This sermon emphasizes the importance of preparing for the return of Jesus as the King, not just as the sacrificial Lamb. It highlights the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, live a life of righteousness, and be ready for the judgment day when the King will sit on his throne. The message urges listeners to live for eternal things, not the shallow pursuits of the world, and to be wise virgins with oil in their lamps, ready for the bridegroom's return.

Father God, we do indeed pray that this would be more than just the words of a man. Father, we desperately need to hear from you. Father, we know that we live in a lukewarm age where many people are chasing words that tickle their ears, Father God. I pray that this will not be us tonight, Father, but that we will embrace the fullness of your Word, the challenge of your Word, everything you want to speak to us that is both pleasant and on the negative side where you might want to correct us or you might want to speak into our hearts, Father God. We welcome you to speak truth and I pray that the truth would set us free, Father God. In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen. Okay, let's just turn over to Matthew chapter 24. Tonight I'm preaching on what I call the real gospel of the kingdom. Now if you think of the word kingdom, you immediately think, of course, that you must have a king. You must have a king in order to have a kingdom. One of the problems in the modern church is that we have stopped, we have stopped embracing the kingship of Jesus Christ in order to really focus on the fact that he was a lamb that came to die for people. And, of course, a lamb is a comfortable thing. A lamb is something that is gentle and peaceable. But remember that Jesus also said things like, I have not come to bring peace, but I've come to bring a sword, right? Jesus did not just come to be a lamb and lay down his life and get killed for everybody's sin. He actually also came to say, listen, I represent the God of all creation. I represent the God who is the judge of all the earth. That's who I am. If you can't understand the kingship of Jesus Christ, you stop understanding him at all because he said many kingly things. Not only that, he said, when I return, I will be utterly the king. Every knee shall bow, alright? These are kingly things. These are not the things that a lamb that's coming to the slaughter is saying. These are things that, remember Jesus said, you know, it says in the Bible, he'll be accompanied by ten thousands of his angels. Those angels can decimate cities. We know that, right? These are not gentle beings. This is not fluttering down with nice fluffy wings with little halos on their head. These guys are absolutely capable of visiting the judgment of God on cities. We know that cities were wiped out by angels in the Old Testament and not many. It doesn't take many angels to wipe out a city, right? So we're not dealing with just what we could call the gentle attributes of Jesus. The gospel of the kingdom is about his kingship and as soon as we realize that, we start to actually understand more of what the gospel that Jesus preached because it says he went everywhere preaching this. What did he preach? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What is he saying there? The king is about to return. When the king returns, what does he do in the earth? In those days, they knew exactly what a king did. The king sits on his judgment seats. The king calls all the servants and all of the all of his enemies before him and he visits upon them what they deserve because he's been away traveling or he's been away in battle and he's returning to set in order his kingdom. Amen. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So we're dealing with Jesus the King. As soon as we realize that, our thinking starts to change. Why? Because a king is worthy of respect and reverence. These things have been missing from the church. The modern church is so flippant and casual about God. You notice that? Very lukewarm. Everybody goes, well I think God exists to bless me, you know. I think God exists to bless me. That's the attitude of a lot of modern people and I say, I'm sorry, it's the exact opposite of that. Jesus is not your king, you're in terrible trouble. If you don't think of him as your king, you're not getting the picture. You've got it all wrong. Amen. So we're going to look at that tonight. That's what we're looking at. Matthew chapter 24, Jesus says something very interesting here. Verse 14, he says this, this gospel of the kingdom, right, this gospel of the kingdom, he says, shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations and then the end shall come. Interesting words. So why does a gospel of the kingdom have to be preached in all the earth before the end can come? You know, Jesus in this whole chapter is talking about the signs of the end of the age. You know, many of those signs are happening around us today. We think we live in normal times. I tell you, we live in extraordinary times. Have you seen how fast things change? Have you seen the dramatic changes that occur in every 20-year period? If you had got a time machine and jumped the 20 years, you'd hardly understand any of the gadgets that people are using. That's how fast things are changing. Used to be that that kind of change would take one or two hundred years or five hundred years. Now it takes 20 years. Our gadgets have all changed. Everybody's walking around with new stuff that 20 years ago they couldn't imagine using. They don't know how to use it. Amen? Everything's changing at a rapid rate and many of the things that Jesus spoke and the calamities and the judgments and the wars and rumors of wars and the huge controversy surrounding Israel and all these kinds of things are all prophesied in these passages here. We can't go into that, but I want to say, why is Jesus referring to the gospel of the kingdom and he's linking it in with all of this talk of the end, the end coming? Why is he doing that? Because at the time of the end, everybody needs to hear about the King more than any other time. Why? Because he literally is about to return. That's the threat that's been made. You see, the gospel of the kingdom is not a friendly gospel. We too often in the modern age, we go around preaching a gospel that people love to hear. We say, you know, if you just come to Jesus, he's going to solve all your problems and give you higher self-esteem, you know. It's kind of like we've altered everything Jesus said. Jesus actually was so piercing in the truth that he spoke that they had to kill him to shut him up. You realize they don't kill guys that they like. You understand? Why did John the Baptist, who died just before Jesus, why did they kill him? He only lasted six months. They had his head on a platter. Why did they chop his head off? Because they hated what he said. Why did they arrange to have Jesus caught and captured and tried and killed? Because they hated what he said. Now, if he was so likable and everything he said was all about raising our self-esteem and making us feel good about ourselves, how come they're doing that? You know, the modern church doesn't want to speak an offensive word. I say, if you're going to withdraw the offensive words, your words will become utterly useless. We live in an age where comfortable words are spoken every day. We have advertising guys that we hire. We pay them $300,000 a year to come up with the best, comfortable, ear-tickling words that you can come up with. We hire a marketing guy and we say, we want to market our product, make it positive, make it, you know, high impact and make it flatter people's hearing so they'd love to buy it. I don't want the gospel to be like that. The gospel actually wasn't like that and the gospel to this day is not supposed to be that. Jesus is not the little lamb anymore. He's returning as a king. When he returns, he'll establish his kingdom and his throne and it won't be pretty, I'm telling you. He's going to establish it by force. You know what a king does when he comes in by force and says, well, I once owned this territory. In fact, I claim it as my own and I'm coming back with my soldiers to claim it. You realize when all those prophecies about Jesus returning with his angels, what is he saying? I'm returning and when I come back, I'll have my armies with me. We start to understand that Jesus is talking very often about his kingship. We start to understand that he is far from the flattering little lamb that we've made him out to be. It's very important to grasp this because so much comes out of it. We're about to see that now. So let's just turn over the next chapter, Matthew 25. Jesus begins to give what we call kingdom parables. What is a parable? It's simply a story that points to a truth. Okay, so if I tell you a story about a carpenter doing something and I'm trying to bring a truth out of it, that would be a parable. So Jesus is telling parables here. In Matthew 25 verse 14, now you notice how he starts off talking here. He says, the first thing out of his mouth is this, for the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling into a far country who called his servants and delivered to them his goods. Right, so he's likening the kingdom to this. A man is going traveling, he's going to put his goods in the hands of his servants. Verse 15 to one, he gave five talents, we could say five bars of gold. Right, that's what a talent, a talent was a measure of gold or silver. Right, so he's five talents to this servant and then he gives two talents, sorry, five talents to the first servant. Verse 17, likewise he that received two, oh no, I've rushed ahead of myself here. Verse 15 was still there. Okay, to one he gives five, to another he gives two talents, to another he gives one talent. To every man according to his ability and straight away he took his journey. Then he that received the five talents of gold, he went and traded with the others, he made another five talents. He that received the two talents, he went and gained another two talents. So these servants here are doing a good job. The master has gone away, he's left them with all his money or maybe let's say half his money. He's given it to his servants and said, invest it wisely while I'm gone. So the guy with five has got another five, excellent. The guy with two, he's gotten another two talents of gold, brilliant. Verse 18, but he that received the one, he went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money. After a long time the Lord of those servants comes back and reckons with them. Now this is part of the gospel of the kingdom, this reckoning. Okay, we're reckoning with the king or you could say the king when he returns and all of these stories is always doing similar things. What is he doing? He is sitting on his judgment seat. They would call it the beamer seat. The king would return, they would even in many cases make the highway flat so the king would not have to ride over any bumps. This is why in the Old Testament it says, make a highway for our God. You know, the king is returning. Okay, make a highway in the wilderness, flatten the hills, let the road be made straight so that he doesn't even have to roll over any bumps when he's coming in. Amen. So these are prophetically speaking of the king of glory returning. So the king is going to come back and he's going to reckon with them. Now this is an awesome day, I'll tell you why, because if you get rewarded you'll be handsomely rewarded. If you get punished you're in terrible trouble because you're not dealing with a pansy anymore, correct? You know, when I've been over in Africa sometimes it's quite amusing, they'll have these calendars. Sometimes they even put preachers on them. I've been on these calendars, right? They'll take a photograph of me and next thing you know you go back there a year later and there's a picture of you on the calendar and you go, what on earth? And they've got all these pictures, pictures of Jesus and Jesus is looking very pleasant and you're in the middle of Africa but Jesus has got, you know, blonde hair, blue eyes, it's quite strange. And he's always looking very inoffensive and he's looking pleased and happy and gentle and kind. I want to say to you, when the Lord of glory returns he'll be like this guy, he'll be interested in setting order in his kingdom, he will take it back by force, the Bible says, he will sit on his seat of judgment and he will give to every person what they deserve. And that, sadly for a lot of people, is a frightening thought. Amen? Because he's not just the king of glory, he's actually king of justice and of judgment. You know, Jesus, we don't realize because we saw him walking around on the earth, but Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God, he is literally someone with massive authority in the universe and we treat it so lightly. You understand what I'm saying? We're dealing here with a king and repeatedly all of the kingdom parables point to this being an awesome day because he returns and he suddenly is not suffering fools gladly. You know what I mean? He's not taking any nonsense from anybody. There's people getting cut down, there's people that are not escaping with their lives, there's people who thought they were fine and that Jesus was going to be so forgiving and gentle and so loving and everything and they're suddenly faced with Christ the king of glory and they can't cope with that. They weren't ready for that. Amen? We're going to keep on here. So here comes the man, the master has come back, he's reckoning with his servants. Verse 20. He that had received five talents came and brought the other five talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five. Behold, I've gained beside them five more. As the Lord said to him, well done you good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord. Who has the authority to suddenly make this servant, all he's done is he's earned good money back for his master, right? He's produced a good return. Who has the authority to suddenly say to this person, I'm going to now, you've been very faithful with a few things, I'm going to make you ruler over ten cities. Who has that authority? The king has all authority. He can literally promote you. Remember Joseph in the Old Testament was promoted in one day from the prison to the palace. In one day, he became the right hand man of the Pharaoh. Amen? God in the form of Jesus Christ can absolutely do that. He's the king. He will raise up who he decides on this day. He will cast down who he decides. Amen? Right. So the one who had two, verse 22, the one that received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Behold, I've gained another two talents. As the Lord said to him, well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord. So these guys have got rewarded, but we're about to see what also happens here. Verse 24, then he that had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, gathering where you have not strawed. And I was afraid. And I went and hid your talent in the earth. So here it is back. Verse 26, the Lord answered and said to him, you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I do not sow and gather where I have not strawed. You ought to have put my money with the bankers. And then I would have received it back with interest. Listen to this verse 28. So this is the guy that hit that one bar of gold that he was given. He hit it in the ground because he's afraid of the master. Okay. So what happens? Verse 28, take the talent from him, give it to him that has 10 talents for unto everyone that has shall be given and he will have abundance. But from him that has not shall be taken away even that which he has. And it gets even worse than that. Listen to this verse 30 and cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is the punishment. And because we're dealing now with a supernatural being who holds literally the stars in his hands and can command planets and created this earth, he can actually be saying, this one is not even going to remain on the earth. In fact, he's going right out of my sight. He will be cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that is the jail he's going to. Amen. What do we find in all of these parables? We find the king returns and executes judgments. Judgment. What is judgment? It is based in the root word for categorizing things. There's the judgment of the sheep and the goats. If you've ever heard of that, the judgment of those who are the sheep of God, the judgment of those who are the goats, they get separated from each other and God sends the goats off into the outer darkness. He says the sheep will inherit eternal life with him. Dramatic difference in what happens to these people. You notice here, the first two got rewarded handsomely. There was no middle ground. He didn't just say to the one guy that gives him back his gold again. He didn't say, oh, well, at least you kept it for me. Didn't say any of that. He said, you slothful, which means lazy, unprofitable servant. How dare you do this? Hide it in the ground. You should have at least got some interest off it. What is this parable telling us? Why does Jesus talk about these kingdom things after saying that this gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the earth and then the end will come? Why is it we see these things packaged closely together? We're about to look at another one in a minute. Why? Because these are end time events that we're talking about. The King is about to return. He says in Matthew 24, a lot of the time he's basically saying, if you see these things, look up because everything will occur exactly as I say. You have to watch out. You have to be alert. It says this over and over. Don't go to sleep in that hour. Don't be someone that takes things casually. Don't start to be like everyone around you, basing your lives on the houses and the cars and the entertainment and the pleasures of this world and this ear-tickling marketing universe that we live in. Stop with the plastic life and start getting into the real thing where you see the signs and you go, I'm going to stay alert even if everybody else falls asleep. I want to watch for the King's return because I don't want to be sleeping and I don't want to be that guy that's the unprofitable servant because we're not dealing with Jesus the Lamb anymore. We're dealing with Jesus the King. Such an important thing to realize. So the gospel of the kingdom is always about this type of thing. Now if you think of other kingdom parables, there's one called the tares and the wheat. What is the tares and the wheat about? The tares is about God planting his true wheat and the enemy comes through in the same field and plants all these tares which look like wheat but they're actually false. Amen? That's what the tares and the wheat is about. And he says at the end what happens is that we're going to go through, you know, the master of the field will come and he's going to go through all that wheat and he's going to find those tares and he's going to root them out amongst his wheat and he's going to make a big fire and burn them all. That's what happens to the tares. He says there is a time of harvest and in the time of harvest everything gets sorted one from another. Those that are evil get the evil result. Those that have been the righteous ones, righteous in the heart, they get the righteous reward. This is all the way through these parables. You can go right through the parables of Jesus. Whenever he's talking a kingdom parable, he'll often start it like this. The kingdom of heaven is like this or the kingdom of God is like this and you know he's issuing one of these parables, right? There's always this sifting that goes on. We're still in Matthew 25 and we're going to look at one more of these parables. Matthew 25 verse 1. This one is called the wise and foolish virgins. They're waiting to get married. They're waiting for the wedding feasts, okay? So this kind of parable meant a lot to the people back then because they knew about weddings. They knew what their traditions were for brides and grooms and so on, okay? So here we go. Verse 1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. So there's ten virgins. They are waiting for the wedding ceremony. They've got their lamps and out they go to wait for the bridegroom to come. Verse 2. Five of them were wise, five of them were foolish. Those that were foolish took their lamps but did not take oil with them. What does oil usually speak of in the Bible? It speaks of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Why do we need to be full of the Holy Spirit? Why is God's Spirit called the Holy Spirit? Because, you know, we're aware of this word holy that it means, you know, it literally means set apart but it actually means set apart to purity. So when the Holy Spirit of God comes inside of us and fills our lives, what happens to us? We become filled with the holiness and the purity and the cleanness of God. That's what's supposed to happen. In fact, every single Christian, in fact you're not even a Christian according to the New Testament, you're not a Christian at all unless the Holy Spirit is inside of you making you right with God, bringing his holiness inside, giving you that purity, that cleansing. Okay? The Holy Spirit of God, that's his job. So when we see the oil, this is usually symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so verse 3 again. Those that were foolish took their lamps but took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Interesting. Okay, so the wise ones have got some extra oil. Verse 5, while the bridegroom tarried, in other words he wasn't coming quickly, they all slumbered and slept. At midnight there was a cry made, behold the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him. So what's the situation here? You've got five wise, they've got extra oil. That's the only difference between them. The five wise ones, they've got extra oil in a spare little jar. The five foolish couldn't be bothered with the extra oil. They're all out there waiting. There's ten, ten women in total. Okay, at midnight the cry goes out, the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him. Okay, so the wedding is about to begin. Verse 7, then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps have gone out. Oh, we have a problem. The foolish ones who took no extra oil are suddenly in trouble. Why? They have no extra oil and their lamps are going out. We think, well that's a minor problem. Not in this parable, no, I tell you not. Okay, but the wise answered, verse 9, the wise answered saying, not so, lest there not be enough for us and you. But go rather to those that sell and buy some oil for yourselves. And listen to this, verse 10, here we go. While they went to buy that oil, now this is the foolish ones, went off to buy that oil, the bridegroom came. Those that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut. Afterwards came also the other virgins saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. These are the foolish ones. They come back, they see the door has been shut, much to their alarm. They weren't ready for this. The door of that wedding feast has been closed. All right, they come back and they said, Lord, Lord, we're in verse 11, Lord, Lord, open to us. But Jesus, who of course is the bridegroom, what did he say? He answered and said, verily I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you do not know the day or the hour where the Son of Man comes. What just happened to those people? They just missed out on everything they've been waiting for. Are these all Christian people? I say to you, yes, they are. They all believe in the King. They have all gone out there waiting for the bridegroom to come. There's only one difference between them. One has a whole lot of oil spare. They're full of the oil of God, right? The other lot, they can't be bothered with that. They have not taken extra oil. They're not full of the Spirit of God. They're not full of the holiness of God. They're casual about it. And when the time comes, their laughs just go out. The serious repercussion, you might think that's a small thing. No, this is everything in this story. Jesus is making a very important point here, and that is that there is no trifling with this King. If you don't have the oil of the Holy Spirit of God filling your life, you're in terrible trouble. Why? Because the moment will come when you have desperate need of that oil, and you won't be ready. The bridegroom cry will go out, he's returning, he's returning. You're not ready to go in there with him. You've got to rush off and buy some oil. You'll come back and the door will be shut. Is there second chances in this situation? I tell you, none at all. When do you get second chances with God? You get second chances now. How long does the average human get to repent before God and get rid of their sin and become a person of righteousness that loves what is holy? How long do we get on average? The Bible says we all get roughly 70 years. That's a tremendous amount of time to get our life right with God. But do you know what the tragedy is? Most people, if they do not do this when they're young, never do it. Statistically, the most likely age to actually get converted and start walking with God is as low as 17 years old on average. And a lot of people who leave it and leave it till they're later in life, they go, you know, I'm set in my ways. I don't want to change my beliefs. I'm fine anyway. I live for myself. I know that I've got sin in my life. I don't really care. They're not preparing to meet a king like this. Most people who do become Christians, who do pursue after holiness, who love God and really want to live with Him, most of them are saved when they're young. That's what the statistics say. Most people who leave it probably will never. Why? Because it requires also the drawing of God. You know, God is always tugging at people. He might be doing that now with you. How many sermons like this are you going to hear in your life? Maybe five, maybe three, maybe one, right? For the whole rest of your life. And then you'll have eternity to think about it because your decision was so important, although you thought at the time it was such a small deal. Many people, do you know how many times they will hear the true gospel of the kingdom? They'll get to hear it once. And then at the end of their life, when judgment comes and the king returns, they'll have to think about that decision for the rest of eternity because it says these, many of these decisions are irrevocable. Many of these judgments, especially the final judgment, is of course irrevocable. Let's have a look at it. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 20. We're looking at the judgment, what's called the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ. In other words, the king returning and sitting on that Bema seat. Okay. So Revelation chapter 20 verse 11. This is how awesome it will be on that day. And I think very unpleasant for a lot of people, but there will be rewards dished out also for many. Okay. So Revelation chapter 20 verse 11, it says this, I saw a great white throne and him that sat upon it from whose face the earth and the heavens have fled away. And there was found no place for them. I always say to people, when we read this verse, I always say, do you realize something happened in that verse that never happens in the whole Bible except right there. We never read that again. There's no other place that we can even find a reference to this event happening, but I completely believe it. Why? Because the king of glory has returned. He's sitting on his awesome throne. And what does it say happened? It says that the earth and the heavens have fled away from his face. In other words, they cannot stand to look at this judge. The earth and the heavens themselves are frightened to look upon it. That's how I figured that verse. So I saw a great white throne, him that sat upon it from whose face the earth and the heavens have fled away. And there was found no place for them. And this is what the next verse is. I saw the dead, small and great. What's happened to them? They've been resurrected to stand before God, it says. The books are opened. What are these books? These are the books of the things that these people have done. They're also the books of the law of God. And God is judging these people out of the books. You say, but don't we live under grace? Doesn't Jesus free us of our sins and forgive us of our sins? Yes, if we're a Christian and we're truly loving God. Yes, if we're full of the oil of the Holy Spirit, absolutely. Will you get judged and thrown away if you're like that? No, you won't. You'll survive this day. But I tell you, the judge is not a friendly judge. If you think about this, imagine that you've just gotten yourself a speeding ticket or let's say, no, a traffic infringement. Let's say you drove the wrong way up a one-way street, right? And the traffic cop saw you and writes out a ticket. But he says, you can't just pay this fine, you have to go in front of the judge. It's a serious charge, a more serious charge. You think, oh well, maybe I'll get charged $200 or something. I think I'll be okay. You go there on the day and you take a look at the judge and the judge's face is like ashen and he almost looks like he's in a fury and you go, oh my goodness, I'm in trouble, right? Because we're not dealing here with a friendly judge. This guy's not going to wink at it and throw it out of court. He's about to deal very, very harshly with you. Why? You disobeyed the law and he has every right to throw the book at you. What kind of judge are we dealing with at the end of time when everybody's life, they've had the fullness of their life, they've enjoyed whatever they wanted to enjoy, they have gotten into every sin they could have wanted to, they can live for 70 years totally selfish, caring for nobody else but themselves, involved in every sick and vile and evil thing for their whole lives and they say, wow, we had a pretty good time, didn't we? And I say, yes, but you're yet to face the judge and he's not in a friendly mood with anybody. He's about to throw the book at everyone that has not got themselves full of the holiness and the purity of God, right? That's who we're dealing with because we're not dealing with the lamb anymore, we're dealing with the king. Amen? This is the gospel of the kingdom we're talking about here. So what happens with these people? Verse 12, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. Notice it says small and great, so the president is there and the lowliest chimney sweep is there and they're all equal before the throne of God. The president's not going to get any special treatment, he doesn't have his lawyers, no way. Okay? I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. The books were opened, another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of those things written in the books according to what, according to what they had done. According to what they've done. And even the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in there. And they were judged, every man, according to what they had done. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Listen to verse 15, it says, whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And because the modern church, you realize a lot in the modern church don't believe in most of this stuff anymore. They say, I don't, I think God's too loving to do that. Don't you? It's because we only ever in the modern church preach God is love, God is love, God is love. He doesn't care much about sin anymore. God's changed, you know, he's a Santa Claus in the sky now. And I say, no, you've got the wrong guy. Sorry, I don't know who you're talking about. Jesus is not Santa Claus. Jesus is the King. This is exactly in keeping with what he will do. I believe this utterly. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life, what is the book of life? You know, in essence, it's really a book of those names who have gotten themselves full of the Holy Spirit of God. Those people, if their name is found written in the book of life, you imagine how quiet it would be in heaven. You know, where I come from, of course, we have a rugby team called the All Blacks. And when I read out the rugby team, the All Blacks before the World Cup, the whole country basically goes silent and listens to the radio and watches television as the names are read out. I guess they do that with the cricket team here maybe, I don't know. So because it's such a famous team and every rugby player wants to be on that team, it's like a hush. And I want to tell you there's going to be more of a hush than that when this book is read out. You'll want to hear that your name is in it, amen? Because what is it saying? Verse 15. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. You say, but I thought Jesus was gracious and friendly and came to forgive us. And I say he absolutely did and he absolutely will. It's just there's a whole lot of people that don't really want that. They want to live for themselves, they want their own life, they want to live for all the pleasant things even though they're incredibly shallow. You know, they want to live their life for nice cars and houses and every other thing. And I say listen, what are you spending your life on? You're given 70 years, it's not that long, won't you live it for God? Are you going to be a wise or a foolish virgin? Can you hear the gospel of the kingdom? Why does Jesus say this? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Do you realize that verse is a kind of a threat? He's saying this, repent for the king is returning, his kingdom is coming, you have very little time to get ready. When my daughters are at school, of course, they have exams, they might spend months studying for one exam. We have a life to lead down here. We have to decide who we're going to live that life for. We only get one life. Am I going to live a shallow, foolish life or am I going to live a life that means something, that echoes into eternity and I bring a whole lot of people into righteousness with God and bring them with me up into his kingdom at the end? You know, it's a frivolous life led for nothing or it's a godly life that influences things so dramatically in this shallow culture that we live in. We've got to live for eternal things. We only get one life to lead. I don't want to get to the end of my 70 or 80 years and say, well, I just live for myself and watch television every day and here I am. I don't want to be saying that to God and I don't even want to say it to me. I want to get up there at the end of my time and say, you know, we live for something beyond ourselves. We live for a cause worth dying for. We live for something that's so incredibly important that eternity echoes with the results of what we did or did not say and what we did or did not do. That's the kind of life I want to lead. I want Jesus to say to me at the end of my life, I want him to literally say this verse to me, well done good and faithful servant, come and enter into the joy of the Lord. Come and live with me forever. I don't want to be cast out into outer darkness. I don't want to be gnashing my teeth with regret and shame saying, why didn't I listen? Why didn't I, you know, why was I so shallow? Nonsense that we live for in this present age. So we need to head for a close here. One thing I want to say to you is this, if we're in the last days, do you realize what God requires of us as his people? That we would start to preach a message of Jesus the King, not just Jesus the lamb. You know, Jesus the lamb dies for our sins, which is a wonderful thing and has to be included in our gospel. What else do we say? We say that Jesus the King is returning and when he does, this is the seat he will sit upon. Are you ready for that day? Like my daughter's getting ready for their exam. Are you ready for that day? Have you done the preparation? What is the preparation? Simply that you would allow God to fill you with himself, with his holiness. That's going to be the difference right there. That's it. You get cleaned out by God, you start living for his righteousness and his holiness. He fills you with his spirit. You become a different person. I remember the day it happened to me. I remember it like night and day. I remember I was 17 years old. I was one of those statistics. I was 17 years old. My wife, when she got saved, she was 17 years old. She also got filled with the Holy Spirit. Totally changed, renewed, on fire for God. We've both been on fire together ever since. I met her five weeks after that happened to her. I said, man, I think I'll marry this girl. She's the most on fire for God person I've met. So I married her. Now we have six children. Praise God. So we're going to allow our lives to mean something in this earth. We're going to live for something that's really worthwhile. There's so much shallowness out there. The marketing culture is everywhere. It sucks us in to being consumers, to just living for things, with a shallow garbage that you can touch and feel. It's worth nothing. It will all burn. You can't take it with you to the grave. It's nonsense. People live their lives for absolute nothingness and they get to the end of their lives and they say, I wonder what would have happened if I actually had lived for something worthwhile. Not as easy, of course, to do that. Jesus doesn't say, come to me and I'll give you a bed of roses and every day is going to be fun, fun, fun. No, he says, come to me, there'll be some persecution. There'll be hardship, but at least you're not living for the shallow, frivolous nonsense of your culture. Amen? Because look at it. Isn't it garbage? The stuff that people live for. Right, so we're going to pray together now, so please stand up everybody. I want us to pray. Well, I'm going to lead us in prayer.