The Kingdom of the Redeemed

The Kingdom of the Redeemed (1)

August 7, 2016

Let us continue our journey through the kingdom passages, now in Luke 8. We will start in verse 1, just a short piece today, but there is a lot there. Let us go from verse 1 to verse 3. Let us read together:

Luke 8 1-3

“1. Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News [Gospel] about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, 2. Along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; 3. Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples”.

How many heard this verse before? Isn't that an amazing verse? So of course, we see that the good news is of the Kingdom of God. Jesus was preaching the good news, the gospel of the Kingdom. He was preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. What's fascinating about this passage here in Luke 8, is look at this ---- he's traveling along with some women, as well, so he has the women followers, as well, who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. This is very important folks. It is said like this, "if you do not know you have a disease, you cannot appreciate the cure."

In fact, you will think it is insulting that somebody is trying to give you a cure. Let us say you have a debilitating disease but you do not think you have it, and somebody says, "Hey, all the signs show you have cancer, here's a cure for it." That person will actually be insulted. "What are you talking about, I have cancer? No, I don't." If they do not know they have a disease, they will actually be insulted.

I was studying up about Ray Comfort. He is the guy that made the Living Waters videos, and what an amazing evangelist. He, had a series with Kirk Cameron, do you know him? He was on the show, what show was that? He was the preppy kid on that show, Growing Pains, a sitcom in the 90s. It was for teens and he played the main role. Actually, he is now a very strong Christian, he is collaborating with evangelist Ray Comfort, and they do the Living Waters ministry. They gave a wonderful example, talking about this very issue. They said, let us say you were going onto a plane, and somebody handed you a parachute.

Moreover, they said, this will increase your comfort in the air. Therefore, you take that parachute, and you put it on and you go sit in the cabin and you have this big pack on and you are fidgeting around in your seat. Therefore, you are fidgeting around in your seat and the seatbelt is harder to put on, and you really cannot lay back straight because now you have a hunched back, and it is not actually that comfortable. Then you have all the people on the plane looking at you, saying, 'What's wrong with that guy? Why does he have a parachute on? He has nuts!'

In addition, maybe there are some teenaged kids in the corner laughing at you,’ what’s that guy wearing a pack on like that?' Then, while you are fiddling around with all this stuff and you are trying to get into your seat and get in place, the steward is walking coffee down the aisle and she spills the hot coffee on you! In that scenario, you would probably say, 'This danged parachute!,' and take it off, right? You would take it off. And you would get angry; the whole situation would be ridiculous, the people making fun of you; all that would get under your nerves, under your skin, and the coffee is boiling your skin. And it's all because of this stupid parachute, right?

Now, let us say you went on this plane, and somebody handed you a parachute, saying, "You are going to be jumping from 25,000 feet, so you'll need this." Now, when you walk into the cabin and you have your parachute on, and all the people start making fun of you, you are trying to sit down. So what? It does not matter. "I'm going to be jumping when we get to 25,000 feet." It does not matter. "I can endure these tribulations because I'm going to be jumping, do you understand what I'm saying?" This is the problem with the church today. The problem with the church today, I am talking about Christian churches all over the world, is what? They are saying, "You need Jesus to make your life more comfortable. You need a relationship with Christ so that you have peace, joy, fulfilment and happiness." That is actually not what the Bible promises.

The Bible promises trials, tribulations, and persecution! That is what it promises. Now, this is what the problem is. We are talking about, "Oh, if you just put on Jesus, like the parachute, if you just put on Jesus Christ, you will have a more comfortable stay in your life. You'll have more peace, joy, happiness; you'll be more comfortable." Now, they put on that parachute to experiment with it, to see if that is true. Ok, so he is put on the parachute, and the guy gets on the plane and all of a sudden, people are making fun of him.

And he is saying, "Hey, I thought this Jesus thing is supposed to make me have peace and joy and happiness. Why are all these people attacking me? “Right? Then the steward comes along with the coffee and boom! It hits him. Oh my lord, and he says a blasphemy, he uses the Lord's name in vain. Then he says, "I am taking out this parachute; this parachute is a piece of …” Like this. Does that make sense?

Instead, people have to realize that they are going to be jumping off the dang plane one day. When you get to 25,000 feet, you will be jumping, folks. It is time to jump. Now, the guy with the parachute who was told that he has to jump can endure the tribulations and trials. He can endure the mockery because he knows he is going to have to jump and when he is falling at, what it is 9.8 meters per second squared. When you are falling free fall and you do not have a parachute, you are dead! You had better have that parachute on and you had better cling to it with your life. Does that make sense?

Therefore, it is so important for us to have the end destination in mind. What is that? The end destination is after we die. When we face God, and we have to face His judgment. When we have to face His justice. You know, you have seen it many times. However, when we look at the 10 Commandments, and we are going to look at them today; when we look at ourselves in the mirror of God's law, it brings to us the reality of our sinfulness.

Now, the law does not give us salvation. The Bible says that faith gives us salvation. Faith in Christ, relationship with Christ, this is what gives us spiritual salvation. Then, we know, of course, the Blessing gives us physical salvation. But, at the same time, the law can remind us of why we need God so much. And you've seen it in Ray Comfort's videos, he'll go to atheists, Mormons, whoever, and say, "Are you a good person?" Right? And they'll say, "Yeah, I'm a good person." 

"Ok, you're a good person? How many times have you told a lie?" "Oh, countless times, I've told a lie countless times, countless times." "Ok, what do you call someone who tells lies?" "A liar." "So what does that make you?" "A liar." "Ok, have you stolen anything, regardless of size or value of item, it could even have been a piece of gum, it could have been something else, have you stolen something?" "Oh, yes, something small." "Ok, but what do you call somebody who steals something?" "A thief." "So what does that make you?" "A thief." 

"Now, have you ever used the Lord's name in vain? Have you said, "Oh my G-o-d" or when you burn yourself with coffee, have you said, "Jes…..?" You used the Lord's name in vain instead of using a cuss word. "That's called blasphemy, have you ever done that?" "Yes, I've done that." "Ok, what does that make you?" "A blasphemer." "Jesus said that you look upon another woman with lust, or another person with lust, you have committed adultery with her in your heart. Have you ever done that?" "Yes." "Well, what does that make you?" "An adulterer at heart." "Ok, by your own admission, you are a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart.

Now, how do you think you are going to do when you meet God? Will you go to heaven or hell? Will you do well, or will you be punished, or will God give you a passing grade?" And they always say, if they're honest, they'll say, "Well, I'm guilty. I'm not innocent, I'm guilty." Some people will say, "Well, I think God is going to forgive me, so I think I'll go to heaven." Ok, so if God is good, and He is a good judge, let us say you were in a court of law and you broke some laws, and now you are in front of the judge, and you said, "Well judge, don’t give me that penalty because I know you're a good person.

I know you're forgiving, so just let me off, come on judge, you can do it." Now if that judge was a really good person, in fact if he was a really good judge, he would say, "I'm sorry. You broke the law. You broke the law by your own volition. “So, a really good judge will send that criminal to prison. So heaven and hell, the light of God's law makes us aware of how depraved we are, how wicked we are, how wicked our heart it.

Jesus said, 'If you hate somebody, you've murdered them in your heart." So just by the law, we see that we are very depraved. But of course, we don't like to see it. The law is like a mirror. Let us say in the morning time, I know you guys don't have perfect hair, but I have perfect hair in the morning! [Laughter] But when you get up in the morning, and you go to your mirror, and you look at yourself in the mirror, you've got to get your eyes cleaned out, whatever, and you look at your hair in the mirror, what does it look like? Ok, it looks like zombie land, or Fred Munster, right? Ok, so you are there, and you have heavy bags under your eyes, you have this big swollen face; you have stinky breath, all right? And you've got to look in the mirror.

So what does the mirror then do? The mirror shows you that disheveled face that you will not want to show to the public, and then what do you do? You go to the water to wash it. It is the same thing. The mirror of God's law leads us to the water of Christ. Leads us to the blood of Christ to wash us. Does that make sense? When we are conscious of our sin, the law doesn't give us salvation, you can't get salvation just by being good and doing good and following all the laws ---- that doesn't give you salvation. Salvation is by faith, and then it is by physical blood, okay? But the law can shed light on us and show us our true reality, but then what do we have to do? We have to wash in the waters of everlasting life. Does that make sense? That makes sense, right?

It is a funny thing, because so many people judge themselves based on man's standard. "I'm an actually really good person. Compared to Hitler, I am a saint." That is what they always say, right? "I know somebody worse than me, I'm not a gangbanger, I didn't kill anybody." Blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. But that's the folly of people. We are judging ourselves in comparison to other people. But that's not how God sees us. God's goodness and perfection is so perfect that, when compared to that, we look very dirty.

It is like when you take a lamb, and he is on a beautiful green field of meadow and he is eating that grass, he looks white, right? That lamb looks white. Has everyone seen a real sheep? They are actually somewhat grey. But it looks really white compared to the green grass. Now, if it starts snowing and everything is covered in white snow, that lamb all of a sudden looks very dirty. It looks grey, compared to the white snow. And God's law comes out of His nature, because He's not a thieving, adulterous, lying, blasphemous individual, so the laws come out of His nature. In the light of God's law, then that sheep, who looked clean against the green meadow, does not look so clean any more. Because you have the snowy white perfection of God as the backdrop. Does that make sense?

Therefore, these are spiritual things and the Bible says that those in darkness cannot hear spiritual things. And think about it, we have whole generations and generations of people, regardless of age, in this modern world, who are living in darkness. They think they are good people, but when compared to the perfection of God's snowy white goodness and law, they are utter, utter sinners. You and me as well. The difference is that we are those who have recognized that and have put our trust in Christ, put Him on, and not by my righteousness am I righteous, but by the snowy white perfect righteousness of Christ. Do you see what I mean? It is not by me. It is not by my actions. It is not because I followed these or those rules. That is not it. It is because of Christ that I am now beautiful. Does that make sense? Powerful, strong. I can do all things through Christ. I am now a different creature, right?

So understanding, these women knew they had a disease. They knew they had a disease, and they knew that they needed a cure. In fact, because they knew they were sick, they could appreciate the cure. When you realize, your doctor comes and says, "I'm sorry, this is terrible news, you have two months to live. You have a devastating form of cancer." All of a sudden, you are thinking, "Oh my goodness, how did that happen?"

Then he says, "But, we have a cure for that, and guess what, you're insurance is going to cover it." You will be saying, "OH! Praise God!" Right? You will be so happy. You will be so elated. Somebody paid for that, somebody paid for the cure that you desperately wanted. That is the love of God. That is the sacrifice on the cross. That is the ten thousand crosses, right? That is the love of God.

So, in the end, if we do not recognize that, we have a disease, or if we just believe that having, Christ improves our plane ride, which we call life, right? Until we get to our destination of the spirit world. If we think it is just improving our plane ride, we are going to be suffering. Instead, the true believer with a personal relationship with Christ has to understand, "No, no, no, I'm jumping at 25,000 feet. I'm going to be jumping. I need this parachute." Coffee stains, boiling coffee, people mocking me; people making fun of me does not matter really, when you have to jump. Does that make sense, folks?

So, understand that we have a disease and we need a cure, this is so critical. But guess what?

This is what has not happened in the Family Fraud. When I reflect on the Han mother, why she did the insanity that she has done. Why she has propped herself up as God. It comes to this very point. She did not understand that she was a wicked sinner. She never could admit that she was depraved, that she had hated and murdered in her mind.

That she had lusted and committed adultery in her heart, and of course, now we find out about an actual ritual, an occult ritual where she married a spirit other than Father while he was away. Which is, of course, an adulterous marriage. What do you call something, if you are married to a man, and then you do a ceremony marrying another spirit behind his back? That is the fall. That is the fall.

Why did she go through all these kinds of things? Even these things, dethroning Father, sitting in his throne, all these kinds of things? She never believed, she never understood that she needed a savior. She never understood that she needed the Messiah in order to be righteous in front of God. She thought she could do it by herself. By just hanging in there, she thought she could do it.

She would make herself pure by her own effort and by her own will. And not by the love of God, not by the grace of God. But by her own power.

Let me tell you something, folks. Anybody who walks down that path, you now can see it will end up in utter ruin. Utter ruin.

All these things, switching the Principle, all this. Taking Father off the ring, all this. Why? Why? If he were your saviour; if he is the reason why God can see you with righteousness; if he is the reason why you are justified before the honest justice of God, the very fair justice of God, why would you throw him away? Why would you try to erase him? Why would you erase him from the covenant? Right?

All these things we have seen. Declaring herself as the result of the two thousand years of Christian history, etc. Why would you change the entire teaching to fit and mould to yourself? Why would you prop yourself up as God? We have seen it. "The only begotten daughter of God needed to born as God's daughter, separated from the satanic world. As I said before, the two thousand years of Christian history was the providence of searching for God's only begotten daughter."

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