And for our scripture reading from the Old Testament, let us turn to 1st Chronicles 29. And the reading will be 1st Chronicles 29, verses 10 to 20. This is the word of God. Let us listen now to the Lord. Therefore David blessed the Lord before all the assembly And David said, blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, our father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in heaven and in earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you. You reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name. But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and of your own we have given you. For we are aliens and pilgrims before you, as were all our fathers. Our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope. O Lord, our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand and is all your own. And I know also, my God, that you will test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered all these things. And now with joy, I have seen your people who are present here to offer willingly to you. O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers keep this forever in the intent of the thoughts of the heart of your people and fix their heart toward you. And give my son Solomon a loyal heart to keep your commandments and your testimonies and your statutes to do all these things and to build the temple for which I have made provision.' Then David said to all the assembly, Now bless the Lord your God. So all the assembly blessed the Lord God of their fathers and bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before the Lord and the king. Here ends the reading of this passage of God's word. Our scripture reading is a little different from what you see there in your bulletin. It's Revelation chapter 12, that will be sufficient. Revelation 12. And we will read the first 12 verses of Revelation 12. Let us hear now the very word of God. And now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with a sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of 12 stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red fiery dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his head. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up to God and his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that he has a short time. Here ends this portion of scripture. Let us now bow our heads and ask the Lord to teach us. Lord, from this passage and other passages, teach us about the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and how indeed it is your program and plan that the kingdoms of this world should become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. Teach us what it means to us, Lord, we pray. And help us, Lord, help us to become aware of the coming kingdom. And this we ask you in Jesus' name, amen. We pray in the Lord's Prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Well, the fact is we are living in a realm that no one sees, a spiritual realm. We are living in a spiritual realm. That realm is the kingdom of God. Because it's invisible, many people don't think that it's real. In fact, no natural person does. But Jesus taught us to say, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. My question is, are we aware of the kingdom of heaven as we live our lives on earth? Do we know how to live in the kingdom of heaven like we were residents of heaven? residents of the kingdom. We will be able to function in the kingdom when we know four things about it. We need first to know what the kingdom of heaven is. Secondly, we need to know how the kingdom of heaven was brought to earth. And third, we need to know what the coming of the kingdom looks like. And fourth, we need to know how the kingdom finally will be manifest. So let's look at, first of all, what is the kingdom? What is the kingdom? Jesus said, thy kingdom come. What is thy kingdom? Well, look at the kingdom itself. The Greek word is basileia, and it means royalty or rule or reign, and it refers to the realm or a kingdom. And David's prayer that I read to you from 1 Chronicles 29, verse 11, he well describes the kingdom of God. Listen to these words again. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and in earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom. O Lord, you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you. You reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. That's how David describes it as he prays to the Lord. Therefore, the kingdom of God is quite simply the rule of God, the majestic rule of God over all things. The center of this government is found in heaven. It is the throne of God. The legislative authority has been given to Christ. He is the prophet. He gives to us the word of God. The judicial authority is also Christ's. He rules as a priest. and justly. And the executive authority is the government of Christ as the king. So Christ is the legislative, judicial, and executive branch of the kingdom of God because he is the prophet, the priest, and the king. And as Jesus declared before he ascended into heaven, All authority has been given unto me. He is the authority of that kingdom. And as for the church, what about that? The church has been given what is called the keys of the kingdom. That means they open the door, the gate of the kingdom, and they can close the door of the kingdom to souls who receive the gospel or reject the gospel. The constitution and guidebook of the church in all matters for the kingdom is the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, that's our constitution. And the chief end and purpose of the kingdom is the glory of God, as he taught us to pray, thine is the kingdom and the glory. But there is another kingdom going on, a kingdom that is hostile to God's kingdom. It is the kingdom of this world under the rule of Satan, as we've seen in Revelation. When we pray, thy kingdom come, we recognize that it's not raining on earth at this time. God is not being hallowed. Man does not fall down and worship him, nor trust in God to supply his needs, nor give him thanks when God does supply his needs. And why don't they? because they are subjects of this world's prince, that is, Satan. He is the ruler of the kingdom of this world. He's also known as the prince of darkness who has blinded the eyes of men, the prince of the power of the air, if you will. We see his kingdom in the nations of the world. That's what causes us so much distress when we pick up the newspapers or hear the news of what's going on. We see confusion. We see chaos. We see conflict. And where does that character come from? It comes from the devil, the author of confusion. Historians tell us that there have been 21 major civilizations in the history of the world. Among them, Egypt and Babylon, Syria and Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, but they are all under the guidance and authority of the prince of this world, the prince of darkness. And that's why in the wilderness the devil showed Jesus while he was fasting all the kingdoms of the world in their glory. And he said to Jesus, all these are mine and they belong to me and I give them to whomsoever I will. Fall down and worship me and I will give you these kingdoms. And of course, Jesus' answer is, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. But this is not the character of this kingdom of this world under the reign of Satan. And it's because of the kingdom of Satan in this world that we must ask the next question then. We find out what the kingdom of heaven is like, thy kingdom. Now the next question we have to ask is, how was the kingdom of heaven brought to earth? And this is where Christ comes in. The coming of the kingdom of God requires Christ to destroy the kingdom of Satan on this earth. And I read to you Revelation 12, and Revelation 12 opens to us a view of heaven at the time of Christ's birth. And there was a battle being fought in heaven regarding the coming of Christ, the incarnation of Christ. It says in verses 7 to 9 of Revelation 12, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon, the great fiery dragon with seven heads and seven diadems. And the dragon and his angels were not strong enough, and there was found no room for them in heaven. And the dragon was thrown down. Well, what was this battle about? What does it mean? Was it a literal war with swords and spears or maybe grenades and bombs and machine guns? No, these are spiritual things given in a way that we can understand. It's a spiritual matter that was going on in heaven. Symbols and signs are represented here by swords and and spears. The dragon, well that's another symbol. The dragon is the devil. I think that was obvious to us. And the devil is at war in heaven. And that's the picture we see going on. What was it about? It all had to do with justice versus mercy. That was the issue. It was impossible for the just and righteous God to admit a single sinful man into heaven and the devil aimed to keep it that way. For as long as God then could no longer receive a sinful man, all those elect, then the kingdom of heaven will fall. The kingdom of heaven will never come to this earth. And so before Christ was born, all heaven's hosts wondered at how God could justify or pass over the sins of those people he loved. How is it that Abraham could be called the friend of God, even though he had lied? How is it that David, adulterer and murderer, be cleansed of his sin and be restored in God's sight? How could the accusations of Satan against all our sins be addressed by the justice and righteousness of God? As long as the accuser, the devil, the dragon, had access to the throne of God, God's people did not. God's people groaned in travail like a woman giving birth, longing to be delivered, longing for a deliverer. That's the picture of this glorious woman. The deliverer came as a child on earth, born of a glorious woman. The 12 stars all represented the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles representing the church from heaven's point of view. But what was happening is in the church of God, in the kingdom of God on earth, Christ was Coming into this world, he was being born. The incarnation of Christ, that's what it's called. The incarnation of Christ. When Christ was being made flesh, that's what was going on. Being born of the Virgin Mary. And the devil, who was the dragon, desperately tried to prevent this birth from happening. Or if it did happen, in fact, then he was going to end it right there. That's why we have King Herod trying to put to death all the boy babies in and around Bethlehem, trying to destroy that child. We see throughout Jesus' life there was constant agitation and constant conspiracy against Christ. Where was that coming from? Your father the devil, Jesus said to the Pharisees, that's where it came from. Until finally then they succeeded in crucifying him under Roman rule. But when this child then died for our sins and then ascended into heaven, all the authority went to Jesus Christ. He had power over life and power over death, power over sin, power to intercede for us. And the dragon lost his voice and was waging war in heaven over that voice to prevent God's people from accessing the throne of God. He is the accuser. He's always been the accuser. But in heaven, because of the work of Jesus Christ, Michael and his angels had authority to cast out the devil and all his angels and open up the gates of heaven so that all who believe have access to the throne of God. And there you see the coming of the kingdom of God on earth. And because Christ accomplished the work he was sent for, Michael and his angels had complete success. Now the devil must crawl on his belly like a serpent. He is consigned to this world. He no longer has access to heaven or the throne of God. He is like a serpent. He can't level an accusation against any of God's elect any longer. Who is he that condemns, said Paul in Romans 8, it is Christ that died. And we saw the evidence of the futility and the taking away of authority from the devil at Pentecost. After Christ ascended into heaven, like is pictured here in Revelation 12, after he ascended into heaven, suddenly then the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was poured out on the church and the kingdom. And it empowered the preaching of the gospel by Peter and by the other apostles And that power was so great that thousands of people heard and they believed and their hearts were changed and they were brought in and added to the church. And so Christ's incarnation brought to earth the kingdom of heaven. When all God's people now have access to the throne of God, they are accepted in heaven, they will be delivered on Judgment Day, and they are now proclaiming the name of Christ to all nations. In this way, the kingdom is coming, and we are seeing it happen. This brings up then the next question. What does the coming kingdom look like? Thy kingdom come, we pray. What does that look like? Well, the coming of the kingdom of God is the work of the Holy Spirit, gathering his elect from the four corners of the world. In other words, the kingdom is coming as souls put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see it? Where are you looking for the kingdom then? You see, the Jews didn't understand these things. The Jews largely didn't know where to look for the kingdom because they didn't understand the nature of the kingdom. The Jews were generally stuck in a temporal view of the kingdom. They saw the kingdom of heaven as a monarchy. in which the son of David, the Messiah, would sit on the throne of David over the whole world and would enforce the law of Moses by signs and wonders. The kingdom of heaven would replace Rome with Jerusalem as the capital of the world. The irony of all of this is because of their temporal view of the kingdom, they didn't see the spiritual side at all, and they didn't realize that they were not submitting to the spiritual government of God. They couldn't recognize that their hearts before God were not subject to his rule. They lived in a system in which religious hypocrisy held the bondage, the consciences of the people and the wealthy tax gatherers fed off the poor daily laborers and the widows. They didn't see that themselves and that God was very angry and their hearts were not right. They were not subject to the spiritual rule of God at all, even though they were looking for the material rule of the kingdom. But you see, the kingdom is spiritual. When the Jews asked Jesus when the kingdom was coming, he answered them in Luke 17, 20 and 21, The kingdom does not come by observation, he said, nor will they say, see here, for indeed, the kingdom is within you. In Mark 4, 26 to 29, Jesus told a parable, and it was the parable of the seed growing secretly. And in that parable, he's teaching that a man plants the seed of the word of God into the human hearts by proclaiming it. They preach the kingdom of God, persuading men and women to repent and believe. And that is the seed that is planted, but it is planted in the hearts of the people. So when men and women receive Jesus into their hearts, what Jesus is saying is they are receiving the kingdom. Or as Jesus put it another way with Nicodemus, unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom. He cannot see the kingdom. So salvation and entrance into the kingdom are one and the same. And it's a spiritual transaction. And you know that. You can sense the climate of the kingdom when we experience righteousness and peace and joy of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 14, 17, Paul said, that's what constitutes the kingdom. True righteousness, the righteousness purchased for us by Jesus Christ, the peace brought to us by the peacemaker who rules in heaven and joy of the Holy Spirit who has convinced our hearts that we are the children of God. In this sense, the kingdom is within you. And so the kingdom of God enters the hearts of men as they're convicted by their sins and assured by the Holy Spirit that they are children of God so that they respond and cry, as Paul put it, Abba, Father. Very personal. Some time ago I told a story about C. John Miller in his manuscript, Repentance in the 20th Century. Man, I want to give this to you again. because you probably forgot it anyway. But he tells the story of a young couple that came to the Miller household. And the wife had been involved in the occult while she was in college. She said to him, I wish you could show me some of my sins. I really don't know any. And so they prayerfully poured over the word and for four hours, And then suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, she stopped and cried out, why, I think that is my sin too. Then out of her mouth poured a stream of confessions. But she still could not call God Father. So as Jack Miller prayed Holy Father, he said, she would stumble. And the words Holy Father couldn't come out of her lips. So Dr. Miller began to pray and confess his own sin of unbelief. Suddenly, while he was praying, she broke into his prayer and said, that's it, that's it, that's my sin. She began confessing her indifference to the glory of the person of Christ, and she began to call God Father unawares. at first, and when it dawned on her what she was saying, praise poured forth from her lips, and she delighted in the freedom of sonship and said, my father, my heavenly father, her life of repentance was beautiful to see, as he said, as she began a new life under the administration of Jesus Christ. That's the kingdom of heaven in its coming. And we see the kingdom of heaven too as Jesus builds his church throughout this world. where his people profess Jesus Christ and gather in his name to worship and access the throne of God in prayer. We see the kingdom of heaven in all these ways. We see the kingdom of heaven in the effect missions has throughout the world to convert whole cultures from Satan to Christ. Sometimes it has to come to that claim in Revelation 12, 12, and they love not their lives unto the death, but Christ gave them the victory and the devil. His nose is rubbed into the earth. And so it happens. Cultures are one. The one story I read and heard in World War II, a group of American flyers were forced onto the South Sea Island, forced down on a South Sea Island. And they worried for their safety after the many stories they'd heard about cannibals. And in fact, it wasn't long before their worst fears were realized and then relieved. For when they were accosted by the natives, they discovered that the work of missionaries had preceded them. Not only were they treated with kindness and care, but it became the mission of these former cannibals to lead the American boys to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they returned to the States, they testified that it was cannibals that gave them the gospel. the coming of the kingdom. That's what it looks like. And so as God is breaking down the boundaries of Satan's kingdom in every nation, we see the unfolding of the worldwide timetable as Jesus outlines it in Matthew 24 to 14. And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations for a witness. And then the end will come. And we We are participating in the process of the kingdom coming until that final day. Do you recognize the coming of the kingdom in these signs? But this still begs a fourth question. How will the kingdom finally be manifested? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are taught to pray. Well, is the kingdom nothing more than changing hearts and lives? Is that all we may expect? Well, ironically, that's what you'll hear from some liberal churches. The coming of the kingdom is loving one another and changed hearts and so on, learning charity and mercy and benevolence. But in truth, the kingdom of heaven will be manifested on a new transformed earth under the rule of Jesus Christ. It will be manifested for the eye to see. It will not cease to be spiritual, but it will now be also visible. Daniel foresaw the ruler of that kingdom. In Daniel 7, 14, he says, the son of man received from the ancient of days. this dominion. It says, then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. That's what Daniel foresaw. The glorious reign of Christ will be manifested then when the son of man, as Daniel put it, comes in the clouds of glory, as Jesus put it, and every eye will see him. He is coming to judge the earth and the people with his righteousness as foretold in Psalm 95, 96. It will be a time when the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible bodies and the righteous will inherit the kingdom. It will be a time of harvest when every soul, living and dead, will be gathered before Him. A time of separating the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous. It will be the hour when the devil himself will be cast into the lake of fire and suffer condemnation of eternal flames. And it will be the time when the last enemy, death, will be destroyed. Finally, then all injustice and unrighteousness and perversion of Satan's rule in this world will be set straight. And as Isaiah put it, and John the Baptist repeated it, every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. and all flesh shall see it together. That is explaining all of the inconsistencies and incongruities and unanswerable problems that we have in this world due to the contradiction of the devil and of our own deceitful sin and blindness. These things will all be resolved by the king of righteousness, the word of truth himself, Jesus Christ, when he reigns on this earth. And so, as Jesus put it, the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. Matthew 13, 43. Dear friends, Peter exhorts us to look for and hasten the coming of the day of God in 2 Peter 3, 12. Do we now know how to live in the kingdom like residents of heaven? Do we want to be more aware of the kingdom, watching for its coming? Well, some simple things I would like to give you four, simple applications that we should practice that will put us in touch with the kingdom of heaven. First, Let's not despair over our current events and our largely corrupt political system. We may faint over the increase of wickedness in the world under Satan, and we may think that the devil has successfully thrown so many obstacles in our efforts to build the kingdom of heaven, and yet we are comforted in knowing that the kingdom of heaven is not political. It's not temporal like the Jews thought. The kingdom of heaven is spiritual, and our labors are made effectual through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. And he is the one who is advancing the kingdom through our humble and sometimes futile efforts. Therefore, while we labor, we don't fail to pray, thine is the kingdom. Let us not despair over our current climate, politically or culturally. Second, Let's pay attention to the invisible spiritual realm around us and within us. Tune in. Only the spiritually minded are aware of the spiritual realm in which they live. There you will find the kingdom of heaven where the rule of God humbles our hearts in true repentance. Where else but in the kingdom of heaven could a heart truly humble itself and be repentant. And there you will find where your spiritual attitudes become more Christ-like toward others in righteousness and peace, the joy of the Holy Spirit. And there you will find an ability to discern the will of God in your behavior and the choices you make. You pick it up. You learn it. The scriptures come to life in you. All of this testifies that you are working in the invisible spiritual realm within you. These are evidences of the rule of God's kingdom. And that is how we're to look for the kingdom of heaven within us. Pay attention to the invisible spiritual realm you are in. and it's within you. And third, be an active part of the Great Commission. We've been given a part in the current spiritual activity and the warfare as the kingdom of God is coming to the earth itself. And Jesus tells us how we may participate in bringing in the kingdom, and that is by propagating the gospel of the kingdom, extending the ministry of the church, And that includes evangelism in our church, outreach in our church, VBS, tonight's outreach program, the carol sing, the missions, and the discipleship programs or efforts that we make toward discipling one another. This is an active part of the Great Commission. And we're all called to participate in it and the support then of missions overseas in every way we can to reach into those dark locations where the devil has been reigning all these years. Third, then be active part of the Great Commission. And finally, fourth, pray. The single most potent weapon we have been given for bringing in the kingdom is prayer. Prayer defeats the devil. Prayer empowers the gospel as it advances the kingdom. Prayer gives us victory over our own temptations from the kingdom of this world. And so when we say, thy kingdom come, we pray for our witness, our church, for one another, that the evil one will not prevail or silence our witness. but that through evangelism we may unlock the gates of the kingdom for many. When we pray, thy kingdom come, we pray for the work of missions and for missionaries and the conversion of nations that all the people may submit to Jesus Christ, that that day will come then soon, that Jesus himself, when he returns, will see every knee bow and hear every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. We pray for missionaries to that end. So we pray the Lord's prayer until he comes again. Just like we celebrate the Lord's supper, we proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. So we pray the Lord's prayer till his kingdom comes. Pray. Are we now aware of the spiritual realm in which we live? Are we aware of the coming of the kingdom of heaven and how it is coming? Are we thriving spiritually under the government of our Lord Jesus Christ? Then we know what it is to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we submit and bow to the authority of Jesus and give you thanks for the kindness of our Savior who has ministered to us from regions of heaven that we do not perceive. We bow before you and we give you our thanks. We ask, O Lord, that you would open our hearts to discern and apprehend spiritual things. Give to us that spiritual perspective for our eyes, the spiritual eyes in our soul to see. And may it be a check for us when we're drawn and tempted by the world. May it be an encouragement to us, Lord, when we're distressed by the current events that are happening. May it also move us, O Lord, and inspire us to serve the Lord with all our hearts as residents of the kingdom, in the kingdom. May we be empowered by the blood of Christ who makes us worthy to come to the throne of God and pray and worship. And may we be empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve in the kingdom in whatever function you would have us. And Lord, I pray for those of us who are so burdened down by the things of this world, and I ask, and by their own sins, I just pray that you would give to them spiritual vision, spiritual sensitivity, that they may indeed walk and live in righteousness and peace and joy of the Holy Spirit. and know that they are walking in the kingdom of heaven. And I ask you this in Jesus' name, amen.