Tuesday PM Nov 8, 2011

Introduction

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I once stood on the Oregon coast and watched a thunderstorm come in and arouse a turbulence in the sea as it smashed against the stones, the ragged rugged Oregon coast. It was a beautiful scene. I once saw the desert following a rain in Arizona when the desert was in full bloom, and I marveled at what God could do with such a terrible looking place. I once stood at the edge of the Rocky Mountains on a crisp fall evening and saw the beautiful aspens as they sprang forth in the sunlight as only aspens can do. I once saw a marriage ceremony that was beautiful, and I marveled again. I’ve seen lots of beautiful scenes, but there’s one scene I’ve seen hundreds of times, of which I never tire, and of which I received a blessing tonight, and that is when the people of God come together.

It doesn’t make any difference how many there are or how few.

For your kindness and your consideration, every approbation that you have extended to me this week. And thank you for my beloved Norma, too. She’s the joy of my heart, the wind beneath my wings, and my favorite person in the world. And she comes with me everywhere I go, and it’s been a joy. Good to have these preachers here. I don’t know whether you have ever noticed when the preachers are in the audience. They always say, everybody says you have one or two really you know, receptive ears. they’ll be sympathetic to you. I’m not that naive. They’re critical ears. You and I both know it, and we may as well get that out of the book right now. It’s good to have you here. My preaching brethren are very special.

I shall read for your information tonight from the Luke from Luke the 18th chapter. And he spake a parable unto them, to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful unto me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

And they brought unto him also infants that he would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein. And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? None is good save one that is God. Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother.

And he said, All of these things I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing. Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God? For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. They that heard it said, Who then can be saved? He said, These things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all and followed thee. He said unto them, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting. Then he took unto him the twelve. And he said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and despitefully treated and spitted on, and they shall scourge him and put him to death. And the third day he shall rise again.

And they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. This event takes place near the end of Jesus’ life. He is now headed toward his inevitable demise. He knows what awaits him there. He has no doubt about it. He knows it’s why he came. He knows it’s what he has to do. He knows it’s the will of God to which he is attendant. And he intends to take care of that. On the way, he has ceased now to preach so much to the huge to the huge multitudes. But rather he’s wanting to talk to his disciples mostly. Oh, he talks to the others occasionally.

But mostly he wants to talk to his own disciples. And the reason for that is simple. He wants them to understand about the kingdom of God. You see, they had some kind of an idea that the kingdom of God that he had promised was going to be a kingdom not unlike the Solomonic kingdom or the Davidic David’s kingdom. He thought there would be a great conflagration, and everybody would move across the Romans, and everybody would be back in the kind of ideas that they had in the time of Moses and the rest of the people of the children of Israel. Jesus is trying to get them to say that’s not what the kingdom’s all about. In fact, he makes them see that this kingdom that they’re looking for is not some place where we can give you one place to sit in the higher elevations.

It’s a kingdom that’s going to cost something. They can’t understand that as yet, but they will come to realize it after he is gone. In the text that is before us, we have almost a microcosm of life. And he’s trying to tell them, I want you to make preparations for the kingdom of God. I don’t know if you noticed when I was reading these, but I underlined the word kingdom of God each time I came to it. It’s mentioned several times in this contextual framework, and it is a very important consideration, both to Jesus and the disciples. He wants them to see. Now they won’t understand all of this until he is gone. But he makes it known to them so that they can bring to mind everything that he has said to them and make it known to the people.

So preparations for the kingdom. May I suggest first of all that the kingdom of God does not always refer to the church. Many times when the kingdom of God is used, as it is in this context, it means the heavenly reign of Christ in the hearts of the people. Let me say that again. It means the heavenly reign of Christ in the hearts of the people. It does not always mean the church. Now sometimes it does. It’s as a real Philippi when Jesus was there and he asked his disciples, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man am? And they gave him various answers. He said, Who do you say that I, the Son of Man am? He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

He said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I’ll build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of God. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, it says in the original, shall have already been bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall have already been loosed in heaven. But in the context that is before us, he’s talking about the reign of Christ in the hearts of the people. And I know that’s the case. If you look back in the previous chapter, we read in verse 20 of chapter 17, when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come.

1. There Must Be Prayer Without Ceasing

He answered and said, 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. It’s about that heavenly reign of Christ, that dominion of Christ, that sanctification of Christ in the hearts of men that he speaks of in Luke the 18th chapter. Now follow me carefully, as he talks about some preparations that will be essential in this new kingdom. He says, first of all, there must be prayer without ceasing. He says, In this new kingdom, there’s going to be prayer. May I suggest to you that the kingdom of God, as we know it today, even the church as we know it, has to have God as the pinnacle in every part of it.

We must emphasize God. There is none like him. He has given us life, he has given us liberty, he has given us Jesus, he’s given us everything that we have. And so we must put our focus on him. There must then be an intimate association between the people and God. And so there must be a praying community in this kingdom of God. They must be a people that want to be right with God all the time. Could I ask you a question? How long has it been since you prayed ten minutes? Let me ask you another question. How long has it been since you watched television ten minutes? I’m not saying that we ought to pray as much as we ought to watch television, but I am saying that we pray too far too, we don’t pray often like we used to.

We don’t pray often like we ought to. We pray far too frequently. We need to have a praying situation with God all the time. We need to have some kind of communication with God going all the time. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul said, pray without ceasing. Now he’s not saying there. You get up in the morning, you say, Our Father which art in heaven, and when you go to sleep that night, you say in Jesus’ name, Amen. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying consistently. You pray consistently. The idea that Jesus gives here is a beautiful illustration of this consistency in prayer. Notice, if you will, please, he spake a parable to this in that men ought always to pray and not to faint. We not give up on our praying.

We must pray without ceasing. And so he gives this illustration. He says this woman was following the judge around, and more than likely this was a Gentile judge because it would have been three judges had it been the Jewish hierarchy. But she was following this judge around, and she was begging him to avenge her of her adversaries. Over and over she’s after him, just over and over. And finally he says, I don’t fear God or man. I’ve got everything I need. Nobody can tell me to do anything. And she’s not going to tell me to do anything, but he said, she’s going to drive me nuts. So he said, I’ve got to do something about this. And so he says, I’m going to avenge you of your adversaries.

Now Jesus is trying to get the people to see that just as that lady was consistent, just as she kept on keeping on, that’s the kind of prayer life that we have to have. We need to be on praying terms with God all the time. And no matter what kind of decision we make, no matter if it’s a gargantuan, large decision, or just a little small one, it ought to be made with how it will affect our relationship to God. And prayer figures into that little situation. Prayer is always in order. There is never a time when it’s out of order to stop and pray. If there is a time when it’s out of order for top to top and pray, you better think about what you’re about to do.

Because if you can’t do it with the blessing of God, you better not do it. And may I say something to young people? If you can’t thank God for it, you better not do it. I don’t care what it is. And so we need to pray without ceasing all the time. It doesn’t have to be a long prayer. I pray two or three prayers that are just short. I think God may get tired of hearing them. No, I don’t think that at all, but they are short. God help me. You ever pray that? Several times a day I have to say that. Because something sneaks into my mind that ought not to be there. Or something sneaks into my decision making that shouldn’t be there. And so you just have to stop and say, God, help me.

And sometimes I look across the table at the brown eyes that I’ve looked at for 51 years, and I say, Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. That’s not much of a prayer, is it? But if it’s a heartfelt prayer, it’s one that God loves, one that God likes to hear. So we must be a praying people. He says, when the Lord comes, will he find faith on the earth? You know what he’s asking? Will he find this kind of faith is what he’s asking. This consistency of faith. This consistency of trusting confidence in God Almighty. So trusting and so confident that you never cease to pray to him. He’s inevitably in everything that you do. He’s involved in all the all of your life. If you feel good, you praise him.

2. We Must Guard Against Self-Righteousness

If you feel bad, you invoke his blessings. If you have something good, you pray God the thanksgiving for it. If you need help, you pray God. It just needs to be so that you’re a praying person. And so in this new kingdom, there must be prayer. Then he goes ahead and he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. And he gives us in this new kingdom a preparation. He says we must guard against self-righteousness. Listen to this guy. He says he went to the temple and he stood and prayed thus with himself. Did you notice that? He prayed thus with himself. And you know, he had this. I can hear him. I can hear him. He has this preacher articulation, I call it.

Preachers can’t say God. They have to say God and then grunt at the end of it, you know. And so you just can hear this guy. He’s got all these tassels hanging on him, and he’s got all these phylacteries, and he’s fixed this and fixed that so he looks good, and probably had a trumpet to herald his coming, you know. And then he spoke in all of these glowing terms. He emoted the prayer. He didn’t pray to God, it was a rhetorical ideal that he gave to God. And so he says, God, I thank thee that I know those other men are. Extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as it’s publican. Now let me stop and say something to you. Nobody should be one of those things.

Nobody should, and we ought to be thankful to God that we’re not those things. But we don’t do it with some kind of self righteous attitude. That’s what he’s saying. He said, I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. In this kingdom, we must guard against self righteousness. I want to say something about that. We need to watch about that. We have the truth. Do you understand the concept of meekness? Aristotle had a pretty good idea of meekness when he said meekness is the distinction, is the median, he said, between extreme anger and extreme angerlessness. And that’s about what it is. Meekness is the median between those two things. Meekness is strength under control. When I was a kid growing up in West Texas, we lived in a little town called Morton.

And there was open rangeland in the area west of Morton there on the old Surratt Ranch. They still did herding cattle there, did cattle drives. They’d round up the Mustangs. And once a year the cowboys would come to town to tame the Mustangs, to tame the horses. And that’s where the radio, the rodeo was born. We’d go out on Sunday afternoon and watch them. They’d put these horses in the stall and they’d put a saddle on them, and they were just fortunate the bit. They couldn’t already stand it when they put it in. They got it in there, and then they’d open it up and they’d start bucking. And every time they’d buck in would go the spurs, and they’d buck again and would go the spurs.

And the first thing you know, they saw that it wasn’t really good to buck. And so they quit bucking. Now, the cowboys had this unusual ability to do that to control the strength, but to not break the strength. That’s meekness. In fact, in the old Greek economy, meekness was the taming of a wild animal. The term was used for that. So what he’s saying, what he’s saying here is we don’t need to be that way. We need to be meek. Our strength must be left under control. We don’t look down at other people. Listen to me. Listen to me carefully. We are a fellowship of forgiven sinners. We have no right to look down on anyone. We have been in the pit of putridity ourselves. We have been in dark despair ourselves.

We’ve been everywhere those people have been. Oh, maybe not to the same extent, but we have no right to look down on anyone. What we need to do is try to help people out of that pit to bring them out of that darkness. And we don’t have any room for self-righteousness in the kingdom of God. We’re just forgiven sinners. We’re like this publican. Publicans were interesting. There was a phenomenon in Roman history called Pas Romana, P-A-X-R-O-M-A-N-A. Pas Romana. And what it was, that means the peace of Rome. And what it was Rome’s idea, Rome’s concept of the whole of having a huge nation, like they had. They would go in and conquer a people, and they weren’t after them. They didn’t care anything about them.

They just wanted to farm their taxes. They wanted to maintain the Roman army that was building roads everywhere. And listen to me carefully. If you want to know about the fullness of times, Jesus talked about the fullness of times through the apostles. This fullness of times had a lot to do with Roman roads, I’ll guarantee you. And Roman shiplines where you could go all over the world with peace. The peace of Rome, that’s what it was talking about. So they went everywhere. But these publicans farmed taxes, what they did. They would go in and appoint certain fellows, and they would collect taxes for the government, and everybody hated them.

Fact of the matter is, though they cheated a lot. They were the loan sharks of that age. And they cheated a lot. So people hated the publicans. This publican who was hated, he was despised. Here is this beautiful, beautifully adorned Pharisee up here, and he’s all dressed up and beautiful, and here’s this lowly publican. He’s walking along, probably just in his robes. He may have something, but he would not even lift up his eyes into heaven but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. It’s my prayer. It’s my prayer. I’ve been there, haven’t you? We all can pray that. God be merciful to me a sinner. Oh, we’ve left that’s true. But sin still lurks on the periphery of all that we do.

Sin is always around looking for a place to get in. We have to be constantly aware of that. This publican was aware of who he was. And he was aware of what he was. And Jesus said of him, I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalteth himself shall be debased, and everyone that humbleth himself shall be exalted. What a wonderful thought. What a glorious thing he said to us. He said, if you go and exalt yourself, you don’t have any right to do that. Like I said, we just came out of the stuff ourselves. We don’t have any right to look down on anybody else. But he said, if you realize that, and if you humble yourself before God and say, as did this publican, God forgive me, I’m trying to do the best I can.

God forgive me, please help me to do better. If you do that, then God is going to hear your prayer. And listen, we have to be a praying people in this new kingdom, don’t we? We have to be honest. We have to be honest about ourselves. We have to have this spiritual integrity that causes us to look into the innermost parts of our being and to grasp what is there and give it back to God. We have to do that if we’re going to be pleasing to him. That’s what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. That’s not just talking about just the right attitude. He’s talking about reaching down into the innermost part of your being and saying to you to God, I give myself to thee.

That’s what this publican did. He smote himself on the breast. And he said, God forgive me a sinner. And God said through Jesus, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. If we subordinate ourselves, if we bring ourselves under the control of God Almighty, then he becomes our king. And we humble ourselves before him, and he will exalt us. He listened to me, he will exalt us mightily. What a glorious thought that is.

3. We Must Develop a Spirit of Humility

Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God is a little child. He’s not talking about the church there. He’s talking about receiving the reign of Christ in the heart. If he doesn’t do it as a little child, he shall know in no wise enter in. In this new kingdom, we not only must keep on praying, we must not only guard against self-righteousness, but we must develop a spirit of humility. You aware that our English word humble comes from the same word as the grass, humus. Humous grass grows real close to the ground. Does that tell you anything about humility? It does to me. That’s the concept of humility. Humility is a funny thing. The minute you say you got it, you lost it.

You ever notice that? There was a fellow in one of the plants there in the Pasadena that got the award for being the most humble person at the plant. And they took it away from him because he received it. Now I made that up, but it does say a little bit about humility, doesn’t it? I’ve struggled with this idea of humility, and I’ve struggled with the with the necessity that is in placed upon me as a gospel preacher to try to explain the concept to people.

Humility is not saying, I’m going to droop, walk, and I’m going to pull my shoulders in, and I’m going to walk, and I’ll just barely look up at anybody. That is not humility. That is not humility. Humility is saying, I’m going to do the best I can. You get up on a Monday morning and you say, I’m going to do the best I can today. Whatever comes up, I’m going to be a praying person today. Whatever comes up, I’m going to relegate myself in a way that I’m amenable to the commandments of God. I’m going to listen to what he says to me. I’m going to try to remember what he tells me to do with what I have to do today, and I’m going to keep that all day long, and you become humble.

And so it’s something that you do when you get right with God. But you have to humble yourself. You have to subordinate yourself to the will of God to become humble. You can’t do it any other way. So then he says, suffer the little children to come unto me. For of such is the kingdom of God. The disciples saw the little children. People would bring the little child to the rabbi for him to lay his hands on him and bless him, pray for him. They did that frequently. It’s still done by the Jewish people. But when they came to Jesus, the disciples were listening to him talk about the kingdom, and they said, Russia, run along. You can just see him run along. The master’s busy, run along.

Jesus said, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not. And then he makes an astounding statement for of such is the kingdom of God. How do you suppose the kingdom of God, such a regal and marvelous thing? Such a strong and vibrant thing could be compared to a little child. What is this? Well, it’s a beautiful thing, this analogy. Little children, first of all, are instant learners. When Haley, our granddaughter, was just a little girl, we went to Beaumont, where my son preaches, and we picked her up to bring her home with us. And we didn’t hardly get out of the driveway until Haley was saying, Nana, why do those cows have those things hung around their neck? And we went a little further and she said, Nana, why are the red, why are the stop signs always red?

Why aren’t they green? And we went a little bit further, and she said, why do those cars have those funny looking things on the back of them like that? Somebody was carrying something. We got about to Winnie, about halfway home. And she looked at Norma and she said, Nana, tell me things I don’t know. Listen to me. Tell me things I don’t know. The mind of a little child is that big around. They’re looking for things, they’re observing things, they’re absorbing things. Of such is the kingdom of God. You have any trouble coming on Wednesday night, Sunday night? Maybe you’re not being a little child. When somebody says to me, Do I have to be there on Wednesday night? You know what that’s like saying to a West Texas guy?

Do I have to eat this homemade ice cream?

Why would you not want to be there? There is something wonderful going on there. Brother Mock is going to help you. He’s going to say things to you. The elders are going to show you things that you need to know. And I don’t care. Listen to me carefully. I don’t care how old you are. You can still learn. I’ve learned a lot from John Gilgore, and he’s not even married. You can learn from a lot of people. You can learn from little kids. Not only are little kids open to education, but little children are forgiving. They’re wonderfully forgiving. Kenny McMasters used to whip me every Thursday when we were little kids. And we’d go to the movie on Saturday afternoon, arm in arm. That’s the way little kids operate.

When Russ was little, he did something that I made me very angry. And I whipped him good and threw him on the bed. And I said, You stay there until I tell you to come out. And I walked down the hall, and his mother said to me, Do you think you whipped him when you were mad? I told her who was the head of the house. And I said a couple of things to her about managing the house. And I went on my way and I was mad and I slammed the back door and got in my car and streeched down the way and spun out down the hall and down the road and got up on the highway, and I was going down the highway, and all of a sudden I caught a look at my visage in the rear view mirror, and I said to myself, You big dummy.

You whipped the boy when you were mad. You sinned against him, is what you did. And you owe him an apology. Little bitty kid. What? Yes, sir. Hardest thing I ever did was turn that car around. I turned it around and started back home. And three times I backed out before I got to the driveway. But I finally got up there and I opened the door and I walked down the hall and I looked on the bed, and there he was, wound up in a knot, still crying. I picked him up and I sat him by me on the bed. I said, Russie, your daddy is a human, and I sinned against you. I whipped you when I was mad, and that’s a sin, and I want you to forgive me.

He said, It’s okay, Daddy. Just don’t cry anymore. Please don’t cry. Of such is the kingdom of God. Talk to me. Don’t you see that? Of such is the kingdom of God. As a little child, listen, verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in nowise enter therein. Then a man came to him and he said, Thou knowest the commandments. When he asked what the commandments were, how can he get eternal life? He wants to know about getting eternal life, and he wants to hear it from this new kingdom prospect. And Jesus said, Do you know the commandments? And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. And Jesus heard this and he said, Well, yeah, but you lack one thing.

Go sell your stuff and come follow me. Give to the poor. He went away sorrowful, for he was very rich. Some of the other renditions of this and the other gospels said when Jesus looked on him, he loved him. That almost breaks my heart. He loved the young guy. I read one guy that thought maybe this was Saul of Tarsus. I don’t know. I doubt it. It doesn’t fit chronologically or otherwise, but I guess it could have been. If you look at Philippians chapter 3, some of the same things he had, he kept all of these things from his youth up. But whoever it was, this young fellow had done some good things. And before we mark him off, before we mark him off as a reprobate and a bad guy, I want you to look at what he says from these things.

He said, I have kept these things from my youth up. This is a pretty fine kid. He’s a good guy. Jesus heard these things and he said, Yet lackest thou one thing. Sell all you have, give to the poor and come follow me.

4. Watch Out for the Pervading Worldliness

If we’re going to be right in the kingdom, we not only have to keep on praying, we not only have to guard against self-righteousness and develop a spirit of humility. But ladies and gentlemen, we must watch out for the pervading influence, the pervading worldliness, the pervading infusion of worldliness. It comes. Worldliness is very subtle. It sneaks in. It comes in several different varieties. It just kind of bedazzles us. It mesmerizes us. We look at things, and if we’re not very careful, things become very important to us. And Jesus knew that. He said, Love not the world. Neither the things that are in the world. Worldliness consists of the things that are in the world. And the things that are in the world are a lot of things.

They may be education. Just giving all of our thoughts and attentions to getting smarter. While we are leaving undone the things of God. Now nobody’s against getting smart, and nobody’s against somebody going to school. But that’s not what life is all about. All of those things are preparatory. And the biggest preparation that we ought to be involved in is the preparation of the kingdom. We have to get ready to serve God. That’s the main thing that we have to do. We must have that persistent faith that says, I’m going to do what God said for me to do first of all, and then if I have time, I’ll do these other things. We subscribe, all of us, to the Matthew 6.33 statement that says you ought to prioritize.

That is, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto thee. But he says, seek it first. And we subscribe to that, and we give a mental assent to it. But I’m afraid sometimes that we don’t reflect that in our lives. We need to be very careful that we don’t let things get in the way of serving God. And it can. It can. This fellow let that happen. Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful when he went away, and he said, How hardly shall they that enter the kingdom of God that have riches? He said, It’s as hard for a camel to go through a needle’s eye as for a rich man to go to heaven.

Somebody said, Well, that’s a that’s a gate in Jerusalem where the camel had to bend down real low to get it. No, sir. That’s a hyperbolic expression that says it’s almost impossible to go to heaven if you got a whole lot of money, if you’re really rich. And he says that, and I know that’s what he means because the apostles under the disciples understood it that way. They understood he wasn’t talking about the gate of Jerusalem. They said, How then can anybody get in? And Jesus said, Well, you might not get in if it weren’t for Jesus, for God. He makes it possible for even rich people to go in. And Peter said, We’ve left all to follow you. Can I stop just a minute and peruse something?

These guys did exactly that. They left all to follow him. I don’t know about you, but that’d be hard for me. But they did it. They left all to follow him. Peter said, We’ve left everything that we have. And Jesus said, There is no man that hath left house or parents, our brethren, our wife, or children for the kingdom of God’s sake. Now, let me stop just a minute. I’ve known some people that have lost children over the kingdom of God. The kids did not follow the line. So some people are going to just say, You can’t come in here. You can’t be mine anymore. He says, You’ve left parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God’s sake. And he said, He shall receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come, life everlasting.

I have a wife. And I have parents in the kingdom. Brother Edder brought my bought my lunch tonight. You have brethren in the kingdom. You see that? We have all of these things in the kingdom. And Jesus said, it’s going to be more and more. We’ll receive manifold more in this present time. That’s what I’m talking about. And in the world to come, life everlasting. Then in this kingdom preparation sermon that he gives.

5. I'm About to Die for This Kingdom

And you have to guard against self-righteousness, and you have to develop a spirit of humility. And you have to understand the watchfulness against pervading worldliness. Watch out for it. And then he says, I’m about to die for this kingdom. Listen to him. He took unto him the twelve. Just his apostles. He said, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. Everything that was written. All the Psalms. All the statements in all the places of the apostles of the prophets, all the men of God that wrote things about him. All of these things shall be accomplished. And then he talks about how it’s going to happen. It’s scary. We shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated and spitted on.

They shall scourge him and put him to death. Norm and I went one time to Jerusalem. And I saw that area where they say that he was dragged along after he was tried. And I stopped and looked at that with tears in my eyes. Because you could almost see him being dragged out of that temple area. And the people that are in the know more than I am say that there might have been two million Jews there for the Passover. They would have lined this little narrow street, which was still only wide enough for two ox carts to pass, perhaps. They would have been lined up there, and I just have a picture in my mind about how they brought him. He’s already been horribly treated.

Can you imagine how they had blood? You ever cut your head open? Blood streams down front of his face.

Horribly opened his back. Took his clothes off then, put his own clothes back on him, and then started him to the cross. He was so weak that they had to get somebody to bear the cross. But you can see them. I want you to get a picture in your mind of it. Just watch him as they’re throwing him from one side to the other. And barely gets up before somebody else shoves him down. And perhaps he’s shoved in front of some elderly woman and she curses him and spits in his beard and it runs into the blood and down to his chest. They drag him out and keep pushing him and saying horrible things against him. Listen to me. This is the Son of God. This is Jesus, the king of the kingdom, that they’re doing this to.

Heinous crimes are committed against him. They finally get him to this Golgotha skull place and they open up a cross and they nail him onto a tree, which tree he spoke into existence originally. And then they hoist him up and dump him into the belly of Mother Earth, which he is responsible for creating. There he is, suspended appropriately between God and man.

And he looks down through the spit at a ragtag multitude of ungodly wretches. And with barely his last breath, he raises himself up in the cross and says, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t know about you. But I’m not worthy of that kind of love. How could he look at those people and do that? Hanging up there. Forgive them. That’s why he came. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the death of the cross despising the shame. And just sat down at the right hand of God on high. Can I finish the kingdom for you quickly? He made a trip. He was resurrected from the dead. How would you have come forth? If I came forth on the resurrection after they had done what they’d done to me, I would have gone to the pinnacle of the temple.

And I would have had a loudspeaker like the earth never heard before. And I’d say, You bunch of wretches, come look at me. I’m standing here on top of the temple and not standing on anything. You come look. And I would have gone to Caiaphas and I would have gone to Annes, and I’d have said, You look at me and see what you’ve done. I’m here. I’m up. You know what he did? He walked almost all day long with two little old men on the road to Emmaus. May God help us to be those little men. That’s the kind of God you serve. That’s the kind of Jesus He is. He is marvelous and wonderful. He’s elegant. He’s the King. And we praise Him without any shame whatever.

Conclusion

Because He belongs to us and we to Him. And I thank God for that. Well, there may be somebody here tonight that needs to obey the gospel. This King made it possible for the forgiveness of sins, and He told the disciples when he was just about to be resurrected back to His Father. Or send back to Him, He said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. You can do that tonight if you haven’t done that. If you understand that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, if you’re willing to repent of your sins and confess your faith in him, be buried with him in baptism. You can leave here without a spot of blemish on you at all.

You can be a new creature in Christ, a new man, a new soul born into the kingdom. Another one of those forgiven sinners. You can do that tonight. If you’re in the audience, and maybe you haven’t lived like you ought, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. I don’t mean to be mean, but you need to come back to God. He’s waiting for you. With outstretched hands, he says, Come unto me. So why keep Jesus waiting? Why not come to him tonight while we stand and see?