Introduction: In any war, there is an office of disinformation, to lie to and deceive the enemy. Early in 1944 the Allies selected General George S. Patton ("Old Blood and Guts"), the American general most feared by the Germans, to lead a nonexistent army to fool the German High Command. He was seen all over England speaking to troops and acting as if he were preparing an army for invasion. The allies created fake divisions, fake units, fake tanks and fake artillery pieces. German spies reported the build up of this army, and German reconnaisance aircraft reported the existence of the equipment. Underground French resistance fighters routinely sabotaged, harassed, and cut German communications and logistical supports and supply lines in order to make it appear that the main axis of the allied thrust would begin in Calis. The Germans were completely deceived. The allies had done so well in convincing the German High Command that Calis was to be the objective that even 2 or 3 days after the actual invasion there were German generals who still believed that the main effort was going to come at Calis, and that the Normandy invasion was just a diversion.

Satan is described in the Bible as the great liar and deceiver of mankind. When he tempted Jesus in the wilderness he lied, and said that all the kingdoms of the world were his, and he could give them to Jesus, if Jesus would simply worship him. Jesus called him the "father of the lie."

Satan is still deceiving us today. One particular deception he is pressing hard right now is that we live in a "post-Christian era." Many great Christians have been deceived. (Share quotes) But Satan is a liar. We do not live in a "post-Christian era," and never will. What does the Bible say about the growth of Christ's Kingdom on earth?

I. THE SPEED OF THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM
There will be a slow steady growth until the entire earth is engulfed in the Kingdom.

A. Matthew 13:31-33

"He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."

B. Daniel 2:26-45
Hundreds of years are included in this summary of world history from Babylon to the Medes and Persians, to the Greeks, and to the Roman empire, the remnants of which are still with us today. The Rock that filled the earth GREW. It did not fill the earth instantaneously. God will take some time to "crush" all the other kingdoms.

II. THE NATURE OF THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM
The growth of the Kingdom will come by the preaching of the Gospel, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is different from the worldly kingdoms. Mao Tse Tung said, "Power comes from the barrel of a gun." But Jesus said...

A. John 18:36
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

B. Matthew 28:18-20
"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

C. Acts 1:8
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

D. Matthew 16:18 (Amplified Version)
"I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not hold out against it."

E. 2 Corinthians 10:4
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds."

The Spirit-filled and Spirit-applied preaching of the Gospel is more powerful than all Satan's plans or armies.

III. THE EXTENT OF THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM
We should expect to see the whole world accept Jesus as Saviour.

A. Some people will of course reject Jesus and be lost. We do not accept Universalism.

B. But Jesus came to save THE WORLD, not just a small percentage of the world.

1. John 12:32
"But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."

2. Psalm 86:9
"All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name."

3. Psalm 22:27-28
"All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations."

4. Isaiah 2:2-4
"In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."

5. John 3:16-17
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

"The world" in Greek is the word "kosmon," from which we get our English "Cosmos." According to the Greek lexicon, this word means, "the world in its most inclusive sense, the universe...the planet on which we live...mankind in general...the world as totality." The number of the elect is not a small number, nor a small percentage of the whole number of mankind. Jesus came to save the world, not just a small part of the world.

6. Revelation 7:9-10
"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

7. Genesis 22:17
"I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies."

How many stars are there? There are thought to be 400 billion stars in the Milky Way alone. And possibly 3 thousand million billion stars in the known universe. NASA alleges that the number is probably larger than that.

How many grains of sand are there on earth's beaches? Mathematicians from the University of Hawaii have estimated the number to be 7.5 times 10 to the 18th power. A number too large to grasp in any meaningful way. Believers in Jesus are the children of Abraham, and we shall multiply and fill the earth.

Conclusion: We have already seen tremendous growth. In the past 2000 years the Church has grown from just a few people to 1/3 the population of the earth. Every day 91,000 people are either converted or born into Christian families. In the 21st century God will place tools of communication into our hands that will enable us to reach the world with the Gospel in more powerful ways. Also, the isolation of far away nations is coming to an end. The entire world is turning into a global community. The closed nations of the earth will have to open up more and more to Christian nations, and as we preach the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have every confidence that increasing multitudes will receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and the words of that old Isaac Watts hymn, "Jesus Shall Reign," will certainly come true:

Amen.