The Everlasting Kingdom

Q: What does the Bible say about the interpretation of dreams?

The Bible, particularly in Daniel 2, highlights that true interpretation of dreams comes from God, as He reveals secrets to His chosen ones. In Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzar experiences troubling dreams and seeks understanding that no earthly wise man can provide. Daniel, a faithful servant of God, steps forward and acknowledges that human wisdom is insufficient. He states, 'the secret which the king demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king; but there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets' (Daniel 2:27-28). Thus, the biblical perspective emphasizes that the understanding of dreams, particularly those of divine origin or significance, rests solely in the hands of God and is granted to those He has chosen.

Q: How do we know God's secrets are revealed to us?

God reveals His secrets to believers through His Spirit, as seen in Daniel's experience and affirmed in scriptures like 1 John 2:27. The process of receiving revelation from God is intricately tied to the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. In the context of Daniel, when he was given the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, it was after he and his companions sought God's mercy through prayer (Daniel 2:17-18). Similarly, 1 John 2:27 states that the anointing believers receive teaches them all things, implying that understanding divine mysteries, including God's secrets, is dependent upon a relationship with Him through the Spirit. Thus, knowing God's secrets is not merely intellectual but a spiritual enlightenment that comes from being in communion with Him.

Q: Why is the everlasting kingdom of God important for Christians?

The everlasting kingdom signifies God's immeasurable sovereignty and grace, offering hope and assurance of eternal life to believers. The concept of the everlasting kingdom is central to Christian hope. In Daniel 2:44, it is proclaimed that God will establish a kingdom that 'shall never be destroyed,' highlighting that it transcends all earthly powers and temporal conditions. This kingdom represents the reign of Christ, who, as the stone cut without hands, will ultimately crush all opposing kingdoms. For Christians, this truth is foundational as it offers assurance that, regardless of present circumstances or trials, God's sovereign plan prevails and will culminate in the eternal glory of His kingdom. It assures believers that they are part of an everlasting family under the lordship of Christ, where they will worship Him eternally and partake in His divine light and life.

Well, good morning, everyone. I want to bring a lesson this morning out of the Book of Daniel. And if you're like me, you have trouble finding that. It's towards the end of the Old Testament, after Ezekiel, before Hosea. And I got a call last week, or this week, from Deb Sparks.

They're up at Children's Hospital having Nobody's been throwing up again and stuff like that. And they've said that they think she has lymphoma, that she has cancer. They don't know where it is, what it is. She's got a PET scan tomorrow. And hopefully that will show some lymph nodes that they can actually do a biopsy on to figure out what it is and how to treat it.

Just pray for that family. I can't imagine, well, Novi, her body, and Deb and Des, they've just been through it. You know, Deb's mom just passed away recently. It's been a year since Ed. I think she lost a great nephew, too, in a motorcycle accident. So they've just been... Chip, we were talking about PTSD back there, and I was thinking, poor Deb. She has to have it. So let's keep that family in our prayers. I was there.

I went to visit, and I saw the doctor came in, and they did say that there is a cancer that's kind of common for for people on immunosuppressants after transplants. And this doctor said, actually, we all have cancer that pops up in our bodies all the time, and our immune system takes care of it. It knocks out those cells before they start really reproducing. So there's this cancer that's common to that, and it is very treatable. So if it is cancer, we don't know what the Lord's will is, but let's keep that family in our prayers.

Okay, like I said, I want to look at Daniel 2 and look at the story of Daniel interpreting the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. And before we do that, let's seek the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us here this morning. Lord, we pray that you would bless this study this morning, that you would Bless our service this morning.

Lord, leave us not alone. If you don't meet with us, Lord, we've met in vain. We pray that we're gathered here in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and that you would send your spirit to be among us. Lord, we pray that you would continue to bless this congregation. Pray that you would bless our pastor, Give him health, give him energy. Lord, I pray that you would give us direction in this congregation.

We know that your will is good and right, and we may never see or know how it's working for our good, but we trust that it is. We praise you for it. Lord, we lift up the Sparks family to you especially. We have so many people going through trials and we pray for them all, Lord, but we know that you've put that family in some very deep waters, Lord, and we pray that it would be your will to see them through and restore them to us.

We pray that you would give Novi Health that you would give comfort and peace. We know that thou art the source of all of that. Thou art the great physician, the great comforter. We pray for that family, praying that thy will be done. Once again, we ask that you would bless this lesson this morning. We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for our good and for his sake. Amen.

Okay, like I said, I wanted to look at a lesson where Daniel interprets the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, and that's in chapter two of Daniel. But before that, I wanted to do a little bit of a refresher on how Daniel was able to do this. And that's brought out in chapter one.

Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon, and that word means confusion. And he defeated Jerusalem and he took all the Jews into captivity. And in, in verse three of chapter one, we see that the King spake under Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king seed and of the princes. He chose these certain Jewish kids, and I love to hear about certain people in the Bible, but he selected, it was God's providence to pick these certain kids.

It was kind of like for an AP class, right? I'm going to bring them into the king's house, and we're going to teach them. We're going to teach them all these things. And among these people were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Ariziah. And the king's servant gave them Chaldean names of their gods, actually, called Daniel, Belshazzar, and then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And it says in chapter one that these children were favored of God.

In fact, in Daniel 1.17, we read, for these four children, as for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. And then in chapter 20, after the king communed with them, we read, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found men 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all the realm. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus. So these four children, certain children, They were chosen of God, they were separated of God, they were certain.

And they were brought into the king's court, but they were taught of God. And God's gonna teach all his children. We read that in Isaiah, all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. We read in John, as it is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, and this is what we pray for our children, cometh unto me. So that's the background. Now let's start in Daniel chapter two, and I wanna read through this and give some comments as we read through.

So starting in verse one, and in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him. So he's having these bad dreams at night and he can't get back to sleep. Then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king and the king said unto them, I've dreamed a dream and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac. That's their language. O king, live forever. Tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. And the king answered and said unto the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me.

If you will not make it known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. He forgot the dream. He didn't know what the dream was, but it greatly troubled him. But if you show the dream and the interpretation thereof, you shall receive of me gifts and rewards in great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and the interpretation thereof.

And they answered again and said, let the king tell the servants the dream and we will show the interpretation of it. And the king answered and said, I know the certainty that you would gain the time because you see the thing is gone from me. But if you will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you, for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me till the time be changed. Therefore, tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof.

The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, there is not a man upon earth that can show the king's matters, therefore, There is no King, Lord, nor ruler that asked such things of any magician or astrologer or chaldean. And it is rare that the King, it is rare that thing that King requires. And there is none other that can show it before the King, except the, except the gods whose dwelling is in the, in the flesh. So, Here we have, the king had this dream that troubled him, nightmares.

He doesn't know what it was, he forgot it. He's called these wise men to tell him what it is and to interpret it. And these wise men in this story, they represent false preachers. not had God's word revealed to them so they can't pass it along to others. And they don't proclaim God's word. Not only can't they interpret it, they don't even know it. They've never heard it.

And like many false preachers, they're taking the information from their congregation of how men feel in the natural religion of man and they're giving, they're lying, and they're trying to make them feel good. Verse nine, you prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me till time be changed. You're just preaching to me what I want to hear. You're appealing to my flesh till the time be changed.

And they admitted that it was impossible for men to do this, right? Even as corrupt as they were, they knew we can't do it. And they said the gods can, small g, because they didn't know the true and living God. But they knew that men could not do this. Men can't interpret God's word.

God has to show it to us. We have to be born of the spirit in order to know God's word and to preach it. John, 1st John 2.27, this is talking about how we have to be born of the spirit to know God's word. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. We have to be born again, abiding in Christ to know the truth and to proclaim that truth. Well, let's continue picking up in verse 12. For this cause, the king was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain.

And they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel answered, with counsel and wisdom to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, which has gone forth to slay the men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? And Ariok made the thing known to Daniel, told him this is what the king said, this is what happened. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time, that he would show the king the interpretation. So the king was angry, he commanded his captain of the guard to go out and kill all the wise men of Babylon. And because Daniel and his other three men, three children, were in that wise men group, they went to kill him.

And it says that Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom. And he went to the king and he asked for more time. And the king gave it to him. But that's the same thing that those other guys asked for, right? They give us more time. And the king said, no, I know what you're doing.

I think the counsel and wisdom that Daniel had was to go to the king and said, to say, I can't tell you this, but let me seek it of the Lord. Let me, let me, let me seek if the Lord would reveal this to us because I, I can't make it up. I can't tell you what it is. but the Lord can. I can't, but the Lord can. And the king, he respected that, that attitude, that humility. And how do I know that? Well, let's read on. Picking up in verse 17.

Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, Araziah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of God of heaven, mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows would not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was a secret revealed to Daniel in the night, in a night vision, and Daniel blessed God in heaven. So these four certain sons of Judah, they did what every sinner saved by grace does, they prayed for God's mercy. That's the cry of every sinner.

What did that publican say? Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. Have mercy on me. That woman whose daughter was vexed with the devil, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. Have mercy on me. Blind Bartimaeus, what did he say? Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.

In the mercies of God concern his secret, his gospel, revealing the gospel to the hearts of his children. If we understand our sin and God's righteousness and our need for Christ to pay our debt, and to make us the righteousness of God in him. If we understand that, it's because God had mercy on us and revealed it to us. And just a few scriptures to back that up. I know you know that, but I need to get my words out of the way and read God's word.

Galatians 1.15.16 says, but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." That's Paul.

Luke 8, 10 said, and he said, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but unto others in parables that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. It's been given to people in this room to know the mysteries of God. And I hope that we don't ever let that blessing, that we never cease to marvel at that blessing.

Luke 10, 21, in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. Revealed it unto babes, those who have been born again in Christ. Babes in Christ, born again. These secrets have been revealed to us.

Matthew 11, 27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son. And who? And he. Whomsoever the Son will reveal him. I love being part of that whosoever. That the Son has revealed the Father to me and that I come to him, that I can come to him in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally Psalm 25, 14 says, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his covenant, that eternal covenant that God the Father made with God the Son. We're privy to that. We've been shown that. We know it. We love it. We believe it. And like I said, I hope we never lose the marvel at the mercy of God that he would reveal Christ to us and give us a desire for him.

And Daniel didn't. What did Daniel do after that was revealed to him? Well, Daniel 20. And Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. And he changes the times and the seasons. He removes the kings and set up kings. He giveth wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealed the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth with him.

I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee, for thou hast made known unto us the king's matter." Daniel, when this was revealed to him, when the dream was revealed to him, he worshiped God. He worshiped God as the eternal God, the one who is wisdom, the one, a just God and a savior. He worshiped him as the savior and as the sovereign saver who changes not, who's eternal and he's in control of all things.

He raises things up and he puts them down and he reveals the deep secret things. That's the gospel of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. He reveals that to his people. God's the one who calls us Christ, the light of the world, to dwell in his people.

Ephesians 5.8, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye in light. Now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, born again, children of light.

John 8.12 says, then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world, He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. We're given light and life in the Lord Jesus Christ. First John says, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.

In the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. Finally, Christ said, and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Our righteousness is in God. Our deeds that are made manifest are the righteousness of Christ.

And God's the one that makes the king's matters known. And I know in this story it's talking about Nebuchadnezzar. But God has made to us the matters of the king of kings known. If you believe, it's because God revealed it to you. And he made himself known to you. And this whole book is about the matter of the king of kings. It's for Christ's glory. And I pray that we see that glory and we never, never stray from it. It, it just amazes me. Well, let's, let's read on. I'm picking up in verse 24.

Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said, thus unto him, destroy not the wise men of Babylon, bring me in before the king, and I will show under the king the interpretation. Then Ariok brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. And the king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar, art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation thereof? So he's brought unto the king, and the king says, are you able to tell me the secrets of God? And that's a question for us. Can I make known the gospel, the secrets of God, the secret of how God saves sinners in Christ? Are we able to make that known?

Well, verse 27 and 28, Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king, but there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets and maketh known to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, what shall be in the latter days. I dream in the visions of thy head upon my bed, Those false preachers couldn't, and quite frankly, Daniel couldn't either.

We can preach the gospel, but it's up to the Lord to give increase. And that's what we pray when we stand up here. that God would feed his people, that he would speak to the hearts of his people, to give hearing ears and receiving hearts, and not just see some guy up here fumbling around, not even able to read the word of God as he ought, but that Christ would be shown to us in the gospel. We're commanded to preach the truth and the good news, but God in heaven has to reveal it.

And God is going to reveal what shall be. He's going to make known unto the king what shall be in the later days. Not what will be if you, not what might be, it's what shall be. Because God has declared the end from the beginning. It shall be because it's God's purpose. God purposed it, and he's going to make it so. And known under God are his works from the beginning of the world.

And that should be a comfort to us. Because when we look around and we don't know what's going on, and all we can do is groan and say, Lord, have mercy on me, we know that God's in control. He's the one that causes all this to happen. And that should be a comfort to us because if it's God's purpose, it's good. Well, okay, well, what was the dream? Let's pick up in verse 29. As for the O-King, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter. So this is gonna be a prophecy.

And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. That as for me, the secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than, more than any living, but for their sakes, that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, sawst, behold, a great image, this great image whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. The image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

So the first thing Daniel does is tell the king that this is a prophecy and really it's for our sake. We're going to see the fulfillment of these prophecies. But Daniel says, I didn't get this vision because I'm special. Your pastor's no more special than anybody else here. God's put me up here to teach this class this morning, but it's, I know better than any of y'all. It's not because of any skill I have, but it's, but, This is all of God. And so he saw this image, and I guess it looked like a man, had a gold head, had a silver chest and arms, had a brass midsection, had iron legs, and then the feet were both iron and clay. And then let's continue on with what he saw. Verse 34.

Thou sawest till that a stone was cut without hands, which smote the image upon his feet, that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them, And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." So this great image was smote by a great stone that was cut without hands. And I think we see where this is going, right? Mankind didn't have anything to do with that stone. And that great stone, it crushed the image of all those things that we think endure, iron and gold and silver and brass. And it destroyed them. It ground them to powder. The wind blew them away. And that stone, that stone filled the whole earth. It became all there is. It became all in all, there was nothing left but that stone. And we know that that's, we know that that's a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's see what the interpretation was that was given to Daniel, verse 36. This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

Thou, O king, art the king of kings, art not thee, I'm sorry, a king of kings, small letter K, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given to thine hand and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. So he's telling Nebuchadnezzar, you're this head of gold. God's put you, he's given you this great kingdom and it was commanded of God, but he's put you in this place and that head of gold, that represents your kingdom.

And then verse 39, and after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, In another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. In the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, as the iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." So we've been given the advantage of history to look back on these prophecies. So that first kingdom was Nebuchadnezzar. And it's going to be replaced. Your kingdom's not going to be forever.

And that second kingdom, that's the Medes and the Persians. That's Cyrus, who liberated the Jews from Babylon that God raised up. That's that second kingdom. And Daniel was alive for when that happened. And then there's a third kingdom of brass that's going to rule over all the earth. That kingdom represents Alexander the Great. He went out and he ruled over all the earth. And it's so amazing to see God's providence and purpose in this.

Because of Alexander the Great, the Greek language spread throughout the world. Because of Alexander the Great, because of his kingdom, that was the common language. Everybody understood Greek. Well, the New Testament was written in Greek. God laid that foundation all those years ago so that when the New Testament was written in Greek, it could be spread throughout the world. Then the next kingdom is of iron. That represents the Roman Empire, the fist of iron that they ruled the world. And we've seen the providence in the New Testament about how God used that Roman Empire to fulfill prophecies of Christ.

He was born in Bethlehem because they went to be taxed by Caesar. And he died on a cross. Cursed is every man that dies on a cross. He was made sin. dying on a cross because that was the form of capital punishment that the Romans had. And when they went to the Roman Pontius Pilate, that's the form of execution that they had. And then we've read how all roads lead to Rome. That kingdom built an infrastructure of roads throughout the known world And that's, those are the roads that Paul walked on. Those are the roads that were used to spread that gospel. And then it talks about clay. Well, that just represents every other kingdom of man. Clay were made from, of the earth, earthy, right?

Every kingdom of man that God has raised up is for his purpose. And it's accomplished his will but none of them are gonna last. We live in an amazing country, we have so much freedom and liberty in this country, and we're so thankful for it, but it's not gonna last. Unless the Lord comes before, this country's gonna fail. But it's gonna accomplish God's purpose. It's gonna accomplish God's purpose. All right, so, then let's read Let's read about the last kingdom, the everlasting kingdom. Verse 41.

And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. There shall be in it of the strength of the iron for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with the mire of clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." You know, I got to believe that that's a lot of the division that we're seeing in this world today. We just don't mix. We don't mix anymore. It's kingdoms of man, though. But here we go.

In the days of these kings, And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as thou sawest the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and the interpretation of it thereof sure. That last kingdom is the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That stone, and it's gonna stand forever. And it's not of this physical world. Christ said, my kingdom's not of this world. It's a spiritual world. And Christ is the eternal King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. Hebrews 1.8 says, but under the sun he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is a scepter of thy kingdom. He's gonna judge in righteousness. That throne is eternal. It's a throne of glory. It's a throne of justice. It's a throne of judgment. And praise God, it's a throne of grace. But we read in Hebrews, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of great need.

There's nothing that's going to stand against that kingdom of God. then there's no doubt that that picture is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the eternal rock and he becomes all. He became all and in all. Everything is Christ and it breaks in pieces the kingdoms of heaven. And just briefly I want to Talk about Christ that rock, you know. Christ crucified, that's a stumbling block to natural men, to wise men. These false preachers that represent, you know, these wise men that represent false preachers, they stumble on that because of their own self-righteousness.

1 Corinthians 1.23 says, but we preach Christ crucified under the Jews a stumbling block, And under the Greeks' foolishness, but under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And that power of God is the power to have us born again. That we're made living stones in Christ. We're made one with Christ.

Turn, if you will, I just have two more scriptures I'd like to turn to and read. Turn to 1 Peter, if you would. 1 Peter chapter two. And I hope the Lord's given us some wisdom on this. I don't wanna be making anything up, but this new birth, that's the kingdom of God. 1 Peter chapter two, I wanna read verses two through 10. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If so be that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious.

To whom coming is unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, and holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore, also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him, Christ is the cornerstone, he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. But under them, which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and the stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto they were appointed.

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation. Peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

We've been given mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, We need to cling to him. That's what that everlasting kingdom is built on. It's built on Christ revealing himself to sinners and them obtaining mercy. And then the last scripture I would like to read from Matthew chapter 16. This is one that a lot of people get confused on. stand up false religion based on this because they haven't been taught of God. But Matthew 16, starting in verse 15, this is Christ speaking.

He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter.

And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Peter means rock. but he's not the rock. The foundation is that Peter was born again. He was made like Christ. He was made part of Christ, and that's the foundation that that kingdom, that eternal kingdom's gonna be built on. We're not avoiding hell. We're not looking for streets of gold in grandma and grandpa. We're going to be one with Christ forever and worshiping him in his holy place. All right. Well, once again, I've gone too long, but I pray that the Lord will bless that.

The Everlasting Kingdom

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the interpretation of dreams?

How do we know God's secrets are revealed to us?

Why is the everlasting kingdom of God important for Christians?

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The Everlasting Kingdom

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the interpretation of dreams?

How do we know God's secrets are revealed to us?

Why is the everlasting kingdom of God important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

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