The Kingdom of God Is at Hand

Welcome, everyone. Glad you were able to come today. I hope you're enjoying this discussion about the Kingdom of God. I'd like to begin by asking a simple question. What is the Kingdom of God? The answers to that question are many and varied. They can run the gamut from just about anyone's concept of an afterlife, whether it be heaven, whether it be something that exists now. The answers to that seem all over the board when you counter in public opinion. The ideas and the concepts about the Kingdom of God and what it is are developed by humans – or when they're developed by humans – they're developed to support a personal concept, a personal idea, something that suits my lifestyle, something that suits how I want to live, what I want to believe, and really what I want to do here. My view of the Kingdom as a human being – I'm just kind of throwing this out – my view of the Kingdom of God fits the way I want it to fit. I kind of massage, adjust it. It fulfills my desire, my internal desire for eternity. I don't want to just die and be dead forever. I want to live. I want to live on. And so, consequently, when we talk about the Kingdom of God, to any one person, it could mean many different things. But I'll tell you a little secret today. Most people don't want the Kingdom of God. And when I say that, what I mean is what the Kingdom really is. As humans, we tend to package it and create it the way we want it, and the qualifications for being part of that eternal Kingdom, the way we want to comply or not.

Consequently, we end up with something that is a little bit self-devised. We don't want the Kingdom as it's defined in the Bible. We want our version of the Kingdom, our concept that's been sold to us. And if you don't like the concept for sale over here, that's okay, because there's 10,000 different religions peddling concepts of the Kingdom of God. You're bound to like one, and if you don't, it's okay. There are others that allow you to develop your own.

I think it's important for us to realize that religions have provided a smorgasbord for eternal life concepts. You have the Christianity smorgasbord of the 10,000 different versions, and then you have all the other various religious concepts that have existed down through time and exist currently today. Many of them are just hugely popular.

When Jesus said, regarding Christianity, many will come in my name, teaching that I am the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, and shall deceive the many, he wasn't kidding. That was one of his prophecies, that that is what would happen, because there is a lot of self-created ideas. But let's today cut through all the humanly devised, yours, mine, theirs, everybody's, and go straight to the biblical definition of what the Kingdom of God is. And let's hear directly from God and from Jesus Christ, who said, the Kingdom of God is at hand, and in another place, the Kingdom of God is near you.

What was he referring to? And along with that, do you really want the Kingdom of God as it's presented here? And if so, how badly? I think those are good questions for all of us, to really get serious about the true Kingdom, how one complies with the regulations concerning who will enter it, how one receives the free gift according to God's Word, and cutting through all of the stuff that humans have created and sometimes you and I have done ourselves.

The first thing we know about the Kingdom of God from Scripture is it exists in a different dimension. 1 Corinthians 15 says, flesh and blood cannot inherit or cannot enter the Kingdom of God. God is a spirit being. His Kingdom currently is the Kingdom of Heaven. Heaven, there are three heavens. There's the heaven where the birds fly in the Bible. There's the heaven where the stars are in the Bible. And then there's that spiritual dimension where God, the angels, the spirit realm, the Kingdom that is there in that spirit realm.

That's where it is. And we humans cannot enter that Kingdom without being invited and upgraded to spirit form. So let's not deceive ourselves that somehow we can come up with the definition or we can come up with the entry into it. It says in the Bible, it's given unto men once to die. And then the resurrection. And Jesus talked about a resurrection to life and a resurrection to condemnation or to eternal death. It's a very serious subject, isn't it?

It's not one that we can just throw out there and say, well, I'll kind of make it up. And when Christ returns or when I die or whatever, it'll just kind of happen the way I mythically theorize it. And it'll all work out. I think we need to be very, very serious about something that is so important. Jesus Christ talked about being very important. Of and by ourselves, you and I are stuck in this physical dimension. Now humanity would like to sell you some other concept of that. Going all the way back to mythical paganism, man is always, as it says in the Bible, God put in us a desire for eternity. But of and by ourselves, we don't have that.

It says the individual human being returns to the dust and awaits the resurrection and the dead know nothing. All these theories about having come from up there, wafting down here, spending a little time and then floating back up, guaranteed, those are just some mythical things. Gnosticism taught Babylonish fables based on God's little G that have come down through time and got packaged into modern descent.

We're today talking about the serious word of truth. Your word is truth, Jesus said, and he was truth. He was the source of that word. Now we can rely on human-devised fantasies. We can hope for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse to really be true. Or we can go to the divine source of truth. God says things in his words, and it's your responsibility, and I'm not here to convince anybody today, it's your responsibility to either believe and have faith and follow or to have our own course and rebel and face the consequences ultimately. But Jesus made the statement that no man of truth can be a man of truth.

And Jesus made no man, other than himself, had ever come from heaven or gone to heaven. From the spirit realm, from the kingdom of heaven, there had been no transfer of humanity. And there would not be until he returned the second time and brought a kingdom with him and a resurrection. There is a scripture in the New Testament where Jesus gives a parable, and he describes what this is about. He says, you know, a man leader went to a far place to receive a kingdom and to return, and then he came to see how those he had left with his Holy Spirit had done.

And some were invited in to leadership responsibilities, and some were rejected entirely. That is what the kingdom of God is about. It's where it's coming from. He said in John 5, verses 28 and 29, Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

Now that's what he says is going to happen.

We don't really, as humans, necessarily want to do what God wants us to do, so we provide some work around. Well, Jesus said that the law, for instance, wasn't done away, not even a little fleck of the Greek or Hebrew language was done away, but we know better. Of course the law was done away. We'll even print Bibles that don't have the Old Testament in it. He said, no man had ascended to heaven, but we know better. You go to heaven when you die.

So we start coming up with a lot of these things. He says, if you obey my commandment, you'll receive life. And we say, no, we don't have to. There is no restriction, no requirement whatsoever, and there's no law, there's no commandments. We can do whatever we want. Just believe, put your hand on the TV set, follow the preacher or the little pamphlet guide that reads this sentence in. You're in. We like that better. We like to do what we want to do. We like to come up with our own scenarios. We have to be careful with that, because when we go to what Jesus said, there's a resurrection coming and a judgment as to whether one will inherit that eternal life and the spirit dimension of his kingdom, or whether one will be denied from that. If we look in Ezekiel 18, verses 4-9, there's a really interesting passage. I'm spending some time with this morning. I want to share it with you. Ezekiel 18, verse 4, God says, Behold, all souls are mine. Now, forget the concept that a soul is some inherent thing that is different than your body. A soul is merely, the Hebrew word is nefesh, it is merely a living, breathing, thinking human, as opposed to a dead, or one who can't think. It's just a complete you or me. So a living life, a living being, he says, Behold, all living people are mine, says the Lord. The life of the Father as well as the life of the Son is mine. And the one, the living person who sins shall die. Hold it, God, you don't understand.

We don't die. We have eternal life. We have everlasting souls.

God got it wrong. Was it God that got it wrong? He goes on.

The individual who sins shall die. That's breaking God's laws. But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right, if he is not eaten on the mountains, gone up to the high places, and worshiped false religions, if he is not lifted up his eyes to the idols of the houses of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, etc., etc., verse 7, if he is not oppressed anyone, but he is restored to the debtor his pledge, has robbed no one by violence, he is given his bread to the hungry, covered the naked with his clothing, if he is not exacted usury, nor taken any increase, but is withdrawn his hand from iniquity, and executed true judgment between man and man, and if he has walked in my statues and kept my judgments faithfully, he is just, he shall surely live, says the Lord, a host. You know, that's a definition from God as to what and who is going to be in his kingdom. Now, if we look down in verse 21, it begins with the soul or the living person who sins shall die, and that is replete throughout the Scripture, something that we really need to realize.

The righteous will live, and so repent. We've got to repent of the human mindset, the carnal human mindset, which is not that of God. It doesn't fulfill the directives of God. It involves a process that begins with the kingdom of God being near to you and me. At once we were far.

You know, humanity has been very far from God, but there was one who came to us, who came to this earth, and he was among us. He was near, and he said the kingdom of God is near. The kingdom of God is at hand. At hand, you know, my hand is here. It's not way over there. The kingdom is at hand. We had a representative from the spirit world, from the kingdom of God, come and live among us.

Not only was he here 2,000 years ago, but he has continued to come via his Holy Spirit. He said, I will not leave you orphans, but I will come to you. God is available for those who seek him and want to break down that wall of partition our sins and be reconciled or healed in that relationship with God. When Jesus Christ began his ministry in Mark chapter 1 and verse 15, he said the time is fulfilled for his first coming. Time is fulfilled for the Messiah to arrive.

As we heard in the first session of this seminar, that was a very specific time that the Father had chosen for Jesus Christ to come and be born on this earth and to have a ministry and then to return to heaven. So that time is fulfilled. And then he goes on, and the kingdom of God is at hand. The representative, the son of the Father, as he would become, is here. He's here with you. As Luke chapter 6 verse 6 says, the kingdom has come near to you. And his next breath is repent and believe the gospel. Now, in two places in the New Testament, it also says, in order to be in the kingdom, you have to obey the gospel. Many think it's just so this gospel is just a story about Jesus coming. You don't obey a story about Jesus coming. The good news of God's kingdom means that the kingdom has a realm. It exists in a certain dimension. It has rulers. It has laws. It is a kingdom. And we are to repent if we want to be part of that kingdom.

In Revelation chapter 21 and verse 7, we find from God that he who overcomes, he's referring to this battle that we have that Paul speaks about, this fighting of the old self, this wrestling with the inner man, this impossible task of getting rid of and dying to our old human nature and instead replacing it with the nature of the divine family, which God will help us do. We'll never accomplish it fully in this life. But he who wins that battle, he who overcomes, shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my son. So this kingdom, turns out, is more than just sort of a place to go float around and hang out on clouds and play harps. It is a family relationship. God is presented as a father. Jesus Christ is a son, an elder brother. He calls us brethren. He calls us the children of God, the sons and daughters of God. And he says here, if we overcome, we'll have life, and we will be his sons, and by extension his daughters. However, that's not automatic. Verse 8, But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Those are some things that you and I need to pay particular attention to. And if we look at the concepts here in chapter 20 in verse 13, The sea gave up the dead which were in it, at a resurrection, third resurrection mentioned in Scripture, death in the grave delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to their works. And the sinning ways, the ways of sin and death, were cast into the lake of fire, and this is the second death. Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. These are the serious things that Christ warned us about to pay attention to watch our own human nature and watch our state, because he has to make a judgment. And the Father is entrusted in him to give life to those who meet certain conditions.

Now obviously, nobody wants to die. Everybody wants to be in the kingdom of God. Everybody wants eternal life. Many just want the eternal life to continue the human state of lust, greed, and selfishness that goes on in the world. We kind of okay that we like it, but we like it to go on. So you know, when you die, after you've done a bunch of stuff, you get somebody to chant over your whatever, and you're good to go. You light a candle, you pay a fee, or whatever humans come up with, you see. And we want to go on into eternity as we are. And yet that's not what the kingdom of God is about, is it? And these are just a few of, you know, a bible full of examples that God is wanting children who are like him, who think like him. Now God is offering his kingdom free of charge. You can't buy it, you can't earn it. Don't think that you can earn your own salvation by keeping the law. You can't, because every one of us constantly breaks the law and the spiritual intent of that law. There's no way we could even keep it perfectly anyway. It's not for sale.

You can't do a bunch of stuff, or say things, or go through routines, or create some sort of a little religious thing that you do that buys you entrance into God's kingdom. It just can't be done. It's a free gift. It's his pleasure, he says, to give it to you and me. God has spent great effort on this physical realm, the entire universe, our lives, sending his son here to live and die so that he could give us the kingdom. He is really involved in the process of giving us the kingdom. But it's kind of like a mother and a pie.

That's probably not a real good analogy, but it's my analogy for you today.

You know, when you're a kid and your mother bakes a pie, she really puts herself into a pie.

If you're not familiar with the pie, there's a wheat crust, and that's challenging to many mothers right there. A lot of work goes into getting that crust just right. And then there's the fruit that goes into the pie and the other stuff that goes into the pie. She'll work sometimes for hours getting this pie just right. And then she might weave a pastry top onto the pie.

And then she might bake it and then serve it with some other stuff on top of there. And when this pie comes out of the oven, I guarantee you anyone that's within smelling distance will want a piece of that pie. It reminds me of the kingdom of God. Everybody that hears about eternal life, no more pain, sorrow, crying, tears, wants a piece of that pie. But you know when your mother cooked that pie for you, she said, when you said, can I have a piece of pie, Mommy? She said, do you remember?

Yes, if you finish your dinner and eat all your vegetables.

Now that presented a problem, didn't it? We all wanted the pie, but who wanted to eat those vegetables? You know, we whined and we complained and we said we can't eat them because they're green and they're, you know, they upset my stomach and we made all kinds of excuses and we tried to feed them to the dog. We did anything but eat those vegetables and finish. We cried, we begged Mom, we tried to, you know, attach ourselves to her emotional side, anything. But the rule remained, you had to finish and when we didn't finish, you know what happened. We cried our eyes out, we stomped our feet, you know, it was a big mess. It's kind of like the kingdom of God. Jesus said, people are going to nash their teeth, they're going to cry, they're going to say, I did this instead, and I, it's not going to really work out. It's free. Mother doesn't charge her children, but there are conditions for having a piece of pie. Galatians 4, 26 says, the Jerusalem above is the mother of us all. That's where I got this little analogy. The Jerusalem above, the kingdom of heaven, is the mother of us all. And we're invited freely to enter the kingdom, but there are some conditions. You got to eat your vegetables. And you know what? They're good for us. The laws of God are really good for us. Now we don't like them, just like those vegetables. We like pizza, we like chocolate, and we like a bunch of junk that you can buy pre-packed and made, and you know, it's full of all kinds of fats and sugars. That's what we like as kids, right? We don't like vegetables. As humans, we like sin, and we crave selfishness, and we crave lust and greed, and all kinds of things that elevate our self and our senses. We don't like loving and serving and humbly sacrificing our time as Christ did for us and as the Father did for us and all that they've done, and us becoming children like that. That's very good for us. That enhances our ethics, it enhances our relationships, it strengthens marital relationships, societal relationships, relationships with us and God. We don't want that. That's our vegetables, you know? We're going to scream if we can't get our way. And look at the world around us. Have you ever seen a world in free fall with people just going after every self-satiating, hurtful, avenue, device, thought, and deed that you could imagine? And we are just saying, I want the pie. I want to live forever, but I'm not eating my vegetables. We're not doing that. Matthew 5, 48, Jesus said, become you therefore perfect like your Father in heaven is perfect. Become you therefore like a different Father, a new Father. Not your Father the devil, who is a liar and a murderer and likes all these sinful things, but a new Father. Become like your Father in heaven. Philippians 2 says, put on the mind of Christ. Put off the mind of carnal human nature.

Malachi 2.15 says, God seeks godly offspring. That's what this is about. It's not about us being some sort of robot droids, miniscule, you know, spirit beings that float around forever. It's about God seeking godly offspring, whom he calls his sons, whom Jesus Christ said, I will share my inheritance with you. You will sit with me on my throne. You will be my children. This is about family. Family of God. Now, when you think about bringing children into your family, what kind of kids do you want? You ever see one of these alien movies? Is that the kind of kid you dream of? You know, this thing that slippery snake looking thing that comes out dripping with kind of snotty stuff, and he's attacking and, oh yeah, I want one of those. We never, that never dons on us. You think God wants that kind of a child? Some kind of satanic, weird, twisted thing that doesn't resemble him, doesn't think like him, and is bad for any and everything around?

No. God wants children like himself. He seeks, as we just read in Malachi 2.15, he seeks godly offspring. And so he's asking you and me to become children like his. Ephesians chapter 5 in the first six verses speaks to this. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 1, therefore be imitators of God as dear children. Now God will come near to you.

He will draw near to you if you draw near to him. He and his kingdom are within reach at hand.

If you and I want to imitate God as dear children and walk in agape love, his mindset, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us. See, he came as an example, not as some sort of payment for us to be aliens.

He came as an example that we should walk as he walked, the Bible says. Verse 5, for this you know that no fornicator, unclean person, covetous man, who is an idolater, those things that we love as humans, things that just turn on your TV, read a book. There it is. That's what we are. That's what we do. No man or woman who is these things has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. The kingdom of God goes by many different names in the Bible. The kingdom of God is the most prolific. We just read here, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven. It is all of those things. It is God's realm that's in the spirit dimension. Verse 6, let no one deceive you with empty words. Don't buy all this other stuff that's out there for sale. For because of these things, people having that mindset, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Just like you raised your children and said, you obey daddy and you obey mommy. I want you to think like we do. I want you to grow up and be like we are. So our Father in heaven and his son have patterned our human families after their family, after what they are trying to accomplish. And we are being engendered. When the Bible says born from above, the word born from above comes from the Greek term genao and nothin. It means being engendered from above. We used to be of our Father the devil and that's what humanity is doing, the ways and the works that he promotes. But now we are being engendered from a new family, being engendered from above if we want to be. And there's where the decision is. It's within each one of us. It's not a universal thing individually, one by one. Jesus said, many are called, few are chosen.

Most like this broad way that appeals to humanity and it's the way to destruction.

But he tells us there is another way. The kingdom of God is a difficult path to a very narrow gate that's very hard to get through and few find it. But if you really want to be a child of God, it's near and I'll help you get there. So the question is, do we want to be in the kingdom of God or do we want our version of it? Do we want something else? You know, a condition of entering the kingdom of God involves imitating God and Jesus Christ. As I said, they are presented to us as Father, the brother, the firstborn, and they are calling us children, brethren, sons of God, daughters of God. And we see in 2 Corinthians 6, verses 14 through 18, a directive here as to how different this really is. 2 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 14, he says, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Just think that all humans are on track to be in the kingdom of God. Righteousness and lawlessness, they have no fellowship. What accord, what communion has light with darkness? Verse 15, and what accord has Christ with Belial or with the devil? They haven't somehow thrown in together. Christ didn't decide, oh, well, you know, the laws that I wrote before, they didn't work out. So you all just go out and send your little hearts out and you can have the kingdom. Now, humans are selling that because, once again, we don't want to eat our vegetables. But verse 17, he says, therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. And verse 18, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. So we can see a big distinction between human-devised practices and ideas, and also between what conditions God is placing on those that he's going to allow into his kingdom to be his actually family and children. It's free, but it's not takeable. You can't take the piece of pie, can you? You actually have to meet certain conditions. You can't take the kingdom. You can't resurrect yourself. Try that today, if you'd like. Just try making yourself a spirit being. If it doesn't work out, you're going to realize you're in a pickle here. Because if God's going to do it and he has certain conditions, and he's not soft-headed, and he's not going to obey you, then there could be a problem.

Like that pie, you've got to qualify in a sense, or you've got to meet certain conditions before you get it. Now here's the condition for freely receiving the kingdom of God, that is nearby. It's close at hand, if we're interested. Matthew 5, verse 20. This is from the one who will do the resurrecting, the one who will give the life, or the one who will give the pronouncement of condemnation.

Matthew 5, verse 20. For I say to you, says Jesus, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Uh-oh, that doesn't sound good if we don't like vegetables.

You know, we can wiggle, we can hope, we can holler, we can try to get out of it, but those Pharisees kept the rules very, very strictly. And as far as the the law of the covenant that God made with Israel, they were fastidious about keeping rules. And Jesus said, it's more than that. It's that and more. It's all of that and more. And if you want to enter into a covenant with God, you've got to fully keep that covenant. And the new covenant is much more difficult than the old covenant, but it has the component of God helping us, God being near, actually God living inside us.

Like I said, humans don't like God's condition, so we invent workarounds.

Let's use another silly analogy. I think this one's even better.

You can have a piece of pie free of charge if you drink this green drink.

You know what a green drink is? Oh, there are people who have decided that the food you and I eat is not good enough.

And so consequently, you should take things that are green, like nasty vegetables. I don't even know what's in there.

But you should blend it in a blender and maybe throw in some algae, stuff floating around the lake, and the stuff out in the ocean.

Wait and pull out some of that stuff and throw it in there.

And get some, I don't know, maybe some broccoli and brussel sprouts and horrible things. Blow it around in this blender. And you know, it becomes this nasty looking stuff of ugh. And they say, now drink this every day. You gotta be kidding.

It's disgusting looking. I've seen this stuff blended and offered to me and I will not even go near it.

But there's a piece of pie if you'll drink the green drink.

Now, think about this for a minute. It's kind of like this.

The green drink is evidently good for you.

Okay? All the good stuff that you can really benefit from and you'll have a better life if you do the green drink.

But, you know, maybe you're really not up to it. So it's kind of like this. In Galatians 5, 22 through 24 it says, The fruit of God's Spirit. You need God in you. God is nearby. You can repent, be baptized, receive His Holy Spirit. And here's what's going to happen. In your life, the results will be agape, love, joy, peace, stitching together, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

And verse 24, All those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. This is good for you. You have to get over your aversion to those things. You have to come to want them. You have to crucify your own desires for soda and coffee and tea.

And you have to convert over to where you want the green drink.

And we as humans say, Yuck! I want eternal life, but I don't want that because that's not what humans do.

We don't have drinks that are green in nature. They're usually orange or brown.

There's some nice color, but not green. Not blue and blue-green. You know, that's just awful. So we say, no.

And so we come up with some other preferences that we like. We like coffee. We like tea. We like orange juice, things like that. And a green drink, it's just not a fit. Sorry, it's just not a fit. But the pie is a fit, isn't it? So we'll sort of reinvent some things that are replacements of the green drink. Such as decaf coffee, if it's made with spring water, is natural and good for the environment. Better for you. So that should qualify for a piece of pie. Herbal tea is good for me. So I qualify for pie. V8 has vegetables in it. So I should qualify for pie if I drink my V8.

Mom is soft-hearted, so I think she'll relax the conditions when it's time for the pie to be served, and I'll get a piece. Even if it's a smaller piece than everybody else, I'll still get a piece of pie. I'll still slip in. Now, ask this question. In this scenario, is anybody drinking the green drink? No. See, God has certain conditions for His Kingdom, but is anybody fulfilling the conditions?

No, we've invented all this other stuff. I'll be environmentally friendly, so I'll be into the Kingdom. I'll serve in a soup kitchen, but I'll be in the Kingdom. See? I'll create other holy days than the ones of God, and I'll get in the Kingdom. Instead of doing what God says, I'll come up with my own laws and commandments and rules, and I'll get in the Kingdom. Instead of doing what He says, I'll jump around to rock and roll music, and I'll say, Jesus, Jesus! Every, you know, 15th time I say, me and I, I'll sing the Lord out. And He'll like that, and I'll get in the Kingdom.

Now, let me make this as clear as I can. Is anybody obeying God's law today? Is any so-called Christianity doing what we were commanded? Or are we all making these exceptions that we have something other than the green drink? Now, notice what happens when the pie gets served. Let's look in Luke chapter 13 and verse 23. Luke chapter 23... sorry, Luke chapter 13 and verse 23. As He was going and teaching, one said to Him, Lord, are there few who are saved?

Now, we don't want to think that way. We want to think, no, it's universal salvation. It's for everybody. As long as you're in some religion, you'll get to heaven. As long as you're doing something good, as long as you're at least petting your dog, you know, cleaning up after yourself, I don't know, whatever it is that you and I think we should be doing, we'll get to heaven when we die.

We'll be in God's kingdom or our version of it. But this is what Jesus said. Verse 24... Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many I say to you will seek to enter and will not be able. They will come up with every imaginable exception or replacement for what I've told you are the conditions for entry. And He goes on. Verse 25... When once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock, saying, Lord, Lord, open for us. And He'll say, I don't know you. You're not children. You don't think like me. You don't do what I say. You don't act like me. And they will say... Verse 26... Then you will begin to say, but we ate and drank in your presence. We know who you were. So that qualifies for us to get in. We used your name. That should qualify. You taught in our streets. We knew you. So we're special. We don't have to obey the rules. You know, we're kind of friends. And you sort of led us through the side door because of our relationship with you. Verse 28... There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God and yourselves thrust out. And they will come from the east and from the west, from the north and the south, and will sit down in the Kingdom of God. Bottom line, if you want a piece of pie, you have to comply. That's just the way it is. And that includes repenting of what we are, changing, changing our thoughts, our minds, our actions with God's help. He is here. He is ready.

We've got to embrace the green drink, as it were. Embrace it. Not just say, okay, I don't want it. I don't want to be like God. I want to act like God. Actually come to like something that's foreign to humans. Something that's going to help us live that at first is awful. You know, the person that was blending the green drink that day, I said, oh, that is so disgusting. Get away from me with that thing. And he said, you know, it's actually pretty good. I like it, is what the person said.

It's kind of like you and me. At first, we're repulsed by a reduction of self-assertion.

And we're repulsed by humility and serving others instead of getting everything for ourself.

But after God's Spirit comes into us and that Spirit results in us having the mind that Christ did, doing what Christ did actually is kind of good. We begin to like doing what Christ did and following the laws of God. And we become children of God. And others will look at us and say, eww, you know, I would never do what you're doing. That's part of the process of conversion. It's converting from one thing to something else.

It's not only just embracing this thing but thirsting for it.

We don't naturally like what's good for us. So we have parents. As humans, we have physical parents.

As adults, we have spiritual parents. They know what's good for us and they're trying to tell us what's good for us, what's right and wrong. And the kingdom of God is the spiritual realm where God and his family live and will live with its territories, its laws. And it is the place where the individuals who meet the conditions will end up living for all eternity and they will receive the free gift. Now let's look in Revelation 21 at a glimpse into this kingdom when it comes in the spirit form. The spirit realm embraces us. He says in verse 1, Revelation 21, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. There's a problem. Peter brings this out in, I believe, second Peter, the third chapter. We've got a problem being on earth because the earth is going to dissolve. It's going to burn up with fire. And if you and I are on it as human beings, physical, we're going to burn up with it.

We have to make it into a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven and earth won't be here.

That's our challenge. And then John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband to this new earth. It's the spirit realm where Jesus said, moth and rust do not corrupt. It's not physics. It's spiritics. It's a different realm than what you and I know.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle or the dwelling place of God, the family home. Jesus said, My father's got this house with many rooms in it, many mansions.

I go to prepare a place for you. And so we have this dwelling place of God is with these individuals and they shall be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. For the former things have passed, the physical realm is gone.

And then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new, including those who will be alive then. In the middle part of verse 6, he says, I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. Now that reminds me of the green drink. We'll get the pie if we thirst for the green drink. I don't thirst for the green drink as a physical human, you see. Something's got to change. Something's got to change to where, as in the spiritual realm, we have to want that nature that humans don't want. We have to thirst for it. We have to hunger for it. Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. We hunger and thirst for something else, don't we? Let's go to Galatians chapter 5 and see what we really hunger for.

It's important that we know, that we understand. Galatians the fifth chapter. I think it's verse 19.

Now the works of the flesh. This is what we like. This is our diet as humans.

The works of the flesh are pizza, chocolate, coke.

Works of the flesh are sex outside of the covenant of marriage, of adultery and fornication. He gets right into that. You don't think so? Just look at anything on TV. Look at anything that humans do. Uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like. That's humanity. That's what we want.

But of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. There's something different that's near us, that's close by, that's available. And we have to ask ourselves the question, do you want the kingdom? Do I want the kingdom of God? We need to ponder that. Do I want the kingdom of God? Now, is this your answer to that question? It's what Jesus said in Luke 11, verse 2. When you pray, say, our Father in heaven, my new Father in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I don't want to do my will anymore. I don't want to do those things that we just read about that are human. I want, not my kingdom, I want your kingdom. And I want to submit to that kingdom, and I want your will to be done now, today, in my life on earth, just as it is there in the kingdom of heaven today.

I want to be your child. I want to be like you. I want to be with you forever.

You know, it's really different when we stop and consider the kingdom the way God presents it, and entrance into that kingdom the way He presents it in scriptures. Do we want the kingdom of God? Do we want the laws of God? Do we want the mindset of the family of God? Or do we just want the pie?

That's really what it comes down to. What is it?

In 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9-11, it says, Do you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? There's not going to be any crying. There's not going to be any stretching. There's not going to be anybody who says, Oh, but I had something else. Oh, but I did something else. Or, Oh, I wish I had. Or, I meant to... You know, the unrighteous simply won't be in the kingdom of God.

Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 11, And such were some of you. Well, duh, we're humans.

That's what we're about as humans. Some version or form of that.

But you were washed through baptism after you repented. You were sanctified by the blood of Christ and through the Holy Spirit. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. That is near if we want it.

An entry into the kingdom is possible as a free gift for those who come knocking.

So if you and I want the kingdom, we can pursue it now. Don't have to wait.

The laws are there. The Lord, the master of it, is already there. The conditions can be met every day now. The representative of the kingdom is knocking at the door and saying, let me in.

John 14, verses 23 through 26, Jesus made this welcoming statement.

Very welcoming for those who want to really truly be part of the family.

Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. He will obey the gospel. He will obey my commandments, my laws. And my father will love him. And we will come to him and make our home with him. The kingdom of God will not only be near, as one place in the Bible says, it will be shed abroad in your heart, in your mind. Through the Spirit, Jesus said, we will come to him and make our home with him. That's how near the kingdom of God can touch you and me, can embrace you and me, can draw you towards the family. Verse 25, Jesus said, while he was on earth, these things I have spoken to you while being present with you. Verse 26, but the help or the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things and bring you to remembrance of all things that I said to you. God is going to help us. He's going to come back through that power of the Holy Spirit, and he's going to help us. It's the process that fulfills the conditions for entering in God's kingdom. Repentance, baptism, Holy Spirit, which we read in Acts 2.38. We have a very good booklet, by the way, called The Road to Eternal Life. You could say, The Road to the Kingdom of God. It's laid out. It's not our little pamphlet of we made it up ourselves, like the Egyptian priests would write on the walls of the tombs of the pharaohs of how to get to heaven. Just follow these ridiculous directions and you'll get there.

It's the Bible. The literature that the United Church of God produces is just what the Scripture says. You can look at that and see the road to eternal life. It's available. Then, once you receive that Holy Spirit, overcoming human nature, replacing it with godly nature, the ones that overcome will inherit the kingdom of God.

In Romans 6, verses 4-8, as we wrap this up, it says, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so even also we should walk in newness of life. We've got to change this path we're on. We've got to change this mindset through baptism so that we, like he did, would walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. We will be spirit beings, bright, powerful like he is, real children of God. Knowing this, verse 6, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

For he who has died has been freed from sin, or the penalties of sin, and that penalty of death no longer reigns over us. That's been washed away. He paid that penalty for us as long as we keep on the difficult path, as long as we keep repenting every day.

Verse 8, if we died with Christ, or dying with Christ, died at baptism but continue to die daily, as the Bible says, we believe that we also shall live with him in the family, in the kingdom of God.

I'd like to close with a passage in Revelation 22, verse 11. It's interesting that God inspired this last chapter of the Bible to talk about whether or not you and I are the real deal.

Talk about all those who want that piece of pie. Are they really fulfilling the conditions? Do they really, really want to fulfill the conditions, or are they just trying to do the minimum to get the pie? It's really what this boils down to. Revelation 22, verse 11. Here's what God asks of you and me.

Be genuinely who you are. Be what you want to be so I can judge you. I've got to judge you. It's a difficult thing for Christ to do, to condemn people to death and raise others to life, but he has to do it. And he can't just judge on the outside. God is not a one who respects others, or respecter of persons, or, you know, cliques, or this or that. He's got to know who really truly is in the family and who's not. So he says here in verse 11, he who is unjust, let him be unjust still. I mean, really, be what you want to be. Be really what you want to be. If you want to be unjust, then be unjust and be fully unjust. Be what you're going to really be. Show your true colors. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still. He who is holy, let him be holy still. See, it really comes down to not what group you're in, not what things you say or you promote or this or that. It comes down to what's here. What are you made of? Do you relate to Satan the Devil?

His mind is the God of this world. It's God of this age. Or do you relate to God the Father and Son Jesus Christ and you're looking for the coming kingdom of God and praying for that daily?

Verse 12, Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. So that's the upshot. Some of the details, just a broad overview of the kingdom of God, along with the encouragement that it is at hand. It is near. It's available if we want to embrace it now. In verse 17, in the Spirit and the bride say, Come, God says, Come on, you can join this. You can join the first resurrection, the ones who will form the bride of Christ portion of the family, the ones who will rule for a thousand years with him as priests on earth. And let him who hears say, Come, and let him who thirsts, come, and whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. Do you want the kingdom of God?