Transcription
Well, you guys, as promised, the world is absolutely amazing right now. The listen, people are freaking out, but not the Christian. You've got your Bible open, you know what's happening in the world. Jesus said there'd be days like this, and we have, above all people on earth, we've got the opportunity to share the good news. And the good news is, of course, the gospel of Jesus Christ, that Jesus came, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again from the grave. And the Bible predicted that. The Old Testament is all about that. And the Old Testament, the book of the prophets, for example, spoke about the very days in which you and I are living right now. The formation of what's being set, the prophets have longed for. You're going to be hearing this morning a message that will strengthen your faith, equip you for the office tomorrow, or the construction site, or the neighborhood, because people around you want to know what in the world is happening, what's going on. And this morning's a little bit of a prelude to where we're going this evening, tomorrow night. My good friend Amir just came in. I picked him up at the airport from Jerusalem, and from here on Monday night, I'll, as soon as he's done speaking, we'll get him straight to LAX where he'll be heading off to Asia.
But, um, as I mentioned earlier, he's a captain in the Israeli Defense Force. Interesting thing, Amir was the last governor of Jericho before he sat opposite Yasser Arafat and signed jurisdiction of Jericho over to the Palestinian Authority. The first governor of Jericho was, by goes by the name of a guy named Joshua, who you've read about in your Bible. The last governor of Jericho, we have with us today, a good brother, great lover of Jesus, and he's going to be bringing you a message. You're going to want to pay close attention to. So, give a warm welcome to our good friend Amir.
Survived a this morning. Thank you very much. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Laud Him, all you people, for His merciful kindness is great towards us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Amen. So excited being here this morning, surrounded by Gentiles that came this morning to praise the Lord. Therefore, they deserve to know the truth of the Lord. Amen. And so, this morning's title is "The Beginning of the End." And it's important that you understand that all of you were born into this world that, almost six thousand years ago, had its beginning, and very shortly, will have its end. Now, don't get too panicky. If you're here and you're born again, your spirit-filled, and you love the Lord, this is not going to be the end for you. We are entering into our eternal presence with the Lord. Amen. However, this world, as we know it, as it is with the stars and the moon and the sun, will come to an end. We all know that. God, in His eternal presence, decided one day to call into the existence of a planet and light that will come and shine upon this planet, and life were created. That's why in the beginning, as Genesis 1:1 says, "God created the heavens and the earth." And just by ways of saying, in the beginning, you can clearly see that everything that has a beginning normally will also have an end. That's why don't be surprised when it says in 1 Peter 4:7, "Behold, the end of all things is at hand."
So, this morning, we want to talk about how is it that we know that we're in the beginning of the end? Now, we are in the beginning of the end because the very last phase of the end, we know, we pray, we hope, actually, we are sure that we are not here. Amen. We are going to be somewhere else. But Jesus said to His disciples, when they asked Him the signs of the end of the age, He gave them a list, and then He said, "Then these are just the beginning of all things." And so, here we are this morning. I'm so excited because you can imagine how many people wish they lived throughout those days where almost every single week, prophecy is being fulfilled. And to whom much is given, also much is required. And we, we understand that alongside with what we see and what we learn, what we study, and what we understand, there's a greater responsibility that comes with it. And one of the biggest responsibilities of the people of God is to be ready. And this is why God gave us Bible prophecy. Bible prophecy is not a way to scare people. It's not a way to let people under no somebody's personal private interpretation of something. No, we should study Bible prophecy for two reasons. One, in 2nd Peter, chapter 1, verses 20 and 21, the Bible says the following thing. It says, "For Bible prophecy, knowing this, no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, for prophecy never came by the will and but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." Neither one of the prophets ever had the will to do what they really did. They did not wake up in the morning, said, "I wish I would be hated by my people and stoned to death." No, but they were men whom God looked at and saw fit to be come conduits to which God, the Holy Spirit, will speak, and the people of that time will listen, and the people of generations to come will also be able to understand. However, do not mistake. Isaiah 46:9-11 says, "I am God, and there is no other. None like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'" First of all, we understand that a God declares the end from the beginning. And then He says, "From ancient times, from the time of the prophets, I will tell you things that are not yet done." And then He says, "I will do all My pleasure." In other words, none of the things that are happening in this world are a great surprise to God. He is still on the throne. He is in full control. He predicted these things because He knows the hearts of men, and He could see what is coming about, and He wants His children to be ready and prepared. And this morning, I hope I will, I will somehow be able to contribute to the effort of what I believe God's calling for the church to wake up and get ready.
And then when we come to, do you see, I didn't come to talk about America, Europe. I come from the Middle East, and I want to talk about what is going on in the Middle East. And in fact, the prophets were talking about them. And that's why the eyes of the whole world shall be fixed on the Middle East. What is going on there is surely affecting the whole world. Do I need to tell you that half of your news broadcasts every day is all about what's going on in the Middle East? It affects world economy, world politics, it affects everything that happens here. But the Middle East that we see today, in the beginning, middle of September of 2014, is completely different than the Middle East that we had just about a year or two years ago. Just make it very, just make it very clear that you understand. When the Middle East that you know most of your life, you know of countries, of borders, you know exactly where is what. But most of that was actually created by the Brits and the French in 1916. Russia, Britain, and France sat together towards the end of World War I, and they took a map of the Levant, of the Middle East, and they started dividing the skin of the bear before they even hunted it. And they just, they wanted areas of influence. However, in 1917, we all know there was the Communist revolution in Russia. So Russia was out of the game. And now we're left with Britain and France. And Mr. Sykes and Monsieur Picot were sitting together, and they signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which gave birth to Iraq and Egypt and Lebanon, Syria, and then what was known as Palestine, which later on was divided, and two-thirds of it became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. But what you need to understand is when Jesus talked in His Olivet Discourse about the signs of the end of the age, He did not necessarily talk about country against country. He talked about ethnos versus ethnos, in ethnic groups. Certain subgroups within almost the same country will be fighting each other. And what we see now in the Middle East is the formation of that which Jesus was talked about, was talking about 2,000 years ago. We see that within Syria, within Iraq, within Iran, within Egypt, all of those little fractions are now fighting, trying to get their independence, tough, trying to get their control, trying to become stronger, and seize the moment and get as much as they can from this chaos.
Now, there's two tracks that we see that the Middle East is now moving on. One of them is the inner Islamic power struggle between mostly the Sunnis and the Shiites. And I bet most of you don't even understand the difference between the two. Hello? We are here about them killing each other. But and then the second one is the global Islamic power struggle. In other words, between the Muslims and the rest of the infidel world. Now, just by ways of education, that might explain to you why what is going on, for example, in Iraq and in Syria is not exactly what is going on in these countries. It's actually strings that are being pulled by other countries, motivated by the struggle between Sunnis and Shiites. You can clearly see on the screens that the flags of Iraq and Syria underneath. But above them, you can see Saudi on the left and Iran on the right, because that's the real struggle, the mother of Sunni Islam versus the mother of Shiite Islam.
No, out of nowhere, now we see the rise of an organization, of a terrorist organization, of a body that nobody was prepared for, it's called ISIS. And ISIS is not about countries. It's about creating its own Caliphate, its own sovereignty, spreading all the way from northern Syria, from the city of Aleppo, all the way towards the east into Iraq, going all the way down there. No longer called himself ISIS. We call them ISIS, but they changed their name to just the Islamic State. That's it. I.S. stood for the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq, or Iraq and Syria. But they have now updated their plans. They don't limit themselves only to those two countries. They actually want to go all around, including Europe and northern Africa. They want to create a huge Caliphate and to somehow reconstruct that which used to be in the heights of the time of the Muslims.
Now, a quick education of what's the difference between Sunni and Shia, just so you understand, because you hear it every day. I'll take 30 seconds. Shiites are those that you look on the right, that's how they dress. And Sunnis are those you see on the left. Eighty-five percent of the Muslim world is Sunni. It's what you see for on the left. And those on the right are comprising about 15 percent. These are the Shiites. What's the difference? The only difference between the two is who had the right to take over the Muslim world once Muhammad died. That's it. The Sunnis believe that the most capable person was supposed to do that, and that was the follower of Muhammad, a man, the one who was capable, the man called Abu Bakr, who became the first caliph of the Islamic nation. And the word Sunni means one who follows the tradition of the Prophet. So the Sunnis believed that the follower, the most capable person, he was supposed to be the next caliph. And that's why they're calling this up. Sunnis believing in the follower. However, the Shiites are people who believe that it is not, it has nothing to do with who is more capable. It has to do with the bloodline of Muhammad. And the ruling from Muhammad after his death had to be moved to his cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib. That's it. That was 30 seconds about the difference between the two. One believes that Abu Bakr, the other believes that Ali. Now, why do they call themselves Shiite? Shi'at Ali means the group that follows Ali. So, in a short, Shiite, that's it. So the Shiites believe that Ali was supposed to continue. The Sunnis believe that Abu Bakr was supposed to continue. And that's the only difference. And they've been killing each other for the last almost twelve hundred years, just because of that. Unbelievable. Don't even try to understand. No need to.
In fact, the Jerusalem Post, towards the end of 2013, reported that the Sunni-Shiite battles may be diverting Islamic rage from Israel, which was the case. The whole Muslim world started dealing with the inner struggles. In Iran, noticed that nobody is now hating Israel anymore. So, I mean, we need to do something about it. And therefore, Iran decided, "Okay, we know what to do. We need to adjust up. Operate some people." So, memory, the memory reports that Iran's new strategy of diversion is persuading the Sunni camp, the Sunni camp, because Iran is Shiite, but Iran knows one thing: we hate more than we hate the Sunnis, we hate Israel. So we need to persuade the Sunnis that Israel is the enemy, and all of us should focus on Israel rather than killing each other. So, persuading the Sunni camp to fight Israel and not Iran. And that we're looking, who is the Sunni that is closest around Israel that can cause some problems? With Hamas, the Hamas terrorist organization is a Sunni terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. Let's just give them the money, give them the resources, and let them do something. And of course, the rest is history. You all know that 50 days we've been engaging a war against Hamas. And if you think that Iran is ready for moving now towards the fight against ISIS, which actually destabilizing the whole world, now, September 15th, about five, six days ago, Iran rejects American requests for a cooperation against ISIS, which means they're still wanting everybody to focus on Israel, hate Israel, destroy Israel, don't start moving back to the other track of Sunni-Shiite struggle. And in order to achieve Iran's goal, it created a whole web of secret wars. Look at this. From Iran, from Tehran, they fly airplanes to Lebanon with weapons. And from Bandar Salam, from the lower part where they have a seaport, they are sending shipments of ammunition and rockets and all of that towards the Horn of Africa, towards Sudan and Eritrea and Somalia and Yemen, and they're feeding terrorist organizations there. And they are actually, from both sides, trying to come against Israel. In fact, that's not enough. They started sending ships all through the Persian Gulf into the Red Sea. And one of them, Israel has seized one of them. Just on one ship alone, we found 40 surface-to-surface rockets, 181 mortar shells, and 400,000 assault rifle rounds, just on one. You can imagine how many they sent there. That's their attempt to cause radical Islam to focus on Israel. And again, they found Hamas. And Hamas was a, like a, just the right thing in their hands. Hamas charter, I know if you can see that, calls that the day of judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. And then the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out, "Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him." And that's the time for the violin. It's a nice poetical language here, guys. You don't negotiate. You don't talk. You don't deal with an organization that calls for the destruction of the Jews because they are Jews. And we'll talk in a few seconds what happened there in Gaza, just so you understand.
But many of you understand that Ezekiel the Prophet, in chapter 36, described the revival of the Land of Israel from once being a barren wasteland to now becoming a fruitful and very, very amazing green pasture day place. In fact, the Bible says in Ezekiel 36:8, "And I speak to you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit for my people Israel, for they are about to come." In other words, in Ezekiel 36, the Bible says that God commanded the land to become fruitful, to be ready for the mass return of the Jews to the land. Then Ezekiel 37 described the actual survival of the remnant from the Holocaust and the physical return of the Jews back to the land. And now the whole world is standing and waiting to see the fulfillment of the next two chapters. If 36 talked about the land, and 37 talked about the people, 38 and 39 are chapters that are dealing with an amazing war that will shake and rock this world. And you all know it by the name Gog and Magog. The countries that Ezekiel mentions are countries that I am mentioning here now, this morning, with a modern name in white, and their biblical Ezekiel name in green underneath. So when we looked at Iran, underneath is Persia. When we are now looking at Turkey, I want you to also see Gomer and the house of Togarmah. It's important that you understand that Turkey was one of the biggest allies of Israel in the Middle East. What happened? Sad news is that about five, six years ago, the radical Islamic party won. And then they elected, of course, a very radical person to be Prime Minister, who now became the president of Turkey. And Turkey's playing a very dangerous game with the United States and with the whole world. Turkey actually lets the West think that it fights ISIS, but in reality, if it was not for Turkey's open door, no one could come and join ISIS. You know, people come to join ISIS from Europe, from America, from Canada, from so many places, and they first land in Turkey, and then they enter into Syria, recruited there, and they start fighting everywhere. Turkey has a wide open door. It's very interesting because when their president ran for president, he knew one thing: I'm not going to talk about divisionary Muslims. I will direct the hatred towards Israel, just like the Iranian did. And in his speech on August 3rd, 2014, just towards the end of the Gaza conflict, the Turkish Prime Minister said that the Israelis kill women so that they will not give birth to Palestinians, and they killed babies so they won't grow up, and they kill men so they can't defend their country. And Erdogan also said that the Israeli regime is following the footsteps of Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler by committing ethnic killing. Now, they don't, no matter they get all these lies, they believe it's the truth. They seek pictures, and if you, okay, that's reality. And that's exactly the fuel for that unbelievable growing anti-Semitism in Europe right now. But I want you to understand that that's the rhetoric of, of the president of Turkey. And then, of course, on August 5th, Turkey ruled out buying gas from Israel for now, although they really desperately needed it. And then just about nine days ago, on September 11th, when the whole world gathered to somehow put together a plan to fight ISIS, Turkey refuses the United States permission for combat missions against ISIS. In other words, the closest country, allied country to the area where ISIS exists is Turkey, and they will not let you use their air bases. They will not let you use their military. Their whole territory is completely shut off for American operations. That's how double game they play here. This is Gomer and the house of Togarmah. That's that area that will join Russia and Persia on its assault on Israel in the coming future.
What about Sudan? The Bible in Ezekiel mentioned Sudan is Ethiopia. Ethiopia of today is Cush in the Bible. Sudan today is Ethiopia in the Bible. I hope you understand that not everything that we have today is exactly the names of the biblical at, at times. But Sudan, you're probably going to ask yourself, why Sudan of all places? Well, I'm not talking about South Sudan, which is a Christian country, a newborn country. I'm talking about northern Sudan, the big one. And I don't know if you know that, but it was just a country that allowed Iran to send into it all the rockets and all the ammunition so it will go against Israel from Gaza. And Israel, in January 2009, look at this picture and see. There's only four times that I can reveal to you that we attacked in the depth of Sudan. January of 2009, February of 2009, October 12th, and July 14th. Not going to talk about the times that you shouldn't know. But I also, I just want you to understand, as far as the Sudanese concern, Israel attacked them, and they want to pay back. You understand that this is important. Israel sent aircraft to fly 1,200 miles all the way to the heart of Sudan to destroy the rockets and the weapons that you sent so they won't reach our place.
What about Russia? It's interesting, you know, think about the Russians in the Bible. It's Rosh, Meshech, Tubal. These are the countries. They're the names that Ezekiel gives to Russia at that time. Look at the picture I found online of Vladimir Putin that may cause you to understand. This is a picture of the Czars from the older history of Russia. But everybody thinks that Putin is on his way to almost declare himself as Czar. Is it not a democracy, really? It's not the guys, KGB. Come on, you can't be ex-KGB. It's like being half pregnant. Either you are or you're not. And he is a KGB, and he operates like one. And lately, he spotted that America is not that serious anymore. It's called in Latin, verbum non factum, which means words but no actions. And when the world smells that the superpower only speaks and does nothing, then people decide, "Okay, now I, if that's it, now I'm going to do whatever I want to do," knowing that only words will be spoken, but no actions will be taken. And so, once America has imposed sanctions, then what did Russia do? On August 7th, Russia bans food imports in retaliation for Western sanctions. No McDonald's. They lost weight since that ban was important. I just want you to know that it goes beyond that. They defy. It's a defiance not only of the West, but they go personal. Look at what the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia tweeted to millions of people. "Putin is sitting with a tiger. Obama is holding the poodle." Now, you may be laughing, but this is sort of a way for them to humiliate you. This is for them a defiance act of defiance. This is for them, "Look, we are people of action. We're, we're strong. They're not." Now, that picture was not there to to cause laughter. It was actually there to send a message. And the message was clear: we are strong, they are weak. We are about to do what we say. They will never do what they say. This is it. Now, that's how the world understands.
And now comes to the picture, Egypt. Now, Egypt, I didn't write anything in green, as you can see, because Egypt is Egypt in the Bible. However, Egypt is not mentioned in Ezekiel as one of the enemies that will come against Israel. It's not. In fact, if anything, Isaiah talks about the highway that will be between Israel and Egypt. In other words, these countries will be together. These countries will be allies. And this new gov, we don't want to hug him, we don't want to embrace him, less the Arabs will say that he collaborates with us. But he's the best thing that ever happened to Israel because he fights terrorism the same way we do. And just give you an example, Egypt kills 32 Hamas fighters in Sinai campaign. And that's a reporter. We almost get almost every week. They fight Hamas the same way we do. They see that evil. They see that that thing. And what Hamas tried to do to Israel in Operation Protective Edge is quite a remarkable thing. Take a look at it. This is the range of the rockets of the Hamas around Israel. Look at it. It covers almost the entire country of Israel. But I know that you guys are, you know, most people around the world are not good in geography. So I translated this to Californian language. All right, okay. So if Hamas is shooting rockets from Los Angeles, the range goes from Bakersfield, Bakersfield's in the north, to beyond San Diego in the south. Would you live under such a threat? Of course not. This is why Israel was on its way to deal with it. However, look what we found out when we started the whole operation. We found out that while we were thinking that they are only sending rockets and mortars, most of their activity was actually under the ground. I'm telling you, we should hire them for, for the subway of Tel Aviv, it'll be faster. Now, look what happens. More, more than 20 different tunnels were discovered from Gaza into the Israeli territory. By the way, tonight, Israel marks the beginning of the festival called Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets. The terrorists planned on this day. If that whole conflict would not have taken place in August and July, today would have been the bloodiest day in the history of Israel. They planned a massive attack, simultaneous attack on eight different Israeli settlements along the border, killing hundreds and kidnapping as many as they can for later on negotiating to release their prisoners. Saying, God for what happened in Gaza, and thank God we were able to go in, destroy all these tunnels, and paralyze them for now.
Now, take a look at the United States for a second, because now it's becoming a little bit personal for you. America. In Ezekiel chapter 38, verse 13, I believe is mentioned. I believe that Europe is mentioned, and I believe that America is mentioned. Europe is the merchants of Tarshish, and the young lions of Tarshish, those who came out of the merchants of Tarshish. America was founded by Europeans. Hello? And I believe it's mentioned there as those that are standing aside, looking at Israel being attacked, accusing the attackers, but knowing nothing. If you read Ezekiel and get to 38, you get to that verse, you understand. They say, but they don't do. The New York Times, in August, on August 4th, reported that Gaza wars trains relations between the United States and Israel. What happened is that America, once again, was on the wrong side. Take a look. We were fighting Hamas, and what America? And Hamas is funded by Qatar and Turkey. And look what happened. Your Secretary of State went all the way to Paris and invited Qatar and Turkey to broker a ceasefire. Those that sponsor Hamas, they expected them to be fair negotiators and mediators. Instead of inviting Israel and the Palestinians to sit, he invited these people. And he left out the Palestinians, the Jordanians, the Saudis. And I'm telling you, the Middle East has never been so outraged against America as it is right now. So much so, by the way, that take a look at the next one. August 25th, 2014. What is it? Three weeks ago. Arab nations strike in Libya and surprising us. In other words, the Egypt and the United Arab Emirates sent jet fighters to strike Libya, and they never even said a word to America. They're about to do it now. That tells you how low the trust is between America and its former allies. I would call it in the Middle East. My biggest concern is beyond that. I believe that the media is feeding you with so much lies. I call them the Midianites, and the media is feeding you with lies and deception. So unfortunately, the young people, they're the first one to be to be somehow brainwashed, but also completely disoriented. The Bible says in Hosea, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." It's the lack of knowledge, sometimes just the wrong information that you're being given, gives you the wrong thing. And it's interesting because why is it that you believe, I believe that America doesn't need the Middle East anymore? It's because America is becoming energy independent. I want you to know that in 2005, you imported 60% of of your consumed oil. 2013, you only imported 12%. And I will tell you that by 2015, America is expected to produce 10 million barrels a day. And by 2016, you will become the largest exporter of natural gas and oil in the world. In other words, you don't need any more a drop of oil, neither from Saudi nor from any other country. The Middle East, therefore, you don't care about them anymore. And when they feel that you don't care about them anymore, they don't like it. And when they don't like it, you feel it because they can pull some strings and send some interesting people to interesting places to do interesting things. That's how they are. That's the way they operate.
A recent poll highlights an age group that is less than supportive. Instead of standing with Israel, the poll finds that a third of all young Americans aged 18 to 29, Jews and none, in fact, blame Israel for the Gaza conflict. It's a recent book. That's what scares me the most. To see how your universities and your campuses become that breeding place for hatred toward Israel, and they brainwash your, your youth to to become so fanatics. No wonder, look how young the people that are recruiting to ISIS right now. They're 21, 22, 26. Bubbling is an old guy there. It's unbelievable. And it's all being done out in the open.
What about Europe? The merchants of Tarshish. The Guardian reported on August 7th, 2014, "Anti-Semitism is on the rise across Europe, worst times since the Nazis, experts say." That attacks go beyond Israel-Palestinian conflict, as hate crimes strike fear into Jewish communities. Look at the cover page of Newsweek from just about a few weeks ago. Exodus. It says, "Why Europe's Jews are fleeing once again." Guys, open your eyes. The Jews are being hated now all across the world more than ever before since the time of the Nazis in Germany. We are watching now the isolation of Israel that prepares the hearts and the ground for the coming assault on one hand from those that will attack, and for the non-active approach from those that will only talk and do nothing. Once again, we will be left. But the good thing is that God is there to protect His people.
An interesting thing is, probably asking yourself, where's Saudi Arabia in this whole thing? Well, I wanna tell you, Saudi is mentioned as Sheba and Dedan in the Bible. And they are one of those that talk, but they don't strike us. They don't actually come against us. In fact, December, it started in 2013, at the end of the year, that rumors started coming to foreign ears that Israel and Saudi Arabia started actually working together, collaborating. Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the director of Israel's Mossad, Tamir Pardo, sent their representatives to meeting in Vienna on November 24th to increase the two sides' cooperation in intelligence and sabotage operations against Iran's nuclear program. Remember, Iran is this mother of Shiite Islam. Saudi, the mother of Sunni Islam. Iran wants the destruction of Saudi more than he wants the destruction of Israel. Therefore, the Saudis will keep silent when the Israeli jets will fly above them on their way to do something in Iran. It's already a done deal. We already have that in writing. And if that's not enough, I want to probably conclude my geographical journey with you with lasting Syria. Guys, I've said that before, and I will say it again. Apart from our eyes that needs to be fixed on above, on, you know, the redemption and is drawing near, have your eyes fixed on Damascus. Why? Because I believe that as the whole world is preparing, it is going to be Damascus' destruction that will start the whole thing. This will be the igniting factor of that war that we see. Hold your eyes. Keep your eyes on what is going on there. You see, Damascus is by the wages and name, not only of a city, the name of a, in a way, a country there. Not the name. Syria is not in the Bible. The Bible has a Syria, but Syria as a modern name. And Damascus represents by its name, Syria now. And the destruction of the city and the country was predicted by Isaiah chapter 17, verse 1, saying, "The burden against Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap." That's Damascus. Take a look at it. It's a huge city. Ever since it was built more than 2,800 years ago, it has never been destroyed like Isaiah says. And remember, Ezekiel talked about all these things. But Isaiah chapter 46 says that in ancient times, He will tell us things that are not yet done. So the prophecy of Isaiah about the destruction of Damascus is a prophecy of things that are not yet done. It's going to come. It's around the corner. And in a very unexplained way, Damascus is the thing that everyone around us is fearing off. Russia doesn't want the West to go into Damascus. Iran warns the West from going into Damascus. ISIS wants to take over Damascus. The rebels want to take over Damascus. Everyone has some sort of an interest in that piece of land. And once that will get hit, once that will be destroyed, that is when all hell breaks loose. And we are at the brink of that event.
Now, I've said all of that, not that you will be scared or afraid. In Luke 21:28 and 31, first, when he talks about this, when Jesus talked to the disciples as they asked, "Master, what are the signs of the end of the days?" Then he said, "There will be famines and pestilences, and he gave all the earthquakes and all those things that are happening every day." Who would believe that a hurricane will will strike Cabo San Lucas? Who would believe that we're going to see more earthquakes actually per day than in any other time period in history? Who would believe that we will still fight Ebola and other other things like we do now? Guys, this is it. Jesus said, "Just the beginning." And then he said, "But when you see that fig tree comes back to life, that's when you know that the summer is when Israel is back in the land." When all of these things are going to come about, and when everybody wants to destroy thing, you know that summer is near. And then in verse 31, "When these things already happen, then you know that the kingdom of God is at hand." That is when we come back with Jesus to establish the millennial kingdom and rule and rule with Him for a thousand years. So, where are we? We are just in that tiny little sliver of time between our rapture and the beginning of that war that will bring about the Antichrist. I'm not a prophet. I actually started a nonprofit organization. I will not tell you that it's going to happen today or tomorrow. But I will tell you that if Paul wished it happened in his days, and he said, "The dead in Christ will rise, and then we that are alive will be kept out in the air," then how much more we that see all the signs of the end should be ready. So I would finish with Romans 13:11-14. "And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is near than when we first believed." Our salvation, the salvation of the body from this world, because we're all saved. Our redemption is there. The redemption of the body from this world. Romans 8 talks about the redemption of the body from the world. "And the night is far spent, the day is at hand. And therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day." I hope you're excited. We're the generation that see more things than any other generations in the time of Christ. There is so much responsibility that is on our shoulders. And we are those that God will expect for much more. And if we sit here and we're not yet sure if we're even saved, then I hope that this message frightens you. But if you sit here and if you know that you're saved, then I hope that this message actually gave you hope. This evil world is coming to an end for us. Not an end for the non-believer. They will have to go through the tribulation. We don't. Now, I'm a pre-trib. If you have plans to stay here, good for you. I don't.
Let us pray. Father, we thank You so much that You don't want Your children to be out there in the dark, not knowing what Your plans and Your Your heart is. Father, we thank You that You wish that no one will perish. Some count it slackness, some, some things that You're late, but Your long-suffering. You don't want anyone to perish, but all to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus. So, Father, we thank You that in these last days, as the whole world, even the non-believers, can see and feel that something big is coming, we want, Father, to thank You that You sent 26, 27 hundred years ago Your prophets to be obedient to the work and the words of the Holy Spirit so we can be ready. Get ready and wake up. Father, we thank You that You do not want us to be surprised, as it the day of the Lord will not come to us as a thief in the night. Father, we thank You for Your word, for Your promises, for the assurance of our salvation. We ask that You will somehow work in our hearts to read, arrange our priorities in our lives in these last days. Father, may You cause us to be on fire and serve You in ways that we never did before. We bless You. We praise You. And we ask all of this in the matchless and beautiful name of the Holy One of Israel, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lion of Judah, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God, Emmanuel, in the name that is above all names, in the name of Yeshua, Jesus. We pray. And all of God's people say, Amen.