The Battle of the Mind- 3

Subtitle: The Leverage of Desires and Emotions

Galatians 5:16-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 22, 2025.

As we continue this series on the mental battle that Christians encounter, we must deal with the reality of our desires and emotions.

Desires look toward something in this world or future.  It focuses on bringing something into our sphere of experience.  Emotions, on the other hand, have more to do with the way that the world (reality) around us affects us.

Of course, these can play off of one another.  I may desire something, but the reality of whether it can happen or not can create frustration and anger, or it may create excitement, anticipation, and a euphoric feeling of near success.  Similarly, our emotions can spin off new desires.

This world of desire and emotion is a powerful part of what it means to be human.  God created our ability to desire and have emotions.  Therefore, there is something about them that is good and should not be excised from our life.  Yet, in our fallenness, they can lead to all kinds of harmful actions and patterns of life.

An example of this is the area of sexuality.  God designed humans as sexual beings and called it “very good.”  Yet, if we let our fleshly desires drive our sexuality, it will become destructive to ourselves and others.  It will pull us outside of the good design, the good purpose, for which God intended it.  Thus, it is not a person’s sexuality that should be “fixed.”  Rather, it is that world of the mind and heart in which we make decisions on how we are going to express that sexuality.

These desires and emotions are strategically placed within a person.  They wield an incredible amount of leverage upon us.  With that in mind, let’s look at our passage.

Be led by the Holy Spirit and not your desires (v. 16-18)

A follower of Jesus should seek to be led by the Holy Spirit and not the desires of their flesh.  This is what Paul is saying.  However, we should note the chain of understanding.  We are disciples of Jesus, followers of him.  However, he is not on the earth right now.  How can we follow him?  Yes, we can read his words and live them out, but Jesus promised something even greater than that.  He promised to pour out the Holy Spirit upon believers.  Jesus would lead them through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, to be led by the Spirit is to be led by Jesus (is to be led by the Father, too). 

Though He does speak to us in our hearts and minds, the Holy Spirit often uses the Scriptures and other believers to speak into our lives, or at least, to trigger His communication to us.  This inner dialogue between our spirit and the Holy Spirit is not meant to exclude these others in our life.  Instead, it incorporates it.

In verse 16, Paul uses a word for desire that has been translated as lust in other versions.  It simply means a strong desire or passion for something.  The desire may or may not have a bad target.  Ultimately, a believer should always pay attention to the target of their desires (is it good and acceptable to God). 

However, this word also involves a strength of desire that is greater than normal.  You could picture a person driving a car around a corner that is designed for 25 mph.  To drive your car around the corner is clearly in alignment with the design of the road (the target is good).  However, the speed at which you drive could be compared to the strength of your desire.  To drive around the corner doing 125 mph is going to end in disaster for me and anyone else in the car.  Am I carried away by the strength of the desire?

We tend to think of strong desire, or lust, as bad.  But verse 17 compares the “strong desire” of the flesh with the strong desire of the Holy Spirit.  This is important.  God has strong desires for us.  However, He doesn’t have the problem of “going too fast around the corner.”  As humans, the strength of our desire can overwhelm our ability, but the Spirit of God can have strong desire without it pulling Him off track.

Thus, we should not focus so much on how strong our desires are, but rather on the source of them.  The strong desires of my flesh will pull me off the way of the Lord, but the strong desires of the Spirit will keep me in the way of the Lord.

Typically, desires are rooted in the senses of our body.  I want to feel this, taste that, see this, hear that, etc.  Notice that God gave us senses to help us.  There is a good way in which we are to operate in these areas.  Desire can also be something more abstract.  In 1 John 2:16, we are warned against the “pride of life.”  The feeling of pride that often comes from the adulation of people and their willingness to serve us for favors is just as real though it may not be directly tied to a physical sense.

Thus, we should see the problem as an internal one within our natural self, rather than our body per se.  Our nature is to desire something as an end in itself.  “I’ll be happy once I get that job, …make that amount of money, …get that person to love me, etc.”  But, God did not design our senses and the things of this world to be the goal of our life.  These things are all means by which we can live a life that reflects God to the world around us and walks in harmony with His purpose.  To make them the goal is to turn them into an idol.  They are supposed to be an aid to us in going after the greater goal.

One pastor- I believe it was Spurgeon- pictured the death of a human as becoming a worm carnival.  In other words, you leave this body behind and a bunch of worms will revel in destroying it, and then they will die.  I bring this up because we become like those worms when we live for things, rather than for God.  We simply consume the things of the world around us that are dead in and of themselves.  There is no true life in these things, no matter how much I consume.  If your life is just a carnival, then it will come to an end one day.  You will die and realize you wasted your life consuming dead things that cannot help you.  May God help us to live for a higher purpose, that the things of this life would only be means by which we image Him and worship Him.

The flesh strongly desires to target things as an end in themselves, but the Holy Spirit has a strong desire to help us become like Jesus, perfectly imaging the Father.  Thus, we need to learn how to let the Holy Spirit become the source of our desires.  We should seek to desire what the Holy Spirit desires, instead of our natural self.  This creates an internal battlefield.

The battlefield already existed before you were a Christian.  However, you had no clue about the desire of the Holy Spirit.  You were a casualty of your own desires and those of the culture around you.  Yet, when you became a believer in Jesus, you became aware of this problem within your flesh.

Praise God that we are not left alone in this battle.  At salvation, we became aware of the strong desire of the Holy Spirit that we put our faith in Jesus.  Once we yielded to that, the Spirit then works to make us more like Jesus.  He does that by taking up residence within us.  He works in our heart and mind to make us aware of all the ways that the strong desires of our flesh have pulled us off track.  He also gives us strength to get back on track.

In fact, let us be clear.  Paul says that your flesh and the Holy Spirit will desire things that are hostile to one another.  Your flesh will not want to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  When someone is confronted with the truth about Jesus, there is a battle in them.  The Spirit of God is showing them that it is desirable to follow Jesus, but your flesh wants to shrink back away from that in fear.

Still, you are more than the desires of your natural self.  You can choose to follow the Holy Spirit (who supplies strength for you to follow through by faith on that choice), or you can choose to operate from the natural self.  In fact, a life of living for the flesh can be covered up with an outward appearance of following Jesus (think Judas). 

Verse 17 talks about the way in which we can want to do one thing, but end up doing another.  You may want to follow the Spirit, but the flesh is pulling  you off track.  You can even analyze this in your mind and despise your lack of following the Holy Spirit.

Yet, this is not just a problem for Christians.  Even unbelievers who are ruled by their flesh cannot simultaneously satisfy all of their desires.  In order to have one, they may be forced to sacrifice another.  One person desires to feel good (euphoria) over other desires and pursues a life of substance abuse.  Whereas, another may never touch drugs and the like because they desire money and the power it gives them greater than feeling good right now.

To bring this back to Christians, you may desire to be moral and good, like Jesus, but your natural self simply seeks satisfaction and doesn’t care about the morality.  Without Christ and the Holy Spirit he sends to us, we would be powerless in this battle.  Thus, all people deal with this reality that some desires are stronger than others for them.  Whereas the next person struggles with a different hierarchy of desires.  The Holy Spirit is given to empower us in this fight.

Throughout this passage, Paul has used two different phrases that are basically synonymous: walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit.  The second has the Spirit as an external guide showing us the way.  The first is less specific.  It can be seen as the person who has a relationship with the Holy Spirit within them.  We have seen this before with the difference between being filled with the Spirit (internal picture) and being baptized with the Holy Spirit (external picture). 

Part of our spiritual battle is to recognize that the Spirit is within you to lead you.  Reading the Word, prayer, godly counsel are all ways that the Spirit uses to show us the path forward.  However, this brings us to a point of action that requires faith.  He truly is trying to lead us on behalf of Jesus. 

We should also see the Holy Spirit as a path or atmosphere that we are seeking to stay on or within.  He is our helper, and if we stick with Him, stay in step with Him, then we will be far more successful in this battle.  The battle to follow the Spirit and not our natural self is essentially a battle in our minds and hearts.  As it is won, we can then do those things that make us more like Jesus.

The flesh will result in not inheriting the Kingdom of God (19-26)

Paul warns the Galatians that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God if they let themselves be led by their flesh.  Is this about salvation, or is the Kingdom of God a particular reward that God gives to certain believers?

In Romans 8:6, 13, Paul makes it clear that following the flesh leads to spiritual death, but following the Spirit leads to eternal life.  So, this is not just about a particular reward in the future that certain believers will experience.  It really is about eternal life, salvation.

The Kingdom of God can be thought of something that is in the future.  That is, Jesus is going to come back and set up a kingdom on the earth.  This is not to ignore the fact that the Kingdom of God is already here in a very real sense.  The point is this.  The Kingdom of God has phases in regard to what God is doing.  It is best to think of it as the particular way that God is expressing His life to believers at a particular time. 

Right now, we can participate in the Kingdom of God that has been made available through Jesus.  By the Spirit, we listen to our Lord and live out his commands.  However, a day is coming when I will die.  Am I leaving the Kingdom of God?  Of course, not.  My spirit will go to Christ at the right hand of the Father.  My participation in the Kingdom of God and the life He gives through it will have changed.  After the resurrection and return of Jesus to earth, glorified believers will attend Christ to the earth.  This too will begin a new expression of God’s Kingdom and the life we receive through it.  Thus, the Kingdom of God is eternal, but not static.

Yet, we should note that the term inheritance is in general a reference to our reigning with Christ in resurrected (glorified) bodies.  Some people who appeared to be followers of Jesus, but really were masking a life of following their flesh, will find themselves shut out from what God is doing.  This is essentially the picture that is given to us with the Lake of Fire at the end of the book of Revelation.  The wicked will be shut out of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Verse 21 introduces a word that is translated as “practice” in the NASB.  “Those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  We tend to connect this verb to things like sports and music.  In this case, practice is about something that is not the real event.  It is merely preparation.  However, when we say that a physician practices medicine, we do not mean it in this way.  In that case, it speaks of the very real decisions that a physician makes as they care for their patients.

This word speaks of what we do, but not just in a point in time.  It is talking about something we continue to do.  It also focuses not on the end of the action, but on the routine of it.  A person who routinely practices (does) what works of the flesh will find themselves shut out of God’s goodness. 

Paul moves from the flesh to the Spirit.  However, he does not continue to use the “practice” word.  He could have, but instead, Paul uses a different word, the fruit of the Spirit.

This contention between works and fruit is being used to highlight the powerful differences between following our flesh or the Spirit.  Of course, we are to practice the works of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit adds a powerful idea.  Like a fruit tree, we are to connect to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit comes from Him to us.  The supply of the Spirit in our lives enables us to bud, blossom, grow, and evidence ripe fruit.  This demonstrates that more is going on than just choosing to do certain things.  Rather, the presence of the Holy Spirit within us supplies and works life into us and through us.  The list of fruit is not even about giving us a set of check boxes.  “I have the love fruit now!”  Rather, it shows us a list (not exhaustive) of the kinds of things that will be expressed when a person is following the Holy Spirit.  Fruit is not always in season, but it is on a path to ripeness.  Give yourself to the Spirit of God, and He will help you to grow in these kinds of things.

Verse 24 speaks of the need to crucify the flesh, our natural self and its desires.  When we come to Christ, we have had years of serving the flesh, so it has a lot of leverage upon us.  The flesh is not only hostile to the strong desire of the Spirit, but it is also hostile to us crucifying its desires.  Thus, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to put these fleshly desires to death and give ourselves to the spiritual desires of Christ. 

We should see our flesh like a spoiled child who throws a fit in the grocery store in order to get what they want.  There is no easy way to deal with this.  We basically deal with the flesh one fleshly desires at a time.  As they crop up, we need to recognize them for what they are, and then, we need to ask the Holy Spirit what the positive, spiritual action would be that will enable us to become more like Christ.  Crucifying the flesh is more than not doing fleshly things.  It also involves doing what the Spirit of Christ is leading us to do.

For example, a person who is a thief, but becomes a Christian, doesn’t just stop stealing.  He also works to make restitution to those he stole from.  He may even have to face jail time.  Paying the price of our wrong actions and carrying the burden of their effects can be done in praise to God.  Yet, it is amazing how often God takes the negative effects of our sin and redeems by the help of the Holy Spirit.

This weekend, there was a wedding at our church.  A couple who had been living together, but not married, chose to honor God by being married.  For them, crucifying the flesh involved committing to one another in a way that their flesh had resisted for a long time.  Yet, now, they repent of their past actions and choose to honor God going forward.  Their marriage won’t be perfect, but they are doing the spiritual thing that will bear fruit in their life as they continue to follow the Holy Spirit.

Let this be our prayer everyday.  “Lord, strengthen me to say no to this desire of my flesh and show me the positive thing that I should do to break its hold on me!”

Desires & Emotions audio

The Kingdom of God- 7

Subtitle:  Inheriting the Millennial Kingdom I

1 Samuel 2:9-10; Psalm 2; 37; Daniel 2; 7:13-14

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 27, 2025.

We are going to talk about some passages that speak of inheriting the kingdom of God.  This first week we will focus on the Old Testament promises in this regard.  Next week, we will look at what the New Testament has to say about this.

When Jesus returns, his Kingdom will move from the phase we are in now into a new phase.  This is what we were talking about in a previous sermon when we said that the Kingdom of God is “now, but not yet fully.”  This phasing in of the Kingdom was not completely clear in the Old Testament, but the rudimentary prophecies about it are still there.

The Kingdom that Jesus sets up at his return to earth is often called the Millennial Kingdom because Revelation 20 speaks of it being a thousand- year period of peace on this earth under the rule of Jesus and his resurrected saints.  Millennial is simply Latin for 1,000 years.

However, this is not the complete kingdom of Jesus.  It is only phase 2.  Phase 1, which we are in now, has lasted for nearly 2,000 years.  There is even a third phase that is revealed in Revelation 20 in which this earth and these heavens are melted down and recreated into a new heavens and a new earth.  Only righteous immortals will be allowed into that New Creation.  God the Father along with the Son will dwell with redeemed humanity in perfect harmony, and there will be no fallen beings, human or otherwise.

This is why it can seem contradictory to read passages that speak about Messiah ruling forever, and then reading Revelation 20 and the thousand year reign of Christ on this earth.  This concept of different phases of the Kingdom is important to grasp.  The Kingdom isn’t ending.  It is only moving into a new phase.

Of course, there are some differences of opinion about the Millennium within Christian circles, but we are going to save that topic for another time.

Thus, we can enter into the kingdom of Jesus right now by repenting of our sins, turning to Jesus in faith, and living the life of faith to the end of our life.  Yet, Scripture does make a distinction with the idea of inheriting the kingdom.  In general, this is a reference to the phase 2 kingdom that is set up at the Second Coming of Jesus.

Let’s look at our first passage.

The Old Testament Promise

1 Samuel 2:9-10

This is a prophecy that is given through Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel.  Hannah was unable to have children and it bothered her.  Her husband had another wife who had no problem having children.  In fact, the woman was cruel and ridiculed Hannah’s predicament.  Hannah was so broken that she made a promise to God.  If He would giver her a son, then she would give the son back to God. 

To make a long story short, Hannah becomes pregnant.  After she weaned the child, she brought him to the high priest at the tabernacle and handed him over to the LORD’s service.

Yet, God had shown Hannah something through her situation.  He truly was on the side of the righteous and had a day of judgment set for the wicked.

She speaks of God giving strength to His “King” and to His “Anointed” (Messiah).  This is amazing because Israel did not have kings in those days.  It is her son, Samuel, who will be told by God to anoint a king for Israel.

Of course, God is revealing this to her.  Yet, there are prophecies of Israel having a king long before this.  Hannah sees a connection between her giving up hope on ever having a child and Israel giving up hope on having a king that would deal with the wicked.  God’s answer to her prayer gives her faith that He will answer the larger prayer of the coming of God’s Messiah King.  This Messiah King would be the fulfillment of the Serpent-Crusher prophecy of Genesis 3:15, and many others up to this point in Scripture.  The chosen line of men from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses, etc. would one day succeed in bringing forth the ultimate Chosen One.  God would judge the nations by exalting His Anointed King and giving him strength to overcome them.

Let’s look at our next passage.

Psalm 2:1-12.

This psalm opens with the nations in an uproar over the decision and action of God to set up His Messiah.  How that happened is not described, only that it has, and the nations do not like it.  They conspire together in an attempt  to throw off the restraints of God and His Messiah.  Though the passage speaks of fetters, or bands, these are metaphorical fetters.  They do not want to cooperate with a righteous leader.  They want to do their own thing, which is wickedness and corruption.

The fetters are the moral teaching of Messiah, and His powerful effect upon people to join the ranks of the righteous.  This creates a restraining effect upon these wicked kings.

It is natural for them to fight among one another for dominance, but here we find them uniting together to attempt an overthrow of Messiah.  Let me just say that unity sounds good, but we must always ask ourselves what we are unifying around.  These men are unifying around a wicked act, getting rid of a righteous king.

Verses 4-6 show that God is not worried by their conspiracy.  He even laughs at their plotting.  Of course, you and I worry about it all the time.  Perhaps, we should fix our eyes upon the One who is far more powerful than all the powerful nations combined.

We also see that God is not going to change His mind.  The installation was in the past, but it is not going to be revoked by Him, nor will it ever be.  God has made up His mind.

Verses 7-9 has the Messiah explaining God’s promises to Him.  He has been made a Son to God the Father.  He will be the only one who is worthy in God’s eyes to inherit all the nations.  No king of this earth past or present deserves the rule of the earth.  Jesus is the only One who is worthy.  This is the subject of Revelation 5. 

In fact, notice that  it says, “I will surely give the nations.”  This emphasizes that it is something that is going to happen in the future.  God is resolved to do it.

Thus, Jesus, the Messiah, has been given the nations and has power and authority over them.  Yet, he has not yet taken up his inheritance.  Why not?

Well, look at verses 10-12.  The delay is all about this rebellion against the LORD and His Messiah King.  God is not willing that any should perish.  He is not quick to stomp the arrogant kings of the earth and the people who are caught up in their wake.

Instead, God gives fair warning to the kings.  They need to make peace with Messiah before the day of wrath arises and they perish in the way.  This long period of grace is for the purpose of helping people to make a better decision.  Wake up before you run out of time!

Thus, the phrase that ends the psalm- “Blessed are those who put their trust in him” (Messiah)- is not just about the kings making a choice.  Those under the kings can jump ship and join Messiah.  The righteous should be the very first to embrace Messiah and would already be trusting in him.

The word for “trust” in that sentence is interesting.  Hebrew has several words for trust.  This one carries the connotation of fleeing into a safe place that we are trusting to save us.  This can be fleeing from rebellion into Messiah to avoid the day of wrath, but it can also be fleeing into Messiah for protection from these tyrant kings.

Jesus and his commands are a safe place to those who trust in Him (flee to Him for refuge).  In fact, part of that blessing is that we will inherit with the Messiah King.  To whom are you fleeing for refuge?  Or, to what are you fleeing?  People seek refuge in all manner of things, but only Jesus can protect us before God.

Thus, those who refuse to give homage to The Son, Messiah King, will perish in a day of wrath, but those who take refuge in him will be blessed!  In fact, the only reason they were able to rebel in the first place is because God is gracious.  They are taking advantage of His grace in order to conspire against Him and the righteous king. 

Yet, God still gives more mercy in calling them to repent and be saved.

Now, God’s purpose and plan takes place over long periods of time.  It is important to Him that humanity grasp what He is trying to teach us.  This calls for patience and trust.

Psalm 37

This next passage is Psalm 37.  We are going to quickly look at several verses in this psalm.  We will see there that God wants us to inherit this kingdom with Jesus, His Messiah.  Six times the psalmist emphasizes our inheritance.  Psalm 2 focuses on Messiah inheriting the nations, but Psalm 37 focuses on the righteous doing so as well.

In verses 1-2, we are encouraged not to fret nor to envy the workers of iniquity.  Of course, this is part of our problem.  We grow tired of waiting for God’s deliverance, and then see the wicked “getting away with it!”

Many reject the path of the righteous because they want to join in the spoils with the wicked.  Thus, they become wicked themselves.  But, a day of judgment lies before the wicked.  First, they have a personal judgment day at their death.  All souls stand before God and give account for their life.  I would be worthy of judgment as well, but I have fled unto Jesus Christ for refuge from that judgment. 

Yet, there is a secondary judgment.  The nations will be collectively judged at the Second Coming of Jesus.

If we skip ahead to verses 9-11, we begin to see that those who wait for the LORD will inherit the earth.  It even speaks of the meek inheriting the earth.  Being meek is the picture of an afflicted person who has restrained their tendency to fight, and instead, have trusted in God’s judgment. 

It is easy to feel that God takes too long and take matters into your own hands.  Yet, notice Jesus.  He too face proud arrogant men.  Yet, He trusted the Father even unto death.  Thus, the Father has given Him the blessing of being the firstborn from the dead in order to receive the blessing that He deserves.

It is so with us.  Our hope is not in “getting ours” in this life.  Yes, our flesh would like that very much.  Yet, no matter what I get in this life (and there are a lot of good things in it) my true hope is in God resurrecting me in order to inherit alongside of Jesus.  That is our reward and inheritance.

In verses 18-20, the psalmist emphasizes that the inheritance of the righteous shall be forever.  However, this is contrasted with the plight of the wicked.  They should flee unto Messiah for refuge, but many won’t.  They will perish and vanish at the time of God’s choosing.

Verses 22, and 28-29 again speak of those blessed by “Him” inheriting the earth, but the cursed being cut off.  Now, God doesn’t want to curse and cut people off.  That is why He is telling us all of this up front.  We can avoid it.  If a person is in the place of faith in God’s Messiah, then they are safe (the place of blessing).  But, those who are not in the place of faith in God’s Messiah are outside of the safety.  They are in the place of cursing and not safe.

This is reiterated again in verse 34.  God will exalt those who wait upon Him to inherit the land.  Yet, that exaltation will not happen before it is the right time.  Verse 40 even says that God will save those who are waiting upon Him from the wicked because they trust in Him (flee to Him for refuge).

We must quit looking at what the wicked are doing and getting.  Instead, we must live righteously and wait for the inheritance that God has reserved for those who serve His Messiah!

Daniel 2:44-45

Most Old Testament prophecies emphasize that Messiah’s kingdom lasts forever.  But, the Millennium (1,000-year period) is an important part of that forever kingdom.

In Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of his empire and those that would come after him.  It is pictured as the image of a King whose head is of gold, shoulders of silver, waist of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with clay.  Daniel explains to the king that they are successive empires that are diminishing in glory, but also becoming more destructive.  These kingdoms would be destroyed by a rock that is cut out without hands (not a work of a man, but God).  This rock would strike the feet of the image destroying it.  The rock would then become a mountain that fills the whole earth.  This kingdom will never be destroyed and will last forever.  This indestructible kingdom is in some ways here already, but this passage is looking ahead to an even greater act in which the empires of the world are demolished and removed.

Daniel 7:13-14.

Daniel 7 opens with another picture of these empires, but they are not pictured as metals in a human image.  They are pictured as beasts.  I think Daniel 2 pictures these empires as they see themselves, but Daniel 7 pictures these empires as God sees them, beastly kingdoms that are only becoming more grotesque and monstrous.  In fact, God has the final beast slain.  It is then that we see the Son of Man riding on the clouds to the throne of God.  There he takes up a kingdom that will have dominion over all the earth.  All the earth will serve him (which is the book of Daniel connotes even a religious worship).  This will be an everlasting dominion that never passes away.

We can see how the Jews of the first century could be perplexed at a crucified savior.  It seems to fly in the face of all that God has promised about this coming kingdom.  Why would God do this?  Why this way?

God has done it this way because none of us is worthy to participate in such a kingdom with His Messiah.  Imagine a worthy king with no one worthy to be in his kingdom.  Can such be called a kingdom?

The grace of God has carved out a place of safety where people can flee into Messiah for refuge.  These people are unworthy in and of themselves.  Yet, they have believed God and His Messiah.

We have been looking ahead to what is coming.  It is good to know what you are working for.  Yet, we cant be stuck looking ahead all the time.  So, as we come back to the present, what do we do now?  We trust God to be our savior and wait upon Him and His timing.  We don’t fret over all that we see happening around us.  We don’t let it leverage our hearts and minds away from doing what god has called us to do.  We remain in Christ and serve him, his purposes, and his commands.

These things we ought to do and more because the worthy king of God has laid down His life that we might join him in that kingdom!

Inheriting the Millennium audio

The Kingdom of God- 4

Subtitle:  Living in the Kingdom of God

Various passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 6, 2025.

We have talked about the means of entering the Kingdom.  We do so by putting our faith and trust in Jesus.  We trust in who he is as the Lord and Savior.  It is he who has taken our sins upon himself so that we can be free from them.  He is giving us a taste of eternal life through the Holy Spirit, and will raise us up in the Resurrection of the Righteous in order to make us a completed testimony of His eternal life.

We are citizens of this strange, spiritual kingdom, that is very much unlike any other kingdom on this earth.  Today, we will look at what it means, what it looks like, to living in this spiritual kingdom.

Let’s look at some passages.

The Holy Spirit gives us life (Romans 8:11-14)

In this chapter, Paul is describing how our spiritual life is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit.  Verse 14 lays out the reality that we can only become the sons of God through the help of the Holy Spirit.  This is part of the life giving work of God’s Spirit.

He first leads us to see who Jesus is and our need to trust in him for salvation.  When a person responds with faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit does a real work of making us spiritually alive.  Thus, the Spirit works to put the life of Christ in front of us, and He does a spiritual work of making us a new creation, born from above.

This is foundational to our new life in this new kingdom.  I can know for certain, I can have faith in the fact, that the Spirit of God is giving me life, and will continue to supply spiritual life to me.  No newborn baby brings themselves into existence.  God is the One who makes us spiritually alive.  However, in the case of spiritual birth, there is a cooperation between God and the one becoming a spiritual newborn.  Thus, by our faith in Jesus, God gives us spiritual life.  Also, by our continued faith in Jesus, the Spirit continues to lead us in this new spiritual life.  Over time, this spiritual nourishment causes us to become more and more spiritually mature.

This is what Paul is talking about in verse 12.  He uses the idea of a debt on the heels of all the life that the Spirit of God is giving us.  The Spirit has brought us to Jesus, made us spiritually alive, and continues to nourish us with spiritual life daily.  We are in debt to this great act of love. 

On the other hand, some people live as if they are in debt to their flesh.  What has the flesh ever done for us?  The flesh drew us into sin and bondage.  It makes us guilty before God and without any power to save ourselves.    A Christian knows that the gracious work of God’s Spirit is giving us life over the top of a life of the flesh that only brought death into our lives.

Now, this is not a debt in the sense that we need to pay it off in order to come into the Kingdom, etc.  Rather, Christ died for us so that we might live.  We owe him our lives, so we live life for his purposes.  The Holy Spirit supplies that spiritual nourishment for us to do this work and become more like Jesus, a maturing process.  This is a debt of love that is never intended to be “paid off.”  He first loved us.  We will never fully reciprocate that love.  Yet, He still loves us!

Paul’s point is that a Christian should no longer live in order to satisfy the lusts of their flesh.  This self-focused life is a part of our old life before Christ.  We are to put those lusts to death, and choose to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.  We are led by the Holy Spirit in putting our fleshly desires, and the deeds that flow out of them, to death and replacing them with life-giving righteousness.

If you pay attention to the argument throughout the chapter, you will see that Paul has more in mind in verse 11 than spiritual birth and spiritual maturity.  He is looking ahead to a point in the future when Jesus Christ will resurrect the righteous by that same Spirit that raised him from the dead.  Paul is reminding us that this is a real spiritual work that impacts not only how we live today, but also our eternal future.  Our Christian life on this mortal plane will some day come to an end in death.  Our bodies will be laid in the grave, but our spirits will go to be with Jesus in heaven.  There we will await the day of resurrection.  When that occurs, we will receive a glorified body that does not grow old and die.  We will be immortal as Jesus is.  This is pictured as an inheritance that has been reserved for us by God.

Think of it.  If the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, then you have nothing to worry about.  The Spirit is our source of life, even if our mortal bodies die.  We will live eternally in perfect fellowship with God.  We have fellowship now, but it is not perfect yet.  When we step into the eternal state, we will not have to take God by faith.  Instead, we will dwell with Him within His blazing glory and immediate presence.

Notice that Paul is using battle imagery here.  We do not fight against people and put human enemies to death.  Rather, we battle against our fleshly lusts, which are easily stirred up by this world and wicked spiritual forces.  Even bringing the Gospel to others can be seen as setting captives free from slavery in a wicked kingdom.

This may feel like a hopeless battle, but we are not doing this alone.  The more I learn to rely upon the Holy Spirit’s help, the better I will do at removing sin and replacing it with the righteousness of Jesus.

Our heart is like a garden.  In this mortal life, we will always have to weed out these lusts. We would like to believe that we could weed the garden of our heart so well that we never had a stray thought or desire ever again.  This is not the case.  You will not be perfect and complete like that until the resurrection.  Yet, we should take heart.  The task of putting our lusts to death becomes easier with daily focus.  Once a garden has been weeded, it requires much less energy if we check it every day.  However, if you “take a break from weeding,” or only periodically have a fit of weeding, you can expect that it will be spiritually taxing all of the time. 

Matthew 7:24-25.  At the end of the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus gave us a different image of this same thing.  Our life is pictured as the building of a house.  If we build our life by trusting in the teaching of Jesus, then our house, our life, will withstand the coming storm.  However, if we do not build our life upon the teachings of Jesus, then our house will be destroyed by the coming storm.

The storm can be applied to the difficulties of this life.  The cares and difficulties of life can test our faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus.  They come along and test just how well we have been building.  Yet, I do believe that Jesus has a different storm in mind.  He is speaking of the time of judgment after this life is done.  We will stand before God.  This is the ultimate test of whether our house will stand or not.  My house is all of the ways that I have lived and the reasons for why I have done what I have done.  Only those who have truly listened to Jesus will survive it.  Of course, none of us do it perfectly.  Jesus is not talking about a person who never made a mistake.  In fact, building can sometimes be analogous to warfare.  You wrestle with the imperfection of the building materials in order to get things in a good relationship to one another.  A perfect house that has no imperfections, subtle or otherwise, doesn’t exist.  However, many good houses do exist.  No matter how beautiful the house, if it is not built upon the foundation of the teachings of Jesus, it will not survive the Judgment.  These two images of a spiritual battle and a spiritual building are both important and simply two different ways of looking at the same thing.

A disciple of Christ is devoted to Jesus

As a disciple of Jesus, we need to stay close to the master so that we can learn from him.  A disciple is devoted to the master and his wisdom, his way of life.

A disciple will be a student of the Bible.  In 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Paul encourages Timothy in the work ahead of him.  He speaks of the “sacred writings” that Timothy had known from his youth.  In verse 16, he refers to these sacred writings as the Scriptures.  Of course, Paul is talking about the Old Testament (note: the New Testament was being written at that time).  The same is true of the New Testament, but let’s put that point aside.

Paul wants Timothy to remember that the Bible is given to us to do several things in our life.  He first points to the teaching we receive through the Bible.  The disciples of the days of Jesus were taught directly by him.  Each day, he would take time to teach them his way of living versus the way they had been living on their own.  We do not have the luxury of this same relationship.  Of course, Jesus teaches us through the Holy Spirit, but he is not physically in our lives.  Thus, the Word of God becomes even more critical for us.  The Bible is a confirmed and sure teaching from God through Jesus and his apostles.  We don’t have to guess at how to live for Jesus.  We can read it and obey.

All Christians should make sure that they are reading the Bible each day.  The Spirit of God will help it to be profitable to us spiritually.  It teaches us those things that we don’t know.  Not all of us were like Timothy, being taught the Bible by a mom when we were young.  It will take time to learn what Christ wants us to learn.  However, a little each day will slowly build up over time.  We will not just grow in what we understand, but then the Holy Spirit will teach us how to live those things out in our life.

The Bible is also profitable for reproving us.  This is the idea of convincing us, or proving something to us.  This is a natural part of all learning.  It is not enough to be able to regurgitate an answer on a paper test.  We have to be convinced of the truth, the wisdom, of Christ in order to live life as he commands.

The Bible is also good for correction.  It can correct bad ideas, poor choices, and bad habits that we have built up through the years.

Lastly, Paul mentions that it is profitable for training in righteousness.  There are two ditches that Christians can fall into in this area of righteousness.  We can make the mistake of thinking that our salvation and hope is based upon how well we live righteously.  We can focus on lists of things that we can’t do and things we can do.  The emphasis is that it is all on me.  The other mistake is the opposite.  This view basically surrenders to the point that we cannot be righteous like Jesus.  Jesus died on the cross to be my righteousness.  Therefore, I shouldn’t diminish his perfect work by trying to do righteousness myself. 

This sounds better and sees everything resting upon Jesus.  However, it misses one thing: the purpose of God.  God did not set us free from our sins so that we could just go on sinning, but now without consequences (tongue-in-cheek “Praise the Lord!).  Yes, only the righteousness of Jesus can pay the price of our sins and save us.  Yet, God saved us in order for us to be trained in the righteousness of Jesus.  Training involves a lot of messing up, but also, getting up and going back into the battle of learning.

Some people shy away from this out of a strange sense of trying not to diminish God.  They are stuck in seeing all righteousness about being saved.  However, once we have been made alive in Jesus, we can now follow the Spirit as He leads us to do the righteousness of Christ.

Why do Christians do the things they do?  If we are simply doing good things so that our Christian friends will remark how much like Jesus we are (for social image), then we are only trying to live a Christian life from the leading of our flesh.   Getting our name on a building and feeling good about ourselves around other Christians are not the “good works” for which the Holy Spirit is equipping us.  A true disciple of Christ does what they do because the Spirit of God is prompting them as they read the Word and in other ways that we will see.  They are being led by the Spirit out of love for Christ.  This is what makes their works acceptable to God.

A disciple of Christ is devoted to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.  This is given to us in the Bible.  Thus, the Bible can be seen as our textbook, and life can be seen as our homework.  Yet, there is another area that is important for a disciple.

A disciple will be a person of prayer.  Philippians 4:6-7 points to the importance of prayer for the disciple.  Prayer is communication with God.  It may seem strange at first because God is Spirit and speaks to us in ways different than we have experienced.  In truth, we should prayerfully read the Word of God.  It is a spiritual book breathed forth by God through faithful men.  We should not think that we can understand it without God’s help.  “Lord, help me to hear what you are saying to me today.  Lead me; guide me, and help me to live for you!  Give me some homework today so that I know what I should be working on.”  This is how we should approach the Bible.

That said, a disciple of Jesus needs to set aside time to pray.  There are different kinds of prayer.  This passage really focuses on 2.  An acronym that is used for types of prayer is ACTS:  prayers of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (Petitions). 

Paul is focusing on the anxiety that believers can have in this life.  He points to our ability to request, or petition, God for the things we need, or at least, we think we need.  The believer who lays such requests before God should also do so with a heart of Thanksgiving.  Paul sees this as a great source of peace for the believer.

Requests by their very nature can easily deteriorate into whining and complaining.  We can grow angry with God when He doesn’t do exactly what we want, or even does the opposite.  This is why Thanksgiving is so important, as well as prayers of adoration and confession.  These kind of prayers keep us grounded in the truth of who we are when we approach God to ask Him for something.  In the end, we are the recipients of His great love.  Before you ask God for anything, make sure that you take time to thank Him for all that you have.  In fact, a thankful heart never treats a request as a means for God to prove His loyalty and love.  Jesus proved the heart of the Father at the cross.  Prayers of Thanksgiving ground our requests in the goodness and faithfulness of God.  Like a child, we can ask our heavenly Father.  Yet, we can also rest in the knowledge that that request will be filtered through His love and wisdom.

Intercession is prayer for someone else.  This too is the kind of prayer that helps ground requests to ourselves in something other than fleshly desires.  As we pray for others, we also see ourselves in them.  We recognize why God may say no to us at times.  He might even say yes, but not now.  Regardless, it is ours to make our request known, and then to rest in the peace that His Holy Spirit wants to give to us.  This peace will guard our hearts and minds from the thoughts and fears that we can have.  Thoughts and fears like Eve had when she listened to the serpent.  “God doesn’t really care about you.  He only wants to hold you back from something good.”  This is a lie that the serpent spun for our first parents, and he is still spinning that yarn to this day.  Have you ever believed it?

Prayer is the ground where we humble ourselves and talk with God.  No one prayer time will fix all our questions and problems.  It is a daily and lifelong communion with Him that will only be perfected as we go into eternity.  If we don’t spend time touching base with the master, then we will not become more like him.  Thus, it is not enough to read about Jesus.  We need to spend time in prayer talking with him.

A disciple will take their place in the family of God.  In Hebrew 10:24-25, the writer tells believers not to forsake the assembling together.  He even points out that some people in those days were doing exactly that.  They became believers, joined the Church for a season and then, they walked away.

This can be for various reasons.  Some people are walking away from Jesus, and so, walking away from the his Church is the natural second action.  Others convince themselves that they still believe in Jesus, but they think they don’t need other believers.  Perhaps, someone said something that hurt them.  Or, maybe, they are just reclusive.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that part of being together is to “stimulate one another to love and good deeds.”  We should be prayerfully considering how we can encourage other believers, and they should be prayerfully considering how to encourage me. 

This is what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do.  Thus, a person who walks away from a body of believers is refusing the leading of the Spirit.  Of course, there are some churches that you may need to flee.  They are a cult or have allowed the flesh to corrupt the leadership and activity of the church.  Regardless, we need to go somewhere.  You can say that you can’t find a place, but that is usually a cop-out.  The Holy Spirit will lead you somewhere, and that somewhere will not be a place peopled by perfect Christians who never make a mistake.

Why will you not step up and let the Lord work through those relationships to make you more like Jesus and to make them more like Jesus?  The answer is in our flesh.  The solution is in dying to the desires of our flesh and saying yes to the desires of Jesus.

The Church is like a family, a family of God.  We have to learn how to say that we are sorry.  We have to learn how to say that we forgive.  This is not easy, and we can be stubborn.  Yet, may God help us to become quicker and quicker at yielding to the teachings of Jesus.  There is life in it.

When we humble ourselves through prayer, we may with frustration say that we don’t see what God sees in those other people.  However, the Holy Spirit will remind us that we also don’t see what God saw in us.

When we give mercy to others (even undeservedly), we are actually making the case for why others should have mercy on us.  If you don’t have mercy on others, do not think that you will receive mercy from God when you stand before Him on Judgment Day.

All of this to say that a true disciple will learn to take their place in the body of Christ.  They will learn to receive and give stimulus that leads us all to love others and to do the good works that God has for us to do.

Of course, this is a hard thing to do.  It can be intimidating and uncomfortable.  We may even fear doing it.  However, this is God’s signature.  You were made to be able to do things far beyond your comfort level.  Every little boy who thinks about growing up and working 40 to 60 hours a week can balk at growing up.  Every teenage girl who thinks about giving birth to a baby and raising a child can be intimidated at the thought.  However, God made little boys and little girls to grow up into men and women.  It may be scary, but there is a greater good in it that we can’t understand until we’ve done it.

In the end, it is the same as our salvation.  A disciple who has faith in Jesus will trust that Jesus will help them to join other Christians and live for him.  Somehow and someway, we can become family by the help of God’s Holy Spirit.

These are not the only ways to show our devotion to Jesus.  However, they are very important things that we need to embrace by the Spirit’s help.  May God help us to be devoted followers of Jesus!

Kingdom of God 4 audio

The Kingdom of God- 3

Subtitle:  How to Enter the Kingdom of God

Various passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 30, 2025.

Last week, we talked about the distinction between the present Kingdom of God and the future phase of that Kingdom at the Second Coming of Jesus.  This present phase is predominantly spiritual, but it makes an outward difference in our lives.  This is a strange kingdom that is not like any kingdoms of this world.  It is not limited to particular borders, and though it is world-wide, it is not an empire that forces nations into compliance.  Jesus is a different kind of king reigning over a different kind of kingdom, a Kingdom of God.

In Matthew’s account of the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus is presented as King Messiah calling people into his kingdom.  He is also presented as the New Moses, sent to set up the New Covenant with God.

Israel was under a true bondage.   Yes, the Romans had them under their boot.  However, their biggest bondage was spiritual.  They had a king who wasn’t even from the tribe of Judah.  The priesthood and leaders of the Sanhedrin had developed a corrupt system under the color of law, but working counter to the purposes of God.  The spiritual Pharaoh of this world kept them in servitude to his purposes every bit as much as was the case before the exodus.  Those who would follow Jesus would escape by God’s strong right arm.

An Israelite who was in Egypt when Moses appeared had a choice to make.  They could follow Moses out into the desert, risking death in one form or another, or they could stay in Egypt and not rock the boat.  Even when we want free from some things, we can fear what might happen.  They had worked out a compromise with their situation.  They knew exactly what to expect from the Egyptians.  The comfort of the devil we know can outweigh any promises of God to bring us into a better kingdom.  Yet, the only way they could have participated in the kingdom that God was promising was to follow Moses, the one He had sent.

The same is true of Jesus.  He was initiating a kingdom that would be different than what national Israel had become.  Those who wanted to participate in it would need to listen to him and follow him.  This is the template for entering the Kingdom of God.  We can even recognize that God did powerful signs and wonders with Moses and again with Jesus in order to help them to have faith for such a choice.

So, as we look at entering the Kingdom of God, let me just say this.  Entering the Kingdom now is prerequisite for entering the next phase of the Kingdom at the Second Coming of Jesus.

Let’s look at some passages.

Matthew 21:28-32

Jesus used this parable to challenge the religious leaders of his day.  The tax collectors and prostitutes (among others) of their day were like the first son.  They were not interested in being a part of the Father’s work and the fruitfulness He intended.  However, now they were regretting (repenting of) their callous response to the Father.  Now, they were believing God and entering the Kingdom. 

The religious leaders on the other hand were like the second son.  They had responded in their life like they were going to do the work of the Father, but they have not actually done it.

This would have seemed to be a false analogy to them.  However, Jesus points to the prophet, John the Baptist.  His message was a simple one.  It is hard to say that there was something wrong with it.  “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”  He also quoted a passage in Isaiah to highlight their need to get ready for Messiah.  Messiah was coming and they would want to be spiritually ready for him.  Many people in Israel responded to John’s teaching.  They recognized that they were not ready.  They needed cleansing in their life in order to be ready. 

Why wouldn’t the religious leaders like this message?  It is because he called them to repentance as well.  Just read Matthew 3:7-12.  They were a brood of snakes who had no clue about the wrath of God that was about to pour out upon Israel.  The Messiah was coming as the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.  This baptism would be life to those who repented and believed, but it would be a fiery destruction for those who did not.  These religious leaders would not acknowledge John as a prophet, and therefore believe his message, because he dared to speak to them as if they were not right with God.

Thus, they refused to do the work of God, i.e., to believe upon the One He had sent.  This is the key to entering the Kingdom.  Repentance has two components to it.  It involves a change of mind that is spurred by the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  I realize that I have been rejecting the way of God and trying to forge my own way.  This change of mind about our way (and God’s way) leads to the second component: turning away from our sin and towards the way of the Lord.  These tax collectors and prostitutes were not just believing that Jesus was the Messiah.  They were also walking away from lives of sin and turning towards living out the words of Jesus.

Jesus is the litmus test for all mankind.  You can say that you love God, but what you do with Jesus and his teachings will reveal exactly what is in your heart.  Of course, no person is perfect in following Jesus.  We do not get into the Kingdom because we have a perfect record of obeying the words of Jesus.  It is his perfect performance that provides a place of grace by which we can spiritually grow to become like him, little by little.

These religious leaders probably fell into different categories.  Some of them really did think they were doing what they were supposed to do.  They had been taught by others that this system was God’s system, and that they were God’s faithful representatives.  However, they had to ignore all kinds of spiritual red flags that would have surfaced as they read the Scriptures.  On the other hand, there were most likely some of these men who really had no faith in God.  They simply had learned how to harness the system to their benefit.

The problem with self-justification is that it doesn’t serve you well in the end.  It only serves to blind you to the grace of God.  We would all do well to sleuth out the self-justifications that we are using to avoid obeying God.

Thus, Jesus points out that those who were believing in him, putting their trust in who he was and what he taught, were entering the Kingdom of God.

John 6:27-28

The work of God and the will of God are the same thing in this passage.  Jesus had performed a miraculous feeding of thousands in the wilderness around the Sea of Galilee.  He had then left the area at night without their knowledge.  Many of these people searched along the Sea of Galilee for Jesus, until they found him in Capernaum.

In this passage, Jesus is not mad that they worked so hard to find him.  Rather, he is pointing out that they were not as interested in what he was teaching as they were about a free lunch and a spectacle to see.  Jesus is challenging them to work for spiritual food that can give them everlasting life.  Again, it is not about the act itself.  It is about the internal intention of the doer.  Jesus wants us to come to him and learn.  However, he wants us to do it for the right reasons.

There are many today who have attached themselves to the Kingdom of God.  They call themselves Christians, but they are really looking for a free lunch.  They see it as a ticket to something in the natural: wealth, friends, good times, clean fun, etc.  However, their flesh resists the word of God making any real change in their life.  They are like the religious leaders of the days of Jesus, thinking they are good with God and incensed that anyone would say they need to repent.

This passage spells out exactly what God is asking of us.  “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”  This word for believe means to trust in him, to put the full weight of our life upon him.  It is far more than just believing that he existed, or that he is the Messiah.  It is about trusting that he is the Word of God to us, that we do or don’t listen to him at our own peril.

Even though it is true that putting our faith in Jesus is how we enter the Kingdom of God, we wouldn’t be able to do that if it weren’t for God’s grace.  It is He who has formulated a plan for redeeming us out of our sins.  It is He who sent Jesus to be the perfect image of Him and the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  It is He who wants us to trust in Jesus, promising to forgive us of our sins if we do.  Entering the Kingdom is a cooperation between what God does and how we respond.

Some people try to minimize our choice by saying that it threatens the sovereignty of God.  An example of their argument is this.  “You can’t really have a choice, otherwise God isn’t sovereign.”  Of course, that turns sovereignty on its head.  It is a human telling God that He can’t create humans with the ability to choose, even when they are stuck in sins.  If God truly is sovereign, then He can do whatever He wants.  A humble reading of the Scriptures will always see the absolute challenge from God to take hold of the salvation that He has made available to us.  God’s Word can be boiled down to His hand reaching down to us and saying, “Why will you die?  Take hold of My Hand!”

Of course, even our response to that is helped along by the grace of God.  When we take hold of His Hand, we find underneath of us the Everlasting Arms of God holding us up.  Entering the Kingdom is not just a choice of man, but also a choice of God.  His Holy Spirit not only transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, but He also makes our spirit come alive.  We are spiritually new babies, born into a Kingdom that has older siblings to help us grow.

John 3:5-6; 14-15

In this context, one of those religious leaders, named Nicodemus, had come to Jesus late at night.  He was bucking the trend of his peers, but didn’t want them to know that he was having second thoughts.  He knew that only Messiah could do what Jesus was doing, but he was perplexed by what Jesus taught.

In this passage, Jesus explains that natural birth is not enough to bring someone into the Kingdom.  It takes a spiritual birth.  It has to be an operation of the Holy Spirit that convicts a man to believe God and do what He is saying.  A person who refuses to do this remains dead spiritually, but a person who does is made spiritually alive, born again (or born from above).

As Jesus is explaining the need for a spiritual birth, he points to an event in Israel’s history to illustrate what he means.

 Numbers 21 tells a brief story of Israel in the wilderness.  They were complaining against God and even calling the manna that He supplied “worthless bread.”  God then sent poisonous serpents into their camp.  Many people were dying from the serpent bites.  When they came to Moses repenting and asking what they should do, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole.  Those who are bitten could look upon the serpent and be healed.

This might seem strange.  Why would God make such a weird requirement of them?  When we compare this to what Jesus is talking about, spiritual birth, it is understandable.  They had sinned and were suffering the effects of their sins.  However,  the root of their sin was a lack of faith in God’s leadership and intentions for them.  Looking upon the serpent would be both simple (no great righteous work of their own) and an act of faith.

We see this in the story of Namaan the Syrian general who had leprosy.  The prophet told him to dip in the Jordan seven times and he would be healed.  Namaan did not want to do it at first.  He was headed home, incensed that the prophet didn’t come out to see him.  Yet, his servant talked him into doing it because it was a simple thing to do.

There is no healing properties in a bronze snake, but it represented something that they would not be inclined to go look at.  They would have to trust the Word of God through Moses.  It was their faith that allowed them to live.  Spiritual birth is similar.  We are all bitten by sin and dying from it.  Unless we look upon Jesus with simple trust in him, we will die in our sins.  Spiritual birth is listening to the Holy Spirit and doing what He is calling you to do.  It is saying no to the flesh and yes to the Spirit.  The Spirit is calling all men everywhere to put their trust in a crucified Lord.  This seems silly to our flesh, but it is the requirement of the Lord in order to receive eternal life.  When people put their trust in Jesus (look upon him), a real spiritual work of the Holy Spirit is done in their life.  They are made to be spiritually alive.

Let’s go back to Matthew 21 where Jesus tells a parable.

Matthew 21:33-42

Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who plants a vineyard.  It goes to great expense to set it up and create protections around it.  He then leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  At vintage time, he sent servants in order to receive its fruit.  Yet, the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.  The landowner sent more servants, but they did the same again.  Then, the landowner sent his son believing that they would surely respect his son.  However, when they saw the son, the wicked vinedressers killed him so that they could steal the inheritance.

After telling this story, Jesus asks the religious leaders what the landowner would do.  They answered rightly that the landowner would come and destroy them.  He would then lease the vineyard to others who would render to him the fruits of the vineyard in the proper season.

Of course, this story is about them.  They are the wicked vinedressers who are killing the prophets that God sent to them.  Last of all, they are even now preparing to kill Jesus, the Son of God.

Jesus then points them to Psalm 118:22.  There, the psalmist speaks of the builders rejecting a stone that then is chosen to be the chief cornerstone by the Lord.  The message is the same.  Those who were supposed to be leading Israel to be fruitful for the purposes of God were not doing that.  Those who were supposed to be building Israel into a great temple unto God the Father were rejecting the very rock of Israel that the Father had sent to be the Chief Cornerstone.

This is not so much about Israel as it is about the religious leaders of Israel.  They were being fired by God.  He was raising up new vinedressers from among Israel and even from among the Gentiles.  They would do a better job.  These vinedressers would be Jews and Gentiles working together.

It is important to see that the present phase of the Kingdom is about fruitfulness.  God wants those who have put their faith in Jesus to be fruitful and to help the Church be fruitful.  When Christ returns, will he find a harvest of righteousness and strong believers still trusting in him?  Or, will he find us drinking with the sinners and beating His servants?

Many have served Jesus and died through the centuries.  Yet, Jesus will resurrect all the righteous who have died and all of the righteous who are still alive.  These will then enter into the next phase of the Kingdom of God.

Are you in the Kingdom now?  Put your faith in Jesus and turn from your sin.  Live your life for His purposes instead of pleasing yourself.  This will give you a place in the Kingdom of God today, and an inheritance in the future phase when Christ returns to take over the kingdoms of this world.

Kingdom 3 audio