Hope and Salvation in the Gospel of the Kingdom

and this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the End come we come back to this verse once more this verse which is in so many senses the most important and the pivotal and crucial verse in this momentous 24th chapter of this Gospel According to St Matthew let us again be clear in our minds as to the setting of this remarkable and most encouraging statement [00:00:31]

here you see in the midst of this prophecy of gloom despair and disaster he talks about a gospel which means good news the picture is not one of unrelieved Gloom history is not all together outside the control of God there is another message there's another aspect there is something that can be said in the midst of the darkness there is a light this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached [00:03:05]

the world as such outside God is under the wrath of God and is doomed to judgment and to Perdition that's perfectly clear not only here but elsewhere in the gospels and in the whole of the Bible going right away up to that book of Revelation at the end sin is going to be punished God is very patient with him a thousand years but as one day and one day as a thousand years [00:03:54]

God has proved Ed a way whereby men and women individually can be delivered from that he's forming a new people a new company if you like a new kingdom this Gospel of the Kingdom he began doing it away back at the dawn of History we see a division even in the children of Adam and Eve Cain remaining in the world able in God's kingdom and so it has gone up the kingdom of God [00:05:27]

the most important thing for everybody in this world at this moment is to discover the way of entering into this kingdom of God I mustn't keep you again by reminding you of the seriousness of the times in which we're living life has never been so precarious no men in his senses is going to postpone a matter like this our whole life is uncertain [00:07:26]

therefore that in a world like this the one rarely urgent matter is how how can one enter the kingdom of God the Kingdom of Heaven how can one arrive at this place of safety and of security and of protection and we've even started answering that question the first question a man asks at such a point must be this what are the characteristics of that Kingdom [00:08:24]

we have only one thing to do my dear friends and that is to look at him to stand and to face him or to use the language of the author of The epistle to the Hebrews to consider him here I say and here alone is one who seems to have the key to the whole problem of history and of time to the whole problem of our Eternal and everlasting Destiny [00:11:51]

there is only one who has ever made a prophecy of the future course of history and of the world who has proved to be right and it is this Jesus of Nazareth who are speaking to these disciples on this occasion that we are considering together this evening every other one has been wrong he has prophesied nearly 2,000 years ago what was going to happen and it has happened [00:19:15]

the kingdom of God cometh not with observation the kingdom of God doesn't come with outward appearance and with outward show the kingdom of God cometh not with observation so don't listen list to them who say to you low here or low there don't listen to the people who say ah we are going to set up the kingdom of God with our politics and our socialism and all our protests and councils of actions [00:33:20]

how does this Kingdom Come how does he admit us into this Kingdom oh I say the first principle to grasp is that he doesn't do it merely by teaching us it isn't by giving us new ideas ideas which we've got to put into practice do you know how he admits into the kingdom I can tell you it was all there in chapter 5 of The Book of Revelation [00:34:43]

the wonderful works of God that's the good news of the Kingdom the wonderful works of God that's what the whole Bible is you know the works of God God coming down down into the garden speaking his word God destroying the Tower of Babel God calling out Abram God forming a nation God taking them down to Egypt God bringing them out of Egypt it's God the wonderful works of God bringing in his kingdom [00:36:14]

there is only one way of getting into that Kingdom it is through Jesus Christ he so loved you that he left the courts of heaven and humbled himself and was born into utter poverty in a stable in a little place called Bethlehem he endured the contradiction of Sinners against himself their spite their malice their spleen their Envy he looked into the face of sin he who was eternally pure [00:48:21]