Characteristics Of The Coming Kingdom

- we're approaching the end of our study on the end time

events

- I might mention to you that we're going to be switching

some of the last subjects to some upcoming Sunday mornings

because of their evangelistic thrust (GWT, heaven)

- we've been talking about the millennial kingdom

- we've said that we are pre-millennial - that is the Bible

teaches that Christ will return prior to the millennium to

set up his 1000 year kingdom on this earth

- we've said a lot about this subject, but if you have these

three concepts down, you'll understand where we're going

tonight

1) the Bible has much to say about this subject. It is

clearly one of the most major themes in God's word. We

need to be able to answer the question "Why did God tell

us so much about this future kingdom, and what did He

want to change in our lives as a result of that

knowledge?"

2) This kingdom is something that takes place in the future.

It happens after the rapture and the tribulation.

3) Several places in the Bible talk about us living in God's

kingdom already because we are personally related to the

King. We ought to be "exemplifying kingdom conditions"

even now in our personal lives and in our relationships

with one another. Therefore, the more we know about what

Christ's coming kingdom will be like, the more we will

know about how we are to be growing and changing.

- so our goal tonight is to study a number of characteristics

of the coming millennial kingdom. Each time we look at one

of those characteristics, we'll also talk about how that

should affect us today

- you remember that last week we talked about the form of

government in the millennial kingdom

I. Form of Government Will Be Monarchial

- I put that on your notes so that you could keep the

characteristics together

- I'd like us to start on Roman numeral II

II. His Government Will Be A Perfect Blending of Severity &

Tenderness

- read Isa. 40:10-11

- the passage says that when Christ is in charge, his

rule will be both tough and tender

- it will have just the right blend of grace and

truth

- perhaps the Psalmist said it best in Psalm 85:10 -

"Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness

and peace have kissed each other"

- thats the way it will be in the millennial kingdom,

and God's desire is that you and I would be

exemplifying that kingdom condition even today

- let me ask you tonight, do you have trouble

striking that balance

- in the way you treat your spouse

- in the way you bring up your kids

- in the way you deal with employees?

- I think most of us would say yes

- some of us would say we error on the side of mercy

- INPUT - what are some of the characteristics of

a person who errors on the side of mercy?

- let too many things go

- ignore things instead of dealing with

them

- we laugh when we know we really ought to

be acting

- some of the rest of us are on the other extreeme

- we error on the side of severity

- INPUT - what are some characteristics of that

type person?

- everything is a calamity

- we're not patient with people and their faults

- we don't give those under us the right amount

of freedom

- the workers call you a tyrant behind your back

- Hopefully it will be stimulating to us just to be

reminded of how Christ's millennial rule will be a

perfect blend of severity and tenderness

- Perhaps those words "Righteousness and Peace

have kissed each other need to haunt us some"

-and next time we start to come down to hard, or

ignore it instead of acting

- we'll think -"Thats not the way it will

be in the millennial kingdom, and thats

not the way it will be for me now"

III. Life's Inequalities Will Be Adjusted

A. Verses?

Isa. 32:5 - Read

also see Isa. 5:20, 8:20, 40:4

point is that in the millennial kingdom, life's

inequalities will be adjusted

One of the most frustrating things about living in a

fallen world is the way truth is twisted and as Isa.

5:20 says, people call good evil and evil good

there are a number of contemporary examples we could

give of that

B. Contemporary example

1. current debate over first amendment rights

- if you follow the news, you've probably heard

of the American Family Association and Don

Wildmon

- The AFA is a Christian action group which has

taken stands on issues such as pornography and

violence on TV

- This group has been advocating a boycott of K-

Mart because K-Mart owns Waldenbooks and

Waldenbooks is a large distributor of pornography

in the united states

- Waldenbooks, and their parent company K-Mart,

have sued AFA's florida director because of the

boycotts

- they've even taken out full page adds in a number

of major newspapers across the country to justify

their lawsuit because they believe the AFA is

infringing on their first amendment rights

- now just think with me for a minute about that -

do you see how that logic is all twisted?

- people who produce pornography have first

amendment rights

- but when a person stands up and says "That kind

of material is destructive and ought not to be

sold in family atmospheres like a local mall",

that person has no first amendment rights

- he ought to be hauled into court because of his

"what?" - his speech - which is no longer free

- see these things get all twisted

- good is called evil and evil is called good

- I'm sure, if we wanted to tonight, we could come

up with all kinds of examples that you face daily

- point is - in the millennial kingdom, life's

inequalities will be adjusted

C. Ought to be true of Christian homes now

- we said that one of the values of studying what the

millennial kingdom will be like is to find ways to

grow and change as individuals who have already

been translated into the kingdom of Hos dear Son

INPUT - how should this truth affect Christian homes

(the issue of life's inequalities and good being

called evil)

1. consistency

- another example of the inequalities - Norman

Lear - founder of Environmental Media

Association

- pushing environmental issues

- had a big part in earth day

- some in that group are advocating that

government mandate the use of public

transportation and outlaw the use of

single-owner cars

- environmental issues aside, Norman Lear is

building a new home

- do you know how big the garage is?

(50 car garage)

- things get twisted in the world

- there's a lot of inconsistency

- we can chuckle at that, but the point is,

thats not the way its going to be in the

millennial kingdom, and it ought not to be true

of our homes either

2. fairness

- young people have a keen sense of fairness

- they can snoop out inequity and inconsistency

at 50 yards

- perhaps some of us need to be challenged by

this study by determining with God's help to be

building a home that is much more like God's

kingdom in this area

- Nancy illus.

- left her husband, moved to another part of

the country

- her dad got the pastor of their church and

they both flew to where the girl was living

- they sat down and the pastor pleaded with

her to repent and return to the Lord and to

her husband

- girl said, right dad, this is the man

you criticized every Sunday at the

noon meal and now you want me to

listen to him

- point is - we're forced to live in a world where

there are great inequalities, but that

ought not to be true of us or our homes

IV. Will Be No War

Psalm 46:9-10 - read

- you're probably more familiar with Micah 4:3-4 -

"...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and

their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift

up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war

any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine

and under his fig tree, and none shall make them

afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken"

- I'm sure you were moved, as I was, on Memorial Day when

the men from our congregation shared about their

military service

- there's no question that the price of our freedom has

been a heavy one

- now pastor talked to us on Memorial Day about how all

war is not wrong

- so we can't apply this point to nations

- but its still true that God wants us to know that when

Christ is the ruler, there will be no war

- in other words, you could say it this way, people who

are subject to Christ get along with one another

- its hard for us to imagine this earth where there's not

some country fighting against another

- but thats what the Bible says the millennium will be

like

- now, we can't apply this to nations, but we can sure

apply this to believers and churches, can't we?

- sometimes Christian homes can be war zones

- maybe there's no guns and tanks, but the war is still

going on

- words are going off like grenades

- selfish deeds like missles

- a person never knows when they're going to get a

bayonet in the back

- often those affected the most are the children who are

trying to grow up in that kind of atmosphere

- in homes like that and in churches like that, Christ

isn't in charge

- people aren't submitting to his rule & desires

- because thats not the way it will be in the millennium,

and thats not the way it should be now now for

believers

INPUT - looking at Micah 4:3-4 - what will the effect of

no war be in the millennium?

(all the effort that went into hating & destroying &

killing will go into positive effects in the kingdom)

- Perhaps some of us need to ask this question tonight:

- if all of the energy I put into warring

(jealosy, hate, selfishness, & destructive

words/tones)

were put into bringing up my family in the nurture

and adonition of the Lord, how much further along

would we be?

- in the millennial kingdom, there will be no war

V. Many Physical Changes & Effects

- the Bible has a lot to say on this subject

A. Beneficial Climatic Changes

Isa. 30:26 - "Moreover, the light of the moon shall

be like the light of the sun, and the light of the

sun shall be sevenfold, like the light of seven

days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the

breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of

their wound"

- this passage doesn't say exactly how the climate

will change, but there will be some obvious

changes in the climate. These halp us explain some

other things that will change in the millennium:

B. Waste Place Become Fruitful

Joel. 2:21-24 - "... the pastures of the wilderness

do spring"

Ezek. 34:26 - "...I will cause the shower to come

down in its season; there shall be showers of

blessing."

Isa. 30:25 - "...there shall be upon every high

mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and

streams of water..."

C. Increased Fertility & Productiveness

Psalm 72:16 - "...the fruit thereof shall shake

like Lebanon, and they of the city shall

flourish like grass of the earth."

Amos 9:13 - "...the plowman shall overtake the

reaper, and the treader of grapes him that

soweth seed."

D. Changes in the Animal World

Hos. 2:18 -"And in that day I will make a covenant

for them with the beasts of the field"

Isa. 11:6-8 - "The wolf shall also dwell with the

lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the

kid; and the calf and the young lion and the

fatling together..."

E. Disappearance of Physical Disease & Deformity

Isa. 35:5-6 - "Then the eyes of the blind shall be

opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be

unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a

deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing..."

Isa. 33:24 - "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am

sick..."

- the bottom line is - in the mill., there will be many

changes in the quality of life

- they are the kind of changes that only Christ Himself can

make

Mark Twain - "A lot of people talk about the weather, but

no one does anything about it!"

- thats right, because no one can do anything about it

- we've seen this year especially how powerful creation is

- more tornadoes already this year than in most years

- all kinds of flooding

- add to that the rising death toll from aids and other

diseases

- Man in his sin wants to shake his puiny fist at God and

say, how could a God of love allow this to happen?

- That statement reflects ignorance of one of the major

themes of the Bible

- Satan said to Eve - Rebell against God -you won't die

- Adam & Eve rebelled (against their king), And all of Gen

3-5 is devoted to the effects of Satan's lie

- the creation was changed

- there would be travail in childbirth

- "in the sweat of thy face thou shall eat bread"

- "you were taken out of the dust and to dust you'll

return"

- Gen. 5 - and so and so lived so many years, and he

died

- the conditions on earth are the way they are because of

the sinfullness and rebellion of man

- but in the millennium, great changes will take place in

the climate and environment

- I think there's some implications of that to where you

and I live today

F. We Can Stop Worrying & Fearing Because We Know That

Our King Is In Control of our Physical Conditions

Even Now

- while God hasn't chosen to make the physical

conditions in our world ideal at this point of time

for all mankind, we know that He can if He wants to

- thats what faith is - (not believing that God will-

but believing that He can if He wants to)

- when we think of things like the climate,

prosperity, disease

- it brings great peace to know that God is

powerful enough to control those areas of our

lives

- He's too good to do wrong and too wise to make

a mistake

- pool business - most of us were Bible college

students, only had 10-12 weeks a year to make

enough to pay our school bills

- since they were inground pools and we worked

a lot with concrete, the weather affected us

greatly

- most days we got things ready in the morning,

and poured concrete in the afternoon

- there were a lot of days where we had to

decide, is it going to rain or not

- God didn't somehow mystically tell us - but

it was great to know that He was in charge

- we could go ahead and order the concrete

without fretting and worrying about it

- even if it did rain, we didn't have to fret

and worry about that

- one night in particular thats exactly

what happened (develop)

- even then there was great peace

- Lord, you know my school bill

- you know how many weeks we have to

work

- you know how much it's going to

cost to jackhammer this stuff out

of here

- But you're in charge

- you may be here tonight and would say - I worry

a lot about my health and whether I will get some

disease

- listen, you're personally related to the king

- just like the song the choir sings based on Isaih

40, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their

strength--they shall mount up with wings as eagles-

they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk

and not faint"

- thats just a sampling of the passages that talk

about the characteristics of the millennial kingdom

- the question that I'd like to leave you with

tonight is - which way is your life least like like

those kingdom conditions?