Entering the Kingdom of God

Thank you, Mr. Martins, and good afternoon to all of you. I, too, would like to welcome you to our Kingdom of God seminars. As Mr. Martins said, this is the fourth in a series of four on the Kingdom of God. And I think many people have been enlightened around the world by these seminars that we've been having, because, frankly, you'll hear some things today that you won't normally hear in most churches in the world. So it is a tremendous blessing to know God's truth and understand it, and it's a wonderful calling that we have. Today, we're going to start with a presentation called Entering the Kingdom of God. That's the title of today's presentation. And Jesus Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Everybody see all right? I can still see my notes, so we're good to go. But he came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, proclaiming, The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent you, and believe the Gospel. The Kingdom of God was certainly the central theme of Jesus Christ's ministry. And yet, we hear very little about the Kingdom of God in most churches in the world today. Frankly, very little is said about the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and then the eternal Kingdom to follow. And really, there's a great deal of misunderstanding when it comes to the Kingdom of God, and what it means, and how to enter it. Now, in Matthew 6.33, Christ clearly said, Seek first the Kingdom of God. This should be our number one priority in life. And yet, so many people are simply not seeking first God's Kingdom, and also His righteousness. Another very important aspect to this calling that we have is to seek first the Kingdom of God and God's righteousness. And all these things shall be added unto you. There's a blessing that comes along with doing what God says we ought to do. So we should get in the habit of seeking first the Kingdom of God and also God's righteousness. Christ said, Become you therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect. So that should be our goal. That should be something for us to strive for, to become like Christ. And again, it should be our top priority in life. Now, in the model prayer, in Matthew 6.9-10, Jesus prayed, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Thy Kingdom come. So Christ said, This is something that we should be praying for daily. God's Kingdom to come to this earth. And again, we really don't hear a whole lot about the Kingdom of God in most churches in the world today. The Bible contains many prophecies concerning the coming Kingdom of God. And make no mistake about it, the Kingdom of God is going to be established here on this earth. The question is, are you ready to enter the Kingdom of God? That's what we're going to talk about today. Jesus gave several signs of His coming and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. And we spoke of a number of those signs in previous seminars. Some of those prophecies that we went through.

We are certainly drawing ever closer to Christ's return. And Jesus summed up the basic requirements for entering the Kingdom of God when He exhorted us to repent and to believe the Gospel. And repentance really is the key. And we did spend some considerable time in one of our seminars, the last one, talking about repentance and the importance of repentance. We'll discuss that somewhat as well today. Let's ask ourselves, what is it that we need to repent of? It's very simple. We all need to repent of sin. It's a small word, but a very misunderstood word in many, many ways. It seems that the world doesn't say a whole lot about sin anymore. And I guess if the law were truly nailed to the cross, I guess I could understand why. But the law hasn't been nailed to the cross, and we'll discuss that to some degree today.

So we need to repent of sin, but the problem is a lot of people don't even know what sin is. And there's an aspect also of repentance, and it starts with realizing that every one of us is a sinner. And we have to repent of being a sinner. Every human being has sinned. Now, Christ is the only exception to that rule. Jesus Christ never sinned. Christ came in the flesh.

He never sinned. But the rest of us have all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. So repentance begins when we realize that we are sinners and that we need to repent of being a sinner. And notice Romans 7, where the Apostle Paul...

And remember, Paul says this some 20 years after his conversion. Some 20 years after he was struck down on the road to Damascus, 20 years after he accepted Christ as his Savior, we find that he talks about a law of sin that he struggled with. This is 20-some years after conversion. Paul was not perfect. But Paul was repentant. And that is the key. So let's notice Romans 7, beginning in verse 21.

Paul says, So I have learned this rule, when I want to do good, evil is there with me. In my mind I am happy with God's law. Paul loved the law of God, just like David loved God's law. But he says, I see another law working in my body, in this flesh, which makes war against the law that my mind accepts.

Now, his mind rationally accepted the fact that God's law is perfect, that we should all keep God's law, that we should all submit to God and surrender to God. So that's what he wanted to do, and that was his desire. But notice, he says, I see another law working in my body, and it's the law of sin, and it makes me its prisoner. Now, he was talking about, at times in his life, when he was weak because of his human flesh, when he was struggling and he would sometimes stumble and sometimes fall. He says, what a miserable man I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death?

I thank God for saving me through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the answer to the problem of being a sinner. Is that, thankfully, we have a Savior. We have a Messiah who did come, and that is Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul says, so in my mind, I am a slave to God's law. Again, this is what he desired to do. He wanted to keep God's law perfectly. That was his desire in life. But in my sinful self, he says, I am a slave to the law of sin.

And he's talking about an overall condition. There are times that we all fall short. And if we don't realize that, that's a major problem. In the book of John, it says, he that says, I have no sin is a liar. And the truth is not in him. And when you realize what Christ said on the Sermon on the Mount, Christ said that we should not only keep God's law in the letter, but also in the Spirit. He said it wasn't enough not to hate your neighbor. He said you had to go on to learn to love your neighbor. So it's not enough. He said, if you have hatred and resentment, you murdered them in your heart.

So God's law is certainly in effect, and it's even more binding in many ways, because we need to yield to the Spirit of God and learn to live by God's Holy Spirit. So Paul makes it very clear that there is a struggle that goes on in the Christian's life. And again, you don't hear a whole lot about sin these days, but sin is a reality.

And if sin doesn't exist, then why did Christ die for our sins? So let's ask ourselves, what is sin? Is sin pride? Is it envy? Is it lust? Is it greed? Is it sloth or laziness? Is it wrath? Is it gluttony? Just exactly what is sin? Well, the Bible gives us a definition in 1 John 3, verse 4. And here it clearly says, whoever commits sin transgresses also the law, for sin is the transgression or the breaking of God's law. Sin is simply the breaking of God's law.

So any law that God has placed in motion that He's given us, if we go against Him and if we break that law, then we have sinned. And that's what sin is. So again, why must we repent of our sins? Why is it so important that we repent of our sins?

Well, Romans 6, verse 23 shows us very clearly that we must repent of our sins because the wages of sin is death. That's what we would deserve. And since we're all sinners, we've all sinned. That's what we all deserve. We deserve death, but thankfully the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we do have a Redeemer, we do have a Savior, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, note that the gift of God is eternal life through Christ, but realize also that gift is conditional. God doesn't just give that gift to anyone and everyone.

There are certain conditions that God expects His children to follow. Certain conditions that He wants us to adhere to and to keep. Now, since the wages of sin is death, we all need a Redeemer. And again, I've mentioned who that is. We all know that we need faith in the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ. We all need to have faith. We need to believe in Christ as the Son of God. We need to have faith in His sacrifice that His shed blood will certainly cover our sins when we repent of those sins.

So we must have faith in the sacrifice of Christ. Christ is the one that came and died, and He was the Son of God. He was also the Creator of all things, as the Scripture tells us. So only Jesus Christ could be the perfect sacrifice. Christ is the perfect sacrifice, and for God so loved the world, the Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life. Notice in Romans chapter 3, the Apostle Paul says, "...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, to be a mercy seat, in other words, to pay the penalty for our sins, through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God.

So we are saved by grace through repentance of our sins and the accepting of Jesus Christ as our Savior." We in the Church of God don't believe that we earn our salvation by keeping God's law. We know that we all fall short of keeping God's law. We all fall short of the grace of God. We are certainly not perfect. We have broken God's law.

We've sinned. And we understand that the wages of sin is death, and that's what we deserve. So we know that salvation is a gift, and we are saved by grace. And we're very, very thankful for that. It is through the repenting of God's immutable spiritual law and exercising faith in Christ's sacrifice that our sins can be removed from us as far as the East is from the West. That's how far God removes our sins from us when we repent and when we have a repentant heart and mind.

God then views us as sinless because those sins are washed away in the blood of Christ. He does expect us to surrender and to submit and to learn to serve Him from the time forward that we truly repent and accept Him as our Savior. And it is a lifelong process, learning to draw near to God and near to Christ, to resist Satan. It's a lifelong process. So we see that there are two essential requirements for entering God's kingdom. One is repentance, and the second one is faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Both are essential, and frankly, both of these requirements lead us to another essential requirement, and it's called baptism.

One who has truly repented of his sins and has accepted Christ as his Savior must be baptized in the way that the Bible prescribes. In Acts 2, verse 38, we know that Peter said on that day of Pentecost when the New Testament church was founded and when the Holy Spirit was poured out, he said, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of your sins. So baptism is a critical point, and it has to be done in the way that the Bible prescribes.

The Bible shows that we must be immersed in water, that we must go down into that watery grave, and that our sins are washed away just as the water washes over us as we are completely immersed in the waters of baptism. Also, when we come out of those waters, a true minister of God will ask us, have you repented of your sins? Or right before we're baptized, have you repented of your sins? Have you accepted Christ as your Savior? And then the laying on of hands must be done, as the Bible also shows, for the receipt of the Holy Spirit.

Now, that's the way the Bible explains the proper baptism. So, again, it is very important that we repent, that we accept Christ as our Savior and have faith in His sacrifice, and then that we show that faith by going through baptism. So, once a person does come to this point of repentance, and he's baptized, then he will receive the Spirit of God. And notice Romans 8, verse 14, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So, if we are to be the sons or the children of God, we must be led by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God must dwell in us.

That's what changes us. That's what helps us grow and overcome and puts sin out of our lives as Christ enters our life through the power of the Spirit of God. And so we're given strength to overcome. So, after we are baptized, then we need to go on having buried the old man, and coming out of the watery grave is symbolic in a sense of a resurrection to a new life, and to newness of life, and we are to serve God and Christ from that day forward.

Again, the great challenge is to keep the old man under the water, because the old man wants to get out of that watery grave. Symbolically, Satan is still the God of this world. Satan has deceived the whole world, and Satan is a powerful being who wants to deceive, and he certainly wants to destroy God's elect, those who are chosen of God. So, again, the struggle continues, and we must be led by the Spirit of God if we are to be the sons of God. Now, let's talk about what it means to believe the Gospel, and also remember in Mark 1, verse 15, that Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and saying, Repent and believe the Gospel.

Believe the Good News. That's what Gospel means. It means Good News. And the Gospel is an all-inclusive message of Good News that tells us how we may live forever in God's Kingdom. The Gospel message contains the vital keys to the Kingdom of God. So, we have to understand the Gospel message. We have to understand what it means. We have to understand what the Kingdom of God is, and how to enter the Kingdom of God, and what it means to believe in the Gospel.

Certainly, it is a message of hope. It's a message of liberty. The Bible says, The truth shall make you free. So, there is great hope in knowing the truth of God, knowing what's going to come in the future. It's very comforting to have the peace of God in our lives, because we live in a very tumultuous world in many, many ways. There are many trials. Life is hard for so many people. Life is hard for all of us, to some degree or another. It's more difficult for some than others, but it's not an easy life in many ways. And we need the peace of God to give us the strength and the courage that we're going to need. So, the Gospel message contains the keys to the Kingdom. It is a message of liberty. It is a message of hope. And once we really understand the good news of God's Kingdom, then we will be set free from fear, will be set free from ignorance, from superstition, from the dogmas, from the doctrines and the commandments of men.

Again, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So, it's wonderful news. And one must believe in everything that God says. We can't just pick and choose what it is we will accept and what we won't accept. The Bible says we must live by every word of God. So, we have to learn to study the Bible. The Bible has to be the number one book in our lives. It should be the book that we go to every day, to read and to study, to understand the truth of God. And believing the Gospel includes everything that the Bible teaches concerning salvation. And there's a lot about salvation in God's Word. Now, after we come out of the baptismal waters, we are led by God's Spirit, and we learn to obey God. We already are learning to obey God before baptism. We've already made changes in our lives. We made quite a few changes before we were actually baptized. But we must go on from there, and we must learn to live by every word of God. So, that's a lifelong process, understanding God's truth and what He expects of us. Now, Jesus gave us only a very brief summary in Mark 1, verses 14 and 15. When He came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and saying the time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel. That's just the starting point.

And again, we ought not be deceived. Eternal life is a gift, but there are some conditions. And we must come to realize and understand that belief and faith are inextricably linked to obedience. Many people say they believe in Jesus Christ, but they really don't want to do what Christ told them to do. Many people profess Christ. In fact, Christ said, Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the religious leaders of the day. Christ called hypocrites. And it's very clear that they really didn't want to obey Jesus Christ, did they? They rejected Christ. They crucified Christ. And the Bible is clear that Satan has his ministers who are deceived themselves. They can't help but tell lies because they're deceived. And so they're going to tell lies unknowingly. But we need to know the truth of God, and we need to be able to sort out the lies from the truth. So it is important that we understand that belief and faith are linked inextricably to obedience. And it is true that we are justified by faith, but you must understand that your belief and your faith must be coupled with obedience. Christ said, I came not to destroy the law or the prophets. Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets. He came to fulfill certain prophecies. He also came to set an example of obedience. Christ never sinned. He never broke the laws of God. He kept the laws of God. He said, I and my Father are one. And Christ was sinless. The Bible says he was tempted at every point as we are, yet he was without sin. So Christ was perfect, and he set the perfect example of obedience. Now, in James 2, verse 19, we read, you believe that there is one God, you do well, the devils also believe. It's not enough to believe, is it? The devils believe and they tremble. Satan the devil and his demons, they believe that Jesus is the Son of God. But they also tremble because they know the power of God, they know the fate of God, and yet they are unwilling to repent of their sin.

So, it's very, very important that we do not allow Satan and his demons to deceive us. Now, note once again, in James 2, verses 17 and 18, where James says, even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone. Yes, a man may say, you have faith and I have work, show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Now, you may have heard that Martin Luther, who obviously came out of the Catholic Church and started the Protestant movement, he referred to the book of James as an epistle of straw. In other words, he had no respect for these words that James spoke here, because he thought it was by faith alone that works were not important. The works are important. They won't earn salvation, but they are a condition for entering the kingdom of God. So, it's very important that we are clear on that point. In fact, in Ephesians 2, it says, we are created for good works. That's the reason you were created. It's for good works. It's to do things that are pleasing in God's sight, to help people, to love people, to care for the poor, to visit the fatherless, to visit the widows, to keep the commandments. These are all good things. These are good works. And he says, we were created for good works. Now, James uses the example of Abraham, who is referred to as the father of the faithful. Abraham is our father, in a sense. Of course, God the Father is the only true father, in a spiritual sense. But it even refers to Abraham as the father of the faithful, because Abraham set a wonderful example for us. And also, Abraham was a type of God the Father. Remember, he had a son called Isaac. And Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son. He was willing to obey the Father's will. So he went out, rising up early in the morning. But he had faith that God would also protect and resurrect his son, if necessary. Because he believed the promise that it was through Isaac, that the seed would come, that the Christ would come. So we have to have the faith of our father, Abraham. Notice here in James 2, verse 24. You see, then, how that by works a man is justified. In other words, it's by works that we are justified or made just, because we realize that we were created for good works. And that God wants us to do something with our lives. Not just behearers of the law, but bedoers of the law. And not by faith only. So it's not enough just to profess faith in Christ. It's important that we obey Christ. So this introduces a two-edged sword. We realize that even perfect obedience, after being convicted of your sins, will not pay for the sins that are past. So even if we were able to live perfectly, after baptism, we still would have to have a Savior, wouldn't we? We still have to have someone to pay the penalty for our sins. And again, remember, the wages of sin is death, and that's what we all deserve. So as we have noted, Jesus went in our place, and he died for the sins of the world. So it is through faith in his sacrifice that our sins can be forgiven.

Now the other edge of the sword is we must repent of breaking God's law. Baptism is a starting point. Baptism is when God shows us his truth and convicts us of truth, shows us that we need to be baptized, that we need to have all of our past sins washed away as we come to a fuller knowledge of God's truth. And then we are to walk in newness of life. We are to come out of that watery grave, and we are frankly to be different. You know, a changed life. So again, it is important, it is through faith in his sacrifice that our sins may be forgiven.

Now Jesus came to save us out of our sins, not to save us in our sins. In other words, we're not supposed to stay in our sins. We're not supposed to stay the same. We're supposed to repent of them and put them behind us. We're to grow in grace and in knowledge. We in God's Church also keep God's annual Holy Days. In fact, very soon we'll be keeping the Feast of Trumpets, we'll be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, we'll be keeping the last great day. Because these days are days that Jesus Christ himself kept. When he was here on the earth, the apostles kept them after Christ died. They certainly weren't nailed to the cross because they were keeping them after Christ died. And not only that, God says, these are my feasts. You know, a lot of people try to just say the Feast of the Jews. Yes, the Jews did keep these Feast days because they were God's chosen people. But God says, these are my feasts. And all of us must come to understand that God expects us to keep his Feast days. Because in keeping the Feast days, the plan of salvation is revealed. We don't have time to go through God's plan, but we could take a whole seminar talking about the Holy Days, and talking about each one of the Holy Days and how it pictures a part of God's plan. Now, in the springtime, we will keep the days of Unleavened Bread. We'll keep those days right after we keep the Passover. The Passover pictures the sacrifice of Christ. But then we keep the days of Unleavened Bread that show we are to put sin out of our lives. Leavening is symbolic of sin because leaven puffs up. And so we put the leaven out of our homes, and we strive to put the leaven out of our lives.

So we are physical beings, and some of these physical things that God tells us to do help us stay on track spiritually. That's why we do them. Now, we don't believe they earn salvation for us, but we also know that they'll be kept in the Millennium. The Feast of Tabernacles will be kept, or the people that aren't keeping them will have no reign. That's what Zachariah 14 tells us. If they don't come up to keep the feasts, then God's not going to give them any reign. So He's going to get them to keep the feasts, or they're going to perish. Why would He not want His people to keep His feasts today if He's going to expect them to keep them after Christ returns? It's a good question. It's one we should ask ourselves if we're not keeping God's annual Holy Days. They're important days, and they picture the plan of God. So Jesus came to save us out of our sins, not to save us in our sins. We're to put sin out of our life and become different. Now today's society and the culture that we live in today, even in the churches of today, believe you don't have to obey God because the law has been done away. The law has been nailed to the cross. And that doesn't make any sense. Because the wages of sin is death. Certainly, most people don't believe it's all right to kill one another. They still believe that's a sin.

But they say the law was done away. It really doesn't make sense. And yet people believe it. We need to be thinking people, and the Bible will show us. If we'll just read it and we'll submit to God and allow God to open our minds and understand His truth.

They really don't want to obey God when it really gets down to it. You know, the churches of this world. They really don't want to obey God. Not in every sense, not in every...what's convenient.

And I'm not saying there aren't a lot of good people that go to other churches, because there are some very, very fine people. And I respect and love many, many people who are not a part of God's church, or what I would consider the true church of God. I have respect for them. Many of them are extremely dedicated. And they just don't have the understanding that God has given some He is calling right now. God is not calling everyone right now, but He's calling some to know and to understand His truth. And that's, again, what these seminars are also all about. Is God calling you? Is God opening your mind? Does God want more from you? Does He want you to yield to Him more fully? Now, note what the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 2, verses 16-18. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. Again, we don't believe that we're saved by the works of the law. We don't believe that. There's a lot more to it than that. Yes, we are to keep the laws of God, but we're not saved by the law, because we've all fallen short of the law of God. We've all sinned, so we deserve death.

Here it says, But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin. In other words, He's saying it's not okay to go on in your sins. It's not okay to keep breaking God's law. Once you come to a knowledge of His truth, then you need to accept His law and live by it.

He says, Paul was a righteous man. He was not a perfect man, but he was a righteous man. And he did have this struggle that went on with him, and I have the same struggle. I've been in the Church of God almost 40 years now. I still struggle with this sinful, carnal nature, this flesh. I'm looking forward to a time when I will no longer be in the flesh. We'll talk more about that in the second part of our seminar today.

So as we see in the verses that we just read, in addition to exercising faith and the sacrifice of Christ for the remission of our sins, we must repent of our sins and we must obey God and keep His word. If Christ justified you while you remained in your sins, while you continued to break His laws, He would then become the minister of sin. He says, God forbid.

Now, it's not okay to continue in sin.

So once our sins are washed away in baptism, we are to walk in newness of life. We are to obey God and keep His commandments. And when we fall short of that, we also must realize that we can then go before God in humble humility, asking once again for forgiveness. And the blood of Jesus Christ will then cover our sins. So even though Paul wasn't perfect, he was repentant, and his sins were forgiven. And King David, who sinned with Bathsheba and sinned in the matter of Uriath the Hittite, he was forgiven his sins because he had a heart to obey God. He had a desire to obey God, and he was striving to keep every word of God. And that's what we must do. So to believe the Gospel includes all that we've talked about today and much more. And we'll continue in the next segment discussing these things. And the next segment is entitled, Believe the Gospel, so we're going to talk a bit more about what it means to believe the Gospel.