The Kingdom Established - The Outcome Desired; The Eternity of the Kingdom - Part 2 — Mark Sweetnam

So we'll come then to what I've called the constituents of the kingdom, and our brother William has just referred us to this very important verse in Revelation 26, and William, would you like to help us with this?

Okay, well, we know that New Testament saints have been raised at the rapture, the dead in Christ, exclusively a New Testament designation of New Testament believers from the day of Pentecost through until the moment of the rapture, okay?

Dead in Christ, raised at the rapture, and glorified, all right? Then the question arises, well, what about Old Testament saints, all right? There's a number of scriptures that would indicate to us where they will rise, as well as logic.

The Resurrection of Old Testament Saints

Isaiah chapter 26, the end of that chapter, right? He has been speaking about tribulation judgments. He talks about when the indignation is overpassed, and he says, thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.

The earth will no more cover her slain, will cast out her dead, no more cover her slain. Very literal language relating to resurrection, and Isaiah is included, and it's when the indignation is overpassed, all right?

Then there's the Daniel 12 chapter, which the very last verse, I don't think necessarily is referring specifically to the moment of Daniel's resurrection, but it is indicating that Daniel will stand in his lot at the end of those days.

So he has obviously been resurrected, all right? And I take it strictly, it's speaking about his role in the kingdom. He'll stand in his allotted position for the kingdom. So what you've said then in Revelation chapter 20, blessed are the dead that are part in the first resurrection.

So I would take it that all previous saints from all generations, by that point, are raised from the dead and have their glorified body.

I agree, and of course, added to them in the context here are those who have been martyred during the tribulation. Yes, of course. So that what we have in verse six of Revelation 20 is like a kind of a summary comment, not saying that these people here, that they constitute in and of themselves the first resurrection, but this is drawing the dividing point, because we're told in verse five, the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished.

This is the first resurrection. So that resurrection of those who have been saved, to use New Testament language, those who have been in relationship with God, this is the final act of that resurrection program.

Question, we've sort of got time for a slight sort of speculative question. Does the first resurrection begin with the rapture or does the first resurrection include the resurrection of Christ?

I would take it according to first Corinthians 15. He is the beginning of the first resurrection, Christ, the first fruits, and then they which are Christ that is coming. First fruit singular. Correct.

Yeah. Sorry. So, brother Mark, then with regard to this business of first resurrection, there are only two resurrections. Yes. The Lord Jesus was quite clear on this ground when it comes to John five.

Yes. The resurrection onto life and the resurrection onto damnation. There is no third. I've spoken to people. I've communicated with people. They maintain a third thing. But as you say, the first resurrection is in a number of stages.

When we reach that point that you have read to us in Revelation 20, at that point, there is the first resurrection has taken place. The thing that the strong point of dispensational theology is this, two resurrections divided by a thousand years.

Amen. Between the first resurrection, the resurrection onto life, and the second resurrection, which will be those who are not saved to the great white throne. Those who have died. There will be a thousand years.

The millennial reign of the Lord Jesus.

Very good. Yes, I think it's important to be clear on that. Sorry. Two things. Just one is to reinforce what William is saying in relation to the resurrection of Old Testament. You find another scripture that would support that in the New Testament, and that is when Lazarus has died.

And Martha says, if thou has been here, when he says, thy brother shall rise again to Martha. She says, yes, I know he will rise in the last day. So she looked forward to a day when the kingdom would come, when he would rise again.

The second thing is that, can you re-emphasize the point that William has also made? That there is a clear distinction in scripture between the dead in Christ. And they that are Christ.

Yes. So as our brother William has said, and we do believe that at the rapture, it is those who of this dispensation, the dead in Christ, who will be raised. And maybe we should say, we're sometimes struck.

Our brother William has drawn our attention to some helpful references from the Old Testament in relation to resurrection. And more generally, we could think about the book of Job as well, which is a glorious expression very early on of the truth of resurrection.

But we're sometimes surprised that the Old Testament doesn't say more about the subject of resurrection. But we remember that Paul says to Timothy that Christ brought life and incorruptibility to life through my gospels.

We're only seeing the glimmers in the Old Testament. And with the coming of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the preaching of the gospel, the New Testament unfolds a truth that was really only faintly seen in the Old Testament.

Mark, have you any thought as to why there is so much confusion in relation to the resurrection, i .e. those who would rise at the rapture and be those who would rise in the final resurrection? Does it come out of a reformed theology and complete misunderstanding of dispensations?

It possibly does. I think for a number of different reasons that maybe wouldn't be that valuable to delve into. The truth that we've had taught here, I think, is very important. And we need to be clear on that in relation to the first resurrection.

The Constituents and Government of the Millennial Kingdom

So let me then just draw out, and the brethren will come in on this, the implications of this as far as who's going to be going into the kingdom. So you and I are going to be in the kingdom. We've seen that.

And we will have a role in the kingdom, and we'll need to think about that. We've seen that Israel will be there in the kingdom. There's that Ezekiel passage that deals with the judgment of Israel, and they will be brought, as we have seen, into the land.

The head of the nations, no longer the tail. And we were thinking earlier on in the Bible readings about what God intended them to be, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. And they never really achieved or attained to that in their history, have never up to this point.

But in the millennium, that will be the case. Part of that will be the Old Testament saints who will, as our brother William has been telling us from Daniel, they will stand on their lot. They will have a role in the kingdom.

There will be those that we read about here in Revelation chapter 20, those who have been killed as martyrs during the tribulation. Resurrected, they will go into the kingdom. There are the sheep from the judgment of the living nations.

They will go into the kingdom. So that in the kingdom, we have Israel. And in the kingdom, we have nations. And as we'll see when we come to Psalm 72, we have governments in those nations. So that again, we're coming back to this idea of the order of God expressed in kingdom structure.

And so there's a hierarchy that is in operation and a structure that is in operation in the kingdom. And it will be global government. There will be those nations that exist. There will be those with particular responsibility for the rule of those nations.

There will actually be an individual with a particular administrative responsibility in relation to the nation of Israel. Ezekiel speaks about him as the prince. But over it all will be Christ who will reign supreme.

Are we happy with that in relation to the constituents and the structure? And the corollary of that, brother Mark, is this, that at least for some parts of that time, there will be those, I take it on planet earth, I would like to get your view on this, that will be in a physical body like what we have now.

There will be others who will be in a resurrected body, a changed body. Are you happy with that? Well, as I said already, and I know it's not an exact parallel, but I do like to think of the house of Bethany where a man who was resurrected.

Now, I know he wasn't in a resurrection body, but he sat down in the presence of the Lord with those who hadn't been resurrected. And the other point, and just to sort of tidy up on something we mentioned earlier on, is that so there will be those, as John says, those from the living nations, those from Israel who will go into the millennium, they will be believers, we can use that language, but they will be in physical bodies.

And because they will be in physical bodies, they will be able during the millennium to procreate, they will reproduce. There will be those who are born in the millennium. And we might say, where do the rebels that join Satan at the end of the millennium, where do they come from?

Well, they come not from those who went into the kingdom who were saved, but from the generations that follow. And we know that there will be those who will sin in the millennium. And when there is sin, there will be immediate and manifest judgment for that.

But there will be those who will perhaps give no outward sign of their dissatisfaction with the reign of the king, but it will be there. And when Satan comes, they'll rally to his flag.

In relation to those living who enter on into the millennial kingdom on earth, we're all happy that they're born again, except you can't enter, right? So they're all born again. But it's important to notice, they're just like us.

They still have a fallen nature. We are born again, but we have a fallen nature. And that's why those offspring from their parents will need to be born again themselves during the tribulation. And if they're not, they'll be amongst those that rebel at the end that need to be put down.

So again, it's fallen man being tested in the best of conditions. I think it's important to remember that. Now, in relation to those—.

Just before you move on from that, can I just make a point that relates to that? And I think it's a really very important point, apologetically, for the want of a better word. We're often told, well, if God wants us to believe, why has he gone about it the way that he has?

Why can't we see him? Why doesn't he manifest himself? Why doesn't he write his existence, as if he hadn't written his existence in the stars, by the way? But why doesn't he write a message in the sky?

And those objections are premised on the assumption that the difficulty, the problem, is with God's revelation of himself. The problem isn't with God's revelation of himself. The problem is with the heart of man.

Human Rebellion Despite Kingdom Blessing

And so much that we accept by faith will be visibly manifest in the millennium. You say, there'll not be a single rebel. There'll not be a single—. Well, actually, the depravity of man's heart is such that in spite of all they'll be able to see, and in spite of those perfect, those idyllic conditions that we're going to come to think about in just a minute, they will still rebel.

In actual fact, it is likely the grace of God, and is the grace of God, that has chosen to reveal himself in this dispensation in the way that he has. Because God knows what will be most effective to mankind.

And the idea that things would be different if God spoke in a different way. Well, one of the purposes of the millennium, I take it, is to give a light to that, and to demonstrate that the problem is not God's revelation.

Sorry, William.

No, I was going to move on to those who have been resurrected in glorified bodies. And I take it fitted for a glorified place. We have thought of the heavenly city having the glory of God. I take it that will be our principal residence throughout the millennial time, and on into eternity as well.

Well, it is evident that resurrected saints can come to earth. And when the Lord Jesus comes to manifest glory, Revelation chapter 19, John says, I saw heaven opened. And the grammar is, it stands open.

It remains open. There is an open interface between heaven and earth from that point onwards, right? You have mentioned what is visible. I personally believe the heavenly city will be, it descends from God out of heaven, but does not come right to planet earth.

I take it it will be like a satellite city, geostationary up there, visible from earth, shining its glory down over the region of Jerusalem and over the whole earth. So I take it that our principal residence will be in glorified bodies in that glorified place.

With the Lord Jesus, who's upon the throne, the throne of God and of the lamb are in it. Will it be possible for us to come to earth? Possibly. Angels of God are ascending and descending. But I take it it won't be our normal dwelling place.

To quote a brother for whom I have very high regard, brother, I'm glad to have listened to that. Well, that's wonderful. I think you've referred to Jacob's vision and the angels ascending and descending.

We have the words of the Lord you'll see, angels ascending and descending upon the son of man. And what is clear is that as we move towards the new heavens and the new earth, when we get to the new heavens and the new, and we know, like we know virtually nothing about the new heavens and the new earth.

I wasn't really exaggerating when I said we could spend the two hours reading scriptures about the millennium. I think likely you could. Five minutes would suffice you for the new heavens and the new earth.

The Eternal State and the New Heavens and New Earth

And I think it's worth just taking a minute to say why that might be so. When Peter writes to the believers in his first epistle, he writes about an inheritance that's incorruptible and that's undefiled and that fadeth not away.

Interestingly, and I know the inheritance is slightly different, but when he tries, when he sets about to describe the inheritance, he doesn't describe it positively. He just tells us what it's not. It's not corruptible, it's not defiled, it doesn't fade away.

You say, why would he take that approach? Well, I think the reason is this, Peter doesn't have the words and we don't have the capacity to understand just how great our inheritance is. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him.

Now, I know that's quite a broad statement. It's not just heaven and it's not just the kingdom, but I think the principle applies. We don't have the mental machinery to understand what the eternal state is going to be like.

And so there's quite a paucity of information about that revealed to us. It's going to be a great surprise when we get there. But as we move towards the eternal state, those distinctions and those divisions between heaven and earth do seem to be broken down.

And there is clearly communication between heaven and earth. We are going to have a role and we are training for reigning. We're going to have a role in the administration of the kingdom. But I wouldn't like to think that I would do that administration just purely as a remote business.

I'd like to come and have a look.

And see how things were getting on. I think, dear brother, the word remote in our minds is maybe a little strong. That's the point I'm trying to make. There will be an interface of open communication that remains in place between heaven and earth.

Okay, so you wouldn't make me an offender for a word? No, no, no. Brother Mark, just at the end of the book of Isaiah, just to pick up that thread that you've been telling us, how that as the kingdom comes to its conclusion, it's becoming very like what's coming.

The book of Isaiah chapter 65 verse number 17, Isaiah speaks about you, heaven's new earth. Chapter 66 verse number 22, he repeats it again. You, heavens and you, earth. But that is not exactly what Peter is speaking about.

Isn't that correct? That's correct, yes. So when Isaiah describes new heavens and new earth, he's speaking about the millennial kingdom. And one of the things that proves that inside that section of the book of Isaiah is there's reference to death.

Now, my question then following that statement is this, is it general death or is death specific at that stage? I take it that death is specific. So we're told that those who die will really die as a result of sin.

And this leads us in nicely to the conditions, that the change of the conditions is going to be such, we go back to the start of the Bible and no one quite makes it to the thousand year mark, but lots of people get close.

And clearly there were conditions that existed here on earth before the flood that made such longevity possible. Now I've already said, and it's one of the glorious truths about this millennium, which is unpacked in a variety of passages, and we'll think about it in relation to Psalm 72.

But I love how it's expressed in Romans chapter eight, a groaning and a traveling creation made subject to vanity by reason of man's sin is going to be set free into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

And there's going to be a massive ecological transformation that will take place on this earth. So that even in those who are still in natural bodies and even in those who are unregenerate, death will be exceptional and it will be God's immediate and imminent judgment upon sin, I take it.

And only unsaved people,.

As far as we have from the scriptures. Yes, yes. Mark, just before you get away from the constituents of the kingdom, I know we've jumped a little bit down, but just before we get away from it, I want to pick up on the tribulation people, the tribulation saints, those who have died, who have been martyred for their faith.

Tribulation, Persecution, and the Witness of the Saints

That's going to be a dreadful time where to accept the gospel, to accept Christ, the Messiah, to put your trust in him, will for many, many, many souls mean death. Just to bring it back to something practical for us all today, are we beginning to see in the world around us today a growing intolerance of Christianity?

And I mean, genuine Christianity. And that in the world that we're living in, it's getting harder and harder and harder to be a Christian. So that the foreshadowings of what is going to happen in these seven years, maybe are beginning to show themselves very much today.

Do you want to say a bit more about that?

Yeah, I mean, we must acknowledge that it has never been easy to be a Christian. Those who will live godly shall suffer persecution and they have through the generations. And we need to be careful as well, not to look at the past with rose-tinted spectacles.

I wouldn't have liked to have lived in the middle ages and being a genuine believer. But having said that, I think what brother Donald says is right. And in recent years, maybe this is a sign of advancing years, but I've often thought of brethren who came to give us ministry and prophecy when I was young.

And particularly Jim Allen, whose name will be familiar to at least some of us and whose books on Daniel and Revelation deserve a place on our bookshelves. And I remember Jim being with us and I remember him speaking about the tribulation specifically.

And this idea, he would tell us, there's gonna be no, there's gonna be no cash. And this idea of a mark that would be imprinted on people. And it was science fiction. And that's actually not that very long ago.

And you kind of thought, don't know, is that right? Will we ever see that? I'd tell you over the last decade, in a way that's quite remarkable, we are seeing the technological infrastructure being put in place.

That will just enable what we, nothing that Revelation tells us about would require any further technological development. And in an age where my phone on Tuesday night, before I go to the meeting, gives me the travel directions to get to the meeting, tells me what traffic is like, because it knows I go to the meeting on Tuesday night.

And in a world where Google or Apple have the information of everyone who's there at that gathering, all it takes is someone to just centralize that in themselves and take control of that. So technologically, the infrastructure is there.

But the point that our brother Donald is making in relation to an increased intolerance towards Christianity, I think we would be foolish to deny that that exists. And we're longing for Christ to come.

If he doesn't come, I think we will learn more about persecution. We maybe should be careful about the grand statements that we make, because we may well find ourselves tested on the truth of those. And yet, one of the most chilling things that is said about the Tribulation, when you think of the history of this world, and you think of the wars, you think of the disease, you think of the natural disasters that have ravaged humanity, when Christ speaks about the Tribulation, he says there's never been a time like it, and there never will be.

Unparalleled suffering. Thank God we'll not be here first. We've not been appointed to rob, brethren and sisters, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank God for that.

Israel's Restoration and Place in the Kingdom

So I'm just going to keep you in this section for a second before we move on. We talked about Israel, and you have a list of this restored Israel, and you've said that a couple of times. Now, this is Israel, again, as an entity.

So it's not just individual Israelites who were saved along the way. This is an event that takes place, whereby Israel, as an entity, is now prepared for the kingdom. So that would be consistent with the heart work that is done in the Old Testament, the circumcising of the heart, right, the softening of the heart, the conversion of Israel, basically, and now coming in to the good of the new covenant as they move in.

Yes, very good. And we know that there will be really two stages to the conversion of Israel. There will be those who will have trusted, really, maybe even before the tribulation begins, because we've got this 144 ,000.

Now, they're not saved at the point of the rapture, or they wouldn't be there. And the brethren might have ideas about what it is that affects their belief. And there will be those who will respond to the preaching of those 144 ,000, we take it.

But when Christ comes, there will also be those who will look upon him in recognition and realize that this is the one. They should look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him. And so there will once again, there will be an entity that's called Israel in the land that God promised to her in the enjoyment of the covenants that God has made.

And they will all be fulfilled in a literal way to a literal Israel in the reign of Christ.

So Israel's presence politically and geographically in the land today is not the fulfillment of what you're speaking of. No, that's correct.

And that's an important point to stress. And Israel could be taken away from the land and it wouldn't affect the delivery, the performance of what has been prophesied in scripture. Having said that, there is no doubt that the regathering of Israel presently and an unbelief is a remarkable display of divine providence.

Because I tell you, the more you learn about the history of those events, the more impossible it seems that it actually happened. Nobody really wanted it to happen apart from the Jews.

Right, 75 years plus she's been in the land again as a nation of Israel, right? In unbelief, no doubt. And as you look over the various wars that have taken place since, it is evident, it could hardly be denied that there is the providential preservation of God that has been seen in that nation, even to this day.

And it brings you right up to date in the news how Israel seems to be falling out of favor with the states and Europe is again anti-Israel and so on. And yet, there will be a nation that will go through the tribulation period, the time of Jacob's trouble, unprecedented.

And I take it from Zechariah 13, at the end of that period of time, there will be two thirds of that nation that will die and only one third will survive to go on into the earthly kingdom.

And in relation to just what you said about the way that we see God's providential hand in the preservation of the nation, even in unbelief, at the beginning of the tribulation, there's going to be that invasion of Gog and Magog and God will intervene miraculously to halt that.

And that may well be what turns the hearts of some of those in Israel to belief in God when they see that. But I realize that's opening perhaps a large kind of warmth. We need to get to the conditions, brother.

We're not doing too badly, but complacency is your great enemy in a Bible reading because you take the foot off the accelerator and next thing you know, you're rushing your last points. Again, and I know I keep saying this, there are so many passages of scripture that we could have gone to.

Psalm 72 and the Righteous Rule of the King

And you won't blame me, given that I'm in this chair, for having picked one of my favorite ones. I think Psalm 72 is a glorious Psalm. A Psalm written by Solomon. We thought about Solomon. We thought about the greatness of his kingdom, its extent, its character, the peace that he enjoyed, the wisdom that he had, and the way in which the impact that he had on the nation's roundabout.

We thought about all of that. But Solomon takes up his pen now to write. Maybe some of the brethren will tell me it wasn't Solomon, but I'm happy enough it was Solomon. He takes up his pen to write, and he writes about a greater king.

And he writes about conditions. And again, just to emphasize the point, Solomon's rule was a little foretaste of the millennium, but it was only a little foretaste. And these conditions that we see. And I've identified a number of things that really, when you look across the range of these passages that speak about kingdom conditions, obviously they all speak about rule.

That's what we're really interested in, that there's going to be a righteous rule because Christ will rule. Righteousness is going to be so important. I love those words that we have in Hebrews 2 as it quotes from Psalm 45.

A scepter of righteousness, a scepter of rectitude. It's a scepter of thy kingdom. You know, this world has never really seen righteous rule. And I've not come here to disparage your government. So I'm only going to speak about my own government, but I know what I'm talking about.

Like the crookedness and the unrighteousness that is involved in human government and has been involved in human government right down through the ages is absolutely horrific. The world has never seen what righteous judgment looks like.

I'm glad about this that a king will reign and he will reign in righteousness. The scepter of his kingdom will be a righteous scepter. We've talked about refreshment, spiritual refreshment, physical refreshment.

He will come down like showers. There will be times of refreshment that will come from God. There will be times of recognition. He's going to be recognized. And we thought a little bit about this new covenant and the importance of the new covenant in relation to that.

And inevitably, there are going to be times of rejoicing. How could it not be when all of these glorious characteristics are seen? So that's just a kind of a scattergun of ores. There are perhaps elements that we've missed, but perhaps we could just spend a few minutes on what it's going to be like when Christ reigns.

So Psalm 72 actually parallels what you've been telling us from other passages. For example, verse number three, Mark says, the mountains shall bring peace to the people. That's singular. And then verse number four says, he shall judge the poor of the people.

There's one entity that's involved there in the people. Very clearly, that's the nation of Israel. Verse number four says, he shall break in pieces the oppressor, singular. So we can see the man of sin is involved there as well.

And then we get down to verse number seven. It says, in his days. Now the his in question is evidently the king who is going to reign. And it says, in his days shall the righteous, again, singular, flourish.

So God is anticipating a day when the conditions of this kingdom will be so conducive for the blessing of the people, Israel. There will be needy that will be brought in. We'll have to look at that. We see the oppressor, he himself is vanquished.

But there's the righteous singular that is in this kingdom. It will come right down to the individual. Very good. And I think it's so important that we see that that righteousness is expressed in the exaltation of those who are low and the protection and the blessing of those who are vulnerable.

That we are dealing with an age, not only when he will save the needy, he will save the children of the needy. And it's appalling to think in our own world or our modern civilized society, how children suffer.

And there is something about, there's something again, going back to the book of Judges, if you'll allow me, I'm there in a conference at the end of the week. So I'm getting double value. One of the things that's striking about those end chapters is that those who are vulnerable are treated dreadfully.

And you can tell an awful lot about a society from how it treats those who are powerless and those who are most vulnerable. And I say again, we live in a world that treats children and treats women and treats other vulnerable people, treats them in a way that's absolutely horrific.

There's gonna be none of that when he comes. Whether they're poor, whether they're needy, whether they're the children, the streets of Jerusalem will be filled with the sound of boys and girls playing.

And thank God for one who raises up the lowly and one who has provision for the widow and for the fatherless. And that idea of righteousness is stamped right in the first verses, isn't it? Just look at the structure of the first verses.

Verse number one says, give the king thy judgments. The first verse then says, and thy righteousness. The third thing that is mentioned is judge. The fourth thing that is mentioned parallels the third or parallels the second rather, righteousness.

And then the first one is mentioned again, judgment. So we've got judgment, righteousness, judge, righteousness, judgment.

You can just see it all unfolding. This will be a righteous judgment from a righteous king. So peace shall reign everywhere. They'll turn their swords into plowshares and so on. Neither shall they learn war anymore.

There'll be financial security in that mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. I'm quoting these from Isaiah. Good health will be normal. Sickness a rare thing. Then shall the lame man leap as a heart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.

Barren places, the wilderness. In the wilderness shall waters break forth and streams in the desert and so on. The desert will blossom as the rose and ferocious beasts will be tame. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.

The calf and the young lion and the fattling together and a young child shall lead them and so on. Tremendous conditions that will return to planet earth that will be absolutely a wreck at the end of the tribulation period.

I think that's a really important point. When we think of this restoration of creation, we think of starting from this base, which like there's a lot of work to be done. But by the time we get to the end of the tribulation, you think of all those judgments.

The earth is going to be in an awful state. No life left in the sea, right? A third of the green grass and of the trees and everything burnt up. A third of freshwater polluted.

It's just a mess. God's going to take care of all that.

The Law, Sacrifices, and Worship in the Millennium

I have a two-part question that may relate to the righteousness and the refreshment. It says here, give unto the king thy judgments or give the king thy judgments. I take it that that could even be a reference to the Deuteronomy 17 passage that we had yesterday, where it's the copy of the law that the king now has to guard his heart, but also to govern the kingdom.