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THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

VS.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD

This is the complete text of a sermon by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman.
The complete chart that would accompany this sermon is available at Kingdom Chart.
It is a slow load, however. If you would like a printed copy, contact paulsonm@bmi.net
This particular video study is the one that opened my eyes to the King James Bible,
just as Dr. Ruckman says - from Genesis to Revelation.

Open your Bible. This message tonight is on the Bible. We'll cover everything from generation to resolution tonight, and we'll get into it pretty heavy and get into it kind of deep. You've had enough milk for awhile.

I got up this morning and finished preaching. A fellow told me I preached that one about two months ago. And I wish you'd tell me when I do that; I don't have to repeat them that often, but you have to tell me. Sometimes I forget.

But this one here is about the Bible, and there's no particular text to turn to, because it's all good. But I guess two places you want to hear are Isaiah 14 and Revelation 22. Isaiah 14 and Revelation 22.

Now, I'm going to talk for awhile tonight on what the Bible's about. You say, "Well, the Bible's about salvation." No, in the Bible salvation is incidental.

You say, "Well, the Bible's a Book to tell you how to live right." That's true, but that's an incidental.

You say, "Well, the Bible's the history of redemption." That's incidental, too.

You say, "Well, the Bible's about Jesus Christ." Well, that's not an incidental, but that's not the major part of it.

The subject of the Bible is a kingdom. And Garner Ted Armstrong and Herbert W. got that part right, if they didn't get anything else right--except they couldn't figure out what the kingdom was, so it didn't do them any good.

But the first thing that's ever spoken in that Bible is not spoken by God. The first words in that Bible are not, "Let there be light." Now, that's true in Genesis chapter 1, when you begin to read chronologically, God says, "Let there be light." But the first words that are spoken in that Bible are spoken before Genesis 1:3. They're in Isaiah chapter 14. Isaiah chapter 14, the first thing anybody said in that Bible, God didn't say; the devil said it. Isn't that a way for a Book to start? Think about the Holy Bible. Isaiah chapter 14, look at verses 11, 12, and 13. And the first thing anybody ever spoke in that Bible is not spoken by God at all; that first words that are ever said in that Bible said by the devil. I guess that's why you have a "black book." It's covered with a black cover. "Put that down in your little black book."

And before God ever re-made the heavens and earth and said, "Let there be light," and, "Let there be this," and "Let there be that," the devil said there in Isaiah chapter 14, "I will ascend." Is that verse 13 or where? "I will ascend...I will exalt my throne..." MY THRONE! You see that? "Above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:...I will be like the most High." The first mention in that Bible, the first time anybody speaks in that Bible, they don't speak about salvation, they don't speak about Christ, they don't speak about redemption--they speak about a throne!

The subject of that Bible is a kingdom. That's the subject of that Book. It's a throne.

That means the issue has always been and always will be absolute authority. The issue is, who gets the final say-so. I don't know how many people take a newspaper; I don't take one. I don't how many people watch newscasts on television. I don't watch them. And the reason why I don't is because I know it's all just the same stuff over and over again. All there is in a newspaper and magazine and television is a report on who is trying to get the upper hand. Who wins the World Series. Who wins the Super Bowl. Who's going to come out on top in Iraq and Iran. Who's running the United Nations. Who gets the tax. Who passes the gun laws. It's authority. That's all the issue has ever been; that's all the issue ever will be.

Have you got an Authorized Version? Well, you better have an Authorized Version. Because the issue is authority. When that Bible opens, it opens with an argument about who is the top dog, who is the king of the mountain, who gets to run things.

Why, people, that has always been the issue. That's the issue in the home. You know what the issue in the home is? Who has the final say-so! You say, "Well, with me it's fifty-fifty," you know. A guy says, "Well, you know, it's 50-50, I try to tell my wife what to do, and she tells me where to go." Well, that won't do.

You say, "Well, in my home it's 50-50--half mine, half my wife's." Then you've got anarchy in the home. You know what you've got in the home, if it's 50-50? You've got a dead heat. Somewhere it's got to be 51-49, and the question is, who gets the 51? That's the question.

That's the issue in the local church. That's the issue in the government. That's the issue in the sports arena. That's the issue in the Colisseum. That's the issue in the United Nations. There never has been more than one issue! And the issue is, who gets the final say-so? You know what the issue is in your life? Do you get the final say-so in your life, or does God get it? That's all there is to it!

All right now, there in Isaiah chapter 14, that's the devil talking there, back there before Genesis chapter 1, verse 3. That's somewhere between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. And the devil says, "I will ascend. I will go up." Christ said, "No man hath ascended." The devil said, "I'm going up in my own power." You keep on reading that thing down there, and it says, "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, the sides of the pit." Man's effort to get up are not going to work.

All right, now, take your Bible and come over to Revelation chapter 22, and look how that Book ends. Revelation 22:15. There can't be any doubt in your mind about what the subject of that Book is, because it begins and ends the same way. You get over there in Revelation chapter 22, and look at verse 3. When you get to verse 3, in verse 3 he says, "And the throne of God...shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him;...and his name shall be in their foreheads..." And the throne of God. THE THRONE OF GOD! You see the Throne of God there in Revelation 22, verse 3? THE THRONE OF GOD!

That Book begins with a throne, and it ends with a throne. That's what that Book is about; it's about a Kingdom.

Do you realize that two Books in that Bible are called "Kings"? KINGS. Two whole Books are called "Kings." Did you ever wonder so much of that Old Testament is so dull to read? Because it's about a monarchy, and you people aren't monarchists. You rebelled against your king in 1776. So you know what a monarchy is. But in a monarchy or a theocracy, God runs the place, and He's the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Now, take your Bible and turn to Lamentations chapter 5, and look at verse 16 and verse 19--right in the middle of your Bible. Lamentations. When you find Lamentations, raise your hand. Keep them up just a minute. Quick as you find Lamentations, raise your hand. It's in the Old Testament. Raise your hand when you get to Lamentations. Ah, some of you folks have been spending time with the bubble tube! Get out your index and look it up! All right, thank you. Now, isn't that something? Isn't that something that you know more about a car motor than you know about the Bible? OK, better late than never! Like my colored maid said to me when I asked one of the boys to do something, and they had something else to do and they were too tired to help me, she said, "Well, a lazy excuse is better than no excuse at all!"

All right, now, Lamentations there. See that passage right there? Chapter 5, I think it is, verses 16 and 19: "The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us..." But he says, "Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation." Forever and ever. You see what that Book is about? That Book is about a throne. That's what that Book is about.

The reason why you need a King James Bible is real simple. Because the Book's about a King. It's not about a president. The Bible said, "Where the word of the king is, there is power." You better hadn't get you an American version, because America has never had a king. "Where the word of the king is, there is power." What you need is a King with authority--that's what you need.

LUCIFER

All right, now, back there in Genesis chapter 1, the Lord made the heaven and the earth. It doesn't say how long it took Him to make it, it just said He made it. And then something went wrong! We don't know what went wrong, but there are indications in the Bible, when the Lord first set that thing up, he set a king over that thing. And that king's name was Lucifer, called "the son of the morning." That's what he's spoken of as in Isaiah chapter 14.

We're going to let this dark blue crown here represent the kingdom of God, and we're going to let this light blue crown here represent the kingdom of heaven, and try to get a little bit more where we can get a hold on it, I'll try to make this one here purple--for royalty. That's the kingdom of God, and that's the kingdom of heaven. I made the crown for the kingdom of heaven blue, because heaven is blue. You go out and look at it, and it's blue.

Now, God is not heaven. And heaven is not God. Here these scholars say, "Well, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are the same." And some of them say, "Well, the kingdom of God is in the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven includes all of God's authority, and the kingdom of God is in it." No, no, no, that's a nice shot in the dark, but it has nothing to do with the word of God. A lot of my brothers in Christ think like that. I feel like them the way a little boy thought about his little baby brother. A little boy had a little baby brother born to him, and the first couple of months, his mother would show him the baby, and when his baby was about three months old, she let the little boy hold it. And she asked him how he liked his little baby brother, and he said, "I like my baby brother, but his head's loose." That's what's wrong with some of my brothers in Christ--their head is loose!

Now, listen! "In the beginning God created the heaven." Well, why would you say they're the same unless you're a pantheist? In the beginning God...that's one. Then why would the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven be the same. Why, God isn't heaven. Heaven has birds in it. It has the sun, moon and stars in it. You can shoot a rocket up into heaven; you can't shoot a rocket up into God. God is not heaven, and heaven is not God, unless you're a pantheist. So this one crown here deals with a spiritual kingdom; and that deals with a literal kingdom.

Now, you know the trouble with folks? When you say, "Kingdom of heaven," right away they think "heavenly"--they think of a spiritual kingdom. Heaven ain't spiritual! Heaven is sun, moon, stars, nebula, star clusters, clouds, eagles, birds. There's nothing spiritual about "heaven." The thing is, we keep talking about "going to heaven when we die," but that's kind of confusing; we go to New Jerusalem when we die, and New Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven. Heaven is always a reference to the literal, physical, visible things the eye can see. Christ was taken up from them "into heaven." "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven." "He cometh with the clouds of heaven." You can see heaven.

All right, the kingdom of heaven, then, is an earthly, physical, literal, visible kingdom. You say, "Why earthly?" Because the earth is in the heavens. You understand? The earth and the solar system; the solar system is in the heavens. The kingdom of heaven there is always a visible, physical kingdom.

The kingdom of God is not. Turn to Romans chapter 14. It ain't a matter of one being in the other, outside the other, in conjunction with the other--they're not even the same! Romans chapter 14, and look at that definition. Pick up Romans chapter 14, and look at verse 17, I think it is. Romans chapter 14, verse 17: "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink." Then it's not literal, physical, visible. It's not meat and drink. But what is the kingdom of God? It is "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Got that? That's a definition. The kingdom of God, then, is always a spiritual, invisible, righteous kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is always a visible, physical, literal, earthly kingdom. They're never the same! They're not the same, even when they're both there at the same time.

Now the Lord set up Lucifer over this thing. First of all, he had a literal, physical, visible domain. That's why he's called "the god of this world." That isn't all. He was a spiritual creature. "An anointed cherub that covereth." God made him a spirit being. He's a spirit being today. Kingdom of God. He had both crowns.

Then something went wrong. We don't know what went wrong. I've never got it figured out; nobody probably ever will. But the old earth was drowned out. "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." And when God drowned that thing out, he deposed that king, and got rid of that king, and got Him a new king.

ADAM

And the new king He put up was king over all the earth, and that king's name was Adam. You say, "Was Adam a king?" Of course Adam was a king. Hebrews says, "Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor." Was he a king? He had dominion over the beasts of the ground, and the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea. "Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth." He was a king! He was a king!

What did he have? Well, first of all, he was king over the kingdom of heaven. He was king over a literal, physical, visible, earthly dominion. "Multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue it. Subdue it."

That isn't all. He was made in God's image. Made in God's image, he was king over the kingdom of God. He had a double crown. He had the crown that Satan forfeited. Why, you know he was made in the image of God. When you read the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 3, it says, "So-and-so was the son of so-and-so, who was the son of so-and-so, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God." Two kingdoms.

All right, then you know what happened. Along came Eve, and then trouble started! You might have known it. And one day the devil came up alongside her and said, "Go on, take a bite. It won't kill you." And he pops some in his mouth to show her it would be all right, so she popped some in her mouth.

And about that time Adam came down a little country walkway there by the garden, and about a hundred yards off he saw his wife, and she was no longer snow white. She was pink. And he came up alongside and said, "What'd you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, look at your skin! Something's wrong!"

She had blood in it. And she said, "Well, I just ate this fruit, but I didn't die." He took one look at that fruit and one look at her and said to himself, "She's a dead woman!"

And he could have done one of two things right there. He could take that fruit and die with her, or he could just let her go and die, and then trust God for the future.

And he loved her enough to die for her and die with her!

Christ loved the church and gave Himself for us; Adam and Eve is what's given in Ephesians chapter 5. Adam was not deceived (1 Timothy 2), but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression. The man knew what he was doing.

So right away you get this thing about sex and violence. What a woman wants is a man who loves her enough to die for her. Loving, dying. Kissing, killing. So, if you go home and watch TV tonight, that's what you'll get from now until 3 o'clock in the morning. Smack, smack, bang, bang! That stuff starts in Genesis chapter 3. And the man takes it--and he dies.

And when that fellow dies--you see that crown right there? That crown leaves. And, if you don't get one more thing from this message tonight, there's one thing you can get, and get down solid. When the kingdom of God disappears in Genesis 3, it never shows up again until the last Adam shows up. From Adam to Christ, there is no kingdom of God! Can you get that? You say, "Why?" Nobody's made in God's image!

How do you know that? Genesis chapter 5. "Adam begat a son, after his own likeness, in his own image." Folks say, "Well, man is made in the image of God." No, he's not! Man is made in the image of Adam. You don't that image of God back until you get Jesus Christ back. Jesus Christ is called the image of God. Hebrews chapter 1, "image of God." Second Corinthians 4, verse 4, "image of God." Colossians chapter 3, "image of God." The image of God is Jesus Christ. That's why He's called "the last Adam."

From Adam to Christ, there is no kingdom of God; it's gone. That means nobody is made after God's image. You're made in Adam's image. You have an old Adamic nature. You're not made in God's image at all. "After his own likeness"--Adam's likeness. Fallen men and women are made like Adam.

You ladies, you're Adamic. Your name is "Adam." You say, "My name's Eve." That's what Adam called her; he called her "Eve." God didn't call her Eve. You say, "Well, what did He call her?" He called her Adam. "Male and female made he them, and created them, and called their name Adam." Folks have a time of it, don't they? God didn't call her Eve; he "called their name Adam."

That means that you ladies have no name. Isn't that something? Somebody says, "Women are equal to men." No, you aren't. You ladies aren't equal to us! You aren't anywhere near equal to us! You want to choose up and fight tonight--all the men over here, and all the women over here, and have a fight, and see who's equal? You say, "Well, we're superior in other ways." Well, not many ways. The greatest hairdressers in the world aren't women; they're men. And the greatest cooks in the world aren't women; they're men. And the greatest artists in the world are not women; they're men.

You say, "How did I get into this macho, chauvinistic thing?" Well, live and learn, brother! The great musicians in the world are not women; they're men. That's what they are. I heard Bella Abzug once say, "Men and women are equal. You know, women's lib." Why, that poor soul! She hasn't even got her own name! You ladies don't have any name. You ladies have your father's name--or your husband's name. Amen? Yes, sir! Don't you sit there and "Mmmmm, mmmmm!" Amen! You got your father's name or your husband's name. That's the only name you've got!

Now, I'll grant you, women have their place. You ladies can do something a man can't do. You can create life. She's called Eve, because she's the mother of all the living. A man can't do that. That's why we make up for it with art, music, and literature, and cooking. That's right! That's right! That's it! That's the man creating, you see? That's why he can surpass the woman in any kind of a creation--except life. When you get to life, then you ladies, you're in a class by yourself.

I mean, trying to make men and women equal--what a dumb, stupid thing, man! I saw over here at Pensacola Junior College one year, they were talking about changing the names in the restrooms, you know, so it was "unisex" in the restrooms. You know, no "men" or "women" or "gentlemen" or "ladies" in the restroom--just "it," you know. "It" on the thing. I sat out there and watched those numbskulls debate that thing; they were just as serious as AIDS, man! And they got up there and talked about that thing, and talked about that thing, and the pros and cons. And I sat there and I said to myself, "You know something? You'd have to be educated to be that stupid." I mean, nobody could be that dumb unless they went to college! People just aren't born that dumb. Anybody who's born has more sense than those folks do. A "unisex bathroom"--you crazy, cockeyed, stupid, demoniac, irrational nut, man! I mean, blow your brains out, and you won't miss a thing!

All right, here's Adam. He takes this stuff, and when he takes this stuff, he dies. And when he dies, from here on all you've got on this earth, bless your soul, is the kingdom of heaven. All you have on this earth is a literal, physical, visible kingdom.

And up shows the next king.

NOAH

And the next king who shows up is Noah. You say, "Noah was a king?" Sure he was a king. He was given the whole earth! I guess that's a pretty good piece of territory, isn't it? I mean, he got out of the ark, you know, and, "Shem, you take Asia, and Ham, you take Africa; and Japheth, you take Europe." Sure, he's a king! He's the owner of the whole earth, when that bird gets out.

Goes in the ark there with his family, you know--his sons and their wives, and his own wife--Joan of Ark!!!!--and they get in there, and he has two of this kind, and two of that kind, and two of the other kind. And they're not integrated in that ark. He's got a white bird in that ark and a black bird in that ark, and they don't get mixed up. And you don't find the woodpeckers fooling with the pigeons, you know; if you did, you'd have a pigeon pecker! Just think, he'd carry a message to your house, and--kerplunk! kerplunk!--knock on the door!

And he steps out of that ark, and he says, "All right, Shem, you take that; and Japheth, you take that; and Ham, you take this." And there he has the whole world.

You know what happens?

He gets drunk. He gets drunk.

And God has to get Him another king.

ABRAM

And the Lord said, "You know something? Every time I get me a king, he messes up. The only way I'm ever going to get me a king, is get me a king and make him a king without any conditions attached. Because, if I attach one condition, he's going to blow it."

So God calls a man out of Ur of the Chaldees whose name is Abram. And the Bible says in Romans chapter 4, "The promise of the world was going to be given to Abraham." Abraham's promised the land--the physical, literal, visible ground. Do you doubt that fellow was a king? Why, the Bible says that when that fellow went through lands, the Lord rebuked kings for him, and called him alone. You know what the Lord said to that fellow? "I will multiply thee, and make of thee a great nation. And I'll bless those that bless thee, and curse those that curse thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

That's a king, boy! Over a literal, physical, visible piece of land. "I will give thee the land of Canaan"--from here to here and there to there. That's a literal, physical, visible king.

And when that fellow gets the covenant, you know what the Lord does with him? He puts him to sleep. And a horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham about the time of the going down of the sun, and he went to sleep. And when he was sound asleep, the Lord made the covenant with him.

You know what you call that? You call that an unconditional covenant. You know what that means? That means when God made that covenant with Abraham, it couldn't be busted, no matter what Abraham did. God made that covenant, so that covenant is going to stick. That was a covenant made under grace.

ISAAC

You know what followed after that. After that came Isaac. And the covenant goes to Isaac. How do you know the covenant goes to Isaac? You know the covenant goes to Isaac because, when Isaac's about a die--or thinks he's about to die--he calls in his boys to bless them. And he calls in what he thinks is Esau, and it turns out to be Jacob. And when he calls him in there to bless him, he puts his hands upon him, and after he blesses him he says, "Blessed are those that bless thee, and cursed are those that curse thee." He says that to Jacob. You know what that means? It means he got that blessing from Abraham.

JACOB

So that blessing goes from Abraham, it goes from Isaac, it goes Jacob. You know what God's doing? God's getting ready to get Him a king, over a literal, physical, visible piece of ground--and He's coming down now through a family to get it. And He comes down there through twelve tribes.

This is what your Bible is about. I mean, you know me. I like to read the Bible. I've gone through it 119 times now, up to John chapter 17. And I still enjoy reading it. I always get something new every time I read it. But I'm not kidding myself--most of that Bible is real dull. And the reason why is, it's a history about a kingdom. You can't expect America to get excited about that; that's what that Book is about. And that thing is going down, down, down.

JUDAH

And that thing goes on down, about the time Jacob dies, Genesis chapter 49. You know what he says? He says, "The scepter shall not depart from..." who? JUDAH! "Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him shall the gathering of the people be." God says, "I'm going to get me a king; and when I get me a king, I'm going to get it from Judah."

MOSES

Then you know what happens. They go down to the land of Egypt. And they get down to the land of Egypt, and they get down there, and they suffer for 400 years. And about that time, God decides to bring them. And He gets Him a young fellow named Moses. And first Moses makes a mess of it, and has to go into backsliding in the desert for 40 years. Then, when he finally gets right and comes back, he brings out the Jews. And, when he brings out the Jews out of the land of Egypt, the Bible says, "He brought them out by their armies."

Did you get that? You think people interested in Iraq and Iran and the Near East would get ahold of that, wouldn't you? "ARMIES"??? The first time the word "army" occurs in your Bible, is the nation of Israel coming out of Egypt. An "army" is somebody who's there to spread a literal, physical, visible political kingdom. And they use swords, spears, and shields and weapons to do it with. So, listen, if you have anybody in this age talking about "spreading the kingdom," you know what they are? They're a bunch of killers! The only way you can spread a physical, literal, visible kingdom is with violence. That's the first time it's used. "Army." He brought them out of Israel with their "armies."

So you have a thing here where he says, "Go out and kill them." Folks say, "What a terrible Book!" Yes, it is, isn't it? He says, "Go into the land of Canaan, and take those Perizzites, and Amorites, and Girgashites, and Hivites, and Hittites, and kill 'em. And kill the babies, and kill the women, and kill the children. And the suckling ass and sheep--kill the whole bunch of 'em!"

You know what Moses is called in Deuteronomy chapter 33? It said, "Moses was king, king, king. Moses was king in Jeshurun." He's a king. And he's in charge of a literal, physical, visible kingdom, and it's spread with literal, physical, visible weapons.

You know what the weapons of our warfare are? They're not carnal, "but mighty through God the putting down of strongholds." Now, you know that! If you find a church that believes in killing heretics and burning heretics at the stake, and putting heretics in prison, and stoning churches and taking people and putting them on the wrack and the thumbscrew, you're dealing with a demoniac, devilish, hellish, godless, depraved outfit. You know what they're doing? They're spreading a kingdom of meat--and drink. And the kingdom of God is not meat and drink! So don't go down at the altar and pretend if you eat it and drink it, that you're getting it--because you AIN'T!

DAVID

So, out comes Moses. And out comes Moses in the land of Promise, and the Jews go into apostasy, and get into all kinds of trouble. And one day the people say, "Give us a king, that he may rule over us, like all the nations round about us." And Samuel cries about it and prays about it all night. And the Lord says, "Don't worry, Samuel. You're just getting a taste of what I've been getting a taste of right along." He says, "They haven't rejected you, they've rejected me, that I should not reign over them. But if they want a king, give them a king. But tell them what kind of king it's going to be."

And out comes the first king of Israel; he's from Benjamin. That's the wrong king! The Bible said the king would come from Judah. So the people say, "Give us a king! Give us a king! Give us a king!" He gives them a king--but it's the wrong king!

And that's why Saul is not called "the king." If you look in the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, you'll find, "So-and-so begat So-and-So, and So-and-So begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David the KING!" THE KING! God never recognized Saul as king. The first king of Israel God ever recognized is David.

Now, you see what I'm talking about? I'm talking about the Old Testament. I'm talking about the Bible. That's what the Bible is about. I know you get saved; praise God, I'm glad I got saved! I know Christ died for sinners; thank God He did! That's the King. That's the King dying for sinners. I sure am glad He did. That's where I get on.

But God isn't interested in Peter Ruckman. God's interested in His Son Jesus Christ.

Listen, people, this modern, humanistic emphasis we got in this country is killing us. "God thinks highly of you, God loves you, you are somebody special!" Yeah, you're a dirty, rotten, lowdown sinner who ain't worth the powdered shot it would take to blow you to hell--and that goes for your mama and daddy and all your friends! Have a nice day! God loves you!

You see what that stuff is? That stuff is designed to make you feel big. "You're somebody special!" Aww, cut it out! Listen, God Almighty could do without anybody in this building! Amen? You know that's so. "YOU?" YOU are the one who can't do without God! Talk about this stuff, "God can't get along without me!" Why, there aren't 20 people on this earth who would miss you more than a day after you kicked the bucket, probably. You might get 50 or 100, you know, some of you--or 500 might miss you for a week. And that would be about it. All this stuff--"You're somebody special." Listen, the only reason I'm special is because I am "accepted in the beloved." The only reason God gives me the time of day is because I'm in His Son. He's interested in His Son. He ain't interested in me.

I used to read the Bible through, wondering about those things, you know. One thing that bothered me, reading the Bible through, is how much time is just wasted, talking about nothing, you know. I mean, the "taxes," and the "loops," and the "solved edge of the cupling," you know, "with the five-and-a-half cubits over the silver sockets"--well, who gives a flip about that, man? I mean, "Ruth went to Naomi, and brought back a homer full of barley, or three measures of barley." "Amos has found his uncles' asses, lost in the wilderness"--gee, what a nugget! I mean, did you ever think how much useless stuff is in there? And this guy struck him under the "fifth rib", you know? What a thing! "And these are the dukes of Edom," you know--and "Aholibamah began Ahamamama, and Ahamamama begat Ahubababa"--and all that stuff! What a thing, man!

And I got to reading through there, and I said to myself, "Why is God taking all this time to waste time with this stuff?" And I got the message one day. The Lord is interested in His Son. Anything connected with His Son, to God is important. And Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Esau have something to do with Son. So He'll tell you all about the dukes of Edom. And you'll hear about Joab killing Amasa, and Joab killing Abner--because they're connected with David, and David is connected with His Son.

I see what's going on; that Book is full of the stuff that God's interested in. And the fact that I'm not interested, the world isn't interested--that means nothing to God. That's what God is interested in. And He said, "David's my king."

So He brought up David.

Now you don't doubt David's the king at all. He's the first king of the Jews. And he comes in over a literal, physical, visible kingdom. It's material. You know that, because he fights. And he goes to establish his border by the river Euphrates. And that fellow is fighting all of his life. As a matter of fact, he's fighting so much that the Lord said, "I'm not going to let you build the temple, because you've been a man of war. I'm going to let Solomon build the temple."

And then you know the history of the Book of Kings, if you read your Bible at all. And it goes through the succession of kings; nearly all the kings of Judah are good kings, but there are some exceptions. Nearly all the kings of Israel are bad kings, but there are some exceptions, but not more than one or two. And the kings go down through there, and they come through there.

JECONIAH

And then finally, toward the end, they get to a man named Jeconiah. Take your Bible and turn to Jeremiah chapter 22. Jeremiah chapter 22. That Book is about a kingdom, I'm telling you, it's about a kingdom; that's what it's about. It's about a King and about a kingdom. And for every verse of salvation, there are ten about a king. Rehoboam's reign; Jeroboam's reign; Manasseh's reign; Ahaz's reign; Ahaziah's reign; Ahab's reign; Jehoshaphat's reign. Kings, kings, kings, kings!

All right, Jeremiah 22, verses 29-30: "O earth, earth earth..." That's going to be pretty heavy. "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord." Not addressed to the Jew, not addressed to the church, not addressed to the Gentile. Addressed to the world! "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless,...for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah." Look at that thing in verses 29 and 30. Childless, no man of his seed is going to rule any more.

Look at verse 28: "Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure?" Do you see what the Lord did to that fellow? The Lord said, "Your name is JEH--that's for JAH--that's for JEHOVAH." That's an abbreviation. "You're going to put my name as a prefix on your name Coniah--I'm going to take that prefix off your name." And God calls the fellow Coniah. He said up there in verse 24, "You were the signet upon my right hand. I'll pluck you hence!" And he said, "Take that fellow childless. No man of his seed is going to prosper any more upon the throne of David."

WHOOPS!!

There goes that crown! (The Kingdom of God.)

Out she goes!

Now they're both gone. The kingdom of God's gone; the kingdom of heaven's gone.

You know what the greatest proof of the virgin birth is in the Bible? It's Jeremiah 22. Because Jeremiah 22 says, "If you come from the king's seed--here--you can't get on the throne." And that's where Christ comes from; He comes from the king's seed. He's the Son of David.

How does He get on the throne? He CAN'T HAVE A MALE SEED! Because the male seed is cursed right there, and no more men from that fellow's seed can get on. So, when Christ shows up, his daddy can't be a man! That's a virgin birth passage--Jeremiah 22.

And folks say, "O, Ruckman, that's a matter of opinion!"

No, it's a matter of revelation. In matters of controversy, my perception's always fine; I always the perceive the side that's wrong, and mine!

You say, "How come these fellows didn't see that?"

Because they're not looking for truth in the Bible; they're looking for ways to correct it.

ZEDEKIAH

All right, there's Coniah. When that thing goes off, God's all through, and the last king they have, God doesn't even recognize him. He goes into captivity, they kill his sons in front of his eyes and he's taken captive to Babylon.

And, boy, about there, 606 B.C., up shows a character. Just about the time that other crown disappears, up shows a character who builds him an image. And he says, "What time ye hear the flute and dulcimer and psaltery and all kinds of music, ye must bow down and worship the image, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego."

Along comes Nebuchadnezzar. And he carries the Jew away into captivity. And the Jew goes into captivity. And when he goes into captivity, he says, "We sat down by the waters of Babylon, and we sat down by the rivers of Babylon, and we hung our hearts in the willows thereof. And those who carried us away captive and wasted us, said, 'Sing us a song. Sing one of the songs of Zion.' How can I sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"

That's easy; practice while you're at home!

And then he said, "Let my right hand forget her cunning, if I forget not Jerusalem, my chief joy."

And those Jews sit down there--and the kingdom's gone. Didn't you read that thing in Lamentations: "The crown is fallen from us; but thy throne, O Lord, endures forever."

The Jew's all through.

DANIEL

And about that time a young man shows up in the captivity named Daniel. And one night the chief "I am muckety-muck" has a vision, and he had too much spaghetti before he went to sleep at night--or lasagne or something, you know--or pizza.

I don't know about those Italian foods at eleven o'clock at night. I don't know about those things!

And he began to toss in the middle of the night, you know, and he got up and said, "I've got a dream, and nobody can interpret. Who's going to interpret for me?"

And somebody said, "You better get Daniel who is of the captivity."

So he said, "Daniel, what about this dream?"

He said, "Well, I'll tell you what, king, there are FOUR LITERAL, PHYSICAL, VISIBLE KINGDOMS. EARTHLY--POLITICAL. And those are your kingdom, then Persia and Greece and Rome. And then an Antichrist king is going to show up, and it's going to be an earthly, physical, literal, political kingdom. And the days of those last ten kinds, the God of heaven is going to set up a kingdom--the kingdom of God on earth--that won't be shaken. And the kingdom will be given to the saints."

There's going to be a time come when a fellow, "OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME, THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH...AS IT IS IN HEAVEN."

The kingdom of God comes down to earth as a physical, literal, visible kingdom.

It comes down when the King comes down!

And Daniel prophesies that, but nothing happens.

JOHN THE BAPTIST

And time goes by. And time goes on and on, and on and on. Do you understand what I'm doing, folks? This is the Bible! The name of this sermon tonight is "The Bible." That's the name of this sermon tonight. And there isn't time to go into all these things.

I started one time, many, many years ago, I decided to have some fun, and I just thought I'd sit down with a microphone and see how much of the Bible I could remember without looking at it. And so I just sat and began to adlib the Bible--from what I could remember, just without looking at anything. You know how long it took to make that tape? It took 58 hours. Fifty-eight hours. And I sat there and just talked through Genesis 1 and talked through Genesis 2. And, when I got all through, it was funny, you know. Because it was kind of loose, you know, and just adlibbed. So I put music behind it and sound effects, and the kids like it. I mean, kids eight, nine, and ten years old, they like that thing. It's called the Ad-Lib Commentary. And it's real bad sound. The sound is bad because it was made on a Wollensak and a Sony and a General Electric, and patches to get four machines together that didn't fit, and it was done out in the shed out back, and you hear the train go by every fifteen minutes, and a dog barking every thirty minutes, and an airplane land at the airport. It was a bum recording! But I've got a lot of meat on it--that thing!

But we're not going to take 58 hours tonight. I'm going to just try to run you through. I always get nervous when I see my congregation shaking their watches, you know!

And so Daniel prophesied, and time went on, and nothing happened. And time went on and nothing happened. And time went on and nothing happened. They were about to get up.

And, boy, then, suddenly one night, there was a multitude of the heavenly host up there singing, and the shepherds were shocked; they didn't know what to do. And they said, "What's going on?"

And they said, "Unto you there is born in the city of Bethlehem a Saviour which is Christ the Lord."

And there was a multitude of the heavenly host saying, "Glory to God in the highest; glory to God in the highest; and, on earth, peace, good will toward men."

Boy, what a lying statement!

Did you ever think about that?

Here are the angels singing, and every Christmastime you hear people saying, "Peace on earth, good will to men," "Peace on earth--" there has never been any peace on this earth since He showed up! And there is less good will tonight than there ever was.

What WAS that??

You know what that was? That was the angelic host saying, "The KING is getting born! The KING is born!" "Where is He that is born KING OF THE JEWS??"

And they said, "Bethlehem-Judah. The least among the thousands of Israel, yet out of thee shall come He who is to be ruler of my people Israel."

The King is being born! And when the King comes, there will be peace on earth, good will to men.

BUT THEY CRUCIFIED THE KING!

See, you've got to get that Book straight! It's all laid out for the Second Coming right there--and they reject Him, and the whole thing steps over 2,000 years--and you're still waiting!

You say, "Where do you get that stuff from?" You get stuff from studying the Scripture.

Back in the Dark Ages there was a famous preacher whose name was Tanchelm. And he was a character. And back in those days Bibles were hard to get ahold of. And he was a self-taught preacher, and he always worried about his lack of knowledge of Scripture. And he had been praying for God to send him a Bible teacher for about a year, and no teacher ever showed up.

And one night Tanchelm was on the steps of one of these great, big, cold, Gothic cathedrals in the Dark Ages somewhere, in France or Germany or someplace. And it was about 20 degrees, he was walking up and down at night, with the flagstone, the torches burning at night, and everybody had for a long while gone to sleep. He was walking up and down there praying for God to send him a Bible teacher, and nobody ever showed up.

And about the fiftieth time he walked across the front steps of that cathedral, he saw a beggar huddled up there in one of those lights, all wrapped up in his clothes, trying to keep warm. And, more for want of company than anything else, the next time he passed that beggar, he said, "How goes it with thee, friend?"

And the beggar said, "It always goes well with me, thank you."

And Tanchelm said, "Would it go well with thee if it pleased God to put thee in Hell?"

And he started to walk away. And the beggar said, "I'd be in happier in Hell with Him than in Heaven without Him!"

And Tanchelm came back and said, "Who are you?"

And the beggar said, "I'm a king!"

And Tanchelm said, "Where's your kingdom?"

And he said, "Inside."

And Tanchelm said, "When did you learn that?"

And he said, "When I quit going to men for wisdom and went to God only."

That's when you begin to get it.

JOHN

And about that time up shows John in the wilderness--John the Baptist. And John would walk a mile for camel, because that's what he made his clothes out of! Ol' John shows up, and they said, "Art thou Elijah?" "Nope." "Are you Moses?" "Nope." "Are you that Prophet?" "Nope." "Are you Christ?" "Nope." "Well, who are you? What do you say for yourself."

"I am pastor of the largest church in the association; we have seventy buses; and our holdings are about seventeen million dollars; and last year in our Christian day school we had 340 students, and we matriculated 100 each year, and we had 150 decisions last year, and baptized..."

See, that kind of stuff. They said, "Who are you?"

And he said, "I'm a VOICE!" That's all a preacher should be. People usually recognize my voice before they recognize me. The little Watkins girl met me at the fellowship the other night, and she said, "I didn't know you with those dark glasses on!" What is she, about 10 years old? How old is your girl? That Watkins girl. Nine years old? I thought about 10 or 9, or something like that. Anyway, she said, "I didn't know who you were until I heard your voice."

That's all a preacher should be is a voice.

"Who are you?"

"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, MAKE STRAIGHT THE PATHS..." That's what a preacher should be, is a VOICE--and that's ALL. You're there to ANNOUNCE for Jesus Christ.

And ol' John shows up, and they say, "What are you preaching, boy?"

Turn to Matthew 3. Get Matthew 3 in one hand and Mark 1 in the another. You never saw such a mess in your life. Matthew chapter 3 and Mark chapter 1. This is what gets them screwed up. And they look at these two passages, and they say, "Well, the kingdom of God must be the same as the kingdom of heaven." They never have been once yet, and they never will be. Mark chapter 1, and Matthew chapter 3. All right, Mark chapter 1, verse 15. Make it Matthew 3:2, I think. Matthew 3:2: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." All right, come to Mark chapter 1, and it's verse 15. "Reptne ye...the kingdom of God is at hand." Then they're both the same, see?

They get John the Baptist, and when John the Baptist shows up, he's saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And turns right around: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Make up your mind, will you?

They're BOTH at hand!

You know why they're BOTH at hand? Because the One he's preaching about is Number One, God's Son! Born of the virgin Mary. God manifest in the flesh--kingdom of God. A spiritual being! Born of the Holy Spirit. That isn't all; he's the Son of man--born of Mary, the seed of David. Both crowns show up, and they haven't both been there since Adam. And they come along, and they both show up, and they both show up, and they both show up in Jesus Christ--and ol' John the Baptist is the forerunner of Jesus Christ.

JESUS

And John said, "The kingdom of heaven is coming," and, "The kingdom of God is coming."

And somebody says, "How in the world can that be?"

Well, a dual Man is showing up, and when this Man shows up, He is the Son of man--earthly; He suffers; He bleeds; He gets hungry; He dies; He's tired; He gets thirsty; you can bury Him; He's a Man. And He's God manifest in the flesh--in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily--He's King over the kingdom of God, and King over the kingdom of heaven. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.

And He's on this earth or thirty-three-and-a-half years, and about the time He comes down to Jerusalem, they say as He comes in on a donkey, "Behold, your KING cometh unto thee, lowly, and having salvation, riding upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass!"

That's what that Book is about!

It's about a King. It's about a kingdom. It isn't about salvation at all.

I thank God I got saved. I mean, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. But the only reason I got in is because the King died for me! See?

The Lord isn't interested in me. He's interested in the King. And the King comes down; "thy King cometh unto me." And they haul Him up there before Pilate, and Pilate says, "Behold, your KING."

And that crowd says, "WE HAVE NO KING BUT CAESAR."

Boy, you sure blew it that time, Ike! You done blew it that time!

"His blood be upon us, and upon our children."

BOY, you sure blew it then, Reubenstein! You done made a mess of it then, Goldberg! I mean, "We'll have nobody to reign over us but Rome."

Caesar was king of Rome!

"Behold, your King."

"We have no king but Caesar. We want Rome to run us!"

"You want Rome to run you?"

"OK, Adolph, come here. Heinrich Himmler, over here. Josef Goebbels, over here. Kurt Van Strangel, Rudolf Hess, over here. Pius XII, over here. You boys want to get together and have you some fun with some Jews?"

Concordat--just like that.

UP THE STACK, baby! Up the stack!

That Jew said, "We won't have Jesus Christ. We'll take the head of Rome."

OK, bud, you've got him! You've got him!

What a decision! What a tragedy! Take Him out there and put Him on a cross, and Pilate writes down, "This is Jesus, the KING--" that's what that Book's about--"THE KING OF THE JEWS."

And they said, "Don't say, 'The King of the Jews.' Just say, 'He said, "I am King of the Jews."'"

And Pilate the king said, "What I have written, I have written."

He was pretty well convinced. I know he was pretty well convinced, because when they buried him, he said, "Make the tomb as sure as you can. Like, frankly, I don't think you can make it that tight!" He had his doubts about it. And his wife was telling him, "I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." And he calls Him in there, and before Christ he says, "Are you a King?"

And He said, "My kingdom is not of this world. Otherwise my servants would fight." Literal, physical, visible, earthly kingdom. "BUT NOW--" first advent "--is my kingdom not from hence...BUT IT'S GONNA BE!"

You got that now?

"BUT NOW--it's not from hence--BUT IT'S GONNA BE!"

That's why the Living Bible leaves out the word "now." That's why the New A.S.V. leaves out the word "now." Because they're a corrupt, perverted, piece of garbage, that's why. "NOW my kingdom is not of this earth--BUT IT'S GONNA BE!"

Listen, some day it's gonna be--swords, boy! It's gonna be swords, and flaming fire, and horses. Cavalry. It's going to be tough--a military takeover.

But He says, "Now is my kingdom not from hence."

And Pilate says, "Where are you from?"

What a thing! He says, "Where are you from?" Why, he knew where Christ was from, because he sent Him to Herod, because He was from Herod's jurisdiction. But he says, "Where are you from?" You know why he asked Him that question? Because the crowd said, "He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." "Where are you from?"

Outer space.

The Star Trek Question.

And Christ doesn't tell him. He doesn't answer.

And He puts Him up there, and they say, "This is Jesus, the KING--the KING--the KING OF THE JEWS." He puts it up there in the Hebrew--that's for Shem. He puts it up there in Greek--that's for Japheth. He puts it up there in Latin--and that's for Ham. Latin comes from Africa; it doesn't come from Italy. It comes from Africa.

"THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

He dies on the cross. You know what happened. He got buried and rose again the third day from the dead. Death could not keep its prey, Jesus my Saviour.

I heard an old colored preacher preaching that one time over in Mobile. He could preach, too, boy! And some of those fellows are really saved and called to preach! You know, most of them are charismatics or Communists. But every now and then you'll find a black man who can really preach. And, boy, the ones who can really preach--they preach!

I heard him preach, and about every five minutes, he'd say, "And den come Sunday!" For the resurrection, you know. He comes up there and says, "And dere was Peter over dere, cursing and denyin' the Lord. You thought he never would get right. AND DEN COME SUNDAY!" And he'd get going. He'd say, "There was ol' Thomas over there, reading dem infidel books, and Judas hung hisself. You thought they was all through. BUT DEN COME SUNDAY!"

And he said, "When death got ahold of Jesus, the devil took Jesus and turned Him over to death and said, 'Death, now put him away and pack him down in cold ice, and keep him there.'

"'Yes suh!'"

And he said, "The next day, the devil came around to death and said, 'Hey death! You down there?'

"Death said, 'Yeah, I's down here!'"

"He said, 'You got him down there?'

"'I got Him! I got Him! He ain't goin' nowhere!'

"The next day, the devil came around and said, 'Hey death! You still got Him?'

"'I got Him! I got Him! Just don't worry! Ain't no problem!'

"The next day he came around and said, 'Death! You still got Him down there?'

"'I got Him. I got Him! Nobody gets anywhere after I gets 'em. When I gets 'em, dey's GOT!'

"The next day," he said, "the devil came around and said, 'Hey death!...Hey, death?...HEY DEATH! You down dere?'

"And death said, 'Yeah, what's you want?'

"He said, 'Is you's still got Him?'

"And death said, 'Mmmmmmm, mmmmmmmm! Somefin' gone wrong around here!'"

It sure did, man! It sure did! Somethin' went wrong around there, boy...he got out!

PETER

You know what happens. Simon Peter gets up, and Simon Peter gets to preaching at Pentecost. When Simon Peter gets preaching at Pentecost, he's preaching, "You crucified your Messiah. God offered you a literal, physical, visible kingdom. He sent you the King of the Jews. He sent deliverance." And he said, "You turned Him down. You crucified Him."

And they were pricked to the heart and said, "Men and brethren, what must we do?"

And like a good Campbellite, "Repent and be bup-tized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins."

You know those born of water free are born outright--a mosquito, a tadpole, and a Campbellite.

And he said, "You've got this kingdom here. Now what do you want to do with it?"

They said, "We want to accept it."

He said, "O.K. Get baptized."

And they got baptized. And they got baptized--three thousand of them.

STEPHEN

And time went on, and they got to preaching the gospel. About that time Stephen got full of signs and wonders, and had the apostolic signs and miracles, and they couldn't resist the wisdom whereby he spoke. And he gets to preaching away, and they brought him before the Sanhedrin, and they got Stephen up there and said, "All right, preach it, Stephen."

And Stephen gets preaching. And he preaches and says, "Hearken, men and brethren, the Lord God of our Fathers called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees..."

What a thing! Boy, you realize how that Book is put together? Twelve hundred pages and you find yourself clean back there in Genesis 12, when you get to Acts chapter 7." That Book is one unit. It's one unit put together to teach one great truth--and there ain't a flaw in it! Whoever's writing that Book is writing that Book from beginning to end, and has seen the whole thing take place before it ever took place.

And he gets up there: "Here is Abraham our Father, Ur of the Chaldees, and said, Get thee out from thy kindred, and come to a land that I will show thee of."

And that Sanhedrin said, "Amen, Stephen. That's us. Abraham's our father. We're from Abraham! Amen! Preach it, Steve! Get 'em, boy!"

He said, "Abraham got out there, and he begat Isaac and Jacob, you know, and Joseph."

"Yeah, that's us! Yeah, Stephen, preach it! Amen! Glory to God! Hallelujah, Steve!"

And he said, "The patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph in Egypt."

"Hmmmmmmm...." Put a chill on the meeting.

Then about five minutes later he said, "At which time Moses was born, and nourished in Pharaoh's house, brought up by Pharaoh's daughter, was mighty in word and deed and wisdom, and all the--"

"Amen! Stephen, that's us! Glory to God! We're Moses' disciples! Amen! Preach it, boy!"

"And learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And Moses went out there a certain day and saw a fellow mistreat his fellow, and he delivered him, supposing them to understand. But they didn't understand."

"Ummmmmmmmmmm..."

Stephen's the ideal preacher. He'll raise you up, see, and then--WHOOOM--and then he'll go, WHOOOOMMM. And, boy, about that time, the congregation began to thin out. And he said, "Have you carried Him by the tabernacle in the wilderness for forty years. O ye children, ye were born of the star of your god Moloch, images which ye have to yourselves--and I will carry you away to Babylon."

Boy, Stephen's friends began to get up and leave the balcony. "I know he's going to do it. I know Stephen. He'll blow it every time. He'll put his foot in his mouth. Let me out of here, man! I don't went to get caught when this thing comes through!"

And Stephen comes down before the end and he says, "Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, saith the prophet, 'Heaven is my THRONE.'" You see what that Book's about. "'Heaven is my THRONE, the earth is my footstool. What house will ye build me, seeing my hand hath made all these things?' You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers; Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and haven't kept it!"

Every head bowed. Every eye closed. Would you like prayer? Raise your hand and say, "Pray for me!"

I mean he got down to the invitation, and gave the invitation. THEY CAME FORWARD! You bet your life they came forward. And THEY BEAT HIS BRAINS OUT! They stoned him.

And Stephen's down there on a pile of rocks; he's down there on a pile of rocks, looking up to heaven and he says, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And receive my spirit."

And he's lying down there, and they say, "What do you see, Steve?"

He says, "I see the Son of man STANDING on the right hand of God."

WHAT'S HE DOING STANDING?

Every verse in the Bible says he's seated. Every one of them. Psalm 110, "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." "Seated at the right hand in the heavenlies," Ephesians. "Seated at the right hand of God," Hebrews. Stephen says, "STANDING."

What's He standing for?

You know, when I went to school, they said He was standing to get up and receive Stephen's soul. Well, that's an interesting devotional nugget, but let's just face it, man; the Lord's not going to get up and receive a Christian every time he dies; He'd be getting up and down like a jumping jack. That's silly!

You know what He's doing standing up? HE'S ABOUT TO COME BACK! You say, "How do you know?" Didn't you read what He said to those Pharisees in Matthew chapter 26, when they were beating Him and meat-grinding Him, and spitting on Him, and plucking out His beard and saying, "Prophesy, O Christ, are you the Christ of God?" He said, "Nevertheless you shall see the Son of man coming at the right hand of power."

THAT'S WHAT STEPHEN SEES!

And he gets down there and he says, "There He is, at the right hand of power!"

And they say, "Kill that so-and-so!!" They can't stand that! And they kill him.

Christ is standing up. And, listen, if that Sanhedrin had received Jesus Christ as their Saviour, you know what would have happened? If they had done that? Those elders would have gone right into the valley of Gehenna, got the red heifer, cut the red heifer open, washed their hands, opened the red heifer--and the blood would have been forgiven them.

And WHOOSH! BAMMM! The Rapture would have been right then. Ol' Judas would have come out of the pit right then, and showed up in Rome with Caesar for three-and-a-half years, and break the covenant, come to Jerusalem--and the Second Advent would have taken place in seven years.

That's why He said, "The kingdom of heaven's at hand. The kingdom of heaven's at hand." It's only seven years off! "The kingdom of heaven's at hand." Ten years at the most.

That's why the angels said, "Glory to God in the highest. And peace on earth. Good will to men."

It's right there!

And they turn Him down. They turn Him down, and GOODBYE, AGAIN. Goodbye, what? Goodbye, kingdom of heaven.

The Jew loses the kingdom.

From that time there, from Stephen, to right where you're sitting right now, there's only one kingdom on this earth--and that is a moral, spiritual, righteous kingdom, the kingdom of God. There is no kingdom of heaven on this earth.

You want to build your kingdom? You want the Zoegraphs and the marble hallways, do you? And the elevators and the Belgian bells? You go to a motel, you know, and see these wide, beautiful streets with the landscape on them, and spend all your money for a physical, literal, visible kingdom? You're in the wrong dispensation. THERE ISN'T ANY!! There isn't any. You're in the kingdom of God.

Every kingdom builder in this age right here is a bloody killer who will do ANYTHING to get material possessions. Now that means the Christians as well as the unsaved people. We're not spreading a physical kingdom; we're spreading a spiritual kingdom.

Are you winning souls? Are you getting people saved? Are you putting out the word of God? It's spiritual. "The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life." Are you witnessing? Well, listen, if you're not doing that, you're not spreading any kingdom God knows anything about. You know who the kingdom-builders are? Charlemagne. Napoleon. Pope Pius XII. Adolf Hitler. Reagan. Bush. Gorbechev. Martin Luther King Jr. Mayor Daley. Franklin Roosevelt. The Rockefellers. Those are the kingdom-builders.

There is no kingdom of heaven in this age! There is no literal, physical, visible kingdom. There's a spiritual kingdom.

PAUL

When God called this fellow out to preach, He calls out a man who witnessed Stephen's assassination. And calls him out and says, "Go out there and preach..." what? Turn to Acts 20; I'll show you what he preached. Acts chapter 20. If you're a hyper-dispensationalist, he sure didn't preach the Body mystery; he didn't waste five minutes with it. That's just something he wrote. He didn't preach that to anybody. Turn to Acts chapter 20, and look at verse 20: "...and have taught you publickly, and from house to house..." Now look at verse 25: "...among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God." He preached two other things; verse 21: "...repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." O.K., verses 20, 21, and 25. The content of the Pauline preaching is repentance toward God, faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of God.

No kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of God.

All right, now, you know what's going to happen. One of these days or one of these nights--preferably tonight--the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." When that takes place, both crowns are gone again.

Do you remember what happened the last time both crowns left? Well, guess what going to happen when both crowns leave again! That's when the times of the Gentiles begin--when both crowns are gone; there's the times of the Gentiles ending right there--when both crowns are gone--and up shows the son of perdition. And takes over the literal, physical, visible kingdoms of this world.

You know, I've taught for years and years on the seven "sevens." I've said if the Lord were born in 4 b.c. and our calendar is right, the Rapture cannot be any later than 1989. I don't repent of that statement. That statement is true. I always qualified it and said, "If our calendar is right." It's funny how folks leave out the qualifying clause.

You say, "He didn't come in 1989." O.K., our calendar isn't right. Or, maybe He wasn't born in 4 b.c. Maybe He was born in 3 b.c. If He was born in 3 b.c., He'll be here this year. If the calendar is right. If He was born in 2 b.c., you'll have to wait until 1991. If the calendar is right. If He was born in 1 b.c., you'll have to wait until 1992. If the calendar is right. If He was born when He was born--that's a horrible thought!--you'll have to wait until 1993. If the calendar is right.

You say, "What if the calendar is completely off." Well, I don't know how long you'll have to wait. But I know one thing. The way that thing is moving, it can't run more than three years, no matter what you do with it!

You know where Iraq is! You know what's in Iraq--Babylon is in Iraq. You know what the Antichrist is called in Isaiah 10? He is called the Assyrian. He's called that five times! That's the Pharaoh of the Exodus--an Assyrian. You know where Assyria is? It's Iraq. That's where it is.

We're moving too fast. Now, don't leave here and say, "Ruckman says Saddam Hussein--or that ragmop over there, that raghead--don't say Ruckman said that thing was the Antichrist." I didn't say that. You know why Arab women wear veils? So they can blow their nose without getting their hands dirty!

Awww, it's great to be saved; you don't have to take that stuff seriously! I mean, folks talk about the Iraqian crisis. There isn't any crisis! There isn't any crisis. I mean, listen, go home tonight and get a dictionary and see what the word "crisis" means. "Crisis" is a thing that demands immediate action. How long has it been? Two weeks? Three weeks? You call that immediate? Why, the newspapers knew that--the Persian Gulf "crisis." There ain't no crisis. In a crisis, you act.

My granddaddy was an old regular Army officer, a West Pointer, and a real general--the real thing, you know--blue-shirt uniform, and gold epilets, the whole works. A saber rattler. He had a saber, a dress saber; and he rattled it. And I'll tell you how my granddaddy handled a thing like that; he's very direct. My granddaddy, if he was commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he'd go over there and see what they got over there--stealth bombers and all that stuff. And there's no use to waste good equipment; I mean, try the stuff out, if you put that much money in it! I mean, man, he'd go over there, and he'd say, "All right, you've got 48 hours to get out of Kuwait. You've got 48 hours." Then they'd talk awhile, and he'd say, "You've got 47." And they'd talk awhile, and have some meetings, and he'd say, "You've got 46." A couple of United Nations summit meetings, and he'd say, "You've got 44."

And they'd say, "Well, this thing here, and the hostages here, and the chemical gas--"

And he'd say, "You have 42."

And just count the thing off. "You've got one hour."

"Yeah, but think of all the women and children. Think about this and that. The complications of Israel--"

"You've got 15 minutes."

"You've got 10 minutes to get out of Kuwait!"

"Yeah, but think about--"

"YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE--"

60...50...40...--and, boy, when it got down to one, ALL HELL WOULD BREAK LOOSE, man! Just turn that whole Arabian desert to glass.

You know what nuking will do to sand, don't you? Make glass out of it. Give them some glass to skate on.

When I go home tonight, I'm not going to turn on the news. Have a good day; turn off the news. I mean, anybody can pick up one newspaper a week and find out everything that went on during that week in two pages. Amen! Amen, amen, amen! So, why waste your time with it?

All right, you know what's going to happen: "I saw heaven opened, and, behold, a white horse. And He that sat upon it had a name on His thigh--" Don't you know what it's going to be? "KING OF KINGS!"

The Book is about a King--I'm a tellin' you!

It isn't about salvation; but thank God I'm not going to hell, and going to heaven when I die. But the Lord ain't interested in that. I mean, you think God is interested in the day when wicked men murdered His Son on the cross? The Lord ain't interested in that day. That's my day. That's where I get in. I get in there. I'm numbered with the transgressors. I get in there.

You know what God's interested in? He's interested in this day right over here! What's going to take place? His Son is going to come back to this earth and get what rightfully belongs to Him.

KING OF KINGS...and LORD OF LORDS.

And He comes back and reigns on this earth for a thousand years. What happens after that? Well, He says, "I saw the heaven and earth melt with a fervent heat, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. And I saw new heavens and a new earth. And I saw new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven." And he talks about new heavens and new earth. Simon Peter says in 2 Peter 3, "wherein dwelleth..." the new heavens--plural--not just the earth--"wherein dwelleth righteousness."

RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE HEAVENS!

How about that?

"A new heaven and new earth...wherein dwelleth righteousness." That means God plans to fill this whole universe with a perfect race of sinless people under His Son Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

Now, I'm about through now. I've been pretty long-winded tonight. But you can't just, you know, run through this thing in a minute. But do you remember what happened 'way back there? He told that man, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." And then, for want of a nail the shoe is lost, and for want of a shoe the horse is lost, and for want of a horse the rider is lost, and for the want of a rider the crown is lost, and for want of a crown the kingdom is lost--and all for the want of a horseshoe nail. A little thing--what was it? Just taking the fruit off a tree he shouldn't have taken. Lost the whole thing.

And God told that fellow--you know what He said to him? He said, "Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth." Now, put on your thinking cap and think just a minute. What do you suppose would have happened if Adam had done what God told him to do? What do you suppose would have happened if Eve had done what God told her to do? You ladies, can you imagine what it would be like to have painless childbirth? No afterbirth pains? No birth pangs? No discomfort? I mean, if you had one child every two years, it wouldn't put any special strain on you.

How many people do you reckon would be on this earth if they had gone and done what God told them to do? How about you ladies? Suppose you had painless childbirth, and none of your kids ever got sick, and none of them ever got killed? And none of them ever died? You realize how many people would be on this earth? I mean, some of you fellows who are good C.P.A., sit down and figure that out for me sometime, and figure out if that woman had a child once every other year for a thousand years--and each one of those children, when they got to be twenty, had a child every other year for a thousand years. You know something? You get to figuring that thing out, by the time of Christopher Columbus, you couldn't walk on the earth. There'd be people. I figured it out one time; I think you would have five people per square foot! Why, you couldn't sit down!

A fellow said one time, "I've got these new pants, and these pants are tighter than my skin."

And the guy said, "Your pants couldn't be tighter than your skin."

He said, "They are, because I can sit down in my skin, but I can't sit down in these pants!"

And if all those folks had been reproducing, there wouldn't be any room to sit down, they'd just be piling on top of each other.

Well, tell me something. When God started this thing, do you think He intended to confine it just to the earth. With THAT out there? I had a fellow say to me one time, "Why, Ruckman, you can't tell me all this stuff happened down here on this little old earth. What about that big universe out there? What did God make all that for? It couldn't have happened just down here on this one little planet."

I said, "Sure, it happened down here on this one little planet."

He said, "How do you figure?"

I said, "God didn't want to stink up the whole thing!" I mean, God's not going to populate outer space until He has a sinless race of perfect people who obey His Son.

Come on, folks, you look like adult people! Don't you know what would happen right now if we conquered outer space? Don't you know? You'd have interplanetary war. Why, anybody knows that who watches "Star Trek," or "Star Wars," or "Flash Gordon," or "Buck Rogers." Do you think God is going to let this bunch of sex-crazy, money-mad, dopeheaded, fornicating, God-hating, Bible-rejecting, Christ-despising sinners populate the universe? He's going to cut that thing off and make a new one and start over again, and start over right.

Turn to Isaiah 9. I'll show you one. Get Isaiah 9, and come down there to verse 6: "Unto us a child is born." SON OF MAN. "Unto us a son is given." SON OF GOD. The gift of God is eternal life. Both natures. "A child is born." Physical, literal, earthly. "A son is given." Son of God--eternal life. "And the government shall be upon his shoulders"--next verse--"and of the increase of his government...upon the throne of David...there shall be no end....The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." You see that? They're not talking about the time; they're talking about the geographical coverage. "Of the increase of his government there shall be no end." They go out in outer space.

God's going to populate outer space. But God's not going to populate outer space with this bunch of smart-aleck, self-righteous, God-rejecting, Bible-hating, Christ-denying bunch of materialistic sinners. He ain't gonna do it. When He does it, it's going to be done right.

Now, listen. Are you here tonight and you're not saved? That's the Bible. Next time anybody asks you what the Bible is about, it's about that. It's not about the gift of tongues. It's not about healing. Those are minute, minor things. It's about that. That's what the Bible's about. And your only hope of getting anywhere is to get connected with the King.

Now, I'm connected with the King. I'm the beggar; He's the king. I get in on the goodies. I don't have to go to Houston Space Center to travel into outer space; I'm going to travel into outer space. One of these days, I'll be taking care of couples of ministering to those that shall be heirs of salvation--and I'll be carrying a man and woman up to a planet, and putting them down there and saying, "Be fruitful, and multipy, and replenish this place." FOREVER! I get all the good part.

And if you're unsaved, you know what you do? You spend eternity in the lake of fire. You know what you ought to do tonight? You ought to get to Jesus Christ just as quick as you can get.

I don't know how much of that you understand, and how much of that you don't understand--but you don't have to understand anything accept this to get saved--BUT THE KING CAME DOWN and humbled Himself and died in your place--so you could be a king.

Father, bless your word tonight. We're thankful for Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful tonight that I get in on it. And I wouldn't have missed it for anything, Lord. And I sure would have been miserable forever, and, like the Book says, gnashing of teeth forever if I had missed. And I thank God one day you sent Hugh Pyle around my way in a radio station and told me about this good news. And I thank God I had enough sense to accept it. I would never forgive myself if I hadn't. And it's been good all the way, Lord. And we haven't got to the best part yet. The best part's coming. But it's been good all the way--all the trip home. And I pray, Father, if there's anybody here tonight who's unsaved, that they might receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour and come tonight and walk this aisle, and confess Him as King of kings and Lord of lords--not only of the universe, but over their own life as well. May they put Him on the throne tonight."

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