I'm going to ask you after 14,
I'm going to be reading verse 21 and 22, and then I'm going
to just kind of take up where my thoughts have been landing
me over the last several weeks and see what we can do with what's
before us. The apostle, having come back
through his first missionary journey, has learned a lot about
the nature of the work of the kingdom of God and the preaching
of the gospel. And largely what he learned is
summed up in the last line or clause of verse 22. Verse 21
says, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and taught
many, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, confirming
the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in
the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into
the kingdom of God. I want to press home verse 22
as an adumbration or an overarching thought that will launch us into
the last part of our study on the kingdom and then into what
I consider a very important stage of the kingdom concept. The apostle
was confirming the souls of the disciples. To confirm means to
strengthen. It means to help them get a grip
on the nature of the gospel, the nature of their call by the
gospel, and then how to function in the kingdom in a way that
would ultimately result in their being established in the faith
and securing their soul for eternity. That's what it means to confirm
souls. Confirmation is different than
affirmation. When something is affirmed, it's
simply echoed and agreed. To affirm something is to say,
I agree with that. To confirm something is to bring
to pass the thing that's desired. And so when Paul is stated to
him in Barnabas to be confirming the souls of the saints, If we
were to use the analogy of a tree, he would be donning that tree
and watering the roots of that tree. And he would be doing everything
necessary to make sure that tree could handle the winds blowing
against it so that it would not fall over and lose its purpose
for which it was planted. Or if he was building a house,
he would make sure that the foundation of that house was solid enough
that it could withstand the rains that would come and beat against
it as well. to confirm something that's to
strengthen it. And he would do everything necessary
to make sure the house or that tree was able to withstand the
opposition that God says will come against every house and
every tree in order to seek to determine whether that tree was
planted by God, whether that house was built by God, because
every tree that is not planted by God will be uprooted and blown
away by the wind. And every house that's not built
by God will not withstand the fury of hell that comes against
it. This is some of the warnings
that the scripture gives us about making our calling and election
sure, correct? And one of the roles of a teacher
is to help you do just that. And what we noted in verse 22
was that while he was confirming the souls of the disciples, we
marked that discipleship means that we are what? Students. So
to be a disciple is to be a taught one. You are not a Christian
if you are not a disciple. So we learned about three aspects
of the kingdom. The first aspect we call what?
Entry. Right? What it means to what?
Enter into the kingdom of God. Entering into the kingdom of
God. I'll touch on that a little bit
more today. But with regards to entering the kingdom, one
Only sure that they've actually entered in the kingdom if they
are in the process of what discipleship Discipleship simply means that
an individual has taken Jesus so seriously that he follows
Jesus Not just listens to him follows him If you're gonna be
my disciple You gotta follow me That's what the disciples
had to do for three and a half years, right? They didn't simply
show up to class every Sunday. They followed him. And so they
had to learn things by way of didactics, by way of experience,
by way of Christ's holistic approach to mentoring them as to the nature
of the kingdom of God. And their three and a half year
ministry with Jesus was difficult. But they finally enter into the
apostolic office through that three and a half year discipleship
process Which paul did not go through The others did paul didn't
what paul went through was a radical conversion in act nine That took
him through a number of changes that ultimately launched him
into ministry as christ stated which ministry revealed to paul
What christ had told the disciples? And that's this following Christ
is going to be difficult. And what Paul discovered in ministering
to all of these pagan Gentiles and these Jewish converts going
all the way up to Asia Minor, as we saw Antioch of the regions
of Galilee, making his way back down. He saw that he had to suffer
persecution for the gospel, even to the point of being what? Stoned
to death right outside of the city And he began to realize
something, put it together, and this is what he concluded in
verse 22, the last part, through much tribulation do we what?
Enter into the kingdom of God. And that was the premise upon
which we began to launch our study on the subject of the kingdom
of God, on the subject of the kingdom of God. The warning that
entering into the kingdom of God is done through or via tribulation
became a marked principle for Paul, which ended in his own
martyrdom. But it was necessary for the
establishing of the church. And what Paul taught the Gentile
churches is what Jesus had taught the disciples is you're going
to be hated for my name's sake everywhere. But be faithful unto
the end. And you will receive a crown
of life. which is another concept that
we'll be talking about in the new year as we talk about rewards.
And so what I began to do over the last couple of weeks is to
talk to you about the nature of the kingdom of God in terms
of its fundamental meaning as a monarchical kingdom where there
is a king who rules over his people through a constitution. And that constitution for us
is the word of God. Our king is Christ. And the bylaws
in that constitution lay out the privileges, responsibility,
blessings, and consequences of either adhering to the kingdom
principles or failing to adhere to the kingdom principles. In
essence, what I said to you a few weeks ago is that when you and
I are born again, we are basically slaves who have been taken captive
by another kingdom, brought out of a kingdom and into another
kingdom. A man or a woman that's truly born again is fundamentally
a slave of King Jesus. And that what has occurred is
that you have been taken out of the dark kingdom and brought
into the kingdom of God's dear son. And now you are being made
his servants. And so because of a lack of parallelism
between the culture in which we used to live and the culture
of the kingdom of God, a lack of parallelism in terms of its
governance and government. I called your attention to the
struggle that we have in the West of recognizing the Lordship
of Christ over our life because we're so free to do whatever
we want to whenever we want to, that fundamentally the idea of
Lordship is alien to us on a practical level. That by and large, Jesus
is someone we voted for when we made a decision for Jesus.
but that might be a president or a governor but that's not
a king that you don't vote for a king you bow to a king and
that's the difference between what we preach and most churches
preach when they tell you to accept jesus because we don't
tell you to accept jesus i mean that's like accepting to vote
for this man or that man or the other person that's a democracy
a representative republic we don't tell anyone to accept jesus
jesus doesn't even tell anyone to accept Jesus. We tell you
to bow before King Jesus because he's the king. God has made him
Lord in Christ. Either you bow and live or you
rebel and perish. That's really the gospel. He
comes declaring those who believe on me will have everlasting life.
Those who don't will perish. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue
will confess. Jesus Christ is curious. That's
not a democracy. You don't vote your king in.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? And when people have
voted Jesus in, what that means is they can comfortably put him
on the shelf and listen to him like we listened to Obama. Y'all
don't do what Obama says. Do you know why? He's not your
king. He doesn't do anything for you
directly. He doesn't dictate your life.
He doesn't give you mandates, imperatives, commandments, instructions. He can't affirm promises. He
can't bring them to pass in your life. Obama can't do anything
directly for you. But a king has the ability, because
wheresoever the word of the king is, there's power to do for his
subjects what he wants. And in the kingdom of God, the
real relationship between the believer and Christ is one of
him being curious and us being do losses. He's curious. Lord, we are his slaves. And
our job is to do his bidding. you guys remember Romans chapter
6 verse 11 was the first imperative first command given in the whole
of those 16 chapters that from Romans 1 1 to Romans 6 10 and The Apostle Paul under inspiration
of the Spirit of God didn't give one set of instructions to the
believer. He just told the believer what's
going on in the world, what it means to be a believer, what
it means not to be a believer, who Christ is, how he accomplished
eternal redemption. And then he said to those who
are believers, reckon ye yourselves, account ye yourselves to be indeed
dead unto sin and alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That every true believer died with Christ, was buried with
Christ, and rose again with Christ and he lives through Christ and
he lives for Christ. And what I called your attention
to at that time was a fundamental reality that if you don't get,
the failures in our life will be a consequence of a lack of
recognition of this reality. That Romans 6, 11 is teaching
what we call the doctrine of union. That the man or the woman
cannot live without Christ. The believer does not live in
his own strength and the believer does not live Separate from Christ
like you don't have your identity and then Christ has this identity
and you guys have two mutually Exclusive identities the person
that walks like that It's not connected to the vine nor divine
them and thus you don't have the life of God in you And when
a person is truly born again, they are a partaker of the divine
nature. Are you guys following me? So
that I'm dealing with an organic principle of union Which is the
basis of spiritual life for every true believer like if you are
a true believer The reason you're alive is because of Christ in
you the hope of glory y'all buy that doctrine, right? But if
you're not alive, it's because Christ is not in you If you're
spiritually dead When you have no filial love for Christ or
desire to know him or walk with him in the union of of the twain
becoming one flesh, then you're living life under your own strength,
by your own power, doing your own thing according to your own
constitution, rules, bylaws, etc. Are you guys following me?
That's a man or a woman who is not under the immediate power
and rule of Christ spiritually, where the Spirit of God has not
brought you into union with him so that you experience his power
in you. Galatians 2.20 I have been crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me because
he loved me and gave himself for me. So Paul acknowledged
that there was another life that was abiding with him that actually
constituted the basis of his new life and drove his life. So Christians are men and women
who are in union with Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord. And so
we live by him. Am I making some sense? Now the
job of the Christian is to learn every day what that means. That's
your job. I'll do more fully with that
when I get into what we call occupancy stage of the kingdom
right now I'm just dealing with entry stage right now just briefly
because I want to touch on eschatology That's going to be critical tonight
as we deal with Paul's exhortation of through much tribulation Do
we enter into the kingdom going back then fundamentally to the
entry doctrine? remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus
in John chapter 3 verses 1 through 8 and You cannot see the kingdom
and you cannot enter the kingdom except there be a radical work
of grace that takes place on the outside in from God to you
Call a monergistic power, which makes you brand new Brings you
into the kingdom and then as it were grows you up and gives
you a whole new orientation. You must be born again Like that's
a doctrine that Christians, brand new baby Christians, ought to
seriously understand before moving on in their so-called Christian
life, because people really do misunderstand what it means to
be born again. Entry doctrines around the kingdom
of God are critical for brand new Christians. If you are new,
you want to learn the doctrines of the rebirth. You want to learn what regeneration
is. You want to learn what the doctrine of substitution and
propitiation and and the doctrine of the atonement are all about
in terms of what constitutes your justification and your right
to stand before God and then the grounds upon which you are
sanctified. You want to know what it means
to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You want to know what
it means to be transformed by the renewing power of the grace
of God so that as a newborn babe, you are sincerely desiring the
milk of the word that you might what? That you might what? The
word is grow. And that becomes the second very
operative concept critical to movement from entry to what? Occupancy. So if we get entry
into the kingdom right, if we get it right, the next stage
is what? Occupancy. What does it mean
to occupy the kingdom if in fact we have entered in through the
door of faith? That's what it means to enter
into the kingdom of God. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that believeth not on the
Son does not have life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.
When a man or woman is born again, God opens the door of faith,
brings them into the kingdom through the preaching of the
gospel so that they are believing on the Lord Jesus. That's a present
tense form. You are a believer. And in believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ being brought into the kingdom, now
occupancy takes place. And in the world and realm of
being in the kingdom under the rule of King Jesus, you and I
now are obliged to do several things. One is we have to know
him. That's eternal life, John 17.
We have to know him. And the only way we can know
him is through his what? Word. Word. Father sanctify them
in thy truth thy word is true John 17 3 and this is eternal
life that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom he has sent and so for the believer who is brand-new in
Christ He has to or she has to as their highest priority Come
to know God which is eternal life. And so they have a strong
and powerful and palpable drive to know the truth of God's word.
One of the clearest evidences you are not saved is you have
no interest in the scriptures. This is the clearest evidence
you've not been born again. And this is remarkable to me,
even as I'm sharing it with you, because it would almost be obvious
for most people that that's true. A person's not saved if they're
not interested in the word of the God that saved them. And
yet in our churches today, we swear people are saved who don't
even crack their Bibles, who don't even have a Bible, who
don't own a Bible, who couldn't quote a Bible verse to save their
life. They swear they're saved. They're not saved. Because when
one is born again, and the organic picture is that of a baby, the
natural manifestation of life is hunger for God's Word. Is that true? And and that hunger
is the gift of the spirit driving you into scripture to learn more
about god More about jesus what I know And so that drive is going
to begin the process of affirming the fact that you have been brought
into the kingdom of god so at the uh pinnacle of kingdom occupancy
is discipleship learning about jesus and it's not a drudgery.
It's a delight, isn't it? Not it's not something I have
to do this something I want to do and I must do it as the highest
order of my life Matthew 6 33 another kingdom principle first
seek ye the kingdom of God and all of his righteousness and
everything else will handle itself when a man or woman has as the
Axiom the pinnacle objective of their life seeking God and
seeking his kingdom everything else falls into place That's
called a promise That's the primary thing. And so when you were initially
drawn by God, initially brought into a hunger for his truth,
that whole world of spiritual things opened up to you and the
panorama of possibilities kept you distracted or occupied until
you settled down over a period of time, six months or a year
or two or whatever. And then you came into a state
of what I call danger in the occupancy realm. where, you know,
we start taking life a little bit more casual. But in this
realm of knowing God, I'm just going to give you a category
of things that I think are important for you to keep in mind. And
basically, these almost reiterate our series that I did at Progressive
on the nature of saving faith, when I gave seven characteristics
to saving faith. You guys remember that? Those
fundamental characteristics meant, you know, having a hunger for
God's Word, studying God's Word, praying, worshipping, serving,
giving. Those criteria became the basis
of being able to determine whether or not my faith was authentic. So I'll kind of just reiterate
in my mind as to what they are. Studying God's Word, reading
God's Word, reading, studying God's Word, You got to study
God's word. And then after studying God's
word, you and I have to be given to a life of what prayer. And then after a life of prayer,
and this, these are not all together in, in, in that order, we should
be given to a life of worship and they should, these all correspond
in a life of service. And then we can add one more
giving. I want you to be able to take these down and begin
to think these through. Do I, am I a person who calls
myself a disciple? Do I read God's word in a healthy
fashion daily, weekly, so as to know more and more about God?
If I don't, that's a problem. That's a signal. That's a signal
that either I don't have an intrinsic desire to know or I have allowed
the world to distract me from something so critically important
to my spiritual health that I must now be on guard. And I'll talk
about that later when we deal with the Eschatological paradigms
that we're going to touch on which has to do with the apprehension
of the kingdom of God So reading is critical and once we move
from reading stage We move to study state study stage is now
wanting to get a handle on the doctrines and teachings of Scripture
on a level by which I can affirm in my own soul that I know the
Word of God I know what it teaches and I can share it with others.
That's what it means to be a disciple The soul can never ever be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. If you have not
moved from mere reading to the study of God's word so that you
can learn the doctrinal truths that are inherent in scripture.
Doctrine is important to your salvation. Do you believe that?
Doctrine is critically important. In our crazy age of discombobulated
logic, people will talk about things like give me Jesus, but
don't give me doctrine. That's an oxymoron. Don't ever
listen to foolishness like that. Do you understand that? Don't ever listen to foolishness
like that. Everything in the Bible is doctrine. Everything
in the Bible is doctrine and doctrine is critical doctrine
is the systematic coherent approach of establishing biblical Propositions
by which we might know God in a reasonable rational biblically
based fashion That we aren't talking gobbledygook Just like
you learn any discipline to be good at it You have to learn
the Word of God in that same way And that's what it means
to be a disciple to be a student of the Word of God so Reading
and studying based on a knowing or desire to know God that hunger
should drive you to what prayer? Why should it drive you to prayer?
Because in the process of your seeking to know God more fully
and more deeply you are going to discover levels of weaknesses
and infirmities in your life for which you're going to need
God on a personal more intimate level to assist you in maintaining
your hunger and to assist you in maintaining your drive to
study, to assist you in the application of what you come to learn to
know. This is interesting. Here's a point that I want you
to grasp now that's gonna be critical to our occupancy. When
God allows his word to be read, studied, taught, it means for
you and me to respond to it. So the word that needs to come
to our mind now is the word application, application. You and I want to
be able to apply God's word when once we have learned God's word
If you need a text, I'll give you plenty but you can first
start with first, uh, james chapter 1 verses 22 through 25 where
james says Be not a hearer of the word only but a doer of the
word because a hearer of the word will not profit It is the
doer of God's Word that will be blessed in his ways because
the doer is affirming that his study and his reading and his
praying is connected to his relationship. After all, God won't set a plate
of food in front of you and don't give you grace to eat it. or
give you grace to respond in strength by that food to do what
he wants you to do. So this is really a symbiotic
dynamic that's taking place wherein the hunger comes from God, the
study comes from the grace of God, the reading comes from the
grace of God, and the desire to do the will of God comes from
the grace of God, Philippians 2, 12 and 13, right? Work out
your salvation in what? Fear and trembling. We're going
to get back there. For it is God that worketh in you the will
to do both the will and to do of his good pleasure. Those two
verses there underscore so far what we have laid out in the
occupancy mode, right? How do I know I'm occupying the
kingdom in a proper and productive fashion is because I have a drive
to know God, I am practicing the healthy process of reading
and studying, and I am driven by a legitimate authentic prayer
life so that I can know and do that which I come to learn. Another
verse if you need it is Luke chapter 6. It's the latter part of chapter
6 where the Lord Jesus says Why call ye Lord call me Lord Lord
and do not do the things that I say That's the principle of
kingship over your life That's going to be one of the critical
statements that is going to be asked in the process of our walk
with him if Christ is indeed Lord ought we not to obey him
right and Right. And so obedience to Christ is
going to be the consequence of a hunger to to to know that righteousness
that is ours in Christ through study of God's word, reading,
study and prayer. And another critical facilitation
is that of what? Worship, worship, worship. Don't separate worship from these
four prior categories. Worship is revelation. when all of the components of
worship are present. That is to say, I want to know
God. I want to know him. Well, God is revealed in worship.
When worship is done right, John chapter 4, 24 and 25, the hour
is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship
him, how? For such the father seeks to worship him. When men
and women worship are right, What god does in the context
of worship is reveals himself to them through the preaching
of the word and it takes a major Impact, it makes a major impact
in the life that it leads to spontaneously a worship of god
where we worship him because we're in his presence and we
feel the impact of the revelation of his truth and And we worship
him because we are privileged to worship him and the worship
is basically an outflow of thanksgiving Because we are in the blessed
state of in the being in the presence of god under his teaching
But a man or a person is thankful for being in the presence Worship
takes place now worship is not something that you can muster
up in the flesh Worship is a dynamic that takes place when god has
shown you how good he has been to you The saving of your soul
and the sustaining of your life up to that very moment when you
are conscious aware of being in the presence of God and the
truth of God's Word when you realize that you the hell-bound
sinner are in the presence of God the soul worships God has
to do that. And so you have to pray that
God gives you a worshiping disposition. We're not talking hyper emotionalism
either We're talking about being passionate We're talking about
being connected. We are talking about it being
authentic, but we're not talking about manipulating our feelings
in plain church. You guys know the difference?
A lot of people are deceived by emotionalism. And so they
go through what we call existential forms of worship, waving, hollering,
crying, and all of that stuff. That's not really necessarily
worship. It could be worship, but it could
be massive deception too. Am I making some sense? Worship
is prompted by a serious personal authentic encounter with God
through truth. And again, it's not something
that we can always prompt. Sometimes when you and I are
so far away in our soul, we need to cry out, cry out to God in
a prayer mode to bring us into worship. Is that true? To bring
us into worship. the outcome of worship, which
is a consequence of knowing him, reading, studying and prayer.
And isn't it interesting that these three reading, study and
prayer are always components in true worship. You're not coming
to church where the Bible is not being read. You're not coming
to church where the Bible is not being expounded and taught
and preached and yet be expected to worship God. You cannot worship
God where we are not praying, where we are not reading and
where we're not expounding the scriptures. You cannot worship
God. This is what is meant to worship
him in spirit and in truth. The foundation of worship is
a revelation of God's glory in the truth of scripture where
the soul has made itself vulnerable to God and God has made himself
vulnerable to the soul to bring them into communion with God
through the truth. Is that right? It does not happen
any other way. And the outcome of worship, I'm
so glad I'm here, should be service and giving. So those are two I want you to
mark because those are critical areas in the occupancy realm
Your worship is defective if it doesn't lead you to serve
If it doesn't lead you to give your worship is defective If
the outcome of worship is lord, what would you have me to do?
Your worship is defective Do you hear me? defective Because
god made you to serve him He made you for that. And so within
that framework of the last two, serving and giving, which is
the reason for which Christ enters into us, that he might bring
forth fruit in our life to the glory of God and to our own joy
and satisfaction and to the affirmation of our salvation so that the
words that come out of our mouths telling men and women that we
are truly children of God can be affirmed. They can be affirmed
by the life that we live. We no longer live selfish lives.
We live giving lives. We no longer live narcissistic
lives. We live lives of service Powerful
contemplation That's going to move us into the last consideration
So the entry doctrine occupancy doctrine occupancy the person
that's occupying the kingdom Well is learning of God through
his word in the context of a prayerful disposition in the context of
worship is going to result in service and giving because service
and giving is Watch this now is grown-up Christianity You
can write it down. It is evangelism and outreach
Service and giving is grown-up Christianity. It is evangelism
and outreach. So I'll help you with the picture
so I can get to the to the last stage of our kingdom concept
and get into the four views for tonight and Although we'll be
dealing with more with this in the new year because there's
so many things I want to talk about around the larger concept
of the kingdom to help the folks at grace get a handle on where
we are so that we can stop wasting our time and do our father's
business. The kingdom of God in terms of
our occupancy Is for us to grow up into christ in all things
and when we grow up into him We're going to see the evidence
of our growing by our serving him Sincerely out of a pure heart
and having a willingness to give as a consequence of the grace
that's been given to us How does it look what does it look like?
It looks like the lord jesus when he got up out of the waters
of baptism Went into the wilderness to be tested overcame the devil
in 40 days and began to tell men and women everywhere The
kingdom of god is at hand repent and believe the gospel Once he came up out of the water
went through his 40 days of testing He began to go everywhere preaching
the gospel right Because he was now anointed and you're going
to see that that is the anointing of the king And he is now ready
to make a public statement to all about the presence of the
kingdom. So we're talking about the kingdom right now. And so
what believers are called to do is to learn the kingdom, grow
up in the kingdom, get situated in the kingdom and tell other
people about the kingdom. And so full-grown Christianity
is simply nothing but evangelism is simply nothing but full-grown
Christianity. It's Christ. you the hope of
glory ready to tell everyone everywhere in every context about
the Lord Jesus am I making some sense right and so where that's
not happening there's a defect somewhere in your walk where
there is a reluctance to talk to people about Christ and look
for avenues to share the gospel there's a defect in my walk because
I'm not here for my own business so when we studied the kingdom
about a month ago and we use Jesus as a model of Remember
right after his bar mitzvah He was found in the temple Luke
chapter 3 and 4 Laboring with the rulers over doctrine and
he told his mama when she came and said why have you troubled
us? So he says do you not know that I must be about my father's
house? Business is what we call a loose translation in the original.
It was about his father's house Okay the house of God For christ
he had come to establish the kingdom And so the first place
he had to start with were those who pretended they knew god and
that was the scholars And at 12 years old he publicly Opens
up talking to them about kingdom issues and blowing their minds
as a 12 year old about the kingdom And out of that he moves on into
ministry at 33 years old. Am I making some sense? Watch
this. In other words, all through Christ's ministry, did he not
say, must I not be about my father's business? I'm here to do my father's
will. And so Christ becomes a model
and paradigm for every Christian that for us, we're supposed to
be about our father's will. Can I tell you why? This is what's
going to move us into our study of eschatology You guys would
get a chance to settle down is that in the occupancy realm in
the realm in this realm here The mature christian that's in
this occupancy realm is always thinking in terms of apprehending
the kingdom The mature christian is always thinking about the
kingdom Watch this coming The kingdom coming Christ's coming His or her coming To Christ So
now I want you to think about the apprehension of the kingdom
with me for a moment How important is understanding this One day
you're gonna die And you're gonna face God And you're going to
face King Jesus. But will King Jesus be your Lord
and Savior? Or will he simply be for you
a curious who will tell you, I did not know you depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. Are you guys following the logic?
So now watch this. In our culture too, we have a
gross, morbid preoccupation with aversion. Like we don't like
talking about the end. We don't even like talking about
death. You don't hear the word funeral anymore. It's always
memorial This is part of the dark kingdom I talked about in
our earlier earlier study when I raised the question Why does
the Bible talk about a kingdom and I said because there are
two kingdoms and the dark kingdom is always seeking to take over
the lives of men and women and leave them into error and So
you and I are not living in a vacuum. Either you're part of the dark
kingdom, or you're part of the kingdom of light. And if you're
part of the kingdom of light, you're in a battle against darkness
24-7. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? So, one of the reasons
why we learn the Word of God and learn the will of God is
to help us see the dark kingdom for what it is. And on a propositional
level, it's constantly dropping bombs on you. Lies! false doctrine, false teaching,
false philosophies, false systems of being, false interpretations
of life, of which you got to constantly work through that
stuff every day. And if you're not careful, you
will allow some of those systems to enter into your system and
shape your worldview. And you'll fall prey to using
the very same terminology. And don't even know what you
have become now is a double agent in the kingdom. Are you guys
hearing me? It's really true. It's really
true. This is why in the occupancy realm, and I'll come back to
that later, in the occupancy realm, your Bible is filled with
warning. Your Bible is filled with warning.
You know what is filled with warning you? To make your calling
and election sure, 1 Peter 1.10. Is filled with warning about
apostasy about a departure from the faith about turning away
from jesus about entering into Allegiance with the dark kingdom
about going into the false religious system It's always warning us
about that And in fact when I was in the british virgin isles,
I told you this I preached out of second timothy chapter 4 verses
1 through 7 Where paul had plainly told timothy timothy you are
living in the last days They are perilous times men are lovers
of themselves. They are bolsters. They hate
god They hate those that are lovers of good and a litany of
evil things that that basically hallmark our present Cultural
situation and then he said in chapter four he said that in
chapter three chapter four he said preach the word in season
and out of season rebuke and reprove and exhort with all long-suffering
and doctrine. So the character of preaching
should be rebuke, exhortation and warning. That's the character
of biblical preaching in dark times because people need to
know there are thieves coming in trying to steal your soul
and send you to hell. And the faithful preacher that's
not warning about those things don't care about you. So he told
Timothy, Timothy don't get tired. Do this in good times and in
bad times. In good seasons and in bad seasons. When it's bearing fruit and people
are believing the gospel, and when there is no body believing
the gospel at all. Timothy, don't change your message
and don't change your method. Stay the same. Preach the same. In dry seasons as well as in
fruitful seasons. Because the time is coming when
they will not endure sound doctrine. So this is a series I'm gonna
teach in the new year out of that text because it needs to
be expounded They will turn their ears away from the truth and
they will be given to fables and myths and lies now when a
church group turns from the truth of God's Word to fables and myths
and lies and It means that you have succumbed to all of the
bombs dropped on you From the prince of the power of the air
who has sought to deceive you and change your mind so that
you no longer Have an allegiance to biblical truth. Are you guys
hearing what i'm saying? That's where we are today And
so occupancy to be healthy Has to have an eschatological or
an end time View a healthy desire to apprehend that for which we
have been apprehended To for your occupancy in the kingdom
to be healthy You have to want jesus to come You have to want
the kingdom to come you have to want this present age to be
over with Turn with me in your bibles to philippians chapter
3. Let me show you one verse And i'll touch more on this on sunday,
but I just want you to see this one verse and then i'm going
to for 30 minutes go into briefly explaining the four views of
eschatology that play a critical role in our understanding how
this world closes out and how the kingdom of God comes into
fuller reality for you and me. In the book of Philippians chapter
three, here's what Paul says, and I want you to think this
through. If there's anyone that you want
as a mentor, it's Paul. Besides the Lord's Jeep the Lord
Jesus you want Paul as a mentor many women Because as I'm studying
theology comprehensively the one person that God knew that
he could trust To faithfully communicate a comprehensive gospel
Message was Paul And when you study Paul carefully
He taught soteriology Very seriously what it means to be truly saved
He didn't let you come into the kingdom through the window or
the back door He made it very plain. You are dead in trespasses
and sins It's god who must quicken you from the dead by grace through
by faith through grace Are you saved and that not of yourselves?
It's a gift of god not of words He repeatedly taught that in
every church, that salvation is the sovereign work of Christ
by his spirit through the gospel without your doing anything. And then he taught the necessity
of sanctification and growth, growing in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord. Putting off foolish things, putting
on new things. So he talked about the paradigm
of get rid of the old man, put on the new. Remember that? Put
away the old man put on the new put away the old man put on the
new that was Paul's way of giving you a Composite of the life of
faith is putting off things putting on things Y'all got that picture
putting off things putting on and the new is Christ. That's
what he's talking about So the life of the believer is putting
on Christ through this mechanism this process We've already talked
about knowing God reading studying praying worship service and giving
all these are putting on Christ. Y'all got that and This is putting
on Christ and you're putting on Christ with the objective
of seeing him one day Now watch what the text is in Philippians
chapter 3. I'm gonna start at verse 7 and
go through verse 10 and I want you to mark verse 7 through 10
and for those of you who are going to be going through the
rewards class with us in the new year as I teach the Comprehensive
doctrine of rewards and the reason for which the Bible teach rewards.
I want you to see how Paul fully understood The doctrine of reward
for him. It was a motivating factor in
everything he did It was it was it was it permeated his being
down to his dna Somewhere along the line of paul's suffering
He discovered that the key to perseverance and faithfulness
Was overlooking what he was going through and laying his mental
mind on the prize. Now this is important. We won't do that successfully
until we understand the nature and totality of the prize system. We won't do that effectively
if we are blinded to, ignorant of, Just vague about what God
has promised to those that love him There's no way you can be
passionate about Something to come where you don't even know
what it looks like I'm telling you the truth I'm telling you
the truth. And so when I get ready to talk
about eschatology what I'm gonna be talking about is a The danger
in our church is to exercise a lopsided theological emphasis
where either we emphasize purely a soteriological emphasis, entry
doctrine, entry doctrine, entry doctrine into the kingdom of
God, to the failure of occupancy doctrine, how to live in the
kingdom effectively, or we fail to teach entry doctrine correctly
under the rubric of how we live. And so people don't even really
know if they actually came into the kingdom because they're under
works legalistic system predicated upon a false entry doctrine or
We are so wrapped up in either the entry doctrine or the occupancy
doctrine that we don't teach sufficiently the end game the
occupancy the glory to come Are y'all following me So find a
sheet of paper to write down some things that I'm getting
ready to say off the top of my head. I want you to get this.
So the first word I want you to write down is promise. The
next word I want you to write down is inheritance. The next
word I want you to write down is reward. The next word I want
you to write down is crown. The next word I want you to write
down is blessing. The next word I want you to write
down is honor. The next word I want you to write
down is kingdom. The next word I want you to write
down is joy. The next word I want you to write
down is payment. The next word I want you to write
down is recompense. The last word I want you to write
down is kingdom. Good. Cause I'm a build that
over the next six months. I'm a build an image of the kingdom.
Okay. I'm a building image of the kingdom
because what Christ is calling us to is a kingdom Where all
of those adjectives in front of you Those are the things into
which we are entering We're entering into promises. Did I tell you
promises? Did I tell you inheritance? Did I tell you rewards? Did I
tell you crowns? crowns Did I tell you joy? Did I tell you rest right rest
down Did I tell you treasure? Write treasure down. Write riches
down. You can write down the prize.
The prize. That's what he says here. That's
what he says in Philippians 3, doesn't he? Watch this. But what
things were gained to me. Do you see that? I count what?
So this here is what I taught you several months ago about
when we understand authentic biblical faith, That authentic
biblical faith operates out of what we call a cost-to-benefit
factor. A cost-to-benefit factor. What
is it gonna cost you? What you gonna get out of it?
That's the nature of saving faith. Saving faith always operates
out of you giving something up in order to get something. And
Paul is laying down his ethic right here by saying, I used
to count all this other stuff really gained. That word is a
monetary term which means profit, wealth. Treasures, blessings,
whatever he had done prior to Christ, wherein he had accrued
his wealth, he called it his gain. Like the rich man in the
Gospel of Matthew, who said to his soul, we have gotten wealth,
we have gotten gain, let's build bigger barns and store our gain. What Paul said was, everything
I counted gain, now I'm counting what? So now he has developed
what is called a radical antithesis principle, which requires a person
to be willing to now no longer view what they used to as a treasure
now as a deficit. This is a problem. This is a
liability. In our money management class,
we talked about that. The liability factors that hinder
you from being successful in terms of your economic goals.
Liabilities are those things that keep you from reaching your
goals economically. Remember that? And liabilities
can fall in the category of things, behaviors, and persons. Better write it down. Things
behaviors and persons you can become your own worst liability
Your behavior can be a liability To your pursuit of the kingdom.
I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth
What does it profit a man if he gained the whole world lose
his soul? He became his own liability Are you guys following me? no,
like like what I'm sharing with you now is really the way Christ
pressed home to all of his disciples and that point and foundation
of satisfaction. He never told his disciples by
and large that you are to seek satisfaction in this life. He
never taught that. He never taught, try to get wealthy
now. He never taught that. And the
reason he didn't is because he knew that largely our world is
filled with trouble and suffering and pain. And he would never
paint a view of the world that was alien to God's objective
for his people. He wouldn't paint some idea that
you, if you tap into God just right, you can avoid suffering.
He never taught that. He never taught that. And that
mess you see going on in the Middle East, that's what he grew
up in. Christ grew up in that stuff and we're going to end
up enduring it too. And doesn't it make sense when
your world is shaken up by fools and they have power over your
wealth, your economy, your finances, your well-being, that your hope
is in something other than these fleeting tangible, material,
ethereal things. Doesn't it make sense to have
a gospel that launches you above and beyond that which the moth
can corrupt and the thief can break in and steal? Doesn't that
make sense? Right. And the only reason this
gospel doesn't make sense is we've been deceived by the deceitfulness
of riches in this life. This is the danger of Western
Christianity and Western culture. We live like kings. And there
is no reason then to have an ethic or a drive that basically
neglects the pursuit of those things. But didn't Christ constantly
warn, you're not entering into the kingdom of God while at the
same time trying to, as it were, amass to yourself wealth and
riches. Because the cost of benefit factor
is going to be lost. Because the rate of exchange
principle is going to be lost. I gave you that principle too,
the rate of exchange. You have to believe that a life
of faith merits far more than opportunities at material blessings
and wealth. And a life of faith is obedience
to God's word. You guys follow me? And watch how Paul runs this
through. I want you to view with me Paul having an axiom of compensation. That's another word I want you
to write down, compensation. An axiom of compensation. that
basically drove him through every obstacle. He could kick through
every obstacle because of an axiom of compensation. He could
bust down the walls of every obstacle. He could laugh at every
bondage. Every time they threw him in
a pit, he could rub his hands and say, the Lord is being glorified
in this and my wealth is increasing. That's crazy, but it's true.
It's true, true, true. I believe the word of God. It's
true. It's true. And Paul taught me this. He taught
me that the sufferings of this present time. Don't compare with
the glory that should be revealed. He taught me that the sufferings
work for a far greater weight of glory and honor They actually
work towards an increase of my wealth and glory in the kingdom. Are you guys here? He taught
me that he taught me to think that the more I suffer for Christ
the more I will rejoice in the reward at the end crazy Crazy Now you see how When god says
in hebrews 11 6 without faith, it's impossible to please god
For he that believeth that he is he that cometh to god must
believe that he is And he's a rewarder. That's our word. He's a what?
Right. See see this is critical. So
like if I don't actually believe god is a rewarder. I'm not gonna
be ready to take the hit Because I don't believe he's going to
take care of me. I don't believe he's going to recompense me.
I don't think he's going to return for me what I suffered. But see,
he's actually stated that the relationship that I have with
him is one where I suffer for him like he suffered for me.
I've got to be a ride-or-die sister for Christ as he was a
ride-or-die brother for me. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? He said, now these are the people that can look forward
to an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God on the last
day. So I'm leading you to why it's important for you to understand
eschatology a right Am I making some sense am I making some sense
because if we get this it will affect your everyday choices
It'll keep you from wasting your time making bad business decisions
buying those timeshares Spiritually speaking You ain't on vacation. You all work for Jesus. You got
work to do for Jesus. You're not going on vacation
for Jesus I'm talking spiritually now All right verse 8 watch this
verse 8 Yay, doubtless. I count all things but what how
much how much all things I Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. Do you believe
the Holy Ghost is moving Paul to say that? See, so right now
you and I get to get inside of his cranium while he's in prison
because he's in prison. He's writing to the Philippians
in prison. Read chapter one. He talking
about how he jacking up Caesar's household in prison. Got two
guards on either side of him. He preaching the gospel to them
and everybody else. And how everybody in the house,
Caesar's house, that heard the gospel through Paul. He talking
like he ain't even in prison. That's a radically new mind. You know why? Because he sees
the end game. He sees the end game. He sees
the end game. It's crazy. Yea, doubtless I
count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ. Operative word, excellency. See
that word, excellency? He's talking about the qualitative
nature His experiential knowledge of Jesus. I want you to get this
now. This is not merely Propositional or didactic or as it were teaching
he's talking about the experience of knowing Christ is superlative You guys see that So I just want
you to get that now I want you to see I don't want you to think
that He gets beat up and then God takes him to an outstanding
Bible study at grace. No, that's not what we're talking
about. I We do have outstanding Bible studies. They're deep and
powerful and profound. And I wish God would allow us
to go deeper, but we're not ready because we got to give up a bunch
of stuff to actually go deeper with God because he's just not
going to give us stuff while we're not ready to go deeper.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? This is not going to happen.
But Paul was able to go deep with God because he understood
the rate of exchange. He knew that suffering put him
in a position for deeper revelations of the glory of God. He knew
that sufferings put him in a position for deeper revelations. Do y'all
see that? Can I keep going? Are y'all persuaded
of that? Are you persuaded that somehow
within the sanctum of Paul's walk with God, whenever he got
beat up, the Spirit of God opened a new channel of revelation of
God's glory to him that was so powerful and poignant that it
became a medicine, an anesthesia, anesthetic To his problem that
his pain and suffering was so assuaged by the revelation That
he expected that kind of Relationship to occur continually in order
for him to remember 2nd corinthians chapter 12 He says I knew a man
once in christ 13 years ago. I can't tell whether he was in
the body or out of body. I'll tell you this that brother saw
some stuff And that was the Lystra account where he got stoned to
death. And the suffering for having preached the gospel was
that God launched his soul into the third heaven so that he beheld
things that are too marvelous. And when he was brought back
and woke up, he saw the saint standing over and praying. Remember
that? He saw the saint standing and he popped him out and said,
let's go back into the city. I'm cool. I'm cool. Let's go back
in. Did you get that? Crazy. The revelations were so absolutely
astounding to Paul and shifting the trajectory of his thinking
and his motives and his drives that God had to also allow afflictions
to temper him. He says, lest he be exalted through
the abundance of the revelations and miss the point. Okay. So in other words, the spirit
of God poured out so much that he had to reign it in by certain
afflictions so that Paul can handle it. That's amazing. Isn't that amazing? Yea, doubtless
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ. And then I love the way he closes out personal
possession. My Lord! Isn't that what he says? My Lord! My Lord! Not Thee, Lord! My Lord! For whom I have suffered the
loss of everything. There it is. He's hearing the
echo of Christ talking to the disciples. Unless you're willing
to give up everything for my sake You're gonna lose it Paul's
experiencing what christ had taught peter james and john,
right? He's experiencing it, isn't he? but he's telling you
the The the benefit that come out of the loss is so enormous
right watch this I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom Have suffered
the loss of everything. Can you think about that with
me for a moment? He lost everything for Christ You got that that's
not hard to understand is it that means when he looked up
he said I Ain't got nothing. I don't have nothing. I just
got Christ He was the most liberated person in the world at that moment
See, when you don't have anything, you don't have to be tempted
to try to hold on to it. Do you get that? And then on
top of that, and then on top of that, he has a very clear
view of the kingdom in its final state. Are you with me? I'm going to show this to you
from Paul's perspective before we close. Paul knew what he was
entering into. when he was done. He knew. You and I probably don't know.
But he knew what he was entering. Remember he got caught up. He
saw it, right? He saw it. The same way our Lord saw it
in the wilderness when the devil took him on the top of the pinnacle,
showed him all the kingdoms of this world, our master saw the real
kingdom. See, our master actually was
driven by the same thing that Paul was driven by. An eschatological
finality his calling. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? An eschatological finality of his calling. I'm ready for
this to end. Remember what he said? He said,
Father, return, restore unto me the glory that I had with
you before the world. I'm ready now. I'm ready to go back. I'm ready
to enter into mine. This is how Paul was talking
in 2nd Timothy chapter 4. We'll get there in a moment.
Watch it. For whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but what so now watch objectively it was taken from
me Subjectively extinct anyway You got it so much a refuge in
fact internally I despise them I Now what drives him to view
that which he had that which was taken away from him? As refuge
as dong as something that stinked something that is rotten something
that is repulsive to him What causes him to view it like that
is what he got coming? Am I making some sense see if
you know what you got coming Everything else is a threat to
it Until it is dislodged from you Successfully enough for you
never to be taken in by that again This is what Christ meant
when he says you can't Have two lovers You can't love the world
and love Christ too. You can't have two masters because
you're gonna hold to the one and hate the other That's a basic
rule. That's that's how it works. You're supposed to hate everything
else for that Am I making some sense? You you're supposed to
when you fall in love with someone you're supposed to abhor. I Build
a healthy wall against everything else for that one thing That's
exactly right. And that's what God demands for
us. That's what God demands for us That's what he demands for
us Since that's what he did for us Christ despised the shame
He despised the shame Hebrews chapter 12 He endured the cross
He counted all of the ridicule and hostility and opposition
to him as nothing. He despised it. You men heard
that in the message about a month ago through vote. He despised
it. He scorned it for what he had coming. I count all things down. Dong.
And do count them dong that I may what? Stop. There's the word. Put it down. When? That's the word. You got to write
it down. That's the word that's part of a kingdom turn That's
a kingdom turn That's not a that's not a throwaway word to enter
into the kingdom is to win That's to win I'm sorry, that's to win
you can put that right next to the word crown That's to win Either we gonna
win or we gonna lose Right? So I've talked to you
about the principle, the takeaway principle, the increased principle. This is what we're talking about.
To whom much is given, much is required. He that hath more shall
be what? And he that hath not even that
which he hath shall be what? Taken away. Right. This is the
battleground that we're dealing with in our world today. This
is where we are. So What he promises is the man
that has will have more that's why we want to have a comprehensive
Comprehensive understanding of the gospel. I want to have christ
in a saving way I want to have him in a saint divine way so
that I can have him in a total way Because the promise is if
you got him you'll have more Are you guys hearing me? If you
got him, you'll have more Now what we're going to be getting
into when we deal with rewards in the new year I'm just going
to share this with you as a blessing to our bible study What we're
going to be getting into is not the idea of the acquisition of
things But the entering into the fullness of the character
of god So here's what you're going to learn and you're going
to hear some coppers who will misunderstand where i'm going
with my teaching But they misunderstood jesus and they misunderstood
peter and they misunderstood paul. And so I don't care Y'all
got that i'm on record. I don't care I just want you
to get this So when hebrews 11 6 says the man that says he's
coming to god must first believe that he is That's a study in
itself the tetragrammaton the great. I am that I am Yahweh
the Lord the ever-existing one the one that never changes he
always is you can always depend on him Lo I'm with you always
to the end of the world This is the God that you can trust
that won't be moved by anything in the universe You must believe
that he is not was will be is That's the God you must believe
because he is the true and the Living God He is the revelation
of the true and the Living God in the person of Christ to us
and He is a rewarder those that Diligently seek him now. This
is simply about a Acquiring a knowledge of God like so what I want you
to think about in terms of that proposition is is that who God
is Is God by nature a Rewarder So
what I'm talking to you is about relationship. I'm not talking
to you about merely benefits that you get As a consequence
of your service I'm talking about you entering into a fuller Revelation
of the nature of god Got that This is not about earning things
This is about acquiring a knowledge of the character of god Who calls
himself a rewarder? Did you get that? I want this
to come home. So now work with me on this for
a second. If God is a rewarder, if that's
his nature, if it's intrinsic to his being, if it's intrinsic
to God to be a bestower of payments as a consequence of people acknowledging
who he is, if it's natural to God to pour upon people massive
blessings, because it's intrinsic to his nature. Would it be an
offense for us to poopoo that proposition? What's the answer? Are you hearing me? Would it
be an offense for us when God has said to you, this is who
I am. This is who I am. And then we say, I'm cool. Are you hearing me? Or somehow
in our twisted Ignorance, we would call it in
theology a false pietism. Shirk the nature of God as this
infinite well of blessing that he is by nature, because that's
just who he is. And tell God, I don't want that.
I'm cool with what I got. You are saying you are not interested
in knowing him. Am I telling the truth? Who here
don't get what I'm saying? If you got what I'm saying, raise
your hand. If you got what I'm saying, raise your hand. If you
don't good, I'm gonna stay with the ones who don't get it because I want
you to get it. I want you to get this. So, like
God says, eye has not seen, ear has not heard, it hasn't even
entered into, penetrated, lodged, developed itself into a healthy
thesis. Body of truth the things that
God hath for them that love him y'all heard those verses don't
mean anything until you attach them to the nature of God and
think about the nature of God and think about all that he has
in the apprehension mode in the eschaton Are y'all following
me? When that door when that door
is kicked open and we enter into that thing and say man Is this
what God meant? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Now, this is important because if you have no interest in that
fullness of God's attribute and character, if you don't have
any interest in it, are you ready? If you don't have any interest
in it, don't be surprised that your life remains raggedy when
it comes to serving God. Don't be surprised that you have
no motivation, no drive, no ambition, no endurance, no perseverance,
no stick-to-itiveness, no inclination to get up off your tail and get
moving, no aspiration, no hunger for God because you have no motivation. Am I making some sense? If our
motivation is small, our response is going to be small. Am I making
some sense? Now, I'm gonna bring it back
around and anchor it on the proposition given to us in Matthew chapter
6 33 First seek ye the what? The kingdom the kingdom the kingdom
the kingdom the kingdom the kingdom the kingdom You got that now. Here's the next word. This is
crazy and his what? Stop right there See what I'm
talking about right there. You got to get What do I mean
by his righteousness? His character! His character! I'm not talking something existential
to God as a gift for you. That's narcissism. That's not
about you. It's about God's character. God is a righteous God. I told
you when it's all over with, everything is established on
the foundation of what? Righteousness. See, righteousness
is when it's all right. Good you get that in a minute
when it's all right. I mean from the bottom up when
it's all right When it's totally right when everything wrong is
absent when ain't nothing going on, but that which is right Hallelujah,
see we're supposed to be worshiping right now. You supposed to be
worshiping right now in the depths of your soul You supposed to
be worshiping right now because what I'm talking about is God's
character. I'm not talking about things I'm talking about his
nature I'm talking about God revealing himself to us in the
fullness of experience that amounts to glory and all of his tangible
practical benefits Constituting a relationship in Theology we
call this a beatific vision of God It's called a beatific vision
It's Revelation chapter 22 and they shall see his face and they
shall see his face. Isn't that what it says? And
they shall see his face. That's the last chapter in your
Bible. Is that is that right? How many of y'all know y'all
Bible? I know most people that we don't even know your Bible. The last chapter
in your Bible says and they shall see his face. They shall see
his face. That's the Pania doctrine of
the Old Testament. Remember, no man can see God in what? That's
right. The closing book gives us a full
view of the character of God in Terms of his face the word
is a metaphor for god being fully exposed to us You're not seeing
a physical person except the lord jesus But what you're going
to see of god is the full manifestation of his glory Bestowed upon you
in a relational way for all eternity that constitutes everything that
i stated and all those adjectives Which we have to study we got
to study those adjectives We got to study those adjectives
because the scriptures are rich in their context around those
adjectives as a design for motivating the believer to understand what's
in front of us. So when Paul talks about the
riches of his grace, the riches of his grace, there it is again.
We're talking this character. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? When he talks about the inexhaustible treasures of Christ,
There it is again. We're talking about god's character
the unending unfolding eternal infinite Revelation of god in
his blessing to his people when we enter into that final state
got that Go back to philippians chapter 3 So i'ma close it here
with this last line here because to start on my eschatological
maps will be anticlimactic And I don't want that to happen to
you I want you to come back next week. Well, if you don't come,
I don't care. I'm going to be here to Lord
willing. Because I'm on a course for making sure that the people
at grace don't die without a knowledge, a sufficient knowledge of what
happens when we go to him or he returns to us. So when you
die, you won't be able to say pastor didn't tell me. You hear
me? I hope you don't die between
now and next week. I hope none of y'all die for the next six
months Cuz see what we're gonna be dealing
with is gonna change some of your life It's gonna change some
of your life Do you hear me? It's gonna change some of your
life Here's what he said in Philippians chapter 3 In verse 8 When he says that
I might what win Christ see that See in his mind He's running
a race Right And he he can't see himself doing anything for
finishing. Do you see that now watch what
he says? Because verse 9 opens up with
a conjunction which is really a continuation of the prize he's
now going to do what we call an exegetical of the prize an
explanation of winning christ You ready to win christ? is to
be found in him. Did you get that? To win Christ
is to be found in him. Now watch this. God's going to
find everyone. Do you understand that? On the last day, everybody that's
hiding is going to be found. You got that? The question will
be, will you be found in him or in your own righteousness?
Right. So, so now watch this saints.
What Paul is saying is when I, when Christ, I have sealed the
deal. I have finished my race. I didn't
falter. I didn't backslide. I didn't
apostatize. I didn't abandon him. I wasn't
faking. I wasn't playing religion. I
wasn't building salvation based on my own words. I wasn't a deceitful
worker in the kingdom. I was racing and running to acquire
Christ and when I win Christ, I'm found in him secure and in
Christ Positions him for the bounty that will flow out in
the eschaton. See you you want to die in Christ
Do you hear me? That's where you want to die
That's where you want to die That's what it but Paul has taught
us how to do that. He said run now to win it Don't
presume you've got him. You got that? Don't presume you've
got him. You better run to win him. So, so, so for Paul, Christ
was the totality of all of God's blessings in one word. That makes
sense. The totality of all God's blessings
in one word. To win Christ is to win it all. Did you get that? See, this is why in our churches
we make him way too small. That's ridiculous. In him are
hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and glory
and riches and bounty in Christ. Once you're in Christ, all the
promises of God are yes. They're all yes. They set you
up for what unfolds when Christ comes back again. But when he
comes back, When he comes back, there will be an unfolding of
so many things. Judgment day, a manifestation of everybody's
position and accountability of every individual before him,
your standing, your manifestation as to having been authentically
his or not, and then a public manifestation of God's bestowment
upon you. If you're his, are you ready?
If you're his, of everything I gave you in that list, here's
your treasure. Here's your crown. Here's your
honor. Here's your glory. Here's your
rest. Here's your fullness. Here's
your inheritance. Here's your reward. Here's your blessing.
Here's your glory. Here's your kingdom. Am I making
some sense? See that's that's what he's giving
to everyone that's suffering for him down here. That's who here doesn't understand
what I'm saying. I'm not going to explain it. I was just going
to pray for you. Cause this is important. Now watch how he closes.
To be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness, which is of God by what? In order that verse
10, I might what? There it is. Do you see it? So slow down. Cause, cause what
you have now are unfolding revelations of what it means to win Christ.
There are unfolding revelations of what it means to win Christ.
He's saying, I want to know him, but he already knows it, but
he doesn't know him like he's going to know him. And see, Paul
knows he knows that's true. Like every honest believer knows
we don't know him enough. Every honest believer does. And
Paul, if you, if, if God dispatched you for five seconds to glory
and brought you back here, you ought to be the most miserable
person on planet earth. because you saw some stuff that
you don't get to enter into that's just supposed to mess your head
up forever and keep you totally and permanently dissatisfied
with everything down here. Uh-uh, that ain't gonna work.
Uh-uh, I don't want that car, no. That house, no. That bank
account, no. There's not enough money. No,
it's all dumb. I saw it. I already saw it. I
already saw what I'm getting. All I got to do is finish this
race and lay hold on the Christ That's what he's talking about.
Ladies and gentlemen, are you hearing me? That's what he's
talking about. That's why in time stuff has to get a hold
of you. Because the devil is sprinkling sawdust in your eyes
all the time with this fool's gold and knockoffs of this life,
hoping that you die outside of Christ. That I may know him and
the power of his what? Ladies and gentlemen, this is
all eschatological stuff. This is all stuff that comes
when he returns. There is a knowing of Christ
when he comes that can't be known till he comes. Because the man
that dies in this life leaves his body here, her body here,
while they go to be with the Lord. To be absent from the body
is to be what? But you don't know him totally until your body
and your soul is united as a one, a whole integral part in the
glorification. But the glorification ain't come
until the resurrection. So what he's asking to do is
to be secured like Job says, Lord, secure me. I'm going to
wait until my change come. When he calls, I'm going to answer
him. And when I answer him, I'm going
to enter into his presence and everything that God has said
is going to start to unfold. Do you guys get that? You get
that? Do you see? These are eschatological. This is not about now. This is
not looking back at the cross. This is looking at the power
of what the cross accomplished, the resurrection. See, the resurrection
is one of the things that will take place when he comes. And
that resurrection is going to glorify God, is going to seal
the saints in the totality of their being, and the world is
going to be amazed at what God does for those that suffer for
his namesake. Do you see it? That I might know
him in the power of his resurrection and in the fellowship of his
what? All right, so stay with me. He's already suffering. This
is not future suffering. He's already suffering. He wants
it to count as fellowship with Christ. He wants it to count
as fellowship. Did you get that, Jack? Watch
this. He already knows Christ. He's
already affirmed that whose I am and whose I serve has showed
up and let me know we're not going down on this boat. He already
done that. He already knows that whose I
am and who I serve has taken him up to the third heavens to
paradise and showed him wonderful things. He already knows that.
What he's talking about now is experiencing Christ in the post-death
post-resurrection dynamic of having fellowship in his suffering
so that he can have the blessings that come with fellowshipping
in his suffering. This is why the doctrine of union
now is so important for us that we are to do what we do in his
name and for his sake so that we can join him in his suffering
in order to be a partaker of his glory. Do you hear me? So what if my life is lived in
such a way that I don't deem it and intentionally guide it
to be a consequence of my fellowship and union with Christ? I tell
you on that day, it will have been exposed to have been my
own righteousness. Are you hearing me? See, so he
understood the foundation and continuity of his walk with Christ
on a daily level to affirm his election. until he breathes his
last breath. Because he knew, are you ready? He knew that you can't boast
as if you've taken your armor off when all you're doing is
putting it on to fight the battle. You only boast after you done
won. Are you hearing me? So I'm in the middle of the race,
Paul says. And I don't know where I am in my race, but I know I'm
not done. So I don't get to boast as if I have finished about things
that I have no knowledge of. All I know is I want to, like
Paul, win Christ. If I win Christ, everything else
will unfold. It will unlock for itself all
of the promises of God, which are yes and amen. And the fellowship
of his suffering being made conformable unto is what? Love it. Do you
see what he just stated? He just stated i'm ready to die
For christ i'm ready to die with christ. Do you see it? I'm ready
to die with christ because I know the promises. I know what he's
promising me. He's promising me a resurrection
He's promising me a glory. He's promising me an honor a
dignity a kingdom a power an inheritance a reward a crown
a blessing a rest a fullness a kingdom with him what he promises
us is that what he promises us so what we are talking about
is the spiritual work of the Holy Ghost bringing us in through
the front door and the sanctifying of the Holy Ghost fitting us
for use in the kingdom now securing us for apprehending the kingdom
on that last day so eschatology which is a massive subject that
is underappreciated in our present day for many reasons is what
I'm going to load us up on over the next three, four, five, six,
seven, eight weeks. So you can see it. I'm going
to load the backing up so you can see what's coming. All right. So you won't have any excuse
in the occupancy room. So like, if God wants to send
you to Bangladesh or he wants to send you to Jupiter to preach
to the Martians, you will go, you will go. Are you hearing me? And if he
just wants you to be able to answer the telephone and comfort
someone who needs you, you're going to pick up the phone and
say, in Jesus name, for his glory sake, for his honor sake. Okay,
Lord, here we go. This you and me, this is for
you. I want to enter into your fellowship. Now let's help these
folks. Now, if they spit on me, give me grace because I'm looking
at my reward. I want to know you in the fullness
of everything you promised me. I want you to I want you to convince
me that this life means nothing compared to the glory That will
be revealed in me when you come You got that you see how important
eschatology is in that light. So we're gonna talk about it.
Can we talk about it? All right, let's pray father. Thank you
for this time. Thank you Thank you for my brothers and sisters
who have come out. Thank you for your presence among us tonight
Thank you for the study on this topic. Give my brothers and sisters
a hunger to know it to not die without it. As we go our way,
give us traveling mercies. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you guys.