Fren-11 Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand — Art Katz

The night after night about not condescending to men. I want to reveal my true colors and assure you that I am flesh and blood like as you. And to condescend by paying honor to men. First to yourselves for your patient and faithful attendance night after night.

I'm really amazed that you came back after the first night. Because these have been days and nights of destroying, plucking up, brooding out. But today has been a day of building and planting. And I pray it's going to conclude that way tonight.

I wanted publicly to express my gratitude to my interpreters or translators. I especially appreciate this calling because it's my own. Not that I'm a linguist. I'm an American, remember. But I translate him.

I interpret him. So I appreciate those who interpret me. So I know I'm not an easy man. I want publicly to acknowledge the lady who has worked on this book. If she'll pardon my pronunciation. Ariane de Chambrier.

Bless her wherever she's sitting. It was really a labor. I wrote a little word of dedication in my own copy to her. In which I said that I anticipate that she's going to receive her reward in heaven. When she shall see around the throne of the lamb, souls worshiping him, out of French backgrounds, who had turned to the knowledge of him by the reading of this, and then for my dear brother Andrew Wiles, who's done a superb job in these days.

Then I have a very few copies of a particular announcement. The Lord has impressed us to establish a kind of prophetical school. Because we realize the critical importance of encouraging this ministry.

The Lord has raised up special schools of evangelism and discipleship. But few, if any, to my knowledge of this particular kind. I can't even now tell you what such a curriculum would be. I think even the way that the Lord has unfolded the theme in these days will be an insight into it.

So we're contemplating a three or four month program in our community in northern Minnesota. We hope that it's going to have an international character. It's not a school that will spare its students.

But if you feel that you are a possible candidate, or you would like to undertake to pray for this, or make it known to someone who is a candidate but not here, you're welcome to have a copy of this, which is unfortunately only in English.

Our first articulation or statement about the school. And you'll see how tentatively it's expressed. Because we've not been this way here too far. It also contains our address so that there can be some communication.

Our community also issues a newsletter three or four times a year. If you want to remain in contact with us and understand what the continuing burden of the Lord is through us, our itinerary as we travel in different parts of the world, the blood, sweat, and tears of our community itself, and you can read English, then if you'll just write out or print out your address clearly, we'll be pleased to put you on that mailing list.

So that concludes my announcements. I think that tonight's message is going to be different from all that has preceded it. I'm really not expecting very much commentary. Really it is a conclusion or a supplement to what has already been given this morning.

Which I think was an extraordinary statement on the kingdom of God. I greatly recommend that you get that tape if you were not there. And tonight needs to bring a dimension to that which could not be given this morning because of time.

God's Ruthless Removal of Earthly Things

A certain kind of excursion through the scriptures to show a particular theme, indeed the central theme of God, through the prophets and into the New Testament that will explain to us why it is necessary that God have so ruthless a rooting up, a plucking out, and a destroying to prepare something.

Because everything that was earthly needed first to be removed. However dear and sentimental or touching to us, however much established in time and practice or tradition, because I'm persuaded that God is not seeking now to improve or to ameliorate that which is.

He wants to plant and build what was in his heart from the beginning. A kingdom of heaven in earth. We have prayed the prayer ourselves many times. But we have not believed it. Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come in earth as it is in heaven. Somehow we have all been moved into a kind of conspiracy of misunderstanding. That it was too astounding a concept to believe that there could be a heavenly phenomenon in the earth.

Of a total society. Not just a religious or a spiritual phenomenon. But something social, political, economic. Absolutely different from the earth's kingdoms in every point and particular. It has not to do with hoarding or miserliness or clutching.

It has to do with self-sacrificial giving and outpouring. No man thought that the thing which he had was his own. It's not satisfied with mere cordiality. It requires the heavenly alternative. Loving one another with a pure heart fervently.

Love that is not just expressed with a backslap or a hug. The sacrificial sharing of our substance. Our time, our leisure, our privacy. Going from house to house daily, breaking bread. You shall be witnesses unto me, Jesus said.

Not do witnessing for me. The doing must come out of the being. But the you is corporate and composite. It's the revelation of the glory of the king which requires an entire kingdom to set him forth. So I just ask your patience as we go through a series of scriptures asking this blessing on God's word as I prayed it also this morning that something will be planted tonight.

God will build something into us tonight at the very foundation of our own life and being an entire persuasion and conviction that the whole purpose of our life and being is to seek first his kingdom that in this earth shall be established a kingdom of heaven which shall give us the right and the convicting power to challenge a world that has not been impressed by our Christianity even with its best charismatic innovation that we can again speak the apostolic words in penetrating conviction repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Let's stand before the king tonight and ask his blessing in doing this building and this planting for Christ's sake for a dying world's sake for his kingdom's sake only the king can perform this for it is the kingdom of God and so we ask this precious God because we believe in our deepest heart that this is the desire of your deepest heart that we can almost paraphrase you and say for this purpose were we born born into the kingdom of your dear son to make him known as he ought to be made known in the revelation that comes through a kingdom that is heavenly.

Lord do this work tonight build and plant and we'll thank you and praise you for the word and the spirit that is given and that has faithfully attended us in these days that has begun us and shall conclude us great author and finisher of our faith our Alpha and Omega in Jesus' name we pray and God's people said Amen.

Please be seated. Turn to 2 Samuel in the 7th chapter. Now Andrew will be reading from the conclusion of the 11th verse through the 16th 2 Samuel 7th chapter verse 11 verse 12. I cannot help but remember that it was Samuel who anointed David as king even had he not been the great voice of God to Israel in his generation nor judged it for 40 years if he had done.

Prophetic Ministry and the Davidic Kingdom

But this one thing the whole of his being would have been justified in pouring upon the head of David the holy anointing oil. God used the prophet to usher in the Davidic kingdom. That's the way it was in the beginning and so shall it be again in the end.

It's the prophetic ministry that ushers in the kingdom of God that cries it into the consciousness of God's sleeping people who were willing to dismiss the kingdom as a mere phrase and think it's some kind of ephemeral distant thing after one dies.

No, it's the prophet who cries with an insistence that it must come it must be established in the earth in the localities where we are his kingdom come. It's not an airy phrase it is a practical reality.

And we cannot call the world to repentance except it actually be at hand. Because it is this that God has communicated to his holy prophets throughout all generations. I will, God says, I will. How often have I been encouraged by those words.

I look at the pathetic condition of the church. I see its terrible failures its pitiful and inadequate weakness. How out of this shall a glorious kingdom emerge. Except it begins with days like this by the word which is sent prophetically because by his own word begot he us though it requires those who will take the kingdom by violence.

It needs to be a willing and passionate spirit on our side. Yet we need always to remember it's the kingdom of God. The Lord has even given us the audacity to establish over the years here and there a conference on the kingdom of God.

We had one in Galilee a year or two ago a stone's throw from the very mount where Jesus himself preached the beatitudes, the sermon. How dare anyone presume to establish a kingdom conference there except it be given.

And it was. And in that conference and in the others in which we had experience invariably people come up afterwards. Brother, I'm inspired by what's being said. How do you do it. This is a particularly American question.

What's the method. Step one I said, dear brother, I cannot tell you because if I could tell you it would no longer be his kingdom, it would be mine. It is by the manifestation of his life for which we now as they then 2000 years ago are required to wait upon the king for the glorious spirit which comes down that we might be unto him his witness he says I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

The Kingdom Must Begin With the Church

I say again this is no abstract airy phenomenon a real kingdom a real throne a real authority a real rule a real reign. And it begins first with the church before it comes to the nations because it is through the church that he will rule and reign over the nations.

To those who are overcoming sons will he share his throne. I ask the forgiveness of those who were there this morning if I'm being redundant but I have to say this for those who are hearing for the first time is your government upon his shoulder.

It says that I will be his father and he shall be my son. And I will establish his throne and his kingdom forever unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

And of the increase of his government and of his peace there shall be no end. There are some people here tonight for whom there has not yet even been a beginning Christian, yes saved, yes even Holy Spirit filled, yes self-willed independent under no one's authority.

Lord unto yourself where you shall go, what you shall do. Your money, your time your future, your career. I ask again is the government of your life upon his shoulder. When you determine what you're going to preach on Sunday is it on the basis of what you think the people can accept or what the king is telling you to speak of the increase of his government.

There shall be no end. And I'm not just speaking about the great things I'm speaking also about the small. Because if you had a proper prophetic perception there is no thing small in the kingdom of God.

Are you under his rule and reign. What then shall we expect of the nations when the church itself is self-willed and independent. His throne shall be established. And it's got to begin with us in the totality of our life.

In Luke 1 when the angel Gabriel came to Mary from the very first heavenly pronouncement of the son that was to be born you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. In verse 31 his name shall be Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end for you.

Tonight. Has there been a beginning. Has the kingdom come to you. By what law are you ruled. And what culture do you reflect. And where is your citizenship. His kingdom come in earth begins in the locality where you are.

The fellowship where you are the family that is yours. The wife in proper submittedness to the husband not in some kind of mechanical compliance but in the spirit of the king. Because as we learned last night Elijah built an altar unto God with true foundations and he built it in the name of the Lord.

That's not a little cheap patsy phrase. That's not a little abracadabra rubbing of a lamp in the name of Jesus. It means doing everything in that which is a keeping with his own character. Wives be submitted unto your husbands revealing the secret man of the heart a quiet and a meek spirit which in God's sight is of great price.

In which kingdom are you wives abiding that which is in vogue women's lib. I've got a right to my own life. I'll show him or the kingdom of God no matter what the defect in your husband no matter what his mistreatment even if he's not saved that God says he should be one without the word observing in you a chaste behavior which indeed is the word made flesh the meekness of God demonstrated in a woman whose spirit and temper and mentality is not French nor Swiss nor German but heavenly.

Thy kingdom come in your household because the king is being pent up and contained in the heaven awaiting the restoration of all things. The divine order of God. The right relationships of God in the right spirit of God you say.

But who is sufficient for these things. Wait till you receive power from on high that you might be a kingdom wife unto him. Well I'm already contradicting myself. I said. I wouldn't be making many comments.

The Holy Spirit Enables Kingdom Life

Mary said how can this be. And some of you if you are really hearing must be moved by the same fear. I'm able to conduct church. I'm able to conduct services. I can bring my body to the Sunday service.

I can put my francs in the collection plate. But this this coming under the rule and reign of the king living in a heavenly way while I'm yet in the earth in the world but not of it in the name of the Lord and his very spirit and character.

How can this be. And the angel answered you the holy spirit will come upon you the power of the most high. I'm frankly sick of the whole charismatic Pentecostal controversy. What a wearisome stale business.

You have to speak with tongues. If you have the baptism of the holy spirit. I really don't need it. I got all I need when I got saved. Do you know why we can go on in that kind of mindless way. Because there's no real demand upon our life.

We can very easily conduct services. And certainly the world does not make any demand. But the kingdom of heaven does you need to tremble tonight. That you're giving up your control over your own substance.

And means that you're forsaking your own security and your own future. That there needs again to be a restoration of apostolic things of those that have houses and lands and selling them and laying the proceeds at the feet of the apostles.

That there should not be one among us that has need. That the world should not be doing for the church what the church ought to be doing for itself providing for its own and even for the needs in the world.

Instead of building its own great colossal palaces you say, but I can't find an apostle at whose feet to lay down my needs. You start to bring it and God will provide him. As a matter of fact, I believe it's your reluctance that is keeping back the advent of apostles for our age.

Because it's much less expensive to just be charismatic than to be kingdom. How shall these things be? Certainly not by any ability in ourselves. This heaven is too much for us. It's so above us this quality of relationship and integrity and unsparing truth.

Unfeigned faith, unfeigned love. True submittance with a quiet and meek spirit. A shared life. Those who believe being together and not simply sitting alongside each other. Who is sufficient for these things?

No one! How shall these things be? The Holy Spirit will come upon you the power of the Most High. If the third person of the Trinity has been till now only a piece of theology, a doctrine you start taking the Kingdom of God seriously which alone is true believing and see how long it is before you're on your face moaning and crying out to God for the fullness of His Spirit and His life.

That you might be the kingdom person that you are. It will be the end of all of that tedious controversy. Because God did not give us the Holy Spirit. To renew our aged and tottering religious systems.

To improve the flavor of our services. To give a little spark of interest by a gift of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is given for the Kingdom of God. And for no other reason I'd love you to turn to the book of Daniel.

Daniel's Vision of the Everlasting Kingdom

He really deserves days of attention in himself. Because he is eminently the prophet of the end times. And in chapter 2 of his great prophecy he interprets a dream for a pagan king who saw a vision of a strange phenomenon that had a golden head and bronze chest and iron legs.

And even the wise men of Babylon could not interpret that dream. But the Hebrew prophet of God could who did not eat from the king's table. And he tells us in the 2nd chapter, in the 34th verse about a very strange stone that is cut out without hands which smote the image upon its feet which were of iron and clay and broke it to pieces.

And we know that that figure represents the kingdoms of this world political, social, economic, cultural and religious. But they are earthly and mingled. And though they have their season and their power they have got to come to an end in these end days.

And God uses a stone that is cut out of a mountain. You read that in verse 35 which smote the image and became a great mountain itself and filled the whole earth. It did not just destroy it planted and built and it filled.

In the 44th verse he tells us what that stone is that fills the whole earth. Does the whole earth include Switzerland? France also? Why can you imagine a kingdom greater than what presently exists? The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of his son.

I hope that you are not in the wrong kingdom when God shall smash them to pieces because it says in the verse 44 that in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

The same one that God promised David and that had its advent with the coming of his son who was great and who inherited a throne. And this kingdom is eternal. Of the increase of this government there shall be no end and it shall never be destroyed.

And it shall not be left to other people. But it shall break in pieces and consume these kingdoms and shall stand forever. Do you believe that? There is believing and believing true believing is something that affects our present walk and conduct.

Do we believe it as Daniel believed it? To see something future with such a prophetic reality and conviction that it affects our present conduct. We live now in anticipation of it and because of that we are living differently in a hope and expectancy which is itself already the coming of that kingdom that is faith.

Daniel refers again to this kingdom in chapter 7 verse 13 which I'll ask my brother to read to serve it in every language. Its domination is an eternal domination which shall not pass and its royalty shall never be destroyed.

Walking Worthy of God's Kingdom and Glory

Chapter 2 verse 12. Paul exhorted them that they might walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. The kingdom is not a metaphor not a fancy to walk worthy of the manner in which you were called into his own kingdom and his glory.

The issue of the kingdom is the issue of glory and the issue of glory is the issue of his kingdom. No kingdom no glory. Good services perhaps programs, activities. But the glory of God is inextricably linked to the kingdom of God.

That's what we just read in Daniel. To him was given a dominion glory and a kingdom. Verse 14. There is no glory in French. I'm going to come out with a new revised edition for the French Bible the cat's prophetic edition.

The English says unto him was given a dominion glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and men of every language might serve him. Are you hearing this tonight? With an ear of faith? It said all nations will serve him.

Do you believe that? Are you staggered by that? Does it boggle your faith? Do you think it incredulous? It's the word of God. It's the vision of Daniel. And when Daniel communicated this to Nebuchadnezzar and he told him that this will take place in the future.

For the dream is true. The vision is true and its interpretation is trustworthy. Daniel 2 .45. It says then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face a Gentile king a pagan king a Babylonian and fell on his face when the prophet told him it will take place in the future.

It is true and the interpretation is trustworthy. There's a stone that is carved out of a mountain without hands that shall melt the kingdoms of this world and pulverize them to powder and shall itself fill the whole earth.

When the pagan king heard that he fell on his face what then ought we to do? That's believing. I don't know what it is with us. We have so long been brainwashed so long been encouraged to wait upon the escape that is coming.

The rapture, rapture, rapture by which we will be conveniently removed when the great storms and distresses come upon the earth that all we need to do is sit tight be well stocked up with our Swiss chocolates as I told you this morning until we are conveniently removed.

You need to repent from that heresy and to forsake it. It is a 19th century innovation of which the founding fathers, the apostolic and prophetic men of God never subscribed they expected something in the earth.

The earth is the Lord. The meek will inherit the earth. There will be a kingdom of heaven in the earth. And when the king Nebuchadnezzar heard this he fell on his face. How dare we sit nonchalantly as if this is not true.

When the prophetic word of God says that the dream is true and the interpretation trustworthy. How then ought we to live. In what manner ought we to walk worthy of the kingdom into which we are called.

And the glory. This is the reason for our fornication our double mindedness our compromising lives because we have not the vision of the kingdom. And it's waiting upon a planting in a building that only the king himself can bring which I pray takes place tonight.

That you'll be changed when you go to bed at night when you wake in the morning repeating again and again with such longing and ache that your kingdom come. You have been ruined for anything less. Somehow what enchanted you before now is dull.

Good meetings are strangely no longer enough. The little social tete-a-tete in the hallway after the service is not enough. You crave the true relationship of the kingdom. The speaking of truth in love the exhortation of one another daily while it is yet to dawn.

Because there is a glory waiting for such a kingdom to come in the earth where we are. When the government of our life is upon his shoulders. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in things large or small.

Repentance as a Witness to the Nations

The issue of glory is waiting and also the issue of the dying world. They've been told that God has a plan for their lives. Four spiritual laws. My Jewish people wouldn't be impressed with 40 spiritual laws.

I know them too. Well there is only one thing that will bring them down on their faces whether it was in the apostate age of Elijah or our own the glory of God. When it falls as fire they fell on their faces and cried out the Lord he is God the Lord he is God.

We need to say again to this Jewish modern world stubborn self will, Lord unto itself repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Leave that kingdom of darkness the dishonesty and the deceit of it. And enter a kingdom which is already at hand.

You're not just saved out of your sin. He didn't just bring you out but to bring you in. Come and join us in another economic lifestyle an entire way. Repent and be baptized and be filled with the Spirit.

How anemic does our evangelism today seem alongside that apostolic call. And we have been compelled to silence for 2000 years. For we have not the authority to call a world to repent because there has not been a kingdom at hand.

We have not sought it first. We have not believed for it. We have not expected it. Unlike King Nebuchadnezzar. We are still sitting upright in our chairs content with things much less. Not believing the vision not believing the dream not believing the interpretation.

I will establish my kingdom God's way. I will, I will through my people. Perhaps we can turn in conclusion tonight to the book of Hebrews. For the great writer of it was eminently a kingdom man he knew about this stone that was cut out without hands from the mount of God.

The Unshakable Kingdom and the Heavenly Jerusalem

It's not made with hands. There's no place in this kingdom for human manipulation human arrangements religious political conniving committee decisions. Not by might not by power but by my spirit saith the Lord.

And we're told in verse 22 of chapter 12 in the context of the fear that came with the Moses on the mount, the flaming mount of God you have been called to another mount mount Zion the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem.

Well that's it brother, it's not for earth, it's for heaven. There's the proof kingdom of heaven. Jesus himself said my kingdom is not of this world for if it was of this world then would my servants fight.

But we were too carnal to understand what needed to be revealed by the spirit. It's true it's not of this world but it's for this world though it's heavenly a new Jerusalem come down from above with myriads of angels and messengers.

The general assembly, the church of the first born that's the same kingdom and not just a place for services very general men and women and black and white Jew and Gentile in every condition and diversity those that believed were together despite the differences in nationality or race because they had their citizenship in heaven though it was the general assembly and it needs so to be again to God the judge of all the spirits of righteous men made perfect and to Jesus the one who warned us of the heavens his voice shook the earth and now he made us this promise once again i will shake not only earth but also heaven.

His words once again show that the elements shook are put aside as created so that those that are not shaken may survive. That's why since we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We ourselves have experienced a shaking in these days.

This was not so much a seminar as an event of things being shaken, which cannot remain, because it's a created thing, man-made, tainted, movable, vacillating, double-minded, deceitful. It cannot remain.

There's a shaking that is coming, and indeed is already here, because God is going to bring something in its place. After He shakes, after He plucks up, after He roots out, after He destroys, something that may remain, that will endure forever, a kingdom which cannot be shaken.

There's something before you tonight in which you must decide whether all of these references are fanciful, symbolic, metaphorical, or actual. As for me and my house, we believe that God means what He says.

And says what He means. A kingdom comes that cannot be shaken, that will remain, that must be built and planted by His people and through His people. And when we shall have laid the configuration of it, that one who has been pent up in the heavens, waiting for the restoration of this very thing, shall descend with a shout, and take the throne in earth, and rule over the nations, for the earth is the Lord's.

Are you living in expectation of that? Not to live in that expectation is not to live. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service, with reverence and awe, not with shallow casualness, our frivolity and superficiality, with the reverence and awe that besets a kingdom of heaven.

For our God is a consuming fire. I wish I had more time. I wish you had more capacity. I would say something out of the mouth of Jesus Himself, the greatest prophet of them all, of whom Samuel, Daniel, Elijah, and the others, reflected only aspects of the great prophet, priest, and king.

Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom and the Waiting Church

Do you know what the first words of his public ministry were? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Do you know what the last words of his earthly ministry were? Study it tonight when you go home.

Luke, the first chapter, where we're told that for forty days, Acts, chapter one, the first verses of that book, this painstaking record given to Theophilus of all that Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day that he was taken up, when he, by the Holy Spirit, gave commandment and instruction to the disciples whom he had chosen, instructing them for forty days in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

What an extravagant waste if he never expected a kingdom to come. It would have been time better spent in reminiscence and sentimental review of the three years of ministry when he was a prophet, and single-eyed for the glory of the Father, and he had only one subject, and it needs to be ours also.

He spoke to them for forty days by the Holy Spirit on the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. He must have expected it. And they said, is it time now to restore our kingdom? Is it time to renew our denomination?

Has anything changed since then? He dismissed their question. He said, wait in Jerusalem until you receive power that you might be kingdom witnesses unto me. And they waited and there was a profound emptying.

They shed tears for their betrayal of the king who was crucified for being king while they fled or with all of their religious determination they couldn't stand for the king or with the king and no man can except by the king's own life which is given in waiting that there might be a kingdom come.

And on the tenth day when the process was fulfilled those that were profoundly emptied of their cultural distinctives their denominational distinctives their Jewish traditions their religious expectations earthly things that can be shaken they fell from heaven poured out from the throne in heaven a glorious fire that fell upon their heads from a God who is a consuming fire and they all spoke with other tongues as the spirit gave utterance and those that believed were together and no man thought that the thing which he had was his own and they went from house to house daily breaking bread.

Those that had houses and lands sold them. There was one that had won something had come down from heaven. It was more than an addendum to Judaism. It was more than a new religion. It was a kingdom come and it needs to come again in Lausanne and Geneva in New York and Moscow.

It's a stone that shall fill the whole earth not made with hands and it's given to the people of God. We have inherited a kingdom. Let us walk worthy of the man in which we were called with gratitude and with acceptable service with reverence and awe.

For our king is a consuming fire. I want you to bow before the king tonight. If there is anything left that needs to be shaken plucked up, destroyed, removed anything earthly that impedes the coming of heaven offer it up lest you be shaken from it.

God wants to build and plant something that shall endure forever his dominion and his glory. He wants to put it in your heart tonight. And I warn you it will ruin you. You'll be ruined for religion. You'll be ruined for conventional things.

This passion will consume you as indeed it should. Why a pagan gentile king fell on his face at the vision of it. Because the vision was true. How dare we remain seated before the revelation of this kingdom to which we are called precious God.

A Prayer of Repentance for the Coming Kingdom

We want to repent because the want of this repentance has kept this kingdom distant. We want to repent that we have been satisfied with so much less if the services were good. If it pleased us if the people liked it.