Hey everyone, welcome here again to our morning service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne. And welcome to those in Trinidad via live streaming all over the world. Please open your helmets to number 111. One, one, one. What will you do with Jesus? Number 111. Jesus is standing in Pilate's hall, friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all. Back in one minute, a sudden call. What will we do with Jesus? What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be Someday your heart will be asking What will you do with me? Jesus is standing on trial still You can be false to him if you You can't be faithful to good or ill What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with Jesus? You try, you cannot be Someday your heart will be asking What will you do with me? Will you awake in the fire with pride? Or will you choose Him while there be tide? Will you struggle from Him to hide? What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with Jesus? You try, you cannot be Someday your heart will be asking What will you do with me? Will you appear, your Lord, deny? Or will you scorn from His foes to fly? Daring for Jesus to live or die? What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with Jesus? Someday your heart will be asking What will you do with me? Jesus, I give thee my heart today Jesus, I've followed all your older way Gladly obeying thee will you see This will I do with Jesus What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be Someday your heart will be asking What will you do with Jesus? Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful again that we can come together in this place. Thankful again that we have thy word, which tells us of the crucifixion of thy son, tells us of Pilate and his rejection of the truth and how that we, each person needs to decide. We have the same opportunity that Pilate had. We need to choose whether we're going to believe in thy son for our salvation, or if we're going to be stubborn and think that we can make it on our own. And we pray for anyone that's listening that is not saved, that they might see the foolishness of that. Pilate did not win, he was the governor. He could sign a death warrant, but he could not sign for his own salvation. And we pray that people today would wake up and see the importance of truth in their lives, would want thy forgiveness and blessing and know thy peace. We thank that we have opportunity here to proclaim the truth and we thank that thou has provided us a place to meet and for thy hand of protection upon this place. And we pray for continued protection, continued opportunity to reach out and to make thy name known in this area and across the world. We're thankful for the internet and that we can broadcast to other countries And we pray for wisdom as we maintain that site, and also as we put out the daily devotionals. We thank Thee again for Thy goodness, and may Thy will be accomplished here today, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And over to 423. 423, Wave a Story to Tell. Number 423. ♪ Wave a story to tell to the nation ♪ of truth and mercy, a story of peace and light, a story of peace and light. For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noon. And Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth A kingdom of love and light With a song to be sung to the nations That shall lift their hearts to the Lord A song that shall conquer evil a shelter, a spear and sword, a shelter, a spear and sword. For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright. And Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, With a message to give to the nations That the Lord who reigneth above Here sends us His hand to save us And show us that God is love And show us that God is love For the darkness shall turn to dawning, And the dawning to noonday bright, And Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, The kingdom of love and light. We've a Saviour to show to the nations, that all of the world's great peoples might come to the truth of God might come to the truth For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright. And Christ's great kingdom shall come to earth, the kingdom of love and light. And over to 454. 4, 454. What a wonderful savior. Number 454. what a wonderful savior we are with him the price is what a wonderful savior what a one What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord I praise Him for the cleansing blood. What a wonderful Savior! That reconciled my soul to God. What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord He cleansed my heart from all its sin, What a wonderful Savior! And now He reigns and rules therein, What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord He gives me overcoming power What a wonderful Savior, and triumph in His trying hour What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord To Him I've given all my heart What a wonderful Savior What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Jesus Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13, we're looking at verses 18 to 21 this morning. We'll stand, please, for the reading of God's word. Luke chapter 13, beginning at verse 18. Then said he unto, what is the kingdom of God like? And where unto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden. And it grew and waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. And again he said, where unto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven. which a man took, or which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning again that we have Thy Word, and we're thankful again for the many things that we can learn from Thy Word, things that are applicable for us today, things that are applicable for the nation of Israel and to the future. and things that we can always find some application for our time as well. We're thankful that we have thy word. We're thankful for thy Holy Spirit who guides and directs us in the study of thy word. And we pray that thy will be accomplished as we look at these verses this morning, that we might understand the importance of truth in our own lives and the blessing that there is in truth and how that it can be so helpful in our world in which we live. We're thankful that there's a day coming when the nation of Israel will finally recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah, as a nation, when they will bow before Him and acknowledge Him as their King as well and Savior and the blessing that they will know in the millennium because of that. We pray for the Jews today that there'd be many that would get saved and for their protection as well as they are living in some places in not very good conditions. So we pray that we would be seeking to reach out to Jews and Gentiles to see them know thy peace and blessing. Pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this morning is Understanding the Kingdom of God. In our world in which we're living in recent times, there has been talk on the internet of revivals that are taking place. There is a false theology out there, false thinking out there that there's going to be a massive revival before the Lord's return. But when we read the Bible, we don't see that. One of the things that I have seen quite a few reports on the internet of is that since the death of Charlie Kirk that there has been an awakening and people are starting to read their Bibles, people are going to churches and so on and some of that would be a good thing although some of it is not good and the reason being that most of the people that are searching are not allowing God to lead them to a true church. It's not enough just to go to church. You need to go to a church that honors the word of God. And if that's not the place that someone is attending, they're not going to get fed the truth. And it's the truth that will make you free. Charlie Kirk was very ecumenical in his thinking. He was very bold in his work and no doubt there were people that were challenged and people that have been seeking the truth since his death particularly. And we can't change him, but we need to be careful that we don't get too enthusiastic about his philosophy of doing things, but that we pursue biblical truth in our lives today. So as we look at this passage, you want to notice three things again. The first one is understanding the kingdom of God, and it tells us here in verse 18, then said he unto what is the kingdom of God like and where unto shall I resemble it? And then in verse 20, he says again and again, he said, where unto shall I liken the kingdom of God? So there is thinking in today's religious world that the kingdom of God is automatically a reference to churches. And that is not the case here in this passage. It's not a correlation. We cannot just take the kingdom of God and say that's the church. It's not. The context of this passage, Jesus is talking to Jews. And the kingdom of God is in reference to the millennium. in this passage. It's a future time. And so we need to understand when we're looking at a passage, what is the context? We can make, as I said in my prayer, we can make application to today. We can do that all over in the scriptures, but we need to understand what is the context and what is it addressing? And we looked at that in our Wednesday Bible study in Ezekiel 37, and we noted in that passage that the dry bones in that passage, it tells us right in the passage, it's referring to Israel. And it's a two-part prophecy there. The first part has been fulfilled now, where the breath has been given to the nation of Israel. It's back in its homeland, in part of its homeland. But the spiritual part has not taken place, but will take place at the end of the tribulation, when the nation of Israel will turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Messiah. So when we look at this passage here before us, again, we need to look at the context. And when we look at the context of it, we see that Jesus is addressing a situation that is yet future, and he's talking to people, Jewish people, because he came to Israel, and so the immediate context here is to the nation of Israel. So we look at the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel lost its place as a kingdom in the time of the fall to Babylon. That's when Judah fell. Assyria fell a few years earlier, but that's when the nation of Israel lost its place as a kingdom. It began to be ruled, first of all, by the Babylonians, then by the Medo-Persians, then by the Greeks, and then by the Romans. When Jesus was on the earth, there was no king in Israel. The Romans were in charge. The Romans accommodated the Jews and allowed the Jews to have their religious system. They allowed the Pharisees to establish their laws to a certain degree and to govern the Jews by those laws. But the king was a Gentile, King Herod. And it was ruled by them, by the Romans. When Jesus came in what we call Palm Sunday, he entered into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey, and he presented himself as king. And the Jews were quite excited in that. They understood what was going on, but they did not accept him as their king because he didn't do what they expected of him. The Jews had an imaginary idea of what the Messiah would do, and what they expected was that he would come and overthrow the Roman government and give them back the glory days of David. That's what they were looking for, and they're still looking for that today. That's why they will embrace the Antichrist when he comes on the scene. So they did not have a kingdom. So during the time that Jesus was on this earth, there was no physical kingdom of Israel. They were in their land, but they were not governing themselves. They were controlled by outside forces, and they were chomping at the bit, so to speak, waiting for that day when they would have their imaginary king who would overthrow the current system. That, of course, didn't happen. They didn't want the spiritual king that Jesus wanted to be, first of all, ruling in the heart, because that's what they missed when they looked at the life of David. The reason that David had success is because of his spiritual nature. He was a man who sinned, yes, but he also was a man who understood the importance of repentance, of confession of sin. Psalm 51 talks about that in great detail. where he understood the need to confess sin. He didn't always do it immediately. And we see the disastrous results of that as well. And that's a lesson for us to learn in our lives. But during his time, the nation of Israel expanded to the greatest extent that it ever did. Never yet has Israel had all the land that God promised to Abraham. They will have it all in the millennium. but they've never had it yet, but that will come. But they had the greatest amount during the time of David. Solomon was privileged to live at peace for his first part of his reign, but then he started having problems because of his idolatry, his many wives that he allowed to turn him away from God. And from that time on, there was conflicts between the two nations, the two nations, the South, North and the South, and then also the enemies from outside. So that is coming. And so Jesus here is drawing attention to the kingdom of God, to the time when that kingdom will be established in the millennium. And what's it going to be like? So as we look at it, there's two things here that that Jesus used as illustrations, things that the people were familiar with. The one of them here, I have a sample of it here, and I'll just pass it around. My wife saw it already, but this is just what a mustard seed looked like. Some of you know what that looks like, but it's very small. That's a mustard seed. So in our text here, Jesus says, It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and cast into his garden and it grew and waxed a great tree." So a mustard seed starts out very small, as you see in that plant there, and it can grow, apparently, I've never seen it that high, but apparently it can grow to be 10 feet tall. And that's in a couple of months. You normally seed in May. and the crop is finished by September, October. So that's in a couple of months that that seed, that little seed, can grow into something that's 10 feet tall. It's not literally a tree. Jesus talks about it as a tree here, but because it's seasonal, It doesn't have bark as a normal tree that we look at, but it can be considered a tree because of its size. And it has fairly large leaves, and so it would be a nice shade if you were under it. So the mustard plant grows and reaches this height, and he says here, the man takes the seed, he casts it into his garden, it grew, waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. So that's the one example that God gives us here. So the mustard seed, again, as we look at it, that little seed, and we look at the nation of Israel, and God started with one man, Abram, and with his wife, Sarai. God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah, And Abraham was 100 years old before he had the promised son. Abraham tried to short circuit God's plan and had a son with Hagar, but that was not God's design. And God did not accept Ishmael as the promise that he gave to Abraham earlier on. And so it started off with one man, one woman, whom God took and moved out of Ur of the Chaldees into a new land and then gave them one son. That son, Isaac, then had two sons, Jacob and Esau. But again, God chose to take one of those sons as the fulfillment, the continuation of the promise that he had made to Abraham. And so Jacob was chosen by God to be the next descendant. And then Jacob, from there we see a little more expansion. So we see 12 sons coming out of Jacob. And then from there, by the time Jacob moved his family to Egypt because of a famine, there was over 70 of them and they continued to grow in Egypt and became a large nation. As I mentioned before, if it wasn't for the many waves of persecution that the Jews have faced, the many times that their people have been killed, they would be much larger than they are at this present time. But they still are a large number of people. And so it tells us here that the kingdom of God, when we look at this now, this is in the coming to the millennium, It's gonna be like that grain of mustard seed, so the nation of Israel that is gonna survive the tribulation time is going to be relatively small. We know that the Antichrist, when he comes on the scene, he's going to come, the Bible tells us in the book of Revelation, he comes riding on a horse with a bow, but he has no arrows. He comes in as a pseudo-peacemaker. And so he's going to present himself as the great peacemaker, greater than Mr. Trump is doing at this time. And the world is going to embrace him. And they're going to be rejoicing in this peacemaker. Of course, when the tribulation starts and when the Antichrist is revealed, there will be no Christians on this earth. The Christians will be taken out at the beginning, at the start of the rapture, or at the time of the rapture. They will be gone, and it will be ungodly people, and they don't have discernment. And the Bible tells us that God is going to send them strong delusion, that they're going to believe a lie. So as the Antichrist comes on the scene, and he could be alive today, it depends on God's timing as to when the rapture will be. So we don't know who he is, and there's no point in speculating, because we don't know. And we don't know the time either. So whenever that happens, he will be revealed. And the Bible says that the world will embrace him. They will accept him with open arms. And he will speak the language they want him to speak. He will do what they want. He will be what the Jews, for instance, expected of Jesus. That's what he will be. And he will build them a temple. In that short time, there will be a temple built, so that temple will not be as magnificent as Solomon's temple, nor as the one that King Herod worked on remodeling in his time. But there will be a temple on this earth in the tribulation time. It will not be a temple that will be blessed of God, but it will be a temple built by the Antichrist. At the midpoint of the tribulation, the tribulation is a seven-year period, literally seven years, At the midpoint of the Tribulation, the Antichrist will go into that temple that he will have had built, and he will set himself up as God in that temple. He will defile that temple. You can go into the book of Daniel. and chapter 11, and you read about a man, Antiochus Epiphanes, who is a type of the Antichrist, and it describes what he did in the temple of his time, and the Antichrist will do similarly to what we read there. He will defile the temple so that the Jews will not want to enter it, and he will declare himself to be God, not just a king, but God. And then he will reveal who he really is and he will seek to wipe out the Jews and anybody that gets saved at that time, in the time of the tribulation. So people will get saved during the time of the tribulation. According to the Bible, we've said this before here, but if you're living today, and you don't accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, and the rapture were to happen during your lifetime, you will not get saved. God will not allow you to. We talked about that in Sunday school, that God limits the time that every individual has to respond to his mercy. And he knows that time. I don't know it, and you don't know it. And it's a very dangerous thing to live your life thinking that you can wait till next week or two years or ten years, whatever, and that you have lots of time to consider getting saved. You don't have lots of time. You have today. The Bible talks about today. And so today is the day when you should get saved if you're not saved. You have nothing to gain by waiting another day, another week, another year. You have nothing to gain in waiting. So at the midpoint, the Antichrist will set up his rule as the false god, and he will try to force everyone to take his mark. And those who take that mark, they have sealed their doom. They will never be able to be saved. And those who refuse to take his mark, their lives will be in severe danger. They will have to hide. Many of them will be killed. But those who survive, and God will protect some, particularly Jews, but not just Jews, but he will protect them so that there will be people surviving that three and a half year of ruthlessness of the Antichrist. At the end of that three and a half years, Jesus Christ will come back to earth. So the second coming of Christ is in two parts. The rapture is the first part where he comes in the clouds. The second part is when he comes and sets his feet on the Mount of Olives, splits it in half, and then you have the Battle of Armageddon, where all the wicked that are alive in the tribulation, all the wicked of that time will be slaughtered by Jesus. He doesn't need any help. And then after that battle is done, That's the millennium starts and the saved individuals that survived in the tribulation will enter into the millennium. The bulk of those will be Jews, I believe. And Jesus will then set up a temple, his temple in the millennium. And in that time, that's what it's talking about here, like a mustard seed, the number of Jews entering into the millennium is a small number. But they will multiply. because it's a thousand years, a millennium. During that time, people will have babies just like they do now. Nothing changes in regard to humanity. Those who enter the millennium, all of those who enter the millennium will be saved. No unbeliever will enter the millennium. However, every child that is born in the millennium is still lost just like every child today is. So they still need to choose whether they're going to accept Jesus Christ or not. The Bible tells us in Revelation chapter 19, if you want to turn there in your Bibles. Revelation chapter 19. In verse 19, it says, and I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with a sword of him that sat on the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. So at the end of the millennium, there is one final battle. And in that battle, should be reading from chapter 20, at the end of verse seven, at verse seven of chapter 20, says, and when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out and deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So those are the verses there that we should have read in regard to the end of the millennium. At the end of millennium, we see that the majority of humanity of that time will be lost, just like today. So when we go back to Jesus in Luke chapter 13, we see there it says that the kingdom of God will be like a grain of mustard seed, which is small, grew and waxed a great tree. So there will be many Jews born and alive in the millennium, in that thousand-year time. But it says there, and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. Now, birds, they like to sit in trees. I just read this morning of a problem that they are having in the Toronto Islands with a bird called a cormorant. And that bird also, I can't remember the name of the island, but it's not Pelee Island, which is off of Leamington area in Ontario. But there's another island there that the cormorant also took over that island. And their dung is very acidic. And on that island, they have killed just about all the trees with their dung. And that's the problem they're facing now on the Toronto Islands is that these cormorants are so plenteous there that they're destroying the vegetation there. So birds, there are certain birds that we like because we eat them. But birds also have uncleanness to them. And so here, when it's talking about the fowls of the air lodging and the branches of it, that's not a blessing, that's a problem. And it's a picture of the defilement of the people that's going to take place in the millennium, just as it is now. Even though Jesus Christ is going to rule during the millennium, he is not going to force people to believe in him. He's going to rule with a rod of iron, which means that evil will not have the free reign that it has today. You won't have sodomites marching in parades, for instance. That won't happen. But there's still going to be evil in their heart. They won't be able to express it as freely as they can now, but they're still going to be evil. And at the end of the millennium, that group of people will join together because Satan will be let loose from the pit that he's put in at the beginning of the millennium. He will be let loose by God. He didn't break out. He's going to be let loose by God, and he will gather all the lost people into one massive army. And Jesus Christ will destroy that army. and they will be cast into hell, and then the Great White Throne will take place, and then those people, plus all the lost from the Old Testament time, and the Church Age time, all the lost people will be at the Great White Throne judgment, and exposed for their wickedness, and cast into the lake of fire. So the time that Jesus is talking about here is that thousand year time frame, that's future, When this mustard seed, a picture of the nation of Israel, is going to grow and be very great, it says, waxed a great tree. So there'll be many Jews in a thousand years. There's lots of time for that. And the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. And that's where Jesus stops. He doesn't go into the judgment here. He just talks about that timeframe. So then the second example that Jesus gives, our third point, is the woman with the leaven. So in verse 21, it is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leaven. So again, the picture here is of the nation of Israel in the millennium. And she's making a cake or bread or whatever she's making, but she's got three measures of meal and she's going to add leaven to it. And it tells us here that she's going to mix this until the whole thing is leavened. Leaven in the Bible is something that is used to make dough rise, but it's also used in the Bible as a picture of sin. And I believe in this passage, that's how it's being used, as a picture of sin. And so the meal again, the nation of Israel, is going to be growing. It's going to be expanding in the millennium. The leaven is going to be there, which is going to influence the people, the sin factor, because again, man is For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. So every Jew, every Gentile that will be born in the millennium will be born lost. And so they will need to be saved. And many of them will choose not to be saved. Again, Jesus will not force salvation upon anyone. God never created man to be a robot. He doesn't want anybody in his family that doesn't want to be there. And so nobody will be forced. You can reject God, you can reject Jesus Christ as your savior if you want to. You can do that. It's not a wise thing to do, but you can do that. But you need to understand, and the Bible makes that abundantly clear, that there's a consequence to doing that. And if you choose to live your life without Christ and you die that way, you're going to hell. And in the end, you're going to the lake of fire. And that's not for a month, that's not for a year, that's not for 10 years, that's for all of eternity. There's no end to that. So you need to think about that. If you're hesitating to trust in Christ, you need to think about what kind of a future you have ahead of you. And it's not good. And you cannot change that after you die. The time that you can change that is now. And you can only change that now by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. There's no other way. You can't earn your way. You're not smart enough to figure anything else out. You must repent toward God and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation. That's the only hope that there is for you. So looking at these two illustrations that Jesus gives us here is a picture of what is ahead for the Jews. Again, the Jews, while Jesus was on earth and he knew their minds, their desire was to have a king. Their desire was to have their land back and to be governing themselves. And that wasn't going to happen right away. But Jesus tells them what's coming. What's the kingdom of God like? And so these two illustrations are specifically to the nation of Israel in the millennium. Now, as I said, we can make application to our time today. And we have seen in our time in Not just our time, but since the time of Christ, we have seen churches established across the world. And there have been times when there have been large numbers. Acts chapter 2, 3,000 plus were saved at one time. Chapter 5, I believe it is, there was 5,000. So those are two times when numbers are mentioned. But we know that there are churches across the world. But we also know that as the world has moved past the time of Christ, that there has also been corruption. There was corruption while Jesus was on the earth. There was corruption when Peter and the apostles were preaching. And there has been corruption since then. So today, there are many churches across the world, but the majority of them are false churches. The birds have nested in the tree, if we can use that as an analogy. So there's an application we can make again of how that in our time, the majority of what's called Christianity is not Christianity. And I warned about that in the illustration a little bit. I don't know whether Mr. Kirk was a saved man or not. I question it myself, but I'm not God. but I know that I would not want anybody to follow his example in trying to be a Christian and living as a Christian. So, but we need to, each one needs to take the word of God as our authority and follow what the Bible says to be a Christian and how to live as a Christian. You don't need to pattern yourself after some other individual, period. You can use individuals as an example, but your ultimate authority is God and the word of God. So if we take the word of God as our authority, there's gonna be unity. Ephesians chapter four talks about that. Philippians chapter two talks about that. Many places talk about that. There should be unity amongst God's people. Because we all have the same Bible. We have the same Savior. We have the same Holy Spirit. And so where there is not unity amongst God's people, as we spend time in God's Word, we can be unified. Not because one person hollers louder than the other, but because we let the Word of God be our authority. And so as we study the Word of God, And as we are submissive to the word of God, we're going to come to agreement on the doctrines. That's what the Bible teaches us. We're not seeing that that much in our world today. What we are seeing is where we understand that there are certain doctrines that are controversial. And so even when there's a conference held, we avoid talking about those doctrines. because we're trying to manufacture a unity that is not there. Not that it shouldn't be there, but it's not there. And it's not there because we're afraid to speak the truth. And that's not a good thing. Yes, there's going to be controversy. There's going to be offense when you speak the truth. But it's also through that that people come to see, wait a minute, this is what I believe, but I can see I've been shown that's not true. And if the person is truly saved, then God is going to win. If he's not saved, then the person will fight and may cause a lot of trouble. But anyway, getting back to it here, we see how that Christianity, or churches at least, have expanded. But there's not a lot of truth today. Less, I believe, than there was when I was a young person in our world. The truth is still here, the word of God. But there are less true churches today than there were when I was a younger person. That's because the birds have taken over. That's because the leaven has taken over. and the world has been allowed, the world doesn't accidentally come into a body of Christ. The world is allowed to come in. The world is invited to come in because we become careless. Paul addressed that in 1st and 2nd Corinthians, 1st Corinthians in particular, the carnality that was in the church. It was a true church in Corinth. but they had some major problems. They were not addressing those problems. Paul was sent there to address the problem, and he did. He was very bold and he addressed the problem, obeyed God. The result was, 2 Corinthians tells us, that the main man that was the problem there, he repented. and others did as well, but the main man repented. And then it was up to that church to welcome him back in, not to keep him out there. That's where it's important for us to understand forgiveness. We need it and we need to express it to others as well that are truly repentant. That's how you have a strong church, is when you take the Word of God and stand upon it. Don't allow the outside influences, the birds, to come in and pollute it. Don't allow the leaven to take over. Don't allow sin to run in your church, in your own heart and life. And that's important. We've talked about that here often, different things that people do, different sins that people are involved in. We see a creeping in of immodesty in churches today. We see a change in the music standards. We've certainly seen a change in the, purity of marriage that God has designed in the Bible, and many other things that are going on in churches today that the Bible does not endorse, does not accept, but we have said, well, it's okay. It doesn't work. It's not okay. God has never changed. And so it's very important for us to take God's word as our authority and make sure that we're not being changed by the world just because we want to have more people coming. We want more people, but we want to make sure that those who join the church are people who actually know the Lord. Ultimately, I can't see anybody's heart. You can't see mine. But God says, Jesus says, you can tell a tree by its fruit. And so over time, we will see what the person truly is. You will see who I truly am over time. And I will see who you truly are. And true Christians grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not everything we should be the day we get saved, but we need to be growing. And the longer that a person lives as a Christian, the more that person should be growing in the things of God. becoming more Christ-like. So that the illustration that Jesus is giving here to the people is about a future time, because again, they don't have the kingdom right there. They gave that up long ago. And at the time of Jesus, they didn't want it. They wanted a kingdom, but they didn't want the kingdom of God. Today as well, the nation of Israel wants a kingdom. They have a president, they have a prime minister, they don't have a king, they don't have a priesthood, they don't have a temple. They would love to have those things, but they don't want to have them because they don't want to submit to God. And so this is still future. It's coming in the future when the nation of Israel will turn to God and will recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah, their Savior, their King, their Priest. And he will be all of that. And so we can continue to pray for the nation of Israel, continue to pray for Jews to be saved, but also pray for Gentiles to be saved. That we can pray for this church, that this church would would be a true Church of Jesus Christ, that we would be growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would be a better light in our community and across the world as people tune into us, that we can be a help to people to know the true God and to follow Him. We're not in a competition with anybody else, And we also need, that's why we call ourselves an independent Baptist church, because we are not under pressure from any other church to be like they are. We're called to be like Christ. And as I said, if there is a desire for truth, then we should look like other churches. There should be unity in amongst us. And that is something that we should be submissive to and desiring to have. But if it's not possible, then we need to make sure that we protect this body, that we keep ourselves in the love of God, walking humbly with him and proclaiming the truth and walking in the truth so that we can help others to know the truth as well. So again, if you're listening today and you're not saved, as I've already, I think I made it fairly clear, that you are on a path of destruction. That's your choice. You have a choice. Nobody's forcing you to remain on that path. You were born with a sin nature just like I was. You need to choose if you're going to ask God to change that or if you're gonna continue on that path. The longer you continue on that path, the harder your heart's gonna get. The more convinced you are going to be that your way works. And that's not a good thing. And so the wise person turns to God today in repentance and asks for salvation, forgiveness and salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. and then begin to grow in him. For those of us that are saved, we need to pray for boldness and humility. And both of them work together. Boldness is not an arrogance. Boldness comes as we submit to God and allow him to lead us so that we say the things that we need to say to the people that he brings into our path so we can be a help to them as they need to be to us. And that's very important. That's what we need to be like iron sharpens iron. And when iron is sharpening iron, there's sparks that fly. There's little shavings that come off. And so that's what we need. We need those little shavings to come off. We need to be purified and we need to be growing in the Lord. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful that we have thy word. We're thankful that we can know the truth. We can know the forgiveness of sin and have Thy peace in our hearts. And we're thankful that we can be a help to others as well. And we continue to pray for the nation of Israel as Jesus is speaking about the kingdom of God and what it's like, and how that there is a time coming when the nation of Israel will turn to Thee in repentance. They will acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. And we pray for many Jews across the world today that there would be many that would take this day to turn to Thee in repentance and trust in Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for their salvation. Pray for many Gentiles that they would do likewise. Pray for anyone that's listening to this or will listen to it, that they would also be careful in their attitude. Those that are saved would be encouraged in the truth. Those that are lost would see the importance of listening, of being saved, of knowing thy forgiveness and having thy peace in their heart. We're thankful that we can be a light. And I pray that we would want to be a brighter light, not a dimmer light. That we would not want to create confusion, but that we would want to help people to know the peace of God in their hearts. May thy will be accomplished in this place and through the ministry of this place we pray in Jesus name. Amen.