Amen. He's in the midst. Ezekiel chapter 38. Ezekiel chapter 38 this evening. You'd be much in prayer for the message tonight. This is another prophetic message. This is another another one of those events that's yet to take place, that will take place. And I know it will because God said it will. Right? So it's going to happen. So, but I've just been gleaning and learning and listening to a Good good minister of the gospel and that preaches through the Bible verse by verse and I've been learning some things I Feel like I've been learning some things from him that man. I just like I want to share this with other people So that's what we're going to do tonight. We'll share it with you and and we'll look through some things I don't know how how far we'll get but I know is um, I I think it was when Josh was on vacation, maybe last year, I'd done Ezekiel chapter 37, and Ezekiel chapter 37, the Valley of Dry Bones, where Israel became a nation again, and that was in 1948, when Israel became a nation again. So that was kind of like the... As far as Ezekiel goes, that was the last prophetic event to take place, and it's already taking place. Israel is in the land again. They became a nation again in 1948. And in Ezekiel 38, now we're going to deal with the next prophetic event to take place, unless the rapture's in there somewhere, because nobody really knows. The Bible says no man know the day or the hour when the Son of Man comes. So the rapture may be before this battle, and get excited, all right? The rapture might take place while this battle's going on. Get excited because we're going home, right? So I don't, there's not really a, I was like, I was asking Josh back when I was, back when I preached 37, I was talking to Josh, I was like, so when does the rapture take place in all this? He's like, I don't know. Me neither. I don't know either. So, but I think the next two prophetic events that take place is the rapture of the church, which I think could happen anytime. I don't know of anything that's holding him back from taking us home. And I think the next one would be this battle here as described in Ezekiel chapter 38, 39. And like I said, I'm not sure. And I don't think the Bible is specific on when the rapture will take place as far as when this battle takes place as well. This chapter 38 and 39, I'm not doing two chapters tonight, but this invasion of Israel is an invasion on Israel by predominantly five nations. And Ezekiel 38 tells us who those nations are as we read through. This battle does not describe a past battle, because it's not really happened. There's never been a battle like this one before, including Israel and these five nations. So this is not a past battle. It's something that's going to happen in the future. Some people want to say this is Armageddon. And just in what I'm learning, I don't believe it's Armageddon, because during Armageddon, you'll have all the plagues of the earth going on. And a lot of other things, the sun will be as red as blood, I believe what the Bible says. That's not mentioned here. And you would think that if something like that was going on, Ezekiel would be mentioned in this prophecy. So I don't believe that this is the battle of Armageddon. None of those plagues are mentioned here in Ezekiel 38 or 39, so I think this is just a battle that's going to happen between Israel and these five nations that we'll discuss here tonight. If you keep tabs of the news and the things going on in the world, or in Israel specifically, you'll probably get even more excited when you start reading some of this. But what's going on in Israel right now is not this battle. It's not. But boy, it's getting close. You can almost tell that it's getting close. And if that battle is getting close, and I don't know when the rapture is, before, during the battle, or before the battle, I don't think the rapture's, I think this battle will either be going on or hadn't started yet when we're raptured. I think when the end of the battle, it talks about the 144,000, that'll be saved in tribulation. I don't believe that, I believe we'll be raptured before the tribulation. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 9 says that we were not appointed to wrath, and what tribulation is, is the wrath of God. And no Christian has ever suffered the wrath of God, and tribulation is the wrath of God. And he says we're not appointed unto wrath, but we're appointed to the salvation of Jesus Christ, is what 1 Thessalonians 5, 9. So that leads me to believe We're not going through the tribulation as a church. Praise the Lord. Amen. That's just my belief, and I know there's arguments on every side. And like I believe I've said before, I won't divide with you. I won't argue with you. I won't fuss with you. If you believe it's post-trib, pre-trib, mid-trib, the rapture, in the middle of tribulation, after the tribulation, before the tribulation. I'm not going to argue with you about it. You believe what you believe. And when God comes and takes us home, one of us will be right. All right? And that's all that matters. As long as we're going home, that's all that matters. Like I said before, I'm not on the planning committee. I'm just on the welcoming committee. When he comes, come even so come quickly Lord right I'm just ready for him to come back but this just gets me excited a little bit so we'll go through this I don't think I don't know if this will be a shouting hooting and hollering and spitting I might spit just because I'm out of breath but But this probably won't be, it'll probably be more slow down and try to take it a little bit at a time and try to explain what I see here or what I've learned here in this scripture. And there's probably a lot of stuff here that I've missed. There's a lot to it, and you might see something that I didn't see. Share it with me, please. I'd like to know, because there's things in here. There's a lot to chapter 38 and 39. I'm not even getting, I don't plan on going into 39 tonight. But anyway, it says in the Word, verse 1, chapter 38. Ezekiel 38 verse 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tobol, and prophesy against them. And thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshach and Tobol. First of all, We read from the King James Version Bible here. If you look at the New King James Version, there is another name mentioned there that's Rosh, Rosh Meshach and Tubal. Now Rosh is the ancient name for Russia. So we see Russia here. The land of Magog were the descendants of Noah through Japheth. They descended the ancient Scythians who lived north of the Black Sea. And if you do your research and your history, I'm not going to go through all that, but if you do your research, those that live up next to the Black Sea is Russia. So this is Russia. Meshech and Tobol were the ancient names for Moscow and Tobolsk. Yeah, that's a Russian name. But Rosh is the ancient name for Russia. So we see here Russia is the big, the big... big enemy here. They're the ones that are going to be heading up this battle. They're the ones going to be leading this battle. They're the ones that kind of refers to it here. Maybe we'll get to it. And if I miss it when I start reading through here, I'm going to go ahead and say it now just in case I do miss it. It talks about how they are protecting all these other countries that are involved in this. So Russia does have the ability to protect those in that country now. When Ezekiel's writing this, he doesn't know about the things that we know about. He doesn't know about rocket launchers and missiles. So Ezekiel does his best to describe what he's seeing, just with the limited knowledge of warheads and things like that we have today. So I think he does a pretty good job. It also, Russia in those days was probably not really that big of a threat in Ezekiel's day. So even a lot of these things that Ezekiel's hearing and he's prophesying, he's probably thinking, what do you mean by that? How, how in the world is that country up there gonna be a big deal? But now we see it today, it is a big deal, you know? We have Russia here as the first country. Gog is, a lot of people would say that that's the prince of the area, the one that's in charge of all that over there, which maybe you could. You could probably put a name to it today if that's what it is, but there's another interesting take on that, that you think about when you go, well, just for lack of knowledge here on my part, like when you read about the story of Tyre, there's like a fallen angel that's kind of the head over that region. And this is another take on this, that Gog is another one of those fallen angels that's kind of like the head of that region. And because it talks about in Revelation, at the end it says that he'll raise up Gog and Magog to fight in the battle. So he thinks that there's a thought and a theory out there, and like I'm saying, it's a theory that Gog is just one of the other fallen angels that's just kind of over that area. That's like his dominion, and he's over that area, which I'm not saying that is exactly what it is. There's not really a clear, definite answer to what Gog is. Some people, like I said, said it's the prince of this area. Which, who could that be? I mean, could we say that's Vladimir Putin? I don't know. Could we say that? I don't know. I don't know who it is, and it's not really evident or clear. There's a lot of things that aren't evident to us and clear to us, exactly what it's meant. But really, like I said, I'm not planning this thing out. God is, so let him do the planning. OK? So he says, Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshach," which if you read some other translations, it's the prince of Rosh, Meshach, and Tabal. And I will turn thee back and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth and all thine armies, horses, horsemen, all them that are clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with the bucklers and the shields, all of them, handling swords. So he's talking about hooks in the jaw, and that's interesting to me, because it's almost like God's saying that he's going to, that Russia's going to come down, but then they're going to be going back. It kind of looks like that, that maybe they're going to be turned back, and then God's going to draw them back in. I don't know. It's weird. It's a weird phrasing there. Not exactly sure what that means, but I started thinking about, what are the hooks in the jaws? What is it that Russia would want? from Israel. Well, I was looking and reading into that. Russia is, their economy is 60% oil and natural gas. That's their economy. They need those oils and natural gas to help their economy in Russia. Well, they've just recently found the largest oil and natural gas reserves in Israel. They've got one of them called Leviathan. It's in the Mediterranean Sea, and it is the largest gas field in the world. And Israel owns it. Where there's gas, there's oil. And they also discovered another gas field south of Leviathan that Israel owns. I'm not saying this is the hooks and the jaws, but it's going to be very evident here when we continue reading that Russia's doing all this to gain the things that Israel has. To take their spoil, I believe, as the Bible calls it. To take over the things that Israel has. That's the allure of fighting against Israel. Because if you defeat Israel, you take over all their technologies. Boy, we saw how that Iron Dome works, don't we? Everybody wants that now. Israel's behind all that. You know, I heard this. Do you know the iPhone is an Israel invention? Did you know that? I had no idea. Israel's smart. I mean, they're very intelligent people. I mean, you think that's just this little big sliver of a country over there, but I'm telling you, you don't want to mess with Israel. But I think the main reason why you don't want to mess with Israel is because that's God's people. Some people just call it the Iron Dome. I just picture Michael just hovering over them, blocking everything. The Archangel Michael, God's protecting them. But anyway, so the hooks in the jaw, could that be it? Could it be the oil fields, the gas fields? They also found a major oil reserve deep underneath the Golan Mountains in the northern part of Israel. These could be the hooks that are drawing Israel again to fight against Israel. But you see what's going on today. You see all the battles that are happening now. It wouldn't take much for Russia to get involved. Right, if they see, if Russia sees China and say, I think we'll get involved in this. They don't want China to have all that technology. Russia will be like, no, that's theirs. We're going to claim that. They call dibs on it, so to speak. So I can see Russia, very easy, Russia could get back into this. The hooks and the jaws, the things that the technology that Russia has, I believe, maybe that's not what the hooks and the jaws is. I don't know why they would turn back, but you almost look at it now that Russia's saying, I'm not getting involved. I'm not getting involved. Right? They're standing back saying, we're not getting involved with this. We've got this battle with Ukraine. We're not getting involved. God throw them hooks in the jaws. and drag them down there and make them get involved, maybe. I mean, you never know. Like I said, this is a lot of speculation, but a lot of, there's truth in the word, but with us, with man, there's a lot of speculation of what exactly is he's referring to. But you see these things happening today. You see things that could lead to this, very easily lead to this today. He says, I will bring forth and all that army, horses and horsemen. And that's interesting because Russia's probably got one of the biggest cavalry armies in the world. They have to fight through the mountains and over there. So there is a lot of Russian military that still are horseback. They do ride in on horses. They do ride horses because they've got to fight through the mountains. You can't really get a tank through all them hilly mountains in a lot of them places. So they have to take horses. So there is horses. They are one of the largest cavalry top armies in the world. Let's see. Next was Persia, verse 5. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya will be with them, all of them with shield and helmet. So here we got some more nations that are going to be involved. Persia, even up until I believe World War II, Iran was called Persia. This is Persia, or Iran. It's Persia. Even up to World War II, they were referred to as Persia. Who's throwing bombs at Israel? It was Iran that was throwing bombs at Israel. Ain't none of them, I think only one of them hit down, but how many did they send, about 300? But so Iran, here we see Iran. This is the reason why I say this is relevant to the world that we live in today. It's very relevant to what this world is today. Persia, Ethiopia. Now, Ethiopia, these are all the ancient names. Ethiopia is really like Sudan, the Sudan region. Libya is Libya still. Gomer, next verse, Gomer and all his bands, the house of Togermar of the north quarters and all his bands and many people with them. So Gomer is Turkey. That Togermar is like some of the other Baltic states around there. They're not like big nations or big nations that they would call out as far as, but there's gonna be several, several little Baltic states, and they're going to come together with Turkey, Iran, Russia, Sudan, Libya, and they're all going to go towards Israel to fight. Now, all these nations, for the first time in world history, are all aligned together. They've never, now you could say maybe two of them may have been aligned here or there, but now all five of them are all aligned together. And their main focus probably is going against Israel. So, continue reading here. So they'll band together, be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. So there it is, where it talks about Russia was gonna be a guard unto all these nations. See, they had the ability to protect all these nations. Russia does have that technology. A lot of those missiles that Iran shot over Israel came from Russia. Russia's supplying them with the warheads that they need. So just think about this. That's what I'm saying. We're on the verge. We literally seem like we're on the verge of maybe this battle happening soon, and very soon. So be prepared, because we're going home, right? Right, amen? So, after many days thou shalt be visited, verse 8, after many days thou shalt be visited in the latter days. Now when he talks about latter days, those are the days right before Jesus' second coming. Not the rapture, the second coming. The latter days talks about the second coming when Jesus comes and lays waste all these people that deny Him, the Antichrist and all that. And we're not getting into all that. It says, in the latter day, thou shalt come into the land that brought back from the sword and is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste. Now, always waste, yeah. Israel was waste for how many years? 2,000 years. It was just desolate. Israel wasn't in the land. It was a desolate. It was a wasteland. There was nobody there. So that's what he's talking about, that Israel, he said, you're going to come against the land of waste. Always been waste, been always waste. Israel, you're going to come against them. But it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely, all of them. They shall dwell safely, all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm. Thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land. Thou and all thy bands and many people." So he's talking about how great of an army is coming against Israel. He's talking about how it's like a storm coming in. It's like a cloud that covers the whole land. This is how numerous the army that's going to try to come and defeat Israel. All these people that have banded together, all this great army, it's going to look like, have you ever seen a storm coming in? I mean, it's like that. They're coming, and they're coming quickly, and they're coming fast. He said, you're going to come like that. And he says, thus saith the Lord God, it shall also come to pass that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought. Now this evil thought, this evil plan, and this is all speculation too, this plan, what is this evil plan? I believe all the Arab, all the Arabic nations over there, all those that hate Israel, want to destroy Israel, I believe they're coming up with a plan saying, hey, we're not going to be able to defeat Israel by ourselves, so hey, let's get Russia involved. Hey, Russia, will you come down here and kill all these Israelites, these Jews for us? Will you come down here and kill all them? And then Russia's going to say, well, what's in it for us? We'll give you all the spoil. You can have everything. We just want the Jews eliminated. That's all we want. And that's the evil plan I think they've got. Said, Russia, you come help. You can have all their technology. You can have all their oil fields. You can have all these things. But guess what? All we want you to do is destroy every single one of them. Because Ishmael don't want to deal with Isaac no more. You know what I mean, so to speak. But we'll see something interesting here in a minute about Ishmael too. In verse 11, and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. Now this would have been interesting too to Ezekiel because in those days every village had walls. I mean Israel was a walled Village every village of Israel had walls around it and that's how they protected themselves But if you go to Israel today, I believe maybe Jerusalem might be the only one that has a wall around it anymore There are no walls over there anymore. So as he could be like what but as he could be thinking I What do you mean an unwalled village? Everybody has to have walls or we'll be destroyed. So Ezekiel's probably thinking, what are you saying, Lord? What are you talking about? So now there's, but like I said, you go there today, there's probably only one wall and that's around Jerusalem, I believe it is. So unwalled villages. I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely. Israel, them that rest and they dwell safely. I just think that's just, That's just amazing to me. They dwell safely. You know why they dwell safely? Because the Lord's protecting them. The Lord's protecting them. All of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates. And he said, verse 12, to take a spool and to take a prey, to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations which have gotten cattle and goods that dwell in the midst of the land." So here he's saying, here's your plan. You're going to try to take everything they have. You're going to try to take it all. And verse 13, here we go, Sheba and Dedan And the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spool? Hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey, to carry away silver and gold, and to take away cattle and goods, to take away a great spoil? Now Sheba and Dedan is Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia is the home of Mecca, which is like the Islam's holiest city. So this is like, these are the descendants of Ishmael. And Sheba and Dedan, or Saudi Arabia, it's like they're sitting back saying, we're not gonna attack, we're not attacking, we're just questioning here, what are you doing? You're just going down there to take their spoil. It's almost, it's kind of interesting to think that Ishmael, or Saudi Arabia, is not going to jump into this battle, because they hate, it goes back to Ishmael and Isaac, what we talked about, what Josh talked about this morning, and Ishmael and Isaac, the wild man and the righteous man. It's almost like, why would they not get involved here? It's almost like God's, doing some family reconciliation here, some kind of supernatural, like, okay, we're still both the sons of Abraham. So maybe, I'm not going to get involved with this. They're not going to defend Israel, but they're not going to attack Israel either. But it continues on to the merchants of Tarsus, and there's a lot of, this has never been nailed down to who Tarsus is, but a lot of people believe Tarsus could be Spain, and a lot of people believe Tarsus could be England. Now if Tarsus is England, The young lions mentioned there would be America. Some people ask, is America in prophecy? A lot of people say, I don't know. Is America in prophecy? Well, if Tarsus is England, who would be the young lion that comes out of England? That would be America. America in prophecy. If that is who that is. And we think about even today, if you tune into the news, or before October 7th when they attacked Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel were all working on a peace treaty together. They wanted Saudi Arabia and Israel to get together and be friends and not be enemies no more. They were working on this. They might be still working on it today, That battle just kind of put a wrench in it for a little while, probably put a stop to it for a little while, because now Israel's fighting against Hamas. But so Israel, Saudi Arabia, and America are working on this deal to try to get the relations, have good relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Even today, that's happening today. So is that why Sheba and Dedan here, Saudi Arabia, are saying, Not attacking, they're just questioning, what are you doing? Why are you just trying to take everything they have? That's all you're doing? and they're not actually getting involved in the battle, maybe that's it. Maybe it's because they've signed a peace agreement with Israel and the United States to say they're going to stay away. Maybe, I don't know. So if it is England, maybe we see America in prophecy right here as the young lions because we did come out of England. So the verse, keep on going here. Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, thus saith the Lord God, in that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it. And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts." Now if you go straight up north from Israel, look on the map, go straight up north, Moscow's north, straight up north of Israel, Moscow is. So he's saying you're coming from the north parts, you're coming from a place out of the north parts. thou and many people with thee, all them riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army. And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land. It shall be in the latter days, latter days, before the second coming of Jesus, before Jesus comes back the second time, before he steps foot on this earth again, the latter days. This is when Jesus, this is it. He says, it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me when I shall be sanctified in thee, O God, before their eyes. Interesting now, this my land, God's not saying this is Israel's land no more. He's not saying you're coming against Israel's land. You're not coming against Jacob's land, or Abraham's land, or Isaac's land. He's saying you're coming against my land. There's a big difference there, right? Big difference when you come in. He says this, he says, you're going to come up against my land that the heathen, that's the Gentiles, that's us, Gentiles, we're the heathen, that the heathen may know when I shall be sanctified in thee. So here he's now, as God's saying, I'm going to reveal myself to the heathen. I'm going to reveal myself to them through this. They're going to know that I am God when they come against my land and my people. They're going to know. He said, thus saith the Lord God, art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servant, the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days, many years that I would bring thee against them. and it shall come to pass at the same time when God shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face." Now, you think about God as a loving God. And now, right here, He goes from a loving God to an angry God. He says, my fury will come up in my face. I don't think you want to stare into the face of an angry God. And this is what their gog is going to come up against the face of an angry God. His fury shall come up in His face. For in my jealousy and in my fire of my wrath have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel, a great earthquake. There'll be a great earthquake. so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground." So now you think about that wall around Jerusalem, it's going to fall to the ground. was through this earthquake. There's a great fault line that goes through Jerusalem. It's one of the biggest fault lines in the world. It goes right underneath Jerusalem. And it's great. It's like God's designed all this to show his strength and his power. And one of these days, that fault line's going to start shaking. So much that the walls of Jerusalem will probably come down. It might be when the Dome of the Rock's destroyed. Could be right here. and the Dome of the Rock is destroyed, and they never want to build their third temple then. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God. Every man's sword shall be against his brother." This is interesting, he says, every man's sword will be against his brother. You think about, it was at Jehoshaphat, and there's a battle In the Old Testament, forgive me, because I don't know exactly where it is, but I know it was Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was a godly king. But he said there was a battle that happened where all of a sudden, they all didn't know what was going on. They turned on each other and killed each other. That's what he says is going to go on here. He's going to confuse them, and they're going to start killing one another with a sword, because they're going to be confused. He says, every man's sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood, and I will rain upon him and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself and sanctify myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord. I think about this overflowing rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. There's a lot of people that want to speculate that this is some kind of nuclear event, that some nuclear explosion and it should kill all these people, but I don't see that because How would people say that that was God? I mean, he said, they will know that I am the Lord. No, what they're going to say if it's some kind of nuclear event is, man, look what Israel did. They're powerful. Look how powerful they are. Got all them nuclear weapons over there. I don't think this is a nuclear event. those overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone in the north of Israel around the Golan Heights. And this is just from hearsay. This is from the person that I listened to that's been to Israel several times. He went up to the north, up towards the Golan Heights of Israel in the north, right around where this battle would take place. He said, there's a dormant volcano park up there. They're cone volcanoes, they say. They're dormant. They've been dormant for a thousand years. They're not, I mean, it's a volcano park. There's a bunch of volcanoes here that have not erupted in over a thousand years. He says they're up there and If you think about this cone volcano, if you look it up, I didn't do all this research, just to be honest. But if you can look it up, it says that they shoot up into the sky and they freeze into the sky. But when they come back down, they come down with so much force, they call them like bombs. They call them bombs. And they come down with such great force that it causes it to start raining and hail. hail, rain. He said that inside the middle of what's coming down out of the cone volcano, in the middle of that would be fire and brimstone. He says these things will be shooting out, just going, shooting straight up into the sky and coming back down. He thinks, and I'm not saying this is a revelation that God's given me, but he thinks maybe that earthquake, that great earthquake, It'll wake those volcanoes up. He says even if you read into these cone volcanoes, this is his research, not mine, so don't shoot me, okay? Don't shoot the messenger. This is just me relaying the messages that I've received. He said that the gases that come from these cone volcanoes, he says anybody that's within a certain mile radius of these things, it would take their breath and kill them, the gases from these volcanoes. So if that were to happen, man, look what God did. no denying it there. And I'm not, maybe that's not how it happens. Because, hey, he can throw down fire and brimstone from heaven, can't he? Solomon Gamora can tell you about that. He can just shoot it down from heaven. It don't have to be a volcano. He can do it however he wants to. Like I said, I'm not on the planning committee. I'm not in God's war room. I'm not the one deciding how he does it. He already knows how he's going to do it. And when he does it, everybody's going to say, Look what God did. Look what God did. And then I believe you'll see, you keep on reading in 39, I'm not reading in 39, but then you'll see where everybody sees what God did. And then there's gonna be an antichrist that comes on the scene and says, hey, we need to gather everybody together so this stuff don't happen again. You're gonna stop God. but the Antichrist is going to do some miraculous things, and he's going to portray himself to be like Jesus, and he's going to die and be resurrected. Satan's going to resurrect him more than likely. He's going to do some miraculous things, and he's going to come on the scene and say, hey everybody, let's gather together so God doesn't do something like this again. I'm in good with God, one of the lies that he'll probably tell, and we can make sure this don't happen again. And then that's right before Jesus comes back. Right? It's exciting, isn't it? I'm excited. I don't know if you are, but I'm excited about it. Because you know why I'm excited? Because I serve the God that's going to be wowing everybody in the end. Hey, if you're a Christian and you've been saved, me and you might have a front row seat in heaven just watching this stuff happen. I don't know what's gonna happen, I don't know. We might be too busy with the marriage supper of the Lamb to worry about what's going on down here. It doesn't matter. I don't care. As long as I'm not here, as long as I'm not there, as long as I'm in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ, as long as I'm with Him, as long as I'm safe in His arms, as long as I'm in that beautiful heaven that Wiley sang about, as long as I'm there. So as we close tonight, I want you to think about that. And I was going to tell this little joke here. Just lighten the mood. I'm going to close now. This is everybody's favorite part of the service, right? It's Josh's favorite part because he does it four or five times. but it's yours because it's the end, right? I told Josh that this morning. I told him that joke this morning. Anyway, I'd heard it from another preacher. It wasn't even mine. But I'll use it. Everything I learned tonight I'll use from another preacher. So be much, as we get a song ready tonight, think about that, how close that we may be to the rapture of the church. What happens to those that aren't Christians when the rapture happens? You ever heard of that movie, Left Behind? We're going to be left behind. You don't want to be one of those left behind. Listen, there's a lot of people out there saying, what's the evidence that this stuff's real? Well, Ezekiel was wrote, I don't know how long ago, but it was before 1948. And Ezekiel 37 tells us that Israel's going to become a country again. I mean, when Ezekiel was written, I'm guessing Israel was still a country at the time, or they were in, no, they were in bondage. But they weren't, I mean, nobody knew, right, that in 1948, that Israel's going to become a country again. And I've not went into all of it, but I've heard some preachers say that if you read Daniel, you can count down the days. I've not done the math, because I'm not a mathematician. But I've heard some of the math behind it. And it's the 360-day calendar and all this, blah, yada, yada. But they can count down to the day May 14, 1948. And that is the day Israel became a nation again. through the book of Daniel, through reading and understanding the book of Daniel. So I mean, look, is it coincidence? Daniel, over thousands of years ago, more than 19, more than, what was it, 1948, more than 75 years ago, Daniel lived, right? And he said, back in the book of Daniel, he said, it's gonna be so and so, so and so days, and so and so and so days, and all this, and you do all the math, and guess what? It added up to May 14th, 1948. And guess what happened on May 14th, 1948? They became a nation again. It's a coincidence that Daniel Back there in the lion's den, remember Daniel, when he got thrown in the lion's den over there? Remember him? Remember his friends? Remember his friends, the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that got thrown into the fiery furnace? Remember them? Remember those guys? That was way back when. Daniel said it was going to happen in that many days, and guess what? In that many days exactly, Israel would become a nation again. And guess what? It's not coincidence. God knows what he's doing. And he knows when these things are going to take place. We may not know the day or the hour, but this is why. This is why we talk about these things. And so we'll be ready when the day or the hour does come. Right? They say, well, they've been saying that for years. He's coming back. You know why they've been saying that for years? Because the Bible tells us to be ready. Because you know not the day or the hour when the Son of Man comes. I would hate to be sitting back saying, I've been saying that for years. There he goes. Right? Don't miss the boat, so to speak. Don't miss the flight. Don't miss it, because it's coming. One of these days, it's going to come. One of these days, your ticket's going to be called, and you better be ready. If you're not ready, there's a tribulation waiting for you, in my opinion. I think we're out of here before the tribulation. But for those who don't accept Jesus before the tribulation, there's a tribulation, the wrath of God to go through. And they're going to go through it, the wrath of God. We done saw what he could do with a volcano, maybe. We done saw what he could do. Do we really want to go through that? Do we really want to go through that tribulation? If you don't have to, I'm going to go ahead and recommend you miss it if you can. I want to. You say, well, you just believe the raptures before the tribulation because you don't want to go through that. Yeah, I don't want to go through that. Do you? But I do believe the Word of God, and I do believe 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 9, that we are not appointed to wrath, but we are appointed to the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is going to save us from the tribulation to come. I'm telling you, we're going to be the bride of Christ. And I'm telling you, I'm closing four times like Josh, but I'm closing. But listen. I take after a good man, right? I take after, listen, the bride of Christ. I've said it, this guy said it this way and I'll never forget it. He said this, do you think Jesus wants to beat up his bride before he brings them up for the marriage? I'm telling you, that'd be ridiculous. Me and April got married, she'd come to the wedding the next day with a big black eye. I know it wouldn't happen, I know. She comes to the wedding with a big black eye and she says, what happened? Jason beat me up last night. She wouldn't come to the wedding, first of all. I probably wouldn't be there either. I'd probably be buried somewhere. But anyway, I'm just saying, does Jesus really want to beat up his bride right before he brings him to the wedding? I just don't see that. Can't see it. Because whoever's here during the tribulation is going to feel the tribulation. They're going to feel it. And it's not going to be fun. It's not going to be pleasant. But I think we're going to go to the Lord, a pure bride before the Lord. Hey, what Josh talked about this morning, his favorite thing about going to heaven is he don't have to fight the flesh no more. We'll be clean and pure because all of our sins will be wiped away. pure and clean before the Lord at the marriage supper of the Lamb. I'm telling you, I'm ready to go, and I'm ready for Him to come back. And if the signs of what's going on in Israel is any indication of what may be coming, could it be Ezekiel 38's right on the doorstep? So guess what? Be ready. Hey, I'm going to tell you right now, chapter 37 of Ezekiel got it right. So I have no doubt 38's gonna get it right, and 39's gonna get it right, no doubt. All right, be ready, as we sing.