Will you please turn to 1 Chronicles 29? We will read from verses 10 through 13.
And David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the congregation; and David said,
Blessed be Thou, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Thine.
Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all.
Both riches and honor come of Thee, and Thou rulest over all; and in Thy hand is power and might; and in Thy hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.
Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee, and praise Thy glorious name.
Matthew 6:13:
And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
And in the Authorized Version, you have:
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do want to praise and thank Thee for bringing us together here into Thy presence. We ask, O Lord, that Thou wilt remove any veil that may be upon any heart, that we may behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face.
We do look to the Holy Spirit to quicken Thy Word to our hearts and to bring us into Thy truth. We do praise and thank Thee, knowing that Thou art the God who reveals. Grant to us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of God.
We do commit this time into Thy hands, knowing that without Thee we can do nothing, but with Thee all things are possible. We are here, Lord. Speak, for Thy servants hear. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
It seems that the Lord has impressed upon my heart this matter of the kingdom of God. So, God willing, this will be what I will share with you, dear brothers and sisters, during this conference.
This is the message that John the Baptist preached: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.”
This is the same message that our Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, taught concerning the kingdom of God. He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh. Repent, and believe in the glad tidings.”
Our Lord Jesus told us about the spiritual principles of that kingdom in Matthew 5 through 7. Again, He explained to us the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens in parables, some of which are recorded in Matthew 13. And again, He revealed to us the public manifestation of the kingdom that is to come upon this earth in Matthew 24 and 25.
He said:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
He said:
Seek ye first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
He said that the kingdom of God is taken by violence, and men of violence take it by force. He also said:
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
He said that the gospel of the kingdom must be preached unto all the habitable earth as a witness to the nations, and then the end will come.
He testified before Pilate:
My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence.
After His resurrection, for forty days He appeared to His disciples from time to time. What He taught them concerned the things of the kingdom of God. So, brothers and sisters, we find that this is the message in the Bible: the kingdom of God.
After the Lord’s ascension, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, and one hundred and twenty believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit into one body. On that very day, Peter stood up with the eleven and preached the kingdom of God to the people.
If you turn to Acts 2, you will find the whole message summed up in verses 32, 33, and 36. There he said that God had raised up Jesus and exalted Him. “This Jesus whom ye crucified, God hath made Him both Lord and Christ.” It is the message of the kingdom of God.
Later on, when Peter went to the house of Cornelius, he again preached to them the kingdom of God. Of course, he put it in a somewhat different way because they were Gentiles. He said that this Jesus, of whom they were all witnesses, had been ordained by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead. Now, that is the message of the kingdom of God.
When Philip went to Samaria, as recorded in Acts 8, that was his message. He preached to them the kingdom of God and the name of the Lord Jesus.
Paul and Barnabas were set apart by the Holy Spirit and went to the lower parts of Galatia. When they returned to those cities, they exhorted the brethren—those who believed in the Lord Jesus—to be steadfast and abide in the faith. They told them that through many tribulations they must enter into the kingdom of God.
The apostle Paul, when he went into the city of Ephesus, entered the synagogue. There he reasoned with them and persuaded them concerning the kingdom of God. In Acts 20, when he called the elders of the church in Ephesus to come, he said that during those three years he had taught them concerning the kingdom of God.
If you read the book of Acts, you will find that it begins with the kingdom of God. Our Lord Jesus Himself, after He was resurrected, talked with the disciples for forty days—and during those forty days, nothing but the kingdom of God.
Then you find that the book of Acts ends with the kingdom of God. In Acts 28, the apostle Paul was in Rome. Though he was a prisoner, he could stay in his own rented apartment. There he received the people who came to him, preaching to them the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus.
So the kingdom of God is the message of the New Testament. It was preached by the Lord Himself, and it was continually preached by the apostles.
If you look into the writings of the apostles, you will find that this is the same thing they wrote about. I can give you only a few illustrations because you will find it all through the New Testament.
For instance, Romans 14:17 says:
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
First Corinthians 4:20 says:
For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
First Corinthians 6:9–10 asks whether we do not know that unrighteous persons cannot inherit the kingdom of God. First Corinthians 15:50 says:
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
In Galatians 5:21, after Paul lists the works of the flesh, he says:
They who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 5:5 says that no fornicator, unclean person, or person of unbridled lust—who is an idolater—has inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. In Colossians 4:11, Paul mentions Aristarchus, Justus, and Mark as fellow workers for the kingdom of God.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:5, Paul mentions how those who believe in the Lord and suffer for the Lord’s sake are counted worthy of the kingdom of God. Revelation 12:10 says:
Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ.
Now, these are just a few illustrations to show you that the whole New Testament—its theme—is concerned with the kingdom of God.
But do not let us think that the kingdom of God is only the theme of the New Testament. Actually, you can go back to the Old Testament and find the same theme there.
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea. In Exodus 15, they praised the Lord with a victorious song, and they ended that song with these words:
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.
That is the kingdom of God.
Then God brought them to Mount Sinai. In Exodus 19, God said that He had brought them to Himself upon eagles’ wings. If they would keep His covenant and hear His Word, God would make them a peculiar people, a people of His own possession among all the nations. God would make them a kingdom of priests. That is God’s purpose for His redeemed people.
Of course, we read 1 Chronicles 29:
Thine, O Lord, is the kingdom; and Thou art exalted as head above all.
Psalm 22:28 says:
For the kingdom is the Lord’s; and He is the ruler over the nations.
Daniel 2:44 says:
And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Obadiah 21 says:
And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.
So you find that in the Old Testament, the kingdom of God is the theme there.
As a matter of fact, the kingdom of God is from generation to generation and from age to age. Our God is the everlasting God, the eternal God. Moses, in Psalm 90, says:
From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.
God is from eternity to eternity. He is the Sovereign. The kingdom is within Him, and the kingdom began as soon as He started to create the universe.
Psalm 145:13 says:
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
Psalm 103:19 says:
The Lord hath established His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all.
In Daniel 4:34, Nebuchadnezzar, after his mind came back to him, said:
I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth for ever; for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom from generation to generation.
Now, brothers and sisters, I give you these few illustrations simply to show you that the kingdom of God is one of the most important themes in the whole Bible.
To put it another way, the kingdom of God can serve as a key to the whole Bible. If we know what the kingdom of God is, we can open not only the New Testament but also the Old Testament—the whole Bible.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is the kingdom of God? What is kingdom?
Those who understand Greek all agree that the English translation of the Greek word as “kingdom” is not very good. Actually, that Greek word should be translated into English as sovereign rule—the sovereign rule of God.
Our God is the Sovereign of the universe, and He rules over all.
When we think of the kingdom, probably the first thought that comes into our minds is that the kingdom is a domain, a sphere, or a territory over which God rules. Now, that is true. The kingdom of God is a domain, a sphere, a territory over which God rules.
But if we look at the kingdom only in that sense, we will never be able to understand what the kingdom of God is. If we want to understand what the kingdom of God is, we have to put our emphasis on the Sovereign before we put our emphasis on the rule.
In other words, the kingdom of God is the personal rule of God. The emphasis is on God as the Sovereign of the universe—His person, His personality, His character, and His nature. That governs and characterizes the domain over which He rules.
Let me use an illustration. After our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, He spent forty days with His disciples, talking to them concerning the things of the kingdom of God.
You would think that after our Lord had risen from the dead, appeared to His disciples, and talked with them about the kingdom of God, surely they would have grasped it. But after forty days, our Lord took them to the Mount of Olives. Before He ascended, His disciples asked Him a question.
This was their last chance, and it must have been something going on within them all the time. Their question was:
Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
They were concerned with the kingdom, right? But the very question—“Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”—shows that their concept of the kingdom was more of a domain, a sphere, a territory. It was geopolitical in nature.
And you know how our Lord Jesus answered them. He said:
It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father hath set within His own authority.
The Lord did not deny that one day the kingdom would be restored to Israel. Once upon a time, God did take Israel as the representative of His kingdom upon the earth, but they lost it. One day in the future it will be restored. Our Lord did not deny that.
But the Lord told them, “It is not for you to know the time or the season.” In other words, do not now be occupied with that. Do not be so focused upon that. The time and season are not for you to know; they are in the authority of My Father. When My Father sees that the time is right, He will do it. But you do not know it, and you do not need to know it. Do not be concerned about it.
There is something that you need to be concerned about:
Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
What does that mean? It means this: the kingdom of God will come. But how?
Do not be concerned with the time and season when the kingdom shall be restored to Israel upon earth. Be very much concerned that you receive power. How do you receive power? The Holy Spirit shall come upon you. When the Spirit of God, when the Holy Spirit, comes upon you, then you have power to be His witness.
What does He mean by “My witness”? What is the church to witness concerning Christ? The church is to witness that Jesus is King. Jesus is Lord. The lordship of Christ is what the church is to witness to.
To bear witness is not a matter of just hearing something. In order to bear witness, you need power. And where does the power come from? The power comes from the Holy Spirit.
How does the Holy Spirit bring that power to the church? You remember, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down upon them, people wondered what it was. Some said they were drunk with new wine. Then Peter and the eleven stood up and said, “No, it is only nine o’clock in the morning. Nobody would drink that early.”
But what did it mean? Peter said, in effect, “What you see is that God has raised Jesus up, exalted Him, and made Him Lord and Christ.” This is what it means.
The meaning of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the lordship of Christ. No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except in the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to us Jesus, the Lord of all—my Lord.
When the Holy Spirit reveals that to us as individuals and to the church as a corporate body, then individuals and the whole church submit themselves under the lordship of Christ. They hold fast the Head.
Then you find that they are joined together as members one of another. They are no longer one hundred and twenty individual believers. They become a body of one hundred and twenty members. In one Spirit, they are baptized into one body.
Brothers and sisters, this very fact—the lordship of Christ and the oneness of the body—makes the church that testimony, that witness. And this is powerful.
They began in Jerusalem, then went to all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. They went out not only to proclaim that Jesus is Lord, but their very lives were under the lordship of Christ. They went out as a body, not divided and not scattered, but as a body.
Therefore, in the early days, people looked at these believers and said, “Look how these people love one another.” That is the power.
The person, the personality of the Lord Himself, came upon these people. These people became a corporate expression of Christ Himself. And that is the kingdom of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God is not a geopolitical thing. The kingdom of God is the personal rule of God. In other words, it is God Himself—Christ Himself—being formed in these people. His person and His personality are being formed in a corporate body, and there you see the kingdom of God.
There He is the Sovereign. There He rules over all. There His authority is obeyed. There is the kingdom of God.
When people begin to see Jesus as Lord, when they begin to submit themselves to the authority of Christ, and when the character of Christ begins to be formed in them, then you have the domain, the sphere, the territory. This is the kingdom of God.
Before you can have that new order, you have to see that Jesus is Lord. If we see Jesus as Lord and accept Him as Lord, then you will find that He raises up upon this earth a new order.
Through that new order, it will develop and continue until one day all powers, authorities, governments—everything that opposes Him—will be destroyed, and His kingdom shall be brought upon this earth.
If you turn to 1 Corinthians 15, you find that it is a chapter on resurrection. But in speaking of resurrection, it brings us to the ultimate, to the very end.
First Corinthians 15:24–28 says:
Then cometh the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
For He must reign, till He hath put all His enemies under His feet.
The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.
For, He put all things in subjection under His feet.
But when He saith, All things are put in subjection, it is evident that He is excepted who did subject all things unto Him.
And when all things have been subjected unto Him, then the Son also Himself shall be subjected to Him that did subject all things unto Him, that God may be all in all.
Now, we know this is the end. But if you see the end, it tells you the beginning. In other words, that was there in the very beginning, but something happened. Even though something happened, in the end what was in the beginning—what was in the mind of God, what was purposed by God—will all be realized.
What do you see in the end? In the end, you find that Christ will annul all powers, all authority, and all rule. The last enemy to be abolished is death. Everything will be put under His feet. Then He will bring everything back into subjection to God, that God may be all and in all. That is the end.
Brothers and sisters, Christ came. He was crucified. He was raised from the dead. He ascended on high. In Psalm 2 and Revelation 5, you find that when He ascended to heaven, God anointed Him as King.
God has given Him all power in heaven and upon earth. He shall reign. He is reigning. Brothers and sisters, do you see that He is reigning now above in heaven?
He shall reign until He puts all enemies under His feet. We have not yet seen all enemies under His feet, but we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. He has reigned from His ascension until today. He is still reigning.
Dear brothers and sisters, who is reigning today? Jesus. He is reigning, and He is to subject all things under His feet. God is doing that for Him and to Him. When the last enemy is defeated and death is destroyed, all things shall be under His feet. Then He will bring the kingdom back to God, that God may be all and in all.
In 1 Chronicles 29, David really understood what the kingdom of God is.
In those last chapters, David gathered the people together and shared with them what was in his mind: to build a house for God. God said that his son would build it—that Solomon would build it. But David was shown the pattern of the house of God.
Out of love for God, he prepared for that house gold, silver, and all the necessary things. Then he encouraged the people to give to God out of love. The people responded and gave. When David saw these things, his heart was so moved and touched that he said:
Blessed be Thou, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the splendor, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Thine.
Thine, O Lord, is the kingdom.
He said, “Thine is the greatness.” The kingdom is great. Nobody can see the universe that God has created and fail to acknowledge the greatness of His kingdom.
The psalmist, in Psalm 8, looked up at the heavens and saw the handiwork of God. Then he remembered man: “What is man?” And yet God was mindful of man. He saw the greatness of God.
“Thine is the power.” The psalmist saw the power of God. God is the glory. There is the splendor, and there is the majesty. If you read the Psalms, you will find that the psalmists knew the greatness, splendor, and glory of the kingdom of God.
He said, “You are God, and the kingdom is Yours. You are exalted as head above all because these are Thy handiwork. Riches and glory are from Thee, and Thou rulest over everything. In Thy hand are power and might, and in Thy hand it is to make all great and strong.”
Dear brothers and sisters, the God who created the universe is the Lord of the universe. The universe, in the beginning, was His kingdom, and we see its greatness and glory.
In Matthew 6, in the prayer our Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray, the King James Version says, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” The kingdom belongs to the Lord.
Now, what is the nature of this kingdom of God?
The kingdom of God is, first of all, spiritual. Now, that does not mean that the kingdom of God is not physical; it is. But basically, the kingdom of God is spiritual in nature. Why? Because God is Spirit.
He is Spirit. Therefore, you will find that anything having to do with God must be spiritual. We must worship God in spirit and truth because God is Spirit.
One day the Pharisees came to the Lord Jesus and asked Him, “When will the kingdom of God come?” In Luke 17, the Lord Jesus said:
The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
Some translations say, “within you.” Of course, you can translate it either “in the midst of you” or “within you.” Strictly speaking, it should be “in the midst of you,” because the kingdom of God was not within those Pharisees.
But what the Lord was trying to tell them was that the kingdom of God is basically spiritual in nature. Do not try to think of it purely as a physical thing—a realm, a sphere, a territory, or a government. It is spiritual in nature.
Or, to put it another way, it is in the Spirit and by the Spirit that the kingdom of God comes.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood speak of the natural and the physical. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It is for those who are spiritual.
One day Nicodemus came to the Lord. This matter of the kingdom of God was in his mind. He said to the Lord Jesus, “You are a teacher, a great teacher coming from heaven.” What Nicodemus was trying to say was that the Lord knew what was in his heart. Nicodemus was concerned with the kingdom of God.
He thought he had seen the kingdom of God, but he wanted to enter into that kingdom. He thought he was probably just one step short of entering its door. He thought that he needed more teaching, more instruction, or to do something more; then he would enter into the kingdom of God.
That was in his mind, and that was why he came to the Lord Jesus that evening. Before he spoke it out, the Lord said, “Let Me tell you: unless you are born from above, you do not see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus thought he had seen the kingdom of God, but the Lord said, “You have not. What you saw was not the real thing. Unless you are born from above, unless you are born again, unless you are born of the Spirit, then you will not be able to see the kingdom of God.”
Brothers and sisters, will you accept this? If you are not born again, you will not even see the kingdom of God. If you are born of the Spirit, then you can see it, you can enter it, and it is yours. It is spiritual in nature.
Secondly, the kingdom of God is a kingdom of truth.
You remember our Lord Jesus when Pilate was examining Him. Pilate said, “Art Thou the King of the Jews?” The Lord said, “Thou sayest that I am a King. But My kingdom is not of this world. I came to bear witness to the truth.”
Pilate said, “What is truth?” But without waiting for the answer from the Lord, he went off, and he never knew the truth. Some people are too busy to know the truth. They may ask the question, but they do not wait for the answer.
What is the truth? The Lord said He came to bear witness to the truth. The word “truth” is reality. In other words, the whole world is a lie. Do not think that what you see is real. Nothing is real. All these things are passing away. It is just a big lie. It is false.
You see all the people living in the lie, believing in the lie, and living for that lie. But one day, when you wake up, it will be too late. It is a lie. It passes away.
But what is the reality? What is the truth? Christ. He is the truth. He said, “I am the truth.” The Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth because it is the Spirit of God who leads us into all truth—that is, into all the riches of Christ.
That is the kingdom. If we live in a lie, we are not living in the kingdom of God. But if we live in the truth, in the reality, then we are in the kingdom of God.
Truth is not merely a teaching or a doctrine. A teaching or doctrine may be true, but the Lord Jesus said:
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
If any teaching is correct and orthodox, but does not set you free, it is not yet the truth to you. The truth shall set you free. But how does the truth come to you? It is by revelation—by revelation of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit reveals and opens up the Word of God, when He reveals Christ in the Word of God, then you find that it becomes reality to your life and sets you free. In that sense, you are truly living in the kingdom of God.
Thirdly, the kingdom of God is a kingdom of love.
Colossians 1:13 says that God has delivered us out of the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Once we were under the authority and power of darkness. Now God has delivered us and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God is love.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Christ so loved us that He laid down His life for us. The rule of the kingdom is the rule of love.
Oftentimes, we think authority and love are two opposite things. We think that if there is authority, it is legalistic, tyrannical, despotic, dictatorial—without love or feeling. And we think of love as something so gentle, tender, indulgent, and all-embracing that there is no sharpness in it at all.
But dear brothers and sisters, the kingdom speaks of authority, and that authority is love. It is the authority of love. There is no authority greater than love.
If any authority is to be exercised, let it be exercised in love, and then it will work. Love is the principle of the kingdom of God.
That is why the Bible says:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
These are the greatest commandments. In other words, you can sum up all the commandments of God in love, because it is the kingdom of love.
God demands that we love Him with all our hearts. I remember one brother saying, “The Bible does not say, ‘Love God with your heart.’ It says, ‘Love God with all your heart.’”
It is not enough just to love God with your heart. Yes, you need to love God with your heart, not merely with your lips. But if it is a divided heart, that is not what God requires. He requires all your heart, all your mind, all your understanding, all your strength—and that we love one another as He has loved us.
This is the kingdom of God. Do we see the kingdom of God today? Do we see the kingdom of God in the church? Do we see the kingdom of God among God’s people? Does the world see the kingdom of God in the church? What is our testimony? Where is our testimony?
The kingdom of God is the kingdom of love.
Fourthly, the kingdom of God is the kingdom of light.
In Colossians 1:12, it says:
Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
God sent the apostle Paul to preach the kingdom of God, to deliver people, to set them free, and to bring them from darkness into light, that they might have inheritance with the saints in light. The kingdom of God is light because that is the character of God.
God is light, and there is no darkness in Him. First John 1:5 says:
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all our sins.
Dear brothers and sisters, darkness belongs to the kingdom of Satan. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of light.
Now, light here is more than merely what people mean when they say, “In my Bible study or my reading, I got a light.” In other words, “I got an understanding. I know how to explain it now.” No, this is not what it means.
The kingdom of God is the kingdom of light. It means more than that. Why? Because here the light is none other than God Himself. He said, “God is light.”
Of course, His Word is like a lamp that shines upon our path. His Word enlightens us; that is true. But in 1 John 1, he says, “God is light.” He Himself is light, and there is no darkness in Him. He is altogether transparent.
That is the kingdom of God. One day, when the kingdom of God is publicly manifested in the New Jerusalem, you will find that the whole city is full of light.
Today you cannot look at the sun because it is too bright; it will burn your eyes. But during the kingdom age, the sun will be seven times brighter than it is today.
In eternity, you will find that in the holy city, New Jerusalem, everything is full of light. The glory of God fills that city and reflects everywhere. It is all transparent. Even the gold is transparent. You walk on it and can see through it.
Brothers and sisters, are you afraid of that? You know how we want to hide in darkness because there are many things in us that cannot be revealed. If today everything in your mind were passed on that film, where would you be?
But this is the kingdom of God. God is light, and how He desires that we walk in the light as He is in the light.
Now, it is true that He cannot give us the fullness of His light to shine upon us all at once; we cannot stand it. He has to lead us step by step, gradually. That is true.
But on the other hand, it is also true that we must walk in the light that God has already shone upon us. If God has revealed His character to you, if He has revealed a little of Himself to you—how pure, how loving, how righteous, how holy—and if you see it, then you see your darkness.
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you, and you walk in the light and have fellowship. Brothers and sisters, you are walking in the kingdom of God’s light.
Finally, the kingdom of God is the kingdom of righteousness.
Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. We often think of the kingdom of God in terms of eating and drinking.
We even think that one day, when the Lord comes back, at the marriage feast of the Lamb, we will be eating and drinking. How our minds are taken up with all these physical, outward things instead of seeing the reality.
The reality is that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, nor even not eating and not drinking. The kingdom of God is righteousness.
Do you know what righteousness is? That is a long word. To shorten it, it means “right.” What is right? It means that you give God His right.
Whenever you give God His right, then you are righteous. You are right in His eyes. Brothers and sisters, He is Sovereign. He is Lord. He has every right over us. Do you give Him His right?
If you give Him His right, you are doing the right thing, and you will be reckoned as righteous. That is the kingdom of God.
Of course, we know that we had no righteousness of our own. Because of this, we came to the Lord Jesus and received Him as our righteousness. God has made Him our righteousness. We are clothed with Christ. That is true.
But after we are clothed with Christ as our righteousness, then the Holy Spirit works Christ—His character, the righteousness of Christ—into us, so that we too begin to practice righteousness.
Today, even though God’s people have received Christ as their righteousness, oftentimes you find that God’s people do not live righteously.
We know that the opposite of righteousness is sin, because sin takes away the right of God. How we need, in our practical daily living, to be righteous, because this is His character. If we are righteous, then we are in the kingdom of God.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is the personal rule of God. Are you under His personal rule?
This is something for which each one of us is responsible. It is open to us. We can enter in if we accept the lordship of Christ. Let Him be Lord in our lives.
If corporately we accept Him as the Head of the whole body, then you will find the kingdom of God manifested.
David said:
Thine, O Lord, is the kingdom.
Brothers and sisters, can we say that tonight? Can we honestly say, “Thine is the kingdom”? The kingdom belongs to Thee, and the power, because Thy power is able to bring that kingdom into us and upon the whole earth. And the glory, because everything will end in glory—glory to God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, let us be before the Lord during these few days and have before us the kingdom of God—the personal rule of Christ. Let us submit ourselves to Him, and let His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, unless Thou dost reveal Thy kingdom to us, we may talk about it, we may read about it, we may think about it, and we may think that we know it; and yet we do not see it. We are not living in it.
So, Father, we pray that during these days Thou wilt grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may see Thy kingdom—that it is not something merely external, something merely physical, something that is simply an external government.
Lord, we ask that Thou wilt show us that the kingdom of God is inward, within us, real, and spiritual. It demands that we love, that we walk in the light, and that we be righteous.
Lord, we pray that we will not be careless, that we may really look to Thee to show us Thy kingdom and bring us into Thy kingdom abundantly through Thy Holy Spirit.
We commit ourselves to Thee, and to Thee be the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.