CORROBORATION
OF THE WORD OF GOD
Dr. W.
A. Criswell
1
Thessalonians 2:13
12/08/57
7:30 p.m.
In our Bibles, let us
turn to the first Thessalonian letter, the second chapter, we shall read down
to the text, which is the thirteenth verse. 1 Thessalonians, the second
chapter, reading the first thirteen verses, and the text is the thirteenth
verse. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-13. Speaking tonight on the Word of God; 1
Thessalonians the second chapter, the first thirteen verses; now everyone
together:
For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you
that it was not in vain:
But even after that we had suffered before, and were
shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak
unto you the gospel of God with much contention.
For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of
uncleanness, nor in guile;
But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with
the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our
hearts.
For neither at any time used we flattering words, as
ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness:
Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of
others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.
But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse
cherisheth her children:
So being affectionately desirous of you, we were
willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own
souls, because ye were dear unto us.
For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for
laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we
preached unto you the gospel of God.
Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly
and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:
As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged
every one of you, as a father doth his children,
That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you
unto His kingdom and glory.
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing,
because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it
not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe.
And now, the text is as
it is, “in truth the Word of God.” The whole verse, “For this cause also thank
we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye
heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the
word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
Now, the first thing we
shall do is this. There is a decided consciousness on the part of the apostle
and the prophet that the message he delivered and the word that he spake was
the Word and message of God. That is illustrated here in this text: “When ye
received the Word we preached, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it
is in truth, the Word of God.” Paul identifies the gospel message that he
preaches with the Word of God. This is the Word of God, the message that Paul
is delivering, the gospel of the Son of God.
Now, Paul avows that
time and time again. For example, in the first Corinthian letter, the eleventh
chapter and the twenty-third verse, he says: “For I received of the Lord Jesus
that which also I delivered unto you. For I have received of the Lord Jesus,”
that is, he did not originate it, nor did he think it up, nor was it of him.
But, the thing that he delivered was something he had received. He says the
same thing in the first Corinthian letter, the fifteenth chapter and the third
verse: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how
that;” then, he declares the message that he received by direct revelation from
God.
In the letter to the
churches of Galatia, in the first chapter, he says: “Though we, or an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which ye have received,
let him be accursed.” Or, he says: “This gospel I received, not from men,
neither was I taught it by men, but by revelation of Jesus Christ.” The
message Paul delivers, the gospel that he preaches, he received directly by
revelation from Christ Himself. And the message that he preaches and the word
that he writes is, in the words of my text, “In very truth the Word of God.”
Now, that same thing
that you find in the Apostle Paul, you find in all of the writers of the Bible;
the apostles and the prophets. They were conscious that they were delivering
the very Word and will and message of God. It says in the second chapter of
the Book of Acts that the new converts continued in the apostles' doctrine, in
the didachē—in the teaching, in the Word of God, and that didachē,
that teaching, that doctrine was written down. And I have it here in my hands:
the Word of God. For example, the apostle Peter said in the first chapter of
his first second letter: “I will endeavor, after my departure that ye may be
able to bring these things to remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly
devised tales, when we made known unto you the truth of Christ… the majesty of
glory.” He says there that, before he dies, he's going to write down these
great revelations in Jesus. And you call that the Gospel of Mark, which is the
Gospel of Peter.
Then, he continues.
Listen. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy…For the prophecy came not
in old by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost.” Peter says there, “This message that we have received from God,
I'm going to write it down before my departure.” So, these apostles wrote down
for us, in the gospels and in the epistles, the revelation that they received.
The apostle Paul, by direct revelation from Christ in heaven; the apostle
Peter, sitting at the feet of the Lord in the days of His flesh—they wrote
out—and, it's our New Testament—the gospel of Christ, which Paul says is the
Word of God.
Now, the apostle Paul
says that these prophets also—and, he says the more sure word of prophecy—is
the real authentication and affirmation of the truth of the gospel message. He
says those men who wrote, back there in the Old Testament, that they also were
conscious, that they were writing and speaking the immutable, infallible Word
of the living God. They were moved by the Holy Spirit—spake not of
themselves. The word and message they delivered was not something they
invented or that originated with them, but it was a word and message they got
from God. And the Word that they write and that I hold here in my hand is the
unchanging and immutable and fixed Word of God.
Now, I'm going to take
three as an example. First, Moses: “And God said unto Moses, Come up unto the
Lord… And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all
the judgments. And Moses wrote all of the words of the Lord” [Exodus 24:1, 3]. Moses heard them from God Himself and Moses wrote them down and I have
them here in my hand. “And Moses took the Book of the Covenant”—that's what he
calls it after he wrote it down—“and read it in the audience of the people. And
Moses took blood and sprinkled it on the people” and sprinkled it on the book [Exodus 24:8]. The
people and the book were, alike, the possession of God. Not only that, but the
Lord said: “Moses, come up to Me again and I'll give thee tables of stone and a
law and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them to the
people” [Exodus 24:12]. So, old Moses felt that the thing that he wrote down
was the actual Word of God. He received it from the Almighty Himself.
Now, let's take another
one: Jeremiah. “And it came to pass”—in the thirty-sixth chapter of Jeremiah—
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,
that the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying,
Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the
words that I have spoken unto thee, from the day I spake unto thee…from the
days of Josiah, even unto this day…
Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah and
Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord.
[Jeremiah 36:1-2,4]
And I have it here in my hand. He wrote
them upon a roll of a book. “And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all
that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the
Lord in the Lord's house” [Jeremiah 36:8].
I take just one other.
They're all alike. Thus said the Lord—in the second chapter of the Book of
Ezekiel—“And the Lord said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will
speak unto thee. And the Spirit entered into me” [Ezekiel 2:1]. What
did Peter say? “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” [2 Peter 2:1].
And the Spirit entered into me when He spake unto me,
and set me upon my feet, that I heard Him that spake unto me.
And the Lord said, Thou shall speak My words unto
them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear…
Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou
findest; take this roll…
So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat this
roll.
And He said unto me, Son of man, cause thy stomach to
eat, and fill thyself with this roll that I give thee.
[Ezekiel 2:2, 5, 3:1-3]
That is the Word of God. And he ate it,
and stood up and delivered the Word of God to the people. And I have that Word
here in my hand.
Now, we can continue
that all night long. I am just illustrating the fact that these men, holy and
set aside, the prophet of the Old Testament and the apostle of the New
Testament—that, in each one, he was conscious of the fact that the word he
received and the message delivered was of heaven; it was of God. It came from
the courts of glory itself. And I have it here in my hand so I can look at
it. I can examine it. I can read it for myself. These men say this is the
Word of God. These men say they received it from heaven. These men say they
are delivering a message, not that they invented or that originated with them,
but that they received it from God and they wrote it down. And I have it here
in my hand so I can look at it. I can examine it. I can verify it or I can
prove that it is not the Word of God—it is fallible, it is the origination and
invention of man. So, I shall pick it up and look at it, this thing that they
say they got from heaven itself. Well, any man who will examine that Book with
an unbiased mind will stand in amazement and in wonder at what he reads. You
can hardly believe that you could hold in your hand the miracle, the
unbelievable wonder of what has been written in the page of this sacred, sacred
volume.
For example—we're going
to look at it and just see for ourselves—for example, I am amazed at its
scientific accuracy, written thousands and thousands of years before the word
“science” was invented, before men ever heard of a microscope or a telescope,
before logarithms, and weights, and balances, and chemicals and the laws of
astronomy, and physics, and chemistry were even known or heard of. These men,
speaking by the revelation of God, yet speaking scientifically, accurately,
thousands of years before any science was named or known.
Now, if I had about
five weeks, we'd start again in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis.
Well, I preached from that chapter about six months and then didn't get good
and started, just taking all that we know about science and finding everything
we've discovered, finding it exactly said back there in the Bible, thousands of
years before a man ever thought it, before he ever discovered it. Now, I'm
just going to take two passages as illustrative. Look at this unusual verse in
the twenty-sixth chapter of Job and the seventh verse. Listen: “God stretcheth
out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” What
an amazing, scientifically accurate statement. He says two things there in
that one little verse: “God stretcheth out the north over the empty place.”
There is, in the north, in the heaven of the heavens, there is a vast empty
space; fathomless abyss of the night, as though the universe of the worlds had
come to an end; up there in the north, a vast, vast emptiness, an abyss of unfathomable
blackness and night. “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place and hangeth
the earth upon nothing.”
When Job wrote that
sentence, the latest scientific, accepted facts of the day were this; that the
earth was held up by a great giant, and that giant stood on a platform of the
backs of big elephants. And the elephants stood on a great big gigantic
tortoise. And what the tortoise stood on, nobody ever said! That was the
latest science. That was the accepted explanation of the world. But, when Job
wrote, he said, “God hangeth the earth on nothing.” Thousands of years ago he
wrote that.
And I just take one
other. We could be here all night long with just looking at this. In the
fortieth chapter of the prophet Isaiah, in the twenty-second verse, Isaiah says,
“It is He”—talking about who’s like unto the Lord God—“it is He that sitteth
upon the circle of the earth.” When Isaiah wrote that, then for a thousand
years after, the latest scientific theory of the world was that it was flat and
square. And if you'd got to the edge, you'd fall off. That's the reason, when
they gathered around Columbus, they said, “You better not go out there. In the
middle of that ocean is a great monster. And when he breathes—he's taking a
breath—the tides of the sea come up on the seashore. And when he exhales his
breath, the waters of the sea go back. Great big monster: and, if you go out
there in the middle of the sea, you'll go right into his gut.” That's what
they said. That was science in that day. And the world was flat in that day.
But, Isaiah said, “A thousand years, it is He that sitteth upon the circle of
the earth.” It's round, Isaiah said.
Well, we haven't time
for that. We're looking at the Word of the Lord. Sir Herschel said—one of the
great astronomers of all time—he said, “It seems that every discovery of man is
for the purpose, more and more and more strongly, to confirm the accuracy of
the sacred Scriptures.” And it seems that way. Wherever a man digs in the
earth, wherever a spade is placed in the soil, wherever they search among the
ash heaps of ancient Egypt, dig down into the mounds of Tyre and Nineveh,
Babylon and Palestine, there are they unearth, the corroborated testimony of
the infallible Word of God. For example, just in comparatively recent years,
the fourteenth chapter in the Book of Genesis, where you have listed the five
kings under Chedorlaomer, they said that's just historical trash—no
authenticity in it. But, the shovel and the spade, digging down in the earth,
has unearthed corroborated testimony. And every syllable of the fourteenth
chapter of Genesis is exactly as it is written in the Book.
Why, I can remember
when the scholars and the scientists said, “The Hittites, the Hittites, ha, ha,
the Hittites.” There weren’t any Hittites. But, the Bible is full of
Hittites. Did you know that? All through the Old Testament is the Hittites.
Well, they hadn't seen a Hittite. You hadn't seen a Hittite, had you? You
don't know what a Hittite looks like. You don't know what a Hittite looks
like. Well, they never had seen a Hittite either. So, the scientists came to
the conclusion there weren't any Hittites, that it's just a fabrication of the
Word of God.
Now, may the Lord wash
out my mouth once again. In Life magazine, about a year ago, remember—in Life
Magazine, about a year ago, they had a whole issue on the Hittite Empire. Do
you remember that, all of you people who read that trash? They had a whole
issue. They had a whole issue on the Hittite Empire. A great empire had been
on earth, just like it says, in the Word of the Lord.
Why, it hasn't been any
while when those infidels and those higher critics were laughing at Sergius
Paulus. Luke said he was the proconsulate of Cyprus when Paul went there to
preach the gospel—Sergius Paulus. And they laughed and scoffed. Sergius
Paulus: never was anybody that lived like that, much less was a proconsul of
Cyprus. That little humble, homely spade, digging down into the ruins of the
ancient cities of Cyprus, dug up coins. And on those pieces of money, was
stamped the image and the name of Sergius Paulus. And if I had about five days
here, we'd just go through a thousand instances like that where they used to
laugh, and scoff, and ridicule. But, the spade digging down into the earth,
the archaeologist found it to be exactly according to the Word of God. Those
trenches of Tel el-Amarna, those key letters of the Rosetta Stone, that black,
but speaking, face of the Moabite Stone, those great cuneiform inscriptions on
the Behistun Rocks. All of those things they dig up of the papyrii in Egypt,
the palimpsest cracked, and covered, and crinkled, and old, down into the earth
from the very heavens, from the depth of the sea, rising testimony to the
infallible, immutable and accurate Word of the living God.
Why, I can remember
when I first started out in this—I can remember when the critics, the higher
critics, were saying the Gospel of John why, that was a creation of the
Christian community 200, 300 years after Jesus. And lo and behold, throw the
pigeon down into the ash heaps of Egypt, found a papyrus quoting the Gospel of
John as the sacred Word of God. And that papyrus was written between 100 and
125 AD, a good hundred years before the higher critics said John's Gospel had
even been composed. All of these things verify the Word of the Lord.
Now we come to the
great, great authentication and verification. So far as I know, the only faith
and the only religion that has any prophecy, what is to come to pass, is in the
pages of this Book I hold in my hand. And, there's a certain reason for that.
A man can't prophesy. A man can't predict what will happen. A man doesn't
know, but God knows. He sees the end from the beginning. And, this Book is a
book of prophecy. And it tells things that are to come to pass thousands and
centuries of years before they are fulfilled, the Book that I hold in my hand:
God's Book.
All right, let's look
at it. Let's take just a few of the things about the Lord Jesus. I don't know
when God said the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, thousands,
and thousands, and thousands of years before, God said He shall be born of a
woman, of the seed of the woman, a virgin Son, a good two thousand years
almost, before Christ, Israel—Jacob lay dying. And he turned to the fourth
boy. He rejected Reuben. He rejected Simeon. He rejected Levi. He turned to
the fourth boy, Judah, and he said, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes” [Genesis 49:10].
That was a prophecy, almost two thousand years before it was fulfilled, that
Judah, the tribe of Judah, should be attacked until the government—until Jesus should
come. Listen fellow, if you can predict six months in advance, you’re a
genius. You’re unlike anybody ever born in this earth and if you can predict
even ninety days in advance I’ll tell you how to get rich. Can you predict
ninety days in advance? No, well you can’t be rich! Can you predict ninety
days in advance? Then you’re going to be poor all your life! I can tell you
how it get rich, if you know just ninety days in advance. Go down here to
Merrill Lynch Center, bean, brother I forgotten one of them. What, Pierce,
yeah, I forgot Mr. Pierce. Well you go down there and if you know just ninety
days in advance what’s going to happen, you buy stocks that are going up, then
when you know they’re going to go down sell them, then start again, buy a stock
that’s going up, then when it starts going down, you know it, sell it, then
start again, and you’ll be rich in no time; even government taxes or no taxes.
But a man doesn't know what's going to happen six days in advance, much less ninety
days, much less a year. But, here is a man of God, picking out his fourth son,
and prophesying two thousand years in advance what's going to happen.
Take another one.
Micah stands up seven hundred fifty years—how old is America? 1776 to 1957—not
two hundred years yet—Ah here's a man who stands up, and seven hundred fifty years
before the event, he says, “And He's going to be born in that little town of
Bethlehem”—the prophecy of the Word of the Lord. And Zechariah stands up, and five
hundred years before the event, he says, how he's going into the city of
Jerusalem, “riding on an ass, even the foal of an ass,” humble. Not on a charger,
gentle and sweet; and His dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river
to the ends of the earth. Why, when I read in the Book—I can hardly believe
it—thousands of years in advance, prophesy what's going to come to pass.
Now, we could be here
all night long about this. When you read in those prophets and what they're
saying and how it was fulfilled, oh, it's a miracle. When Ezekiel stood up, in
the twenty-sixth chapter of his book, Tyre was in its glory. And, Ezekiel
lifted up his voice and said, “Thus saith the Lord God, and Tyre shall be like
the top of a straight rock.” And, two hundred fifty years later—two hundred
fifty years later—that's a good seventy years longer than the United States is
old—two hundred fifty years later, Alexander the Great came and he built a
causeway from the land to the island of Tyre. Tyre had never been subdued. It
had never been captured. It was impregnable, they said. And Alexander the
Great stormed the city and tore it down and destroyed it and made it like the
top of a straight rock. And the prophet said, “And it shall be that way
forever.” And it is to this day and it will always be that way.
When Nahum stood up—the
prophet, Nineveh was in its glory. And Nahum prophesied exactly how Nineveh
would be destroyed. He wrote it down in a book. And years, and years, and
years later, Nineveh was stormed by the great combination of the east and the
west, by Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar. And, he besieged Nineveh
for two solid years and was unable to break the ramparts. And then the
prophecy of Nahum came to pass: The Tigris River rolls out of its banks, and
beyond its boundaries, and, the furious floodwaters of the Tigris River beat against
the wall of Nineveh and dissolved it and washed it away. And when the tide
subsided, Nabopolassar and his confederates entered through the bridge and
destroyed Nineveh forever. And Nahum wrote that years, and years, and years
before in his book. And you can read it for yourself.
“All right, Preacher.
You have these prophecies of a thousand years ago, and centuries ago; how about
today? How about today? How about now? Does the Bible prophesy now and I can
see it with my eyes?” Yes, sir. The Bible prophesies now and you can see it
with your eyes. I have chosen three things that the Bible prophesies, among a
multitude of other things. I have chosen three things that the Bible
prophesies concerning now. And I can watch it with my eyes. Here's one of
them, “And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of
blasphemy…And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked
out with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand” [Revelation 17: 3,4]. Ah, haven't I seen that, arrayed in scarlet, covered with jewels,
raising the cup, ah, the mother of harlots—mother church? “And I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs… And
when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” [Revelation 17:6]. And who wouldn't? “An angel said unto me, wherefore didst thou marvel?
I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth
her…Here is a mind which hath wisdom. The woman sits upon the beast. And
that beast are the seven mountains on which the woman sitteth” [Revelation 17:7, 9].
Do you know a great
city called ‘the city built on the seven hills?” Did you ever see one in that
mother church dressed in scarlet, covered with jewels, lifting up the host to
the Lord? Don't come with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus,
riding on the back of the beast supported by the government. Why, I can just
see it, read it in a book. There it is. I turn the page. It's just here.
It's all through this Book. This age is entering, the Bible says, a time, and
a last time, when this world will be an armed camp. A nation will be a nation
for an arsenal and secretly, and clandestinely, and furtively, and openly, and
avowedly preparing for war. Preparing for war! Preparing for war! That’s
what the Book says! That’s what the Book says, and I see it with my eyes.
However the United
Nations may resolute, and however NATO may meet, and however the people may
pray for peace, brother, we are preparing for war! The Bible says this whole
world will be an armed camp. And, my soul, the description of that final
battle; “Come says the angel, come that you may eat the flesh of kings and the
flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of all them that
reign, the flesh of all men, free and bond, small and great!” Oh, my soul. What
a catastrophe that’s going to be! And it’s coming! It’s coming! When they
get through with the hydrogen bombs, and the atom bombs and rain death from the
sky, it will be world where “the call of”—God says—“the flesh”. “So many,” the
Bible says, “you can’t bury them; food for the vultures.” I can see that! I
read it now in every paper. It’s the overtone of every country.
Well, I take one
more. I take one more. The Bible has a whole lot to say about the Jew; about
the Jew; prophesies about the Jew. Now, before I begin, and this is my last
one, I want you to realize that for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and
thousands of years, these prophesies were covered with dust and the events of
the world gave the lie to every syllable. But they were written in the Book,
“the flower fadeth and the grass witherith, but the word of God abideth forever;
[Isaiah 40:8] heaven and earth may pass away but God’s word will
never pass away” [Matthew 24:35]. The Jew, the Jew. All right, to start with, Jesus
said, “and he’ll be here till I come again.” He’ll be here till all of these
things are fulfilled; the Jew. The Hittite, and the Girgashite, and Amorite,
and the Moabite, and the Canaanite, and the Hiathite and the Jebusite and the
Hittite, all of them may go away, but the Jew, he’ll still be here.
Then the Lord said some
things about him, and here’s what the Lord said, “And he’ll go back to his
land, unconverted. He’ll go back to Palestine, unsaved. He’ll go back to Palestine,
in rebellion and unbelief. Here the Word of the Lord. Ezekiel 36:
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their
own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was
before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood
that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had
polluted it:
And I scattered them among the nations, and they were
dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their
doings I judged them.
[Ezekiel
36:16-19]
Then He says,
But I had pity for My holy name—
Not on their account;
they’re a recalcitrance, stiff-necked people—
But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of
Israel had profaned. . .
Therefore, say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith
the Lord God. I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine
holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned
among the great nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the
nations shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be
sanctified in you before their eyes.
For I will take you from among the nations, and gather
you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
[Ezekiel 36:21-24]
You unconverted and
obstreperous Jew! You Israelites, who have profaned the name of God! “I’m
going to bring you back to your own land. All right, the next verse:
Then! Then! T-H-E-N! Then, going back in unbelief
and profanation, then! Then, back in the land of unconverted. Then will I
sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. . .
A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I
put within you: and I’ll take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I’ll
give you a heart of flesh.
I’ll put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk
in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments,
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers; and ye shall be my possession and I will be your God.
[Ezekiel 36:25-28]
Then He goes on for the rest of a long
chapter describing the conversion of Israel. Then over here in Zechariah, he
says how they’re going to be converted.
I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications: and they
shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one
mourneth for his only [son].
[Zechariah 12:10]
In that day there shall be open a fountain into the
house of David and to house of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
[Ezekiel
13:1]
And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in
thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house
of my friends.
[Ezekiel
13:6]
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and
will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: and
they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: and I will say, It is My
people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.
[Ezekiel
13:9]
And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of
Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall
cleave in the midst, and there shall be a great valley;
And the Lord God shall come, and all the saints with
Him.
And it shall come to pass that at eventide it shall be
light,
And it shall be in that day that living waters shall
go out from Jerusalem; half of them to the former sea, and half toward the
hinder sea;
And the Lord shall be king over all the earth
[Ezekiel
14:4-9]
And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be
holiness unto the Lord. . .
[Ezekiel
14:21]
And in the words of
Jeremiah,
Behold, saith the Lord, it shall no more be said, the
Lord liveth, that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
But the Lord liveth that brought up the children of
Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands whither he had driven
them
And I will bring them again into their land that I
gave unto their fathers.
[Jeremiah 16:14-15]
And the Book says—
They shall never more be removed—in Amos—in that day,
I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and I will plant them
upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I
have given them, saith the Lord God!
[Amos 9:14-15]
And behold, and behold! Listen to me, for a thousand
years the land of Palestine didn’t have a Jew in it. Not a Jew, not a Jew, not
a one! For a thousand years the land of Palestine was desolate, in waste and
desert. And, the prophecy said they’ll go back, unconverted, and the prophecy
said, some of these days they’re going to be saved. They’re going to look on
Him and they’re going to mourn and I’m going to put a new heart in them and a
new spirit in them. And they’re not going to say anymore, the Lord that
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, but they’re going to say, the Lord that
gathered us from among the nations of the world! They’re going to live in the
land, forever and ever; and no one is going to pluck them up and cast them
aside.
And lo and behold! When I crossed over from the land
of Jordan into the land of Israel through the Mandelbaum Gates, the first thing
I saw, a big placard “And the desert shall blossom like the Rose.” And every
month a magazine comes on my desk entitled, “Land Reborn.” I have twice been
up and down the length of Israel. There once again you hear the lowing of
cattle and the bleating of sheep. There once again are the planted orchards
and the growing of forests. There once again, are the people in their cities
and in their villages. There once again, the hand of God is moving in history,
before my very eyes, and the people are unconverted. They’re not saved,
they’re lost. They’re going home. According to the word of the Lord, after
thousands of years, they’re going home. And some of these days, according to
the word of the Lord, a nation shall be born in a day. Do we have a time for
the long prophesies of the conversion of the chosen people of God? Who would
have thought it? Who would have dreamed it? Who would have known it, but I
read on the sacred pages? There I see developing, in the story and in the
history of the Word, as it is in truth, the Word of God.
Now, we must close. While we sing our song, somebody
you, give his heart to the Lord, somebody you, put his life in the church; somebody
you, a family, coming down this aisle, “Here I am pastor, and here I come, I
give you my hand, I give my heart to God.” To come, to work, to pray to be
with us in this ministry, while we sing this song would you make it now.
While the Spirit of the Lord makes the appeal would you decide for Christ?
Into the aisle, down here to the front, “Here I am pastor, here I come.” While
we stand and while we sing.
.
