Revelation 12:5 (The King and His Kingdom)

The Shepherd's Church

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Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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So far we've been going through Revelation chapter 12 and only verses 1 through 5

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But what we've been seeing is this cosmic war that's been waged in the heavens that's really teaching us something more about what

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Christmas is more than the lights and the trees and the and the Dusty Christmas trees that you pull out of the attic or maybe you have a fresh tree

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We never did that growing up. So so ours always smells of dust not of not of real pine

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But we've been seeing over the last few weeks this war waged week one We talked about how to actually interpret the book of Revelation.

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It was really important I think that we that we talked about that first because we're diving right into the middle of This great book one of the most difficult books in the

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Bible And if you don't understand how to interpret Revelation signs, then you're gonna get disoriented and lost

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Which is where most people get when they read Revelation We talked about how a sign is for the time period in which it was given not in our time

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We don't look at Revelation signs and say what do these mean for me? That would be like asking a first century

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Jewish Christian to look at Uncle Sam and say well What does this figure mean for me? It would make no sense.

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It'd be nonsense to them so we we had to understand that signs are interpreted in their own time and The code book that we use to interpret most of the biblical signs in Revelation is the

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Bible It's the Old Testament's the Bible which that church had Now there are also times where we look at the

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Historic history and that's our source book for what these images are like the dragon. Why does it have seven heads?

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Well, because it's Rome the city that sits on seven hills. How also do we know that Daniel 7?

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There's a seven headed monster in Daniel 7 So we've tried to work through these things together in week two

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We tried to figure out who is the woman and we saw that she is the manifold people of God past present future

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She's the one who's clothed like the Old Testament Israelites She's the one who is crowned like Old Testament Judah and she's the one who gives birth to the

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Messiah Just like Judah did and she's also the one who is persecuted by the first century

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Jews Like the early church. So in that sense, she's true Israel past present and future in week three

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We saw the war unfold and week three We looked at how that war is unfolding in the heavens and the dragon

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Satan the serpent of old is the one who was waging war with God in the heavens and how he was cast down to the earth and Just after Jesus's resurrection and ascension to heaven

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We talked about something that we often don't speak about is that the final war in heaven

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Happened then when Jesus told his disciples to wait in the upper room until the Spirit of God would come

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Jesus returned to heaven to make war And he waged war in heaven. And so the serpent of old was thrown down for the final time.

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That was week three and We learned from that That Satan no longer has access to heaven, which means that when your name is uttered in heaven, there is no more slander

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There is no more accusation The only thing that is uttered when your name is mentioned in heaven is what

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Christ says about you to God the Father in that beautiful The slanderer has been thrown down In week four we talked about the dragon's war on earth

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We broke this into two sermons because I couldn't get it all in one The dragon's war on earth began in Eden and it was finished in Jerusalem And we talked about last week how as soon as Jesus won the war in heaven after his ascension

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He threw Satan down and the Bible specifically says a revelation specifically says that Satan was thrown down for a short

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Time and what we talked about is that short in revelation is one of the only things that you can take literally

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When it says behold, I'm coming quickly these take the time is near. I'm coming shortly

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Those things are all in Revelation time frame references that you can take literally so when

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Satan has a short period of time left what we saw is Not that Satan is continuing to prowl the earth like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour

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He was defeated And he was defeated by Christ in the downfall of Jerusalem now today

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We're going to be looking at what was replaced Okay, you've got the the dragon's war that lasted for thousands of years

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Well what replaced that and what we're going to argue today is that Christ and his kingdom? Replaced that that now

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Christ has built a kingdom that will never end Christ has built a kingdom that will put all of his enemies under his feet

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Christ has built a kingdom that will bring blessings to His people, but it will also crush his enemies what we're going to see is that Revelation 12 is

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Central to the narrative of human history in that Jesus at a certain time came and set up a kingdom that you and I are a part of and we are not waiting for the world to continue to get worse and worse and worse as many believe we are in Jesus's reign and Jesus's reign will be successful to the very ends of the earth

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So what we're going to show today what we're going to talk about today is a lot of passages

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I'm gonna I'm gonna be in half of verse 5 in Revelation 12 But I'm gonna buttress that with a bunch of passages that what my prayer is is when you see all of them together you're going to say what an incredible kingdom that we're living in and what you're going to see is

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Not that we should despair But that we should be hopeful That we should have great hope so that is my goal for today if you will turn with me in Revelation 12 5 as we close out this

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Series with one final message and it is about the kingdom of Jesus Christ Revelation 12 5 and She gave birth to a son a male child

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Who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to God and to his throne

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Let us pray Lord we thank you That you have brought us into a kingdom

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Lord we thank you that you ascended to heaven not to twiddle your thumbs, but to sit down on your throne and reign

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You ascended to heaven to make war with the serpent cast him down to earth and In your victory you sat down to reign over a kingdom that will never end

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Lord, I pray that as we see these passages today. I Pray that it would give us

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Comfort joy and hope Lord. I pray that it would encourage us to be a part of the building of your kingdom

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Lord, I pray that it would cause us to get into the fight to get into the game Lord, I pray that it would cause us to recognize the difference between ownership and Dominion and Lord, I pray that as we see these things

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That more than anything our hearts would be filled with great joy and that we would praise you As the one who is worthy of all glory and all honor

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It's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen Amen Revelation 12 as we've seen is the center point of human history

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It connects the battle that God has been waging against satan from the very beginning And it connects the victory of christ to his never -ending kingdom.

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So you have all of the past Crescendoing in revelation 12 5 and and sort of dying

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And then you have all of the future rising out of revelation 12 5 So you have one world that's collapsing in one world that is rising both here in the very same passage

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It says she gave birth to a son. That's Not mary as we've talked about that is the people of god god's people

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Brought forth the messiah and that messiah is a male child Jesus who is to rule all the nations now one thing you need to understand right away right off the top

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Is that some words in greek are very complex? Some words in greek are complicated you can talk about participles participles are notoriously difficult for seminary students

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I I thought I was gonna lose most of my hair on my head when we were studying participles until I finally figured them out

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There's one type of word called a genitive so if you say kendall

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Lankford lankford would be a genitive. There's like 37 different types of genitives in greek

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And they're notoriously difficult to diagnose I say all that to say that the word all is not a complicated word

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Out of all the complicated words in the greek language that take a lot of study and a lot of A lot of real elbow grease and effort all is not one of them

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All means what it means it means all so when it says that he is to rule all the nations

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We can take that exactly for what it is. It doesn't mean he's to rule some of the nations It doesn't mean that he is to rule in some spiritual way

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Where his kingdom is only spiritual and he only reigns in the church But the secular governments they're doing their own thing in this sort of two kingdom schema

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No, he is to rule all the nations He is to rule all the nations from the top of them to the bottom of them from the president to the pauper

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From the top to the bottom every nation on earth is going to come under the reign of christ

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This is what it's saying. He is to rule all the nations His arrival is not a footnote in human history.

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It is the turning point From a world under the reign and tyranny of satan to a world under the rule and supremacy

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Of jesus christ. It is not just a spiritual kingdom. It is a kingdom that conquers material reality

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And it will continue to conquer material reality until all of it bows the knee to jesus

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Now we see this in colossians 1 17 where it says he jesus is before all things and in him all things hold together

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So what we're seeing here is this his kingship is going to bring about material

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Cosmic renewal if everything holds together in jesus Then every atom on planet earth is being held together by his supremacy

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And under his lordship are going to come under his healing He is going to accomplish cosmic victory.

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It is not symbolic. It is actual his ascension began a process by which the old broken world was going to be

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Reunited back to heaven again to where heaven and earth one day will completely overlap

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Why else did jesus pray? Your will be done on earth

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As it already is in heaven If he had no intention on reuniting heaven and earth back together again

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So colossians 1 7 tells us one aspect of his reign And that is he's going to reunite the physical and the spiritual back together again.

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He's going to heal the cosmos What else about his reign?

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Well Revelation 12 5 describes his inauguration. He is going to rule the nations with a rod of iron this talks about the beginning of his reign where he

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Where he conquers the dragon and the dragon's lair is put down where his kingdom rises

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Where his ascension to glory and power is going to bring his rule to the nations and this rod of iron is a very fascinating Feature of his reign it is both a weapon to crush his enemies as we'll see in a moment

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But it's also a rod that heals his people it brings judgment and it brings salvation it brings punishment and it brings blessing

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Revelation 12 5 talks about the inauguration of his reign Psalm 2 6 through 8 talks about his inheritance

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What does jesus inherit for his faithfulness? What does jesus gain for his going to the cross?

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What does jesus get from god as the reward for his obedience psalm 2 6 through 8 tells us?

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but as for me I this is god the father. I have installed my king upon zion my holy mountain

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Ask of me. This is god Speaking to jesus in this passage david Is writing a conversation between the father and the son

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And the father says ask of me jesus and I will surely give the nations to you

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As your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession Jesus was told by the father to ask for the nations and jesus did ask for the nations

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How do we know that because as soon as he resurrected from the dead? He told his disciples all authority in heaven and on earth now belongs to me

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As a reward for jesus's obedience He asked god for his inheritance and his inheritance was the nations

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The very ends of the earth How much more earth is there outside of the ends of the earth?

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There isn't he owns it all from his ascension until now every atom on earth belongs to jesus

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This is why this passage and others why I get so frustrated in a

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And hopefully in a righteous way With the phrase the sacred secular divide This is sacred space that is secular space brothers and sisters there is no such thing

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Secular space doesn't exist because every quark on earth

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Belongs to jesus and it's under his authority. There is no such thing as secular space The white house belongs to jesus the senate chamber belongs to jesus the judiciary

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Belongs to jesus the public library where we read a story hour first pastor story hour belongs to jesus

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There is no place on earth. That doesn't belong to him He owns it all

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They are his inheritance for his obedience Try taking something out of the hands of christ you can't

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You can't take that away from him Psalm 72 8 tells us the scope of jesus's reign. How far will his reign go? Well, this is what it says.

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May he also rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth May he also rule.

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Why? Because the moment that this was written, God the Father owned the world, but the whole world was not under his dominion yet.

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So David is saying this is a prayer that under Jesus Christ, that the world will come under the reign, the dominion, the sovereignty, the rule of Jesus.

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Revelation 12, five tells us that Jesus stepped into this rule 2000 years ago, and he will not quit until the entire world is under his dominion.

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What do I mean? I mean that when bad things happen, don't pack your eschatological suitcase.

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I mean that when the wrong person gets elected, don't start staring at the clouds and looking for your heavenly

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Wonka Vader to take you out of here. I mean that this world will increasingly come under the dominion of Jesus until there is no more rebellion left.

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May he rule from the sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth, and he will.

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Revelation 12, five begins this reign. Psalm 78 imagines the moment when it's finally completed.

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Isaiah nine, six through seven talks about the expansion of his rule. For unto us a child is born, a son is given, and the government will rest upon his shoulders, and there will be no end to the increase of his government.

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Let's do a thought experiment. His government began in Judea 2000 years ago, and God said that it was going to expand.

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Okay, so it takes Samaria, and then it takes the outer regions. What kind of a government do you have if it expands until it can't expand anymore?

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It's a total, global, universal. Jesus will reign over this earth.

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He will establish his kingdom. He will uphold it with justice and righteousness, and it even says in this passage that the zeal of the

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Lord will make sure this happens. Revelation 12, five again inaugurates this kind of kingdom.

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Now the question that I run into when I tell people this is in the Bible, I'm just reading you Bible verses.

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The question that I run into is how could that possibly be? Look at how evil the world is.

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The question you have to wrestle with there is do you have enough faith to believe what the Bible says or are you going to walk by sight and believe what your eyes are telling you?

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I could argue with you that 2 ,000 years of history have produced a world that is far better off than what it was 2 ,000 years ago when people left babies out in the street to die, when

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Christians were thrown to lions, where rulers like Nero were ruling the earth.

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I can make arguments that poverty has been reduced, education has been increased. I can make arguments that the whole world is under a kind of affluence that even the

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Caesars of Rome could not even imagine and that's even in third world countries. I can make argument after argument after argument that the world's gotten better.

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The question is will you die to your addiction and my addiction to seeing the world with these brown stained glasses and will you see and choose to see what the scriptures say that he will rule to the ends of the earth and his government will continue to expand until it has conquered everything.

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So has it conquered America yet? No, will it? Whether it's America or whether it's some other country, the geography we're living on right now will be conquered fully and totally by Jesus Christ because his government will continue to expand until it cannot expand any further.

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At some point, the nation that we're living in or the country and geography we're living in will be a

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Christian nation. China will be a Christian nation or whatever country it's called at that point, however long it takes.

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He will do this until it's finished. He will not return until it's finished because why?

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God is not a miser and God is not a liar. If he said it, he will do it which means that instead of being disbey downers, just instead of being that, may we be optimistic and hopeful and looking for ways that we can join in the mission to help accomplish this and see this happen in our lifetime.

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Daniel talks about the universal nature of his rule in Daniel chapter seven as well. Remember, Revelation 12 five says that he ascended into heaven, he defeated

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Satan there and then he's going to rule all the nations. This is exactly what Daniel chapter seven says.

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Listen, and to him, who is him? Sunday school answers are appropriate here.

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Jesus. And to him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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There's not a lot of options here. We're not talking about something that's going to collapse. We're talking about something that's continually being strengthened, built and sustained forever, everlasting kingdom.

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We're talking about a kingdom that will have dominion that covers the entire earth. Think about the great commission.

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One of the things we've missed in the great commission. Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

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There is no authority outside Jesus's. Every authority that we have is borrowed authority.

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And then what does he say? Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.

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Why would Jesus tell us to disciple the nations if he thought that the mission wasn't going to be completed?

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Why would he tell us to disciple nations, governments, presidents, cabinets, senates, parliaments?

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Why would he tell us to bring them under his authority and to teach them how to obey his commands if he thought that it wasn't possible?

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Let's ask a question. Does Jesus ever give a command that's arbitrary? Does Jesus ever give a command that he anticipates that we will not accomplish through his spirit?

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Jesus told us to take dominion of the world and to spread his kingdom. Instead of wasting our time being discouraged and I want to be sensitive.

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Discouragement is real. I feel it. I've dealt with discouragement and depression my whole life.

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It's easy to think Kendall's just an optimistic Pollyanna Post Mill guy and he thinks that the world's just gonna keep getting better and better and better.

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I go through days where I'm down. I go through days where I'm depressed and discouraged. The question is, will you live in your depression or will you repent of your depression?

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Will you sit down in it and suffer in it and continue to choose to view the world a certain way or will you view the world according to what scripture says?

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Will you take hold of your heart and will you start speaking to your heart instead of letting your heart speak to you?

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How often do we listen to the chatterbox inside of us that says all of these negative things?

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Instead, will we take our heart and say, no, no, no, you listen to me. Scripture says that Christ is gonna rain from sea to shining sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

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I refuse to be discouraged and keep speaking truth over yourself until you believe it.

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That's what Christians do. Will we be Christians in the way that we view the world?

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Psalm 22, 27 through 28, we can go through so many. Psalm 22, 27 through 28.

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This is the passage that Jesus proclaimed on the cross. Psalm 22 one, do you know what that is? My God, my

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God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus is saying that this passage applies to me, that this passage applies to my death, my burial, my resurrection.

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Listen, if I say the first word of a song today, then you know what I'm talking about. If I say, what is love?

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You're automatically gonna start singing it because you know it. I'm appealing to the whole song. In those days, if you quoted the first line of a

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Psalm, which was a song, then you were appealing to the entire song. Jesus on the cross is not saying,

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God, why have you abandoned me? He's quoting David, and he's saying that this passage is about me.

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And if you read Psalm 22, and it says that they've pierced me, that they gave me vinegar to drink, you start realizing that Jesus was prophesying on the cross that this passage is about me.

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So what does verse 22 and, or 27 through 28 say? This is Jesus saying this to us.

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All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all of the families of the nations will worship before you, for the kingdom is the

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Lord's, and he rules over the nations. What this is saying is before Jesus returns to this earth, all the families on earth will worship him.

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What else can it mean but that? What else can it mean but that? All the families of the nations will worship before you.

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Listen, this is, I had to go through a process with these passages a few years ago.

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I've been post -mill for about 10 years, but I was post -mill of the variety that said,

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I think Jesus is gonna win 51 % of the world, and the other 49 % of the world, he's not going to win.

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So therefore, yay, he won the majority. That was my optimism. But when I read passages like this, that all the families of the nations are going to worship before him, that all of the nations are going to obey him, my 51 % doesn't actually align with what

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Scripture says. It's more like all. It takes faith to say that, especially given the world that we live in, but I think all means all, and I would rather look foolish in front of you.

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I'd rather you think to yourself, well, Kendall, the whole world isn't gonna worship Jesus.

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Every person on earth isn't gonna worship Jesus. I'd rather look foolish in front of you and be in alignment with all than for me to try to make it seem palatable to us or for me to try to make it seem easy to understand.

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I get that it's not easy to understand. I'm just saying that Jesus is so powerful and so good and so wonderful that he will eventually accomplish what he said he will.

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That's all I'm saying. And that's what we ought to believe. Hebrews 1, 2 -3 talks about that he has supremacy over all things.

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After making purification for sins, he sat down to reign and he will have supremacy over all things.

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Philippians 2, 9 -11. I've heard preachers preach this passage where it says that every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and even under the earth.

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Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. What if that doesn't mean that 51 % of the earth will bow in worship and 49 % of the earth will bow because they've been obligated because Jesus puts his sandal on the back of their neck and makes them bow?

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What if this actually means that before the world is finished, every knee will actually bow?

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What if that's what it means? Revelation 11, 15 says, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our

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Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever. We can go through more, there's more.

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There are little hidden beautiful nuggets that are hidden in the scriptures that tell us what kind of reign he's gonna have.

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Genesis 49, 10 says all the nations are gonna obey him. Genesis 12, three, all the families on earth are gonna come under his blessing.

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The question is, will we believe it? And I'm gonna press this even further because I know how hard this is to believe because I wrestled with it for years.

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The passages I just read to you are mostly concerning his ownership of the world, but now

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I'm going to focus on passages that are specifically talking about his dominion over the world. There is a difference.

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Do you know what the difference between ownership and dominion is? Ownership is you have a great -grandmother who leaves you a million dollars and you buy a dilapidated building, you own it.

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That's what you use your inheritance for. But the dilapidated building still has broken windows.

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It still has plumbing issues. It still has electrical panels that need to be upgraded. You own it, but it's not yet conformed to your will and your pleasure and your image.

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So after you purchase it, then you take the time, the long time that it's going to take to fix it, to repair it, to heal it, to mend it, to make it obey your will.

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Jesus Christ, 2 ,000 years ago on the cross, bought and paid for the world. And for the last 2 ,000 years, he's been mending it and fixing it, hammering, nailing, cutting, sawing, and bringing it under his dominion until however long that takes, it fully aligns with his vision.

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How does he do that? Well, there's two ways that Jesus extends his dominion in the Bible. Number one, he extends his dominion by crushing his enemies.

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Number two, he extends his dominion by blessing his people. That is the left hand and the right hand of Jesus's war for the world.

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He will crush his enemies and he will bless his people. So let's look at how he crushes his enemies.

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Excuse me for one second. Revelation 12, five says that he rules the world with a rod of iron.

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He rules all the nations with a rod of iron. That's not a passive rod. Jesus is not toting around a iron rod for no reason.

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He could have chosen gold. He could have chosen a softer metal. He chose iron as his rod because it is a weapon for crushing.

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And his dominion on earth extends as he crushes his enemies.

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Psalm 2, eight through nine tells us what Jesus is going to do. Ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance in the very ends of the earth as your possession.

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We just read that. Why or how? And you shall break them with a rod of iron and you shall shatter them like earthenware.

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Do you see? Revelation 12, five says that Jesus has a rod of iron and God commands

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Jesus in Psalm two to use that rod of iron to smash and to destroy his enemies.

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What are Jesus's enemies? I think we could think of a few. Nations that don't submit to him.

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Things like abortion, which murder God's people. Things like prostitution, things like pornography.

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We can go on and on and on. What are the enemies of Jesus? Even one of his enemies is death.

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Did you know that Jesus is going to crush that enemy as well? Sickness, all of them.

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So he is going to crush his enemies with a rod of iron and he's going to continue to crush his enemies until what?

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There are no enemies left. Brothers and sisters, I would ask you a question. What does a land look like when all of the enemies have been crushed?

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It looks like a place of peace. It doesn't necessarily mean that there's a people there.

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It just means there are no more enemies there. That's half of Jesus's work is he's going to crush his enemies.

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Look at another passage, Daniel two, 34 through 35 in verse 44. This is an apocalyptic passage talking about what

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Jesus is going to do. It, that is the stone, struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.

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But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. In the days of those kings, the

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God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. It will crush and put an end to all of these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.

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We know from Daniel chapter two that these kingdoms are the kingdom of God. They are Persia or Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

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And the final kingdom is Rome. So in the days of Rome, God is going to set up an everlasting kingdom.

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What does that mean other than Jesus who came and who crushed all of the wicked empires by his own presence and power?

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What does that mean? Well, after Jesus dealt with Judah in AD 70, what does he do next?

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Do you know? It took 300 years, 300 and something years, and then

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Rome was no more. And how was Rome no more? Because Jesus Christ was crushing his enemies underneath his feet.

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There is no more British empire anymore. It was crushed. Now you just have a hollowed out little nation called

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England. If America stays on the side of an enemy of God, guess what will happen to her?

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She will be crushed because he will crush all his enemies. He will be that little stone that fills the world until there is no more space left.

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The whole world is filled with his presence. Revelation 19, 15 through 16 tells us how he does this work in the first century.

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I can't get into all the different aspects of why this is a first century fulfillment.

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You'll have to take my advice or just wait a millennium until I get there in the podcast.

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I wanted to say that last week with Revelation 20. You can wait for 1 ,000 years before I get there. Revelation 19, 15 through 16 says, "'From his mouth comes a sharp sword, "'so that with it he may strike down the peoples, "'and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

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"'And on his robe and on his thigh, "'he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.'"

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So here, and you'll have to take my word for it for the moment, Revelation 19 is about Jesus' destruction of his enemy,

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Judah. Isaiah 11, nine through 10 talks about how he's going to extend this ministry to the ends of the earth and he's going to bring peace to the world through his crushing.

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It says, "'They will not hurt or destroy "'in all my holy mountain, "'for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the

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Lord "'as the waters covers the sea. "'Then in that day, the nations will resort "'to the root of Jesse, "'who will stand as a signal for the peoples.

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"'His resting place will be glorious. "'All of the ends of the earth will come under "'the banner of Jesus' kingdom "'by him crushing his enemies, "'so that there is no more violence in the kingdom of God.'"

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Isn't that a beautiful thing to think? That the kingdom of God is heading in a direction where there will be peace on earth, no more nuclear wars.

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I am so tired of climate alarmism and nuclear alarmism and every other kind of alarmism.

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The whole world is acting like they've bought into dispensationalism. The world is heading towards peace.

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The world is heading towards shalom. The world is heading towards Christ, having more sovereignty, more dominion, more authority over this place.

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Psalm or Isaiah 111, the Lord said to my Lord, or sorry, that's Psalm 110 .1.

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The Lord said to my Lord, "'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies "'a footstool for your feet.'" So Jesus is going to sit at God's right hand in heaven on his throne until all of his enemies are under his feet.

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What else can we think about with that? 1 Corinthians 15 .25, he must reign until all of his enemies have been put under his feet.

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Until there, what does until mean? He must reign until, until all of his enemies are put under his feet.

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He will not return to a world where there's a single enemy, but death left. Because in 1

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Corinthians 15 .27, it says that the last enemy will be death and he will come personally in the flesh to conquer that last enemy, death.

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So the only enemy you'll have left when Jesus returns is death. You'll have peace on earth.

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You'll have a world filled with worshipers, just like Adam was supposed to do.

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This is how you know it's true. The Bible begins with the Garden of Eden. Adam is told to conquer the world and to bring it under his dominion, under God's dominion.

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And how is he to do that? By being fruitful and multiplying and filling the world full of worshipers. So if Adam was successful, let's ask the question, what would the world have looked like?

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They would have filled Eden and then it would have gotten too full and they would have extended its zip code.

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And then that would have gotten too full and then they would have extended it and extended it and extended it until the whole world was filled with worshipers.

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If Adam had obeyed God, that is the world you're looking at. So when the

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Bible tells us that Jesus is the second Adam, do we think that he will go anywhere or he will fall anywhere short of what the original

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Adam was commanded to do? If he's the one who's gonna bring redemption to what was broken in Adam, won't he bring redemption to that?

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Won't he fill the world with his worshipers as Adam was supposed to do? Daniel 7, 13 through 14 gives us the end goal of this kingdom.

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And to him, Jesus was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, all the nations and men of every language might serve him.

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And his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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What the scriptures are telling us are obvious. The question is, will we believe it? And he will accomplish this through crushing his enemies.

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The second thing he will accomplish it by is by blessing his people. This is not merely a kingdom of conquest because we are not, we're not

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Islamic. Jesus is not purely a jihadist. He will crush his enemies, yes and amen, but he will also bless his people.

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This is a kingdom that's built on blessing his people. If all Jesus did was crush his enemies, you would have a barren wasteland at the end of it where there were no people.

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So at the same time, he's gonna crush his enemies but he's also gonna bless his people and he's gonna use his rod of iron to bless his people.

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You may have heard the Puritan quote, the same sun that bakes the clay or how does it go?

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Warms the wax, bakes the clay. Well, the same iron scepter that crushes his enemies is an iron scepter of benevolence and care for his people.

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It's a scepter where it's so powerful and so strong that he doesn't use it to crush you, he uses it to bless you.

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How could you not be saved? How could you not be brought into his kingdom if the omnipotent, powerful

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Christ is wielding an iron scepter? The same power that he uses to unequivocally crush his enemies will be used to unequivocally bless you and bring you in.

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It's kind of like iron sword versus an iron shield. If you have, let's say, the

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Dark Knight or the Black Knight in Monty Python, and he's wielding an iron sword, for most people, you're gonna be dead.

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But if that same knight is wielding an iron shield and he intends on protecting you, then you will be protected.

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It depends on what the master's using the iron for on how it's applied to you.

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If he wants to harm you with his iron scepter, he will crush you. If he wants to bless you with his iron scepter, he will bless you.

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Genesis 12, three talks about this blessing that's coming and God promises it to Abraham.

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In you, all of the families on earth will be blessed. All of them.

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Every family on earth is gonna come under the blessing of God. And how do we know this is gonna happen?

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That's not, this is just some Old Testament promise that God fell short of fulfilling. Well, first of all,

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God doesn't fall short of fulfilling anything. Secondly, Paul tells us in Galatians chapter three, that Jesus is the true son of Abraham.

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He's the seed of Abraham and in him, all the world will come under God's blessings. So every family on earth is gonna be blessed by Jesus.

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Micah one, four, or Micah four, one through four. Each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree with no one to make them afraid.

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Did you know that one of the things that Jesus is bringing to his world is a world where you no longer have to be afraid?

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There's gonna be peace on earth and there's gonna be no more anxiety, no more fear. That's where we're heading.

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We're not heading to more brokenness and more fear. We're heading to a world where fear has been eliminated.

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Praise God. Isaiah 49, six, I will also make you a light to the nation so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.

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There again, God's blessings are going to touch the very ends of the earth so that everyone to the very ends of the earth are going to be saved.

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That's what it's saying. Colossians one, 19 through 20. He's going to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross.

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Sickle cell anemia, gone. Diabetes, gone. I believe this, that in Jesus's kingdom, he's going to eliminate all sickness, all disease until he returns to deal with the final enemy, which is death.

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You know there's a passage, I didn't put it here, I wish I would have. There's just too many. So I think

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Isaiah 62, you can fact check me on that. It might be, it's somewhere in the 60s. But it's not 67 because Isaiah doesn't have 67 chapters.

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So it's somewhere. It says in those days, in what days? In the days of Jesus's kingdom, the young man will die when he is 100 years old.

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And the baby who dies younger than 100 will be looked at as cursed.

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What are we saying? If not that Jesus in his kingdom will bring long life back to his people.

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That he'll bring health, that he will heal diseases. We're not prosperity gospel, but we believe

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Jesus will do this. We believe that through his church, there's a reason why, brothers and sisters, that Christians have been at the forefront of every innovation that has brought life to the world.

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There's a reason why Christians invent and invent new things. Because by the spirit of the Lord, Jesus is using his people to eliminate suffering on earth.

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It's high time that Christians got back into the sciences, got back into chemistry, got back into the government, got back into these places where our evangelical faith has told us that, oh no, that's secular space.

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We can't go there. And the reason that life expectancy, I think, is falling in our generation, the reason why they've pumped so many chemicals into our food, the reason why cancer is not going to be cured because it's too much of a money making racket, the reason why all of these things are happening in our world is because Christians abandoned what we called secular.

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And because there are no Christians who are endowed with the spirit of God in those places, pagans are leading in those areas and they're leading in pagan ways.

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Why should we expect that unbelievers are going to lead in righteous ways? Why should we expect that pharmaceutical industries are really about helping you and healing you?

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Why should we expect that the medical industry is really about taking care of you if there are no Christians in the medical industry?

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God is going to use his people as his hands and feet to bring his dominion to the earth. And the reason that we're seeing that wane in our time is because we've abandoned the earth.

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We've abandoned the nation. So we shouldn't do that. Revelation seven, nine through 11 talks about the global salvation that is coming.

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After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands and they cry out with a loud voice saying salvation belongs to our

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God who sits upon the throne and to the lamb. Isaiah 25, six through eight says, he will swallow up death for all time and the

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Lord will wipe tears away from all of the faces. First Corinthians 15, 27, for he has put all things under subjection of his feet.

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The telos of Jesus's kingdom. And what I mean by telos, it's a Greek word that just means the fullness or the finished work.

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When his kingdom is finished, this is what it's gonna look like. For the earth, this is back at 2 .14,

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for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea.

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That's the end for which God is working. Not nano chips, marks of the beast and everything else that's been misinterpreted from Revelation.

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The end for which God is working is that the whole world will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the water covers the sea.

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We could spend hours on this topic, but I've given you at least 20 passages that talk about this. The question is, will we believe them?

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And will we live in light of them? And if we will, I pray that you would have great confidence and hope in your salvation.

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I pray that you would have great confidence and hope in your walk with Christ. I pray that you would have great confidence and hope in what you do, because what you do matters.

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Because there is no obedience that you do that God isn't using for his good and for his glory.

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I pray that you would trust his gospel, that you would live courageously in times like these.

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I pray that you would get involved in seeing his kingdom built. I pray that you would proclaim his reign in your families.

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If you pray every week, or if you have it in your heart every week that you have family members that don't know

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Christ, pray for them like crazy. Speak to them, tell them, share with them.

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If you have neighbors, do the same thing. Our job is not to spend our life building our petty castles.

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Our job is to build Jesus's glorious kingdom. Find your place in that, work in that.

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Find your identity wrapped up in that. It informs how you're a father, it informs how you're a mother, it informs how you're a son and a daughter and a worker.

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It informs everything. Jesus wins. Jesus will have dominion, and he will use you to do it.

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May we not be the generation that sat on the sidelines that Jesus has to rebuke, but may we be the generation that put the talents to work.

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And when he returns, he says, well done, my good and faithful servants. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that Revelation 12 is so clear, along with the other passages that we've talked about, that there was a war for the cosmos, and you have won a decisive victory.

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Satan, the dragon and the old serpent of old was crushed underneath your feet. And for the last 2 ,000 years, you've been bringing a kingdom that will never end, that will continue increasing until it cannot increase anymore, until the whole world is filled with your glory.

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Lord, I pray that we would work diligently to be a part of that kingdom, to help see that kingdom built.

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Lord, I pray that we would lay our entire lives on the line. I pray that we would invest in this church with that in mind.

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I pray that we would invest in our families with that in mind. I pray that we would not waste precious moments, but we would see everything that we do as a part of this overarching mission to reclaim the cosmos for the dominion of Christ.

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Lord, help us to have the energy for such a work. Help us to have the courage for such a work.

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And Lord, help us in our lifetime to see the gates of hell falling in our area. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.