Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Kingdom of Violence Pt.2

Amen. Let's go ahead and turn to Matthew 5 and just continue to take a look at the great and the powerful kingdom in which you and I serve and of which you and I are citizens. It's amazing the patriotism that there is for nations, the commitment that there is to natural family and the different clans that are represented, and how easily people can just walk away from the kingdom of God. It's because they have never tasted the goodness of God. Those that are able to live outside of the kingdom, outside of the fellowship of God's presence, have never really fully tasted the goodness of the Lord. That's part of what we're wanting to encourage in this study, that pressing in to know what rights, privileges, and benefits there are in being faithful to serve in this kingdom, to be able to put aside all of the natural fears that are within us that say, "If we humble ourselves, people are going to take advantage of us" or "If we become too offensive by today's terminology, we are not politically correct as it pertains to our religion." We live in a country today, tragically, that says you can believe whatever you want--you just can't practice it. We seem to think that we still have freedom, but we don't any longer in this nation, and that's sad. The freedom that was provided for us in the First Amendment really isn't in place any longer.

In this kingdom that you and I are partaking of, that you and I are living in, are all of these great benefits that many of us are not taking advantage of. We want to try to encourage us as individuals to draw on that presence and power of God to where we can take up the privilege of that anointing and truly be able to affect the power of God in casting out devils and laying hands on the sick and watching them recover. The kingdom that you and I are a part of is not in word; it's in power. It's not doctrine. I want to encourage you folks in something tonight: we're not Baptists. We're a people that have tasted the goodness of God. We know what it means to have a visitation of the Holy Spirit, to be filled with the power of God. This kingdom that you and I are part of is in power; it's not in doctrine.

When I talk about the Baptists, we're talking about a people who have experienced a lot of letter, a lot a doctrine. They're a people that defend a doctrinal position without a true visitation of the Person and the power and the privilege of walking in the Spirit. I just pick the Baptists out as part of it; we can talk about any type of a Calvinistic position. I don't want to get into Calvinism versus Arminianism versus biblical truth. The point I'm making is this. There's a religious kingdom, a people that can say, "I know God, and yet His presence and His indwelling power isn't sufficient to cause me to live victoriously over sin, to be able to lay my life down as a sacrifice and go out and serve in a capacity that may cost me everything in this natural life." There's a passiveness in the mistaken perspective of the sovereignty of God. I understand not fully, but to a greater degree than I ever have in my life, the sovereignty of God. I believe in the sovereignty of God. I practice my confidence in the sovereignty of God to a degree that I never have before, and yet it can also bring about a passivity if we're not careful.

We want to stir up in each one of us in this study an awareness of what our call is to represent this kingdom. As we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then things that so many Christians are all concerned about, that He says to take no thought for, will be added to us. It's those cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of things that enter in and choke out the Word or the pursuit of kingdom living. But when you seek the kingdom first, when you have absolute confidence in the providence of God, in the promises of God, it brings about for you and me the seeking of the kingdom first, a rest and assurance, a visitation of God in the supernatural that meets all of these other necessities in our lives.

I hope that in this study we can become seekers of the kingdom first. It can become so comfortable for you to live by those principles and not by the world's kingdom of understanding, of touch, of taste, of smell. The God that you and I serve transcends our comprehension, our understanding. Aren't you glad that He's bigger than your little peanut-brain? Yet there are two kingdoms. This one that we're talking about of faith, as we saw in Matthew 5, verse 3, requires a poverty of spirit, a humbling of ourselves, a genuine understanding of who we are without Him. This takes some work. It takes some cultivation to empty self of self. The Bible says, "Humble yourself in the sight of God and in due time He will exalt you" (1 Peter 5:6). There needs to be a humbling, a course that we set, to where we're disciplining ourselves constantly to walk in humility. Basically what I'm talking about is a selflessness or a dependence upon God, His methods, His wisdom, His ability, and not our own. It doesn't come naturally. It's foreign to us. Humility is not natural to man. It's supernatural.

Which kingdom are you comfortable in tonight? Which one do you flow in with confidence? I'm not talking about doctrine where you say, "Well, I just trust in God. I really don't have confidence in the flesh." Let's find out where you have confidence really. Which one are you comfortable in? Which happens most naturally to you? Do the thoughts of God come first? Do righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost dominate your life, or is there natural fear--the anxiety, the concern with whether we're going to get ahead in life, the thought for tomorrow, the anxiousness for things, the fear of calamity for our family, the turmoil of the natural wonders of what's taking place?

Someone asked me today whether or not we would be going on our missions trip if we went to war with Iraq. I said, "I don't know for sure what we'll do at that juncture if the State Department tells us that there is imminent possibility of terrorism." We don't want to subject our children to unnecessary danger, but at the same time we're not going to live in the same fears that natural people do, because in the kingdom that you and I live in, "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee" (Psalm 91:7). Which kingdom do you live in? I'm talking about where we live. Which kingdom do you live in? Are we just as fearful as everybody else about what might happen in our lives? I want to tell you something. You can drop your children off in Baghdad the night before we start bombing and be at peace if you know God is with you. Can you say "Amen" to that? Where are we living when it comes down to really making decisions in life, when it comes to trusting God for our daily bread?

What we're talking about as we teach on the kingdom is about that true reliance in God, that coming to understand, "Are we partaking of God's righteousness, of the peace, of the joy that comes only in the Holy Ghost?" There isn't any joy in anything that the world can provide you. That other kingdom cannot bring you joy. It advertises joy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It tells you that there are all kinds of ways to make life enjoyable, to be at peace, and to be happy. There's no joy in that kingdom. Yet how many of us keep looking over the fence into the other kingdom when there's only one joy, and that's being in absolute right relationship with your heavenly Father, having divested ourselves of everything that we might know Him, of counting everything dung that we might "apprehend that for which we have been apprehended," Paul says?

Have you apprehended it yet? Have you taken hold of the good promises of God, the exceeding great and precious promises that cause us to become partakers of that divine nature? The "partaking of the divine nature" isn't just the expression of the power of God, the majesty of God. The "partaking of the divine nature," the "exceeding great and precious promises" that Peter talks about, is that ability to rest in God's provision, of being able to eat the fruit of righteousness, peace, and joy that is the manifestation of the indwelling Spirit within us, of walking in the Spirit and not the flesh, the reliance in God's promises to us that He'll give us exceeding abundant above anything that we could ask or even think. Natural mind cannot comprehend the things that God has prepared for those that love Him, but they have been revealed unto us, the apostle goes on to say. They're spiritually understood, but they're not naturally perceived. It goes beyond what nature has been able to reveal to us, but innately, inwardly, we know the good things that God has prepared for us and that they transcend anything that mind can imagine.

I've got a pretty good imagination, and God's presence is going to be greater than that. His heaven is going to be greater than anything you could create in your mind, greater than all of the symbolism that the Bible has. It's not going to really be streets of gold. There's not going to really be pearls that you can imagine. Though there may be streets of gold and pearls, they'll be beyond anything you can imagine! Those are just symbols. That's just a typical statement so that we can have some comprehension of the worth, the majesty, of what God has prepared for us.

Which kingdom are you comfortable in? Which one do you flow in most easily? If your children happen to go to Nairobi and we're at war--Nairobi is one of the targets for terrorism and has been for some reason--how comfortable are you with that? How natural is it for you to just flow and just say, "I want to tell you something. He's given His angels charge over us. I don't sit up late at night and worry about my children." Doesn't the Scripture tell us that's vain? I put my kids over into the hands of God. I'm anxious for nothing, because in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, I just let my requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding just dominates my heart. It keeps my mind in Christ Jesus. My mind isn't scattered. I'm not fearful. I'm not double-minded, tossed to and fro by all the wind of doctrine, by circumstances. I'm steadfast, knowing that His angels have charge over us. I believe that there is no weapon formed against me that can prosper. Do you believe that? It's easy to say "Amen." Go to Haiti and stand up publicly and proclaim that in the midst of all of those who practice voodoo, and it works, and be completely confident in the God that's for you and nobody can be against you. Which kingdom are you living in?

I'll never forget turning up Route 606 off of Route 28 and winding up that way 30 years ago. Things were different then. I was just really wondering, "Father, what have you done?" It was just a few weeks earlier that I was in Los Angeles. How many of you know that there's a difference between Herndon and Los Angeles? As we walked into those federally-subsidized homes, apartments--some of you probably don't remember, but back then there was a program on television called Kojak. Old Telly Savalas was on there and it was the cop show of the day. I'll never forget this. Kojak was on, sirens blaring on television, all of the excitement, and all of Janet's relatives were kneeling on the sofa looking out the window because there was more action going on in the parking lot than there was on Kojak: the fights, the dead bodies. I'll never forget as they opened up that room and that corpse, that thing was vile. My little baby was sleeping, a guy was kicking on the door, and the police were downstairs, sirens and the lights and all of the different things. This guy was up there that the police had been searching for, and he's kicking on my door and yelling down at the cops, "I'm going to break in! I'll kill these people!" He's banging on our door. I had Janet get the kids and take them into a back room and I got an angle at the door where I could take this guy out if he came through. He would have been very surprised had he come through that door. The police finally got him and handcuffed him. I was watching them take him out. It was kind of interesting because it was a cement stairway and each cop had a leg. His hands were handcuffed behind his back, they each had a foot, and his head was going "bump!" "bump!" "bump!" That is not police brutality; that is police reality. My mind hearkened back to that beautiful, elaborate home that I had just been offered weeks earlier in Los Angeles, and I was able to stand and say, "Father, You are so good. Thank You. I am at peace because I'm in the Holy Ghost. I know I'm exactly where You want me." Are you walking in that part of the kingdom that causes you to understand that what doesn't make sense to the natural mind makes perfect sense from the eternal perspective? We don't judge by the immediate circumstances, but we rest in the eternal wisdom of God. Which kingdom are we going to live in?

We've got a picture. One of these pictures is hilarious: it's an old curb. Things have kind of gotten older there too, as time has gone by. In its prime, the area that we lived in wasn't great. I'm talking about out in Bakersfield. We have a picture of this one curb right across--as I shared the testimony with you--from the youth chapel there, where one of those young men who had overdosed on heroin was raised up by the power of God. I can see it like it happened yesterday, but over 30 years ago, as that young man was brought back to life. I can see him as he jumped out of that car, ran across the street, through those double doors, and dove to the altar. Numerous young people who were on drugs were delivered by the power of God. Which kingdom are we a part of?

The world is absolutely inundating us with humanism. Those of us in this room aren't buying it, but the world in their supernatural ignorance and their supernatural stupidity still embrace all of this humanistic, Dr. Spock approach to child rearing. We see the total anarchy and defiance and hatred of youth who have no understanding of right or wrong because man thinks that somehow there's innate goodness in us. Unregenerate man is evil, totally depraved, and without instruction has no consideration for justice, for right, but only for self-expression, self-gratification, and self-rule. We've been told that man is basically good. "There's a goodness in man." There is no goodness in man. Which kingdom are we a part of?

Are we content, then, to let children be moral and not be born again? Which kingdom are we a part of? Are we content with good kids or do we want saved kids? I'm not just talking about our own. I'm talking about people that we encounter. What I'm saying is this. The gospel needs to be taken to the good kids, not just to the street kids. The "up and outers" need to be saved just like the "down and outers." There's so much emphasis on the drug addict and the poor individual with AIDS and all of these people. They need to hear the gospel, but beloved, we're talking about a humanity who's lost in the deception of their own righteousness. Only the power of the gospel can break the chains that hold their thoughts in bondage to the secular humanism of our day.

What have we done to reach those around us? For fear of offending people who go to church, we don't tell them they need to born again? "I go to church." Do we stop there? That's not enough. I'm not just talking about the Catholics. What about these people we were just mentioning earlier? What about some of these Calvinists who are just the modern-day Gnostics, the modern-day Pharisees? As we read in chapter five of Matthew, we see that He says in verse 20, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." These were a people that kept the law to the letter, every jot and every tittle, but He said that there is a righteousness that must exceed that if you're going to enter this kingdom that I'm talking about. What is this righteousness? Look at verse 19: you must "do and teach." "I didn't come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it, and I came expecting you to do it. Not study it, not give a mental assent, but is there a heart change?" Is everything in your life about doing the Word of God?

We were just at this basketball tournament. If I had been running that tournament, things would have been different. When we talked to the people that were running the tournament, their response was, "We go by a certain sanctioning, and the rules of this basketball organization" As Kimberly and Greer were talking to this man who ran the tournament they said, "We're not talking about a sanctioning body. We're talking about a reproach on the name of Jesus Christ. You allowing these kids to act this way is a reproach on Jesus." I don't know why these people want to keep inviting us down there! They invite us down there, and we tell them how lousy of a job they're doing. There's something in this guy that wants to do the truth, but he has never seen an example of it. They talk all the time about, "If you don't show up for this coaches' meeting If your children don't come to chapel" but these rules are never enforced.

There is a kingdom and its citizens "shall do and teach them, [and these] shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (verse 19). Jesus said, "If you say you love Me and don't keep My commandments, you're a liar. You're not part of My kingdom." So the question we're asking tonight is this. Not only in our own lives, but how about the propagation, the sharing, of the gospel of the kingdom? That's what it's called: "the good news of the kingdom." "There's a place that you can run to from the powers of the world, the kingdom of the world, the powers of darkness, the lordship of Satan. You can leave that kingdom and become citizens of a new kingdom and be safe and live in the light and live in righteousness." There's the good news that there's another kingdom; there's an alternative.

What are we doing to share that gospel? Are we content with people that name the name of Jesus, to just let them name that name and think that they're alright if they're hearers and not doers of the Word of God? It's an offensive kingdom. It's a kingdom that suffers violence. It's a kingdom whose gate, whose access, is straight and narrow. It's a kingdom that you can't come in carrying in all of the excesses of the world's lifestyle and methodology. It's a hard thing for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God--a rich man versus a man poor in spirit--a man who's trusting in his uncertain riches, a man who's pursuing the cares of this world, a man who is having the Word of God choked out by the cares, deceitfulness, and the lusts of the world's kingdom. You can't enter into this kingdom. It's a straight and narrow kingdom. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a man who's partaking of the world to enter the kingdom of God. Any item from the world is too big to take through that straight and narrow path. There is no worldliness in this kingdom. There is no place for self in this kingdom.

As we look at these principles and we see what Jesus is teaching us here, "Don't think that I've come to destroy the law. I've come to fulfill it. I've come to be the prototype of obedience. I've come to be the one that through My obedience, the law will be satisfied, the justice of God will be established." Theologically, we talk about this aspect of relating to God and the "appeasement" factor of God's justice and holiness. We use the term "propitiation." It means "an appeasement, a satisfying." Jesus' obedience--Jesus having partaken of your sin and my sin upon Himself, He who knew no sin becoming sin with our sin--satisfied the justice of God when He was crucified, when He was separated from God. Then in God's righteousness, because He was an innocent sacrifice, He was able to raise Him again. The holiness of God had been satisfied. The law had been fulfilled.

Many people tell us today, the Gnostics of our day are telling us that the judicial satisfaction is sufficient. The judicial satisfaction, the work that Jesus did, was not totally sufficient. It was sufficient in that it provided us not only legislatively, not only judicially, but now practically. Because of Jesus' victory, you and I can live free experientially, literally free from sin's power. That's what the gospel is all about. The difference of the two kingdoms is this. One says, "Jesus satisfied the holiness of God, and if we believe that we will be citizens of the kingdom--if we believe that Jesus did it." The Bible teaches that Jesus satisfied the law of God and because of that, He is now going to indwell you and give you the capacity to live in obedience and be doers of the Word, not just hearers, of loving Him to the place of keeping the commandments, of divesting yourself because "If you don't love Me more than these, you're not worthy of Me." Which kingdom are we drinking from? Which kingdom are you and I bearing fruit in? Which one are we comfortable in today?

Most of us that are here are pursuing the kingdom of God. The reason that we want to take these sessions and spend a little bit of time here is to say that we've sought it for ourselves; we've been seeking a personal holiness. That's been the emphasis of our fellowship for a number of years. Now we need to take the benefits of that personal holiness, of our personal pursuit of God and what God has done in our lives through that, and we need to now realize this has to be invested now in the representation of this kingdom in power, not just in word, but let men see the good works. Not just how we love one another--that's a great part of it--but the good works that God wants to express through us as we go out and freely share what God has given us through an understanding of Himself through the visitation.

Not everybody has what we have, beloved. I'm not just talking about the knowledge. I'm talking about the awareness of the visitation. I'm talking about the ability to pray a prayer of faith and see people healed. I was sharing with the concierge at The Ridge Tahoe. It was exciting to see this young man, a new convert. He has been saved about a year. When he found out I was a believer and a pastor, he kept coming, and he wanted to ask me questions. The one thing I was glad to hear was that here was a group that if you classified them are fundamentalists, but he said, "Our pastor is a little different than some of the other pastors of [this denomination or this organization]. He's one of these guys [he used the term "radical"] that really believes what the Bible says, you do. I don't know if you all believe this or not, but we believe that you can pray for the sick and God will heal them." I said, "Amen. I believe that." I began to share with him just some of things that we've seen God do and encourage his heart to pursuing the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

I'm just sharing that to share with you that there are a lot of people out there in this day that we're living in. God is stirring hearts. There's a remnant that's being stirred in this last hour, praise God. Let's not we who have the doctrine miss out on the experience. What are we doing to stir up the gift that's in us through the laying on of the apostle's hands? It's going to take a meekness in spirit. It's going to take an unlearning of everything that the world has been pumping into our minds of what we are to trust in, and return us to a simplicity of walking in the Spirit, of walking by faith and not by sight, of an assurance of the exceeding great and precious promises of God that will bring to you and me kingdom benefits.

As your children get hold of this, don't discourage them. Don't try to put your unbelief on them and wrap your unbelief in the garments of practicality, of balance. Can I tell you something? This kingdom that you and I are a part of is not balanced. It's balanced if you look at it in the absolute truth of the Word of God. It's balanced if you look at it from the absolute, unadulterated pureness of the justice of God, but it's not balanced by anything that your natural or secular thought process feeds into it. You cannot bring the world's thought processes into the kingdom and bring balance. It's leaven. It's unbelief. In this kingdom are promises that are "yea and amen." Do you believe that? In this kingdom are promises that are "yea and amen." It's only as we give credibility to the other kingdom that it would cause us to doubt and to fear. We live in a day of great natural provision. I just want to encourage you in this. I don't want you moving beyond your faith, but I want to encourage you to increase your faith. There's nothing in that other kingdom that you can trust in.

As I've meditated some and looking at the mind of the Lord and the generation that we're wanting to instruct now for the representation of the kingdom of God, how do we teach these kids when the other kingdom is holding up genetic engineering, cloning, the production of body parts, the apparent discovery of the aging gene? I wouldn't mind getting hold of that. I'm kind of a curious guy. I'm really so ready for the Lord to come, but I'm a curious type person. I don't like things to happen that I'm not up on. If the Lord tarries, I'd kind of like to be around here to see some of the neat stuff that's coming, but all of that neat stuff is the other kingdom that robs our faith.

I don't know if this would be a good example or not, but I'll just throw it out. Today we have airlines. The preachers can get on the Internet and look for the most inexpensive flight, or we can look for the most direct flight or whatever. We can schedule whatever event we're looking for. We schedule revivals three years in advance. That's what the preachers do. We schedule this great visitation of God three years in advance. We're bringing in the revivalist. "He's busy up until then, but in three years the revival's coming!" We fly here and we fly there. In doing so, there's not a whole lot of people that any longer experience preaching to the Ethiopian and then being taken away, or preaching a revival and being taken away, and set down in the desert place, of the prophet of God being taken instantly, Holy Ghost Airlines, just transported from one place to the next. How many of you would rather travel that way? No need of peanuts.

I don't know how good of an example that is, but the natural has replaced the supernatural. We need to get back to the simplicity of walking by faith and not by sight. We need to be able to discern accurately. This is not an easy thing to do, and I'm not saying that I know all of the answers. But we need to begin to discern accurately, because if we're not careful we're going to fall into what so much of the apostate religious system believes and what the humanistic mind of the religious individual believes: that everything that is natural is of God and it's to be used because God is giving us all of these things for our good. I want to tell you something. If it's medicine, if it's genetic engineering, if it's high-tech privilege and benefits, I don't care what it is, the way to determine whether it's good or evil--and so much of this stuff if it's natural is in and of itself amoral--look at the spirit behind it and ask yourself the question, "What is it doing to me? Is it robbing me of my faith? Is it robbing me of my reliance and trust in God? Am I trusting in science? Am I trusting in technology? Am I trusting in man who says, 'It's really God because we know that God has given us this wisdom?'" God was not the author of the wisdom to build the Tower of Babel. Not everything that appears to be good is of God. The tree that was partaken of that separated man from the reliance on God, from the simple trust and total reliance upon God, was called the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil." We've become a society that worships knowledge. The only way to sell it was to attribute it to God.

Here's the knowledge that God has given man. [Holds up the Bible.] Most of that other knowledge comes from the other kingdom, beloved. So what do we do? Do we become the Amish? The team that won this tournament we were just in was Mennonite. Those are liberal Amish. White Mennonites can't jump. I told Greer on the way home that this team could jump out of the gym. These guys, some of them, could really sky. I would have been interested in seeing who won the dunking contest. I think it was Petey. I told Greer on the way home that those little white boys are going to give them a lesson in basketball. To me, what I saw there was two--this will over-spiritualize it. I'm not wanting to give too much credibility to this other group, but just for sake of demonstrating, what I saw was a bunch of people that were more interested in image and individualism and show than they were substance and character and teamwork. That's what I saw going onto the court. I want to tell you, team will beat a bunch of individuals every time. It's important for us to see what God's building and that we're part of this team. It's going to take the divesting of our own personal interests to experience the full visitation of God.

As we end for tonight, I want us to be able to see our hearts and find out, as we're truthful before God and as we look into the things that make this kingdom work, the things that bring glory to God, the simplicity of faith and trust and total reliance upon God, the divesting of all of the world's methods. It looks foolish. It looks many times, presumptuous. It looks like it's dangerous, but it's what brings glory to God. We'll talk about presumptuousness as we go on in the study. We don't want to be presumptuous, but we cannot become so vexed by the world that we assume that anything that is not natural is presumption. We don't want to be so vexed by the world that we think that anything that is life-threatening, that might somehow cost us, is other than faith because faith always has a positive result. Faith does not always have an immediate, apparent, positive result, because many died by faith, were sawn asunder by faith, wandered and lived in caves and were dressed in animal skins--and it wasn't mink. It was done by faith. The revisionist pagan thought--we've talked about this before. Every religion through the antiquity of the history of man lives under the superstition--that's what motivates most religions--that if something adverse is happening, if there's some apparent natural opposition or disaster or hardship, it's because that man did something wrong. That's what the whole book of Job is about.

What are we doing to justify God and not ourselves? What are we doing to be willing to let God give and God take away? How much are we willing to put up on the line to have God order our steps to His own glory, beyond our own natural ability to comprehend, beyond our own natural ability to believe? Safety for you and me is this. "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, I believe. Cleanse me from all of the wisdom of the other kingdom. Take it all out of my thought processes. Anything in that other double mind that would cause conflict with absolute obedience, I want it removed. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Help my unwillingness to be made a fool for Jesus Christ. Help my unwillingness to invest in the eternal because of my desire to be comfortable in the temporal. Help my unbelief that I might represent accurately this kingdom. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." It's our heart's desire, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

As Gary comes, let's take a moment. We didn't get to the place I was hoping to go tonight in the teaching. I just want to emphasize, as Gary comes, that poverty of spirit, the ability to humble ourselves and not think that we know, that we have all of our ducks in a row doctrinally, that we understand exactly where God's going and where He's taking us. Beloved, this walk that you and I are in, if Abraham was our father in this faith and he went "not knowing where he was going," so will you. As we studied and we saw this morning that through much tribulation you'll enter the kingdom, that tribulation is not just trials that are wooing you toward sin and carnality, but trials that will prove your faith.

Do you want to know how you can know experientially Jehovah-Jireh? You have to go up Mount Moriah and put your child on the altar. Are you ready for that? That's what this kingdom's about. "Surely God wouldn't expect that of me." That's what this kingdom is about. "That can't be God who took my children, took all of my wealth, and made me a byword. Whereas men used to tremble in my presence, now they mock me at the gates. The God who kept me healthy all my life, and now I'm sick and covered with boils from head to toe." "Are you going to justify Me or yourself?" That's what this kingdom is about. This kingdom requires a cross of daily crucifixion. Through much tribulation, trials, adversities, and tests shall you enter the kingdom--this kingdom. You can't pass through here without Gethsemane, where you cry out in agony, "If it be possible, let this cup pass. Nevertheless, not my will but Thy will be done." You want to be proven a citizen in good standing? You need to be ready to drink of the cup. "Pastor, I don't want to hear that. I want to hear, 'God's for us. Everything I touch prospers, and every place I put my foot He gives it to me.'" That's what I'm telling you! That's the message that I'm preaching to you, but beloved, it's not without trials. It's not without tests. It's not without being poor in spirit. It's not without being persecuted for righteousness. It's about putting your hand to a plow and not looking back. It's not about boasting, "Though all forsake You, I never will." It's just not doing it, praise God. You don't need to make a show. Just be faithful. You don't need to tell everybody how committed you are. Just be there and serve others. In Matthew 25, Jesus talks about who's great in this kingdom. "I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink Naked, and ye clothed me" (verse 35). "Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty and naked?" "When you did it unto the least of these. Enter into the kingdom." Do you have the servant's heart? That's who's great in this kingdom.

When we talk about these principles, what does it do to you? What happens inside of you? Do you experience an anxiety? "Is God going to really take my child from me? Is God going to really take my business? Am I going to lose everything I possess?" The kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy. All that tells me, if that starts happening inside of you, then you're serving a god who benefits you. You're not serving a God who you believe is holy and just and right and a Judge that does right at all times and One who "gives and takes, blessed be the name" (Job 1:21). Maybe you need to survey what kingdom is prominent in your life. I'm not saying that any of those things are to be delighted in and we say, "Praise God, bring some adversity to me." I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a peace that says, "Should those things come, should God deem that best for me, His grace is sufficient. His presence is my treasure and His promises are 'yea and amen.' I'll receive a hundredfold in this life and in the life to come eternal life." Where is your treasure? Where is your trust?

Let's stand before Him tonight and just rejoice in His goodness. We've had time at the Lord's table and a great time of fellowship with Him there and the assurance of His cleansing blood. The kingdom of darkness--you know what's funny about that? As I have shared some of these things with you, the man who's in that kingdom is afraid of all that the devil does, and now he's afraid of what God does. "The devil is trying to get me, and now God's going to get me. God's going to take my kids. God's going to" Your Father will not do anything in your life that is not to your eternal benefit and His glory. He does right. Can you say "Amen" to that? There is no fear in this kingdom. All things work together for good to those that love God and are called to His eternal purpose. Let Him be true, and every man from the kingdom of darkness a liar. It's His good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Can you say "Praise God" for that?

As Gary plays, let's just meditate on the presence of the Lord for just a moment. I'm concerned, beloved, that too much of the kingdom of this world has crept in and that we've been diluted by the humanistic doctrine that all that's advanced technologically, all of these great benefits, that this is God--the Oral Roberts mentality of the two hands, Jesus' hand and the hand of medicine, coming together. There is no biblical evidence for that.

Don't replace the prayer of faith with medicine. Do not replace Jehovah-Jireh with your Keoghs and your portfolios. Do not replace Jehovah-Raah with your own understanding and Mapquest and counselors. Don't replace Jehovah-Shalom with temporal gratification and fun and party time and think that it's peace and joy. Don't replace Jehovah-Tsidkenu with humanistic morality, for there is a righteousness that will not be compromised that comes only through obedience to His lordship and reliance on His blood. Don't replace the life of faith with a life of comfort and ease and natural assurance. Don't trust in the uncertain riches; they'll take wings and fly away. Don't trust in the broken reed of Egypt; it will pierce your hand as you lean upon it and it breaks. Don't trust in horses and chariots, but look to the mountains from whence comes your help. Don't look for a bigger boat; lie down with Jesus. He'll get you through every storm. His ravens will still serve His prophets. His barrels will not fail. By His stripes we are healed, praise God. In His name, we cast out devils. The only power that can set a man's soul free is an uncompromised presentation of the gospel. That's who we are as citizens of the kingdom.

Give us childlike faith, Jesus. Cause us to empty ourselves. We think we know so much. Bring us back to simplicity and childlikeness, a willingness at any moment to step out of the boat. We understand physics, but it isn't about physics. It's about obedience. Help us to cast in the two mites. We understand economics, but it's not about economics. It's about obedience and honoring God. Help us to roll away the stone. We understand natural science and medical science. We know that the corpse should be stinking, but You are the resurrection and the life. At Your word, we'll roll the stone back. "Did I not say unto you that if you would believe, you would see the salvation of your God?" (John 11:40). We've been seduced. We've been infiltrated with the thoughts of this world, the cares of the world, and the boasting of natural man against the greatness of our God. We ask to be free, Father. Cleanse our hearts and our minds with the power of this gospel and the authority of that name of Jesus, and send us forth to do exploits. Let our boasting be in You alone we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Let your boasting be in the Lord." Go in peace; God's love go with you.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print