The Prophesied Kingdom – Part 1

Transcript

GRM 992
12/9/2007
The Prophesied Kingdom – Part 1
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh


We are privileged to have revelation from God that unfolds for us what God has done in past history, what He is doing today, and where we are going, what the climax of earth's history will be. And for us as the children of God it is a revelation filled with hope, it is a revelation that promises glory, it is a revelation that reveals assured victory, the time when Jesus Christ will rule and reign over all things. We live in a sin-cursed world, sin manifests itself in terribly and ugly ways and sometimes in the misery that sin brings and the conflict and confusion that seems to characterize the world, we wonder is there any order. But we looked in our previous study at the fact that God is sovereign King, ruling over all. The Bible reveals that there is a universal kingdom or a general kingdom, which simply means that God by virtue of the fact that He has created everything is sovereign over everything and everyone. And it is His purposes, it is His intentions that are being accomplished in the world. And that is true in the most terrible disasters as well as in the times of greatest blessing. God is using all things to accomplish His purposes.

The climax of earth's history will be in the establishing of a kingdom on this earth. We talked about the general or universal kingdom of God that includes everyone and everything. It includes every single human being that has ever been born or ever will be born. It includes the demons and the devil, it includes the good angels, it includes God's children, it includes unregenerate godless people. It includes all the animals, it includes people in Hades, it includes people in heaven, it includes people on earth. So that general universal kingdom of God's is His sovereign rule and control over every single, small detail of the creation that He has brought into existence, and He reigns as sovereign over.

What I want to talk about with you, and we won't get it all done today, is I want to talk about the kingdom that is prophesied and promised in the scripture. The general universal kingdom exists, everybody in the world is in it because we are part of creation. But there is a kingdom promised and prophesied in scripture and it is very important for us to understand what that kingdom is, what it entails. And there is disagreement over this. We need to be clear. Some people think we are in that kingdom today, some people think that we are going by our efforts to help improve the world and some day it will come in as a result of our work and efforts. And some people believe the world is a miserable place, destined only to get worse until Jesus Christ directly intervenes.

I was reading a book this week, and I always have to share something with you of my reading. This is a book, the reason I got to this, I was reading a paper that had been presented at the Evangelical Theological Society. And the title, and I may not have it word for word, but it was basically How Evangelicals Came to Be Over Committed to the Scriptures. And I say, how can evangelicals be over committed to the scriptures, so that got me reading the paper and then the responses to that paper. And finally I decided I would just get the book he kept telling us we ought to get. And basically he is saying we need ........... He calls it the kingdom triangle. This is a man who is a professor at what would be considered an evangelical seminary, and has been until recent days as it has begun to unravel, from my perspective at least. Kingdom triangle means there are three things that we have to have. We have to have knowledge, we include in that the knowledge of the Word of God, which is fine. Then a second factor that must be included is spiritual formation. In that chapter he moves to basically pure mysticism. That you really establish a relationship of depth and meaning with God by turning inward into yourself. Silence becomes the key, and they misuse some Bible verses that refer to silence and stillness. And really he wants you to just concentrate on your physical heart beating in the center of your chest, and just focus on that and think on that. And pretty soon, now, you've turned inward. And through the emotions and feelings that come out of this now you are entering into a relationship ............... And we've really moved into pure mysticism. And the authors and writers he recommends come out of Catholic mysticism. Now this is supposed to be evangelical Protestantism, the professor at an evangelical seminary recommending that we turn to the Catholic mystics. And really what they are promoting is the same thing as the Eastern mystics. And that is you turn into yourself and empty yourself of all thoughts and all ideas and you just be quiet and empty, and pretty soon you enter into a relationship with the god who is in all of us.

The third leg of the triangle is the kingdom, and the restoration of the kingdom's miraculous power. And he says, it is clear that proclamation and extending the influence of the kingdom is the church's primary mandate. Proclaiming and extending the influence of the kingdom is the church's primary mandate. Though I believe that there is a unique form for God's kingdom that will be manifested in the future, the kingdom is here now and learning to live according to its nature and from its power and to proclaim and extend that kingdom is our primary business. The gospel of the kingdom is the idea that the direct rule of God is now available to all in and through Jesus Christ, and that one may live from the power of that rule in the realm of the kingdom. Among other things the concept of the kingdom brings to center stage the supernatural power of God over disease, death and kingdom of darkness. What it ends up doing, he says it becomes so popular it's almost trite, we have an already, not yet issue of the kingdom. The kingdom is here now but it will come in a fuller way in the future. And since we're in the kingdom now we ought to have all that is going to be true of the kingdom. And in the kingdom there is to be no disease, so we should be abolishing diseases. And in the kingdom there will be no death so we should be raising the dead and doing away with death. And we should be getting new revelation from God in dreams and visions. An important arena in which this power is manifested is in healing, demonic deliverance and divine interaction through dreams, visions, word of knowledge, wisdom and prophetic utterances. It is clear that the power of the kingdom of God over disease and the devil and the supernatural revelation are at the core of the expansion of the church in the third world.

I mention this because sometimes people think, you talk about future things. I don't care about the future, I just want what is practical for me today. But you understand that controls how you live today. If you believe you are in the kingdom today, that shapes what you are to be doing with your life today. So I want to talk about the kingdom that the Bible prophesies and whether we are in it or not.

There are three basic views. You have that chart called The Resurrections, I could have given you another chart but we'll follow it. It gives you the timeline here, so if you want to keep that before you. The kingdom as we're talking about it begins with the 1000 years. You see with the Second Coming the first stage is the rapture, we haven't talked about that. We'll be talking about that when we continue our study of I Corinthians 15, the last part of that chapter. Then the second stage of the Second Coming is His return to earth, followed by the 1000 years, the first phase of the eternal kingdom. Now there are three basic views with a variety of variations within. I'm only going to give you the three basic views. There is premillennialism. Millennial means 1000 years, Latin for 1000 years. Chileas is the Greek for 1000 years. Premillennial means Christ will be coming to earth before the 1000 years to establish His kingdom. So premillennial has Christ establishing His kingdom when He returns to earth at His Second Coming, just prior to the 1000 years.

There is another view, and many of you were part of churches that held to this. It's called amillennialism. And you put the a in front of millennial, that negates it. No millennium. Amillennialism teaches there is going to be no literal, physical kingdom on the earth. Now the early church for the first 300 or so years was premillennial. Then a change came about. A man named Origen began to promote the interpreting of scripture not literally, but looking spiritually or allegorically for deeper meaning. The literal reading of it was just superficial, we're going to go deeper and find truths that aren't there on the surface. A man named Augustine in the 5th century popularized the idea. He started out as a premillennialist, but you know remarkable changes were going on in the world. Constantine had declared Christianity to be the religion of the empire. No longer were Christians in the church under persecution. It seemed like the kingdom was coming, had arrived. And this caused Augustine to begin to reevaluate things and adopt the interpreting methods of Origen. Let's look for a deeper meaning to the kingdom. It's not going to be an earthly, physical kingdom, it's going to be a kingdom and it is a kingdom—the church is the kingdom. And it was spiritual, it was never intended to be physical and material, on this physical earth. It's a spiritual kingdom, it exists in our heart, and the church reigns. And the ideas of Augustine on this became very popular. It became the dominant theme, the Roman Catholic Church picked it up and we have the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church, with the Pope reigning as God's regent on earth. And that's why you have to be in the kingdom of the Roman Church to be saved.

Now when we got to the Reformation, the Reformers like Luther and Calvin and others came out of Roman Catholicism. Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic monk. And when he came to understand salvation by grace, ultimately he ended up leaving the Roman Catholic Church. We have the Reformation underway, but the Reformers never changed the eschatology of the Roman Catholic Church. They were battling and dying for the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. So they continued with amillennial eschatology. And we are in the kingdom. There is no earthly, physical kingdom, there is no future for Israel. That's why a man like Martin Luther could be strongly anti-Semitic. God was done with Israel, they had rejected their Messiah, they had crucified Him, they deserve all the suffering and all the persecution that they get. And it can't get bad enough because they rejected and crucified their Messiah. God is done with them.

We say, how did these men get these ideas? Well, they didn't interpret prophecy literally any longer, they spiritualized it. So we are in a spiritual kingdom, God is done with Israel. They had a chance and they lost it. That's amillennialism. Many of you come out of Lutheranism, Presbyterian church, Roman Catholic Church, a large portion of the Mennonite church. Major denominations came down from the Reformation and the magesterial Reformers, particularly, they continued Augustine's idea of a non-literal kingdom that had become the dominant idea of the Roman Church and continued down to our day. That's amillennialism.

There's another view. We have premillennialism, Christ will return before the millennium to establish His kingdom. There won't be a kingdom until Christ returns to earth at the Second Coming. Amillennialism, we're in the kingdom, the church is the kingdom, it's a spiritual kingdom where Christ reigns from heaven over the hearts of men. And He reigns on earth, if you're Roman Catholic, through His appointed regent, the Pope, who rules over the church, the kingdom. There is postmillennialism. Postmillennial is after you get to the millennium and through the millennium. And postmillennialism, it almost died out with World War I and then World War II almost nailed the coffin shut. But now there has been a revival. And postmillennialists believe that through the preaching of the gospel and the good works and often the imposition of the Mosaic Law, the world is going to get better and better and the kingdom will just come in as a result of our efforts and works. And then after the 1000 year millennium Christ will return to earth and we'll move into eternity. So we sing the song, the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noon day bright. And Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, the kingdom of love and light. Well that was postmillennial. The darkness shall turn to dawning, the dawning to noon day bright. We're just going to continue to get better and better and we'll come into the kingdom. Then after the kingdom the Lord will return and we'll go into eternity. That's postmillennial.

It has become a very influential movement in our day. Now again within this there are variations and mixtures. I don't doubt that this man I read to you would probably claim to be premillennial, but he has an amillennial mixture, and some of that, it become difficult because there is no consistency.

We are premillennial as a local church here. I believe that is the only view that is consistent with scripture. One of the well-known amillennialist writers, a man by the name of Hamilton, now deceased, but he wrote a book on amillennialism, he made a statement in that book, if you will take the prophecies of the Bible literally you will be premillennial. But his argument is that we shouldn't take them literally. And so we have issues to deal with there.

I want to spend our time looking at the biblical indications that you cannot have the kingdom until Christ returns to earth. We are not in the kingdom now. The prophesied kingdom of the Old Testament prophets, the kingdom that John the Baptist announced, the kingdom that Christ offered but was rejected by Israel is not right now in existence. It will not be in existence until Jesus Christ returns to this earth and personally establishes the kingdom. Now the background for this is the covenants of God, and the Abrahamic Covenant. We're not going to do detail on the Abrahamic Covenant, but let's go back and just refresh our minds.

Genesis 12. In Genesis 12 we have the first recording of God's covenant with Abraham. I say the first recording because it's going to be repeated again in chapter 13, repeated again in chapter 15, again in chapter 17, again in chapter 22. This is the foundational covenant that God has established with Israel, and within this covenant is the provision for the salvation of all people, not just Jews. So Genesis 12:1, the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country, from your relatives, from your father's house to the land which I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, make your name great. You shall be a blessing, I will bless those who bless you. The one who curses you, I will curse. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is the foundational covenant God established with the nation Israel. It has three areas—land, seed and blessing. You'll note that God told Abram to go to the land, the end of verse 1, which I will show you.

He's going to elaborate on these provisions in various ways, but just look at Genesis 13:14 where Abram is in the land of Palestine. The Lord said to Abram, verse 14, now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, north, south, east, west. For all the land which you see I will give it to you and to your seed, your descendants forever. I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants or seed can be numbered. Go ahead, walk through the land, I will give it to you. Now this is a promise of that physical land for the physical descendants of Abraham. It's part of God's covenant. Now amillennialists would say this is a conditional covenant and it's no longer operative because Israel rejected their Messiah and so they don't get the blessings. So it becomes spiritual. Now we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham and it's not a physical land in a limited location like Palestine, but now all things are ours as God's people. And we spiritualize this.

But the Abrahamic Covenant is not a conditional covenant, it is a covenant secured by God. And note He said He will give it to them forever. Now that didn't mean they would always be on the land because God reminds them through the Old Testament that if Israel sins part of their punishment will be that He'll remove them from the land. But the point is when all is said and done He will fulfill this and Israel will be back in the land and it will belong to them. This covenant is expanded in what is sometimes called the Palestinian Covenant because it relates to the land of Palestine, in Deuteronomy 30:1-8. We're not going to turn to these passages, we've done them before. You can jot them down and read them later.

The second provision is a seed, and here there is a promise of many descendants. But He says in Genesis 12:2, I will make you a great nation. Over in chapter 13 verse 16, I will make your descendants, your seed, as the dust of the earth so they can't be numbered. So we're talking about the descendants of Abraham. We say, well this is the spiritual seed and it doesn't just mean Jews. But note there is a two-fold provision. Back in chapter 12 He told them that He would give them the land. Verse 2, I will make you a great nation and in the end of verse 3, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. There is provision for the blessing of the nations. We'll say more about that in a moment. This seed and becoming a great nation, an innumerable people, is expanded in the Davidic Covenant which we studied recently in II Samuel 7. Because being a nation will result in their being a people with a king who reigns over them. So there is a seed, that is the physical seed, the descendants of Abraham. That's why Paul in Romans 9-11 is appalled that anybody would think that God is done forever with Israel. Has God cast away His people? God forbid, magnoito, such a thought cannot even be considered. I'm a physical Jew, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, Paul goes on. He's talking about physical descendants there, there is a future for Israel. That's in the Abrahamic Covenant.

And blessing, and the blessing is the promise of redemption, both national and universal. And the New Covenant expands this in Jeremiah 31, where there are salvation blessings. Not just for Israel, but the end of verse 3, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. So Israel is promised a land, a seed and a blessing, salvation blessings. And the blessings are not limited. The land is for Israel. The descendants like the sand of the seashore are for Israel. And the salvation blessings are for Israel and for all the nations. Now there is provision for Gentiles in the Abrahamic Covenant. I was reading one man this week who said the Abrahamic Covenant is conditional, that's done, there is no future in the Abrahamic Covenant for Israel. It is not done. In fact as some of you are aware, and we won't take time to go through it, but you could read it in Genesis 17 where God establishes the sign of the covenant and then in Genesis 15 God Himself secures the covenant. Abraham is not even an active participant, he is in a deep sleep when God confirms the covenant. In other words the fulfillment of this covenant depends totally upon God. That's why we call it unconditional. So it has to be fulfilled. Israel has to be in the land, they have to be a nation and be ruled by a king as the Davidic Covenant expands it, and they will be enjoying the salvation blessings that God has provided for them, along with the other nations of the world. That's why Romans 11 warns the Gentiles not to be arrogant, because we have entered into these blessings through what God has done through the nation Israel and their Jewish Messiah and the covenant established with them.

If we take these promises at face value, you have to believe Israel has a future. That includes the land. I can't believe there are some Christians today saying the land doesn't belong to Israel. That doesn't mean there aren't times when God has removed Israel from the land under judgment. But ultimately the land will belong to Israel. That's just the way God said it would be, and since He is sovereign, He determines.

Let's look and see when will the kingdom be established. We want to be careful, does that mean now that everybody ought to be going to war so Israel can have the land because it is theirs? Well Israel won't be secure in the land until the Messiah establishes their security. Now Israel will come back into the land before the end time, and that seems to be what is taking place right now. But their security in the land awaits the coming of their King to this earth.

Turn to Daniel 2. In Daniel 2, we're just going to highlight some matters here, we're looking particularly when will the promised prophesied kingdom be established and what will it be like. In Daniel 2 the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who is a godless man, has conquered Israel and he has carried the southern kingdom into captivity—Judah and Benjamin. During the night King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and he wants to know what that dream means. So he calls his wisemen and says, I want you to interpret a dream for me. And so the wisemen say, tell us the dream and we'll give you the interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar says, no, if I tell you the dream how will I know you've really told me the true interpretation? If God can give you the interpretation, He can tell you what the dream was. So you tell me the dream and then you tell me the interpretation. And Nebuchadnezzar, as we've referred to before, was not the nicest man. The wisemen say there is nobody on earth that could do this. He says, well then what do I need you for? So he orders all the wisemen in the kingdom to be executed.

Daniel has the revelation from God of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. So we pick up in verse 19, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Daniel blessed the God of heaven and said, let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times, the epochs, removes kings, establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wisemen and knowledge to men of understanding. Down in verse 28 he tells Nebuchadnezzar when he is brought before him, middle of verse 28, God has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. And here is what you saw. First of all, Nebuchadnezzar, verse 31, you were looking. Behold there was a single great statue, that statue was large and of extraordinary splendor. Its appearance was awesome. What Nebuchadnezzar is going to see is the empires of the world, from his down through the future and to Nebuchadnezzar, an earthly godless man, the kingdoms of the earth are beautiful and splendid. So this is a splendid image, beautiful and attractive. The head of the statue was made of fine gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

Now look at verse 34, you continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floor. The wind carried them away, not a trace was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. That's the dream. Now what does it mean?

Here is the interpretation, verse 36 and following. Verse 37, you, oh king, are the king of kings to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, the glory. And you rule over all. You are the head of gold, the end of verse 38. So Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, that's the head of gold, that's the first empire we want to consider. After you will arise another kingdom, inferior. You're going to see a quality deterioration in the metals. We go from gold to silver, from silver to bronze, from bronze to iron, for iron to iron mixed with clay. But generally from the gold to the iron there is an increasing strength. So you have Babylon first, then another kingdom after you, verse 39, inferior, it's made of silver. That was Medo-Persia that would conquer the Babylonians. After Medo-Persia then a third kingdom of bronze which will rule over all the earth, the end of verse 39. That was Greece. Then verse 40, there will be a fourth kingdom strong as iron, that's Rome. It will crush and break all these in pieces. Then there is an interesting addition here. In that you saw the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, it will be a divided kingdom but will have in it the toughness of iron as much as you saw iron mixed with common clay. This kingdom of iron will start out pure iron, strong, not of the quality of gold. But we don't make swords out of pure gold. Why? It's not durable. We don't even make jewelry out of pure gold, it might be 10K gold, it might be 14K gold, might be 18K gold, even 24K gold. But if it were just pure gold the quality would be amazing, but the durability, it wouldn't have the strength. But iron, it's not of the value, the quality of the gold, but it smashes and crushes. And Rome being the strongest empire.

But then there is going to be at the end of this empire a mixture of iron and clay. It will have the strength of iron and the brittleness of clay. We talk about the final form of the Roman Empire. Now what happens? Verse 44, in the days of those kings. What kings? Verse 42, the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay. This is a normal image of a man, there are ten toes. We know for sure, we'll see a parallel passage in a moment. In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. That kingdom will not be left for another people, it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms and it will endure forever. What kind of kingdoms were the previous kingdoms? Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. They were earthly empires that ruled over this earth and the people of this earth. Then people come to verse 44 and say, well that's a spiritual kingdom, it just refers to Christ ruling spiritually from heaven in the hearts of people. Says who? Not what my text says. I mean we either take it for what it says, all of a sudden we just take a leap of faith out into mid-air and it's that way because .............. Well the New Testament reinterprets the Old Testament. Says who? The New Testament does not reinterpret the Old Testament. There are progressive revelations. Years ago the old writers, some of you have read his works, W. Graham Scroggy wrote a book, Ruling Lines of Progressive Revelation. There is progressive revelation. God has added to His revelation, but later revelation does not change previous revelation. God promised a kingdom to Abraham and his descendants, He promised that someone would rule on this earth on the throne. But you know the New Testament indicates that that has changed. No, nothing has changed. There is additional information given, but it does not undo or change the previous revelation. You understand that. It's a major, major difference in how we interpret scripture, compared to how some others are doing. They say the New Testament is the superior, so from the New Testament we understand that the people that are descendants of Abraham are not visible, but spiritual. The church is never called Israel in the New Testament either, because the church is not Israel. So it's men who have made up their minds about something and they try to form scripture.

The kingdom that will be established is an earthly kingdom, it is going to shatter and destroy all other earthly kingdoms. How can we be in the kingdom? Look around. We have nations of the earth still jockeying for power, we have our own country still trying to maintain a position of power and authority in the world. We have Russia reasserting itself, we have Europe .................. When Christ comes He'll destroy all other competing authorities and establish a kingdom that will not be left for another. He'll put an end to all these kingdoms. I mean, when you go home pick up the newspaper, turn on the news. We spiritualize the scripture so that we nullify it.

So you'll note when this happens. Come over to Daniel 7. It happens in the days of these ten kings who are allied together to make a kingdom that is strong like iron but it's brittle because it is a federation of ten. When Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon, he ruled. Period. There were no consensus meetings. He ruled. There was no Senate, there was no Congress, wasn't republic. Pure monarchy. Daniel 7, what happens God is going to repeat Himself and He's going to give a dream and vision to Daniel. And He's going to reveal the same thing He did to Nebuchadnezzar through his dream, but now Daniel is going to see the coming empires of the world from God's perspective. They are like wild, ravenous beasts that tear each other apart. Nebuchadnezzar, the godless man, saw the kingdoms of the world as beautiful and attractive. Daniel will see them from God's perspective, they are just like wild beasts. So verse 1, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream, visions in his mind. He wrote the dream down and related a summary of it. Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts were coming out from the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion, had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, it was lifted from the ground, made to stand on two feet like a man. A human mind was given to it. The first beast, Babylon, that's the kingdom because we get the interpretation.

The second beast resembling a bear raised up on one side. God is precise, the Medo-Persian Empire, but who dominated that empire? The Persians. So it's a bear and it is up on one side because it is the Medo-Persian Empire, but it is dominated by Persia. Three ribs were in its mouth, three kingdoms that Medo-Persians devoured that were key in assimilating its power. After this I kept looking, another one like a leopard. Had on its back four wings of a bird, the beast had four heads, dominion was given to it. Greece.

And then we come to the fourth beast and it's a dreadful beast, terrifying, extremely strong. Had iron teeth, it devoured, crushed, trampled down the remainder with its feet. Different from all the beasts that were before it, it had ten horns. You see the similarity here. This fourth beast who is pictured by the iron that crushes and destroys in chapter 2, here it is like a fierce beast that has iron teeth. And in chapter 2 it had ten toes, and here it has ten horns. While I was contemplating the horns, behold another horn, a little one, came up among them and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots. And now here we break in. I kept looking until thrones were set up. The Ancient of Days took His seat, his vesture was like white snow, the hair of His head like pure wool, His throne was ablaze with flames. Wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire flowing and coming out before Him. Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, ten thousands upon ten thousands were standing before Him. The court sat, the books were opened. Awesome, heavenly scene.

Then he comes back, I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking, that horn that came up from among the ten and displaced three. So ___________________bringing it together, here is what is going on in heaven now, here is what is going on on earth. And now you have the destruction of the beast. And verse 12, the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, an extension of life was granted to them for a period of time. Now we go back to heaven. I kept looking in the night visions, behold with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming. He came to the Ancient of Days, was presented before Him. To Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. When did that happen? When will Christ, the Son of Man, come and be given the kingdom? In the days of those ten kings and the final form with the one dominant king.

Daniel says, how do I understand this? Well, do you think I just made up the interpretation? No, it's easy. Look at verse 17, the angel gives him the interpretation. These great beasts which are four in number are four kings who will arise from the earth, but the saints of the highest, one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all ages to come. Then I wanted to know about the fourth kingdom because that was really a fierce one. Verse 23, then He said the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on earth. And it will be stronger than all the other kingdoms that devour the earth. Nobody questions the power and might of the Roman Empire, mightiest empire that ever existed.

As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise, verse 24. Another will arise after them and he will be different from the previous ones. Now when we get to the ten horns, look at your chart. You come to the cross of Christ on the far left, you have the Roman Empire in existence when Christ is born. Then He dies under the authority of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. Then we have the Church Age between the cross and what I call the first stage in the air of the Second Coming, the rapture of the church. Then during this seven-year period, divided into two 3½ -year periods, you have the time of those ten kings and the dominant authority of that last little horn that comes up from among the ten will be during the last 3½ years.

So you say, wait a minute, who says there's a break, I mean, you're making a break. The western division of the Roman Empire held on until the middle of the 5th century and then it ceased to function. You're saying that there was a break. Of course, because the Old Testament saints didn't see the material between the death and resurrection of Christ and the beginning of the 70th week of Daniel. It's not revealed to them, just like Peter writes in his epistles in the New Testament. The Old Testament prophets saw the suffering and death of Christ and they saw Him reigning in glory, but they didn't know there would be 2000 years between, so they couldn't understand what they were writing. One time they are writing about a coming Messiah who will suffer and die, and another time they get a revelation and they are writing about the Messiah who will come and reign in glory. They couldn't figure out how they both could be true, and how can it work out. Because God didn't reveal to them there is a space in there. The mystery of the church, the 2000-year period approximately, was not revealed until the Apostle Paul came on the scene. That's why in Ephesians 2-3 Paul says the the mystery of the church was not revealed to the prophets in the Old Testament, but it was revealed to me. That's progressive revelation.

Now that doesn't change or alter the revelation that has been given to us to this point. That just reveals now. Just like you tell one of your children, we're going to leave and we're going on a trip and we're going to go to Kansas City and from there we're going to end up in Florida and visit Grandma and Grandpa. Okay, we'll stop in Kansas City and we'll go to Florida from there. You don't tell them from Florida we're going to take a side trip to some other place and we'll spend some time there. You just told them the overview of where you were going to end up. That's what God did with the prophets in the Old Testament. He told them up to the coming of Christ and He told them what His conclusion with the program of Israel would be, He just didn't fill in to tell them there was going to be a gap in there. But that gap now doesn't mean that everything God said for Israel now is undone. No, that's not what additional progressive revelation means, it means God has added to what He has already revealed. Some of it is clarifying, like the book of Revelation fills in many details in this seven-year period, because chapters 6-19 are dealing with that. It tells us about the thousand years, but it doesn't cancel or change anything in the Abrahamic Covenant. It helps us understand how the Gentiles can now enter into the provision of salvation blessings promised to Israel so that in the descendants of Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed because God has offered salvation through Christ to Gentiles.

Daniel 7:24, you have ten kings, you have time, times and a half time, literally time, two times and a half time—a 3½ -year period where that dominant king comes out from among the ten and will rule. But the court will sit for judgment, his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, the greatness of all kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey Him. Well, it seems pretty clear. For them, they wouldn't have known there is going to be a 2000-year gap between the power of that iron kingdom, that terrible beast, and the establishing of the ten-nation confederacy, the ten kings. So you'll note, the ankles get long, if you will, because if you lay that image that Daniel saw down, or you put the beasts one after another, with Rome you come to the cross. And then basically you skip 2000 years and you pick it up again. And you have the 70th week of Daniel.

Just stop at Daniel 9:24, seventy weeks have been decreed for your people, your holy city to accomplish these six things. Seventy weeks or literally 70 sevens, there are 70 seven-year periods. So 70 x 7 = 490 years are decreed to accomplish God's program for Israel, finish the transgression, make an end to sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, anoint the most holy place. Then he breaks it down and basically after 69 weeks, 483 years, Messiah will be cut off. And you can get information in the bookstore, little booklets and so on, that will show you how you include leap years and that. That brings you up really to the time just after the conclusion of the 69th week, 483 years, Christ was crucified on the cross. That's what it says. After the 62 weeks, which was after 7 weeks, so after a total of 69 weeks, verse 26, the Messiah will be cut off. And then you have a prince who will come. So you have the cutting off of Messiah, but it wasn't revealed to Daniel then that there is going to be a 2000-year break. And then you are going to have the people of the prince who is to come who will destroy the city and the sanctuary, referring to events in this period of time, the 70th week. He'll make a firm covenant with the many for one week. In the middle of the week he'll put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering.

So that's why we have the 70th week of Daniel, this seven-year period, divided into two 3½ -year periods. You see he'll make a covenant with Israel, that's what marks the beginning of the 70th week. So there is indication here, you can pick up with what we now know that there will be a break between the 69th and 70th week. But if you just had Daniel 9, it's not clear. But with this revelation we could say, yes, there is a break here and what starts the 70th week is the signing of the covenant between the representative of the western world, this ten-nation confederacy, and Israel. Keep an eye on the European Union that becomes more and more federated together. Who would have thought that they were going to start their own currency and these nations would give up their own currency and now you hear countries talking whether they're going to switch from the dollar to the euro as the standard. I mean, now how weak the dollar is compared to the euro. And this has been in most of our lifetimes in relatively few years, some of these things happening.

All right come to Zechariah. The order is the same, we have this time of suffering and tribulation as Daniel reveals, during this seven-year period. That's when Christ will intervene on behalf of Israel. Zechariah 12, you have the sufferings of Israel that are going to take place in the attacking of Jerusalem and that during this seven-year period. Also in chapter 13, and we're told that two-thirds of the Jews are going to be destroyed. Down in verse 8, in all the land, declares the Lord, two parts and it will be cut off, the third will be left. And I will bring the third part through the fire and they'll be my people.

You come down to chapter 14, we're ready for the return of Christ to rescue Israel. Verse 2, I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, half the city exiled. The Lord will go forth and fight against those nations and when He fights on a day of battle. Sound like Danile 2 where that stone comes crushing down on the nations? Daniel 7 when Christ is ready to take His kingdom, receive it from the Father? In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which is in the front of Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half the mountains will move toward the north, the other half toward the south. I understand they say now that they've determined there is a fault running through the Mount of Olives there. Not that the Lord would need it. There are going to be topographical changes taking place when he returns. Has that happened? No. I've been on the Mount of Olives, some of you are going there in the spring and you will stand there on the Mount of Olives and look over on Jerusalem. It is not split. The topographical changes have not taken place yet. Oh, you don't expect us to take that literally. Well, I hope so.
I mean, isn't it amazing God said 490 years are determined upon your people and after 483 years the Messiah will be cut off. And some have done the mathematics and figured out the leap years and figured out that the 483 years concluded on Palm Sunday and one week after the 69th week, not in the 70th week but after the 69th week, the Messiah will be cut off. Amazing how precise God is.

So are we in the kingdom? I don't know, turn on the news and see if there is a report that the Messiah of Israel has returned and stood on the Mount of Olives and it split in two. If not, if anyone tells you we're in the kingdom ............ What will happen then? Zechariah 14:9, the Lord will be king over all the earth. In that day the Lord will be the only one, His name the only one. Then it talks about more topographical changes for Israel and Jerusalem. Verse 11, people will live in it, there will no longer be a curse. Jerusalem will dwell in security. Anybody think that is happening today? This idea of a spiritual kingdom today is the figment of the imagination of men who have rejected the simple, clear statements of the Word of God.

Revelation 19-20. Revelation 6-19 cover that seven-year period you have divided into two 3½ -year periods on your chart. Revelation 6-19 are the most detailed unfolding of that seven-year period. Revelation 19 ends with Christ returning to earth. Verse 11, I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. And He who sat on it called Faithful and True and Righteousness. He judges and wages war and He comes and destroys the armies of the earth. That's what we read in Daniel. And following that, what happens? Satan is bound, Revelation 20:1-2, for a thousand years. That's where we get the thousand years, at the end of verse 2, satan is bound for a thousand years. The middle of verse 3, he won't deceive the nations for a thousand years. The dead are resurrected, the end of verse 4, they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. These people will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. Verse 7, when the thousand years ................ How many times does God have to say something until we get it through our thick skulls? And yet I read writer after writer who say, He doesn't mean a thousand years. Maybe when God says I'll spend eternity with Him, He doesn't mean eternity, either. Maybe He meant a week-and-a-half. And I had hoped for eternity because He said eternity. But God doesn't mean what He says, and a thousand years aren't a thousand years, and eternal suffering for the wicked isn't eternal suffering for the wicked. And we can have two weeks in heaven and it will be all over and God will just wipe us out and that will be the end of it. You say, that couldn't be. Six times He says a thousand years, that's why we know there is going to be a millennium.

That's not all there is to the kingdom. The millennium, the thousand years, is the first phase in an eternal kingdom. But the first thousand years serve a special purpose in God's plan. But we have to stop here.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your grace, thank you for your Word and its clarity. Thank you, Lord, that we are privileged to have this as our possession and the Spirit as our teacher. May these truths grip our hearts that we might live in light of them. How privileged we are, not to see confusion and disorder in all that is going on in the world, but your hand at work in bringing about your purposes in every detail in preparing the world for coming judgment and the ultimate establishing of a kingdom over which your Son will rule for a thousand years and on through eternity. And we'll reign with Him. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.