Good morning to everyone. Thank you for coming this morning. Good to see you all. I appreciated the hymn "His Truth is Marching On." It's really appropriate when we think about our world and what makes us anxious, the way things are going.

We're beginning a study this morning in First Thessalonians 5 on the Day of the Lord, and really the message of that is that there will be a time of deliverance for those who believe in Jesus, and there will be a time of judgment for those who don't. Christ will bring righteousness to the earth and rule on David's throne in the Millennial Kingdom and on into eternity. So that's a good truth. We sang this morning, "His Truth is Marching On," the victory won in Christ. 

Well, this morning we come to chapter 5 of our study in First Thessalonians, and this is a fascinating section of God's Word because it brings up some subjects that concern what is yet to come. It launches us into a study of things like the rapture of the church, the Day of the Lord, the realization of eternal life and glorification together with the Lord, as well as the judgment of the unjust and the setting up of the kingdom on this earth. 

These things are vast in the Scriptures, and we could literally spend months studying and never exhausting the depth of truths concerning eschatology, the study of the end times. There's a great deal of mystery surrounding these things, things we do not fully understand as we look to what is inevitably coming upon this earth, and those who do not know Christ and what awaits us in the coming of our Lord to take us to be with him forever. 

In our last study, we looked at the great promise of the rapture of the church in chapter 4, verses 13 to 18. You remember that the believers in Thessalonica had been concerned and confused concerning their brothers and sisters in Christ who had fallen asleep, who had died. Paul had taught them the doctrine of the rapture in the short time that he was with them, and they were so excited about it, about the coming of the Lord. They saw it as an imminent event and greatly anticipated it, and they were worried that those who were dying among them were going to somehow miss it. 

Paul writes to assure them that those who sleep in Jesus are with the Lord in heaven. They are absent from the body, but they are present with the Lord. And when the Lord comes in the clouds to catch us up to take us to be with Him forever, He will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. That was the message of chapter 4, and the key to understanding Paul's intent is in verse 18, where he says, "Therefore comfort one another with these words." 

His intent in writing — and I think this is important to keep in mind — was not to give a full doctrinal treatise concerning the rapture in the end times. His intent is pastoral. It is to comfort, to give an answer to that which concerned them and to settle their hearts. And that's what he does in chapters 4 and 5; that is his intent, and that should constrain our study, at least to some degree, as we consider these words. 

So we see Paul bring up and teach about the rapture, the promise for every believer in Jesus. Jesus gave us this same promise in John 14, a passage we love. He said, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." 

I love what Jesus says: "If it were not so, I would have told you." First Corinthians 15 also teaches us that we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye. The rapture is a clear doctrine of the Scriptures, a sure promise from our Lord. 

Now when Paul brings up this subject in chapter 4 for the purpose of answering their question of calming their concern, it also brings up, at the same time, the time of judgment that will follow the rapture of the church, what the Scriptures called the Day of the Lord. 

This phrase really hits us like a Mack truck in our text in chapter 5. He says, "But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, 'Peace and safety,' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape." 

There's a clear contrast here in chapters 4 and 5 between those who are in Christ and those who are in Adam, the saved and the lost, those destined for salvation and those destined for judgment. Paul brings up judgment here for the purpose of that contrast and for the illustration of what is coming upon the lost as compared to the promise of deliverance for the saved. He does this again in a pastoral way for the purpose of comfort, and this section is a continuation of the subject of what happens to those who die in Christ. 

It's totally tied to chapter 4, verses 13 to 18, and it has the same purpose. If you follow down in verse 4 he says, "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night or darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation." 

Now watch this; it's an important verse: "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing." 

There's a great deal of discussion concerning verse 9 and whether this means that the rapture will occur before the tribulation time on this earth, the time of Jacob's trouble. I believe in the context and with Paul's intent that that's exactly what he's saying. But verse 9 is not so much the key, in my opinion; it's verse 10, particularly the phrase "whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." 

There's coming a great day of judgment, the Day of the Lord, and God will pour out his wrath on the earth and judge the wicked, but he says, "You are not of the night; you are of the day. We are not appointed to wrath but to obtain salvation." Salvation when? At the rapture of the church, before the time of trouble and tribulation. The phrase "whether we wake or sleep" ties chapter 14 and the doctrine of the rapture right into the middle of Paul's teaching on judgment contrasted with salvation. 

We will not experience the great day of wrath, the Day of the Lord, because the Lord will come and catch us up, take us to the Father's house, transform us, just as he promised before he turns back to Israel to bring to consummation his promises to her. These are the things we're coming to study over the coming weeks. 

I want to lay down a foundation before we really dig into this text to give us a basic scriptural understanding of God's creative intent, His eternal plan and creation, and how he's going to accomplish his will on the earth. I want to talk about the centrality of Israel in this plan and eschatology, and explore the doctrine — really the phrase itself — the Day of the Lord in the Scriptures so that we might have a right understanding of these things. 

Sometimes we get a little squeamish about studying the end times and what is to come, and there's certainly a lot of false teaching. Many churches avoid it altogether. But, my friends, a third of the Bible is prophecy. It is perhaps the greatest evidence of the veracity of the Word of God, and it’s for comfort. It's for assurance for the believer. God tells us the end from the beginning, and its purpose is not to sensationalize or get all wrapped up in mysterious things. His purpose is to give us a clear promise that justice is coming to this world for the wicked, perfect righteousness on this earth. How we long for that, because God has put that longing in us, and deliverance for those who believe in Jesus. We have a promise of deliverance, of salvation, and we are to comfort one another with these words.

Let's read our text to begin. First Thessalonians 5:1, "But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you." Really what he's saying in this verse is the epics, the chronology, the chronos, the times and the seasons — you don't need to know all that. That's what he's saying. It's not for us to know all the details and the timing. He says, "For you yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night." 

"For when they say, 'Peace and safety,' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation." 

"For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing."

I've given you four points on your outline: first, the promise of salvation; second, the certainty of judgment; third, the coming Day of the Lord; and fourth, God's creative intent. We're going to sort of breeze through these first couple points as we touched on them already, and I want to spend the bulk of our time on points three and four — the Day of the Lord and God's creative intent.

We've seen in the Scriptures, in John 14, First Thessalonians 4, and First Corinthians 15, the promise of salvation, of deliverance, of the rapture of the church. This is a promise from Jesus, reiterated by Paul; a promise that we can trust, that we can take to the bank. A promise to comfort us, and that's the point of all those texts — to comfort, to explain to us that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, are not appointed to wrath, that we are to obtain salvation. 

This would not be much of a comfort if we were to go through the Day of the Lord and the time of judgment, a judgment which is promised as well, which is certain for all who refuse to believe Jesus. Turn over to Second Thessalonians chapter 1 with me, please, just maybe on the same page in your Bible. Second Thessalonians 1:3. Paul says, "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other." 

"So that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure." These believers were experiencing a great amount of persecution, trial, and tribulation. What we see, especially as we move into Second Thessalonians, is that they had been taught by some false teachers that this was evidence that they had missed the rapture and they were in the Day of the Lord. 

So we see that what they expected from what Paul taught them was persecution of the church in the Day of the Lord, and because they were so heavily persecuted and so fixed on the rapture and the coming judgment, they had become confused as to whether they had missed the salvation of the Lord and were now under the wrath of the tribulation time. He continues in verse 5, "Which is manifest evidence — this tribulation, this trial, this persecution — is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer." 

"Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed. 

Paul says in that day, the Day of the Lord culminating in his second coming, Jesus will exact judgment on all of the wicked and bring justice and righteousness on the earth, ushering in the kingdom. The righteous will shine forth in the kingdom as Jesus promises in Matthew 13. The day of judgment is coming, and the Bible calls this time the Day of the Lord. The phrase "Day of the Lord" is used 32 times in the Bible, and the vast majority of those times is in the Old Testament. 

It is conspicuously absent in the New Testament except for three uses, and those relating to the coming wrath in the time of tribulation on this earth. There are two uses termed the Day of the Lord Jesus, but these refer to salvation and not judgment. So we learn right away from this simple observation that the Day of the Lord is a time of judgment, where God will take possession of the earth, judging the wicked and setting up his kingdom, where Jesus will rule for a thousand years. 

The term is always used of judgment, of a time of darkness, a terrible day, a time of wrath and catastrophe. It's used in a temporal sense for judgment of Israel in the Old Testament for the purpose of chastening, and it's used as a term that speaks to a broad expanse of time, beginning with the tribulation time, the seven-year period spoken of in Daniel, and ending with the Day of God in the new heavens and the new earth, according to Second Peter 3. 

It is also used of a specific day, the day that Jesus comes again at the second coming. We're going to explore the use of the term and strive to understand them rightly and interpret them in their context. But there are three basic uses of the term "Day of the Lord," and they all speak of darkness, judgment, calamity, never anything positive or related to salvation. 

I just want to introduce you to them now, and we're going to go into detail in a couple weeks in a message on this phrase, "The Day of the Lord." First, temporal chastening of God's people, Israel. 

Second, the broad scope. Go over to Second Peter with me. Let's look at that. Second Peter chapter 3. When we think about the Day of the Lord and the use of the term, we have to ask, what does that encompass? What scope does it approach here? What we see is that the Day of the Lord clearly is in the tribulation time. But Peter tells us in verse 10 of Second Peter 3, "But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," just as Paul says, "in which —" so in which, in the scope of the Day of the Lord, the broad scope, "the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." 

"Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the Day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire; the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, believers, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." 

Peter shows us that the term "Day of the Lord" in a broad scope encompasses over a thousand years because we have the seven-year period, which it certainly includes; the Day of the Lord goes through the millennial reign and then into the new heavens and the new earth. So there's a broad scope of the use of the term, but there's also a narrow scope of the use of the term, a very short period, even one day, when Jesus sets his feet on the Mount of Olives and comes in judgment. 

Well, let’s give an example of a very important, I would say vital understanding of the Day of the Lord in the pattern of the Old Testament chastening of Israel. It's important for us to understand that God is a God of mercy, that God is a God of grace. 

When we look at the history of Israel, the people that he chose out for his name to be a witness to the world, to bring salvation to the world, to be his holy and special people to glorify him, when we look at their history, the Scriptures tell us that what we see is a stiff-necked, disobedient people who were continually going astray. 

As we consider the temporal, the temporary uses of the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament, those near fulfillments in the time of the prophets, what we see is God's chastening hand to bring his people back to himself, to correct them, and to set them back on the straight path, and ultimately to bring them salvation. 

So some of these things may seem extreme to us, but God does it for their good and for his glory, and ultimately in the final Day of the Lord, the future coming Day of the Lord, he will fulfill his promises to his people and bring salvation to Israel. 

I want to introduce you to an Old Testament pattern of the Day of the Lord because the pattern established throughout the history of the nation of Israel will serve us well in understanding what is to come in the final Day of the Lord, where Antichrist will rule and reign and God will bring to consummation all things in Christ. 

We see this pattern established as early as the time of Jacob and his twelve sons in the time of Egypt. God brought Joseph to Egypt, you remember that story? What his brothers meant for evil, God meant for good. God used Egypt, follow me now, as a human agent, government, to chasten his people Israel for 400 years. Then God delivered Israel and punished Pharaoh and his armies. You remember that profound account of the parting of the Red Sea and the judgment of Egypt? 

We see this same pattern with Assyria and the northern tribes of Israel and Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, and the southern tribe of Judah. The pattern is simple: Israel disobeys and rebels against God. God uses a human agent, a man, a government, to chasten Israel. Then God delivers Israel and punishes the human agent to display his power and glory so that all may know that he is the Lord. 

Following this pattern, and it's true consistently every time throughout the Old Testament in the use of the Day of the Lord, following this pattern helps us a great deal to interpret the Old Testament and to have a right understanding of what's going to come in the future. 

For example, when we look at the great prophets — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, even Daniel — what we see is warning to the nation of Israel concerning the coming judgment for their rebellion, a call to repentance. We see this clearly concerning Assyria and the judgment which would come against Israel. We see it in a broad expanse of time, with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel concerning the coming captivity of Babylon. 

This warning started a hundred years before God brought the chastening hand of Nebuchadnezzar against Judah with the prophet Isaiah, and continued even into the time of captivity with Ezekiel and Daniel, who were there. God warned. He pleaded with Israel to repent, or the Day of the Lord would come upon them, and we see that fulfilled in the Babylonian captivity. 

Moses, Micah, Habakkuk warned of judgment and captivity if Israel did not obey God. Isaiah warned specifically of the Babylonian captivity, and he even prophesied of Cyrus the Persian king by name over a hundred years before Cyrus was born — Isaiah 44:28, who says of Cyrus, "He is my shepherd; he shall perform all my pleasures, saying to Jerusalem, 'You shall be built,' and to the temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid.'" 

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, this pagan king that wouldn't be born for a hundred years: "Whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings to open before him the double doors so the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel." 

Do you see how God is orchestrating details in history? This pagan king, though you have not known me, I'm going to lead you by the hand, I'm going to cause you to conquer, I'm going to bring you and conquer Babylon, and you're going to allow my people to go back and rebuild their temple and rebuild their walls. 

We know that Cyrus defeated Babylon and then allowed them to go back and do that with Nehemiah. Jeremiah prophesied 23 years to his people, to no avail. His own people beat him, they put him in stocks, they threw him down a cistern, they placed him in jail. They did everything to Jeremiah except listen to what the Lord was warning through his messenger. 

Jeremiah lived to see the fulfillment of his own prophecies in Jeremiah 20, 25, and 27, and also those of the other prophets of God. I just want to make the point that God went to great lengths in his mercy and his grace, calling on Israel to repent, to turn back to him, and sent prophets for hundreds of years warning, pleading, even weeping for Israel before God brought the chastening hand upon his people in the Day of the Lord. 

Turn to Amos with me, if you find Amos in your Old Testament. Amos 5 gives us a description of what I'm talking about in this temporal Day of the Lord, the use of the term in near fulfillment in the Old Testament. 

Amos 5:18 says, "Woe to you who desire the Day of the Lord! For what good is the Day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the Day of the Lord darkness and not light? Is it not very dark with no brightness in it?" 

"I hate, I despise your feast days," see what he's saying to Israel? Just like he does in Isaiah 1 and 2. "It's a stench rising up to me." Why? Because they were going through the motions, but their heart was not in it. "I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for 40 years, O house of Israel? You also carried Sikuth and your king and Chun your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus," says the Lord, "whose name is the God of hosts." 

This is a prophecy from Amos warning them that they're going to go into captivity because of their false idolatrous worship. Zephaniah 1:4 says, "I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off every trace of Baal from this place, the names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests, those who worship the host of heaven on the housetops, those who worship and swear oaths by the Lord, but who also swear by Milcom, those who have turned back from following the Lord and have not sought the Lord nor inquired of him. Be silent in the presence of the Lord God, for the Day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; he has invited his guests, and it shall be in the Day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the princes and the king's children and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel. In the same day, I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit, and there shall be on that day," says the Lord, "the sound of a mournful cry from the fish gate, a wailing from the second quarter, and a loud crashing from the hills. Wail, you inhabitants!" 

He goes on and on. He warned them and warned them and pleaded with them to come back to him. When we see the term "the Day of the Lord" and all these uses in the prophets, it's a pattern established with Israel. God chastens them with a human agent, and then he delivers his people and punishes that human agent to display his glory. God brought the heavy hand of Babylon upon Judah, but not for wrath's sake, but for their good. 

Listen to Jeremiah 29:10, "For thus says the Lord, after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you and cause you to return to this place, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you," says the Lord, "thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope." 

This is God's motive. So we see the pattern established again and again: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. And we will see this pattern again in the final Day of the Lord. You want to know what's coming? What's going to happen? We're going to see the same pattern in the final Day of the Lord in the revived Roman Empire, as God turns back to Israel to bring to consummation all that he has promised. 

He will chasten them with his human agent, the Antichrist. Then he will bring deliverance through punishment of the Antichrist and the entire world system, economic and religious, bringing salvation to Israel, his second coming, and a fulfillment of the promise of the kingdom on this earth. We're going to explore this broad scope and the narrow scope of the fulfillment of the Day of the Lord in the future time of the seven-year tribulation for Israel in a couple weeks.

But before we close, I want to spend a little time discussing God's creative intent, what God is doing in the very broad scope of his salvation plan, and how this helps us understand what is coming as well. 

In Genesis 1 and 2, we see the creation of all things, the heavens and the earth, all that dwell on the earth, the plants, the animals, and we see the creation of Adam and Eve. We see that God's original creative intent was to have Adam have dominion over all of his creation, to act in a theocratic governing stewarding of the earth, God's agent, man, to rule over the earth. 

In Genesis 1:26, it says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" 

This was God's plan in creation. And we must get this; we must understand. God's intention was a theocracy, man standing as God's representative to have dominion over the whole earth, to rule as God's man over all creation. And this was the case for a very short time. 

We had creation, but it wasn't long until we had calamity. In Genesis 3, we see that Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and to give away their rightful, God-intended dominion over the earth. Through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, thorns, thistles, suffering, disease, and man would no longer rule and reign over the earth, but Satan was given that dominion. 

Ray and I were having Bible study Tuesday morning with a cup of coffee, and Ray said, "I planted my cabbage and something ate it already. My hay bine wouldn't work all week, turning wrenches, putting it back together; started up to break." This is the curse. This is every day. This is life in this world, and it's because of Adam's sin. It's because Adam abrogated his responsibility to be God's man on earth in a theocratic rule and sinned and disobeyed God and handed that dominion to Satan. 

Man became subject to the earth, to weather and beasts, and all kinds of suffering and trouble as we earn our living by the sweat of our brow. It's all upside down. Satan is the ruler of this world and its system and of this age. In Luke 4:5, the devil takes Jesus up to tempt him, and he shows him all the kingdoms of the earth, and the devil said to him, "All this authority I will give you and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish." 

Satan is the god of this age because Adam sinned and gave up his dominion. Dominion was delivered to Satan when Adam sinned in the garden and brought the curse on the world, on creation, and gave up his God-intended dominion over the earth. A theocracy is the creative intent of God. 

I know we're getting long here, but I still have this note from Sharon: "Don't be afraid to preach longer; we will listen." She speaks for all of you, okay? 

We're answering a great question here. To borrow a phrase, a title from Rennie Showers: "What on earth is God doing?" Turn over to Hebrews 2 with me, please. We're about done here. 

Hebrews 2:5, "For He has not put the world to come — God has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying, 'What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.'" 

This is talking about Adam; this is talking about man and God's creative intent. Look what he says at the end of that verse: "But now we do not yet see all things put under him." This is what we're talking about; it's a mess, it's upside down, he's under the curse of the earth. 

Verse 9, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone." 

God's intention in creation was a theocracy, a righteous man to rule and steward and to have dominion over the earth. Adam forfeited and ruined this creative plan for a time by his sin and disobedience to God. Now what we see since that promise of a Redeemer in Genesis 3 is God's salvation plan, listen now, to bring his creative intent to fullness — to fruition in the person of Christ, ruling all things, reigning as God's man in a theocracy on this earth. 

That's the Millennial Kingdom promised to Israel, where Jesus sits on David's throne. And that’s what we see in Hebrews 2: "God has not put the world to come, the word is oikumene, it means the inhabited earth to come." What’s the inhabited earth to come? God put everything in subjection to the first Adam, to the man in the garden. 

Adam forfeited that dominion, Satan now rules, and man struggles under the curse. We do not now see all things under his feet, man's feet, but we see Jesus. My brothers and sisters, Jesus is the promise of the restoration of God's creative intent. 

There will be a theocracy on this earth, and Jesus will rule and reign in righteousness in the kingdom and for eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. God will bring to consummation all things in Christ just as he promised in Ephesians 2. 

This is the very thing we see being worked out over time and ultimately in the future Day of the Lord. Do you see where we're going? Do you see what he's doing? 

We have to understand all these things in order to understand rightly what is to come. Jesus came the first time to die in our place for our sins as our substitute, fully taking the wrath of God that I deserved in my place for my sins, obtaining salvation for me through faith in him alone. I received his righteousness through faith. 

As a result, I'm in Christ. But hear me now, Jesus is coming again, not for salvation, but for judgment of Satan and the Antichrist, this world system, and all who offend, to the loss of this world. Jesus will take the scroll, the title deed of the earth, and he will set up his kingdom, and he will rule as a perfect steward with full dominion over this earth. 

We will reign with him as God restores and establishes his creative intent: a theocracy on the earth in which righteousness dwells. My friends, it’s so important that we see this intent of God: to restore, to make reality his original creation intent, to redeem those who will believe, to make them his own special people, and to judge those who do not believe Jesus.

He will bring righteousness on the earth in the person of Christ ruling and reigning in the kingdom and on into eternity. God will establish his purpose; he will not fail. He will bring about his ultimate will. In this, we can trust him, and in this, we understand what has happened, we understand what is happening around us now, and we can understand what is yet to come. 

Let’s close in prayer. Father, we’re so thankful that you teach us, that you guide us, that you've given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth in your Word. We never reach the depths of your Word. Father, thank you that we can trust you. Our hope is in you, and we know that Jesus wins, and we're with him; we're in him. In his name, we pray. Amen.