The Kingdom of God

Thank you very much, Mr. Woking. Good afternoon to all of you here. It's good to see our visitors and guests. Thank you very much for coming. I hope you learn and benefit a lot from this.

Today's world is very much a picture of contrasts. It reminds me a lot of the period of time described in Charles Dickens' novel, A Tale of Two Cities. You may remember the famous quote there, It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. That very much describes our world today. On the one hand, we have marvelous systems of technological advances that's created an interconnected world of commerce, of instant communication that has helped raise the standard of living of people throughout the world to the highest levels in all of human history.

So it is a time of great wealth, great prosperity, an information explosion that we live in in this information age. And yet at the same time, paradoxically, it's also, we might say, the worst of times because the world economy, while generating vast wealth, has also created a crisis because of the enormous burden of debt that exists that has been incurred by the most powerful regions of the world, the United States and Western Europe. And this debt level is so high now that it's in danger of creating an economic meltdown, much like the Great Depression back in the 1930s.

It has the potential of creating a new realignment of world powers, of power blocks that could change the world's geopolitical future, bringing down existing powers and creating new ones out of the rubble of that. That's a very real possibility staring us in the face these days. We also, of course, to use the biblical term, hear of wars and rumors of wars taking place around the world that threaten the peace and security, not just to the people in the immediate areas, but the entire world, because now these conflicts have a way of evilly, easily expanding, getting out of control, and bringing other powers into the conflicts.

We also see increasing numbers of natural disasters, cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, things like that that cause billions of dollars of damage around the world every year and takes thousands, sometimes even hundreds of thousands of lives, like the enormous tsunami that struck in southeastern Asia several years ago. You might remember the tremendous earthquake in Japan and all of the destruction that caused just a little bit over a year ago.

We also, of course, read a lot in the news about the nuclear threat taking place right now of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Israel is trying to determine the best course of action for dealing with that, because Iran's president has openly threatened to exterminate Israel there. Israel is in an impossible position there. What do they do? Do they preemptively attack Iran? Do they wait for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and deal with it then? It's a very, very highly dangerous situation there. A nuclear-armed Middle East is, in many ways, more dangerous than the Cold War standoff that many of us grew up in between the USSR and the United States, because, as the Arab Spring has shown, a lot of these nations are unstable.

They've risen up over the course of the last year and a half in many of these countries, Egypt, Tunisia, and places like that. We see it taking place in Syria right now, where people are rising up and overthrowing their government leaders and establishing new, and in many cases fairly radical regimes there. So there is this instability there, and terrorism, perhaps even nuclear terrorism, if the Pakistani government should fall or if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, is a huge threat to the world.

So the world headlines just seem to go from bad to worse. And why is this? Why are these things happening? And where is it all leading? Another very troubling trend we see is the very fabric of Western civilization, the Judeo-Christian values that the United States was built on being shredded with continual assaults on morality, on the family, creating a culture that would be unrecognizable to our parents and grandparents just a few decades ago. We have abortion that has taken the lives of some 70 to 80 million unborn children since it was legalized in the United States.

We have the continual assault on morality and decency at our popular entertainment that's created a culture of evil that not only doesn't acknowledge God but that openly defies Him and His words as revealed in Scripture. We see, for instance, just this last week the President of the United States openly endorsing and supporting homosexual marriage, something that the Bible condemns as an abomination.

And yet our highest elected leader is openly endorsing that. And of course there's the debate here taking place in Colorado over whether to legalize that as well. It just shows how far and how fast our nation has fallen in terms of its moral and cultural values there.

Our courts have stripped prayer, mention of God, from our schools, from our courts, things like that, from public life. It seems like we're reaching the point where it's basically just every man for himself and get all you can while the getting is good. And forget the consequences. We'll deal with that later. We've reached a critical crossroads of religious and spiritual confusion that will bring this world to the brink of destruction unless something intervenes to put an end to that. This world is headed, and we see this from Bible prophecy as well, to a time of world trouble, of unprecedented proportions.

Jesus Christ said of world conditions just before his return in Matthew 24 and verses 21 and 22. I'll quote this from the English Standard Version. He said, "...for then will be great tribulation," talking about the time just before his return as Messiah, as King of kings and Lord of lords, "...there will be great tribulation such as has not been seen from the beginning of the world until now, and know, and never will be, and if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved." What Jesus is predicting is a time that is so dangerous that we are literally faced with a possibility of human extinction.

That's how bad it is. Read that again. No human being would be saved.

That's from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself. But there is a solution, and that's what we're here to talk about today. A real hope. The hope of the coming kingdom of God. The only realistic solution to the many problems that are mounting up in the world all around us. Jesus also said, in the same chapter, verse 14, that this gospel of the kingdom, gospel, is a word that means good news. And what we'll talk about today truly is good news. This gospel of the kingdom, the kingdom of God, will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. The end of what? Well, the end of the world, not the world as we know it, not the physical world, but this system, this society, this culture, this civilization with all the problems that we talked about in the introduction here. And again, this prophesied kingdom of God has long been foretold in the Scriptures. We'll talk about a number of those today. It is very real, and it is something that is coming and coming soon. And here in this seminar, we need to take a look at what Scripture says that we can do to prepare for that coming kingdom.

What we'll talk about today will allow you to make a difference in your life now, and to prepare you for the role that God has in store for you if you are willing to accept His invitation in that kingdom. So listen to what we'll talk about, read the Scriptures that we'll go through, and ask yourself if you are ready and willing to make the kind of choices that you need to make to be a part of this future that we're going to be covering today. So let's now take a look and get a brief scriptural overview of what this kingdom of God is and what Scripture tells us about it. What did Jesus Christ focus on while He was on earth? And what was His message that He brought? Let's take a look at Mark 1 and verses 14 and 15. It tells us here that Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God, and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Believe this good news.

But what is this gospel that He brought? We see here from this verse that it is a message about the kingdom of God. But what is that kingdom? What is that question? Let's look at some key what is that kingdom? Let's look at some key questions here. First of all, what is that kingdom? Second, what will it be like? And third, what will we do if we are to be a part of that kingdom? These are all crucial questions that we'll take a brief look at today. Let's start back with a prophecy in Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 14, that tells us how this kingdom will be established. Let's look at some of the details here. Zechariah 14 verses 4 and 5. It tells us that in that day His feet, this is a prophecy of the Messiah, the returning Jesus Christ, in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. And if any of you have been to Jerusalem before, you know that the Mount of Olives is right across the valley from Jerusalem. It overlooks the entire city there on the east side, which faces Jerusalem on the east, as it says here. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley.

And thus the Lord my God will come and all the saints with you.

So what this is describing is the literal return of Jesus Christ. It's not a spiritual return. It's not a secret return, as some believe the rapture, for instance, to teach. It says He will literally return and His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives. But notice here, toward the end, and this is something many people overlook, Jesus Christ will not come alone. It says here that all the saints will return with Him. What is this all about? What's this talking about here? So they will return the sin to the Mount of Olives, which overlooks Jerusalem. And He will return there, but He will not return alone. So let's take another look here, continuing on in the book of Zechariah, chapter 8, verse 3.

Excuse me, I've been fighting a cough here all week.

It says here, This is the Lord. I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.

So this tells us that Jesus Christ, when He returns as Messiah, will literally live in Jerusalem. He will literally return to the Mount of Olives and then cross that valley, the Kidron Valley, and will live in Jerusalem at that time. That's where He will live after He returns to earth. Let's look at another prophecy in Jeremiah 3 that gives us a few more details. It says here, At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all the nation shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts. So this tells us that Jerusalem will basically become the capital of the world under the reign of Jesus Christ the Messiah. Let's notice another prophecy, Isaiah 2, verses 2 and 3. I'll read this from the New Living Translation.

In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house will be the highest of all.

This isn't talking literally about a mountain. A mountain in Bible prophecy is used symbolically of governments and kingdoms. That's why prophetically you see reference to mountains, meaning a large government, a large kingdom, a large empire, and sometimes hills, which refers to smaller kingdoms, smaller governments. So it says here that in the last day, the mountain, the government, the kingdom, you might say, of the Lord's house will be the highest of all.

It will be elevated above all other governments and kingdoms, in other words. Continuing on, it will be the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, the smaller kingdoms, smaller governments, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. Continuing on, people from many nations will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob's, or Israel's, God. There He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For the Lord's teaching will go out from Zion, another name for Jerusalem. His word will go out from Jerusalem. So Jerusalem we see from this prophecy, this ancient city that has been fought over dozens, perhaps hundreds of times over the years, has been the side of so much bloodshed, so much pain and suffering, over the centuries will then become the governmental and the religious center of the entire world in the kingdom of God. Let's take a look at another prophecy from back in Revelation 11 and verse 15.

Famous words from Handel's Messiah, the chorus from there. It says, And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. So notice here that the kingdom of God, under the reign of Jesus Christ, will take control over all the kingdoms, all the governments of this world. It will be a literal kingdom. It will be a literal kingdom that will replace the present government, the present systems of government throughout the world. It will replace them because, frankly, they have rejected God. They have rejected his revelation and tried to do things their own way, which is another contributing factor to why we have so many problems in the world today. He will reign over all the kingdoms and the governments of this world. As we read here, they will become part of his overall kingdom and government, ruling and reigning from Jerusalem. And this kingdom will be a reality after the return of Jesus, the Messiah. But there will be an enormous difference between the world of that time and our world today. Because one of the first things that Jesus Christ will have to do is to take care of a particular factor that is huge in terms of its implications for all of the problems that we see around us in our world today. Most people don't realize why we have so many problems. Where they come from, what is their ultimate source, what they can be traced back to. They don't realize that there is an unseen spiritual power and factor at work in our world today.

It's a factor, a spiritual factor, that Jesus Christ referred to as the ruler of this world.

The apostle Paul referred to this as a being that he calls the God, the one who is worshiped without most people realizing who they're worshiping, the God of this age, of this age in which we live here. And no one is going to be able to solve these problems, not even Jesus Christ himself, until the source of all these problems is removed. And what is that source? Let's take a look over Revelation 20 and verses 1 through 3. I'll read this from the New Living Translation. And we'll read here about one of the first things that Jesus Christ will have to do here before he establishes his kingdom. And it says here, Revelation 20 and verse 1, that I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. Verse 2, he seized the dragon. And what is that dragon? That old serpent, the devil, and Satan, and bound him in chains for a thousand years. And that he shut and locked, so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward, he would be released again for a little while. So this tells us that before Jesus Christ can establish his kingdom, his government, his empire, if you will, on the earth something must first take place. And that is that the devil, the source, ultimately responsible for so many of our problems today, has to be removed so that he can no longer deceive the nations and lead them into rebellion against God and lead them into the suffering and the sin that results from his deceptions here. And he will be bound, as it says here twice, for a thousand years. There's a particular term for this. It's called the millennium after the Latin word for a thousand years. That's where that comes from there. So during that time, with Satan bound with the cause of so many of the world's problems removed, the world will be transformed under the righteous reign of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And at that time, prophecy tells us that a glorious transformation of the world will begin.

Let's look now at some different Bible prophecies that tell us about that marvelous transformation throughout the entire world, from this age of man to a new age under the reign and the rule of the kingdom of God under Jesus Christ. Let's begin back in Isaiah 51, verse 3. It says, For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places, waste places, because there will be a tremendous amount of destruction at the end of man's age. You can read about it yourself. We don't have time to go through all of that. But Matthew 24, for instance, talks about that. Many prophecies in the book of Revelation, and Isaiah, Jeremiah, a number of other places. But Matthew 24, in particular, will give you a good idea of the tremendous amount of destruction and suffering and death that will accompany the end of this age of man, because our conflicts will lead us to a final great world war that will almost lead to the extinction of mankind. So there will be a lot of waste places that will need to be comforted. It says, He will make her wilderness like Eden, like the Garden of Eden.

We see prophetically that the world began in an Eden-like state, with Adam and Eve and God there on the scene, in a beautiful, beautiful garden that took place of all of the needs of mankind. But we see prophetically that at the end—you can read about it in the book of Revelation, the last few chapters. We don't have time to cover all of that. But at the end, the world will be restored to an Eden-like state here, where mankind will again be reconciled to God. And that's referred to here. He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. So it will be a beautiful, marvelous transformation there. Continuing on, Isaiah 35, verse 1, it says, The wilderness and the wastelands shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. So the wastelands, the desert areas of the earth, will become well watered. They will blossom as the rose, it says here. It shall blossom abundantly, referring to the desert areas, and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. Lebanon, the reference here is to Lebanon. You may have come across the term in the Bible. The cedars of Lebanon. Lebanon was renowned across the ancient world for its beautiful forests there. Beautiful, beautiful land at that time, of course, has been devastated by human action since then. But the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. They shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. And skipping down to verse 7 here, it says, The parched ground shall become a pool in the thirsty land, springs of water. So this is another reference to the desert being transformed with water, springs, wells, lakes, rivers, flowing in that area there. So yes, a miraculous transformation will take place at that time.

I'm continuing with other prophecies in Isaiah 41 from the New Living Translation.

It says here, verses 18 and 19, I will open up rivers for them on the high plateaus. I will give them fountains of water in the valleys. I will fill the deserts with pools of water.

Rivers fed by springs shall flow across the parched ground. I will plant trees in the barren deserts. So these massive areas of the desert that we see in the world around us, like the Sahara, Gobi Desert, places like that, even places here in the United States, desert areas, will be transformed through springs of water and rivers and lakes in the deserts and will be transformed into beautiful, productive areas like the Garden of Eden. Continuing on, God says why He's going to do this in verse 20. I am doing this so all who see this miracle will understand what it means, that it is the Lord who has done this, the Holy One of Israel, who created it. In other words, these miracles, this miraculous transformation, is going to be so vast, so incredible, so awesome that everyone throughout the entire world will recognize and understand who has done it, that it is the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, who has created all of this and done this marvelous, marvelous transformation performing miracles. There's another part of this transformation that ties in with this as well. That is that the planet will become enormously fruitful and productive. One of our major problems right now is our farmlands are becoming exhausted, all the nutrients taking out of the soil from over-farming, wrong farming and agricultural practices and so on like that. But God is going to transform that as well. Amos 9 in verse 13 tells us, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper.

In other words, the ground is going to be so productive that it's going to produce so much crops, so much of an abundance of crops, that they're going to be plowing and reaping almost simultaneously. The ground will be so fertile, bringing up crops that the cycles will just almost overlap. The plowman will go and right on his heels will come the reaper, because the farmland, the lands will be so productive then. The treader of grapes, him who sows seeds, and the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it, with wine. In other words. So the world, what we're seeing here, is the world will see many, many miraculous transformations here in terms of the land. But is the land the only thing that will be healed, will be transformed, will be changed? We'll see from other prophecies that major changes are in store for people as well, as the world begins to see miraculous healings, tremendous healings, the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame leaping, and the mute being able to speak. We see reference to this in Isaiah 35, verses 5 and 6. And when he comes, referring to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap like a deer.

Those who are crippled in wheelchairs or on crutches now will be able to leap like a deer, run like an antelope, because they will be healed of their afflictions.

And those who cannot speak will sing for joy. And what a tremendous transformation that will be in their lives. They can't speak now, and yet then they'll be able to sing and shout for joy.

And praise God for the miraculous things that have taken place in their lives.

Continuing on, it says, springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland. So not only will the land be healed, the desert wastelands, the overused farmlands, and so on, but people will be healed of their afflictions. And again, this will be a miraculous sign that God is indeed in charge, that Jesus Christ is healing not just the land, but healing the people of their afflictions that they've suffered from for so long. It's talking as well not just of literal feeling, literal physical healing, but also of people being spiritually healed as well. Because we live in a world that is spiritually sick and diseased as well. And people will be transformed through the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. Another huge transition that is taken, that is talked about often in Bible prophecy, is we will transform to a world of peace. At last, one of the eternal quests of human beings has been defined. And so find peace, and so far we've just searched for it in vain.

But as Micah tells us in Micah 4 and verse 3, he shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off, referring to Jesus, the Messiah. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Perhaps some of you have been to the United Nations Building in New York and seen this famous statue outside there. It's a statue that's based on this verse that we read right here, of beating swords into plowshares. Ironically, this is done by a Russian artist, a Russian sculptor, back in the late 40s, early 50s, I believe. And you can see the mighty hammer that he's raising there, and he's beating a sword, transforming it into a plow.

That was given as a gift to the United Nations to symbolize the aspirations of that great world body, to teach mankind the way to peace, to show us a better way. And of course, we can look at the UN's efforts and see how well that's worked out. Not very well at all, unfortunately. It just shows, again, the futility of man trying to accomplish these things and find peace on our own. And it's just impossible to do, because many of our problems are spiritual in nature. That's a whole other subject we don't have time to get into here. But that is going to change, is going to change, under the righteous rule of Jesus Christ the Messiah. Continuing on in verse 4, it tells us here, "...but everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken." So this will be a time when people won't have to worry about crime, about people breaking into their homes, stealing them, raping their wives, kidnapping their children. All of that will be a distant memory. They won't have to worry about military invasion, as so many people throughout biblical times had to worry about there. They won't have to worry about the threat of nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, that Torah type of thing. Everyone will live at peace, and no one will make them afraid.

What an enormous difference from our world today! Scripture also tells us that something else will happen as well, and that is that even the nature of animals, of wild beasts, will change under the rule of the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ. Isaiah 11, verse 6, says, "...the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with a young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them." Again, a tremendous vision of the future here, where wolves will lie down with lambs, the offspring of goats and sheep, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling will lie down together, and a little child can be right there among them without fear of getting eaten there. Even the nature of animals will be changed in this peaceful world tomorrow here, and all of this will be possible because the world will be filled with the knowledge of God.

As Isaiah 11, verse 9, says, "...they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." So the kingdom of God, under the reign of Jesus Christ, will bring great blessings of peace, of prosperity, tremendous agricultural abundance like we talked about earlier. Universal peace will break out throughout the world, not just between nations but between neighbors, between all human beings, even between the animals, the lions, the tigers, the poisonous serpents, things like that that our world sees today. And God will allow no one human or animal alike to harm any part of His creation. But what does this mean for each of us?

That's a crucial question we need to ask for ourselves. So we'll shift gears now and talk about this a little bit because where will you be when this time comes?

As we saw earlier, Jesus Christ will not return to earth alone. He will be accompanied by His saints. But who are they and what's this all about? You know, that's not something we hear about in a lot of church messages these days. But let's notice here in 1 Corinthians 15, we'll read a few verses here, 50 through 52. Paul is writing here about the resurrection of the dead. And I'd recommend we don't have time to cover this entire chapter, but I'd recommend going back and reading that and seeing what will happen also at the return of Jesus Christ because it describes a marvelous transformation at that time. And Paul says here that flesh and blood, in other words, our physical human bodies, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Yes, there will be some physical human beings who will live over through the tremendous destruction at the end of the age that we talked about earlier. But this is talking about those who will inherit the kingdom of God.

And he goes on to say, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. What that's referring to is again our physical bodies, our corruptible human bodies that are subject to sickness and death and so on. We will inherit incorruption. Continuing on, Paul says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. And this is indeed a mystery. It's a mystery that most people do not understand.

And he says, We shall not all sleep. This is referring to sleep and death. That's a parallel that Paul uses many times in his writings. We shall not all die, in other words, but we shall all be changed. Now, what's he talking about here? Well, he's talking about those who are the faithful saints who are alive at the return of Jesus Christ. That's those who he's referring to. And he says, We shall not all sleep. In other words, many have died, would die over the centuries and rest in the grave. But others will not be dead, but will be alive at the return of Jesus, the Messiah. And he says, What will happen at that time? He says, But we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. So this is an instantaneous change that takes place at the return of Jesus Christ, at the last trumpet. You may recall from the book of Revelation, there are seven trumpets that sound before the return of Jesus Christ. And these symbolize, represent many of the terrible destructive events that take place leading up to the return of Jesus, the Messiah. So this says that Christ will return at the last of those seven trumpets here.

And he goes on to say, For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised.

So we saw that we shall all be changed, so some are still alive at the return of Jesus Christ, and those who are dead, those who have been the faithful saints of God over the centuries, will be raised, resurrected, in other words, resurrected from the graves. And how will they be raised? It says here, incorruptible. Again, no longer subject to these physical human bodies that get sick, that have our afflictions, our ailments, and eventually we die. It's appointed to all men, wants to die. So the dead will be raised, those who are alive will be transformed incorruptible.

What's that talking about? It's talking about being changed from physical human bodies to spirit.

As God is spirit, as Jesus Christ, the resurrected Jesus Christ is spirit, we will be transformed into spirit, and we shall be changed. And you can go on again and read the rest of the chapter that describes this tremendous change that is going to take place at that time.

And this is how we become a part of the kingdom of God. We must be changed. We must be changed at the resurrection of the dead, at the return of Jesus Christ to earth, at the seventh trumpet, when He returns to establish that kingdom of God here on earth. And as true followers, we'll be transformed to spirit, into spirit to become incorruptible, to become immortal, no longer subject to sickness and death and suffering and dying. Could this be you? Could it be you? Let's notice another prophecy in Daniel 7 and verse 18. It says here, But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. If the saints are going to receive and possess that kingdom forever, and that kingdom is going to exist forever, what does it tell you about those who will inherit that kingdom? It tells us that we, too, must exist and live forever if we are to inherit and possess that kingdom there. So the saints of God, the true and faithful followers of Jesus Christ, will receive and possess that kingdom. But what will they do? What will they do in that kingdom forever? Let's notice now another prophecy, Revelation 5 and verse 9. This is referring to the saints of God describing them. And it says here, You ransomed for God's saints from every tribe and language and people and nation, in other words, from people all across the entire world, every type of nation and people and race and ethnic group and so on, will be represented in that kingdom. It's not limited to any one people or race or anything like that. And it says, You, referring to God, have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth. They will reign on earth. It's a very different picture from what most churches teach. They say we're going to go in heaven, but Scripture actually says they will reign on earth, that this is the future for mankind. But it's very plain. You might also notice this verse back here in Luke 22 verses 29 and 30. This is Jesus Christ talking directly to the twelve apostles. And notice what he tells them here. Notice what he tells them here.

What kingdom? Again, the kingdom of God, the eternal kingdom of God.

In that kingdom that they would inherit. It says they will sit on thrones judging or reigning over or administering over the twelve tribes of Israel, physical human beings.

So they're going to be there transformed to immortality. And they're going to sit on thrones symbolizing rulership, administering or reigning over and judging. Not judging in the sense that we think of a judge sitting up with his black robes on a bench, but again administering, serving, in other words, and overseeing the twelve tribes of Israel. Very different picture. Very different picture from what we usually hear in churches here today. So those who are a part of this kingdom of God with Jesus Christ will be rulers over the earth, not in heaven. And they will be working with those who are still physical human beings who have lived over into this time through the terrible times at the end of the age of man. And this is what the Bible promises is in store for you. For you. If you're willing to accept it. If you're willing to do what it takes. Let's notice also, prophetically, who Jesus Christ says will be a part of this resurrection to eternal life in God's kingdom. Revelation 3, in verse 21, it says here, "...to him who overcomes." To him who overcomes. That is, gains the victory is what it means there in the original Greek. To him who gains the victory, who overcomes. Against what? Well, in the struggle against sin.

And against Satan, the devil, and his system. And what is their reward? Jesus Christ goes on to promise, "...I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my father on his throne." So this tells us, Jesus Christ's own words here, that we must do something.

We must do something if we are to be a part of that kingdom. As it says here, and again, these are the very words of Jesus Christ, we must overcome. We must overcome. And if we do, then we can rule and reign with Him in that kingdom to come. And you can be a part of it. That is why we are born. That is why we are here. You are hearing this advanced news, the good news, which the word gospel means. The good news, the true gospel that Jesus Christ announced, is of this coming kingdom of peace that we've seen from Scripture today. But the choice is yours. No one can make that choice for you. So what will you do with it? The choice is set before you. Can you picture the wonderful future that lies ahead? We've seen a little bit of that today, a glimpse of it from some of the Scriptures, a prophecy describing this wonderful world that God has in store. Our next passage, which we'll talk about in the second part of this seminar, will talk more specifically about how you can be a part of this, about the steps that God expects you to take, the response that God expects and wants to see from each of you, each of you sitting here today. What response does He require? I'll give you a little hint of it here. Mark 1 and verse 14 and 15. We read it earlier here. Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. And notice what He says you must do.

Repent and believe the gospel. What about you? Have you repented? Do you understand what repentance really is? What does the Bible say about repentance? Jesus Christ said it's something that we must do if we are to be a part of the kingdom of God. And we'll look at that crucial biblical topic next.

Now we'll take about a 10-minute break here. We'll reconvene at 3 o'clock here.

If you have any questions about anything we've discussed here, feel free to see me.

Feel free to drop by the literature table over there. Pick up any of the booklets there. There are a number of them that talk about these specific subjects. A few in particular I'd recommend are What is Your Destiny? and The Road to Eternal Life. And the one on the process of transforming your life, The Process of Conversion. Feel free to pick up a copy of that and any of the other booklets you'd like there. They're all free. Take those. And then at 3 o'clock we'll reconvene. And we'll hear another one of our elders here, Mr. Dave Hale. We'll be talking more and going into specifics about what repentance is, what the Bible really teaches about that. So we'll see you back here in 10 minutes.