All Sermons

29 February 2004 By Richard WIlson

Let us open the Word of God again as we come to Isaiah 65.
Isaiah 65 and let us focus on the work of God's, God is promising to do amongst us
and into some degree is doing in the day that we are living. In fact if we were to look at
these things spiritually and from the standpoint of our Savior seated at the right hand of the
Father these things are being indeed being performed. The difficulty with us is too often
we find the lies of the world speaking in terms of physical achievement and we do not see the
spiritual achievement of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and we will see many many
instances in all parts of the earth that this is indeed happening amongst us. So I want to take
this passage and I want to also take from Colossians chapter 2 a passage that indicates
that the rule of Christ is indeed at work in Christ's kingdom is at work in the time of our own
lives now. A very well-known passage from Matthew chapter 6 and verse 13 as we've been looking at a
new series of studies in the signs of our times we've seen and identified that the coming of the
kingdom of God was the most remarkable sign of God and the most glorious change that took place
in world history that can be not be rivaled with anything else in this world apart from God himself
and of course the kingdom of God is really enveloping the very personhood of the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords. All things changed at the point of the coming of the kingdom of God
and that point was when he offered up his last and said it is finished, redemption is accomplished
and he took of the wine offered to him in a gall and vinegar which he promised in the last supper
just a few hours earlier I will not drink of this wine until the kingdom has come and so he drank
on the cross the swab of vinegar and he asked the father that he should not drink and partake
of this cup this cup of redemption but thy will be done said to his father not my will
and of course the will of the father was completely executed upon his only begotten son
and then we find that with the coming of the kingdom the whole strategic balance of power
had been altered from the old testament period whereby satan was broken in his back
he was crushed by the wounds of Christ himself and his former self could never be regained
he was now assigned to a time of total diminishing power over his dominion which he is
described as the prince of the power of the air and with the coming of salvation
are those whom he has influence over and those whom he exercised dominion over
now has been utterly broken with the coming of salvation and the rule of Christ where he ascended
and rose again from the dead and ascended on high and sits at the right hand of the father
and he rules the nations now we might say what kind of rule is this because all i can see
is secular humanism ruling the nations and all i can see is wall street financial bankers
ruling the nation and and we can see armies and thugs in the name of of government
are ruling the nations really they haven't got that in terms of the hearts and the minds
in terms of the overall providences of god these people and these things will come and go
but the kingdom of god will continue because the king sits upon the throne of heaven
now here we find that this is the greatest maybe of all the signs of god in planet on planet earth
that he had come to establish his rule and he did it by redemption he did it by sending god
the holy spirit to be our only comforter he did it by raising up a group of people that
would always be in the minority called the church of god the redeemed ones of god
and he did it by his own truth that rules in all parts of the earth these things have not been
forsaken indeed these things have their increase even our own day so this kingdom has not come in
ideas it has not come yes it has come spiritually but has not come in terms of mere movements
and political political achievements or by military achievements it's come in the very power
and the glory of god and we pray that in the lord's prayer do we not in chapter six of
matthew's gospel and we pray or we also we also pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven that's the measure of which the kingdom of god will come as it is in heaven
so it shall be on earth and then we say at the end of that prayer you are for yours is the kingdom
and the power and the glory for how long forever amen so christ's kingdom comes
in the very power and the glory of the king of kings and the lord of lords the son of god himself
as we saw last lord's day that the establishment of that kingdom came with the coming of christ
that is his first coming it does not come with his second coming it has been well and truly
established in our own era that we've been caused to live by the gracious hand of god
of god in the gospel era is also the kingdom era it is the era of the holy spirit it is the era
when we worship god in spirit and in truth not through beggary elements of worship any longer
we have now got the complete and perfect sacrifice of christ that deals with the very instruments
of satan's lordship over us in previous times it deals with sin it deals with death because
the redemption that christ gave us was a redemption that gave us new life not new teaching
not new political system not a new social welfare system but he gave us life eternal
that is resurrection life from the dead itself for we were dead in our sins and trespasses
we were separated from god and we were established in new life that's what comes
with the kingdom of god
and so here we find that if we understand that it came in the power of god it is able to bring
life out of death it is able to bring the impossible that could not be achieved by man
for man can be educated for man can set up where social welfare systems man can set up
even ideal kingdoms but they cannot raise a man to life only christ can do that because he
counseled out our sin and we were justified by that now this was seen by the prophets of old
they saw a kingdom and they were jealous that they could not be part of it yet
for the prophets of old and the old testament spoke in these terms as we saw last lord's day
that we found in daniel chapter 2 where Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and a great image
that was struck by a little stone and that stone was carved out of the great mountain without hands
without hands and cast down at the at that that image and the image came tumbling down but it
didn't just break into pieces it actually was pulverized into dust such was the power of that
little stone that was cast from heaven down upon that image and so daniel gave the interpretation
to Nebuchadnezzar the king who had this dream and we find that in chapter 2 and verse verse 34
that you watched while a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image on its feet
of iron and clay and broke them in pieces so we find this he saw the image and it was illustrating
of a great work of god that could only be accomplished by god this image was composed
of a great and awesome image the head of it was gold and this chest was of silver and as
and as uh its belly and thighs was of of um of bronze and its leg legs and its feet were made
partly of iron and partly of clay and if you've ever studied any ancient history
there is very little discussion about the meaning of this even among scholars today
they will see successive uh in the ancient uh ancient world there were success uh for successive
empires there was the babylonian empire that represented the gold there was the um the persian
a medo-persian empire that represented the silver and the the bronze that represented the uh
the the macedonian greek empire under alexander the great and then out of the phoenix of that
came uh the roman empire now very little discussion very little argument would be
discussed that those were the major um uh the major empires of the day they were totalitarian
they were brutal uh yet they brought great civilization in the world and they were set up by
god but then they were to be cast down by a little stone that was to be cast out of uh was was made
without hands uh would be not a kingdom of this world and it was cast upon that final empire the
roman empire which was also mixed with the greek uh the greek culture and it was cast down and it
pulverized the entire edifice of human uh of human uh kingdoms so we find this point
it was a time when this took place it took place at the time of the roman empire
and the the lord himself said behold the kingdom of god is at hand repent therefore
as john the baptist also said but our lord said this and he says the kingdom is at hand
and then he finally announced the kingdom has come with the complete uh redemption of his people
and this kingdom has a history
going from there we find that in this uh in this vision of nebkenezer
uh they were uh uh as he carries on he says in chapter 2 and verse 44
and the days of the kingdoms of the kings uh that god of heaven have set up a kingdom which shall
have uh which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to another people
other people it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms and it shall stand forever
and then finally we find in verse 45 in samash that you saw that the stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron the bronze and clay the silver and the
silver and the gold the great god has made it known to the to the king what will come to pass
after this the dream is certain and the interpretation is sure so here the uh
we find later on in the book of daniel he actually uses the word the kingdom of god
i just can't pick it at the moment but um you will see it there
he actually uses the word the kingdom of god and uh and so we find that this is in true fulfillment
of what god had pronounced earlier now we might say in the two thousand years or more
uh of the era of the kingdom's existence history evidenced its continual advancement
later on the book it says that this little rock became uh not only pulverized the old
uh empires of ancient history but also it began to grow and grow and grow in such a great mountain
that the mountain representing the kingdom filled all the earth and it dominated the entire earth
now we might say to ourselves has this really happened in the era of the kingdom in the last
two thousand years two millennia have happened and the history of it if we can see that this
prophecy is being fulfilled there has been indeed a continuous work of god's silent and often very
noisy kingdom at times uh it has transversed over all the uh the battles of men and societies and
and kingdoms that have risen up and risen down and fallen down there are people that would say
that they have become the master of all the earth as hitler said and as uh and as
um others have said in our own age in this apocalyptic age we've lived in
they've said they've risen up and they've been fallen down we thought communism was going to
be the last bastion of secular humanism that was going to consume all the earth
and what happened it was so shallow and so uh so short in living it lived from about 1918
to whatever it was when the berlin war came tumbling down it was dismantled
as quick as it came at least the roman empire lasted something like 400 years
yet uh such a regime only had about 50 years or 70 years lifespan in it so we think of ourselves
in in times there has been great destruction there has been great wars there has been
awful bloodshed there has been uh rising up of very evil people and there has been enormous
rations as as it were the whole earth is shaken and yet in the midst of all this
the work of god continues and advances and the kingdom of god is advanced
uh through these things now we need to have the eyes of faith to see it
and we need to see that what is important to god is also important to us we need to see that the
church of god is being persecuted all over the earth today and yet it means remains firm
and to many degrees it is remaining faithful we see the um we see uh great inroads within the
church through liberalism and through false teaching and so on and yet we find that there
is a people of god that are maintained faithful to the truth of god's word and there's in the fads
of of our own society are impinging upon the church and the church is greatly weakened
but the kingdom of god who is not the church is merely just part of the whole work of god
is worked out in his own way and i want to say the church is not the same as the kingdom of god
the kingdom of god is a spiritual rule of christ himself over the nations the church of god is i
don't know the wisdom of this but there is a wisdom in god the church of god is always kept
to being a very poor and very struggling institution in society and i believe the reason
and i believe the reason for this to some degree is that as we see a suffering church as we see
a church that is very much a minority who holds the uh the um the oracles of truth
uh in its midst and who knows what it means to know the gospel of god who knows what it means
to walk with god we will always be disciples we'll always be a witness to to god but we can
never accomplish what only god can accomplish and if people were to see a great worldwide church
with great evident edifices of buildings and great powerful armies in the earth
uh they would come to know christ not for his salvation's sake but because it was
is expedient to be part of the christian movement we must come to know christ on the basis of the
intention of christ not on the basis that we are a made an amazing social welfare organization
as the church has often become we come to christ not because he has led us personally against the
odds and against the power of this world and we come humbly before him when it's most unpopular
thing to do so when we are the most reluctant in our hearts god irresistibly draws us to his grace
and we cannot say we have joined this church because it is a mighty thing in this world
we have come into the church of jesus christ on the basis that we have been saved
from a a soul that was destined to hell
and i think there is a purpose in that there is a purpose very often when great revivals take place
and this is another sign we will see of the times great revivals where sometimes millions of people
have been killed have been saved but within that same generation if you study the history of revival
that wars have happened and that many believers have been gathered into the granaries of god
into heaven during those war periods now i don't know the reason for that except that our testimony
must be a testimony that is trusting in god and not in our welfare systems and in our extraordinary
ways in which churches often try to emulate the world we are a testimony to the redemptive work
of christ the gospel is what christ has done on our behalf to save us from our sin and to bless us
in his service so maybe we can have a discussion on that because it is not easy for us to come
to that but if we look at the church and equate that with the kingdom of god we will become very
very cynical about whether god can achieve it achieve what he said he was but god is upon his
throne and he is ruling the nations and often he uses instruments other than the church to achieve
his purposes but the thing is that the truth of god's word is advancing in all areas of life
science could not have advanced as far as it has if it didn't have the truth of god's word
to release the knowledge that god has given us from general revelations we've seen in our bible
studies it cannot be seen any other way unless we are able to give the interpretation that god
would give upon all aspects of our life so that the advancement of god's kingdom is secured we
pray thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven is not to say that everyone on the earth is going
to be one day saved but everyone that god is going to bring will be saved and they will serve
god and be god's servants for the short time that we have given to be a witness to god upon planet
earth so the redemptive the redemption is the only foundation for this work christ's powerful kingdom
begins with the redemption which he accomplished and laid by christ the king himself
because we find that this redemption is one that is able to restore us into fellowship with god
that we once lost in our first father adam and that could only be achieved by christ
the son of god himself and therefore he had to deal with sin because satan had power and
dominion over us while we're in sin and if we live in sin today as believers he will have further
power and dominion over us but if we refuse and refuse to be involved in sin and be holy and
righteous satan has less ability to frustrate our ways and satan will try and do it he is he's the
defeated foe but strategically we have the upper hand yet uh satan does has his effect over us
but as a broken backed fiend and so if our sin is to be dealt with we had to be justified
we had to receive our pardon from god and it could only be done if somebody else took
the penalty for our sins upon his own shoulders that's the problem with the the the passion of
the christ we see so much of this whole thing of what happened to christ physically but they
fail and cannot tell us what really happened he bore the sins of all our sins upon his own
shoulders that's what broke his heart it wasn't the physical as awful as it was it wasn't the
physical thing that really if he just suffered physically he would be a martyr he would not be
a redeemer and this passion of the christ is really just talking about a martyr
and that's the roman catholic view of of what christ is all about as a good man who died for
uh for goodness
he died for our sins he bore our punishment for our own sin upon his own shoulders then we can
be released and be justified it's not on any other grounds so when people enter into discussion with
you after seeing the film point up these things because it could be a very good evangelistic
tool because the inadequacies of the film if they are pointed up properly and told for what really
it is is just a rouge about a poor unfortunate figure of christianity that died a martyr's death
and there's a violent and horrible martyr's death at that if we saw it and that part they've got it
right the things that he suffered physically are graphically portrayed i understand
graphically portrayed and that's correct but the real suffering of christ was not in the physical
the suffering was the bearing becoming the sin bearer for our sins where he cried up
my lord my lord why have you forsaken me
and when they poked the uh the uh the spear in his side what gushed out but water not blood
and that is apparently something medically understandable man actually break is broken is uh
is um dies of a broken heart his blood actually coagulates into water and flows out
now i don't know the reason for that but apparently that's anatomically correct so
the point is that we find that this work was life from the dead it produces life from the dead it's
not just uh a new teaching but a uh a work that god has actually resurrected us from the dead now
if we haven't got that if we don't know the reality of that you do not know the reality
of the power of the kingdom you only know the the wit of uh of human thinking if it hasn't hit you
with the power of god that has utterly transformed your hearts where you are regenerated and born
again in the spirit that is the proof that jesus is the redeemer of the world and not just a martyr
because there is literally thousands upon thousands and even millions of people that
can testify that they have been utterly transformed on the inward class
and they are alive in a manner they could never have wished for in any other way
the basis of this kingdom that comes in power is true salvation
that utterly transforms us out of being walking corpses into resurrected life-giving spirits
yes it is true that the kingdom comes in power and glory spiritually
is not a physical thing indeed when all is washed up and finished on the last day all the elements
will dissolve in a great heat and all the universe will simply stop existing and i think that's
probably closer uh than further away all the stars that you see and all the planets you see
and all the physical uh universe that is uh that is hardly able for us to be even measured
in terms of its extent but there is a boundary to it all the earth that you see today
will on the last day uh all the elements will be dissolved in a great heat and will not exist
so the physical has no lasting thing matter is not matter time and space is not eternal
the only eternal thing we have is the eternal life of god and the eternal god himself
and therefore if this kingdom was to be real if this kingdom was to endure forever
it had to come spiritually that is the very life of thinking the life of feeling
of feeling all the life of appreciation the whole life spiritual life that we have
that might not be able to be put into a test tube and tested or tested medically
everything that we have will be this will be the thing that continues to go because the soul of man
has been created uh eternally and we must decide today
that we are going to be those that are saved or that we are going to neglect so great a salvation
and our loss will be unspeakable and we have to be assigned to eternal hell
heaven and hell will remain but this earth shall pass away
and it will pass away in a great flame of fire
now the word by the word um the spiritual work of god once we know the salvation of god the word of
god is like a key that opens up a great library of knowledge and gives us a perspective on all
aspects of true knowledge and we find that the history of of the church has produced some great
minds that have been also christians and science has been opened up history has been understood
correctly geography has been navigated um uh mass have been have been uh searched out why because
the word of god has given its wisdom to all aspects of life and so that our world view
will put christ as preeminent in all things and that's why we have uh the knowledge of the lord
uh filling the earth as the waters cover the sea as i'll as i says would happen
and so therefore we find that these things
that we find is not only by the word of god but it's also by the spirit
as zachariah says is not by power nor by might but by my spirit says the lord
that these things shall be accomplished
and so here we find that the word and the spirit is always belonging together
and it means that the power of of the word of god who brought all things into existence by the word
of his power he said it shall be so and it was and was brought into existence and so here we find
that by the preaching and teaching of the church redemption is made known
and uh and uh being able to be be uh be possessed by every believer and then from there we see that
their transformed lives have demonstrated true communion with god and having established true
communion with god the knowledge and the righteous living is also exhibited and so the laws of god
will not only be seen within the church but also our community so that we are able to be governed
righteously and to the degree that a nation is wanting to uh to honor uh the maker uh to bring
the laws of god in the midst uh often nations are judged when they forsake these things whether
they're christian or non-christian nations if you can say such a thing because all nations
are in the hand of god of course they are only like dust in the hand of god as it were
so here we see that god is able to exercise his dominion quite sovereignly he doesn't need his
church as such but the church is being brought in as an instrument of displaying the redemptive work
of christ and the way in which the the knowledge of the lord might be able to be disseminated
into all parts of society and therefore we see the kingdom growing even though the church might be
very very small and to to some degree insignificant in terms of worldly terms
but it's the most amazing change agent in our society and we'll look at that
at another time and i'll just close with this other observation that as we are
allowed to be christ instruments as his witnesses we will be the salt of the earth
and the uh and the light of the world and in all this as we step out there is a great difference
there is a great difference between the
the world of darkness under the old empires of the old testament period to the to the new testament
and this is one of the things i was very scared of and i didn't want to bring this in but i
my mind's got it in my mind is the the whole question of the lord of the rings
and i you know in many ways he's captured the cosmology or the the worlds as they existed
in the old testament period until the coming of christ which was a wonderful explanation of that
and if you can see through all the sub diffusion all the weird imagery uh but he he had middle
earth and then what was of that somebody told me middle earth and he had under earth didn't he
you haven't seen the film and uh and it really is very interesting how he's done it i mean
there's all sorts of licenses he's given but it has stimulated a lot of discussion about the
spiritual world the unseen world and how the the armies of darkness in military form
would set themselves against the little band of faithful and what they call the name of the
faithful the uh little band
the hobbits yeah um so you know you see this sort of thing here now for a lot of our secular
minded people in our secular society that film could do a lot of good i think to get our mind
away from just seeing you know physical things and seeing that there is a there's a whole world
what we should call my call the cosmology of the whole world brought to bear upon reality
and it's not just fairy tales and not just wishful thinking those worlds do biblically exist
and uh and there is a whole world a whole cosmos that exists now this cosmos in the old testament
was entirely different to the cosmos in the new testament with christ accomplishing his uh his
ascendancy upon the throne and accomplishing his redemptive work he was able to he was able to
he was able to stand above the satanic work of the powers of darkness and now satan has no longer
the um uh the uh strength of uh of exercising his dominion over those who are held in the powers of
sin and darkness and uh and unrighteousness um and in the estate of this kind of thing so
in a sense satan had world hegemony uh over all the kingdoms uh although god was above all that
but there had to be a work of god done before he could actually establish his kingdom
and that work was done according to the covenants of of the word of god now christ
was at the kingdom at uh at the on his throne ascended at the right hand of the father also
the the souls of the old testament saints were no longer in sheol in the good part of sheol they
were brought out of that into be with christ and all the souls of those who are believers
when they pass from this life they leave their body there for a time but their soul goes to
be with christ directly that's a vast difference to the old testament cosmology and therefore we
find that the the whole the whole um uh strategic balance now is no longer satan exercising his
hegemony over all the nations it is christ directly through his kingdom establishing
his hegemony and rule over all the nations a vast difference doesn't mean to say that satan doesn't
have much power to exercise in the world that we live in but he is on a very short chain
and he's he he is on borrowed time and he only influences those who are unbelievers
and they're only under his dominion as unbelievers and when god moves in his mysterious ways and the
gospels preached those people move out of the estate of sin and death under the lordship of
satan and move into the estate of life and immortality under the dominion of christ the
lord and this is happening day by day moment by moment right throughout world history
and establishing his purposes according to his power and his own glory such is the kingdom of
god there's such a change movement in this world