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"WHAT'S NEXT?"
Intro. Our nation has been attacked. Thousands perished in this last wave of the attack. The twin 110-story towers of the World Trade Center are no more. The Pentagon was partially destroyed. Had they not immediately closed the airlines, only God knows what other targets might have been hit. Our troops worldwide are on the highest alert, and everyone is wondering what's next? How long before they strike again, and how will they strike, and when are we going to strike back? And who will we strike?
I. THINGS THAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE TERRORISTS.
A. Their announced goal is what they call the liberation of Palestine and the destruction of the state of Israel.
B. To this end they have declared a Jihad or holy war against Israel, and it would appear now also against the United States.
1. According to the teaching of Islam, the only way one can guarantee an instant access into paradise is to be a martyr in a Jihad. That is why they are willing to die in a suicide attack.
C. We know that they are willing to go to any end to accomplish their goals.
1. They are not adverse to chemical or biological warfare.
2. They are willing to take over a jet and fly the passengers into a skyscraper killing thousands of innocent people to accomplish their goals.
3. They are convinced that terrorist activities and the use of suicide squads are the means by which they can bring our nation to its knees.
4. What has been widely discussed is a possibility of an attack using limited nuclear devises that could be smuggled in to the country in something as small as a suitcase.
5. Whether or not they have yet developed such a capability is not known, but we do know that Saddam Hussein has been seeking with the aid of Russia to develop a nuclear capability, and it is thought that such capability has already been developed by Iran.
6. Both of these nations have spoken of their desire and intentions to destroy first Israel, and then the United States. They refer to us as the great Satan.
7. They know that we are the greatest hindrance standing in the way of their goal of converting the world to Islam.
8. It is alarming to realize that the followers of this religion have entrenched themselves right here in the United States, where they claim some fifteen million followers.
D. Dave Hunt speaks of a film made for PBS in the 80's by Steven Emerson, it was titled "Jihad in America." He filmed Muslim cell groups right here in the US. where eager young Muslims were being recruited for Jihad against the United States. The Muslim leaders are shown giving speeches about bringing America to its knees through terrorism. One of the leaders Fayiz Azzam in Brooklyn in 1989 said: "Blood must flow, there must be widows, orphans, hands and limbs must be severed and limbs and blood must be spread everywhere in order that Allah's religion stand on its feet. The video shows another leader in Kansas City recruiting Holy Warriors against the United States. He exhorts,"O brothers, After Afghanistan nothing in the world is impossible for us anymore. There are no super powers or mini-powers, what matters is will power that springs from our religious belief." Another Muslim leader in the U.S. said that Washington's Capitol Hill is Zionist occupied territory,
that the Jews controlled congress, and that the United States deserves what it gets as long as it supports Israel. The vast majority of Muslims are peace loving people, but you must wonder why they would follow a religion that is violent from its very roots and from the beginning has been spread by the sword? We know that the terrorists have training camps in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.
E. We know that they have been training for years for this war, and they possess the wealth to carry it out.
F. You might say that this week, we finally recognized that the war against us has been going on for many years. The Pam Am flight that was blown up over Scotland was a part of this war. We are reeling from this latest assault, even as we were reeling after Pearl Harbor. Where we were again the victims of a deadly and vicious sneak attack.
G. In nations where Islam has the ruling authority, we have seen the pictures of thousands filling the streets chanting their hatred for the U.S. as they burned the American flag.
1. There are no religious freedoms in those nations ruled by Islam.
a. If you dared to carry a Bible on the street in Saudi Arabia you would be arrested.
b. Relief workers in Afghanistan are on trial for their lives right now for allegedly teaching children about Christianity.
2. The Islamic government in the Sudan has been systematically killing hundreds of thousands of Christians, capturing children and selling them as slaves, while the world turns its head the other way.
II. LET US SET OUT A POSSIBLE SCENARIO.
A. Let us supposee that this might have been just a diversionary attack. That they will seek to strike soon again perhaps with limited nuclear devises, and while we are so consumed with trying to defend ourselves, that they will hit their primary target, Israel.
B. Leaving the realm of speculation, what do we know for certain?
1. In the last days the Moslem nations with the aid of Russia are going to attack Israel, with the intent of destroying them.
2. The numbers will be vast that they are described as being like a cloud covering the land.
C. It is very possible that we are on the verge of the war described by Ezekiel in chapter 38.
1. We know that chapter 36 describes the agricultural development of the land of Israel in the last days. The barren mountains would be covered with trees, the barren land covered with wheat fields. The wilderness would become like the garden of Eden. This has been fulfilled.
2. Chapter 37 prophesied the rebirth of the nation of Israel, this also has been fulfilled.
3. Chapter 38 describes the invasion of Israel by a consortium of Moslem nations. This has not yet taken place but could be what is ready to take place now.
4. This invasion we are told would take place in the last days. When the Jews once again occupied the land.
D. What's next? A surprising entrance into the battle by God Himself.
Ezekiel 38 tells us what God said he would do. "And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that [are] with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I [am] the LORD."
1.
Ezekiel 39 tells us of how complete will be His victory over this invading army.
a. 5/6 of the invaders will be destroyed.
b. It will take 7 months to bury the dead.
2. We are then told in chapter 39 that once God has intervened and destroyed Israel's enemies, God promised:
EZE 39:29 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.
3. At the present time, God's Spirit has been poured out upon His church made up of believers from all nations.
4. When God's Spirit is poured out on the Jews once again, it means that the church will have departed from the earth, and God will begin his final 7-year period with the Jews and the holy city of Jerusalem.
5. Joel speaks of this outpouring of the Spirit in chapter 2:28.
JOE 2:28 And it shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
JOE 2:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.
JOE 2:30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
JOE 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
JOE 2:32 And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
III. WHAT SHOULD WE AS A NATION DO AT THIS JUNCTURE?
A. We need to repent of our sins and seek God's forgiveness.
1. A week ago the major T.V. networks had just advertised plans to blaspheme God on their newest programs to increase ratings.
2. ABC's Philly plans on using a profanity that has never been allowed before.
3. CBS executives told the Times that they are considering using scripts that include every crude word imaginable including words never used before on major television.
4. CBS will air Wolf Lake, a place where people become wolves. The program will begin with a nudity warning and they say that the first episode contains a particularly revealing sex scene.
5. Aaron Sorkin, of NBC's West Wings says he wants to break longstanding network taboo's this year by blaspheming God. He wants the character to curse in a way that uses the Lord's name in vain.
6. We are not a nation of multiple gods, Allah, Buddha, Satan, we allow people to worship these other gods, but we were founded as a Christian nation as was declared by our founding fathers.
B. You may sing "God bless America" but God can't bless America until there is a true repentance by America for turning our backs on God and asking Him to bug out of our public life, and we acknowledge Him as the only true God, the Creator of all things.
C. You may sing, "America, America, God shed His grace on thee," but until there is true repentance you can be sure that the wrath of God will be poured out upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness.
D. We were shocked when they tried to bring down the World Trade Center with a car bomb a few years ago, and they were chagrined when they failed. But they came back again with a greater and deadlier force and were successful in bringing the towers down and doing one billion dollars worth of damage to the Pentagon.
E. They were thwarted in an attempt to spread the terror to the West coast by the speedy action of the government, however, unless stopped, they will be back again, and perhaps with even greater force, and quite possibly the West Coast will not avoid the next wave of attacks.
F. I think that we have discovered that in these days the only true security that a person can have is in Jesus Christ. On Christ the solid Rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand.
G. The purpose of waging a war of terrorism is to create debilitating fear. Shall we live in fear?
PSA 46:1 God [is] our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
PSA 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
PSA 46:3 [Though] the waters thereof roar [and] be troubled, [though] the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
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