The Last Days – Part 8 – The Kingdom Come

The visions that were given to the apostle John are not what the people alive at that time will see. They’re representations, symbols of events that’ll be happening at the time. The people won’t see a white horse with a rider with a sword galloping through the sky!

Instead, there’ll be an almost unrecognisable change on the planet where this antichrist will sweet talk the population of the earth and take over power and control in a way that the average person’ll probably not even realise, much like totalitarian governments have always done, in ways that don’t alarm people to their intentions.

Also, we should be aware that these ancient languages are much more descriptive that English and there’re many things that are much more easily understood by the original speakers of those languages.

Our Bible has everything we need but we know that the original words and phrase often mean more that we can express in the English.

OK, so, there’ll be people on the planet after the horrors of the tribulation and we saw that in order for those events to happen, there has to be a complete change in God’s ministry on the earth.

That change’ll happen when this current dispensation of grace ends with the church’s catching away in the air. Then God’ll dramatically change the way He deals with the world. He’ll start to reclaim his right as the possessor of heaven and earth.

When the kingdom comes you have the kings of this world knocked down and replaced by the kingdom of God being established in Israel. And that’s where we are at this time where Christ returns at the end of the great tribulation.

 

We’ve seen that the purpose of the Tribulation is not just God delighting in punishing people, it’s to take the kingdoms of the world that have been set up by man and knock them down, while at the same time restoring and regathering Israel.

This period is of course, a lead up to God establishing a Kingdom on earth over which Christ will reign for a thousand years.

There’ll be people in the world that’ll oppose him. Sin will still be present, and yet Christ will be visible, and He’ll be reigning and ruling as King.

At the end of this period we know as the Millenium, Christ will get rid of death and sin and pain and tears. There’ll be no more sin. Sin itself will be destroyed.

So here we’re talking about that time that his Kingdom comes and what that looks like.

We won’t go through all the details of the kingdom, so there’ll probably be questions about things that we’ve heard from prophecy teachers or read in books about the Kingdom or the Millennium that won’t be here.

It’s not that we shouldn’t study them or think about those details, but we need to first get the big picture of what God’s doing during that Kingdom time and why He’s doing it.

We finished last time in Revelation 19 where Christ returns with that sword in that final battle against the kingdoms of this world where they finally get the deathblow. They’ll get knocked down and Jesus Christ will institute’s His kingdom.

 

James, who was one of the Twelve Apostles, wrote his epistle to the twelve tribes of Israel who were expecting these prophetic events to happen at the time they were alive, maybe even within days or weeks.

They were expecting these times of trouble and then the kingdom coming because of the massive weight of prophecy that they were well familiar with.

So, in James 5:7 we read,

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 

James is talking about the harvest and the rain at the end of the season and he’s waiting for that latter rain that harvest when believing Israel, cleansed of sin by the blood of the Messiah, would rise back to its former glory and finally receive God’s promise to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

And so, James is saying here to these Jewish Saints, “be patient”.

This is an instruction purely for these people who are expecting this move of God at any moment, this precursor to the kingdom.

James is preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, which is the Kingdom is at hand.

Peter preaches the same thing at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, that these are those last days, and that Christ is the fulfillment. He’s the King he’s going to bring in the kingdom.

These people are all seeing that Kingdom coming at any time. They’re looking for it right then. So, James tells them to be patient.

Now 2,000 years have passed and that’s sort of beyond patience, wouldn’t you say?

There’s doubt arising as to whether or not these disciples, Peter, James, Jude, and John were even telling the truth about the Kingdom coming.

That’s exactly what Peter deals with in his epistle of 2^nd Peter.

People were doubting Peter’s message that the Kingdom was at hand, you see, because it still hadn’t come. Over at Pentecost, Peter had preached that the last days were here.

So, he writes in 2^nd Peter verses 14 to 16 and says yes, the Kingdom is not here yet.

He says I wasn’t wrong, and he wasn’t. He says to listen to what Paul wrote.

Let’s read what he writes,

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

He explains the long-suffering of the Lord and explains that God’s trying to save more people now. Peter preaches that something changed from Acts 2 when Peter stood up there filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost and you and I should understand that change which was the complete rejection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, by the nation Israel.

So, James is writing here in James 5 verse 4 about this time period and says to be patient.

If we were to remove 2,000 years of human history since the day of Pentecost and Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, like everyone else, we’d be expecting the last days, the tribulation period of judgment spoken of by many prophets, and then, after surviving that tribulation, the setting up to the long-promised Kingdom.

The problem for so many Christians today is what’s happened in those two thousand years since Peter preached the last days.

It’s only answered in Paul’s epistles. If we take Paul’s epistles out of the Bible, we have no idea of that period of the last 2000 years. It would be easy to think all scripture is just an allegory, a symbol of some spiritualised happening. And, of course a great many do believe that’s what scripture is.

Jews mostly don’t take their Bible literally today because they realize that too much time has passed for prophecy to be fulfilled correctly.

So, you have allegorical or spiritualised interpretations of the Kingdom and of the Messiah.

But we can take the Bible literally, all of it and it will fit perfectly into the timeline of history and prophecy.

Even amongst Christians who tend to take the Bible literally, if you asked them whether or not they’re selling all they have, according to Luke chapter 12, or if they’re actually doing what Jesus said in the red letters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you’d soon see that they’re not.

They spiritualise those things.

When they pray to God, give us this day our daily bread are they really waiting for God to give them daily bread?

They say, “Well that daily bread just means the devotion I get in the mail every month, that’s daily bread. It’s my daily bible verse.”

But No!

That prayer that Jesus taught the disciples when they asked Him to teach them to pray in Matthew 6:5, was actual physical daily bread.

Just like God gave to Israel in Exodus when He gave the bread, the manna, every morning, and they couldn’t collect two days of it, only one day.

This daily bread can be taken literally because they were anticipating going through that same wilderness trouble period just like in Exodus, the tribulation period before the setting up of the Kingdom.

There’s this time coming where God would provide for that remnant, the remnant of Israel, who’re going through this terrible tribulation, and so He tells them to pray for their daily bread because then they’re not going to be able to buy bread when they haven’t got the mark of the beast and they’ve got destruction and judgment all around them and almost everyone they meet wants to tear them apart.

We’ve covered some of the destruction that God sends on the earth, and we saw it’s in order to destroy the kingdoms and the institutions of this world that humans filled with sin have instituted.

God’s going to purge it and purify it. He’s going to make it right.

And so, he not only destroys the kingdoms of this world, but he preserves and protects his Saints of Israel and those Gentiles that come to those saints of Israel for salvation.

James is part of that. He says be patient as you see these things happening around you during that time.

James chapter 5:8 says,

You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 

See James is not talking about just general patience like when we get frustrated at people and powers generally in the world, or frustrated that our chosen party didn’t win the election.

That’s not the patience Jame’s talking about.

Yes, we ought to be patient, but this is far beyond that.

See to them at that time, the coming of the Lord is near. So why would they need to be patient? The coming Lord is near so that’d be great news.

If you and I knew the Lord was coming in a year or two it’d be easier to be patient, wouldn’t it?

Well, this patience has to do with the trouble, the tribulation coming before the Lord comes.

Be patient, endure to the end.

Look at what Jesus says to the disciples in Mark 13 verses 10 to 13,

And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations. 

But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 

Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 

And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Endure to the end in order to be saved. In this whole tribulation and kingdom era, according to prophecy, salvation comes to Israel when the Lord comes to set up the Kingdom.

In James 5:10 James is talking to My brethren. James is a Jew you see. His brethren are Jews. In James 1:1 He opens with this,

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,

So, in James 5:10 he says,

My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 

The prophets were a part of Israel. You read the prophets back there and they were ministering in Israel, to Israel, when Israel itself was not following God. That was the point of the prophets. God sent prophets to declare to Israel to get back on track to repent to correct the wrongs.

Those prophets were in the wilderness, they were isolated.

They suffered affliction and with patience endured as a remnant. They were a persecuted and afflicted minority.

Then in James 5:11 we read,

Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. 

Job! That’s the pattern? Really?

He lost everything, his kids, his material goods, everything was gone. He was diseased, I mean his wife told him to curse God and die.

Is that our pattern today?

We can learn a great deal from Job spiritually. We can say if that’s what he went through I can surely go through my petty challenges.

But, quite literally here, these people’s homes are being destroyed and they’re suffering the loss of all their things and being heavily persecuted.

All they have to hope for is the coming of the Lord Who’ll make restitution and restore all these things.

So, we need to be careful not to strip this out of its context and just spiritualise it by applying it to life in the last 2,000 years.

Our message in the current age, the dispensation of grace, is to preach salvation by grace through faith. We have a different operation.

We point out this patience issue because it’s so obviously relating to a group of people that’s not us, the Body of Christ, today. If we mix ourselves, the church today, together with these people we’ll get a distorted, confused view of God’s ultimate plan and we’ll fail to see where each group fits into that timeline.

These Saints are the remnant of Israel, believers who are surviving, somehow, through this tribulation period and are going into this Kingdom, their earthly long ago covenanted promise from God. That’s the goal.

The goal is salvation in this kingdom. God’s wrath being poured out is just the means to get to here.

Remember, they had no idea at the time that this was going to be 2000 down the track. That period of time, that age that would interrupt the prophesied timeline had not yet been revealed to anyone.

We, the church today, have no covenant promise of a Kingdom, in fact we have no earthly promise at all. Our promise is a heavenly promise, and our home is heaven, and we’re promised that we won’t see that wrath of God.

 

In Daniel 2:44 we read this prophesy of the stone from heaven that comes and destroys the kingdoms of the world and from this stone rises a mountain and that kingdom of God will be forever and ever.

Mountains in the Bible symbolize strength, stability, security, power, faith, authority, and greatness.

They represent the majesty of God and His unshakable nature.

Therefore, when the Bible talks about mountains, it’s talking about deeper spiritual truths beyond their physical presence.

Well, that’s what’s going on here. An actual physical earthly Kingdom that God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. A land that He gave them. A promise that He made to them.

Revelation 13 is in the midst of this destruction in the tribulation and in verse 10 it talks about the patience of the Saints saying,

He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

Here is the patience in the faith of the saints.

Now if you’ve studied Revelation before you’ll know that this chapter is the chapter that talks about the mark of the beast and the famous 666 which people try to calculate and put in our dispensation today.

You need have no fear of taking the mark of the beast because if you were alive in that time and if you believed you would be marked by God first.

The mark of the beast is given to oppose God.

God’s trying to destroy the system that’s why the marks given.

There’s a battle going on here where God is actively opposing the kingdoms of this world.

The kings of this world resists and they say, “Well, we’re going to draw the line so if you don’t have this mark, you’re against us and you’re with God, so you’re our enemy like God is.”

If you find yourself alive and living in this period, you won’t want to take that mark under any circumstances.

In fact, Revelation 14:9 to 11 an angel says,

Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”  

In James chapter five, they that keep the commandments of God in the faith of Jesus need this patience to go through this time of economic and political turmoil more than the world has ever seen. Nothing that’s ever happened on earth can compare with these times.

These things need to happen for the world to be overturned.

This mark here is another desperate attempt at opposing God’s laws, and God’s nation, Israel.

Look at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 36 again, remembering that Hebrews is written to Israel, to the Hebrews. Contrary to what a lot of believe, Hebrews is not a book written to the church today. It’s describing Israel’s New Testament.

It’s describing Israel’s future city, the law, and the priesthood.

Hebrews 10:36,

For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: 

This is talking to the whole group of Israel. That you may receive the promise. The Promise of what?

Well, the promise God made since the world began, the Kingdom.

And why is it you have to do the will of God before you see the promise? I thought we were saved by grace through faith not of works?

Yes, we’re saved by hearing the gospel of our salvation trusting it and then, as Ephesians 1:13 says, we’re sealed, and we’re saved.

We’re not saved by a covenant. We’re not saved by the promise that God gave to Israel. We’re not saved by the Kingdom come.

We’re saved by Christ’s finished work, Grace by faith plus nothing.

These Jewish believers, on the other hand, are saved by faith in the completed work of the cross PLUS works. The nation of Israel still needs to be obedient to the law you see in order for that land inheritance to be completed!

Why would they be obedient now, at this tribulation period, when they couldn’t be throughout the rest of history?

Because of the New Covenant. The covenant Jesus sealed in His own blood when He was on earth. The covenant of Jeremiah 31:31 and Hebrews 8 which promises that God’s law will be written on their hearts and minds.

They won’t be thinking, “Maybe we shouldn’t do this? Or maybe we shouldn’t do that?”

They’ll do those laws just as naturally and automatically as a fish swims or a bird flies, without thinking of each action. It’ll be perfectly natural.

You and I realise that we cannot maintain righteousness in our own strength, We’re unrighteous and the only way for God to forgive humanity is not by the blood of bulls and goats but by a perfect atonement that’s provided and pictured by the Old Testament.

Jesus Christ is that atonement that pays for the sins of the world and that’s what Hebrews describes. In His resurrection, He gives us proof that we have justification and eternal life.

If you’re identified in Christ, you’re identified with his death for sins and his resurrection unto life. That’s the gospel.

But Hebrews chapter 10 here is talking about after you’ve done the will of God you might receive the promise.

Isn’t this putting the cart before the salvation horse?

Of course, that’s correct for Israel as a nation and Israel’s program.

Their hope lies in the next verse, Hebrews 10:37,

 “FOR YET A LITTLE WHILE, AND HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME AND WILL NOT TARRY. 

That’s Christ and He’ll not tarry.

Verses 38 and 39,

NOW THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; BUT IF ANYONE DRAWS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. 

Doesn’t that verse teach that if you fall back, if you don’t endure to the end and to Christ’s coming, you’re not going to get saved?

That’s exactly what those verses teach. That’s what 1^st Peter 1 says when he said to receive grace and salvation at the coming of the Messiah the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s what the Jews teach today, that salvation comes at the coming of the Messiah, who they believe has not yet come.

What differentiates Judaism from Christianity is that Christianity teaches Christ already came once and He’s going to come again.

But Hebrews 10 talks about these people not getting salvation until the coming of the Lord, so they require patience to endure to the end.

In Luke 21:28 Jesus tells His disciples,

Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.

He says when you see these signs in heaven in the earth that are just before the return of the Lord, when you see those terrible things, He says look up for your redemption draws near.

Well, I was redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ and so were you if you believe.

Ephesians 1:7 says,

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

Colossians 1:14 says,

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 

That was 2,000 years ago.

That was where my redemption was, and yours if you believe.

That’s not the redemption and salvation of Israel according to their prophecies, according to the promise God made to them. Salvation will come when God brings His Kingdom that He promised them.

That’s when salvation happens to them. That’s when God fulfills his promise to them.

So, Luke 21:28 then talks about their redemption being near. This is when things happen. The Kingdom come, the Lord Jesus Christ’s return to the earth.

This is a fundamental of Christianity.

Israel over the last 2000 years and right now, today, missed that there wasn’t just one coming of the Messiah, there were two comings.

So, a lot of Christian scholars look back at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and say well the disciples were wrong because they thought that Christ is going to come physically to conquer and bring a kingdom and they were wrong because it hasn’t happened. The Jews would say the same thing.

Many other Christians say well they were wrong because it was all spiritual and the Kingdom prophecies were just talking about spiritual things, that the Kingdom of God is in your heart.

Other groups of people around the world try to unite to love each other. We’re all children of God and we can all learn how to love each other from Jesus’s example. This is the Kingdom of God that we live in today and it’s all spiritual, not literal.

When we take our Bible literally, we realise that Christ is going to literally set up the Kingdom as He explained to His disciples in all of his parables. Don’t you know that I’ve got to go away and come back, he said.

We saw an Acts chapter 1 how when Jesus ascended to heaven, He said I’ve

got to go to heaven to fulfill the prophecies to send the Holy Spirit.

There are things that had to happen between His first coming and the setting up of the Kingdom.

Well, if Christ had to go to heaven before the kingdom comes that means He’s going to come again, and all that’s in prophecy.

So, the return of Christ is a fundamental of Christianity. If we don’t believe in Christ’s return, we can’t call ourselves a Bible believing Christian who takes the Bible literally.

Look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 28. Hebrews was written to the Hebrews as we’ve said,

So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. 

If that verse in Hebrews is accurate for today, why are we preaching salvation at all?

We should be saying well salvation will come when Jesus comes back.

Instead, we have a present salvation as we know from Paul’s epistles to the Body of Christ today.

Hebrews here says that Jesus will come back again the second time unto salvation.

He came the first time to bear sins, a second time to redeem His right.

We covered last time about how that blood was needed to pay for that new covenant and that land title for Him to justly reclaim the earth and the promises he gave to Israel.

Otherwise, what basis does He have to fulfill the things which He promised He would do if Israel sinned so repeatedly against God?

Well, the answer would be because He died for their sins. His shed blood!

When Hebrews 9 says Jesus will come again the second time unto salvation, what salvation is being talked about?

Obviously, it’s not talking about the salvation you and I hear in the gospel of Christ’s finished work 2,000 years ago, that we have salvation and atonement now.

To find a definition of what Hebrews is talking about turn to Luke 1 verse 68.

Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father and a priest, describes here the coming Messiah and said,

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, 

Why?

Verse 69 and 70,

And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David, (talking here about Jesus) as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, Who have been since the world began.

That tells us that the Book of Luke is not talking about the Mystery of Christ that was kept secret since the world began and revealed to us by Christ through the apostle Paul.

Verse 71 of Luke 1,

That we should be saved from our enemies And from the hand of all who hate us, 

So, there it is. A horn of salvation in the house of David that we should be saved. A horn is a symbol of strength and courage.

How will they be saved?

From the hand of their enemies. From the hand of all that hate them.

On to verses 72 to 73 of Luke chapter 1,

To perform the mercy promised to our fathers And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to our father Abraham: 

Luke is talking about the salvation Israel hopes for. It’s the salvation God promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

What did God promise Abraham in Genesis 12 verses 2 and 3 and we read,

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

They will be that nation.

Luke 1:74 and 75,

To grant us that we (Israel), Being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. 

That sounds like peace on earth, doesn’t it?

That sounds like goodwill towards man? Like Kingdom Come? Serving him without fear every day of their lives. That’s Israel’s rise. That’s the kingdom that we’re talking about, the Kingdom come.

John the Baptist came as a fulfillment of Malachi 3 and John the Baptist preaches baptism, which was a Jewish ceremony. Washing with water. They did it to anoint priests. They did it to clean people.

They have ritual baths even today, though they don’t call it baptism. This is a very Christian word, but it’s part of the Jewish system and John the Baptist came as a priest baptising people in water for the repentance and the cleanliness of their sins, remission of sins.

And he says in Luke chapter 3:4,

as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: “THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS: ‘PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD; MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT. EVERY VALLEY SHALL BE FILLED AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL BROUGHT LOW; THE CROOKED PLACES SHALL BE MADE STRAIGHT AND THE ROUGH WAYS SMOOTH; AND ALL FLESH SHALL SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.’ ” 

That’s John the Baptist’s message 2000 thousand years ago when he said the kingdom was at hand.

He was talking about this (Kingdom coming).

What’s he say in verse 5,

every Valley shall be filled, the low places are filled up and every mountain and hill will be brought low.

That’s a theme repeated in the prophecies talking about the kings of this world being knocked down and the low things being brought up. As we’ve already said mountains symbolize strength, stability, security, power, faith, authority, and greatness. In this context here it’s talking about the existing power and rule that’ll be overturned.

Why did Jesus repeatedly say in His ministry the first will be last and the last be first?

He was quoting the prophecies that if you’re on that high tower, if you’re the ruling kings of this world you’re exactly what Christ is coming to destroy.

It’s the humblest there in lowly places, the meek that inherit the earth.

Matthew chapter five and the so-called Beatitudes that we looked at in our Mattew 5 study is according to prophesy.

So, in Luke chapter 3, John the Baptist came preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. He was talking about this right here.

He says this is going to happen and then all flesh shall see the salvation of our God.

Can we say today that the world sees the salvation of God today? Even if the church, every person who claimed to be a Christian, stood outside, and said Christ is King, most of the world that would say No, He’s not. So how is Luke chapter 3 verse 6, (AND ALL FLESH SHALL SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.) be true of today in any way today?

This Kingdom we’re talking about is a time in which all flesh will see the salvation of God, even though they still won’t all accept it.

You won’t have to ask for proof that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead because He’ll be right there. You’ll see Him reigning! He’s ruling with a rod of iron! You see Him fulfilling the prophecies.

You see the salvation of our God, and you have a choice. You’re going to listen to what He says or not.

Of course, this all happens after this time of destruction that we know of as the tribulation.

That’s why you’ve got to get right here, now while salvation is offered today freely by God’s grace through faith alone, nothing else required.

Christ won’t come and enter into the political campaigns of the world and run for election. He doesn’t become part of what’s currently existing.

He destroys those things, and sets Himself up.

So that’s how God’s going to operate and that’s what John the Baptists preaching about here.

In Luke 3, that’s why John’s baptising these people, for the repentance, remission of their sins. To be identified with the Messiah so that when this happens, instead of destruction, they get provision and protection. And always keep in mind that everyone expected this to happen within a very short space of time.

John the Baptist came preaching as the prophets prophesied of him, and Malachi’s the Prophet that he’s talking about.

In Malachi chapter 3:1,

Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts.

The Lord’s way needed to be prepared when the Lord comes to dwell with Israel, and so John the Baptist came as that messenger.

In Mark 1: it says,

As it is written in the Prophets: “BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER BEFORE YOUR FACE, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.” 

Notice in Malachi 3 verse 1 however, that the first part of that verse was fulfilled in John the Baptist, but the second half of this verse was not fulfilled!

There’s two comings here in Malachi 3:1.

You see this happen over and over again in the scripture. We’ll see it again in Isaiah 8:59. In the same verse you have two comings of the Lord so from the perspective of the prophets looking in the future they see the same events. Christ’s coming to die, Christ coming to set up the kingdom.

They don’t see the valley of this present time period, the dispensation of grace, between them.

They just saw the mountain peaks so to speak.

But now with the benefit of hindsight we can look in the past and say that’s how it was fulfilled.

So, in Malachi 3:2 and 3 we see,

But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness. 

This is all about the Levites and about their impure offering of sacrifices. It’s saying that when the Messiah comes, He’s going to make Israel pure again.

He’s going to bring salvation. He’s going to purge out the drawers. He’s going to make them right, which is, by the way, what Paul says in Romans 11 when he says that the salvation of Israel will happen.

So, you see in Malachi 3 here the talk about this second coming when Christ returns. There was no refining fire the first time he came as a baby in a manger.

Here he comes with fire and vengeance as Paul says.

Then in Malachi 3:4 we read,

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the LORD, As in the days of old, As in former years. 

This talks about as in the days of old, offerings will be made in Judah and Jerusalem. There’s going to be a restoration of Israel and their system of religion that God gave to them.

These are verses that really have an impact on our understanding of what God’s doing today.

In Acts 1 verse 6, Jesus is telling the twelve apostles how He must ascend to heaven and how He’s going to send the Holy Spirit according to the prophecies.

Verse 6 reads,

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

Why would they ask that question? Because God promised to restore the Kingdom to Israel, and, by this time, after Jesus’s death and resurrection, they understood that He had to go back to heaven.

He’d already explained in John 14 and in Matthew that He had to go back to fulfill prophecies.

So, they said, okay, we get that. So, when is this restoration going to happen?

Jesus doesn’t say yes or no. He says, “It’s not for you to know.”

He doesn’t say, “No you guys misunderstand entirely, there’s no restoration of the Kingdom. You live in it now. Isn’t it great?” That’s not what he said. Neither did he say, “Yes I’m going to restore it next Tuesday.”

He said, in verse 7,

“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 

Malachi 3 talks about the restoration of Israel’s program and their Kingdom on the earth. This’s something that will happen. It’s the Kingdom come.

We shouldn’t put the words of our Bible through a blender and mix them all together. We do this when we see the Bible speak of the gospel of the Kingdom and we read that and say, “Well that must be talking about the gospel we preach today.”

To do that you take that Kingdom that God’s clearly said would come, and totally change it to be something else.

Christians today try to further God’s kingdom themselves and bring it to earth through the church.

But what if that’s not the message to preach here?

What if God’s not doing that yet?

What if you and I have something else to perform on the earth?

As ambassadors, which we are according to 2^nd Corinthians 5:20, we’re not native to this planet any longer. God’s made us citizens of heaven and so we’re in foreign territories while we’re ambassadors. This is not our land. God’s using a different approach today.

There’s a literal Kingdom that’ll come to Israel that the Prophets spoke about.

We’re dealing with passages in Matthew Mark, Luke, and John here that most churches take as their doctrine.

These are the red letters. A lot of Christianity would be offended by what we’re saying here.

They’d resist it almost violently because to them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is what’s going on today. If we say any different, they feel where somehow blaspheming and dishonouring Jesus. Actually, failing to divide God’s Word rightly is doing exactly that.

Most think Israel had the Old Testament and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the New Testament but that’s not so.

In Matthew 6, Jesus gives the most famous prayer of all Christianity, The Lord’s Prayer.

If we say that it’s not our prayer for the church today, we’re in trouble and to a lot of people we’re no longer a Christian. Not in the sense that some people think anyway.

Matthew chapter 6 when Jesus teaches them how to pray, the first thing He says in verse 9 is,

“Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

When he says, “Our Father” He’s talking about Israel and God being the father of Israel. God never promised the Gentiles a thing, except through Israel.

At verse 10 He asks of God in the prayer after the introduction, “thy Kingdom come”.

Jesus told this to His apostles, who were anticipating the last days, to pray thy Kingdom come.

Jesus also taught in Matthew 6:33,

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

If you’re going to seek the things of the world Jesus taught, you’re going to lose everything, and we teach that spiritually, but Jesus is not talking to us.

He’s talking about these people who’re going to have to give up all they have. If they pursue the things of the world that’s it.

The tribulation’s purpose here is to knock down those institutions and kingdoms of the world, and so, if they’re climbing the ladder of worldly success that’s the same ladder Christ’s going to knock down.

Is he knocking down those ladders today? No!

Jesus is telling them to seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added unto them because they’re not going to get them from the world system that Christ’s going to knock down at that time to come.

Let’s go back to Matthew chapter 6. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done. Where is “Thy will” supposed to be done?

According to this prayer, on earth!

Today people say this means a spiritual kingdom of heaven.

Then why does Jesus teach them to pray for it to come on earth?

Well, they say, thy kingdom come means it comes in my mind. I can understand spiritual realities.

I mean, really! How do people come up with this. It’s much easier and much less confusing to accept what these verses actually say.

The only way to understand that is to accept that they’re praying for God’s provision in the tribulation and for the kingdom to come to the earth, which is what God promised.

As far as God’s will being done is that happening now on earth as it is in heaven? Is he reigning on earth? Is this earthly system of government by sinful humanity and the devil God ruling? How is this on, “earth as it is in heaven” today. Hardly!

God’s not on the earth today except in the sense that he’s omnipresent.

When Christ comes to the earth to reign on the throne, on the earth, everything’s different and that’s what we’re going to see in the Kingdom, His rod of iron, His righteous rule.

Matthew 6:11,

Give us this day our daily bread.

We saw this earlier, about how this is actual daily bread because they’re going through a time of wilderness just like in the Exodus and they need food.

They can’t buy or sell. They can’t eat or drink. They’re enemies of the vast majority of the population who’ve identified with the antichrist through the mark of the beast, and they don’t have that mark to buy food.

Jesus’s done this before. Remember the loaves and fishes?

This’s not the Christian Church today.

Here’s a salvation verse, verse 12.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Or Do unto others as you would have them do to you, the golden rule for Christians.

This is not the gospel of the grace of God.

The golden rule is that if I do good, God’ll do good back to me.

The gospel of grace is you can’t do good. We’re all sinners and God gave us salvation through trusting His goodness in Christ. Salvation by God’s grace.

So, this verse here is contrary to our gospel today where we’re forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. Here, forgiveness comes conditional upon us forgiving others.

Jesus amplifies this in verse 14 and we read,

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

If you don’t do right first, God won’t do right to you.

Nothing there was the blood of Christ. Everything’s about us forgiving other people.

Matthew 6 is a Kingdom prayer for people hoping and waiting for this Kingdom come.

God’s law will be instituted and then righteousness will reign finally on the earth, and it certainly never has before or now.

This is what Peter preached at Pentecost in Acts 3:19 to 21.

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

He says Christ is in heaven. He rose from the dead after you Jews crucified our Messiah after seeing clear evidence of Who He was, the prophesied Christ.

He’s telling them to repent, to turn from the unbelief that caused them to carry out that act. He told them to prepare so that the times of refreshing can come.

Times of refreshing from what?

From every injustice and every corrupt thing that’s not of God in this present world.

The Jews knew about this time of refreshing and Peter’s preaching repent that your sins may be blotted out when those times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord.

Jesus Christ is going to reinstitute His institutions, not the world’s.

The times of restitution of all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all the prophets through Israel since the world began.

When Israel rises, finally they won’t be the object of the world’s persecution and hatred, but instead they’ll be the object of God’s glory. And the world will turn to them for blessing.

That’s what Judaism is. That’s what Israel is, and the Bible says that’s going to happen.

When we talk about end time events, that’s what we’re talking about, the restoration of God’s Kingdom to the earth, Christ’s rule over it, and the reinstatement of the nation Israel to where God always intended them to be.

When Christians talk about the end of the world events, according to the scriptures, according to prophecy, they don’t often know it but they’re not talking about church, Body of Christ, end time events. They’re talking about the future time of Israel.

We simply cannot understand these events unless we rightly divide the mystery of this dispensation of grace, this interlude in the prophecy timeline, that we’re living in now.

If we mix them, we’re taking from Israel what’s not ours to take.

We’re saying we’re part of Israel’s restoration and we’re not.

When we rightly divide these two things, suddenly we understand what’s part of prophecy and what’s part of the mystery that was never prophesied.

Today, you and I are going to heaven if we believe, but to Israel the description and detail of their coming Kingdom was given in multiple books and multiple prophecies.

There’re sinners and wicked people everywhere today, but we’re still to preach grace and salvation to them in spite of so much evil today. God’s offering grace to them just like He did to you and me.

In Revelation 19 though, we’re talking about this time at the end of this trouble where the final nail will be driven into the coffin of the kingdoms of the world by Christ himself coming back on this white horse.

Here’s the picture.

You see the clouds rolling back and the white horse with the Lord on it and it says His eyes were a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew but He Himself.

He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. His name is called the Word of God. This is the Word from John 1:1.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

Revelation 19:14 and 15,

And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 

Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Out of this mouth goes forth a sharp sword.

We say to take the Bible literally? So, do we think there’s a physical mouth out of which a metal sword comes?

No, There’s no actual metal blade coming out of His lips.

We all understand figures of speech, and the Bible often tells when symbols are being used. We all surely see that these symbols are a way of showing in word pictures, what will happen in reality.

We can read back in Revelation chapter 1 where it describes this sword coming out of his mouth and Revelation chapter 2 when it talks about the church is there and how if they don’t listen, they’re going to be slain by the sword coming out of the Lord’s mouth. Of course, this tells us we’re not the church in Revelation chapter 2.

If you look at Ephesians chapter 6:17, for example, you can see a definition of the sword,

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 

So, if there’s a sword coming from the commander’s mouth, smiting the nation’s, what’s He’s doing? Speaking! At the sound of his voice.

How can you fight people with words? The same way you create things with words.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And he said let there be light.

God spoke and creation came together. He can also speak and destroy. He’ll say it and it’ll be done.  And, in case you believe the word of faith preachers, your words don’t have that power.

In Revelation 19 He comes back, and He starts speaking words of righteousness. And His judgment burns up things, burns up the enemies. It burns up the mountains, the earthly kingdoms. It burns up everything that He doesn’t want to be there, and He smites the nations, and rules them with a rod of iron.

Not a message we would preach today if we’re preaching grace to the nations.

In Revelation 19 verse 16 we read,

And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 

We have here the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth to set up the Kingdom after he destroys the kings of the nations of the world.

Look at Isaiah 9:6,

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, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

This is another prophecy about the coming Messiah to Israel.

It’s often sung in Christmas songs, talking about Jesus’s birth in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but the key to this verse is in Verse 7,

Of the increase of His government and peace 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. 

This isn’t just a temporary rule here.

This is an Eternal Ruler upon the throne of David in His Kingdom.

The Messiah’s born but this is actually speaking about this Kingdom being set up with everlasting righteousness.

Look at Isaiah 11:1,

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 

That’s the son of David coming through the line of David through Jesse, David’s father.

Isaiah 11:2,

The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

Verses 3 to 5 are all speaking prophecy relating to the coming of Christ,

His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears. But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist. 

When Jesus came teaching the meek will inherit the earth, he was claiming He was fulfilling these prophecies in Isaiah 11.

He’s this King that’ll judge righteously and fulfill these prophecies.

In Christ’s Kingdom on the earth there won’t be the free reign of wicked people. The world doesn’t understand God’s righteousness because it functions on a sort of collective evil heart. People of the world today generally think they’re in pretty good shape spiritually, after all most don’t murder or commit adultery, so they make a critical error! They compare themselves to other, more bad, people and they see themselves as rather deserving of a pat on the back from God. However, the critical error is they’re making the wrong comparison!

The comparison they need to make is between their righteousness and God’s. When any of us do that, we immediately realise that we come up impossibly short. God’s righteousness is the only standard of righteousness that we can judge ourselves by and as we’ve said a number of times, we only need to read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 to see just how dismally short of that standard we all are.

But Isaiah 11 says the world, the earth, will have the judgment of God upon it. We’ll have the righteous judgment and dominion of the Lord.

That’s a wonderful time that we can’t even imagine and it’s certainly not describing the time in which we live today.

Isaiah 11:6 to 9 give us this,

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 

The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 

The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. 

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. 

This is talking about the removal of the curse on the earth and the sea and all nature, from the fall of man in Genesis.

Now look at Isaiah 11:11,

It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people (Israel) who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea. 

Part of the setting up of this Kingdom is the regathering of Israel. The King of Israel gathers into that Kingdom the remnant of the nation of Israel who have faith in Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 2 verse 2 talks about this, and we read,

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain (strength, stability, security, power, faith, authority, and greatness) of the LORD’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains (or earthly rules and rulers), And shall be exalted above the hills (every other minor area of earthly rule); And all nations shall flow to it. 

That’s the difference between prophecy and the mystery period we’re living in today.

Nations are not flowing to Israel today!

The nations hear the gospel from almost anywhere except Israel!

What’s going on in Isaiah 2 verse 2 hasn’t been fulfilled yet.

When is the time of Isaiah 2?  When the nation’s flow unto Jerusalem in Israel to learn about God.

In Isaiah 2:3 we see,

Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 

Isaiah elsewhere says that the glory of God is in Israel. Israel’s My glory God says. That’s what the Kingdom is. Israel being established.

It’s not happening today, but it will happen and when Israel’s finally established, we’ll see Isaiah 2:4 happen,

He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. 

How many times have we heard politicians say they’ll bring peace, equity and justice to the world. Then what happens? No matter how good intentioned they are, they fail.

Imagine when the whole world won’t need to make weapons of war.

The wicked powerbrokers and warmongers, drunk with their own pride, will be eradicated in that day.

The people will finally live in joy and peace and happiness on the earth.

Until next time friends may you find the answers to this life in God’s Word.

Take it while it’s still being offered.