Citizens in the Kingdom of God

Introduction

I want to begin this hour again with 1 Timothy chapter 6, a passage we used during the last hour, but certainly worthy of repeating. We’re glad you’re here and that you’ve joined us for this hour, and we’re especially glad to have our young people, middle school and up in here as well. We are trying in this hour to make another vital point to us about Christians in the face of a corrupting culture. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 15 says, in which he will manifest in his own time he who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power.

Amen. And so this morning, at this hour, and by the way, this is a class, so you’re allowed to answer questions. That’s what I’ve been told. So we want a little more interactivity at this hour. I want to talk about citizens in the kingdom of Christ. We are blessed to be citizens in the United States of America. And I have a lesson specifically designed to deal with that subject later this week. I hope you can be here.

More freedom than any civilization has ever had in the history of mankind to do this kind of thing. That’s a great blessing. But it brings responsibility. And we’ll talk about that. Today I want to talk about the fact that while we are citizens in the United States, most of us, I think, are citizens of this country. If you’re not, you’re citizens of someplace. We are also citizens in the kingdom of Christ at the same time. And our problem as Americans is we’ve never lived in a kingdom. And frankly, don’t like it. In fact, our ancestors rebelled against a king, didn’t they? Because the kingdom under which we found ourselves was not being fair to us. But you need to be reminded, as do I, that as citizens, we are citizens in a kingdom spiritually.

1. In a Kingdom All Authority Rests in the King

And there are differences between kingdoms and democracies. So Colossians 1 says he’s rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. If you have become a Christian, you’ve been translated into a kingdom. Doesn’t mean you’re not still citizens in a political governmental system. You retain that citizenship also. But you’ve been added to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. So says Colossians 1. So let’s be reminded. How does a democracy work? We happen to live in a republic, which is a form of democracy. Here’s how it works. And by the way, I stole some of this stuff from Sewell Hall. I’m not good enough at making power points to do stuff like this. So I’ll give it credit. Somebody else.

Sewell did these. He probably had somebody else do it, though. Because he’s older than I am. But in a democracy, people have all authority and set up whatever government they choose, isn’t that right? And in our republic, our republic is set up in such a way that we, the people, have the voice in who governs over us. Do we not? Please nod your head. We’re about to lose that in this government. I’m afraid.

That’s the way it works. So the power ultimately resides in the people. That’s not the way a kingdom works, folks. It’s the exact opposite. In a kingdom, the monarch has all authority. And he establishes and gives rights as he chooses. And didn’t we just say that our God is the sovereign? That means he decides. So what that means then is he makes the laws, and citizens must obey them whether they like them or not.

That’s why somebody like Churchill said democracy is the worst form of government possible, except for all the other alternatives. Look, folks, kingdoms can be a good thing if you have a perfect king. The problem with that is earthly kingdoms don’t have perfect kings. The kingdom of heaven has a perfect king. And we need to be reminded that in a kingdom all authority rests in the king. And our kingdom has the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. So I want to spend a few moments talking to you about this kingdom and how it works. You see, Jesus is the monarch.

2. An Earthly King in the Book of Esther

All authority in heaven and on earth. Acts the second chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 and numerous other passages say that he is at the right hand of God, seated, ruling and reigning with all authority in heaven and on earth. That deserves several lessons. We’re highlighting things today. I want to take just a few moments and examine an earthly king in the book of Esther. And the reason I’m doing that is to illustrate how kingdoms have worked on earth, particularly in the ancient days, when a monarch was reigning at a remote place over a massive empire. So I want you to take the time to turn to the book of Esther in your Old Testament. And while you’re turning, I’m going to ask you a question. Who was in control of the then known world in the days of Esther?

What great nation? Persia, right? It was Persia during that time. We call it the empire of the Medes and the Persians, the Persians being the dominant force at that time. So for some time now, the Persians had been ruling the world. And it was a massive empire over which they ruled. So there’s a picture of the empire of the Persians. Let’s see if I can make this pointer work. That’s the bottom one, right? Or the top one. All right. You see the extent of this empire all the way over here from parts of Africa down to Ethiopia, over here to Macedonia, to the at least to the regions of Macedonia and Greece, and way over here to India. A massive empire ruled over by one monarch.

In Esther chapter 3, we’re going to be reading about an incident during the life of this monarch in which something had happened that he had to make a ruling about. Bible students remember that Esther and her nation, the Jews, were endangered by a man who had learned to hate them. Anyone remember his name? Haman. As a result, he had asked King Ahashuerus if he would make a decision to eliminate the entire Jewish nation. And he’d agreed to do that. So I want you to look at Esther chapter 3. We’re going to begin in verse 11. The king said to Haman, the enemy and the people are given to the money, and the people are given to you to do with him as seems good to you.

Then the king’s scribes were called on the 13th day of the first month, and a decree was written. So let me just keep up with this here.

That’s one tiny place in that massive empire. That’s where he sat. And this passage says, he brought his scribes in. What is a scribe? Anybody? Somebody knows how to write. Did everybody know how to write in those days? No. Especially trained people knew how to write. And the king scribes wrote what the king wanted. Right? You talk about fake news?

In those days it was the king’s news. And they better write it exactly as he said. So he called the scribes in, the scribes in. We’re in verse 12, 13th day of the first month. A decree was written according to all that Haman commanded to the king’s satraps and governors who were in each of the provinces, to the officials of all the people, to every province according to script, every people in their language, so they had scribes who could write in every language that was necessary. It was sealed with the king’s signet ring. What does that mean? What does that stand for? His authority or approval was behind it. It was the king’s commission, even though Haman said it. And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces.

So watch. The scribes wrote what the king dictated, right? Through Haman. Then there were messengers that carried the message. By the way, I didn’t do that either, but that’s kind of neat, isn’t it?

Messengers went out into all the areas of the kingdom. And to whom did they deliver it? It said in the previous passage to satraps and governors in every province. So let’s see here.

Who received the message from the king that was delivered by the messengers, that was written by the scribes, that said exactly what the king wanted. It was to destroy, to kill, to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children, women, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, to plunder their possessions. The copy of the document was to be issued as law in every province, having published for all the people that they should be ready for that day. The courage went, couriers went out, hastened by the king’s command. The decree was claimed in Shushan the capital, the citadel. So the king and Haman sat down to drink. And by the way, if you think drinking is bad today, it was horrendous then, especially among the dignitaries.

3. Our King Gave Gifts to Men

That’s how kingdoms work, folks in the old days. As a citizen in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, you’re in a kingdom. And what I’d like to show you is he’s established his kingdom much in the same pattern as this. Again, please forgive me for not giving more attention to all the details about this, but your Bible students, and you know most of this already. I’m just putting it together. So when Jesus was crowned as king, the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. Well, what did I say there? Imagine the consequences if they violated what the king said. Anybody have any doubt what would have happened to the courier who changed what the king said? What do you think?

In short order. What about a scribe who wrote something different than King Ahashueur said? Dead. When Jesus was crowned as king, Ephesians 4 says he gave gifts to men. Let’s turn there for just a moment. It was a great scene, beloved, when our Lord ascended into heaven. I believe it’s a picture of Daniel chapter 7 that says he saw the Son of Man rising up into the presence of the King. It was a glorious scene when he was crowned King of kings and Lord of Lords. Verse 8 says, Therefore he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And I’m skipping down now. Verse 11. He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, the work of the ministry, etc.

So our king, when he was crowned, took captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And what were those gifts? Apostles and prophets. Much like the scribes, it seems to me, in some respects. Evangelists were like the couriers. Pastors and teachers were like local servants to execute his will. It’s kind of like the governors and the satraps. In local areas to carry out the king’s will.

So let’s talk briefly about each of these. Apostles and prophets were very much like the scribes, in the sense that Jesus sent them the Holy Spirit, who in turn would tell them exactly what they needed to do. Again, this is six lessons. But the apostles and prophets were sent the Holy Spirit. Acts, the first chapter says he didn’t want them talking until the Holy Spirit came, because the Holy Spirit was going to guide them into all the truth and tell them exactly what he said to tell them, right? They had no right to change what the king wanted. They were to distribute what the king wanted. Apostles and prophets have no right to speak for themselves. And they were given the guidance of the Holy Spirit to keep them on the straight and narrow.

And so they would be given God’s words, his commandments. Speak as they were guided. He said, on one occasion, don’t worry about what you’re going to say. The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say. Evangelists. I have a bunch of passages up here. Let’s look at 2 Timothy chapter 1, first of all. The Apostle Paul was instructing this evangelist what evangelists are supposed to do. Verse 6 says, Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. You have been given this gift, and you are expected to carry it out the way God wants you to.

Mine says men. The word is anthropos. That’s people who will be able to teach others also. Please listen carefully. In the kingdom of Christ, the apostles and prophets revealed what Christ wanted. They gave the message to evangelists who spread it around to other people who were faithful. What does that mean? True to the word. Who could teach others also? So how is it that in the 21st century we can still teach just exactly what our king wants? Because the apostles and prophets revealed it. It was written down. Evangelists have spread it. Teachers have spread it. Faithful teachers have continued the teaching through the centuries. Just as our king wants.

Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. And may I pause here a moment and ask you to lift up the hands of kin and Greg and anybody else that’s preaching here. That they will preach exactly what God says and nothing else. Part of the reason we’re living in a corrupting culture in this country is because there’s lots of preachers who are teaching the exact opposite of what the king says and calling it truth. Don’t you let that happen here? You follow the kingdom.

And if your preachers aren’t following the king, you correct them. And if they are, lift them up and support them. Titus 2.15, ten times he says, speak these things in the book of Titus. 1 Peter 4.11 says, When you speak, you speak as the oracles of God. May I say it again at this moment here? When I’m privileged to stand up here and speak before this many people, I am on my knees that morning begging God to allow me to say not one thing that would be not in complete accord with the oracles of God. Doesn’t matter what I say, folks. It matters what God says. And I wish to communicate as clearly as I know how exactly what God says. That’s the responsibility of an evangelist.

4. Pastors and Teachers Are Local Servants

Just as those couriers back in the old days were to carry exactly what the king said to the provinces. Pastors and teachers are local servants to execute his will. Acts 20 says they were made overseers by the Holy Spirit to watch out for the flock in a local area. Their authority does not expand beyond the local church of which they’re a part. That’s what the Bible teaches. Surely everybody in this audience knows that religious groups have completely changed what God says about that, to the point that most churches that exist around this community have headquarters somewhere else besides Orlando. And they have people that answer to answer to who are human beings in a hierarchical system of which God said nothing. And it is corrupting. No, folks.

Pastors and teachers are local servants in local congregations ordained by God to have authority there, only under his authority.

They have no legislative authority at all.

Twisted, changed what God says. Acts 20 says, some of you folks are going to do that. And he said, You better watch out. Because they were cursed if they changed what God said. Galatians 1. Cursed eternally, folks, is far worse than getting killed here on earth. You change what the King Jesus says, you’re cursed in eternity. That’s how serious it is. They must give an account, the sheep to obey and be submissive. They’re responsible for edification. God has a plan in his kingdom. And you are blessed in this church to have men who are willing and able to serve as shepherds, pastors, elders, presbyters, which are all different descriptions of the same people, whose responsibility it is to watch out for this local flock, give answer for their souls, and respond to the God of heaven and do exactly what he wants, not adding to or taking away from.

That’s God’s plan. Each of these slides should have had several lessons. You surely know that. And probably Ken and Greg have already preached several lessons on many of those. And good for you if you have.

5. Jesus and His Laws Do Not Change

Only changing our entire history and the history of mankind by a vote of five to four. And if you haven’t read the ruling of Obergefell, you need to read it. And particularly read the dissenting opinions of the four who voted against that infamous ruling, one of them being Chief Justice Roberts, who ruled and said, Who do we think we are? And might I ask the same question? Who is it in black robes? Who has the authority to change what God says? And will any culture who dares to do such a thing have impunity from the judgment of God? I say no. And if it comes to the point in this culture that someone walks in these double doors and says to me, quit saying that, that’s hate speech.

I hope I’d be courageous enough to go to prison or whatever else it takes. Because it’s wrong to change what God says. Who is the one who made marriage in the beginning? And there is no question how God designed marriage. And it’s not the way present-day judges have said it should be. But that’s the frailties of human governments. They change with the frailties of humans.

But Jesus and His laws do not change. Wednesday night of this week, we’re going to talk about this culture’s attack upon marriage. I hope you can be here. Hebrews 13 8 says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His fundamental principles have not changed from the beginning. And he said in Matthew 19, in the beginning, God made man and woman. And say they have to leave father and mother and cleave to one another. And the two shall become one flesh. No provision is made in the kingdom of Jesus for human councils to make or change laws for his kingdom. Have men dared to set up human councils and vote on what they believe? Class? Everywhere. Many churches today have voted that those who are living an open and overt homosexual lifestyle are now in leadership positions.

And I’m not trying to pick on just that. It’s just an illustration. How dare we, in the face of our sovereign King, decide we’re going to do the opposite of what he says. Jude 3 says, our job is to defend what has already been revealed once and for all. And Revelation 22 says, you better not change what God said. Or your name will be removed from the book of life. Is this serious business? So are spiritual laws written over 2,000 years ago still relevant? You know the answer to that in our modern day culture. It’s the same answer our more liberally minded judges give with our constitution. The constitution, they say, needs to be brought up to date and interpreted in the light of modern day world, which only changes exactly what it says.

The same people do with the Bible. Because it’s not up to date. We’re in a different world 2,000 years later. No, beloved, we’re in the same kind of a world we were then, and God’s laws have not changed in 2,000 years. You know how long that is for him? 2,000 years? It’s like two days.

6. Laws in the Natural World Are Unchanging

Things have not changed. And I might add, are the laws of nature still relevant after more thousands of years? And by the way, they were made by the same lawmakers. A few observations, and I’m not going to look at all these scriptures, but you know John 1 3 says that Jesus, as the Word, made everything that’s been made.

Hebrews 1 3 says he’s the express image, and he’s the one that sustains everything. Romans 1 says that nature is a powerful testimony to the deity, the majesty, the power of the God who made us. There’s wisdom evident everywhere in the natural world. And I might say to you that laws in the natural world are unchanging. Do you know why we’re able to do space explorations and look at things like we do? It’s because we’ve figured out how nature works. And it was not an accident that nature works the way it does. Man is helpless to change natural law. In fact, they don’t need to be changed. And if you violate them, you’re in big trouble. So the reason we can presently do space exploration is because we’ve learned enough about nature’s unchangeable laws to use them for our benefit.

But do you think mankind in the 21st century gives God the glory for the laws? No, they give us the glory for figuring out how to do space exploration. When God’s behind it all anyway. But we’ve long since lost the notion that we should be giving God the glory for what we’re doing. He made us and gave us the capacity in some puny way to think his thoughts after him. So, for the last few minutes, quarter till, right? This will be the fastest science lesson you’ve had in a long time. Are you familiar with the New Horizons mission to Pluto? Who knows anything about that? Anybody? You’ve heard about it or followed it. Fascinating. Did you know, folks, we sent a spaceship to Pluto? We have.

Yes. And by the way, it’s back in as a planet.

They were ruling it out as a planet. I was just reading an article this morning. There’s nine reasons not to put it back in. As if you care about that, but we have been there. And here’s a mapping of how it happened. I know you can’t read all this, so I’m going to read you some of this as you look at it with me. Let’s see. It’s the top one, right? Okay, over here, we’re on Earth on January the 19th, 2006. What it says below there is New Horizons spacecraft launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. You guys are close. Anybody see that on January 19, 2006? You probably did. Because can’t you see those things from here? Okay, well, anyway, there was a launch that day, January 19, 2006.

Ten years later, they were at Pluto on July the 14th, 2015. Same spaceship. Ten years later, three billion miles later, here they are circling Pluto. You know why they could do that, class? Because we figured out how to use the laws of nature to allow us to get there. And did you know that that entire 10 year trip had an itinerary mapped out ahead of time? I’ve got it right here. I do lots of itineraries. I’d travel all over this country. They had an itinerary for this 10-year trip. Let me read you a few things. On January the 28th, there was to be a trajectory correction maneuver, a TCM. On January 30th, another one. On March the 9th, another one. On April the 7th, they were the Mars orbit was crossed.

I’m skipping stuff here. On February the 28th, 2007, right there. There was the Jupiter flyby. They went close enough to Jupiter, and by the way, this was planned. And you know why? Because we knew exactly where Jupiter was going to be right then on that day. How do you think we knew that? Because nature’s laws are set up, folks. And we figured them out. No, we figured out some of them. Sufficient to do this. You know why they flew by Jupiter on this particular mission? Because when you fly by Jupiter, it’s a massive enough planet that you can get a gravity assist by flying by it. So you go around it and it’s like this. Whoosh. And you get a whip. And it saved three years.

You listen. Now, how were we able to do that? Because we knew how to use gravity to our benefit. Who set up gravity in the first place? Somebody did. It didn’t just happen. That flyby assist, it says, it’s right on here. Saves three years of flight time. The team confronts significant science in preparation for the Pluto encounter. This was planned ahead class, and it worked like a charm. So you go on down and they’ve got annual checkouts. They’ve got the Saturn orbit crossing, they’ve got the Uranus orbit crossing, they’ve got a bunch of annual checkouts. By the way, did you know this thing hibernates for us to that 10 years? They shut it down so it doesn’t use as much energy, but it still keeps in touch.

And they wake it up every town then so it can fly all this distance. Then there’s a whole bunch of pre-encounter things that they do, and then they then they come past Neptune. The final wake up from hibernation, January the 15th, 2015. They can do a bunch of stuff between January and then, if you remember, July 14th was the closest pass by of Pluto. You think there’s a lot more to tell about that? This is 18 lessons. Look at the spacecraft here with me. Little over a thousand pounds. Small thing. It’s got seven, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven specific science payload instruments. Ralph, did you know you had one? He’s gone. Where’s Ralph? Okay. Alice, we got an Alice in here. You had one too.

Rex, Lori, Swap, Pepsi, and SDC. Seven specific scientific experiments designed to be on that thing, which I don’t have time to tell you about, but every one of them is fascinating. Because each one of them is specifically designed. The SDC is the student dust counter, was built and operated by students, measures the space dust peppering new horizons during his voice across the solar system, designed by students in a university in Colorado. Fascinating stuff.

And while many people in the scientific community will tell you there is no God, if you keep your eyes and minds open, you will find God everywhere. And science should be a grand testimony of the God of heaven. And that’s my message Tuesday night. Come back. Let’s see what else we got here.

From down here at Earth, coming out and crossing all these orbits. See crossing Jupiter, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and then out here to Pluto, and it passes Pluto in July of 2015 and then keeps going. Oh no.

I have to talk really fast. The thing is still going this morning. It is not stopping three years later. It’s continuing on through the Kuiper Belt, studying a bunch of those rocks out there that are smaller than planets to get some idea of what the Kuiper Belt’s all about. And it is still sending back messages from outer space at a phenomenal rate. Wish I could tell you, I’m going to tell you one other little piece of information. There’s a little device in that thing that provides it power. You’ve got to know a little bit about that. That’s just absolutely amazing. Well, I hope I can find it. If I can’t, I’ll just have to wing it. Plutonium, radioactive plutonium, ladies and gentlemen, is used to generate heat, which is converted into electrical energy, which provides about 240 somethings.

I need my notes of power. It’s the equivalent about what two light bulbs use to power that whole trip. And it’s powered by plutonium, radioactive plutonium. And there’s a few kilograms of that stuff that powered it for 10 years and still is 13 years later. You know how that is the case, folks? We figured out how radioactivity works and how to take the heat from that and convert it to electrical power and use it to generate things. Did I lose you? How do you get power in outer space? Solar power, right? No. Solar power of Pluto is way less than it is here on Earth. You can’t use solar power. And stars are so far away. No, you’ve got to have your own power generator, and this thing is small enough that it doesn’t weight down the entire thing, provides clean energy with no moving parts.

Utterly incredible. So I wish I had more time to talk to you. But here’s the best image we had of Pluto in 2003. Here’s what we got from New Horizons on July the 13, 2015. An amazingly detailed picture. You can’t see much in that. But the next day, they got a lot closer. This is the snakeskin terrain on Pluto on July the 14th. And since then, folks, they have sent so much massive information. It took months to get all the data back to Earth that they have discovered about Pluto. You live in one of the most exciting times of humans’ existence because we’re learning details about Pluto. How many moons does Pluto have? Two.

It has five. That’s one of the reasons they put it back in as a planet. Anything with five moons has got to be a planet, right?

Amazing new stuff we’re learning about Pluto. Science is exciting, and it’s a testimony to the God of heaven. Pardon me for getting passionate. I don’t do that in a chemistry class. But sometimes you feel like it. If God can make natural laws suitable for all ages, why not spiritual laws? Isn’t that a good question? The need is not to change God’s laws to fit man’s limited wisdom, as man has done over and over again. The need is to change man to fit God’s perfect laws. And by the way, the Bible says God sends a strong delusion to those who do not believe the truth and have pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2, go read it for yourself. You want to believe a lie, God will not only let you, he’ll facilitate it.

Conclusion

And the theory of evolution is the biggest lie ever been perpetrated on mankind. Lots of intelligent people believe it. Some untaught and unstable people twist Paul’s writing and others to their own destruction as they also do the rest of the scriptures. Sometimes people twist scripture, folks. Watch out. Our king is still ruling. There are two ways to study the Bible. You can study it to justify what you want to do, or you can study it to learn what the king wants us to do. Which do you think? That I recommend. The latter, folks. And that’s the end of this lesson. Thank you for your good attention.