The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms

Well, I greet each one of you this morning in the worthy name of our Lord. I look at a room full of young people like this, and I have various feelings. One of them is what potential? What potential to change the kingdom of God with hearts on fire in young people like this? What a potential! On the other hand, I know that Satan is about us as a roaring lion seeking to devour.

And I've lived long enough, although I'm not very old, I've lived long enough to see people devoured by him. Men and women, young men and women. There's a scripture that I'd like to give you here at the outset for you to think about the rest of the week.

Take it into your own heart. It's not what I'm speaking about. But take it into your own heart and answer it.

It's a question that Jesus himself asked. And it may well be that you can answer that question for Jesus. The question he asked you'll find in Luke chapter 18, verse 8. And the question is this.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns, shall he find faith on the earth? Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns, shall he find faith on the earth? Answer that question. The choices that you're making today can determine whether you will be found faithful. Whether you will have faith.

I don't know whether you'll be here when he comes back or not. I don't know whether I'll be here. But what I do know, what is important, is that we have faith.

When we meet our Maker, that is the all-important thing. Brother Mel already shared some very important things for you to think about. I don't want to go over any of those.

In fact, one of the things that he talked about, I was just blessed as I had meditated, I had thought about going into that this week, but I'm blessed to see that God is moving and that he has put it on Brother Mel's heart to share on that while I share on other things. I'd like if we could begin here, if all of us could just rise and we'll say the Lord's Prayer together. It's not something that I am used to doing, but because of the subject matter that I have chosen, I'd like to do that here this morning.

Let's bow our heads, close our eyes, and Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

You may be seated. All right, so you've probably looked at the schedule and seen what I have titled the message. And see if I can get this to work for me now.

Distinctive doctrines of the church. I thought I should do something distinctive if we're going to have distinctive doctrines. And so, I don't know what your mind goes to if you think about distinctive doctrines of the church.

I wondered what goes through people's minds when they think about distinctive doctrines of the church. I'm not going to ask you to tell me what went through your mind. And maybe you just kind of thought, well, I'll find out, I guess.

Maybe you had that type of mindset. One of the things that Brother Mel shared already this morning that I guess I would just hold up here pretty high to you. As we go through this, I would say, well, maybe I should tell you about a friend of mine.

I spent most of my life in Tennessee and had lots of interaction with lots of people. But I had a friend there that others would say, and various others would say about him, they would say this. He would rather climb a tree to tell a lie than stand on the ground to tell the truth.

The reason I am saying that about him is it seems to me sometimes that people would rather climb a tree to make the Scriptures complicated than to stand on the ground and leave them simple. I think the Scriptures are plain and clear and simple for the most part. Yes, Jesus spoke in parables and yes, there are some things that need interpretation.

But for the most part, Jesus said what he meant and meant what he said. And so when we go through the Scriptures, let's not be looking, like for instance, he was speaking about the head covering this morning. You've probably heard all kinds of those type of things from my perspective where they'd rather climb the tree to make it complicated than just take it for what it says.

So that's what I mean by that. Let's go on. So the title that I have chosen here this morning is the Two Kingdoms Doctrine.

I'd like to speak today about the Two Kingdoms Doctrine. We want to look at what it is and how it affects us and how we as Christians should affect the world because of it. What is the Two Kingdoms Doctrine? This is what Wikipedia says.

It says, the Two Kingdoms Doctrine is a Protestant Christian doctrine that teaches that God is the ruler of the whole world and that he rules in two ways. The doctrine is held by Lutherans and represents the view of some Calvinists. John Calvin significantly modified Martin Luther's original Two Kingdoms Doctrine and certified neo-Calvinists have adopted a different view known as transformationalism.

The Two Kingdoms Doctrine is also held by Anabaptist Christianity which teaches that there exist two kingdoms on earth that do not share communion one with another. This doctrine states that while people of the kingdom of this world use weapons to fight one another, those of the kingdom of Christ strive to follow Jesus. Another way that this has been put in our society is often called separation of church and state.

It's something that many people would say is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States. Well, there's no such language in the Constitution, although the Establishment Clause is where they would get it. It has something in there that basically says that from my perspective.

Others would agree with that. There might be some that wouldn't. Anyway, we're not going to be talking a whole lot about the Constitution of the United States.

We're going to be talking about the Constitution of the Christian or talking from the Constitution of the Christian, which is the Bible. So, here we have Two Kingdoms Doctrine and we see that the Protestants also claim to have that Two Kingdoms Doctrine, but it's different than the Anabaptist view. What we want to know is what is the biblical view.

It doesn't matter what one group or another believes. It matters what God says, and so that is what is important for us is to know what God says about this. I'd like for us to now also look a little bit at the Catholic view on this, and this is what they say.

The Catholic Two Swords Doctrine taught that the Pope delegates the temporal sword to the magistrate on the condition that the magistrate exercises it in obedience to the Pope. Now, below here is the Catholic doctrine of what they would call Councils of Perfection. I'll read it and then I'll tell you a little bit why I'm just touching a bit on that.

Christ in the Gospels laid down certain rules of life and conduct which must be practiced by every one of his followers as the necessary condition for attaining to everlasting life. These precepts of the Gospel practically consist of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments of the Old Law interpreted in the sense of the New. Besides these precepts, which must be observed by all under pain of eternal damnation, he also taught certain principles which he expressly stated were not to be considered as binding upon all or as necessary conditions without which heaven could not be attained, but rather as councils for those who desire to do more than the minimum and to aim at Christian perfection.

So far as that can be obtained here upon earth. Thus, Matthew 19, when the young man asked him what he should do to obtain eternal life, Christ bade him to keep the commandments that was all that was necessary in the strict sense of the word, and by thus keeping the commands which God had given eternal life could be obtained. But when the young man pressed further, Christ told him, If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor.

So this is the Catholics' doctrine of what they would term the councils of perfection. What they're taking is they're taking a scripture there, you see, in Luke chapter 19, where the young man came to Jesus and asked him, What do I need to do to be saved? And Jesus said, Well, what are the commandments? And he told him what the commandments were. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and love your neighbors yourself.

And he said, Well, these have I kept from my youth, and what lack I yet? And Jesus said, Well, if thou would be perfect. And they take that then and make this doctrine out of it. I believe that is doing violence to the scripture.

I don't believe, and I'd like for you to just... Martin Luther also believed that, and I appreciate his... Martin Luther, by the way, and here's what he had to say, but I'll have a few words before we read that. Martin Luther was someone that it seems to me in his early life was a very sincere young man who was out to serve the Lord at all costs. But it does seem to me that as time went on, something changed in his life.

And I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about him, but this is what he wrote to the Duke of Saxony. The sophists, which would be philosophers. It was a word that I wasn't familiar with, so if you aren't, you can join me in that.

But I looked it up, and that's what it basically is, religious philosophers. The sophists in the universities also were perplexed. And it goes on and says some more things.

And in order not to make heathen of the princes, they taught that these sayings of Christ are not precepts, but counsels of perfection. That's what we just got through reading there. What they would have said, what the Catholics would say, is that mainly what are precepts or things that we must keep is the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments.

That's the main thing that we have to do. The rest of them are just counsels of perfection. He's counseling us if we would like to do a little bit more than what is required, then counsels for perfection.

If you want to be perfect, then this is what you do. What Martin Luther is doing here is refuting that. Thus Christ had to become a liar and be an error in order that the princes might continue in honor.

For they could not exalt the princes without putting down Christ. Wretched, blind sophists that they are. And thus their poisonous error has spread through the whole world so that everyone regards these teachings of Christ as counsels of perfection and not as precepts binding all Christians alike.

It has gone so far that they have permitted the imperfect duty of the sword and of secular authority not only to the perfect class of bishops, but even to the Pope whose rank is the most perfect of all. Nay, they have ascribed it to no one on earth so completely as to him. So thoroughly has the devil taken possession of the sophists and of the universities that they themselves do not know what and how they speak or teach.

I hope, however, to instruct the princes and the secular authorities in such a way that they shall remain Christians and that Christ shall remain Lord, yet so that Christ's commandments need not for their sake be changed into counsels. I want to especially highlight for you the last paragraph which is instructive to us to see of what his mindset was at this time. He believed that what the Catholics were doing was wrong in the fact that they were putting away the commandments of Jesus himself and saying, oh, these are just counsels of perfection.

He wouldn't have any of that. But what he wanted to show in the last one, and I'll reread that, I hope, however, to instruct the princes and the secular authorities in such a way that they shall remain Christians and that Christ shall remain Lord, yet so that Christ's commandments need not for their sake be changed into counsels. I'd like to show you, I don't know how well you can see this, but there's oil here on top and water on the bottom.

I can shake this and see what happens. Let's move on. In the Anabaptist version of the doctrine of two kingdoms, the kingdom of Christ was characterized by peace, forgiveness, nonviolence, and patience.

The kingdom of the world, or Satan, was strife, vengeance, anger, and the sword which kills. Government belonged to this kingdom of the world. And this is taken from a book by Walter Klassen, and just a quote from what he said to give a little bit of more definition on what the Anabaptist view was.

Going on, what did the early Christians believe? From what I have researched, they universally held to the same two kingdom view as the Anabaptists. They universally, for the first two to three hundred years, kept that same view that church and state were separate. That the state or the government of this world was something that was not for the church.

If you look at the New Testament, I believe you'll find that as well, but we want to look at the New Testament and the Scriptures and what it has to say. I'm not wanting to get ahead of myself too far here. Let's just look at a couple of the early Christians and what they said.

They testified that there is enmity between these two realms. The oldest sermon that we have in existence was spoken around the year 150, and it says, quote, this world and the next are two enemies. We cannot therefore be the friends of both, unquote.

That was taken from 2nd Clement. Origen says this, it is not possible for anyone to enter into the kingdom of heaven who has not been turned away from the affairs of this world and made like the little children who possess the Holy Spirit. Okay, this view holds that on one hand you have the kingdom of light or heaven or the kingdom of God.

On the one hand you have that. On the other you have the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of this world. That's what this view holds.

That's what the two kingdoms are. As simple as that. You have the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, and on the other side you have the kingdom of this world or the kingdom of darkness.

These kingdoms have different values, customs, and laws, and they are incompatible. You see what happened here? It separated right back out. That is what should happen, I believe, and I want to show from the Scripture this week, that that is what should happen with us as Christians.

As we are mixed with the world, we come up to the top. Time after time after time. We do mix with the world.

We go out and we are part of the world. We're in the world. We could say we're not part of the world.

In the sense of being part of the world in their affairs and the things that they do, no, we should not. But we are in this world. We are strangers and pilgrims, and we'll look at that as we go along here.

I believe this is a very fundamental doctrine. If you don't get this right, it is likely that you will err in many other areas of life. If you fully grasp this doctrine, it will help you to understand authentic Christianity.

If you view life and if you view the world through these lens, you're going to be affected. You are going to come out at a different place than you will if you have the Lutheran view, for instance, or the Catholic view. You will look at Scriptures differently.

You will come out in the way you practice things very differently. Let's begin by looking at the kingdom of heaven or God. And the reason I have it slash God like that is because depending on which gospel you read it, it has it one way or the other.

If you read it from Matthew, I believe it's where he usually calls it the kingdom of heaven. And Mark, I think, is usually the kingdom of God. And I think they are interchangeable.

It's the same thing. So, the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. So, let's begin in the Garden of Eden.

We want to start. I should look up here, I guess, and see if I can. Yeah, I think you can tell what I'm doing here.

The Garden of Eden, I believe that we see already in the Garden of Eden, this is where God brought the kingdom of heaven to earth. That is the beginning of the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. Already in the Garden of Eden, we find that God pursued a relationship with His people.

We also see that the serpent, or Satan, was militating against that relationship. Genesis 3, verse 8, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. It's not necessary, I don't think, in a crowd of this type, where you have probably, most of you, grown up, hearing the word of God, knowing what Genesis says about the fall of man, of how Eve, there in the garden, and she's looking there, and here comes a snake, and the snake starts talking to her, and asks her, have you noticed that tree over there? We know the story, and so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that, but we know what happened.

For whatever reason, Eve looked on that tree, and it says she's seen that it was good for food, it was something that was desirable to make one wise, and she looked at it and decided to partake. And there we see the two forces. We see the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of darkness.

Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4, again we see with Cain and Abel, that there was a righteous one that was being persecuted by the unrighteous. There was good and evil. There was light and darkness.

Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4 says, by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it, he being dead, yet speaketh. Moving on in history, we find again with Enoch, that he had a relationship with God. In Genesis chapter 5 verse 24 it says, And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

So again, we see that God had an interest in a relationship with man. We know that when He created man, He did it differently than He did for the animals. He formed us and made us in His own image.

Brother Mel asked this morning, What's the hand of God look like? Well, it looks like a human hand, because He made us in His own likeness. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 5, By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God.

Let's move on to Noah. Noah, we know then that wickedness increased, that things got worse and worse. We don't know a lot about those first few hundred years there.

We don't know what all was going on and how many righteous there were and whether they were meeting together. I don't know all of those things. I would like to think they did.

They still had, you know, for a long time had the same language. Anyway, so here we come to Noah, and we know that at this point in time, the wickedness had gotten bad. And in Genesis chapter 6, 8 through 9, it says, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 says it this way, By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

2 Peter chapter 2 verse 5 says it this way, And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Again, so we see here again, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And then we find the generations of Noah.

Moving on to Abraham. Then we come to Abraham. And we know that again, it seems like there were not a lot of righteous people.

Although he was there, and I don't know how it was there with him and his brothers and his father, we do know that God called him out from that country. And he went with his nephew Lot, his brother's son, and he went not knowing where he was going, just knowing that God told him to leave. That's what he did.

In Genesis chapter 17 verse 5 it says this of Abram, Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee. What I like to point out to you with Abraham here is that here is the beginning of the children of Israel. It's before Israel.

Jacob was a grandson of Abraham and his name was changed to Israel and that's where the name the children of Israel came from. But here is the grandfather of Jacob and this is where it all started. In Genesis chapter 18 verse 18 through 19, Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him, for I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

So we see here that God, speaking of Abraham, says, I know him that he will command his children after him. He knew Abraham well enough to know that this man was a faithful man and he was going to command his children after him. His children were going to follow in his footsteps.

God was saying that about him. I hope if you live to the age that you have children that he'll look down and he'll say that about you. Now we want to take a brief look at the children of Israel.

So, as you can tell, I'm going very quickly here. I thought I needed to in order to get through this. The children of Israel.

As I said, Jacob or Israel is where this started and he had twelve sons. And they became the twelve tribes. From their lineage became the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

And so that's where the children of Israel were descended from. Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, speaking to the children of Israel, Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 2, For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself above all the nations that are upon the earth. Now against this backdrop, let's go to the New Testament.

Against this backdrop that we have gone through history, we've seen how God started at the Garden of Eden. We see good and evil already there. We see the relationship that God had walking with them in the cool of the day or talking with them in the cool of the day.

We see that relationship. We see it going all the way up until we come here to the children of Israel and here we see what God is saying to them. You are a holy people unto the Lord.

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a special people unto himself. This is what he's saying about the children of Israel. Now if you go to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, this is what he says, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

I'd like you to compare Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 2, with 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9. Look at the similarities that we see. So we see in Deuteronomy chapter 14, verse 2, For thou art an holy people. In 1 Peter chapter 2, we see an holy nation.

We see in Deuteronomy chapter 14, that the Lord hath chosen thee. In 1 Peter 2, But ye are a chosen generation. In Deuteronomy chapter 14, to be a peculiar people.

And the very same thing in 1 Peter chapter 2, says a peculiar people. So we see, I believe, that this is no mistake. It's not some accident that we find that in the New Testament, in 1 Peter, that we're finding the very same things about the church that was being said to the children of Israel.

There's a reason for that. I believe that it's very clear in the New Testament. If you will read Romans, and if you will read Galatians, and Hebrews, you'll find the parallels that are drawn time and again in those books with the children of Israel and the New Testament church of God.

And that's why I wanted to go back and look at that. Now let's go on and look and see what John the Baptist and Jesus came preaching. In Matthew chapter 3, verse 2, John the Baptist came and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In Matthew chapter 4, verse 17, From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew chapter 6, verse 10, Thy kingdom come. We said that all together this morning.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And we end it, Thine be the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

That's what Jesus, that's the manner in which Jesus told us to pray. What we find is that they came preaching this. We'll look at Matthew chapter 10, verse 7 yet.

And as ye go, preach saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. If you look in the New Testament, you'll find, I think, somewhere around 150 times that the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is spoken of, preached about. Jesus, over and over and over again, if you look at His last words, what He did after He was resurrected.

Look at it. Acts chapter 1, verse 3, To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to what? The kingdom of God. That's what He came for.

That's what He was here for. Is it not right for us to be about the same things? To be here for the same reasons? For the kingdom of God? So we see clearly that this was not only what Jesus came preaching, but He instructed His disciples to do the same. In Matthew chapter 10, verse 7 there, He says, And as ye go, preach saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So, not only did Jesus do this, but that's what He instructed His disciples to do. I think that's what He instructs us to do today. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Or, the kingdom of heaven is here and near. I don't believe that this was a haphazard, thoughtless use of a word for our Lord. I believe that it was an accurate portrayal of what He wanted to say.

Like I said earlier, He meant what He said and said what He meant. That is what He was doing here. When He talked about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God, He was saying what He meant.

We don't have to try to interpret that to mean something else. What did the apostles preach and teach? Acts chapter 8, verse 12. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

And in Acts chapter 19, verse 8. And He went into the synagogue and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. Acts chapter 28, verse 23. And when they had appointed Him a day, there came many to Him into 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 till evening.

So we see that's what they did in the early church. That's what they were doing. They were preaching Jesus Christ.

They were preaching the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not only something in the future. It is something here and now in the true disciples of Christ.

Matthew chapter 12, verse 28. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is coming to you. It's here.

The kingdom of God is coming to you. The kingdom is not just spiritual or figurative or mythical. It is real and substantive and practical.

I see some of you are writing, so I'll give you a little bit of time. The kingdom is not just spiritual. It is spiritual.

Definitely it is spiritual. But it is not just or figurative or mythical. It is real and substantive and practical.

This kingdom has its own set of laws, its own values and leadership and its own worldview. As a result, God's people reside in this world as aliens and foreigners. And that is because they are already citizens of another kingdom.

So they live by a whole other set of laws. They have different values and a completely different outlook on life. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

And chapter 2, verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims sustained from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Could I see a show of hands? How many of you have been to a foreign country? Oh, wow.

Okay, you guys are travelers. Maybe some of you are just from Canada, but that's like our northern state. I know you don't want to hear that.

Anyway. But we know then what it's like. For most of us, we know what it's like to be a foreigner.

If you've been in a foreign country, you know what Peter is talking about here. At least to some extent. If you're just from Canada, well, I'm not sure.

It seems an awful lot like the United States. But if you've been to some Central or South America or Asia or Africa. I plan to be in Africa in a few weeks.

I've been there a bunch of times. And I feel like a foreigner. And I go there.

I know that I don't have the same rights as citizens of that country. I don't have the same rights as citizens of that country. They let me know about that really quick, too.

In fact, I didn't realize that they would let me know some of these things. The first time I went over there, I was staying at a motel and they wanted to know where I was from. And I told them and they said, OK, well, your rate is so much.

And I knew how much the rate of some of the other residents were. And it was way less. So I thought, well, it's just a mistake.

My first time over here. Don't know what's going on. I'll accept that she's making a mistake.

I'll talk to the other missionaries. And we'll get this straightened out. So I went and talked to the other missionaries and told them I think they made a mistake.

They're telling me that it's so much for my motel stay. And I know that you said you're only paying this much. I mean, just a fraction of what they were telling me it's costing me.

They said, no, that's the way it is. If you're a resident, you get a lot lower rates. If you take the ferry to go across over to the island where my son lives, if you're a resident, you pay a whole lot less.

There are privileges and rights that go with being a citizen of a country. So it is with you. If you're a citizen of heaven, you're a stranger and a foreigner, an alien here.

You are not part of this world. You're part of the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom has a king or ruler.

John chapter 18, verse 36. Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews.

But now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth.

Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. So, Pilate is asking Jesus a question. He's saying, So, are you a king? Are you a king then? And Jesus said, Basically, what Jesus said is, Yes, that is what I am.

And that's why I came. That's what I'm here for. I'm a king.

To rule. So, our kingdom has a ruler. This kingdom has laws that we must abide by.

And we can go many scriptures. Revelations chapter 12, verse 17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

How do we get into this kingdom? I see I'm going to move very quickly here to try to finish. So, how did you become a citizen of the United States? This lady is sitting at a room in California. Her name is Jenny King.

She is Chinese. She's pregnant. And the reason she came here is, this is her third time, by the way, coming here.

She came here to the United States because she wanted her baby to be a U.S. citizen. They say that there are, let me see if I have it here, 80,000 people that did that in 2016. That pregnant women came here to the United States to have their baby.

The baby is born. And now, lo and behold, is a U.S. citizen. That's what it says.

I think I might have that here as well. Maybe not. I don't see it right now.

Anyway, it's something that is, in U.S. law, that is how it is for the most part, other than for diplomats. Other than for diplomats, if they come here, have a baby here, it's a U.S. citizen. You can imagine, I mean, the world over, there are people that would love for their child to be a U.S. citizen.

Not only does that help their children, it can help them, because if they get up to the age of 18, now they can help their parents to get over here. And that's happened many, many times. Why am I telling you this story? Because that's how you get into this kingdom.

You must be born into it. If you want to be a part of the kingdom of heaven, you must be born into it. In John 1, verse 12, but as many as received Him, to 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 will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Jesus answered in John 3, verse 3, and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So, we see clearly that that is what has to happen. In verse 5 of the same chapter, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Galatians chapter 4, verse 29, but as then He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. So again, we see the enmity. The same thing that we've seen there in the Garden of Eden between the one born of the Spirit and the one born of the flesh.

What makes it a kingdom? I think we've already looked at that, but I'd like to go back over it very briefly. It has laws. All the moral precepts of the gospel are things that you and I as Christians are to abide by.

It has subjects. You and I who were born into this kingdom are subjects of this kingdom. All who believe in Christ Jesus and are born of the Spirit.

It has a King. Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Sovereign of heaven and earth.

And Jesus Christ never saved a soul which He did not govern. I think I'll leave those and go to this. These kingdoms must not be mixed.

And we want to look at that further to establish from the Word of God what the Word of God says about that. These kingdoms must not be mixed. We have the oil on top.

We need to rise to the top every time. All of the time. May you and I be faithful.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns, shall He find faith. Thank you for listening to this message. We trust that it has been a blessing to you.

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