(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're here in Revelation chapter 20 and this is the third sermon from Revelation 20 and we're, you know, still got a long ways to go in Revelation chapter 20. This chapter covers a lot of information but only gives you kind of a few verses and other parts of the Bible give you a lot of information about that. And what we're talking about today is the battle of Gog and Magog. Notice what it says in verse 7, verse 7, And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints about in the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So the Bible speaks about this battle of Gog and Magog and we've just been going verse by verse, chapter by chapter through Revelation, and we just covered the millennial reign of Christ last week. So this battle we're talking about starting in verse number 8 when it mentions Gog and Magog, where Satan is let loose out of prison, he's let loose out of hell, this is after the one thousand year time period. Now I don't recommend you watching a lot of Bible movies or just reading stuff from pre-trip people and things like that, but look, if you ever watch these end times movies, Gog and Magog is mentioned quite a bit in them. And very often, I think it's in Left Behind, it kicks off the tribulation. And what pre-trip people teach is that this battle of Gog and Magog, that it basically will appear either midway through the tribulation, sometime during that time period, or it kicks off the battle, it kicks off the tribulation. And then they usually teach that there's two battles of Gog and Magog that are taking place. I mean, it's confusing. The pre-trip rapture really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but when we're going chapter by chapter, everything's lining up. We saw the judgment seat of Christ where you get rewards because you're going to be ruling and reigning with Christ. During the millennial reign of Christ, Satan is let loose, then we have this battle of Gog and Magog. There's only a few verses mentioned here in Revelation about this, but there are two whole chapters dedicated to this topic in the book of Ezekiel. So tonight what we're going to be doing is we're going to be looking at Ezekiel and Revelation. He said, I thought Revelation were the deep things of the Bible. The book of Ezekiel are the deep things of the Bible, my friend. The Revelation reveals information. The book of Ezekiel, you're like, man, it's deep, it's complicated, it's confusing. Go to Revelation 37. Revelation 37. Ezekiel 37. My bad. Ezekiel chapter 37. It's going to be a long night. Ezekiel 37. The first point is this, the complexity of this battle. It's a complex topic. It's a pretty deep topic because most of the information is found in the book of Ezekiel. One thing we need to remember when we're studying prophecy and really anything in the Bible is that the New Testament will clarify the Old Testament. Many things in the Old Testament are dark and confusing, especially with prophecy. You don't necessarily know what's the purpose of them. We talked about Jonah being in the whale's belly for three days and three nights. Now obviously that was literal, but there's a deeper meaning behind it. And then Matthew 12, boom, tells you the deep meaning. As the Son of Man should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So the book of Revelation is going to reveal or give more information on the book of Ezekiel and other prophetic books in the Old Testament. Now I want you to realize this as you're in Ezekiel 37, that Ezekiel is kind of divided into sections, and chapter 36 is kind of a transitional chapter, and 37 you're starting to look toward the future because most of Ezekiel you're looking at the past. But then chapter 36 is a transitional chapter, and then in 37 we're just full out prophetical information. We're going to look at chapter 37, I'm going to show that to you, but then Gog and Magog is 38 and 39. Notice Ezekiel 37 verse 1. And look, what I believe is this battle of Gog and Magog, it's the same thing in Ezekiel 38 and 39 with Revelation 20. But notice Ezekiel 37 verse 1. 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. And he said unto me, Son of Man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. Verse 6, and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. This is probably the most famous chapter in the book of Ezekiel, and it talks about how he's carried away in the spirit of the Lord, okay? He's carried away in the spirit, and he's seeing this vision with these bones. Verse 7, 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, okay? Notice verse number 11, verse 11, we're going to see what this is referring to. Verse 11, then he said unto me, Son of Man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. So look, whenever there's complicated topics and prophetical topics, he usually tells you information so you can understand, okay? He talks about these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold they say, our bones are dried and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel, okay? Ask yourself this question, has this event taken place yet? No it's not taking place, okay? One day they're going to inherit the land of Israel, but that is not taking place yet, okay? Verse 13, and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land, then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord. Now this event has not taken place yet because the children of Israel rejected God. They rebelled against God, both the northern and southern kingdoms became wicked, they've not been placed in their own land. And see pre-trib teachers would like to teach you that this is, you know, when Israel became a nation in what, 1939 or 40 or whatever the year was, and it's like, this is when they became a nation. No it's not. This is a prophetic event and they rebelled against God and they were rejected. When did the Jews ever turn back to God? Tell me when that date was. Did that happen 70 years ago? That happened 70, 80 years ago? It's never happened, okay? This is a prophetic chapter, okay? It's starting to talk about events that are going to take place in the future, okay? Verse number, verse 16, moreover thou son of man, take thee one stick and write upon it for Judah and for the children of Israel his companions, then take another stick and write upon it for Joseph the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions. So in verse 16 he mentions Judah and he mentions Israel, okay? We had the northern and we had the southern kingdoms. They separated. The northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah, okay? You know, when David was reigning there was kind of a battle between these two sides and they came back together temporarily, Solomon becomes a king, Solomon becomes wicked, Judah and Israel they separate permanently. Benjamin sides with Judah primarily and the other 10 tribes are siding together with the northern kingdom of Israel. But ask yourself in the New Testament, do you see all these 12 tribes together again? Because notice what it says in verse 17, and join them one to another into one stick and they shall become one in thine hand. When has this taken place? It hasn't taken place yet. And see in our modern day, instead of the children of Israel, they call them the Jews. The Jews get their name because they're from the southern kingdom of Judah. That's not a joining together of the northern tribe and the southern tribe. They're separated, okay? This event has not taken place. So Ezekiel chapter 37, what you're seeing is this is kicking off prophetical events. It's looking towards stuff in the future. God always promised the Jews that they would have their land if they obeyed. He never just said you can do whatever you want, you can be filled full of just murder and sodomy and wickedness and you've got this land because you're my chosen people and I love you. No, they had to actually follow God's rules. And when they rejected and they did not bring forth fruit, just as Jesus came upon the fig tree that had no fruit, that was signifying the Jews had rejected God. The tribe of Israel and the tribe of Judah, all 12 tribes, they had rejected. So turn to Ezekiel 38, Ezekiel 38, Ezekiel chapter 38. And I just wanted to show that to you to show you that we're talking about prophetical events. Now I want you to realize though that chapter 37 comes before chapter 38. See chapter 38 is going to talk about Gog and Magog and look, when it comes to the Bible you have to understand the Old Testament is not chronological, but it's divided into sections and those sections are chronological. The Bible's written in a logical, coherent way. Chapter 38 comes after chapter 37, just as Revelation chapter 20 with Gog and Magog comes after the millennial reign of Christ. So it comes after the millennial reign of Christ, after Judah and Israel are joined together back in their land. So chapter 38 is Gog and Magog. Now like I said, pre-trib teachers say that chapter 38 and chapter 39 Ezekiel are completely different than Revelation 20. Now look, this makes absolutely no sense because Gog and Magog is not mentioned much in the Bible. In fact, those are the only places it's mentioned, Revelation 20 and then these chapters of 38 and 39. I mean if they're referring to completely different things, how come that phrase is only used in those places in the Bible? See the Bible says when we read His word we can compare spiritual things with spiritual. And when something appears a couple times in the Bible and there's no link whatsoever between them, that doesn't make any sense. The book of Revelation, it makes sense. It's revealing information and it's putting the time frame right there after the millennial reign of Christ. These are the same things, but Ezekiel 38 and 39, it has more information. Here are some of the arguments from pre-trib people that would say, you know, the events of Ezekiel 38 and 39 have no relation whatsoever to Revelation 20. They say Ezekiel 38 and 39, that's referring to events that kick off the tribulation or during the tribulation. No relation whatsoever and here are some of their arguments. One argument is this, they say well the Ezekiel invasion is from the north and the rebellion in Revelation 20 is from the entire earth. They say in Ezekiel it's just the north and in Revelation 20 it's the entire earth. Well first off that's not true in Ezekiel. Now the north is the primary part that's leading that rebellion, but it's still from the entire earth. And so that's not even true, but here's the thing about it. Just because one part of the earth was more wicked and was really leading that rebellion more doesn't mean it wasn't coming from everybody in the earth. Because what's going to happen is Satan's going to round up everybody from the four quarters of the earth. From every part of the globe he's going to have people on his side. You say why? Reprobates exist everywhere. And during the millennial reign of Christ the word of God is going to be preached. People are going to know the word of God. And when you know the word of God, when you hear the word of God, you're going to have a couple choices. Either get saved or you're going to become a reprobate eventually. I mean, we give the gospel to people and they reject it and we understand. We'll give them another shot. They'll get another shot. But what if you were hearing the gospel every day for like two years? Do you really think in year number three after you've heard it 700 times you're going to get saved in the 701st time? Eventually you're going to reach a point where you choose to either accept and believe God's word or reject God's word. And there are going to be reprobates that exist everywhere. You say why? There are reprobates that exist everywhere today. And there are saved people that exist everywhere as well. You say why? Because people are not different from one country to another. They have different influences, they have different cultural backgrounds, but there are people in every part of the world that want to serve God and there's people that hate God in every part of the world. So one argument they say is, well, in Ezekiel it's coming from the north and in Revelation 20 it's from the entire earth. It's from the entire earth in both places. Another argument they use is this, and we're going to see this later on in the sermon, that in the book of Ezekiel, after this battle, there's a seven-year time period to get rid of the weapons and the dead bodies and things like that, whereas in Revelation 20 the great white throne judgment is right after the battle of Gog and Magog. Now look, the Bible does not teach the great white throne judgment is right after the battle of Gog and Magog or right after the millennium. It teaches it is after, but that doesn't mean that there's not time that goes by. When you read Revelation 20, you almost think it's just happening immediately, but when you actually read the battle of Gog and Magog, some time period is going by. Satan has to round up people on his side, and you know what? They're right. There is a time period to get rid of the weapons. You say, why? The battle of Gog and Magog is not right before the great white throne judgment. If you're just reading Revelation 20, you might think that, but that's not what the Bible teaches. See, a lot of people think basically the thousand-year reign, the millennial reign, and then literally right after a thousand years is over, great white throne judgment, everything's over, we're in heaven, everything's done. But Satan still has to round people up on his side, and when you're reading in Ezekiel, there's a time period that actually goes by. So no, the battle of Gog and Magog is not right before the great white throne judgment. But just because Revelation doesn't mention all of this extra information, that doesn't mean it's different. I mean, aren't there times you read two stories in the Bible and one gives a lot more information than another? Right? I mean, think about the man who said, legion for we are many, possessed with many devils. You know, he wasn't the only one there. There was another guy possessed with him, but in one of the Gospels, it highlights him. You read one of the other Gospels and there's two people. Is that a contradiction? No, it's just one Gospel chose to highlight the one person and one chose to highlight that there's multiple people. Sometimes two things in the Bible, one can give more information than the other. That doesn't mean because this is missing some of that information that it's an error. Because it's not a contradiction, it's just one gives more information. It'd be like, for example, you look at me today and somebody asks you, you go home tonight, hey, what was Brother Stuckey wearing tonight for church? And you said Brother Stuckey was wearing a shirt and a tie. Is that a true statement? Yes. What if somebody else said, though, Brother Stuckey was wearing a shirt and a tie and a suit? Is that a true statement? Yes. Was the first person lying because he didn't say I was wearing a suit? No, he just didn't add as much information. It's not a contradiction. It's not an error. Yeah, the book of Revelation only gives you a couple verses. I mean, we're in Revelation 20 and you remember the judgment seat of Christ not even mentioned in Revelation 20. We can look at other parts in the millennial reign of Christ. I mean, the millennial reign of Christ and it's over in a couple verses. It mentions like nothing about it in Revelation 20. That doesn't mean it's completely different than when it talks about the millennial reign of Christ in other parts of the Bible. So I think that's a foolish argument where they say, well, you know, there's other things mentioned in Ezekiel that are not in Revelation. Yeah, it's two chapters versus a few verses. It gives more information. Ezekiel 38, verse 1. So Ezekiel 38, we're talking about after the millennial reign of Christ. Verse 1. And the word of the Lord came on to me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him. And say, Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Now in these stories of Gog and Magog, quite honestly, you know, we're not going to be able to tell too much information about what these nations are and where they are. Other than the general directions they give, you say, why? This is after the millennial reign of Christ. This is more than 1,000 years in the future. Go back 1,000 years in the past. Did you realize a lot of countries that are here in the modern day didn't even exist? I mean, the United States is, I mean, obviously there are people living there, you know, before it was settled. I mean, it's completely different than it was 1,000 years ago. I mean, all over the world, I mean, this wasn't even a Catholic country 1,000 years ago. It's like now it's the most, you know, Christian or Catholic country in all of Asia. It wasn't even a Catholic country. It was like a, supposedly like a, like half Muslim, half like worshipping the land sort of country, from what I understand. I mean, it wasn't a Catholic country 1,000 years ago. Things change in 1,000 years. So look, when we're reading Ezekiel 38 about Gog and Magog, I don't think you can look at our present day and then try to tie it in with a lot, with several different nations that exist today. Because this is more than 1,000 years from when it actually takes place. Usually when you hear Bible teachers, they're coming from the US. So when they're interpreting Ezekiel 38 and 39, and they're saying this kicks off the tribulation or it's part of it, what they do is they basically just name their biggest enemies as Gog and Magog. That's what they do. And it changes depending on what time period. It used to be that Germany was the big evil. So they were Gog or Magog. But now it's like, well, we don't really hate Germany. We don't hate Germany anymore. Okay? So it's like, it's no longer Germany. Now it's like, okay, North Korea, China, Russia, those are the three. Okay? Two of those three are the bad ones. But what about, you know, 20 years go by, it's some other country. Okay? Now I'm going to read you an article from a website that talks about Gog and Magog. And we're going to see if any of this stuff actually takes place in this sermon. As we look forward, we'll see if this stuff is actually mentioned. Okay? And so this is what it says here. I have used modern names for the territories involved. When we're talking about Gog and Magog, we're talking about a leader in the land of Russia. Okay? So it's Russia. Case closed. It's like, case closed, it's Russia. Note that 500 years from now, if Christ delays, Gog and Magog from the North Russia will have another name that fits another time. So he says, if 500 years go by, forget about it being Russia. Well, look, more than 1,000 years are going by. It's like he's saying this, like, oh, this is going to be like, you know, right, you know, the time of Christ when he's written. No, no, this is after the millennial reign of Christ. And himself, he said, if 500 years go by, forget about it being Russia. Well, more than 1,000 years are going by. So look, forget about it being Russia or China. It's a completely different world. Who knows what the world's going to be like after the millennial reign of Christ? Who knows? Okay? They give general directions, but just because it says the North or the West or the South, that doesn't really give you detailed information. Okay? It says this, many wonder if Russia will have any part to play in the last days. The answer is a resounding yes. We find the answer in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Well, we're going to see tonight if we actually find that, if we actually find Russians, Ezekiel 38 and 39. It goes on to say this, and look, I'm going to be reading a lot of Bible here tonight, and the last time I did this and didn't have a lot of commentary, the sermon was very short, so I decided to add this article to add extra time. We're not preaching less than 40 minutes this time, okay? So it says, Magog and Meshech and Tubal were all sons of Japheth, who was one of the three sons of Noah. Japheth and his family migrated to the area of modern-day Russia, according to Genesis 10, verses 2 and 3. So when you're reading Genesis 10, you should have got out of it that they migrated to Russia. Gog is a person who rules over the land of Magog, parentheses Russia. Magog means the prince of Rosh, parentheses Gog. Rosh is the old root word for the land of Russia. God informs Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38, 15, you'll come from your place in the far north. The Hebrew word means the uttermost part of the north, so he's going back to the Hebrew. What's north of Jerusalem? Moscow. What is north Russia? Nothing. Meshech is the old name for the capital of western Russia, which is known today as Moscow. Tubal is identified as a city in Siberia. Gog, parentheses Russia, is the king of the north. The king of the south is an Arab-African coalition. This is all about Russia, it's all about Russia. You say, why is it all about Russia? Well, who was the arch enemy of the United States in most of the 20th century? Russia. I mean, have you heard of the Cold War between the US and Russia? Russia has been the enemy of the US for a very long time. Now it's kind of like, it's really hard to tell because countries hate each other and then they become friends. Just like in the Bible, they do the same thing. It's like you hate Assyria, then you join up with Assyria. You hate Egypt, then you join up with Egypt. But Russia was the big enemy. So look, when they were writing all these commentaries and everything, it was put through the lens of basically Russia is bad, they're the true evil. Because what you're taught at a young age in the US is that the US is always perfect and correct, America is always right, and Russia is bad. At least when I was a kid. I mean, all those movies, like there's the Rocky movie, Rocky IV, where he's fighting a Russian, right? And it's like Russia's the big evil, he's the one taking steroids and everything, because that's the way America looked at them, okay? And they're going back and then going back and saying, well, this is referring to this, this is a city here and everything. Look, they could do that for any country, okay? After Russia, if they pick a new enemy like North Korea, they could do that for North Korea. Ezekiel 38, verse 5 and 6, identifies the rest of the nations that are dragged into battle between Gog and Magog, versus the kings of the south, Persia. Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth, Togarmah, from the far north with all its troops, the many nations with you. Persia is a reference to modern day Iran. Cush describes present day Ethiopia and the black nations of Central Africa. Put and Libya are located in Northern Africa. Gomer is the people who settled in Germany. All right, Germany's involved. All right, we haven't forgotten about Germany. They're no longer the true evil, but they're still involved in this battle, okay? Beth Togarmah is Asia Minor and Turkey. Note, these nations will basically align with Russia in battles against the king of the south and later on the Antichrist. So Russia is the true evil, is what they're saying, okay? Now that sounded better before Trump got into office, and you know, Trump and Putin are sort of friends. You know, they're not really enemies like, you know, old presidents. So it doesn't really sound, you know, quite as good as before. But anyways, sometime before the beginning of the seven year tribulation, the king of the south, parentheses, an African Arab coalition described in Daniel 11, moves to invade Israel. The African Arab coalition initially has the upper hand but is ultimately defeated by the king of the north, parentheses, Russia. So Russia takes out the Africans and the Arabs together. After a short time of peace, seeing an opportunity to enhance their domination, Gog and Magog, parentheses Russia and its leader, proceed with their own invasion of Israel. However, God has no intention of allowing Russia to take over the land of Israel. The Antichrist intercepts Gog and Magog and defeats them. Note that two battles are described here, separated by at least 2,500 years. So all this information apparently is in Ezekiel 38 and 39, and look, we've been studying through Revelation. We've looked at Daniel and a lot of these places, we're going to look at Ezekiel tonight, you don't find any of this information. And what preacher teachers do is instead of actually just explaining the verses and making it simple, they'll come up with all these charts and they'll say, well this means this and this means this, and people are left dazzled like, wow, that's so interesting, and they walk away not understanding any of it. Walk up to these preacher people that have heard 50 sermons and watched seminars and everything and say, hey, can you give me your best verse for why you believe in a preacher rapture? They don't have one. It's a joke. I mean, this sounds good. I could have a chart up here and I could have, you know, just all these pictures and everything like this means this, and it would make me look very smart, wouldn't it? I would look really smart if I practiced this routine and said this is this, this is this, we see this as Russia and everything like that. I would look very smart, nobody would learn anything. And it's not even true. I mean, how do you know what the world's going to be like in over a thousand years? This can completely be debunked by the fact that he himself said it was the same article that if 500 years go by, forget about it being Russia. Well, look, this is after the millennial reign of Christ. This is just a bunch of hocus pocus. The Bible does not talk about this. We have no clue what the world is going to be like in over a thousand years. And realize when you're hearing most pre-trib people talk, they are American preachers, and what are they looking at? Well, what's the enemy of the U.S.? So if in 50 years the enemy of the U.S. is the Philippines, then this is all the Philippines. That's really the way it goes. Okay. Now, go to Zego 38. Zego 38. Let's see what the Bible says. Now, let me say this, that in a couple other religions, it makes mention of this battle of Gog and Magog, but it's kind of different. It's got its own spin, but it's kind of similar, because obviously the devil likes to counterfeit God's word. In Hinduism, Lord Kalki is against Koch and B. Koch, okay, which is Gog and Magog, I guess. And in Islam, you have Yajuj and Majuj, instead of Gog and Magog, Yajuj and Majuj, okay. And so, you know, it's funny, because I remember I heard this Muslim person once talk about Islam in the end times, and he was describing the return, you know, of Jesus, okay, because many Muslims believe Jesus is actually going to return, okay. They don't believe in the things of the Bible, but they believe Jesus is going to return, or they'll believe some other latter-day prophet or whatever is going to return and everything like that. And he's describing him, and he's describing this man that's going to bring peace to the earth and bring everybody together, and, I mean, he was just describing the Antichrist. For someone who, if you know the Bible, you're like, that sounds like the Antichrist. That's what he's describing. All these other false religions, they talk about the end times, and they just kind of twist the things of the Bible so there's a shred of truth in them, but they're changed, okay. Actually, go to Revelation 20 real quickly, and you can keep your finger in Zeko 38, because we're going to go back and forth between Revelation 20 and Zeko 38. Revelation 20. So point number one is complexity. This is complex. This is deep. It's complicated because of the fact it's more than a thousand years in the future. All we really can know is what it says in 38 and 39, and you can form a lot of guesses out there what the world's going to be like in over a thousand years, but we honestly have absolutely no idea, okay. Let me say this also. When you're listening to most of these Bible preachers preach and talk about this, none of them believe America's Babylon, okay. That of course is going to change your entire perspective of all of Revelation. If you're trying to fit your country into this situation, like our country is good and fighting all these bad countries, what if your country's the bad country according to the end times? What if you are that end times Babylon? Change is everything. Revelation 20 verse 8. Verse 7. Revelation 20 verse 7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, so after the thousand years, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle. Point number one was complexity. Point number two was a confederacy. What Satan is going to do is he's going to join together all of these nations to become confederate with one another to fight against God, to fight against the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to Ezekiel 38. Ezekiel 38. I think most people, at least I think so, believe that Ezekiel's probably the most confusing book in the Bible. Maybe Zechariah, I mean Zechariah's pretty deep, but Ezekiel, Zechariah, those are kind of like the two where I'm just like, man, you can read it and read it and read it, and there's a lot. You're just like, this is complicated. When you're reading Ezekiel 38 and 39, a lot of this is complicated because it's so far into the future for one that you can't really picture all of the stuff. You don't know the names of these things. It's kind of like when you're reading through kings, and you see the names of all these different kings, and they're very similar to one another, and you get confused, wait, is this a new Jonadab, or is it, I mean, they're so close to one another, you get very confused with what you're reading. Ezekiel is very confusing. It is complex, but what we're seeing is a confederacy where they're going to join together. Ezekiel 38 verse 4, and I will turn thee back and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. It says, all thine army, great company. Why? Satan has gathered together these nations together. Verse 5, Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them, all of them with shield and helmet. Gomer and all his bands, the house of Togromar of the north quarters and all his bands, and many people with thee, be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them, and after many days thou shalt be visited, in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste, but is brought forth out of the nations, and 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 with thee. And it says in verse 10, 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, and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages, I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil 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. What you're seeing is a group of people, and they are being gathered together, okay? Satan is going to gather together all of these enemies to fight against God. We're seeing the same thing in Ezekiel 38, it's just giving a lot more information, it's naming a lot of names that we really just can't really perceive where they are because it's so far in the future. Then it says in verse number 13, Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? Hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? 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, thou and many people with thee. So we do see that they're coming from the north parts. That's where the main evil is taking place. This is still happening from all over the world, okay? So we are seeing a confederacy where these armies are gathered together against the things of God. You see that in Ezekiel 38. Now I want to highlight a couple of verses that we read. I want you to see what it says in verse 8, okay? After many days thou shalt be visited in the latter years, thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword and is gathered out of many people against the mountains of Israel. Notice how it says Israel, which have been always waste, but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely, all of them. So it says they're going to dwell safely in verse 8. It mentions Israel, and they are going to dwell safely. Verse 11, And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go to them that are at rest that dwell safely. Verse 14, 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. So it mentions Israel, and it says they're going to be dwelling safely. When this battle is taking place, Israel is going to be a very safe place, and all these nations are going to be gathered together. But before that, Israel is a very safe place. They dwell safely. Let me ask you a question. When has Israel ever dwelled safely? Do they dwell safely now, Israel? They're always involved in war. Is that not true? They don't dwell safely now. When when we were reading Revelation, considering that the Antichrist is going to start the abomination of desolation in Israel, and all these things are taking place there, they're never dwelling safely, okay? When are they actually dwelling safely? So to say that this is referring to kicking off the tribulation, Israel doesn't dwell safely. It's an area of the world with no rest, okay? Now you say, why is it dwelling safely before this battle? Because the millennial reign of Christ is taking place. And Christ is ruling and reigning. And as we saw last week, when His rules are being implemented, guess what? The world's safe, especially that part of the world. But are they safe now? No. I mean, doesn't this make sense that this is after the millennial reign of Christ, that the people in Israel are going to be dwelling safely? But they're not dwelling safely now. It makes a lot more sense this is after the millennial reign of Christ, because Israel has never dwelled safely, and they never will until during the millennial reign of Christ, because Christ is ruling and reigning. This is not referring to an event that's going to kick off the tribulation, because we know Israel is not dwelling safely. Now point number one was this, complexity. Point number two is a confederacy. But what we also see is this, we see a conquering. Go back to Revelation 20. Revelation 20. Revelation 20. Look, there's a lot of information. We've spent so much time in Revelation, and in Revelation 20, I guess we could have preached multiple sermons on Gog and Magog, but we'd be going back to Ezekiel, and one sermon on 38, one on 39. We're just going to bring it all together in one sermon. If you want to learn more about this topic, Ezekiel 38 and 39, it talks about that. Revelation 20, verse 9, and they went up on the breadth of the earth, encompassed the camp of the saints about, in the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. So we saw the complexity of this topic. We see the confederacy where these nations are gathered together, but then fire's going to come down and devour them. We see a conquering, complexity, confederacy, conquering. Verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Look, the devil has gotten his butt kicked over and over again throughout the entire Bible. This is kind of like the last time, and he loses again. It's kind of like you got kicked out of heaven, you have the battle of Armageddon, hey, maybe the third time's the charm. Well, not for you. He ends up losing. He's thrown into the lake of fire. So we see a conquering. Go back to Ezekiel 38, Ezekiel 38, Ezekiel chapter 38, Ezekiel chapter 38. And what are we going to see? We're going to see the same thing in Ezekiel chapter 38, Ezekiel chapter 38. Verse 18, verse 18, and it shall come to pass at that same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, so when Russia supposedly is fighting Israel, saith the Lord God, obviously not Russia, but when Gog is fighting Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel, so that the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the field and all 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. Look, that's the same thing you see in Revelation 20. It just gives more detail, okay? Christ is going to conquer. He is going to destroy them. Everyone's going to be scared. Everything's going to be destroyed, okay? There's a great shaking. The mountains shall be thrown down, it says. Ezekiel 38, verse 21, 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, 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, and overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. Didn't he say he's going to rain fire from heaven? 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. Turn to Ezekiel 39, Ezekiel chapter 39, Ezekiel 39, verse 1. For thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God. Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the prince chief of Meshech and Tubal. And I will turn thee back and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel. And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Okay? Now he mentions arrows here, and this is actually one of the arguments where they say, well, they say it can't be referring to missiles. Some people say the battle of Gog and Magog was in the past, like it's not futuristic or whatever. But when it mentions arrows, you know, you have to understand this was written through the lens of the people that were living during that time period. I think an arrow is just referring to a missile. Okay? Because if you go to the last couple chapters of Jeremiah, it talks about all these arrows will go and none of them will miss their target or whatever. It uses a similar wording to that, which makes sense if you have a missile. When missiles are sent, you send it, it hits the target and everything. Obviously it's not going to mention the word missile when the word missile wasn't even around back then. It's something that came later on. But an arrow is pretty similar to a missile, okay, in terms of the shape of it and things such as that. You can see why they would say arrow when it's referring to a missile. And obviously he wouldn't even know what a missile was when he wrote this, okay? Verse number six. Verse six. And I will send a fire on Magog and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles. And they shall know that I am the Lord. So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let them pollute my holy name anymore. And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Behold it is come and it is done, saith the Lord God. This is the day whereof I have spoken. Okay? So point number one we saw was this. We saw complexity. Point number two, a confederacy. Point number three, a conquering. Point number four, a consuming, okay? The enemies of God, they are going to be consumed. Notice what it says in verse four. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee. I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. So notice the ravenous birds are going to be basically feasting upon them. Now this is not the marriage supper of the lamb, but it's a pretty similar style to the marriage supper of the lamb. There's a battle, the battle of Armageddon, then the marriage supper of the lamb, and there's this battle of Gog and Magog, which happens in the future after this time period, and there's also a feasting. And you say, why? I mean, the same Lord has similar methods. There's a big battle, and that's how he discards of the enemy. That's what it mentions, okay? Verse number 17. And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God, speak unto every feathered fowl and every beast of the field, assemble yourselves and come, gather yourselves on every side of my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth of rams of lambs and of goats of bullocks, all of them fatlings abation, and ye shall eat fat till ye be full and drink blood till ye be drunken of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots with mighty men and with all men of war, saith the Lord God, and I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed in my hand that I have laid upon them. So once again, that is not referring to the marriage supper of the lamb, but it is very similar to the battle of Armageddon, the marriage supper of the lamb. Here's the battle of Gog and Magog after the thousand years of Christ, okay? And after the millennial reign of Christ, and then they're going to be feasted upon. You know, I don't know of a name given to this, you know, I guess the feasting from the battle of Gog and Magog, okay? That's the consuming we're seeing. So point number one was this. We saw complexity. This is a deep topic. It's a complicated topic. You're welcome to read Ezekiel 38 and 39 to learn more about this, but I don't believe it's a topic we can have a full understanding of when it's over a thousand years in the future. The nations are going to be completely different. Everything's going to be changed after the millennial reign of Christ, okay? That's more than a thousand years in the future. But what we do see is a confederacy, that the devil's going to join all of these enemies together. And look, isn't that the same technique the devil always uses? That's what he's going to use the first time for the battle of Armageddon. He's going to just bring together everybody in the world, just try to bring as many people as he can, join them together to fight against God, okay? We see a confederacy. We see a conquering. We see a consuming. But then there is going to be a cleaning that takes place. So point number five is a cleaning. You got to clean up the mess, okay? And so I want you to notice what it says here in Ezekiel 39, verse 9. And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years, okay? This is one of the big verses where they're going to say that this battle of Gog and Magog is different than the one in Revelation. And the argument they use is it says seven years go by. So if in Revelation you have the millennial reign of Christ and then the battle of Gog and Magog, and right after that the great white throne judgment, there's not time for seven years. And look, I would agree with that, but it didn't say in Revelation 20 that, hey, this is immediately after. It just says it's after. It follows after. That doesn't mean that there's not things taking place beforehand, okay? Now we know millennial reign of Christ is a thousand years, but then there is a time period that goes by, and we don't know the exact amount of time that all of these events are actually taking place. But it has to be enough time that Satan can rally people together on his side. Now that's probably not in a couple days. That's probably a decent amount of time period where he's going to actually rally up troops on his side to get them to gather together. Now I don't necessarily know how that's going to look like, okay? Christ is going to be ruling and reigning, but then the devil is going to be coming and trying to deceive the world and gather all these enemies together. And so it's kind of hard to look at that because we only have two chapters in the Bible, and it doesn't give us all the nitty-gritty details other than those two chapters. But I would say that the uprising that takes place, it's going to take some time to gather together all those forces together, to be united and confederate and join together. That takes some time. So look, after the millennial reign of Christ, there is some time period that goes by before the great white throne judgment. You've got this battle of Gog and Magog, and this is lasting a decent amount of time. We don't know exactly how much time, okay? So in verse number nine, yeah, it says seven years, and you say, why is it that they're going to be burning the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows and the hand staves? Why would they be burning all of these things? They don't need them anymore. I mean, Christ has vanquished the enemy. We know what's going to take place during the end times, and once the battle of Gog and Magog happens, victory has happened, Satan's been thrown into hell. What need do we need for a weapon in heaven? Right? I mean, you don't need to sleep with a baseball bat underneath your bed or something like that. You're not going to need it. I mean, you can play baseball maybe, I don't know, but you don't need that as a weapon anymore. You say, why? Because we're going to be in heaven. There's going to be no more reprobates. There's going to be no more enemies of God. There's going to be no more unsaved people. Everything's over at that point. So, all the weapons are getting burned. That's what it's saying here. It's going to take seven years. That's a long period of time. Seven years go by, and there's other time that goes by. We don't know exactly how much. Verse 10, so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forest. For they shall burn the weapons with fire, and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord God. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, and it shall stop the noses of the passengers. You say, why is it stopping the nose of the passengers? You've got all these dead bodies and blood everywhere. People are walking by us like, whoa, that smells bad. They have to get rid of the bodies. If all these bodies have been destroyed, and look, obviously you've got the ravenous birds and everything are going to devour some of the flesh, but there's still going to be a lot of blood, and I'm sure they're not going to get all of the people. That's a big mess that's taking place. There's a lot of enemies that have been destroyed. So when people walk by, they stop their noses. They're like, whoo, that smells bad. And so what it said in verse number 11, he said, I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel. So what's going to actually take place is bodies are actually going to be buried. It said, and it shall stop the noses of the passengers, verse 11, and there shall they bury Gog in all his multitude, and they shall call it the valley of Ham on Gog. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land. And so look, during this time period, you're looking for a job, hey, burying dead bodies. It's like, hey, what's your resume? It's like, you know what, you got muscles, then you're probably going to be able to get the job, right? Burying dead bodies for seven months is probably not a job that everyone's like, hey, this is the most prestigious job, right? But they've got to bury these dead bodies. So seven months are actually going by where they're burying the dead bodies. They're getting rid of all of these evil, wicked people that have been destroyed, okay? They are cleansing the earth. And so notice what it says. And so look, what we see is that the Great White Throne of Judgment, it is not right after the millennial reign. And I understand when we're reading the Bible, we know more about Revelation 20 than Ezekiel 38 and 39 in terms of when we read the Bible, Revelation 20-something, we remember verses and stuff like that, but you do have to look at the passages to get a deeper understanding. And so don't let some preacher person say, well, you know, the Great White Throne of Judgment is right after this, so that means that this has to be something completely different. No, Ezekiel 38 and 39 gives us more information, and in Revelation 20, there's a time period that goes by with this battle of Gog and Magog. We don't know the exact amount of time, but it's a significant amount of time, okay? So realize that. And so in verse 13, so we're seeing a cleansing here, okay? They're getting rid of the dead bodies. Verse 13, yay, all the people of the land shall bury them, and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God. Now it says all the people of the land shall bury them, and I kind of liken it on to this, you know, and, you know, living in West Virginia, every once in a while you'd have these major blizzards that would take place, and what we would consider a blizzard is when you had at least two feet of snow on the ground. So, you know, sometimes the snow's really hard, and then you get like, you know, 30 inches of snow overnight or something like that. Now let me tell you something, I know a lot of you are like, man, I wish I could see snow and stuff like that. Look, it is miserable when you have a lot of snow on the ground. First off, you can't go to work because you can't drive anywhere. I mean, especially if it rains and then it ices and then the temperature warms up, because it's not going to, or it rains and then it freezes, the temperature drops, and then it snows a lot, because you've got ice underneath all that snow. And that happens sometimes, and it becomes a disaster where, you know, I remember my dad, it was the blizzard of 94, I think it was in West Virginia, and as a kid that's nine years old, and I was in elementary school before I was homeschooled, it's like, man, no snow for weeks! This is awesome! But, you know, it's not awesome if you work a job and you're not able to go to work for a couple weeks. And that was the situation because, you know, we lived on a hill, it was a really steep hill and everything, and it's just like there were times where your car could not make it up the hill, so you just had to park it at the bottom and walk 20 minutes up and just kind of leave it for a couple days, right? What ends up taking place is that everybody in the neighborhood gets together to get rid of as much snow as they can, and they put it in an area where it's just not in the way of the roads, because you're on the same team and you have a big snow. So basically you shovel your driveway, you get rid of that, but there's snow everywhere. What happens? Every single person works on it together. Why? The snow is a pain for everybody. Here what's taking place is these dead bodies are a pain to everybody. People are like, man, we need to get rid of these dead bodies. This is disgusting, it's filthy, the snow, it's like, alright, let's just all do this so we can get it done sooner. Okay, that's what's taking place here. And it said, what verse was I on? Verse what? Verse 13. Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them, and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord God. Verse 14. And they shall sever out men of continual employment. This is their full-time job. Passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it, as we said it's a cleansing, after the end of seven months shall they search. And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the barriers have buried it in the valley of Haman-gog. And also the name of the city shall be Hamona, thus shall they cleanse the land. Now this is kind of a side point, but if you remember when I preached through the Apocrypha, you know, I preached a couple sermons on that, and how the Apocrypha changes, you know, stories in the Bible and stuff like that, and I think where they said that, I think it was Assyria in that one book, Assyria was so wicked that they would just be killing people and they'd just leave them out to rot because they were so evil. It's like nobody would do that. I mean the smell would be terrible, okay? It's like they would bury them, no matter how wicked they are, they'd burn the bodies, they wouldn't bury them, but they wouldn't kill a bunch of bodies, like in the Apocrypha it's like they're killing these massive amounts of body and just leaving them in the streets so people could see them. Look, the smell would be unbearable. It's like, you know, after three days the body's going to start stinking, because remember, Lazarus after four days, behold he stinketh. Nobody wants that smell everywhere, and supposedly they just had all these rotting bodies that they're like crawling over and everything. You'd get every disease in the world if you had all those rotting bodies, that's ridiculous, okay? Anyways, verse number 22, so the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward, and the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies, so fell they all by the sword. I am cleanness, and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for my holy name, after that they have borne their shame and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land and none made them afraid, when I have brought them again from the people and gathered them out of their enemies' lands and sanctified them in the sight of many nations. Verse 28, then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which cause them to be led into captivity among the heathen, but I have gathered them onto their own land and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God. So what are our points here tonight? The five points we had were this. Number one, this is a complex topic. It's a pretty deep topic. Okay, if you want to know the information, it's in chapters 38 and 39, but even when you read it, a lot of that information is really hard to get a full understanding, okay? What's going to take place over a thousand years from now? I understand why people are confused because you see the birds feasting and you're thinking, hey, this is the marriage supper of the Lamb. It's not the marriage supper of the Lamb, though, when you're comparing spiritual things with spiritual. We saw that this is pretty complex. We saw that during this battle there's going to be confederacy because the devil's going to bring all of these enemies together. We see that there's going to be a conquering from the Lord. We see there's going to be a consuming, and then there's going to be a cleansing that actually takes place. What can we take away from this, though? Because look, we're going to be there for this event, but this is not happening in this lifetime, okay? It's going to be after we die or after we get raptured that we will one day experience this. What we can take away is this, that you know what, the New Testament is used to shed light on the Old Testament. Now in this example, there's not a lot of information in Revelation, but what I'm trying to help you understand is this. The things in the Old Testament are deeper, more complicated things, okay? We use the New Testament to shed light on the Old Testament. And look, you know, you have pre-trib teachers, and they'll preach sermons. I remember I had a, not a preacher one time, but I was, one summer or two summers I stayed in Utah with this Baptist church, and I was helping out the Baptist pastor and everything like that. And we were talking about the rapture one day, and I told him, you know, that I was post-trib. I said pre-wrath, post-trib. This was probably, I don't know, like 13 years ago or something like that. It was probably 20 years old. And now I told him that, and he's like, well, that's what you are now. He's like, but there's this guy who comes into Baptist churches. I said, one night he'll preach the pre-trib rapture. Everyone's convinced of the pre-trib rapture. The next night he'll preach the mid-trib rapture, and everyone's convinced of the mid-trib rapture. Then the next night he preaches the post-trib rapture, and everyone's convinced of the post-trib, and then he walks away with his conclusion. See, you can't understand the end times. It's like, no, I mean, revelation is not that complicated, because these events are going in order. We can understand these things. It's really not that complicated. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let's close in with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see this battle of Gog and Magog, and help us to understand our Bibles, even the deep things of your Word that maybe aren't as practical to our current life and things such as that, but help us to love all of your Word and help us to understand these things and continue to grow in knowledge and in grace. God, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.