Dr. M.J. du Plessis Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville Datum: 30 Maart 2003 (oggenddiens).

REFORMED CHURCH, BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 4 MAY 2003: EVENING SERVICE

Our help is in the Name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Psalm of praise: Psalm 68:15.
Prayer.
Psalm 46:3.

Scripture reading: Matthew 6:5-13 & 1 Corinthians 15:20-28
& Revelation 18:16 - 19:14
Scripture text: Catechism Sunday 48

We are not yet in heaven. We are still amid sin and the struggle on earth, where we have to fight to maintain God's honour against the powers of darkness.
For that reason we have to pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

There are especially 4 respects in which the Kingdom of God is important to us:

1.The Kingdom and ourselves
2.The Kingdom and the church
3.The King and the world
4.The Kingdom in its final manifestation.

In two previous sermons we have already attended to The Kingdom and ourselves and The Kingdom and the Church.
In this sermon we shall therefore attend only to the last two topics, namely:
1.The Kingdom and the world
2.The Kingdom of God in its final manifestation.

1.The Kingdom and the world.

There is no one of us who does not have a fairly good idea of just how powerful Satan and his forces are. We must, therefore, pray that the Kingdom of God become ever more clearly manifest in the world.

But we know also that the Kingdom of God will not come about without much tribulation: the battle of Armageddon is still to come!

The point is that there exists a false kingdom beside that of the Lord. The devil and his angels have a kingdom which opposes the kingdom of God. He strives to foment rebellion and revolution and eventually even war against the Kingdom of the Lord.

Satan is a usurper. The entire course of history testifies to that. Immediately after the process of creation he already attempted to injure the Kingdom of God by seducing mankind into faithlessness towards the Lord. Still later Israel frequently found themselves in trouble because they allowed themselves to be seduced by Satan into abandoning the Lord. And today the situation is worse than ever!

Fortunately for us, a decisive event occurred in the meantime. Jesus Christ broke the power of this kingdom of Satan. He accomplished this by assuming the physical body of a man and coming to live on earth among men. As a human being he was then exposed to every temptation in Satan's manual. But the Bible testifies that Jesus Christ committed not a single sin from His birth to His death.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15).

In His war against this false kingdom the Lord Jesus laid down His life. On the third day after that He rose from the dead. By this act He proved Himself to be the absolute Ruler over Satan, because Satan's forces were insufficient to retain Jesus and His human body in the realm of death.

This does not imply that the struggle for the Kingdom of God is over. The struggle continues, because Satan was granted freedom of action until the second coming. He is at present like a raging lion which seeks to devour all in his way.

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8).

For this reason we pray for the coming of the Kingdom of the Lord, because the power of Satan will then be finally destroyed. After that, only one kingdom will remain: the Kingdom of God.

2.The Kingdom of God in its final manifestation.

Consider the words of 1 Corinthians 15:

24....Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25.For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
26.The last enemy which will be abolished is death.
27.For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.
28.When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.

The final manifestation of the Kingdom of God is therefore the resurrection of the faithful from death and their admittance to a kingdom in which God will be all in all!

The person who prays the words: "Your Kingdom come" therefore longs for this day to come, because on that day the fullness of God's Kingdom, which we believers yearn for, will be made manifest. From that day there will be no other power to cast a shadow upon the honour of the Lord. Only a state of perfection remains for believers - and there the glory of God will shine on them until the utmost reaches of the future.

So far, then, regarding the grace of God, because the day of the second coming awaits others like a fearful threat. On that day the nations will be judged. Then, too, those who have died as unbelievers, will have their bodies restored to them, and they will be consigned, with body and soul, to the terrors of hell.

The Lord reveals that He will separate people on that day as a shepherd separates the sheep in his flock from the goats.

But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. (Matthew 25:31-33).

At that moment the righteous will enter into eternal life. The accursed, on the other hand, will receive eternal punishment.

These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46)

On that day, too, Satan will receive just punishment for all his deeds since his rebellion in heaven until the day the Lord appears in the clouds: he will be cast into hell and it will be sealed over him, so that he will nevermore be able to leave it.

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Rev. 20:10)

Then the Kingdom of God will be perfect: it will be a kingdom in which God is all in all. Then the tabernacle of God will be among men, and He will dwell among them. Then the first things will have passed away - as it is revealed in Revelation 21::3,4.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
We find the substance of this sermon partly summarized in Catechism Sunday 48.
Amen.

LORD'S DAY XLVIII

123.QUESTION.What is the second petition?
ANSWER.Thy kingdom come. That is: so rule us by Thy Word and Spirit that we may submit ourselves more and more to Thee¹; preserve and increase Thy Church²; destroy the works of the devil, every power that exalts itself against Thee, and all wicked counsels conceived against Thy holy Word³, until the perfection of Thy kingdom arrive⁴ wherein Thou shalt be all in all⁵.

1.Ps.143:10; 119:5; Matt.6:33     2. Ps.51:18; 122:6     3. 1 John 3:8; Rom.16:20
4.Rev.22:20; Rom.8:22,23          5. 1 Cor.15:28

Closing prayer.

Closing Psalm: 145:1,8.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
AMEN.

Rev. Dr. M.J. du Plessis
Reformed Church, Bellville.
4 May 2003.
Scripture quoted from NASB.