The Mystery of Israel #3 - God's Battle Axe

[00:00:00] I would like to read from the prophecy of Jeremiah in chapter 51, and from verse 19 to 24. 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. [00:00:25] Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war. 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. 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. [00:01:19] Shall we pray? Beloved Lord, we want to thank you that you speak of this whole question of Israel as a mystery, a secret which has to be revealed to us by the spirit of God. [00:01:38] O Lord, we come to you in our need as we bring this matter of Israel into focus. [00:01:49] We want, Lord, that you by your spirit will touch our spirits, open the eyes of our hearts, as the apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus. Give us that spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you and Lord, in some way give us understanding of this matter, so strategic in the days in which we live. [00:02:25] Lord, we thank you for the anointing that you have given us, both for the speaking of your word and for the hearing of your word. And we take it for both speaker and hearer, that we may know your grace and your power and your wisdom. [00:02:44] In our experience today, we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. [00:02:55] In the roman letter of the apostle Paul, he speaks of Israel as a mystery. [00:03:06] He says, I would not, brothers, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceits that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel until the full number of the gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. [00:03:31] As I have already pointed out in my previous tapes, this word mystery is not just something fathomless and unintelligible. [00:03:51] Always it is a secret. [00:03:55] Paul uses a greek word, word meaning a secret that the initiated are brought into the initiated. Of course, in the New Testament are those born of God, those who are true children of God. It is their birthright to understand this mystery. And if we approach it with humility and with supplication, a beseeching appeal that the Lord will give us understanding, he will time. And in his own way. Paul speaks of the full number of the gentiles coming in and a hardness that has befallen Israel until that time is reached. He also says that when that happens, all Israel will be saved. [00:05:02] In my estimation, therefore, the whole question of Israel is absolutely strategic. [00:05:10] Strategic to an understanding of the world situation at present, the contemporary world situation in particular, strategic to what is happening in the Middle east. And obviously it is strategic in the whole question of Israel and the church. [00:05:38] For this reason, I have embarked on these messages because of the enormous controversy, confusion and conflict centered on Israel. [00:05:53] Even amongst christians, there is so much division and so much confusion in this message. I want to speak about this extraordinary prophecy of Jeremiah as we find it in the 51st chapter and in the verses I have read from verse 19 to 24. [00:06:30] God says that little Israel is his battle axe. [00:06:40] A battle axe, an instrument. [00:06:47] It is not a gun, it is not a bow. [00:06:54] Thinking in the old days, a battle axe is a maul. We speak of being mauled. [00:07:05] That means we are savaged, we are broken up, we are disabled, we are pulverized. [00:07:15] When you understand what God is saying about Israel in this light, it comes to us with great impact. [00:07:36] Israel, the Lord says, is his maw. [00:07:46] And Israel is what the Lord calls weapons of war. [00:07:54] And he says, with Israel he will break in pieces nations consider it, and with Israel he will destroy kingdoms. [00:08:09] And he goes on about breaking in pieces the horse and rider, breaking in pieces the chariot and him that rides in it. [00:08:19] In other words, armies. [00:08:22] No matter what comes against Israel or the purpose of God for Israel, he says that he will break them in pieces using this little nation. [00:08:44] Originally, of course, the Lord was speaking about Babylon. And Babylon was the great superpower of the day. It had defeated Egypt in a great battle and was now the supreme power, the only superpower, actually in the whole region. [00:09:11] And it was about Babylon that the Lord was speaking to Jeremiah when he said Israel. Let me read it again in verse 19. The portion of Jacob is not these, for he is the former of all things that is in the mind of God. [00:09:34] The creation of the jewish people of Israel was, as it were, the key to the whole of human history. [00:09:51] Now, that's obviously not how most worldly historians will view world history. They will see China with her great dynastic empire. They will see the indian empires. They will see the empires of history as the real key to world history, not some little backstreet nation of a million or two or even six or 7 million, even 14 million. It was nothing compared with us. They never had a great empire. They never had a world empire. So it is all the more remarkable when you look at this and recognize this prophecy for what it is. He says that the portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the former of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. And then he says the most remarkable thing, the Lord of hosts is his name. Now what is he saying? Is he saying that Jacob's name is the Lord of hosts? That Israel, his name is the Lord of hosts? It can only mean one thing. The Lord is so identified with Jacob and with Israel that he says they share almost, if I may so put it, my name. [00:11:28] They represent my name. [00:11:33] Now, that is an altogether unique way of viewing world history. [00:11:41] And in many ways, that's what the Bible is all about. [00:11:48] This prophecy comes to us with incisive power when we recognize that at the time that the Lord gave it to Jeremiah, Israel and Judah were defeated, occupied her cities and towns, destroyed, the temple of God plundered and razed to the ground. [00:12:19] And the people, at least the middle class and upper class, the aristocracies, all exiled altogether. Apart from that, even if that she had not been defeated and exiled, she was so small and so insignificant compared with the other great world powers of the day. [00:12:51] How could could she be God's battle axe? [00:12:58] But that is the divine declaration. [00:13:06] And so it came to pass exactly as the Lord predicted to Jeremiah. [00:13:20] Babylon fell in one night when the Persians blocked one of the great canals going into the city. And unbeknown to the babylonian royal family feasting in the palace, they came through and into the city and destroyed it. [00:13:48] So feared by the people of the whole Middle east and the region disappeared. [00:13:58] I think many of you will remember Daniel, who had been castrated, made a eunuch, as all the aristocratic young men were, that were brought in, into the royal service, the government service of Babylon. Do you remember the story in Daniel, chapter five, when as the emperor, the sultan and all the top people of Babylon were feasting, fingers appeared and wrote something on the wall. [00:14:46] And the sultan, the emperor of Babylon, was absolutely panic stricken. It says quaintly, one knee smote the other. [00:15:00] And he called for his wise men and none of them could say what it was. But then he heard about Daniel, who'd meant so much to his father. He called Daniel in, and Daniel with enormous courage, said, I cannot quote it all for time. But in Daniel five and chapter five, verse 23. [00:15:27] But thou, belshazzar, thou has lifted up thyself against the lord of and they have bought the vessels of the lord's house before thee. And thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine from them. And thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood and stone, which see not nor hear nor know. And the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified. [00:16:08] Then was the part of the hand sent from before him. And this writing was inscribed, and this is the writing that was inscribed. Daniel said, this is the interpretation of the thing meaning God hath numbered your kingdom and brought it to an end. [00:16:36] Take care. You are weighed in the balances and found wanting. [00:16:43] Thy kingdom is divided and given. [00:16:53] Daniel, by the spirit of God, connects it with the house of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. They had bought all the vessels, the gold vessels from the temple of the Lord. And they brought them in, and they were drinking from them in this great celebration banquet they were having. [00:17:14] And Daniel actually mentions it and says, God has seen this, and this night you're finished. [00:17:23] Belshazzar and the whole royal family of Babylon died that night. [00:17:31] I consider this something to really take note of. [00:17:50] Is Israel still God's battleaxe? [00:17:58] That's a good question. [00:18:02] Because if she is, then the whole of world history, from the divine standpoint point is tied to how the nations touch this small nation and this little postage stamp portion of territory. [00:18:33] There is more than meets the eye about Israel. [00:18:41] There is a. To put it in another way, there is a spiritual dimension to Israel that no other physical nation has. [00:18:55] If what I am saying is right, and my understanding of this is right, then Israel has a spiritual dimension that no other people, however great, no other power, even the greatest superpower, has had. [00:19:23] It is easy to ignore Israel, to overlook her or to deride her or to devalue her. [00:19:34] But let me put it yet another way. [00:19:41] It is not the seen that matters, but the unseen. [00:19:52] If you were to look just at Israel in history as well as today, what do you find? Something like any other nation. Only very small. [00:20:06] Very small. [00:20:08] No great empire in one sense, no great influence, no great impact from one point of view. [00:20:17] But Israel is just a something that could be easily put into a corner. [00:20:27] She's a nuisance, an irritation, a problem to world peace and to much else. [00:20:43] But if you see into the unseen, and what I am saying is right then the hand of God is in this people. [00:20:54] Whether she obeys him or disobeys him, whether she is faithful or unfaithful. Indeed, the fact that God has judged the jewish people through history again and again, as we have it in the Bible record, accepted by all the rabbis, even the great exile beginning in 70 AD of this era, the very judgment of God is because he will not give them up. [00:21:43] It is like a father who punishes a child. [00:21:48] He has the well being of that child in mind. [00:21:53] And psychologists tell us that somehow or other, it is sometimes that power to, to correct us that is so important in a father son son father relationship. [00:22:17] Anyone who touches Israel touches God. [00:22:24] Even when Israel is in unbelief and secularism. [00:22:31] Anyone who touches Israel is touching the word of God and the purpose of God, and the covenants of God, and the messiah of God and the redemption of God. [00:22:51] It is important to recognize, as I have said, that the Bible does not trace the history every empire. [00:23:03] It is not a kind of his encyclopedia of history. [00:23:09] For instance, as I have already stated, you don't have any mention of the great chinese empire, so ancient and so. [00:23:22] Nor are many other great empires mention. [00:23:27] It speaks only of great empires or ideologies, insofar as they touch his purpose, his redeeming purpose. [00:23:42] Thus, we have the story of Egypt, because she does touch his redeeming purpose. We have the story of Babylon, because Babylon touched that divine purpose. We have the story of Persia for the same reason. And the great Hellenic Empire and the Roman Empire. [00:24:15] In one of those great empires, God chose a man. [00:24:24] He lived in ur of the Chaldees, the Chaldean Babylonian Empire, in one of the great cities of that empire, ur. [00:24:37] And God revealed himself to him. It's put very simply in the New Testament, the God of glory appeared to our forefather Abraham, whilst he was yet in Mesopotamia, in ur of the Chaldees. [00:25:01] That was the beginning of the story of Israel with him. [00:25:12] His name at the time was Abram. Avram. [00:25:19] And God changed his name to Abraham. Abraham, that is, a father on high, to a father of a multitude. [00:25:35] He made a covenant with this man which has never been abrogated. [00:25:47] It is both the beginning of Israel and in some ways it is the beginning of the church. For Abraham is called the father of all who believe. Let me read a few scriptures just to bring this home to out of so many that could be read. First of all, in Genesis twelve and verse one. Now the Lord said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto the land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation. [00:26:33] And I will bless thee and make thy name great. [00:26:38] And be thou a blessing. [00:26:42] And I will bless them that bless thee. And him that curseth thee will I curse. [00:26:51] And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. [00:27:00] An amazing covenant. A promise and a covenant. In chapter 17 we read this. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham. Abraham, for the father of a multitude of nations have I made thee, and I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, unto thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God. [00:28:09] You should note that the Lord said throughout your generations for an everlasting covenant. Now I am told by some in the church that everlasting apparently does not mean everlasting, that this was only until God rejected them. [00:28:33] In other words, everlasting means temporal. [00:28:41] It is apparently no longer operative. But God said, in the conditions of this covenant, which actually in one sense was unconditional, there were no conditions. It was a covenant he made by grace with Abraham and his seed after him. [00:28:59] But he put down certain things that he would do, certain things he promised. And it was this. Throughout their generations, whilst there is a generation of the seed of Abraham on the face of the earth, this covenant is operative. [00:29:19] And the covenant is not only that God will be a God to him and to his seed, whether they believe or do not believe, whether in blessing or in judgment, he goes on to say, I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land of your sojournings, all the lasting again, he says, and I will be their God. [00:29:50] Now when people tell me that this covenant is abrogated, or as some put it, who are a little more spiritual, when Christ came, it was fulfilled and therefore shelved, or not just shelved, but nullified, I have a big problem that this covenant has something to do with the Messiah, Jesus. I have no doubt that he and his finished work underlies this covenant. I have no doubt. For Abraham saw the day of the Messiah, it says in the New Testament, and rejoiced. [00:30:36] I don't have any doubt about that. [00:30:40] But I do have very real problem when people tell me that the words God uses are not to be trusted. [00:30:48] If he says everlasting, we change it to temple or transient or time limited. [00:30:56] That's nonsense. [00:30:58] There's no point to human language. If everlasting means the exact opposite. [00:31:05] We have an everlasting, a covenant and an everlasting possession. [00:31:13] Now, some will say to me, yes, but you see, the Palestinians, for instance, and some of the other arab peoples, they are also the seat of Hebron. Abraham, he had them through Ishmael, who was born not of Sarah but of Hagar the Egyptian. This is absolutely right. [00:31:34] It is also right to say that God made a covenant with Hagar and with Ishmael, that he has kept to this day every single point about it. It is very interesting. So much of the oil and wealth is in the hands of the seed of Ishmael. [00:31:53] But it is also as clear that the Lord said, when Abraham said, what about Ishmael? Why don't you make this thing about the land and everything with Ishmael? God said, no, I will make a covenant with Ishmael. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. [00:32:14] And later he confirms it with Jacob. Psalm 105 puts it very simply in one eight he hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham. By the way, a thousand generations is 1000 multiplied by 40. [00:32:41] That's a very long time. [00:32:45] The covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath unto Isaac confirmed the same unto Jacob for a statute to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, unto thee, will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance. [00:33:08] I say that this matter is tremendous if you turn to Romans. We had the new Testament perspective of this when in Romans and chapter four, the letter of the apostle Paul to the Romans in chapter four from verse 1112. [00:33:31] And he received the sign. Abraham received the sign of circumstance, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them. [00:33:55] And the father of circumcision to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. Then again in verse 16, this is said, for this cause it is a faith that it may be according to grace to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, that is us Jews, but that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. [00:34:42] So when God chose Abraham, he began something. [00:34:50] He not only chose, as it were, a people through him that we call Israel or we call the jewish people, but he chose all those whom he would say through the finished work of the Messiah. [00:35:13] Now, this is why God says, not once, but again and again, if you curse this people, you will be cursed. [00:35:36] If you bless this people, you will be blessed. [00:35:43] I can put it in yet another way. [00:35:52] Israel is God's battle axe. [00:35:58] Its progress, the rise and fall of empires and nations. [00:36:05] Is related to this little insignificant people and this little portion of territory called the promised land or the land of Israel. [00:36:29] It is there even more remarkable, because if you look at it, if you follow this matter right the way through, you will find that every empire, every ideology that somehow touches this purpose of God, to redeem a people throughout the earth and from every nation and every tongue. [00:37:00] If you touch these people in the wrong way, you will come into judgment. Now, I believe that holds not only for the jewish people, but for the true church of God. Every nation that persecutes them, massacres them, turns against them, devalues them, is devaluing itself. [00:37:31] And the whole of history is full of the evidence. [00:37:39] I wish we had the time to go into it all. But the fact of the matter is, Egypt disappeared. Babylon disappeared. [00:37:49] Persia disappeared. The hellenic empire disappeared. The Roman Empire disappeared. [00:37:56] All we have left of them, ruins, beautiful ruins, interesting ruins, especially if you have imagination. [00:38:12] But only ruin. [00:38:15] But this people that came out of Abraham, this seed that came through Isaac, not Ishmael, and to Jacob, not Esau, they have something that is not a ruin. [00:38:37] It is called the word of God, and it lives and abides forever. It is not a ruin. Of course, we are living in a society now which tells us it is a ruin, that it is antique, that it has no meaning whatsoever today. But the fact of the matter is, the law of God is the law of God. [00:39:05] It is not a ruin. [00:39:07] Every nation is judged by the way it either accepts the revealed law of God, the word of God, or rejects it. [00:39:22] What a commentary that is upon global society today. [00:39:29] But I must go on and ask yet another question. [00:39:35] Does this prophecy still, is it still operative? Let me put it that way. Still operative in the 21st century, in modern times? Or does it only apply to Old Testament times? [00:39:58] I say it very definitely applies to our days. [00:40:06] The prophet Isaiah, in one, one of his prophecies contained in Isaiah 60 and in verse twelve says this, for that nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish. [00:40:37] Yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. [00:40:46] He is speaking of a return from an exile and the rebuilding of the land. If you look at the context, he says, foreigners shall build up your walls and kings shall minister unto you. [00:41:05] I don't know what little Israel would have done without the large number of non jewish volunteers who have come and helped in the building up of the economy of Israel, in its agriculture, apart from anything else. [00:41:23] And what about these kings presidents? [00:41:27] What would Israel have done without Lord Balfour? [00:41:34] What would Israel have done without some of those who so strongly supported her? [00:41:42] Think of the american presidents who have. [00:41:47] It is a very interesting thing. But then the Lord says, for that nation or kingdom that will not serve you shall perish. [00:41:58] Or again, if you look in another prophecy of Isaiah, in chapter 54 and verse 15, it says, behold, they may gather together, but not by me. [00:42:16] Whosoever shall gather together against you shall fall. [00:42:22] Well, is it true? Listen again. [00:42:27] What does the Lord say to Zechariah? We've already considered that. [00:42:33] He said, all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against Jerusalem. And the Lord says again in the same prophecy, and I will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And again in chapter 14 and verse two of Zechariah, I will bring all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. So it is the Lord. It is the Lord who is in this whole business. [00:43:08] It is amazing. Listen again to a little word buried in the prophecy of Joel. Now of course, everybody who knows anything about Pentecost and what happened on that day of Pentecost knows that the prophecy of Joel, Peter said, this is that which the prophet Joel spoke about. And you will find it in Joel chapter two, since little small prophecy of only three chapters. And there in the midst of it, in chapter two and verse 28, it shall come to pass afterward that pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and so on, that we are told by the apostle Peter was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Or shall we put, it was began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, because he goes on to say, and I will show verse 30, I will show wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. Isn't that interesting? Pillars of smoke, columns of smoke. [00:44:28] Is it some reference to atomic things? [00:44:33] Whatever did the Lord mean pillars of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. [00:44:49] Well, I mean, that is clear that it is not the beginning of this age, but the end of this present age. Now listen to this, because unfortunately, we have a chapter division which was not in the original, and that often stops the continuity of the prophecy. It goes on four, chapter three, verse one. Behold, in those days and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, oh, so somewhere toward the end of this age in which we are at present, this age of the Holy Spirit, the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem will be ended. [00:45:40] I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. Yehoshaphat means the Lord judges. [00:45:50] And it is the Kidron valley, just east of the old city of Jerusalem runs down to the Dead Sea. And I will execute judgment upon them there. For my people and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and they have divided my land. [00:46:17] Would you have believed that that would come? A phrase like that would come buried in a small prophecy in the Bible. [00:46:29] And if you look at the context, it is perfectly clear that it is referring to something at the end of the present age in which we are living that began with the day of Pentecost. [00:46:46] Now the Lord Jesus said in words I have already quoted, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. In other words, Jerusalem is the key to the times of the Gentiles, when Jerusalem is no longer under non jewish government, but is under jewish government. The times of the Gentiles have been fulfilled, and we've passed into the last phase of world history, however long or short it may be. [00:47:29] In that time, Joel prophesied by the spirit of God and says, the Lord will judge nations because they've scattered. I say this. If the purpose of God prophesied again and again in the Old Testament is to bring back the jewish people to the land, to divide the land is to scatter them. [00:47:57] It cannot have a viable economy. [00:48:01] There is nothing space enough for all of them to come back. Yet the word of God says they will come back. [00:48:11] I find this quite amazing, because what the Lord is really saying is that if you tamper with the divine purpose for Israel and for the promise land, you will come under his judgment. [00:48:36] If that is so, then I think we need to take very serious note of our present world predicament over the Middle east. [00:48:57] Do we have evidence that Israel is still God's more with which he pulverizes nations, ideologies, great empires, superpowers? [00:49:22] I think we do. [00:49:26] Most young people today have probably never heard of the Ottoman Empire, but the Ottoman Empire was one of the greatest empires of world history, stretching over thousands of miles, ruled from Constantinople, today's Istanbul in Turkey, a tremendous empire. Of course, most people only know it by the Ottoman that they talk about as a kind of city. [00:50:04] Few people know of the Ottoman Empire, but the Ottoman Empire touched this whole matter, rejected the idea that the Jews should return or that there should be within the Ottoman Empire a jewish autonomy. [00:50:26] And the Ottoman Empire fell in 1917, never to rise again. [00:50:33] That's evidence. God took this people, not then a state, not even a nation as such, at least with national institutions and government. [00:50:45] And when they touched it, he destroyed them. [00:50:49] Or I think of the austro hungarian empire with that great city of Vienna as its capital. When anyone sees Vienna, one is amazed. Is this the capital of a small country like Austria? But it was the capital of a huge empire that stretched from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. [00:51:11] It was huge. [00:51:13] It also came into conflict in the way it dealt with its jewish citizens. [00:51:21] Or I think about old Hitler's thousand year Reich. [00:51:27] It lasted precisely twelve years. [00:51:34] If ever there was an evidence of a nation that touched this people and touched them in a bloody way, a murderous way, 6 million died minimally. 6 million. [00:51:56] It was the Nazis. [00:52:01] And they came into terrible judgment. [00:52:05] Their cities bombed, their land divided for so many years. A whole generation, in fact. [00:52:16] Or again, I think of the british empire. It was said of the british empire that the sun never set upon it. It was so vast, in fact, one quarter of the world, the earth's surface, was under british government. [00:52:34] This little tiny island ruled one quarter of the face of the earth. [00:52:48] It is interesting to me because I remember when I was first saved, and I hadn't hardly been the Lord's for more than a year or two. When I heard I was in the church, that's where I was saved. [00:53:09] That of which Alan read. Parthenon was the minister and pastor. [00:53:16] He was very clear on the matter of Israel, and I owe a lot to him for the clarity with which he spoke about Israel and jewish people. I remember on a Sunday morning when I was just in my teens, I must have been 15 or thereabouts. [00:53:42] It must have been about 1946. [00:53:47] And Alan Repar said in the pulpit, God will judge Britain and destroy the british empire for what she has done to the jewish people. At that time, Britain was actually strafing and even bombing ships of Holocaust survivors, trying to reap what was called Palestine. [00:54:16] And he said, they have relegated, they have gone back on their words when they were given the mandate by the League of Nations for a jewish estate in the jewish homeland. [00:54:47] And if I remember rightly, he said, as surely as I stand here, God will judge the British Empire. [00:55:02] I remember it very well because one or two people got up and left. I never did know whether it was simply that they were rushing out. [00:55:13] They felt the message was too long, but I'm almost certain they couldn't stand it. It was very hard for any britisher that time to believe that great Britain would become so small, but just like Turkey, just a little truncated part of this huge ottoman empire, or like Austria, a little part of this great empire. So it has come to pass with Britain, an Ireland off the coast of Europe, still with power, but nothing like the power and impact she had. [00:55:59] I lived to see Alan Redpath's words fulfilled in 1948. And it is very interesting that at the exact point at which Israel was born, on the 14 May 1948, the British Empire began to break up with the secession, with the secession of India, followed by one after the other of the other after the other, with all the problems that came with it. [00:56:35] Is that not evidence that little Israel, his God's battle axe, his armory of war weapons, with you I will destroy kingdom. With you I will destroy nations. Or again, I think of the soviet empire that may be most remarkable. I mean, the soviet empire was so vast, almost a third of the world in its involved with it in some way or another, violent in its opposition to Israel and violent in its handling of its jewish citizens. [00:57:20] They weren't allowed to learn Hebrew, they weren't allowed to teach their children anything about Judaism. [00:57:31] And then it happened. 70 years to the day that the marxist covenant was signed, it happened. I've mentioned this in a former one of these messages. [00:57:47] Today there are over 1 million, well over 1 million russian jewish citizens of Israel and the Soviet Union. [00:58:01] She was a superpower. [00:58:05] At present, we can hardly call her a superpower. [00:58:15] I believe the next conflict is with militant Islamic, because militant Islam has an agenda and it is world domination, including the western nations. [00:58:37] People continually refer to Islam as being somehow other, nonviolent and so on and so forth that admires to Islam is born in violence. [00:58:54] Militancy is part of its very nature. And anyone who's lived in islamic countries as I have, will know exactly what I'm talking about, that there are millions after one in every five people on the face of this earth is a Muslim. [00:59:14] There are millions of decent Muslims, law abiding Muslims, non violent Muslims. [00:59:24] But the spirit of Islam is aggressive. [00:59:29] It is an aggressive, pugnacious spirit, and it has an agenda. And that agenda is world domination. And as the ayatollah, which, which means word of God or oracle of God, Khomeini said before his death, Israel is the stepping stone to world domination. [00:59:52] Allah, he said, will only fulfill his word concerning the nations being submitted to Islam when Israel is liquidated and Jerusalem liberated. [01:00:09] I believe that this clash with militant Islam is the next great confrontation. But I have to say more. [01:00:21] I have an enormous fear for the United States. [01:00:29] I have no doubt at all about President Bush's faith in the Lord Jesus. [01:00:38] And I had absolutely no doubt about his desire to do the right thing. [01:00:51] I pray for him every day, so I'm not a critic. Every day I pray for him that God will give him light and understanding and help him to do the right thing. [01:01:07] I was amazed when Tony Blair, who I've always considered to be a Hollywood style politician, when he put his neck on the chopping block politically and joined the United States and stuck by President Bush right through this war on Iraq. [01:01:40] But I have to tell you, in my many, many close friends, american friends who pray for the United States and love her and honor her, that I believe that the United States is in enormous danger. [01:02:06] She is at the crossroads that the United Kingdom came to in 1950, 819 46, no good patriotic britisher could ever imagine the british empire really totally disappearing and Britain becoming just a small nation amongst other european nations. [01:02:37] But it happened. [01:02:39] I think the United States States is at the same crossroads. [01:02:44] And it all is centered on the question of Israel. [01:02:52] If the United States makes the mistake of supporting the division of the land that God promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob and to their seed as an everlasting possession, then the United States will be on a collision course with the Almighty. [01:03:26] And I have no doubt that the same thing will happen to the United States as has happened to the United Kingdom. [01:03:38] And of course, it's true of other nations. We are in this build up of what we call globalization and everything else. [01:03:50] Woe betide any nation or anyone who meddles with God's purpose. [01:04:03] The prophet Zechariah said, jerusalem will be a burdensome stone, and that is a stone that causes a rapture. [01:04:17] Now what? Why would someone get a stone? [01:04:24] Why would someone get a rupture as a result of this burdensome stone? This stone? Well, because they're trying to lift it from one place to another. [01:04:35] In other words, they're taking it out of its divinely predestined place to what they consider would be more healthy and useful. [01:04:56] I think that the word of the Lord is always true. [01:05:04] It says that I will, and in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone. All that burden themselves with it shall be sore wounded. [01:05:22] Therefore, coming back to this question, yes, there is evidence that little Israel is the battle axe of God. She is his armory of war weapon. Still to this day, he uses this little nation in her secularism and unbelief. [01:05:52] And however much you can judge her for wrongdoing or this or that or the other, still there is a divine purpose in this lesson. She is moving toward an appointed salvation, as the word of God says, and so all Israel shall be saved, meaning not every single jew and Israeli, but everyone who comes into the salvation of God, those who belong to that olive tweed that is mentioned in Romans eleven. [01:06:43] I believe, therefore, that this matter that we have considered in this message is one of the most important and revealing matters that we could consider in the days in which we're living. [01:07:08] I must end. [01:07:11] But I have no doubt that the purpose of God is going to be fulfilled. [01:07:20] And I have absolutely no doubt in my heart at all that God will leave no stone unturned to fulfill his purpose both for Israel and for the church. [01:07:48] These two parted company on the person of the Lord Jesus. [01:07:56] They will come together on the person of the Lord Jesus. [01:08:04] It is as simple as that. [01:08:07] There is in world history a divine order, only to be seen with the eye of faith. [01:08:18] But the Bible is the record of it. [01:08:22] May the Lord give us an understanding that we have never had before on this question. [01:08:29] Give us an insight that we have never had before. [01:08:35] This mystery of Israel, may it become as real to you as the mystery of the gospel and the mystery of the incarnation has become.