Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker starts with a prayer, thanking God for the opportunity to gather in the church and asking for His presence and guidance. They mention that they are continuing a series on the Lord's Prayer and explain the importance of teaching people to pray. They review the first week which focused on the reasons for praying, including the privilege of communing with God and the growth and honor it brings. They discuss the second petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Thy Kingdom Come," and mention the variations in its wording in different versions of the Bible. They highlight the importance of understanding the meaning behind the words and reference books by Thomas Watson for further study. The speaker then discusses the depth of theological truths that can be captured in just three words, using examples such as "in the beginning," "it is finished," and "go make disciples." They emphasize the power and significance of these phrases and their relevance to the Christian faith. Our Father in Heaven, thank you so much that we can be gathered in your house today, that we can be here at this place, that you establish this little church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, that you are enabling us to plant even one more little square foot of your kingdom in this city. We pray that we would be ministering to these people with great effect, that your spirit would be present among us, that your word would be taught rightly. We pray for Pastor Richie Goodrich as he prepares to teach this morning, that he would be filled with the Spirit and that we'd hear the words of Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So it was of no surprise to you that we were continuing this Lord's Prayer series. Pastor Mark noted that as he was talking to a more senior pastor, as he reflected back on his time in the pulpit, the one regret that he said that he had was that he did not spend enough focus and emphasis on teaching his people to pray. And so it seems right that we would spend at least one Sunday School series this year talking about the way that the Lord himself taught us to pray. Pastor Mark began with an introduction and really the preface, thinking about the reason that we pray and getting us started in the introduction as Christ tells us, when you pray this is the manner in which it should be done, and then Paul did a great week last week talking about hallowing the Lord's name and really what all of that means. Today we find ourselves on three little words of Thy Kingdom Come. Of course, the Lord's Prayer is twice in Scripture. We can find that in Matthew chapter 6 and in Luke chapter 11, and there's a tiny bit of variation to that. This is somewhat of a sidebar. It's interesting to see the various accounts in the Gospels and why there are small differences, but there's great continuity in all of it. And so without straining too much at that topic, that's just something to maybe chat about later in the break when you're thinking, what is the difference between these two parables that are really telling the same story and why are these words slightly different? If somebody asked me that just simply, I would say, well, you know, each time that you iterate something you're going to have a different emphasis, there's a different target audience, and so... but in each of these we see great continuity between the two things of the Lord's Prayer. So to review week one, why do we pray in the first place? Particularly as Reformed folks, we have this high view of sovereignty, and I think we can be improperly accused of saying, well, if you believe that God is going to do whatever God is going to do, why is it that you even pray to begin with? And probably the best answer I can think of to that is because we were told to do it. But first of all, you know, it is a duty, it is a delight for us to pray, this is our opportunity to commune directly with the Lord, that we have access, that we can even have an audience. So imagine, find yourself in a medieval setting, and you are just a humble peasant, and you have an audience to stand before the king himself. This is a great privilege, and it is not only ours as subjects, but ours as children. And which of us, when our child comes to us in the middle of the night, as John Piper once, excuse me, Tim Keller once said that, you know, our father delights to even hear our simple petitions for, Daddy, I'd like a glass of water. Some of that seems a little irreverent, but the heart of it is still the same. You still have access to the throne of grace, to a holy God that you have no business addressing your needs, your desires, your complaints, your grievances, your wants, but the Lord eagerly invites us to come and talk to him, so it is a delight. It is a means of reformation and revival. Somebody was asking Spurgeon why he had such power in his ministry, like what was going on at the tabernacle church that he had in London, and he said, Well, I want to show you the means that we're doing all of this by. Come with me. I want to show you my boiler room. And so before the service, they had a whole gathering of all of these people down in the basement just praying for the service, praying for the Word, praying for the teaching. And that was, in Spurgeon's estimation, the reason for the success that he had in preaching, because they had a church wholly devoted to the idea that we are praying that the Word would be made effective in these people's lives, and that ministry was definitely fruitful. And lastly, of course, it honors and glorifies the Lord. The Westminster tells us, of the means of grace, because prayer is one of these means of grace, that this is the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption. So why pray? Because praying makes real in your life the benefits of the redemption that you have had. This is how we grow. This is the normal way that we grow in our faith, all of which are made effectual for the elect for their salvation. But this prayer is one of the means of grace that God has given us. The reading of the Word, prayer, preaching of the Word, particularly, and the ordinances of communion and baptism. We too, Paul reviewed for us, just by reviewing that, Paul brought up for us, when we're having this first petition, hallowed be thy name, what is it that we're asking God to do when we're saying, Lord, hallow thy name? Three things. We're asking God that he would cause his word to be believed, this is an evangelical emphasis, causing that the Lord's word would be believed and that his displeasure would be feared, to restrain evil in the world, and also causing his commandments to be obeyed. It's one thing to fear punishment, but it's another to the light and the obedience of God's commandments. And then Paul added this one little phrase here, which I think is absolutely a targeted attack. If you were to have somebody follow you and you wanted to destroy them, you would say this thing that I'm going to talk to you today is the first and the greatest petition. Well thank you, Paul. I was thinking about that and I thought, you know, as Christ summarized all of the law and the prophets, he said, you know, the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. And so I'm intentionally taking that out of context. This second petition is like unto the first. So we're going to get into that today. So I've been given this task of talking about these little phrase of thy kingdom come and you're given an hour to talk about three words. So we've got several books that we've recommended that will be a help to you, but the one that I've been spending most of my time on is Thomas Watson and Watson, like all Puritans, has the ability to take three little words and turn it into a hundred pages pretty quickly. And it has been a wonderful read, but it is not the easiest of reads. So we're going to pull some of the truths that we found from that book and try and show some of that today. But I was just kind of sitting around thinking this week about, man, it's just three words, just three little words. Are there other places that we see just three words that tell us theologically something so profound? So one of the very first that I would think to begin with would be in the beginning. So if you think about everything that's wrapped up in that moment in Scripture, if I just said to you in the beginning, you're immediately taking the very first chapter of Genesis. What theological truth do we see about God? What can you gather just from those three words in the beginning? There was a beginning. Very good. God is the beginning, or even that he was even before the beginning, because God existed and then he was able to cause the beginning. His power is displayed in that. We also know as this goes a little bit longer on, we don't get Trinitarian concepts from in the beginning, but we do recognize that God is existing in Trinity when he says, Come make, let us make man in our image. We see those things. There's so much that are wrapped up in these little three word phrases that we see in Scripture. So omnipotence, omniscience, if he was able to make all things and he must know all things is eternality. His sovereignty, his power, all of that. What about this? It is finished. What theological ideas do you see wrapped up? What does that take your mind to? There's so much there. Redemption accomplished and applied. Excellent. Something needed to be begun. What is it? God's covenant faithfulness. We've just finished an entire series on covenants. And it is finished, finished. So much of your Christian life is struggling to try to be obedient. We know that we're not adding to anything. We're not cooperating. It's been accomplished on our part, on our behalf. So this is communicates an externality to our salvation, which is just so relieving. There's no more burden for us. The work is done. We see God's justice and that something had to be paid for his mercy and his grace that it's given to us. Covenant fulfillment. Great hope. Tremendous assurance. Go make disciples again. Three more words. There's command here. There's a mandate to it. But the justification for why we go to make disciples is Jesus says that all authority has been given to me. So we take just those three words and we consider everything that's surrounding him. There's so much around that. His authority, again, omnipotence, sovereignty, the victory, says it is finished. So now in light of that, we're rolling out this campaign of victory. What about holy, holy, holy? There's a Trinitarian aspect to that, again, the power of God, the majesty of God, so much we can see these scenes happen again and again. Holiness, dare I say. So if I want to just pull back and think about these times, we see just three words, three of them, three threes of words of Christ, particularly to us, that it is finished. Go make disciples. Thy kingdom come. Not in order. But these things give us a tremendous view of what it is to understand what Christ has accomplished and the victory that we find in Christ. What we're doing now, these are our marching orders, this is the directive, this is what gives us purpose, this would animate our intention as believers, this is what informs us of how we are to be the church. So categorically, it is finished, tells us the means by which the church moves forward. It is not that we are seeking to complete something that Christ left undone, that's certainly not the case. Go make disciples. We now have something that he wishes us to further do, although it's rooted in a finished work. So we're further completing, perfecting, delivering, that this is complete work, but we're spreading now. That's the go portion of it. But what's interesting is thy kingdom come really tells us the manner in which our mission is to be accomplished. Because it's one thing to say, we're going to go make disciples, and what does that look like? Well, fortunately, we don't have to wonder, because Christ has informed us of what is the manner in which we will see this happening. So that's really what I think we're going to focus and talk to today. All right, so we're going to get into this whole phrase of thy kingdom come. So with Watson as our guide, we're going to break down every little word into subcategories. So first thing, thy. Who is Christ speaking to here? Well, he's saying when you pray, we're praying to our Father in heaven, then we're speaking to God himself. C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce has a little line here that there are only two kinds of people in the end, those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God says in the end, thy will be done. That those who are opposed to the Lord, those who are unregenerate in the natural state of man, is that he is at enmity with God. And that rather than forcing disobedience, that the Lord is content to the people who remain unregenerate to give them over to their desires. They want nothing to do with God. And so unless we have changed hearts, we remain that way and the Lord leads them to their own. And he has kind of a longer discourse on the meaning of hell. And we talked about that last year. But that's a terrifying thought, that the Lord would let us have our way if he remains, if we remain in our natural state. So there's two kinds of people then. We have the sheep and the goats. Does anybody have goats? Anybody been around goats? You're familiar with the personality and the characteristic of goats generally. They are very stubborn creatures and will do what they want. And so what a great analogy, a great picture that we have in that thing about sheep is that sheep are very fragile creatures. Some people who have raised sheep prefer to them as the animals that constantly have a need to die. They will get themselves sick or hurt or injured and they will follow each other to their own destruction. They need a shepherd to care for them. And so Christ is, in fact, that goat shepherd. Sheep as opposed to the goats are the ones who hear the words of Christ and obey his voice. And so lest we think being called a sheep is an insult, Psalm 100 tells us that the Lord, he is God, it's he who made us and we are his people, we are the sheep of his pasture and he tenderly cares for us. So he has not left us to be simply dumb livestock on the own, although we do go our own way and we do stray off and we do need to be cared for. So if you're keeping track and you've got your bingo card, I waited all the way till slide 12 to make a C.S. Lewis reference. So when we say thy, there's also a possessive form of thy. So what rightfully is the Lord's possession? This is an easy one. Possessing absolutely everything. Has it always been the Lord's possession? Is it always the Lord's? So from the Garden of Eden, he makes everything and then sin and dominion and death into the world. And in some ways, there's this competing kingdom that Satan has usurped some of that power that Satan has clawed back some of it. And he says, it's mine. In fact, when we see Christ being tempted, Satan says, all of this is mine to give you if you just simply bow down and worship me. So Christ does not give into that one because he leans on the word of God. He trusts his father. Moreover, you cannot give somebody that you don't really have. This is a false claim. All of this is always the Lord's. Do we see that through all of scripture? We see it everywhere in scripture, from the Psalms, the Old Testament, the New Testament. Job, the Lord speaks from the clouds and says, whatever is under the whole heaven is mine, which would include all things, absolutely everything. Even God appoints the authorities who are above us. And in Revelation 19, we see the culmination of that on his robe and on his thighs written the name, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, all power over all things, every single moment. So let's look at this graphically. Here we have what is the dominion? What is the Lord's rightful possession? And in the blue, you see, this is what belongs to God. And here in the yellow, that also belongs to God. But it's fun to have a little bit of contrast. And so there we go. And when we say thy, we're seeing the possessive, uh, randomly. Yeah. Yeah. To be fair. Yeah. Those numbers are randomly generated. I just need a graphic. And so like, well, blue circle isn't that exciting. So we say thy, we're speaking, of course, to, to God. So who? Thy. We're speaking, of course, about God there. When we say God, we should be very specific about that. God who? And, you know, if you think about the church history and why there are councils and trees and divisions, and Annie Money was, uh, speaking to me a couple of months ago and said, I have a really great idea to do a series on, uh, all of these various councils and confessions and why we have these various things. And I agree with that. One of my favorite, if you think about the very first, uh, series of those, the patristics, the early church fathers were really wrestling over the doctrine of God. Who is Christ? What is the nature of the incarnation? Did he become God? Was he just a highly favored man? Was he blessed? Was he elevated? And there's a lot of discussion in the early church and some confusion about that. And so you'll see these times where the church at large gathers together and they study God's word and they say, no, this, this is a clarification of that. We still have these kinds of things today as Presbyterians, it's called general assembly that we happened in this summer. We're not dealing with as weighty theological things because we of course stand on the shoulders of the giants who've come before us, but we will consider, well, there's a subject that we have some disagreement about. And this is again, one of the reasons that I love being Presbyterian because we get together as men and struggle and wrestle over what does God's word reveal about these things. But the affination creed is significantly longer, but it's my favorite because it's one of the most clear and concise, well not concise, it is one of the most clear statements on the nature of the Trinity, because this is one of the first several centuries, the major theological topic of discussion. And so now this is the Catholic little C Catholic faith that we confess that we worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity, not to be divided, neither blending the persons nor dividing their essence. So the person of the father is a distinct person. The person of the son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another, but the divinity of the father, son, and Holy Spirit is one. Their glory equal, their majesty co-eternal. And this goes on to speak about the father specifically, the son specifically, the spirit specifically. It's really, even as a meditation and something to just consider, it's beautiful and so well stated. So when we're speaking, thy kingdom come. You should be very clear whose kingdom, not ours, not our timetable, not our agenda, not our means, not our hopes, wishes, and desires for what the kingdom should look like, but God and being in submission to that. Slide 16 is my first Lord of the Rings reference. So we say thy kingdom. It is natural to assume, and you are correct in doing it, that we are implying that God is a king. One of the things that I love about the way we've done Sunday School so far is that these topics tend to bleed into one another. You can think back to several of the things that we've looked about when we're looking at the Attributes of God series, is that all of these things build on one another. They're all interconnected, and that's really, I think, one of the reasons to study theology proper is to see in a systematic way, we study individual topics, that these things all are woven together. They're not isolated ideas. They're not purely for the intellectuals and us. They're very, very practical, because we can see as we weave them together that it's one cohesive story, the same way that a biblical theology shows us the whole arc of creation, fall, redemption. It's one thought. It all goes together. So thinking back, these are directly from the Attributes of God series. We say that God is a king, or is a high king, the highest king. We're attributing, talking about his characteristics, something to God that we understand, those communicable ideas, the things that we can grasp. We have a picture in our mind of a king, yeah, there's things that go along with that. If I tell you, think of a king, there's a picture that immediately shows up in your mind. But, because this is a metaphor, it's always very important for us to consider that God is a king, unlike a human king. It's a metaphor, but it's a true metaphor, as opposed to it being a smaller picture, we're always taking this smaller idea of a king and describing it to the larger version. And so, as Bovink tells us, all mistakes in the divine attribute arise and begin with what we know about human beings and then talk about God. So when we think about kingliness, we do not want to superimpose earthly kings and those limitations upon the high king of heaven. So when we see thy kingdom, what trappings of a king do we see applied to God in scripture? Deuteronomy talks about the sword of the Lord, Joshua, his banner, Hebrews, his scepter, the sign of his rule, his power. Isaiah speaks about the Lord being seated on his throne. These are all things that we expect as part of the kit of a king. However, unlike any human king, the Lord has no needs for guards. There is no threat to his kingdom. He has no successor. Every king has a prince, a princess, someone who will take over his kingdom. And if you look at even history, genealogies, dynasties, empires, there's this chain and ultimately somewhere in history it falls apart, but we know that the Lord will not fail. And so there is no end to his kingdom and no end to his reign. In fact, he is the king above all gods in Psalm 95, these lesser gods being false gods, whereas God is the true essence, the true substance of a king. Now as living in our context, by the way, this is slide 20 where we have a Monty Python reference, and that should complete all of your bingo cards. So I don't know if you remember Monty Python, but there's this whole question about, you know, the king is going to a castle and the peasants out in the land, and he said, you know, who lives here? And he's like, you know, like, well, we're all part of a collective. And you know, so there's this idea where he's got these socialist mindsets they're talking about at the time. And, you know, King Arthur, you know, starts handling this peasant who's being so belligerent to him. And he starts shouting out, help me, help me, I'm being repressed, was probably my favorite scene of the entire thing, unless we consider the logic chain, we're weighing the witch and the duck. That's also an excellent one for Monty Python. But I digress. So we have this bent toward feeling, well, don't I get to say, don't I get to vote? And historically, through all of time, people wouldn't accept the idea of a king, but particularly for us, where we live today, there's a cultural aversion to having a one single authority that we all must bow down to. We have a cultural allergy to the idea that we have to bow, that there's title, there's circumstance that are necessary. But God being a king, particularly for us in our context, is, I think, helpful because we need to get rid of that. In Psalm 84, it says, one day in the course of the Lord is better than a thousand elsewhere. And it's better to be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Maybe not even dwelling in the tents of wickedness, maybe you think like, immediately, my mind goes to like, well, maybe I live amongst wicked men. What if you are the wicked man? What if you are the most powerful? How many of us, if you really think about it, would you rather be the richest person in the world, having anything you wanted, being effectively a false king? Does it seem better to be just a servant in the house of the Lord? It is. It is. But that's not the way the world looks at it. And so from an evangelical perspective, as we're sharing this, you know, if the world is promising you riches, if the world is promising you all kinds of these good things, then it looks like, man, these Christians, they just want to limit our freedom. They want to kill our good time. They want to repress us. Well, we have to be able to show them that it's far better to be even a servant in the house of the Lord. So this is straight out of Watson, God is so great that is no loss to be called his servant. I mean, if he is the highest king, if he has vast riches beyond anything we can imagine, if his power is such that he can do whatever he wills, for us to be called one of his servants actually is an honor. He's so powerful. He is such to be feared that it's actually a wise choice. If you were Switzerland, let's say, and you're deciding, well, which side of this war am I going to go on? You look at the sides and you say, well, these guys are definitely going to win. Maybe make allies over there. That's not a bad idea. You know, somebody has said, you know, we want to convince people to come to Christ just because they want to get out of hell. That's a totally valid reason. Not wanting to go to hell is a great reason to come to Christ. Later on, you'll see the goodness of the Lord, but there's a place in evangelism for us to simply say, like, look, escaping eternal torment and just retribution that God has promised for you. This is a good reason to come to Christ. There's a fire will go up and he will burn his enemies in Psalm 97. Moreover, our king is never at a loss for resources. He makes the dry bones come to life. Even the rocks would cry out if we did not worship him properly. And again, even from the very beginning, he has made all things from nothing. So to serve this king is no loss of honor on our part. It's actually every way to our advantage. So we've seen that God has this throne, a crown, a scepter, a sword. These are all the personal trappings of a king, but there's actually also the peripheral markings of his nation isn't quite right, but his empire. So there is the armies of the Lord talking about in Kings, second Kings, chapter six, Elijah prays that his servant will be able to see the whole host of the armies of the Lord. His eyes are open and he sees, oh, these are the resources that the Lord has. Jesus says, you know, if my kingdom were of this world and he was while he's being arrested that I could call forth and the angels would fight for me. That's not what he's doing, though. This is part of his plan. So there is no limitation to the resources the Lord has. So not only centrally his kingdom, but he also has these outposts consider the letters to the churches in Revelation. And that's what a church is. It's an outpost of the kingdom as it grows and expands as it increases its influence over time. More and more gospels, preaching the gospel, teaching churches are the outposts. And we, as part of those outposts, are his ambassadors. Paul talks in second Corinthians about us being ambassadors for Christ. And what is an ambassador? It's a person who is stationed in a foreign land as a dignitary to represent the government for which he is employed, to work on their behalf, to see the good of that place and to improve relations between the foreign place. So not only are we ambassadors, but we're also formerly enemies, but now reconciled. And so what does it mean when we are reconciled to God? Again, the Western mindset is mostly like, well, we have peace with God. But peace is not just simply a transactional thing where your debts have been wiped out, you're back to zero, and we'll just not have anything to do with each other. That's not the way that the gospel works. And so this is no particular order, but I use the U.S. Army website. If you serve elsewhere, thank you. But I got onto the Army website, and what do you do when you've been pulled in and you are now enlisted? And so what happens in basic training? You've been formerly an enemy, but now you have been received reconciliation, and this reconciliation comes with not only the benefit of your debt being canceled, but you have now been enlisted into service. So in the first phase of basic training, or the yellow phase, you will adapt to Army life and learn about discipline and teamwork, Army programs, traditions, and much more. Your first weeks will include core values, physical training, and Army programs, skills. So Romans 5 says we have received this reconciliation. So what do we need to receive this reconciliation? We must believe, repent, and then we are called to walk in holiness. We are now in service to the Lord. So you can boil basic training down. Now, I've not been to basic training, but I think this is true. The very most basic skills you're learning are to salute and to march. There's an order to things. You are learning to do things in the way, in the service that you have been called. Learning to salute, what I mean by that, there's authority, understanding that your orders ultimately come from the King himself. And so this is the whole of the Christian life. So we're asking that the kingdom would come. We're asking that God's dignitaries, his ambassadors, his troops, his outposts would be expanded to the entirety of the world. What does that look like? So even as of this right now, you think, okay, I hear you, death's been canceled, great. You're for that part, but maybe you think, I don't know about this whole being employed as a soldier thing. What is it that you are expecting? Well, we're not alone in this, and we can see through the Bible that there are other believers who have also maybe gotten a different marching orders than they were expecting. So in Acts chapter one, I'll just read this brief section. In the first book, Theophilus, I've dealt with all the things that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up. After he'd given commandments through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he presented himself alive to them after suffering many proofs and appearing to them for 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. So they are given their marching orders, they're given instruction on what this is going to look like. Christ says victorious. He says it is finished. And now he's telling them, go make disciples and further teaching on what that should look like. And while he was staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me for John baptized with water, you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So what is the response to this? They were given their marching orders and they're expecting, OK, this is going to be what we're what we expect to see. And so they ask him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it's not for you to know the times of the season the father has fixed on his own authority, but you'll receive power when the spirit will come upon you and you'll be my witnesses, Jerusalem and Judea and all Samaria and to the end of the earth. So they're asking him, are we going to take Jerusalem? Are you going to reign as our king right now? Is this the moment where we're going to do this? Jesus says again, I told you before you're waiting for the Holy Spirit. Let me say it to you one more time. You're waiting for the Holy Spirit. And so they're probably, well, I don't I don't know. OK, well. But are we going to take Jerusalem? And he says, no, not only Jerusalem, but all of Judea and all of Samaria, even to the end of the earth. Well, he said these things they were looking on and he was lifted up in a cloud, took him out of their sight while they're gazing at heaven. He went and behold, the two men in white robes, they said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up into heaven will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven. They still don't get it. The Holy Spirit has not come upon their hearts. He's not illumined all of the scriptures, but Christ is still telling them something that this is not what you're expecting. They're always expecting him to reign in David on David's throne and he will. But not yet. This is an unexpected success story. What did they expect? They expected a political reign. They expected a eminent reign. They expected Jerusalem to be restored. And when we pray thy kingdom come, what is it that we're asking and what is it that we're expecting? Well, let's talk about what it is not. What kind of kingdom has Christ delivered and accomplished for himself? It is not a political one. Jesus says that this is kingdom is not of this. My kingdom is not of this world. So politics, polis, the word in Greek means of the people, the city. And so this is not a municipal government. This is not a state where we say, OK, Christ is going to at this time when he's talking in context to the apostles, like you're going to go and spread this kingdom. And right now, this kingdom is not a political entity. It is also not a temporal meaning over time. This is not something that we have like, OK, here's a portion in time where Christ is going to reign for this point. It's not a lifetime. It's not like the kings that we see in other situations. The angel speaks in Luke chapter one, talking about the incarnation, that his kingdom will have no end. This is unlike other kings that we see. It's not provincial. Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So this is not over, he's going to take the Mideast. We're not talking about a European king or a North American king or any hemisphere, the whole globe. All the way to the ends of the earth. But most importantly, it is not withheld. He says you will receive power. And indeed, in Acts chapter two, the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, like a mighty rushing wind, and the whole house was filled where they were sitting. And what do we see afterwards in Acts chapter two? All of a sudden, the apostles seem to come alive like they're entirely different people. They've been enabled. Christ says you will do these things, but first you must wait for the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes. Indeed, we see them doing exactly what Jesus told them to do, going and taking the gospel message. All right. Not withheld. Well, hold on. What does this kingdom get here? What kind of kingdom is it? Is there another kingdom coming? And if this kingdom indeed has come, why do we pray for it to come? So yes, the kingdom has arrived. We see that the kingdom has arrived at the birth of Christ. Christ announced that the kingdom has begun here. When he began his ministry, he said the time is fulfilled and the kingdom is at hand. And at hand doesn't mean real close. It means right now, repent and believe. It's embodied within the Lord himself. He declared it, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, Luke chapter eight. We see it demonstrated the power of the kingdom to save souls, to heal the sick, to open the prison doors. It is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, Jesus says, and as the kingdom of God has come upon you, has already done. It's deployed. Jesus sends out the 72 saying, go and preach the good news because the kingdom of God is at hand and is a kingdom that is triumphant. Paul tells us in Colossians that he has disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over him. So there's two ways to talk about this one kingdom. There's the kingdom of grace that we see in the gospels so very clearly. There's also the kingdom of glory, which is being revealed more and more. And this is not that there are two separate kingdoms. This is a difference of two of degree. It is not a difference in kind. This is the kingdom. As we describe the kingdom, we're talking about the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory. But that glory only comes as that grace is made effectual. So we think about things like the kingdom of grace. We think about, say, chapter Matthew, chapter four, Jesus preaching, saying, repent for the kingdom at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. This grace is available and free now. The war is over because Christ has won. And there is still, in his kindness, time for this kingdom to be expanded until the final judgment, when the kingdom of glory comes. And that glory, if you're on the wrong side of it, is a terrible thing. And so as we think about praying for the Lord, that his kingdom would come to the Lord, that his kingdom would come. We're praying that in each of our lives and in the lives of the lost, that the kingdom of grace would come soon. And we're also praying that the kingdom of glory, that all things will be set right. But God, in his patience, seems to have a willingness to forestall the coming of that glory, forestall that judgment until the right time, so that as many of the fullness of the number of the elect would be saved. A kingdom of glory is a terrible thought. In Revelation 19, when I say terrible, I don't mean bad. I mean terrible as, like, if you're standing looking at the power of a tsunami wave coming over you, it should fill you with awe, it should fill you with humility, you should know that this is unstoppable. In the case of the Lord, it is good, his righteous judgment is a good thing. But for those who are lost and do not have the safety of being in Christ, it will be terrible and negative. So Revelation 19 says, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, the one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, on his head are many diadems, crowns. And he has the name which is written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God, this is Jesus. And the armies of heaven, arrayed with fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with an iron rod. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh are written the name, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Lord in his splendor, in his glory, in power, will return to show us this full kingdom of glory. And for the lost, that's a terrible thought. So when we say we're praying for the Lord's kingdom to come, we need to be very sober about that. Because those who believe that they are on the right side of Christ do exist, but yet they do not have the kingdom of grace fully established in their hearts. So we are praying and pleading upon God's mercy to further bring that kingdom of grace into our lives. Matthew chapter 7, we're told that there are those who will not enter the kingdom, who believe they are part of the kingdom. And they will say to Christ, did we not prophesy, cast out demons, do good works in your name? That always stops me in my tracks because I have not prophesied in the name of Christ. I have not cast out any demons. I like to think that I've done some good works. But his answer to them is, apart from me, for I never knew you. Knowing Christ, clinging to Christ, having dependency upon Christ, and seeing that he is faithful even to judge those who believe outwardly that they have the markings of true faith, do not have it. Another example in Acts chapter 8, we see Simon the sorcerer. Simon the sorcerer is famous for saying, I wish to have the power of the Holy Spirit also. And he tries to give the apostles money so that they would lay hands on him so that he could receive that power. But before that, it says, even Simon himself believed, and after he believed, he was baptized. So he's part of the church, but there's still some misunderstanding, some indwelling sin within his life. He doesn't understand the fullness of the power of God, that the Holy Spirit is not a thing to be purchased, but it's a gift of God. So there are some within our ranks who will have a misapprehension about the truth of the gospel. And that's something that we should all be cautious to pray and to seek after the Lord, to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Peter tells him, repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. God is kind and faithful to do that, but where are the areas in our lives where we're still holding on to our kingdom as opposed to fully seeing the kingdom of grace established in our hearts? So seven warnings that we can have, recognizing that if we do not have this kingdom of grace fully established, these are fearful things. If we do not have the kingdom of grace, we'll have no place in the covenant of grace. Our offerings, our worship, our acts of service are made unacceptable. We remain loathsome in the Lord's eyes. We remain illegitimate children. We're still under Satan's dominion. We cannot die in peace and we cannot live for Christ. But we have seven encouragements, at least one for every single one of those things we find through scripture. We see that Christ is faithful and that he will deliver us unless we first repent and see the kingdom of the Lord in our own hearts, we will not have any of those things be true of us. But Jesus says, all the father has given me, I will not lose any of them. So rather than not having a place in the covenant of grace, all of the father has given to Christ, he will not lose a single. Instead of our offerings being made unacceptable, we are now made a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Instead of being loathsome in the Lord's eyes, God has prepared good works for us to do ahead of time. Instead of being illegitimate children, we are made sons and co-heirs with Christ. Every one of these down the list, there's a rebuttal to each of those terrible warnings. Instead of not being able to die in peace or not being able to live for Christ, we see now that to live is Christ and to die is gain and it's no longer we who live, but it's Christ living in us. It's due to the power of the Holy Spirit, all of these truths are applied to our hearts and in our lives. So we pray for his kingdom to come. We need to first be praying that the kingdom of grace will be firstly established in our own hearts. This is a painting of Jesus' parable about speck in the log. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own? So we pray this for the kingdom to come. We're praying that we would be people who are marked by our striving for peace with everyone and seeking the holiness that God desires in our lives, without which no one will see the Lord. This is not to say that we're adding to our salvation, this is the fruit of true faith and true repentance. This is us abiding in Christ. As we abide in him, we bear much fruit. And again, for us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. So two practical uses. The first practical use is for evangelism. This gentleman right here is Hiroo Onoda. After the United States dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the kingdom of Japan surrendered in World War II. There is a large number of men who are employed in the service of the Japanese Imperial Army who did not believe and did not know that the war is over. The world does not know that the world is over, that Christ has evaporated our debt, that God's wrath is fully satisfied, but there are still holdouts who do not accept the leaflets that have been dropped, who do not receive the word that the war is over and peace is available to you. This gentleman remained at war, located in an island down here by Papua New Guinea, for 34 years. World War II ended in 1945 and in 1974, this guy finally was made contact with and several years later, his commanding officer had to show up in person and tell him he was relieved as a post. He was that old before he quit taking shots at the people who were living in the island. Even though Christ has won, the enemy will still return fire upon us. We should expect that persecution, but this is not a combatant at this point. This is a man who needs to know the truth that peace has now arrived, that he can stop fighting, that he can be employed in a new army with new battles, battles to expand the kingdom. Last practical use is this should make us keenly aware of our dependence upon the Lord. We think about his kingdom being coming. It is not through our machinations, our ideas, our desires for the kingdom to look in a particular way. Like the apostles, are you going to establish this political, temporal, local, regional kingdom? No, Christ gives us something so much better than that and it's God's plan that he would work this little by little. How does Jesus describe the kingdom coming? Like that of a mustard seed, the smallest and growing into the greatest of the trees or a piece of yeast working its way through the whole lump. Little by little, over time, we see the kingdom is victorious because it has been accomplished. So when we think of thy kingdom come, it's annexed immediately next to this next piece that his will would be done. This is God's mission in his timing, according to his forbearance, his willingness to put off the final coming of the kingdom of glory, rooted in his mercy and all to God's glory. So the third petition is likened to the first two. It is also the best. And so we will look forward to that being taught by Brian next week, I believe, right? And so, yeah, the third is the best. We'll have various opinions on that. I think the second is likened to the first, but the third is like that first two. So I'm so proud of myself. I finished on time. Paul. I'm just curious, general reflections, when you're talking about when we when we think of the Lord's Prayer and the corporate nature of that, our father in heaven, applying that when we say to this first petition, thy kingdom come, if you'd reflect on that, and then extra points, if you can tie that to your good analogy of the post, you know, when we think about our church, you know, praying the Lord's, the Lord's Prayer in this way, one more time, just in terms of, you know, as we as we think about, you know, thy kingdom come, you know, praying that as a church, and then and maybe this takes it, but in terms of our church being an outpost, and thinking about that, you know, very, very practically of us, you know, being a being an outpost of God's God's army, in a way, and that, you know, nobody in basic training, you know, one of the fundamental things is, they're not saluting together, they're not marching together, there's this corporate component to any, any army. And so just curious on your thoughts on practically, what it means sitting here today in this in this outpost. I think even your explication of that is really helpful to I mean, yes, we're employed, not as individuals, again, we're individually saved, but we're saved into the church, which is the body of Christ, broadly, we're saved into God's kingdom, and the kingdom is not exclusively my personal relationship that isn't the entrance, but it does not leave me entirely like, well, it's just me and Jesus in my Bible, and that's all I need. So, you know, as we're praying for the Lord's kingdom to come, we pray first and foremost that it will be established in each of our hearts, that we will live lives in obedience and abide in Christ. But moreover, as that expands out, again, like the yeast works itself through, you can pray practically that the Lord's kingdom would come in your life. And for your children, your spouse, your friends, your neighbors, that the kingdom would continue to expand. And those are just very practical ways as you're meditating on that to, you know, start Lord, take this log out of my eye, help me see clearly what my orders are, how I can obey and how I can be the best soldier, ambassador, dignitary for Christ and represent the gospel with faithfulness, and that that would spread. And so that's a part of we're saying his kingdom would come not only for me, but for the whole world. Yeah. Questions? All right. Brian. So, I mean, your understanding that, you know, like the analogy that you just used in the Bible, that Jesus talks about the yeast working its way through the whole batch of dough that it's going to spread and cover the entire earth. And, you know, just like, you know, use the analogy of the mustard seed to it first has to die. You know, I believe referencing himself in it. Yeah. I. So, yes, I looked at this and I immediately for all of my post-millennial tendencies were like, all right, let's talk about the kingdom coming. But really, as I studied and looked, I feel like the most needful thing for us to examine ourselves in that. And, you know, I don't want to use every opportunity I have to teach to chew on my hobby horses. But as we think about that, yeah, God is faithful to accomplish all of that. And when he says, go make disciples, he says, not individual atomistic Christians, he says of the nations. And our expectation is that the mission that we are given by our righteous, victorious, all powerful high king will be accomplished because he has done all things through his sovereignty. And so if he sovereignly tells us this is our mission, I have every reason to believe that we will be successful because we have a God behind us who is never a lack for resources and accomplishes all of his holy will. So one more. What assurances can we look to that we are not Simon, the sorcerer, or is it fear and trembling to the end? You know, so, yes. What how do we know that we are not Simon, the sorcerer, that we have those bad thoughts? I have a verse for every single one of these, but I just omitted the text for these promises, you know. So we know that as we abide in Christ, he abides in us. And bearing that fruit, the obedience in our lives, the holiness that we have without which no man will see the Lord, you know, that practical encouragement of, look, you know, you were once an enemy of God, hating him in every way, but more and more you desire prayer. You enjoy the reading of God's word. You desire to be at church. You see the delight and the Sabbath and the fellowship that we have among the saints, that more and more, like we'll have each of us still abiding sin. But all of these truths that are in scripture given to us are the encouragement that we need for that. And as we read them and meditate upon God's word and we trust him for his faithfulness that those are the ways that we say, like, no, I mean, even Simon says he repented and believed and was baptized. But then there's still this other thing. And Peter encourages him, pray, essentially pray that God will reveal this sin in your life and that you would have forgiveness for even this, too. So I look at that and I don't think immediately, look, well, Simon wasn't really saved. But there are some sins which we commit, which are so heinous, so egregious, so harmful to the reputation of the gospel that you have to sit back and say, like, do I really believe this? Do I really evaluate that critically? And so that's the working out. So we don't need to think, well, am I doing it right? We need to say, do I have I really receive that? Am I resting and trusting upon Christ or am I striving to build not his kingdom, but mine? All right. Ten to one. Father in heaven, thank you so much that we are gathered here today again to be your people, to hear your words. We pray that your kingdom would come in each of our hearts, that we would be conformed to your image, that we would be obedient, that we would delight in keeping your law, that we would see that it is no insult or disgrace to us to be called one of your servants, but actually one of the highest honors that we can have. Moreover, you've given us not only this, but not only made us no longer enemies, but fellow countrymen and in fact, heirs and co-heirs with Christ. You've given us every blessing that we receive in Christ, that he has been given in the heavenly places. And you apply each of that, each of those things to our lives more and more each day. Pray that we would cling to Christ and desire his kingdom to come even more in each of our lives and in the whole world to your glory. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
