Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Luke, Luke 12:32?
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Turn also to Daniel 7. We will read from Daniel 7:13-18.
I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.
And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
As for me, Daniel, my spirit was grieved in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.
These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, that shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
Please turn to Matthew 24:14.
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
Finally, Matthew 28:18-20.
And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Dear Heavenly Father, as we gather together for the last time in this conference, we want to give thanks unto Thee. Thou hast been good to us. We praise and thank Thee that Thou hast gathered us from all places together, that we may meet together before Thee and in the name of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus.
We do praise and thank Thee for Thy presence with us and for Thy blessing upon us. So, Father, in this last session, we just want to bow down and worship Thee, for our God is really good. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou dost promise us that goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives.
So we just come again this morning and commit this last time into Thy hands. We pray that by Thy Spirit Thou wilt sum up all things and bring us to a higher plane, that we may walk forward and onward towards the goal.
We just commit this time into Thy hands. We trust Thy Holy Spirit to illumine Thy Word, to make Thy Word living to us, life and spirit to us. Lord, without Thy speaking, Lord, everything will be in vain. But thank and praise Thee that with Thy speaking to our hearts, Thou art able to accomplish Thy purpose.
So we just commit this time into Thy hands and trust Thee for it. And to Thee be the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We believe that the kingdom of God is very much upon the heart of God. It was conceived in God’s mind—or, we may say, in His heart—even before He began creation.
It was with a kingdom in view that He created the universe. He created all things according to His character, and then He rules over all according to His character. This is His kingdom: the kingdom of God.
Even though there were rebellions, not only among the angelic beings but also even in man, nevertheless, the heavens do rule.
The Lord teaches His people to pray. We who are redeemed by the precious blood, we who have been delivered out of the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, He wants us to pray, “Thy kingdom come.”
But as we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” it is not with the idea that we are praying for the coming of the kingdom only in the distant future, or for something entirely outside of us. Actually, we find that when the Lord exhorts us to pray that prayer, “Thy kingdom come,” He wants that kingdom to come now and here, in us and among us. We are very much involved in this kingdom.
This morning, as we conclude this subject, I have to say that the kingdom of God is such a tremendous theme in the Word of God that we just cannot finish it in four sessions. As a matter of fact, I feel that we are just touching it very lightly.
I do believe that there is much, much more that the Spirit of God will teach us in the days to come. So I do pray to the Lord that He will continue to search our hearts, to stir our spirit, and to continue to reveal His kingdom to us.
More and more, may His kingdom live in us. And, in effect, how much we are in the kingdom of God depends on how much the kingdom is within us. May our lives upon this earth be such that we reveal and hasten the coming of that kingdom upon this earth.
So this morning, we would like to share together on this matter: the saints shall possess the kingdom.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
You see, the word seek is very special. It means that after we have heard, or have seen, something of the meaning of the kingdom of God—something of the nature of that kingdom—then we are exhorted to seek after it.
We cannot just hear about it and then forget it altogether. We have to apply ourselves in diligent searching and seeking effort. The very word seek implies that we put our heart into it. It means that we have to search for it with diligence.
It means that we are determined, at any cost, to get it. We will not be turned aside or turned away from it until we find it. “Seek, and ye shall find.” So we are exhorted by our Lord Himself to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
But we know that we are living in a very hostile world. Even though the Lord has delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, yet we are still living in this world.
We are living in a world whose prince, the ruler of this world, is the enemy of God. So we find that he is trying every way to compromise us, to pressure us, and to destroy us.
The things of this world, the cares of this world—what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall be clothed with—these are very real to us. We find that they are pressing upon us, trying to take our time away from God, trying to take our energy away from God, and trying even to take our heart away from God.
Everything in this world, everything around us, seems to be trying to take us out of the kingdom of God and draw us back into the kingdom of Satan. We are under great pressure.
More than that, we find that not only do we have enemies, as it were, all around us; we find an enemy even within us. We find that a battle is going on within us: the kingdom of God against the kingdom of darkness, and the kingdom of darkness against the kingdom of God. Sometimes we find that the battle is so fierce that we wonder whether we will survive.
How can we seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Thank God, our Lord Jesus, after He exhorted us to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, said, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Brothers and sisters, what a comfort it is. When we see the kingdom of God and realize what the kingdom is, and when we understand how important it is to God and to us, do we not begin to be afraid?
We are apprehensive whether this kingdom of God will become a reality in our lives, whether we will be in God’s hands to bring in His kingdom. We find that we are so weak, so fragile, and so prone to fall. How can we fulfill that mission that God has entrusted to us, individually and as the church?
For the Lord Jesus says, “Fear not, little flock.” Little flock is another name for the church. So far as the people of God are concerned, so far as the church is concerned, we are like a little flock in comparison with the population of the world.
The world is full of people, and yet God has taken some people out of every nation, every tribe, every tongue, and every people, and brought them together under the name of the Lord Jesus. This people is just a little flock.
This little flock actually lives among wolves. How can we survive? How can we stay as witnesses to the kingdom of God? How can we maintain the testimony of the kingdom?
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Brothers and sisters, in one sense, it is as if we have to seek, we have to fight, and we have to win the kingdom. But in another sense, we find that the Father has already given it to us. It is the good pleasure of the Father to give us the kingdom.
A good father always gives the best to his children. Oh, Heavenly Father, it is Thy will, it is Thy delight, to give us the kingdom.
He has given it to us. He sent His Son into this world to recapture the kingdom for us. He put His Holy Spirit in us. He will bring us into all the realities of the kingdom.
Brothers and sisters, God is working for us. And if God is for us, who can stand against us? Here the Lord says, “Fear not, little flock; it has been the good pleasure of the Father to give you the kingdom.”
Daniel is a prophet of the kingdom. We know Daniel most likely came from a royal family of Judah. If he did not come from the direct line of the royal family, at least he came from the nobility.
Daniel came from a royal family of Judah, but he was taken as a hostage, a captive, in his young years. He was brought into Babylon. But there, in the sovereign hand of God, he became one of the governors of the greatest empire in the world at that time. He was to be made prime minister of that great empire.
Again, you find his whole life is connected with government. His whole life is connected with dominion. His whole life is connected with kingdom.
Daniel 1 through 6 speak of his public history. So far as his public history is concerned, we find how he was determined not to be polluted. He wanted to keep himself pure for God. In other words, the kingdom of God was upon him.
Even though Israel as a nation had failed, and the government of this earth had passed into the hands of the Gentiles, yet you find that in that one man, the kingdom of God still existed. In that one man, the heavens still ruled. In that one man, the personal rule of God was most evident.
He determined to keep himself pure for God, and God kept him. God blessed him. God used him to be a witness and a testimony of the kingdom of God in the midst of the kingdom of the world.
That is what we find in the first six chapters of Daniel. He began in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. He continued even to Darius the Medo-Persian king, and even to the reign of Cyrus.
When you come to Daniel 7 through 12, it is really the private history of Daniel.
In Daniel 7, he saw night visions. In the night visions he saw the wind blowing upon the sea, and four great beasts came out of the sea.
He saw one beast after another, and in the last beast he saw that there was a little horn. Finally, he saw in the night visions that thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His place upon the throne. There He began to judge the world.
Then, in the night vision, he saw One like unto a Son of Man. He was led to the Ancient of Days, and to Him was given dominion and a kingdom, that all peoples and all nations would come under His rule and under His dominion.
Daniel wanted to understand this vision, so he inquired, and he was told: the four beasts are four kings.
Actually, the vision that God gave to Daniel in Daniel 7 is the same dream that God gave to King Nebuchadnezzar. To Nebuchadnezzar, he saw a huge image, a superman. He saw a man with a golden head, with silver breast and arms, with brass belly and thighs, with iron legs, and with feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
As he saw that immense image, suddenly a stone, not cut out with hands, fell upon that image. That whole image was smashed and disappeared, and this stone grew and filled the whole earth.
That was the vision given to Nebuchadnezzar. But to Daniel, you find the same vision was repeated in a very different way. Why? Because from the human standpoint, we think of the empires and governments of this world as a human image—glorious, strong, and powerful.
But the governments, the empires, and the kingdoms of this world, so far as God’s view is concerned, are like wild beasts.
So to Daniel, the times of the Gentiles—the government of this world in the hands of man—are just like contending beasts, destroying and killing each other.
But in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar there was a living stone; in the vision given to Daniel, he saw One like a Son of Man. Now, we all know who the Son of Man is. It is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.
He saw that in the end, one day, Christ shall inherit the world. Why? Because He is worthy.
We mentioned yesterday morning that when our Lord Jesus was upon this earth, He was the kingdom of God on this earth. Throughout the life of our Lord Jesus, God was all in all in Him.
We heard how He repudiated this other world, this other kingdom. He would have nothing to do with that kingdom. Even though it was offered to Him, He rejected it. Because He rejected that kingdom, He was put out; He was crucified. “Away with Him!”
Yet, on the very cross, He spoiled the principalities and the authorities, and He made a public show of them. His victory was complete. That is to say, on the cross, He took the kingdom out of the enemy’s hand and recaptured it.
To whom does He give that kingdom? After our Lord Jesus recaptured that kingdom, taking it out of the hand of the strong man, we find that He gave the kingdom to His church.
He has redeemed a people. He has given His life to that people. The Spirit of God dwells in that people and among them. Now the Lord says, “You are My kingdom upon this earth.”
On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down upon one hundred and twenty people, as we have mentioned more than once, these one hundred and twenty people were one hundred and twenty individual believers. Even though probably they were the best congregation, one hundred and twenty members, God was not satisfied with that.
The Holy Spirit came down upon the one hundred and twenty, and in one Spirit they were baptized into one body, one body of one hundred and twenty members.
It is to that body that Christ entrusted His kingdom. He said, “You are My kingdom. Now go out and preach the good tidings of the kingdom of God.”
What is the church? The church is the embodiment of the kingdom of God on earth today.
“Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.” Two or three is the minimum of plurality. Where two or three gather together and assemble together, they are not each going his own way as individual believers.
If we stand as individual believers, all scattered, then the enemy is able to pick us off one by one. We find that we do not have that strength to resist the kingdom of darkness and to usher in the kingdom of God. So it is the will of God to assemble us together.
And we gather unto His name, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Do you know what that means? It means that we who call upon that name put ourselves under the authority of that name.
We take upon us His name. Our name is nothing, but His name becomes everything. It is like when a woman is married to a man: it is the custom that from that day onward she drops her family name and takes the family name of her husband.
It means that from now on, the head of the family is the one whose name she bears. When we gather together into the name of the Lord Jesus, we drop our names. That is to say, we lay down our rights; we lay down our authority.
We take Him as our Head. We submit ourselves to His rulership. When we are doing that, the Lord says, “I am in the midst of you.”
The Pharisees asked the Lord, “When will the kingdom of God come? How does it come?” The Lord said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. You cannot say, ‘Here,’ or ‘there’; for the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Here, brothers and sisters, what is the church? The church is a people assembled unto the name of the Lord Jesus. The church is a body submitted and joined to the Head, and holding fast the Head. That is the church.
If this is what the church is, then this is also what the kingdom of God is. In a sense, in spiritual reality, the church today is the kingdom of God on earth.
Unfortunately, it does not seem to be true. We find that among God’s people, how scattered they are. God’s people are not assembled under that name. The lordship of Christ is overlooked. Man begins to rule, and the testimony of the kingdom of God suffers.
Here in Daniel, you find the Son of Man came, and a kingdom was given to Him. In other words, it is because of the finished work of Christ. It is because of His victory in His life, on the cross, in His death, and by His resurrection.
If you read the book of Revelation, I always think that Revelation 5 is actually a review of the ascension of our Lord Jesus. No one has ever seen what happened when the Lord ascended and arrived in heaven.
The disciples saw Him going up from the Mount of Olives. They saw Him taken away by a cloud. They could not see Him anymore. They might wonder whether He arrived or not.
Where is the assurance that our Lord Jesus arrived in heaven? How do we know that God did not cast Him off upon some mountain, as the unbelieving sons of the prophets told Elisha?
We know that our Lord Jesus has arrived in heaven because, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given.
Our Lord Jesus ascended to the throne. God anointed Him as Lord and King. This anointing is manifested, proven, and evidenced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
In Psalm 133, it says that it is as if the holy oil is poured upon the head of Aaron; it flows down to his beard, and it continues to flow unto the skirt of his garment. The Head was anointed, and when the Head was anointed, the Holy Spirit came down and the anointing covered the whole body. That is the experience of the day of Pentecost.
So now we know that He arrived there. Not only that, there is further evidence. Why? Because John, when he was on the island of Patmos and God gave him visions, was taken to heaven, and he saw a Lamb standing as though it had been slain.
This Lamb came and took from the hand of the One who sits upon the throne that little book. After He took that little book, you find worship, praises, honor, adoration, and song from all the redeemed and the angels. He began to open the book, for He alone is worthy.
Brothers and sisters, I personally feel that Revelation 4 is a view of the glory of the Creator, and Revelation 5 is a review of the glory of the Redeemer. Here we find our Lord Jesus ascending on high as a Lamb newly slain.
Because of His finished work on the cross, He has overcome the kingdom of darkness. He has bound the strong man. He has spoiled him. He has taken out the captives and set them free.
Brothers and sisters, He is worthy to take the world in His hand and recapture the kingdom for God. That is what it is. There He took the book, the title deed of the universe.
God has never given up His ownership. Even though there is a usurper on earth, a squatter, God never gave up His ownership. Sometimes people may be squatting on your territory or your property, and it is very hard to get rid of them. They think that they own it, and you really need some authority and power to cast them out.
But who has authority? Man has fallen into the hand of the enemy. There is no one in heaven, on earth, or underneath the earth. No one is worthy. No one has the right. No one has authority. No one has the power.
No doubt John wept, because he thought, “Now we are finished. Now the world is finished. There is no more hope. The kingdom of God must remain in heaven; it can never appear on earth.”
Brothers and sisters, thank God, there is One. He has overcome. He is worthy. He has authority and the right to take the kingdom in His hand, and He has the power to bring it back to God. That is the opening of the seals.
Even though the enemy tries to oppose it, tries to stir up all kinds of plagues, all kinds of wars, rumors of wars, shedding of blood, famine, pestilence, and all these woes upon this earth, we find that out of it something is born. God is bringing His kingdom forth.
Brothers and sisters, I am really touched by Daniel 7, because it is said that One like a Son of Man came and was given a kingdom. Why? He is worthy.
But when the angel began to explain it to Daniel, he said, “The saints of the Most High shall possess the kingdom, and they shall reign for ever.”
The kingdom is given to Christ, but we shall possess the kingdom. As our brother said, you can never divide the head from the body. If the kingdom is given to the Head, and He has every right to have it because He has recaptured it, then after He has recaptured it, He gives it to His body.
To the saints of the Most High, I believe that refers to the church, because we are seated with Him in the heavenlies. The kingdom is theirs. They are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
“The saints of the Most High shall possess the kingdom.” On the one hand, you find it is all the work of our Lord Jesus. If He had not recaptured it, we would never possess it.
But on the other hand, we find that the kingdom is a spiritual thing. It is a moral thing. It is not just an external, outward thing. So even though our Lord Jesus has recaptured the kingdom and has given it to us, for us to really possess it, we have to let the character of the One who recaptured the kingdom characterize us.
Look at the book of Acts. I believe every believer loves to read the first chapters of Acts, because the book of Acts tells us the beginning of the church. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, and one hundred and twenty people were baptized into one body.
Immediately, you find that they began to declare and proclaim the kingdom of God. Peter stood up, and the eleven stood up with him. There was no more jealousy. There was no more striving over who was greater.
They were of one heart, one mind, one soul, one spirit, one body. The first gospel message was the message of the kingdom.
“What you have heard and seen is this: God has raised Jesus from the dead. You who have crucified Him—the One who was crucified—God has made Him both Lord and Christ.”
The kingdom of God, on the day of Pentecost, became a reality in the lives of one hundred and twenty people. They not only proclaimed it; they lived it.
Because of that, you find immediately that the power of the kingdom of God was manifested. Three thousand came. Very soon, you find four thousand.
Among this people, whom God had set apart for Himself, you find how they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
They continued in the teaching of the apostles. The teaching of the apostles is nothing but the teaching of Christ. They continued in the fellowship of the apostles. The fellowship of the apostles is the fellowship of the Son and of the Father.
As John says in 1 John 1, “We report to you that which we have seen and heard,” so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son.
They continued in breaking bread—not just once a year, not just once a month, not just once a week. In the early days, they broke bread every day.
Some people say, “This is Saturday. Why should we break bread? This is not Sunday.” Brothers and sisters, in the early church, they broke bread from house to house because they loved the Lord. They wanted to remember Him. Their hearts were all captured by Him. They wanted to worship Him. They wanted to praise Him.
Every time, God had delivered them completely out of self. The ground of the kingdom of darkness was really undercut among this people.
Nobody thought of himself. People who had properties, when they saw other brothers and sisters in need, sold their properties and laid the money at the feet of the apostles to be distributed to all who had need. In other words, there was no more self.
Self-possessiveness is one of the strongest instincts in man. We want to possess for ourselves. Even with children, when they are playing with toys and with their friends, you find how they will snatch a toy out of the hand of another and say, “This is mine.”
Self-possessiveness is a strong instinct. But here you find that the ground upon which the kingdom of darkness was built was completely uprooted. No self; it is Christ.
Oh, how they loved one another. The testimony of the early church was that people looked at these believers and said, “See how they love one another.” They lived the kingdom of God.
Because they were the kingdom of God, when they proclaimed it, it had power. There was authority there.
When the kingdom is proclaimed, without doubt it is a challenge. You either accept it or you reject it.
If you accept it, then you capitulate to Christ. It is not just a matter of taking Christ as your Savior so that you may not go to hell and that one day you may go to heaven.
It is a matter of taking Christ as your Lord, as your King, as your Master. You allow Him to rule over your life. You allow the Holy Spirit to incorporate and develop Christ in you.
As a people, you put yourselves under the headship of Christ. Let Christ be the Head. Let His rule be unchallenged. You are the embodiment of the kingdom of God.
Or, when the kingdom is preached, you may reject it. You find that it is too costly. You find that the demand is too absolute, and you refuse to accept the lordship of Christ.
When you do that, you find invariably that you begin to oppose and persecute those who believe. The kingdom is never a neutral thing. It is either this or that.
When the kingdom comes, it is a power, a living power. It either brings people into subjection to Christ, or it stirs up opposition.
This you find in the book of Acts. Wherever these people traveled and spread out, they brought the message with them. Wherever they went, thank God, there were people who surrendered to the lordship of Christ. But there were others who were stirred into jealousy and tried to kill and destroy. It is always like that.
The kingdom of God is not a theory. It is a life. It is not merely a doctrine or a teaching. It is a power.
Just like our Lord Jesus when He was on earth, people could not take Him. He was too much for them. So they rejected Him and killed Him. There is no middle ground.
Here, brothers and sisters, you find at the beginning how powerful the church was. The church is the very embodiment of the kingdom of God. The church is a vessel in God’s hand, an instrument in God’s hand, to bring in the kingdom of God and to spread the kingdom of God upon this earth, in spite of all opposition.
You find that the Roman Empire was destroyed, but not the church.
But unfortunately, what happened to Israel happened to the church. History repeats itself.
The power of darkness, the kingdom of darkness, tries every way to infiltrate the kingdom of God and to destroy it from within.
You remember in Acts 5 that Satan seemed to fill the heart of a couple, trying to deceive the Holy Spirit. They tried to do something that looked good in order to gain a name for themselves. Remember, they were not trying to gain a name in the world; they were trying to gain a name in the church.
But the Holy Spirit was so watchful that immediately judgment came. The name of the Lord Jesus was exalted.
Peter and John said, “Silver and gold have we none; but what we have, we give unto thee. In the name of the Lord Jesus, rise up and walk.” That cripple rose up, leaped, walked, and praised God. The name!
Satan tried every means of infiltrating the church. In Acts 6, there was murmuring. But immediately, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, the apostles were able to solve the problem. They not only solved the problem, but they actually opened a new door. Many more came to the Lord, and the Word prospered.
The enemy tried to use outward persecution to destroy the church, but instead, the church spread. The kingdom of God spread to other cities, from the cities of Judea to Samaria. Philip went to Samaria. He preached the kingdom of God and the things concerning the Lord Jesus, and many came to the Lord.
The persecuted people spread all the way to Antioch, Cilicia, and all these places, and you find the churches of God springing up all around.
But even in the days of the apostles, the kingdom of darkness tried to make inroads into the kingdom of God: false teachings, false doctrines, false prophets, false teachers, false apostles, Judaizers—trying to cover up the kingdom of God and trying to change the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The teaching was that Christ was no longer all and no longer supreme. Even in salvation, they said that human works were needed: “You believe in Him, and you keep the commandments.”
Unfortunately, when it comes to the end of the first century, the apostle John, for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus, was exiled to the island of Patmos. There God gave a vision of the seven golden lampstands, with the Son of God in their midst: the churches, the churches of Asia.
What do you see there? As our brother mentioned last night, even toward the end of the first century, the reality of the lordship of Christ had not only been challenged, but had been compromised and even set aside in some of the churches.
Man took the place of Christ. No wonder there was no testimony. Because of this, the Holy Spirit called for repentance.
Brothers and sisters, it is not a matter of outward existence. These seven churches existed in Asia at that time, and some of them even continued on. It is not a matter of outward existence; it is a matter of inward quality.
Is the church the embodiment of the kingdom of God? Is Christ on the throne of the church? Is He the Head of the body?
Oh, the living Lord calls His people to repent. “He who overcomes.”
Thank God, when Christ recaptured the kingdom and entrusted it to the church, the church seemed to have lost it again. The church of God had compromised.
But thank God, He is calling in the church, among God’s people, those who have ears to hear and those who will respond to Him—those who repent, those who will recapture, as it were, that vision and that commission.
Those who are willing to pay any cost, to deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow the Lord; those who are willing to be unpopular, even hated, but who respond to the Holy Spirit and return to the reality of the kingdom of God.
No doubt they will become the target of the enemy. In Daniel 7, you find the little horn, the Antichrist. How he will fight against the saints of the Most High! He will wear them out.
He will try to bother you and bother you until finally he wears you out. He would kill. Even though we may be living in the last days, the spirit of the Antichrist is already here.
The same thought is found in Revelation 12:10. It says that they overcome him, the accuser. They refer to the man-child, and the man-child is born through the travail of the woman. Out of the travail of the church, you find a company, a remnant of overcomers, being born.
They overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb. The overcomers are not super-Christians. The overcomers are not perfect. The overcomers in the church are like the rest of the church, but they know the blood of the Lamb.
Whenever they are convicted by the Holy Spirit, they go to the blood of the Lamb. They do not continue in sin. They do not continue in self. They do not continue in the world.
Whenever the Holy Spirit convicts them of something that is not of Christ, something that is outside the character of Christ, they repent. They claim the blood of the Lord Jesus. They are washed white as snow. Communion with God is not interrupted.
They do not look back; they move on. They overcome because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony.
What is their testimony? Very simple: Jesus is Lord.
Because they live it, when they say it, there is power. They love not their own lives even unto death. They are willing to deny themselves and follow the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, the kingdom of God is formed in a people who defeat the kingdom of darkness in their lives.
When the man-child is born, he is caught up to God and to His throne. To be taken to the throne, he has to pass through the air, and the air is where the headquarters of the kingdom of darkness is.
They have overcome the enemy in their lives, so they can thrust through the headquarters of the enemy and reach the throne. When they reach the throne, Michael and his angels are sent to fight against Satan and his followers. There is no more place for them in the air. Satan is cast down upon this earth.
Who paved the way? The overcomers. They pave the way for the coming of Christ. They pave the way for the day when Christ shall return and rule over the whole earth.
It has to be real in the lives of the people—if not in the whole church, then in a people within the church, the overcomers—before it can become a reality upon this earth.
Thank God, He is calling overcomers everywhere. “He who overcomes,” he who responds to the calling, to the voice of the Spirit of God, and who puts himself under the lordship of Christ. Jesus is Lord.
We are told in Matthew 24:14 that the gospel of the kingdom must be preached to all the inhabited earth, and then the end shall come.
The gospel—the glad tidings. Brothers and sisters, the kingdom is the gospel. Sometimes when we think of the kingdom, we are fearful because we think it is so heavy, so hard, so difficult, and so costly.
We think it is not good tidings; it is bad tidings. It is better that we do not hear it. Oh, we just need to hear the gospel of grace: God forgives me, He saves me, He allows me to go to heaven and live there forever.
We do not want to hear the gospel of the kingdom. We think it is not a gospel. But dear brothers and sisters, the kingdom is the gospel.
There is no blessing more blessed than when you put yourself under the lordship of Christ.
One day, when the whole earth shall be under His rule, what a blessing it will be. Even the sun will be seven times brighter than today, and you can stand it and enjoy it.
The lion will lie down with the lamb. Nothing will hurt in the holy hill of God. A child can play at the serpent’s den. Peace, love—everything that is God’s character will rule over the place. There is no blessing more blessed than that.
Brothers and sisters, the kingdom is the gospel. This kingdom has to be preached, heralded, proclaimed, announced. Let it be announced to all the inhabited earth. Let everybody hear about it.
But, of course, you cannot announce it if it is not real in you. It must first be real in you. The kingdom is in you; then you can announce it to the world.
As more are brought into the kingdom of God, then the end shall come. When Christ shall put all things under His feet, then He will give all things back to God, that God may be all in all.
Brothers and sisters, we often think of the Great Commission: “Go ye therefore, preach the great gospel, that people may be saved, that heaven may be filled, empty hell, and fill heaven.”
Here our Lord Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth hath been given unto Me.” Brothers and sisters, what is it? He has recaptured the kingdom. “All authority in heaven and on earth hath been given unto Me.”
Now go in the authority and the power of God. We go to disciple all nations. What does it mean? It means to help people to be put under the discipline of Christ, that people may be under the rulership of Christ. This is the kingdom.
“Baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Why baptizing them? Because baptism is a public confession. It is an expression of our faith.
God has already taken us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. God has done it, and now I take that sign. In other words, I respond to that. I say, “Yes.”
God has taken me out of the power of darkness. I am out. I am buried with Christ. God has translated me into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Yes, I step over. I come out of the water. I belong to Him.
That is why it is a step of faith. It is the beginning of a life of discipleship. It is saying, “Now I give up myself to You. You can do anything You like with me.”
The Lord said, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” This is the kingdom. Tell them the things concerning Me. “And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”
Dear brothers and sisters, the church is not only the embodiment of the kingdom of God; the church is the herald of the kingdom.
We have a responsibility not only to receive the kingdom but to preach the kingdom, that the kingdom may expand.
That stone which smashes the image will grow and become a great mountain. One day, the kingdom of this world shall become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. May the Lord help us.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do want to praise and thank Thee, because it is all of Thy good pleasure. It is all by the finished work of Christ. It is all by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, Father, all we can do is ask Thee to give us vision. Enable us to surrender ourselves to Thee, to give up our rights, and to let Thee have full sway over us—not only individually, but together.
May Thy kingdom become a reality in us today, Lord, that we may be able to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.