Thru the Bible - Sunday Sermon

Steve Schwetz: If you've been in Christian circles long enough or you've lived through Y2K, you've heard the term Millennium. But do you know what it means or where it comes from? Welcome to the Sunday Sermon on Through the Bible. I'm Steve Schwetz. In just a few minutes, our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, is going to explain the term Millennium that's found in the 20th chapter of the last book in the Bible, Revelation.

But to give us a better understanding about what it means to us and how it fits into the picture of prophecy, Dr. McGee is going to take us all the way back to the Old Testament book of Isaiah in his message called "The Millennium—What? Where? When? How? Who?" If you haven't already, go ahead and grab your Bible, find a comfy seat on the Bible bus, and as you do that, I've got a few letters to share from our fellow passengers.

First we hear from a listener in Kenya who writes this: "I was deeply blessed by the message from Deuteronomy chapter two. I had fallen into great spiritual weakness and was entertaining sinful habits. But after listening, I truly experienced God. I've been following your teachings closely. May God continue to lift you higher spiritually. Surely heaven is yours."

And then a listener in Indonesia who calls herself Mrs. H shares this: "I've lived through many seasons of life. Now that I'm old, I face the same challenges many elderly people do. My body is weaker, my steps are slower, and sometimes I feel lonely. But in those quiet moments, I find strength and comfort through these messages. Hearing God's word in my own language of Javanese touches me deeply. It brings peace to my heart and helps me understand His truth more clearly.

"I still remember one message that said, no matter how heavy the problems are, God never leaves us. Another one reminded me, make life beautiful, not by having everything, but by being thankful. Those words have shaped how I live each day. I've learned to surrender my worries to God, to be patient, honest, and humble, and to trust that He can bring good even out of difficulties. This program feels like a faithful friend. It lifts my spirit when I'm tired and reminds me that hope should never fade even when life feels heavy."

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"The program teaches scripture in a way that's easy to understand and easy to listen to while I work. No need to turn pages while my hands are busy. One lesson that deeply touched my heart was from Numbers 17:1-16. The people blamed Moses and God for every little problem they faced. But God reminded me through this passage that believers must not be like that. We must always remember His grace.

"The rock is Christ, and from Him flows the living water. God is not pleased with the works of the flesh, so I depend on the Holy Spirit to overcome them. These truths have strengthened my faith and filled my days with peace and purpose. I thank God for His word, which helps me to grow closer to Him every day."

Well, what's your story? How's God's hand more evident in your life as we study His word together? We'd love to know. Why don't you write and tell us? And maybe we'll even share your note here on the Sunday Sermon. Send us a quick note in the feedback section of our app. That's super easy.

You can also email us at biblebus@ttb.org or send your letter to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. And you can even leave a voicemail at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Now, before we dive into our sermon, let's take a moment to pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your word that reveals your plan and your promises. As we listen, teach us to live with faith, hope, and gratitude as we wait for the day when Jesus reigns in righteousness. In His name we pray, Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: The Millennium. Where do you get the word to begin with? It's like several other important words that are important and essential today, but they are actually not Bible words. Millennium as such does not appear in the Bible. That is, the word does not, but that which means Millennium does appear.

The word Millennium comes from two Latin words: milli, meaning one thousand, and annus, meaning year. A Millennium is one thousand years. That is what the word Millennium means. Now, in the Greek, and I checked this again yesterday, it's chilia. Chilia means in the Greek one thousand, and sometimes you hear the term used by theologians—and they're always trying to come up with a word that most people don't know what they're talking about—they talk about Chiliasm. When you talk about Chiliasm and Millennialism, you're talking about the same thing. They both mean one thousand years, and it has to do with the one thousand year reign of Christ here upon this earth that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation in chapter 20.

Chapter 20 is the only place that the thousand years appears. It occurs there six times, however. But the great theme of the thousand years, of the kingdom that's coming on the earth, is a subject of scripture. Actually, the Millennium is merely one phase of God's eternal kingdom. That is what Dr. Peters has called the theocratic kingdom. I like that word so much better. The Millennium is just one phase in God's program.

Actually, everything that's happened in history, that's happening today, and will happen in the future is all part of God's program in setting up His kingdom here upon this earth. Now, the Millennium is merely one feature or one phase of God's eternal kingdom. It's a special dispensation that is yet future. That kingdom will come to an end, that is, the Millennial kingdom, and the eternal kingdom begins. That is stated clearly in scripture.

Over in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, I'd like to read this because this is very important. Paul gives here the order of events, beginning with the resurrection of Christ. Then he says those that are Christ's will be raised at His coming, each man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end. End of what? The world? No. The Bible does not teach the end of the world. This world that we live on will not come to an end. It's going into eternity. It is to be renovated, made new, but it's going into eternity.

Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule, all authority, and power. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. Christ is coming into this world someday and He'll come in with great judgment. He will set up the one thousand year reign here upon this earth. During that one thousand year reign, He'll accomplish a purpose as He's accomplishing today. Today, He's calling a people out of this world to Himself.

During the Millennial reign, He's going to bring this earth under His rule. He'll rule them with a rod of iron. He'll dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. That's going to be a time when He's going to rule arbitrarily upon this earth. Let me make this very clear to you: we have not yet seen a real dictator rule. You wait until He rules. When He rules on this earth, a bird won't even cheep, a rooster won't crow, and a man won't open his mouth without He gets His permission. That'll be a time when His will will be done on this earth.

Even the Millennium would be a hell for any man who's in rebellion against God. There will be some in rebellion, as we're told in scripture—not in Isaiah, but the scriptures—that rebellion breaks out during the Millennium. He judges it immediately because He's going to bring this earth back in under the rule of God. That is God's purpose. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet.

But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. Now, what does that mean? It means simply this: that the Lord Jesus will come to this earth, reign one thousand years, bring this earth back under the rule of God. When that is accomplished, I take it that He returns back to His place in the Godhead, and this earth then will become what God intended for it to be throughout the eternal ages of the future.

That is the picture that the scripture presents. All the way through the Old Testament, and especially in the prophets, this kingdom, this one thousand year reign of Christ on the earth is set before us. In fact, there is more scripture on this subject than any other subject in the Bible. This kingdom is the subject of more scripture than anything else. That may surprise you, but that happens to be true. The prophets had more to say on this subject. This was their theme song. They sound like a record that's got stuck. They just keep saying over and over, a kingdom is coming, a king is coming, and there will be great blessing on this earth.

The prophets spoke of it, and that it was coming. Where you and I are today, it's still future. The conditions predicted have never been fulfilled, and they're not fulfilled yet. They're not even being fulfilled in the Rose Bowl. I don't think you'll have the traffic jam out in Pasadena where I live when the Millennium is going on. You can't build a kingdom with all that traffic. You're not going to have traffic during the Millennium like that.

The kingdom of God will not be established by man's efforts, man's ability. The church is not building the kingdom today, yet it is geared into a program that will see the coming of the kingdom. But it's not our business today to build a kingdom. We're not in that business. That's one reason that I'm thankful today that I'm out of the denomination I was raised in, yet I do have an attachment for that denomination. I used to go to meetings and there were always brethren building the kingdom. You ought to see the cheap little chicken coops that we built, and yet we were always talking about building the kingdom. When God's ready to set up His kingdom, He won't need any church. In fact, He's going to remove His true church out of the world before He establishes His kingdom here upon this earth. That is His plan, that is His program.

The kingdom that we're looking at today, we will confine what we have to say to what Isaiah had to say on the subject. Believe me, he had a great deal to say about it. This kingdom is the same that when you come to the New Testament is called the Kingdom of Heaven. That was the message John the Baptist began with. He says, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, repent. When the Lord Jesus began His ministry, He said the same thing. Now, neither one explained it. That seems to indicate to me that the only ones that miss this are theologians in seminaries today who don't seem to know what's happening in this world, to tell the truth. Some of the theologians don't seem—they try to make something very obtuse, something esoteric out of the Kingdom of Heaven.

When you ask one of them what the Kingdom of Heaven is, he bats his eyes and you think he's going off into a trance and that this is something that only he and his little clique know. I say to you that the common people who heard John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus understood what they were talking about. The thing they were talking about is just what the Old Testament had been talking about: the Millennial kingdom coming on the earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is just simply this: the rule of the heavens over the world, over the earth. That's the Kingdom of Heaven. When heaven rules over this earth on which we live, you will have the Kingdom of Heaven conditions.

I had to go to seminary to learn that, but that's what all it means. It's a shame that I have to spend years in seminary and just make that discovery. The reign of the heavens over the earth is all the Kingdom of Heaven can possibly mean. You've got to have a Th.D. or a Ph.D. to miss that one. The common people in Christ's day understood it. Theologians today miss that simple thing: that the Kingdom of Heaven is the reign of the heaven over this earth. That's exactly what they were talking about when they mentioned that, when both John the Baptist and our Lord mentioned it.

It will be the time when there is the full manifestation of the glory, the power, and the will of God over this earth. All agree on this now: that it's not in evidence today. You will not have hospitals, you'll not have graveyards, you'll not have the suffering and broken hearts and lives when He's reigning on this earth. It's an insult to my Lord today to say that the Kingdom of Heaven is being built today and is in existence on this earth. When He's reigning, you won't have the tragedy that exists in this world today.

We ask the question, why must we have that? I think God has to vindicate Himself. Why is it today that the earth is in the condition it's in? Why isn't God reigning on this earth today? Isaiah tells us how it all began. This is where sin began and Isaiah deals with this subject. Over in the 14th chapter of Isaiah, verse 12, he tells about the fall of God's highest creature and that this creature led a rebellion against God to set up a kingdom that was opposed to God.

Here is the revelation concerning it. It is indeed startling. Verse 12 says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! Isaiah goes back into the past and looks on into the future concerning this creature that is yet to be judged and brought down. As he goes back, he looks at this rebellion that he carried out. Man's in rebellion against God. Now God says that He's going to establish His kingdom on this earth, and His way is going to prevail someday. That's what it means: the heaven's going to rule over this world someday. It happened when Satan rebelled, then man rebelled against God. Now God's process by which the Lord Jesus will come to the throne, that is the establishing of the kingdom here upon this earth, and the Millennial kingdom is part of the great theocratic kingdom of God.

I want to just hit some high points here today. The charge is made against those of us who are premillennialists—and have you ever noticed that the difference today in eschatology, that is, the difference in interpretation of future things, is always around the Millennium? Not actually around the person of Christ, it's around the Millennium. There are postmillennialists. They're dead as dodo birds, however. Two world wars and a worldwide depression and an atomic bomb has put the postmillennialist out of business.

There has come up today a new group known as amillennialists. They claim they go way back, but they're pretty new if you ask me. They were not very much in evidence when I started in the ministry. By the time I got to seminary, they were very much in evidence at that time. I was taught the amillennial position in seminary. That's the reason I'm a premillennialist, because I studied the amillennial position in seminary. It's like one man came up to Dr. Bieber years ago. He says, "Dr. Bieber, I'm not a postmillennialist and I'm not a premillennialist." Dr. Bieber looked at him and says, "That's preposterous." That's the amillennial position. To my judgment, it is the preposterous position.

The amillennialist makes the charge against those of us that are premillennial that we believe in only a materialistic kingdom with physical blessings that's coming. In fact, Dr. Oswald Allis of Westminster Seminary has said that what we believe in is a worldly kingdom. That is actually not true. I want to confine our answers today just to Isaiah. Here are some of the things that Isaiah says about the kingdom that is yet to come. I think probably you'd like to have these scriptures.

Here are some of the spiritual blessings of the Millennium. Now let's turn to these scriptures. First, to the second chapter of Isaiah, verse 4. This is one of those wonderful passages of scripture: And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. That will not be true till the Millennium, but the Millennium is going to be the first time of world peace on this earth. Until then, you better keep your powder dry. But there will be peace on this earth, and that peace will come when the Prince of Peace rules on this earth. In that day, you can beat your swords into plowshares. That's a great spiritual blessing that is yet in the future.

Now just turn over and notice the joy that's to be on this earth during the Millennium. In chapter 4, verses 3 and 4: And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem. By the way, holiness is one of the things also that characterizes the Millennium. There are holiness movements today and people who say they're holy. Old Brother Taylor in Pasadena years ago—he was a retired Methodist preacher, had a little goatee, used to attend my church out there—he said, "Brother McGee, I want you to know I'm not a critic. I've been down to the altar at Aimee McPherson's place a dozen times. But I'm here to make a comment to you. I want you to know that there's only one thing that the holiness movement lacks. That's holiness." He says, "That's all in the world it lacks is holiness." That today is actually my viewpoint of the holiness movement. Every time you see a preacher get involved, what is he generally? Nine out of ten times he's a Pentecostal preacher. And yet they are the ones that go for holiness today.

Now my friend, let's not beat around the bush about these things. We're not going to see holiness on this earth until Jesus Christ rules. Believe me, it's going to be holy when He's ruling on this earth. Now, He not only mentions that, but we are also told here that when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning, and the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense.

Glory is another one. It's mentioned here. I started out looking for joy and I haven't even found it here yet. But it's here somewhere, I can assure you. Let me turn to the other passage that we give—well, no wonder we didn't find joy, we're looking in the wrong place. Let's turn to the 12th chapter and we'll find it there. You have to find joy in the right place. Verse 3, chapter 12: Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day—and "that day" in Isaiah and all the prophets is referring to the kingdom, to the Millennial kingdom—in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord.

When you say "Praise the Lord" in the church today, people look at you. In that day, people won't look at you as if something's wrong. You can say "Praise the Lord." Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention that His name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for He hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Joy. That's one of the things that will characterize the Millennium. That does not characterize the world today. There is sorrow in this world. There is heartache and heartbreak. But just think, being on this earth when it's all joyful and everyone filled with joy. That's one of the things.

I've mentioned it, there's also comfort in this same chapter. Will you notice: And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. In the kingdom, a time when God will comfort these people, especially the nation Israel. I'm not developing the aspect this afternoon of the place that the nation Israel will take, although we will make some mention of it.

Now there is something that I have not mentioned yet that we should. There will be full knowledge in the kingdom. Today we see through a glass darkly, then face to face. In the kingdom, there will be full knowledge. Will you notice chapter 11: And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Full knowledge in that day.

Also, it's going to be a time of instruction, a time when men are going to go to school. Right now, a great many young people are going away to college, going away to school, trying to learn something. Maybe some of them will, I don't know. But this is a day when a great many people are interested in knowledge. Well, there'll be great knowledge in that day, and there'll be a great deal of instruction. I'm hoping the Lord will let me teach a class—probably the kindergarten class—during the Millennium down on this earth. I'd like to come down and teach down here. I enjoy that today and I think I'll enjoy it more in that day.

He says this in chapter 2, and will you notice verses 2 and 3: And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. There'll be a great hunger and thirst then for God and to want to know about God. We're living in a day when men want to know about missiles and they want to know about electronics. But in that day, it'll be a great hunger and thirst after God, wanting to know Him, wanting to know His word. And I sure am looking forward to that.

Every now and then I think my Thursday night group here represents a group like that. I also believe that every now and then I get in a conference. When I was up at the Campus Crusade conference, that bunch of college kids, I never saw kids as alert as those young people were. And then when I was out in Flagstaff with the Indians this summer, these Indians, my, they just hang around you and they'd let you talk for an hour and a half and they still wanted you to talk. It's amazing. That was true of these up here. You see little indications of that today. Just think what it'll be in that day and it'll be wonderful. I think you ought to equip yourself down here for what you're going to do over there. This is really a training place. This is merely a staging area, getting ready to go over on the other side, and one of these days we're going to move over. So it's a time for that, if you please.

Now, I want to mention just two or three passages here that have to do specially with the Millennium. This chapter 2 that I've just read has the special features. Now let me go over this again and call your attention to what I omitted: The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Jerusalem will become the capital of this earth in the kingdom. Just as Babylon is to be the capital of Antichrist, Jerusalem will be the capital on the earth for the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Many people shall go and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways. You'll have to go there to the university in order to learn. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. God says that specifically. That refers to the kingdom.

He shall judge among the nations, He shall rebuke many people. This is a worldwide kingdom. Then's when they'll beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Now, that's one of those remarkable passages.

Then there is another remarkable passage, and you find that, by the way, in the 11th chapter. Let me just call attention here to several things in this 11th chapter: And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The one who establishes the kingdom is never the church, never an organization, never a movement. The world won't grow into this. But the one is this one that is mentioned in scripture as the Messiah who is to come. That's exactly what John the Baptist meant when he says the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He meant it's in your midst, in the Greek. The Kingdom of Heaven's in your midst because the King is here. You can't have a kingdom without a king.

You just can't have a marriage without a bride and a bridegroom. They're just essential. The minute you say I had a wedding, you know immediately there was a boy and a girl there. There wouldn't have been a wedding if there hadn't been a boy and a girl there. And you can't have a kingdom without a king. The minute you say the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, you mean the King is there. It couldn't be otherwise, could it? You have to have a king and you have to have a kingdom, and the King had come. Now they rejected Him. We're not going into that aspect, we're sticking with Isaiah. But Isaiah's emphasizing the necessity of this one coming in the line of Jesse.

He's to come out of the stem of Jesse. Why didn't he mention David? He does later on, for the simple reason that when the Lord Jesus was born, He was a carpenter, not a king. He came out of Jesse. Didn't He come from David? Yes, but David's line has gone down by the time He came. So the fact that He came out of Jesse, Jesse was a farmer from Bethlehem. The Lord Jesus was a carpenter from Nazareth. That's the way that He was identified when He came. The stem is coming out of Jesse and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

Now, the sevenfold spirit, the fullness of the spirit. God gave the spirit to Him not by measure. 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 fear of the Lord. Now, listen to this. These are the special features, the person, the character, and the physical facts of His kingdom. He shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.

The IQ of those in the kingdom is going to be lifted. May I give you one reason this afternoon when I make the statement I think we've gone over the hill as a nation? One of the reasons is we do not have any longer an intelligent electorate that's capable of electing the best man. He has to be a politician to appeal to people today. He's got to be able to appear on television. He may be the biggest rascal in the world, but if he makes a good hit on television, multitudes of people like sheep will go vote for him. We have no longer a Christian intelligent electorate. You have to have that if a democracy is to survive. We've lost that.

The thing that'll characterize the kingdom, He's going to jack up the IQ of all the people. Won't that be wonderful? There'll be no neurotics, there'll be no dumb-bells, there'll be no feebleminded, there'll be nobody in the class who'll have to say, "Teacher, I didn't get that. Would you go over it again?" They'll get it just like that. Won't that be wonderful? I wouldn't mind having mine stepped up a little. And I've got some fellows here I'd like to see theirs improved also.

But now will you notice this: But with righteousness shall He judge the poor. The poor have never had a square deal yet, have they? The politicians, they talk about all of us before election and they forget us the day after election. He shall judge in righteousness for the poor man. Special interest, the labor unions—they're not for the poor anymore. The capitalists have never been for the poor. Let's face it, friends, the poor man just doesn't have a chance in this world. Thank God, my friend, for a King that's coming who will judge in righteousness for the poor. I don't know about you, but I'm voting for Jesus. I've already voted for Him. He's the one that I want to see rule on this earth. I like His platform. Here it is: with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.

These meek folk—He says the meek are going to inherit it, and they certainly are not doing it today. And He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. You play that down if you want to, but the word of God doesn't play it down. He'll break them in pieces with a rod of iron, Second Psalm says. Don't play it down, the word of God's very specific. He intends to put down the wicked. He'll make no treaty with this combine of gangsters in this country. He intends to put them down, no apology to anybody. He doesn't need their vote, he doesn't need their influence, he doesn't need their help. He intends to deal with them. Thank God, my friend, this earth is yet to get a square deal. And it'll never get it till He comes. That's the reason the Millennium is quite a wonderful prospect for this earth.

Now will you notice, it says, for the meek He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins. Those are two wonderful things. Now these are spiritual blessings.

Now let's look at some physical ones: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Apparently in the Garden of Eden, there was no such thing as wild animals and domesticated animals. They were all the animals that just would walk right by Adam and he named them. Then after the fall, certain became wild animals, and they have a nature, a nature that's come because of the fall.

And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. Fellow came up to Dr. George Gill, the late Dr. George Gill, said to him, "Dr. Gill, that's ridiculous. Who ever heard tell of a lion that eats meat eating hay?" Dr. Gill in his inimitable way said, "I tell you what I'll do. You make a lion, I'll make him eat hay." If God made the lion and says he's going to eat hay, he'll eat hay, my friend, and like it. It'll be the Millennium. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. Nothing that's poisonous on this earth.

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, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. Now He's going to talk about this one. Listen to Him: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left.

This is the nation Israel. There can be no Millennium until Israel is back in the land. That's one of the things. So many things out of socket today. The devil is in the wrong place today. He goes to and fro in this earth seeking whom he may devour. He has to be in the bottomless pit in the Millennium. He's out of place today. Christ is out of place today. He's at God's right hand. He'll be on the throne of David, reigning on this earth during the Millennium.

The church is out of place today. It's in this world. The church is to be with Him in the New Jerusalem. And Israel is out of place today. Israel is scattered throughout the world, and Israel must be back in the land. There'll be no Millennium till everything gets in its place, if you please. Now He'll set His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. That includes Los Angeles. He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Now that is the Millennium that He's talking about that's to be established on this earth.

Now one more reference and it has to do with the physical characteristics and we're through. It's that wonderful 35th chapter of Isaiah. Now will you listen to this, and we're through: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.

Now the desert will blossom as a rose in the Millennium. The curse that's on this earth today will be removed. I thought of that again this summer out on the in Arizona, and in California, too, let's not blame it all on Arizona. But I drove up from Flagstaff all the way up to this new place they've got named Page at the Glen Canyon Dam. Mr. Willard Stark did a picture up there with Warner Brothers. They did the life of Christ, I understand was made at Moab, Utah. Now that's a desolate country, friends. You just go for miles and miles and I said to the folk in the car, I said, "You know it'll be wonderful to make this trip during the Millennium. This will be a rose garden. Just think, mile upon mile of roses." The desert shall blossom as the rose. Now I think there's a beauty in the desert. It's a desolate, stark, almost an ugly beauty, but it's beautiful. But all that'll be gone and there'll be the rose garden out there. That'll be the Millennium, if you please.

That's not all. Will you notice, He says something else here: Strengthen ye the weak hands, confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened. There'll be no blind in the Millennium. And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Mr. Wagner here won't need to bring the deaf here and translate with his hands to them. There will be no deaf in that day at all. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. I'll be able to sing then. I want to sing a solo for you then, and it may not be the Millennium but you'll have to listen, but I want to sing then, the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

Now let me drop down, this is the last verse: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. That is the Millennium, that's the hope of this earth. That is not the hope of the church. The church's hope today is that one of these days we're to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, go to a place that candidly is going to be ten thousand times more wonderful than this earth, the New Jerusalem. But won't this earth be a glorious place in that day during the Millennium? I wonder today if you're on the way to the New Jerusalem. What glorious things are pictured for this earth in the future.

Steve Schwetz: Our sermon, "The Millennium—What? Where? When? How? Who?" is available to listen to in our app or at ttb.org. That's also the place to find more resources by Dr. McGee on the end times. Or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find what you're looking for.

Now, a couple that you'll definitely want to check out are Dr. McGee's digital booklet titled "God's Grand Finale: An Introduction to Revelation." Or for a more in-depth study, look for our Revelation Bible Companion. That's a great little guide for reading and learning your way through the book of Revelation, either alone or in a small group. Again, download your copies of these digital booklets now and for free in our app or at ttb.org.

This week, the Bible bus continues to roll through the final book of the New Testament, and then we head right back to the beginning, Genesis. Join us. I'm Steve Schwetz, praying Psalm 67 over you: May God be merciful to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us, that His way may be known on earth, His saving power among nations. Amen.