And He said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
There are some here of them that stand by,
Who shall in no wise taste of death,
Till they see the kingdom of God come with power.
Verily I say unto you,
There are some of them that stand here,
Who shall in no wise taste of death,
Till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons,
By whom do your sons cast them out?
But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons,
Then is the kingdom of God come upon you.
You will remember that last Lord’s Day, in speaking about things of the Spirit, we were occupied with this great matter of the kingdom of God. And we said then that this term, the kingdom of God, sums up the whole mission of Christ. Within that term, everything that Christ came for is to be found.
And then we went on to find out that the real meaning of the word kingdom is not a system of things in the first place, nor a realm of things, but a nature of things: the sovereign rule of God. These passages should be rightly translated, “the rule of God.”
Then is the rule, or sovereign rule, of God come upon you, and so on. And we are going a little further this morning with this matter of the sovereign rule of God, and that which has come in with the Lord Jesus.
I cited the two passages from Mark and Matthew in order that you might recognise one thing. In Mark, the form is: “There are some that stand by who shall in no wise taste of death till they see the kingdom of God come in power.” In Matthew, it is: “The Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
Both passages relate to the same thing. And the point in having them both is that the kingdom, or sovereignty, of God operates through the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man. It is with the Son of Man that the kingdom of God—the rule of God—has been brought in.
Now then, we have to note in the first place that this sovereign rule of God, by His Son Jesus Christ, was inaugurated in the Church by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
That statement needs to be noted in its several parts. The kingdom, or rule, of God, in this particular dispensational form, was inaugurated—or introduced, brought in—in the Church by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
A contemplation again of all that took place on that day, and a reading of the details, will make clear the meaning and nature of the sovereign rule of God coming into this world, being deposited in the Church, and operating through the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is very comprehensive, but it is very important to recognise its several parts.
It would be quite valuable to us to stay with each part and explain what it means, but that is not our purpose at the moment.
It was then, on that day, that this prophecy of the Lord Jesus, in His foresight through the Holy Spirit, was fulfilled. We quoted that other passage in Matthew in order just to set our finger upon one point:
But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons,
Then is the kingdom of God come upon you.
That which Jesus was doing was by the Spirit of God, by the Holy Spirit; and by the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God came.
It is a part of that prevision of the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit that, on the day of Pentecost, the kingdom would come in power. The rule, or sovereignty, of God came in by the Spirit, in power, on the day of Pentecost.
And again, dwell upon the nature of that power and the simile used of that power, and we have an interpretation of the sovereign rule—the kingdom—which has come in. It says, “like a mighty rushing wind.”
And if we need any education in that matter, we have been having it very plainly lately: a long, drawn-out season on a terrible scale, with all the havoc and wreckage, rendering man and his means impotent, helpless, incapable of controlling or subduing.
That is a parable of the sovereignty of God. And the day of Pentecost was like that: man entirely put out of count.
All the forces of men and demons which had combined and loosed themselves at Calvary for the utter and final subjugation and annihilation of Jesus Christ and all to do with Him were simply made as straw before a hurricane on the day of Pentecost. Just see it sweeping through Jerusalem, almost as though laughing at all that combination of forces which had brought Christ to the cross. This is the answer of the rule of God.
That is what the kingdom of God means. And that was inaugurated in the Church, and did not just remain for one day.
It was a long enough period at the beginning to show that this thing was intended to be the normal life of the Church. For some considerable time, in spite of what? What a lot—of every nature and kind, religious, political, everything else—the wind went on.
The wind expanded. The mighty rushing wind proved all obstacles to be nothing. The kingdom had come; the rule had been introduced with power. That is, the sovereignty of God took charge, just as the wind takes charge. It is useless setting yourself against it when it does. You just simply will be broken. It took charge.
I am not going to speak about the mystery of this heavenly rule, but it is there. Some other time may serve for that. But I do want to come to, particularly in the remaining few minutes, the basis upon which this kingdom, this rule, this sovereign rule, rests.
If it is true that it was by the Holy Spirit that this kingdom was inaugurated in the Church, then we have to look again at the Holy Spirit. Well, we are occupied in these days with the things of the Spirit, and titles of the Holy Spirit will help us, one particularly at this point.
He is called the Spirit of Jesus—the Spirit of Jesus. You will remember that title in the Acts, concerning the missionary journeys, where Paul and those with him assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not.
In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle slightly enlarges upon that: “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
In all your reading of the rule of God in the Church, what is the Spirit of Jesus Christ? I think there is no better passage to answer that question than this:
Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
That, though He was rich,
Yet for your sakes He became poor.
And link with that His own words:
Blessed are the poor in spirit:
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The Spirit of Jesus: upon what does this sovereign rule rest? This power which none can resist or stay rests upon the whole self-centredness and self-sufficiency of man having been undercut.
A strange paradox, and yet there it is. Power rests upon human weakness. Paul has told us that as to himself quite definitely, but here is a law, a principle, of the sovereign rule of God in the Church and through the Church: it rests upon our entire self-life having been broken and undercut.
It is probably the greatest feature of the life of the Lord Jesus Himself, from birth to cross: His complete human weakness. From man’s standpoint, from the world’s standpoint, His human insignificance, His utter self-emptiness.
Oh, to put it into His own words: “I am meek and lowly in heart. I am a meek man.”
The whole kingdom and strength of the prince of this world—of Satan and his kingdom—is founded on self-life. God’s abhorrence and hatred and loathing of pride, which are declared again and again in the Scriptures, are because it is the strength of a kingdom inimical and antagonistic to His own rule.
Pride—certainly the definition of sin—is arrogance, which is presumption, arrogating to ourselves something. Pride, self-confidence, notions about ourselves, self-centredness: those are the laws and principles of this other kingdom which Christ is casting out by the Spirit of God in order to bring in the kingdom of God.
It is tremendously searching. It is not easy hearing or saying, but it is very important, dear friends, that you and I should recognise this, get this thing linked down and settled in us: that, to clear the way for the sovereignty of God in terms of power like this, God has to utterly devastate self.
It may be a long process; it may be lifelong. But sometimes it seems to be concentrated—concentrated to the point of despair.
Paul is an illustration. Read the story of Paul’s life:
We had the sentence of death within ourselves,
That we should not trust in ourselves.
It is always good to get the clue and the key, to put your finger upon the solution: “in order that we might not trust in ourselves.” Or, in another place, “lest I should be exalted.”
Keeping the way open for the kingdom—if you prefer that word—keeping the way clear for all the power of the rule of God.
And therefore the Church ought to be the most deeply disciplined vessel in this universe. It is to be the vehicle of this rule, this kingdom.
It is within the Church that we shall find this work of the Spirit going on more than anywhere, if we find it anywhere else at all: this work of undercutting the entirety of our self-life in all its aspects.
And aspects are constantly in us, men and women, that we never suspected, would never have believed, to be there. What we believed to be utter devotion to the Lord, what we thought to be an unreserved abandonment to Him, pouring ourselves out for the Lord, from a sense of devotion, we discover that there are aspects of self-life yet to be dealt with.
It is devastating. Oh, the depth of the deceit! How deep Satan has gone in human nature.
Kings and princes in this kingdom are the meek and lowly in heart. This is not something to take up and worry about, making a matter of introspection and all that sort of thing, but recognise that God is moving on positive lines.
There was a great example in the children’s talk this morning: Job. Talk about emptying—empty, empty, empty. But in the end, God’s vindication of Job is perfectly clear. He is the man alongside of whom God stands: “My servant Job.” You go ahead; if you want anything from Me, you get it through him.
And may not that be a parable of the Church? When rightly related and chastened, if the world is going to get anything, it will get it through the Church. God will be jealous for His chastened vessel and will not ride over a case. “You go to My people; I will meet you there.”
Well, that is the word for this morning. God cannot establish His rule, His government—if you like, His kingdom—on anything that He has set aside. And He has set aside the very nature of this kingdom of Satan’s immense pride.
One of the characteristics of the kingdom of God, the sovereign rule, is its permanence. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. It is permanent, and God will not build that kingdom upon things that will break down.
The kingdom of this world is like that: it cannot stand. Itself is a divided kingdom; it cannot stand. We will dwell upon that more fully at some other time.
But you see, the sovereign rule of God is focused upon that which is going to abide. And here is the mystery element, the factor, in the rule of God. We shall be baffled, completely baffled, over this matter of the sovereignty of God. We will have to stand back and yield to it.
And in these days, in these days, there is a very great deal of perplexity about the sovereignty of God. I do not mean in the world, but in Christian activity. It would seem that there are numerous things associated with some work of God which, in principle, you cannot accept. You have to say, “That is the world. What is the difference between that and the world?”
You see no difference between that and the way the world goes. You are defeated when you try to explain this matter of divine sovereignty. You have to say that.
Be sure of this one thing, dear friends: the sovereignty of God is focused upon what is going to endure, and all the rest will go—always. In months or years, you will find nothing of that. But what you will find is something within it all which was secured by God, which was the result of His sovereignty.
Let us take note of the principle, the law, of the kingdom: it is permanent.
And nothing will abide that has not passed through the fire in which the self element has been consumed.
Everything that may be a large percentage of man’s own making, protecting, and energising, it will go and not be found. Though it were ninety-nine percent, you will not be able to trace it. It will be a story of the past.
But what the sovereignty is doing is just within: to get something permanent. We leave it there. But you see, the permanent, the abiding, is that which is not of man; it is of God. And the maximum of what is of God will be there; there is a minimum.