The Jewish Final Solution to the World's Problem - The Woes of the Jews Worldwide, Part III

[0:00] Open the scriptures with me, please, to the book of the Revelation, chapter 12. While we are getting there, I want to explain a little bit to you regarding our message for this morning, because it is interrupting, just briefly, the thoughts we have been bringing regarding the persecution of the Jew.

[0:23] And actually, this is, in Revelation 12, it's certainly tied in, but we've been giving you a kind of an historical overview of Jewish persecution down through the centuries.

[0:36] And in our last session, you'll recall, we concluded with the taking of Masada. And that was a very telling point in the history of Israel.

[0:49] You'll recall that just three years earlier, in 70 A.D., the entire city of Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple and everything in it.

[1:00] And the Roman army absolutely decimated everything. The loss of lives of Jewish people numbered in the hundreds of thousands. It was a time of carnage and slaughter, the likes of which we cannot even begin to imagine.

[1:16] And that was a result of the Jewish rebellion against the authority of Rome. And she simply sent her Tenth Legion in with the intent of teaching the rest of the world a lesson and using Jerusalem as an example.

[1:37] And it was very, very effective for all practical purposes. Rome ruled the entire world at that time. And the Jew was on the receiving end of a great deal of payback, if you will, from the Romans.

[1:53] So we will see how that resulted in an additional worldwide scattering of the Jew, which actually had already taken place in some measure.

[2:04] Because as far back as A.D. 30 to 33, you'll recall that when the day of Pentecost occurred, as recorded in Acts chapter 2, the Jews had already dispersed in some fashion because they came there to keep the Feast of Pentecost from various locations all over the world.

[2:28] And chapter 2 recounts some of the sources of the Mediterranean area where these people came from to keep the Feast of Passover. So the Jew has in many regards always been, well, I wouldn't say always, but almost always has been a scattered people throughout the world.

[2:48] They remain scattered in some measure today, although there is undeniably a resurgence, a regathering of Jews coming to the homeland, back to Israel.

[3:00] And all of this, of course, is a subject of prophecy as well. So I don't want to discontinue the historical persecution of the Jew because it will culminate in what we're seeing here in Revelation chapter 12 as we get into it this morning.

[3:24] And this persecution is going to intensify. It's going to center primarily but not exclusively in the continent of Europe, more so there than any place else.

[3:37] But it will be rampant as well in Russia. Great deal of Jewish persecution there. Anybody who saw the film Fiddler on the Roof knows something a little bit about that because it was based upon some pretty solid history of things that took place in Russia around the turn of the century.

[3:56] That's the turn of the 20th century. So all of this is together. And the reason that we are going to the Revelation now, which we'll treat in more detail later, is simply because I want you to get the connection of the worldwide persecution of the Jew.

[4:16] Why the world as a whole is so down on the Jew. But even more, I want you to understand and gain an appreciation for the machinations of the adversary who is behind so much of this.

[4:35] There is a human hatred for the Jew. And it is based upon ignorance and arrogance. And we will see how that plays out.

[4:46] But it does not begin to compare with the satanic hatred of the Jew. Because that is the driving machine behind anti-Semitism more than anything else.

[5:04] Of course, man contributes to it, as I've said, through ignorance and arrogance. But the chief promulgator of persecution against the Jew, with the hope and intent of eliminating the Jew, is none other than his infernal majesty, Satan himself.

[5:24] And the reason is quite simple. When you understand the theme of the Bible, being that of the redemption of a lost humanity, bringing back to God, through the finished work of Jesus Christ, and how that God is committed to his plan and program with the Jew, the seed of Abraham, being the central focus of how he's going to do that.

[5:54] And, of course, personality-wise, it is centered in one whom the Jew does not now even accept as their Messiah.

[6:05] And that is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, whom they will come to accept. But right now, they remain a nation and a people in unbelief.

[6:18] They are in a rejection mode regarding the person of Christ. So, I want you to follow along as we read from Revelation chapter 12, and then we'll offer some brief commentary on it.

[6:32] But I promise you, we will be treating it in more detail later on. And as I mentioned, I want to get it on the record now, so you can see the connection and satanic involvement in this whole mix of the cosmic conflict that continues to take place even as we speak.

[6:52] Revelation chapter 12, follow along in whatever translation you have. And if you are not in the habit of bringing your Bible, I wish you would do that because you're certainly going to need it more and more in the future as we get into these passages.

[7:08] You will want a copy of the Scriptures in front of you. We do have a limited number of copies available here. They're on the shelf outside the coat rack. If anybody needs one, feel free to avail yourself of it.

[7:20] But follow along if you would, please. In this passage, it's very, very telling. Chapter 12. And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

[7:44] Now, let me just stop here and say this. Already being into this with just one verse, it is apparent that there are a great many symbols involved.

[7:57] This represents a description of what John is saying he saw. And as you read through the Revelation, you will see that John, the inspired writer of the Revelation, cycles back and forth between earth and heaven.

[8:16] And very often, a chapter opens, and I saw in heaven. And then the next chapter may be back on earth. It is a connection of what is taking place in heaven and on earth and coordinating them.

[8:30] Admittedly, we do have some difficulty trying to establish precisely the chronology of all of the events in the Revelation.

[8:40] It is not as clear as we would like, but it is clear enough to encourage our hearts and to enlighten us as to the basics. And we'll see that as we go along.

[8:52] So what we're going to see here is a great deal of symbolism. These things are not actually real in the sense that they have objective reality, but they are signs, pictures, symbols that John is describing as he writes this book.

[9:14] And he's telling us what it is that he sees. And, of course, what we want to know, what everybody wants to know is, okay, so they're symbols. But what do they symbolize?

[9:24] What is behind the symbol? That, of course, is the key. And that's where the value of interpretation comes into play.

[9:35] Because different meanings are given to these symbols. And anyone has the perfect right to ask us, So, what makes you think that your interpretation is the right one as to what these symbols mean?

[9:53] After all, there are scholars in other camps who disagree with you, and they think the symbols mean something else. So how is a poor layperson supposed to know when even the so-called experts can't agree on what this means?

[10:09] All we can say is, we will do our best to apply the principles of sound hermeneutics, and you will just have to decide for yourself. You will recall, we have taken the position in the past, and so say we now again, that none of us, certainly including myself, is competent or capable of interpreting the Bible in any reliable way.

[10:37] I do not claim that capability. That is why we strive to allow the Bible to interpret itself.

[10:49] Well, how would you do that? You do that by comparing what one passage of the Bible says about another passage of the Bible.

[11:03] Because when you pull them together, they shed light on each other. And they make the picture fuller and more complete and understandable than if you just took that one text by itself.

[11:16] And although we're not going to be able to do that this morning, we shall in the future. And we will engage this in some detail, and I think you'll find it very, very enlightening. So let's begin again with verse 1.

[11:28] A great sign. We could say symbol. Appeared in heaven. It was a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet.

[11:40] And on her head, a crown of 12 stars. Now just let your mind wander a little bit. Can you not conjure up this vision in your mind?

[11:52] Sure you can. You can get a picture of what's being described. And it looks bizarre. It looks really weird. It looks like something or someone that nobody's ever seen before.

[12:05] I mean, how? Really? Clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, on her head, a crown of 12 stars. And she was with child.

[12:18] This is a pregnant lady. And in pain. Her labor has already started. She is in pain to give birth.

[12:31] And another sign appeared in heaven. And behold, a great red dragon. Now use your Steven Spielberg imagination a little bit, all right?

[12:45] And you can feature this great red dragon. You see this in television and commercials and all the rest of the stuff that the computers and the special effects people cook up.

[12:56] Not too hard. You can visualize this great red dragon having seven heads. Now this is getting more weird as it goes on. Seven heads and ten horns.

[13:09] And on his heads were seven diadems or crowns. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven.

[13:24] What's that? Who were these stars of heaven? And threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth.

[13:37] So that when she gave birth, he might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son.

[13:49] A male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Are you getting any ideas? Sure you are.

[14:01] And her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that there she might be nourished for 1,260 days.

[14:24] And that, by the way, is precisely the same as three and one-half years. Which is the same as 42 months.

[14:38] A very strategic time in the study of prophecy. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon.

[14:54] And the dragon and his angels waged war. Can you fathom this? Well, I can't. I mean, it's just so hard to get your brain around this stuff.

[15:05] We're talking about a cosmic conflict taking place between supernatural beings. And they were not strong enough.

[15:16] And there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down. The serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan.

[15:30] Now, here we don't have to search a great deal to find out the identity of the great dragon, do we? I mean, we just let the text explain itself and the key is in the context.

[15:41] We are told who that is. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come.

[16:01] For the accuser of our brethren has been cast down, who accuses them before our God day and night.

[16:12] And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony. And they did not love their life even to death.

[16:24] For this reason, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea!

[16:35] Because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman.

[16:54] Who gave birth to the male child. And the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place.

[17:08] Where she was nourished, or I guess we could say sustained or provided for, for a time and times and half a time.

[17:20] And what that equals is a total of three and a half. A time is one. Times is two. Add that to the one and you get three.

[17:33] And a half, of course, is three and a half. Which again, is 42 months, 1260 days. Nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent.

[17:50] And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman. So that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.

[18:05] And the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.

[18:17] And the dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

[18:31] Now all of these symbols have real significance. They are not symbolizing nothing but something. There is substance behind the symbols.

[18:43] The woman in labor represents Israel. The great dragon represents Satan. The man-child represents Jesus the Messiah.

[18:56] The third part of the stars represent fallen angels. The dragon cast to earth began a persecution campaign as indicated in verse 13.

[19:08] This is going to be very pronounced during the tribulation period. Especially the last half or the 42 months here that are referred to. Intense persecution is going to really ramp up worldwide against Israel.

[19:26] And Satan will be at the head of it. And then, in verse 15, the flood is worldwide persecution of the woman. And in verse 17, the remnant of her seed are Jews during the tribulation period.

[19:44] Our view is they are Jews during the tribulation period because they are the target for satanic persecution. And the church, which is the body of Christ, distinct from Israel, will by this time have been removed.

[20:01] We will not be in the earthly picture at all. We will be gone. Having been translated from earth to heaven to be with the Lord. So, this is done to provide you with some kind of advance notice as to what is coming.

[20:21] And to demonstrate the historic efforts of Satan to eliminate the Jew. And thus completely negate the promise and the plan of God.

[20:31] The Jewish people, primarily through the Messiah, whom they would produce, constitutes the major, perhaps even the sole obstacle for the defeat and the ruin of Satan.

[20:49] You see, the whole plan of redemption, everything that God wanted to accomplish for the restoration of a lost humanity, is vested in the Jewish people because they would be the ones who would produce the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Deliverer.

[21:09] So, not only is Jesus Christ the strategic person, but the people that produced him, the Jew, the seed of Abraham, the nation of Israel, they are the strategic nation.

[21:23] It's not the United States of America. Deal with it. It's not France. It's not Russia. It's Israel. It's Israel. And this is very key, very essential to understanding the whole plan and program of God and what is unfolding and why and where it is all going.

[21:45] This has been and continues to be the cosmic conflict of the ages, perhaps for all eternity. This is what everything is ultimately all about.

[22:01] It's all wrapped up in this. If you understand this and what is happening and why, you will have a picture, an appreciation for the existence of all humanity for all times and why and where it's going and who is behind it and the ultimate end.

[22:24] It will all come together, but only in consideration of these truths that are found here in Scripture. Satan knows that his doom is sealed if he cannot find a way to derail and destroy the promises of God.

[22:47] Now, in my opinion, it just goes to show you, it gives you an example of the incredible arrogance that a creature can have to think that he actually might be able to pull this off.

[23:09] But arrogance and self-centeredness knows no bounds. And Satan certainly has a generous portion of both.

[23:23] And he actually thinks, and if you read Ezekiel, I think it's moved. I'm not sure where it is now, but it's Isaiah 14, where we find the I wills, the seven I wills, where Lucifer, the star and the sun of the morning says, I will advance my throne above the stars of heaven.

[23:44] I will be like the most high. I will, I will, I will. There are seven of them. And this just goes to show you how incredibly arrogant and self-centered a creature that God created with the potential of volition is capable of when he goes in that mode of exercising volition in a negative way.

[24:11] And we all have this, by the way. Every one of us have this thing called volition. This is a will that God has given us. It is the basis upon which we are held accountable.

[24:26] It is the exercising of our will. Because as we will to do certain things, we engage in certain activities, certain behaviors, etc.

[24:37] Some of it is godly and some of it is ungodly. And there is accountability to be held for those things that we exercise our will in a way that is contrary to God's will.

[24:48] That's the whole accountability picture. So all of this is part and parcel from creation that began even before humans were created. Because apparently when God created the angels, it seems to have predated his creation of humans, a la Genesis 1.

[25:09] And yet the volition thing is an integral part. And let me just touch on this briefly because it is very, very important. And I hear people say, well, if God knew what Satan was going to do, and if God knew the terrible mess that man was going to make out of creation, and all of the pain and heartache and misery and death and disease and everything else that's going to result from what God created, why did he make us this way?

[25:37] God had two choices. God had two choices.

[26:08] God had two choices. God had three choices. God had three choices. God had three choices. God had three choices. And he could have made us that way too. But he didn't. And we have pointed out to you, only a love that is a willing love is worth anything.

[26:26] Only an obedience that is a willing obedience is worth anything. If you do what you do just because you have no choice, you're programmed that way, then there's no basis for accountability either.

[26:40] But we are accountable. So this is very, very important. And it not only includes humans, it extends to the angelic realm as well. God was pleased to create beings, angelic and human, with volition.

[26:58] We are a free moral agent. We have the ability to make choices. You can tell God to take a walk.

[27:12] He gave you the ability to do that. You can tell Jesus Christ you don't want anything to do with him. Leave me alone, I want to run my own life. I don't want you interfering with anything. You can do that if you want.

[27:23] People do. Or you can use that volition to recognize who you are and how far short you fall of what God requires.

[27:34] And you can submit your will to him. And you can put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ and use your volition that way and become identified with Jesus Christ in his death, burial and resurrection and receive eternal life and everything that goes with it.

[27:56] You have a will. You can do that also. But God doesn't make you do that. He simply provides you with the opportunity. And that's called grace.

[28:08] And for those who for whatever reason will not respond to God's grace, they will respond to God's justice.

[28:20] Because that's the only thing left. There isn't anything else. I've often said, God cannot do less. He cannot do less than dispense perfect justice.

[28:38] Because that is what his holy nature and character require. God must be just and holy and true to his own nature.

[28:50] And when God renders justice, that means the recipient gets just exactly what he deserves.

[29:02] Not one bit of punishment more, not one bit of punishment less, but precisely what he deserves. Now I ask you a question. Is there something wrong with that?

[29:15] Is there something wrong with that? Is there something wrong with that? Is there something wrong with people receiving exactly what they deserve?

[29:26] And isn't that what we strive for? In our courts downtown? And when the sentence fits the crime, don't we say justice has been served?

[29:43] So when God meets out justice, it will be absolutely perfect. In that the recipient will get just what they deserve.

[29:54] God cannot do less than that. Nobody has to worry at all about getting a raw deal from God. Nobody has to worry about being framed or railroaded.

[30:08] And nobody will have any comeback. No one will be able to walk away from the judgment bar and say, that wasn't fair. I didn't get my justice.

[30:19] Oh, yes, you did. Yes, you did. So God cannot do less. But he can do more. And the more is called grace. Where God gives you not what you deserve.

[30:34] He gives you what you don't deserve. Why should he do that? Just because he loves you. He gives you that option.

[30:45] He gives you that choice. It's incredible. It's called the gospel. It's called believing unto eternal life. It is. It is. It is amazing.

[30:56] It's amazing grace. That's what it is. So all of what we are talking about now, Satan knowing that he has to derail, if he can, and destroy the promises of God.

[31:12] And this, of course, has resulted in Herculean efforts of Satan to destroy the Jew any way he can. And Egypt was the beginning of it. Down in Egypt for 400 years.

[31:27] Persia was a continuation of it. Under Haman, when he tried to eliminate the Jewish population living in Persia. And Esther came to the rescue, you recall. And then, even in my generation, and the generation of some of you, the Holocaust was another example of it.

[31:51] you will be interested to learn of the involvement of certain other people from the Mideast and their impact upon Adolf Hitler in his destruction dealing with the Jew.

[32:06] Because originally, originally, Hitler had not intended to destroy the Jew. He would have been contented with merely driving the Jew completely out of the continent of Europe.

[32:21] But it was someone else's idea to eliminate the Jew. And you'll be hearing about that later. In closing, and trying to leave you a little time for Q&A, come back with me to Jeremiah 31.

[32:37] And while you're turning to that, let me tell you a little story. Jeremiah 31, this was told me by one of my profs at Cedarville University when I was there, back before the earth crushed hard.

[32:50] And, he was preaching in New York City at the time. And it was 1942, in the middle of World War II. And, we had just had confirmation that the Holocaust was actually taking place.

[33:07] Actually, it started in the 30s, late 30s. But, it continued and was going ahead, full speed ahead by 1942 and 1943.

[33:18] And, that was the systematic elimination of the Jew through the gas chambers at Auschwitz and Berksbelden and Treblinka and all those other places in Poland and in Germany.

[33:31] And, until they had confirmation, it was just rumors that this was what was happening to the Jews. But, most of the people that heard it didn't believe it.

[33:42] And, the reason they didn't believe it was because it was too terrible. It was too awful to even consider. That couldn't possibly be true. And yet, when it was confirmed, it really was discovered to be true.

[33:59] Very true. So, in 1942, shortly after these discoveries were being made and bandied about worldwide and all of the news media, etc., this man, who was pastoring the First Baptist Church in New York City, put a large advertisement in the New York Times daily newspaper that this particular evening he was going to preach on the subject of how to rid the world of the Jew.

[34:35] With a title like that, you can only imagine. And if you have any idea how many people, how many Jews live in New York City, a bunch. And he said, of course, today, the newspaper probably wouldn't even print it with a title like that, you know, politically correct and so on.

[34:53] But, at any rate, they printed it. and it was advertised in the paper and it came out in the Saturday edition and the next day in the evening he was going to deliver this message and he had everyone turn to Jeremiah chapter 31 and he said, now I'm going to tell you how you can rid the world of the Jew.

[35:11] And he said, the church was absolutely packed. And I'm sure that at least half of the congregation were Jews. They wanted to get in on this, find out what kind of an evil scheme is being concocted by this Protestant pastor now of how to rid the world of the Jew.

[35:31] And they were there, of course, out of fear, out of curiosity, out of anger, out of a whole lot of things. And he quoted this passage in Jeremiah 31 and verse 31 which says, Behold, days are coming.

[35:49] And by the way, let me remind you, Jeremiah wrote this five to six hundred years before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.

[36:02] Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. And these are the two different entities because he's talking about the division of the kingdoms, the north and the south.

[36:17] They'll be back together then. They were divided. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

[36:29] My covenant which they broke. Of course, he's talking about the Mosaic covenant and the law that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. Although, God says, I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.

[36:40] But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

[36:56] And they shall not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord.

[37:08] For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. For thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, The Lord of hosts is his name.

[37:36] If this fixed order fixed order of the sun and the moon, If this fixed order departs from me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.

[37:54] Thus says the Lord, If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.

[38:09] Now, this is where replacement theology comes in. What God is saying through Jeremiah here is this.

[38:25] It doesn't matter how unfaithful Israel is. In fact, God even anticipates their unfaithfulness. Yet, despite that, God is saying, I will not respond to their fickleness with a fickleness of my own.

[38:49] My gifts and callings are without repentance. They are irrevocable. I have chosen Israel. They are my people. And I will never abandon them, even though they will abandon me.

[39:08] I will always be there for them. That's the love of God that he has for Israel. And he's going to make good on it.

[39:22] Our replacement theologian friends, of whom Augustine and Martin Luther and several other notables consisted, are of the opinion that Israel is cast aside permanently and will never be restored.

[39:49] That the church has replaced Israel as God's chosen people. That's what these handouts are all about that I've given you. Last week's and this week's, the black sheep of Christendom replacement theology.

[40:07] And who is it that holds these positions? Not unbelievers. Not unbelievers. These are Christians. Christians. This is where the Christian community is really divided over this issue.

[40:24] It is going to become more and more important as time goes on and as Israel is isolated by the world community more and more.

[40:35] There are going to be fewer and fewer Christians standing with them. The article that I gave you last week that was written by Jim Showers from Friends of Israel talks about the divestiture plans that are taking place where denominations, religious Christian denominations with considerable investments in different enterprises in Israel are withdrawing their money from Israel with the intent of crippling the Israeli economy, pulling all of their money out.

[41:10] lots of educational institutions are doing the same. Israel is beginning to feel the heat, but Israel has always felt the heat from time immemorial, and they are still feeling it today.

[41:27] It's going to intensify. The Holocaust was a horrible, horrible expression of that, but there is more to come that is going to be even more devastating.

[41:38] all of this is upcoming. All of this is part and parcel of the plan and program of God, and it is set forth right here in Scripture, and we will do our best to unfold it for you as time goes on.

[41:52] But for now, for a couple of moments we have left, have you a question or comment that you'd like to submit? We would appreciate that. Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?

[42:02] Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Okay, I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

[42:17] I'm going to let you go 60 seconds early, but we're not going to make a habit of it. So let's stand, shall we? Father, we recognize that out of all that has been spoken, there is so much more to be said, and a lot of it we still don't understand nearly as well as we would like.

[42:43] But in admission of that, we want to look to you for the light and the guidance and the direction that your word will provide for these passages and we commit it all to you.

[42:54] Thank you for the presence of each one here this morning, and thank you for the opportunity once again to proclaim Jesus Christ as the sole reason for the life that we have that connects us with you.

[43:10] His death, burial, and resurrection applied to our account in a way that we can't begin to understand or appreciate is nonetheless real, and we are so thankful for it.

[43:22] Should there be anyone here struggling with these issues, not knowing where they stand with you, we simply pray that you would reveal to them that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and when they put their faith and confidence in him, he will cleanse, pardon, forgive, restore, renew, everything all based upon what Jesus did for us on that cross.

[43:49] We are such a blessed people. We thank you for it in his wonderful name. Amen.