The Future

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Future. He will be reading out of Isaiah 2:1-5.

And the kingdom of God will march on with you or without you. Are you gonna follow? Are you willing to take on the challenges that are before us? But the most important kingdom, church, listen to me, the most important kingdom is not the kingdom of this world. It is the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders. Welcome to the Hope Worth Having Radio Broadcast, and we are broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and delighted to have you along with us. We’re gonna be in Isaiah chapter 2 today, a very intriguing and interesting passage of scripture, and we’ll be talking about the future.

So join me as we study together. When we come to Isaiah chapter 2 in verses 1 through 5 this morning, we’re reminded that God tells us about the future. But what is so great is that even though man may have aspirations of trying to create his own future, God has a plan for a future that supersedes all the plans of mankind and are better than mankind.

Most of us live our lives with an eye on the future. It would be foolish for us to live our lives regardless of what we know about the future. As we understand the future, it gives us more hope for the future.

And God has revealed the future with absolute certainty, and we should plan our lives based upon that future. And that future includes his soon return. Now Jesus taught us that there would be signs of the times, and as you and I are recognizing and we see these signs of the times, there is great anticipation for what the future will bring for us as believers.

And we are getting excited about what God has for us. When we come to Isaiah chapter 2, that is the very tone of this passage. It is a message of Isaiah that is very upbeat.

It is exciting. It belongs in the winner’s circle. It encourages anyone that might be discouraged about the circumstances of life, perhaps even of the world, and perhaps even of this nation.

You and I have such confidence in what the future will be like. There is a definite contrast that takes place in the book of Isaiah that you will note as we journey together. But in chapter 1, if you’ve been with us, you know Isaiah exposes the sin of Judah and Jerusalem.

Go back to verse 1 of chapter 1. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amaz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And he goes on to narrate those different things that were troubling God, how they were empty in their worship and they were following the sinful ways of the heart. But then all of a sudden, having made it through chapter 1, and having seen how God was exposing a sick nation, we see the hope in chapter 2. And what God does over and over in the book of Isaiah through the prophet is to continue not only to expose sin and provide a remedy for our sin, but he continues to infuse us with great hope for the future.

God doesn’t just leave us. And what’s unique about the book of Isaiah, it’s not so much that it’s chronological. We’ll be going back from the past to the future and to the past again.

And you know when I read Isaiah, that’s what’s going on. It’s not the past, it’s the future. Isaiah, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he pops in God’s word of hope into the future.

And so again, we come to chapter 2. It is the message of the future. It is a message of hope that I want you to see this morning. So let’s first of all learn about the positive about this future.

Isaiah starts off chapter 2 just like he did chapter 1. And he says, The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Remember in chapter 1, he’s going to expose the sin. But in chapter 2, he’s going to talk about the future and what we have to look forward.

What is the source of this great positive outlook upon the future? Look at verse 1 again. Underscored in your Bible. The word.

It is the word of God. It is the word of God that Isaiah received. Isaiah received this message from God.

It is not something that Isaiah was just trying to teach the people to have positive thinking. It’s not that he was trying to give some kind of a message so that the people could somehow pull themselves together and keep moving forward. But rather, it was a message from God almighty.

It was the word of God that came to Isaiah. And what does Isaiah say to us? Go to verse 2. It shall come to pass. Look at the middle of verse 2. It shall be established.

This is the word. This is the promise. This is what God is telling us.

It’s not just that God is saying, here is my plan. But he is saying to all of us, here is my promise. This is what I’m going to do in the latter days.

This is what’s going to happen in the future. This is what you have to look forward to. And it is this future that we have as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ that keeps us motivated and it keeps us inspired to living strong for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And whatever God says is going to happen, friends, it’s going to happen. People make all kinds of promises. And you probably have had many people break promises to you.

But let me tell you something that’s different is that God’s promises are established. And they are sure. And God will fulfill everything that he has said.

And so that’s what I want you to see. The positive about the future is that its source is God’s word. It is God himself.

And it’s not something that he’s just putting out there to just pump you up. But it’s something that you can definitely bank on and that you can look forward to. So let’s see, second of all, this unique period in the future.

Look at verse 2 again. He says, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days. We know that in Acts chapter 2 and Hebrews chapter 2, the apostles talked about the latter days.

Talked about the last days. And the last days is a long period that exists from the coming of Jesus Christ the first time all the way to the coming of Christ the second time. And when we think about the latter days, what the prophet Isaiah is talking about, the last of the last days.

Or the last of this time period after the return of Jesus Christ. So, in general, you’ll read throughout the scriptures. You’ll read in the Old Testament.

You’ll read in the New Testament about the last days. People say to me, well, Mike, we’re definitely in the last days. Yeah, we’ve been in the last days for quite a while.

But I understand what they mean. They are saying we believe as we see the signs of the times that we are in the last of the last days. That we’re in that kind of final fourth quarter.

And it looks like God is bringing everything together. And everything that he said would come to pass is starting to come together so that it can come to pass. And we are witnessing some exciting times that you and I are living in.

And so, Isaiah says, the latter days. The last days. And this is an encouragement.

Because what he is trying to remind us is we are on schedule for God’s plan and God’s promise. That we are moving according to all that God has already orchestrated. People get so frazzled.

They get so frustrated. They get so upset about what they see happening in our nation. Or happening in the world.

Or perhaps even happening in their own lives. But listen to me, my friends. God has a plan.

And God has a purpose. And that even though it may not be what we always want. Or we want to see how certain things unfold certain ways.

You need to remember that God is in charge. And he is in control. And nothing is happening and catching God by surprise.

He is not shocked. His hand is working. And his hand is moving.

And he is accomplishing everything that he has already scheduled for the latter days. It’s exciting. God’s judgment.

God’s dealing with America. God’s dealing with people. And he is dealing with the righteous as well as those who are unrighteous.

And he is bringing it all in accordance to his perfect plan. You say, how do I learn about this perfect plan? Well, I want to give you a quick template. But you can read the book of Revelation.

You can read different books that talk about what is to unfold. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, chapter 5 helps us a lot. But you can begin to see this template.

But in general, this is where the position of our church family. But we believe that the next great event on the prophecy schedule of the latter days is the rapture of the church. Do you believe that church? Amen.

There’s a few of you left. Hey, my friends, I believe that the rapture is before the tribulation period. We’re given a promise that we are not ordained to tribulation.

Or we are not ordained to the particular suffering of the tribulation period. And again, I can take you back to the Greek. And I can help you walk through that.

And help you understand that. But there are some of you who still don’t believe the same way that I do. Or our church does about the rapture.

And that’s okay. We’re not saying you don’t love Jesus. Okay? We’re just saying that we believe the next great event is the rapture of the church.

After the rapture of the church is the tribulation period. How long is the tribulation period, church? It’s going to be a seven-year period. Christians are already raptured out of this world.

All that’s left is unbelievers. But in the midst of this seven-year period, there will be those who believe in Jesus Christ. They will come to Christ.

They will believe in Christ. I did a Bible study on insights into the tribulation through the book of Daniel. We taught about how you can understand what is going to unfold.

But one of the things we know is that the Bible says in the book of Daniel that they’ll be running to and fro. And people seem to think that that means that technology is going to be faster than ever. And knowledge is going to be more than ever.

And all those are true. I don’t deny those things. But that’s not what Daniel’s talking about.

He’s talking about that there are going to be people running all over, looking for the truth, trying to find the answers. What happened to all these people? They say that there’s just over 8 billion people in this world. But they say there’s about 2.5 billion Christians.

There’s only about 330 million Americans. And can you imagine that in a moment, instantaneously, 2.5 billion people are raptured out of here? Gone! And I’m telling you, those that do not believe in Jesus Christ, they’re going to be, what in the world just happened? And you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to run over to Grandma’s house. And they’re going to run over to Grandpa’s house.

They’re going to run over to their mom and dad’s house. And they’re going to say, they kept telling us we need to get saved. We needed to obey the Bible.

We need to get into the Word of God. And they’re going to be running to and fro, trying to find the truth. And Daniel says they’ll find it in the Word of God.

And you see, my friends, that’s why it’s important for us to print the Bible. That’s why it’s important for you to have a Bible at home. That’s why it’s important for you to tell your children about Jesus Christ.

That’s why it’s important for you to tell your grandchildren about Jesus Christ. You say, they don’t listen, Mike. It don’t matter.

That never stopped me. And it shouldn’t stop you. Amen? And it didn’t stop Isaiah.

When we get to Isaiah chapter 6, the Lord’s going to tell Isaiah, the people aren’t going to listen to you. But he said, keep telling them. And that’s the way God rolls, is that he keeps telling us the truth.

But here’s the thing. We, as a people, we tend to be hard-headed, and sometimes it doesn’t sink in as quick as we’d like it to be. Thank God for those who have been awakened, and they see the truth.

They respond to truth. That’s why it’s important to reach these children when they’re young, to reach these teenagers when they’re young, because they’re more responsive and they’re more receptive. They haven’t been hardened by sin.

That’s why we need to have ministries for children and continue to reach out to them and tell them about the Lord, Jesus Christ. But here’s what I want you to know. This tribulation period, people are going to be looking for the answer, and many will come to Christ.

The Antichrist will come on the scene. He will rule and reign, and he will control this world by three different means. You might write this down.

He will rule this world through a one-world government. He will rule this world through a one-world currency system, and he will rule this world through a one-world religious system. It won’t be the faith of Jesus Christ.

No, the Antichrist hates God, but he loves religion, because if he can use religion to control people, he’ll be glad to sign you up. Now, don’t you worry, church. We’re out of here, except for those guys that they want to wait until after the tribulation to be raptured.

You know, if I was God, I’d let you. I’d let you stay around if you wanted to. But for the rest of us, we’re out.

We’re up in heaven. We’re enjoying receiving our rewards, worshiping God, getting ready for the big moment. What’s the big moment? The second coming of Jesus.

At the end of the seven-year tribulation, I’m giving you a template. I’m helping you understand the end of the latter days. What’s it going to be like? It’s going to be a second coming of Jesus Christ.

I just read to you in Revelation chapter 20 some of the things that will be happening. Read to Revelation chapter 19 and Revelation chapter 21, and you’ll begin to see this big picture of what’s coming. Read Daniel, and you’ll begin to see this big picture that is coming, and the second coming of Jesus Christ will be upon this world, and we will rule and reign.

He will conquer every nation. He’ll conquer every political system. He’ll conquer all those who rebel and are against God Almighty, and he will sit on the throne that is in Jerusalem, the seat of David, and he will fulfill all the promises that have been made by the prophets that we will have a Messiah who will rule from Jerusalem.

That’s why it’s called the city of God, and that’s why Jerusalem and Israel matter so much to us, for, of course, many other reasons, and that’s why we have so much hope in the future. Now, what is the purpose of this thousand-year reign of Christ? I’ve referred to you before as it being the millennial kingdom. The millennial kingdom is not found in the Bible.

You’re not going to find that word millennial. I mean, you can look for it. Do a Google search.

It just isn’t going to pop up, but don’t worry. Don’t get upset because neither is the word missions. We all love missions.

These are words that we use to describe what the Bible teaches. We’re not saying that they somehow are man-made. What we’re saying is that there’s this thousand-year reign, the millennial kingdom, which is a Latin word that means a thousand, millennial.

It means a thousand. The millennial is a time of peace and prosperity on earth when Christ will rule from Jerusalem. The purpose of this thousand-year reign is to fulfill the promises that God made to his people that cannot be fulfilled while Satan is running free and rampant.

It is a time that we will be able to witness that Jesus Christ will conquer all political authority and he will be the sole authority on this earth. These promises sometimes are called covenants. They are sometimes specific to Israel.

Other times they are specific to Jesus himself. And other times they are to the church. It is our responsibility to distinguish what is this promise and who is this promise for.

Sometimes the church gets super excited. No problem. We understand it.

I like that you’ve got some zeal and some passion for God and that you’re excited and you read the Bible and you read a promise and you think, man, this promise is for me. And you come to me about it and I say, no, no, that’s for Israel. And you get discouraged.

No, don’t be discouraged. There’s plenty of promises to share, church. There’s plenty to enjoy.

But you’ve got to know what the promises of God are and who are they for. Is this for Israel? Is this for Jesus? Is this for the church? And once you distinguish that, then you can properly apply it to your life. Now, all these promises that are given so much in the Old Testament will be fulfilled during the thousand-year reign called the Millennial Kingdom, which will be ruled by Jesus Christ.

And when Isaiah, I’m doing Isaiah 2. I know you think I left it, but I didn’t. But in Isaiah 2 at the beginning, it shall come to pass in the latter days, the last days. Now, let’s talk about the power of the future.

Now, you will note in this text, again, as we continue to read in verse 2, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills. When you read, again, the book of Revelation and you read the book of Isaiah so many times that God uses metaphors, he’ll use different symbolic language to help us understand. So when God says the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, this is excellent news for all who love Jesus Christ, but it’s symbolic language that he is teaching us.

And the mountain that he speaks of is a metaphor for the Lord’s kingdom that will be exalted above all other kingdoms. And the term mountain can often be referred to as governments or kingdoms. And here, I want you to read that with that understanding that the mountain of the Lord’s house, that is, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the Messiah, shall be established on the top of the mountains, meaning the mountains of man’s kingdoms, that the kingdom of God will supersede the kingdom of man and will be on top of all these other man-made kingdoms and shall be exalted above the hills.

What will happen is that the mountain of Christ and the mountain of his kingdom will so supersede the mountains of man’s kingdoms that man’s kingdoms will become nothing more than just little hills. Their status will change. Let me help you out a little bit, okay? I want you to take your Bible, and I want you to go to the book of Psalm 48.

I want you to see this again. So Psalm 48, verse 1, says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy what church? Mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, and the city of the great king.

What I want you to see is that this is not the only time that this word mountain has been used as a metaphor. So it is. The psalmist, he taught us, the mountain refers to the kingdom of God.

Here’s what I want you to know, that after the tribulation period, in the second coming of Christ, the establishment of this thousand-year reign called the millennial kingdom, that God will be recognized as the supreme rule of all the nations. It will not be the United States of America. It’s not even mentioned in prophecy.

I don’t even know if the United States will be here, church. And that’s why what you’re witnessing may be a part of God’s perfect plan. And you say, well, I don’t want America to go down.

Well, I don’t either, but I’m just telling you that the Bible doesn’t mention America. But sometimes we have to recognize before we can get to the good, we got to endure the bad. And sometimes in order to fulfill God’s plan and that his kingdom will rule and reign and that there’ll be all these things that unfold in the book of Revelation, it’s probably going to require for the decline of America.

It won’t be the United States that rules in the millennial kingdom. It won’t be the United Nations. It will not be China.

But the true ruler in the latter days will be Jesus Christ himself and the kingdom of God. Can God’s people say amen? Amen. Now I want you to see not only the status of this kingdom, but the strength of this kingdom.

We’re back in Isaiah chapter 2, so flip back there. And again, I already mentioned this, but I just want you to see the strength of this kingdom. He says in verse 2, it shall be established.

And then he says again in verse 2, it shall be exalted. That’s the great strength of this nation. And God will overcome all the wickedness and all the sin that is in this world.

And there’ll be many that defy God, hate God in the tribulation period and desire to destroy Jesus Christ, his followers. They will literally demand that they take on the mark of the beast. And if they do not take on the mark of the beast, they will be martyred for the cause of Jesus Christ.

But there’ll be no evil by Satan or his own kingdom that will be able to stop the kingdom of God. For Hebrews 12 teaches us that the kingdom of God is unshakeable. Now, sometimes his servants, yeah, they get shaken, but the kingdom of God will not be shaken.

And the kingdom of God will march on with you or without you. That’s your choice. You have to decide, are you all in? Are you going to follow? And are you willing to endure? Are you willing to take on the challenges that are before us and keep marching forward? But the most important kingdom, church, listen to me, the most important kingdom is not the kingdom of this world.

It is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And I hope you’ll put all your energy and all your effort to advancing the kingdom of God. Now, what will the thousand-year reign be like? As we go through the book of Isaiah, as I told you, Isaiah is going to keep bringing us back to this millennial kingdom.

If you want to learn about the millennial kingdom, man, read the book of Isaiah because over and over again, as Isaiah deals with sin and confronts a nation, he will then jump us into the future to once again infuse hope into our hearts, and he will describe what this thousand-year reign will be like. Just a few things that I put down. This is not all, but I want you to write this down.

It will be a universal kingdom, meaning the kingdom of Christ will be universal all over the whole world, not just certain parts, but all over, Christ will rule. Where will be the center? It’ll be Jerusalem, and it will be a righteous kingdom. It will be a time of perfect justice.

We get frustrated because there’s so much injustice in this world. Isn’t that true, church? It’s frustrating, and you say, man, that’s not fair. I hear you, but that’s the world we live in.

You haven’t made it to the millennial kingdom yet, but hang in there, church. In the millennial kingdom, you’re not gonna be able to say it’s not fair, because God’s kingdom will always be fair. We’ll also learn that Israel will be converted in the millennial kingdom.

Jeremiah chapter 30 teaches us that, and Romans chapter 10 and 11 teach us that the nation of Israel will be converted to Jesus Christ. But I went on a trip to Israel. You’ve heard me say it before.

It was a great trip, and there was 20 of us pastors, and we were led by Dr. Dino Padrone, and we had the privilege of meeting the top rabbi of the nation of Israel. And he said, the only difference between the Jewish people and the Christians is that the Christians believe their Christ has already come the first time, but we are waiting for our Messiah. And see, I want you to know that one day they’ll recognize that Jesus is the true Messiah that they have been waiting for.

He is the true Messiah, but it’ll be also a time of great peace. I want you to look at verse four again. We’re jumping down in Isaiah.

The Messiah will judge between the nations. He’ll rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Let me put it to you like this.

The weapons of warfare in the millennial kingdom will become instruments of agriculture. That’s what’s gonna happen. And the Bible gives us a promise.

Look at the end of verse four. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn war anymore. We are living in times where we are constantly under the threat of war, aren’t we? And we read the news, we see it across our social media, we see the threat of all that is happening, and we are terrified as to what might happen.

But let me tell you, there’s coming a day when there’ll be no more war. It’ll be wonderful, church. Now let’s learn about the praise in the future.

The Bible says, this kingdom of God shall be exalted above the hills. We talked about that, and it certainly speaks of the future, because it’s certainly not now, but God will be exalted, His kingdom will be exalted, and we will praise God. It’ll be a beautiful time.

Right now, we’re in a battle between good and evil, aren’t we? We’re in a battle, we’re fighting. I mean, you know, you win one battle, and then you turn around, you wake up the next day, and there’s another battle. And it’s easy to get weary in the battle.

It’s easy as believers to say, man, I’m just gonna coast, I can’t take it no more. But no, friends, we gotta stay on the front lines, because we are to be salt, and we are to be light, even in a wicked world. We are to be the people who are spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, and we are to stay fully engaged.

We can’t jump on the sidelines, church. We can’t just quit, we can’t just give up. We gotta stay fully engaged with the gospel of Jesus Christ, trying to promote the righteousness of Christ anywhere and everywhere that we can, in small ways, big ways.

We’re fully engaged Christians who refuse to retreat and to back down from the opportunity that is before us. But I want you to see here again that it says that these mountains will become hills, meaning God has conquered them, which reminds me in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, when the apostle spoke of the millennial kingdom and the second coming of Christ, he reminded the people of God, then comes the end in 1 Corinthians 15, when he hands over the kingdom to our God and Father, when he has abolished all rule, meaning the rule of mankind, and all authority and power. In the millennial kingdom, all of Christ’s enemies will be put in subjection and under his feet, so that the sovereign plan of God will be… As we study the book of Isaiah together, one of the things you will note is there are times that Isaiah begins to look into the future, and today’s text in Isaiah chapter 2 is about the future.

And so God is bringing us a hope, he is bringing us truth, and he wants us to know that it won’t always be like this. The nation of Israel will not always be a sin-sick nation, but there is much to be thinking about relating to their future and what it’ll be like in the thousand-year reign. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.