Feast: Are You Ready For Kingship?
#FT26-01PM
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 26-Sep-26; 76 minutes
description: Revelation 5:10 promises believers genuine ruling authority, not figurehead status. Christ has prepared an office for each follower since His ascension (John 14:1-3). The Bible serves as the royal manual, with Deuteronomy 17:14-20 offering five lessons for future kings. First, kings must be God-chosen spiritual Israelites who prevail; overcomers share Christ's inheritance. Second, avoiding horses warns against trusting worldly power over God's spiritual victories. Third, limiting wives signifies avoiding alliances that distract from total devotion to God. Fourth, limiting wealth warns that materialism can divert hearts from divine provision. Fifth, kings must write and read the law, internalizing Scripture until it becomes instinctive. God writes His law on our hearts, equipping us to apply wisdom instantly, just as Christ did. Scripture thoroughly prepares believers for every good work, including righteous rulership. These principles—overcoming, trusting God, spiritual purity, prioritizing the Kingdom, and mastering God's Word—form the foundation for preparation. This training begins now, in the daily walk of a converted life, equipping us to reign on the earth.
transcript:
What do you know about kings? I'm not talking about. The Book of Kings, but the Office of Kings, about what a monarch is and what our monarch does. Most of us are Americans. So the answer to those questions is probably not very much. We Americans got rid of our kings. 250 years ago. We called the King of England a tyrant, picked up our muskets, and won our independence so we could govern ourselves. What a grand job we did. Most Americans put little stock in kings. And then they go and have a no kings. Protest OK, yeah, I, I haven't figured that one out yet. But we feel free to appropriate. The idea of kingship. We know all about things like Burger King. And king size mattresses. And oh, those sweet King's Hawaiian rolls. I'm sure I'm making you all hungry. Down south, we give due respect to King Richard Petty. And the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley. None of these are real kings, but we like the idea. In fact, the world has few ruling monarchs left. Just a few around the world. And what I mean is kings who actually make laws and judge make judgments and run their countries and command their armies. Today's kings Do actually not very much. They go out and they They go along receiving lines and they. Night actors and sports figures. And Get in controversies. Cause they are spending too much money, the crown's money. But mostly those kings are constitutional monarchs. That is, those countries have monarchs who are mere figureheads. They're still the head of state, but they are more to be seen rather than to be heard in terms of, um what their nation's politics are all about. They truly lack a lot of political punch. Yet we see here in Revelation 5:10. Where a new song is being sung and sung in the last bit of it in verse 10. Uh, praising God, speaking to him, and you have made us. Kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Now when God promises this, he really means it. When he makes his saints kings. Those kings will rule with the rod of rod of iron. Martin talked about this very recently. I believe that was the day of trumpets about this iron scepter that we will have. Uh, you can find that in chapter 2, verses 26 to 27. But that Rod of iron is, is significant and symbolic of royal power and the idea of iron means might, authority. You know, Rome was the, the, the beast of iron or the, the legs of iron. They were the strongest. Of all those great empires. And he says that we will have that kind of authority and might And not only that, he says here, made us kings and priests, or as some translations say, we will be royal priests. So we will not just have what you call political power or governmental power, we will have great religious power. So my question to you is, Do you feel ready? For royal authority to be dropped into your lap. If you were given that kind of power, How would you wield it? Would we be tyrants like we thought King George III was? Or like actual other kings of other nations that were actually tyrants. Or would we fear our power? Fear what we could do with it, fail to use it, and cause our subjects to live in anarchy. Would we be a good king or a bad king? So my question for today overall is, Are you ready for kingship? Are you training yourself to rule? Have you ever thought of the fact that you need to train yourself to rule? It's usually not the first thing we think of. But if you are called. And baptized You have already begun your training for rulership in God's kingdom. A lot of what Clyde said just a few minutes ago is part of that training. So, we will consider today. How God prepares us to rule. Let's go to John the 14th chapter. We'll take the 1st 3 verses here. John 14:13. You know these scriptures well. John 14:13. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there may you be also. So, when Jesus left, ascended to heaven, sat at the right hand of God. He had a job to do And one of those jobs, a very major part of his task between that time and his second coming would be prepare a place for us, a room, some translations have it. I think the word office is better. He's preparing a job for you to do, an office for you to fill. And it has something to do with ruling, rulership or leadership, leading the people of this earth. Because God is the ruling family of the universe. And each one of God's children. will be responsible to administer some part of that kingdom. At Christ's return, he will resurrect his first fruits, those who he has trained assiduously. All through their converted lives. And he'll beckon them. To join him on his throne and rule the earth and all the inhabitants thereof. So My question again, how will we rule? Have we consciously done anything to prepare for it? Now the Bible Provides detailed instructions. On how to be a king. It would not be fair for God to say, hey, I'm going to make you a king, and then not give us. Any words of instruction or training on how to achieve it. So, he does his part and provides what we need to be prepared, along with interaction with us through his spirit. To bring us to the point when we are changed, we will be ready to rule. You could say, you could think of the Bible in your lap as the royal instruction manual. It contains the laws we will teach and enforce. The principles by which we will judge. And the character of God. That we will possess and model for all the peoples of the earth. For this reason alone, we need to read and study God's word. That is for that time. For that position Let's consider this. The children of Israel trekking across the wilderness to the promised land is a type of the church walking the narrow path to God's kingdom. They needed instruction. Not necessarily how we are being instructed to be kings. They were Needing to be instructed about how to be ruled by a divine king. That is God Himself. And they actually never really accepted him. For brief times and different levels of seriousness they did, but mostly they did not. He knew, that is God knew, that they would soon clamor for a human king to rule over them. They could not somehow get over the hump of serving and Listening to, obeying an invisible God. Not like the other nations, they had gods of stone and wood and metal that they could see. But their God, they could not see. And they wanted somebody to stand in for God. At best So, God had foreseen this. Let's go back to Genesis 49:8 through 12. In this prophecy that he gave through the patriarch Jacob. He tells that he would Uh, set up a, a, a human king over the nation of Israel. Let's just read here the prophecy about Judah in Genesis 49, starting in verse 8. Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you. There is one, obeisance before Judah. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down. He lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who shall rouse him? Lion is the king of the jungle, is not he? Uh, other royal symbols going rising to the surface here. Verse 10, here it says it outright, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the people. So he's prophesying here that there will be kings that come out of Judah and they will rule over the people of Israel until Christ comes and then he'll take up the scepter. He'll take up the kingship, and there will be no more need for human kings in terms of ruling the one particular nation of Israel physically. After that, he will be the king of kings. Shiloh will. Uh, the one to whom it is Or what actually the word kind of means the one whose it is. Being that's his rightful place as king over not only Israel but all the world. And we see who it is, and we go into verse 11. Binding his donkey to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of the, of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. Describing Christ in figurative language here. So God prophesized through Jacob that the scepter, a symbol of rulership, would not depart from Judah. He knew that he would in the process of time, choose a human king from the descendants of Judah, and we know that he chose David, son of Jesse. And through him The Messiah would eventually be born. And then he would live a sinless human life and die. Qualifying to replace Satan on Earth's throne. He became the lion of Judah. And King of kings and Lord of Lords. He's the ultimate monarch. But he also knew that centuries would pass between choosing the human King David and the Messiah's coming. As a matter of fact, from David to Jess to Jesus. 1000 years elapsed from about 1000 BC up to Change BC to AD if you will, that was about 1000 years. And those kings reigns. Good or bad, and there were more bad than good. Affected the lives of millions of Israelites during that time. You had a Josiah, but then on the other hand, you had guys like Ahab and Manasseh, and Uh, the good guys could not keep up with the bad guys. And gave us a lot of very bad examples. They're still influencing us. When we read their lives in the biblical record. So God knew. That in his word, he had to lay down some ground rules for these human kings to follow. Which he does. That's in Deuteronomy 17. Please go there. Deuteronomy 17. And you might wanna put a ribbon here, cause we will be in this area for most of the rest of the sermon. Uh, specifically verses 14 through 20. My New King James titles this section, Principles governing Kings. So let's read Deuteronomy 17:14. And all the way down through verse 20. When you come to the land which your which the Lord your God is giving you and possess it and dwell in it and say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me, you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother. But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. For the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. Neither shall he multiply wives for himself lest his heart turn away, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. And it shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes. That his heart may not be lifted. Above his brethren. That he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. Now, we need to understand going into this section. That from the very beginning, From the time he told Moses this. God intended this section to instruct those physical men who became kings of Israel and Judah. And He also meant That these instructions were to be used to instruct. His spiritual. children As they prepared to rule. God is far-sighted. And often works through type and anti-type. And here, we are the anti-type along with Christ. And we must take the what, what we see here in this language of, of horses and, and gold and silver and, and wives and extract the spiritual lessons that are there under them. We can see Uh, good lessons from the metaphors that are presented to us here. Because there are a lot of spiritual principles contained in the rather earthly terminology. God gives these instructions using archaic concepts. In a historical setting. We know for sure that Solomon broke just about every one of these. We can look at his life and see how that turned out. So, we can look at these things as they are written here and get physical instructions, and they would work on a physical plane. But we need to make sure that we see the spiritual principles underlying them. This may be difficult to do for someone without spiritual insight. But we can, with God's spirit, derive many lessons and principles from the symbolic language that this is written in. And I want to bring out 5 to you through the rest of this sermon. And they are the main points as we go through here. So number one Let's read verse 15 again. You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother. So the first point here is that the king must be an Israelite whom God chooses. An Israelite whom God chooses. Now, first of all, we have to emphasize This last phrase whom God chooses. This principle relates first to our calling an election by grace. We can go to John 6:44. That the Father is the one who calls and draws us to Christ. So God has Specially picked us out. To come to Christ And Even more than that He's specially picked us out. To fill this royal position is in his kingdom. So, upon belief, repentance, baptism, and the receipt receipt of God's spirit, we become Christ, right? That's the way it works. And in him, We find we are also the spiritual seed of Abraham. You can find those principles in Galatians 3:26 to 29. We become Part of Christ We are his body and he is our head. Paul says In Romans 8:14 through 7-17. That a true child of God. can be identified because he is a person in whom the spirit of God dwells. If the spirit of God is in you, then you are Christ. So Because Christ is who He is, He is the heir of all things, and because we are in Him. As his brethren. Then it makes those whom God calls an heir of God with Christ. Have you ever thought through what that means? It's incredible It's not like how it is in And let's call it medieval monarchies, where Let's say the the king and his wife have. Three sons. And The first one is the Crown Prince. And he Gets Everything Essentially What about the spare? The the Harry of. Of that family What does he get? And the poor 3rd child, 3rd son, what does he do? I do not know. Probably goes in the army. If he doesn't become a priest, maybe the second guy becomes a priest and the 3rd guy goes in the army. Or normally what would happen is the 2nd guy would say, I want the 1st guy's position, and he starts a civil war, and then the 3rd guy says, after you two kill each other, I'll take over. What I'm saying is That In those physical um Families in that monarchy. Everything goes to the air. The one heir, the firstborn. But It works kind of like that in God's system. But not quite Everything goes to the heir, the firstborn, the King of kings, the Lord of Lords. Our savior Jesus Christ. But everybody else in the family. Shares everything with him. They have access to it all. And they all know that Jesus Christ is the, the great one, the heir of the king. But as his brothers and sisters. And his bride Kind of strange to think about that in in a physical situation, but it works spiritually. All the, all those who are his. Get the same things that he gets. From the Father It's shared. And so, you think I will just get this one that we are talking about. Kingship Jesus Christ Is the king He will always be the king until he turns it over to his father. But he'll still have all that royal authority forever. And all his brothers and sisters. Our kings too. And they have all that royal power and authority forever. Just like him See He's not jealous in that way for his inheritance, not like a firstborn son of a physical king would be. No, he wants to share it with all his brothers and sisters. And let them join in his government and rule. Forever All right. Think about this This idea whom God chooses. We may think that we are past this step. Are we really past that step? Have we fulfilled God's calling Are we fully on board? Are we doing our part? To Uh Be worthy Of God's calling I'll just let you think about that and apply it to yourself. Now we can't forget the other part of this. It was an Israelite whom God chose, chooses, that's supposed to be kings. In Galatians 6:16. The apostle Paul says that the Church of God is the Israel of God. That's the true Israel. God has made a New Covenant. Having Put off those in the under the Old Covenant because of their unbelief in their rebellion and Their faithlessness. So he makes a New Covenant with the people whom God chooses. So, those who come into the Church of God. Who are called and chosen elect by God. are Israelites Not by physical birth, not by ethnicity at all. But Because of God's choice. They are Israelites inwardly. They are, as Paul says changes it just a little bit. He says we are spiritual Jews. Well, Jews are a tribe of Israel. Jesus was from Judah. We are part of Christ, so that means we are spiritual Jews, right? That's the way it works. Now, if God gives us the name of Israel, though. We are spiritual Israel. It must somehow describe us. God doesn't name things willy-nilly. Oh, I'm going to call him gobbledygook. No, he doesn't do that. He gives specific names, especially for these more important things. So, let's go back into the book of Genesis and look at Genesis 32. Genesis 32. We'll start in verse 22. Genesis 32, this is Judah's wrestling match with God. Jacob arose that night and took his 2 wives, his 2 maidservants, and his 11 sons and crossed over the ford of Yabak. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now, when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip. He's talking about the actions of, of this man. And the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go, for the day breaks. But he, Jacob, said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he, so he said to him, what is your name? And he said, Yakov, Jacob. And he said, your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel. For you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed. Israel means One who prevails with God. Lately, you might have noticed that Jordan Peterson has titled a book and a lecture series, We Who Wrestle with God. Making us kind of like Jack Jacob. But this, His title That is Jordan Peterson's title lacks the positive implication of prevail. He just said, we who struggle. There is not much prevailing in that. Yes, we do do struggle a lot. Clyde talked about that. But do we prevail? See, prevail. Gives us the idea of victory. Of mastery Over something We could actually say that the word Israel implies meaning overcomer with God. Now we know that Jacob really did not prevail over God. In the wrestling match that he had. But he did struggle with great persistence. and stubbornness. He would not let go. He wanted to Uh Win, if you will, a match of endurance. He would stick with it. He would not let go. Until he achieved the blessing that he knew he would get. From this one Whom he he wrestled with. Our great God Jesus Christ So When God called him Israel. Gave him a new name. He did not Merely say you have struggled with God. He also adds, and with men. And have prevailed This was part of his nature. Jacob was an overcomer. He was one. Whom Jesus would uh. Praise In, in a sense, because he said, if you wanna be in the kingdom of God, you have to endure to the end. Matthew 24:13. If you wanna be saved, you have to endure to the end. You have to hold on to Christ like Jacob did. And be a prevailer, an overcomer. To have that great spiritual stubbornness, not to let go, even though things got rough. And they got rough for for Jacob. Would you hold on to the person who had just put your hip out of joint? And normally it'd be ah, but he did not do that. He did not let go, no matter how painful it got. He clung to the angel of the Lord. That's how he prevailed. He could never put God down in a, in a wrestling match, pin him to the ground. But he won By not giving up. Not giving in. Now, we could also say, The other definition that has been given for what Israel means is prince with God. You may have that in the margin of your, of your Bible. Well, Prince with God. It's not wrong, it's not really literal here, but it does describe what an overcomer becomes. An overcomer becomes a royal. A member of the royal family, an heir. A leader And eventually, a king. So this one, this first one that we are looking at here in these principles. Shows us the character of the person who is a king. Like Jesus Christ. He's an overcomer. What did Jesus Christ do? He told his disciples on the last night of his life. I have overcome the world. And we are to follow in his footsteps and overcome as he overcame. Let's go to Revelation 2. Revelation 2:25 through 28. Revelation 2. You think the last book of the Bible would be easy to get to, but OK. Revelation 2 25 through 28, but hold fast. Isn't that what Jacob did? He held fast. Hold fast what you have until I come. And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the potter's vessels shall be broken to pieces, as I also have received from my father, and I will give him the Morning Star. Let's go to chapter 3, verse 21. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. It always works this way. If you are chosen by God, an Israelite, and you're an overcomer, boom, you got a throne. Because you're going to sit there with Jesus Christ, your brother. Chapter 20, verse 4. I'm just going on, showing you this so you can understand that God doesn't say it just once and forget about it. He keeps telling us, this is what you're shooting for. This is what you're in the ring for. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them, and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for 1000 years. It's talking about those in the first resurrection. One more, 21 verse 7, it's right down the page in my Bible, he who overcomes shall inherit all things. Not just a throne, but all things. Because that's Jesus Christ's inheritance. And I will be his God. And he shall be my son. Heir of all things with Christ. So, the first lesson we get from Deuteronomy 17 in the section on, on kings. is that we must be people who prevail with God. We must be overcomers. You do not think of kings as overcomers normally. They're the ones that Have all the money and I have all the power. But God's kings are overcomers. OK, let's go on to the 2nd 1. He tells the people of Israel that their kings should not multiply horses. This is verse 16. He shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, You shall not return that way again. Now, in this context, horses symbolize war material. The machines and technologies of power. Of martial prowess, of being out ahead of other nations, of making empires through conquest. In effect, he's saying you are not to build your armies and pursue technologies to make your nation a military powerhouse. Which goes against everything all the nations believe. He was really going out into left field here. And of course, most of the kings thought he was, he was a little batty on this point, and they tried to be a military powerhouse. But they should have listened to what he said here. You shall not do that, he says. Now, the answer for why he told them this is within the verse itself, because it will lead them back to Egypt. It will lead them back to the world. It will lead them back to the slavery that they were liberated from. It is a worldly selfish ambition to seek power. And to exalt oneself. To do that in this world. Means learning and using the carnal methods of this world to get power. And he says, avoid that at all costs. You do not want to go that way. You shall not go back to Egypt. I do not wanna have to save you from there again. Let's go to Exodus 14. Exodus 14:59. Because we have a promise from God. That we do not have to go this way to be powerful. There is another route to power. And it's One that is far better. For everyone What did I say? Verse 5 here. In chapter 14, this is the Red Sea crossing. We'll set this up here. Now I was told the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people. Oh, we made a bad decision. Let's go get them back. And they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he, that is Pharaoh, made ready his chariot and took his people with him. Also, he took 600 choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with boldness. So, the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and he overtook them, camping by the sea beside Pihahiroth before Baal Zephon. OK, let's go down to verse 13. So they appear, the Israelites are terrified, and Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish. He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see them again, no more forever. Here's the kicker The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. That's the positive way to put it here. God promises to fight our battles no matter how. Powerful the enemy. God will fight for us. He doesn't need us. To do those things To be powerful, he would rather see his sons and daughters trust him. To be faithful When we let him do that. We show our faith in him. And he goes to work, and you know what? He always does a far better and more complete job than we ever would with our horses and chariots and, and captains and, and so forth. But we get afraid We do not see our God working. So We get ourselves in trouble, like the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah did. Proverbs 21:31 says. The horse is prepared for the day of battle. But deliverance is of the Lord. Let me rephrase that a little bit. The horse is prepared for the day of battle. But it's not, that's not going to help you win. Deliverance is of the Lord. He's the one that'll give you true victory. Let's go back to Exodus. 23 this time. This is in the, the middle of the Old Covenant. We'll start in verse 20. These are the instructions to the children of Israel about their need to follow their leader, the angel that went before them. Which was Jesus Christ. The God of the Old Testament. Verse 20. Behold, I send an angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him. And obey his voice. Do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. But if you indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries, for my angel will go before you and bring you into into the Amorites and the Hittites and the Parasites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them. Nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars. Let's drop down to verse 27. I will send my fear before you, and I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and you inherit the land. He shows the whole process there of what he would do. Notice in the way that I set this out, that I read verse 20 to 24. Because those Scriptures, those those verses. are based in God's character. And their obedience to his instructions. This is the spiritual foundation he wanted the children of Israel to have so that they would trust him to fight the battles for them. So, he told them, Look to the angel Obey him Beware of him. He's good. But he's also very powerful, and you do not want to cross him. So The best thing to do is to obey his voice. And if you do those things and are very careful about following him, He will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. He's going to be on your side. Just follow him into the land and you will inherit all things. Or the land. I'm getting ahead of myself here. And notice that when we get down to verse 24, he throws in Not bowing down to their gods nor serving them. Etc. And what this does is show that the battles that they are going to fight are not necessarily against the people of the land. The battles are against their gods. Their idols, their ways of thinking. Their false worship. He's already inclining his instruction toward the spiritual side of things. He doesn't want us to hate the people. But he certainly wants us to hate the, the false gods and the false teachings that ruin the people. He said, I do not want you to have anything to do with those things. And that's the reason why he wanted to drive out all those people to get rid of the, the Canaanite religious practices. Remember, one of the great reasons why Israel went into the land at the time they did was because the time was up for these Amorites, people of, of Canaan, to get kicked out because they were so evil and their religious practices were so wicked. Israel was being sent in as a, a judgment force on the Amorites. And so he said, we've got to clear this land out before you come in and live in it. Because it is. Just teeming with Satanism. With wickedness, with false practices and false ideas. And God's idea was to sweep out all of these evil people, the Canaanites, so he can establish a land for his people where they could practice righteousness. That is Where they could obey him and his law. Now, they did not do a good job of that. They did it partially under Joshua, and it was fine, but it was not complete. And they left a lot of the high places up and they did not, they left pockets of Canaanites and they had problems with certain ones and they let them off and let them become their servants and it just filtered up from the bottom all these terrible religious practices. So Shows a failure there of of Israel to do their job. But the point I want to make here. The big point is that God fights our battles for us. To help us sweep out the wickedness, the evil, the false practices. That we live among. Now, he doesn't do that. He, he's not going to send his church to scour the land. Of high places and false religions. Right now he's working in your heart. And he will certainly fight your battles for you or with you. In getting rid of those evil and wicked things that you still treasure in your heart. Things from the world that you should be getting rid of. We're right back to overcoming again. Now notice he says here, He will drive them out. Or give us victory, help us to overcome these things. Little by little. This is not going to happen overnight. And I'm sure I could call, you know, people at random, and no one would say that they overcame a certain sin just like that. You normally do not overcome sin cold turkey. It's usually little by little, as you go through, you, you you, you do not do this certain sin for a short time and it comes back. Uh, it doesn't come back, we give in. And then we say, God, I, I failed again, please forgive me. Help me, give me strength. And we go maybe a little bit longer. You know, now it was not just a couple months. Now it's 1 or 2 years, and then it comes back again. And we have to repent again and try harder and try to overcome it through his might, and little by little, We put on his character and remove all of that baggage that we'd picked up in our lives prior to our calling. No one is asking you necessarily to overcome everything right now, right away. It's impossible. We're flesh, we are weak. But we do need to be working on it. And we need to make progress. That is what God is looking for, that we with him are little by little overcoming and growing and producing fruit. We'll never be perfect by the time we die. But he'll know our trajectory. He'll know that we have the character that had we had 100,000 years, we could have overcome these things, but he's only given us 70 or 80. And so he sees and he judges how we've done with the time we've had to overcome to a point that he's satisfied that. We're on board Totally So Overcoming is an incremental process. That requires faith and endurance to still be standing at the end. Let's see Ephesians. The 6th chapter Verse 10, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Our fight is spiritual. Therefore, he says, verse 13, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all. To stand That's what he's asking you to do. OK, back to Deuteronomy, the 17th chapter. The, the lesson here for the second one is, do not be ambitious for might or power, but let God take the lead in fighting the enemy, and your enemy is sin. OK. Do not multiply wives. This is the first part of Deuteronomy 17:17. Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. This command has similarities to the previous one. As it involves foreign entanglements foreign entanglements. In those days, In that archaic time, kings often used marriages to cement alliances with other nations. God says do not do it. Why? The answers right in the verse, because it will turn the king's heart from God. To idolatry We can go look if we wanted to, to the tragic example of Solomon in I Kings 11. He let all those wives and concubines turn his head from God until he had temples and whatnot of all the gods of the area around Jerusalem. God punished his house by taking 10 tribes away. And made the kingdom of Judah severely weak. He took away his power. Now the Bible often uses wives, women, and marriage to represent covenantal ties or alliances, which put one under new obligations. God has made one of those with us. We call it the New Covenant. It's a marriage covenant. If we multiply covenants. Like it said here, multiply wives. We're not only breaking our marriage vow to Christ, but we are also inviting Other ideas. Other beliefs. New goals that are contrary to what God wants. And affections. Contrary to those in God's covenant. God wants us to love only him. Not some other foreign God. If we do this, if we have all these other entanglements our obligations to God soon play second fiddle to the new, prettier physical commitments that we've made with the world. And that makes God jealous and angry. He says he's a jealous God because he wants to be the only one we worship. He wants all of our devotion. He is unwilling to share with any other. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 6. Verse 10 And it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build Houses full of good things which you did not fill, hewn out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, when you have eaten and are full, then beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord. And your God and serve Him and take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you. Verse 15, for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. He wants total commitment from us and No one or nothing. To Get us to look anywhere else. Let's go to II Corinthians 6 because he says the same thing in the New Testament. We read these was it just last night? II Corinthians 6:14 through 18, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of God. As God has said, I will dwell among them and walk among them. I will be their God, singular, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. So we have to make a decisive split. A divorce with all worldly commitments, beliefs, and distractions. God desires. He requires. Faithfulness That is loyalty to him and his covenant that never strays. And remember The prophecy of Revelation 198. His bride, when she is ready, will be clothed in clean and bright linen garments. Symbolizing her righteousness and her faithfulness. She only has eyes for Christ. So the lesson here is beware of the allure of false worldly ideas. They're snares that will turn one's heart from God. OK, onto the 4th. He says at the end of this verse Deuteronomy 17:17, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. God commands the future king not to pursue the accumulation of wealth. And why is that? Well, at base, it's a waste of time. A waste of effort. And like power and sex, it can turn one's heart away. Thus Jesus says in Matthew 19:23, assuredly I say to you, that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Why is that? It causes us to trust. In it that is wealth causes us to trust in it rather than God. It can be a deadly distraction. And we could trust in it to give us support or do it be a defense in time of trial, but it is so fickle. And it can't save you from sickness and death. And many other things. It's nice to have. Abraham was a very rich man in gold and silver and flocks and herds and all those things. But he was a man who knew how to handle it. He did not use it that way because he trusted fully in God. Matthew 6, Jesus Christ in this Sermon on the Mount had a great deal to say about wealth. Starting in verse 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Drop down to verse 24. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. So Jesus teaches. That wealth satisfies only temporarily. And we certainly can't take it through the grave. He says flat out that we can't serve God and Mammon, implying that money has a devilish, idolatrous power to undermine our loyalty to God. So he says, we, we would go on here. He says, do not worry about it. Don't spend all your time seeking the physical things money can buy. We have more important things to spend our time pursuing. Particularly, the way of life that brings true happiness and contentment. He says in verse 33. Instead, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And God will take care of these other matters. Just like he'll fight our battles for us, he'll give us the things that we need. And what do we really need? So the lesson here is. Learn to put God first. Prioritize like God does. Let him bless And give the things that we need because he knows far better than us what we truly need. That's not to say you shouldn't work. Not it doesn't mean that you should quit your jobs or anything like that. That's not what he's saying at all. But the pursuit of wealth as an end in itself. Is dangerous. Not even the kings were supposed to do that. Because it would turn their hearts from God. OK, number 5. And this may be the most important one. This is verses 18 through 20. And that is, you will write and read the law. We will not read all of this again. It says when the king comes into his inheritance, he's supposed to write the law. Most people think it was the Book of Deuteronomy on parchment, and he was supposed to keep that with him and read it regularly. So that he would know what God has said for him to do. It's not just this section here, but it was the whole Book of Deuteronomy, the 2nd law, that he had to keep at his fingertips. So that he would know, uh. How he was supposed to rule. So God says, study my word. Meditate on it Memorize it And use it If we are supposed to rule, we better know what the rules are. How they work When to And when and where to apply them properly. Under the New Covenant Though Uh, I'm not saying that it's not, it's, it's bad to write it physically. It's actually good to write it physically because that helps put it in your brain. But overall, in under the New Covenant, Christians are to write it on their hearts. That's in the New Covenant, that's mentioned there in Jeremiah 31:33, and it's quoted in Hebrews 8:10. That he's going to write it on our hearts and minds. It should be such an integral part of us that we should not need to refer to a physical Bible. Because the knowledge will be right there in our noggins, ready to use. Pat Higgins has written a couple of articles about memorization and having those things right there. So when the temptation hits you, You can say, no. The Lord has said, whatever it is. And I will not go that way. That's what Jesus Christ did when tempted in the wilderness. He answered with scripture. And we have to be able to do the same when the same tempter comes around and tries to get us to do something he wants us to do. So we should try to memorize parts of it. As much of it as we can put in our little heads. I know, some memorizing things these days is, is not something people like to do. We like to be able to go and, and look at our, our little pocket demon no, um, phone and, and get, be able to get the answer from chat GPT or Google or wherever. But God doesn't want it on your phone. Oh, quick and easy reference. No, a quicker and better and easier reference is that already you have it in your little gray cells. We have it there. The principles that lead To wise decisions. To righteous judgments. will be able to be brought immediately to mind. In the kingdom Our memories will be perfect. But we will have already done the work. To put those godly principles in our minds. We will have to know godly principles intimately. To judge the people coming out of this world righteously. To make those wise decisions that will truly help the people we rule. This is the way, walk in it. So because God's way is in us, both by study and application, We will fear God. And be careful And humble An approachable And just Those are all kingly, godly characteristics. So let's go to II Timothy 2. Verse 15, II Timothy 2:15. Be diligent Put in the effort to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That means knowing and perceiving how to use and apply God's word properly. Next chapter, chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, and this is what we need, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. And when God makes you a king and priest in His kingdom, That's what we will, that's what we will be doing. Good work So The lesson here is seek to know God's word inside and out. As it is the law of the kingdom of God. And the pages of the Bible contain many more principles about preparing for kingship. But we've seen in Deuteronomy 17. A succinct list of foundational attitudes and instructions. I'm just going to restate them quickly. Be an overcomer. Learn to trust in God. Do not follow the beliefs of unbelievers and outsiders. Learn to put God first and prioritize his way at all times. And finally, master the laws of the kingdom of God. And they are just the beginning principles that we need to know. May your further preparations for kingship start now. And make you complete and fruitful.
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