Turn back in your Bibles again
where we read in Matthew chapter 11. There are three words. in the verse that I want us to
look at this morning that usually have a negative
connotation to them. One of the words is violence. Another word is force. And the other word is violent. I've had this verse on my mind
a lot this week, and I thought about how that
as a preacher of the gospel, I'm looking for some people I want to pastor such a people, and I want to be counted among
such a people as these three words describe. Listen again and look again at what the Lord Jesus Christ says
in verse 12. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force. The amplified version of that
verse says something like this. And from the days of John the
Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured
violent assault, and violent men seize it by force, As a precious
prize, a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent
zeal and intense exertion. These are described as violent using force and violence. Now, when I say that and I read
that, I know that never does the true gospel preacher exert
pressure on anyone. You will not find the Lord's
true under-shepherds putting on high-pressure invitations,
using scare tactics, trying by persuasion of the flesh to bring
people to Christ. But evidently, by virtue of what
we read here, that is not to say that there are not some people
who do feel a pressure. When our Lord was giving out
one of the parables, He says in one of them, He says to His
servants, you go out and bid them to come. That's what we
do when we preach the gospel. But in another of the parables,
he says that he said to his servant, singular, compel them to come. And that obviously has to do
with the Spirit of God. And what he's talking about here
is a spiritual aggressiveness. And this being nothing less than
the activity that arises in one who has been given true spiritual
life. Why are they like this? Why are these described in this
manner? They act in this manner because
of need. I thought about it yesterday,
how many times kings and rulers have reduced their subjects down
to nothing, stolen everything that they had, and thought that
they could contain them, which they did until their need met
such a state that they couldn't hold them back anymore. That's
happened many, many times in the course of history. These
act like they do here. They exercise this manner because
of great desire. They act in this way, he says,
toward the kingdom of God because they found out something about
its worth. They do so because of opportunity. They're acting out of desperation. I know this. I know the Scriptures
say that those who most diligently Seek Him. Seek this kingdom. He says they'll find it. They'll
find it. And when John the Baptist and
the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles also, when they began
to preach the gospel of the kingdom, there was a great stir. And there were a number of people
who pressed to hear and to see, and Christ uses this as an example
in showing exactly how men and women spiritually enter and receive
and take the kingdom of God. There are three things. that
I want us to notice about these people, because they are none
other than God's elect. These are the people that will
inhabit God's heaven. These are those who are true
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the only ones that
that name Christian or follower of Christ, they are the only
ones that are those who are the people of God. Three things about
them. Number one, what is their objective? I could say what is their goal? What is it that they are in such
activity about? Well, he says, it is the kingdom
of God. It is said to be in another place,
the kingdom of heaven. But whichever one you use, it
is the same thing. It is actually a kingdom that
God, in His free and sovereign grace, has purpose to give them
in Jesus Christ before the world began. Hold your place right
here and look over in Matthew 25. Matthew chapter 25, in that hour
when He makes manifest His people, in Matthew 25 and verse 34 it
says, that the king shall say unto
them on his right hand." Now, he's just been talking about
the sheep on the one hand and the goats on the other hand. The goats on the left hand, he
says, are one thing, but those on the right hand, he'll say
unto them, come ye blessed of my Father. Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world." This is not something that they've stumbled into. This
is not some kind of contingency plan with God. This is the purpose
of God It is the purpose of His grace which was given to them,
as Paul says, in Christ Jesus before the world began. They have been blessed of the
Father. He says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has chosen us chosen you
to salvation in Christ before the world began. And it is all
of His grace. It is a kingdom of grace. They did not merit anything,
nor could they, He says to them simply, because of this relationship,
inherit the kingdom that was prepared. prepared by God in
Christ for you before the foundation of the world. And not only that,
it is a kingdom that is unique from every other kingdom, especially
all the kingdoms of the world. Listen to what Paul says in Romans
14. He says, for the kingdom of God
is not meat and drink. It does not have to do with external
things. He says, the kingdom of God is
not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. In other words, it does not have
to do with things that are material. It is not according to what men
say in our day in their health and wealth gospel. It does not
have to do with you being financially prosperous or healthy or any
such thing. It has nothing to do with man's
religious traditions or his rituals. It has nothing to do with our
feelings or having to make us happy or anything like that. It is a spiritual kingdom. It is a kingdom that can only
be revealed by the Holy Spirit And this righteousness, this
peace, and this joy that he says is in the Holy Spirit has to
do with Christ. Has to do with the Lord Jesus
Christ. When our Lord in both John 14
and John 16 spoke of sending the Comforter, He spoke of sending
the Spirit of truth that would guide His people into all truth. He said this, He will take the
things of mine and show them to you. He'll take the things of mine
and show them to you. What things would they be? Well,
Paul writing to the church at Corinth, he said concerning these
things that the natural man receives not, these things that the carnal
mind is enmity against them, he says God has given us His
Spirit, and in His Spirit, by His Spirit, He shows us the things
that are freely given unto us of God." In other words, this
kingdom, this kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,
it has to do with Christ and all that God in grace has freely
given His people in and through and by the Lord Jesus Christ. All this kingdom is in a King. All this kingdom is in the King,
and everything that God has to give to sinners like you and
I, He gives them in the only way that He can to us as a just
God, and that's in the crucified Christ. We're like men and women who
might be locked up on death row. And we have the sentence of death
against us. Justice has found us guilty and
locked us away to face judgment and death by execution. And somebody has come along now
and wills to give us a million dollars. But we couldn't have it. Because
we've got something that stands in the way. That justice has
to be satisfied. We have to die. And that is why
he says righteousness, because it speaks of the righteous grace
of God, and God giving to us all spiritual blessing. And you know what? That's the
only blessings there are. Men talk about having money,
calling it a blessing. It usually proves a curse. They
talk about blessings of health and blessings of this and that
and the other, and yet they take those very blessings and they
still die in their sins. No, these are spiritual blessings. This has to do with eternal life. This has to do with that salvation
that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. It has to do with God making
a sinner righteous in Him, imputing to us the very righteousness
of Christ, justifying us, clothing us in that robe of righteousness,
making us to be one with Him who is the King of righteousness. In Hebrews it says that the Father
says to the Son. He says, Unto the Son he saith,
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. There'll not one soul enter this
kingdom. There'll not one soul have anything
that is a part of this kingdom that they receive or that was
given to them in such a way as it would make God to be unrighteous. And yet they're desperate to
have it. You remember Esther? Esther in
the Old Testament, there came an hour in which her whole people
as well as herself was in a desperate stay and about to be slain by
a wicked man by the name of Haman? But they had a problem. Even as the queen, she could
not go into the presence of the king unless he invited her to. And if she went in, or anybody
else went in, Before the king, without this invitation, they
were taken immediately out and slain. But she was desperate. And she told Mordecai and those
people, she said, you just pray for me. Call upon God. The only way that there is out
of this is to go before the King and seek the mercy of the King,
and I'm going to go in, and if I perish, I perish. That's desperation. And that's what every sinner
that enters this kingdom does before God. In Jesus Christ,
cast themselves before God and His mercy. in the Lord Jesus. You remember that woman that
we read about or will read about in Mark chapter 5. It says that
she had an issue of blood. She had a disease from which
she would die. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
where she was at, and the crowd was such that they were surrounding
him so that she was not able to get to him, the Bible says,
for the press. But she wouldn't be discouraged.
Because her need was so great and he was the only one that
could help her that she pressed and she crawled and she twisted
until she was able to touch just the garment of Jesus Christ and
immediately. The Bible says that virtue flowed
out of him and healed her. They are needy. You see, Noah, the Bible says
concerning him and that faith that God gave him in the light
of what God told him was going to happen to this earth in a
flood, it says, Noah moved by fear. Yet exactly what God says. You see, they do these things,
they seek this kingdom, which is a kingdom of righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, because it has to do with
the matter of our sins. This has to do with not our body
or a few pains or something like that. It has to do with our eternal
soul. and our standing before God. He says it's righteousness. It's
God doing right. It's our doing right in His sight,
which is exactly what the righteousness of faith is. It is a looking
to Jesus Christ and Him crucified and only that. It is that righteous
grace that Paul talks about. It is that righteousness that
Paul laid hold of when he says in Philippians 3, I count everything
I've ever done and everything I've ever been as nothing but
done that I might lay hold of Christ and be found in Him. It's that righteousness that
Paul warns about and uses his own people as an example. He said they have a zeal of God. They're sincere. They're active. They're zealous. They have a
zeal toward God, but it's not according to knowledge." Well, somebody would say in our
day, well, Paul, why is it you think you're right and everybody
else is wrong? Why do you think that they don't
have knowledge of God, that they don't have knowledge of what
righteousness is? He said, because they in going
about to establish their own righteousness. They have not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. My friend, the only way that
you and I are ever found submitting to the righteousness of God is
when He brings us to see just exactly what He says about us
and everybody else, that there is none righteous, no, not one. And then he talks about peace.
The kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's righteousness.
It's peace. What's that? Peace with God. The peace that you and I can't
make with God. The peace that is in Christ,
who is the Prince of Peace and the King of Peace, of whom believers
all say He is our peace, And Paul says that having made peace
through the blood of His cross. Did you know that? People are always talking about,
well, you need to make peace with God. No sinner ever has. There is
only one man. who has ever made peace with
God. And that one man is the Lord
Jesus Christ, and He is, as the Apostle says, a representative
man who stood there before God in His justice, representing
His people, and by the blood of His cross, He made peace. on their behalf, reconcile them
to God, because the only way to establish peace for them was
His death. Then he says, and joy. What's
that? That's the joy, he says, that's
in Christ. Paul says, and not only so, but
we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we
have now received the atonement. You can't have any joy until
you have any peace, and there's no peace apart from righteousness,
but in Christ you have all three. That's what they're found desiring.
That's their objective. to be right with God, to be saved
by God, to receive the blessings of this kingdom, to have their
sins forgiven, to have this eternal salvation that's Him, every one
of these blessings, all of which they have none of in themselves.
That's their goal. They're not like men and women
in every age. They're just like them by nature. Oh, if somebody will brag on
them a little bit. You see, these people that he's
talking about here and using as an example, when they heard
about John the Baptist, they're just like people in every generation. They sought to hear some new
thing, so they go running out to this prophet in the wilderness. Christ said, who'd you go out
to see? Did you go out to see a man who'd be a lettered man? Did you go out to see a man who'd
be a doctor of your law? Did you go out to see somebody
who's dressed in fine garments, given big titles and such? Did
you, like, go out to see a smooth man or a man who has soft words
for you? He said, if you did, you're disappointed. If you went out to see just an
ordinary prophet like men call prophet, you're disappointed.
But he said, this man's more than a prophet. What's his mission? He's to announce that the Messiah
is here. He's come to exalt Christ, announce
His coming. And that's what men do in our
day. They get their mindset on what they want out of religion.
They decide of the way they want to serve God, what they want
to hear, how they want to hear, and all this kind of stuff. But
not these folks. I'll tell you if you were out
in a far desert place and you'd been there for days and you hadn't
had food or water or anything else and somebody came along
and had an old boot that came off of a dead man that died years
and years ago and there's nothing there but a crust of leather
and it's full of water and he starts to pour it to you, you
wouldn't turn your head from it. If He offered you a crust of
dry bread, you wouldn't say, oh, I can't eat that. This is what they're longing
for, the Kingdom of Heaven. Here's number two. I'll try to
hurry. What characterizes them? This
is their goal. This is what they desire and
need. What characterizes them? They're all violent people. They're all violent people. And they're violent in this sense
because they've been made such by divine grace, by the Spirit
of God. You see, everyone that the Spirit
of God regenerates and calls and brings to Christ. He brings
them from darkness to light, from death to life. He gives this unbelieving soul
the gift of faith. Let me read you a parallel verse. where in this same word, the
only other time that it's used in the New Testament is used,
it's in Luke 16 where he says, The law and the prophets were
until John. Since that time the kingdom of
God is preached and every man presseth into it. Presses into it. You ever been somewhere where
there's a giveaway? Where there's a sale maybe? You ever watch those people in
Haiti after the earthquake? Those food trucks would pull
up with sacks of grain or water, whatever it is. They didn't just
fall into orderly line and wait and such. Why? I mean, we can look back sometimes
and we can say, well, it looked like a bunch of savages to me.
It looked like a bunch of people who were not civilized. But if you didn't have anything, if your already meager existence
had been reduced to nothing, it might change your attitude.
They're just fighting for the boxes, fighting for the bottles. That's this spiritual violence.
You see, even God's people, in themselves, in their natural
state, they don't have any need for anything. But when the Spirit of God comes
to our hearts and shows us our need and gives us a desire for
what we really need rather than for what this flesh wants, It's
a different story. And that's what God says in Psalm
110 to his king. He says, thy people, thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That's why I'm not going to browbeat
anybody. That's why I'm not going to beg
anybody. That's why I'm not going to reduce
the glory of Christ down to nothing and make Him a beggar and a weakling
and such as that. That's why I'm not going to reduce
His glory and try to get people to do things that they don't
want to do. That's why I'm not going to go out begging His name
for money from an unbelieving world. God says His people will
be willing. in the day of His power. The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus,
He said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He went on in another verse.
He said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. We don't even desire the kingdom
of God by nature because we can't see it. Why? It's a spiritual
kingdom. It can only be seen by faith.
But when men and women are born again by the Spirit of God, they
do by faith see the kingdom of God. They see Christ through
the gospel. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You see, His gospel is the gospel
of the kingdom. His gospel is the Word of the
kingdom. His gospel is that Word wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. His gospel is that way in which
God can be just and justify a sinner. It's called the Word of Righteousness. It's called the Gospel of Peace. It's glad tidings of great joy. You see, the Lord said, To His disciples, He said, it's
given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but
to them it is not given. You can't earn the kingdom. You
don't deserve the kingdom. You can't merit the kingdom. God has to give it to us in grace. And their violence, as I said,
is because of need. It's because we know that we
have no right to it. He said, blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And their violence has to do
with the means of grace. Now, I want you to listen to
me. Those who are violent for the
kingdom of God. Those that are described here. That violence because they see
by faith the worth and the value of salvation by grace in Christ. Because they see the alternative
of that kingdom, the urgency that they feel because of coming
judgment They're violent as to the means
of it. Now, what do you mean, preacher? I mean they're violent when it
comes to hearing the preaching of the gospel. If I don't have a violence in
my heart, if I don't feel a necessity in my heart, if I can be stunned
or stopped by every obstacle to hearing the gospel, I must
not be this person. I'm not saying that we don't
all have difficulties. We do. But these difficulties, these
obstacles, these afflictions, these problems, these family
situations, these things that happen in every case to every
one of us, they can't stop God's elect. They're like Peter perishing,
Lord, save me or I die. Who was it said, give me liberty
or give me death? That can only be said in truth
by those of God's people who see that they have liberty in
Christ or they have eternal damnation and judgment. They are violent when it comes to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Family members can't stop them,
keep them from them. All these situations in life. Zacchaeus was a man, the Bible
says, of short stature. There is a big crowd around Jesus.
But he had to see that man. He climbed up in that sycamore
tree. Those that were at the pool of
Bethsaida, they sat there because that's the only place where healing
was. Blind Bartimaeus, the Bible says
that he sat by the wayside and when the Lord Jesus Christ came
by, he cried out to him. Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me." They said, be quiet. He says he cried the louder. The Ethiopian eunuch had to cross
a desert. That was the only means that
there was of hearing anything about the true God was to make
that pilgrimage across that desert to Jerusalem where God had identified
in that place and that people, that's the only place it was
to hear. Lydia, beaten down by the riverside.
Cornelius, got to send a messenger in obedience to God. The Philippian
jailer. How about that manslayer in the
Old Testament when he had to flee to the city of refuge lest
the avenger of blood catch him and slay him? You think he ran five yards and
said, well, I'm telling you what, this is a stony road. I think
I'll just stop and rest a minute. Oh, no. This is life or death. I've told you often about Bunyan's
pilgrim. His family, his friends, his
neighbors and all, he was there in the city of destruction. They
all said, stay here, stay here, don't leave. And when he started
out, they began to cry after him. But he stuck his fingers
in his ears to shut their sounds out and he cried out as he fled
the city of destruction. Life, life, eternal life. This is not a game. This is not
a social thing. This is life or death. And when the Lord dealt with
that old thief hanging on that cross, he's hanging there on that cross.
He'd not many minutes before been raining on Christ just like
the other thief. And then he's brought by the
grace of God to cry out to Christ, Lord, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. According to what the Bible says,
most of the rich won't. Most of the learned won't. Most
of the noble won't. The Pharisees won't. but the violent will. You and I may not, but the violent will. Oh, I've
seen people just, they start out, they hear the gospel, they
were just all up in the air, so enthused and all. They're
like, I call them the Fourth of July rockets. Bright, come
right down to the earth. Christ said, you're my disciples
if you continue in my word. He said, he that endures to the
end shall be saved. Will his endurance save him?
No, but it will show he is one of God's saved ones. You see, and upon taking the
kingdom, their violence, their zeal doesn't cease. And when
someone lays hold of salvation in Christ, His violence is demonstrated
in love and devotion and service to Christ in his church. He's violent to obey God. He's
violent to believe what God says in this book. Well, but you know
what Dr. so-and-so says. You know what our denomination
says. You know what old preacher so-and-so or grandpa so-and-so
taught? Doesn't matter. He's violent to follow the Lord
in obedience of baptism. Violent to follow him in identifying
with his church. violent to worship Him at every
opportunity, violent to spread the fame and gospel of Christ,
violent to see men and women come to Christ. Those fellows that had that man
that was in need of a healing so bad, they brought him to where
Christ was. It was so crowded, they couldn't
get him in. Well, it's too bad. It must not have been meant for
him to be here. No, they climbed up on the roof,
tore a hole in the roof, and they lowered him down on ropes. And the more these violent ones
see by faith, the more they experience of His grace, the more violent
they become. Here's the third thing quickly. They're all successful. They take it. They lay hold of this kingdom.
They seize it as a prize. They cannot be shut out by Satan. They cannot be turned aside by
a million religious hypocrites. Our Lord said to the scribes
and Pharisees, He said, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of
heaven against men, for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer
ye them that are entering to go in. He said, you don't want
those that are entering to go in, but you can't stop them. I saw something on a religious
program or something the last few days, flipping channels, laying there on the bed. I spent
more time on the bed the last three days than I have in my
whole life, I believe, in the daytime. When somebody put up
a sign, one of these signs, you know, him that cometh to me I'll
in no wise cast out. Is that the scripture? Yes and
no. It was all I heard until I was a
full adult, but that's not all that verse. The other part of it is this.
Christ says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. and him that comes to me I will
in no wise cast out." He said that to these very scribes and
pharisees. You're not coming. Don't think
it'll be my loss. All that the Father has given
me will come to me. And when they come, I'll never
cast them out. The Lord's people They face family
difficulties, they face work problems, they face health problems,
they face their own failures. But they become more violent to be saved by Christ. He said, lay hold on eternal
life. Lay hold on the hope set before
you. Let me read you some words that
the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet sent to
a people. And this people were not very
receptive. And he was like immediately discouraged. He was damned. But he's representative of all
of us by nature. And I want you to listen to what
the Lord said to him. He said, If you have run with
the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how Can you contend with
horses? If you run along with the footmen,
you're already tired running with them. How would you ever
run along with horses? What does that mean? Well, if
you've already weakened, if you're already wearied out, under such
light affliction, under such light problems of life, under
such dissatisfaction with His people. How in the world would you make
it through bigger trials, bigger obstacles, bigger afflictions? And if in the land of peace wherein
thou trustest they wearied thee, Then how wilt thou do in the
swelling of the Jordan? I've got news for you folks.
The life of a believer does not get easier and easier and easier. I can tell you that. I asked
Brother Mahan one time with regard to even the preaching. I said,
does this ever get any easier? Does it ever get any more? He
said, no. And he said, I hate to tell you
this, but it gets worse. The devil lays out more obstacles. God sends more things to try
our faith. The flesh raises up its all-natural
head to try to stop us, to slow us. Look back at our verse. Christ says, and from the days
of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers
violence, and the violent take it by force. That could mean
in one sense that all about Christ and His gospel is under assault
by those that are out of it to destroy it. But they can't. But the truly violent, they lay
hold of it. My question is this. Will I? Will you? Will whoever hears this message
be found among the violent? I know the Bible teaches Just
what I believe. That's why I believe it, because
the Bible teaches it. That all of God's people shall
be saved with an eternal salvation, and not one of them will be lost.
That He gives to His people eternal life, and they'll never perish.
No man can pluck Him out of His hand. But this He said also. This He said also. God help us to be among that
people. Give us grace to be. Give us strength to be. Give
us faith to be. Enable us to continue as He says in the faith. Our dear Lord Jesus, we pray, that you would give us grace
and faith whereby we might lay hold of that eternal life that
is in you, that we might not in our weariness
faint, that we might be renewed in the
strength of grace, in the strength that is in the Lord Jesus. May we, Lord, forsake every other
thing, every other one, every other way, and be enabled to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Help us. Cause us to know this
holy violence in our soul. by force, take the kingdom of heaven. We know it will be all by your
grace and all in your Son. For we pray and ask all things
in His name. Amen.