Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

The transcript discusses the concept of the Kingdom of God throughout history. It starts with the Old Testament, where God establishes His Kingdom through Israel. It then mentions the figure of Melchizedek, who represents the authority and rulership of the Kingdom. The transcript also mentions the rejection of God's authority by Adam and the promise of a perfect ruler to come. Jesus Christ is identified as the fulfillment of this promise, although He comes in humility and is crucified. However, the book of Revelation reveals that Jesus will eventually declare victory and establish His Kingdom on earth. The transcript also touches on the role of John the Baptist in preparing people for the Kingdom and the importance of repentance and faith in the gospel message. A little bit before we get there, but we will eventually, I promise, hopefully, this morning, we will get there. In my own message this morning, we're here for the Kingdom of God is at hand. We've been talking all along about preventing our possession. And we've been up here in the Old Testament, and we've been looking at how God came to show Israel to be this nation, and it probably feels that they would have a plan, they would have a conviction, and God would let it feel, and we'd have to prove it. And so when we think about that Kingdom, we go to the New Testament, and instead of calling it Israel, the promised land, God appears to open up and refer to what was happening and what was taking place as the Kingdom of God. So I want to kind of just make a little bit of a note of history for the Kingdom of God. I'm going to plug that you are a man, obviously, right? We started looking at the Kingdom then. There's not enough in the 54 about the Kingdom of God, and so we would love to have you in our Bible study. But basically, when we think about a Kingdom, and we define that Kingdom, is the power or authority of a king a realm or a domain over which it exists? In other words, in order to have a kingdom, there has to be a ruler. There has to be an area. So when we're talking about the Kingdom of God, we are talking about that area, that domain in which God rules. Now where would that be? Everywhere, right? The Kingdom of God is everywhere. God is everywhere. He rules from everywhere. And so when we talk about the Kingdom of God, we're talking about His rule or His authority wherever we are, wherever we're going, whatever we're doing. And so as we look at the discovery of this Kingdom of God, I want you to understand that the Kingdom of God is not something that is new that is in the New Testament. The Kingdom of God actually goes all the way back to the book of Genesis when God steps in His Kingdom, and in that Kingdom, He begins to make this universe. And He makes this entire universe, and there He comes and He makes earth. And for six days, He builds, He creates, He makes, He makes appear, He does all of this forming and fashioning over the six days. On the sixth day, He creates a man to be a steward over this part of the Kingdom of God. And we see that He blessed him and He gave him authority, but yet we find out that Adam did what? He rejected the authority of God for himself. And because he did that, God took him out of the garden and pushed him out and allowed him no more into His presence. But yet, it didn't stop there. And if you go on, you'll come over into Genesis chapter 14 where Abraham is now called to become the man of God that's going to be the father of many nations. And in Genesis chapter 14, Abraham as he is going about begins to make war and he comes up with all of these spoils and rewards and riches from the war. And we have an individual that shows up, Abraham, after he has won these victories by the name of Melchizedek. In Genesis chapter 14, it refers to him as being a king. We don't know where he ruled. We don't know a whole lot about him. It refers to him as an angel. It refers to him as a king. But we come over to the New Testament in Hebrews. And in the book of Hebrews, we find out in chapter 5 and verse 6 where the writer says, and he says it also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now if Abraham was giving a tithe in Genesis chapter 14 to Melchizedek, what he was doing was recognizing that Melchizedek was the ruler of this domain. So therefore, even though Abraham won the war, the king will always get part of the spoils that are there. And so we come to the New Testament, and the author of Hebrews refers to this Melchizedek not only as a king, but also as a priest. And so this kingdom has always existed from the very beginning in Genesis. We just finished finishing up studying the book of Ephesians. And Ephesians says in chapter 5 and verse 5, For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance, and notice this, in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And so not only do we have this principle, this idea of the kingdom of God, but now we also see this same kingdom of God is now given to Christ. That authority is passed on to Him. And this is where I want us to begin to think this morning. We see that from the very inception of this fulfillment, that even when Adam rejected the authority and stewardship over this earth that he was giving, what did God immediately promise him when He kicked him out of the garden? There will be a perfect one that will come, right? One that is born of a virgin that He will assume the authority. And He will be worthy of the authority and He will accept the authority. And so this whole picture of this kingdom of God is all through the Old Testament, is waiting for this Messiah, this King, Jesus Christ, to come upon the scene and to assume authority over this earth and this reign where individuals live. But when Jesus Christ finally comes onto the scene, does He come riding a white horse and declaring Himself King of kings and Lord of lords? Absolutely not. He comes in a humble form. He comes as a serpent. And what does He do? We find when He finally presents Himself that He comes riding into Jerusalem, the center where Rome was at. And instead of coming and saying, I'm going to conquer Rome, He comes riding in on a donkey. In other words, He says, this is not My kingdom. I have submitted Myself to your kingdom. This is not My time. And if you go and you study and you read the conversation between Him and Pilate, it's these two leaders, these two rulers, that are having this discussion over authority, right? And so Jesus said, this world is not Mine. If it was, then My servants would fight. But hey, I came willingly. This is not. I didn't come in here to threaten you. I didn't come riding a white horse. I came riding in on a donkey. And so finally, after all of that, the Romans finally declare, even if I believe it is sarcastically, they put a placard on the cross of Calvary that says, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. In other words, Rome says, you know what? We recognize His authority over the Jews. It didn't mean that they recognized His authority over themselves, but they recognized it as over the Jews. In Luke chapter 23, it's where they record this is the King of the Jews. And yet we find that even in this humility, that so many people rejected Him, they crucified Him, and they placed Him in a tomb. The last thing that the world saw, the last thing that the world realized, was that this placard that said this is the King of the Jews. The good thing is, is that we have the entire Bible. And we come to the book of Revelation. And Revelation says what? Now Jesus Christ is going to declare victory. And Revelation is about Jesus Christ, the only one that has the authority to open up the scroll, the inheritance paper of all of this earth, and He begins to pop it open with the seven seals. Then we have the seven trumpets. Then we have the seven vows. But throughout the entire book of Revelation, we have Jesus Christ no longer submissive, no longer humble, no more riding in on a donkey, but we have Him coming in the skies with an army with Him, declaring His glory before all of the world. And He sets up a kingdom here on earth for a thousand years where He rules with a rod of iron, where everything is at peace. And so when we look at this declaration of this kingdom, we find the Gospels beginning to declare this kingdom of God. The very first individual we meet in the New Testament is a man by the name of John the Baptist who was actually a cousin of Jesus Christ. And John the Baptist was given the authority by God to begin to immerse people, to baptize people into this kingdom. And so there is a difference between baptism and immersion into the kingdom of God and baptism and immersion into the church. That comes later. And so what we see is that John the Baptist comes onto the scene and what does he say? His message is, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And we see this message in Matthew 3 and verse 2 as he says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And you go back to Matthew 11 and verse 12, and it says, And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. In other words, the authority that Jesus Christ had to have this world, Jesus Christ was rejected. Even though on Palm Sunday, they laid down the palm branches and they said what? Praise Hosannas be to the King of kings, right? And they praised Him and they worshiped Him, but it wasn't two days later that they said what? Crucify Him. Crucify Him. Get rid of Him. And so they did not. And so this kingdom, this battle was a violent, violent battle. As a matter of fact, Luke tells us in Luke 16 and verse 16, that the law and the prophets were until John, since the time of the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. We also note the beginning of the gospel, and so the law and the prophets was up until the kingdom of God is now revealed. Now, we also find out in Mark chapter 1 and verse 14, now after that, John was put into prison. Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. Not only do we have a kingdom, but the kingdom also proclaimed the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel is that you and I are sinners. We deserve absolutely nothing. But guess what? God's offering us a kingdom. God's offering us a place. God is offering us possessions and spiritual blessings. But guess what? There has to be repentance involved. Because you see, the gospel, it's one thing to recognize our sinfulness. It's something else to recognize that Jesus Christ was sinless and that He paid the debt for our sins. But Jesus Christ came into Galilee and He was preaching this gospel and He began to live this gospel. And in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 11, He tells us there, He says, And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all of the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. In other words, Abraham and the nation of Israel never fully realized the kingdom of God. Even though it was here, they rejected Him. And that's what we've been looking at over the last few weeks. And that's where we finished in Judges. What did they do? God said, I want to be your king. I want to guide you. I want to drive the inhabitants out of this land. But what did the people do? The people forgot about God. They did what was right in their own eyes, which was wrong in God's eyes. So what happened? God said, I cannot bless you. I cannot drive out the enemies. So now they will become thorns. They will become problems in your lives that you're going to have to learn to deal with. And so the whole time, Israel is rejecting the authority of God. So there cannot be a kingdom without a king. There cannot be a kingdom unless the subjects submit to that authority. But He says, one of these days, guess what? We are all, Gentiles and Jews, are all going to sit together. And one of these days, there is no longer going to be an Israel. There is no longer going to be a church. We're going to be united. And that is what is supposed to be living out right now here on this earth through the church. That's the whole purpose of the church is to show what the kingdom of God, a spiritual kingdom, because it's not a reality. The millennial reign has not happened yet. It's still in the future. We're still waiting. But what God is going to do physically, God should already be showing us spiritually to each other. And so when we think about that and we do that, I want us to understand that this kingdom of this God is distinguished in two different areas. Number one, in the present day. The present reality is the Bible refers to this kingdom right now as the family of God. The family of God. He tells us in Ephesians 3, verse 15, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Galatians 3, verse 6-9 says, Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. And there's a lot that we can get into in that, but I want you to understand that Abraham was saved exactly the same way that you and I are saved. He trusted Jesus Christ by faith. He believed that the Messiah would come and die for his sins. The King was coming. And he would pay the debt for the sins. And by believing that and trusting in that and having faith in that, the Bible says it was imputed unto him as righteousness. The same exact thing you and I do today. We believe, instead of believing that Jesus Christ is coming to die for our sins, we get to look back and have proof of it. We don't have to have near the faith that Abraham had to have. All we have to do is go back and we can see that there was a historical figure by the name of Jesus who came from Nazareth, who fulfilled every prophecy and everything in the entire Bible, who died on the cross of Calvary, who Pilate declared, This is the King of the Jews. All we have to do is by faith believe and trust that Jesus Christ died for our sins and it is imputed unto us for righteousness. We're not made righteous. It is imputed. It's put to our account through the blood of Jesus Christ. And so Galatians 3 and verse 26 says, For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And so what begins to happen is there is no longer Israel. There's no longer Gentiles. But we that have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and it has been imputed unto us, now we become children of God. And we are now brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. That makes us related. And if we're all related then, this is what he's referring to now. We are as a family of God. He goes on and tells us, Paul goes deeper into this and explains how this family of God, we all come together through the church to become the body of Jesus Christ. We are the embodiment of everything that Christ is. We should be a visual representation of Jesus Christ here on this earth. This kingdom of God. We should be the epitome of what it means to submit to the authority of the King and to watch how His blessings happen in our lives. The problem is, is we've somewhere got this messed up. And somewhere we have forgotten about the authority of God. We have forgotten about the authority of His Word. The authority of the church. And we've set aside all of the established authority and the pecking order that God has made and we have become just like Israel where we have decided to do what is right in our own eyes, which is always wrong in the eyes of God because we are sinners. And there's no good, nothing good that is in us. And so this is that kingdom of heaven and presence. But there's also a future aspect of this. There's a time when it has come something in the future. The future reality in eschatology and the study of end time events, the kingdom of God is going to finally be established during the millennial reign when Jesus Christ is going to sit literally on the throne of David in Jerusalem and rule this earth. And man, you can go over to Revelation and you can read about this. It's going to be a great time. There's going to be no locks on the gates. There's going to be nobody because everybody is under perfect control. Everybody is living under the authority of Jesus Christ and the blessings of Christ. Isaiah explains it this way in chapter 2, verse 2. And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come you and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways. Who are we talking about? Jesus Christ sitting on the throne. He will teach us what we need to do. And we will walk in His paths. We're going to obey Him. Not only is God going to tell us what we need to do, but we're going to obey Him. For out of Zion shall go forth the law. It's not written on commandments. Where's the law coming from? From God Himself. And we're going to obey it. And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. You skip on over in Isaiah to chapter 11 and verse 10. It says, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to which shall the Gentiles seek. And look, His rest shall be glorious. We've talked about that rest in the possessions of Jesus Christ. Resting in the fact that He's got it. He's under control. He provides everything. You turn over to another prophet, Malachi, in chapter 1 verse 11, and it says, For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering. For my name shall be great among the heathens, saith the Lord of hosts. We have not yet experienced the millennial reign. It's not here. It hasn't happened yet. It's still future. It's still yet to come. If you are a Bible scholar, if you're an end-time scholar, you know before the millennial reign can happen, there has to be seven years of great tribulation. When God pours out His wrath on the people, basically trying to get the people one more time to repent. But yet they say, we know this is from God. We know, God, You are powerful. But if you read Revelation, it says they shake their fist in God. They curse God. And instead of repenting, they hate God even more. And I'm like, how in the world could somebody do that? But I watch it every single week here in America. When Christians in their life, and things, blessings, and things are not going the way they want to, instead of repenting, instead of getting back into their Bible, instead of getting back into prayer, instead of getting back their relationship with Jesus Christ, they shake their hands and they curse God. Why me? Why are you doing this to me? I've done this. I've done that. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ said in the last days, there will be many that will say to me, Lord, did I not prophesy in Thy name? Did I not cast out devils? Did I not do many mighty works? And unfortunately, He says, depart from Me, you workers of sin, and I never knew you. And we have a lot of people that are living in that situation today. So we haven't experienced the millennial reign yet. And so that brings us this morning to Matthew. Matthew. With the proclamation of this kingdom. This idea. And the very first person that comes onto the scene that begins to speak of this is John the Baptist. And John the Baptist doesn't come looking at a lot of details and a lot of passages about the Old Testament. He's not flaunting the law in front of them. He's not telling them what their problems are. No, his message is simple and to the point. As a matter of fact, it's the same message that we see God gave Jonah when he went to Nineveh. We see it's the same message no matter where you go in the Bible. The message is always the same. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. From the very first day that God created man and placed him in the garden, God's desire was that we accept His authority. Accept His love. And what did He tell Adam? He said, Adam, you can go anywhere in this world and have anything that you want. Enjoy it. I want you to be a steward over it. I want you to work it, to cultivate it, to take care of it. But what did Adam do? Adam said, I don't want this authority. And he ate the fruit. And because of that, God cursed Adam. God cursed the earth. God cursed the beast. And everything became cursed. Because why? Adam stepped out of the authority of God. And John the Baptist pops in on the scene. And John the Baptist begins to preach, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Do you know as the church today, this is still our message? This is still what we are supposed to be proclaiming. It didn't die with John the Baptist. It didn't die with Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, the last words that we have recorded in the Gospel of Matthew before we go to Jesus Christ and His ascension in Acts chapter 1 is what we call the Great Commission. This is our marking order. This is what we as a church and believers are supposed to be doing. He came and spoke unto them saying, and notice the very first two words, all power, all authority, that's the word for power, it's authority, is given unto me in heaven and earth. It is the kingdom of God, but who is the ruler of that kingdom? Jesus Christ. He is the one that is going to have it. When they go and search all of heaven, who's worthy to open up the scroll, right? They look all over heaven. They see God. They see all of these angels. They see everything, but yet nobody there is worthy. So they go down to earth and they look, and guess what? Nobody there is worthy. They go all the way to hell. Let's check out Satan and his crew. Nobody there was worthy. And all of a sudden it says, they're seated at the right hand of the Father. The Lamb of God began to stand. And when He stood up, worthy. Worthy is the Lamb. See, Jesus Christ gave His life for this kingdom. He said God could destroy you because we are His servants. We are His minions in His kingdom. And if He don't like something, He could have destroyed us. But did God destroy us? No, from the very beginning, even when Adam sinned, God has always been willing to extend us grace and mercy. So much so that He Himself took upon the form of a man and came and died for us. And we see that in Matthew 4 that's exactly what Jesus Christ did. Satan comes to God and says, God, we can shortcut this, right? We can get around all of this. And he tempts them three times there in the wilderness saying, Jesus, You don't have to die. I'll just give You this world. If it's that important to You, You just bow down and worship me. In other words, You reject the authority of God and accept my authority and I'll just give You this earth. But you know what? Jesus Christ never did succumb to the temptations of Satan. In His entire ministry, what did Jesus Christ say? I have to obey the Father. That's where my authority comes. He comes to this great commission. Who gave Him that authority? God! He didn't get it Himself. God gave it to Him. And God said, at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, I have given Him my authority. My power. And now Jesus Christ turns to the church, to His disciples, to those that He's called together, that He has assembled together. He's not talking to all of Christendom. We know in the book of Acts, that guess what? As you go through Acts, you are going to see there are pockets of believers everywhere. But every pocket of believers still has to do one thing. They have to turn back and recognize the authority of Jesus Christ before they become a part of that church in that letter. And so notice the authority here. He says the authority is me. It's given to me in all of heaven and all of earth. Go you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. What are we doing? We're teaching all nations that we're sinners. We're sinners. We are dead. We do not deserve Christ. We do not deserve this kingdom. We are worse than slaves and servants. But guess what? It says be baptized. We can repent. If we repent, and we accept the authority of God, baptism is identifying with that authority. You go back, and I wanted to get into this, but I'm only going to spend about three weeks in this kingdom. We're going to start something new in September, so I've kind of just given you a general idea to get you thinking this morning. When Jesus Christ came to John the Baptist, what did He come to John the Baptist for? To be baptized. And when John the Baptist said, Behold, the Lamb of God that does what? Takes away the sins of the world. And Jesus said, John, I need to be baptized. And what did John say? Lord, you need to baptize me. Because He recognized that He was God. That He had what? The authority and that He was sinless. But you know what Jesus did? And this is so awesome. Jesus humbled Himself to the authority of God. And no, He did not need to be baptized. No, He did not. Because He didn't need to repent of nothing. But John preached a baptism of repentance. A washing away of your sins. And that's why he told the Pharisees, I'm not going to baptize you until you prove that you have repented. And Jesus Christ said, you know what, I'm not going to prove anything. I'm not going to claim anything. I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to submit to the authority and this kingdom begins. Entrance into this kingdom begins with identifying and identification. And He says the first thing that He did, you cannot be a king of something that you don't identify with. And so Jesus accepted that authority. He rejected the authority of Satan. And so He tells them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. All three are equal. All three are one. But who holds the authority? God, who has given that authority to who? Jesus Christ. And He tells us in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit, if you want to see if the Spirit is of God or if it's of the Satan, look to see who the Holy Spirit gives the authority to. He will always point you to obey Jesus Christ. He will always point you to Jesus Christ. If the Holy Spirit points you anywhere besides Jesus Christ, it's not of God. Because even the Holy Spirit understands the authority of Christ. The power of Christ. And so notice what He says. He says, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So what exactly is the kingdom of God in our day? It's not a physical kingdom. Just like our possessions is not a physical land as Israel's was. Our kingdom is a spiritual land. That's why Paul told us in Ephesians that we don't fight against flesh and blood. Things that we can see and experience, what do we fight against? Spiritual wickedness. Evil things. Things that we don't know. Things that we don't hear. But how do we get past all of that? How do we win in a spiritual battle that we cannot see spiritually? By recognizing the authority of Jesus Christ. Putting on the helmet of salvation. The breastplate of righteousness. The shoes shod with the gospel of peace, right? We recognize His authority. We produce His authority. And guess what? Submit yourselves unto God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And so he tells us to teach them, whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo what? I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So what exactly is the kingdom of God? It's not a physical kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. So the kingdom of God, remember when we talked about kingdom, you had to have a ruler. You had to have the authority. You had to have a domain to rule over. So the kingdom of God, kind of taking us through this history lesson, is the rule of God in the hearts of willing subjects, a.k.a. believers. Those that have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God in the Old Testament was guided and ruled by the Ten Commandments. The kingdom of God in the New Testament was no longer guided and ruled by the Ten Commandments, but were they done away with? No, they were fulfilled. And so God no longer has to give us commandments to show us our wickedness. No, you know what happens in the New Testament? God doesn't deal with the physical attributes, the outward actions of lying, of cheating, of honoring your mother and father. You know what the New Testament deals with? Not with the outward person, but the inward attitude. And that's where we come to the Beatitudes this morning. And so this message of repentance, of repentance, Jesus in chapter 4, verse 23, it says, He went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. What does the kingdom of God look like? What does the kingdom of God look like? Well, look what He says here. He says as He was preaching this gospel, what is the gospel? Repentance. Giving up your authority for the authority of God. Submitting to His authority. That's what the gospel of the kingdom is. And then what? Healing all manner of sickness, all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with various diseases and torments and those which were possessed with devils, those which were lunatic, those that had the palsy. And He healed what? Them. Every one of them. That's a king. Amen? That's somebody with authority that can even heal over the demons. Look at verse 25. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem, from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. Wow! That sounds like a place that I want to be a part of. Amen? That sounds like an experience that I want to experience, right? We talk about today the experiences of the Christian life. Look at this experience. Anybody and everybody that had a sickness, that had a possession, that was under the control or influence of any other thing, what did they do? They came to the King. They came to the One with the authority. And He did what? He healed them. He healed them. And so man, all of these people said, you know what? We want this King. And you follow the life of Jesus Christ, and guess what? The closer and closer He got to dying, the more and more people stepped away. There were lots of people in the beginning. But the more that Jesus Christ said, what? You have to leave your mother and father to follow Me. He said, I had a relative that died. I need to go bury it. Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead. He said, the foxes have holes and the birds have nests, but I have nowhere to lay My head. See, we want the experience of the Kingdom without accepting the authority of the Kingdom. Jesus said, you want to experience the Kingdom? Then you've got to be willing to leave everything and walk away and follow Me. 100% totally abandon everything that you think and feel and accept My authority. And so He speaks and presents this to these people. And we're almost out of time, so we may just wrap it up here for next week, but I want to go ahead and I want you to read v. 1-12. And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain. Seeing the multitudes. All of these people that are coming for what? The experience of the Kingdom. They're coming because He is healing, because He is casting out demons. He is preaching the Gospel, but He is also doing. He is blessing them. He is giving them their heart's desire. And so everybody wants to follow Him. But then all of a sudden, seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Notice what He starts this. Notice these Beatitudes. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be what? Filled. Filled. See, there's a connection. All of a sudden, there's a submission to authority. When you hunger and thirst for righteousness, when you desire righteousness, then you shall be filled. Look at verse 7. The merciful. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. You see that connection again? If I'm merciful, then I will receive mercy. There's this connection. And then notice, not only is this connection between the condition of our attitude, the condition of our heart, but in the fulfillment of our heart, but notice the other thing. Notice the very first and the very last Beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then jump down to verse 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The same blessing is at the very beginning and at the very end. In hermeneutics and studying and all of that, what this is called is an inclusion. An inclusion. It starts out by saying you can obtain the kingdom of heaven. It ends with you can obtain the kingdom of heaven. And so what it means is is that really, everything of these Beatitudes is bracketed between these two things. Do you want the kingdom of heaven? You have to submit to the King. And it's not what we do outwardly, it's what we are inwardly. And see, the Old Testament dealt with who we are and what we do. The New Testament deals with our character and who we are. That's why Jesus Christ when He preached, He said, As the heart is, so the mouth speaketh. Right? Out of the abundance of your heart, the man speaks. And so instead of giving us all of these laws and rules that we can come like the rich young ruler and say, Lord, I've kept all of these things from my youth up. Well, great. Let's take the outward stuff and let's match it up to your inward character. He said, Go and sell all you have and give it to the poor. And what did the rich young ruler do? I've done everything that you've asked me. I have not stealed. I have not killed. I have not coveted. Nothing. But now all of a sudden, God says, Well, let's look at your heart. Are you willing to take what you've been blessed with and share it with the poor? Let's look at your inward character. The rich young man walked away sorrowful because he had much possessions. But we see in Acts 4, when the church comes under the Holy Spirit in the kingdom of heaven, what did they do? The Holy Spirit convicted them of their many possessions. And those that had much took of their possessions and sold it. And they brought it in so that those that didn't have very much could be like them. You see, we sit up as Christians today, and Lisa's working on a study for the women that I know she's going to come up, but this is where you get into Romans and Galatians, and this is where we are confronted with the legalism of Christianity. Because we like to look at ourselves and say I've never killed no one. I've never lied. I've never coveted. I've never done these outward things. But Jesus is fixing to say here's these blessings. And we're going to start next week. The first four blessings have to do with yourself. Guess what the first four commandments have to do with? Our relationship with God. The first four beatitudes have to do with our attitudes, our thinking about God. And then the next ones deal with each other. The outward attitude. And He comes back after He gives the beatitudes and He says this, You have heard in the law, but I say unto you, you have heard thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you, if you are angry in your heart, if your attitude is malice and anger, then you're just as guilty as outwardly. You see the difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament? And the cool thing about it is we talk about liberty and grace. And liberty and grace is a wonderful thing. But here's the problem. And this is where salvation is eternal and where it comes out is because God, because I have submitted to His authority and I have accepted His salvation, I am going to do everything I can to live the way God wants me to live. And so I am not free. Paul said I'm not free to do whatever I want to do. Because I'm still under the authority of Jesus Christ. Because He has given me a kingdom that I don't deserve. He has given me a life that I didn't earn. He gave it to me by grace and withholding it is mercy. And so guess what? He placed me in this kingdom. And all of these blessings and all of this joy of being in His kingdom can only be experienced as we change who we are. And Paul gets to the pastor and Timothy. The two offices. The office of a pastor and the office of a deacon. And you know what the first thing he says you need to look for in a pastor and a deacon? The last thing we look for today in our churches. We wonder why our churches are messed up. The first thing God says when you go to get you a pastor, you go to recognize a deacon, look for somebody with character. Somebody that's blameless. Somebody that's right on the inside. But no, we want to say what? Are they good speakers? Are they good workers? Can they help support their sales? Can they get a job? Can they do this, this, this? And we have all this big list of our qualifications when God says they need to be of character. The rest of it can come. We put all of our emphasis on the outward, the lost, when God looks at the heart. And so I'm going to end this morning with the same message that John said. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is here. Do you want to be a part of that Kingdom? Do you want the blessings of this world? Do you want to have blessings in spite of where we are and what we're doing? Then we have to submit to the authority of Christ. And that's what it's all about, is being willing to submit to that authority. But man, we hold back, right? And all of a sudden as Jesus Christ got closer and closer to dying, Peter said, Lord, I'll die with You, right? Until the guards come with their swords pulled out, right? And then all of a sudden, Peter takes off. What did it show? It showed his heart. It showed his heart. So folks, we need today, and that's where the hypocrisy of the church is coming in. That's why the church is losing today. It's because we want to look at the outward. And God looks at the inside. We don't need more people that's going to give a big offering. We don't need more people that are talented, that are great teachers. We don't need more people that are great singers. You know what the church needs more than anything else? Men and women that exhibit the character of God because they are submitted to God. If we have that, the singing, the teaching, everything else is going to take care of itself because Jesus took twelve uneducated men and with Him and twelve uneducated, non-talented fishermen, tax collectors, He turned the world upside down. And we still have the Gospel today because of their commitment and their character. Every one of them, with the exception of Judas, died because of what they believed in. We can't even get Christians to come to church because of what they believe in. And it shows our character. Our character. So the message is still the same. He commanded me to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. And the Gospel has been preached today. The question is do you want to submit? The question is will you submit to the authority of Jesus Christ as we stand and have an invitation. Page 559.