I invite you to turn tonight to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 17, and then over to the Forms and Prayers book, page 255, 255. As you're turning, there's one thing I wanted to say. The gift that was given today of the little book on mothers was supposed to be anonymous, but it was put in the bulletin. It's my fault. I didn't communicate well. But the one thing I want to say is that it was Leon and Christopher Yuan who wanted that to be a blessing to you because it was a mother who prayed for him in his prodigal state. And if you know their story, what a story that is. And so that was the intention behind it. So don't thank them. They don't want to be thanked. Second, I have to tell you a little story about the time in Linden. And I was preaching on Luke and I didn't know it was Mother's Day. And I preached on the text, unless you hate your father and your mother and your wife and your, you will not enter the kingdom. And I didn't know it was Mother's Day. So I've matured a little bit in the ministry since then. Mothers are a blessing. You understand what that passage means. It's at the Lord's first. And finally, a few of you asked this morning about the ministerial that happens, that happened here. There's a ministerial in the community of pastors, and I was invited. And that's been good for me to get to know the pastors in the community. So we hosted it here at Escondido. And I raised that this morning just to tell you about it, but also to say they were encouraged coming here. And they were curious about the Reformed Church and what it believes and why things are the way that they are. And it was a good and positive meeting that we had. So I wanted to encourage you with that, too. So those are all the pastors in the community. Tonight, we're going to be looking again at Luke chapter 17, beginning at verse 20. I'd like to confess together, Lord's Day 48 first, question answer 23, 123 on the second petition. And this is Lord's Day 48 on the second petition of the Lord's Prayer. Please respond with the answer. What does the second petition mean? Your kingdom come means rule us by your word and spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Preserve and increase your church. Destroy the devil's work. Destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy word. Do all this until your kingdom fully comes, when you will be all in all. And now from Luke chapter 17, beginning at verse 20, being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, Look, here it is, or there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. And he said to the disciples, The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, you will not see it and they will say to you look there or look here do not go out or follow them for as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other so will the son of man be in his day but first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation just as it was in the days of Noah so it will be in the days of the son of man they were eating and drinking marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So it will be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let no one who is on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to take them away. And likewise, let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left. And they said to him, Where, Lord? And he said to them, Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. And there ends the reading of God's word tonight. Well, I find tonight as we come to the second petition of the Lord's Prayer, this is a very wonderful petition to study and to think about as the disciples wanted to be taught how to pray and what this particular petition means is important for us. I think it is something that has always found a little bit of confusion for God's people as to exactly what we're asking for when we think about the coming of the kingdom. And tonight I want to look at just a little bit with you what it means and trying to understand the kingdom of God and what we're asking for when we make this great petition to the Lord, asking him to advance his kingdom, which is something that he commanded us to pray about. And that we would pray with understanding, but also I think a big and crucial point to this particular petition tonight is that our expectations would not be wrong in the present. And that's something I think that was a struggle for the disciples. When the kingdom comes, what will it look like? And is the kingdom come? And how does the kingdom come? Well, that's what we're considering together tonight so that we have a good understanding of this when we pray. What the coming of the kingdom looks like will begin with how this kingdom comes and when this kingdom will come in fullness. So what the coming of the kingdom looks like, that's where we're beginning tonight. The great second petition of the Lord's Prayer is asking God to bring in his kingdom, to advance his kingdom. Lord, thy kingdom come. And what exactly is that? Well, you'll notice tonight as we looked at what has been historically understood by that, and we look at the Heidelberg Catechism tonight, it says there are certain things we're thinking about when we're asking the Lord to advance his kingdom and to bring in the kingdom. But before we get there, which is really, that's the second point I'll move to, what is the kingdom and what is the struggle in understanding the coming of the kingdom? Kingdom, of course, is his rule, isn't it, boys and girls? Jesus is reigning, as we heard this morning. He's a king. He has a people. He has you as his subjects, his people. And he's reigning over all of us. He's reigning over all that he's made. He's the king of kings and the Lord of lords over everything. And that kingdom, particularly in a special way, broke into the present when Jesus showed up on this earth. And that's what is shown and what Jesus is describing here in Luke chapter 17. I think a helpful way to speak of the kingdom is to say that the Lord rules over the entire kingdom of this world, doesn't he? but rules it differently in two different spheres. We have the governments of the world that the Lord has put into place, all of which are subject to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And then we have the visible kingdom of God displayed most clearly to us in the sphere of the church, don't we? This is his redemptive great work. And it's always been a challenge, though, for people to understand this, this relationship and the coming of the kingdom and how all that works together and the advancement of that, mainly because we want to see it. And this is what Hebrews has been challenging us with. We don't see everything put under his feet right now. We want to see it come now. And I would suggest that in the community of faith, this right now is one of the great confusions that we have to wrestle with a little bit. what do we expect when we pray your kingdom come see if you don't answer that question there can be a lot of confusion over this whole issue and you'll notice particularly here this is a big issue with the pharisees this was a big issue with the leaders of israel they wanted to understand the nature of the kingdom and they didn't see in jesus the coming of the kingdom like they expected it to come if he is indeed the messiah and it frustrated them it frustrated them remember um at one point in jesus's ministry when they saw all the powerful things he did they tried to force the coming of the kingdom right then and there by putting up him on a seat to make him king in john chapter 6 when they saw that he could feed the people this way with the power of god well from this jesus launches in knowing this mentality of of israel and knowing this confusion about the kingdom jesus um launches into a teaching about the nature of the kingdom because in verse 20 we read that the pharisees had come to jesus and asked him when the kingdom of god would come see that's on their minds when is this kingdom coming if you're the messiah and jesus answered them the kingdom of god is not coming in ways that can be observed that's a remarkable thing isn't it a remarkable truth that is made there the kingdom of god is not coming in ways that can be observed nor will they say look here it is or there for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. Now that's quite a statement to say. What does that mean? Notice what Jesus emphasized here. The kingdom of God doesn't come in the ways that you think it's going to come. The kingdom of God is in your midst. It's among you. It's already here but you can't see it see this was a big point of jesus you can't see it now what he was essentially saying to the pharisees is because they didn't have the holy spirit just like nicodemus they couldn't perceive the kingdom of god they couldn't see the kingdom of god they couldn't see jesus he's standing there he is the kingdom he's the king he brings in the kingdom and his appearance on the scene of history brought the kingdom of god right into their midst here he was that kingdom will come in the fullness on that day when jesus returns right physically when he comes down on the clouds of heaven the fullness of the kingdom will come when there's a brand new heavens and a brand new earth where righteousness shall dwell forever that's why we pray thy kingdom come but this gets to the frustration in the present what do we expect now what are we praying now if jesus has broken in and what we've looked at in hebrews are kind of already not yet dimension to this in this life what are we saying well you'll never be able to see the coming of the kingdom in ways that you would expect with the kingdom as i said you need a king and one of what happens is when a kingdom is established the king is seated on a throne there's visible power and strength what we're having happen right now is confusing for us this is the issue it's the same issue with the pharisees we we look in our times just think about it and all of us feel the pressure societies ebb and flow and there are times when evil seems to grow stronger and and grows worse and worse evil men and imposters grow worse and worse said paul so so we live in a time where that has developed in this way in our nation and in our time where these things are are in front of us and as we've been hearing from dr godfrey as he has made the good case that christendom has collapse where there was an influence of Christianity and law and an influence in a society, Christians are responding in all kinds of different ways to this right now. One of the vicious things that's happening is the rise of what is known as post-mill theonomy. And you have a lot of angry culture warriors coming out of this who are Christians. And they want to reclaim by force the kingdom. Dr. Godfrey has kind of shown us, well, what would that look like? So they want to reclaim the force, with force, the kingdom, with law. Which law? That's what's in front of us right now, and the goal of it is to stop all this cultural madness of evil that's happening everywhere, isn't it? Because it doesn't seem like that long ago we were much more free, right? Does the kingdom of God advance when things seem to be clamping down on us? And how does that work? That doesn't seem to work for us. So they think they're bringing in the kingdom by trying to reclaim the culture. Well, that's an interesting thing to talk about. Is that what Jesus is calling us to do? And is that what he's calling us to pray for? See, I think these are important questions to this discussion. Jesus was the one who told us that in this world we're going to have a lot of tribulation. Why do we have tribulation? Because people hate Jesus and they hate his church and they persecute it. That's the big reason that's happened throughout history. Is it our job to stop that? Because there's evil people? This is what the Jews wanted from Jesus. To overturn Rome. And to give the kingdom back. That's why they wanted the kingship established. But notice what Jesus says here. I think it's so important for the way we pray this and understand this. It does not come with observation. It does not come with a grand overturning of the world system. See here or see there, at least in the present. I mean, it would be easy right now, wouldn't it? As certain pockets of Christians, what they say and believe, that if Jesus rebuilt the temple and took his seat on the throne and we could see him visibly strike down all his enemies and bring in justice the way that we want to see justice happen, that's what dispensationalism is looking for. This was Peter's impulse when Jesus was going to the cross, when he took out the sword and he was ready to fight for the coming of the kingdom and to stop a terrible death as he viewed it. And Jesus said, put that away. My kingdom, remember what he said, is not of this world. He said to Pilate, if my kingdom were of this world, we would fight. We would fight and we'd win. So Jesus turns to his disciples now. He's concerned about their kingdom confusion. He said to his disciples, the days are coming when you're going to desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you will not see it. I have been taken by that verse over the years. There's a time when you're going to want to see me and stop all the problems in this world and you're going to want me to immediately solve it and you're going to want to see the coming of the kingdom right now and you are going to be intensely bothered and agitated wanting that kingdom with great frustration to come in the way that you want it to come in right now it will come in one day in all of its fullness there's no question about that but I think what he's doing is capturing for us one of the most confusing experiences of how Christians live in this world and the difficulty of living in this world that we don't fit in here and that it's really hard if we try to make this world our home it doesn't work how much do we desire the coming of the kingdom well i think everyone desires it um i would um i would say in times of great peace and calm that that's the last thing we're desiring but now in 2022 we're kind of aghast at what's happening moral issues are in front of us which are important, aren't they? And we should pray for them as I did tonight. The issue of abortion. We should pray that evil down. There's widespread celebration in the culture among Christians, the possibility of that. But that's not really what happened. It was just given back to the states if that passes. And that goes forward. Well, when it comes to the moral law of God, of course, we pray. we want to see the the law of god honored the psalmist cried rivers of tears because the law of god was not honored that's right we want to see the moral law of god because it's good for us and our neighbor and it's right i would think all you agree we're in agony over the things happening in this world so much confusion there's so much discouragement it's depressing and we wrestle with this great question is if the world is under god's control there's got to be a better solution to this than this mess that we're experiencing in the present and just the difficulties that we all feel even with our own children raising them and the challenges of this and what's happened in our day everyone's looked for a savior everyone's looked for somebody to deliver them everyone's looking for relief everyone's looking for someone who can take away the awful things that are happening to break in hopefully the kingdom of god well this is what jesus is describing there's times it's going to get bad on this earth and you're going to desire to see one of those days right now of me and coming in my kingdom and what's your greatest danger in moments like this it is to pray look to the wrong savior it's to look to the wrong wrong savior to deliver you and think that if only maybe even the u.s can bring us back to the good old days, then we'll be okay. That's what Jesus says. They, who, they, everyone else, the world, the peoples, the masses are going to say to you, people of God, disciples, look over here. Here's a solution. Look over here. Here's a solution to all these problems. And Jesus is saying, it doesn't come in ways like that with great movements that's what everyone's pitching to us today every movement's offering us a deliverer every movement's offering us a savior to solve the problems of this world every political side is offering us a way and pick your poison all these movements all these causes and everyone's telling us get involved in this and do this and christians fall into these things and this is the point of jesus you shouldn't really have an over-realized what we call eschatology so what are we praying for tonight that's the question what are we praying for well notice the things that is said tonight that are said tonight by our heidelberg here they're really helpful to help us understand the coming of the kingdom look at the first thing that said rule us by your word and spirit in such a way that we more and more submit to you what an important thing when we're praying for the coming of the kingdom we're first praying for our own submission to where jesus has us we're first praying that our lives would be in line this is not the spirit today when you look at the theonomic impulse it's yelling at everyone else and mad at everyone else and everyone's mad and everyone's angry and everyone's got a grievance and everyone's going to fight. Whoa. What about you? Pray that your word and your Holy Spirit would make me, enable me to submit to you. Because we're not very good at that. We're constantly fighting against God in the places that he has us. We're constantly questioning the challenges we're constantly questioning his providence and we think we're going to take this on ourselves there's a position of submission that we're asking for first in the coming of the kingdom and that's so important isn't it because that's bound up with our witness and the purpose for which we're here as people jesus said you're salt and light in this earth if the salt loses its flavor what good is it if light is not made to be put under a bowl it's meant to give light to people you're not light to people when you're fighting and angry you see notice a second where is the kingdom of god where's the heart of the concern in the heidelberg for the kingdom of god right here preserve and increase your church isn't that the great concern today we should have that the church of jesus christ would be flourished we even pray and we'll look at in the heidelberg add to your church he'll go on to the heidelberg will go on to help us with that add to your church increase your church bless your church the increase and preserve your church this is why the westman's confession says The church is the visible kingdom of God on this earth. And we should be praying. When we're praying, thy kingdom come, we're thinking a lot about the state of the church. This is what Paul was so concerned about. Remember when he listed all those things in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 that he suffered? Beaten with rods, shipwrecked, I've been naked. i've suffered all these terrible things but he said the greatest concern i've had the greatest thing that burdens me the greatest concern of my heart is for the church and for the churches so advance your church bless your church strengthen your church and think of the the people who are lost think of the people who've gone wayward think of the the young adults who are struggling think of all these things this is what we're asking of the lord when we pray advance here And this is precisely what Jesus was saying when he said the kingdom of God, I'll come back to this, is in your midst. It's within you. Preserve your church. Increase your church. For its mission, its growth, add to it. And third, notice this. Destroy the devil's work. Destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy word. there is no doubt that behind many of the actions in society and in the culture we have to see bigger beloved see behind the scenes we have to think in biblical categories with things and we don't give enough attention to the demonic influence in this world in life you know somebody wrote the other day and i agreed with him abortion is a christological heresy why because it would posit that christ himself in the in the womb may have been truly god but not truly human think about that what that means is is that behind all these actions at times that are evil in our eyes behind that is the devil behind that is an evil influence behind that is demonic activity we pray that stuff down that's against the moral law of god of course we do and we should pray him down and we should pray down every force that revolts against the word of god think of all the ideologies out there think of all the ideas that are bearing in on us our brother christopher has to deal with with going out and speaking everywhere on issues of of of human sexuality and identity and think of you know how many people are in our colleges are running up against that and pushing up against the line and saying things that are absolutely false we pray that down this way that's what we're praying for in thy kingdom come destroy the devil's lies destroy his works destroy these conspiracies that revolt against you and your word. See, that's the heart of what we're asking. Notice Jesus' emphasis here. We're praying for the kingdom. Now, this is so important, I think. We're praying for the kingdom from the inside out and not the outside in. Do you understand what I'm saying when I say that? Nicodemus, you must be born again. You need an inner regeneration of your heart by the Spirit. Your whole heart needs to be regenerated, implanted life there. We're praying for the transformation from the inside out. That's how we influence things. And this is what Jesus is saying. The kingdom of God is in your midst. And he understood that and explained that as that kingdom developing in the lives of those who submit to him, who believe the gospel, but who have been regenerated by the Spirit. It's a wonderful kingdom that is ruled in the lives of those who live by faith. It requires patience. This is our great frustration with the kingdom prayer, that kingdom come. It feels like it never gets past the roof. Does anything happen? Remember what Jesus said about the kingdom, what it's like? He said, what shall I like in the kingdom of God or with what parable shall we picture it? In other words, what parable would be best to help you grasp the kingdom of God and how the kingdom of God comes? He says, well, it's like a mustard seed. When it's sown on the ground, it's smaller than all the seeds on the earth. But when it's sown, it grows up and it becomes greater than all the herbs and shoots out large branches. His point is, it's a little tiny seed. And who sits around to watch a seed grow? We don't watch grass grow. Maybe some of you do, but it's a boring thing to do. Think about this. The farmer goes out and he plants and he goes to bed and then he gets up and he goes to bed and he gets up and he goes to bed. This is a long time until the harvest. And how many problems do you have to deal with along the way for the farmer? Weather and crops and difficulties and it's incredibly up and down and we struggle in the midst of all this. And what is the kingdom of life? Well, that's what Jesus says it's like. That's how it comes. It's nothing fast. Any movement you see in Christianity, like the Mark Driscoll thing that showed up in Seattle, that showed I was up there at that time, he had thousands and thousands coming. It sprang up overnight and it died overnight because it was not as the kingdom of God comes. It should be evident to us. At times it doesn't feel like we're winning. The church life is slow. Talk to any of the leaders here. We have to be really patient with all ages, don't we? It's tough business. And our young adults are being hit on every side today. And they fall into sin. And they struggle. And they struggle with believing. And they have all these challenges. And we have to be patiently and steady and praying for them. That's how the kingdom, that's the nature of the coming of the kingdom. God waters at his time and at times that growth. I would love to be a revivalist tonight and to preach a great revival and all thousands and thousands of people were immediately converted. I don't see the Lord doing that very much. In fact, there's always been a lot of problems when that's happened. of artificial walking forward. In other words, you see it in your own life. This is trench work growth. The kingdom of God comes that way. You continue to grow. You always wish it was a mountaintop experience, but it's not. You're not in glory yet. And in the midst of all of this are weeds in the grass that are causing us a lot of problems. and a lack of patience we get caught up in all the wrong for all wrong projects and staying on mission is a difficult task and then one day the seed has shoots it grows up and has shoots everywhere that's the kingdom and what jesus does after explaining this is to say after there's a patient weight of the saints in the world he he speaks here in this passage i'm not going into all this tonight of noah and lot and the emphasis of the full arrival of the kingdom and he contrasts those who are living for today eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage because they're not living for the coming of the kingdom or expecting the fullness of the kingdom to come when jesus comes see that's that's the issue here they're not living expecting or praying for the fullness of the kingdom to come remember lot's wife what did lot's wife do she looked back to Sodom. You have to expect the kingdom to come in all of its glory. And you should anticipate that. And that is the glorious day we're looking for. You know, you could be called away tonight and the kingdom of God has come for you. But if it continues to go on, maybe we'll be the generation when Jesus comes back and won't have to face death. Now, wouldn't that be awesome? Everyone agrees with that. That's what we pray for. And notice the final thing that Heidelberg says tonight in our praying for the coming of the kingdom. Do this. Rule us by your word and spirit. Let us submit to you. Preserve and increase your church. Destroy the devil's work. Destroy all that which is immoral. Tear it all down. Do this until your kingdom fully come. when you will be all in all. When is that? That's the second coming. Then I heard what seemed to be a voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters, like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out hallelujah for the Lord our God almighty reigns. There it is. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come. It's finally come after all these years. After all this time. of his patience, which means salvation. And his bride has made herself ready. It was granted to clothe her with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then I saw a new heavens and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. See, he will be with us in full kingdom glory. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death will be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. I have this privilege at the Ligonier Conference. They asked me to talk on the beatific vision. Being able to gaze your risen eyes on the Savior in glory. No longer living by faith. You get to see him and enjoy him forever in that great glorified state. Jesus is able to keep us. Jesus is able to preserve us. And he's not losing one of his sheep. Don't fear, little flock, for it's the Father's good pleasure to do what? Give you the kingdom. So then we should pray for its coming. And pray for its coming this way. And may you be blessed as you pray that prayer. Let's pray together. Lord, your kingdom come. We ask, Lord, that you would preserve and defend your church. We ask that our lives would be more and more in full submission to you. that's a full life's business. Leading quiet lives in all godliness, working with our hands and doing what is pleasing to you. And let us, Lord, pray more and more for the coming of this kingdom that you would destroy all these terrible things against your word, expose the lie of Satan, disrupt and confuse leaders who seek, Lord, and go outside of their great appointment as leaders. to assault the reign of Christ. And we also pray that you would do all this until your kingdom comes in all of its fullness. Give us an eye for that and a heart for that and a desire for that and keep us this week. We might live in light of this and enjoy you and recognize that your great work and kingdom advancement is happening in the hearts and lives of your people right in front of us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.