Jeff Durbin's 'Gospel of the Kingdom' Message

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You can get ahead of me here by opening your Bibles to Acts chapter 9, and if you would join me as we pray.

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Father, I want to pray that you would, God, get me out of the way.

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Lord, allow me to preach in such a way, God, that your word is clear. Guide us by your spirit and teach us

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God today. Lord, convict. Lord, open our eyes. Challenge us,

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Lord. I pray, God, that the message, Lord, wouldn't be mine but yours. God, Lord, cleanse my mind, my heart,

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God. I pray that you would guard my mouth from error. Lord, I pray,

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God, that you do what only you can do, and that is bring, Lord, reformation and revival amongst your people.

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God, break our hearts over our sin, over our indifference, our lack of love,

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God, for you and for the world. God, put your word boldly on our lips.

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Lord, anchor it to our hearts. God, cause us, Lord, to die today to self.

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Lord, to despise the things of this world and to cling to you. God, I pray with all my heart that people would forget our names and remember yours.

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Lord, let us leave a trail of people behind us, God, who are under your rule, who have been brought to you by grace alone through faith in Christ.

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God, do something. Please move. In Jesus' name.

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So today, we're going to talk about the good news of the kingdom. It's interesting because that phrase is used in Matthew, chapter 4.

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Matthew, the gospel according to Matthew, probably the most popular of the gospels in the second century of the church.

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So this was utilized and drawn from heavenly by all of our brothers and sisters in the second century, the gospel according to Matthew.

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And what's interesting is Matthew opens up, Matthew is just heralding the truths that they had already anticipated about Jesus, the

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Messiah, who had finally come and entered into history. Now, this we need to grasp.

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It says in Matthew, chapter 4, after Jesus defeats Satan in the wilderness, Matthew quotes from Isaiah, chapter 9, well known to the

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Jews. As a matter of fact, he's drawing from and thinking in Isaiah all the way through the first few chapters of Isaiah.

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It's powerful. But Jesus comes in proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.

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And as a pastor, as a wretch who doesn't deserve to be before you this day, when

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I think about what my role is as a pastor, as a teacher, as someone who proclaims the word of God, undeserving of that role in myself, believe me, when

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I think about what is the problem with us today. Thank you,

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Tony, for the faithful biography. And Jeff and all the rest, everyone that's been given these biographies, reminding us of what

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God has done through his people in the past to change the world, to turn it upside down.

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And when I look at men like that and I read their biographies and I think about their lives, I ask the question today as a

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Christian, what's wrong with us? What's going on in the world today, in the church today, that we're where we're at today?

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And I think as a pastor, what's the problem? Is it God? Was God only moving by his spirits, turning the world upside down, changing lives, raising the dead, opening the eyes of the blind and giving hearing to deaf people?

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Was that something that only occurred in the first century as an abnormal experience in the world?

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And I look and I see the men of God and the women of God that he's raised up in history. Particularly, we're talking in this weekend about the

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Reformation period, the Puritans, these men who laid their lives down and sacrificed everything for the gospel.

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I think about them and I say, no, it's not the spirit of God, it's not the power of the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation.

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It must be something in us. It must be something in our culture. It must be something in the atmosphere that we breathe.

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What is it? I think about laying the axe to the roof of the problem, not the symptoms, trying to patch them up and fix them and give medicines to them and say, what's the problem?

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As a Christian, as a pastor, what's wrong with us? And I look at Jesus entering into his ministry and defeating

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Satan after being offered all the kingdoms of the world in their glory just to fall down and worship

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Satan. This is what you came for, Jesus. And that's the story, by the way.

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That temptation of Satan in the wilderness was not just an added -on, well, let's see if this works.

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That's the story. That's what Jesus came for. That's why it's such a significant temptation and why

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Satan leaves it for last. I'll give them all to you, Jesus, right in the high mountain,

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Isaiah 2. All the nations streaming up to the mountain of God. Jesus, great high mountain.

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There's what you came for. I'll give them to you. You bow and you worship me. That's all I ask.

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Jesus says you should worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Defeat Satan in the testing.

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Isaiah 9 is quoted. Remember that. Note it now. And then Jesus comes proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.

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And when I think as a pastor, as a teacher, as someone who loves the Lord Jesus and his precious gospel, what's the root of the problem?

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I think, with all my hearts, it's wrapped up in the story of the good news of the kingdom.

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We typically today in our culture think about the gospel. We call it God's gospel, the gospel, the good news.

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And we only think about it, generally speaking, not, of course, this room, but we typically think of the gospel as simply my own personal salvation, my reconciliation with God through faith in Jesus.

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And to that I say amen. Yay and amen. Give me the t -shirt. Give me the bumper sticker I want on my car. Because it's true.

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Amen? Salvation in Christ and in Christ alone. He came to die for sinners. That's true.

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But that is not the whole story. And I think the root of the problem is found in what the reformers knew and heralded and taught and believed.

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It was in the heart and mind of George Whitefield. He believed that Christ was king, seated, reigning now.

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He was putting his enemies under his feet, and the gospel of the kingdom was what counted. It needed to go out everywhere in the hardest places.

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Jesus was boss, and he comes to bid you to repent and to believe.

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Come and be wrapped up in his arms or under his feet and be crushed.

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Whitefield believed in the gospel of the kingdom. The reformers, the Puritans, believed in the good news of the kingdom.

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And I think today, what's our problem? It's that we have gutted the story of its goal, of its power, the good news of the kingdom.

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And I want to show you in the scriptures, probably what most of us already know, but show you the theme, the story.

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Acts chapter nine. We know the story. The apostle Paul once saw, trained in a Gamaliel, one of the most well -known teachers in Jewish history.

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If you were to ask a rabbi today, who's one of the most well -known, reputable rabbis in history, they'll tell you

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Gamaliel. He's on the top list there. That's Paul's teacher. He's persecuting Christians, throwing them in jail.

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We know he's responsible for the death of Christians. He calls himself the chief of sinners. Jesus knocks this man off of his high horse.

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And it says in Acts chapter nine, read the text, starting in verse 22. My bad.

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Sorry. Acts chapter nine, starting in verse 19. And taking food, he was strengthened.

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For some days he was with the disciples of Damascus. And immediately proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, he is the son of God.

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And all who heard him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name?

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And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them before, bow before the chief priests? But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the

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Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the

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Messiah. Notice this, that when Saul is converted, when Saul turns to Christ as the expected

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Messiah, he takes a beeline for Damascus. And immediately in Damascus, he begins immediately proclaiming

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Christ as Messiah, and he begins proving that Jesus is the Messiah. And I want to show you the results briefly here, because we're talking a lot this weekend about proclaiming the gospel into the hard places, and preaching the gospel, and doing the rough stuff that American evangelicalism is all but lost.

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Verse 26. Sorry, 23, just to show you some notes here. When many days had passed, the

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Jews plotted to kill him. So much for an easy ride. So much for your best life now.

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Right? Every day is Friday. Not for Paul. When many days had passed, the

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Jews plotted to kill him. Verse 26. When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

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But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the

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Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached, listen, boldly in the name of Jesus.

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So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord, and he spoke and disputed against the

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Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him. So notice that the

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Apostle Paul, when he's converted, when he turns from sin to Christ and he trusts in Jesus, the long -anticipated

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Messiah, the result is people actually want to kill him. He's being lowered out of windows, in a basket, so that his life is spared.

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And I want to point something out. He says that he's preaching Christ boldly as Messiah, and he's doing it in such a way that it's causing friction with the local community that they actually want him dead.

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And the result of preaching boldly in the name of the Lord is that, ready? Verse 31, so the church throughout all

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Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, was being built up, and walking in the fear of the

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Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, ready, it multiplied. So what's the result of a bold proclamation of the

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Gospel? Is the church has peace, it is built up, it's being multiplied, and as an added bonus, people are trying to kill him.

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I've said it many times, and I'll say it here in front of this audience because it needs to be heard early on as I would go out and do proclamation of the

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Gospel publicly in the streets at difficult places, downtown Mill Avenue where the Mormon temple where over 100 ,000 people are in attendance over a week or so in Mesa, Arizona, or just on the street where I've always experienced resistance.

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That's not how you reach those people. You can't do that. That's too rough -edged. It's too sharp. Don't do it that way.

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But I see so much fruit. I see people turning from sin to Christ, Mormon missionaries coming to Christ on their mission, turning from sin to Christ, throwing their stuff away, throwing away their tags in the garbage, putting on different clothes, and joining us on the streets to preach the

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Gospel. And so what I typically say to people just to sort of shut them down is the

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Apostle Paul, when he proclaimed the Gospel, people tried to kill him. No one's tried to kill me yet. I must be doing something wrong.

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I am working on it. But I want you to pay attention to some of the brothers and sisters.

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We talk about the good news of the kingdom. It's that when Paul breaks into Damascus and starts proving that Jesus is the

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Messiah, note this, he is not, is not teaching a novelty.

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There's nothing about the story of Jesus that was a novelty dropped in history. You know this. We know our

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Bibles, Romans chapters 1 through 6 should be on the table of your hearts if you're out proclaiming the

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Gospel. You should be reading that to people as you preach to people. They need to hear the

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Word of God so that it cuts their hearts and they turn from sin to God to receive peace with God.

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But in Romans 1, Paul opens up as Paul, a slave, by the way, of Jesus, the

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Messiah, and he talks about Jesus who was promised beforehand in the

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Scriptures. That is the story. That's the backdrop. You know this, but it's part of the

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Gospel of the kingdom proclamation. Romans chapter 3, after he shows that there's none righteous, not even one, none who seeks for God, that our throats are open graves.

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The poison of asps is under our lips. Our feet are swift to shed blood. There's no fear of God before our eyes.

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He says, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law is knowledge of sin. He then says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested.

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What? Being witnessed by the law and the prophets. That was the banner over the whole thing.

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This is not a novelty in history. This is God's story finally wrapping up history.

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It is the good news of the kingdom. This is God's story. It was what they proclaimed. Apollos, mighty, eloquent in the scriptures, mighty in the scriptures and eloquent.

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It says that he vigorously refuted the Jews, ready, publicly. I want to know what our modern evangelical church leaders would say to Apollos, who vigorously refutes

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Jews, ready, publicly, not privately, did not take them aside. He did it publicly, proving that Jesus was

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Mashiach, that he was the Messiah. Here's what I'm getting at, brothers and sisters. When we talk about the good news of the kingdom, that phrase itself is jolting to the modern

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Christian ear. It's good news of a kingdom. We ask, what does that even mean? I know it as the gospel.

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Why is Jesus proclaiming the good news of the kingdom? Because that's the story.

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You see, the Bible teaches us about God that he is entirely and totally unique. He's not dependent upon anybody or anything.

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He is self -existent, not dependent. He has no mommy gods, daddy gods above him.

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Nobody's in charge of him. He has to counsel with nobody else. He is

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God and he is God alone, the first, the last, the beginning and the end. He says that he is the one who declares the end from the beginning.

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In conflict with false gods in the book of Isaiah from chapters 40 through 46, this is the challenge to false gods in the book of Isaiah.

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Have your gods tell you the future. Now, there's a problem with that. What's the problem? False gods don't do a lot of talking.

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They're not in control of nothing. They have no power. They have no volition.

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There's no will. They have no voice, no speech, no nothing. And so God says, okay, have your false gods tell you the future before it happens.

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How come that's such a challenge? Because God is the one who actually decrees in history what does and doesn't come to pass.

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He doesn't just know what happens, brothers and sisters, as though he took in knowledge and learned something.

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God actually tells history before it happens because he's the one that wields it.

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And brothers and sisters, when Paul actually confronts the idols in the book of Isaiah, he tells the idols, here's another challenge.

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Have your gods tell you the past and why it happened the way that it did.

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All of us can recite history. We were just doing this. We can recite history. We can say this happened.

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That guy was there. This lady was there. This is what happened over this course of events in this era. We can all say what happened in history, but nobody in this room, nobody in the world can tell you why.

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God can not only tell you the future before it happens, but he can tell you why everything has happened the way that it has because he wields it for his purposes, for, and we all know this, the good of his people and for his glory.

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For his glory. History is a symphony, brothers and sisters. When you think about the good news of the kingdom and what was in the hearts and minds of Paul and Jesus and all the

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New Testament apostles and every Christian in history that did something that wrecked the world and turned it upside down, they understood something about the symphony of history.

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The gospel was not simply about my own private salvation. It was not just about me.

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And that's the problem with our narcissistic culture today is that we think Jesus was just so concerned with little old me.

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The truth is I will not rob Jesus of his glory in that way. It was not just about me.

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It is the gospel of the kingdom and everywhere it's heralded in the New Testament. You see things like Jesus in the book of Revelation who bought people out of every tribe, people, tongue, and nation.

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That is the story. It's about his rule. It's about his reign over the earth, bringing people to God and restoring what was destroyed by us.

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The symphony of history. Here's what's wrong. We think about the gospel in our own private individual salvation.

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It's about me. It's about me turning to God and amen, amen. Again, give me the t -shirt, wrath and grace clothing.

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Please provide me one. Give me the shirt. I want it. Okay. But there's more to the story than my own personal salvation.

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It's the good news of God raising up this Messiah to his right hand to put his enemies under his feet and to bring the nations to God.

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It's the good news of his kingdom, his rule, his reign. Listen, the Bible shows us that God's in charge of everything.

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He is sovereign over all things and history, brothers and sisters, is a symphony.

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It is a symphony. And what we have done today in our culture is we have stripped or gutted the story in such a way that only part of the players are actually playing.

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Now, think about what it would be like to attend an orchestra, to listen to them play their story and to gut the story they play of the climax, to take a third of the players and to shut them up.

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What would it sound like? The story would be stunted. It wouldn't have the peak. It wouldn't give the rise that filled your heart with tears and caused your heart to pump with joy and zeal.

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History is a symphony. The Old Testament players tells us everything we need to know about Messiah.

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And that's what boggles my mind, gives me goosebumps and gives me fire underneath my feet, brothers and sisters.

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In my lowest moments, in my weakest moments where I'm a coward and a wretch, what gives me fire is the truth of God laid down long before Jesus ever enters that tells us everything about him before he comes.

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The Old Testament players tells us the who, the where, the when, the what, the why, the how of Messiah.

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A couple of things. Isaiah 9, 6 through 7. Note it again.

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You're going to need that later. Isaiah 9, 6 through 7 tells us something about the Messiah that he is not simply a man, he is not simply

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Messiah, but specifically, listen closely, he is a son and a child given to us.

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What does that tell us about Messiah immediately? That he is one of us, that he's a human, that he's like us.

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Son, child, given to us. Praise God. That's Messiah. They knew that. Messiah is coming.

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But here's what they didn't quite grasp. Wonderful counselor, El Gibor, the mighty God, the father of eternity.

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What does every Jew say in the morning and evening prayer, brothers and sisters? Shema Israel, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad.

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Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. And here you have

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Isaiah, a monotheistic Jew, 700 years before the Messiah enters history, saying this one coming who is a child born, a son given, is wonderful counselor

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El Gibor, the father of eternity. Brothers and sisters, we know our Bibles, amen? There is only one

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God who is the eternal one. Psalm 90 verse 2 says from eternity into eternity, you are

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God. And then here, Isaiah has the audacity to tell us that this son given to us is the father of eternity.

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He's the eternal one. God's coming to save us. But there's more. This is not just a

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Christmas card verse, although it is. Listen to more of the story.

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Brothers and sisters, you have to hear the rest. Verse seven of the listen, increase of his government and of peace.

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There will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth forevermore.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. Listen, as you get tired, as you get weak, need brothers and sisters out there heralding the good news.

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Remember this truth. It is the zeal of the Lord of hosts that will accomplish this. It's not you.

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It's not me. It's not your fancy theological footwork. It is not your unique flavor as a preacher.

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It is the zeal of the Lord of hosts that is accomplishing this. And I want you to note something to hear the symphony of history, the story that God is actually unfolding that you must understand.

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It's the part that's been gutted from our story and it has removed our zeal. It has removed our power.

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It has removed our goal. Here it is of the increase of his government and of peace.

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There will be no way that does not teach us brothers and sisters obliteration.

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It doesn't teach us that this kingdom of the Messiah goes kablam blows history up.

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It teaches us that there is an increase of his government and of peace, which should give you and I hope in a time where as I agree with brother

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Tony, with all of my hearts about a modern state of evangelicalism in America today, it should give you hope of the increase of his government and of peace.

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There will be no ends. He will accomplish this. We're going to have fits and starts.

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We're going to have struggles and tribulations. We're going to have suffering trials. We're going to lose our lives. We're going to spill our blood.

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It's all going to happen. But it's the zeal of the Lord of hosts that accomplishes this. And it is Jesus on the throne of David with his kingdom that is increasing with peace as time goes on.

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Micah five two. We know the who again coming from Bethlehem. You know, it's a little town.

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Thank you for the players in the back. Thank you. Congratulations. A little town of Beth.

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We know the story. Micah five two tells us that Bethlehem is going to be the place of the Messiah. That's where he comes from.

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And amazingly, this is just what trips me out so much about Jesus is here's Joseph and Mary, not in Bethlehem.

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And the story looks like, oh, it's not going to work. And all of a sudden there is a pagan, a pagan who says, oh, yeah.

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And let's get you guys to come down to birthplaces and let's do a census. Amazing. Here's Jesus now born.

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The city of David born in Bethlehem on time as planned. Amazing.

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Where? Micah five two. When? This is interesting. You can look at these passages later. Daniel chapter two tells us that's during the time of the fourth kingdom that Messiah is going to enter into history.

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Notice just for a moment, we're not going to read the whole passage. Daniel chapter two talks about four kingdoms that are coming from the time of Babylon.

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You can count down from Babylon. Most of your Bibles actually label the kingdoms in the notes.

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It is during the time of the fourth kingdom that, ready? The God of heaven himself will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

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Now notice something. It is, God says, a stone that becomes a great mountain and fills the earth.

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God's telling us not just kingdom, but he tells you when. And he tells you the nature of it.

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It will never be destroyed. And he tells you that it is a stone, little rock that becomes a great mountain that fills the earth.

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That's God's story. That's the symphony of history. It's a kingdom coming that starts small, that increases, and when it increases, it increases his government and peace.

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You need to hear the story. It's what we've got in it. When? Daniel two.

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I would argue actually Daniel nine. Brothers, we can get to the scriptures together over this, but I would argue Daniel nine is a great tool in our arsenal to demonstrate

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Jesus as coming on a particular time. I'll give you a quick story of it just to give you a little encouragement.

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Maybe you can check it out later and we can have a dialogue over coffee over it. But Daniel chapter nine was a powerful verse for me.

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Once again, being a hopefully godly troublemaker. Note that by the way.

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A godly troublemaker. I heard that Jews for Judaism was doing a seminar on how we know that Jesus is not

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Moshiach. Disgusting. So naturally I grabbed my Bible backpack and I went.

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Got to wear a yarmulke. It was awesome. I go into the synagogue, and amazingly I'm in the synagogue, it's all

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Jewish people, and I'm the only one there with a Bible. Except for my friends. My Roses.

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They came too. My boys came with their Bibles, and there's no one there with Bibles. So everyone's giving us the eyeball, looking back at us like you've got

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Bibles in your hands. I'm like what? Shalom. Torah. Tanakh. Relax.

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Right? So everyone's eyeballing us. This guy goes up there, wearing the rabbinical garb, he's got long hair, the beard looks like Mashiachu.

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That's for the younger crowd. Some of you guys don't know what I'm talking about. And so he goes up and he speaks for about two hours, and how many of you know

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Jesus is not Mashiach? And doesn't touch a single verse that any

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Christian for 2 ,000 years of Christian history, Jewish Christians included, would show and demonstrate that Jesus is in fact a

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Messiah. Amazing. So when the whole thing was wrapped up and over, I stood up, and I took a beeline right down the aisle, right towards him, and every single

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Jewish person in the room just swore by this. And now we're standing there in the synagogue, the rabbi and the

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Christian, surrounded by Jews, and they're all standing there just panting, waiting for the rabbi to thrash the

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Christian. And so I said, Rabbi, I want to tell you how much I appreciate you allowing me to come here today and inviting us to come and to have this dialogue with you.

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He said, of course. I said, Rabbi, I have a question for you. How come you didn't use or appeal to any of the verses that Christians, Jewish Christians in particular, have appealed to for 2 ,000 years of history to show that Jesus is in fact the promised

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Messiah? He says, well, young man, I dealt with all of them. I said, Rabbi, you didn't deal with even one that I would use.

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He said, OK, well, give me an example. And just, you should have felt it. There were eyes, and there was drool,

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I'm sure. And so I said, Rabbi, I don't know. Where do I start?

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How about let's deal with timing? I said, Daniel chapter 9. Daniel 9 tells us the countdown to the time of the

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Messiah. It tells you when to start counting down. And he says the Messiah is going to be cut off. Messiah's going to die,

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Rabbi. And then it says the second temple's going to be destroyed. I said,

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Rabbi, when was the second temple destroyed? He said, well, man, everyone knows it was destroyed in 70

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AD. I said, right. So Jesus isn't Moshiach. Who is?

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And so he looks down at Daniel 9, runs his finger through, goes and looks at the page a few times, looks around, and everybody there is panting looking at him, smiling, nudging each other.

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You look at him, and he's reading through, and he's reading through, and he goes, oh, I'll tell you what, young man.

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Give me your email address. I'll get back to you on this. Never did.

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The when of the Messiah is laid out for us. This is symphony, brothers and sisters. The what is going to take place.

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Psalm chapter 22 tells us the passion of the Messiah, that he would have his hands and feet pierced, be surrounded by dogs who would wag their heads at him.

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His heart would be like wax, melted within him, that they would cast lots for his clothing.

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The passion of the Messiah is there. Isaiah 53, get to know it. Preach from Isaiah 53.

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Tells us the story of Christ. What's he going to do? He's going to be pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.

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The Lord is going to lay on him the iniquity of us all, that he was going to be counted among the rebels, and that he would justify the many as he would bear their iniquities.

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But there's more. Daniel 2 tells us, again, the timing of the Messiah's kingdom. It tells us the Messiah was going to be given a kingdom.

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It would be a stone that becomes a great mountain. Daniel chapter 7, I need you to see this too.

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It's important today for the story. Go to Daniel chapter 7. It's a passage that most of you guys probably already know, but I want you to have it on the ready, because it's going to be a part of the rest of the story.

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Daniel chapter 7, in verse 13. I saw in the night visions, and behold the clouds of heaven.

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There came one like a son of man, and he came up to the

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Ancient of Days, and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. His kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.

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Brothers and sisters, that is part of the story. It's not simply that God has in the

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Old Testament a story of personal salvation for individuals. It's much, much more than that.

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The overarching story contains that. But the banner over it is that he's the king on the throne of David, putting his enemies under his feet, and that all the nations belong to him.

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That's the banner over the story. The parts and pieces is us in the midst of it being redeemed by him because of his great love and grace towards us.

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But that's the story. That's the story. Psalm 110 .1, you don't even need to go to it because you already hopefully know it.

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Psalm 110 .1 is one of the most oft -quoted verses from the Old Testament into the

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New Testament. Now, brothers and sisters, listen. Here's my argument. Here's my argument. If we have a text from the

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Old Testament revelation that is repeated constantly in the

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New by more than one apostle, we should take careful note of that.

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If it is the most oft -quoted verse from the Old Testament into the New, by more than one apostle, we should take special note of it.

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Psalm 110 .1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

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Psalm 110 .1, quoted in the New Testament over and over and over again. Why do you think that is, brothers and sisters?

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Because that's the story. Now, the

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New Testament witness, we're going to go brief here quickly because I've already done some of it with you. Go to Matthew now, chapter one.

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Matthew chapter one. Gospel according to Matthew, again, the most popular of the gospels in the second century.

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The early church loved this gospel. Matthew chapter one, brothers and sisters, fast cursory reading.

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Matthew opens up and he is convincing us that Jesus, in fact, fits the bill of the long -anticipated

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Messiah. Now, brothers and sisters, please broaden your horizon here.

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This is beyond simply the story we're all used to of Jesus coming because he loves sinners.

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There's more playing in the story. Matthew opens up and he knows he can't convince

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Jews that Jesus is, in fact, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the heir according to the promise.

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He knows he can't convince Jews of that unless he can demonstrate that Jesus actually owns the right to the throne royally.

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And so he goes through this showing you, listen, here's the genealogy. Admit it. Admit it. I will.

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We typically skip the genealogies. Don't do that. Don't do it.

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When I first became a Christian, I was like, I love the word of God. I love it so much. I'm not going to miss a word of it.

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There's so much zeal and all of a sudden you start reading genealogies and you're like, oh, I'll go to chapter two. God still loves me.

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I'm under grace. There's a problem. Without that record of the genealogies of Jesus, we do not have proof that God kept his covenant to David and to Abraham.

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You need the genealogies there. Royal priesthood. Jesus owns it. He has the right to the throne.

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Amen? Listen, when, you need to catch this, it's the story of the kingdom.

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When Matthew appeals to the genealogies of Jesus, he's opening up with the story of the kingdom.

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Do you understand that? He shows us Jesus is the king.

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He has the royal right to the throne, which means what? He is the chief ruler of this world.

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So he opens up. The story goes on. We start seeing now he's appealing to what?

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Isaiah. Isaiah, first one quoted, Isaiah chapter seven. He will be

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God with us, born of a virgin. But there's more. Chapter two. We're going quickly here.

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I need you to see the story unfolding now. Chapter two. Brothers and sisters, ready? The long -anticipated promise of the

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Messiah is that the nations were gonna stream up to the mountain of God, that they were gonna go, come, let us go, to the mountain of God.

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To come, they were all gonna know God. Jeremiah 31, new covenant written in our hearts. In our chapter seven, all people, tribes, tongues, nations coming to him, dominion everlasting, kingdom never destroyed.

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Amen? It's not just Jews, but now Gentiles. God's redeeming people from all over the world now by his grace, and he's wrapping it all up.

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And amazingly, in Matthew chapter two, who are the first people coming to look for Jesus? Not Jews, the

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Gentiles. Pause. This is the story.

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The Jews aren't looking for him. They're terrified. And the first people God has looking for the king are

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Gentile pagans. And amazingly, these pagans are looking to the stars, and God is wielding the stars to point to this

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Messiah. And they wanna know something. They wanna know where the king is. They understood this was a king coming.

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Where's the king so we can worship him? Gentile pagans. Matthew's telling you the story.

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Matthew chapter two continues on talking about Jesus fulfilling prophecy. Chapter three, brothers and sisters, here we go.

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Chapter three of Matthew, John the Baptist promised in the Old Testament the one who was going to turn the hearts of the children to fatherhood.

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We know the story. The one who calls to repentance. John comes in, and he is a godly troublemaker.

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And he comes in, and what are the first words out of his mouth in Matthew? Ready? Matthew chapter three, verse one.

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In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Brothers and sisters, if John wasn't saying that, you would have every reason to believe that he was not from God. Because what is the story?

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The forerunner comes before the Messiah who is the king, calling people to repentance, but what's the story?

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It's the rule of God in history redeeming sinful man. Not just Jews, but Gentiles.

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And here comes John calling people to repentance, and don't let the phrase throw you. Almost all commentaries agree with this.

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Kingdom of heaven is a synonymous phrase to kingdom of God. Matthew is, many people believe, just being very cautious here as a

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Jew to not use the word God as much as possible to offend a Jewish audience. So he says heaven, which is a common kind of thing to do.

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So get this, ready? Here's what he's saying. John the Baptist says this. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

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And don't let the word kingdom throw you either, brothers and sisters. We tend to think of kingdom as kingdom like the stuff, the people, the armies, the building.

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Where is it at? Don't make that mistake, the mistake that the Jews made. They said, where is it?

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He says, don't think about it. Say see here, see there, for it's within you. Don't make that mistake. Listen, kingdom means, ready, rule.

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So here's what's happening. The Messiah is coming to get the nations to bring redemption, salvation, forgiveness, seated on the throne bringing salvation to the ends of the earth.

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He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. The Bible says, the glory of the Lord is going to cover the world like the waters cover the sea.

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And here's John saying, repent, the rule of God is at hand. And he comes preaching repentance and he comes confronting religious establishments and then moving now into the baptism of Jesus, chapter four, the temptation of Jesus and I want you to see it with your own eyes.

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Here we go, Matthew chapter four. I told you to hang on to Isaiah nine for a reason. If you want to put a finger there now, go ahead.

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The good news of the kingdom. Here we go. Matthew chapter four, the testing of Jesus.

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Jesus said to him, again, it is written verse seven, you should not put the Lord your God to get your

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God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

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And he said to him, all these, I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, be gone,

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Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve. And then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

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Two points to make here. You can check it later. Isaiah chapter two talks about this Messiah's kingdom and he describes,

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Isaiah describes a great and high mountain that the nations were going to stream up to.

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And I love this so much. And this is where you need to be a black coffee drinking Calvinist.

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You need to rub your face across the face of someone who's a gravel Calvinist kind of guy. You need to be the kind of Calvinist that believes it and lets it affect your life.

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But I love the fact that the Bible says that this great and high mountain is lifted up and the nations stream up to it.

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So the brothers and sisters, water doesn't stream up. So what's it mean if the stream is coming up to the mountain?

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What's it mean God's drop? But is it an accident that Satan, who knows by the way the

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Bible better than us, is it an accident that Satan brings the Messianic King up to a great and high mountain to show him all the kingdoms of the worlds?

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No. Because that's what the Bible promised. That mountain the nations stream up to and hear

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Satan going, alright Jesus, there they are. Now worship me. And Jesus defeats

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Satan there. Now watch. Matthew chapter 4 verse 12.

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Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee leaving Nazareth. He went into the living Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali so that what was spoken by the prophets

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Isaiah might be fulfilled. And brothers and sisters please note in your Bibles that what's quoted immediately by Matthew when he's thinking in Isaiah constantly is

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Isaiah chapter 9. Make the connection.

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Make the connection to understand the story that we've all been covered in. Satan says, there they are.

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That's what you came for. Jesus defeats him.

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Matthew immediately brings you to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah 9, you already know.

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We read it. After this passage in Isaiah 9, 6, it says, wonderful counselor, mighty

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God, and what's the story? Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

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On the throne of David and on the throne to establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will accomplish his brothers and sisters. This is the story. Christ is the promised

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Messiah who would get the nations who would have this government that would increase and peace that would increase with his government.

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That's the story. Matthew is bringing you through the story. He has the right to the throne. He's the promised

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Messiah who fulfills the prophecies. He defeats Satan when he offers him those kingdoms he came for. He says, no, you worship

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God and God alone and then Matthew opens you up. Remember Isaiah 9? Remember Isaiah 9?

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The light has dawned and then, lo and behold, Jesus. Verse 17, after he breaks out of the temptation, it says, and these are the first words recorded by Jesus here after the testing.

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You get to see them. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's what the story.

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Listen, there's more. Verse 23, and he went throughout all

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Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Can I ask us a question today as brothers and sisters who love

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Jesus desperately and want to see the world known? Do we talk like that?

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Do we talk like that today? When we proclaim the gospel, do we proclaim it the way

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Jesus did as good news of the kingdom? That Jesus is

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Lord seated, high lifted up, the king of kings, the Lord of lords.

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In the past, he overlooked ignorance, but now he commands men everywhere to repent.

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Do we proclaim it as Jesus, as the ruler of this world who was putting his enemies under his feet?

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Do we proclaim the gospel in a way that expresses it as good news of his kingdom? Because listen, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, first, the kingdom the kingdom the kingdom the kingdom the kingdom the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom first, the kingdom while I was the son of man, and he came, what?

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Up to the Ancient of Days, and what was he given? A kingdom. Brothers and sisters, this is the story.

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It's a story that we are a part of. How many of you guys in here, I gotta ask this question, how many of you guys in here are of Jewish descent by birth?

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I know, okay, I know Father Abraham and many sons of God. I know, I know, I know, I know.

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We have circumcision of the heart. I know we're Jews. I know, okay, shalom, all right? So how many of us are

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Jews by birth? Anybody in here? Anybody? Okay, wow, all right. How many of you guys are in love with the

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Lord God of Israel because of Messiah, Jesus, and you are not Jewish by birth?

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Raise your hands. Tell me that God is not faithful to his promises. The zeal of the

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Lord of Hosts will accomplish this. There's almost no people that are Jewish by birth in here. I mean, you almost don't even notice it.

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One, two, a handful at times, but what do we have? God's faithful promises that he would redeem people out of every tribe, culture, nation, language, and it's happening right now.

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Jesus ascends. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and I gotta say this very important thing.

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In Acts, you see 17 .7, Acts 17 .7. You can just write it down, look at it later. Look at how the

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Christians were being challenged. Acts 17, it says, they say there's another king,

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Jesus. I wonder today, as Christians in America, would we be accused of that?

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I wonder if that is something that we can actually have lobbed at us as a charge today in this nation.

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They say there's another king, Jesus. I know for a fact, hundreds of years ago, the brothers and sisters who were godly troublemakers who laid their lives down for the cause of the gospel of the kingdom could have been accused of that.

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What's in the back of your shirts right now? No god but God, and no king but Christ. They got it.

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The early church is turning the world upside down, and they're being accused of saying there's another king, one called

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Jesus. The reformers are doing the same thing. They're actually addressing and speaking to the authority, saying, listen, we'll be good servants, we'll be obedient citizens, but you need to understand there's no god but God, and no king but Christ.

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He rules above you. You are submitted to him. It's amazing. You look at Christian history, and Christians were not satisfied with the great commission in the nation they were in until they got the king to bow to Christ.

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They understood the story. We've gutted it, and because of that, it's stunted.

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We have no goal. We have no fire. We have no hope. We don't even know where we're going. We're happy to start a

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Bible study in a basement as if that were the great commission. The great commission is the nations brought to God, not people out of the nation, but the nations brought to God and taught to obey

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Jesus. Brothers and sisters, he has all authority in heaven and on earth. Let me say it again because it needs to be heard by us, particularly those of us that are street preachers.

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He has all authority in heaven and on earth. As you go proclaim

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Christ outside of an abortion mill, you need to know with all the hostility, all the oppression, all the hatred, all the cursing, all the thrown drinks, all the nearly getting our heads taken off.

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Tony, got to watch that personally. We need to realize that Jesus has authority here at this abortion mill that's murdering babies by the thousands.

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Jesus is king over this. Do we proclaim the gospel in that way?

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Roman Catholics walk up and down the sidewalk praying to a false God, as if Jesus doesn't rule over this, as if Jesus doesn't command repentance and faith and for you to come underneath his rule and to come to him for life and for peace.

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Do we proclaim the gospel in such a way that we're heralding it everywhere with the assumption that Jesus is king over it?

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You see, we get so overwhelmed by the size of the city and the dirt in the streets and the depravity of the situation, we forget it's the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts that will accomplish this. The banner over this whole thing is that it is a gospel of a kingdom and we have gutted it from the story.

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We've lost our hope, we've lost our vision, we've lost our fire, but it's the story.

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He has all authority. I want to offer some encouragement quickly though. Jesus described a kingdom in Matthew 13.

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You know it as a mustard seed that becomes a large tree. The mustard seed's very important because in your hand it looks so small you can barely see it, so listen, as you think through your struggles and my struggles as proclaiming the gospel in this culture that is largely defiant to Jesus today, know this, that Jesus described the growth of the kingdom as mustard seed to tree.

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That is the pattern. That's what it looks like. Early on, it was 11 very confused disciples before an ascended

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Messiah. I love it. Jesus, right here. It's amazing. Here's 11 very confused disciples.

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They've already lost one because he's a traitor. And Jesus, here, resurrected, glorified himself.

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He's ascending up and saying, all the glory's mine. Heaven, earth, mine. He's go get the nations.

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Can you imagine? Can you imagine?

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We put bells and whistles into the story and we forget the reality of what's going on. There's less people there than here at the ascension of Jesus, standing with Jesus.

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Less than this room. Can God turn a nation upside down with just this room?

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Yes. Amen, of course he can. God is the one who wields the sword.

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It's not him. It's us. It is us. It's our indifference.

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It's our lack of love. It's our losing sight of the story. It's a mustard seed to a large tree.

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Jesus describes it. And brothers and sisters, that is the pattern that has always worked in history. Not only true of course over all then, it is a small seed that becomes a tree, but in history it has always been like that.

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History has been the church dying and rising again. Dying and rising again. Dying and rising again.

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Always. It has been mustard seed to large tree. Mustard seed to large tree.

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A lot of it has to do with our faithfulness as nations to God. He raises them up and he brings them down.

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Is it any wonder to us that our nation was began by people who loved the

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Lord Jesus, identified him as the king over their province or their state, and then as soon as this nation breaks covenant with God and turns away from his word, we begin to experience what we're experiencing now.

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We've got what's coming to us. Mustard seed to large tree.

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Listen, I'm gonna quote a friend of mine here, very important, I think it's good to note at this moment.

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Listen, it's in our nature as human beings when we think about the past to honor the dead troublemakers and the living conformists.

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This is borrowed, by the way, but you need to hear it. We love to honor our dead troublemakers.

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Why? Because they're dead. Because they're not around anymore ruffling anyone's feathers.

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People talk today about George Whitefield and Spurgeon, men who I don't think are worthy to even name their names.

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We'll talk about the heroes of the past, Spurgeon and Whitefield and all the rest, but they would do the same to these men if they were alive today that people did to them then.

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Persecute them and burn them on stakes. Because we love to honor our dead troublemakers and our living conformists.

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We love the terrifying beast in the zoo. Why? Because it's a terrifying beast, but we can't help gazing upon it.

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But we love the fact that it's behind a cage at a zoo because we can go and visit it, we can gaze upon it, we can be in awe of it, and then we get to go home to the safety of our houses.

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And when we think about all the giants of the past, brothers and sisters, these were godly troublemakers at the time they were persecuted, at the time they were cast out of the church.

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We know the story of George Whitefield. Why is he an open -air preacher? Because he's kicked out. See, he's a hero of the faith.

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God used him to change whole cities, states, nations, yes, with great persecution and great difficulty.

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He was a godly troublemaker then. We always honor our living conformists.

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We love animals like John the Baptist because he's safe back there.

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When I think about these men, John the Baptist, George Whitefield, Luther, Athanasius, the

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Athanasius, amazing church father. You know there's a statement that goes along with his name, a phrase,

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Athanasius Contra Mundum, means Athanasius against the world because Athanasius was one of the only people that stood for the truth of the triune

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God in a time where the emperor and most of the priests were all with Arius.

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And we think Athanasius, wonderful church father, it's Athanasius against the world. We love our godly troublemakers in the past, but what will we do to them today?

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God calls us to be godly troublemakers today, but there are things that will get in our way, and you may like to cut your cake a different way, but I wanna, at least as a pastor, humbly bring before you a few things that I have to preach to myself.

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Because when I think about this story that it's good news of a kingdom, not just about my personal salvation, it's what

01:00:01

God is doing in history, putting his enemies under his feet with Christ the chief ruler of this world.

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I think about my own sin. I think about the fact that I have to repent every single time

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I go out, and you know what I'm talking about, brothers. I have to repent of my indifference. I have to repent of the fact that I don't have any real love for these people.

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I have to repent of the fact that I'm a coward. When I go to the temple, when

01:00:26

I go to an abortion mill, I have to go and I have to repent of my cowardice. I am afraid, and I don't love these people the way that God calls me to love them.

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I am a wretch. That's the truth of me as a street creature.

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I look at some of the men in this room today and I think I am nothing like you. I don't deserve to be behind this pole, but I live in fear half the time before I go out and preach the gospel.

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I have to ask God for help. That's the truth about me. And then

01:00:57

I think about the cross of Jesus and what he did to redeem me, and I think about the whole story about this kingdom and history, and I think about the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts, and I repent of my indifference. I repent of my lack of love for the lost, and I go and I lay my life down for the lost in sacrificial missionary sacrifice.

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That's what we're commanded to do. A few things that I see as problems with us today as a church.

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Number one, we haven't died. Luke chapter 14, you know the passage.

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Hold this together in your mind for a moment. The Lord Jesus before multitudes of people, and in our culture today, you know what would happen.

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Brothers and sisters, if a megachurch filled up with 5 ,000 new members on a Sunday, we would give them cotton candy, bubble gum, and chocolate milkshakes to keep them.

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We would build little giraffe slides for the kids. We would try to get the coolest lighting and the best music so that we don't lose them, just keep them.

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Jesus turns to these crowds, and his disciples must have just been just, woo,

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Jesus, finally, right? We're getting somewhere. We're getting some headway, finally, right? We're getting somewhere.

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Imagine how they must have felt, finally. Jesus turns to them, he knows their hearts, and he says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate, father, mother, he starts just listing what's most important to them, and even your own life, you're not worthy to be my disciple.

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What's he saying? If you love anything in comparison to me more, don't come.

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You must take up your cross. You must come to die and rise again.

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Come die or don't come. And they leave, and the disciples that stay,

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Jesus says to them, do you also want to go? And they say, what, where are we gonna go?

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You have the words of, what, eternal life. They understood, God had opened their eyes.

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The crowds didn't. Brothers and sisters, the call of the gospel is not a tried

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Jesus, and I'm preaching to the choir in this room, I know that, but it needs to be something that we herald.

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Jesus bid you to come and die and rise again. That's the pattern, come to die, join him in his death and resurrection, repent and believe the good news, turn from your sin to God, come to Christ to be joined to him.

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He's not asking for you to try him out, to add you to the story. He is commanding you to repent and to believe.

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Come die or don't come. Don't come. If one thing needs to happen today, in evangelicalism today, is evangelicalism needs to die a fiery death and be reborn.

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Luke 14, Jesus bids people to come and die. Romans six, Paul's story is, shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?

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What? God forbid, may never be, right? It's his story, he says, how shall we, what?

01:04:21

Die. You see, here's Paul's argument, ready, in sanctification, dead men don't sin.

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Pretty simple argument, I like that, right? That's what he's saying, shall we continue in sin? No, you died to it, and you've been raised.

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Paul's story is there's a death that's occurred, you died with Christ, he was condemned in your place, and you've been raised with him.

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Colossians chapter three, on sanctification, Paul says, therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking what is above, not what is below, and that is the basis of the therefore put to death.

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Because a death has occurred, and I believe that we fail to lay our lives down to the laws around us because we have not even died yet, many of us.

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I look around the church today, the professing church today, and I see people who barely resemble the message of the

01:05:24

New Testament. People who are not willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the lost.

01:05:30

And I ask the question, have you died? You think about these men that we're talking about for burning the stake, and you ask the question, what drives, what motivates a person to go to a stake and to have their head smashed in with an ax in front of their six -year -old?

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What possesses a person to do something like that? Listen, it's very easy to walk to a stake and get your head smashed in with an ax if you've already died.

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And what's wrong with us is we're so afraid to die because many of us haven't done so yet.

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Number two, I see a problem with us today in proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom very simply as this, Galatians chapter one.

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We have a problem that Paul didn't have, and that is that we are man -pleasers.

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We don't proclaim the good news of the kingdom, we don't bring his authority into every realm of life because we're afraid to die, and we love to please man.

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We are in love with comfort and being well -received. That's what we love.

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Paul says this, after confronting the church in Galatia, he says, what's it then, brothers and sisters, do

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I seek to please men or God? If I still seek to please men, I would not be the slave of Jesus.

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And our problem in not proclaiming the gospel faithfully, the gospel of the kingdom of Christ's authority in every realm of life is that we are man -pleasers.

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And I gotta say this to you guys in a moment of confession and just transparency right now, I never realized as a young and wide -eyed minister of the gospel how many times

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I would be given opportunity to sell out by the pastors in ministry.

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I thought if I could just guard myself, and I won't experience this in the ministry,

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I'll have faithful men walking alongside me, I know that I can be safe in ministry, that's where you're safe, and the truth is

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I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked to sell out, to soften the message, to not say the harsh thing by men with churches of over 5 ,000 members.

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How many times I've been invited to a conference or to a church, and I know it's my last time. It ain't happening again.

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People say, well, make sure you try to keep within these boundaries and these guidelines, try to do it in this way to attract people, and I have to fight my own sinfulness and my own cowardice to say, am

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I gonna seek to please God here or man? And if we wanna faithfully proclaim the gospel of the kingdom, we need to decide whether or not we are man -pleasers or slaves of Jesus.

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You can't be both. You cannot be both. They will not exist together.

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And finally, we haven't died. We are man -pleasers.

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Finally, we are not committed to suffering.

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Well, Acts chapter five, you know the story.

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The apostles are brought in. Don't speak of this name again. Run, back out there again, bring them back.

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Didn't we tell you to stop preaching this name? And what's the answer from the apostles in Acts chapter five? Go there quickly,

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Acts chapter five. Need to see it, so it's not coming from me, but from what is

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Theanostas, breathe down. From God, Acts chapter five, verse 28.

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We strictly charge you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.

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I love it. The relationship evangelism model.

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Right, that's what's happening here. No, you're filling

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Jerusalem up with this teaching. That's not happening at a barbecue in front of the sisters.

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It's not happening at a UFC fight night. It's happening because they're proclaiming the gospel and they're heralding it, the good news, everywhere they go, and Jerusalem is being what?

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Filled up with it. And they say, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us, but Peter and the apostles answered you, we must obey you.

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We must obey God rather than men. He already died. The God of our fathers, listen to the story, raised

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Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand, as, ready, the word is chief ruler and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

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Notice as Peter tells the story, he seems to squeeze in this story about Jesus as the chief ruler and as the one that God has exalted to his right hand.

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Because, brothers and sisters, that's the story. It's the gospel of the king. Forgiveness, salvation, and he's the king.

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Now, watch what they say. In verse 40, after they take the advice, it says, and when they had called on the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

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Stop speaking in the name of Jesus. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

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And every day, the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the

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Messiah. I can only imagine the moment.

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I can only imagine the moment of brothers and sisters beaten to the point that they are cut, they are blue, they are hot, their flesh is hot from the sting of the beating.

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They've been beaten, they've been shamed, they're in shackles even, and here they go, and it's okay, ready,

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I'm gonna beat you now. You take a beating. And what would honestly most of us do after that beating? We'd probably go home, lick our wounds, have our wives take care of us, cuddle us, make us feel better and say,

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I suffered well for Jesus. But what do they do? They leave the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were even counted worthy to suffer for his name.

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And then they go on proclaiming Jesus and teaching from house to house and continuously filling

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Jerusalem up with their teaching. They counted it as a gift from God to actually be able to suffer for the cause of the gospel.

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They understood the whole story, that Jesus was at the right hand of the father, that he brought salvation and forgiveness, and they counted it as a gift from God to suffer for the sake of the gospel.

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And brothers and sisters, if we don't see suffering as a gift from God, we won't enter into it.

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To see suffering as being abused for the sake of the gospel, as a gift from God, Philippians 1 .29

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has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer. And we're too afraid to suffer.

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We look at places that are difficult, and we go, not that area, it's too hard. We have too much suffering attached to it.

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And we have to be willing to walk into it as people who have already died, who seek to please God rather than men that are willing to enter into the suffering of the

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Messiah, to lay our lives down for the lost, knowing that it's the zeal of the Lord of hosts that accomplishes this, and the story is,

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Jesus gets the nations. It's our call to herald that good news.

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No God but God, no king but Christ. He is the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth.

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He bids you to come and die and to rise again. Turn from your sin to the living God. Turn away from your wickedness and your sin and come and be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus, or be crushed by him.

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He's the king. It's amazing,

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I wanna leave you with at least one encouraging thing as a way of the story.

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So, I have people tell me all the time, don't go to that Mormon temple. Don't do that, make friends with me.

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How do I do that? There's so many thousands of Mormons in my area. How do I make buddies with all these Mormons? I wanna reach the whole thing, right?

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I don't want one or two, I want everybody to know Jesus. I want the Mormon church to self -destruct and for all those people to come to Jesus to know him as Savior.

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There's 100 ,000 of them during Easter pageant. I'm going. I felt a lot of confidence the first time

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I went. Dr. James White was there, so that was very comforting. It was nice to see that, hey, for such a solid man of God as this, can be out here doing this and doing the right thing.

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But I was largely alone. I saw all kinds of fruit, people coming to Christ all the time.

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I lost count as to how many Mormons have turned from sin to God and rejected the false gospel and God of Mormonism to come to know the living

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God. I lost count. So one night, I'm with these Mormon missionaries and return missionaries, they're surrounding me, right?

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And they're just all around me. They're yelling at me and they're calling me names and this girl is there. And she starts to cuss me out.

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And she takes my tracks and she throws them at my face and she spit in my face. Everyone says, don't go there, it's too hostile, it's too rough edged, don't do that.

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It's not safe, don't do that. You're not gonna win any of that. So you walk away from a night like that, suffering in that way, just being abused by people when you love them so much.

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You walk away and your heart sinks. You think, how is God gonna use this? Wipe the spit from your eye, pick up your tracks, and then

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I go home, pray for her. A year later, I'm at my house at midnight with a bunch of other

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Christians, doing what Christians do, eat. We're at my house, we're eating together, we're having fellowship, it's midnight by the way.

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Random night of the week. My friend John comes to the door. I open the door, midnight, house full of Christians.

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He's got two people with him, a guy and a girl. He says, hey, I just met them at Starbucks, Christian Crackers, and did

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I accept on toast? I didn't even know I was here. I just, whoo, think about it.

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You walk in, the dealer knows you, he says your name, he knows where your fix is. Where else do you squat for hours with your fix, right?

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Melt your idols. So anyway. Okay, so he says, hey,

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I was at Starbucks with them, and they overheard that we're doing a Bible study over here, and they wanted to know if they could join us.

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I said, of course, and so they start to enter, and the girl bursts into tears. And so I say to John, my friend,

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I say, what's wrong? He says, I don't know, I just met her. And so they come in, and we sort of stand away.

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We leave him alone, we're like, we're gonna leave him alone. And she's in the back of the room, and she's in tears the whole time, and we're all kind of letting her be, because she seemed kind of distraught.

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So we're there, kind of doing a little Bible study, talking and sharing, and she finally breaks in, and she says, Jeff, do you recognize me?

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And I said, no, I'm sorry, I don't. And she said, about a year ago, you were at the

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Mormon Easter pageants on the west side of the temple. She said, I took your tracts from you, I tore them up, I threw them in your face,

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I spit on you, and I cussed you out. I said, oh, yeah. I remember.

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And she said, please forgive me. I said, forgive you for what? She said, when you left that night, she says,

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I committed that I was gonna come back and refute you. And she said,

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I got one of your tracts, I went home, and after four months of pouring over the tract with all the verses and all the scriptures, four months,

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God opened that girl's eyes, and she turned to Christ. And then brought her to my door a year later to show me the fruits of laying your life down for the sake of others and missionary sacrifice.

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I wanna say this. It is worth my whole life if I lay down my life for the sake of somebody, to preach the gospel in a way that may come across as cutting and offensive, but they come to know

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God as Savior. It's worth my whole life for one. When we first started our abortion ministry to abortion mills, we said to God this.

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Listen, God, if we do this our entire lives, all week, every day, outside of these abortion mills, and we save one baby, or the gospel comes into one person's ears and they come to Christ, it's a life well lived.

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Brothers and sisters, after about a year and a half, 40 babies saved from death, the gospel has gone out to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people.

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It's worth your whole life. Brothers and sisters, let's not cut the story. It is the good news of the

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King. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you bless the messes that went out from an unworthy man.

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God, I can't do with your words what only you can do, and that is bring them into the hearts and minds of us and to challenge us where we need to be challenged.

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God, I pray, Lord, right now that you would move in this congregation, open our eyes to our indifference, open our eyes to our lack of love for the lost, open our eyes to us being cowards, open our eyes to us gutting the story.

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Lord, remove from us whatever hindrance is before us that stops us from laying everything down for the cause of the gospel, cause us to repent of everything that gets in the way of treasuring you.

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And I pray, God, that you would put the good news of your kingdom onto our lips, that we would proclaim it as such, that we would see,

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Lord Jesus, your authority over all things in heaven and on earth, that we would see you as the one who is seated, that we'd see you as the king of kings, that we would be able to join with the witnesses before us who proclaim to the world there is no

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God but God and no king but Christ, repent and believe the gospel. Please bless us,

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God, as your church. Do something, God, please do something. Rescue our nation. Please rescue us,

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God, and I pray with all my heart that you please stir up your people and please bring revival. Please, God, please.