Spiritual War Between the TWO KINGDOMS - Brothers on a Journey Podcast

Almost all of my life, the gospel was basically the story of from the cross forward. Um, the, you know, when when Christ sent out the his, uh, disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom, um, it never crossed my mind what in the world were they teaching, seeing how he hadn't been died, he hadn't died and rose from the dead yet. He hadn't been died.

He hadn't been died. Going back to the George Roots down there. So next question here I have on here is, um, so if we're in this war that's going on, the spiritual war between these, uh, two kingdoms, how is it that we measure victory? Is how do we know when a battle has been won or when when victory is or what side victory is on? How do we measure that? Any any thoughts on that?

What? Oh, you got a thought? I was going to ask to clarify what specific, like what do you mean, like what which part of the war or? Well, I know we're in the pearly gates. I think we know we.

Well, I mean, I mean, we spend our whole, we wake up all, like we wake up and we live together and we're all the time, we're discussing these things all the time. I mean, it's a part of almost every conversation. Yeah. How do we know the kingdom's winning? And yeah, we know the war is not going to be over until the trumpet sounds, but is the kingdom winning or are we getting pushed out? Yeah. Can we measure? Is it measurable? Yeah. Is it measurable? Yeah. And my part of the kingdom, like that's really, it's a, it's a, it's a person, but it's a person by person battle. There's a battle with for each person, um, each day really.

But yeah, so yeah, that's, so how do we know? How do we measure success? How do we know if the kingdom's? Well, one thing, and this is just to jump in, I think that's a very legitimate question, but in one sense, um, the kingdom, the battle has already been won because, um, Jesus has died and been raised from the dead. And, um, Paul talks about how he, um, he he spoiled the principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphed over them openly. Um, I forget exactly how he says it, but, um, but Jesus, Jesus triumphed by dying and rising again, and there's nothing now that can stop his ultimate victory.

And so Jesus is going to win. Um, and the, and the powers of darkness, they're just, um, they're just, they've got, he's giving them a bit of rope for now, like, um, so that he can win souls over for him. But he's, so he's giving us time. Um, and the question is, are we going to win with him? Like, are we going to be on his side when he wins?

Well, there's a few really good passages. I don't know if we want to read them, but there's one in Peter where he lists a bunch of things and he says he he wants to keep reminding them of these things so that if they do them, they won't fall. And then the other one, which we can read or not, is where Paul says, "I beat my body and make it a slave." Like, I don't run, like run a running aimlessly for a prize that won't last. I'm paraphrasing or box beating the air.

Um, but I beat my body and make it a slave so that after preaching to others, I too won't be disqualified for the prize. And then you want the people that I talked to about that, they're like, well, the prize is just like the extra things in heaven. And then, but then if you take away the chapter break, like it shouldn't be there anyway, it goes on to all the warnings of like they grumbled in the, like they were baptized by the cloud and then they were, uh, they ate the manna, ate the manna that that basically symbolizing the communion. And they did all these spiritual things, but they complained and argued and they were destroyed and they did these sexual things and they're destroyed.

And this is a warning to all of us. And then the the really good light at the end of the tunnel is that he doesn't let us, right at that same time, he says he doesn't let us be tempted beyond what we can, you know, handle.

And so there's, there's a definitely striving that we have to do and things that we need to, but there are tools that are given. Do you have that Peter one? Yeah. Do you want me to read it? Yeah. The tools were given that we know if we do these things, we're not going to fall. Like, go ahead. Says, uh, but also for this very reason, give all, to give all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from all his old sins. Keep going. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. If you do, if you do these things, you will never stumble, for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So like we, if we, and he, right before he says he knows he's going to die and he wants to make sure that we remember this.

And so it's like, if Peter's saying that and it's gotten written down, like if we look at those things and add to our faith, those things, we're assured we're not going to stumble. We're not going to, we're going to enter his kingdom. So if you see these things, you know you're winning some battles. Yeah.

I think that's really important to keep those, those places where Jesus and the apostles point blank say, you know, this is the people who are in, and Jesus says at the end of the sermon on the mountain about the whole thing, you know, this is how you know the person that's, that's, um, Jesus says, not many that say to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father right there is point blank. He's how you know if you're a citizen of my kingdom. Um, and you know, places like that, um, you know, the fruit of the Spirit, James, the wisdom which is from above, there at the end of chapter three, there's lots of places where he just point blank says, these are, sometimes it's point, he says, you know, these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And these are things. So that's, that's how we know. It's not by, by how eloquent of a preacher we are or how, um, maybe I should say not only by how, you know, righteously we, we dress. Um, it's not just about, um, even Jesus says about miracles and, um, charismatic manifestations and things like that. He said that that's not, that's not what, what, what tips this, I don't want to say this is scales. That's not a bad picture, but that's not, that's not what, that's what not make, not what makes you part of my kingdom. It's if you actually are following me as, as Lord and King.

I think another way of measuring it is by conversion. Um, people do change allegiance. You know, we, Daniel was mentioning earlier, I don't remember exactly how he said it, but he was talking about, um, how Jesus came to help the sick. Um, but, but his focus is not necessarily on the person who isn't even aware that he's sick and that there is a huge deception that people are, are, are born into sin and we all fall and, uh, Satan has a deception that's cast over the population.

Um, and I found this quote here. It says that, uh, victory is not measured by whether or not we have changed the world. Instead, victory is measured by getting people to recognize that the war exists and bringing them to the point of choosing to become a traitor to the kingdom of Satan, to renounce Satan and to pledge allegiance to King Jesus and his kingdom of light.

So, uh, one way of being able to measure when there is victory is when you have someone who, who says, hey, I've woken up here and I've, I see that I'm in a kingdom of darkness and I'm prepared to, uh, to renounce Satan and to make a public statement that my allegiance has changed. There's the kingdom exists. I'm aware of it and I'm putting, I'm putting the stake in the ground and I'm changing allegiance.

That helped me a lot when I, when I got this picture that what Jesus came to do was to set up a kingdom. And this is about, this is a loyalty issue. And, and, uh, on a, a national scale, like just like the kingdoms of this world understand this. I, I thought about preaching a message from this already, but here's the, here's the naturalization oath of allegiance to the United States of America. And this is how clearly they understand this and they want anybody who's going to join their team, they want this clear and straight. And it's no different for Jesus as King. It says, I hereby declare on oath that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of which, of whom, or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen, that I will support and defend the constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law.

And then it goes on about some exemptions to that. Um, um, and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me God. And the same thing is what we do when we're, when we're baptized, um, is we, we make that, that statement that we are, we, um, absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance or fidelity, faithfulness to the prince that we've served before, Prince Me and Prince Satan. Um, I think often our, our baptismal vows say that I, I renounce Satan, sin, the world and my own carnal nature. Um, and that we promise that we will support and defend the constitution and laws of God's kingdom, which is in a nutshells in the sermon on the mount and many other places.

But, but that's actually the point of this thing of joining the kingdom of God is that we actually live like King Jesus in our lives. The, the, the first Christians got their nickname because people saw people living like Jesus, a little Christ. And I like to close it with that. Um, there's so much, so much from the political and the military realm that applies to Jesus and his kingdom. Apostle Paul does that a lot. And so ending it with the same words as the, the oath of allegiance and then borrowing from the declaration of independence. Um, and I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me God. And for the port of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Um, that's the kind of zeal and the kind of commitment that we make to, to following and living the life of, of King Jesus in every aspect of our life. And we commit ourselves to learning how to make that happen in the same way that, um, that, that the earthly kingdoms expect people who join their kingdom to exercise that same loyalty and to cut all the ties to the old one. I mean, it seems like, I don't know if that was our planned end.

Uh-huh. Were we ending there? Oh, that, that there isn't a plan. Okay. So on that note, uh, I, I really like to see it this way that like, whenever you think of a monarchy, we don't have that picture. We only have like little movies and stuff. But if you think of the knights, like if the, if the king tells the knights to do this or do that or jump, whatever it is, they just do it. And they do it until death. Yeah. Fall on your sword. And, and that the loyalty of like, if you look at Abraham was the same way, like go to another land, leave your house, cut off part of you. It's like, and he didn't even seem to question it.

He's like, yes, sir. Kill your son. Yes, sir. Do this. And that's like, like that didn't change. And now we've have a picture of, you know, our king holding little children on his lap, wanting healing everybody, wanting people to be whole, wanting people to be set free from sin and Satan and death and dying so that we can. And then, then he gives us the honor to do that. You know, like we get to do that. We get to be the knights in this thing. And not, and, and our weapons aren't the same. I mean, we don't fight like the world fights. And, and it looks backwards and it looks cowardly when it's not. Like if you actually hit somebody and they like do their best and don't hit you back, like it's not cowardly not to hit back.

It's the, the flesh that does that. It's like our weapons are difficult, but very powerful. And I know I keep going back to non-resistance, but it is the gospel of peace. And it's called that for a reason. Um, and anyway, I just like to end what I, what I was saying with like, we're knights. This is an honor. This isn't, this isn't, this is a duty that's we're excited about, not like this burden.