Well we're living in exciting times If I couldn't if I had my choice to live at any time in history it would be today and So you might well I would want to live in the time of Jesus walking on earth. That would be exciting yeah, if you were in Bethlehem or Jerusalem or the Galilee, but Maybe I would have been there. I'm Jewish. You're you're not I You would have been somewhere way out in the Netherlands and probably not even heard of him at that time. And through the technology that we have today, through TV and the internet, I mean there's nothing basically that happens in the world that we don't hear about in just seconds or minutes. And we're living, I believe, unquestionably in my mind, and I hope I establish it tonight, in the time of the return of Jesus Christ. And you can determine at the end of this message if I have succeeded in that or not, but if we are living in the time of the return of Jesus Christ, certainly as I mentioned this morning, numbers of times, the stage is being set for that seven-year tribulation period, that seven-year drama, if you want to refer to it in that vernacular, prior to the coming of our Lord to earth Destroy Satan and the enemies of God and set up his kingdom on earth, so we're living in very very exciting times Israel is the key now. We're going to be in Ezekiel 37 if you want to turn there, but a number of years ago 1899 Mark Twain writing in Harper's magazine Wrote this about the Jewish people He said all things are mortal, but the Jew and he said this If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but 1% of the human race. Now it's less today. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finances, medicine, and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world in all the ages and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream stuff and passed away. The Greek and the Roman followed. Made a vast noise, they are gone. Other people have sprung up and held their torch high, for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. Mark Twain closes this way. All things are mortal but the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What, Twain asks, is the secret of his immortality? Well, as believers in the word of God, we clearly know the answer to that, God himself. Outside of Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there is no rhyme or reason for the nation of Israel for the Jewish people. They are the center of God's plan for the world. Starting from Genesis 12 to literally the end of the Bible, probably some 85% of that material is given over to the nation of Israel. We must understand what God is doing with Israel, with the Jewish people, if we're going to understand what God is doing, and especially in the last days, which I believe we're living in. As we draw our attention to the dry bones prophecy of Ezekiel 37, I wanna put it into a little bit of context for you. There have been three captivities that Israel has been in. You're familiar with them. The first one was a captivity that they brought about in a sense themselves in this way. You remember the story. Famine was in the land. Joseph was in Egypt. He beckoned them to come to Egypt and stay there. And they did, and they willingly went down to Egypt. Ultimately, they became captive to the pharaohs And out of all of that, the Jewish people got a holiday called Passover. The next two captivities are different. I refer to them as dispersion captivities. So Egypt was not a dispersion captivity. They were not removed, evicted, forcibly taken out of their land into captivity. But in 586 BC, they were dispersed out of the land by the Babylonians into Babylonian captivity, one nation captivity. It is from that captivity that Ezekiel is writing. But his focus in Ezekiel 37, and even prior to chapter 37, is not the return from Babylon, although certainly that is in implied or inferred from it. His focus is on the return from that third captivity, the second dispersion captivity that took place in 70 A.D. When the Romans came in, destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed the sanctuary, the temple, destroyed the nation, and the Jewish people were scattered worldwide. And Ezekiel's focus here in chapter 37 actually all the way to the end of the book, is on the return from worldwide captivity. Now we can pick it up very clearly, for example, even in the previous chapter, which talks about the same captivity return, dispersion captivity. For example, in verse 24 of chapter 36, for I will take you, the Jewish people, from among the heathen, gather you out of all countries and Will bring you into your own land not one country not one nation Not just Babylonian captivity in return. I will bring you out of all of the countries of the world This is end time stuff. This is the return from worldwide captivity This is the occurrence of 70 AD and so it's talking about the return ultimately in the last days from all of the countries of the world back to the land and becoming a nation among the nations again. That's the context of chapter 37 and onward. Well, look what it says, starting in verse one. The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. and caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. God takes Ezekiel and he shows him this probably a rather large valley. And strewn throughout this valley are bones. They're not just dry bones, they're very dry bones. Now, initially this certainly would have communicated something to Ezekiel. Bones. If you see a pile of bones somewhere, that tells you that at one point there was life, but now there is cessation of life. Bones have natural moisture in them, and for bones to be dry means they have had to been there for a certain period of time to become dry. To be very dry, they had to be there for an extended period of time. Now, we don't have to speculate, we don't have to guess about what these bones represent. Because down in verse 11, we are told that these bones represent the entire house of Israel. The whole house of Israel. Now, if you know your biblical history, Under the rule of Solomon, Israel was divided into two countries, two nations, two kingdoms. The northern kingdom called Israel, the 10 tribes, and the southern kingdom called Judah. And the northern kingdom went into captivity around 722 B.C. into Assyria, the Assyrians came in. But many in the north made their way south and resided in the area of Judah. And so about 135, 40 years, whatever years later, the Babylonians came into the southern kingdom, there was no northern kingdom at this point, and took the nation into captivity. So we date the first dispersion captivity from 586 BC because that's when the whole house of Israel the entire nation of Israel. Both the northern and the southern kingdom are in dispersion captivity. And so, these bones represent the nation of Israel. No longer is the nation in captivity. And them being very dry, this is not the relatively brief 70 years of Babylonian captivity, but the extended, almost 1,900 years of worldwide captivity that is in view here. So he sees these bones. They're very dry. The nation is no longer alive. In verse three, God asks Ezekiel a question. Look at verse three. said unto me, Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live? Now that has to be a little bit intimidating. I remember when I was younger, it was a few years ago, I know that. And in school, and perhaps because I wasn't prepared enough, excuse me, I did not like when the teacher called on me to answer a question. Remember that? Were you ever put in that position? OK, Johnny or Mark, what's the answer to this question? Well, right away, I didn't do my homework, and I was between a rock and a hard place. And so as I've taught through the years, I don't think I ever call on an individual to put them on the spot. I may throw out a blanket question to the whole group. But think of Ezekiel. I mean, here is the ultimate teacher. You know, the teacher is the know-it-all, right? Well, God is certainly one who knows it all. He's omniscient, he knows everything. Son of man, can these bones live? Now, I have to believe that Ezekiel had enough context and understanding, even though the bones are not identified until verse 11, to understand what this represents, what God is asking. He had prophesied, Ezekiel had, and other prophets prior to him, about the Jewish people going into Babylonian captivity, coming out of Babylonian captivity, ultimately going into worldwide captivity, coming out of worldwide captivity. He was not ignorant of that. Moses wrote about it. So I wondered to myself, why Why would God ask this question of Ezekiel? Son of man, can these bones live? Can Israel be reconstituted as a nation again among the nations of the world? Well, I think there are two, at least two passages that give insight into perhaps why this question was asked of Ezekiel. The first is found in the latter part of verse 11. The earlier part of verse 11, then he said unto me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. But look at the latter part of this verse. Behold, they say, our bones are dried, our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts. There was a segment within the nation of Israel who were saying we're through, God is done with us. God is so displeased with us that we are cut off from the favor of God and no longer in the plan of God. Now, the second passage that I want us to look at was written by a contemporary of Ezekiel. And that's why it's important. Now hold your place here, we'll be coming back here shortly. But the book of Jeremiah, chapter 33. Jeremiah was a contemporary He ministered in Jerusalem at the same time roughly as Ezekiel Ezekiel was in Babylonian captivity and in chapter 33 We're going to pick it up in verse 19 The Word of the Lord came on to Jeremiah saying Thus saith the Lord If you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season, then may also my covenant be broken with David, my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers. If you can destroy day and night, the sun and the moon, If you can break the covenant, we go to bed, we know the sun's gonna set, we wake up in the morning, there's none of us here, I think, that ever questions, is the sun gonna rise tomorrow morning? We set our clocks to it. God has made a covenant with night and day. And if you want to break his covenant with David, the Davidic covenant, if you wanna destroy his plan for ultimately the Messiah coming, and God's plan for Israel, you must destroy night and day. Now, that's difficult. Now, this is not the first time that God has said this to Jeremiah. Turn back to chapter 31. Right after that great passage on the new covenant that will come, verses 31 through 34, behold the days I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. But look at verse 35. Thus saith the Lord, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night which divides the sea when the waves thereof roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. God has established in the universe and for us the sun and the moon and the stars, those which give us light by day and light by night even with the moon and the stars. God has established those in the heavens. Verse 36. If those ordinances, the sun, the moon, the stars, if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. You want to destroy the Jewish people? You want to destroy the nation of Israel? Destroy the sun and the moon and the stars. I used to work with a man who, prior to being in this Jewish ministry I worked with, was the pastor of a rather large Baptist church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Not that Baptist church. It was a smaller Baptist. It still had about 1,000 members, people attended. And this pastor, he had a great love for Israel and the Jewish people. And he decided that he was going to have a guest speaker in. He happened to be coming from the West Coast, and he knew the man. And it was going to be on prophecy. And so he told his secretary that this individual is coming and he will be sending in the message titles and when they arrive, you don't have to bother me with it, just do the normal advertising in the newspaper and wherever they would advertise that the conference is going to happen. Well, this pastor was good friends with a local rabbi, and they had met at different times, and the pastor had shared with him his love for Israel and the Jewish people. And a couple of days before the Sunday when the conference would start, Thursday, Friday morning, I don't know which day it was, the rabbi calls into the church and asks to speak to the pastor. So the receptionist puts The rabbi threw on the phone to the pastor, and the rabbi says, pastor, I thought you loved the Jewish people. And the pastor said, I do, I've communicated that to you. I thought you loved the nation of Israel, too. And this pastor was very quizzical of this, said, what is this all about? I do, I've told you that, rabbi. So then the rabbi said, well, why then? Have you invited a speaker in this Sunday morning to address the subject, how we can destroy the Jewish people in the nation of Israel? And the pastor said, Rabbi, I don't know what this is about. This is the first I've heard of the message title. I thought I could trust the man. Let me make a suggestion. Why don't you come Sunday morning and join us? And if he says anything against what I've shared with you about my love for Israel and the Jewish people, I will get up afterwards and I will straighten it out and rebuke him publicly. The rabbi says, I will be there. So right at the dot of 11, and it's an auditorium that seats over 1,000 people. It's not a small building. The rabbi and the president of the synagogue who had accompanied him come in the main aisle, come straight down and sit in the front row. Everybody knew right away they weren't Baptists. Excuse me, you know. Well, the text of this man was the text that I just read from Jeremiah 31. And basically the message was you want to destroy Israel, you want to destroy the Jewish people, What you have to do is first destroy heaven and earth, destroy the universe, and then you can destroy the Jewish people in Israel. Well, this Jewish rabbi who would come into this Baptist church was now Pentecostal. He was so excited. He was just, I don't know if he was jumping up and down, but he was just, and he commented to the pastor, you need more speakers like that in your church. You can't destroy the Jewish people. You have to destroy the universe first. And if you think, oh, I can't destroy heaven and earth. I can't destroy the sun, the moon, and the stars. Well, God gives you a second option. And we find the second option in verse 37. Thus saith the Lord, if heaven above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done. Sayeth the Lord. So here's option number two. Get a tape measure. Make it at least 100 foot. A big one. And measure the dimensions of the universe. Now that's a thankless task because scientists today tell us the universe is continuously expanding. Let alone measuring the depths of the earth. You can't do that. God is saying there's no way under his heaven that you can destroy Israel and the Jewish people. And so God tells Jeremiah again for the second time in chapter 33, down in verse 20, as we read earlier, if you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, that there should not be day and night in their season, then you can break my covenant with David. the Davidic covenant, the promise of the coming Messiah and ultimately ruling on the throne of David in Jerusalem. That's the millennial kingdom. Only then can you destroy my promise to David. And there will be Levites, the priests, ministers at that time. Verse 22, as the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured. So will I multiply the seed of David my servant, the Levites that minister unto me. Since you can't do what I've offered you if you want to destroy Israel and the Jewish people, I'm gonna multiply them. I'm going to increase them. But then in verse 23, furthermore, moreover, additionally, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, so now God says to Jeremiah, Considerest thou not what this people have spoken? Jeremiah, there are people out there that are saying things, don't even consider what they are teaching. Now, generally speaking, it is commendable to be Bereans, right? You know, they received the word of God with all readiness of mind, but what did they do? They went home daily and searched the scriptures to see if those things be so. So generally, it's okay to listen to what somebody says, but research it, search it out, make sure that it's biblically based. Jeremiah, what these people have spoken, I don't even want you to entertain the idea. I don't even want you to consider the possibility. I don't want you to bring what they're teaching into your mind to think about it for one moment. Jeremiah, don't even consider what these people are saying. What are they saying? The two families which the Lord has chosen, He didn't even cast them off. Two families, the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom, Israel and Judah, went into captivity, first a Syrian captivity for the Northern nation, Israel, 10 tribes, then the Southern Kingdom, that's the captivity of all. People were saying, it mirrors exactly what we saw in Ezekiel 37, 11. God is through with the Jew. God has cut them off. God no longer has a place for the Jew in God's plan. People, we're teaching this at this time. Jeremiah, don't even open your mind to it at all. Jeremiah, don't consider what they're saying for one moment. Fully 85% or more of Christendom teach this exact same thing today. But God is through with the Jew. It's covenant theology. It's taught by the Catholic Church. It's taught by the Presbyterians. It's taught by the Lutherans. It's taught by most cults. Fully 85% of Christendom is taught by the Episcopalians. God is through the Jew. We have a new Israel. The church has replaced Israel. You'll hear it from John Piper. I would say you'll hear it from R.C. Sproul. He knows better now. He died a few years ago. You'll hear it all over the radio, Christian radio. And my admonition to you is really God's admonition to Jeremiah In essence then, I would submit to you, it's God's admonition to you, when people say that God is through with the Jew, that God is through with Israel, that God has a new Israel, that the church has replaced Israel in the plan of God, don't consider that possibility for one moment. It's actually anti-Semitic, theological anti-Semitism. And what's the root cause of it? Look down here at the end of verse 24. Thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. There have been and there are today Jewish people who despise the nation of Israel. That may be surprising to you, but there is. It may not be the majority of them, but there are many who do. Nothing has changed 2,500 years or so. Don't even consider it. They have despised my people as anti-Semitism. And covenant theology, replacement theology, which comes under, almost always under the umbrella of covenant theology, replacement theology, that says that Israel has been replaced by the church, is anti-Semitic. It is theological anti-Semitism. Don't even begin to entertain that Being true if you hear it on your Christian radio station Turn it off So what do we have in the following verse? The third time God tells Jeremiah Thus saith the Lord if my covenant be not with day and night And if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David, my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for I will cause their captivity to return and have mercy on them. When God says something once, we should say amen. When God says something twice, in three brief chapters, relatively speaking, When God says something twice, it's like, you know, I know you're hard-headed and it's difficult to get through at times, so I'm repeating this for you. When God says it a third time, we need to sit up and pay attention. Don't even consider it. God's plan for Israel is solid. God will never renege on it. He will never abdicate his promises that he gave to Israel. It will come to pass. So go back to Ezekiel 37. God asked Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live? Perhaps he asked this of Ezekiel. Ezekiel knew the false teaching. Ezekiel knew what people were saying. Perhaps God was saying, Ezekiel, are you going to believe the popular teaching of the day, or are you going to believe my word? We are confronted with the same type of thing in our time. There's a lot of popular teaching out there. There's a lot of charlatans out there who will misuse the word of God So we need to be Bereans and stick to the word of God. Now, look how Ezekiel answered this question. Now, if I would have been the teacher, I would not have been pleased. I'll admit that to you. But look how Ezekiel answered the question, verse three. And I answered, teacher, you know, Lord, thou knowest, you have all the answers, so you tell me. Oh my, God is a lot more merciful than I am. Okay, you flunk, go see the principal or whatever. Lord, you tell me, you answer the question that you just asked me. You know the answer, Lord, so you tell me. Didn't face God in the least, verse four. So again, he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Okay, Ezekiel. So what I want you to do, I want you to prophesy. I want you to prophesy upon these bones and say, thus saith the Lord, hear the word of the Lord. Verse five, thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and I'll bring flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord. So Ezekiel prophesied and prophesied to these bones that God's gonna put flesh and sinews upon them and skin cover them and Ezekiel prophesied. So what did Ezekiel do? Exactly what you and I would have done. So I prophesied. He didn't say let's go get a bite to eat and talk about this God. So I prophesied. As I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. Now, this is, by the way, where that old Negro spiritual came from, dem bones. Pastor Bill will sing this for you later. Why did I put him on the spot? There goes my offering, but anyway. That's where dem bones came from, the knee bone connected to the thigh bone, or maybe the opposite direction, the ankle bone connected to the shin bone, shin bone connected to the knee bone, knee bone connected to the thigh bone, that's about all I, praise the Lord, whatever. My wife cringes whenever I try to sing. Prophesy. So I prophesied as I was command as I prophesied there was a noise be able to shake in and the buoyant bones came together bone to his bone and when I beheld and verse 8 is such a key verse And when I beheld, woe, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, these bones again representing the nation of Israel, and Ezekiel seeing the nation coming alive again as a nation among the nations of the world. And as I prophesied, upon these bones and the skin and the sinews and the flesh covered them, but there was no breath in them. Remember when God created Adam out of dirt? That's all we are, I should put myself in this too, we're just dirt. That's why we have to clean every day. But anyway, God formed Adam out of dirt and what did he do? He breathed life into Adam. Adam lived initially two ways. He lived physically, but he also lived spiritually. Here, we have the nation of Israel coming together as a nation again among the nations of the world in the end times. But in unbelief, there's no spiritual life in them. The Bible teaches that the nation of Israel at the end of the tribulation period, Zechariah chapter 12, 10, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. They shall look upon Jesus. Zechariah 13 in verse nine, the remnant, two thirds will be cut off, but the third that come through that fire, they shall call upon the name of the Lord and shall be saved. Isaiah chapter 66 says, a nation will be born in a day. It's not 1948 in May, that's at the end of the tribulation period. That's the context of Isaiah 66. They will have spiritual life as a nation at the end of the tribulation period. But here, prior to that, they will be a nation among the nations of the world again, in unbelief. In 1948, May of 1948, verse eight was fulfilled. And Israel became a nation among the nations of the world again, but in unbelief. There are other scriptures we could look at. Zephaniah chapter two says, gather together you undesired before the day of the Lord comes upon you. Well, gather together you undesired, that's the nation of Israel. Even today they're undesired because they're unregenerate. There are saved people in Israel, saved Jews. But it's a nation, they're not. And the day of the Lord starts at the beginning of the tribulation period. Gather together prior to the tribulation period. This is what it's speaking of here. that Israel will reconstitute as a nation among the nations of the world in unbelief from worldwide captivity. Now, go with me back to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah predates Ezekiel by some 140, 150 years somewhere in that neighborhood. In chapter 11, He is addressing the coming kingdom, the messianic kingdom, when Jesus will rule and reign on planet Earth on the throne of David. And it starts out in verse one of chapter 11. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Branch is a messianic term. It's a designation of the coming Messiah. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse. Jesse is the father of David. David is the progenitor of the Messiah. A branch shall grow out of his roots. Now, when this individual comes, the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, verse two. And when he rules, verse four, he will rule with righteousness. He will judge the poor and reprove with equity for the beak of the earth. Verse five, righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, faithfulness the girdle of his reins. When the Messiah reigns, he will be faithful and just and righteous and merciful and true in his rule. Now right away that tells me he's neither Democrat or Republican. He's an independent. In the time that he rules, look at verse six, The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the kid. The calf and the young lion, the fatling together, the little chair shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed. The young one shall lie down together. The lion shall eat straw, like the ox. The carnivorous animals will no longer be. Only herbivores, only vegetarians. If you like a steak, get it now. In verse eight, the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, a poisonous serpent. The weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den, another poisonous snake. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Do the waters cover the sea 50%, 90%, 95%, 100%? The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover it. What a day that will be. Everybody will know that Jesus is Lord in the millennial kingdom. That's the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth that's being talked about here. Now look at verse 10. And in that day, in what day? the day of the reign of the Messiah, the day of the reign of Jesus Christ. In that day, there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. Now wait a second, back in verse one, we were told that there's gonna be a branch of Jesse. But in the day of the kingdom, there'll be a root of Jesse. So the Messiah is not only the branch of Jesse, he is the root of Jesse. Because the Messiah is the God-man. As God, he is the source, he's the root of Jesse. As man, he's the offspring of Jesse. Jesus is the God-man, fully God, fully man. And in the kingdom, in the millennial kingdom, all will recognize that. All will understand that this Jesus is more than just a man. He is very God himself. Now, we recognize that, but the world doesn't. But they will in the kingdom in that day. And he shall be an ensign, a sign of the people. That's for the Jewish people. and to it Gentiles shall seek. That's you, if you're not Jewish. Aren't you glad you're included here? And his rest shall be glorious, impressive. The best way I can explain this, we have one daughter. She was about four or five, I don't remember how old she was. She was sitting on a stool in our, family room in our home, we were living in California at the time. And I had gotten one of those bottles of liquid soap, I'm not sure what it, and you have that little plastic ring that you take out and you dip it in and you blow bubbles. You have all these bubbles come out. Well, Deborah had never seen this before. She had the most beautiful eyes. I mean, she just dwarfed all the beautiful eyes of history with her beautiful eyes as a child. Now, I'm not biased or anything, so I'm just telling you as it is. And so I blew these bubbles, and they were all sizes. And they were floating. And her eyes lit up like a 200-watt light bulb. I mean, she was so excited. I can only imagine what went through her mind. Balloons. I mean, there's dozens of them, this size and this size. My daddy is so fantastic. I mean, out of nothing. Here we're sitting bored out of our gourd, and he just makes balloons come out of nothing. She couldn't wait to get off of that stool to grab these to play with. And as the want of the sin nature is, even in a young child, what balloon or what soap bubble do you think she went for? The smallest one? No, the biggest one she could get. And she reached up to get that and to play with it. And when she grasped it, you know what happened? Poof. It's gone. And that 200 watt glow in her eyes turned to an oven light bulb, 20 watt. She was so disappointed. Remember when Solomon, who tasted of all the good things the world has to offer, supposedly good, well, and power and sexual pleasures. When he summarized it, you know what he said at the end of his life? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. You know how you could paraphrase that? Soap bubbles. Soap bubbles. Everything is a soap bubble. It looks alluring. It looks attractive. It looks full of hope and joy and excitement. but when you reach out and grab it, it's empty. And the older you live, the more you realize there's a lot of soap bubbles in this world. And I know I was young once, even Bill was young once, pastor, and we chased after soap bubbles. You probably chased after soap bubbles, but they're empty. And the best thing that I can tell all of us, but especially the young people, don't waste your life chasing empty promises, soap bubbles. His rest, Jesus's rest is impressive, is glorious. It's not a soap bubble. And he's come that Jew and Gentile might enter into his rest. He goes on and says this And she'll come to pass in that day what day the day of the kingdom the day of the reign of Jesus on the earth And she'll come to pass in that day now catch this that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time To recover the remnant of his people which shall be left the second time dispersion captivity First time was Babylon, one nation. It will come to pass in the day of the kingdom that God will set his hand again to recover the remnant of his people, the Jewish people, from Assyria, Egypt, Patrus, Kush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, from the islands of the sea. He shall set up an ensign for the nations, shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth from worldwide captivity. When Israel is brought back as a nation among the nations of the world in unbelief, it is in that time period that God will bring back the Jewish people from worldwide captivity and establish his kingdom on planet Earth. And in 1948, May, Ezekiel 37, 8 was fulfilled. And they started with a few hundred thousand, and now there are more Jewish people in Israel than any other place in the world. And Jewish people are going back to Israel, as God said they will. And ultimately, God will come back and bring them all that remain back into the land. But when Israel becomes a nation among the nations of the world again, 1948, the end time prophetic clock started. And it is in that time period that Jesus will return and set up his kingdom on planet Earth. Now we are some 73, almost 74 years down the road from that. We are living, I believe, unquestionably in the time of the return of Jesus Christ. And all the shadows of the tribulation around us, the stages being set, I believe we are getting very, very close. Now his return to earth is preceded seven years earlier, seven years plus earlier. when he comes for the church in the air and removes us prior to that seven year tribulation period. It took, if I remember correctly, some 92 years for the Jewish people to leave Babylon as recorded in scripture and go back to the land the first time. Now, I'm not saying it'll be 92 years returning from worldwide captivity. But right now, we're some 74, 75 years down the road. I am totally convinced we are living in the time of the return of Jesus Christ. And everything around us, I talked about some of that this morning, is shouting, I'm coming. Get ready. But before I arrive, the world's going to go through a seven-year tribulation period. We are living in the time, I believe, of the return of Jesus Christ. He can come to the church tonight, he can come tomorrow, he can come next week, come next month, whenever it might be. But following that, the most horrific time in world history breaks out. at seven years of tribulation, where I believe some 99% plus of humanity dies. Pray that the word of God flows freely, that we get the gospel out in whatever time we have left. If you don't know the Lord, you need to come to him and find rest in him. See, his rest is glorious. You'll find the peace of God that passeth all understanding through Jesus Christ. Let's pray and then pass through. Father, we are so grateful, so thankful. The word of God is a roadmap. Lord, it not only tells us what you've done in the past, what you're doing in the present, but what lies ahead for the world and for us as believers. And Lord, I am convinced with the totality of my being that the prophetic clock, the end time prophetic clock started in 1948. And Lord, you're coming and I believe it's soon. So Lord, help us to be about your business. Help us to be ready by being saved, but then serving you in whatever time we have left. So Lord, speak to each one of us. Bring conviction as needed, and we'll give you the praise, we'll give you the glory, we'll give you the honor, Jesus. We pray in your name. If you would like to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ, you may contact us at the church website, gospelbaptistchurch.com, or you can go to Facebook and type in Gospel Baptist Church, Bonita Springs, Florida. Also, you could call the church office at 239-947-1285. Thank you, and God bless.