Peter Tan-Chi - Be Ready, God Keeps His Word
Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I always say it is a great joy and privilege to worship with all of you today. Why do I say that? Because this week alone, I heard that one of our volunteers was arrested. Our brother is now charged with a very serious offense of trying to convert people. Simply because they were gathering together in a house church. Therefore, I'd like to take this time to pray for our worldwide movement, that God will protect our workers, that He will continue to make all of us faithful in sharing the gospel. Lord Jesus Christ, we just thank You for today, how we can worship You with joy and freedom.
At the same time, we think of our brother who was arrested simply because he was in a house with other believers, sharing the Bible. I pray for his release. I pray for his protection and the family. And I pray for all of us that we will not take our freedom nor our privilege for granted. We will always be grateful to You that we have the freedom to worship You, the freedom to study the Bible, and the freedom to share the Good News. And now I commit to You today's message. Speak to all of us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. This week, we will continue our series on the End Game. End game means the ultimate outcome or the final result. Let me give you an example. There are four quarters to any basketball game.
Let me ask you: which quarter is most important? The truth is this: while every quarter is very important, what is most important will be the last quarter, not just the last quarter, the last two minutes; not just the last two minutes, the last few seconds. Why? You can be winning in the third quarter and then suddenly you lose. Or vice versa: you can be losing in the fourth quarter, but in the last two minutes, you are able to recover, and last three seconds, you put in the winning shot. In this world of turmoil, in this world of uncertainties, it is so crucial we understand what is the end game based on God's perspective. Therefore, our topic today is very simple: Today, we will focus on Israel and end times.
Quick review: why do we study Bible prophecies? Do you recall last Sunday? I reminded all of us: we study Bible prophecies to grow in our faith. The object for our faith is not in feelings. It's not in circumstances. The object of our trust, our faith is none other than God and His word, the Bible. Therefore, the study of prophecies will help you validate the truthfulness, reliability, and accuracy of God's word. It will help us validate the very character of God. Is He truthful? Remember, Deuteronomy 7:9 tells us: God is faithful. He keeps His word. Today, we will study the book of Ezekiel. The book of Ezekiel was written in the time of Jeremiah, Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar; and Ezekiel was a priest. He was a prisoner, and he became a prophet because God told him, "You must comfort My people; you tell them about My judgment".
So Ezekiel prophesied about the ultimate fall of Jerusalem, the fall of Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the destruction of Tyre, what will happen to Egypt, but above all, what will happen to Israel and the future of Israel. Why is the study of Israel so central when it comes to end time prophecies? Because Israel is very special. Israel is the showcase of how faithful God is. Israel gives us evidence of God's amazing work and how prophecies are being fulfilled right before our eyes. What is happening to Israel is evidence-based. It is objective. It is actual, descriptions of actual land, descriptions of actual people. It is historical. Above all it is current: what's happening today, right before our eyes. You see the book of Ezekiel has the following statement, 126 times it repeats, "Thus says the Lord", "thus says the Lord", and it is repeated 64 times with the following phrase, "then you will know I am the Lord". God is saying, "I'm going to do certain things so that you will know I am the Lord".
That is why study of the book of Ezekiel is so important in our understanding of God's faithfulness. What is the title today? I'm going to talk about how God keeps His word. So the promise of restoration, Ezekiel 36, I want to highlight that. In Ezekiel 37, I want to highlight the promise of the re-establishment of Israel. In chapter 38, I want to highlight the promise of protection. In chapter 39. I want to highlight the promise of victory, the promise of triumph. You will notice, when these prophecies were given by Ezekiel, it was a hopeless situation when it came to the Jews. They were captives. There's no way these prophecies would be fulfilled. Babylon was all powerful. What else do you notice? It took a long, long time before these prophecies could be fulfilled. The supernatural thing is, today it is being fulfilled before our very eyes. This is a reminder that prophecies can take time, and just because it is not yet happening does not mean you and I should give up hope.
Let's begin. As you look at Ezekiel 36:5, Ezekiel talks about God's feeling when people will steal the land of Israel. Ezekiel is telling his audience, "God is angry when you steal His property". Let me read for you Ezekiel 36:5: God is saying, "I am angry when people will steal the land of Israel for themselves". In Genesis 15:18, this is what God tells Abraham: "On that day, the Lord made a covenant", the Lord made a promise, the Lord made an agreement. Remember, God is a promise keeper, what He says He will do. And what did he say? Notice: What is this land? This is God telling us, "That land, I have given to the Israelites". If you look at this map, the original land area promised by God to Israel is all of this color green area. It's around 300,000 square miles.
In the United Nations agreement with Israel, it became small. To show you the size of Israel compared to the Philippines, if this is the whole Luzon, Israel is only in Region III; and this is the area of Region III, more or less around 8,000 something square miles. You can drive through the entire country of Israel from north to south in nine hours, from east to west in one and a half hours. You can see how that land has become so small. God promised in the book of Ezekiel to restore the land. What does it mean? Notice what it says: Why is He going to restore the land of Israel? Why would he restore the productivity, the fertility and the people back to the land?
Notice Ezekiel 36:22-24: You know what God is saying? "Israel, it is not just because of you, but more importantly it's for My holy name". What is God saying? Notice the word, profane. The word, profane, means what? Something sacred, you will now make it dirty. Something holy, you will now make it dirty, no longer holy. Why? Because God is saying, "I have chosen you to be my priests". God is very clear: "You are to exemplify. You are to tell the world what kind of God I am, by the way you live. You've got to obey My commandments. You've got to teach them My commandments". But instead of obeying God's commandments, instead of living a life that's pleasing to God, what did the Jews do? They began to worship idols. They began to commit immorality. They began to be greedy. They did not take care of the poor. They became a very bad example for the entire nations surrounding them. It's called bad testimony.
I'm reminded of many of God's people today. God has chosen us to represent Him, to bring honor to Him, but oftentimes the way we live bring dishonor; we profane the name of God. And that's why God says in Ezekiel 36, "I'm going to do something; for what purpose? The nations will know I am the Lord. When I prove Myself holy among you in their sight". God is saying, "I'm going to do something". And what will happen to the land? God says, This is huge! This is amazing! This is supernatural, because God is saying, God is saying something supernatural will happen to the land. And then God is saying, what will happen? For you to fully appreciate the amazing prophecy, you must understand what Israel looked like many years ago. In the year 1867, when Mark Twain, people don't realize Mark Twain was a believer, he went to visit the Holy Land.
In 1867, he wrote, What Mark Twain was saying is Israel was nothing! It was completely barren! No people, no animals, no plants. When God says something, He will do it. Isaiah 27:6 says, Notice: He's referring to... in the last days, in the days to come... this is amazing. Ezekiel said exactly the same thing. Israel will be cultivated. The land will be like the garden of Eden. It will be productive. Many people don't realize today, Israel is the fruit capital of the world, especially of Europe! Israel produces basically the fruit, the vegetables, of the requirement of Europe. The export is over $13 billion. Israel is so advanced when it comes to agriculture, you know why? God gave them supernatural wisdom. They invented the drip technology. The drip technology is an amazing technology that uses water very, very efficiently.
In fact, when I bring people to the Holy Land, we pass through Egypt; the moment they enter Israel, they immediately see the difference. From something desolate, from something deserted, you will now see vegetables; you will see plants, you will see fruit trees. Amazing, because God promised to restore. Not only restore, God promised to re-establish the nations. Now, what does that mean to re-establish the nations? You have to understand. The re-establishment of Israel as a nation is humanly impossible. For 2,500 years, you have no country called Israel. When Judah fell, when Jerusalem fell in 586 B.C., the Babylonian empire took over; the Jewish nation ceased to exist. No country called Israel. The nation of Israel, Jerusalem, was being controlled by foreign power. After the Babylonian empire, you have what? You have the Medo-Persian empire, and then you have the Greek empire controlling Jerusalem. And then you have the Roman empire, different empires, and then you have the British empire, but there was no Israel as an independent nation. No land, no army, no language!
Now, why is this huge? Take it from me: when I visit different countries, especially when I go to the States, I will meet overseas Filipinos. And I am shocked: one generation later, the overseas Filipinos don't even speak Tagalog. They've forgotten their language! So understand what's going on. How can you re-establish a nation? No flag, no language, no army, humanly impossible! There has been no precedent in the history of the world to experience what Israel went through. How can a country that is non-existent for 2,500 years, boom! One day, it became a nation! Ezekiel gave this prophecy right after the fall of Jerusalem. After the deportation of Judah, no more Israel.
Ezekiel 37:1-6: Can you imagine that picture? Ezekiel was brought by God in the middle of a valley full of bones. You know why Ezekiel did not answer? Because Ezekiel knew that dead bones do not come back to life. Ezekiel knew also that nothing is impossible with God. So he does not know how to answer when God asks him, "Can these bones come to life again"? And he said, "Lord, You know". Why? Because Ezekiel knew that God is a God of impossible situations, provided it is His will. Can you imagine? This is something impossible! Dry bones! How can they come back to life? And God is saying I'm going to do something supernatural. You see when God says something, He will do it. God keeps His word, nothing is impossible! And that my friend was the situation of the Jewish people in the time of Ezekiel. Completely devastated by the power of Babylon. No more nation, no more temple. "Our hope is cut off. Our bones are dried up".
And then God said, notice the prophecy, I want to show you the significance of that prophecy. Not only will God bring the Jewish people back to their homeland, He's going to establish them as a nation. There will be a king. If you read the prophecy, we'll continue, eventually that king will be from the descendant of David, which is none other than Jesus! However, even that prophecy alone, that there will be one nation, blows my mind. What do I mean? You have to understand for hundreds of years, Israel has always been divided in two: the Northern kingdom and the Southern kingdom. What do I mean? You have to understand: in 930 B.C., after the reign of Solomon, the nation of Israel was divided into two parts: Southern kingdom, which is Judah, that's Jerusalem; and you have the Northern kingdom, which is the 10 tribes of Israel headed by Jeroboam, and the Southern kingdom headed by the son of Solomon, Rehoboam.
The Northern kingdom fell in 722 B.C.; it was conquered by Assyria. The Southern kingdom, Judah remained up to 586 B.C.. After that, it fell also. No more nation called Israel. But the Bible says, "In the end time, I'm (God) going to bring you back together". And that is exactly what you see today. Today, Israel is one united country, one government, not two. That is supernatural. In 1914, God gave the Jewish people a chance to go back to the Promised Land. It is called the Balfour Declaration. It's called the British Mandate. The British made a rule that you will now allow the Jewish people to go back to the Promised Land. But can I tell you something: the Jews did not take up the offer. Why?
They were so comfortable; they were enjoying their lives in Europe! They were prosperous, so why will they go back to the Promised Land? And therefore the Promised Land, the prophecy of the people returning to the Promised Land was not being fulfilled. What happened next? You have the worst event in history: it's called the Holocaust. In the Second World War, if you recall, Nazi Germany, Hitler decided to eradicate the Jewish race. You have the 6 million Jews slaughtered, the worst genocide in the history of humanity. How? How in the world did Israel become a nation? You will notice after the horrible massacre, the horrible Holocaust, in the Second World War where 6 million Jews were slaughtered, children, old people, young people, the world felt sorry. Slowly but surely, the Jews realized they need a homeland. Slowly but surely, they went back to the Promised Land.
And on May 14, 1948, in one day, in Tel-Aviv, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel as an independent nation. This is after 2,500 years. If God has fulfilled previous impossible prophecies, if God has fulfilled current prophecies, like the re-establishment of Israel, like Israel becoming the fruit center of the world, it takes a miracle to restore a language that has not been used for thousands of years. What's my point? Nothing is too difficult for the Lord. If something impossible can happen, how much more should your faith and your confidence be in God? I know there are times when God's promises seem impossible. I know there are times when you're in pain, when you cannot seem to reconcile God's promises and what's happening in your life. My only advice is this: keep trusting God, because God's promise is sure to come.
And the next thing you will notice is how God protected the nation of Israel. It's like a baby. How God nurtured it. Because God promised He will protect the nation. It will survive. It will prosper. It will flourish. Many people don't realize after Ben-Gurion declared Israel as a nation in May 14, 1948, Guess what happened? After that, my goodness! The Arab nations, in less than a few hours, they all surrounded the nation of Israel to destroy, annihilate, eliminate the Jewish people. Their motto was to eliminate the Jewish people. One country, a fledging nation, only 19,000 soldiers. Remember: Israel has no tanks, it has no heavy artillery. How are they going to defend? Well, God is always involved. When God says something, it will happen. And God promised, "You'll become a nation," and God protected the Jews in 1948 from annihilation. In 1967, the Arab nations decided to attack Israel. What is their main goal? Eradicate the Jews from Israel, from the Promised Land. Did they succeed?
I remember when I was younger, I told my classmates Israel will win. They will take over the entire Jerusalem. Why? Because God said so. You see, Jerusalem will be restored to the people of God. And lo and behold, in 1967, they took control of Jerusalem. What happened in 1973? Egypt led the attack. You have Syria, you have Jordan, you have the surrounding Arab nations. Miraculously, they not only survived, they won the battle! They took over the Golan Heights! They took over Mount Sinai! When God says something, He will do it. You see, God will not only defend. God promised victory. What do I mean? In Ezekiel 38, Ezekiel 38:1-6 tells us there will be a confederation of nations. Seven of them, to be exact, that will form an alliance to conquer and attack Israel.
So who are these countries? Who is Gog? Who is Magog? Who is Rosh? Who is Meshech? In Ezekiel 38, you will know that Gog, the pronoun used is a person. The word, Gog, is a title. It's like the czar, like the leader. He is called the prince of Magog. Magog is what Josephus described as the northern people, the Scythians who live in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, referring to modern Russia today. So you have the word, Rosh. Many scholars like to believe it's possible it's Russia. Meshech, possible it's Moscow. Tubal, they probably believe it's Turkey. You have Persia: Iran. Ethiopia, today, it is Libya, part of Ethiopia at that time controls Libya. And you have Put, Gomer, Beth-togarma.
Who are these countries? What are these countries? No need to be dogmatic. What is sure is this: they will form a confederation to be led by Russia. What is very prominent is the nation of Russia and Iran. And if you look at history today, for the first time, you have Russia aligning with Iran. Never has there been an alliance between Russia and Persia, but in the end times, God is saying there will be a confederation. That's why I really believe we are living in end times. God is saying, "You watch Israel. You watch the surrounding nations". That's why Israel is always headline, front page. Look at what's happening today. We have the alignment of Russia, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Libya. Eventually these nations will form an alliance and they will attack Israel.
You may ask, "Why will they attack Israel"? Well, believe it or not in Ezekiel 38:10 it says, Israel is described as the center of the world, but the surrounding nations will decide to attack Israel for what purpose? Notice, "to capture spoil, to seize plunder". Why? Today people don't realize Israel recently announced: they've discovered the largest gas reserve in its history in the last 10 years in the Middle East. It's called the Leviathan: 16 trillion cubic feet of gas off the coast of Haifa, 90 kilometers away. That is amazing supply of unlimited energy, and I believe these countries are interested in that. Why? Because Israel is constructing already pipelines to supply Europe. But you know God is very clear. God says, "I will not only protect. I'm going to grant them victory".
Let me read Ezekiel 38. Notice, "I will rain on him," not water. What will the rain be? Hailstones, fire, brimstone! Wow! The rain will not just be rain! It will be hailstones, fire, brimstone. God is saying, "I'm going to intervene supernaturally in that battle surrounding nations against outnumbered Israel; I'm going to intervene so that the whole world will know that I am God". Wow! What a prophecy. Look at Ezekiel 39, God repeats: In short, "You will be destroyed, you will be defeated". And God repeats in verse six, What does it mean, "I will send fire"? Supernatural intervention. Some people say, well, it can be missiles; it can be a nuclear war. Whatever it is, look at the end game.
Verse seven: Notice, the nations, the surrounding nations, the world "will know I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel". You know what God is saying? "I will keep My word. It shall be done". Complete victory of God and the complete victory of Israel. You will notice Ezekiel 39 is a summary of what has happened in chapter 36, 37, 38, 39. Notice what it says: Ezekiel tells us in that final war, when He brings about victory and then the people of Israel will now understand history, how God allowed them to be exiled and how God is now going to redeem His own name by bringing them back, by bringing them victory. And do you notice that phrase? What will happen? If you read the prophecy, Israel will become evangelized. Why? Because they will know the One who gave them the victory is not just God, it is none other than Jesus. Why do I say that?
Zechariah 12:9 and 10 tells us God is saying, "On that day, at the end time, I will destroy all the nations that have come up against Jerusalem, all of those nations that's going to fight Jerusalem". Let me explain. The Bible says when God brings about amazing victory, to be led by none other than Jesus, upon His second coming, upon His return, God says, Meaning God's grace will operate on the hearts of the Jewish people. "They will look on Me, whom they pierced", who is this, "they will look on Me whom they pierced"? Zechariah 12 described Jesus Christ Himself. "They will look on Me whom they pierced, and then they'll discover I am Jesus. And because they discover I am Jesus, what will happen to them? They will mourn, they will cry". You know why? Because for so many years they have been rejecting Jesus, and they finally realize He is the Messiah! "He came 2,000 years ago and we have rejected Him".
And that's why the outpouring of God's Spirit, the outpouring of a new heart is foretold in the book of Zechariah, in the book of Ezekiel. The end game is that you and I know God keeps His word, and this is what He said that's going to happen. The Lord will be King over all the earth. In that day, the Lord will be the only One. His name, the only One. In short, Jesus Christ will reign. My question to you is this: are you on the right side of history? What do I mean? Many years ago, my father told us during the Second World War; when Japan was controlling the Philippines, there were many Filipinos who turned into traitors. They decided to side with the Japanese. Do you know why? In their mind, they believe Japan has won, and Japan will be the master of the Philippines, without realizing at the end, Japan will lose. Which side are you on?
The Bible tells us there are only two sides: the side of God, the King of kings, Jesus Christ, and the side of this world. What concerns me is there are many Christians today who are playing both sides. You are compromising! You have never made a real decision to surrender the lordship of your life to the King of kings. For me and my family, we have decided to follow Jesus because I know it is the best decision I will ever make for my life and for my family. To me, Israel and end times is such a comforting message. Why? I'm reminded: in the midst of uncertainties, God will keep His word. God restored Israel, God can restore you. God re-established Israel, God can re-establish your losses. God protected Israel, God can protect you. And above all, God will bring victory, the ultimate triumph is God. God can bring ultimate victory in your life. Perhaps you have never surrendered your life to Jesus. I want you to recognize Jesus, not just as Savior, but as the coming King, the Lord of lords, and I want you to take Him seriously. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, I realize what You say, You will do. What You promise, You keep. Lord, You have promised to change our lives. You have promised to forgive our sins if we come to You. So today, Lord Jesus, I come to You. I ask You, forgive my sins. I claim Your promise: if we come to You, You will never reject us. If we come to You as our Lord and our Savior, You promise to forgive, You promise to change my heart. So today, Lord, I come to You. Give me new direction in life. Strengthen me to live for You. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen and amen.