Thy Kingdom Come

Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all here. Thank you for coming this morning. We've got a lot to cover today, and it's going to be a lot of good information for you, a lot of things that we're going to look right into the Bible and see perhaps what is one of the most misunderstood or maybe even ignored subjects in the Bible, and that's the kingdom of God. You know, when Jesus Christ was on earth, the central point of all of his ministry was the kingdom of God. He talked about it. That was the reason he came. He pointed his disciples to it. But for some reason, the world at large doesn't seem to understand what the kingdom of God is. So this morning we're going to cover right from the Bible what the kingdom of God is, what Jesus Christ himself said it was, why we should be looking forward to it, and why it should be the central part of our lives as well. Now, if we have our computer set up right, when I hit this button, look at that. It worked. To show how important the kingdom of God is, Jesus Christ gave a model prayer, as you know, in Matthew 6. And most of the world, at least the Christian world, knows this prayer, and probably hundreds of millions of people recite this prayer maybe every day. He said in Matthew 6-9, pray in this manner, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then the next statement is, thy kingdom come. People, probably as I said, hundreds of millions of people, maybe a billion people, pray that prayer over and over and over. But do they know what it means when they say, thy kingdom come? And yet in the model prayer, Jesus told us, pray in that manner. So this morning we're going to, in this first session, we're going to cover four topics. You should be able to go out of here and understand the answers to these questions. What is the gospel? Jesus preached. It's a misunderstood gospel, and the world replaces one thing with the actual words that Jesus preached, as we'll see. What is the kingdom of God? What was he talking about when he said the kingdom of God and told us to pray for it to come? Again, out there in modern Christianity, you're going to find a lot of explanations of what the kingdom of God is, but let's see exactly what Jesus Christ said the kingdom of God is. Where will that kingdom be? It will be a question that we address. And how can you be part of it? Because when you understand what the kingdom of God is, what you want when you understand what it means, and the greatness and everything that's associated with it, I can't understand why anyone, when they understand the truth, wouldn't want to be part of God's kingdom.

Back in Mark 1, just as Jesus began his ministry, we'll read Mark 1 and verse 14. It says, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. When he first came, when he began his ministry, that's the first thing that he began to preach. And he said, the time was fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repent and believe in the gospel.

Now, the gospel that the world tells us that Jesus Christ preached, or the gospel that the world preaches often, is the gospel about Jesus Christ. All too often, they replace what Jesus said about the kingdom of God, and they say that all we need to do is believe in Christ. Now, let me just, you know, as we begin here this morning, to talk about how important Jesus Christ is. Not one of us would be sitting here today if Jesus Christ didn't exist, if he didn't come to earth, if he didn't live, die for our sins. Not one of us would have a future. Not one of us would have hope. There would be no possibility of eternal life. So, yes, to believe in Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary, and nothing I say today should at all minimize that concept. To believe in Jesus Christ is absolutely fundamental to everything we're going to talk about and everything you'll ever read in the Bible. To believe on him, and it says in Acts 4 that there is no other name by which we can even hope for eternal life and to have our sins forgiven. So, as we go through there, the world preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. We, too, believe Jesus Christ is the Savior. But the gospel that Jesus Christ preached was the gospel of the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? As we begin this part, I'm going to go through a few things that maybe you've heard over the years that the kingdom of God is, and we'll explore those. The kingdom of God is not a matter of going to heaven. Maybe you've heard that we live, we die, and the kingdom of God, what we enter, is when we go into heaven at the end of our lives. Well, if you've been reading the Good News magazine or any of our literature for any period of time, you know that's not the case. You know that we don't go to heaven when we die, that the bodies are in the earth waiting for a resurrection. I might mention at this point, if anything I say today that you don't understand, certainly talk to me after the break. We have a whole vast array of booklets out there that you can pick up on any subject that I touch on today that can explain that, but I'd be more than happy to sit down with any of you to discuss these things in more detail. But the kingdom of God is not going to heaven. Now, if you have your Bibles, you can turn to these verses if you want, but I've put most of them up here on the slide so that you can follow along more easily. In John 3, Christ Himself said these words, No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. Now, I don't know about you, but I tend to believe everything that Jesus Christ said. He said, No man has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man. No man would include all those people who lived up to that time, King David, a man after God's own heart, all the other patriarchs of old, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who God worked with. And yet Christ said, No man has ascended into heaven. So the kingdom of God is not going to heaven. In Acts 2, verse 29 and 34, Paul said, Let me speak freely with you of the patriarch David. He is both dead and buried. David did not ascend into the heavens. So, as we talk about the kingdom of God, it is not a matter of going to heaven. No man has ascended into heaven.

Is the kingdom of God in heaven? When Jesus Christ talked about the kingdom of God, is He talking about the existence that's in heaven? Well, we know that God the Father is up there. We know that Jesus Christ is up there. And sometimes the confusion with what is the kingdom of God comes from some of the terms that are used in the Bible, specifically in Matthew. Many times, in fact, 32 times in the book of Matthew, it talks about the kingdom of heaven. And then other times, Matthew and the other writers of the Gospels will talk about the kingdom of God. Those terms are used interchangeably. Kingdom of heaven is the absolute same as kingdom of God. If you don't believe me, you can go into any commentary and they'll tell you the same thing. Matthew, Christ, we're talking about exactly the same thing. And though it doesn't say the kingdom in heaven, it talks about the kingdom of heaven. And indeed, there is a kingdom in heaven. There God the Father is there. Jesus Christ is there. There are angels that are there. There's a government that's there. And you know what? It's a happy, peaceful, joyful place that any of us would want to be of. The kingdom of God, is it in heaven? Yes, there is a kingdom. Jesus is talking about bringing the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, to earth. The kingdom of God presently is in heaven. But it is coming to earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, I didn't put the slides up there, but if you have your Bibles, let's turn to Revelation 5. Of course, Revelation talks.

It was the Revelation to John of the things that would happen at the end, and of Christ's return to earth. In Revelation 5 and verse 10, I'll read verse 9, it says, They sang a new song, saying, You, speaking of Christ, are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals, for you were slain. You redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

And you have made us kings and priests to our God, and notice where we'll reign. On earth. On earth. Not in heaven. Over in Revelation 21, speaking of the time after the Millennial Rule of Jesus Christ, when the thousand years are up, and all of mankind has had an opportunity to choose God's way of life or to reject it, this is what it says in verse 1 of chapter 21 will happen. It says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.

Then I, John, who's recording this, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, they'll be his people, God himself will be with them and be their God.

A new heaven and a new earth, and God will dwell with his people on earth. If we go back to the model prayer that Jesus gave us, remember we read in verse 9 of Matthew 6, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

So there is a kingdom of God in heaven, Christ will establish the kingdom of God on earth at his return.

Some people will say that the kingdom of God is the church. Is the kingdom of God the church? Well, let's explore the words, church, that is appeared, or that appears, only twice in the book of Matthew. And only twice in the Gospels do you find that Jesus Christ even said the word church, or the Greek equivalent of it, or the Aramaic that he spoke at that time. Only twice does that word appear. One of those times you know very well is in Matthew 16, verse 9, where he tells Peter, as he's talking to him and addressing Peter's faith, he says, upon this rock I will build my church. The Greek word that's translated church is ekklesia. It means called out ones. Those God calls, those whose mind he opens, so that they understand the truth, that they can look into the Scriptures and see things that before we couldn't. And when he works with us and when he calls us, and when he makes his will known to us or opens our minds, we can understand the truth of God. In John 6, 44, it says that no man can come to God.

Unless the Father or come to me, Christ says, unless the Father who sent him draws them. So as you're understanding, and I say every single one of you in the room today, whether you've read your first Good News article last week, or whether you've been reading it for years, God is opening your mind. He's calling you. He's making known to you the truth of his Bible. When we talk about the church, we're talking about ekklesia.

Christ only mentioned the word church twice. Now, 54 times in Matthew alone, we read about the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. As you read Christ's words over and over when he talks, he talks about the kingdom of heaven. He talks about the kingdom of God over and over and over and over. It was his central point. The word kingdom comes from the Greek word basilea, and it means a territory subject to the rule of a king.

So in Christ, who knew very well what his plan was and what the plan of his father was, it had been in place since the foundation of the world, he didn't make a mistake when he said kingdom. He's talking about kingdom, a territory, a king ruling over it, a system of government, and a few slides from now we'll see exactly what makes up a kingdom.

He knew exactly what he was talking about. Today, you're probably all familiar with Paul's words there in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. It says, we, as God calls out ones, are ambassadors for Christ. You all know what ambassadors are. We have ambassadors of America that live in foreign countries that represent the way of life and the government of the United States of America.

And here in America, we have many ambassadors from other countries that live here that represent the way of life and the government of that country. God's Church, his called out ones, the ones who are living the way of life that Jesus Christ showed us, the way of life that he left us an example of, they're living the life of the kingdom to come. And so we represent that and all the things that we do, all the interactions we have with family, all the interactions we have with school and neighbors, were ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors for the kingdom that is to come, and ambassadors for a life that is far, far different and free of all the troubles that we have here on earth today.

So when we're talking about the kingdom of God, Jesus Christ didn't make a mistake. We're not talking about the Church. The Church is ambassadors of a kingdom to come, and Jesus Christ was talking about a kingdom. Another thing that people will ask or say is, the kingdom of God is in our hearts. That's what Jesus Christ was talking about.

Did he mean that? When he said, the kingdom of God, did he just mean that it's in our hearts? Certainly when we're called by God, certainly when we repent, certainly when we baptize and choose to live his way of life, his law is written in our minds and hearts.

Now, we do live differently than we did before. But is that all that he meant? In Luke 17, 20, in an interaction with the Pharisees, Christ says this. He says, Now when he was asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God would come, he, Christ, answered and said, the kingdom of God doesn't come with observation, nor will they see, say, see here or see there. For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.

Well, that kind of sounds like it means that the kingdom is within us, doesn't it? If you just look at the words that are there in the King James Version and the New King James Version of the Bible, that's exactly what it says. But you know, all the translations of the Bible, while there are some that are very accurate, sometimes you have to go down deeper into the meaning and the translation of certain words to understand exactly what Christ was talking about.

So let's do a little bit of analysis on this verse. The word that's translated within, in Luke 17 there, actually comes from the Greek word entos, E-N-T-O-S, and it's an interesting Greek word because it is appropriately translated within.

However, it's appropriately translated within when it's referring to a singular object or a singular subject. If I say, entos me, I'm one person. But if I say, entos you and all of you that are out there, you're a plural. You're a plural subject or a plural object. So, Greek entos is within when it's singular, but it has another meaning when it's referring to a plural group. At that time, it's more properly translated in your midst or among. Now, some of the more modern translations have gotten it correct. Where the New King James and King James are accurate in many cases, in this case it is not.

Let's look at a few translations for the more modern translations. The New Living Translation in Luke 17, verse 21, translates that is, the kingdom of God is already among you. Well, that has a different meaning than within you, doesn't it? The kingdom of God is already among you. And the English Standard Version says, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Now, if we go back to verse 21, where it says, for indeed the last word, the kingdom of God is within you, the trick is, or the real meaning and the real way to translate that verb all hangs on what that word you is referring to.

Jesus Christ wasn't talking to one person when he said that. Back in verse 20, he was talking to a group of people, Pharisees. So when he said, the kingdom of God is within you, he wasn't talking to one person, he was referring to a plural object. In which case, entos would be translated exactly the way these two versions, and many other versions like that as well, translate it. If we look at the context of the verse, when Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees, the kingdom of God is within you, we know that the Pharisees, well, for lack of a better word, were adversarial to Christ at that time. They were challenging him. Certainly from the context, he wasn't saying, hey, the kingdom of God is within you when they're sitting there challenging him on everything he did.

In this verse and everything that you know in his encounters with them. Clearly, he wouldn't have been telling them, the kingdom of God is within you. But he was telling them, the kingdom of God is among you, the kingdom of God is in your midst. Who is in their midst? Christ. The king of kings, the king of the kingdom to come, the kingdom was there among them. He just hasn't taken his throne yet, but he's making it clear to them, the kingdom of God is among you.

The kingdom of God, the one who will be king, is in your midst. A far, far, far different meaning than anything that the world ascribes to that verse. Is the kingdom of God just in your heart? Certainly God's laws, certainly God's way of life, certainly our beliefs, certainly our faith is all written in our hearts when we follow his way. But when Jesus Christ was talking about the kingdom of God, he wasn't talking about a kingdom of God that's just in our hearts. He's talking about a kingdom of God, a literal kingdom that will come to earth and that will be a worldwide ruling kingdom.

Okay. So we know the kingdom of God, what it's not. Now we've touched a little bit on what the kingdom of God is, a literal kingdom.

What did Jesus teach about the kingdom of God? Matthew 6, 33, probably most, if not all of you know this verse by heart, says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. And he's talking about all the things that we need in physical life will be added unto you.

What he's saying in that verse is telling us what a high priority the kingdom of God should have in our lives. It takes preeminence over everything. Seek first the kingdom of God.

Does that tell you how important the kingdom of God was to Jesus Christ? Does it tell you how important he wants the kingdom of God to be to us?

Seek it first. Seek it first before all the other things that you might put ahead of it. Job. Wealth. Status. Seek it first. It should be the highest priority. And God says when it is, and when you live that way of life, I'll see that you have all these other things. But seek it first. Is it the highest priority in our lives? That's what Jesus Christ said it should be.

In Matthew 13, he gives a couple parables about the kingdom of God. It says, The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in the field. And the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. He went and sold all that he had once he found that pearl of great price. Once he had the understanding of the kingdom, once he knew what God's plan was, once he knew what the best thing that could ever happen to humanity was going to be, he went out and sold everything else that he had. It was the highest priority to him. And it was also the highest value to him. Nothing that he had. No amount of money, no amount of property, no amount of stocks and bonds and anything else that we may accumulate in this life. Nothing was more important to him. He was willing to sell it all to have the kingdom.

Now, Christ wasn't saying, lest any misunderstand that, in order to seek first the kingdom, we have to go out and sell everything that he had. No, no, no. God blesses us and what he gives us, we enjoy and we keep. But the highest value in our lives is the kingdom. So if we were going to sacrifice one thing or another, if it ever came down to that, we would never sacrifice the kingdom and the promise and the knowledge of it, because it is the most important thing and the highest value of anything we will ever have in our lives.

That's what he said in these verses. It's the highest priority. Nothing is more important for you to seek. It's the highest value. Nothing you own, have, or ever amass will be of more value than the knowledge of the kingdom of God and the promise that he gave to each and every one of us. In Matthew 19, he says to his disciples, and when you read these verses, when he says to his disciples, he was talking to his people then, but to all of us who read these words in the Bible all the time.

He said to his disciples, you and me, as well as the people back then, assuredly I say to you, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, why would that be?

Because so many times, rich men count as more value what's in their bank account. Notice he says, enter the kingdom of heaven. If we go back to, is the kingdom within your heart? This is a pretty good verse that would show. It's pretty hard to explain how if the kingdom is only in your heart, how Christ tells us we must enter the kingdom.

In verse 24, in the same chapter, he says, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God must be entered. It must be our priority. We must see it as our highest value. I'm going to give you just a little interjection here on verse 24.

That verse says, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Well, many of you know that when the Bible is translated, there's consonants that are often in place, and they've had to put in vowels in order to equate the word that's coming in there.

And here in camel, I think the Hebrew letters, if I remember right, are G-M-L, and if you put in vowels, it'll translate camel. But there is a word out there that has G-M-L with another vowel in between, the G and the A and the M.

And that Hebrew word, or the Greek, or I guess it's the Aramaic word, is thick rope. So if you read that verse, which sometimes we say, boy, when the apostle said, it looks impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of God. If it's translated, if indeed what some of the new translations are coming out with, that verse would say it's easier for a thick rope to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Which lends kind of an interesting twist on that verse, doesn't it? Because a thick rope is made up of many, many, many strands, and it's really, really hard, it's impossible to get that thick rope through the eye of a needle. But as God works with us and as His kingdom becomes a priority in our lives, strand by strand, those thick ropes of pride, greed, lust, the things that puff us up, God strips away. And eventually, what's remaining is exactly what He wants that can pass through the eye of a needle and enter the kingdom of God.

So as you read that verse, I don't know if some of the new translations have it right or not, but it sure adds a meaning to that verse that I hadn't seen before. Another good reason, you look at the words in some translations and see exactly what the origins of those words are. Verse 28 of chapter 19, Jesus is talking about now the kingdom as He talks to people.

Again, this is in the same verse where He says, you must enter the kingdom. In just a few verses later, in the very same talk that He's giving to the disciples, He says to them, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, what does that tell you about a kingdom?

In kingdoms, there are thrones, right? We have rulers. We have people that are in charge. When the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me, He says, and now He's talking to the twelve apostles there, will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

So He's talking about the kingdom. He's showing His apostles, His disciples, what that kingdom's going to be like. He says, I, Jesus Christ, will be sitting on a throne, and you twelve who have followed Me, you twelve who have made the kingdom of God your highest priority and of the highest value, they were willing to sacrifice everything, and indeed they did sacrifice their lives in many cases. He says, you twelve will be sitting on the thrones as well, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And there are tribes of Israel still out there. The world doesn't know where they are. Certainly Jesus Christ knows where they are.

And just as an aside in verse 29, notice that He says to them that you will inherit eternal life. When the kingdom of God comes to earth, it will last forever. Not like the kingdoms of this world that may last 100, 200, or 500 years. It will last forever. And the people in it will inherit eternal life when they live the life of that kingdom. Now, let's just interject for a moment on a kingdom. I mentioned earlier we would talk about what some of the aspects of a kingdom are. If you remember from your social studies classes, there's four elements of any government.

And certainly four elements of the kingdom that Jesus was talking about. And we've seen in verses Him talk about these very same things. To be in any kingdom, there has to be a government. We have a government. We may not call the United States a kingdom, but we have a government. Any kingdom has to have a system of government.

The kingdom of God does. The ruling family is God the Father and Jesus Christ. He will sit on the thrones of the earth. Of course, God the Father. Jesus has always been in submission and unified with Him. Any kingdom. All kingdom has a territory. There's land. You don't have a kingdom if you don't have land or a space that you're governing. And so the kingdom of God has a territory. Christ is coming to be King of kings and Lord of lords of the whole world.

Not just a section of the Mideast over there, and not just a section in certain Americas. He'll be King of the entire earth. And God's territory is the earth at that time, and indeed the entire universe. You have to have subjects. It doesn't do much good to say you're a king or that you have a government if you're the only one in it.

God's kingdom has subjects as well. Mankind on earth. Of course, we know the angels in heaven that God has as part of His government as well. And there is a system of law. We have a constitution here in the United States. There's a system of law for God's kingdom as well.

It's all there in the Bible. There's absolutely none of this that is hidden from us. We know exactly how people will live. In the kingdom of God, they will live by His law and His way of life. The same way of life that you and I live by today if we choose Him. If we choose to follow Him. If we believe in the kingdom of God. If we seek it with all our hearts. And if we make it the highest value in our lives. Remember the church, the called out ones, our ambassadors.

We're living a way of life that's distinct from the world around us. We live by a different set of morals. A different set of laws. We live by God's law and every word that you find in this Bible. Every single word is the way of the way of life of the kingdom of God. And if we want to be in that kingdom of God, we will live it now. The kingdom of God has been anticipated by people. Certainly from the time of Christ, and we're going to see in a minute from the times, even back in the Old Testament.

In Luke 12, 32, Christ says, don't fear little flock, it's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He wants every single living man and woman to be in that kingdom. He wants all of us to experience the goodness, the fullness, the joy, the peace that will come when His system of law fills the earth.

It's a tremendous gift what God gives us. Never to be discounted, never to be taken lightly, never to be put in second or lower place. But always the first thing, it's a gift from Him to mankind. A gift that mankind has rejected by and large up until this time, but a way of life that mankind will begin to finally see the benefits of it in the millennium, which we'll talk about in the next session.

In Acts 3, verse 19, pivotal verses in the Bible says that He may send Jesus Christ, which God has spoken... Well, let's turn to Acts 3 and just read all three of those verses. Acts 3 and verse 19. Verse 19 says, And indeed, Christ did go back into heaven, waiting for the time of His return. And it says, From the foundation of the earth, the kingdom of God was planned. People that walked with God in the Old Testament knew of the kingdom of God. The prophets in the Old Testament pointed toward the kingdom of God. It was there in the Bible from beginning to end. It's not something new that God the Father or Jesus Christ came up with. When they saw a man not walking with them during Old Testament times, the kingdom of God was always planned. And the prophets of old knew it as well. Daniel, you know of the prophecy in Daniel 2, the prophesied the four world-ruling kingdoms that would come upon the earth. Then history has proven it to be very accurate. The Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire, Greco-Macedonian, and then the Roman Empire that has had several revivals over the course of the year. Daniel, if you remember in chapter 2, saw a great statue. And Nebuchadnezzar the king wondered, what does that mean? Daniel was able to interpret it for him. And as you recall of that picture of the statue, at the end the stone came and broke the feet of that statue. And in verse 44 of Daniel 2, he explains it this way. He says, in the days of those kings, that time of the end, in the days of those kings that are at the feet, the cod of heaven, will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. A kingdom that will never end. All the other kings, the head of gold, the breast, the legs, the toes, all those kingdoms pass away. But the kingdom that God sets up will never be destroyed. Of course, Isaiah has much to say about the kingdom of God and paints some beautiful, beautiful pictures about what the kingdom of God will be like. He said some of these words in chapter 2, verses 2-4. It says, in the latter days, the time at the end of the age, not right then when he was living, in the latter days, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations will flow to it. Now, when we read the book of Isaiah, and many times in the Old Testament, when we read about mountains and hills, it's talking about nations. So, if we read that, in the latter days, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains. You have all these nations and governments on there, but the government and the kingdom of God will be on top, supersede all of those. And that kingdom will be exalted above the hills. All the other large nations and small nations and all nations will flow to it. A world-ruling kingdom, one that's set up that everyone will live by.

As Isaiah goes on in verse 3, he says, Many people will come and say, Come, let's go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. They'll live by the laws of that kingdom, the laws and the way of life that you have in your laps today. It's all right there. That's the law. Nothing secret. God has opened our minds to understand it. And he's attached to those laws if we keep them. Tremendous blessings if we do. And in his kingdom, all the nations will live by those laws. All the nations will be taught those laws. And his way will be extant on the earth and his Holy Spirit at that time, too. So people's minds are open that they understand the benefit of it. Finally, in verse 4 of Isaiah 2, a beautiful picture of what the world will be like, especially as we look at a world around us today that has uprisings and all sorts of things going on around it. We look at 9-11, a tenth anniversary of that tomorrow, and it's like the world took a turn back in 2001. And since then, there's always something that we're looking over our shoulder for to see what is going to happen. Just think of the peace that will be in that time when that government is on earth. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They'll beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and they won't learn war anymore. Can we even imagine a world where there is no war, where nations don't hate other nations? What will we even watch at the news at night if that wasn't the case? But that's what will be in the kingdom in God's rule when people are living His way of life, the very same way of life that you can live today.

Do you want to be part of God's kingdom? Do you understand the benefits of it? And as you read the Bible and go forth from here after today and read more about it, you can certainly be part of God's kingdom, but there are things that you have to do. In Matthew 7, verse 21, Christ said, If you want to live, if you want to be part of the kingdom, then you need to live by the laws of life that surround that kingdom or that define that kingdom. Who will enter the kingdom?

Not just the people who say His name, not just the people who go to church one day a week and then live by the ways of the world and the laws and the morals of this world. It'll be the people who do the will of the Father in heaven. And you know where that will is written. In John 6, verse 40, He tells us that will, This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life.

And I will raise Him up on the last day. How do we do the will of the Father? We believe in Christ. We believe what He said. The words that He said that we have recorded in the Bible, not the words or not the Son that so many in the world want to picture, but the words and the picture of Christ that we have in the Bible. Christ who lived a perfect way of life is an example to all of us, and He lived by the way of life of the kingdom.

He didn't live the way of life that so many in modern Christianity say is the way of Christ today. It simply isn't. You can't take what some people say, and can't certainly take the way of life that people live in America in many cases, and even come close to the way of life that Christ lived. And the way of life that He said would be lived in the kingdom, and that if you want to be part of that kingdom, that will come to earth.

There's absolutely no doubt about that. It will be here. It's a matter of will you be there, and will you choose God, and follow Him, and please Him, and do the will of Him or not. Believe in Him. And in 2 Peter 3.9, it says, The Lord is not willing. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It's not His will that any man die. It's not His will that any man not have eternal life. He wants every single man and woman to be in that kingdom.

He wants to give all of us eternal life. If it was His will, every single person who has ever lived from Adam and Eve on down would have been or would be in that kingdom. But notice the last word. To be in that kingdom, you have to come to repentance. You know what repentance is. It's not only feeling sorry for the way you've lived your past life, but it's making a choice to live God's way of life from here on out.

If you want God's kingdom, that's what we'll do. If you want God's kingdom, that's the decision and the choice that you will make. You will repent and turn from your old way and begin living the way of life that's in the Bible. And you know what? Not one of us would be able to live that way of life if we didn't have God's Holy Spirit. So the apostles in Acts 2, Peter, when the people asked what they heard, the same message, large part of the message that you're hearing today, they asked, what do we do?

Now that we've heard this, now that we understand it, we believe it. What do we do? He said, repent and be baptized. Now, when you're baptized and hands are laid on you, then you have the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God enables us to live the way of life that will be in the kingdom, that you can live the day, if you want to be ambassadors for Christ.

It's not an easy road. It's a choice we all need to make. And it should be an easy choice when you look at the facts of the Bible and you see the world that we live in versus the world that will be when Christ returns. It's an easy choice to make, but there are some trouble along the way. We'll talk about that more in the after we have a short break here in a few minutes. Those God calls have to endure to the end. They have to remain faithful to Him to the end. They can't live that way of life for a year and then go back to the world and then say, to God the Father, I want credit for that year or two or three that I lived your way of life. No, no, no. You must endure to the end. You must have faith. You must have a commitment. You must follow God, and you must endure through all the trials, all the tribulations, all the things that will put upend you along the way. You must endure to the end. Again, only one way to do that. If the kingdom is the most important thing in your life, if it's the thing of highest value, if you're led by the Spirit of God, then you can endure to the end. Because some of the things we'll talk about this afternoon are going to be tough to go through. But every single person can go through it and successfully go through it with the assistance of God. Says this Gospel in Matthew 24, verse 14, This Gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all the world as a witness to all nations. And then the end will come. Christ preached a Gospel. He preached the Gospel of the kingdom of God. He told people there was hope. There was a way out of the misery that was this world then, and is this world today. A better time coming, a great kingdom. And he said, I want this Gospel preached in all the world. I want them to know the hope that's out there. And so today, the true churches of God preach that Gospel, and today you're hearing that Gospel as we are here together. But that's why you see our church publishing the Good News magazine. That's why we have a Beyond Today TV program that airs every Sunday morning on WGN America. That's why we have the booklets. That's why we're available to you whenever you have any questions. Christ gave us all a commission to do, and it's part of the will of the Father, that we do it in our personal lives, and together as his group of called-out ones as well. I mentioned there will be a time of trouble. Times of trouble, I should say, before Christ's return. When we come back this afternoon, we'll touch on what the Bible says, and Christ himself says will be some of those times of trouble that his people, his ambassadors will face. And you'll be surprised how many of those things, as you read Christ's own words, were living through today. So, we're going to take about a 10, let's say 10 or 15 minute break here. When we come back, we're going to talk about the prophesied time of trouble, prophesied in both the Old Testament and New Testament. We're going to talk about Christ's triumphant return to earth to establish the kingdom. And we're going to talk about why the world needs the kingdom of God. I mean, really needs the kingdom of God.

So, why don't we plan to be back here? Well, let's say five after 12, if you want some coffee. I think we have coffee out in the back. The restrooms are somewhere in the hotel. Someone can tell you where those are. And, oh, I think that's right. You can go right out this door here on the side, and they're out in that direction.

And if you have any questions about anything that we've done this morning, I'll be around during the break. I'll also be here well after our second presentation as well. So, we'll see you back here in 10 or 15 minutes, and see you then.