[0:00] Good morning. It's good to see each and every one of you come out this morning to fellowship together, to worship together.
[0:11] And as we discussed this morning, our God desires to be worshipped. And worship in itself is given by us freely as we choose to recognize God as our Creator.
[0:33] And so true worship recognizes the Lord in heaven. And so thank you for being here. I want to touch base on one announcement and one prayer item before we go into the message.
[0:47] And the announcement, the leadership classes. Now, when we hear that word leadership classes, that can be a little bit scary.
[1:01] Because maybe our thoughts go right away to church leadership. And it may be that the Lord would someday direct you into such.
[1:15] But this is much wider and broader than that, in that we lead all over the place. So this class is designed for men. The books that we use are designed for men.
[1:29] And the focus is very heavily on your character being developed as a man of God. Whether you're leading at home, at work, in Sunday school, wherever it is, where you're mingling with mankind, these characters will come out.
[1:55] And so it's not necessarily that you will be the preacher here someday, or whatever. It has nothing to do with that, but rather it's to build us up, to grow us into the image of Christ.
[2:11] And I would like for... So we've done these leadership classes twice, and they usually run for a year, every other Saturday. But I would like all the men that have taken this class to stand up.
[2:24] Okay. So if you've been in this leadership class, there's actually some more that aren't here, obviously.
[2:38] But... Because I think we've had about 20 go through it so far. But if you have questions, ask one of these men. How did it go for you? And so just an encouragement.
[2:48] I've planned for the first one to start on October 12th, a Saturday morning at 9. And from there, we can schedule future what works for everyone.
[3:00] But we have to make a start. So we encourage you, if you can make it out, if you have a desire to become more like Christ, this is the place for you. Secondly, the prayer request for the Billy Graham Association, those meetings, coming up on November 8th and 9th, in Grand Prairie at the Bonnet Energy Center.
[3:29] And it's all the churches in the region working together to bring them in and to host this evangelistic meetings where Will Graham will be the speaker, the grandson of Billy.
[3:46] And what can we do? Well, we had the classes here back in June, if you want to be a counselor there.
[3:59] They're offered again October 5th. And if you missed those classes on June 8th here at Mountview, October 5th, in one of the churches in town, it's being offered again.
[4:12] So if you would like a little more training, there's an opportunity. I forget which church it was, whether it was West Point or Alliance. West Point? Okay. So it's at West Point.
[4:24] And it's, I think, a six-hour program. But other than that, what can we do if we have people in our life that are unsaved?
[4:39] To pray for them already. To pray for them continually for their salvation. And invite them to come to the meetings.
[4:56] And trust the Lord to work to motivate them to come. Now, if everyone in this room would invite two people and pray for them from now till the event, and if there's 250 people here this morning, that would be 500 more that are getting prayed for.
[5:25] And knowing our Lord, some of them will give their heart to the Lord that day. Or sooner. So there is something each and every one of us can do.
[5:36] Whether you are a child here this morning, a youth, an adult, or a grandpa, or grandma. We all have a spot in this.
[5:48] And it's, God is in the business of saving people. And He uses us. Okay, so that's, just wanted to touch base on that, to make us aware of that.
[6:01] It's going to be a two-day event, Friday night and Saturday night, at the Bonnard Energy Center, November 8th and 9th. And I think there's a kids program Saturday morning.
[6:13] A kids fest. So, that's there as well. All right. Why don't we, why don't we get up and stretch and say hi to our neighbor before we dig into the message.
[6:35] Good morning.
[7:05] Okay.
[7:32] Okay. We're going to be talking this morning about the Kingdom Age. I've titled the message that, The Kingdom Age.
[7:45] And it is all about the, the millennium, the thousand-year reign that, that follows the tribulation period.
[7:56] And so we want to touch in on a few aspects of that. Now, as we look at that concept, I want to just, just ask, is that a real thing to us?
[8:18] Do we really think that Jesus will come and rule for a thousand years? We have a couple guys on board here.
[8:29] We have an awful lot of Scripture unexplained if we don't believe this.
[8:41] Our God is a God all-powerful. And He has promised the Jews, but, but the entire world, there will come a Kingdom Age here on earth.
[8:57] You know, sometimes we try to make life here as close to paradise as we can. Today, we always strive to improve life, but you know, we don't do so good, do we?
[9:15] And that's because we live under the curse. and we can try to perfect things and just make life without any ripples.
[9:27] The Lord will not have it so. But there is a Kingdom coming where it will be so. And as we endure here the the the thorns and thistles that the Lord allows in our lives, we look forward to the coming Kingdom.
[9:50] And as a church, as we will live in that Kingdom Age free from the power of sin. Amen?
[10:03] Free from the power of sin. So it is a biblical concept. I chose to start off in Daniel and thank you, Pedro, for reading those verses again.
[10:15] And I want to just brief us again on the prophet Daniel in captivity in Babylon 500 and some years before Jesus Christ was born.
[10:30] God revealed visions to him and here it was right in the beginning closer to the year 600 where Nebuchadnezzar had his first vision.
[10:44] And it was a spectacular one and the Lord brought it around that he refused to tell his wise men what his dream was and no one could tell him what he had dreamed.
[11:00] Nevertheless, interpret it and Daniel was found to tell the king this is what you saw as you're laying in your bed. And he saw this statue this huge figure the head of gold and the chest and the arms of silver and the waist and the thighs of bronze the legs of iron and the feet and the toes partly iron and partly clay.
[11:38] and God revealed through a pagan king to Daniel to all of us the human governments that would come to bring in the kingdom.
[11:58] and as Daniel interprets he points out he says Nebuchadnezzar you are that head of gold and the Babylonian empire ruled the majority of the known world at that time.
[12:21] You are that head of gold but after you another king shall arise and this is all history to us the Medes and the Persians they conquered the Babylonians and we had a second kingdom and under the Medes and the Persians the Jews were allowed to go back to Jerusalem and then they were the silver decreasing in value gold at the top silver bronze iron and clay the third kingdom of bronze and it was the Greeks the Greek kingdom I think from the year 330 right to 63 before Christ Alexander the Great conquered the kingdom away from the Medes and the Persians and conquered even more territory and he was known as a as a monster just very intense in his conquering
[13:34] Alexander the Great I remember learning about him in school and it's actually referenced to in scripture this kingdom it's all history it's happened just like the dream said and then the fourth kingdom the legs of iron we know is the Roman Empire the Roman Empire which started in the year 63 before Christ and existed through the life of Christ on earth and actually continued right to 460ish somewhere in there after Christ and the Romans lost their world empire their control their grip on the world the legs of iron and we have the feet and the toes left over and the ten toes much reference is made to that of the ten kings of a revived
[14:42] Roman empire that will come in the last days all of this represented in this statue human government one form after another what's very intriguing is that that after Daniel sees the statue or relates the vision and interprets it he talks about this stone and let's turn to verse 44 Daniel chapter 2 verse 44 and in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever in as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron the bronze the clay the silver and the gold the great
[15:57] God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this the dream is certain its interpretation is sure so most of this has happened we have yet to see the era where the ten kings represented by the feet and the toes will will revive and govern this earth and like Daniel says later on in chapter seven and eight the antichrist will conquer three of those ten and he will become the eighth but here it says in the days of those kings of those ten kings the the god of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed so when this world will experience this ten kingdom world government ultimately in the second half of the tribulation period governed by antichrist who will take over those kings and rule over them god will usher in he will that stone made without hands will come and crush all human government pulverize it it's wiped out done forever done forever and this kingdom will grow and subdue and fill the whole earth the kingdom of god it's the millennial kingdom 2,600 years ago
[18:03] Daniel interpreted this and I think we're very close that's exciting that's exciting as we see scripture being fulfilled a thousand years here on earth where it will truly be paradise and we're going to look at a few features of it as we go through this and so this this kingdom to come is promised first and foremost to the Jewish people but there will be Gentiles that will inherit it as well but throughout scripture the theme is that
[19:05] God will bring the Jews through and when Christ returns they will recognize the Messiah and they will have their kingdom where Jesus will rule and as you read the gospels time after time the disciples ask about the kingdom when is it coming when are you going to conquer human government the Romans and Jesus says it's not for you to know the times or the seasons but it's coming he did not deny that it's not happening but it's yet future and so we have that very strong in scripture I want us to read a few passages in the Old Testament Jeremiah chapter 30 Jeremiah 30 if you have your Bibles turn with me
[20:08] Jeremiah 30 and starting in verse 4 now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah for thus says the Lord we have heard a voice of trembling of fear and not of peace ask now and see whether a man is ever in labor with child so why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor and all faces turn pale alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is the time of
[21:09] Jacob's trouble but he shall be saved out of it for it shall come to pass in that day says the Lord of hosts that I will break his yoke from your neck and burst your bonds foreigners shall no more enslave them but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king whom I will raise up for them therefore do not fear O my servant Jacob says the Lord nor be dismayed O Israel for behold I will save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity Jacob shall return and have rest and be quiet and no one shall make him afraid for I am with you says the Lord to save you though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you yet I will not make a complete end of you but I will correct you in justice and will not let you go altogether unpunished
[22:10] Israel is back in their land but are they at peace if you watch the last 48 hours the fighting with Hezbollah has intensified tremendously and they're about to declare open war as Israel has all their north is displaced they're refugees they can't be at home but anyway here there's a time of peace coming God has promised Israel and I will save you from afar I will save you from afar the
[23:11] Lord has said I will punish Israel they will face justice but I will not make a complete end of them and that goes hand in hand with Zechariah that says two thirds will perish and one third will survive Israel is facing continued judgment right to the coming of Christ because they have rejected the Messiah so this millennial kingdom is first and foremost for them let's turn the chapter Jeremiah 31 and starting in verse 31 Jeremiah 31 verse 31 behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of
[24:13] Israel and with the house of Judah so this is not the church this is with Israel not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt my covenant which they broke though I was a husband to them says the Lord but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people this has not yet happened it is coming future thus says the
[25:22] Lord who gives the sun for a light by day the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night who disturbs the sea and its waves roar the Lord of hosts is his name if those ordinances depart from before me says the Lord then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever thus says the Lord if heaven can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath I will also cast off the seed of Israel for all that they have done says the Lord so how sure is it that Israel will survive all these wars so so so so then as we look at the kingdom age the
[26:45] Jewish people one third of them that survived the tribulation period will populate the tribulation period so as we as we look or move on from that and we look at the thousand year reign I think I said something wrong here the Jews will not populate the tribulation period but the millennium sorry I caught myself there so as we look at the thousand year reign it's well documented but it's only in in Revelations chapter 20 where it is where it is documented six times that it's going to be a millennium a thousand years literally it says a thousand years and that's the only place where we have the actual length of this kingdom now I want
[27:55] I want us to bring to attention and we did that this morning in our adult Sunday school class but we're tracing how God has worked with mankind throughout history and from creation to Abraham the calling of the Jewish nation is two thousand years from the year four thousand before Christ to two thousand and we have much that happened in those first two thousand years the sin the fall of man the flood God starting over again then calling Abraham at two thousand at one thousand we have the kingdom established here on earth not a godly kingdom but a foretaste of it and who was the king king David king
[28:56] David and and then from two thousand to zero another two thousand years we enter the church age where Jesus Christ came to die for the sins of old testament believers and new okay so we have God working over four thousand years in the old and in middle of that Abraham was called and he split that half again David was there and he is a foretaste of the kingdom to come because in Israel's history those were their glorious years under David and David was a man after God's own heart and so that brings us into the church age age of grace and we are now approaching 2,000 years into this age of grace and so we have 2,000 to
[30:01] Abraham another two to Christ and another two to where we're at today we have 6,000 years and the Bible speaks of another thousand the millennium we are to know the times and the seasons when God created he created in how many days in six days and on the seventh day he rested and we have 6,000 years of history 6,000 days and then the seventh day he rested the millennium will be a time of rest a time of rest from war it'll be a time of prosperity of peace as Jesus will rule here on earth it will be the
[31:01] Sabbath day rest coming upon this earth as we've had 4,000 years of turmoil in the Old Testament and I think the church age we would describe in the world as turmoil as well there's a time of rest coming and so we are to know the times and the seasons and I think the church age the birthday of the church is roughly the year 33 and so we are approaching 2,000 years of church history we ought to be excited and waiting and if we're not we are to get ready and not to be like the five foolish virgins who had not bought oil for the coming of
[32:11] Christ to light their lamps but we are to be ready and to be like the wise virgins who are prepared for the coming of Christ this lays out the entire Bible in its timeline and then after that millennium we're going to have a destruction of the heavens and the earth and we'll have a new earth and a new heavens and a new Jerusalem and it'll be the eternal state it'll be forever and ever and ever and ever how long is that we can't we can't fathom can we right till the end of the thousand years it's time bound we put a number on it we know what that means but after that to be with God for all eternity and to experience
[33:16] God in his riches we're not going to get through all of this there's so much material on this and instead of speeding through it we're going to maybe take only part of it today the so the duration of the millennium is a thousand years what's its government going to be like who's all going to rule all believers who else Christ with his bride and we're told that Jesus will rule with a rod of iron so there will be there will be no rebellion during his rule he's going to rule with efficiency we're also told that God will raise up King
[34:28] David as a prince and he will rule with Christ and we're told that that all believers will rule with him but we don't have the details on what my part will be or yours but we do have these names mentioned so Jesus will be here physically ruling the world and under him we will be ruling with him and I anticipate it there will be millions of us believers that will be ruling with Christ looking at a few verses here in Ezekiel 34 Ezekiel 34 verse 23 and 24
[35:36] I will establish one shepherd over them and he shall feed them my servant David he shall feed them and be their shepherd and I the Lord will be their God and my servant David a prince among them I the Lord have spoken and so if you read about King David in the Old Testament well he is going to be a figure in the millennium ruling as a king or as a prince now chapter 37 Ezekiel verse 24 and 25 David my servant shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd they shall also walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them then they shall dwell in the land that
[36:39] I've given to Jacob my servant where your fathers dwelt and they shall dwell there they their children and their children's children forever and my servant David shall be their prince forever forever and so we have David mentioned at least three times in prophecy that he will be a prince a king in the millennium and so so with that we will have a theocracy that finally we're going to revert back to God ruling the world and back in in Samuel's day when the people of Israel demanded a king to rule over them it displeased God we know the story it displeased God but they said we want a king like all the pagans around us they all have kings and God was displeased because in their hearts they were rejecting him as their king and so instead of their priesthood and their system that they had going directly to God they wanted a king who would give them orders that's a human mindset and so
[38:14] God is reverting he's going to crush all human kingdoms and now the Lord himself will be the king and we're going back to what God wanted in the first place a theocracy is what it's called where there's one God and he is ruled turning to Isaiah chapter 9 a passage that's read at Christmas time verse 6 in chapter 9 Isaiah for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty
[39:20] God everlasting father prince of peace and then verse 7 of the increase of the increase of his there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this so as we read this prophecy about the coming Christ child born in Bethlehem and so on as a baby well verse 7 has never happened did Jesus rule on earth during his first 30 years not at all not in a political sense the only way he ruled was by telling truth by revealing the word of
[40:25] God and but here it talks about his government his prophecy so we see this prophecy in Isaiah is fulfilled in two stages his first coming and his second coming and so it verifies that he will come and the throne of David he is a descendant of David will be passed on to him and the Lord will rule and he will do it with judgment and justice and every decision that is made here on earth will be fair and right in other words there will be no corruption and and those of us that have been to Mexico and Bolivia and some of those countries where you can buy off almost anything with money it's not going to happen after that day
[41:28] Jesus will rule with righteousness okay that's very clear so Jesus and then King David and the saints with him and let's turn to Revelations chapter 2 letters to the churches Revelations 2 verse 26 and 27 so the letter to the church in Tyre and he ends the letter with 26 and 27 and he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end to him I will give power over the nations he shall rule them with a rod of iron they shall be dashed to pieces like a potter's vessels as I also have received from my father and so as believers as overcomers we will be given power over the nations to rule with
[42:41] Christ and then back to chapter 20 in Revelations verse and verse six blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ shall reign with him a thousand years and so John reveals that to us as well and so which believers will it be that reign with him the overcomers and a while back I spoke on the different resurrections and there again
[43:44] I think I had had my order mixed up again but the order of the resurrections is Jesus Christ coming out of the grave on the first day of the week on Easter and then following that other graves were opened and saints appeared in Jerusalem and then after that we have the rapture we have the rapture and then after the rapture after the seven years in revelations 20 we have the tribulation saints come back to life and they too are given a new body and they too will rule and then old testament saints Daniel chapter 12 verse 1 and 2 they will be resurrected and king
[44:45] David among them and so in essence all believers prior to the millennium will by this time be resurrected and they will all reign with him and yet the dead without Christ will remain dead for another thousand years and so that is some of the circumstances surrounding that okay so with that we're going to I think I'll pause there and we'll look more at the millennium there's worship during the millennium so next time I speak I'll cover that and the conditions of prosperity here you know we often hear of the prosperity gospel well wait till the millennium we're going to see that happen and it's not going to be a prosperity gospel it's going to be a kingdom of prosperity and so that that is coming as well as we as we toil on is that is that a good word toil on as we toil on day to day we need to know
[46:17] God's plans his promises we need to know what's ahead and you know there are days when our flesh maybe rears up and we feel like giving up but it's truth that keeps us toiling on it's that knowledge that inner understanding from my heart that God has a plan for his people so I want to encourage us with that as we leave this building here this morning and we face Monday morning that the time is at hand it's coming soon let's pray father we we are mortal all of us will face a physical death unless you come in the rapture during our lifetime father all of us are bound by time and by man's strength but by faith we put our trust in your strength it's by faith
[48:35] Lord that we accept what you've written in your word it's by faith that we anticipate it it's by faith that we are sure it's coming and it's by faith Lord that we walk with you may you be glorified not only today but tomorrow and the day after in our everyday work as we continue to believe and to serve you in Jesus name amen