The Law & the Kingdom ~ Jeff Durbin at The Law and Liberty Tour

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Afternoon. They gave me the spot right after lunch, so I have to have the job to try to keep you guys awake.

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You guys good? What's up, kids? I love all the kids here. I was saying, I posted on Facebook that, you know, you're at a

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Christian Reconstructionist conference when there's so many children, which I think is beautiful, and it really does testify to just the strength of the theological position and just where we're aiming.

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I mean, honestly, I do a lot of conferences across the country, and I think I've seen more kids in this one little remnant than I have at most conferences, so that's a blessing.

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I also wanted to say before I get started, what a privilege I see it as to do this with Calcedon and with Mark and Martin, and I'm just so blessed and privileged and honored to be here with you guys, and from what

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I see from across the country, a lot of the different connections God has graced me to have from across the nation, really around the world, there is a movement of believers looking back to the

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Word of God as the foundation of all of life, to Christ as the very reference point of everything, and some big things are happening, so you guys should really be encouraged by that really worldwide, and so I consider this a privilege and in this moment very important.

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If you guys would join with me as I pray. Father, I want to pray and bless this time,

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God, as I come before your people to present, Lord, your Word.

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I pray, God, that you get me out of the way. I pray that you would cause me in this time, myself to decrease, you to increase,

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God, that your Word would move powerfully amongst us,

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God, this minority, this remnant, this small gathering, God, in such a way,

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Lord, that you would use this moment, God, to transform the future to the glory of God, the exaltation of Christ in the world, and moving towards His kingdom, expanding and putting all enemies under the feet of Jesus.

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God, I just pray that you'd bless this time and speak by your Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. So if you want to open your

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Bibles, you can go to Matthew chapter 4. Now, you have to forgive me, 45 minutes to speak.

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I have sins in the area of time, so you have to maybe throw something at me or kind of give me the heads up something's up, especially when

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I know there's such an important detail to hit here in a conference. I have 45 minutes, so I'll do my best.

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Some of this may be like drinking from a fire hose, which is okay because drinking from a fire hose, you're guaranteed to get a little wet, right?

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So, Matthew chapter 4, so much to say. I'm gonna read to you

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Matthew chapter 4, background real fast for you guys, maybe they're new to Christ or new to your Bibles. Matthew chapter 4 is just,

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Matthew was the most popular of the Gospels in the second century of the church, and I think there's good reason for that.

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Testimony to the fact that Jesus is, in fact, the promised King, the promised Messiah. That was expected.

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Jesus is not a novelty dropped into history. Jesus is, in fact, what was anticipated all along.

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All of history is under the control of God, and so Matthew, in particular, the Gospel according to Matthew, really points to the fulfillment of Jesus.

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All the Gospels do, but Matthew really highlights all those great moments where Matthew says, this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet and quotes the

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Old Testament, and it's done a lot in Matthew. Matthew opens up with a clear indication that Jesus does, in fact, own the right to the throne.

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You need to see that. Matthew chapter 1, the genealogies that most of us, to be honest, usually say, okay, let's move to the next chapter.

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Let's kind of skip the genealogies. Okay, Matthew doesn't do that for good reason. Matthew has to show you that Jesus has the right to the throne, and so Matthew opens up with the history, the genealogy, and it's encouraging, amen?

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There's a lot of people on that that list that aren't the most stellar of lives, right?

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Murderers, adulterers, and all the rest. It's in that list, so God is good, amen? Matthew chapter 1,

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Jesus is the king. Matthew chapter 2 opens up with something you need to pay attention to with significance and detail.

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The promise of the kingdom of God, the Messiah is coming, redemption, salvation, forgiveness, but Matthew chapter 2 indicates and shows us that when the wise men show up, these are pagans, significant to the biblical story.

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The kingdom of God was going to encompass all the worlds. Descendants for Abraham, more numerous than the stars.

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The nations, Isaiah 2, were going to stream up to the mountain of God. You have the nations in view, not just Israel as the people of God, but the nations are going to come to God, and so the first people showing up, searching for the king, are pagans.

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This is the story. This is the story. This is why it's so exciting, is that this story of Jesus as king over all the world, bringing the nations, conquering history in victory, not just at the end of history, but actually history itself.

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That is God's story for history, and Matthew's picking it up. That's the backdrop.

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So you move through the story. There's much more that can be said in the Matthew chapter 4. Jesus as the perfect Israelite.

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Everywhere Israel fails, Jesus has victory. He is the perfect Israelite, the anticipated king, the

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Son of God goes into the wilderness. Everywhere Israel failed, Jesus has victory. And then, very important,

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Matthew chapter 4 verse 17. Matthew 4 17. Jesus says, it's from that time

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Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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And the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, are really synonymous phrases in our New Testament. Kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, same thing.

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The rule of God, the reign of God in history. It's what was expected. Now, I gotta say something real fast to our culture as Christians today in the

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West, American Christian culture today. We have all but made the phrase kingdom of God irrelevant and significant and meaningless in our culture, and that's disastrous.

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Martin said, I'm not sure where you were quoting this from, if it was yours because if it was, it was delicious, but if not, it was an amazing quote.

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You said that the culture is the church's report card. Okay, excellent.

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You know, and I think a lot of it has to do, and there's a number of issues that we can point you to say, why are we in the state we're in today?

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We're not looking to the Word of God as God's ultimate standard and law word for all of life. The kingdom of God is seen as something that comes ultimately later.

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It's sort of here now, but not really. It's coming later someday. We don't see Christ as victorious within history, but we look at Matthew chapter 4.

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Matthew's opening up with the Messiah entering into his ministry with the message, repent for the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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It meant something to them because this is not a novelty dropped into history. It meant something.

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It was meaningful. This is the backdrop they understood. This is God's story breaking into history, coming into fulfillment.

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It meant everything, but I want you to see something, a phrase we don't often use in our culture. Well, I would say we outside of this remnant, okay, but I want you to see it.

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Matthew 4 23, and he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

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Let me say it again because I want to emphasize that that needs to be the strength of our message today as Christians. When we look at the depravity and the decay of culture around us, let me just get you the phrase so you grab hold of it and hold on to it.

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The gospel of the kingdom. Where is that talked about today? Where is that heralded today?

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The good news of the kingdom. They saw it as good news that God's kingdom was breaking into history.

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That was good news. As Christians today, we have sort of truncated the gospel and brought it down to good news of my personal salvation.

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Jesus is a friend of mine. Jesus is my friend. You know that song? Yeah, he's, he's, he's, Jesus becomes my friend.

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It's my personal salvation. It's about me and me alone. Ultimately, it's my ticket to heaven, and we sort of can grab hold of the ideas of forgiveness and salvation, and we love that part of the story, but it sounds odd to the modern

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Christian ear that this was to them good news of the kingdom. It was good news that God's kingdom had actually broken into history, and you might say to some of us today, why is that good news?

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So there's a whole backstory to this. You see, gospel of the kingdom. We need to attach ourselves to that biblical phrase and, and, and herald it and promote it because the gospel of the kingdom, again, was part of God's story.

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What did the Old Testament promise? What did God's revealed word before Messiah enters history?

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What did it reveal to us about this coming Messiah, his kingdom, and all the blessings? A lot of things. Listen to the network of things they were anticipating.

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There's a network of things from the Old Testament that were there in their minds. They understood, which is why it made it such good news that it finally broke into history.

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Here's a couple of things that were a network of truths. Number one, redemption. We, we've got that down, right?

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We understand that. At least in particular, salvation, forgiveness, eternal life, redemption, freedom from slavery, my sin, reconciliation with God.

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We, we get that. Number two, forgiveness. Forgiveness that God was going to wash our sins away, never count them against us again.

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Forgiveness would, would, would be, would be complete and full because God would deal with it once and for all in the

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Messiah. Number three, salvation in a number of different ways. Number four, the giving of the

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Spirit, the promise of the Spirit of God now indwelling us. God saying, I will put my

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Spirit within you. I will cleanse you from all your idols. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, give you a new heart.

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All those promises were there. Something Martin brought up in his message was the law in our hearts.

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God would put his law now on our hearts, whereas in the Old Testament, the law is on stone tablets outside of the people of God.

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Now the law is actually where? Within us. We have God himself indwelling us now as redeemed people with the ability now to obey with an internal motivation and love for God and others that causes us to love and desire

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God's law. That was the promise of what was to come. They were anticipating. It's part of the backdrop. Next, the nations were going to be brought to God.

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Let me say it again because it's very important. The nations were going to be brought to God.

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His kingdom would go over the whole world. His rule and reign over the entire earth. All nations, tribes, tongues were coming to this

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Messiah. That was part of the story. That was the backdrop. Number seven, the law would go forth from Zion.

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Isaiah chapter 2. That is powerful. Where do we hear that just heralded today?

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The Messiah is going to come. The mountain of the Lord is going to be brought up and all the nations are going to stream to it and the law would go forth from Zion.

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That was part of the promise of the kingdom. Next, number eight, from Isaiah 9 that he would establish this kingdom with justice and righteousness.

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These were elements of the kingdom of God in history that they understood. This is why, brothers and sisters, it's good news of his kingdom.

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It is very good news that Christ is King, exalted and seated as King of kings and Lord of lords.

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That's good news for the world. It's not just good news for my own individual salvation. It's not just good news for the guy

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I preach Christ to on the street. It's good news for the world. All of this is all -encompassing.

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Everything is getting dealt with by Jesus. Every enemy under his feet. Next, I want to talk to us about where we're at today.

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When we think about the gospel of the kingdom as something Jesus was preaching, the good news of the kingdom, I want to say today because of bad eschatological views, bad views of history.

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Can anyone say left behind reboot, Nicolas Cage? Because of what's coming in a few months, that view of history, we have reduced the kingdom of God, the gospel of the kingdom, to the gospel of the

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Christian ghetto. That's what it means now, right? Jesus is

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King. He's Lord, you know, kind of over Neverland. You know, and if you become a Christian, you know, you're part of this family of God, but it's really kind of over here, and it only has meaning sort of over here.

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Jesus is King in heaven, but not so much on earth, whereas when Jesus heralds it, it's the good news of the kingdom.

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John the Baptist comes in. He repented. The kingdom of God is at hand. Paul's preaching the kingdom at the end of Acts.

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It's what he's saying and talking to them about is the kingdom of God, convincing them in the kingdom of God.

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It was on their lips. It was in their hearts, the good news of the kingdom of God. We've reduced it to the good news of a

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Christian ghetto, my own personal relationship with God. The early

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Jews said something, and this is what you want to capture, if you capture anything from the message today, as sort of what

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I want to get as hooked into your hearts and minds. If you remember the trial of Jesus, right?

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Put it in your minds for a moment now. The trial of Jesus. You're there, and Pilate says to the Jews of the day, who by the way, get this, would have said,

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God is God. He is the only true and living God. They would have quoted the Shema. Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad.

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They would have quoted the Shema. Here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. They would have said it, and yet at the trial of Jesus with Pilate, he says, shall

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I crucify your king? These monotheistic Jews, which would have affirmed Torah and the

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Tanakh and everything else, they say before Pilate in their day as monotheistic Jews, they say, we have no king but Caesar.

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They saw it fine to have God as God and Caesar really as governor and in charge, and they were fine with that, and so they crucify their king.

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An interesting point to point out is that as the church moves forward in the book of Acts, you have something very different happening with the people of God, don't you?

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The Jews are the trial of Jesus. We have no king but Caesar. We have no king but Caesar, and in the book of Acts, the early

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Christians are being brought up on charges, and what's the accusation being made against those believers in the gospel of the kingdom?

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They say there's another king, Jesus. See the difference?

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You see, you can be religious in nature. You can affirm the truths of monotheism, and there's one

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God, Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, and you can miss a very important point about the kingdom of God.

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He's the king. He's the king, and you can blend or engage in syncretism, religious life and state life.

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Caesar can be really in charge. Jesus is in charge of Neverland. Do you see the problem?

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It's not a problem just for us today, brothers and sisters. It was a problem for them then, too. We ask the question, why are so many

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Christians being killed by Rome? They say there's another king, Jesus. They understood who the ultimate authority was, and they understood the significance that God's kingdom had broken into history.

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Now, let's talk about where do we go from here. This is really important, and I'm going to do my very best to hang this together.

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Hang with me, guys, as much as possible as you work through what I see are some important problems in our thinking as believers that need to be cleansed and reformed and clarified as Christians.

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Okay, number one, a problem of sovereignty. Christians today have a problem with the area of sovereignty.

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When I say Christian, I'm speaking to myself as well. I need reformation, cleansing, transformation in my heart and my mind in the area of understanding the true implications of the sovereignty of God in history, okay?

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Number one, the sovereignty of God. We have to ask the question today to us as Christians, who is in charge? Who's in charge?

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It's an important question. It should be a simple one for Christians to answer, amen? It should be simple. Who's in charge?

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Who's the full authority? Who is the very reference point of all questions regarding truth?

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Is it man or is it God? Who's the sovereign? And if I could just hook you onto a verse

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I want you to memorize and have packed into your hearts and live by as a believer, it's

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Matthew 28, 18 through 20. Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go

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Do you see the implications of that are not fully grasped many times by us today in our culture, that Jesus says, ready?

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All authority where, brothers and sisters? In heaven and where else? See, Christians today were very happy to say

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Jesus gets his rule in heaven, but earth? Earth too? You see, let me say it again, ready?

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All authority in heaven and on earth.

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You ask the question, does Jesus get to tell the state today what to do? Yes. Absolutely.

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We pull punches as Christians today because we've neglected the most powerful, potent part of the end of Matthew where he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go.

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There's the therefore, and when you see the word therefore, see what it's there for. Good job. See what it's there for.

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It's because all authority in heaven and earth is his, therefore go get the nations, baptize them, teach them to what?

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Obey. Does Jesus expect, anticipate an ethical response from the nations towards him when he ascended as what he told us?

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You see, this is really important is that as a church today, we've lost a fix on just who is in charge, who has a say, who is the reference point, and we know that when we go to our

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Bibles, we know the answer, right? It's without question. God is the very center of all questions regarding truth.

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He is the reference point. He is not what we're trying to get to. He is the one that we start all of our thinking with.

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You see this? We have something spectacular here with the revelation of God. Deuteronomy 29 29 says what?

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That the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but what he has revealed belongs to what? Us and to our children.

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This is revealed word from God. It belongs to us, and you and I, as brothers and sisters in the

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Lord, we have something spectacular to hold on to, and that is sovereignty, and that is providence.

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God is in control. The world does not. The world wants to snatch up our children and indoctrinate them with a view of history that says that you are bipedal protoplasm.

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You are meat bone protoplasm bobbing on the surface of the cosmos. There is no purpose, no meaning, no cosmic anything.

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We live, we die, and we're gone. We're absolutely gone when we die. It's just time and chance acting on matter.

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Your ancestors were fish. This is the worldview propagated in our world today, and as Christians, I'm gonna say praise

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God for what he's revealed to us. It's for us and for our children, and that is this.

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God says he declares the end from the beginning. He declares the end from the beginning.

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I want to hang on to that for a moment. He declares the end from the beginning. Isaiah 46 10.

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Daniel 4 35. Listen to this. He does according to his will, the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay his hand.

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So is he totally sovereign? I'd say so. In heaven and on earth, he declares the end from the beginning and does according to his will.

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No one thwarts his purposes. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 talks about God who works all things.

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I'll say it again because sometimes we have to take a moment to breathe in and absorb. He works all things after the counsel of what?

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His will. So when I say things today about Christ as Messiah, as seated, as having victory over history, now there are certain times where you hit this and you go, but I mean look around us.

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Can he? And I want to say yes and amen. Those are his promises. He does according to his will in heaven and on earth, and he said to us, brothers and sisters, when he ascended, he said to us all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.

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Therefore, go. He is sovereign. Now, this is really important.

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We have to understand the symphony of history to understand the significance of the gospel of the kingdom. The symphony of history.

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I've often related it like to a symphony, and as Christians we've done an excellent job in so many ways.

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God has blessed the church with just giants that have given us such blessings, like Rushduni.

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It's been such a huge blessing, but there's symphony of history, and what we've done as Christians is we've highlighted many true things about God and about the world and about his truth, and it's not that they're bad, any of them.

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They're all very good, but the problem is in this area of the gospel of the kingdom, in our culture today, we have stripped this part of the story of God's kingdom in history, having victory within history, transforming the world, bringing the nations.

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We've virtually stripped that from the story. Imagine a symphony where you've removed about a third of the players.

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The story, the sound, the song is stunted, right? It doesn't have quite the same effect.

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It's losing its climax because we've stripped the story. It's not that the other parts are wrong that are playing.

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We've stripped the story. We've stripped it of its players. It's no longer as beautiful.

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It's no longer as significant. It's no longer making as much sense. God's story of the gospel of the kingdom is a symphony.

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All the parts need to play together in unison. We shouldn't strip out any part of the story.

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So in order to talk about the gospel of the kingdom, listen closely. We have to understand as believers the backdrop that we walk into when we get into the

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New Testament. Let's talk about the backdrop. Let's do first highlight a part that we all in our culture will usually grasp and say,

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I've heard that. I get that. And that is Isaiah 53 as a stepping stone. Isaiah 53, right?

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Everyone's excited about Isaiah 53, and I am thrilled about Isaiah 53. Think about it. The ministry of Jesus, the

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Messiah, written down hundreds of years before he actually touches earth in his earthly ministry.

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Think about it. The story of Isaiah in Isaiah 53 is absolutely astonishing. It will give you goose bumps.

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If you haven't read it yet, go read Isaiah 53. Hundreds of years before Jesus comes, the whole portrait of Jesus, the

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Messiah, and his redemptive work is right there. It's unbelievable.

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It's one of those moments that you just get. It's just a refreshing moment where God just sort of exposes to you his power and sovereignty in history, that this is all laid down long before Jesus came.

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Isaiah 53, what's it say? That he would be counted among the rebels. That he would justify the many as he will bear their iniquities.

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It talks about this piercing of the Messiah. He'd be pierced through for our transgressions.

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That the Lord was pleased to crush him. All of that we see.

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That's the redemptive work of Jesus. That's the cross. That's Jesus dying for our sins. There's more though.

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There's more. You see, Isaiah 53 is just after Isaiah what? That's not a trick question.

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That's easy, okay? I know you had lunch, okay? But come back. Come back. Isaiah 53.

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We've captured it. We sort of like snatched it and kind of let it suspended. It's hung there in midair. But Isaiah 52 is what enters us into Isaiah 53.

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Along with the redemptive work expected in the Messiah's life and ministry, Isaiah 52 says something important.

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Isaiah 52, 13. Right before 53, it says, Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted.

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As many were astonished at you, his appearance was marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

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And people go, see? That's like the disfiguring of Jesus. That sort of testifies to him being disfigured. His brokenness.

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That really testifies that. People will snatch that up. But there's more. Verse 15. So shall he sprinkle many nations.

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Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told, them they see.

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And that which they have not heard, they understood. You see? There is a symphony going on here and we cannot simply strip this story of its parts.

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Amen? There's more to the story. It's a gospel of the kingdom. Next point.

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To understand the backdrop and the symphony as to why the gospel of the kingdom is so significant, I'll just have you go into your minds here for a moment.

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You can go back later and look at it. In Abraham, no, Abraham, Genesis 15, 5. The promise to Abraham was what?

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That he would have descendants more numerous than the what? More numerous than the stars. Now, I want to say something.

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Where has our defeatist attitude come from? If we are the descendants of Abraham and if Abraham is told to look up to the sky and if you can count those stars, that's like how your descendants are going to be.

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Where do we ever get the idea that Jesus loses in history? You see, when

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I look up to the stars from a cruise line out in the ocean where there's no light pollution, it blows your mind.

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It takes your breath away. It causes your heart to slow down. It makes you feel very small.

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And if you started counting well, in just a few moments you would give up. And we know that just what we see with our naked eyes is nowhere near what is actually out there.

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Amen? Where do we ever get the idea of defeat? Abraham's descendants would be more numerous than the stars,

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Genesis 15. Next, Moses from Genesis 59 -10 gives us the promise of Shiloh.

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And this is really, really important. Capture this. You must grab hold of this because it's not used very often.

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You need to have it in your toolbox as a believer when we think about the backdrop concerning the gospel of the kingdom. Genesis 49 -10, it talks about one coming,

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Shiloh. I love that name, Shiloh. And to him is going to be the obedience of the nations.

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Let me give that to you one more time because I didn't see the expressions that I would anticipate.

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Shiloh is coming and to him is going to be the obedience of the nations.

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Now, something Martin pointed out near the end of his message there is something we need to grab hold of.

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And that is at the beginning and the ending of Romans, Romans 1 -5 and Romans 16 -26, the

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Apostle Paul, a Jewish rabbi who understood what was expected and anticipated in the ministry of the

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Messiah, he bookends, he bookends his systematic explanation of the good news with something very important in Romans 1 and in Romans 16.

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And what does he say? To bring about the obedience of faith among the nations.

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Brothers and sisters, this is a symphony. It's a symphony. There's a whole backstory playing here and we have stripped the message of its important parts and we wonder why we are impotent as a church today in the culture.

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I had Douglas Wilson on my radio program once and something he just said, I liked what he actually said, this thing he said, you hit what you aim at.

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That's amazing. And it's just, oh, really? You hit what you aim at. And if as a church we believe that we're defeated in history and then we're not working towards the actual obedience of the nations, then you hit what you aim at.

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You get a culture that looks very much like the one we're living in today. The obedience of the nations.

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Understand that. That's glorious. Paul does not simply give an explanation as to how a person is saved from sin.

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He gives the whole story and he opens it with, to bring about the obedience of faith among the nations.

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And he closes the book, Obedience of Faith Among the Nations. Would you say it's kind of important to the

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Apostle Paul? I'd say it's a significant part of the story. Next point, and this is something you want to hang on to because it's in the backstory.

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It's in the back of the minds of the believers who received this revelation. Listen closely. 1 Samuel chapter 8 and 1

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Samuel chapter 11. I'll leave it to you to go later to do your homework. But something very significant part of God's people's story in that book is this.

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The people of God have been given God's grace, a relationship with the living God, given his covenant, and all the rest.

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It's glorious. God's their king. And then something happens in 1 Samuel chapter 8. And what is that?

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They start complaining and saying, we want a king like all the other nations.

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And Samuel's a little tripped out by this. He's like, I don't perceive that as sinful. And God actually says, all right, give them what they want.

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Now was his giving them a king like they asked for, other than him, was it a blessing or a curse?

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It was a curse. Because he tells Samuel, I'm their king.

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They want a king. I'll give them a king. Here are the consequences. Take your kids to war, taxation, and all the rest.

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And God says that they haven't rejected you, Samuel, when they've asked for an earthly king like that.

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They've rejected me because I'm their king. Brothers and sisters, this is part of the story. Jesus coming as king of kings and Lord of lords isn't a novelty dropped in history.

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It is God the king taking his rightful place on the throne over his people. This is why our forefathers of the faith, really in the last couple hundred years, had the statement, no

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God but God and no king but Christ. It is simply sinful, based on the text of Scripture, the words of God, for the people of God to desire a king like the other nations when

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God is the king. Next, and there's, by the way, there's just no way, and I don't even need to tell you because you guys are awesome.

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This is my favorite group of people to talk to. I mean that sincerely because you're trained, you're a theonomic, post -millennial, you've had an understanding of this sort of in the background of your mind, so I don't need to tell you that I cannot even begin to exhaust the passages in Scripture to speak to the absolute victory of the

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Messiah in history. You see, every Christian agrees that, well,

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Jesus is victorious at the end of history, but you see, the Bible teaches something much different though, doesn't it?

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It teaches the victory of the Messiah within Earth's history, not simply at the end, and there's simply no way to exhaust it, but I will give you a couple passages to look through.

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In the Psalm, Psalm chapter 2, very important passage, verses 7 through 12, the

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Father is speaking to the Son. The Father speaking to the Son, and what does he say? Significant, Psalm 2.

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Have this in your pocket. The Father says to the Son, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and something

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Dr. Bonson used to always say when speaking about these issues is he would say, do you think Jesus forgot to ask?

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When Jesus ascends, what does he tell us to do? All authority, heaven and earth's been given to me.

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Go get them. We know Jesus didn't forget to ask. The Father says to the Son, ask of me and I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, and then the beautiful warning in the

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Psalms goes out to the world from God to the kings of the earth, and he says what to them?

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He says, obey the Son or you'll perish. So here's

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God saying to the Son, all the nations are yours, and then God turns and gives a warning to the kings of the earth and says obey him or you're going to perish.

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Next, Psalm 1101, one of the most quoted verses from the Old Testament in the New Testament, and I'm bringing this up as a significant one because it's used so much.

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Remember I told you from a moment ago, it's not a novelty dropped into history, right? It's a whole backstory. Why is

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Psalm 1101 quoted so much by those Jewish believers in Jesus in the

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New Testament? Well, Psalm 1101 teaches for something very significant, and Paul quotes as he must reign until he has made all his enemies a footstool for his feet.

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Psalm 1101 teaches that this Messiah is going to reign and make his enemies a footstool for his feet.

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Now the Apostle Paul interprets Jesus as reigning now and currently putting enemies under his feet.

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The Bible says, here's how the story works. He reigns all enemies under his feet in victory. That's how it works.

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People say, what's post -millennialism? That. You want, you want to, what's post, how is it, it's, well it's really not difficult.

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He's reigning now, enemies under his feet, that's it, total victory of the world. How's that sound? Simple. That's post -millennialism.

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That's all there is to it. And if you don't want to, if you don't want to be in a, you know, I don't know, you know, I'll mail, post mail, whatever, that's fine.

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Believe that. Believe that and watch a transformation occur. Next, Psalm 72, 5 through 11.

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This one I do want you to see. Psalm 72, 5 through 11. Please go to this one. I want you to see it.

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Psalm 72, 5 through 11. It's the title actually of the book that God used to really bring a lot of transformation of my thinking.

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Kenneth Gentry's book, He Shall Have Dominion, was quoted from this, this passage. He shall have dominion.

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Listen to the passage from Psalm 72, 5 through 11. Here we go.

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May they fear you while the sun endures and as long as the moon throughout all generations.

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May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.

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That gets what? Everything wet. All right. In his days may the righteous flourish and peace abound till the moon be no more.

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May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Does that sound all encompassing to you?

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It does to me. That was the backdrop. That was the story. May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust.

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May the kings of Tarshish and the coastlands render him tributes. May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.

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May all kings fall down before him and all nations serve him. Where did we ever get the idea that Jesus fails in history?

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You see, well like what's Jesus' aim? Is it just the desert tribes? Is it just to get a Bible study in a basement?

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No, he's saying the kings are gonna bow down before this one. And one of the things that's just really a blessing of the work of Dr.

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Rushduni is just his moving us through history, showing us just the mindset of early believers throughout the century.

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They weren't going into a culture to get a Bible study in a basement. They were going to have the king bow before Messiah.

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And the world transformed. Obviously we have a lot of work to do and we had where they were sinners then and they were broken in a messed -up rabble then, but they knew what they were aiming at.

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And lo and behold they got it. We look at our culture today and we aim so low and we've stripped this beautiful story of its significant parts.

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The culture is the report card of the church. That means a lot.

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Next, Isaiah chapter 2, chapter 9, chapter 11. I want you to read them in full later.

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I'm giving you a basis here, the back story. That's what today is about. Fire hose, okay? You're gonna get wet. Isaiah 2,

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Isaiah 9, Isaiah 11. Isaiah 2 says that in the latter days, the last days, and that obviously we can talk about what happened in the turning over of the

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Old Covenant into the New, that the mountain of the Lord would be raised up, that the nations would stream up to this mountain.

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And listen closely. The law would go forth from Zion. The law would go forth from Zion.

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So much for the law being irrelevant in the New Covenant, amen? The law would go forth from Zion.

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One of the blessings of the kingdom of God in history, one of the blessings of the New Covenant in history is that the law itself would go forth from Zion.

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That's considered a good thing under the New Covenant, a blessing of the New Covenant, that the law is going to go forth throughout all the earth.

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While all the other pagan nations in the Old Testament are just dealing in total injustice and brokenness and wickedness, the people of God over here have this perfect standard of justice and righteousness.

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I call that grace, and I call it extra grace when God says, now I'm going to give that to the world.

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That's an overflowing of grace to sinners who don't deserve it, like me. Isaiah chapter 9, the famous verse we put on all our

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Christmas cards, right? The son is born, child is given, the government will be on his shoulder, he'll be called

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Wonderful Counselor, El Gibor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

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Justice and righteousness are all themes of this King's reign.

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Justice and righteousness. And notice something also, I want you to sort of snatch this, sort of just kind of hang there in your mind for a moment.

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You'll notice also that the promise of this one who's coming, the son, the child given to us is

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God himself, and that it says that the government and peace increases.

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So it's not just plopped into history and just sort of blows it apart at the end of time. It's an increase of his government and of peace.

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Notice that already you see that the promise of this kingdom of God was going to be gradual increase.

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You see that. In Daniel chapter 2, you see very clearly in Daniel 2 that there's going to be four kingdoms.

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During the time of the fourth kingdom, God is going to himself going to set up a kingdom that will never end and never be destroyed.

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And you'll notice that in Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel's vision of what all this means in the dream,

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Daniel says stone that becomes a mountain. What is that?

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That's increase from stone to mountain. So you see increase of government and peace.

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That's gradual progression. You see stone to mountain. Again, that's gradual progression. And then lo and behold,

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Jesus comes in and he says, well, it's like mustard seed and then the large tree. That's gradual increase.

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It's like leaven in a lump of dough. You can't hear it working. You can't see it working necessarily right in front of you.

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You can't hear like banging of hammers and clanking and drilling going on. But that yeast is permeating the entirety of the loaf.

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Amen? So it's yeast in a lump of dough. It permeates the entirety of it. It's mustard seed to large tree.

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This is the kingdom of God in history. This is the rule of the Messiah in history. It's one person at a time, redemption, salvation, forgiveness, and it spreads and it spreads and it spreads.

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Next point, Micah 5, 2 through 4. Again, a passage that we all know and we pull from it as prophecy, don't we?

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We pull from it and say, hey, check it out. The Bible tells you everything necessary to know Jesus as Savior and Lord in the

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Old Testament before he comes. By the way, that has got to excite you as brothers and sisters.

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It has to. It excites me and maybe there's something wrong with me, but I love it. I absolutely love this.

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That God gives us the full portrait of Messiah long before he comes into history. That you can actually show somebody in vivid detail, high definition, all the details necessary to know

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Jesus as Savior and Lord in the Old Testament. And Micah 5, 2 is one of those passages that it's

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God himself that's coming to Bethlehem. The Messiah's going to be born in Bethlehem, but lo and behold, guess what?

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It's God himself, the one that's from eternity. But then the promise in Micah 5, 2 doesn't stop there.

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It's not just God coming to Bethlehem. It's God coming to Bethlehem and that his glory was going to spread to the ends of the earth.

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This is the backdrop. This is the story. And now, here we go, enter John the Baptist.

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Enter John the Baptist. And John the Baptist enters into history, into his earthly ministry.

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And what is he saying? What's his story in Matthew 3? His story is repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Jesus comes in and says what? Here's the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Just how far -reaching was Jesus' vision about the kingdom.

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Brothers and sisters, think about it for a moment. How rigorous do you think the commitment is to the will of God in heaven?

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Pretty rigorous, you say? Yes? Amen? I hope so. And Jesus says, as it is in heaven, on earth, like that.

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That was his vision. And Jesus told us to pray like this. You pray that his name is holied throughout the earth.

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People in Africa, in China, North America, South America, would holy the name of God. That his kingdom would come, it would grow throughout the earth.

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And what? That his will would be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

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What are we aiming for? What are we aiming for? Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, read this.

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1 Corinthians 15, Paul quotes from Psalm 110 .1 and says that he must reign until he's put all his enemies under his feet.

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What was the scope? What was the vision? That. Jesus ends, again, I'm going to hang this here.

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Jesus ends, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, with all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go.

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Here we go, next point. And I was told I have five minutes. All right, here we go. I'm gonna do my very best. All right, here we go.

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All right. All authority is belonging to Christ, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. And somebody might say in response, yes, but can we really anticipate or ask pagans to come in obedience to him?

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Well, again, I'll just hang that there for a moment. All authority means what? All authority, not some, partially, kind of all authority.

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And then I'm gonna look at the pattern and model of New Testament evangelism and ask the question, does our evangelism today even resemble it?

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In Acts chapter 17, the Apostle Paul is at the Areopagus, Mars Hill, and who's he in front of? Pagans.

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And what was his message to them? That in the past, God overlooked these times of ignorance. Remember the message of the kingdom?

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Who was coming? All the nations. In the past, God overlooked this, but now

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God commands men everywhere to repent. The Apostle Paul did not come into a culture placating to their system.

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The Apostle Paul came into a culture and he commanded them to repent and believe the gospel.

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Of course, brothers and sisters, it's freedom and forgiveness and peace with God as a gift of his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.

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It's all by faith apart from works of law, but that message comes, repent and believe the gospel.

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Don't blend your system with this. You are abandoning all to come and die and rise again. That's the message of the gospel.

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You are coming to be joined to this Messiah who conquered death, rose from the dead, and he joins you to himself as new creation.

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Everything changes. Everything changes. And the call going even to pagans is

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God commands you to repent. And something that's different from that and now is this, and I often refer to this, but I want to let you know what irks me, so this you need to hear.

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Okay, they're important. There's a bumper sticker. I'm not sure if they have these in California, but they are in Arizona, and every time that I see it,

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I have to work on my sanctification. The bumper sticker says, give

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Jesus a chance. He died for the opportunity. Every time

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I see that bumper sticker, I have to ask God for help. That is simply not the message of the gospel.

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That's not how the Apostles preached it. That's not how Jesus preached it. The Apostles came into a culture. God commands you to repent, come to Christ for forgiveness and salvation, eternal life.

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There's life and forgiveness and peace with God. Be reconciled to God. Repent and believe the good news.

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And Jesus comes to people, thousands of crowds, people in a crowd following him, and he turns around and says to them, failing every single seminary course in evangelism today, turns and says to them, if anyone comes to me does not hate father, mother, sister, brother, just the whole thing, you're not worthy to be my disciple.

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Even your own life you must hate. Come and die and rise again. That is how we have to bring this message to the world around us.

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Jesus, you've heard today in the law of God, it's very simple. This isn't difficult stuff.

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It's very simple. The question is, where's your reference point? Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17, do not even begin to think

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I have come to destroy the law. He didn't say to them, stop thinking that I've come to destroy the law.

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Nei namasete, in the Greek, don't even let it enter into your mind.

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Don't begin to entertain the thought. Don't let it start to work its way into your mind. Do not even begin to think that I've come to destroy the law.

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I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And something needs to be heard by us today as Christians in our culture.

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Very important in Matthew chapter 5, I'm going to read it just to hook onto so that it's resonating within us at all times.

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Listen what he says. He says, for truly I say to you, verse 18, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

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Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

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But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. That's in the kingdom of God, which is now present.

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Amen? It's present. Jesus says this.

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Ready? Here we go. Matthew 22, 34 through 39. We all know the passage. Master, what's the greatest commandment of the law?

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Jesus says, Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. Hero Israel, Lord our God, the Lord is one.

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It's where it comes from. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. And the second is like it.

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You shall love your neighbors. You love yourself. And then Jesus gives us there what were already foundations of the law of God.

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Christians today, we often say, well, that's new covenant. Old covenant was straight -up, hardcore, pipe -hitting law.

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New Testament is love. Old Testament, law. I want to ask a question. Which Bible are we reading? Because Jesus said that that was the very foundation of all the laws.

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All the law in the prophets was love God, love neighbor. How come we execute rapists because we love

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God and love our neighbor? That's what the law was there for, and perfect justice. It's a matter of harmony and love for neighbor.

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How can we treat people who commit a theft? How can we treat them a particular way?

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Well, it's out of love for God, love for neighbor, how we handle that situation. It's love for God and love for neighbor that is the very foundation of the law of God.

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It's the very foundation. And so many times in our culture today, Christians will often fall back on, well, that's all about love now.

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It's all about love. It's all about love. I don't say amen to that. What's it mean to love my neighbor though? What's it mean? Tell me.

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What's it mean to love my neighbor? Is it just some gushy thing like a blob of jello on the ground? Like just kind of, you know, just love, right?

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It's just love. What does it even mean? Why hasn't God defined love? Is not God himself love?

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And hasn't God defined what it means to love? Well, yeah, there's a means to love. Don't lie. Don't steal.

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Don't commit adultery. Don't covet. Those kinds of things. Also, it is love for our neighbor,

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Christians, that should compel us to stand on God's revealed standard of justice in the

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Old Testament. Because when you look at our culture around us today, we have people around us that we claim we love as Christians.

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We love our neighbors. We love ourselves. I want to ask if it's love for neighbor as I love myself when

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I watch a neighbor get thrown into a prison cell for 20 years as a caged animal while he's an image bearer of God.

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No harmony is brought to the situation for the crime that was taken or committed. I want to say it's love for my neighbor that should compel me to look to the law of God for perfect justice.

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That's not perfect justice. Love is the very foundation of the law of God.

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Love should compel us to stand on the very law of God as the reference point for justice and righteousness.

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Here's what I say oftentimes as I try to move people to the Scriptures to see the truths of theonomy.

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We call it theonomy. I say, oh, the Old Testament, those are harsh, harsh laws. Harsh.

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We don't want to, as Christians, really promote that anymore. We don't really want to fight towards that. I want to say, well, I think it's love for God and love for neighbor that should compel us to point to those things as the standard of all justice and righteousness.

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We should do that because God spoke. So I'll often say this. So you think it was harsh. So when God gave a command, say, to give the death penalty for murder, you think that was harsh.

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I don't know if we should do that. We shouldn't necessarily fight for that anymore because we're in the New Covenant. I want to say this.

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Was God just or unjust when He gave that law? Was it just or unjust?

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To which every Christian will say, well, it was just. So out of love for neighbor, do you want your neighbor to get justice or no?

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He's the very reference point of all righteousness. And we have to come to the culture today proclaiming

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His kingship, His authority, His power, His rule, His reign.

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And can I say this last thing? I want to end with this because it was something that was on my heart I wanted to say. We fail when we don't do this.

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We fail when we placate to the culture. We don't get what we're looking for even as Christians.

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I'm connected to a lot of people. I do a lot of things politically and I have good relationships, very close relationships with people that are in some high places.

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And I won't name names here, but I had a conversation fairly recently with somebody who's the head of a very, very powerful political organization and involved in a lot of really good stuff, good legislation things and everything else.

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But this person says to me, we don't always try to come at these things from an overtly

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Christian perspective. They said we try our very best to sort of like make our way in and you know we can't always get what we want from a

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Christian perspective. And she and then I'm kind of, okay, all right. And she says, but we're finding more and more like we're having to be more and more overt.

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I said, right, because it's always gonna come down to by what standard?

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And you're gonna have to finally as a Christian confess, well it's because God says, ultimately.

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And we're seeing that more and more Christians attempt to try to get into these areas and either give up or fall into indifference because they're exasperated because they're not standing on the very words of God.

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They're not being honest. It's because God says. And I give you one example of it. Abortion.

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Over 50 million babies murdered in this country. Over 50 million babies murdered in this country.

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And as Christians we've attacked the issue many ways. We've attacked the issue saying, well we want to help those.

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We want to try to stop those clinics that are doing this. We want to have them get up to the same standards of health care as most hospitals.

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Just happened in Arizona. One of these political organizations was fighting not so much for abortion as murder.

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Stop killing your babies. They were fighting for it as, well we need to make sure that they hold to the same health standards as all the other clinics.

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Now I understand the motivation. But does that actually help us to resolve the issue of abortion in our communities?

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We haven't attacked this from the issue of this is murder. God commands you not to murder. It's a wicked thing.

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And presented the gospel in the midst of it. So in the last couple of years has been a strong movement.

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We're actually seeing when you stand in the Word of God something happens. My friend Marcus Pippin from Crown Rights Media made the film,

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Babies Are Murdered Here. I'm not sure if anyone's ever seen that. But many Christians today standing on the very words of God are going to the front lines to those abortion mills.

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And they're telling the truth about what's going on at the abortion mill. This is murder. They're giving the gospel offering the message of peace and forgiveness and salvation in Christ.

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And they're offering to help. What do you need? We'll give you money. What do you need? Money? You need food?

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You need a place to stay? We'll adopt your babies. In the last year our church has been on the front lines going to stand on the

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Word of God proclaiming the Lordship of Christ over this situation. This needs to be under his feet.

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And over the last year over 32 babies saved from death in Tempe from just apology of church.

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And I'm saying this as a matter of encouragement to us as believers. When you stand on the Word of God, when you proclaim

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His Lordship, when you call people to repentance, when you stand on Him as the reference point, His law word as the reference point, then you actually have a basis to call people to repentance.

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Then you have an actual basis to call people to life. And then you also have a basis to bring the transformation of the culture necessary to bring glory to God.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray that you bless the Word that went out today. I pray

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Lord you'd use us to expand the kingdom of your Son.

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Lord Jesus, thank you for saving us. Thank you for dying for us, rising from the dead. And thank you

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Lord for joining us to yourself. Please bless what goes out from this conference today to your glory in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Wow and thank you.

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I have time for one question, I believe. If there are more, bring them up to me and we'll try.

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This is seemingly a simple one. See what you can do with it though. Do you find it easier to give the gospel of the kingdom to those in the church or those who have not heard the message before?

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As from an unbeliever? Well there's two things I would say. The first thing I would say is I think that when you preach about the good news of the kingdom of God to believers, no matter where you're at on the spectrum, you can't help but just be thrilled about it and excited about it.

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I have a lot of dispensation of pre -millennial friends and when I talk about things about the kingdom of God and everything else, they get equally excited like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but not yet.

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But it resonates within us because these are the very words of God, these are the promises of God. And I would say this, that when we preach about the good news of the kingdom to the unbeliever, there's a lot that's wrapped up again in that network of things

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I told you as part of the backdrop of the story that the unbeliever does need to hear. And it is up to obviously the

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Spirit of God to open the eyes of the blind and to bring somebody to new life so that they can even believe in Christ.

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But I mean, for me as a Christian proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, it is wrapped up in the good news of forgiveness and salvation and redemption in Christ.

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And so I don't think it should be a dichotomy where we think about one message for the church over here, one for the world.

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Jesus didn't do that. Jesus broadly proclaimed the good news of the kingdom to the world, and some came and some didn't.

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Obviously, it was all by the grace of God. But the kingdom of God has so many...the gospel of the kingdom has so many parts and pieces to it that we need to make sure we're unpacking all those truths, that all of those things need to be told to the world.

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All those things need to be told. Like there's forgiveness and salvation in Christ, repentance and faith come to him. And then with that also is that he's putting his enemies under his feet, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

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That needs to also come to the world. That's part of that same proclamation. He's Lord putting all his enemies under his feet, and we're warning the world at the same time.

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If you don't turn to him, if you don't come to him for life and forgiveness and salvation, you're part of that story as well anyways, but under his justice, under his wrath.

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And so I don't think, if I'm understanding the question correctly, I don't think we should make even kind of division between what we say to the church and what we say to the world.

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It's one message that Jesus proclaims. And it's interesting, if I could add a little caveat, a little thing on the end of that.

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When you look at the ministry of Jesus as he goes out and he proclaims the gospel, he does not sit the crowds down in different groups based on origin or sin.

01:00:01

Okay, where are you from? Okay, you sit over here in this group over here. Adulterers? Raise your hand, adulterers. Okay, adulterers over there. Okay, liars.

01:00:07

How many liars are we getting? Liars. And who's the thief? Okay, thieves, so you guys sit there and eat it. Who's the drunk?

01:00:12

Drunkards? You know, even today as Christians, we have a different way. There must be a whole different way to reach the person who's struggling with alcohol.

01:00:20

That's a whole special thing that we got to give over to the world to do. No. Jesus had drunks in front of him, didn't he?

01:00:28

And did he set them? Okay, hang on over here. We're gonna AA group for you later. We'll be right back with you. Okay, Jesus had a message, a message that he proclaimed out to the world.

01:00:39

And some came and some didn't. Some came and some didn't, but it was the same message to the world, a consistent message.

01:00:47

Obviously, we know it's the grace of God that brings anybody, but it's that same message we need to proclaim.

01:00:52

And I think that's part of the problem is we've truncated the gospel to particular like isolated little places here, but it's all encompassing.

01:00:57

Amen? It's all encompassing. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. God bless you.