Amen. So Luke chapter 17 is where
we are. I'm going to be reading a few
verses where the Lord is asked the question about the kingdom
of God. I'm in Luke 17 verse 20. Luke 17 verse 20. And when he
was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should
come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not
with observation, neither shall they say lo here or lo there
for behold the kingdom of God is within you and he said unto
the disciples the days will come when you shall desire to see
one of the days of the son of man and you shall not see it
and they shall say to you see here or see there do not go after
them nor follow them. For as the lightning that lighteneth
out of one part under heaven shines into the other part under
heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day. But first
he must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.
As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of
the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they
married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that
Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed
them all. Likewise, also, it was in the
days of Lot, they did eat and drink, they bought, they sold,
they planted, and they built. But the same day that Lot went
out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the
days when the Son of Man is revealed. And that day he that is on the
housetop and his stuff in the house, let him not come down
to take it away. And he that is in the field,
let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever
shall seek to save his life shall lose it. And whosoever shall
lose his life shall preserve it. I tell you, in that night
there shall be two in one bed. The one shall be taken, the other
left. Two shall be grinding together.
The one shall be taken, the other left. Two shall be in the field,
the one shall be taken, the other left. And they answered and said
unto him, where, Lord? And he said unto them, wheresoever
the body is, there will the eagles be gathered. Thus is the reading
of God's scripture. We are dealing with the concept
of the kingdom of God. And for those of you who have
been with us for some time, we've been addressing several aspects
of the kingdom because it is Multifaceted what I want to do
tonight and work with you through the basic Manifestation of the
kingdom of God the past present and to be in the future Under
four concepts that are in your outline These are terms many
of you have heard me use before and the reason why I use these
terms in different settings is to help you build a cogent and
hermeneutic when it comes to interpreting your Bible. So you
will hear a similarity of structure around this concept of the kingdom
in regards to what we call covenant theology or biblical theology.
And that is how God manifests himself from the beginning of
time up to the present hour and how he will manifest himself
and the final days of what we call the consummation of his
kingdom. But as we have been working through the concept of
the kingdom, we've been talking about how important it is for
you and I to acknowledge a kingdom concept in relationship to the
gospel, because we live in a culture that is so anti-kingdom in nature,
that it has its impact upon us conceptually, and it also has
its impact upon us ethically, And I would also say morally
and spiritually as well. As children of God, if we are
not clear that we are part of a kingdom with a king and a constitution
and a rule, we may say we are children of the king. and yet
act as if we are free from all authority in the universe and
therefore operating in a agency of autonomy that is alien to
the scriptures. There's also the impact when
you and I are ignorant of the kingdom of God, the impact of
a dullness of interpretation of scripture, not being able
to comprehend how the scriptures lay out as a presupposition,
as a fundamental basis, a kingdom concept. And so we will miss
these terms unless our attention is called to them by the spirit
of God. For instance, when we read in
verse 20, and when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom
of God should come, a proper inductive reading of that text
would draw the conclusion that they were already talking about
a kingdom. and that the kingdom of God was
something that was already assumed. And that in a lot of ways, they
were already in agreement about the coming of the kingdom of
God. But that's not necessarily so for Christians. And so when
you and I are reading Luke's gospel, you and I are ear hustling
in on a conversation where the Lord Jesus is dealing with the
rulers around the kingdom of God. Then Christ begins to explain
an aspect of the kingdom that I want us to consider right along
with the broader scope of the kingdom of God as it has been
revealed by God since the beginning of time. The Lord Jesus does
not say that there is no kingdom coming. The Lord Jesus does not
negate their assumption. They were asking, and really
in an imperative form, when will the kingdom be manifested with
the assumption that they would see that kingdom. And what our
Lord said in verse 20, the latter part, the kingdom of God does
not come with observation. Now, again, if we were dealing
with this on a grammatical level, we would wanna know what that
term observation means. because to observe something
can be viewing it empirically with your physical eyes so as
to affirm that that thing is physically and legitimately there.
That's an empirical observation. But there can be also a philosophical
observation by which understanding certain concepts and propositions
about a kingdom and its presence, an individual can say, I see
that propositionally. So one would have to ask, what
does our Lord mean when it says the kingdom of God does not come
with observation? And the answer would fall into
the category of him asserting to the rulers that your understanding
of the kingdom of God is different than the understanding of the
kingdom of God that God himself intended. And therefore your
question, when will the kingdom manifest itself in some physical
empirical way is actually a miss. You are not asking the question
the right way. That's what Jesus is saying.
And then he began to develop the near historical fulfillment
of the troubles and difficulties that the disciples would have
in verses 22 through verse 37, which you can also read in your
Olivet Discount of Matthew 24, Mark 13, where it talks about
that the disciples would suffer being brought up to the synagogues,
being persecuted, being cast into prison, being beaten, and
suffering for the cause of the gospel. And several times in
Luke 17, it spoke about the days of the Son of Man. For instance,
verse 22, And he said unto the disciples, the days will come
when you shall desire to see one of the days of the son of
man and you shall not see it. Again, that's another euphemistic
statement that really requires laboring to understand. What
do we mean by the days of the son of man? If we assume that
we know we could be in danger of totally missing the Lord's
admonition here. And again, he says essentially
the same thing over in verse 30. Even thus shall it be in
the days when the Son of Man is revealed. What our Lord does
in verses 21 through 37 is describe the normalcy of life, the basic
patterns of life that you and I know right now. Working, providing
for our families, laboring, engaging in life, marrying and giving
in marriage, none of which are bad in and of themselves. So
the text is not telling us to think of marriage as bad, think
of working as bad, think of providing as bad. For instance, if you
look over in verse 34 through 37, it gets a little bit more
tenuous. I tell you, In that night there
shall be two in one bed, the one shall be taken the other
left. Two grinding together, the one shall be taken the other
left. Two in the field, the one taken the other left. Verses
34 through 36 is dealing with the motif of twos, that's all,
in three different categories. Twos in three different categories.
And in those twos in three different categories, there is a taking
of one and leaving of the other. That's a principle that's being
underscored. But if we go back to each one
of those categories, we see that what it's talking about in verse
34 is that night two shall be in the bed that is resting, sleeping,
doing what we all do late at night, being in the bed. Do not
get too caught up in that little word, men, because if you'll
notice in your Bibles, it's in italicis, correct? Which means
that is an insertion on the part of the translators because they
felt like it would make the sentence smoother and clearer. This is
why you heard me omit the word as I dealt with it. Two shall
be in the bed. It doesn't matter whether it's a man or a woman,
a man and his sons, a mother and her daughters, it doesn't
matter. This has nothing to do with any
kind of marital or sexual connotation. This has to do with the normative
Middle Eastern culture where families slept together. Frequently,
the women slept with the women and the men slept with the men.
The boys or adult men would all sleep in the same room and the
women would sleep in the same room. I remember about two years
ago when I was teaching on this, some brother rose up emphatically
asserting that this is a grounds for condemning homosexuality
because he believed that what was taking place was a hint at
two men in one bed. I want you to avoid that notion.
Like I taught you on Sunday, the relationship between David
and Jonathan is a million miles away from homoerotic. All homoerotic
implications are rooted in two things, the corrupt culture that
we live in and your own twisted mind when it comes to not filtering
the way you read the scriptures. But here, this is simply talking
about two, the two, the two, the two principle, one taken,
one left. And it has to do with that final coming of Christ and
those who will be taken away, protected from the judgment to
come, and those who are left to suffer the consequences of
the judgment. And I'll say that again in order
to underscore a point here. When Christ says in verses 34
through 37, one will be taken away, one will be left. whether
they are sleeping or whether they are working or whether they
are in the field, which is essentially the same. In verse 35, two women
shall be grinding together. What does that mean? Grinding,
working at the corn meal, taking the corn and grinding it under
the stone. We're going nowhere with any
kind of sexual connotation here, are we? Right, that's a corrupt
mind. These are two women working in
the field as our Middle Eastern sisters are off to do. And while
they are working in the normative process of life, one is taken
away and the other is left. The question that we would want
to ask, but it's not even the primary one is who's taken away
and where are they taken and who's left and why are they left? But that's a secondary question.
What our Lord is doing in the larger scope, the larger compendium
of his discourse is simply saying, Things will be taking place of
a normal nature. What we do every day will be
doing it, working, getting married, having children, raising children,
struggling, toiling, doing life. And in the midst of life, there
are other things occurring, like the kingdom of God is operating
in the midst of all of this normalcy. And it's the job of the Christian
to be able to identify not only the reality and presence of the
kingdom, but where they are in relationship to the kingdom,
because the answer to that will determine whether or not we are
left or taken should the Lord come in his dispensation at that
time. Does that make some sense? All
right, so I'll say it again, just so we can lay the foundation,
and then we'll do a little bit historical analysis of the concept
of the kingdom. In the normalcy of life, what
our master warns about is that we don't live in a single monodimensional
concept of life. We don't live like the pagan
who says, all there is is what we see in what we're doing. For
true believers, we live with the reality that we are dealing
with multiple dimensions of reality. that we live in this physical
world, but we also live in a spiritual dimension. And that spiritual
dimension is even more significant and real than the physical world.
That spiritual dimension for the believer is an obligation
on their part to both identify as real and affirm their place
in that kingdom because that kingdom is doing what God has
ordained it to do in the midst of this physical world. So the
kingdom of God is always penetrated into the physical world to manifest
itself for its own purpose. And those who are part of the
kingdom have been blessed to be part of that manifestation
or of that work. Again, the Pharisees are making
an assumption That is partially true. There is a kingdom coming.
They were the children of Abraham. They were privileged to be catechized.
They were taught that there would be a day when Messiah would come
and the kingdom of God would be manifested and it would manifest
itself a certain way. Their fault was is that they
didn't know that the kingdom had already come and that it
had already come in the days of John the Baptist and that
Jesus now is perpetuating what John had already declared. in
his announcement in Matthew 3, the kingdom of God is at hand,
repent. So our Lord is now perpetuating
that message that he as the second of the two witnesses, remember
the two witnesses, John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus, the second
witness is affirming the presence of the kingdom. He warns them
of the nature of the secular world, how it can actually trap
you and keep you from actually comprehending the kingdom in
a way in which if you miss the kingdom, you can be subjected
to the curse that comes when Christ comes and men and women
are not found to be in him. The second aspect of it, which
will be more to my point as we prepare to go back through the
four stages that's in your insert, in your outline, is that when
he says in verse 21, verse 20, the latter part, the kingdom
of God cometh not with observation, literally the term is does not
come with the ability to perceive it empirically. The word observation
there literally means to observe something as if it was in front
of you. Like you guys are looking at the screen up there, that's
an observation. You actually see the screen.
That's the way the term is being used actually in the original.
It does not come with your ability to say, see there it is. And
he reinforces that by verse 21. Look at verse 21. Neither shall
they say low here are low there for behold, the kingdom of God
is where. So you cannot affirm or point
out the kingdom by pointing at a direction or a location, right? That's what he's saying. To say
the kingdom is over there or the kingdom is over there is
to miss the true nature of the kingdom. That's what Christ is
saying. Although many people will say the kingdom is here
and the kingdom is there And if you fall prey to that then
you're going to be looking for external evidences of the kingdom
Well, what christ is teaching is that you're not looking for
external evidence of the kingdom You're looking for internal evidences
of the kingdom So what he says is the kingdom of god Is within
you see that last phrase is within you some of your translations
will say is among you, is among you. The better translation is
in you, in you personally, not among you, that is to say
around you or in your proximity. Entos is the Greek preposition
there and it literally means inside of you. Inside of your
being that's the way that is translated one other time in
the Bible and that's in Matthew chapter 23 where it talks about
it So the idea that Jesus is talking about is the kingdom
of God is only Comprehended by an inner awareness of the reality
of the kingdom because of the kingdom's impact in your life
having opened your eyes and opened your understanding and opened
your heart and made itself known to you inwardly in your soul
so that you comprehend by revelation the presence of the kingdom.
Does that make some sense? So this is what our Lord is talking
about, understanding the kingdom in that regards. Let me see,
Matthew 23, verse 26, just to reiterate the concept of that
little Greek preposition, Matthew 23, 26. Our Lord says it like this in
that portion of scripture. Verse 25 to 26. Warn to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess. You blind Pharisees, cleanse
that first which is what? That's our word. Cleanse that
which is first within the cup. and the platter, that the outside
may also be what? Now, this is what we call an
ethic of the kingdom, as we were talking about the ethics of the
kingdom, how the kingdom is to be manifested in terms of the
conduct of the people of God, with regards to the people of
God, understanding that in order to be inside the kingdom, God
has to wash you into the kingdom. Didn't you learn that? That outside
of the kingdom, we are filthy, we are dirty, we need to be blood
washed, we need to be spirit washed, translated out of darkness
into the marvelous light of God. And as such, we are constituted
clean. There is no unclean thing in
the kingdom of God. So when our Lord uses the analogy
or the metaphor of the articles in the temple needing to be washed
both inside and out, he is teaching that you and I do not affirm
our presence in the kingdom by mere outward appearance of cleanness,
but rather the inside of the dish being clean first and foremost. And what he's talking about is
the heart. and the mind and the soul that the inner man has to
be transformatively cleansed for him or her to affirm that
they are in the kingdom, that you and I are not merely in the
kingdom. And we'll see this when we go
through the four stages tonight, because we've been baptized.
We're not in the kingdom because we partake of the Lord's table.
We're not in the kingdom because we go to church. We're not in
the kingdom because we do external things or we're not in the kingdom
because we manifest externally. The kingdom, the kingdom of God
is profoundly personal, not private. It's manifest, but it's profoundly
personal first. And it's an inward work of grace
by which you come to the reality of the presence of Christ, the
lordship of Christ, the realities of the kingdom of God, and their
impact on your life as a servant of the kingdom, as a servant
of the kingdom of God. So now, what I wanna do with
you, and you can go back now, what I wanna do with you is work
through our outline Under the concept of the past present and
future Kingdom of God and this you guys will just have to bear
with me up there as we work through this I'll call your attention
to certain verses but as you have in your outline the first
stage of the manifestation of the kingdom of God in the Old
Testament and we've been teaching this for years is what the patriarchal
period You guys see that? The first stage of the manifestation
of the kingdom of God is the patriarchal period. And so you
want to be able to think when you read your Old Testament that
how was the kingdom of God manifested in the Old Testament? It was
manifested by God coming to the fathers and telling the fathers
what his will was. That's Hebrews 1.1. Can you pull
that up? Hebrews chapter one, verse one,
this will underscore this. And again, For those of you who
have taken biblical theology with me, you will hear the biblical
theology framework once again affirmed right here. Hebrews
chapter 1 says, verse 1 says, God, who at sundry times, that
is in many times and in different manners, spoke in time past unto
the who? Those are the patriarchs. That
would be Adam. that would be Abel, that would
be Seth, that would be Enoch, that would be Enoch, that would
be Noah, Lamech, Methuselah, and all of those patriarchal
brothers that would lead up to the first major patriarch to
whom the promise for the kingdom would be established, and that
would be whom? Abraham. The first major patriarch to
whom the kingdom would be established is Abraham. So from Genesis 1
to Genesis 17, we have the, Affirmation of the family-centered
kingdom. We have the affirmation of the
family-centered kingdom. What do I mean by that? God had
set up no kind of public government beyond the family. That the family
was the government. That family was the government
all the way to Noah. When God destroyed the earth
and started all over again, He started with a family. He didn't
start with a tribe. He didn't start with a legal
system. He didn't start with a judiciary.
He didn't start with a government. He started with the family. And
that family broke up into three sectors, the three sons of Noah,
Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And they encompassed the whole
world from Genesis 9 forward. God started his redemptive plan
on a larger scale with the Shemites, beginning with Abraham in Genesis
11. So from Abraham, God began to unfold his promise even further
by telling Abraham, out of your loins shall come the seed. And now we are affirming the
seed doctrine, are we not? And the seed doctrine goes all
the way back to what? Genesis. Because the term Genesis
means what? Seed. So we have the patriarchs
that we are dealing with as the first manifestation of which
the promise of the seed was given to the woman in Genesis 3 15
and then reaffirmed again in Genesis 11 and 12 11 12 15 and
then ultimately in Genesis 17 where God told Abraham out of
you shall come kings and nations right And so for 400 years under
Abraham, his children, Isaac and Jacob and their brood, their
lot, would grow and then make their excursion into Egypt. And
in Egypt, they would grow into millions over a 400 year period. This is what we call the patriarchal
period. That's verse one of Hebrews one. You guys follow that? That's
verse one of Hebrews one. That's the first major stage. Within that framework, as you
have in your outline, Three things are to be marked that are tokens
of the kingdom of God anytime they take place. How do we know
the kingdom of God is present? God is speaking. The second evidence
is that God exercises signs and wonders. This is how we know
that God is present, establishing and affirming his kingdom. He
has always spoken to us and he has spoken to us in signs and
wonders that again is Hebrews 1.1. Is that what it says? In
different ways and in different manners, he spoke to us through
the prophets. So from Genesis 1 to 17, we have
a ton of signs and wonders, don't we? We have Enoch walking and
was not because God took him. A great manifestation of the
promise of God for those who walk by faith that they will
one day be translated out of the dominion of death. Then we
have the great sign and wonder of the Ark of the Covenant that
was built for a hundred years and the world destroyed and eight
souls saved. A major wonder that the kingdom
of God is present. And then the kingdom of God manifested
itself in those days by raising up Abraham and the word of the
Lord came to Abraham. And then as we have in our outline,
God speaking with signs and wonders, and then a what? Kingdom symbol,
kingdom symbol. Whenever God is present working,
he always has a kingdom symbol. Who knows what the kingdom symbol
was in the days of the patriarchy? Circumcision, write it down. Remember, we are exegetical thinkers
here. We are expository thinkers. You've
read your Bible for thousands and thousands of days, hopefully
over your 10 or 20 years as Christians. Now you get a chance to frame
it. Whenever God shows up and gives promises to his people,
he manifests himself by proclamation, by signs and wonders, and by
a sign sealing those people. And he gave Abraham in Genesis
chapter 12 and 14 the seal of what? Circumcision. So circumcision
became the sign of the kingdom of God. And without it, God said
he would kill you if you didn't circumcise your child. This is
why when Moses went in to bring God's son out of Egypt, God was
going to kill his own son because Moses had failed to circumcise
him. That's how serious God was about his sign. Because in the
sign It's always the redemptive reality, which is at the heart
of God. The sign itself doesn't mean
anything. It's the significance of the
sign. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? The circumcision pointed to the cutting off of Christ.
Colossians chapter two, by which in his death, we also died so
that in his resurrection, we also live. So circumcision was
important because it said God had to deal with humanity in
terms of redemption through a son. So circumcision was done on the
male reproductive organ pointing to the seed that would come and
that seed was Jesus. Now, quite interestingly, while
God's people don't pay much attention to what God says, the devil always
does. So the devil was always seeking
to kill the seed Which God had to protect until he got here
Circumcision therefore was important to God and so whenever anyone
who was ostensibly of the kingdom failed to acknowledge the sign
They were basically functioning as an Antichrist You guys follow
that as an Antichrist saying God I don't care how you do it
This is how I do it and God then would be willing to kill you
for not submitting to the sign because the sign always points
to the heart of God and the redemptive work of Christ. And that's the
most important thing to God. So then the second stage is what
we call what? The theocratic stage. Is that
what it says in your outline? Very important to see the theocratic
stage. Now the theocratic stage starts
in the days of who? Moses. So we have from Genesis,
the patriarchal period from Abraham to Moses, Abraham would have
been 2,000 years before Jesus. Moses would have been 1,500 years
BC. That means there was a 500 period
between Abraham and Moses. In Moses' days, we have what
set up as the manifestation of the kingdom? A theocracy, right? That theocracy is recognized
by the judges. So what God told Moses to do
in Genesis 18 was set up judges of tens and hundreds and thousands.
This is how they're going to govern my people. You're going
to set up men who love the truth and hate covetousness and who
are committed to my word. This is now giving us a biblical
worldview as to how God established leadership. How did God establish
leadership? He made the man, the head, And
his job was to be the judge of God's kingdom within the local
sphere of his ordained influence, whether it was a judge of tens
or hundreds or thousands based upon their qualifications. They
would then have to tell those people what the law of God says,
what the word of God says as to how to conduct themselves.
They were the judges. In the days of Moses, God prophesied
the coming of that next dispensation that we call what? The monarchy. That's where we are on Sunday,
are we not? We are in the monarchy. That's the next dispensation
or manifestation of the kingdom. And the monarchy began about
1050 BC. Again, you would have that in
all of your material in your women's theology class. from
1500 BC to about 1000 BC is about a 500 year period. And that 500
year period was the days of the judges. So from Joshua to whom
Samuel, we have the theocracy. Are you guys following? Most
of this I've said before. So In the days of Samuel, Joshua
to Samuel, we have the theocracy. And what that means is, how did
God manifest himself? He manifested himself by judges
that he raised up to deliver the children of Israel over and
over and over again from their enemies. Remember that. He raised
up judges, did he not? He raised up judges, approximately
14 judges in the days of Joshua, Joshua being the first, and then
moving on into that period of the book of Judges wherein we
have men like Ehud and Gideon and others, Deborah, et cetera,
who served as leaders for God to move Israel into the formative
stages of their rule in Palestine. Again then, if we are accepting
a theocratic kingdom under the judges, those judges were simply
senators, senators like congressmen, Senators in the court of the
invisible God The invisible God is still present He's present
in the Shekinah glory and the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle,
right? Which tabernacle was set aside
away from Israel because God could not put up with their sin
in the wilderness Remember what he said set me over away from
them lest I kill them But in his mercy, he said to Moses,
I will bring them into the land anyway. After killing all of
the old folks, I'll take the young people, except you be,
come like little children. You don't enter in. He took the
young people and brought them in because they trusted God,
right? And we have the days of Joshua all the way up to Samuel
where God would speak to the judges, wouldn't he? Signs and
wonders. How? Angels, manifestation, powers,
Gideon, is met by the angel of the Lord, is he not? The angel
of the Lord tells him, thou mighty man of valor, God will use you
to destroy the Midianites. Gideon says, show me how, signs
and wonders. Water on the fleece, fleece dry
on the ground, water on the ground, fleece wet, et cetera. And the
angel of the Lord doing wonders. That works its way all the way
through to the time of Samuel, who becomes the last judge in
the theocratic kingdom. So under a theocratic Model we
have The god-speaking signs and wonders the same symbol is hailed
because as we progress from the patriarchy to the theocracy The
promise doesn't change The fundamental promise of the male seed pointing
to Christ doesn't change Because the nature of the kingdom politically
does not change What do I mean by that? The same politic that
God started with in Abraham is now just simply Abraham's seed
proliferating. If you're gonna be in Abraham's
family, you had to be circumcised, right? So ostensibly, this millions
of people that are in the promised land, all the males are already
circumcised. The practice of circumcision is taking place,
is it not? Because that's how you identify
the Jew. The Jew was identified by him
being what? That's right. So we're not transitioning
now. I'm sorry. I got to back up because
there is a change that took place under Moses. Circumcision is
not removed. Circumcision now is enhanced
by another sign. And I want us to make sure that
we get that too, because it's coming back to me. Under the
theocratic setup, when God told Moses to establish the judges
and God gave Israel the law covenant in Exodus 20, What sign did God
give to this massive nation now? This massive nation, what sign
did God give to them to affirm the presence of the kingdom of
God in the world? Who knows? The Sabbath, the Sabbath. Exodus chapter 31, let's go there.
It's the Sabbath day. So remember what we said, when
the kingdom is present, God is speaking. There are signs and
wonders taking place to affirm the presence of God because the
kingdom of God is a supernatural entity. But there's always a
symbol that God uses to identify that kingdom. Does that make
sense? Right. And so and this is true.
Every covenant promise that God made, he he also gave a sign,
symbol, symbol, sign. Even in the days of Noah, he
gave the rainbow as a sign that he wouldn't destroy the earth.
And every time you see a rainbow, you ought to shout hallelujah,
thank the Lord, because he has every right to destroy us, but
he doesn't for Noah's sake. And Noah's a great type of Christ
because the word Noah means rest. And Jesus is our rest. And God
is resting in Christ instead of destroying us by his justice
when he allows the rainbow to spear our atmosphere and remind
us of how good God is. But in Exodus chapter 31, where
we are dealing now with the idea of the sign. This is what God
says about the Sabbath day that's really critical to understand.
Let me see if I can find it. And this is something that is
controversial, but I think it's fairly clear here in Exodus 31,
he would talk to the children of Israel about it. Here's in
Exodus 31, I'm gonna start at verse 15 and go through verse
18 and mark verse 17, okay? Mark 17, verse 15. Six days may
work be what? But in the seventh day is the
what? Sabbath of what? It's holy to
the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work in the
Sabbath day, he shall surely be what? The same penal judgment
that's given on the Sabbath is given for circumcision. Why? Because the same inherent blessing
that's in The circumcision is in the Sabbath. As the circumcision
points to Christ, so the Sabbath points to Christ. And if we violate
circumcision by cutting off or neglecting to cut off the foreskin,
we say that we can be saved in our carnal, sinful, unregenerate
state when God says flesh and blood cannot enter into the kingdom
of heaven. that the fallen Adamic nature
has to be done away with. And in order for you and I to
get the glory, there must be a pure incorruptible seed. We believe that, don't we? Jesus
plainly said it in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth and the
life. No one comes to the father, but by me. One seed in order
for us to get to the father. And so those of us are born again,
we have received the incorruptible seed of the gospel. Have we not?
First John chapter three, nine, if any man be in Christ, he's
a what? And that then underscores the necessity of the rebirth,
the doctrine of circumcision. What does Sabbath teach? Sabbath teaches that a man or
woman cannot be saved by their good works. That if you and I
try to get right with God by anything we do or say or how
we act, we are violating the law of Sabbath. The law of Sabbath
teaches that we cease from our own works and we rest in God's
work. The law of Sabbath says, stop
laboring and start looking to what God did to establish an
eternal rest for us. And that principle was established
in Adam, was it not? And as I shared with you before,
God never does anything apart from covenant. He's not a whimsical
God that does things out of a whim or capri or he's not spontaneous. He's not like we are. God did
everything based upon covenant principles. So when he created
the heavens and the earth, he actually created them in a cycle
and pattern to teach his first son, Adam, how he would have
Adam to work only six days and to rest on the seventh. He was
teaching his son how to work. Remember the three covenant models,
father, son, king, servant, husband, wife. With these frameworks,
you will understand your Bible. So when Genesis 2, one says,
and so God created the heavens and the earth in six days. And
on the seventh day, God rested from all the works, which he
had made. He was saying to Adam, Adam, this is what I want you
to do. I want you to work six days on the seventh day. I want you
to enjoy me. The man or the woman that understands that principle,
God will bless today. That's right. So this is where also we get
back to the kingdom concept. I'll just press this home and
get back. In the kingdom concept, when we are understanding that
we are part of the kingdom of God, translated out of darkness
into his marvelous light, if we are sons and daughters of
God, then God expects us to respond to him the same way he expected
Adam to respond to him, the same way he expected Israel to respond
to him, the same way he expected Jesus to respond to him, correct?
Now did Adam? did Israel and did Jesus keep
Sabbath? Yeah. Yeah, they work six days
and on the seventh day, they what? They went to church. That's
what we're talking about. They went to church. I'm going
to extract the principle for you. In other words, Like I said,
the danger of your present culture where you and I live in a democratic
society based upon a representative republic and highly autonomous
in its emphasis where you and I can do whatever we want to,
whenever we want to, however we want to, it militates against
the biblical model because the biblical model gives us rhythms
and patterns of relationship with God that when we follow,
God blesses. And the man or woman that thinks
that they're going to be blessed of God when they're working 50
hours, 60 hours, 70 hours a week, seven days a week, you're not
going to be blessed of God because that's a creation principle.
That's a principle that God gave to the first son and told him,
I gave you enough energy to work six days. The seven day you need
to rest brother. And you need to think about my
goodness in your life. And you need to worship me for
the strength and the help. and the power to get work, wealth
on six days. Am I making some sense? So even
in the psychological world and in the medical world, it is a
proven fact that those who work 7, 8, 10, 12, 15 days a week,
it's impossible, but I'm just using hyperboles, 70 or 80 hours
are far less benefited from all of that labor because they defraud
their souls of the necessary rest. and the focus that comes
from God. Remember, the capacity to get
true wealth only comes from God. And if your mind is frazzled
because you are a slave to wealth, you are not resting in God and
trusting God, you're not going to experience the blessing of
health. And it would indicate that we are out of order and
that we're not walking in the faith that God has called us
to. Am I telling the truth? So now watch this. And I learned
this years ago. My family did not understand this. Now they
do. My kids didn't understand it. My wife didn't understand
it. But when you're a leader of the home, you can't always
wait for people to understand before you do what God has called
you to do. Husbands. Husbands. You can't wait for everybody
to understand. That's called democracy. When
you are called to be the leader, you do what's right, whether
they understand it or not. Because if God is in it, he will
bless them whether they know it or not Are you guys hearing
me? So now my kids are grown and
they didn't understand why I didn't allow my kids to play sports
on sunday They understand why we headed to the championship
daddy. I'm the point guard dad Were you the point guard at church? on sunday And every other thing
that would impede their worship And they watched how I would
not violate those principles. And now that they're grown, it
makes all the sense in the world. It didn't make any sense then
because the world is always clamoring for you to violate God's principles. So that while you call yourself
a child of the kingdom, you are functioning as a child of the
world. And while that's happening, you
are demonstrating that you're not operating out of biblical
faith. Am I making sense? Right. And so that's why our
world is jacked up the way that it is on so many levels. So now
watch what God says to his son in Exodus 31, fundamental to
the concept of the kingdom. He says in verse 16, where for
the children of Israel shall keep the what? I want to say
this line again and show you how inductively what it's not
saying where for the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath,
not every one in the world, my children. You guys got that? I don't care about anybody else's
children. They can do what they want to
my children do what I tell them to do You guys got that Right. So the concept of a Sabbath only
really works for those who are identified with Jehovah as his
children Are you guys hearing? The Sabbath does not work for
every unsaved person on planet earth who does not identify as
Jehovah being their father and they being his children They
can experience existential blessings out of that, but they could never
experience the covenant blessings that come with a relationship
between the father and his son. Am I making some sense? That's
only for the people of God. That's only for the people of
God. And therefore, and this is controversially argued in
many circles, but in the book of Nehemiah, you'll find that
Nehemiah kicked out all of the heathen who had entered into
the church and they had set up all their businesses, especially
on the Sabbath. And they were making tons of
money in the church. ATM machines everywhere. Selling all this,
selling that, selling the other thing on Sunday. When Nehemiah
came in there, he cleaned house and said, y'all go outside of
Jerusalem. And he shut the doors. And so
far as the people of God were concerned, they were gonna observe
Sabbath. What y'all do outside those doors
is between you and your gods. See the difference? Right. And
did Nehemiah, was Nehemiah blessed of God? Enormously. Enormously. Now notice what it says. Wherefore,
the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the
Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. It
is a sign between me and the world. You got it? See how important
it is to observe these texts? This was God's sign between him
and Israel. Now watch this. When everyone
else in the world is going to the Super Bowl and to the concerts
and doing whatever they did, because ain't nothing new under
the sun, it's all been done the same way. Guess what God's people
were doing every Sabbath day? Worshipping God. And you know
what that was to the world? A sign of the covenant between
the true and the living God and his people. were obeying father. Are you
guys hearing me? Children were obeying father
and they didn't care what the world was up to for that season
because they knew the most important thing was to honor father. And
that's where God bless them. And by the way, where God cursed
Israel is because they violated that principle. When you go through
Jeremiah, go through Ezekiel, guess what you'll discover? God
cursed Israel because they violated Sabbath. The world started getting
to them and they started doing business and having a good time
and setting aside time to worship God was not critical to them.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? And again, without a
kingdom understanding, you think Sunday is a negotiable term.
That's because you don't have a kingdom understanding. I'm
just saying, a lot of people think that church is dispensable,
but that's because we don't have a kingdom concept. It's a sign
between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days,
the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, he rested
and was refreshed. Not that God needed to rest,
not that he needed to be refreshed. This is anthropomorphical terminology
to teach us like father, like son. It's for us to rest and
for us to be refreshed, and God joins us in that. The ultimate
interpretation of this passage has its climax in John 19, verse
30 and 31, where Jesus says what? It is finished. The work of atonement
for our sin, the work of propitiation and suffering the wrath of God
for our sin, the work of Christ laboring under that wrath as
we'll see Sunday, laboring for his bride. He finally says it
is done and we now enter into the rest that he has provided
for us. Matthews 11, 27 and 28. Come
unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give
you what? That's right, take my yoke upon you, learn of me
for my yoke is easy, my burden is light and you'll find rest
for your soul. But what is he calling us to?
A yoke, that's called communion, where he rules our life and he
does it for our good and for our benefit. And so that's the
symbol under that dispensation, a theocratic dispensation. So then we see also in our outline,
the fourth stage, Third stage, third stage, and that is called
what? The gospel or the church stage, the gospel or the church
stage. And so we have the patriarchal
period, we have the theocratic period, we have the monarchical
period, that should be the fourth stage then. The monarchical period,
and then the fourth stage is the, the church age or the period
of the Ecclesia, where Jesus radically informed the totality
of Israel in Matthew 21, that the kingdom of God was going
to be taken from you and given to others doing what? Bearing
the fruit thereof. Isn't that what he said? On your
Bibles in Matthew 31, we'll affirm that. Matthew 21, I'm sorry.
In Matthew 21, this is where the judgment parables center
in on Israel's failure once again to understand not only the nature
of the kingdom but its conditionality in other words the kingdom of
God in terms of his nature was misunderstood by Israel and also
the conditionality of the kingdom that is Israel thought that it
would be the stewards of the kingdom of God perpetually in
an unconditional covenant way. What I've shared with you before
is when you read your Bible, there are what are called unconditional
covenant promises and conditional covenant promises. That there
are some things that only remain by the mutual reciprocity of
God giving stipulations and the children of Israel obeying. And
this is even true in the church as well. I'll talk about that
later. but the conditional promise of israel was that obedience
would merit israel staying in the land obedience would merit
israel having god's blessing obedience would merit israel
being the head and not the tail but disobedience would remove
israel from the land as a wife being divorced by her husband
Disobedience of Israel would remove the spirit of God as a
person dying spiritually and having no power. So Ezekiel chapter
37 verses 1 through 10 describes Israel as a valley filled with
dry bones, dead spiritually because of its rebellion against God,
correct? So in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ, he kept saying,
right along with his cousin, John, the kingdom of God is at
hand. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the
gospel. And then once Christ started pressing the singularity
of entrance into the kingdom by faith in him, this is where
he discovered and declared that the vast majority of the Jews
did not enter in. They were rejecting the proposition
that they needed to enter into the kingdom. They assumed that
they were already in. That's Luke 17. Christ is saying,
you're not in, you're out. You need to get in. But because
I'm here, I am the king of the kingdom. The kingdom is present,
but this kingdom is about to move from you as a nation. And
it's going to now take its residence up in the Ecclesia, the church,
the called out ones made up of Jews and Gentiles. Matthew 16
18, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
You guys are out that and so Christ warned them over that
three and a half year what we call probationary period Where
he is saying in Iran John the Baptist said in Iran many did
But not all and in terms of the vast majority of the nation most
didn't but what Christ warned Israel about is clearly seen
in our text by the parable of That starts in verse 33 and makes
his way through 44. And because our time is succinct,
this will work. Verse 33, here another parable. There was a
certain householder which planted a vineyard. That vineyard is
the nation of Israel. It's a type of the church, but
it's certainly the nation of Israel, God's steward. for the
manifestation of his glory and kingdom. And he hedged it round
about, he digged a wine press in it and built a tower and lent
it out to husbandmen. Who are the husbandmen? The rulers
of the church. the rulers of Israel. And he
went into a far country. What does that mean? He gave
them promises that he would return at a certain time. And in his
visitation, in his visitation, he would want the proper due
from the stewards of the kingdom who were obligated to make sure
that that vine bore fruit and produce the harvest and produce
wine for the owner of the vineyard. That was the role of leadership.
to make sure the church called Israel was vital and alive and
productive for God. And Isaiah chapter five is a
corollary on this. You can read it on in your own
time. Why is it that I came to you, O Israel, looking for a
goodly vine tree? And what I found was a degenerate
tree, a degenerate vine tree bearing no fruit. In fact, the
fruit you bore are wild grapes that are useless. and unprofitable. So the imagery is dramatic, isn't
it? No. And what it means is that
the rulers in Israel didn't tend to the vine. Like, if you leave
a vine alone, it'll grow, but it'll be wild. And the grapes
won't have the richness that it's supposed to in order for
it to produce the sweet fruit of the vine. And God is using
that as a metaphor of His delight in Israel and Israel's delight
in Him if they were obedient. Notice what it says in verse
34 and when the time of the fruit drew what? He sent his servants
to the husbandman that he might receive the what? So I want you
to mark that verse 34 a is eschatological in verse 34 C is is the goal
orientation of God in relationship to his people. And what I mean
by eschatological, he says, when the time of fruit drew near. That is, God always returns in
a season expecting the fruit of the nature of that relationship
to be ready for God when he shows up. because God actually has
blessed them by bringing them into his business. His business
is already set up. It already has all of the commodities,
all of the things necessary for it to bear the fruit. All you
need to do is do your part. And when he shows up, he expects
fruit because he knows that there is nothing faulty in the product. The fault will lie in the husband,
man. If they don't do their job now, we're talking conditional
covenant, aren't we? Yes, we are. Be sure of that. Be sure of that. And leaders
are always more culpable, as I've told you before, because
they are saying they know God. They are saying they know the
will of God. They are saying they know the ways of God. And
their job is to impress upon the people of the citizenry their
occupancy. what they should be doing because
the master of the house shows up in his season to look for
fruit, does he not? Yes, he does. Yes, he does. And in fact, the parable here
is describing in line A of verse 34, the coming of Christ the
first time. Do you guys see that? Christ
came to his own. and his own received him not
because they hadn't borne the fruit of faith and readiness
to receive the master. He came to his own, didn't he?
And the analogy that we use, this is called a super analogy,
superimposed analogy that we use to demonstrate that Israel
was like a vine tree not ready for the owner is when Christ
cursed the fig tree that he came to seeking fruit on it. And there
was none there. And he cursed it because he wasn't
doing his job. And he gave other parables on
a horticultural and agricultural level too, where he told Israel
that if you're not bearing fruit, why are you here? Why come birth
the ground? So when Christ came the first
time, he is the Lord, is he not? He's the Lord. He's a representative
of his father. He has come to receive the dues
that the nation of Israel for now, 1500 years has occupied. They should have been ready for
him. Shouldn't they? Not there. To be honest, to the
whole tenor of the first coming of Christ, there were a handful
of people who were ready, weren't they? Anna, the prophetess, was
ready, right? Handful of poor people were ready
when Jesus came. The disciples were ready. God
had made them. But the vast majority of the church had fallen prey
to secularism, to worldliness, to the kingdom of the empires
of this world. And they were not ready for the
master. That's the parable here. Now
watch how he goes. Verse 34. And when the time drew
near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might
receive the fruits thereof. And the husbandmen took his servants
and beat and killed one another and stoned the other. Who are
these? The prophets, right? The prophets
came saying, Jehovah is demanding the fruit of the heart of faith
and readiness to receive him. Where are you at with God and
what did they do? They killed him because they
didn't like the message Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and many of
the others all the way through to we get to the exilic period
under the Days are in the days of Ezekiel and Daniel. They killed
the prophets as Jesus said because the prophets came With the authority
from God saying where's the fruit? Where's the fruit? verse 38 And
he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto
them likewise. But the last of all, he sent
unto them who? Saying, they will reverence my son. This is the
dramatic narrative language. Of course they didn't reverence
his son, but they should have, right? Of course they didn't,
but they should have. It was only appropriate that
they reverence the son. I mean, they didn't reverence
the servants, at least reverence the son. How merciful is God
to send you a hundred prophets to get his rent? You kill them
all. And rather than God killing you,
he sends his son. That's the last act of mercy,
isn't it? So it goes on to say, but when
the husband and saw the son, they said among themselves, this
is the heir. Again narrative drama giving us insight into
the diabolical nature of the heart of the rulers They read
the scriptures enough to know that there is a messiah coming
But they had such a corrupt handle on the kingdom that they didn't
want to give up the kingdom to the son They wanted to rule the
kingdom These are apostates in your churches that rule the churches
as if they are papa in the church And when someone comes declaring
the truth of the gospel, making Jesus Christ truly Lord and truly
sovereign, they're going to kill him because the true gospel always
strips leadership of sovereignty. The true gospel strips leadership
of sovereignty. It makes leadership what it's
supposed to be a servant, not a master. Are you guys hearing
me? This is where a leadership that
is insecure and self-centered and driven like we're learning
with who? Saul is threatened by a David who is a servant model. So Israel is the New Testament
Saul, are they not? The rulers of Israel. That's
right. We call Israel the eschatological Saul. They act just like Saul
did. Saul was demonically controlled.
He was driven by suspicion. He was driven by jealousy. He
was driven by murderous passion. Was not the leaders of Israel
that way with Jesus? Of course. You know your Bibles.
When the husband saw the son, they said, he's the heir. Let's
kill him and then do what? Seize the inheritance. Remarkable. Remarkable. Statement because
that last line there gives us insight by the master himself
as to The avarice and greed of the fleshly seed who want the
kingdom for themselves ie national Israel That went over your head,
but you'll get it somewhere down the line So long as national
Israel is rejecting the Sun they are seizing the inheritance for
themselves Are you hearing me We be the children of Abraham.
No Jesus be the child of Abraham Except you trust Christ you are
diabolical demon Antichrist system opposing the way into the blessing
so presently now Israel's Forced identity that they are the Israel
of God is fulfillment of this passage They're seizing the inheritance
right because the inheritance really belongs to the Sun. Is
that true? It belongs to the son. So this
is why Jesus says, all that came after me are thieves and robbers.
And they did not enter in through the front door because the front
door is the front door of faith in Christ alone. And where people
try to seize the kingdom by works or ethnicity or any other method
than faith in Christ, they are thieves and robbers. You guys
got that? That probationary period was
up with Jesus and John the Baptist. They had seven years. This will
gradually move us into the next dispensation, which I have 10
minutes to talk about. So as we are dealing with presently
the church age or the ecclesia, the stewardship has changed. It has transitioned from Israel
to, from the physical sea, Israel, to the church. What we are dealing
with now is the church taking on this responsibility after
the resurrection of Christ. Notice what it says, but when
the husband and saw that they said among themselves, this is
the heir, let us kill him, seize the inheritance. And they caught
him and cast him out of the vineyard and did what? Verse 39 underscores
what? The cross. Is that right? Verse
39 underscores the cross. The cross is the work of both
man and who? God. For God, it's justification. For man, it's condemnation. Is that true? Of course. Israel
is condemned. God allows Israel to put Christ
to death. And in putting Christ to death,
God is able to justify sinners. Is that true? Right? Justification
comes by God taking the putting to death of Christ through the
man that is Israel. And so saving his elect who are
both Jew and Gentile, and they Represent who the church? Does
that make some sense? Right, so it's very important
to see how God fulfills two things at once the prophecy here does
not directly Expose us to the redemptive work of Christ the
prophecy exposes us to the malevolent diabolical demonic intent of
Israel to kill Jesus But we know behind their evil is God's sovereign
objective to save That's why Peter could reconcile it in chapter
two of the book of Acts. You with wicked hands have both
crucified and killed the Lord of glory, but it was according
to the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God by which
God would justify his people. You guys see that? So God is
able to take the evil of man and use it for his glory, which
is the gospel. So the nexus of this transition
is the cross. The nexus of this transition
is the cross. They caught him, cast him out
of the vineyard, slew him. Now watch what it goes on to
say. And so what Christ does now, having given them this vivid
narrative drama in parabolic form, he raises the question.
He invokes a question from them. They said to him, I'm sorry,
verse 40, and when the Lord therefore at the vineyard comes, what will
he do unto those husband men? See, because he's got them gripped
in the analogy, doesn't he? He's got them gripped in the
analogy. That's what parables do. They give you object lessons
that tug a hold to your emotions, your intellect, and your volition.
And now they are willing to execute justice on those who disobeyed
the owner, right? And so what he says in verse
41, they said unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked
men. And he will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen,
which shall render unto him the what? Fruits thereof. They condemned
themselves with their own prophecy, didn't they? Did they? They condemned
themselves. Why? Because logic follows. The
logic follows. They knew that the parable concerning
this just husbandman could not continue to persist in this unjust
way, but that at some point, this just husbandman must punish
them for killing his son. And they condemned themselves.
So now we have Jesus who is the eschatological David playing
out David who is the protological Jesus when David was confronted
by Nathan about his sin with Bathsheba and the device of the
parable drew out of David a heart of justice too only to condemn
him because he was in the flesh. Does that make some sense? Right,
this is exactly where we are with this parable in relationship
to the nation of Israel. Now, here's the last few verses
that will underscore the transition for our contemplation of the
last two. I'll open the floor for a few questions if you have
them, and then we'll close. Jesus said unto them did you
never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders
rejected the same has become the head of the corner This is
the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. In other words psalm
118, which was written by David a thousand years earlier Prophesied
that they would reject the stone, but God would accept the stone
and the stone would be the beginning of the church You guys got that? The stone would be the beginning
of the church, stone upon stone upon stone, Christ, the apostles,
the prophets, and everyone after them in their order. Therefore,
I say unto you, here it is, saints, here it is. Therefore, I say
unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from who? Israel.
So in the historical context, Jesus is talking to who? Israel. And more particularly and specifically,
the leaders. And I want you to get that. It's
being taken from the leaders because he's talking to them
directly. See, the leaders have the keys to the kingdom, right? As Luke's gospel puts it, Jesus
says, you guys have the keys of knowledge. You have the keys
of the kingdom, but you aren't entering in and neither are you
letting others enter in. So he took the keys from them.
That is the authority of access into the kingdom, which is ostensibly
given to leadership. whole nother fascinating story
teaching and lesson in itself but here's what he says the kingdom
shall be taken to you and given to a what a nation or people
bringing forth the fruit thereof so what's the connection between
verse 43 and verse 34 and when the time of fruit drew near He
sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits
thereof, verse 43. Therefore, I say unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation,
bringing forth the what? Fruits thereof. What's the connection
or what's the, what is the application? What is the point of significant
consideration that God wants us to derive? God expects fruit. Do you see it? God expects fruit. God gives us an elaborate metaphor
to help us understand that the failure was the failure of bearing
fruit in his business. And that the consequences necessitated
him taking his business that they were running into the ground
and giving it to a people who would actually bear the fruit
thereof. Is that true? I was in the British Virgin Isles
Teaching these very principles for five days about the nature
of the kingdom of God Taking advantage of the fact that they
were colonized by a kingdom Because they would be more readily capable
of comprehending the sensitive nature of submission to a kingdom
and how a kingdom actually Restructures your life governs your life dictates
your life and gives you a new identity away from your own identity
And that new identity may be better or worse, but it's certainly
new and different. And they fully understood the
advantages of being colonized out of their paganism. And I
said to them, they're more sensitive to gospel paradigms than we are
in America because we don't operate out of a kingdom model. Am I
making some sense? We are so independent and autonomous
that we don't understand what it means to have a Lord over
us as a people grew. And so we wake up quickly making
decisions for our lives without asking whether or not this is
the will of God. And when you do that incrementally
over and over and over and over again, over time, the macro direction
of your life is gonna be obvious. Is that true? It's gonna be obvious
where you and I have not sincerely and earnestly sought the will
of God in our life that we're gonna be way off course of the
kingdom Gonna be way off course Now you might be playing church
But that only sets you and I up to be just like national Israel
See what I'm getting at So the last two stages, I'm not going
to develop fully because it's 9.30. I'm just going to call
your attention to them and we'll deal with them next time. Once
you enter into the gospel stage, the gospel stage has the same
three models taking place. God speaking was not God speaking
through Christ. Signs and wonders. Didn't Jesus
do signs and wonders? What were the kingdom symbols
transitioning from circumcision into the church? What are the
kingdom symbols? Baptism and the Lord's table. Do you guys
get that? The kingdom symbols in the gospel
age are baptism and the Lord's table. Follow this. In the same way God said he would
kill anyone who didn't circumcise, kill anyone who didn't keep Sabbath,
What Jesus said in Mark 16 16 Mark 16 16 through 19 as he the
Lord of the church gave the final signs he That does not believe
and is not baptized will be what damned Damnation came with rejecting
the symbols of the kingdom You guys hear what I'm saying? Not
because the symbols are personally significant, but what they taught
was. Just like with circumcision and
just like with Sabbath keeping, baptism and the Lord's table
are central revelations of God's redemptive work in Christ. so
that when a man or woman says they actually believe the gospel
because they understand the gospel, it's gonna necessarily follow
that they embrace the symbols of the gospel and the seal of
the gospel in baptism in the Lord's table. Is that true? It
does not follow. It is incongruent. It makes no
sense to me that a person would say that they have had a revelation
of the glory of God in the gospel, a penetrating knowledge of Christ
to the saving of their soul and made him Lord or acknowledge
his Lordship. Because that's all you're doing
is acknowledging his Lordship. You can't make a king Lord. He's
already Lord. You can't make a king your Savior. He's already Savior. He's already
Lord. All you can do is acknowledge
him as Lord. And then when once you do, when the king says, in
order to affirm an inward reality of the presence of the kingdom,
you let men and women see you enter in through the water. And
you're entering in allows you the privileges of the symbolic
communion of the saints at the table that symbolizes the riches
and the blessings that flow out through the Holy Ghost who brings
to us the commonwealth. Remember we talked about that,
the commonwealth? That's what the table represents.
Our all being partakers of the body of Christ and thus enjoying
the commonwealth. Am I making some sense? Am I
making some sense? So this overview has been good,
has it not? Right. See, and it's because Again,
we are fracturing and deconstructing and losing form and shape conceptually
about the gospel in our present generation because we are operating
in a worldview that has nothing to do with the kingdom of God.
And this is why people can come to church and talk about how
them and Jesus are kicking it. Jesus is my boy. He's my savior.
And it's just all about them and Jesus. And they don't make
the further necessary steps to affirm the nature of the kingdom
of God in their life. Which is what we're going to
deal with two weeks from now when we get into the emphasis
and distinction of these three stages that we talked about.
Entrance, occupancy, and apprehension. Where the kingdom of God is said
to emphasize the priority of entering. The priority of entering. The difficulty of entering. The
ground and evidence of having entered. The cause of rejection
from it. The goal of having entered. And
then the reward of finishing. You have that in your outline.
We'll deal with that in two weeks because those statements underscore
the importance of making your calling an election short. They
do. They do. And so there are two
stages left. They're very controversial. You'll
notice in our outline, I talk about the millennial kingdom,
Christ's rule on earth as a fourth stage should be a fifth, right?
And then I talk about the fourth, fifth slash stage, the final
state of glory. Do you guys see that? Right. So when we come
back in two weeks, I'll talk about why I have the fourth,
fifth stage as a combination of the millennial kingdom, along
with the final state. And we will touch on the four
views of eschatology, the post-millennial, all millennial, preterite view,
and the dispensational view of eschatology so that you can understand
that the church does recognize that there is another stage to
the kingdom coming. The church knows that because
you cannot read your Bible without knowing that there is another
radical entrance of the Lordship of Christ coming. That's right. Just like he came the first time,
he's coming again. It's only what does his coming
entail? And that's what we will deal
with at that time. All right. I'll take some questions right
now. I'll need two runners. If you guys got any questions
right now, if you don't have questions, I'll close in prayer.
We go home, raise your hand. If you got questions, question
going once, going twice, going three times. All right, let's
pray. These, these people talk. So father, we thank you for this
time. We thank you for your word. We ask that you let it sink deep
down into our soul. Get ahold of us. and help us
not waste our time, that we would make our calling and election
sure, that our eyes would be opened up to the realities of
the kingdom of God, that we might be able to know where we are
in relationship to the kingdom, so we can do your will working
in us that which is well pleasing in your sight. For to this end
have you saved us and called us that we might occupy until
you come. We ask for traveling mercies,
we ask for grace, We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. God bless
you.