Two
thousand years ago two men showed up in Judea with the same message.
Their message was not, repent and miss hell as some would have us
believe. John the baptizer came preaching "Repent for the kingdom of
God is at hand”, and when his time was fulfilled, Jesus began His
ministry and preaching the same message. His Father was ready to begin
setting up His kingdom here on earth as He has it in heaven. To those
who believe the message of the kingdom and become a part of it, they
will miss hell, and have everlasting life.
"Thou,
even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of
heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are
therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them
all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee” (Neh 9: 6). It is God who
has everything, it is His dominion, this world was made to worship Him
and it is His will to have kingdom here on the just like the one He has
in heaven. He devised a plan to set this in motion from the foundation
of the world. God created man in His image to give man the control and
dominion of the earth (Gen. 1:26-28).
How
many of us, as believers, have prayed or said what is called the
Lord’s Prayer? These words, which Jesus taught were not necessarily a
repeat after me prayer, but as He said "After this manner therefore pray
ye”. He gave us an outline of how we can reach God. First, we address
God as "our Father Which art in heaven”. Second, Jesus gives us an
example to praise the Father and glorify His name "Hallowed be Thy
name”. Thirdly, to ask God to fulfill His purpose and will on this
earth. "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven”
(Mt 6:9-13).
These
three things come first in importance before our needs and requests.
The Kingdom of God on earth is God’s plan since the creation of man.
Jesus didn’t come just to save sinners, though it is a faithful saying.
He came and died for our sins, to enable us to become a part of His
kingdom. Jesus even told Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God " (Jn
3:3). "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (Jn 1:12)”
Jesus’
death and resurrection allows mankind to attain a condition of
spiritual holiness enabling us to be a part the kingdom that God will
have here on earth. When Nicodemus asked Jesus, "How can a man be born
when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb,
and be born”? Jesus answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye
must be born again” (Jn 3:4-7).
The
point Jesus is making is that to enter the kingdom of God, one has to
be born of woman. When a child is ready to enter the world, his mother’s
water breaks and the child comes forth. One has to be "born again” to
see what the kingdom of God is and enter it.
"The
heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given
to the children of men” (Ps 115:16). God sent His Son to earth in the
form of man, because the He has given the earth to man. He will also
fulfill His promise to David. "Now therefore, O LORD God of Israel,
keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him,
saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the
throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to
walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me” (2Ch 6:17). The promises
of God the Father are sure, they cannot fail, there will be a man to
sit on the throne of David, even Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
God’s
plan after the Lucifer’s rebellion, was to inhabit the earth with man
to worship Him, and to give the angels that remained in God’s heavenly
kingdom a visual lesson of how grievous the insurrection of Lucifer
was. But, while in the Garden of Eden, the first Adam relinquished his
dominion of the earth to Satan by disobeying the commandment and will of
God to not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
On
the day of Pentecost, when it had fully come, Peter filled with an
unction of the Holy Ghost preached to the crowd, that Jesus was raise
from the dead to immortality, God not leaving his body in hell to see
corruption, so that there would be a man to sit on the throne of David
(Acts 2:25-31).
I
often hear believers talk of heaven and the desire to go there, how
they can’t wait to go home and be with Jesus. The songs they sing, the
books they write, are all filled with pictures of endless walks on the
street of gold, with family and friends. What happen to the promise to
Abraham that he would be heir of the earth? Or the blessing in Matt. 5:5
that Jesus gave to the meek that they also would inherit the earth? I
hear the words, "Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth”, or it is
in heaven. If it is on the earth, then where is His kingdom on earth?
Jesus
said to the Pharisees when they demanded of Him when the kingdom should
come: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall
they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is
within you” (Lk 17;20-21). Many have read these words of Jesus, and
have gotten the idea that once you are born again the kingdom of God is
in you. I would question this doctrine, and ask why was Jesus saying
this to some unsaved Pharisees? He was saying it to them, because God
had chosen the children of Israel to be His kingdom on earth, and even
though they had been under foreign country’s rule from the time of the
Babylonian empire, they were as King David thought, when he fought
Goliath, "the armies and kingdom of the living God” on earth (1Sam
17:26,36).
Jesus
also knew the Jews of His day had the kingdom, when He was teaching in
the temple and the chief priest and elders of the people came to Him.
He spoke to them in the parable of the householder who planted a
vineyard and hedged it letting it out to husbandmen. he sent servants to
receive the fruit and the husbandman kill them and sent others and they
beat and stoned them. Then last of all he sent his son, they said
among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us
seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the
vineyard, and slew him.
Jesus
then asked the question, "When the lord therefore of the vineyard
cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He
will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard
unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their
seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures,
The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of
the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Mt 21:33-46).
Here
we see Jesus letting the Jews of His day know they were going to loose
the kingdom of God, and God would give it to another people (nation),
who when He comes will have fruits that kingdom on their tree. By their
rejection of the Son of God and having Him killed on the cross, they
sealed their judgment, and at the death of the testator the covenant,
the ten commandments which God made with Israel, was annulled. As Paul
said, "The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but
if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she
will; only in the Lord” (1Cor 7:39). At the death of Jesus, God took
the kingdom from the Jews, and in 70 A.D. He took the promised land and
scattered the Jews around the world.
The
promise Jesus made, that there will be a nation rise up with the fruits
of the kingdom of God, will come to pass. In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of
the image, (from the head of gold, to the feet mixed with iron and
clay), God reveals He will set up a kingdom in the days of those kings
(ten toes), which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all
these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever (Dan 2:31-35).
We
are living in the days of the ten horns and the beast (the G10 and the
UN). There will be a little stone, (a small nation), which comes out of
the mountain and it will smite the feet of the image. The stone became a
great mountain and filled the whole earth.
"That
in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in
one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on
earth; even in him” (Eph 1:10). We are living in the fulness of times.
Are you expecting our Lord’s return to rule and reign on this earth?
The message is the same as it was two thousand years ago, we still have
time to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, and He is ready to
gather His wheat into His barn. Are you ready, are you bringing forth
the fruits of God’s kingdom??? It’s time to hear the trump of God and
gather unto Him. Get ready saints, the Kingdom of God is at hand!
"And
the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven,
saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord,
and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15).
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