Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew?
Matthew 4:17.
From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye; for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand.
The same book, Matthew 11:12.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of the heavens suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force.
The same book, Matthew 24:14.
And these glad tidings of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole habitable earth for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for the table, reminding us of Thy tremendous love for us. Thou dost love us even to the uttermost.
Oh, dear Lord, we pray that Thy love will so touch our hearts that we may really be constrained and give ourselves to Thee in such a way that will allow Thee to work out Thy full salvation in each and every one of us, to the praise of Thy glory.
Dear Lord, do deliver us from just following Thee at a distance and turning away when it becomes too difficult. But we pray that Thy love will so seize us that we can follow Thee closely and to the end.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Well, dear brothers and sisters, we have been considering this very basic matter of spiritual exercise.
Spiritual exercise is profitable for everything. It has the promise of life, and the life here is not our physical life. The life here is our spiritual life—the life of Christ in us.
If we exercise our spirit, we will have the promise of this eternal life in us. And this is not only for now; it is also for the time to come.
Now, brothers and sisters, as you read the Bible, you will find that our God is eternal, but He uses time to work out His eternal plan.
According to the Scripture, we find that there is this age, which is the age of grace. We are all now in it. And there is the age to come.
The age to come is the age of the kingdom of the heavens. It will be a thousand years’ time. And after the age to come, then will come the ages of ages, which is eternity to come.
You remember our Lord Jesus said that everything can be forgiven, but there is one sin that cannot be forgiven—not in this age, nor in the age to come—and that is the sin against the Holy Spirit.
So we find that there is not only this age, which we live in now, but after this age is concluded, in God’s timing, there will be the age to come: a thousand years of the kingdom of the heavens upon the earth. Only after that do we have eternity—the ages of ages.
Too many Christians have the idea of only this age and the ages of ages. In other words, many Christians neglect this age to come.
Because of that, they feel that, well, as long as they believe in the Lord Jesus and are saved, eternity is guaranteed. So even after we finish this life, well, we all go to heaven and enjoy eternity with the Lord.
Somehow they forget that in between there is the age to come—the kingdom age. But unfortunately, this kingdom age has been neglected throughout the centuries.
Why? Because during the Reformation, the reformers realized the abuse that the Catholic Church had in its doctrine of purgatory.
In other words, with the Roman Catholic Church, they did not know that we are saved by grace through faith. They believed that we ought to be saved by our own merit.
But who has enough merit in this life that, after he or she dies, he or she will go straight to heaven? They said, very few—only a few saints who had accumulated so much merit in their lives that they themselves would go straight to heaven after death.
And they have more merit to spare. So you can pray to these saints, and by praying to these saints, they will share some of their merit with you and get you out of purgatory faster.
And you remember in church history, even at one time when they wanted to build that wonderful cathedral in Rome, they needed money. So what did they do? They began to sell indulgences.
They sent people abroad to every country and proclaimed that if you paid a certain amount of money, then you would have an indulgence—maybe an indulgence of one hundred days or an indulgence of two hundred days, according to the amount of money you gave.
As you gave the money, it meant that your sins were forgiven. So, you know, some people wanted to commit some sin, so they paid the indulgence first. When they were caught, they showed the paper, and they were all forgiven.
And when they showed the indulgence, they said, “Well, as soon as your money falls into the box, your soul will rise out of purgatory into heaven.”
Everything is by merit. You have to have merit to go to heaven.
And you know, the reformers received revelation from the Lord. They knew that we are not saved by our merit. We are saved by grace, only by our Lord Jesus, Who is the sinless One and was made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God.
Because of their emphasis on justification by faith and not by works, in a sense they threw away this whole matter of merit. They threw away indulgences and everything.
And because of that, it caused a big problem in Christianity today. There are today two schools.
One believes that once saved, forever saved. If you believe in the Lord Jesus and you are saved, then you are forever saved.
The other believes that even if you are saved, if you do not behave, you will lose your salvation.
Now why? Because the problem is here. It is true that before we are saved, whatever good we have accumulated, in the sight of God it is as filthy rags. It cannot save us.
We can only look to the Saviour, our Lord Jesus, Whose blood will cleanse us from all sins, and He will give us eternal life. Salvation is by grace and through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
But after we are saved, what happens? Can it be because we are saved that we can be careless? We can bring shame to our Lord Jesus. We can do unrighteous things. After all, we will go to heaven, so why worry?
Let us have the good of two worlds: eat and drink, and then we go to heaven. So there is a problem not solved.
That is the reason why there is another school of theology: that if you do not behave after you are saved, you will lose your salvation. For instance, the Baptists believe in once saved, forever saved. The Methodists believe that if you do not behave, you can lose your salvation.
And this problem has never been solved for these hundreds and hundreds of years. Why? Because they forget the age to come. They forget the kingdom age.
Now, it is true that if we once believe in the Lord Jesus, we are forever saved. Why? Because we are in the hands of God, and no one can take us out of His hand. Our salvation is eternal, secured by none other than God Himself.
But after we receive the grace of God, that grace in us ought to make us gracious, that we may be as gracious as our God.
In other words, His life in us will manifest His own character. And if we have His life and do not manifest His character, then we abuse the grace that God has given us. We are fallen from grace, as it were.
Even though eternally we are saved, during the kingdom age we will suffer loss. So this matter of the kingdom is very, very important to us believers.
You remember, when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He was born as King. He was born not only as a Saviour, but He was born a King.
When He first began to minister, He started to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.”
Now, you know the children of Israel. They were God’s chosen people, and they had a temple, a law, a priesthood—they had all these religious things. How they depended upon these things! But they did not live a godly life.
So you find that God sent John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord Jesus, to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.”
Why repent? And you find, strangely, we think of repentance only in terms of our sins. If we have committed anything unrighteous, we need to repent for it.
But here you find that the reason for repentance is that the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh. In other words, the King is coming.
And when the King comes, He will establish His kingdom upon this earth. But are you qualified to be in that kingdom? You need to repent.
Because all your religious life will not save you, nor will it make you a citizen of the kingdom to come. You need a new life. You need the King’s life.
The King is coming. He is coming to build His kingdom upon this earth. If you repent, He will bring you into His kingdom.
Then you find that even our Lord Jesus Himself, when He came to minister, gave this message: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.”
Why is that so? Has not the King come? Yes, our Lord Jesus as King has come. But where is His kingdom?
You know, a king without people has no kingdom. The most important thing for a king is that he has his people.
So our Lord has come, but He has no people yet. The people belong not to Him, but to the enemy of God. So He comes and says, “Repent. Turn around, and be My people.” Then His kingdom has come.
So the work of our Lord Jesus on earth is calling people to repent and believe in Him. That is His work. His work is to prepare for His kingdom.
After our Lord Jesus preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh,” there were some people who repented and believed in Him. Then you find what our Lord Jesus did.
In Matthew 4, the same chapter where He proclaimed that kingdom truth, you find that He began to call for disciples.
He began to say, “Come, and follow Me.” Not only come and receive salvation, but come and follow Me. Walk after Me. Do what I do. Be what I am. Be My disciples. Be My citizens. Be kings in the kingdom of the heavens.
So when you come to Matthew 11, you find our Lord Jesus said, “From the time of John the Baptist even now, the kingdom of the heavens is to be seized by violence, and the violent seize upon it.”
Now, we do not love that word violent, because we have a bad connotation. We think of violence as something bad, something unpleasant. But the word itself is neutral. It depends on to whom you do violence.
If you do violence to people, that is wrong. But if you do violence to yourself, that is commendable.
Now, if you do not like the word violence, there is another word: force. You seize the kingdom by force. In other words, it does not come spontaneously. It comes because you have to be forceful, and the forceful seize upon it.
Now, brothers and sisters, are we not saved? Thank God, we are. Are we not in the kingdom of Christ? Positionally, yes.
You remember Colossians 1:13: our Lord Jesus delivered us out of the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, which kingdom did we belong to? We belonged to the kingdom of darkness. The authority of darkness was upon us.
Who had the authority of darkness? The enemy of God, Satan. So the whole world lies under the authority of darkness—under Satan.
When we were born into this world, we were born under the authority of darkness. We were under his control. That was where we were positionally.
And thank God, our Lord Jesus came. He delivered us out of the authority of darkness, and not only out, but He translated us into His own kingdom—the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
So positionally, every believer is supposed to be in the kingdom of the heavens, not in the kingdom of the world. That is very true.
But if you only have a position, that is not enough, because that is objective.
For instance, if you only know that our Lord Jesus died on the cross two thousand years ago, you know the fact, but you do not believe in Him, then you will not be able to enjoy the benefit of what He did on Calvary’s cross two thousand years ago.
The objective truth of salvation is there, but unless you believe, the objective truth will not be your experience.
Whatever your experience may be does not change the objective truth. What our Lord Jesus did on the cross is able to save the whole world.
None should go to hell. But why is it that only those who believe really go to heaven? Because you have to experience what He has done for you. The objective truth has to become your subjective experience.
And that is the same way with the kingdom of God. Positionally, we who believe in the Lord Jesus—He has done it. He has translated us out of darkness into the kingdom of His love. He has done it all. It is there.
But experientially, we have to seize upon it. If we do not seize upon it, we will not be able to enjoy it.
That is why our Lord Jesus in Matthew 11 says that the kingdom of the heavens is to be seized by violence. We need to do violence to ourselves, not to cater to our flesh all the time.
We need, by force as it were, to force ourselves into the kingdom of the heavens. And that is very important to us believers.
Now, why is it that our Lord Jesus calls for disciples? Why is it that to be believers is not enough?
After we have believed in the Lord Jesus, why is it that He should call those who believe in Him to come and follow Him, and to be His disciples?
Now, what do you mean by disciples? Disciples are not like modern-day students.
You know, modern-day students employ the teachers, as it were. You only employ a teacher in order to learn his learning. That is all.
But a disciple is very different. A disciple is like the apprentice of old.
Because in the olden days they did not have schools as we have today. If you wanted to learn a trade, you had to be apprenticed to a master.
And when you were apprenticed to a master, you could not stay home. You had to leave your home, leave everything behind, and live with your master—to become part of your master’s house.
Usually, in the first year, he would not even teach you the skill. He would not allow you to touch any instrument. If you were learning carpentry, you became like a servant in the house.
You would clean the house, wash the floor, help the babies, and wait upon your master when he was eating—like a slave.
Only perhaps after a year would he begin to allow you to touch the instruments, the tools, and begin to teach you how to use these tools.
Why? It takes a few years before you graduate. But after you graduate, you have not only learned the skill of your master; you have learned the lifestyle of your master.
You will walk like him, you will talk like him, and you will live like him. That is the old-days apprenticeship, and discipleship is the same thing.
That is the reason why you find, when our Lord Jesus called for disciples, “Come and follow Me,” something happened.
He saw by the Sea of Galilee Peter and his brother Andrew. They were fishermen; they were there fishing. And the Lord Jesus said, “Come and follow Me.”
What happened? They left the boat, they left the nets, and they followed the Lord.
And the Lord walked ahead and saw another two brothers, sons of Zebedee, James and John. They were mending the nets because they had used the nets and there were some holes in them.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Come and follow Me.” What happened? They left the nets, they left the boat, they left their father, and they followed the Lord.
Then you remember there was a tax gatherer, Levi. He was sitting at the customs, and the Lord said, “Come and follow Me.” He left the customs and followed the Lord.
So, in other words, not only does the Lord want us to believe in Him, but at the same time He wants us to follow Him.
Strictly speaking, there is no distance between believing and being disciples. They are two sides of the same thing. If you believe in the Lord Jesus, you should be His disciple.
To put it another way, after you believe in the Lord Jesus, can you still live for yourself? Can you still live by yourself? Can you still live your old life?
The answer is no. You are saved out of sin, out of death, out of the world, out of Satan, out of darkness.
Now you need to follow the Lord in light, in righteousness, and in love. He is to live in you. Your life will be completely transformed and conformed to the image of God’s Son. And this is what discipleship really is.
So, dear brothers and sisters, why is consecration so important? Consecration is the beginning of Christian life.
Not believing in the Lord Jesus alone is the beginning of Christian life. You may believe in the Lord Jesus; you may be saved, but your Christian life has not begun—not until you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Because this is God’s will. This is acceptable to Him. This is our spiritual worship and reasonable service.
When you present your bodies a living sacrifice, that means you come and follow Him.
You may not do it physically, as did the two sons of Zebedee, or Peter and Andrew, or Matthew, but spiritually speaking, that is what you do.
You leave everything in His hand and say, “Lord, it is all Yours. You have the right to my life because You have saved me.”
“And now, Lord, do whatever You want to do with me. Transform me. Turn me to be like You, that Your character may become my character, that I would be a true follower of You.”
This is what consecration is. Then He will take you in His hand and begin to shape and mold you according to His will. That is the only way that we can really be in the kingdom of the heavens.
You know, to be in the kingdom of the heavens is not only to be a son of the kingdom.
You remember in Matthew 13, our Lord Jesus used different parables. In the first parable, He is sowing the seed of the kingdom.
But in the second parable, you find that what is sown is not the gospel, the truth of the kingdom, but the sons of the kingdom.
You believe in the Lord, you become His disciple, and you become a son of the kingdom. He sows the sons of the kingdom in the world to be His testimony to the world.
But more than that, brothers and sisters, in the kingdom of the heavens everyone is not only a citizen, not only a son, but a king.
Has that impressed you yet? Who is in the kingdom of the heavens? None but kings.
Not just a citizen, not just a son, but a king. Everyone in the kingdom of heaven is a king.
So discipleship actually is the training of kings.
Do you think it is easy to be a king? Now we are a democracy, so we do not have kings here. But if we go back to the old kingdoms, to England, you find that they have monarchy.
The training of the coming king is such a strict training. It is a training greater than the training of any citizen in the kingdom of Great Britain.
Even though the heir is a son, he has to go through all this basic training. He has to go to the army and start as a common soldier.
He has to learn obedience and submission instead of authority. Because if he does not learn obedience and submission, no authority can be given to him, or he will abuse that authority.
He will go through very strict training—all kinds of training. It is training for a king.
And brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is training us today as kings. Think of that.
You want to have an easy time? You want to get by? If you do, you are not qualified to be a king.
Because of that, you are not able to reign with Christ during the thousand years. For the sake of a few years on earth, for the sake of a little of this world, for the sake of gratifying your own flesh, you do not know how much you miss.
How long can you live on this earth? How long can you enjoy this world? How much can you really have?
Suppose you have all the world and lose your soul. What is the profit?
One day, when the Lord shall return, those who are trained as kings will reign with Him for a thousand years.
Not in the sense of reigning as a king in this world, sitting on a throne and giving orders while everybody serves you. That is the kingdom of this world.
But you are kings of the kingdom of the heavens, and it is totally different.
What is the kingdom of the heavens like?
You remember one day when our Lord Jesus was brought before Pilate the governor. Pilate asked Him, “Are You a King?” In John 18, the Lord said, “I am. I am born King.”
“But My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My people would rise up and rescue Me. But My kingdom is not of this world.”
His kingdom is the kingdom of the heavens. He is the King of the heavens.
The heavens have come in the King. At the birth of our Lord Jesus, the heavens invaded, as it were, this earth.
So while He was on earth, He said He was still in heaven. He brought with Him all the atmosphere of heaven. He was not governed by the law of this world; He was governed by a higher law—His Father’s will.
Even while He was on earth, He was in heaven. His kingdom is not of this world.
You remember how He told His disciples, when they were arguing among themselves who would sit at His right and His left, who would have the authority, “My kingdom is different.”
“If you want to be first, be last. If you want to be at the head, be the lowest. I came to serve, and not to be served, and to give My life a ransom for all.”
That is His kingdom.
Because His kingdom is so different from this world, no wonder the world persecuted Him. No wonder the world cast Him out. No wonder the world crucified Him. His kingdom is altogether different.
And brothers and sisters, today we are called into that kingdom. We are to be in that kingdom.
Can we be the same as those in the world? Do not be surprised if we are misunderstood. Do not be surprised if the world does not understand. Do not be surprised if the world persecutes, because we do not belong to it.
We belong to the kingdom of the heavens. That is the reason why you have to seize it by force. We have to do violence, as it were, to ourselves—not cater to our own flesh all the time, but be willing to take up the cross and follow the Lord.
What is the nature of this kingdom of the heavens?
In John 18, He continued to say, “I came to bear witness to the truth.” In other words, it is a kingdom of truth.
Today we live in a world of lies. But our Lord comes to bring in a kingdom of truth. Everything is true, real, and eternal—not pretension, not passion.
What is the nature of the kingdom of heaven? In Romans 14:17, I think it says:
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Now that is the nature of the kingdom of the heavens.
To put it in another word, what is the nature of the kingdom of the heavens? The kingdom of the heavens takes its nature, its character, from the King—from Christ.
So, in other words, Christ is the kingdom.
And that is the reason why God wants us to be transformed and conformed to the image of His Son, because that is the only way to gain the kingdom.
This message of the kingdom of the heavens has to be preached all over the world before the end shall come.
You know, our Lord Jesus was training His disciples. Let us use a few illustrations.
For instance, Peter. You remember in Matthew 16, the Father revealed the Son to Peter. Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Our Lord Jesus said, “Simon Bar-Jonah, thou art blessed, because this is not something shown to thee by flesh; it is My heavenly Father Who has revealed Him to thee.”
Brothers and sisters, when we believe in the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, it is not by human teaching. It is a revelation from above.
It lifts us up, as it were, to the third heaven. It changes us. No longer Simon, but Peter; no longer dust, but stone—a living stone.
But immediately afterward, when our Lord Jesus began to share with His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem, be rejected, persecuted, crucified, and on the third day rise from the dead, you know what Peter did.
With such marvelous revelation, and with such natural love for the Lord, he took hold of the Lord and shook Him a little bit. “No, never, Lord. You do not need the cross.”
Not knowing that he was being used by Satan.
But our Lord had discernment. He turned around and said, “Satan, get thee behind Me, because thou art not mindful of the things of God, but thou art only mindful of the things of this world.”
Think of that. Peter had been treated by the Lord as Satan. What a degradation.
But he learned his lesson. Not because he had learned this lesson had he learned everything—no.
You find the tax gatherers came and said, “Does your Master pay tax?” That was the temple tax, and Peter said, “Yes.”
So he went into the house and tried to tell the Lord that He had to pay the tax. The Lord asked him, “Peter, when the king collects taxes, from whom does he collect—from the people or from his own son?”
Peter said, “Of course, from the people, not from his son.” And the Lord said, “The son does not need to pay the tax.”
As the Son of God, He did not need to pay the temple tax. But He said, “Well, for your sake, I will do it. But I will give you the money. Go and fish.”
“When you hook the first fish, open its mouth. There will be the money for you and for Me to pay the tax.”
How gracious is the Lord.
But how hard it must have been for Peter. He was a fisherman, casting nets, not just using a fishhook and trying to hook a fish. He did not have that patience.
So here he sat by the seashore, using the line and trying to hook the first fish. I do not know what he was thinking.
The Lord taught him a lesson. Finally, the fish came up, and sure enough, there was the money to pay the temple tax. What discipleship that is!
And that was not enough. You find again that he came to the Lord and said, “Lord, my brother sins against me seven times, and I forgive him. Is that enough?”
Now, to Peter, that was more than enough. How gracious he must have thought himself to be. But the Lord said, “I do not say seven times; I say seventy times seven.”
I really pity Peter. If he had just shut his mouth! But you cannot help it. But thank God, out of that fisherman, what an apostle God raised up.
Peter, among the disciples, was perhaps the most severely disciplined. Not only did our Lord cut him off; God the Father cut him off; the Holy Spirit cut him off. But thank God, he became a king.
Think of the two sons of Zebedee. The same thing—how the Lord dealt with them.
They came thinking that the kingdom was to be obtained just by asking. The Lord said, “No. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
They did not know what the cup was or what the baptism was, but they wanted to sit at the right and left. They said, “Yes, we can.”
The Lord said, “You will. But to sit on My right and left is not for Me to give. It is for the Father.”
Brothers and sisters, these early disciples were severely disciplined and trained. Why? Because our Lord was training kings.
Do you want to be a king in the kingdom of the heavens? Do you really want to reign with Christ for a thousand years?
Not in the human sense of sitting there crowned and giving orders, but in the real sense of the kingdom of the heavens.
You rule for God. You rule as Christ will rule. You rule by serving. You rule by enforcing the will of God.
Today’s service is just preparation. Our real service begins in the coming age.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord is training us.
No one really grows into maturity without discipline. If there is no discipline, there will be no growth.
We do not like discipline, but the love of Christ constrains us. Now that One died for all, we all died; and One lives, and we live with Him, not for ourselves.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we need to know the kingdom of the heavens.
When the kingdom shall come upon this earth, when Christ shall reign upon this earth, He needs a people who have been trained and who can reign with Him to the glory of God.
But are we ready for it? Can we enjoy life during that time, or must we be in outer darkness during that period—gnashing of teeth and regretting?
Brothers and sisters, if we do not exercise our spirit today, we will miss the kingdom when it appears.
That does not mean we will miss eternity. No, we will not.
But if we have the whole world and lose our soul, what profit is it?
So may the Lord encourage us, brothers and sisters. This is not something that tries to weigh us down, but something that should lift us up.
May we begin to understand the meaning of discipleship. May we begin to understand why it is that the Lord allows us to go through all this training. It is for our eternal good.
As we said in the beginning, many love to enter into the kingdom, but few are willing to bear the cross.
But there is a direct relationship between the cross and the kingdom.
So let us rejoice whenever we are disciplined. Thank God for it. Let us kiss the hand of the One Who disciplines us.
Then we may be transformed and conformed to His image. So God bless us.