THE WARRIOR, JESUS CHRIST
THE WARRIOR, JESUS CHRIST
(Isaiah 63)
Sunday, July 20, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Isaiah 63:4-5: “The day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold…”
It appears that none of the leaders of the nations have the courage to push back against Russia after the bombing of the Malaysian airplane and the murder of 300 innocent people. “I looked and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold…”
Surely the blood of the innocent victims of Malaysia flight 17 is crying out, "who will avenge us?"
As I reflect on the conference, “The Call of the Warrior”, I must believe without presumption that it was a prophetic” sign” of the times for Israel, the nations of the world and for the Christian Church to arise “UP, for this is the day, the Lord will deliver His people into victory.”
I had two signs of this victory in my family.
That which we as ministers of the gospel have warned will happen is now happening. We have cried out to the people, and the leaders of nations to repent and turn to God, or judgment will fall upon the nations of the earth. Psalm 2:2: “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
The Holy Bible speaks of two great wars before the war of Armageddon. These wars are known as the Psalm 83 war which will be a 10-nation confederacy against Israel. This will coincide with the destruction of Damascus in Isaiah 17:1: “Behold Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap…” Psalm 83:4: “They have said, come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.”
The second unfulfilled war is the Gog/Magog war described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. I believe it is in the early development stages with the conflict in the Ukraine.
Today there are 62 countries involved in war. Most of these nations are in war with Islamic militants who are financed and supported by Iran and Russia. The Muslim Brotherhood is financed by the United States of America who has supported the Arab Spring rebellions.
Gog represents every evil force that is marshaled against the" Whole House of Israel"(39:25). Ezekiel 38 and 39 are one prophecy and tell of a northern confederacy of nations around the Black and Caspian seas with Persia. and North Africa. These nations are ruled in the realm of the spirit by the spirit of communism and the spirit of Islam.
(I am familiar who Gog is presumed to be historically as well as the future ruler of Russia).
These nations include Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, North West India and Russia; plus Persia (Iran) and North Africa (Ethiopia and Libya). If this passage is apocalyptic, as this writer believes it is, then Gog is Satan personified as the chief prince in this league of nations. These nations have economic and environmental confederacies in place which are give them an upper hand to intimidate Europe. As we have studied apocalyptic literature in the Holy Bible, we clearly identify the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Grecia as demonic chief princes over the Middle eastern and Mediterranean nations. According to the prophecy in Ezekiel 38 and 39, These powers and principalities will come together under one demonic Prince, (Gog). Russia and the northern powers have long been persecutors of dispersed Israel in alliance with the Islamic nations.
On March 17, 2012, the Lord spoke to me, “the war has begun.” I felt at that time that the bombing of Israel by the Palestinians in Gaza was the early stages of the formation of the Psalm 83 war.
Our study focus going into “The Call of the Warrior Conference” of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:33-34 were as follows:
- Their Call
- Their Commission
- Their unique weapons of warfare
- Their endowment of power from God.
- Their victory through faith and grace.
Today I honor the Spirit of the Warrior, Jesus Christ, who has fought and defeated all of our enemies.
I believe on the Sunday evening service a “cloud" of “Great Grace” fell on the assembly. Through this visitation of “Great Grace” it is my persuasion we received a supernatural endowment. We were not seeking the "endowment". We were seeking the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are set free into liberty which has the courage to risk, the endurance to lose and learn to accept rejection, but never lose hold of our hope. Hope often despairs and yet despair will hope until hope becomes a certainty.
There is a Spirit of grace which never accepts defeat is not broken by disappointment or discouragement and never gives up.
The Old Testament speaks of eight patriarchs and the nation of Israel who found grace in the Lord eyes.
Ephesians 4:7: “Every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”
Psalm 84:11: “The Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
2 Ti. 1:9: Our Lord…”who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”
Rom 11:5: “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”
Our victory over our spiritual enemies has been obtained by the grace of God in Christ. We find the garments dipped in blood adorning Him whose name is called the Word of God. (Rev. 13)
Isa. 63:1-6: “Who is this who comes from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?---I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is your apparel red, and your garments like one who treads in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, and trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all my robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, and I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; and My own fury, it sustained Me. I have trodden down the peoples in my anger, made them drunk in My fury, and brought down their strength to the earth.”
The question is put to the conqueror, “Who is this?” He tells who He is: “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save”. He is the Savior. He speaks in righteousness and will make good every Word that He has spoken. He is mighty to save, and able to bring about the promised redemption.” (Matthew Henry)
Edom is singled out and is here a symbol of all the inveterate enemies of God’s people. (Rev. 19:15) “And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and he treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”
The prophet sees in vision a magnificent conqueror, stained with the blood of His enemies, returning from Edom, and from its capital Bozrah. He is a warrior flushed with victory, un-subdued, un-weakened, and coming with the pride and stateliness of conquest. He is a great and Holy Deliverer. Why His gorgeous robes are thus polluted with blood becomes also a question of intense anxiety. The reply of the Conqueror is that He was sent forth to subdue mighty foes; that He went alone; that there was none that could aid; and that he had trodden them down as a treader of grapes treads in the winepress. The whole image here is that of a triumphant, blood-stained warrior, returning from conquest. This is a graphic and vivid picture of the Lord Jesus Christ following His eternal and fully-victorious, all-encompassing, once-for-all victory over the nations, sin, sickness, poverty, fear, Satan, death, hell and the grave! It is finished! “(Jn. 19:30) (Kelly Varner, Principles of Present Truth from Isaiah)
He gains the victory purely by his own power. But his people, for whom the salvation was to save, were weak and helpless, desponding, listless and had no heart to do anything. “I looked and there was none to help, none to uphold, and none that had the courage to join with the Lord against their oppressors. God still helps with all other helpers fail.
This scene is the glorious victory of Jesus Christ in the present, the future and the finished work on the cross. Rev. 11:15: “And the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.
Jesus is this righteous One, Mighty to save. He is the captain of our salvation, and is the Head of a glorious army (Joel 2: 1-11). Here we see Him Who has prevailed. This is Jesus the over-comer, the Heavenly David Who has defeated all His foes. Satan is defeated!” (Kelly Varner)
Now we stand at the threshold of the glorious church rising triumphant to walk in this victory as over-comers:
Heb. 10: 32-39: Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those in prison and joyfully accepted the spoiling of your goods, because you knew that you have in heaven better and more lasting possessions.
So do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” But we are not one of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who believe and are saved.”
“He defeated sin and Satan by Himself. He took our sin and gave us His righteousness. Rev. 19:8: “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”
Jesus’ indwelling presence is a resource—that we may not be victims, but victorious. It is because of His presence that we dare to fight.
“This is the Day of the Lord’s vengeance upon His enemies. This did happen (in his death, burial, and resurrection); this is happening in our daily lives as we ever put on and appropriate His eternal victory and conquest over all enemies. It will happen in it’s consummation as His people fully put on and appropriate His eternal victory and conquest.”
Our Lord Jesus wrought our redemption in a Holy zeal for the honor of His Father and the happiness of mankind; and a Holy indignation at the daring attempts Satan had made upon both. “The day of vengeance is in My heart…The year of my redeemed has come.”
He will obtain a complete victory over all of His people. He now appears red in his apparel. In the destruction of the anti-Christian powers, we meet with abundance of bloodshed. (Rev. 20:13).
The skills of war-making although not always valued by Christian ethicists are a necessary part of existence in a hostile environment (author unknown).
There is no defeat in Jesus; we can’t go under for going over
As we are now experiencing the threats of Iran against Israel, (39:1-2) "I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal and I will turn you back, and leave but the sixth part of you, and will cause you to come up from the north parts, and will bring you upon the mountains of Israel." (38:20b) "All the men 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."
I believe all of Christendom believes these threats of Iran against Israel and the U.S.A are the birth pains of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39. Also, we see the storms, fires and earthquakes shaking the nations of the earth.
Now in the 21st Century we see the spirit of anti-Christ moving across the earth through Islam. All of these nations have embraced this spirit. Even Russia with the spirit of communism i.e. the spirit of Russia is a government of destruction, cruelty, suspicion, oppressive and sets one against another. In all of these nations, terrorism, fear and deception are the powers and principalities. God is going to put a hook in the jaw of all these spirits and destroy them (Ez. 38:4). God is going to bring these spirits to the Mountains of Israel (Nation of Israel and Sons of God i.e. The Whole House of Israel (39:25) and destroy them literally and spiritually. “And all the nations of the earth shall know that He is the Lord Our God.”
Iran is not identified in Psalm 83. Ancient Elam is present day Iran. Jeremiah 49: 35-39: “Thus says the Lord of hosts; Behold I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. Upon Elam I will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life; and I will bring evil upon them; even My fierce anger, says the Lord, and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them; and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy them there the king and the princes, says the Lord. But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, says the Lord.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – See Sermon Notes, Pastor Carolyn Sissom www.eastgateministries.com “God/Magog 5/15/2008; Psalm 83 war 5/18/12; The Warrior 5/29/11; Pastor Carolyn Sissom; F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary; Kelly Varner’s Principles of Present Truth from Isaiah and Ezekiel; Matthew Henry. Comments and conclusions are my own as led by the Holy Spirit.