As in Heaven — Glenn Meldrum

Turn with me to Matthew the 6th chapter. What I want to do is look at one little statement that is so powerful and so simple. That's in the Lord's Prayer in the 6th chapter in the 10th verse. I'll just read this in the King James Version.

It'll be up on the overhead in the NIV. But it says thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. What I want to look at this evening is what does it mean for the kingdom of God to be done in my life on earth as it is done in heaven and.

The Lord’s Prayer and the Kingdom of God

This is a very profound thought very simple very basic. But yet what it points to is absolutely radical if we would understand what it means if we would apply this truth to our life. How many people every week across this world pray this prayer and have no idea what they just said?

No idea the words that they prayed. Some some pat little idea that they present and they say it again and again and again. Ritualistically that has no meaning no value. No power cannot change their life because they don't even comprehend anything that it means.

But yet when we get to the wonder and the simplicity of what this means I think we could understand how life-changing Was the prayer that Jesus was offering us to pray and I don't believe that we're to be sitting down praying the Lord's Prayer.

You know verbatim it's alright if you do but I don't think that was the purpose that it was given to us. It was given to us to be an outline of prayer. And this is one of the means one of the outlines one of the aspects of his prayer that we are going to look at this evening.

We have to understand that the kingdom of God first of all is based upon Christ. Not based upon the world based. It's not based upon the systems of this world the philosophy of this world even the churches of this world.

It's not based upon that the kingdom of God is based upon Christ through Christus and upon his teaching that he presented us in the word and. So when we begin to look at this, we have to understand that what he's presenting to us in this simple thought is An idea of what it means to be normal.

He's giving us an idea of normal Christianity. He's giving us a thought that we can present to God crying out for him to change us that we might Become normal according to his concept of what it means to be normal.

But before I can get into this verse and begin to to bring out some aspects of what it means. For his will to be done in my life here on earth as it is done in heaven I want to go in a direction that may seem strange and that may not make sense.

But I believe it will make a lot of sense in a little bit after I've gone through this and laid this Foundational thought what I want to do is I want to take a few minutes and I want to make a contrast.

I want to make a contrast between God and the devil and I want to lay out some truths between the difference between who God is and who the devil is because until I think we get A good understanding of this and can lay this out.

We will not understand how radical a statement Jesus was making here to say let your will be done in my life on earth As it is in heaven. And so let's begin with just some basic things. I'm gonna be real simple here.

But I'm gonna try and make these things as Understandable as we can be. The first thing when we look at God we have to understand that he is the eternal creator. He is timeless and I'm not going to tell you I understand what that is.

You know, I have a master's degree in theology. But that doesn't mean I know anything and I don't think the greatest theologians that this planet has ever known can understand these attributes of God I'm going to be touching on we can bring them out in philosophical terms and theological terms.

We can present them to the best of our ability. But yet we do not comprehend what timelessness is a God that is not subject to beginning and end. He had no beginning. He had no end. He's always been. We don't comprehend such a Magnificent God that is timeless and so that means he is not subject to time because he had no beginning.

Jesus was God incarnate in flesh and blood. He is part of the eternal Godhead the Trinity. He has always been always will be he took upon himself for a season Time the aspect to be clothed in flesh and blood.

He became only for a season for 33 years roughly to be subjected to what we understand as time. But God is apart from time. He looks at everything that goes on in this world in a timeless manner. He sees my beginning in my end and he sees it all at once.

He sees everything in between. He knows everything of my heart everything of my mind everything of my life. None of it is a mystery. He's not waiting for it to unfold. He already knew it would unfold before it ever began.

He's eternal he's the creator. Everything that exists exists because he's spoken into existence. Nothing came about by time and chance nothing happened through evolution. Evolution is a lie. I'm not going to take the time to try and get into its belief system because it's a religious belief system is what it comes down to be.

He is the eternal creator. Let's take a moment look at the devil in relation to this. Satan is a created being. He had a beginning just like you and me a beginning. He had a starting point. He is not eternal.

He's not like God. And the thing I want to present and present again and again in this that the devil is not like God not anywhere near. Forgive me for my voice not anywhere near not anything close. There is no ability for us to even describe the the infinite distance between God and the devil.

I think one thing that has happened so often that even as Christians We somehow make the difference between the two that not that big we exalt who this devil is. We think that he's so powerful. And I don't want to diminish the reality that he does have supernatural power that he is more powerful than us because he's a he's.

An angel though. He's fallen. But what I think has happened is we've exalted the situation of who he is here's this created being and He is like me and you they had a beginning and he's like me and you that has no end.

We have to understand that. Every one of us in this room whether you're believe or not. You are an eternal being now not in the sense of God. We had no beginning and no end. You are in the sense of all humanity and all the angelic hosts.

You have a beginning and you will now live forever. It's just a matter of where you're gonna live. We know the eternal state of Satan and I'm not going to get into the concept of. Because I don't think we understand that really either but God created angels very different than us when they fell there was no Redemption for them.

Don't ask me why I don't understand. I'm not even gonna pretend to. I thank God that he offered redemption to us. Do our fall but he has a beginning and I'll have no end. Let's look at God now. God is omnipotent.

God’s Omnipotence and Satan’s Limitations

What does it mean for him to be omnipotent? It means that he's super bound with the power to do anything He wants to do when he spoke. He spoke a word and everything came into existence. He didn't crack a sweat.

It wasn't hard. It wasn't difficult for him. If he wanted to make creation a billion times bigger, it would have just been a different word. It would have been wouldn't have been any harder for him what he made he made because he chose to make it and when you Look at the beginning of Genesis and you have that Hebrew word.

That is that that says that he is that it was good. What good means in the Hebrew that word is told Tov and it means that he did exactly what he wanted to do. He was totally pleased with what he created.

Satisfied completely with his creation. If he wanted otherwise he would make it. Otherwise one day he will speak and create a new heaven new earth and it'll be a different word. He's omnipotent super abound with the power to do anything.

Super abound with power to save. Super bound with power to heal to set captives free. Super bound with the power to do anything that he desires and that keeps with his character. There is no limit to him.

No limit to his abilities no limit to his power. What about the devil. He's like you and I in the sense that he's a limited being. How often have we went in our own ways thought him sought the devil almost an omnipotent being.

The devil is not like Eastern mysticism would put it as a yin and the yang as as their brothers. Mormonism would put it. Mormonism brings out the idea that Jesus and and Lucifer were brothers. It's not like that.

He's Jesus is the eternal creator God that took upon flesh and blood. Satan is a created being. He's limited in power. I do not diminish the reality of that power because we cannot stand against that power by ourselves but through Christ we are as victorious as Christ is and.

And so here's this being that is limited power. He can only do so much and not just that. God has put parameters around him. Just like the oceans he flooded the earth once and then after the flood. He went and says that it would never destroy the world again that he put parameters that the ocean would not pass the boundaries of The sea and in essence the Lord has done the same identical thing.

Put boundaries says you can go no further. Than what I've allowed you to do in this situation. God is omnipresent. You know what that means that he's everywhere at one place. Do we understand that? No, we have no concept of what it means for God to be omnipresent, but he's everywhere.

You know what that means for him to be everywhere means he knows everything about me. I mean, he's been everywhere in my life in essence. Not just outside of me, but inside of me in my heart my mind my very being.

He knows everything about me. He is omnipresent. But the devil's not like God the devil can only be in one place at one time. How many times we thought or imagine that the devil was doing all this stuff?

Well, I'm not going to tell you we understand how that works. A lot of people have their opinions and their own concepts of it. The scripture does not get good into it does not bring it out. But what I believe is an archangel that fell that he is like a general over the over his hordes of hell.

That he has an army under him and as a result He can only be in one place at one time and he is not the one tempting us. There is devils and demons and so on out there doing his work. He is a limited being and his minions are limited beings as well.

We do great damage to our own faith when we go and exalt the ability of the devil not just that. How often do we blame the devil? For what's going on in our life and he's sitting there and his little demons are sitting back there laughing at it all.

When he they know they didn't do anything that we're the ones that are our biggest enemy. That we're the ones who cause ourselves the most problems. How many times that we went to blame the problems in our life on the devil?

The devil's been after me today. And what it's really been is your own flesh rising up. Deal with the flesh and you're not going to be blaming the devil as much you become a threat to the devil. Then maybe you can be saying the devil's after me.

I don't think he has to be too much after us right now because we're not Being that much of a threat when we become a threat then we can understand that he'll come. But we better understand that the devil is limited.

That he's not all-knowing. Do you know he does not know your heart. God is omniscient. God is the only being that is omniscient. No other being is omniscient. No angel. No demon is omniscient. Only God only God knows absolutely everything that there is to know knows everything about me because guess what?

He's omnipresent. So he knows everything about me because he's everywhere and his knowledge is infinite. There's no end to it. He knows my beginning and my end. He knows everything about me. But what about the devil?

He's limited in knowledge. I believe that he's like you and I that he learns. That he grows in knowledge just like you and I will forever and ever and ever. God created us to be inquisitive Individuals to be inquisitive beings to seek out knowledge.

The problem is in our sinfulness. We sought out bad knowledge wrong knowledge in heaven. We'll have right knowledge and we'll pursue right knowledge and we'll grow in that knowledge forever. And I believe the Satan does the same identical thing.

He's had thousands of years now to look at mankind and to understand them and to be able to do things. According to the understanding of how man reacts, but he does not know our hearts only God. Only God knows that.

Only God can read how I believe the devil can read up and his minions I believe that they can read body language real. Well, if they sit on your shoulder and tempt you with some lust and you start paying attention to it.

And that's obvious on your face and on your actions. Well, guess what? He's going to continue at it. He's able to understand it from that dimension. Only God knows my heart only God knows my mind. God is good and kind.

God’s Goodness Versus Satan’s Cruelty

His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness peace and joy. Every single thing that God has done has been good. Now we have a hard time with that because you know what we don't understand what goodness is.

How do we define goodness especially in America? How do we define goodness? We define the idea of God's goodness if he makes me happy and prosperous. That's how we define it. God has a whole different definition of goodness that I don't even think we can begin to understand.

But his definition of goodness is so much that he would go and he'd take every possession from us to save us and to leave Us in our possessions go to hell. His concept of goodness and being good to us is he'll be so good that he'll take everything from us and put us on skid row.

If it needs to be and in want to need and destitution and pain and sorrow and agony that we might finally begin to look up. The concept of God's goodness is so infinite so beyond us that we have such a small view of it.

How often have we blamed God for pain in our life? I'm not gonna say there isn't time that he allows it to be inflicted. I will say there's other times that in his goodness He takes our pain that has been self inflicted or inflicted by others and he turns that for our good if we will allow it.

He is good. He is good. He is absolutely good. He's not good just because it feels good. He's good when it feels when things are going bad and it's hard and it and it's difficult because we don't Understand his hand in our life and see the extent of that hand in our life.

We think that he's not good. But he is good if you are in a place in your life right now that life is very difficult and very painful. God may be better to you than you even Understand in what he's trying to accomplish in your life if you would but let him if you're not a Christian God is good to you better to you than you could ever imagine to bring you to this place right now this night that you Might hear a message about Jesus and be given an opportunity to repent.

His goodness is beyond what you could ever imagine. Every act every deed every word is good. But what about the devil? He is evil and cruel. His kingdom is a kingdom of pain suffering and death. Do we understand that the devil hates us and his minions hate us with a passion?

Hates us with this burning raging passion and you wonder why they hate us. Because they hate God and Their hatred at God because they can't hurt God. They know that so, you know what they want to do. They want to hurt the closest thing to his heart.

And so he's out after us. You know what the devil just rejoices in. He rejoices in taking people that were created in the image of God and to twist them to become in his own image in the image of hell.

He loves that because then he laughs that God in essence say look at what I've done. I drag another one to hell. His kingdom is a kingdom of cruelty pain and suffering. That's all he wants to do every person in this room.

You better understand that the devil's hatred for you and the and the hordes of hell their hatred for you. There's a hatred that wants to destroy you. That's all it is. They want to destroy you when he comes knocking on your door and he comes offering you drugs.

Or he comes offering you sex or he starts offering you money or different things. You better understand that when he comes with that smile, he's out to destroy you. C .s. Lewis and his space trilogy. Which is three books that he wrote.

That's novels. That's a science fiction. They're brilliant. There's tremendous theology in it and philosophy in it. It's just some wonderful things in the second book it's called peril and raw and in the second book on peril and or what it is is man is being recreated in essence on the Planet Venus and I'm not going to go through the whole story.

But this man from earth takes a spaceship that's demon-possessed and comes To Venus to corrupt this new people and for the devil to expand his kingdom. And so here's this man demon-possessed and you have this world.

That has never known blood never known pain never known sorrow and the devil just walks along and as he walks along He takes everything plant and animal and twists it and rips it to shreds leaving just this trail of blood.

And then he comes up to the eve of that world filled with blood the stench of death all over but Eve doesn't know what death is she's never seen blood before and filled with this blood and all the all the the guts of the animals and everything else he goes and he Rage on his face and just stands up and smiles.

And then begins his arguments to deceive her. Do we understand that is exactly what he does today? That he is out to twist us to distort us to pervert us to tear our lives to pieces to make a mess of us than to make us a puppet in his hand that he might use us.

To inflict the pain and the sorrow and the madness upon others. His kingdom is a kingdom that is evil. It is cruel. That's all it is. That's all it can be. It has no ability to be anything else no matter how much he smiles at you.

No matter what sweet things he speaks to you. His kingdom is a kingdom of pain and suffering and agony because that's all he can give. Kingdom of God is based on a relationship of intimacy. We're adopted absolutely phenomenal people who are at war with God hassle to him and Because we bow our need to him and we ask for forgiveness.

He doesn't make us slaves. You know what? He does something even more phenomenal he makes us sons and daughters and. So it's a kingdom of relationship with God and It's to be a kingdom that's based upon the passion He has for us and the passion that we are to have for him.

It is to be a kingdom. That is a passionate kingdom a passionate kingdom after him because he's a passionate King after his people. But what is the relationship of the devil to his people? It is a relationship of bondage.

It is slavery. It is bondage to fear and pride and self and wickedness. Every single one that is not Christ every single person that's not Christ is a slave to the devil. It can be no other way you Personally to serve God or serve the devil.

There's no middle ground. There's no neutral. There's no agnostic that says I'm not gonna pick either side. It's here. It's impossible either you are on God's side and you are truly safe and truly his child or you are on the other side.

There's no middle ground. No possibility of a middle ground not even an option of it and So if you're not a Christian you better understand right now who your Lord and Master is and you better understand that his desire for you Is nothing but death and destruction and pain and sorrow that is the sole thing he has for you.

That's the sole ambition of his life to make you a plaything while on earth and then take you down to hell and make you an eternal plaything then. That's all his kingdom is. It's a kingdom of bondage.

Sin, Slavery, and the Kingdoms of God and Hell

Paul told us in the sixth chapter of Romans that whoever we yield ourselves to we become the slave to obey and If we yield ourselves to sin, we become a slave to the devil and his wickedness if we yield ourselves to Christ.

We become a slave to righteousness. Now the kingdom of God and God himself is the author of truth. Do you know that there's not been one word that has ever come out of his lips or come through his spirit that's been a lie.

I Want to challenge you with this if there's words that we say that are supposedly from God and they've never been true. We better understand they never came from God. God does not lie. God does not make mistakes.

God does not make his change his mind. He's not fickled and so on. He is the absolute author of truth and absolute truth comes alone through him and everything He says is absolute truth. He gave us a book of absolute truth that we might base our lives upon and no matter what Society says there is absolute truth and there is a God that's established absolute truth.

He has not changed. God has the same view about homosexuality today that he did 2 ,000 years ago. It has not changed. God is not moody or fickle. He is not subject to circumstantial ethics. God is a God that is consistent and holy and the same yesterday and today and forever.

What about the devil, let me give a Illustration here. Let's I have this glass of water and let's say I just take a one drop out of the toilet and put it In here, would you drink it then? You know that one drop turns the whole thing into sewage.

Defiles the whole thing. Do you understand you take the truth and you put a drop in it? You've turned it into an entire lie. You've turned it into a tire like that's what it is. Go to the garden and see the temptation that came to Adam and to Eve and you find truth that he says.

But he mingles it with lie. And so all that's left in what he says is death. That's the same thing with every cult on this planet. There's a little bit of truth in it a true enough truth to try and get people grabbed up in it.

But enough lie to damn him to hell. Everything he says is a lie. Everything he does is presenting a lie for one purpose because he hates God he hates you and he's out to destroy your life. He lies so that he can damn you to hell.

He'll come to you and whisper sweet nothings in your ear and say sleep with me and I'll give you something sleep with me. I'll make you happy smoke what I got and get take this thing or whatever. I will satisfy you.

He gives these things to us opportunities, so he says for happiness for purpose and he says take this it will be good. Everybody else is doing it and he lies to us because he hates us because he wants to enslave us.

Whereas he ultimately wants to damn us to hell. What about the government of God? You know the government of God is a government of voluntary submission. There's not one being in heaven whether angel or redeemed saint that's there by force.

They are all there by choice. Every single one they want to be there. It is their hearts desire it is their ambition to worship and enjoy God. They knew they were created for that now. They've been redeemed and they're in heaven as a result rejoicing in the magnificence and beauty and splendor of this God.

It's all submission. Not one person will go to heaven that doesn't want to be there and. So anybody who goes to heaven must want to go to heaven and must want to live a life that proves that they want to Go to heaven.

Don't tell me you truly want to go to heaven when you live like the devil. Don't tell me that. How many times I've heard such lies at funerals when funerals are done and they say so-and-so was such a good person and now.

They're with God and and you know, yes, you know, their life was just madness. They were at war with God. They were hustled to God and they didn't go to heaven, but we like lying at funerals. What about the government of hell?

You see the government of hell is a government of anarchy. Government anarchy, you know what anarchy is it is anarchy when you have anarchy in a country. That's where people go to. The government says you will not rule over me.

That's the government that Satan has has established. It is a government of anarchy against God. Every dimension of the kingdom of hell everything about every demon and the devil himself and all those who follow him is a kingdom of anarchy that says I will not Bow my knee to you and that is the ultimate sin that damns a soul to hell.

You can be a nice Nice grandpa that never chewed or smoked in your life or you can be some kid in LA. That's gangbanging and they can be in the same identical place. That says you'll not rule over my life.

That is the damnable sin. From that sin of anarchy flows every other sin that men live out. His is a kingdom of anarchy, but you know what happens when those begin to submit to the kingdom of hell. Do you know what happens?

They become slaves. I want you to understand something and That every young person in this room. I want you understand it. You give yourself over to sin you become the slave of it. It no longer is giving you freedom.

The freedom that the lie has come to you that it offers you it is now Enslaved you under the lust under the pride under the passions of the flesh under the things that will destroy you if you don't believe.

That there's enough people in this room and I can testify to my own Self of being in the drug culture and being strung out on drugs. Talk to individuals that have been strung out and you'll find out. What is to become the slave to the very thing that you thought eventually was going to give you happiness?

And that's just one dimension. Talk to the people that but that's been addicted to pornography and sexual sin. And you'll understand what is that? It's not something that's any more fun. It's done for an animal drive because it has you Enslaved to it and there is no more joy in it.

It's what you do because you think that's what you have to have and it is bondage beyond what you've ever imagined. You give yourself to it and you will find yourself the slave to it. You will never be the master of sin you can never master it.

It will absolutely master you every single time without fail. Without fail it will master you. Here's the last point and then I'm gonna move on to this verse. Jesus never lost a battle yet. He is the absolute Victorious Lord.

Christ’s Victory Over Satan and Sin

Yeah, I don't understand this. This is just beyond my ability to comprehend. Why Lucifer and all the minions that follow him would ever think that they could beat God? That doesn't make sense to me. They understood very quickly when they rebelled against God that there is no ability for them to win when they were hurled out of heaven and.

So what happens and Jesus comes to this planet to become the sacrifice for our sins. Satan thought that if he crucified Christ if he killed the Son of God that he would have possession of this planet and in the very foolishness and blindness of that being.

The very thing that he did was his own defeat. Do we understand that when Jesus died and he went to hell look? I think this is how so many times we think that it goes on that there was this big battle that went on in hell.

This raging battle that went on there and finally Jesus won. That's not how it went at all. Do you know when Jesus put his foot in hell? All the demons in hell were Trembling with fear cowering in any corner that they could getting as far from as possible and there's the devil himself the big cheese.

Supposedly cowering in absolute fear and trembling before this magnificent victorious God as Jesus walked up to him. No battle no war no nothing absolute victory and took the keys of death and hell from him.

Do we understand that when Satan arrays himself with a mass of humanity to fight against God in Armageddon? Do we understand that there's no competition. We speak the word battle because that's what we understand of a warfare, but there's no competition and Here-again in the blindness and foolishness of his very thinking.

He thinks somehow he can this time win. And here's the Savior that is undefeated Will never lose and you know what happens if we follow in his train if we follow him. We will walk in the victory that he owns by right and by nature.

You want to know why we're defeated people because we don't walk and follow him as What we should and so when we stray and we live at a distance that victory that he has for us we do not see it and Experience it because we're not near enough to him to walk in the victory that he has and we get outside of that protection.

And we start suffering into the foolishness and madness of our rebellion. And so the devil is an absolutely defeated being and Everyone who follows him will be absolutely defeated. Anybody in this room that's not a Christian and you are right now defeated you're defeated in your sin.

You'll be defeated in your sin until your dying day and then you'll stand before God and there will be no victory in your life. Because you chose a life of anarchy against God rather than a life of devotion to him now.

After I've laid this foundation. Let's turn to our verse in Matthew 6 10 Thy kingdom come that will be done in earth as it is in heaven. You see when we pray that prayer what we're saying is God. I want your will in my life here on earth as what is taking place in heaven.

I Want to establish something here that is so important anybody who wants to be a true Christian who wants to truly walk with Christ? Does not will not live by Satan's standards or by the world's standards.

If we begin to comprehend the reality that the devil hates me with a passion With a burning raging passion and all he wants to do is destroy my life. Why would I go and sleep with him? Why would I go and sit down with him in front of a television watch filth with my eyes and say come on devil?

Let's entertain me for a little bit. Come on. Oh, we'll have a good time. It's my night of relaxation. I don't I don't need to be in church tonight. I'll just watch a little television because I need to veg out.

You know, I'll just you know, no big deal I'll just do these things it won't hurt me, you know. It's not that big a deal if we understand who the devil is what his kingdom is all about. Why would I want to be a part of it?

Why would I want one finger of his upon my life? Why would I want any influence of him upon me? Why would I want to compromise with the very things that are out to destroy my life? Why would I want to take the beauty of this Christian life and Ruin it and taint it with that with the love of the world and the pursuit of sinful ways.

Why would I do that? Why would I compromise? Why would I hold the hand of the devil and think that I could hold hands God? God's hands when I'm told in Scripture that we cannot sit at the table the devil and table of God at the same time.

It's an impossibility the moment. I start holding the hand of the devil and say let's have a good time. Let's just fellowship a little bit is the moment God starts to let hold let go of my hand and let me live in my pursuit of anarchy then.

You know what's going on with so many young people. Our culture is lying to us. They're telling you that if you want to be happy start sleeping around. If you want to be happy start getting high start drinking live a Rebellious life you don't need to listen to your parents.

You don't need to act in it. That's just old. That's a bunch of old garbage. You don't need to just do what you want to pursue your own happiness. And as he tells you these things in the very light he's speaking to you.

There's nothing but bondage and death and if you pursue it because of pressure of friends. Then you are allowing friends to define whether or not you will go to heaven or hell. You are allowing friends whether or not you are Going to be enslaved to the devil or become a child of God.

This one author Made this very interesting point. He says how do you appease an enemy who will not be appeased by anything less than your death. But how in the world do we go and make a truce with the devil?

That he will he'll tell us. Oh sure. We'll be friends. I won't hurt you anymore. We'll just get along real good sure and you make that truth and and the whole time and he's slapping the chains on you.

He's he's binding you he's he's grabbing hold of you. How do you appease an enemy who wants only to destroy you and take you to hell? How do you try and make a friendship and compromise with the hater of your soul?