Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening, and we thank you, Lord God, for your living word. It's a constant reminder of your grace and your love as we are prone to wander, and we desire, Lord God, to give you our best. And we pray, Father God, as we study your word and recognize how patient you've been with us and to your people, Lord God, throughout history, and how you are reliable, you are faithful, you are a sovereign God, Lord, that all your promises come true.

So we pray that with that confidence that we may truly live a life worthy of the calling that you've given us. So we ask for your grace over this time, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, I know it's a bit hot, but there are two air conditioners that are working.

How many of you in the room are sitting under a vent that's actually working? There should be, the middle section, there should be some vents working, because there's two thermostats that are actually working. How many of you guys are not hot? Yeah not hot. It's blowing somewhere. Huh? I mean, it'll help the table.

It's alright, just sit tight. Probably the temperature will drop a little bit. Alright okay, if you guys can take a look, Isaiah 60, 1 through 9. So again, a continuation of Isaiah 60, describes what's happening. So the first chapter that we're looking at, chapter 61 through 9, it begins by saying, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." And basically it's obviously a promise of rescue.

So in the previous chapter, it talked about the darkness that Israel was in, and so chapter 60 begins by promise of the Redeemer coming and rescuing them. And what I want to note in this passage is where he says that as a result of His glory coming and being restored back into Israel, that all the nations are going to come to them because they're going to see the glory of God resting upon them.

So again, I mean, this is a lesson that we are taught over and over again, and for whatever the reason, we have a tendency to kind of sidetrack, but again, in a nation of Israel, they try so hard by their own effort to be a great nation, by allying themselves with certain other groups, or trying to be victorious militarily, and none of that.

The more they struggled with their own might, they struggled, and they would actually bring upon them judgment. But at the end times, the Lord says that when He comes, when He reveals His glory, and His glory is upon the nation of Israel, what immediately happens? They begin to shine, and then all the nations begin to come to them because they see the glory of God resting upon them.

So in the end, it's related to the questions that we've been talking about. The primary way that God glorifies Himself and does evangelism is when the glory of God is evident in the church, in His people. It never works when we say, "Listen to what I say, but don't look at what I do." It never works.

He's like, "Oh, it's the gospel, it's the same truth, who it comes from." But the attraction that they have toward God is going to come through the attraction to the church. So when the glory of God is evident in the life of the Christian, that's when non-Christians are attracted.

You try so hard to share the gospel with people, but if they don't see the glory of God upon you, then it's going to be futile. And that's basically what the nation of Israel's history, constantly by their own effort, all that happened to them was destruction and judgment day came upon them.

But at the end, as soon as the glory of God comes and restored unto Israel, everything else gets restored. City gets restored, wealth gets restored, health gets restored. And then even them coming, they become a super nation that what they couldn't do by their own might, it just happens when the glory of God comes and rests upon them.

So again, this is a constant reminder to us as a church that the most important thing that every Christian, every church needs to do is to abide in Him. If we're not abiding in Him, don't worry about, "Are we doing evangelism?" Don't worry about, "Oh, do I feel connected or do I have enough Christian friends?" Don't worry about all that stuff, because all of that stuff is superficial if you're first and foremost, if you're not abiding in Christ.

Again, that's individually and as a church. How will they react? So when the Lord comes in His full glory, the Gentile nation shall see it and be attracted to the light. It says, "Even kings will be attracted to the brightness of Israel's rising. This will be ultimately fulfilled in the millennial kingdom." If you can turn your Bibles with me to Revelation chapter 20, 3 to 8.

Now one of the questions that I ask, I think we're going to answer in a little bit, is, is the fulfillment of these prophecies, is it talking about eternal heaven or is he talking about an earthly fulfillment? I'm going to give you the answer now. Some of you guys, it may be going over your head, but I think it's important for us, at least for you to recognize that when we talk about these prophecies that God makes to Israel and to the nations, that there are two views.

One view is that the church has replaced Israel, so all of this is just referring to heaven. All of this is referring to heaven, so it's an ultimate fulfillment in heaven. But what I believe that is a millennial kingdom, and I'm going to explain that a little bit, that this is an earthly fulfillment.

So if you look at the book of Revelation chapter 20, starting from verse 3, you'll see the language that he uses starting from verse 3. It says, "And threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended." Now the thousand years, that's where we get the term millennial kingdom, right?

Because it's for a thousand years. So if you look at it, he says that Satan is bound so that he cannot be deceived. Is it permanent or not permanent? It's not permanent, right? He's bound for a thousand years, and then he gets released for whatever else he's going to do at the end.

So there's a period of a thousand years where God prophesies in those millennial kingdoms where he describes about all the prophecies being fulfilled. Now if that was referenced to eternal kingdom, then how could that be something that happens? We go into the kingdom and then Satan gets released and deceives one more time, right?

That's not the only place, I'm not going to go too deep into that, but there's other things that I'm going to mention in this text. Why we believe, or I believe, that this is referenced to an earthly fulfillment. That God is not done with Israel. God's promises to Israel are still going to stand.

It doesn't mean that this isn't relevant to Christians, but the specific fulfillment of his promise to the nation of Israel is going to happen to the nation of Israel. Okay? Now if that went over your head, don't worry about it. Those of you who are curious about it, we can talk more about it.

But again, I believe that this is a millennial kingdom, and then I'll explain a little bit more. This is in reference to the Jewish converts remaining on earth, that all of them will be gathered together. That when God fulfills these promises that he made to the nation of Israel, remember, again, when Jesus is crucified and then he resurrects, right before he goes up, what do the disciples ask Jesus?

Is it now? Is it now that you're going to fulfill the kingdom? Right? That's the question he asks in Acts chapter 1. And Jesus says to him, "It is not for you to know the time or the hour." And then that's when he says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." So he doesn't say the kingdom is just going to be in the future and don't worry about it, right?

So there's a fulfillment of his promise, because when the Jews thought about kingdom, you can imagine why. If you read chapters 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, if you read that, if you were following along, if you were a Jew, wouldn't you have thought, wouldn't you have been excited about Jesus' coming?

Wouldn't you have thought, this is what you thought was going to be fulfilled? Are you following along? Some of you, the heat's getting to you. I can see it. Okay? So if you were to, if you read chapter 60 and 61, right, just in this passage, and the things that you read just this week, it's not just those passages, but just look at this week, talking about their wealth is going to be restored, they're going to be healthy, all the nations are going to come bow down to them, they're going to be the super nation, their old cities are going to be rebuilt, they're going to basically overthrow the Roman government, at least that's what you would think, based upon this, and that the Messiah is going to rule over them perfectly, the perfect king.

So when Jesus came, can you imagine the excitement that this is going to be fulfilled? Right? Why would any Jew think otherwise? Jesus rebukes them. He says, "Only if you knew today," like when he was going into Jerusalem, "Only if you knew today, what would truly bring peace, but because you did not know." Like the Dutch judgment is coming upon Jerusalem.

But if you read this as a Jew, no Jew read this, right? No Jew read this, because he says, and I'm going to talk about it in a little bit, are the Jews and the Gentiles mixed together in this passage? He's not. He's not. Right? The Jews are elevated above the Gentiles.

So they thought that if the Messiah came, he was going to establish this kingdom, but what is it that they missed? What is it that they missed? >> That it was for both. >> Huh? >> That it was for both, do you hear me? >> Uh, I, no, when Jesus came, right, they were so fixated on the kingdom, because this is the description of this kingdom, right?

And so they were fixated, when the kingdom comes, were you going to, will you let me sit on to the left or to the right, you know, is it now, even after the resurrection, is it now, are you going to now bring the kingdom, like these prophecies, are you going to now fulfill it now, right?

They were fixated on this. But if you read this, wouldn't you have thought the same thing? >> Although there's many parts of the scripture that talk about the political kingdom, they just overrided all the parts that talk about personal holiness, personal salvation, holiness within, all those parts that talk about a personal salvation, a personal relationship with the Messiah, they just glossed over it, and they focused only on the political kingdom.

So it wasn't that they were incorrect in thinking there's going to be a future political kingdom, it was that they negated other parts of the scriptures, and they talked about looking towards God as their king. >> Right, right. So if you were a Jew and you're reading this and you chose to focus your attention upon chapter 60 and 61 and then the other chapters and say, wow, God's going to fulfill this, but what does he say before he comes here?

What is a very important passage about the fulfillment of this before we get to chapter 60? Chapter 53, chapter 53 basically says, before this kingdom comes and he restores us, what happens? He's going to come and he's going to what? He's going to suffer for our sins. That's the part that they just kind of glossed over.

They didn't understand it, right? Because he wasn't just going to ignore their sins. He wasn't just going to say, oh, you know what, you've been sinning and you constantly rebel and you go after idols, but there's going to come a day where he's going to forget all of that, right?

One day he's not going to keep you accountable, that your sins over and over again, that he's just going to decide one day, you know what, you know, I've been angry over your sins all this time, but when that time comes, I'm just going to forget all of it.

Is that what he says? No. He said, how is he going to fulfill this? Chapter 53, right? He's not just going to sweep their sins under the rug. He said the Messiah is going to come, right? All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us to his own way, but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

That's the part that they didn't get. The way he was going to fulfill this was by dealing with sin where his justice and his mercy and righteousness was not going to be compromised. So they skipped over, you know, we did all of this, we did it, you know, and we cried out to God and then just God just one day decided like, okay, forget it.

I'm just going to do the millennial kingdom, right? He said, no, that's the part where Jesus came and said that had to be, that had to be fulfilled, right? So he said, if you look at Romans chapter 11, he said that the Jews have experienced a hardening of their heart temporarily until the fullness of the number of Gentiles have come in and then the Jews will be grafted back in to the kingdom.

And that period is referring to the millennial kingdom, right? God is going to literally fulfill the promises that he made, right? And again, the other interpretation of that is we have a school of thought where people just kind of spiritualize everything. All of that is just a thousand years represents perfection.

You know, the church represents the nation of Israel. So all of that is not being, it's just being fulfilled in the church. And now we are living in that millennial kingdom. That's what they, that's what they say, right? But again, the problem with that is Satan is not bound.

Revelation just says Satan's going to be bound and then he's going to be released after a thousand years. If this is the thousand year reign of Christ, then why is he not bound? Right? Anyway, so that's enough of that. So if you have any questions about that, we can get into more discussion, but we believe, I believe that this is, this is being fulfilled at the end times during the millennial reign of Christ.

And then after that comes the, comes the judgment and then we enter into kingdom for eternity. Okay. Now I'm going to go a little bit more into that as we talk. Okay. So Jesus says that at the end, not only will they be gathered, he said, the foreign nations are also going to come to them and they're functioning like priests.

So during that period, so in the, in the heavenly kingdom, we don't have priests, right? Jesus Christ is the only, only mediator between us and God. But during the millennial kingdom, the Jews are going to be functioning. The Israelites are going to be functioning as the priests, right? So in order to have a relationship with, with Christ, that they're going to somehow become a kingdom of priests, the whole nation.

So like, why would they be bringing money and offering to the nation of Israel? Okay. It doesn't, it doesn't spell it out, but it seems like because they're functioning as priests, they're paying their tithes and offering to the nation of Israel during this period. Okay. Yes. Okay. Not one nod.

You guys are hot. How many of you guys understand what I'm talking about? All right. That's enough. I'm satisfied with that. All right. For now. Okay. Those of you guys who don't understand, just, just file it away in your head. Okay. It may not, it may not, you may not understand what I'm talking about now, but as you grow in understanding of scripture, you're going to find out that that's a huge part of, of understanding how this, how the scripture and God's prophecy is being fulfilled.

Okay. It may not, it may not affect, you know, evangelism today, but it will definitely affect your whole understanding of scripture at some point. So just kind of file that away. Millennial kingdom. Okay. Just file it away somewhere. Okay. So those who previously persecuted Israel will have a different heart and mind in millennial kingdom.

They will come bowing to Israel. Right. Who would that be? Just take a quick guess. Who are the enemies of Israel? Don't think theologically, just think like if you weren't in church and I asked you, who are the enemies of Israel? What would you answer? Everyone on their border, which is all the Muslim countries right now.

Okay. Now does the Bible say that some Muslims? No. But if you think about it, think about the hatred, the, you know, they, Iran, basically their leader said that they're not going to be happy until they drive all the Israelites into the ocean and drown all of them. So if they had, if they had access to nuclear bomb, first thing that they would do is just bomb Israel.

Right. And then they're going to bomb America for getting in the way. So think about that. If this, again, you know, we may be reading into this, but if this prophecy is going to be fulfilled, that there's going to come a time that all those people who are trying to kill Israel are going to come and bow down to Israel.

Isn't that crazy to think that one day in the millennial kingdom, you know what I mean? They all, they think about, I don't know any other nation that has as many enemies as Israel does, at least today. Right. And to think that when the glory of the Lord comes back on the nation of Israel and there is a massive revival that comes to the nation of Israel and they repent and come to Christ and Israel is restored as God's people that during this period, that all these enemies are going to be bound down.

They're going to actually be money to Israel. Right. And then he said, those who don't, they will be punished. You know, nation of Israel disappeared in 80, 70, the zealots came and they attacked the Roman government and the Israel, the Romans just got sick and tired of that and said, we're going to come in and we'll wipe them out.

So Israel as a nation disappeared in 80, 70. Right. When did they come back? It's like 47 or something, right? I think it's 1947 or 48, somewhere during that period, they were given that land back and Israel actually comes back and then, and then they return. So here's a nation that disappears for almost 2000 years.

Right. And they're able to retain their culture. And so up to that point, like imagine if you thousand years, like, you know, after Israel disappears and you're talking about like, Oh, one day Israel is going to come back. Like it would have been, it would have been fantasy. So there's a reason why in church history, there wasn't a lot of emphasis on this.

It's like, Oh, they're done. You know, like a nation that's been gone for a thousand years, they don't just come back. I know God is a sovereign God, you know, and we know that he created the universe, but come on, you know, a nation that's dead, the language is dead, you know, are scattered and just hidden all throughout the world.

All of a sudden, just going to come back. It took the Holocaust. Right. If it wasn't the Holocaust, this would have never happened. It's because of the Holocaust, as a result of the suffering of the nation of Israel, they're given this piece of land, right. By the allies, like the, I think it was a colony of, of, of great Britain and they, they decided to give it back.

And that's why there's all this tension because during that period, the Palestinians were occupying that space and then they just gave it to them. So they've been resenting them since. Right. That's crazy to think, you know, now we're on this side of the fulfillment, at least that particular part of prophecy is not only does the Bible say it, I mean, it's, it seems very tangible.

You know, if God can take a nation that disappeared for 2000 years and all of a sudden reappear, why would it be so difficult to imagine this? Right. That'd be crazy. He says in this millennial kingdom, there's going to be no violence. Lord's glory will replace the need for sun and the moon, meaning that His glory is going to be that evident.

The days of mourning will end. The righteousness, according to verse 21 is going to be permanent. Again, the only reason why it's permanent is because this was righteousness that is imputed to us by Christ. So this is not something that Satan can ever take away. So it's going to be permanent.

The least shall become great and smallest will become the mighty nation. And this is all going to happen because God's glory is going to return to Israel. And isn't that ultimately what salvation is? Salvation is seeing the glory of Christ. Right. We open our eyes to see that, you know, here's the truth of who he is.

And then that caused us to surrender our life to Christ in repentance. Right. But we only see in part. But he says that at the end, his glory is going to be so bright and so evident. Not only would the nation of Israel surrender their life, he said, all others who sees God's favor upon Israel are going to come and they're going to worship this God because of them.

So the question, you know, there's much more to it than that. But just according to this passage, it says it seems like it's an earthly fulfillment because because Israel is distinguished from the rest of the world. So if the church replaced Israel, there should be no distinction. We're all just one people.

It doesn't matter if you're Israelites or, you know, whatever country you're coming from, because we're all one, the Gentiles and the Jews have become one. But if you look at this fulfillment, it's clear that the Gentiles and and Israel are two distinct separate people. And there is an elevation of Israel.

It's not like the Israel Gentiles are all the same, either. Israelites are sitting in a higher position. Right. The Gentile nations will come to serve and to submit during this period. So how can this be? If this is the if this is heaven, then does this mean if we were to take this and to apply to heaven, it means that Israel is going to be elevated among all and for the rest of eternity, that we're going to be serving the nation of Israel.

So again, that's why we don't believe that this is not the eternal kingdom. Just talking about the millennial period. And it's talking about the promised land and the Israelites returning to it. So why would the nation of Israel, their descendants return back to the land if it's talking about a spiritual kingdom?

Why do they need to return? Because everywhere they are, you're right, they're going to go into eternity. But there's talk about land. Along with that, there's a promise of restoration to ruined cities. So what Israel lost is going to be restored. So all of this sounds like unless you want to spiritualize everything that's being said here and spiritualize everything that's said in the book of Revelation, it seems like God has a period reserved where every promise he made to the nation of Israel is going to be fulfilled literally.

And that's that period. Millennial kingdom. Okay? Just file that away. >> What are the gentile believers doing at this time? >> Probably what we're doing now. It doesn't say it's during a millennial kingdom, it's a literal kingdom. So we're probably going to be doing what we're doing now, except that Christ himself is going to be literally ruling the earth through the nation of Israel.

So life is going to go on, but we can't imagine what it would be like when we literally have the king. Like Jesus when he walked on earth, but now the people in the world recognize him. So there's a period, whether that's a literal thousand years or a period of time when the new heaven and new earth is restored by Christ.

And so we'll be functioning, but with the true king actually ruling. >> So during that period, do you feel that you have a past? >> You guys can get into this, all right. Okay. All right. So let me give you a short answer, okay? Because there is no, I've never heard an airtight argument for any of this stuff because there's a lot of questions that come up.

And so that question was asked, in fact, I may have asked that question when I was taking this book of revelation class. And the answer that was given, because the Bible doesn't spell this out, but what the Bible does spell out is that there's going to be a binding during, before the thousand year reign of Christ, and then there's going to be a releasing, right?

And at the releasing where he's going to be allowed to go and deceive. And then there's a white throne judgment that happens at the very end. So during that period, those people who are born, they're not all Christians. So only Christians enter into the millennium, right? But they're not all Christians who are in the millennium.

So there's a second judgment that is a white throne judgment where the final judgment takes place, right? So the question that comes up is like, how many times is there a resurrection? How many times does Jesus come back in his store kingdom? Yeah, we won't get into that now.

Okay. But I think again, the temptation is because of the complexity of how things are laid out, right? Are you a preacher, mid trip, post trip? Are you a millennial, post millennial? You know, you have all these different views of how things will play out. And then you have, you know, basically all of that is, all of that is just allegorical and just, we're just living at the end time.

Jesus is going to come in the end. Right. Personally, the reason why I think that this interpretation and application makes more sense is because think about all the prophecies that they, they mentioned about Jesus in the old Testament. Like that kind of like, oh, he's going to be born in a manger in Bethlehem.

And you know, he's going to be, you know, like think about all the prophecies. Born of a virgin, like all of these things, like he's going to be riding on a donkey. Jesus fulfilled that literally. Right. Majority of what he said was fulfilled literally. So it doesn't make sense to me that we come and then we take the prophecies that are given now and then spiritualize all of it.

Right. I think the more consistent way, even though it may be difficult, like we won't know, Jesus said you will not know the time or the hour. So I don't think he gave us the tools to be able to say, you know, what's going to happen here and after 2000 years, this is going to happen after 800 years, this is going to happen.

He didn't give us that. He gave us just enough so that you wouldn't be caught off guard like a thief coming into your house. Like you can see the times, the signs of the times and say, oh, I remember Jesus said this, that these are, these are things going to happen.

You know, rumors, wars and rumors of wars and natural disasters, that these things are going to increase. The love of God is going to grow cold because of the wickedness of this generation. So he has all of these things that are in place. And then so that when you see them happening, it causes you to say, could it be now?

So you're not being caught off guard. Right. But it just doesn't make sense to me that how everything was fulfilled literally in his first coming and then to just, just discount all of that and say, that's all spiritual in his second coming. It seems to be inconsistent to me.

Right. So if we were to take that literally again, all of these things don't, it's not a neat box that we can put it in, but these are just kind of outlines that we see that I think that a nation of Israel at some point is going to experience a revival and there's going to be a mass repentance.

In fact, there's a whole ministry group of people. I think they're called chosen chosen people ministry and it's Jewish Christians who are targeting Jews to convert. And so there's a whole ministry that targets them. And then there's been a mass return back to Jerusalem because this movement is going back as ultimately they want to send people back to Jerusalem to bring revival to evangelize in Israel because they believe that this is going to be fulfilled through them.

Okay. All right. We can talk more later. Right. We have too many people where it's going to, it's going over their head. Okay. So during this period, it's going to, he's going to bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim the liberty to the captives, release the prisoners bound and comfort those who mourn.

Do you think that this description of brokenhearted, those who are in captive, prisoners bound, those who mourn, do you think this is a description of a particular group of people? Where there's a particular group of people who are brokenhearted, who are captive, who are prisoners, who are bound and certain people who mourn.

Is that like a foreshadowing of a circle on the mountain? Yes, I'm sure that's connected. Talking about like people who are seeking after God, they're brokenhearted because they see the sin of God. Right. When I look at this, this is not just a description of some people who, you know, who lost their jobs or lost a loved one and, you know, had some financial problems.

This is a description of every single human being who's living in this fallen world. Right. Every single human being that's living in this fallen world to a certain degree, experience all of this, whether it's literal or spiritual. So when he says that he came to set the captives free, are there people who are captive and not captive?

No. Every single human being. So this is a description of all of us to a certain degree. Right. Anybody who is under the influence of the reign of sin, which is all mankind, experiences brokenheartedness, right? Captivity, being bound and mourned all because of sin. And this is what all of these things are a direct result of sin.

And he said basically he's going to lift the sin. And then when the sin is lifted and he's able to draw near and his glory comes back, right? All of these things are going to be taken care of. And yes, the sermon of the mount, you know, the attitude is an exact description that all of these things are going to be reversed when we repent and we come to God.

So what we're experiencing now is only a glimpse, but in the millennial kingdom and in eternity, all of that is going to be in full force. Right? What is promised to the people of God? They shall build up cities that were ruined because God's judgment on on them. Verse four.

They will be honored and even served by other nation. Again, this is all things that was said in the previous chapter, but he repeats it again. So in other words, Israel is going to be restored and then nations will come to them to ultimately come to God. And they're going to be given double portion instead of dishonor.

In other words, they're going to be separated. They're not going to be like all the other nations. The Israel is not just restored back to the other, you know, where the other nations are. They're going to be lifted above that. They're going to be receiving the double honor. So again, this is part of the reason why I believe that this is in reference to a literal Israel.

What God considers justice here is contrasted with false worship. So look, look at first. Verse eight, he says, for I, the Lord love justice. I hate robbery and wrong. Right. How many have ESV? How many have NASB? How many of you have New King James or King James? OK, one.

All right. So in the NASB, can you read that passage in NASB? Those of you have NASB. Read the beginning of verse eight. Anybody? OK, did you guys catch that? What was different in the ESV? It says, for I, the Lord love justice. I hate robbery and wrong. And what does the NASB say?

Burnt offering. Completely different. Not even close. Right. The reason why there's a different translation on those those words is because there is a, I think I think they call it a conjunction that is missing in one of the manuscripts. And so when you add that, it becomes burnt offering.

When you don't add that, it becomes something, something wrong. Right. And so that's why the NASB and the New King James has translated burnt offering. But it would either way, if you look at it in the context of what God is telling the nation of Israel, what was the primary sin during this period?

False worship. They're very active at the temple. Right. In fact, it doesn't say in Malachi that you have robbed me. Is that how do we rob you? Rob me of of tithes and offering. Right. So when he says here, it says, for I, the Lord love justice. I hate robbery.

Right. And what's wrong and what was wrong. Right. It was the way that they were worshiping. And that's why the next passage says, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Right. And they establish the truth. I will direct them, direct their work in truth and establish an everlasting kingdom covenant.

In other words, your worship is going to be genuine. That's just it's not going to be just going through the motion when he comes and he restores true worship is going to be restored along with it. And who is he in reference to at the end that that breaks out in worship?

Probably the converted Jews at the end, the recipients. And so when they see the Lord's glory being restored, it says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. Amen. Amen. (splash)