Amen. All right. We're in Acts
chapter 14 dealing with verse 22 tonight versus 22 through
25, but we'll probably only be on verse 22 because of a concept
that I want to begin to nurture our thoughts on. If you guys
recall, we are in the apostle Paul and Barnabas first missionary
journey to Asia minor up in the Turkey area, our Galatia, where
they have done some extensive ministry for several months and
they are returning now to Antioch of Syria, the place that's on
the map right now in our world that is being devastated by wars
and all sorts of conflicts and troubles. Antioch was where they
were first called Christian. Antioch is where the larger bulk
of the Christian work was done when it pertains to the Gentiles. So it's a strategic hub from
which the gospel proceeded. And that's where the apostles
are returning. And you and I talked about last
week how that the apostle Paul was stoned as it were by the
Jews who had come up to harass him. And in God's mercy, he raised
Paul up according to verse 20 and 21. He returned again into
the city, began to preach the gospel in Lystra, Iconium verse
21 and the text tells us in verse 22 these words from which we
are going to get our Meditation tonight on the whole concept
of the kingdom of God They returned to Lystra Iconium and Antioch
this is up near Galatia confirming the souls of the disciples and
Exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. Thus is the reading of God's
word. So I want us to work with verse 22 tonight. The apostles
are returning, heading back home, but they want to, they're compelled
to, Paul, Barnabas, and others with them, compelled To strengthen
the life of the church if you'll notice verse 22 says confirming
the souls of the disciples the word confirmed their means to
establish or to strengthen or to embolden and the way that's
done is through teaching and fellowship and Insight and wisdom
given to the believer that he or she or they might know Truly
that they're children of God to give them all of the necessary
evidence incredible Resources available to help them get grounded
and rooted in the truth Confirming the souls of the disciples and
mark that the term disciple means to be taught of God Confirming
the souls of the disciples Meaning that these are people who have
committed themselves to the ways of Christ to be taught of Christ
Matthew these is the Greek term to be educated in the gospel
as a way of life to follow Christ and Master and Lord and thus
live out in their life the principles of the kingdom of God to which
I am now going to call your attention You might think that it would
be fairly synonymous To take the last clause of verse 22 and
say in that we must through much tribulation enter into the church
And yet what the apostle says in the last line is that we must,
through much tribulation, enter into the what? The kingdom. So what I want us to talk about
is what is pressing on Paul's heart as he is not only instructing
the new churches and fresh babes in Christ, the young believers
in the kingdom of God. He's compelled to talk to them
about the kingdom. And his proposition is that we,
and he included himself, we'll talk about that in a moment,
we must suffer tribulation. And then he uses a term, we must
go. The next word is through. And then he says, Mega-tribulation. Mega-tribulation. Much-tribulation. In order to, and here's our next
word that we're going to deal with, enter into what? the kingdom. So he includes everyone
himself as well. This will give us some thought
tonight too. You have a little paper in your outline. We're
going to be pulling up our PowerPoint in a moment. But what I want
to talk to you about is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God. He
says that they were exhorting them, strengthening them, uh,
teaching them and encouraging them to continue in the faith
in the faith. And that faith is to be experienced
by tribulation as they make their passageway through and into what? The kingdom. All right, so let's
talk about this a little bit. It's very important, very important.
There's a number of questions I wanna raise. And that is, as
we deal with the kingdom of God and strengthening the church,
what is a kingdom? What is a kingdom? That's the
first in our outline. What is a kingdom? The kingdom
of God and strengthening the church. That's our first question.
So I want you to think with me for a moment. Do I really understand
what a kingdom is? Or is that one of those terms,
like many Bible terms that we are so used to and frequently
aware of, but really don't have a fundamental definition of?
What is the kingdom? And I think the latter is true.
that the term kingdom can be used so frequently and yet not
be fully grasped in terms of its basic implications and the
significance of why the term here is used. But I want to build
on that with our study tonight. And I want to press upon your
mind something that I think is critical to the church in the
21st century, particularly Western Christianity, as it pertains
to your obedience to Christ. What is the kingdom of God? Well,
the kingdom of God is many things. Here are the three questions
we're going to deal with. What is the kingdom? When was it announced? And then why a kingdom? Why a
kingdom? Especially in the New Testament
era. So the second thought that we're
going to deal with now is defining that kingdom. And you have in
your outline 10 sort of descriptions the kingdom or a kingdom and
I want you to mark these because they're in your outline now a
kingdom is that we're in a king or Lord or a ruler range over
both a people and a territory a Kingdom is that over which
a king and or Lord reigns sovereign over a people and a territory
now this is gonna be important tonight it may seem incidental
but in a moment you're gonna see why it's important for you
to capture this concept a kingdom is a it's a political institution
that circumscribes the sovereign rule of an individual a sovereign
a Lord who has direct authority over people and and a sphere
or a realm. The second thing is then a territorial
domain. Thirdly, a kingdom possesses
what? A constitution, a constitution. You don't have a real sovereign
kingdom like the kingdom of Israel or Great Britain or many kingdoms
that have passed throughout the regions of the world without
them having some kind of law, some kind of rule, some kind
of authority. You don't have a kingdom if it
doesn't have law. You may have a despot or some
type of dictatorial ruler, but if he hasn't set down a set of
dictums, edicts, bylaws, constitutional principles, which are generally
called covenants. Like in America, we have the
Constitution, right? It doesn't make us a kingdom,
per se, but we do have rules and bylaws by which we operate.
Then in a kingdom, you have, fourthly, a citizenry, a community,
subjects is that what it says a community of subjects and we're
gonna get back and start kind of filling in the gap a little
bit in terms of applying the biblical concept to this but
I want to make sure that you grasp this so a kingdom is a
place or a dominion a sphere where a king rules and he rules
over a territory he has a constitution or a set of bylaws by which the
whole of the kingdom operates there is a citizenry you don't
have a kingdom If you are a king without a people, you don't have
a kingdom, even if you are a king without a people. Okay. And so
then the fifth thing is, is that there are laws that are extracted
from that constitution by which the people in that kingdom practice
principally how to conduct themselves. We're going to come back there
in a moment. There's a law that issues from the king. Where the
word of the king is there is what authority? Wheresoever the
word of the king is ecclesiastes 5 there is authority so technically
a sovereign declares What is to be done what is not to be
done how we are to conduct ourselves? And function and everyone in
that kingdom and within the sphere of that kingdom operates under
the rule and authority of that king of that Kingdom the next
thing is in a kingdom where that kingdom possesses levels of benevolence
There are what we call privileges rights and what? Benefits of
being part of a kingdom. Is that true? Absolutely in any
kingdom political Where there are boundaries by which the people
operate as subjects and citizens of that kingdom that kingdom
then affords those people certain privileges such as protection
and protection from outside foes, benefits and blessings that are
constituent with the land in which those people dwell. Certain
portions of our world wherein we have monarchies, I'll talk
about that in a moment, or dynasties. Those lands where those monarchies
or dynasties dwell have what we call natural resources. by
which the people then are blessed by the resources of that land. They have the right of possession
and acquisition of the resources of that land. And then we have
sixthly or seventhly, a code of what? Ethics, acceptable lifestyles,
and what? Conducts. We're gonna come back
here in a moment and fill that in as we work through the idea
of a kingdom. And again, every kingdom has
to have ethics because ethics and morals are boundaries and
practices by which behavior is expected for the good and welfare
of society. You cannot function in any kingdom,
even if that kingdom is as narrow as your own home. And we'll make
application there in a moment. A home can be a kingdom, And
in that kingdom, some of these same rules can apply. It certainly
is that way in the king's home and in countries where there
is the hierarchy of relationships that are used to and are similar
to, correlative to a sovereign kingdom. A code of ethics, acceptable
lifestyles and conducts. That means in a kingdom, you
have penal codes that punish crimes, right? And so we move
on. After a code of ethics, we have
an what? Army or security. Every kingdom
has to have a form of security to protect its right to exist
and to function. Most kingdoms have what we call
militaries. Most governments have what we
call militaries. We have militaries, and militaries
are designed to protect the interest of the kingdom At hand, it's
very important. Very important. Then we have
what is called what a commonwealth or a form of economic security
For all the citizens of that kingdom. We're going to come
back and fill these in scripturally in a moment. I'll help you see
the parallels between earthly kingdoms And the kingdom of god
Which is critical for you and me I want to press home to you
how important it is for us to understand a kingdom especially
living in a society where we are all autonomous kings and
queens and How that affects our walk with Christ This is what
I want to work through tonight and you're gonna hear me working
this through as I go through the life of David building through
the life of David a number or a series of redemptive paradigms
and models of how God's kingdom functions what he approves of
what he disapproves of how we will see the gospel in it as
well as the the nature of the kingdom of God that we are now
discussing and finally a social culture our protocol and set
of procedures watch this now by which that kingdom is uniquely
manifested as that kingdom I'm gonna run through these quickly
and then we're gonna work through filling in the gaps and then
I'm gonna work through my Next, I have three or four other points
that I want to develop tonight under this. So what is a kingdom?
It's a place where there is a king or a lord, a sovereign who is
at the top of the echelon of authority. There is a territory
or a sphere of dominion which he exercises over. There's a
set of constitutional laws or covenants or precepts by which
he now engages bindingly upon his subjects. There is a citizenry
or a community of subjects in which he now is collaborating
as him being king and they being the people. There's a law, acceptable
principles, privileges, rights, benefits, a code of ethics, an
army, a commonwealth, and a social culture. I submit to you that
this expresses in a very balanced way the nature of the kingdom
of God, that the kingdom into which sinners are called to enjoy
God for all eternity can be described by these 10 points. Now there
can be a hundred points with the kingdom, but I've only given
us 10 in order to work through these. Who would we say in the
kingdom of God is king and Lord? Let's say God. Okay. Let's say
first God, then you can say all three persons. And finally, you
can say principally the Lord Jesus. We're going to say God. Because when we talk about God
in the biblical sense, we are talking about the tri-personality
of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are the triune God. We say God because all three
persons are Lord. The Father is Lord, the Son is
Lord, the Spirit is Lord. Is that true? We don't have a
subordination of relationship between us, the subject, and
the three persons. They are all God. They are all
sovereign. They are all Lord. We call him
the Lord God Almighty. We call the Father Lord, the
Son Lord, and we call the Spirit Lord. And they are all interchangeably
free to exercise dominion and authority and influence in our
lives in terms of their qualifications. So we would say, The kingdom
of God and that's the way the scriptures express it. Does it
not the basal layer of theos? To the oo and we'll get there
in a moment Uh, and then the second thing is what is the territory
or the domain of the kingdom of god? heaven and earth Heaven
and earth matthews chapter 28 19 to 20. I could give you all
kinds of texts the psalm says the earth is the lord and the
fullness thereof The Lord made the heavens and the heaven of
heavens. He is sovereign Lord over all. That's the way the prophets put
it. That's the way you and I need to understand it. I want to make
sure you guys start actually again, uh, permeating your thoughts
with this reality is going to be critical to our advancement
as children of God. Thirdly, then a constitution
or a royal covenant. What is the constitution or royal
covenant of God? The word of God. The word of
God. The Bible is the word of God.
Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew chapter 5, heaven and earth will
pass away, but not one jot or one tittle of my word shall pass
away. The word of God is the law in
the kingdom of God. It's the word of God. It's the
word of God. The word of God in total as we
have it. And so that is the constitution for the people of God. We have
no other binding authority, but thus saith the Lord. Tons of
verses. I won't give you them now. We'll
work that through in a later discourse. But then what is the
law of acceptable principles? What is that law that God, I'm
sorry, the citizenry, what is the citizenry or a citizenry
or a community of subjects? What will we call that? The people
of God. First, if God is the king of
the kingdom, all three persons, then we are subjects of God.
Then we are called the people of God. more specifically manifested
in our context, it's called the what? The church, the church. And I'll press that home here
in a moment. I want you to get it. I want you to get it. Cause
this is going to have a whole lot to do with our obedience
and our blessing between now and we breathe our last breath.
So the citizenry is the people of God or, and, and, or the church
of the living God. why Jesus said in Matthew chapter
16 verse 18 I will build my what and the what will not what that's
right and so when we talk about the church we are talking about
the ecclesia those who are called out to manifest the kingdom we'll
talk about this here in a little bit more then again what are
the privileges and rights the privileges and rights I did last
skip something Okay, what is the law X? What is the law of
what we would call acceptable principles in the kingdom? What
is the principle law by which the kingdom of God is manifested
in the life of the people of God? faith in Christ Romans chapter
1 verse 5 Romans 16 25. I want you to follow how this
works. We got the Word of God. That's his law. But the principle
law by which the people of God are identified as the people
of God are the people of God who walk by and they serve God
by. And so when Paul talks about
entering into or submitting to the crown rights of Jesus, he
talks about in Romans 1 verse 5, the obedience of faith, the
obedience of faith. Without faith, it's what? That's
right. And so the kingdom of God because
of the nature of the kingdom at presently is always manifest
manifested by this underlying presupposition people of What
say that's exactly right people of faith in other words it's
obvious that if we are a citizenry and we are subjects of a king
and he gives us his laws and his rules and And we obey those
laws and rules that that obedience is going to be a kind of relationship
manifestation, right? And what this King says is that
because of the nature of the kingdom, the critical key to
obedience is based upon a principle called what faith faith. Because of the nature of the
kingdom, the key to obedience is principally The rule of faith
are the law of faith. That's the key that lets you
in, keeps you in, and gets you all the way through. That's the
only way a true child of God is ever affirmed as being in
the kingdom. In other words, there can be
furious and false pretenders of the kingdom who are exercising
forms of obedience. That does not have its foundation
upon the key of faith And thus they only appear to be in the
kingdom But are not really in the kingdom Are you guys hearing
what i'm saying? We'll make this plain more plain
down the line So the acceptable principle by which the citizenry
are manifested to be the people of god is the principle of faith
the rule of faith Again, let me just kind of go to Romans
chapter 16 I think it's 25 where the Apostle asserts this as he
establishes his role as the ambassador of the kingdom to the Gentiles
As he encourages them into it so It's verse 25 and 6 now to him
that is a power to establish you according to my gospel and
and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now
is manifested and that by the scriptures of the prophets, according
to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
for the what? Obedience of what? The gospel
has been revealed through preaching to all nations for or to this
end that they would obey him through the key of faith. Going back to Romans chapter
one, verse five, I think we'll see it again. And this being
the case, it's going to actually help you understand why when
I use the word key, you will have that key, which will attach
itself to every other virtue and characteristic by which the
children of the kingdom are affirmed to be the children of the kingdom.
The key of faith is going to be the key that attaches itself
to every other virtue by which the children of God are affirmed
to be children of the kingdom. The key with which you and I
are assured of the kingdom, and without it, you cannot have it.
In Romans chapter one, verse five, I think the apostle puts
it this way. Yes, he does. He says, by whom we have received
grace and apostleship, talking about the Lord Jesus, who was
raised from the dead, for the obedience of what? Among all
what for his namesake? You're gonna see this in a moment
and it's gonna be with you for the rest of your life If you
have never ever been confronted with the concept of the kingdom
It's gonna press itself home now and you're gonna have a framework
now and a set of boundaries By which you would understand the
scriptures more clearly in terms of the imperative and authority
of Christ over his church and why you and I call him curious
and Or in the English, the word is what? Lord. Why call ye me
Lord, Lord? And don't do what I tell you
to do. If he's truly a king and he's
Lord, then we are his what? Subjects. What's another more
crude way of putting it? Slaves. Right. Or servants. Same thing. We'll
be able to work with that here in a little bit, but it's true.
We're slaves. slaves. And I'll show you why. When the term kingdom is used,
it has a natural pushback on the part of little autonomous
sovereigns like you and me, because of the pejorative connotation
of slavery. But you and I are slaves of one
system or another, whether you want to admit it or not. So we
have not only the law Acceptable principles rooted
in faith now we have what are called the what? Privileges rights
and benefits of the kingdom. Is that true the privileges rights
and benefits of the kingdom? I'm just gonna give you a few
as a rule as a rule here the privileges and rights of the
kingdom. Are you ready? redemption the grace of God forgiveness
of sin eternal life redemption grace forgiveness and eternal
life are four terms of that are sprinkled all throughout the
New Testament that underscore the privileges and rights and
benefits of the people of God. In other words, the grounds of
the relationship between the sovereign king and his citizens
is one of redemption. It's redemptive in nature. And
from that redemption flows the grace of God and that grace manifests
itself in a practical relational dynamic of the forgiveness of
sins by which eternal life now is procured for those who are
part of that kingdom. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So I gave you redemption, grace, forgiveness, eternal life.
You can just use those four because those words become, uh, they
become sort of adumbrations, uh, conclusive statements that
the apostles use frequently when they talk about the promise of
redemption or the promise of grace or the promise of forgiveness
or the promise of eternal life all through the new Testament.
Those are the privileges, rights, and benefits of every citizen
of the kingdom. Okay now, what are the code of
ethics or acceptable lifestyle and conduct that hallmarks and
identifies the kingdom of God? It's going to be one word that
I'm going to give you. The code of ethics, an acceptable lifestyle
and or conduct that hallmarks or identifies the children of
the kingdom. There is a code of ethics essential
for you to operate or function in the kingdom of God and it
is the word righteousness Write it down Righteousness This is
a massive adumbration an overarching principle that underscores the
nature of the kingdom of God proceeding first from God's nature
and Permeating everything in the kingdom and justifying the
existence of the kingdom The kingdom of God is a kingdom of
righteousness The kingdom of God is a kingdom
of righteousness When once you remove righteousness from the
kingdom, it's no longer God's kingdom Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? The kingdom of God is a kingdom
of righteousness. It proceeds from God's nature.
It permeates everything that God touches or God is involved
with. And more particularly, his people
are people who walk in the righteousness of God. Faith then being the
key, accesses that righteousness, both in terms of its imputation
and its impartation. Is that true? Faith then being
the key, which accesses the righteousness of God Which is that code of
ethic by which the lifestyle of the people of god is acceptable
Would that be a valid proposition ladies and gentlemen Right, you
know what christ said in matthew chapter 5 as he gave that great
sermon on the mount He said to the scribes and the pharisees
in verse 22, I think accept your righteousness Exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and the pharisees. You'll never enter into the kingdom
of god So here's another word I want us to work with as we
think about who we are in Christ. And the overarching emblem or
symbol, banner, if you will, of the kingdom of God is going
to be righteousness. You remove righteousness from
the equation and everything else is a farce. Wherever righteousness
is not, The devil has utter and total dominion Are you guys following me so
far please hear me I want you to get this wherever righteousness
is not The devil has dominion The kingdom of god is a kingdom
of righteousness Because that's the rule of god as it were, co-extensively
and existentially proceeding from himself, impacting everything
that he touches, claims and owns. If there's a dichotomy in the
kingdom between God and other, that dichotomy is identified
as not being righteous. And that which is not righteous
is not of God. And it is the sphere and dominion
of the devil. Romans 14 17 the kingdom of God
is first and foremost what? You guys better learn your Bibles
You better learn your Bibles The kingdom of God is righteousness
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost So the righteousness is the foundation
of that kingdom. Peace is the by-product of a
righteous standing with God, a righteous life practice, and
joy is the overflow of that peace. It ought to operate in every
home, in every heart, in every home, in every heart, in every
home, in every heart. Where righteousness does not
rule, God is not intentionally occupying that space. Am I making
some sense? Now we got a lot to talk about
in this whole concept, but I just want to, as it were, sprinkle
your thoughts with some terminology that I know is critical and I
want to frame it within the concept of the covenant because, or the
kingdom rather, because I know that where we are in our present
time, we have like little pieces of theological truth, kind of
like floating around in the space, in the atmosphere, and it doesn't
necessarily come together to composite a concept, a unified
and coherent concept. And when you hear about the kingdom
of God, what you're hearing about is a rule by which those who
say they're a part of God's kingdom must abide. So we move now from
a code of ethics, acceptable lifestyles and conducts, the
fundamentally hallmark Righteousness, I'll be able to demonstrate that
more fully and I'll answer your questions on this shortly to
an army Do you guys see that? So it's quite fascinating to
me How God works and the economy of God the stewardship of God
and in time He created everything to be a reflection of his own
infinite eternal immutable unchangeable nature and kingdom so the kingdoms
of men are typical of the kingdoms of God and because God gave man
the prototype at his first assignment, right? So mankind operates out
of the prototype, albeit as flawed as it is, reflecting the nature
of God. Is that true? Now here, we say
that a kingdom must have an army. Is that true? Does that make
sense? Does God have an army? Right. Celestially, the army
is his what? Celestially, his army is his
angels. They do his bidding. They fight
his battles. They wage war with adversaries.
Is that true? Serious conflict in the celestial
dominion that God has allowed his angels to exercise, so much
so that he has called them generals. And he has given us peeks into
that dominion through the Old Testament as well as the New,
has he not? It's a spiritual battle. And
then in the terrestrial realm or the physical dimension, the
church is also an army. Do you accept that nomenclature,
that appellation? There's a sense in which you
and I are soldiers of Christ. Is that true? And in that context,
with that type of metaphor or motif, it's presumed that from
time to time, if not a lot, We're engaged in a what? That's right. And Christianity has to know
this. Now, the reason why this stuff has to be vivid for you
and me is because when a person says they are in the kingdom
of God and yet they don't know the identity of the kingdom,
the prominent identity of the kingdom and the mission of the
kingdom, then that person is going to be lost in terms of
their role in the kingdom. This is very, very true. And
when you're reading your Bible, the New Testament only just your
New Testament and you read a hundred and sixty three times the kingdom
of God and someone doesn't teach you about the kingdom you are
in a mess are you hearing me but you see how we can read our
Bibles and until God uses the teacher to call our attention
to these things we do not see them And that's because in the
kingdom, there's a hierarchy and a structure of government
that God sets up in order to teach the citizenry who they
are. I'm making some sense. Am I not?
So this is very important. We're almost done with this part.
We'll pull up the next one. So in the army, the army exists
for the security of the kingdom. Another way to put it is the
advancement of the kingdom, the objectives of the kingdom and
the glory of the God of the kingdom. The advancement of the kingdom
because God's kingdom is at least within the phase in which we
are operating now We'll deal with this in our next point is
designed to advance The kingdom of God is designed to advance
So when the prototype was given in Genesis chapter 1 26 27 28,
let us make man in our own image in our likeness Let them have
what dominion Let them replenish the earth. Let them fill it.
Let them exercise authority over it The kingdom of god was meant
to advance from adam one throughout the whole of the universe Adjust
the earth Adjust the earth the universe God's glory was to be
carried and conveyed and manifested by every image bearer of god
wherever that image bearer goes God's glory was to be conveyed
and carried and manifested wherever the image bearer Goes am I making
some sense? redemptively redemptively Redemptively
we call this evangelism Right we call it evangelism which draws
out other implications. We'll get there in a moment.
Let me deal with the last one then. Our last two. So a commonwealth,
I love this. So the army or security is in
two dimensions. The spiritual dimension is the
angels. The physical dimension is the people of God. We are
called soldiers. We have rules, we have hierarchy, we have leaders,
right? And we have a structure and system
by which government is manifested on a practical level for those
who are in the kingdom. And again, the reason why this
is so important is because the present culture in which we live
in is so fragmented so fragmented around structure, authority,
government, purpose, and protocol, particularly from the standpoint
of a kingdom model, that where a kingdom model is not something
that's being reinforced on the part of the people of God, an
individual Christian, a couple, a family, and a church. Because
of the nature of our present culture, your cultural model
will militate against the biblical model necessarily and you'll
find yourself not operating out of kingdom principles because
you're more culturally driven than biblically driven i'm telling
the truth that's why i'm calling our attention to it so you can
see how that if you and i don't adhere to what our next power
point is going to address pressing into the kingdom we're going
to find ourselves struggling so our final one is a commonwealth
an economic security system by which that kingdom is secured
and blessed. What is the common wealth of
the kingdom of God? I want you to get it under one
word and then a subordinate word to it, attached to it. The common
wealth of the kingdom of God is the spirit. Yeah, that's good. Thank you, pastor. That's good.
Cause I know you didn't get it, but you're about to get it now.
The common wealth of the kingdom of God is the spirit of God.
the spirit of God, the tangible, the credible economic wealth
of the kingdom resides in the person of the
spirit who operates as resident Lord to deposit into the life,
the citizenry, everything necessary for life and godliness in the
kingdom of God. The commodity of the commonwealth
and the word commonwealth means the wealth that we all commonly
possess in the kingdom by which we might operate as citizens
of God. Meaning that you and I don't possess the commonwealth
individually. It's a commonwealth collectively
given to us by the king himself. Am I making some sense? Now this
is very important. Who distributes as he wills in
his own sovereign way gifts and resources by which the kingdom
functions. It's called the commonwealth.
That's good, isn't it? It's important to get. And therefore we have as a consequent
of the spirit of God, who is the tangible or commodity of
the kingdom, the tangible personal commodity of the kingdom by which
being distributed to all of its members, gifts and resources,
essential for our identity, for our maintenance, for our prosperity,
and for our perfection, the spirit of the living God, it's going
to actually abound into this last category, which we call
a social what? Right. So when the kingdom of
God is operating cognitively, consciously, Biblically through
and through in the life of an individual in the life of a couple
in the life of a family and in the life of the church when all
of these qualities when all of these Characteristics of the
kingdom are permeating the whole body politics. You're gonna have
what is called a culture That's right, you're gonna have a culture
Like every one of us who are married and have raised kids
and You've done 12, 15 years. Let's just say you did 10. You
got a culture. And that culture is attached
to the name by which that family is distinguished. When they come
into your house, they see your culture. That's the Smiths. That's how the Browns do it.
Oh, they'll go to Washington's. Boy, I can tell you're Washington.
It's called a culture. So it is in the church. Are you
hearing me? So it is in the church. There's a culture. And so what
is that culture basically predicated upon three fundamental principles
that establish our protocol and our sort of procedural objectives. Three, faith, hope, and love. Faith, hope, and love become
the social culture out of which the kingdom of God operates.
Two others that I attach to those in terms of concrete manifestation.
Where faith, hope, and love are not operating, you and I have
not entered into the kingdom of God. Where faith, hope, and
love are operating, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, obviously, right?
What is gonna be manifested by in terms of sort of a tangible
expression are two other things, giving and serving. Giving and serving. Giving and
serving. But I gave you three predicates
to underscore those two verbs. Giving and serving will be predicated
upon faith, hope, and love, for where faith, hope, and love are
not operating, the giving and service is a sham. It's a sham. And I'll make the
distinction down the line between the false kingdom and the true
kingdom. So as I said earlier, the key
into the kingdom is what? Don't ever forget it. Faith. And that key actually opens up
every other door in the kingdom by which the virtues and benefits
and blessings of the kingdom are accessed by which we get
to live out the kingdom. Without which. We do not get
to live out the kingdom. Our next proposition, then there
are three aspects to the kingdom of God that I want us to take
seriously. Three aspects of the kingdom
of God that I want us to take seriously. Then you outline.
And it falls out like this. When the apostle says in verse
22, that he is confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting
them to continue in the key. You got it, right? And that we
must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. I want to talk about what is
not always so easily apprehended around biblical terminology that
fundamentally constitutes our salvation. So I'm going to make
some dichotomies that I think will help us understand the language
of the scriptures, how the scriptures actually frame themselves. There are three aspects to the
idea of being in the kingdom of God, just like there are three
aspects to the idea of being saved. And where we fail to understand
these three aspects and especially understand them contextually,
what we will do is we will mix apples and oranges. And in mixing
apples and oranges, we will end up in debates, endless debates
around the nature of the kingdom because we fail to understand
this trifold distinction. There are three aspects to your
salvation. And as there are three aspects
to your salvation, there are three aspects I submit and posit
to the kingdom of God. And that's in that sense, what
I am doing now is making your salvation synonymous to the kingdom. I want you to see the categories
and when you understand these categories, And you can actually
take these categories and assign them contextually. You can get
yourself out of quagmires and false conclusions that people
often draw around what salvation is. So salvation is something
that was done. It's something that is being
done. done and salvation is something
that will Be what done and so we are talking past what present
and what? So it is with the kingdom So
it is with the kingdom so in your outline you have three aspects
of the kingdom the first aspect I want to call entrance into
entrance into the kingdom. The other aspect I want to call
occupancy in that kingdom. Occupancy in that kingdom. There's some other terms I'm
going to use in a moment. And then the third one is what? Apprehension. Apprehension. That term is a
little bit evasive. That's a little bit evasive,
but I'm going to use that for a moment as a term. Entrance can be largely what
is construed as past tense When we are talking about conversion
You guys got that? If in fact we are converted Sometimes
in the scriptures when it talks about entering into the kingdom
of God it is talking about entering into the kingdom of God through
conversion Through the need of being born again through all
of the terminology that underscores being in the kingdom of darkness
and translated into the kingdom of what? And so we will call
that conversion. There are radical texts of scripture
that underscored the importance of entering into the kingdom,
right? And everywhere the scriptures talk about entrance into the
kingdom, they talk about that as a critical starting point
to the reality of eternal life. critical starting point to the
reality of eternal life and then what the next thing we talk about
is what we call occupancy in the kingdom and that is our commitment and We can say practice therein
I Press the word commitment because we'll get to that here in a moment
when we go back to our tax Why is commitment a concept with
regards to the kingdom? I Because through much tribulation
do we enter into the kingdom. That the concept of commitment
is critical to the nature of perseverance, and pressing in,
and devotion, and resolve, and identity, and fidelity, right? Commitment. Conversely, if we
give an opposite word, reverse of the term commitment what will
we be talking about that which is unfaithful non-committed right
turning back it's another term for not being committed didn't don't know the idea of
not having a sense of resolving commitment and faithfulness and
fidelity to the kingdom is a violation of the King's law isn't it so
The scriptures nowhere would underscore that an individual
would have any kind of comfort that they are in the kingdom
when the conduct is that of non-committed, unfaithful, right? Dubious, vacillating. The nature of faith itself underscores
conviction and resolve and commitment, does it not? All right, so that's
why I use the term committed. And then finally, the last one
is the term what? Consummation or apprehension. Consummation is the idea of us
finally and fully realizing. Let's use another word, realizing.
And that too is evasive today. Although 100 years ago, the word
realize would have had more of a practical, concrete idea. What do we mean by that? Meaning
that when we talk about the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God
terminology is used in the scriptures, we have to ask whether or not
we're talking about entering into it, whether or not we're talking
about our conduct and commitment in the midst of the kingdom,
or whether we're talking about experiencing the consummation,
the consummation, the fulfillment of the kingdom of God. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? So those of you who know your Bibles
fairly well, you know the Bible talks in terms of these three
aspects, don't they? exercise a few verses around
this so that we can work it through to which one of the to which
one of these is the Apostle referring when we say in Acts chapter 14
22 as he's confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting
them to continue in the faith that we must, through much tribulation,
enter into the kingdom of God. To which of these three is he
referring? Is he referring only to conversion? Is he referring to merely perseverance? Is he referring exclusively to
that final apprehension of the kingdom upon death Is he referring
to all of them and don't get lazy Don't get lazy What in the context would demand
all three What in the context wouldn't
demand all three see so we're gonna start see this is how we
this is how we do exegetical studies of the Bible So like
right now when you guys say all of them, I know that you're thinking
in terms of the larger texts of scripture You're not thinking
necessarily in terms of the context in front of you You're not saying
pastor. See how the context plainly says
We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of glory Are the kingdom of eternal life
The text says the kingdom of God, let's ask the question terms
of the three aspects entrance is there tribulation on trial
entering into the kingdom right now watch this contextually contextually
I would say there would be a strong argument for an entrance into
the kingdom in terms of making your calling an election sure
based upon what the Apostles have just gone through in terms
of all the persecution that they derive an experience in the previous
verses Stay with me Remember paul just got up off the ground
from being stoned to death for the gospel. Has he not? Paul
has just gone through seven or eight cities up in asia minor
preaching the gospel and everywhere He's went he's gone. He's suffered
trouble. Has he not? Has paul going through
philipses our tribulation our suffering? And has not that suffering
then we're going to see this through a few other scriptures
has not that suffering indicated That there is a force that if
it has its way, it would keep you from being saved. You better
know it. I'm getting ready to open your
eyes to why God calls it a kingdom. Why he calls it a kingdom. Are
people easily saved? I want you to think about that.
Does entering into the kingdom occur as simple as accepting
Jesus into your heart? Not at all This is the cheap
aspect of evangelism that has to quickly be discarded because
it's not evangelical And it's not even crystal centric It's
not even crystal centric You remember what the scripture says
and let me say this before I go deal with verses that deal with
conversion In your Bible the word to enter into the kingdom
is used 35 times in the New Testament And everywhere it's used for
entering into the kingdom. It frequently talks about challenges
entering in You guys already remember and hear the echo of
our master in Matthew chapter 7 around verse 21, right? He
says wide is the road that leads to destruction Narrow is the
gate and straight is the way the word straight there is constricted
Straight is the way that leads to life and few there be that
way. I So what he's doing by inference
is saying That entering into the kingdom of god doesn't happen
by accident And it doesn't happen without some intentionality And
it doesn't happen without without a kind of suffering and struggle
Do you guys follow that? That's exactly right um Do you
remember what jesus said to the nicod to nicodemus in john chapter
3? when Nicodemus came to him presuming that he was in the
kingdom. And he spoke to Jesus on an egalitarian level of being
colleagues in the ministry as Jesus was. He's a teacher. Jesus
is a teacher. We're both teachers. Jesus says,
you don't even see the kingdom. Remember that? John chapter three.
I want to talk to you now. I want you guys to get this.
So entrance into the kingdom is a philipses. It's a struggle. It's a challenge for many reasons. In fact, the way Christ put it
in John chapter 3 is that human effort into the kingdom will
always result in failure. That if God doesn't make you
born again, you will not only not be in the kingdom, you won't
see it. And this is the other concept
that I have been contemplating for a long time now, whether
or not people actually see the kingdom. You follow the logic? So what Christ had to do with
Nicodemus, who was a lawyer or a teacher, who should have had
the keys. This is what Jesus said in the
gospel of Luke. He says, you lawyers, you guys have the keys,
but you don't go in and you forbid everyone else from going in,
right? Which means the battle for entering
into the kingdom is so fierce that those who should be stewards
and helping people get in, deceived and kept out and they become
obstacles for others entering in at this juncture what you
and I would be saying is I need to pay more attention to what
my Lord said about entering into the kingdom that's exactly right
I need to pay a little bit more attention Attention to what my
lord said about entering into the kingdom. So we're gonna uh,
sort of uh, wet our whistles around that there are as I have
in our outline 130 something 163 verses in the new testament
around the kingdom 163 do you know what the bulk of those verses
are? The four accounts of the gospel That's right. The four accounts
of the gospel. I say one gospel because there's
only one gospel. It's not four gospels. It's four
accounts of the one gospel. There's only one gospel, not
four gospels. There's only one salvation, only
one faith. We all may have it, but it's one faith. There's only
one gospel. And those men wrote about what our Lord said. And
our Lord constantly talked about the what? What was the form of our Lord's dialogue around the
kingdom? What was the prominent form of
his rhetorical device by which he talked about the kingdom?
Parables. The kingdom of God is like this. Is that what he says? Over and
over and over and over and over. And his disciples said, Master,
why are you talking like this? And he said, because entrance
into the kingdom is only given to those for whom it is given. Please hear me. That's what he
said. You can read it for yourself
in Matthew chapter 13. Why are you talking to them in parables?
Because to those that are outside of the kingdom, these things
are done in parables. But to whom it is given, it's in order
that you might know the nature of the kingdom of God. So the
parables become object lessons of the nature of the kingdom.
That if a person is hungry enough, committed enough, interested
enough in the kingdom, he will learn the parables and see how
the kingdom functions. Acquiring the identity of the
kingdom based upon the parables which will give him insight into
the form and shape and function The aim and goal and objective
of the kingdom, right? If you're not interested in the
kingdom You won't be interested in the way our lord talked because
he was the one that used the term kingdom over and over and
over and over and over again Quite naturally because he's
the what king And then finally the concept
of consummation. Just as in our salvation there's
an entering into our salvation, just as in our salvation there's
a sustaining of our salvation, and just as in our salvation
there's a consummation of our salvation. Is that biblically
true? Are we saved in the past sense of Christ having died for
our sins and by faith in him we now affirm the salvation that's
in him? Are we being saved by the preserving
and keeping work of the Holy Ghost which is transforming us
into the image of Christ daily? That's Corinthians chapter 1
verse 18 through 24. And will we not one day experience
the totality and fullness of our salvation? The salvation
which is to come unto you at the appearing of our Lord Jesus.
So you see those three phases? Those three categories are important
to mark out and identify when you're reading certain texts
of scripture. Can I tell you why? Because at what aspect of
those three, at what point those three aspects of the kingdom
are in the text, you might stumble at the terminology that's being
used if you don't identify that aspect of the kingdom. Like here's
what Matthew chapter 7 verses 22 through 24 say go to Matthew
chapter 7 show you something In Matthew chapter 7 we read
over in verse 21 Not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord
Shall enter into the kingdom of heaven You ready? Now watch this next line I teach
you why you have to rightly divide the word and understand salvation
within the framework and categories of these three stage processes Not everyone shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven But he that doeth the will of my father
which is in heaven Do you see that? You see that Now the person
who is failing to comprehend the distinction between entrance
occupancy and apprehension Will say that jesus is teaching works
to get in This is where silly shallow-minded Bible arguers
get online facebook internet and just have a field day with
each other Talking apples and oranges because they fail to
understand contacts Are you guys hearing me? But Jesus will talk
to us a lot throughout the gospels this way. The rich young ruler
will come and say, good master, what shall I do to obtain eternal
life? And you and I will quickly say, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved. But our master said, give up
everything, follow me and you'll obtain eternal life. And the
legalist will say, the master's teaching salvation by what? All
the master was saying is affirm your salvation by kingdom principles
that are consistent with every believer. Are you guys hearing
me? Confirm your salvation by kingdom
principles that are evidence in the life of every believer.
You're gonna see this vividly as I go through the narrative
of David. David is gonna teach us how the
subjects of the kingdom come to the king and interact with
the king. And how some oppose the king
and fight with the king and we're gonna see in a very narrative
form the nature of the kingdom as I'm talking about it now But
it's important for us to understand what I'm saying. So now watch
what our lord does Not only does he warn about The what we would
call, uh, theologically the eschatological manifestation of the kingdom
eschatology is the study of end time things That's the aspect
of theology that, again, Western culture does not put a lot of
emphasis on. But the older I get, the more
I'm concerned about finishing than starting. I believe in the
credible and necessary affirmation of getting into the kingdom.
I'm encompassed by the affirmation of my identity as a child of
God by making my calling and election. Sure. That is not a
issue of conflict for me daily. I am seeking to make my calling
and election. Sure. I want to make sure that
I actually entered and making my calling so that when I enter
finally into the kingdom, the master doesn't say to me, I don't
know you do right. Isn't that the warning? Isn't that the warning? Right. So this is not the warning at
the beginning. This is the warning at the end. This is eschatological
drama that says to the professing believer, you got to deal with
entrance, occupancy, and apprehension. You got to deal with entrance.
Determine and affirm what your Bible says about faith in Christ.
then determine and affirm about what your Bible says to live
by faith and then determine and affirm what your Bible says about
being ready for glory that way you don't chop your Bible up
and throw portions of it away emphasizing merely the entrance
doctrine of salvation I'm making some sense am I I'm making a
lot of sense now you get to read your Bible and enjoy your Bible
let's see the Bible is a cohesive coherent True, that's progressive
and comprehensive in nature. All three aspects are critical
to the kingdom of God, are they not? And so he says over here
in verse 23, and then I will profess, I'm sorry, we already
dealt with that, verse 24 through 26. He says, therefore, whosoever
heareth these words and sayeth of mine and doeth them, I will
liken him unto a what kind of man? A wise man. Which built
his house upon a what? Now watch this. And the rain
descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon
the house and it did not fall because it was founded upon a
rock. That sounds like tribulation.
Stay there. We're not done. That sounds like
trouble. So our master is saying by virtue of this, this metaphor
here, trouble is certain. rains are coming storms are coming
but the obedience of faith is establishing our foundation upon
that rock so that our foundation is connected to him who can keep
the house in the midst of the storms am i making some sense
right and that's exactly where he is going here in uh our text
in act chapter 14 verse 22 so going back to our point. I want
to work through a few more things here a Few a few more things
and then I'll take some questions here in five minutes Going back
to our point under the rubric of three aspects of the kingdom
of God. You see what I got here Okay, so yeah, so under the kingdom
of God we have interest occupancy and apprehension we have conversion
commitment and then finally what I call consummation and to which
one of these is the apostle referring. In my opinion, he's actually
teaching the church how to enter into the kingdom successfully,
making sure that their conversion is authentic. He's not telling
them in this text, not in this text, to secure their sort of
entering into heaven at last, but to secure their entering
into the kingdom of God at the first. See if I can if I can
argue for that What was happening everywhere the Apostles went
preaching Wherever they preached Christ here come these Judaizers
overthrowing the gospel Seeking to destroy the faith by which
men entered into the kingdom. Are you hearing me? Did we learn
that in first Thessalonians chapter 2 where Paul says you Thessalonians
just like us Jewish brethren We had to suffer of our own brethren
who both despised our Lord Jesus Christ and they hate all men
and that they forbid men to enter into the kingdom by forbidding
us to preach the gospel if People group are inspired by the enemy
to stop the preaching of the gospel Then people cannot be
saved Or if after the gospels preached and people take on a
formative acceptance and reception of that gospel, then people come
into the church and begin to overthrow the doctrinal systems
of that which the apostles laid down. Are not those people's
salvation threatened? Very much so. So we have Corinthian
and we have Galatia and we have Colossi as three major books. First John, where the heretics
come in, overthrow the claims of the gospel, and the apostles
have to warn those disciples in those churches. If you receive
any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, you
will be damned. Are you guys hearing me? So stay
with me a little bit, then I'll open the floor for a few questions.
So entrance into the kingdom comes with the struggle, first
and foremost, of us being humbled by the propositions of entering
into the kingdom. The struggle of us being humbled.
When the gospel's preached with power, you and I are demolished. That's a kind of tribulation
that we have to go through Before authentic Christianity will occur
Matthew chapter 18 Jesus said Except you become like one of
these little children You will not enter into the kingdom of
heaven you guys remember that the little child Functioning
out of his nature is not exercising the prerogatives of his volition
or his will I He's not exercising the prerogatives of his intellectual
acumen. He's not arguing and debating
with his authorities. He is totally dependent upon
his authority to keep him. The character of true believers
in the context of saving faith is that they have been humbled
by the grace of God to completely depend upon Christ like a little
child and that often takes the combined work of a sovereign
God allowing circumstances to so demolish our pride and bring
us low and strip us of all of our self-confidence and self-righteousness
and assumptive powers by which we try to get into the kingdom.
Do you agree with that? In other words, we have to be
demolished. And that doesn't happen easily. I was reading
an article the other day about a pastor who had been in the
ministry 23 years. This is not uncommon. He's even
an Orthodox pastor. I'm not going to mention his
name. He's actually using this as a testimony as he goes all
around now doing ministry. He just recently been truly converted and he's so compelled by an authentic
reality of the kingdom of God and the gospel of grace that
everywhere he goes he lets people know you can ostensibly appear
to be saved and even be used of God and still be outside of
the kingdom blind to the kingdom blind to the propositions essential
to entering into the kingdom. Are you guys hearing me? The
brother assessed when God opened his eyes that the thing that
drove him in the church was not a complete capitulation to the
crown rights of sovereign Lord Jesus, but the fact that he was
smart enough to learn apologetics Doctrine and debate with people
in different camps over theological issues by which he was able to
get paid But he knew he had this nagging reality in the core of
his soul which said I Have not quite understood What it really
truly means to be born again Are you hearing And then when his
whole house caved in, and the mercy of God, and God showed
him the sovereignty of God in what we call the monergistic
work of salvation, taking a lost dead sinner infusing into him
real saving life so that the sinner is not cooperating with
God. God is doing an operation of
grace by which he's planning real faith in that man's soul,
humbling him to the degree that all he wants, all he wants is
to be saved. He comes to discover the grace
of God. He wakes up out of that trauma
with his eyes wide open, fully comprehending that salvation
is of the Lord from beginning to end. And now the doctrines
of grace, which he hated, which your pastor preaches, he now
loves because he understands that unless God had actually
saved him and chose him in Christ and Christ actually died for
his sins and raised him from the dead and gave him a righteousness
imputed freely because of the merits of Christ, that that man
would have damned his own soul by all of his good works, pretending
to be in. being out. Moreover, he said,
there was a weight on his shoulders that he could not get off and
that's called the weight of self-righteousness. It's the weight of self-righteousness.
It's that weight of you trusting in something other than Jesus. Can I tell you what he said it
was? He said this was killing him. He says it was killing him. Because as he was growing in
the word, there were aspects of scriptural truth that he was
not comprehending. I got that. If I had more time,
I would show you how that part of the maintenance work of the
kingdom of God is God revealing to us gospel truth by and by
sustaining our walk with him. Only God can do that. Proverbs
4, 18, the path of the justice. is a shining light that shines
more and more into the perfect day. You start off learning the
ABCs of the alphabets and the fundamentals of mathematics and
other disciplines, but to have a comprehensive understanding
of how the world works, a worldview, you've got to grow and graze.
And that's what the gospel does. It takes you from being a babe
and it grows you. It grows you. But in order for
you to grow, you have to have a hunger and thirst for growth. Watch this now. You can't be
distracted by doing something else as a substitute for growing
in Christ. That's what he had done. He had
seen apologists in the 70s and the 80s debating with folks and
looking good and sounding good. And his ego drove him to want
to be an apologist. And now he wants to win theological
arguments. Well, you guys going to learn
that's King Saul. King Saul fought. King David prayed. King Saul never prayed. Are you
hearing me? King Saul never prayed. Hezekiah fought. Great warrior. And one day out of his pride,
he thought he could step into the temple and God smote him. Uzziah. Uzziah. Why because he
was a great military fighter and he thought he could carry
it over into the priesthood God established a boundary there.
So you're the king. You're not the priest No, i'm
the king. I can do whatever I want. Oh,
you've been messed up now because there's only one king Who's a
king and a priest and it ain't you? Are you guys with me? So we're gonna learn all this
as we deal with the monarchy in the scriptures because you
and I are under a theomonarchical system If we're truly subjects
of christ That brother came to discover
that he had distracted himself with studies. He had got three
doctorates in theology, three, and was still lost. And now he's
warning people. He's warning people, just like
Jesus warned Nicodemus. And so one could be distracted. So to finalize this, and I'll
open the floor for a few questions if you have them, is that what
we want to be able to work through, and we'll work through this a
little bit more next time, oh, by the way, Um, there will not
be a Friday Bible study next week. So you guys marked it out
and you can tell your friends who plan on showing up next week
who didn't show up tonight because they're going to show enough
show up next week. They're not coming tonight, but there'll
be here next week. Let them know we're off just next Friday, just
next Friday. No other time. Okay. Just next
Friday. Then we'll come on back subsequent to that. And what
we'll do is we'll get into this a little bit more as we work
through, um, the whole concept of the kingdom of God. Any questions?
Anybody got any questions right here? I need some runners. I
need some runners. I need two, three runners so we can get it
done. Question on that side. Question on this side. We got
two right here. Anybody on that side? So one person. Anybody
on that side? No questions? So we can work
that through. All the way to the back, Rami. You can start,
sister. I had this one. You got to put
it to your mouth. I had this question last week after you. But you got to put it to your
mouth because I can't hear you. After the Bible study last week, And
this week it has come again after what you just said. So how does
one know that they're out of the kingdom? And when, um, where
even if it's, uh, when is it, or is it ever appropriate
for any of us to even presume to know that someone is out of
the kingdom and can we call them out to that, since we each have
our own election to make sure of? Yeah. This is a very profound question,
and it's important to get. Let's see if I can tighten it
up. Can we know that ourselves or
other people are out of the kingdom? And the answer is yes, relatively
speaking. Don't be too bold. Relatively
speaking you can know because earlier when I share it with
you that there are codes of ethics and acceptable lifestyles that
affirm the conduct of believers Do you know that the Bible explicitly
tells us that there are certain things that if they are practiced
You are clearly not in the kingdom You are clearly not in the kingdom
You are clearly not in the kingdom according to 1st Corinthians
6, 9, and 10. You are clearly not in the kingdom
according to 1st Corinthians Galatians 5, 17-19. You are clearly
not in the kingdom according to Colossians 3, 6-9. You are clearly not in
the kingdom according to Ephesians 5, verses 6 through about 13 or
14 now watch this you are clearly not in the kingdom according
to revelation 21 the last three verses in revelation chapter
22 the last six or seven verses let me share with you what they
say and quite interestingly guess what they do they use kingdom
terminology this is why this is so important according to
first corinthians chapter 6 no whoremonger no adulterer, no
drunkard, no fornicator, no idolater, no practicing homosexual, no
effeminate person shall enter into the kingdom of God. That's
what the text say. You guys got that? Those are
what we call expulsion principles. That's first again, pull it out.
I want to make sure they get this. First Corinthians chapter
six, nine and 10. In first Corinthians chapter,
Galatians chapter five, you know what it says? Now the works of
the flesh are these. The works of the flesh are these. And then it begins to categorize
the works of the flesh, right? Hatred, envy, jealousy, witchcrafts,
evil surmises. Listen to this. Know ye not that
the unrighteous, see that phrase unrighteous? This is why I said
the token that constitutes the kingdom is what? Righteousness. The unrighteous. That term unrighteous
means a practice of lifestyle that does not correspond with
God's will. I want you to keep it simple.
A practice of lifestyle that does not correspond with God's
will. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. Do not be what? See, now this too is a problem
in a culture where because we live in a democracy, I'm going
to talk about this next time. Because we live in a democracy
and not in a kingdom, we exercise authority like kings and we determine
what's right and wrong. We create our own bylaws and
we establish our own covenants. So today we can actually redefine
right and wrong because we are in a democracy. Are you guys
following me? So a democracy now operates according
to the whim of the people, not the fixed, immutable, unchangeable
dictates of a sovereign. This is the danger of Western
Christianity. Because the same principles work
in your churches, where a plurality of opinions will reshape and
redefine the laws of the church. And we have in our churches what
are called representative republics, where we choose who we want to
be in leadership to represent us. That's what a representative
republic is. The people we send to Sacramento
and to Washington represent us. Is that true? That is not a biblical
government. And because this happens in our
culture, You and I are so comfortable with that kind of authority that
we actually can bring God's Word into judgment because we're not
used to receiving authority from the top down. Am I making some
sense? And so the church has changed
the rules all through the Bible, has it not? It's changed all
the rules. So much so, you know what our
churches are saying? That's Pastor Jesse's opinion. That's her opinion. Exactly. Because it's a democracy
that's functioning and not subject to the kingdom where his edict
and rule is law and you and I are to just submit to it even though
it's explicitly laid out. Is it explicitly laid out? And
we argue with them and we say, how has it been right for 2000
years? And now it's wrong. But I'm just
saying, this is the problem with having an incongruent secular
form of government that militates against a biblical theomonarchial
model. And this same secular, egalitarian,
representative republican system is what infiltrates your home
and breaks up the family. Because the wives and the husbands
are not operating out of kingdom principles, and they're at odds.
And then the children also will embrace what the secular culture
is bringing into them where the children have now a level of
autonomy where they can oppose their parents. Is that true?
How many of you guys heard about Monday program? A few of you
did. Okay. 50% not this week, the
week before when Brandon call in, did you hear how Brandon
said he can do whatever he wants to, and whatever he wants to
does not infringe upon his values. Because our present day culture
says you can live like hell and still consider yourself a good
person. Now you know Brandon is an open, practicing homosexual,
and he boasted in all of his lovers. And he told me, as he
told the audience, it doesn't matter what we do, that does
not constitute our value. Our value is totally predicated
upon our own self-perception, he says. Now when you come into
the Bible with that kind of construct, you're militating against biblical
truth. Does it make sense that I can live like hell and call
myself a good person? Does that follow? You see the
challenges you have in our present cultural system? So you see what it says, right?
The other texts I gave you say exactly the same thing. They
all say the same thing. That's like seven witnesses.
They all say the same thing. So that's how you can know. And
then first John chapter three tells us beloved is clearly manifested. Those who are of God, he that
doeth righteousness is of God. He that does not do righteousness
is not of God, but of the devil. Like Cain was who was a murderer. and for envy killed his brother.
So do you see how the apostles, who are the ambassadors of the
kingdom, laid out the ethic of the kingdom and told us that
our conduct is based upon faith, it's rooted in love, and it's
manifested by good works? Do you guys hear that? It's based
upon faith, rooted in love, and manifested in what? Good works.
Isn't that how Jesus talked? Right. So it's so very important.
Now, what I'm doing with you is I'm helping keep your Bible
relevant. Because when you have these fragmented
worldviews, you've got to tear a whole bunch of your Bible apart.
Like you just can't read it through because there's stuff in there
that your brain won't allow you to receive it if you're operating
out of a secular worldview. Next question. So, so hold on. Let me ask, answer one more thing
about Bonnie's statement to show you how our present culture has
so infiltrated the church. How many of you guys know what
excommunication is? How many of you guys have ever
been in a church where they excommunicated people? There you go. Very few. Do you know why? Because they
don't operate out of a monarchical kingdom covenant system because
they're in it for numbers and not for quality. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? I love the way Mr. Campbell's
put it. The pastor on the other side of the bay, he said, long
ago, I stopped counting heads, stopped counting sheep. Because
see, that's the idol that Mr. Spurgeon said dominates our culture.
You must be a good church because you've got a big church. Nothing
could be further from the truth. He says, I stopped counting heads,
stopped counting sheep, and I started weighing sheep. Was that good? I started weighing
them, seeing if they're solid. Because that's all that matters.
Are they growing? Are they his? Are they maturing? God can do a lot with a little.
But the Bible talks about excommunicating people whose behavior is such
that it threatens, watch this now, the culture of the kingdom.
Is that true? Is that what it's talking about?
You're going to see that as we go through the David. Davidic
kingdom motif People will be execute excommunicated out of
the kingdom Because of their behavior and all of the New Testament
really is built on that Old Testament paradigm. Are you guys hearing
me? All of the New Testament is built on that Old Testament
That's why we can read back into the Old Testament New Testament
framework and see how the church Operates on a monarchical system
with David as king David being a type of whom Next question
next question who had the next question? Hi, Pastor. Thank you
very much for this study. It is something that the framework
definitely gives us an outline to be able to go down and dig
deeper into this subject, because I think, as you pointed out,
it's something that we need to really take a look at. The reason
we're not more obedient is because we don't see the kingdom of God.
Um, question. Did we answer when was it announced? Would we say he announced his
kingdom? When did he, when did, when was
it announced? I could say Genesis one, one Genesis one New Testament,
New Testament, New Testament. I would say Matthews four 17
actually earlier than that. Okay. Who was the forerunner?
Okay. That would be Matthews three,
two. And I raised that question because this is what I wanted
to bring home. I want you guys to get this. They started with
the concept of the kingdom. John the Baptist said the kingdom's
at hand. And the reason why he said it was at hand is because
God had revealed to him that Messiah was already there. He
had not simply shown him who Messiah was. So John's whole
ministry of getting people to repent and be baptized as if
they were lost hell-bound sinners, though they were Jews, was a
radical ministry of a denial that you are in the kingdom because
of circumcision or blood relations to Abraham or good words. And
John knew that the kingdom was present in power because of how
many people repented of their sins and came to the water waiting
for Jesus. If the spirit of God had not
moved to bring those people to repentance and faith in the coming
Christ, John could not have said in Matthew three to the kingdom
of God has perfectly calm. And then when the master came,
his first words coming out of the wilderness was what repent
the kingdom of God is at hand. And we get a chance when I come
back, when we come back to work through these critical texts
that underscored the presence and the power and the formation
of the kingdom of God so that you and I can know why it is
that God calls us to such a serious walk with him. The next question.
You've got to put it to your mouth, brother. So in the Christianity
of my generation, I would say, it seems like there's a popular
attitude towards discipleship where it's an end in itself instead
of a means to an end. and resulting in us defaulting
to moralizing Christianity and just defaulting to moralism instead
of the gospel and not allowing our lives to be a platform to
where the gospel can be received by the people around us. And I was wondering, how do you
reconcile that? Because a lot of what I'm seeing
is, It's like Christian self-help
in the States. It's not totally Christian. So
yeah, and it's not it. There's no that how do you reconcile
that to people who don't yes, very very very good question
Patrick first and foremost as we were dealing with the entry
doctrine interest in two and Then occupancy of the kingdom
right and then finally totally what apprehending the kingdom,
right? Okay. So this one here has to be a
critical point of doctrine What does it mean to come enter into
the kingdom of God? You have to believe the what?
The gospel. So the gospel, the doctrines
of the gospel have to be clearly developed and clearly elucidated
for men and women to even know that they have a right now to
contemplate what it means to be Christ's disciples. So in
a group of people where the gospel is diminished or distorted or
denied, you have no key in. You have no key into the kingdom
where Christ is not preached. You are on the outside of the
kingdom doing moralism to get right with God. The other thing
I'll tell you too is we, that's you and me, see the word we?
It's French too, right? We don't make disciples. Christ does. Do you get that crisis? So when
he told his apostles who had the unique privilege of being
with him personally, with the exception of the apostle Paul,
who actually also was with him in his post resurrected state,
those men had the Lord Jesus as their personal mentor. They
were then able to transfer his message to others that they might
become disciples of Christ. We are all to be disciples of
Christ. The moment you are my disciple,
you just threw the key away. You never go into heaven. The
moment you are the apostle Paul's disciple, you may not make heaven. The only way you're going to
make heaven is to be a disciple of Christ. Now what that means
is the form of theological communication to which then faithful preachers
are committed is a communication of theological truth that the
Spirit of God uses to actually disciple you into the image of
Christ. Did you guys hear what I just
said? The form of theological communication to which faithful
preachers are committed is the kind of teaching by which the
Spirit of God now is able to transform you into the image
of Christ. so that all we can be as teachers
or pastors or elders are examples to you of what we should be in
terms of disciples of Christ. But your job is to look to Christ
and to walk with Christ and to actually be conformed to his
image. It really is facilitating the ministry of the spirit of
God and conforming a person to Christ. Now watch this, watch
this. The reason why we have so many denominations is because
of a failure to understand the stewardship of the Spirit of
God and conforming people to Christ through the sufficiency
of the gospel. I'm just telling you how that
is. So what I hear people frequently saying is because of their failure
to understand the comprehensive nature of the gospel. So you
already heard the gospel, already heard the gospel, now what? What
do you mean now what? The gospel is everything. It's
the gospel that gets you in. It's the gospel that keeps you.
It's the gospel that gets you to glory. The work of the Holy
Ghost is to set you in front of Jesus Christ so that as you
look to Christ, you are transformed into his image every day of your
life. Now, the way that's going to
fall out are the reciprocal relationship dynamics of obedience to Christ,
but it's the obedience of what faith working by love, right,
based upon his lordship. Is that true? Right. And this
is what's missing in our churches, too. All right. Do we have one
more question? Was that it to our questions?
OK. Michael, you got it to your mic. Yes, sir. I have a question.
Pastor, can you explain, practically explain, how we make our calling and election
sure? I don't know if I'm framing that
question correctly, but. Yeah. Yeah. The fundamentals of the gospel
has to do with sustaining what you started. So what Paul said
to the Church of Colossae, who was deceived by Gnosticism, where
they were bringing in another Jesus, he said, as you have received
the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk ye in him. That's how you make
your calling election. Sure. There's going to be a,
there's going to be a tension between constantly being reminded
of the sufficiency of the person and work of Christ throughout
the totality of the Bible. As we teach a crystal centric
hermeneutic, right? Like you guys know at grace,
you're going to be taught Christ. You know, that we want to be
guilty of talking about Christ too much. Right? It's important for you
to get this. We want to be guilty of claiming
that Christ is the totality of God's biblical revelation. That
as he is the word made flesh and you and I are constantly
feeding on him, learning about him, that the work of the spirit
of God is shaping us into his image. And the outworking of
that is our obedience to him. But if we move away from Christ,
we cannot do anything but get into moralism. And at that point,
you are building a system of works by which now you are crumbling
a foundation of faith and you're basing your eternity on what
you do versus what he did. Watch this. When you have the
gospel right, what you do does not threaten who you are. It only affirms it. Where people
struggle with, well, you know, I'm afraid that if I do too much
for Jesus, let me help you. You can never do too much for
Jesus. You can never do too much for
Jesus. You just can't. I love it. I love where we are. We're on the precipice of some
real deep, um, apprehension and comprehension of the simple teachings
of scripture. I love the way our master taught. He taught occupancy of the kingdom
and interest into the final state way more than he taught interest
in because he was talking to religious people who presumed
they were already in. So what he was saying to them
is you better make your calling and let you sure. Is your foundation
right? Is your motive right? Do you understand that the endgame
is based upon your motive and your foundation? I.e. the rich
young ruler, right? So Christ would use all these
parables that would really underscore how we respond to the gospel. Again, the reason why we have
all these denominations is because every one of them are fundamentally
saying the gospel is not enough. What kind of Christian are you,
sir? Well, I'm a Christian. No, no, no. I'm talking about
like, what kind of Christian are you? Well, I'm a Christian. Like, it's like asking me what
kind of human being am I? I'm a human. I'm a Christian. Now ask me what a Christian is.
It's a person who believes wholeheartedly in who Christ is. and in what
Christ did for him. Are you guys hearing me? Anything else added to that will
exclude me from the kingdom. Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist,
Episcopalian, Catholic, MAE, AME, FMA, MIA. So when folks are on their deathbed
and they call me to come help them cross over, I don't care
what church you went to. Church is not going to help that
brother or sister through that door. We getting ready to go
through a door now. This is a serious door, right?
This is the door. This is it, right? Reality is
about to set in and apprehension or not of the kingdom is about
to set in. Is that true? Guess what we do? We stripped down butt naked.
I hope the metaphor doesn't bother you. I get people right down
to one thing. Christ alone. Are you Catholic? Christ alone. No Praetor Nodders. No Hail Marys. No Holy water. Christ. Are you Pentecostal? No tithing. No speaking in tongues. None of that. Christ alone. Christ alone. Are you Baptist?
Don't trust in your baptism. Don't trust in your primitive
brethren. Christ alone. That's all you got. Pastor, how
can you affirm that? The thief on the cross But when you're laying there
about to cross into glory, you're nothing but a thief. Having lived all your life still
in God's glory and in God's mercy, he has allowed the savior to
be right next to you like he was to those other two things
because he ever lives to make intercession for us and he's
able to save to the uttermost that those that come to him by
faith right Where they are if god puts you in the hospital
room and you know the true gospel christ is right there And if
christ wants to he can open that thief's eyes And show him his
glory and that thief will admit this man has done nothing wrong.
I'm the sinner Lord remember me when you enter into your kingdom
That's the way that goes Do you guys hear what I'm saying? So
when your mama's sitting there and she wants you to bring out
the book of the Pearl of Great Price, don't do it. Only Jesus,
the narrow way. See, even entering in, there's
a tribulation. They call in, as I'm going, all of your religious
hucksters are beating me to the hospital room with the water
and the rosary beads and the dust and the smoke and the incense. Do you guys understand? They're
all there. I'm like, man, this is Halloween. It's amazing how the devil from
the womb to the tomb wants to send you to hell. From the womb
to the tomb. And he will intercept and push
everybody out and distract that soul from Jesus alone for which
our master said is another one. The kingdom of God suffers violence. And the radical take it by force. There it is again. You guys understand
that? There it is again. How much do
you believe in the saving of the soul? How radical are you
going to be? about Christ. See what I'm saying? This is this is why this subject
is so critical because there's a whole lot of people that like
the Pharisees. Do you know the Pharisees were
asked by the three wise men? Where Jesus was when he was born,
but they were too lazy to go with them to the King of Glory's
house. That's how a whole bunch of Christians
are. They'll tell you where he is but too lazy to go see him
for themselves. These are the ones of whom Jesus
says they will not enter in. Harlots, tax collectors, dope
fiends, real bona fide sinners will enter in faster than religious
folks. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for this time. Thank you for opportunity to share this study. Bless my
brothers and sisters. Bless our time tomorrow as we yield Thanksgiving
for the life of brother Ed and bless his family with peace and
joy and give us great cooperation as we do it as a testimony to
your loving goodness to us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
God bless you guys.