it. For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companion companions. Then take another stick and write upon it. For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions, and join them for thee, one to another into one stick, that they may become one in thy hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will take the stick of Joseph which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel, his companions, and I will put them with it, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand. And the sticks wherein thou writest shall be in thy hand before their eyes, and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king to them all, and they shall be no more two nations. Neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions, transgressions. But I will say them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them. So shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And my servant David shall be king over them. And they all shall have one shepherd. And they shall also walk in mine ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, they and their children, and their childrens children forever. [00:04:35] And David my servant shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore. [00:05:10] Shall we bow together for a word of prayer? Lord, we are so thankful at the end of this great day that we have had together that we can rely upon you for renewing, for reviving, for quickening. We thank you for the anointing which you've made available to us. And, Lord, we take it for the speaking and for the hearing. Let this be a meeting with yourself. Take this word of yours and make it live to us, Lord, somehow deposit it within our beings. And, o Lord, our cry together is that you will do something by your presence and spirit speaking in our midst that will essentially, substantially set forward your purpose for your people. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Amen. [00:06:08] I no doubt that you have enjoyed this day as I have enjoyed this day. I have not only enjoyed all the worship and praise and those wonderful reports and testimonies this afternoon, but I have personally greatly enjoyed the children's letters that some Sunday school teacher has pinned up in the little room that we have been praying in before these meetings. Children are so honest. [00:06:35] Dear Lord, please help me because I thumped my sister yesterday. [00:06:41] Amen. [00:06:43] O Lord, please, will you help me to treat everybody nicely? And since I slapped my little sister, marvelous things. Lord, help me because I always take it out on others when I'm angry. I think those are wonderful. I wish, really, that I had a record of them. I think they're worth keeping. I wish our prayer meetings were as honest as those. [00:07:05] I don't mean PFI prayer meetings. I mean prayer meetings. Prayer meetings in general. I just wish they were so. How honest children are. When we get a little older, of course, we put it all in language that's general and impersonal and nobody knows where we are or what we mean. But somehow or other it's all sort of glossed up and glossed over. But children are so when they're young, so unbelievably straightforward and honest. May the Lord make us such. Now I have to be straightforward and honest. My subject this evening is Israel is my first thought. [00:07:43] I havent got very far with this subject, but I must say that it is a wonderful word. It was given by the Lord to Moses. You have the record of it in Exodus, chapter four. I think you all know verse 22. And this word. Then the Lord said, say to Pharaoh, Israel. Thus says the Lord Israel is my firstborn. He said that in the context of going on to say about Pharaoh's firstborn, because you have not regarded my firstborn, I will slay your firstborn. [00:08:23] Now, the firstborn son is always very important, especially in the old days, the firstborn was the one who inherited in the secondly. The firstborn was the one who carried on the family name. It was very, very important because he represented the whole family and everything to do with the family. And therefore the firstborn, especially the crown prince, as Pharaoh's firstborn, had a very special discipline, a very special education. [00:08:56] It is very interesting that when the Lord said to Moses to go and say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn, let my son go, that he may serve me, that it was with this whole background of being the firstborn. But what did the Lord mean by saying, Israel is my firstborn? [00:09:20] Are there other sons? [00:09:23] Is there another son? [00:09:26] What is the point of saying, Israel is my first born? Isnt it interesting when you really begin to consider it, the whole matter of inheritance inheriting the whole world, the whole question of the heritage of God, ears of God, and joint heirs with the messiah. [00:09:50] Fellow heirs, it says, of the gentiles whove come to know the Lord Jesus as their messiah and savior, so many wonderful things here. But what has happened to the firstborn? [00:10:09] That's why I read that prophecy in Ezekiel, this firstborn of the Lord, this firstborn that represented the mind and heart of God to the nations, this firstborn that was to inherit all things and was to rule and reign for God and with God, this firstborn that was to be the means of the revelation of God and the oracles of God and the covenants of God and the promises of God, the very word of God being communicated and transmitted, committed to the world, this firstborn through whom the Messiah himself would come. [00:10:58] What has happened to the firstborn? [00:11:05] Still the firstborn. [00:11:09] But God takes Ezekiel and takes him into one of the wadis of the Middle east, and he sees all over the face of the valley and going up the side of the valley, on either side, bones are bones and bones and more bones and all dead and dry, dislocated bones, dismembered bones, disconnected bones. And then the Lord said to Ezekiel, the prophet who had such a heart burden for the jewish people, son of man, can these bones live? [00:12:00] And Ezekiel did not make the kind of normal, pious reply that some would have. Course, lord, believe that you can do anything. [00:12:11] He said, lord, having taken a good look at these bones, he said, lord, you alone know that's really what he means. Lord, you know, you're the only one who knows whether these bones can live, that you can do anything. I think Ezekiel was perfectly clear on that. There's nothing too hard for, nothing too difficult for the Lord, nothing impossible with the Lord. But really he was saying, lord, I don't know. Do. Are you going to do anything? These bones are so dry. [00:12:48] They are so lost. [00:12:51] They are so dislocated. They are so disconnected. Can they ever come together bone to bone? [00:13:05] And then the Lord said to him, prophesy over these bones and say, o ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. I can never, ever say this without hearing the Negroes spiritual in the back of my head. I suppose you are all the same. [00:13:27] The thigh bone connected to the shin bone. Shin bone connected. I can't help it. I just can hear it in the back of my mind. [00:13:42] And then there was a terrible shaking. That's the word. A voice, actually, in Hebrew, a noise and an earthquake. [00:13:51] And the bones came together, bone to its bone. Not just bones to sort of finding one another as they will, but each bone finding its own skeleton, as it were, the whole thing being formed. And then as he watched, sinew came upon the bones, and then flesh and then skin covered, and they stood up, but there was no breath in them. Now, it is a very interesting thing that in the Hebrew, the very word the spirit of the Lord in the. The first and second verse of this chapter is the same word that is used in the old version. Wind or breath, it's all the same. Doesn't matter where. It's translated by three different english words in this one chapter, but in Hebrew, it is ruach, spirit, or breath. [00:14:44] And then the Lord said to ezekiel, prophesy to the spirit. [00:14:52] And when he prophesied to the spirit and said, come, although you fourfold holy spirit, come. [00:15:04] Then the spirit of the Lord entered into these reconnected bones, and they stood up on their feet an exceeding great army. [00:15:24] Now, my dear friends, I'm always conscious of time. I felt one of the miracles of today was that I ended before my allotted time this morning, and I want to try and do that again this evening if the Lord helps me. [00:15:39] There is nothing worse than seeing the saints sagging in their seats. [00:15:52] What of what? Of whom was the prophet speaking to? What did the Lord refer when he gave this vision of these dry bones? [00:16:09] As you all know, in christian circles, this amazing chapter has been applied in many different ways. It has been used again and again and again as an evangelistic message, and people have been saved on this very vision. [00:16:22] It has been used, for instance, very generally in jewish circles, orthodox jewish circles, as well as, we could say, orthodox christian circles, as a picture, sort of the general resurrection of the dead, that in the end, God would raise everybody. [00:16:40] But somehow or other, when you really look at this chapter, it leaves you. That interpretation leaves you cold. [00:16:51] It doesn't seem as if the Lord himself explained this vision to the prophet in terms of the general resurrection of the dead, not even in terms of a jewish, a literal jewish resurrection from the dead. [00:17:11] Then again, it has been used as an amazing picture of spiritual renewal or revival. [00:17:19] How many, many times it has been used in this way. And let us face it, we all know from experience, the churches are filled with dry bones and they are very, very dry. [00:17:39] We know that. [00:17:41] We also know that christendom is littered with disconnected bones, dislocated bones, everyone doing their own thing, no relationship to one another. We know that. [00:17:55] But if we look at this chapter, whilst we may get tremendous lessons about renewal and revival of the church, of a fellowship of believers, of a work, still it doesn't seem to be what the Lord was saying to the prophet through this vision. [00:18:19] It is very, very interesting that this vision was not just a vision. The prophet was told to be involved in the fulfillment of it. He had to prophesy to these bones. He had to prophesy to the spirit. He had to prophesy to the whole house of Israel. Very interesting. [00:18:45] It seems to me quite clear that this vision is first of all to do with the whole house of Israel. That you will find in verse eleven, these bones are the whole house of Israel. So now we've got one thing clear. It is to do with the jewish people. It is to do with Israel, if you like, with the nation. This we can get clear. The second thing is, if we read very carefully verses 22 and 23, we have within the prophecy a key to its meaning. This is what the Lord said, and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel. [00:19:51] So now we have another thing that is clear. It is something to do with gathering back the lost bones of the house of Israel. Something about relocating the lost, dislocated, disconnected bones of Israel, bringing them back together again. That is clear. Now, there is another thing that is very interesting, and that's these two sticks upon this and other scriptures. This whole theory that I have over years marveled at for its unbelievable stupidity. [00:20:32] The British Israel theory is based on this very chapter. Apparently, somehow they get it. The ten lost tribes are the British and the Scandinavians, and some of the germanic and dutch people. They are the ten lost tribes. And Judah is Benjamin and judah. Very interesting theory. But I have often wondered, where do people get that there are ten lost tribes? Can anyone instruct me in this matter? I have no doubt I shall get some letters on this. But I mean, can anyone instruct me on where this whole theory of ten lost tribes came from. Where are the ten lost tribes? First of all, there were never ten lost tribes. Judah and Benjamin were never lost. We know that. So now we have these two. But then, nor was Levi. [00:21:28] Levy was never lost. So now we have three that weren't lost. Then Simeon was in the south, and Simeon never got lost because it was in connection with Judah and Benjamin. So now we have four, and then we have Dan, who had a part in the north and part in the south, and the larger part in the south around the Tel Aviv Yarria, which they also are. [00:21:51] The remnants of the tribe of Dan are the Falashas. We've been hearing about them this afternoon, the ethiopian Jews. [00:21:59] So now we have five tribes that are not lost. So the only thing we can possibly say are the seven tribes are lost. [00:22:08] I find it amazing when people tell me that Denmark is the lost tribe of Dan. And I mean, I really. I'm flabbergasted that intelligent people could believe such a thing. In the same way, I must be careful because I don't want to upset everybody. I mean, in the same way, I find it amazing that people can believe in the book of Mormon something so unbelievably poor as the book of Mormon. I don't understand how any intelligent person recognizes it as inspired of God. [00:22:44] I find it incredible that intelligent people can be taken on these things. I know it has to be revealed to you, but still. Well, we mustn't get into all that subject. The fact of the matter is this, that we do not have ten lost tribes. But this prophecy says that the two kingdoms into which the people of God were divided, Judah in the south, Israel in the north, these two kingdoms would become one. In the return to Israel, there would be no more talk of two nations, no more talk of two kingdoms. There would be no more talk of a division. They would come back as one people. [00:23:27] Now, my dear friends, I find it quite amazing if you look at it in this way. Here we have a prophecy concerning Israel, that she is going to go to the ends of the earth. That she is going to be just as dry and as lost and dislocated and disconnected as these dry bones. But that by the word of the Lord. By the word of the Lord. Not by their repenting, but by the word of the Lord, Lord, they would be brought back into their own land in a miraculous operation by the spirit of God. [00:24:09] And when they come back into their land and sinew comes up upon them, and flesh and skin, then there's still no spirit within them. In other words, they're there but not saved. They're there but not born of God. Now the miracle of the Holy Spirit coming in and fulfilling the new covenant in the jewish people as he has fulfilled the new covenant amongst the Gentiles has yet to be fulfilled. And this prophecy tells us it will be so. Then it tells us there will come a day when there shall be one king and he shall be king over them all. Isn't that wonderful? That's still in the future. And then he goes on to say, my servant David shall reign over them. So now we are quite clear that here we have a reference to the davidic covenant concerning the Messiah, that he is going to reign over them. And then the Lord says, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and my tabernacle shall be with them, my dwelling place. In other words, my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever. [00:25:23] This is twice stated in this extraordinary prophecy. [00:25:31] Now, my dear friends, what do we have here? It seems to me we have something about regathering, recreation, restoration and rebirth, as simple as that. [00:25:51] Now, if you are still with me, I would like to take you another step. [00:25:56] Because when you come to the end of this amazing prophecy of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is perhaps a quite unique prophet. I've always thought that he was the mathematician amongst the prophets because of his extraordinary visions that God gave to him and the detailed kind of almost technology in his visions. But when we come to Ezekiel 36, it is the beginning of a summing up. And chapter 36 is one prophecy. Chapter 37 is another, and chapter 38 and 39 is yet another. And then from chapter 40 to 48, you have the final great vision of the city of God and the temple of God at the end of time. Now, it is an amazing picture. You remember, it ends with the same words as my sanctuary shall be amongst them, and the name of that city shall be hashem Shama. The lord is there. [00:27:02] In other words, the lord has identified himself with his redeemed people. And if you want to find the Lord, the Lord is there. [00:27:12] You got it? [00:27:14] Now, I want you to come back a few moments if you've again followed me, we have three prophecies. [00:27:27] They are quite unique. [00:27:30] They are quite unique. [00:27:32] The prophecy in Ezekiel 36 has all to do with the land. Do you remember the lord said to Ezekiel, prophesy over the mountains of Israel, prophesy over her hills, over her valleys, over her watercourses, say that they shall be covered. But you, o mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your body for my people, Israel, that are about to come. For I will turn to you, and ye shall be tilled and sown, and I will multiply both man and beast upon you. It is all to do with the land, a land that has become desolate, a land that has become barren, a land that is eroded, a land that is treeless, that is people less, that is waterless. And the Lord says, I will turn. At the end of time, I will turn back to, to this barren land, this land that was once like the garden of Eden, which has been turned into a desert. And I will recreate its fertility and restore its ecology, and I will cause its ruined cities to be rebuilt and inhabited. And all that pass by, you remember, it's all in this book, in this prophecy. And all that pass by will say, this land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden. [00:28:51] And then the Lord says this wonderful thing. Don't think I'm doing this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for be ashamed for your ways and your doings. I do it for my great name. Sake. Here is the first prophecy. It is all to do with the land. You and I have lived to see the fulfillment, fulfilment of this prophecy. We have seen forest covering the land. What else do you think the PlO can burn? [00:29:24] There was no forest a hundred years ago. Now the word has gone out from Tunis, burn the ground under the Zionists feet. It is the moderate Yasa Arafat speaking. [00:29:40] There were no forests now there are forests now there are woods now there are fields now there are gardens now everywhere you look, there is a recreated fertility, a restored ecology. I will not spend too much time. Come back to it in a moment. All I want to say is, here is Ezekiel 36. Now you come to Ezekiel 37 and he here you find an extraordinary thing. This is not the land. It's not the land. It's not its fertility and its ecology and its ruined cities and towns. This time it's the people. It's the bones, it's the sinew, it's the flesh, it's the skin. It's the people standing up on their feet, an exceeding great army. It is the people that are now in question, a nation that is in view. And now the Lord says to the prophet, now, as you prophesied over those barren, eroded hills and waterless water courses, and when you said, here, this word of the Lord to the land, now prophesy to the bones, hear the word of the Lord, o ye dry bones. Isn't it marvelous? [00:30:54] And it all happened. And here we not only have the reconnection and relocation of the bones, but we have all the rehabilitation of the nation. And then we have not only the rehabilitation of the nation, but we have the redemption of the nation. Salvation comes to it. It is a marvelous prophecy. [00:31:19] Now, dear friends, and you can always be thankful that you can be so cool down there. [00:31:32] All good servants of the Lord have to suffer. [00:31:43] Now, my dear friends, now we come to something very important. I want you to listen very carefully. We come to a Ezekiel 38 39. Now we have something that again is quite unique. In Ezekiel. This time the Lord says to the prophet, prophesy against Gog. From the land of Magog. [00:32:03] It comes again and again. I could give you all the verses, but it will all take time. But you've got it again. If you read it, you will go back and you will find it says prophesy. Now, what is Gog and Magog? People say, oh, that's Russia. No, no, no, no. [00:32:16] Gog and Magog is a term in rabbinic circles for everything that is anti Gog. We would say in New Testament times, Antichrist can come from the north, it can come from the south, it can come from the east, it can come from the west. But everything that is determined to contradict the purpose of God, the will of God, the word of God, the covenants of God, to frustrate very purpose of God that is Gog and Magog. Now, there may be a number of gog and Magog walks. I have pointed this out to you before. Here we have at least one in Ezekiel 38 39. It may not be that far away. We have yet another in the book of Revelation referred to, which is not the same as this one. And I'm not going to go into that here this evening. But I, for my studies, am convinced that you cannot equate every Gog and Magog war as being the same war. You can have a number of Gog and Magog wars as you can have a number of mini antichrists before the final Antichrist appears on the world scene. But here is something very interesting. [00:33:30] Now listen, please listen carefully to me. I don't want to get misunderstood or misinterpreted in this. [00:33:36] When the land's fertility and ecology has been restored, when its ruined cities and towns have been rebuilt, when the nation is in the process of coming back to the land, when its national life is being rebuilt and restored, its national institutions again restructured, then there will be from out of the very heart of hell a determination to obliterate this people from off the face of the earth. All the former attempts, all the attempts, as I said earlier, from the pharaohs of Moses day to Saddam Hussein of the Gulf war will pale into insignificance. Even the determination of the Nazis in the Holocaust, in this last great Gog and Magog war, to destroy the jewish people and wipe Israel from off the face of the earth. [00:34:43] This war will require a miracle of miracles on the part of God to deliver Israel. But God will deliver them. And the enemies of the Lord will be defeated. And the results will be the final, the opening of the door to the final fulfilments of all gods. Prophetic word now, dear friends, again, if you followed me thus far, let's take just a little look again. [00:35:19] All I want to do is to look at three things. [00:35:22] I want to look at, first, the regathering of the house of Israel. Then secondly, I want to look at the glorious salvation of the house of Israel. And then finally, I want to talk about the responsibility, the true church. [00:35:45] Now, please keep in the back of your mind that Israel is gods firstborn. [00:35:52] The whole thing has to do with Israel as the chief of the nation. [00:35:59] The whole thing has to do with Israel as essential to the complete of God's purpose for the church, let alone the nation. [00:36:13] She is God's firstborn. [00:36:20] The regathering of the lost house of Israel. Well, I've already said a lot on this. All I have to do is to repeat myself. [00:36:30] Dislocated, disco connected, dismembered bones. Now, what would you say that's a description of? I tell you what I think it's a description of. And it keeps totally within this chapter and the Lord's explanation of it. To Ezekiel. It is the exile of the jewish people. [00:36:50] When the jewish people lost their land, they died. [00:36:56] Oh, they lived, but they died. [00:37:00] They. [00:37:02] They began a living death wherever they came. There was a sob in their prayer, a Sob in the liturgy, a Sob in even the psalms that were sung. The black that was worn, the rounded back, the downcast eyes. [00:37:28] All those who know anything of our orthodoxy in jewish circles will know exactly what I'm talking about. [00:37:38] It was a nation in mourning for 2000 years. The jewish people have almost 2000 years the jewish people have lived in this condition. Is it not remarkable? [00:37:53] Sometimes I hear people, but I must watch myself. Sometimes I hear people going off the deep end about the Talmud, as if the Talmud is something occult and dark and wicked and evil. [00:38:08] I don't know where they get the ideas from. I doubt very much that they've ever studied the Talbot. [00:38:15] That the Talmud has got some occult ideas in. Theres no question about that. That there is a heaviness in the Talmud, theres no doubt. But do you know how the Talmud came into being? When the jewish people lost their land? They were like dead, dry bones. [00:38:34] And the rabbis, the most godly rabbis, they came together. [00:38:40] They didn't know what to do. They didn't know how to handle the situation. How could you have jewish life without a temple? How could you have jewish worship without the temple? How could you perform without the priests? How could you perform without Levites? What could you do when you didn't even have a Jerusalem? When in the end, you had lost even the national territory? What could you do? And they got together, and they produced what we now call Halaha, the law, if you like. It is the formulation of the law, the definition of the law. And they went almost to an extreme. Their idea was, we have to preserve jewish identity until the messiah comes. Somehow or other, we've got to keep this jewish people absolutely separate, absolutely identifiable, absolutely divorced from the world around them. How can we do it? And the Talmud was the result. [00:39:51] Therefore, if we are thankful that the jewish people have survived, we should also be thankful for the Talmud, because without it, there would have been really no identifiable jewish people. [00:40:07] Now, the interesting thing is, of course, that the Falashas, our ethiopian brethren, they have done without the Talmud. Buried up there in the mountains of Gondar, with a mosaic form of Judaism, they have survived as an identifier people. [00:40:27] Nevertheless, my dear friends, something amazing happened with these dislocated, disconnected, very dry bone. [00:40:37] It was a living death. [00:40:40] How extraordinary it is that for 1900 years, the jewish people at the end of Sukkot, even in Ireland, where it reigns near nearly every day, prayed fervently that God would cause it to rain, even when it was raining cats and dogs all around the synagogue, still they prayed. Why? Because it was as if they were still in the land, still in the dry climate of our own land. [00:41:10] Their fruits were not apples and pears and all the fruits that you're used to, you know, blackcurrants, red currants, gooseberries and cranberries and, I don't know, I could go on and on. Their fruits, they had blessings for the fruits, blessings for grapes, blessings for olives, blessings for pomegranates, blessings for figs, blessings for all those fruits that belong to the land. Even though they were sometimes in a place like Finland, where in the old days, they never saw a grape, never saw a fig never saw a date. Still they had all these blessings for 1900 years. Still three times a day, all over the earth, the dry bones looked back to Jerusalem, praying in the amida prayer for the desolation of Jerusalem and that the Lord would remember and cause his glory to return. [00:42:09] It was always, of course, next year, as Persach ended and atonement ended, it was always, next year in Jerusalem. Next year in Jerusalem. Now, my dear friends, isn't this an interesting thing? These dislocated bones, these disconnected bones all over the face of the earth, living as if they were still connected with the land even after 1517 o 1900 years, still living as if they were connected to the land from which they came. [00:43:01] When the lord said to Ezekiel, Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live? [00:43:08] Ezekiel was not just saying, well, I haven't got much faith, lord. It's up to you. [00:43:15] What he really said was, you are sovereign. [00:43:21] If you want to do it, you will do it. [00:43:26] It shall be done. And then the Lord dead. Yes, by my word, it shall be done. Prophesy over these bones and say, o ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Now, dear folks, isn't this a marvelous subject? [00:43:51] Isn't it a marvelous subject when you really think about it? We're not dealing with a theory. We're not dealing with sermon material. We're dealing with something you and I in this place have been the witnesses of. [00:44:05] We have seen the regathering of the bones in this century. [00:44:11] It says that when he prophesied, Ezekiel said, there was a great noise and a great earthquake. My dear friends, this whole century could be entitled a great shaking and a great earthquake. From 1880, the first agnostic, almost marxist pioneers that went back to the land that sometimes people say to me, how can you say that Israel is the fulfillment of the word of God when the first pioneers were all atheists? Very simple. The Lord says, I will leave the blind by a way that they know not is exactly what he said. Could there be anything more blind than an atheist? [00:44:55] And the Lord says, I will lead the blind by a way that they know, on paths that they have not known. Will I lead them? I will make darkness light before them and the crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not forsake them. [00:45:11] From 1880 right through to 1993. This is, we're not talking about something that happened in the last part of the last century or the beginning of this century or in the 1920s or in the, in the forties. I'm talking about something that is happening tonight. This very night, when I came back from the far east on this last trip, this last big trip that I had, I was amazed when I arrived with a whole great bunch of Falashamura on the plane. The plane had been held by seeing all these people all sitting on the floor. They didn't seem to want to sit on seats. There they were sitting all over the floor in the great departure lounge in Athens. And I looked at it and I thought, well, they're Ethiopians. Then I looked at the board, but there was no plane to Ethiopia and no plane from Ethiopia. So I thought, that's very, very odd. They didn't look like Jews to me, so I didn't think anymore. But I went and sat and I watched all these folks over there. There were blood, there were crippled, there were some with no legs, some with one leg, there were two that were blind, there were little newborn babies, and a lot of them had crosses tattooed on their foreheads. And I thought to myself, well, I wonder where they're going, all those people. They don't look like the normal airline travelers. [00:46:30] Then they went to the department, our actual, you know, the smaller departure lounge for our flight. And I was sitting there and I known to the people there, and the chief stewardess came across to me and said, mister Lambert, I hope you don't mind waiting. We have a whole bunch of ethiopian Jews that we're taking back, and this is the second flight most of them have ever had in their life. [00:46:51] So we're going to get them on the plane first and we're going to put them all in the back. [00:46:55] So if you don't mind waiting for a while. No, I said, not at all. So interesting. I said, yes, she said, you can say that again. [00:47:07] And then they all went past me. There was I, sitting in a place like a sort of royal saluting box, and they all had to pass by. So now, for the first time, I saw with my own eyes something I'd never seen before. I saw people being carried with no legs, old people, so old that they couldn't even walk. [00:47:26] And I thought to myself, what an incredible nation we are. [00:47:31] Is there any other nation in the world that would accept such new citizens? [00:47:36] In Australia, you can't have mental trouble in the family for four generations. [00:47:45] It's true, isn't it? If you've got eye trouble, you could get your citizens and ship cancelled. Not cancelled, but they won't give it to you. Here are we taking people who are nothing but liabilities because they are jewish? [00:48:01] They are the last remnant of the tribe of Daniel. And according to jewish law, with all its possible imperfections and weaknesses, as some see it, every jew is vitally precious, important. They must come home. What an amazing thing it was. Well, I got on the plane, of course. We flew there without any further trouble. [00:48:26] The Ethiopians being the courteous, sweet people, gentle natured that they are, there was no trouble at all. [00:48:33] And then when we got to Ben Gurion, my next great shock. As we were taxiing to the stand, I noticed, to my great surprise, five aeroflops, one after the other. I thought, but I've never seen an Aeroflot airliner in this airport before. In all the years I've been in and out and I'm a frequent traveler, I've never seen such a thing. I thought, now there's nothing in the papers about it, but what it means is this. Those aeroflot lines are bringing back immigrants. [00:49:04] It is an amazing thing. 1993 my dear friends, take this whole whole last century, it has been a century of shaking. The first world War, the second world War and all the upheaval and the social fabric of western society, the whole falling away, if you like, as far as judeo christian principles are concerned. It's been an amazing shakingness and an earthquake. Could you not describe, at least in jewish terms, the Holocaust as an earthquake? [00:49:38] Something so momentous, so traumatic that it has been estimated that 50% of the jewish population of the world died in the most horrific circumstances? I called that an earthquake. And in the midst of it all the bones came back, connected bone to bone, relocated, reconnected. [00:50:09] And the story is not over. [00:50:12] We have lots of dry bones in North America and lots of dry bones in the CIS. [00:50:21] We have dry bones still in South Africa. [00:50:25] We have dry bones in South America still. Theyve all got to come home. And the Lord has his own way of shaking and earthquaking to bring back the jewish communities. Dont worry. [00:50:39] Hell do it all. How hell do it? I have no idea, but hell do it. Now. [00:50:46] I say that this is incredible. [00:50:50] We have a recreated fertility, a restored ecology and a regathering of the people. Is that not true? Then let me add something else. We have rebuilt and inhabited cities. [00:51:06] Everywhere you look in the hall of Israel you will see cities 2000, 3000 years old, many of which have been in ruin for at least 2000 years, in some cases longer, some a little less. And now in our day and generation, those cities have been rebuilt and are inhabited not as Saddam Hussein was trying to do with Babylon, as a tourist kind of iraqi Disneyland, but actually living volatile cities. [00:51:43] It has been precisely fulfilled. [00:51:49] Now, dear folks, let me go a step further. If you're still with me, then we see the flesh, the sinew, the flesh and the skin. [00:52:04] I suggest it's probably a little fanciful, but I suggest that this speaks of reborn Hebrew. [00:52:13] Do you know of another incident in the world of a language dead for 1700 years, revived as the modern mother tongue of a whole nation? [00:52:24] I don't. [00:52:28] And then we have a revival of national life. You know, for those who are not Jews, it's probably high hard to understand what it's like to try and keep the Sabbath in a land that doesn't keep the Sabbath. [00:52:43] To try and keep festivals in a land that has no idea, even true christians have no idea when the festivals are. Pentecost is something often doesn't coincide with Shavuot, and Easter doesn't always coincide with Pesach or Passover. So it is an unbelievable thing when you come. Come back into Israel with all its godlessness and all its agnosticism in many areas yet to find that the Sabbath is observed. Planes don't fly on the Sabbath. Buses don't run. Trains don't run on the Sabbath. They all close down an hour before and don't start up till an hour afterwards. I mean, entertainment is closed down. By and large, this is one of our great problems. And I won't go into it with Shulamita Lonnie, our former education minister. [00:53:34] She wants to open everything on the Sabbath because they want to destroy the traditional jewish family life. [00:53:46] They want to replace it with this modern concept. [00:53:50] But never mind. That's another subject. [00:53:53] What I find interesting is here we have. Can you believe it? After 1900 years of being buried as minorities within great gentile majorities all over the world with a different system, different festivals, different days of the week kept as a day off, and suddenly we come back to the land, and Shabbat becomes Shabbat again, and the festivals become festivals. [00:54:23] It's the revival of national life. It is unbelievable. And then take the rebuilding of national institutions. I mean, I think of, we have a jewish president, and that doesn't seem anything to you? I mean, you sort of think, well, so what? The French have a french president, the Italians have an italian president, the Americans have an american president. So Israel has a jewish president. But, my dear friends, 50 years ago would have been unthinkable if I'd stood up here and said, there will come a day when the leader of the jewish people will be a jew in their own land. We have a jewish president that's unbelievable. Even more remarkable, we have a jewish knesset. That is extraordinary. With a jewish prime minister. Whatever we may feel or think about him, hes jewish. [00:55:17] Whatever mistakes he makes, he makes them in a jewish way. [00:55:27] After all these years of being subjected to non jewish prime ministers, non jewish kings, dukes, sultans and popes, and I dont know who else, certainly were back in the land with a jewish president and a jewish parliament and a jewish prime minister. And believe it or believe it or not, we have a jewish army, a jewish navy and a jewish air force. 50 years ago, people would have laughed us almost out of the building if we'd said, there will come a day when there will be a jewish army, and this jewish army will be famous all over the world for its exploits and its daring. People would have loved Jews. Soldiers. Oh, Jews. [00:56:13] Jews are only good in the marketplace. Jews are no good for fighting. Jews are no good for soldiers. [00:56:20] Rubbish to rubbish. Don't you know the black market is run by the Jews? [00:56:26] It's what they would have said 50 years ago. [00:56:30] Everyone else can die for them. They would have said they Jews don't believe in an army. But, my dear friends, the miracle's happened. It's the restoration of national institutions. We have an Israel defense forces. [00:56:41] It is a jewish army, a jewish air force and a jewish navy. Is that not remarkable? The bones have not only been relocated, but the sinew and the flesh and the skin has come up upon them. It is extraordinary. When I think of even something quite as remarkable, for instance, as our airline. [00:57:02] I mean, can you believe it, that we have a jewish airline flying in the jewish national colors with the Star of David emblazoned on its tail? Which means that when we're late, it's because we're jewish. I mean. [00:57:26] I mean, I'd rather be late in a jewish airline than late on the British. [00:57:35] Well, I'm joking. But the fact of the matter is, can you believe that it would be possible if 55 years ago I'd stood in this pulpit and said to an assembled gathering of christians for christian leaders, there will come a day when there will be a great airline and great aircraft in the jewish national colors with the Star of David emblazoned on their tail and the first language, Hebrew in all the instructions given? People would have laughed at us and said, then, you're nuts. Have you not heard of Adolf Hitler? [00:58:06] Have you not heard what's happening on the continent of Europe? You think there's going to be a jewish airline, but there's a jewish airline now. Dear friends, all I try to bring home to you is one simple little fact. The bones have come back together, and the bones have come back together by the word of the Lord. [00:58:31] It was by the word of the Lord that they were scattered to the ends of the earth. It is by the word of the lord they have been preserved in their scattered state all down to the last 1900 years. And it is by the word of the Lord, miraculously, against overwhelming odds, they have come back to the very land from which they were exiled. [00:58:51] That leads me to the second thing, and that is the glorious salvation of the house of Israel. Because when we get to this point, we have got so far, but as yet, there is no spirit within them. That's exactly where we are tonight. [00:59:09] Exactly where we are tonight. Between the bones coming together, between the sinew, the flesh and the skin coming up on the bones. And one king shall be their king over them, and my servant David shall reign over them, and my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever. Between the bones, the sinew, the flesh and the skin and these other things, there is a gulf. [00:59:47] People often say to me, I don't understand this prophetic word you profess to believe in. [00:59:53] Why? I say, well, they say, you see, I don't understand. First of all, you say this is fulfilled and it's only half of earth. [01:00:01] The rest speaks of the Messiah reigning over them or king over them. That hasn't happened. No, of course it hasn't happened. That's where we are. I don't understand people's problem on this thing. They say, well, I think you're deceitfully handling the word of God. Really? [01:00:21] So apparently all the prophets should have been scientific in their approach and should have said, now you must understand that when the bones come together and the sinew comes up upon them, then there will be a great gulf between that you see and this happening. No, they don't say that. They put it almost together in one sentence because it's all part of a glorious movement of the Holy Spirit. That's why. [01:00:50] And so now we have something I think quite wonderful. [01:00:56] It is amazing, by the way, if I may just say as an aside, but I mustn't use any time on it, it's amazing to compare this scripture in Ezekiel 37 and these verses 26, 27 and 28 about the sanctuary being in their midst and the last chapters of the Bible, revelation 21 22. I think there is an extraordinary relationship between these two. I and I will be their God and they shall be my people. My tabernacle shall be amongst them forever. There seems to be a most amazing connection. Even the city of God that is mentioned in this Ezekiel is quite extraordinary because you have the same trees for healing, the same great river flowing out of it. Isn't it amazing? The difference is beautiful in Ezekiel it comes from the altar and from revelation it comes from the throne. In other words, the cross has given place to the throne, but that we must leave. [01:02:04] That's just an aside. [01:02:06] Don't you think the very fact that the name of this city shall be Hashim Shama, the Lord is there, dont you think that is unbelievable? [01:02:20] What does it say in revelation? There shall be no temple of God or of the lamb for God and the lamb are the temple thereof. Isnt that beautiful? So God is there in the midst of the whole thing. It's his dwelling place. Well, again, that's all just an aside for those of you who want to follow it further. But now listen to me. Where are we at present? [01:02:49] Where are we at present? Somewhere between the bones coming together, the sinew, the flesh and the skin coming up on the bone and the coming of the king. [01:03:08] We are somehow between the. Just wait, just wait. There's something else that's got to happen, something else that is absolutely vital. Before the king can reign and the sanctuary of God can be amongst them the Lord has to breathe his spirit. [01:03:28] My dear friends, where are we? We are the witnesses of the bones coming together. We are the witnesses of the most incredible recreation of the jewish state re restoration of national life, restructuring of national institutions, rebirth of the language, Hebrew, regathering of the people, rebuilding of the city cities recreation of the fertility and ecology but we have not seen the salvation of the house of Israel yet. My dear friends, don't give up, no matter what happens all this is but the prelude it is the prelude that is the message of the vision of the dry bone. [01:04:18] God doesn't bring bones to just as bones he doesn't bring sinew and flesh and skin up upon them just for the sake of it. He wants them to live, he wants them to be alive to him. He wants to breathe his spirit into them this is so much clearer in the Hebrew than in the English because the English uses three different words for the one Hebrew word spirit and not wrongly. [01:04:48] But the fact of the matter is that when the Lord said to the prophet, prophesy to the wind he was actually saying prophesy to the spirit and then hes told what to say. Come, o you four spirits, you fourfold spirit, and enter. [01:05:10] And then he saw the Lord, breathe the spirit into the nation. Now, dear friends, have you followed me thus far? [01:05:29] Because if you have, this will be a catalyst, a dynamic, an impetus to intercept. [01:05:38] Now, please listen very carefully, and anybody who's gone to sleep for a little while, just wake up. [01:05:48] We have to understand the murderous. [01:05:54] Listen. The murderous and determined hatred and intention of the powers of darkness concerning this restoration. [01:06:08] The powers of darkness have watched this people all down through the years as they have watched the true church of God with horror. [01:06:18] The powers of darkness may not know everything, but this. They know that somehow the whole redeeming purpose of God is bound up with the jewish people and the true church of God. [01:06:31] The very fulfillment of the purpose of God for the nations, for the universe, is bound up with these people, for them to be scattered. At least the bones were dry and dead. [01:06:52] But now the bones have been brought back by the word of the Lord. And the powers of guns have watched with horror as the regathering has taken place. And everything they have done, including the Holocaust, has been turned by God to be the catalyst for the recreation of Israel. [01:07:14] Now they have determined on another holocaust. [01:07:23] Those powers of darkness, with their insatiable hatred for the Messiah, their insatiable hatred for the living God, for his word, for his covenants, for his purpose, for his messiah. [01:07:41] Those powers of darkness will not stand by and watch the bones come back together and the sin and the flesh and the skin come up upon those bones and all the possibility of the Lord breathing his spirit into them without attempting to frustrate the whole purpose of God. This is the gathering storm in the Middle East. [01:08:09] I said to many of you about the Gulf War, that it was the attempt of Satan to stop the new aliyah. [01:08:18] Satan tried desperately by the Gulf War and by the intifada to frighten people from coming back to Israel. He has failed. [01:08:31] He has failed. [01:08:33] Praise the Lord. [01:08:35] They are still coming back and coming back in substantial numbers. [01:08:40] Now, my dear friends, with all our problems, we still don't have the problems of 1950, 52, when we had 800,000 arab Jews in tents for two winters, one of them, one of the worst winters we'd had for many years. [01:09:01] With all the problems we have, we're still actually amazingly adjusting to these new immigrants. Of course, there's much more needs to be done now, dear folks, please listen to me again in this matter of what I've said about this murderous intention of the powers of darkness. [01:09:25] This coming holy war is an islamic holy war. [01:09:36] I don't personally have any doubt about it, and it will be the accumulation of all the attempts through history to liquidate the jewish people, including the Holocaust. They are using the same language as the Nazis. [01:09:58] Their concepts are the same. [01:10:01] They mean to scientifically liquidate us. [01:10:12] They will fail because the very character of God and the name of God and the word of God and the purpose of God and the messiah of God abound up with this people. [01:10:31] In fact, this great coming conflict and confrontation will be the scene for the final fulfillment of the prophetic word of God. [01:10:48] I said this morning, and I won't go over it all again, only just to remind you that in my estimation it will probably be at that point that the veil on the jewish heart will be removed with the most earth shattering result. [01:11:06] The whole great purpose of God, to redeem a people will finally be completed when the natural branches are grafted back into their own olive tree. [01:11:22] Then what began in Jerusalem, 1900, nearly 2000 years ago will come to its completion and its culmination in glory. [01:11:37] Now, dear friends, I find this. Some people find it depressing. I find it exciting. [01:11:45] Why? Because I've got my eye on these wars. What can Satan do? [01:11:53] What can he do? [01:11:55] He can destroy our property. He can even destroy our lives. But the Lord said, not a hair of your head shall perish. Well, I don't know what kind of computers the Lord has, but he must be remembered. Remarkable. If not a hair. My hair comes out every day. I don't know about yours. [01:12:14] The Lord is computerizing it every day and working out exactly. I don't know. All I know is that the Lord was saying, don't fear. Don't fear. [01:12:24] When Satan has done his worst and hell has come out in its full extent, yet my purpose will be fulfilled and you and I will live to see it. And supposing we don't live to see it? Supposing we die and are put in boxes and buried? My dear friends, you'll be there. [01:12:49] But the dead in Christ will rise first. [01:12:52] Everybody thinks, oh, dear, dear de dear. [01:12:55] You know, we're going to miss something. We must live. We must live. [01:13:02] You're not going to miss anything. [01:13:06] Not a thing. Don't worry. If you're a child of God, you'll be in on the last act. [01:13:12] Don't be afraid. Just be faithful. [01:13:16] Just be faithful. Now I must come to the end. [01:13:19] What is the responsibility of the church? Well, very, very interesting. [01:13:23] I find this very interesting. I put it into three things. Now, I realize this is open to a little bit of. A little bit of questioning on this, probably from some. But I put it into three things. This is what I see as the responsibility of you dear people. First, to be a prophetic witness and testimony. [01:13:45] Secondly, to be prophetic intercessors. [01:13:51] Thirdly, to be prophetic comforters. [01:13:57] What does it say? Prophesy, o son of man, and say, o ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Isn't it marvelous that in the Lord's own incredible way, it has been the church of God, the true church of God, that has prophesied again and again and again all day through the last 500 years, that the jewish people will go back to their land? [01:14:26] Calvin said it. The early Puritans said it. I don't understand some of these modern Calvinists. [01:14:34] They say they all believe in replacement theology. Where did they come from? [01:14:39] When I was in Holland, I asked one of the leading calvinist theologians who told me that Calvin had said repeatedly that the Jews would go back to the land. And I said, please give me the place. But he said, well, it's all in Dutch. I said, it doesn't matter. Put it all down in Dutch. [01:14:55] I got four full scrap pages of everywhere that Calvin said the Jews would go back. Don't let them brow beat you, these, these Christians, into somehow believing that you are ignoramuses belonging to some new cultic idea about Israel, when it was only the Brethren, apparently only the Brethren. One of the greatest movements in the recovery of church practice and nature, they said, only the brethren, all the brethren, they were the ones that did this thing. Well, thank God for them. All honor do them if they saw such a truth. But, my dear friends, that's not true. [01:15:47] Zinsendorf saw it. [01:15:49] The Puritans saw it. Even John Wesley makes mention it's true. He didn't talk much about the second coming of the Lord, but he believed the Jews would go back to Israel. [01:16:03] Now, of course, if you want to go back to the church fathers, so called, I sometimes think they're stepfathers, Jeremy and some of those others, they didn't see it. If you want to go back to them as your source, you're perfectly entitled to do so. [01:16:26] But if you talk about the recovery of the authority and inspiration and revelation of the Bible, then nearly everyone who's been involved and taken hold on by the Holy Spirit and used in such a recovery has believed in this recreation, restoration and redemption of the jewish people. [01:16:55] They have been a prophetic witness. [01:16:58] It has been a prophetic witness and testimony. [01:17:03] And I was in Singapore just recently in a Methodist church, which was a few years ago as dead as the dodo and now bursting with life since the spirit has moved upon them and brought them back to their original principles, principles and understanding. [01:17:27] After I had finished speaking I'd been asked to speak on Israel to them. The pastor came and said, would you like this little sermon? [01:17:38] What is it? I said. [01:17:40] He said, it's a sermon by Charles Hatton Spurgeon from 1859. [01:17:47] Oh really? I said yes. He said, it is entitled the regathering of the jewish people to their land. Oh I said, id like it very much. [01:17:57] When I read what Spurgeon preached in the metropolitan tabernacle in 1859 he had. I couldnt believe it. I couldnt believe it that he could have said based on this chapter here in Ezekiel 37 preaching to what we used to call the British Jew Society, the Society for propagation of the gospel amongst the Jews of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. [01:18:29] He said that it seems to me that first the Lord will restore the jewish people politically. He will set up a politic state and all the institutions of state. And he said if I am not wrong then their salvation will follow. He was a prophet in his own right. [01:18:51] He saw something which very few other people saw. That is that God would return the jewish people to the land in unbelief. As he said, they will set up a whole political state and only then will the spirit of the Lord fall apart in them. [01:19:05] Isn't it exciting? That's where we are. Just there. We have seen with these eyes of ours all these things happening, being fulfilled but not yet the Holy Spirit falling upon them. And therefore, my dear friends, if in spite of the nazis, in spite of the tsars, in spite of the pogroms, in spite of every attempt to liquify the jewish people God has brought them back to the land and restored them and in spite of the Holocaust, in spite of six wars in 46 years, four of which should have been their liquidation, he has yet preserved them. Do you not think that he will fulfill the rest of this prophecy and will breathe the spirit of the Lord into the jewish people? Of course. [01:20:03] Or do you think the Lord is now having hiccups about this matter? [01:20:08] May he forgive me for being so irreverent. But you know what I mean. He's having a hesitation now. He says, well maybe they're not so good as I thought. [01:20:18] Maybe there are some violations of human rights, a little bit of excessive handling of this or that Palestinian. [01:20:27] No, my dear friends, the Lord knew all this before he began. [01:20:32] He's going to fulfill it to the tea. Not a jot nor a tittle will pass away till everything is fulfilled. Dear friends, we're meant to be a prophetic witness and testimony. Our very being is believers. We're meant, as it were, to live out a prophetic word. God's word stands forever. It is absolutely reliable, absolutely powerful. It is the word of the living God, and we should be a testimony to the jewish people. God will take you back, and not only take you back, he will preserve you and will not only receive, he will do all and every other thing to you. In the end, he will bring his spirit within you and all that God intended for you will be fulfilled. [01:21:30] Prophetic witness and testimony. [01:21:34] The second thing is that is our responsibility is to be a prophetic intercessor. Now what does that mean? Well, what does it mean? This strange word prophesy to the spirit and even more strangely say, come, o four winds, and breathe upon me slain. [01:21:57] I believe that this means you and I have a relationship to the Holy Spirit in intercession. Now, I know there are a whole lot of crowds in this business. [01:22:09] I know there are these people that shut themselves inside broom cupboards and scream the house down and believe that by vicarious suffering they were leasing others, all of which seems to me to be psychology gone mad. [01:22:27] Nevertheless, there is such a thing as prophetic intercession, that is, intercession, like Daniel based upon the word, the prophetic word of God. Daniel understood God's prophecy to Jeremiah and on that basis he interceded before God until it happened. This is our job. We need to get hold of the word of God concerning the jewish people and pray it into being. If God has brought all these other things into being, shall we not take hold of the Lord that he will breathe his spirit into them? Shall we not say and declare in the presence of the Lord, it shall be done? God himself will breathe his spirit into the jewish people and they will live. [01:23:17] It is a declaration, this kind of intercession. [01:23:21] May the Lord help us. And thirdly, prophetic comfort. What an amazing thing this last thing is when he said, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, listen, our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are clean cut off. [01:23:47] Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus says the Lord God, and then it's full of comfort. [01:23:57] I believe this is the missing note in the relationship of many christian people to the jewish people. There has not been until this last generation or two any comfort. [01:24:15] And yet it is a supreme calling of the church to comfort them. [01:24:27] There is nothing that touches the jewish heart more deeply than comfort of course, every jew is suspicious when a non jew approaches them with love or interest. They are waiting for the tract, waiting for the New Testament, waiting for the invitation to a crusade, waiting to be cornered and to have the gospel preached. [01:24:58] Every jew is suspicious. [01:25:02] It's very hard for some christian people because their attitude is, well, I wont say anything. Ill leave it to the Lord. [01:25:10] But if the Lord doesnt speak, I will. [01:25:18] Isnt that true? [01:25:24] Its how we deal with one another on a whole lot of things. Giving up smoking, giving up this, giving up, that we say, well, well, leave it to the Lord. Well, pray that the Lord will speak to so and so. But if we see that so and so is impervious and the Holy Spirit apparently not getting through, we will step into the shoes of the Holy Spirit and we'll do the work for him. [01:25:47] More trouble has come in christian circles from people trying to do the work of the Lord than anything else. [01:25:56] We're meant to be a prophetic comfort. [01:26:00] May the good Lord help us. What exciting days we are living in. What a tremendous amount has happened. How fast the events are following one on the other. What a privilege it is to live in these days. Well, dear friends, hears this word. [01:26:21] Thus says, the Lord Israel is my firstborn. [01:26:30] How wonderful. It is therefore to see that God has restored the firstborn. [01:26:40] But we are only into so many stages of this restoration. [01:26:46] The rest is yet to come. [01:26:49] May the Lord this night challenge us and fire us in a new way, conceive in us burdens that will not leave us until you and I together see the Lord fulfill his word. What a day. [01:27:09] What a day. When the spirit of the Lord is breathed into this great arm army and they stand up on their feet, a very, very great army. [01:27:22] My dear friends, what a day of rejoicing. What a day of glory. What a day of power. [01:27:30] I imagine the very angels of God will fall out of heaven with joy and somehow tumble down here amongst us some great extravaganza of joy and jubilation. [01:27:50] A tremendous thing, therefore, for you and I to have a part in it. [01:27:56] May the Lord so lead us and so involve us.