(The Markstein) - Part 2, The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms

Let's go to it. Is that the right one? Hold on a second. Again, I was raised very patriotic, and very much part of Gotham country was something that I was raised with. And I guess, probably one of the things that even led me to looking into community, and if I have time, I doubt I will, but at the end of this I have this incredible 13-minute video from an ex-soldier talking about why he misses war. And there's something about this camaraderie, this coming together, this being a brotherhood of people, being on purpose, that is intoxicating when you've had it even for the wrong purposes. And I've really longed to see that in the church as well. Okay, so there's us many years later. So, as we very much younger in those days, I embraced the basic training, did the things that I showed in the last sermon, and God then spoke to us and challenged us with the reading of his word. And I went through that, so I'll just kind of skip through it for time. But, when this idea, and here's what I want to encourage you, is that most of your evangelical friends, most of American Christianity in general, have never actually even considered these things. When David Bristow and I were doing, if any of y'all have seen the debate we did in Boston, with the theologians there in Boston, they were ready to come and attack against liberal pacifism. Our understanding of biblical non-resistance threw them for a curve. And this is a concept that I think we're going to have to get down to truly understand the word of God, understand the biblical history, and understand the whole Bible. When you get this, you might not get it today, but when you do, I've had people come to me and say, Brother Dean, I've heard you preach on the kingdom for three Bible schools, and I finally got it. And when you see this, you'll start to see Abraham, and the prophets, and coming and talking about the kingdom that will come, and Christ. And then how Christ came and He gave us this whole new way, this whole new kingdom to live, and how He desires for us to do that. The whole Bible begins to make sense. You'll understand why the early Hutterites became the Marine Corps of the Anabaptists. You'll understand why the next sermon flows from giving God glory over the whole earth. We are at war. And we're at war, and we're part of a different kingdom. The next message about mission flows from this two-kingdom concept. All right. I guess you saw that in the last sermon. And it's been quite a journey, and we bless the Lord for that. And I told you this was a shocking realization. It was me here at the Berlin Wall. Perhaps somebody's listening to this one message. Shaking hands through the Berlin Wall when they were tearing it down, and me seeing that my enemy had become my friend. This is me. Yeah. This is me here. And Tonya quickly took the picture. And you'll see this comes to cover my book, the same thing. That was a moment in history that really shocked me, and made me think that my enemy has become my friend. It made me start thinking deeper about politics, about nations, and about which nation I was a part of. And so, as I've said before, we started to read the Word of God. So the one is we started to read, the rock music was the first thing God convicted to me. And then it wasn't long, and I was reading Tonya, and I said, Okay, listen to this one. Clear your mind, I said. Now just listen. And as I began to read, I began to read her from the Sermon on the Mount. I've heard that it has been said in I for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. It has been said that way in the Old Testament. But now I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. And I read through that whole Sermon on the Mount, and I looked at her, and I said, What do you think of that? She said, Well, it sounds pretty simple. I said, That's the problem. It is very simple, but we're in the army, and that doesn't make it very simple. And so, as we began to ponder these things, I went to the chaplain soon after that, and I said, Help me with this. I'm reading the Word of God and Jesus, and I'm seeing that he says to love your enemies, and we're in the army, and that doesn't seem to match. He said, No problem. Here you go. Here's the book on the just war theory, written by the head of the chaplain corps. I got to the end of that book. And I was scared. Before I read the book, I had the thought that, Oh, these theologians have this worked out. I can understand why we're going to war, and it'll make sense when I read it. But when I got to the end of the book, and heard their reasonings, I was scared. I said, These are terrible reasonings. And then what he did to me, though, he introduced the early Christians. And that the early Christians, for 300 years, just believed the words of Jesus very literally. And that began for me to search and search on this. I've written it in my book here, The Change of Allegiance. And this is the story of my journey. It goes into the detail. But through that, the war starts. I first start telling my friends in the army and different things. And I remember just the simplicity of God. And I remember one of my jobs also was to be an armorer. And I had given a shipment to connect the M203 grenade launchers to my M16 machine gun. I'm not kidding. I remember holding them in my hand and saying, What would Jesus do? Then you know what I did? Oh, it's so confusing. It's not confusing. Remember the essence of Anabaptism? The Bible is easy to understand. And out of this conviction, I speak. And what was the second one? Does anybody remember? The teachings of the Lord were meant to be put into practice. And somehow I was getting at, even before I read that quote, that the simplicity of Jesus Christ was something I wanted to be a part of. So the war's heading up. It finally gets to a point, I'm skipping through a lot. We're hearing about Iraq for the first time in history. This was the first time. And they brought us into a room like this. And the first sergeant had known that I'd been talking all this crazy talk. And so he pointed to me. He says, And you are going to be required to use deadly force. And I thought, Okay. My ideas are now, I've got to do something about this. So I was reading in one of my books. It was hitting on the two kingdoms by Herald Press. And I wrote a letter. I just sent a letter. I said, I don't know what to do. We're soldiers. We're four soldiers. Another group was going to help. Also came into this. And we're going to go AWOL. We don't know what to do. They forwarded the letter to the Mennonite Central Committee in Lancaster County. The Mennonite Central Committee forwarded the letter back to some counselors in Germany. And this was fast. I mean, this is the 1900s. I mean, this is before email. You know, this is a long time ago. And this happened very rapidly. And finally I got a call from a counselor who did really great to help me and know what the regulations were. And to go out, get out of the army. But it's a whole process. You have to do several things. You have to go see a commander. And to first proclaim this, you have to write papers. You have to go see a psychologist. You have to see the chaplain. And you have to appear before a court trial. And then after the court trial, somebody in the Pentagon or somebody decides these things. And then they decide whether you can get out as a conscientious objector or not. Of all that, probably the most intimidating was the court trial. After all of your papers and things, you have to do it. They bring you in and they just cover you with questions about everything. But one thing I noticed about that commander. He was another commander. He was an officer, a lawyer officer. And he was asking all kinds of questions about this. And he almost seems leading in the questions. They were tough. And they asked all these things. And then finally, at the end of the time, they make the decision whether they can release you as conscientious objector. And particularly in times of war, it's more serious. Of all those things, the most interesting one was my psychologist. So I go into the psychologist. And they're trying to see if I'm crazy or something. Anyway, so I'm in there. And she says, so she's in this desk. And I come down. You can come in, but I don't think you need to sit down. And I was like, okay, ma'am. Why? Because I've got you. Oh, wow. What do you mean you've got me? She said, I've got all you conscientious objectors. And I said, okay. Kind of curious. I said, explain to me. How do you got me? She goes, okay, I'll ask you two questions. And she said, you say you went out of the Army because you can't support this institution of what we do and what we represent. And you went out of the Army. Is that correct? I said, that's correct. Do you pay your taxes? And I said, yes, ma'am. I do pay my taxes. And she said, see, I've got you. You're inconsistent. You're done. And I said, well, hold on, hold on. I said, ma'am, I don't know if you can understand this. But I live by the ways of a book. And that book is the Bible. And the Bible tells me to love my enemies and pay my taxes. Now, I don't really never have to understand all that. But I do have to obey that. She went into some strange tizzy of saying all the things she's done. Did you realize who I am? I volunteer for this and that and this Sunday school class and this thing. And besides all this, I'm not kidding. And she beat the desk and said, I'm a card-carrying Methodist. And I shouldn't have done this. I was young and foolish. Could you just repeat all that? Get out of here. She kicked me out of the room. But I've realized, and I've realized it so many times, that this doctrine of non-resistance, I think, is the key to this is a misunderstanding of the two kingdoms. Ridderman nails this in a statement of faith. And it's challenging, but I'm going to give it to you. And I really hope that it blesses you and gives you encouragement to keep studying. Don't mix the kingdoms. Listen. Don't mix the kingdoms. It's been done. It looks like this. You German scholars, what does that say? What does it mean in English? What is the belt buckle of? It's the Nazi belt buckle. The Nazi belt buckles truly thought this. It wasn't some crazy thing. They believed this. When we mix the kingdoms, we get this. And both lose. The kingdom of the world loses, and the church loses. All right. The kingdom. To accomplish this kingdom, to accomplish his faith on earth, Jesus inaugurated a kingdom that would live out his teachings. A kingdom that would live out his teachings and manifest his plan for humanity. To be part of this new kingdom, Jesus said that we must be born again. A new humanity. Peter Rittman uses that term. A new humanity. Zinzendorf used that term. A new humanity. Born of the Spirit. John 1:12 said, But as many as received him, them gave he power to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the wool of the flesh, nor of the wool of man, but of God. John 3:3 says, Jesus answered and said to them, Verily, verily, I say to thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom. So unless you're born again, you're not going to get it. It's nonsense. You're not going to get it. It doesn't make sense. To understand Jesus' kingdom teachings truly in the heart, you must be born of the Spirit. And this is a concept that I'm afraid that Peter Rittman is going to hit this. He says a quote that I'm going to give you. Most people don't get it. And this is why. This is spiritually discerned in what we have. All right. Jesus didn't go on to say, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say to thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus gave us the concept of the kingdom. And here's my John D. Martin quote. To demonstrate to the world around us what the whole world would look like if we would only obey the king. That's what your church is. That's what your community should be doing. Manifesting the Sermon on the Mount to the world to see. All right. The kingdom. Dean, you're saying too much about the kingdom. Encyclopedia says, the kingdom of God. The word kingdom is used, found 55 times in Matthew, 20 times in Mark, 46 times in Luke, and five times in John. About 80 times, these statistics show the great importance of the concept in the teachings of Jesus. There can therefore be little doubt about the importance of the teachings. Don't miss that. Seek first the kingdom of God. It's very important. Right here it's manifested in this picture. These two kingdoms at odds with each other. And the questions being asked bring us to today. Pilate had heard that people were calling Jesus king, so he challenges it. Are you a king then? A very simple phrase, are you a king then? And very seriously, and he said, and he wanted to get to his heart. Did you come up with that from yourself or did somebody else tell you this? Because you just hit on something. And Pilate getting all defensive, he said, hey, your own people are the ones turning you in. Jesus said this, my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not from here. Do you believe that today? When Jesus came, he initiated this. Pilate therefore said, okay, so what do you mean? So many of you might be thinking, that's a spiritual kingdom. You're confusing it. Just like Pilate did. Who are you? Does that count? Are you really a king then? If it's not in this world, is it real? Is it a reality that I am a king? For this cause, I was born. And for this cause, I have come into the world. This is important. The Lord's Prayer. Jesus gave us this priority. After the manner, therefore pray, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Watch now, as it is on earth, as it is in heaven. So the pattern of the way we live the Christian life is imagine for your mind, heaven. And how do people do with their money? How do they do with their living? How do they do with their worship? And that scene in heaven, the will of the heaven should be what we're trying to manifest here on earth. That's what Jesus is encouraging us to do. We don't get it entirely that Jesus gave this on earth. So, maybe we're playing in this, I've got a billboard up here. Seek first the kingdom of God. When we get this priority right, much of your theology is going to start falling in line. It's going to start making sense. Even the sermon that I just preached, the last, is Christ-centered, Christ-following. When Rudman kept talking about we're supposed to represent his character, his nature. In other words, Jesus' dreams for humanity, his plans for humanity, his cure for humanity, what Jesus talked about, what he did, is what you talk about, what you do. And the kingdom is what he talked about. In different writers, Acts 1-3 says, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of him. Forty days! This is his resurrected body. And speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. This was important to Christ, even his resurrection. Forty days he did this. We hear it from the foundations of the world. Matthew 25 says, Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world. This has been something God has been planning to do from the beginning. And he loves to write his name on a people, sanctify, call out his people, living his way to glorify him to the nations around the earth, prepared for the foundations of the world. Repent. So when Jesus came, initiated this, all the prophets, and we're going to get into those, I'm going to show this through the Old Testament here. If I could try to just bring it into, I like having little nutshell phrases. Here's one that I would like to be. Imagine heaven. Imagine what it's going to be like. And here's my phrase. Be what is to become. What is heaven going to be like? What is that going to be? How do we structure it? In theology. All right. Going into the different Acts passages, in Acts 28, that was the beginning of Acts, this is the end of Acts, we see Paul's ministry. And when they had appointed him a day, they came many to him and to his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning until evening. This is the end of his life and he's constantly just speaking and preaching of the kingdom of God. So now I'm going to talk about how we see those two worlds play out. We know that sin came into the world in the fall. And man has decided, we could have been living by the tree of life. We can live by grace. We can live by having Christ as our king. But man continually decides to live by lust and by power and by greed. And for that, there must be a government of this world. There must be a government. And this government is law and fear. It's living by the law. And it's literal and technical sins. It's the law. Do this, don't do that. This is what you're supposed to do. If you do this, you're going to get your head chopped off. That's human law. It works. We're supposed to be living under grace. We live in faith. We live by the spirit of God inside of us. Not by this law and the fear of God. But Genesis puts it this way. After that, after Cain was making his sins, and the Lord said unto him, Therefore whoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. The Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. So this was the very beginning. To restrain people now from killing Cain, he put a curse of those who killed him in the fear of punishment. The fear of law. We see Lamech, remember later on, when he does kill someone, he's actually, it quickly reminds him, ah, law. He remembers the law that he had done. But this is how the worlds are governed. And as politics and man keeps building his own empire, here of course is the Tower of Babel, and we end up seeing a whole nations meeting to be ruled in this way. There's always, there's always been two ways. And there is today. There's always been two kingdoms. God wants to glorify his name on this earth. He wants to glorify his name. And to do this, he has a people of God that he will take those people and to bless this whole earth. Verse 6-5, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation. And Noah walked with God. I think that walked with God is again, that deep theology stuff again. Nothing can replace that. So this goes. So we have the law after Noah. For man's sake, for the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth. Whoever shed, this is the noun in Genesis 9, whoever shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man. So there's different rulings of how you govern a people who don't want to govern this earth, no matter what. And to do this, he's going to get the law and the sword. But in the midst of that, he's always had his people that he wants to glorify his name. And he wants to be their king. And 1 Samuel. Oh, excuse me. So now, so Peter in the, speaking of what we just read from Noah, it's human rulers, not from goodwill, but only from wrath. The people had transgressed, forsaken God, and given themselves up to carnal lust. Only after that happened did God give them an earthly government so that the spirit might not continually be striving with them. To repeat, God did not do this only to heathen nations, but also to the Jews, as the Lord spoke. They have rejected me. They do not wish me to be king over them. Of course, that's jumping forward to the phrase where they want to make Saul the king. Going on. Thus, listen to this Peter in the words over here. Thus, temporal powers, the world of powers, is a sign, a picture, and a reminder for the people and consider to what they have gone. Then they can turn back all the more quickly to the one from whom they have fallen. But who thinks in these terms? Who gets it? Since there are none who want to take it to heart that which they desire will finally happen to them. Who gets it anymore? We have a people of God who are living after God, and we're not getting it. So here's my question to you as I go on. How much are we now relying on this fallen rebuke of God for the answers for our nations? Have we given up the fight? Have we given up the purpose of why the kingdom of God is here that he wants to bring a blessing to the whole earth through his teachings? That world is not our world. Those politics are not our politics, be they left or be they right. They are not the kingdom of God. They are a sign, a picture, and a reminder of the turning aside from God. Please don't make this mistake. Does anybody think in these terms it says in your statement of faith? Are you saying we're not allowed to vote? Yes! I'll get to that. Not directly, but yes, indirectly. Let me get to it. Peter, let's go on to his words. Please, I don't know if this is articulated so well, and I want you to get it. Statement of faith, page 217. Since people did not want to let themselves be led by the Spirit of the Lord, you don't want to be led by God. God had to use a different rod to protect them from harm. You're living a foolish life. God had to use a different rod to protect them from harm. This was done so that the land would not be completely polluted with blood guilty people. And so that he would not have to destroy the whole world on their account. The world could thus be preserved until the time of the promised offspring in whom all things would be made right. And then he quotes, but with thee will I establish the two kingdoms on earth. And thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee. The people of God through you. Abraham, and I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee and make thy name great. Now the New Testament makes it clear that this nation is not an earthly nation. This is a nation of faith. Galatians makes it crystal clear. And I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee and make thy name great. And thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curses thee. And thee, watch now, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. It's God's desire to spread his kingdom from the beginning of the New Testament to the end. This is why the next message that I'm about to preach in the midst of terrible church problems still went, we're going to glorify God and we're going to go forward and we're going to spread his kingdom and we're going to do this because through this other kingdom he wants to bless the whole earth. God does not want to condemn the earth. He wants to bless the earth. He's not going to do it with a sword. He's going to do it with a lamb. And this beautiful being of the people of God. You know when they finally got and you get to Exodus 19 and they get to Mount Zion. It's interesting if you look at the dates right at the beginning of when they date this happened. This giving of the law in Exodus 19 happened on Pentecost. We didn't have a Pentecost yet but it was 50 days after Passover. And now they're there before God and God's gathering them there filing his people in the wilderness. And he says this, you have seen what I did and how I brought you into the churches. How I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you into myself. Now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant is the precious part Peter repeats later on. Then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests who have no inheritance and a holy nation these are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. God wanted to gather a people just like he did with Abraham now he's doing it with Moses and to bless the whole earth. That's the kingdom of what's supposed to be coming out. So I wonder when was the first time people ever asked for a king in the Bible, you know? Yeah, thank you. Very good, y'all are bright. Gideon. So after the incredible battle of Gideon they destroyed the bell worshipers and all that. People were like, you're the man. So they wanted to make Gideon king but no one had ever done this. We're in the Judges period now where God is, it had a mean thing. We didn't have kings, we had men who judged over things but they wanted a king. And so Judges 8:22 that the men of Israel sent unto Gideon, rule thou over us both thou and thy son rule thou over us from the hand of Midian. Anybody know how many sons Gideon had? 70. So he's asking for this, they're asking for this and Gideon's like, yeah, alright, I am pretty good but he didn't do it. They actually killed him and ended up with one of his sons and Gideon said to them I will not rule over you neither shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. This is an important concept. When we say Jesus is Lord it's an entirely political packed word. It means Jesus is our president. That's what it means. The Lord shall rule over you. Okay, so but we know the story is I think his youngest son decided he was going to take it kill everybody else off and be king but Jotham ran up to the top of the mountain here and wanted to give them this rebuke this incredible parable that will make you understand our place in this world. Jotham running up to the top Jotham learned that the people had crowned Abimelech as king Abimelech was now taken he climbed the mountain and told them a story. Here's the story. Some trees went out to make themselves a king. They wanted some king and so the first thing they did they came to the olive tree they said to the olive tree hey olive tree why don't you come and be our king and the olive tree said no I'm not going to be the king why and this is what he said why would I give up my oil and my fatness that I have to come and reign over you no, I'm not going to be the king this is not what I'm about so they said ok so the trees didn't give up next thing they went to the fig tree they went to the fig tree and they said hey fig tree could you come and be king over us and the fig tree said why would I do that why would I give up my sweetness that I have in my fruit to be king and reign over me I'm not going to do that so they didn't do it and then finally they went to the grapes and said you come and reign over us and they said no why would I give up my wine which cheers both God and man to come reign over you no, I have a different purpose we have a different purpose our place on earth is not for this purpose we have a fatness a sweetness a fatness an oil that we are to give to this earth and finally they did get somebody they came to the bramble bunch and they said hey could you come be our king and the bramble bunch said yeah I'll be your king this is all in Judges chapter 9 please read it but first you're going to have to come and put your submission under me and if anyone raises up like the cedar of Lebanon I'll burn him with fire and they said ok you can be our king you really have to get a hold of it's the way we should look at ourselves as a second kingdom a separate kingdom in this earth and not part of the kingdoms of this world in each case the fruit trees had a special purpose they refused to lower their standards to become a king they knew they were created for a special purpose that could not be compromised you remember when so finally you get to Saul so you got to Saul and you get to Samuel that we want a king and finally Samuel's telling him and Samuel's just desperate he's mad about it they're not getting it and he's upset and he tells God I tried to tell them but they wouldn't listen to me and God says this and the Lord said unto Samuel hearken unto the voice of the people do what they say and all that they say unto me for they have not rejected me and I have not rejected the voice how be it yet protest solemnly unto them and show them the manner of king that shall reign over them God let him have it he let him have it but he let us know this is not my heart they just want us in government they just want us in rulership what's so offensive by that it's because he wants that genuine presence in our presence in our churches he wants God to be there he wants to be a king of God okay Hosea brings it this way again Peter Riddman has this as his text that he likes to expound upon Hosea the prophet chapter 13 he said oh Israel the prophet says you have destroyed yourself but in me is your help I will be thy king where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities and thy judges of whom thou saidest give me a king and give me a princess why do you look for politics I will be that why are you searching for these things I gave thee a king in my anger and took him away in my wrath so says the prophet Hosea okay so Peter Riddman then looks on this as showing us that this needs to remind us what these human governments are and what they're about and what in the world are you doing getting involved in it Daniel put it this way the prophet Daniel the matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand of the word of the holy ones that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdoms of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and sets up over it the basis of men and the idea there is that understand that the angels watch all of this and you need to realize that God gives the worst people on earth the basis of men and sets up over it the basis of men why are you getting involved in politics why would you this is the bramble brush this is the briars this is what this politics of this world is going to do so Riddman says it grew and where it came from namely from the wrath of God Hosea just said that I give this to you in my wrath we read in scripture you said give us a king so in my anger I gave you a king and in my wrath I took him away these words show us that governmental authorities was not given from grace but from disfavor and anger but the prophets spoke of a time the prophets spoke there will be a day the kingdom shall come there will be a time and it's beautiful you know in the bits and scrolls they found ancient writings if I ever make it to Israel this is a museum I want to go to apparently this is from the Isaiah scroll you go there and around here they have the whole scroll of Isaiah and some of them as a matter of fact years ago my wife and I went to a those museums that come through town it was our anniversary and we went to it and we paid like 30 dollars to go see a piece of the Dead Sea Scroll and so we went through and we went in it's literally this line it was kind of the history of the Bible and all that and finally we get to the piece and we paid like 30 dollars I've been waiting in line for an hour and a half and that's it the Dead Sea Scrolls are impressive because they're so ancient and many people started kind of even doubting that Isaiah it so much talks about Christ how could it really have been written before Christ the Dead Sea Scroll proves this and here in Isaiah you can see this I think proclaiming the gospel to every age so that promise of that kingdom that God would be restored in Isaiah chapter 2 and it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow into it Christ came and many people shall go and say come ye and let us go up unto the mountain of the Lord to the house of God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and he will walk in his path for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem to all the nations and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nations shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war anymore Isaiah goes on with the prophecy and one of my favorites look in Isaiah chapter 9 and in that Matthew wants to make you understand and Mark that this scripture is fulfilled this passage in Isaiah chapter 9 the people that walk in darkness have seen a great light they that have dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them shall the light shine for every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and their garments their uniform rolled in blood but this that is their uniforms shall be burning and fuel for fire why for unto us the child is born unto us the son is given and the Lord shall pee upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor the mighty God the everlasting father the prince of glory please pay attention to the next verse of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no peace upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it from henceforth forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this that is powerful that is powerful of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end this will happen so Matthew didn't want any dispensationalist people that want to explain away the teachings of Jesus the Holy Spirit knowing that there will be people who will say Jesus Christ we are going to make very sure you understood that that prophecy was fulfilled and he said that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying the land of Zebulun the land of Naphtali by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan Galilee to the Gentiles the people who sat in darkness the kingdom of heaven is at hand and that's where it begins that promise of the prophets that this kingdom will come and he's going to come with a new way and a new way of life and Isaiah keeps prophesying that's the whole point so he wants to save us personally but guess what it's not even about you personally it's about his glory and about establishing his glory around this earth so he was put into prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the gospel what's the gospel? the ancient I just heard this in David Rousseau's sermon just the other day we call it the gospel a guy on the streets give me a gospel what chapter of the bible would he probably go to? probably go to Romans the gospel of Jesus Christ would you read the sermon on the mount? would you read that? that's strange why would you quote the sermon on the mount? because of this wrong understanding Jesus Christ wants to be manifested through his church through the world and yes it has to be by grace but it has to have a purpose of why he's bringing this good news to the world and it's a lot of good news and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up to read one of my favorite images in the bible and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was written the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the captive and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord the jubilee and he closed the book and gave it to the minister and sat down in the eyes of the factory and he says today the scripture has been fulfilled and do you realize why he stopped where he did? he hadn't stopped right there because the next sentence talks about hell coming hell in the day of vengeance so do you see the point of this this coming of the kingdom manifesting the people of God is what Jesus kept talking about this is the thing that keeps going through this is to understand the two kingdoms you have to understand your kingdom so in Romans chapter 8 when the promises come to establish a new kingdom excuse me so now let's go to rudiment so rudiment page 217 when the promised one comes to establish a new kingdom he comes not with great pomp and worldly fashion but as it is written rejoice greatly oh daughter of Zion shout oh daughter of Jerusalem I praise you he is just as a helper he is poor riding upon a donkey upon a colt a fowl and a donkey he does not come in wrath nor for vengeance or destruction his purpose is to bring salvation he calls to himself and says come and learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart hence all who wish to come into him his kingdom and his spirit you know in the beginning the kingdom was a garden in the end times it should be from the rising of the sun till it's going down and this time it's the church here it is it's the church Moses the beginning was a garden Moses because the hardest of your heart we permitted you but from the beginning it was not so he wanted us to understand the heart of God from the beginning was to bless the whole earth I know it has been said an eye for an eye but now I say six times the beginning of the sermon on the mount Jesus begins his radical changes with the phrase you have heard that it has been said or you have heard that it was said of him of old times Jesus made some changes with how we do warfare in Romans chapter 13 in Romans 10 so I'm going to look at this two verses and then I'm going to show you some examples of what happened to Anabaptist women in Rome Romans 13 if you start to talk about this with any self-respecting American evangelical he should take you to Romans 13 you read it to him because it's strong we'll say okay Dean if we're supposed to have these two kingdoms what can you do with Romans 13 I'm going to read to you Romans 13 in Romans chapter 13 I can't talk let every soul be subject unto the higher power for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resists the power resists the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation for rulers are not a terror for good works but to the evil will thou then be afraid of the power do that which is good and now shall have praise of the same for he is a minister of God to thee for good but if thou do which is evil be afraid for he is a minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil I can't tell you how many of your ancestors heard that said to them while they were locked in prison just submit to your earthly God what's wrong with you haven't you read the Bible does anybody here know he called him a minister of God we have a reference we have a reference for the ministers of God who was that minister of God what was his name Nero Nero the early church called Nero an antichrist he killed the people and persecuted him that's the clear understanding of the two kingdoms we have no inclination of joining in with Neroian politics or all those types of things but that he had been given the authority to do that think of Pilate before Jesus do you realize Pilate said I can either send you away or I can send you to death do you realize I have that authority now it's interesting Jesus didn't say you don't have that authority he said what you have no authority unless it was given to you by my father do you realize what that's saying that God gave Pilate the authority to kill Jesus now let me ask you something just because something is used of God is it blessed of God no there is a perfect example I'm going to give you two more and I'm going to show you some voting examples in Jeremiah so it says he's a minister of God in Jeremiah we see the same Jeremiah chapter 24 25 God wanting to judge Judah says therefore 25 verse 8 therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts because you have not heard my words behold I will send and take all the families of the north says the Lord and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon watch my servant same word Greek Hebrew my minister and will bring them against this land and against the inhabitants thereof and against all these nations and make them an astonishing and a hissing and a perpetual desolation he's talking about his own people okay so therefore Nebuchadnezzar was the blessed guy right so therefore God was pleased with Nebuchadnezzar because he was his minister right go down two more verses verse 12 and it shall come to pass when 70 years are accomplished and I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation said the Lord for their iniquity and for their sin Isaiah chapter 10 let me show you this Isaiah chapter 10 brother Dean yes sir that's a great point Paul who said he's a minister of God it took off Paul's head yeah well said Isaiah chapter 10 catch this don't lose this some people say brother Dean are you trying to tell me that God did not use America are you trying to tell me that this politic you can obviously see in history that this worked for the good no I'm not saying that God will govern this earth so the whole world would not be brought into blood thirst how does Redmond put it blood guiltiness and here's the verse in Isaiah chapter 10 you don't want to miss again God's judging his own people and he says oh Assyrians his instrument and the staff in thy hand is my indignation I will send him the Assyrians against a hypocritical nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire of the streets but listen to this verse Isaiah chapter 10 verse 7 mark it in your Bible he didn't know what he's doing he meaneth not so neither does his heart think so but in his heart it's to destroy and to cut off nations not a few did you catch that he said I'm going to use this Assyrian army and I'm going to bring it and I'm going to attack Israel with it among the people but guess what in his mind he's just going to war he's just conquering another nation are you saying that God can't use no I'm not but this is it well then God should bless that nation if he's going to use him like that or pile it then he should use it but listen wherefore it shall come the past that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and upon Jerusalem I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria for he said by the strength of his hands have I done it and by this wisdom for I am prudent and I have removed the bonds of the people and have robbed their treasures and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant naval so you think it's you that did this I'm a judge so brothers we have to understand these two kingdoms in this way we do need to submit to them we need to put some pacifists into the politics and mess the whole thing up and it just becomes a confused mess with this understanding of the two kingdoms I believe it becomes very clear and it makes sense I don't know anyone who's articulated better than this alright I'm going to give you some examples and we're done I go into a pretzel shop back when George when Obama was running for president I think it was that one and the horse and bunny Mennonites are in there and I'm getting a pretzel and I look and I get the pretzel and I look down and there's papers on the counter about voting and how you should vote for the republican party and I said excuse me so when did the Mennonites start getting into voting and she said well it's getting so bad that it's a history like World War II was tough now in the minds of Hitler he wanted to just liberate the German people and the German people have been mistreated for all this time and he did some really brilliant stuff he actually was quite a smart guy he started in 1933 he started a stimulus package he cancelled all farming debts the German farmers really loved that and so the German farmers were coming against the communists and many of course we were in Russia at the time well no no no the Russian Mennonites were there at the time and it was hearing about all these different things when Austria so when he did this people were thinking this guy really has a lot he's getting a lot of support from all the churches and when Austria fell to the marching armies Germany was electrified all across the board all across the churches that they even took down the cross that rested on the very castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible and put a swastika in its place you read that right in the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer it's right there in the book they were so electrified this is what we're going to do and put a swastika in its place and here you actually see these are museum pieces now like a place where you preach from a lecture and here's a carving of a statue of a German storm trooper next to him with the apostles here's a very shocking one so Saint Hitler there and the Protestants really gathered for this but what about the people that's for years trained in two kingdoms trained in knowing the difference and recognizing it surely the Mennonites weren't able to buy this when I was in Germany getting out of the army as a conscious objector I met a 75 year old man who was a Nazi this was 30 years ago and I talked to him and I said can you explain to me what happened he said I've left on my barn I was raised Quaker he's a Mennonite now I've left on my barn the painting my dad painted the symbol that meant to vote for Nazism and I've left it there for an example I said how did it happen he said it swept just like a revival it swept just like a revival this is a teller so the Mennonites started to look at this and they said you know we're tired of all this socialism talk communists and socialism we want a man who has good family values this is sounding good so the Mennonites got together and they said let's write a telegraph and let's send it to Hitler so in a telegraph written September 10, 1933 representing the sentiments of the church council that had just taken place they wrote this to Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Berlin the Conference of East and West Prussian Mennonites assembled here in Tegenhagen Free State of Danzig for the powerful revival that God has given our nations through your energies and promises joyful cooperation in the up building of our fatherland through the power of the gospel faithful to the model of our forefathers no other foundation can anyone lay than that which was laid as Christ Jesus Christ really? wow quite a bit of contradiction mixing, mixing mixing you know I'm sure that Hitler probably didn't send back telegrams to everybody who wrote him he did to the Mennonites and he wrote this for your loyalty and your readiness to defend the German nation expressed in your letter my sincere thanks signed Adolf Hitler now ok so the other place the Russian Mennonites had been living in Paraguay and hearing about all this exciting stuff about the liberation of the German people and getting excited with it and they're reading it and they're studying it and they're looking at their newspapers and they're saying this they started passing Israel stuff and hearing all this thing and they're getting into all this and they're really liking it so they wanted to get on the telegraph and the excitement the German Mennonites of the Paraguay and Chaco followed the events in our beloved motherland and experienced in spirit the national revolution of the German people we are happy that in Germany after a long time a government that freely and openly professes God as creator stands at the head of the nation and we hear that the current government takes seriously the realization of Christian principles in social economic and cultural life and especially emphasizes the protection of the family there was a young Hutterite movement starting in Germany around this time Eberhard Arnold gets a hold of Peter Edmunds writing he gets a hold of early Anabaptism and he gets a hold of New Testament and he starts understanding the two kingdoms he actually writes a letter to him challenging him in his ways in his different things and he gets in trouble because of that letter and because they're not going along with this and out of all the voice of the Anabaptists in Germany Eberhard Arnold is standing alone to help the Bruderhof get down to Paraguay and they get down and say finally we're going to be with some Mennonites at least this is good we'll be with Anabaptists that's great and so he goes to the church in Paraguay and this is what he found right when you come into the church just like this and so he says brothers you're not getting it as Redmond said few people understand this and he began to try to convince him that this was wrong and that you're not understanding the two kingdoms and this is all messed up you're not getting it and it wasn't until it was exposed and they then apologized and they did apologize and even his own biography even his own elite group of people were just changing to Hitler all the time but here's the point here's the point we have a cure for humanity that kingdom that was from Abraham all the way to the end of time God wants to express he gave us Jesus Christ the salvation of the gospel and an entire new way to live and the answer for the world and that answer is under the word of God who is teaching you Jesus the politics of this world will leave us eye dry and as soon as you're thinking you're crazy and some guy who's supporting family values and finally a Christian in the White House and economic and social you end up inadvertently supporting Antichrist now they're all the same if you think your rhythm is appealing to you in your statement of faith are you getting it we have a cure for humanity and to be involved in that kind of politics is to show for the Hutterites to be involved in those things it's absolutely we are ambassadors of Christ we are an embassy of heaven so back to my symphony I'll close please don't turn it into waddings of the paper don't turn it into things to just cover use the Bible for what it says and dream with me what did Jesus really mean every word he said what is to become so what about this alright let's close and then the last one will be on missions so take another break everybody the cooks have asked us to come to the kitchen for a break it's too crowded here so we'll just go to the kitchen alright 3 o'clock break