97% of Christianity misses whole other side of it

Luke 17 says, [20] And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
[21] Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

“When He says ‘the kingdom of God is within you,’ it’s the issue of the righteousness of God. Those Pharisees Jesus was talking to weren’t righteous; they were self-righteous. They were an ungodly group of people who He says of them in John 8, ‘Your father’s the devil.’ They’re spiritually corrupt.

“There are two parts to the kingdom of God. One, there is a spiritual part of it. There’s a moral, righteous, spiritual aspect. Then there’s a literal, physical, visible aspect. Clothes, food, drink, that kind of stuff.

“People say the kingdom of God is really just ‘the spiritual rule of God in the hearts of men.’ They miss the whole other side of it and this is where about 97.7 percent of Christianity is.

“If you’re not a dispensationalist you’ll never get this because there’s a whole theme all through your Bible about the purpose of God in producing a literal, physical, visible, earthly kingdom in which His righteousness rules."

*****

John 3: [27] John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

[28] Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.
[29] He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
[30] He must increase, but I must decrease.

“John literally turns over Israel into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and says, ‘He’ll carry you on; I’ve gone as far as I can go.’

“You come to the Samaritan woman and see that wider testament out there where the fields are white unto harvest and there’s this wider opportunity.

“By the way, that brings them to the nobleman’s son; to that second miracle where you’re again in Cana and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, demonstrates that He hasn’t cast away His people; He hasn’t cast away His nation and He shows how, in their distress, they’re going to both seek and find their Messiah at the last. You’re going to see how it is He’s going to give them power to become.

Acts 1: [5] For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
[6] When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
[7] And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
[8] But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
[9] And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

“When I read verse 6 the word that sticks out is that word again. That little word again destroys all of amillennial, post-millennial, non-dispensational, covenant theology and all the rest of it.

“The idea that the apostles had misunderstood what Christ was saying to them and He wasn’t really telling them there was going to be a literal, physical, visible, Davidic kingdom; they just misunderstood.

"That little word again destroys all that because the only kind of kingdom Israel ever had up to this point from God was a literal, physical, visible, earthly, Davidic kingdom centered in the city of Jerusalem, the city of the great king.

“They say, ‘Will you restore again to us what we used to have?’ And He said unto them, ‘It is not for you to know the nature or the makeup of the kingdom.’ Oh, no, I’m sorry, that isn’t what He said, is it?

[7] And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

“In other words, He doesn’t say, ‘You misunderstood the nature of the kingdom.’ He just said, ‘I can’t tell you the times or the seasons; there are some things that have to happen before it’s accomplished and that’s something that has to be done at the Father’s command.’ ”

(new article tomorrow)