Welcome to Edgemont Bible Church in Fairview Heights, Illinois, where our mission is to glorify God by guiding people into a discipleship relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's listen in to today's message by our pastor, Douglas A. White. What I want to talk to you today is about a glorious kingdom that was stated and promised And then I wanna talk to you about how the prophets sharpened up that vision. Because what I wanna talk to you about is that which is called the millennium. It's called millennium because that stands for a thousand years. Millennium means a thousand in Latin. If you were doing that in Greek, it's chiasma. Yeah, I like that, chiasma, I'll say it that way. And that meant a thousand years. For the first 300 years of the New Testament age, everybody believed that Christ would soon come back and there'd be a thousand year reign with Christ. But after that, after the third century, people started now seeing, the church got united with the state of Rome. And they began to think that the church and the state would have a glorious time together, and that the church would now be in charge of all this land that had been given to them by Rome. and they'd have a church in every place, and soon the kingdom would be, and Rome would represent that kingdom. That was a wrong theology. It has always been, at least in the first 300 years, that it's always been that Christ would return and there'd be a thousand year reign of Christ together. But the church began to change that when it got itself involved with the state of Rome and saw the great power that was with the state of Rome. That they could have a kingdom that way at all. By the way, that's when it came to be known as Christendom. Christendom. It was not Christendom before. Christendom, you see that little dom on the end? That means dominating. When you have a kingdom, it's dominated by the king. When you have a Christendom, it's dominated by Christ. The world has yet to be dominated by Christ. And it's not going to be dominated by Christ until He returns. Fair enough? That's what we understand the Scriptures to say. That's not just Edgemont Bible Church's position. That's what we understand the scriptures to say, and I want to prove that to you, or at least demonstrate that to you in our study here for the next couple of Sundays, all right? So, let's have a word of prayer, and then we're going to get right into this. Father, thank you so much for the blessing of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Thank you so much for all the kindness you've shown to us and the goodness you've shown to us. Father, today I lift up Steve and Stephanie Kelly, and I ask in Jesus' name you'll continue to minister grace and strength and healing to them and support in every way. I pray, Father, that you'll give them wisdom and discernment as they deal with the social work there, as they deal with The many medical cases there are there. I know Steve's got a big load and I know the whole medical team has a big load. So I pray in Jesus' name, minister greatly to that team. Teach them good and awesome things. Keep them from discouragement, Father. And I want to thank you for what you'll do there. I lift up the Portugals and I ask in Jesus' name, you'll minister great grace and strength as they minister in Spain and for the people of Spain. I thank you for what you're going to do in each one of them. I lift up ministries like Brooks Bible Institute and Calvary Bible College. Asking that in Jesus' name, you give them much wisdom and discernment. And certainly, Father, we would not forget to pray for our legislators, to pray for those who are in authority over us. To pray for the conflict that seems to be developing between some of the law enforcement and the legislators, we ask in Jesus' name, bring this state into sensibility. I ask, Father, in Jesus' name, you bring the end to the death of the young ones that goes on all the time. I ask, Father, for the sake of Christ, you'd help our people to see, to know, and understand that life is precious and life is given. Thank you for that, Father. Now we ask your blessing and rest upon us. We pray for our brothers and sisters around the metro east, asking that in Jesus' name, you'll fill them with your spirit and cause them to preach and teach and love the word of God. I thank you for what you're gonna do there. Let Jesus come and be the dominant force in all of St. Clair County, all of Madison County, all of Monroe County, all the counties around the metro east and the outlying counties. Father, thank you for what you're gonna do. Give you praise for all that just now in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. All right. Let's talk about history older than time. I think probably some of you have seen Beauty and the Beast. That song that's sung by, was it the teapot? about the story longer than time, older than time? Well, every time I say this phrase like this, and believe me, I have a difficult time figuring out what word I want to use here. I've said history older than time. I don't like to use the word story older than time because it makes it sound like it's made up. What I'm going to tell you about is not made up. This is not fiction. This is not a novel. I'm going to tell you the greatest story that was ever told. And I want you to know the author of it. And I want you to know why that story was there. I want you to know what's important behind it. Well, this history that's older than time is why I want to go back here. I'm going to set the platform up as a timeline again. This is the beginning of time right here. And as you go across here, this would represent about the time of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross. And to come back over here, this is the end of time as we know it. I'm going to go back over here before there was time. Back on this side of it, where history was being created. Back where it's nothing but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are creating a story. They're creating a history. A history that's being told in eternity, that is being done at the present time and the future time at the same time. Because it's all eternity. And they're going to work out that story in time. So that when time begins, the story will be told. The story that they had already told back here. The story about a savior. The story about the son who would come. The story about creation. The story about people. The story about sin. The story about prophets. The story about the kingdom. The story about the restoration of all. That's all done back here before time began. Then when time begins, now that story that was told back then among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is going to be revealed in what we know of as the Bible. That's the story. That's the thing that's going to unfold over time. So that's the history older than time. It's a good story with a twisted detail. There was a plan to populate the world as the glorious kingdom of God mediated by humans. So God's creating two humans. And those two humans, he's saying this, I'm blessing you. Be blessed and multiply, fill the earth. They're going to take what is Eden, what's this place called Eden, that was now the garden. The garden, that's the temple. Remember, outside of that was what was known as the wilderness. Adam's created here in the wilderness and he's brought to the garden. And Eve is made in the garden. They were to be fruitful and multiply to have children that were going to expand the Garden of Eden out into the wilderness. And if they went out into the wilderness, they'd make it all look like the Garden of Eden. That's what they're gonna do. And God's going to fill the whole earth with His glory in doing that. Expanding everywhere so that the whole earth is finally, and every place it could be, going to be just like Eden. How do I know that's what it was? Because when I come all the way out here, and I come to the end of time, that's what He's done with the restored earth. That whole thing is full of the glory of God. That whole thing is a new place prepared for a people that He saved, a people that He brought into it. This is what He restored because that's what we were supposed to do back over here. Expand it. Grow. Why? How is it? Be blessed. Multiply. Fill the earth. Subdue the earth. What are you going to do? That wilderness area out there? You're going to subdue it. And you're going to have dominion over all the critters that are out there. You're going to rule over the critters just like I would. You're going to be, in my image, you're going to be doing things just like I would do it. Everybody follow where I'm at? So that's the way it's going to go. We're going to take care of him. We're going to make sure there's water adequate. We're going to make sure that there is food adequate, that everybody gets to eat, everybody gets things going on there. We're going to be taking care of it just like he would, just like his providential care would do, all right? So here's a little twist that came to the story. Then came the double fall and the order was disordered. The peace turned chaotic and culminated in judgment, ruin, and reboot. As you know, it wasn't just Adam and Eve that fell. It was an adversary that fell with them. There was a rebellion that took place in the kingdom of heaven and a rebellion that took place in the kingdom of earth. So you had double rebellion going on. That ultimately wound up in judgment, and a reboot. The judgment came as the flood, and it came as a reboot. With that reboot, a mere 150 years after the flood. Now, you hear what I'm saying? 150 years after the flood. Kids, that's not much time. That's pretty quick. 150 years after that came a false, inappropriate unity that's going to end in huge national divisions of people alienated from God. That's the Tower of Babel. They made a union just 150 years later indicating they must be angry with God or something. What in the world would you do that for when you know that you just, the eight of you landed there and you already knew what had taken place just before that? Just a year before this place was populated, there were cities, there were all kinds of inventions happening, all kinds of glorious places built, all kinds of stuff like that. All gone. All gone. Buried beneath the sea, sometimes buried beneath acres of silt. We're still having archaeologists find some of those things now. that were there prior to the flood. We're still finding fossils from the flood. We're still finding all kinds of things there. With 150 years later, they're rebelling against God totally. They want nothing to do with Him. They're going to make their own name. They're going to be their own people. They're going to be their own God. Matter of fact, they don't want any assistance from that group called the angels. They had their help before the flood, and that wasn't really a great thing. So they want to be free of the angels. They want to be free of God. They're building the Tower of Babel. And God's going to make a huge national division out of that. All those different people, groups, there were about 70 families that were there. Of those 70 families, he's gonna start splitting their languages up where they can't understand each other anymore. And that's gonna cause them to be divided out. So from that great split. Now let me come down to letter D. God's going to have a progressive revelation of the kingdom restored. Now let me get this picture here. Nothing we've talked about up to this point is a surprise to God. That's a part of the story they had developed all the way back here. It's a part of it. What you're seeing is lived out. Now, how does the restoration get told? We can see how the destruction and the ruin got told, but how do you get this restoration back? God's plan is what we call progressive revelation. Now, we call it that by observation. We're looking at the Word of God and saying, well, wait a minute. He didn't tell Abraham about the cross. He didn't tell Abraham about the resurrection. He didn't tell Abraham about any of those things. What did he tell Abraham? I'm glad you asked that. Let's go to Genesis 12. Matter of fact, I'll go ahead and read them. Just take this. This is Genesis 12, one to three. So you can write those down if you want to go to them later, or you can turn your Bible and try to go quickly with me on this. Here's what it said. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. He's talking to one guy and his wife who have no children. Now he's got a nephew. He's got at least, well, I shouldn't say at least, he's got a bunch of servants and slaves and that sort of thing who are working for him. But his household, his own family, is him and his wife. And he just told them, we're gonna make you a great nation. That's a big deal, kids. You're gonna have to do something pretty special pretty quick to make a great nation out of a guy. All right, here we go. He said, I'll make a great nation, I'll bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Man, that's a pretty big thing to say. that from this guy and his wife, all the families of the earth are gonna be blessed. I'm gonna be a great nation. This is a fantastic story. Listen as he goes on. In Genesis 15, 18 to 21, he said this. And on the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your descendants, I will give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. Now I want you to get the picture. That is a land that is occupied. There are people already living there. What do you do with them? Here's what he said. He's going to give them the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and any other ites that are there. All right? Jebusites. All of those. They are going to be under Abraham. under his descendants. Everybody follow that? So if they're going to be under him, that means that Abraham has to rise above them. So what is he promising to Abraham? That this great nation that he's going to be is going to be at least dominating over all the people who are currently living in the land that God is giving. So that great nation is going to be the ruling nation. Here we go to Genesis 22, 15 and following. Then the angel called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and he said, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, that is you've not withheld your son, your only son. Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven, as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies." What does it mean to possess the gate of your enemy? That means that the enemy who has a gate, he's got a city, a walled city, he's got a gate, you own the gate. You own who goes in and out of that. That means you are the greater one over your enemy's gates. So he's going to be in charge of many other peoples. You follow that? Abraham's no fool. He sees what's being promised to him. He understands that. He said, in your seed, all nations of the earth shall be blessed because you've obeyed my voice. So there's some relationship that this guy's gonna have with all the nations. Now get that, that's all he said at this point. Has he said anything about heaven? No. Has he said anything about the restoration of the earth? No. He's just simply talking about what he's going to give to Abraham. And he's going to progressively reveal more of that. He's going to keep telling more and more of that story through this same family. He's choosing Abraham's family to tell this story. So he's bringing this story from eternity, he's putting it into the life of Abraham and his children, and they're going to learn more about that story all the way through history. All right, here we go. More good stuff in this, all right? So letter E then is about this chosen people to be the vessel of restoration. As we've said here, to one man, a promise that from that one man would come a heavily populated nation with global influence, even dominance. That's all that Abraham's going to get to know about. He's not hearing about the coming of Messiah. He is believing what God said. When you believe what God said, God counts that for righteousness. So this man is the friend of God because he's believing what God says. He's expressing faith. He's a justified man. All right, going on further. As the family grew to clans, so it starts out just as a little family, then it grows up to be a clan. Now it's got a little bit more people that are in it now. God's going to give even more promises, additional information is given. Here, listen to this, for instance, in Genesis 27. He said, as Abraham is blessing Jacob, I'm sorry, Abraham, as Isaac is blessing Jacob, he says this to him. And he came near and kissed him and smelt the smell of his clothing and blessed him and said, surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. I'm not sure that's all that great as well, anyway. Verse 28, therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, plenty of grain and wine. Then he says, let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Uh-oh, it's starting to expand a little bit, is it not? It's not just the enemies of your gate, or the gate of your enemies, now it's going a little bit further, that nations bow down to you, be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons be down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you. He goes on to say to his own son, Isaac says to Jacob, may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be an assembly of peoples and give you the blessing of Abraham to which you, your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you were a stranger, which God gave to Abraham. So he's promising him, this is gonna be your land. don't know I don't care who else is living there I'm telling you it's going to belong to you just as he divided up a land to all the peoples who were at the Tower of Babel he assigned each of them a land to live in and to take care of and to worship him in they were supposed to do the same thing that Adam and Eve were supposed to do have children take this world subdue it, bring it into a lasting peace, bring it into a relationship of a temple to God. That's what they're supposed to do. So he's given all these others. He's giving to Abraham a land and all his descendants are supposed to have that land and they're supposed to make the temple of God of that land. Everybody with me? That's what they're supposed to do. Another step further. As David attempted to unite the tribes of that one chosen family into a nation around a central temple of worship, David conquers this little place called Salem, and he's going to turn it into Jerusalem. And at Jerusalem, he is going to put central worship place. He wants to build a temple there. He wants to make that the capital of everything. He wants to unite all the 12 tribes around this one central capital city, and he's going to ask God to make that the capital city. Later, as you know, God is going to make it the capital city. But here's what he said. Listen to this promise that was given to David. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you. He will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. I went from tribe. I went from little family. I went to a clan. I went from a tribe. Now I'm going to a nation and I'm in now into a kingdom. All right. And he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom till next Tuesday. No, it's going to be forever. How long is forever? It's kind of like a long time, right? So, I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chase him with a rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Now watch this, and your house and your kingdom shall be established forever and your throne shall be established forever. So here we go. We've gone from just being a blessing, we've gone just from having a seed that's a blessing, to having your enemies subdued to you, having your brethren subdued to you, then having all the nations bow before you, but we're not talking about kingdom. By the time we get to David, now it's full-blown kingdom. You're going to have a kingdom that is a full, established kingdom. It's going to be a kingdom that lasts forever. That's going to make it a really, really long kingdom. That's been the promise that was going to David. I want you to consider with me just a couple other things. The prophets then, that's this next, here's David back here in time. He's got this revelation about a kingdom that's supposed to come. And now after David's off the scene and other kings start coming in and people are worshiping now at the temple and Solomon's built this beautiful, beautiful temple and more and more people are making the pilgrimage to the temple and they're worshiping the temple and there's all kind of great things. By the way, did you know that they didn't have a single Passover when they were there at this time? Matter of fact, it would be years, years after the Babylonian exile before they actually celebrated the first Passover. That amazed me. Why wouldn't they have had the Passover? Why wouldn't they have done that? But they didn't. But here they're all coming, and it's starting to be a great nation. Solomon's made all kinds of alliances, and now all the nations around them are friendly to them. And things seem to be going pretty good. But what you don't know is that someplace in the north, a place called Assyria, there's going to be a guy rise up with a lot of ambition and a lot of ego. There's going to be another guy that's going to raise up over in Babylon with a lot of ambition, a lot of ego. There's going to be another one down here in the south with a lot of ambition and a lot of ego. And they're all going to contend for this little place that belongs to somebody else. Consider this, the prophets begin to speak. Oh my goodness, when you get to see this, the psalmist. David was one of the psalmists. Listen to some of the things he writes. Psalm 2, in defiance of the nations, God establishes his own son as king over all the world to rule with a rod of iron. So in Psalm 2, he says, the king that's coming is going to be my own son. I am going to beget a son, and that son is gonna rule over all the nations with a rod of iron. Well, that just took it to a new level. It's not just David is going to have a kingdom, but that kingdom now is going to rule all over the other kingdoms, and he's going to do it with a rod of iron. Psalm 16 says that that king is going to be one who's resurrected from the dead. Listen, if you're going to have a kingdom that lasts forever, you've got to have a king that lasts forever. And we all know that kings die. Now you can hope that the son will go ahead and rule and he'll be as good as the father, but that's not what happens here. In this one, the king is raised again from the dead. So he's resurrected. So he's going to live forever because death has no hold over him. Psalm 22, he's a suffering Messiah who'd be raised from the dead to rule in God's presence. Psalm 110 says that the father says, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So God is gonna work in behalf of this one who's sitting in his right hand to bring all the nations to come to him as a footstool, and he's gonna make of him a brand new kind of priest. Then we get to the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 7, this Messiah, this king that's gonna rule forever, is gonna be born of a virgin. We move up to Isaiah 9, and that Messiah would be God in the flesh, Emmanuel. So we're getting in this progressive revelation, kids. Do you see how this is growing? Now we're starting to see what the Messiah is going to look like. He's God in the flesh. He's a wonderful counselor. He's a mighty God. He's the Prince of Peace. He's the Everlasting Father. And on Him, all the government's going to be. He's going to rule all the nations. Now we know He is the Son of God. We know that He is Everlasting Counselor. He's everything, and He's raised from the dead. This one is a very special king. There's never been another king like Him, all right? By the time we get to Isaiah 11, so for that, I want you to just turn with me to Isaiah 11 just a minute, would you? Isaiah 11. Because Isaiah begins to tell us what that kingdom is going to look like. Here we have a promised kingdom and a promised king, and Isaiah gets the opportunity to share with people what that king looks like. If you get there before I am, don't start ahead of me, all right? Isaiah 11. Here we read, there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse. Jesse was David's father. So somebody's coming from the stem of Jesse. So then a branch shall grow out of his roots. So anybody ever cut down a tree before? Ever seen how that tree is bound to determine it's going to live? Man, those roots beneath say, hey, hey, hey, hey, we've got to have something going here. What happened to things here? And so it starts shooting things up through the ground, man. If you've ever cut sprouts before or done anything like that before, I know that used to be something we had to do. Dad wanted to have farmland. We want to have places for the cattle to eat. You cannot let little trees you you clear off all the trees as soon as you cut them all down that tree says hey Hey, I'm living here. I'm living here And all those roots start shooting up sprouts all over the place cattle don't eat sprouts They eat grass so you have to go through dig them cut them do whatever you can do But you can't have those things there every follow I'm saying This is a sprout David's gone David died But a sprouts gonna come up from him so from the root of David a sprouts gonna Show up and that sprout listen what it says about him 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. 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." Kids, he is describing the kingdom you're living in. That's the one you're going to be living in. You're being prepared right now. You're going through boot camp right now. You're going through instruction and training in this life right now. You're having challenges right now that are going to make you qualified to be a leader in the coming world. He's gonna have you rule and reign with this guy. This is the leader. This is the one big leader over all and he's making you look just like him so that his kingdom will be honorable and worthy in every aspect. That's what you're going through. So don't fight it. Embrace it. Hallelujah Lord another challenge. Thank you because I'm becoming more and more like Jesus every day Jesus does hard things I'm gonna do hard things by the power of the Spirit inside me It was Jesus who gave me this spirit. It's Jesus who gave me everything I need for this life and for godliness All right going on further it's listen to the kingdom the wolf also shall lay down with the lamb and or dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, a little child shall lead them. Man, the cow and the bear shall graze. Can you imagine the anatomical changes that are gonna have to take place with that? That bear's mouth is gonna have to change in some way or another to be able to eat grass and to graze? Wow, all right, we're going further. The young one shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. Oh boy, that's gonna take some doing. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaning child shall put his hand in the viper's den. Neither of them get bitten. Neither of them will suffer anything because they're not going to have that kind of violence. So if you're beginning to see here, kids, the whole animal world is gonna change. You say, well, I didn't know there was gonna be animals in heaven. Stop. This isn't heaven. You're not going to heaven. Somebody's gonna hear that and say, pastors, we don't go to heaven. That's not what I mean, okay? I'm just meaning this. When you die, you are going to go to heaven. Yes, you are. Instantly. But you're going there on a wait. That's not where you're gonna live. you're waiting there to put on the right duds. You can't go in these clothes. You can't be there in this frame. You gotta have a new frame, you gotta have new clothes for the new world. Everybody with me? So that heaven stop is the dressing room for the wedding. So you're gonna get dressed, you're gonna go to the wedding, you have the wedding, and then in your new duds, in your new body, you're going into a new world, that's that one. Wow, kids, you're going back to Earth. When you were created, where were you created for? Earth. That got delayed. Now, glorious God that He is, He said, now I'm gonna show you what I had in mind. This is what it's like. And you're gonna live in that world right there. The animals getting to be what the animals were supposed to be. The plants getting to be what the plants were supposed to be. The earth's soil, the living stuff that it is, producing things like it never got to produce it before because of the curse of sin. And that's all gone now. It's a new heavens, it's a new earth, and you're living in a whole new place. that's exemplified by that. Let me go on further, because this just gets me all excited. He goes on to say, they shall not, verse 9, 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. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles shall seek him. Get the picture? Back here, what'd he tell Abraham? That in you, in your seed, all the nations will be blessed. So here's his seed, this Lord Jesus Christ, and in him, all the Gentiles are gonna seek him. And they're all back here, all those Gentiles that sought him all through this time right here are now here with him, enjoying the same thing he had promised to his offspring, Israel. Oh boy, guys. It goes on, he said this, verse 11. In that, and it shall come to pass at that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people who are left from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush and Elam and Shinar and Hamath and the islands of the sea. He'll set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." I'm going to have to stop there because we got so many others to look at. But let me just state this. He's going to bring back all of Israel. We call them the 10 lost tribes. He knows exactly where they are. And he's bringing them all back so that they can enjoy the promise that was given to Abraham and to his descendants. All of that's coming, kids. And it was a story before time began. And you're getting to hear that story. You're getting to see that story coming true. You're watching it every day. Every day that you go through any challenge, every day that you go through any question of your faith, may I say, it's happening to you right then. You're being conformed to the image of his son. Well, we don't have time to look at Isaiah 60 or 61 or 65 where he talks about that's a new heavens and a new earth and long life to residents and children being born. We don't have time to talk about Jerusalem and its glorious true worship restored. All of that is found in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah got to be a kingdom presenter. Man, that guy got a lot of information. He's back here long before Jesus is coming and he's telling about Jesus. being born of a virgin, he's telling about Jesus being the Immanuel, he's telling all kinds of things about, and he's going way past Jesus back to here, telling about what the kingdom's like. This is the kingdom that that king is gonna rule in, all right? So, let me go on with this. Let's pick up with Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah tells us about a new covenant that's going to be enacted, people and land flourishing like never before, and the knowledge of the Lord everywhere. Nobody has to say, know the Lord. Nobody has to do evangelism because everybody knows who the Lord is. It is worldwide, kids. Everybody knows. The one same God, all right? And in the book of Ezekiel 36 and 37, Israel gets restored to the land with prosperity. He's bringing Israel back and the land is going to prosper greatly. In Ezekiel 40 to 48, boy, that's a great passage there. I mean, you kind of have to be an engineer to like it. It's all about what the temple, new temple is going to be built like. And if you're not into numbers and figures and things like that it may be kind of tough to read but it's all about it it's all about how it's going to be built how it's going to be used and used and carried out worships going to be done in that thing it's beautiful passage to read it tells about how the land's going to be divided up among the tribes again in that promised land because that's the land that was given to Israel all right and then In Daniel chapter 2, wow, Daniel gets loaded up with a lot of stuff about the kingdom. Daniel gets to be the one that hears that God sets up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And in that great image that was given to Nebuchadnezzar in his vision, where Nebuchadnezzar saw a rock cut out of the mountain, and that rock rolled down and took the image that there was this golden head, this silver body, this bronze thighs, and these iron legs, and the whole thing, that stone rolls out of the mountain and crushes the whole thing, and he says, that is the kingdom that is to come that will crush all earthly kingdoms. It's the last kingdom. And he's talking about this little thing that started out with Abraham, that all Abraham got to hear was, okay, here's the deal. I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to give you a land. I'm going to give you people. You're going to be a great nation, and all the nations are going to be blessed through you. That's the word he got. And by the time you get out here to Ezekiel and Daniel, man, that has been expanded world. Kids, you are in a great blessed place. You have heard the word of God and believed it. That was counted to you for righteousness. You believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the author of the story before time, who told the whole story through his prophets, through himself, and through the prophets that came after him. He's been telling that story all throughout as people across the world have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's coming again to receive all that had been promised way back there. You're a blessed people. It isn't just getting to read a neat little history. You're connected to eternity. You're connected to the greatest story ever told. There are ABCs involved with this. Today, I want to invite you to be a part of this. It's the great privilege of any teacher, of any proclaimer, of anybody who believes the gospel, to say, friend, this could be yours. God is now offering, by his grace, amnesty. You're under his condemnation already. You're not waiting to be condemned. You're not waiting to see if you lived a good life or not. No, you're already under condemnation. It's done. It's over. You're waiting sentencing, not judgment. Friend, here's the way. ABCs. Admit that you're a sinner. Just plain and simple. Admit that the judgment is yours. It really is coming to you, and that you deserve it. You have not loved God with your whole heart. That's not hard to admit. There are times that you have stolen. There are times that you've murdered people. You say, well, I didn't murder anybody. Did you ever speak harshly of them? Did you ever speak of them as if you wanted them gone? He accounted that the same as murder. Friends, by lusting after someone else, you've proved yourself to be a fornicator. Admit that you're a sinner. Let her be. Believe that Jesus is the Christ. Believe that Jesus is the Christ. Believe that He died for you. Believe that He rose again the third day. C. Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Confess it with your mouth. The Scriptures say, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. The Scriptures tell us, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no, not one. The Scriptures tell us that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I want to encourage you today, receive the gift of God. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you so much for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the blessing of the gospel, the good news. Thank you that you have been telling this story since long before any of us ever came on the scene. And thank you that you have continued that story. You're an awesome God, and we worship and praise you for it. Now we ask, Father, that if anyone here does not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior before they leave this place, they will have made that transition. They will have believed the truth as you have given it in Jesus' name. We are a people that have been fully forgiven, fully accepted, and you have been fully gifted with everything that you need for life and God knows. Don't be afraid of challenges this week. They're a part of what makes you more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, thank you so much for the blessing of knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Thank you for making us a community of Christ. We ask in the name of Jesus that you'll bless our fellowship, that you'll cause us to walk in all the truth, and that you'll grant that many people may come to know the Lord Jesus Christ because of belief of the gospel. Thank you for what you're going to do and the way you're going to do it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. We hope God has encouraged you with today's message by Pastor White. Thank you for joining us at the Edgemont Bible Church. We'd love to have you visit us if you're ever in the area. For directions, more information, or to support the ministry of Edgemont Bible Church, please go to our website at edgemontbiblechurch.org. That's edgemontbiblechurch, all one word, dot org. You can also follow us on Facebook at Edgemont Bible Church where the Sunday Morning Message is broadcast live.