Brethren, I'm sorry about the
heat. I don't know what's wrong with it, but I don't think it's
on fire. If it catches on fire, get down
low. We'll crawl out of here. Let's
go to John 18 now. Verse 31, Then said Pilate unto
them, Take ye him and judge him according to your law. The Jews
therefore said unto him, it is not lawful for us to put any
man to death. Pilate goes into the judgment
hall in verse 33, and he asked the Lord, art thou the king of
the Jews? Then in verse 6, he answered
and said, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were
of this world, then would my servants fight that I should
not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my kingdom not of
this world. Pilate asked him again, art thou
a king then? Lord said, thou sayest that I'm
a king. To this end was I born. For this cause came I into the
world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that
is of the truth hear of my voice. Verse 38, Pilate went out to
him and he said, I find no fault at all in him. But he had a custom,
so he told them he would release one to him, and he asked them
in verse 39, do you want me to release the king of the Jews
to you? And they said, no, we want Barabbas. And then throughout
chapter 19, we see this, them put the crown of thorns on him.
They put a purple robe on him. They bowed and said, hail, king
of the Jews. He went forth. Pilate again said,
I find no fault in him. And he came out there wearing
that crown of thorns and that purple robe. Pilate said unto
them, behold, the man. In verse six, they cried out,
crucify him, crucify him. Then when Pilate tried to let
him go, they said to him in verse 12, if you let this man go, you're
not Caesar's friend. That was the Roman king. Whosoever
makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. They knew that would
get Pilate. They knew that he would have
to respond to that because they're basically saying Christ was in
competition with Caesar. Again in verse 14, he said to
them, Behold your king. He asked them in verse 15, they
cried away with him, away with him, crucify him. He said, Shall
I crucify your king? They said, We have no king but
Caesar. And then on the cross, Pilate
wrote this inscription, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the
Jews. And the chief priests and the
Jews said to Pilate, he said, write not the King of the Jews,
but that he said, I'm the King of the Jews. Pilate said, what
I've written, I've written. Now we know scripture says that
King's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. That's every earthly king, including
a governor like Pilate. The Lord turns it withersoever
he will. This is Christ our king. This
is Christ our king. And he turned Pilate's heart
to ask him this question in verse 33. Brings him back into that
judgment hall where the Jews wouldn't go. And he says, art
thou the king of the Jews? Well, in the way that Pilate
meant it, the answer was no. He was not in competition with
Caesar, as the unbelieving Pharisees were charging him with. But spiritually,
the good news of the gospel is, yes indeed, he is the king of
Jews. What we're gonna see here tonight
is assurance for Christ's kingdom. Assurance for Christ's kingdom.
That is for you who make up his kingdom. This is assurance for
us. Christ is our king. Then in verse 36, he said to
him, my kingdom's not of this world. If my kingdom were of
this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence. Now this is something we need to hear in our day. We
need to remember this in our hearts. The world's a tumultuous
place. We see a lot of division in the
world, a lot of corrupt rulers. kings and wars in the world. But we need to remember Christ
is our king. And we need to remember that
our kingdom, the kingdom we're a member of is not of this world.
Not of this world. It's a spiritual kingdom. Now
I want to look first of all at Christ our king. And then secondly
at what is his kingdom. And then thirdly, what does it
mean here that his kingdom is not of this world? All right,
first of all, let's remember Christ is our King. In verse
31, Pilate said, judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore
said unto him, it's not lawful for us to put any man to death.
Now with that answer, they didn't intend to say this, but with
that answer, they were saying that they didn't no longer had
a lawgiver in Judah. They were saying that the scepter
had departed from them. They couldn't make laws, and
they couldn't pass law. They couldn't sentence a man
to death. They needed Pilate to do it. Now, when did the Lord
say that would happen? The Lord said that the scepter
would depart from Judah. But when did He say it would
happen? In Genesis 49.10, He said the scepter shall not depart
from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. They just stated plainly, we
can't pass the sentence of death on anybody. The scepters departed
from us. We don't have anybody that can
uphold the law. We're under the rule of Rome.
They're declaring Christ has come. The king has come. Christ is shallow. He is shallow. The word shallow means he to
whom it belongs, or he whose it is. And it means tranquil,
and it means peace. And that's Christ. Christ Jesus
is he whose the throne is. He's the king. And the Lord Jesus
is the judge, he's the lawgiver, he's the king, he's the savior
of his people. Isaiah 33, 22 said the Lord is
our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king, he will
save us. Here he is. Here he is in human
flesh. God in human flesh. He's the
king of peace. Shiloh means tranquil, it means
peaceful. Christ is the king of peace,
he's the king of righteousness. His kingdom's a kingdom of peace,
because it is a kingdom of righteousness. Isaiah 9, 6. Let's look there
again. You know this well. You'll hear
it a lot this month, toward the end of this month. Let's go there
and read it. Isaiah 9, and look at verse 6. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. You
see that? The government shall be upon
his shoulder. And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. of the increase of his government
and peace there should be no end. Upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. In eternity God entrusted the
government to Christ and the government's been on his shoulder
since eternity. He trusted his son and he gave
the government into his son. That means our Lord Jesus Christ
is the king of creation. He created everything. He rules
heaven. He rules earth. He rules principalities
and powers. He rules all things. He always
has as the son of God, the king of his people, as the pre-incarnate
Lord Jesus Christ before he came in human flesh. But above all,
it was the kingdom of his people. That's the kingdom particularly
and especially and distinguishing that Christ rules over. He rules
everything else for the good of his kingdom. Everything in
this world. He has done it since time began.
He came here and he's sitting there submitting to these men
because it was his, it was on his shoulder, his responsibility
to order his kingdom and to establish his kingdom with judgment and
with justice forever. And the zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. He's the one who performs this.
He's ordering it by fulfilling the everlasting covenant for
his people so that God can receive us in righteousness and be merciful
to us. That's what Christ is here for.
He's establishing his kingdom in his precious blood. He's ordering
it in his precious blood. He's the King David typified.
That's what Peter was declaring on the day of Pentecost. He is
the king David Tipithi, but his throne's forever. His throne
is forever. He's ruling his kingdom henceforth
forever. So he came into this world king. He was born king. In verse 37,
Pilate said unto him, Are thou a king then? Jesus said, Thou
sayest that I'm a king. To this end was I born, for this
cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the
truth. To this end was I born. They came at his birth asking,
where is he that is born King of the Jews? That's how he was
born, King of the Jews. The difference was he came as
a man and became the God-man. He came to bear witness unto
the truth. All through the scriptures God
had been saying, prophesying that the King was coming, that
Christ would be the King that would come. He came to bear witness
to that truth, to declare He's that King. He is that King. Just like He's the prophet, just
like He's the priest, He's the King. Jeremiah 23, 5, Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I'll raise unto David a
righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and
shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. That's of many
scriptures that bear witness of this truth. That's what Christ
came to bear witness to, to show, I'm that king. In his days, Judah
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his
name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness."
Psalm 89, 18. There's another verse. The Lord
is our defense, and the Holy One of Israel is our King. That's
Christ. Now, so he's the King. He's sitting
here, and he's saying, Pilate said it, it was put in his mouth,
he said it, and Christ said, you said it, you said it. All
of this that was done to show him as the king and with that
inscription put on the cross, it was all because he truly is
the king of the Jews. Now, look at this next thing
here, what's meant by his kingdom? If Christ is the king, who's
his kingdom? Verse 33, Pilate said to him,
art thou the king of the Jews? Well, he's not as Pilate meant
it. He was not in competition with Caesar, he was not in competition
with any of the kingdoms of the world, and he was not, as Pilate
thought, he was not a political earthly king over political earthly
Israel, though he ruled everything that went on there. He was not
their king to whom they would bow, but he is indeed the king
of the Jews. Christ is the king of the Jews,
but his kingdom is not political. His kingdom is his church. His
kingdom is his people. It's made up of elect out of
Israel, out of political Israel, and it's made out of his elect
Gentiles out of every nation in the world. That is who true
Jews are that are born of him. Paul said in Romans 8, 28, he's
not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. What did all that picture? What
did that circumcision picture and that earthly Jewish genealogy,
what did it picture? He's a Jew, which is one inwardly.
Circumcision is of the heart. It's by the Spirit of God, not
in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. He is
the king of the Jews, and he's the king of spiritual Israel.
Romans 9 said, verse 6, they're not all Israel, which are of
Israel. He had some true Israel in Israel, but not all of them.
Neither because they're the seed of Abraham are they all children,
but in Isaac, and that is in Christ shall thy seed be called.
That is, those that are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise. God's elect accounted
for the seed. Christ's kingdom is a chosen,
redeemed, blood washed, regenerated people that he is, that he purchased
with his own blood. and he won't lose one of them.
He's our salvation, he's our acceptance with God. And we need
to remember that. We need to remember that whenever,
especially during an election time or any time we see all the
divisions in the world and people, the potsherds striving with the
potsherds in one group trying to exalt themselves over another
group and everybody being more righteous in the next group and
putting down one another and all of that. We ought to know
we're not even a part of that. We're not even a part of that.
Nothing about any kingdom on this earth is, we're not of it. We're of another kingdom. We're
of Christ's kingdom. We're his subjects and his kingdom.
And he's ruling everything. Now, what does he mean that his
kingdom is not of this world? What does he mean by that? Well,
Christ as a king established his kingdom unlike any earthly
kingdom is established. The way he established his kingdom
is unlike any earthly kingdom is established. Nebuchadnezzar
had a dream. Let's go to Daniel 2. I want
you to see this. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and
I'll let you go home and read the whole thing. I'm just going
to give you the interpretation that Daniel gave him. Basically what it was, he saw
this mighty kingdom and it represented him and his kingdom. And then
he saw three more kingdoms that come after him that represented
some earthly kingdoms that came after him. The last one being
Rome. But he also saw a stone cut out
of a mountain without hands. Without hands. And that stone
conquered all the other kingdoms and all the other kings. And
here's the interpretation in Daniel 2 verse 44. And in the
days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom
which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. He's talking about
Christ coming and doing what He did, what we see Him doing
in our day. He said, for as much as I saw
that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and
that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver,
and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall
come to pass hereafter. The dream is certain, and the
interpretation thereof is sure. Over and over in scripture. We
hear Christ declared and what he works for his people, we hear
it declared as being done without hands. Without hands. Let me give you a few of them.
Hebrews 9, 11. Christ being come a high priest of good things
to come by a greater, more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this building. Our Lord Jesus Christ wasn't
made with a man's hands. God formed a body in the woman
with aversion, and the Son of God came down in spirit and took
that body, and everything he did in himself was a picture
of that earthly tabernacle. He's the tabernacle made without
hands. And all the offerings he made were the fulfillment
of those earthy ceremonies made with hands. And he accomplished
spiritual meaning of all of those, redeeming his people. Mark 14.58,
this is one of the accusations they brought against the Lord.
And he had said this when he was in the temple. They come
forth and they said, he said, I'll destroy this temple that's
made with hands and within three days I will build another made
without hands. That's what he's doing. What
he's going through there, going to the cross and what he's buried,
he's building a temple made without hands. It's his people. Colossians
2.11. in Christ also you're circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands and putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. He accomplished
that on the cross when he removed all the sins off his people and
he came and did that in our heart which Paul talked about in Romans
2. It was made without hands. None of it was done by the hands
of any of his people. 2 Corinthians 5.1, we know that
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. Everything about this kingdom
is spiritual. It's all made by God, made by
Christ in human flesh. It's not earthly. It's not made
with hands. It's of God. He doesn't dwell
in temples made with hands. He dwells in the temple he's
made. Now Christ our King's not of this world. He came from heaven.
His kingdom's not of this world and our King's not of this world.
He came down from heaven. He's the King immortal, invisible,
who came and was manifest in human flesh. Nothing about his
kingdom is of this world. I hope the Lord will just make
us get this. Nothing about this kingdom is
of this world. Nothing. Nothing. The kingdom
of Christ is not of this world. The king's not of the world and
the kingdom's not of this world. In fact, the world did everything
to oppose our king and to try to exterminate his kingdom and
have since the beginning of time. And we see him doing it right
here in our text. But where's Babylon? Where's
Assyria? Where's Rome? Where's those empires
that were so mighty and so so strong and people that lived
in those kingdoms, they were just like people in our day.
We're too powerful to fail. America's too strong to fail.
Where are they? They're gone. But you know where
Christ's kingdom is? Eternal in the heavens. His kingdom
doesn't come with observation. Not only is the king himself
not of this world, but the manner he came into this world is not
of the world. It's not a way any king would
have established a kingdom. Worldly kings come in pomp. They
come with conquering armies. You know when a worldly king
has come into town. Our king was born in a manger,
a baby. No room for him in an inn. He
came in a manger. He's the monarch of all monarchs.
He's the king of kings and lord of lords. And he came to conquer
and establish his kingdom by being an infant. Not laid in
a palace, laid in a manger. He wore swaddling bands rather
than a royal robe. Nobody but humble shepherds came
to announce his arrival, and then when he grew up, his companions
were old rough fishermen that other folks wouldn't have nothing
to do with. The only triumphant entrance he ever made into Jerusalem,
the only triumphant entrance he ever made, was this, Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, he's just, and having salvation,
lowly, and riding upon an ass, upon the coat, the foal of an
ass. Can you just picture that? He
came into town riding on a donkey, on a coat of a donkey. That's
not how most kings come to conquer, is it? He was on this earth, and the
only time he ever wore a crown was one time, just one time,
and it was a crown of thorns. He only held a scepter one time
on this earth, and it was put into his hand by the enemy's
indurision. He only wore a robe one time,
and it was a purple robe put on him to mock him when he walked
this earth. The only exultation, the only
exultation this world ever gave our king was to exalt him up
on a cross and put him on a cross. That was it. And we want to praise
rich folks and pamper them and show respect to persons to them,
though they blaspheme the name of God and say they were saved
by Jesus, they can't say, oh, we'll give them the benefit of
the doubt. Worldly kingdoms are established in the blood of others.
Christ our King established his kingdom in his own blood. Whoever
heard of a king saw his subjects in a pit, dead and dying, and
came down off his throne and kept coming down and down and
down and laid down his life and shed his blood and was buried
in a grave to save the subjects of his kingdom. That's how he
saved his people. Every chosen child is righteous
and just by his obedience by the sinless one who laid down
his life for his people. And not only is our king not
of this world, but those that his subjects, you who he saved,
are not of this world. He said that in his high priestly
prayer. They're not of this world as I'm not of this world. Do
we know what that means? Those that make up this kingdom
are not of this world. Not at all of this world. At
all. Think about this. God made the
first man of the dust. Christ our King made that first
man out of the dust, breathed into him the breath of life.
But when he sinned, death entered. And he died spiritually right
then. And he began dying physically
right then. And then we became guilty right
then. And then we were born, conceived
in our mother's womb, spiritually dead. We didn't have the spirit
of God in our mother's womb. We had a soul and we were alive,
but we were dead before God. And from the moment we started
living, we started dying. We started dying. And if God
had left us to ourself, every son of Adam will go back to the
dust and all the grand works that we did while we was here,
and some done to think that's going to make us accepted with
God, they're going to die when we die. And if God doesn't do something
for us, that's going to be it. His kingdom is not of this world.
Nothing we are as we come into this world contributes to us
being a part of this kingdom. Nothing. He found us shouting,
we will not have this man reign over us. That's the number one
problem. Rejection of authority. Each member of Christ's kingdom
is born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Born of
the Spirit of God from above, born with a new Spirit of God
put in us, a new Spirit that He put in us that we didn't have,
so that we have a spiritual, we have the Spirit when He gives
it, not till then. Every child of Christ's kingdom
is other worldly. The Hebrew word means from beyond
and every one of those born of him is from beyond. We're not
of this world. There's nothing about you as
you came into this world that contribute to making you a member
of this kingdom. Absolutely nothing. He showed us our sin couldn't
change. His grace, He showed us that our sin couldn't change
His mercy. He showed us our sin couldn't
change His love. And the way He showed us that
is He came and showed us how He bore what we see in our text
and went to the cross and died for us when we were ungodly,
hating Him and saying, we won't have this man reign over us. And so He brought us by that
to bow the knee in gratitude. to bow the knee from our hearts
and shout, all hail, all hail our King, the Lord Jesus. And so when you've experienced
this and we know this is so, then we know the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal. There is no, nothing we're doing
here is going to make you worship, nothing. You worship if he speaks his
word into your heart and gives you a heart to bow to him and
see him and believe him and trust him. But just come in here, they
don't make you worship. Nothing about this will make
you worship God. Nothing about me speaking is
gonna make you hear the word of God. It's all of him. Every bit of this is of him.
So we know that the weapons are not carnal, they're spiritual.
He told Pilate, if my kingdom were of this world, then would
my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews?
What's our weapon? It's the sword of the spirit,
the word of God. It's the preaching of who Christ is and what he's
accomplished for his people, declaring to you and me that
nothing we've ever done, said, or will do or say is going to
contribute to making us a member of this kingdom or anybody else.
It is of him, beginning to end. That's the weapon. That's the
weapon. The power of our weapon is not
even in us. It's Christ our King. The power
of our weapon is Christ our King. The gospel is the ram's horn. We're just blowing it. That's
all we're doing is blowing it. He has to give us the grace to
blow it. He has to give us the power to blow it. And that's
what makes the walls of Jericho fall. But the power that's going
to make the walls fall is Christ our King. Christ our King. And so we know this, our defense
in this world, it's not of us either, it's not Carl either.
Our defense is our king. As long as God will have you
in this world and have you here serving him for the good of his
kingdom, nobody can touch you, nobody can harm you. Can't a
disease touch you, can't a man touch you, can't a dog wag his
tongue at you without his consent. We're more than conquerors through
Christ above us. Everything's of him. The riches
of this kingdom are not of this world. Everything that he made,
you think about this, gold. Gold had no value to fallen man
put value on gold. And we decided that rock's gonna
be more valuable than this whole plain rock. It shines a little
bit. We like it better. So then the whole world went
crazy for gold. Same with diamonds and whatever. Faith is more precious than gold.
You know what that means? One day, all the elements in
this world are going to melt with the fervent heat, including
gold. Faith's not going to be destroyed,
can't be destroyed, until we don't need it anymore. It's more
precious than gold. And it's in fewer people. Gold's a rare thing. It's a precious
thing. But there's very few who God
gives faith to really believe in, really trust in. These treasures
are more costly, they're more valuable than any riches of this
world. Treasures like pardon with God. Treasures like peace with God. Treasures like joy in the Holy
Ghost. Treasures like contentment with
what you have right now, whatever condition you're in. Treasures like holiness, being
separated from this world, kept in Him, kept following Him, kept
obeying Him, and using no weapons but the weapon of this Gospel,
and not being able to put our hand to the Ark, entirely trusting
Him alone. That's so separate from this
world. and he alone is that one that does it. These are precious
things that are given to us from heaven. And then no worldly kingdom
has the pomp of Christ's kingdom. No worldly kingdom has the, you
see the kingdom in England, and when they have a marriage or
something, there's a lot of pomp to that. If you was invited to
that, you'd probably, you'd probably pawn everything you got to try
to buy something nice enough to go to something like that.
Christ's kingdom has far more pomp than that. I'm talking about
you that are his, right here, right now. Far more pomp and
far more glory than that ever thought about. You say, well,
it don't appear that way to me. Nothing about this is carnal,
you can't see it. You might be poor in this world,
but you're an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. You
gonna tell me anything in this world is more rich than that?
You're robed in the garment, that royal. What king robes his
subjects in his robe? That's what Christ has done. He's robed us in his righteousness.
And every one of the subjects in his kingdom is a king and
a priest. a royal priesthood. Them old
fishermen that ate people, he saw all these haughty, tauty
Pharisees was just, you dare teach us anything? How can you
old, you still got fish scales on your hands. How can you teach
us anything? We can tell you coming before you ever come around
the corners, we can smell you. They're kings and they're priests
under God. Robed in his righteousness. heirs
of God and join heirs with Christ. And the laws of His kingdom are
not of this world either. The laws of His kingdom are not
of this world either. They're not written on earthly
granite. It's the law of faith and it's
the law of love that nobody in this world knows anything about
till the King gives it. And it's written on the heart
of every subject of His kingdom. The world's law is do to others
as they do to you. The law of Christ's kingdom is
do to others as you would that they should do to you. Eye for
an eye, that's the law of every earthly kingdom, eye for an eye.
The law of our king is if an enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink.
For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head, Be
not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. If he smites
you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. Every man for himself. That's
the rule of this earthly kingdoms. Our king's law is look not every
man on his own things, but on the things of others. Take care
of the other subjects of the kingdom. The world drags one
another to an earthly judge and condemns them to die. If it's
bad enough crime, they want whatever the worst that
can be done, they want them to suffer it and whatever they deem
to be the worst. The subjects of this kingdom
have direct access to our king. You can go right into his throne
room anytime you want to. Welcome. And we go there asking
for mercy for our own selves. And we go there asking mercy
for those subjects of the kingdom that have fallen. And we pray to him who has all
power to make every subject stand in his kingdom and ask him will
he make his subject stand. It's different from the way this
world operates. And so the peace of Christ's
kingdom is not of this world. The peace he gives is not of
this world, and the peace of his kingdom is not of this world.
Every subject in Christ's kingdom considers every other believer
better than ourselves. And we consider Christ our king
as the wisest and greatest of all. Every subject, therefore, is
full of thanksgiving. You know, when I say subject,
I'm talking about the subjects of the king. Me and you are in
subjection to him. The members of his kingdom, everyone,
because of all these things, are full of thanksgiving, full
of gratitude, full of devotion, while at the same time, we confess
unto our king how poor and how weak and how the highest love
we have and the deepest gratitude we have are nothing like they
ought to be. Absolutely nothing. Our king is going to come again.
We're reigning with him right now. We're reigning with him
right now. And when he's called the last
one in the kingdom, we're going to be with him forever and eternity.
I don't believe any of this him coming and us going and coming
and going and coming and all the things that men say is going
to happen to him. We're reigning with him right now. Been doing
it since he came the first time. We're in the last day. When he's
called the last one, he'll come again and he'll take us to be
with him. And until that happens, he's going to save all his people. There's not anybody in our king's
kingdom that's going to perish. Nobody. His kingdom is the bush
that's on fire and can't burn. And the reason it can't burn
is because Christ is in the bush. He is in His kingdom. And each
of His members of His kingdom. They can't be consumed. Now let
me end by asking you this. Is Christ your king? Are you
a subject in His kingdom? How do I know that? Has He given
you a new heart to know you depend on the king for everything? Your
salvation is entirely of the King. You didn't contribute anything. Everything of you is of the earth.
And His kingdom is not of this world. It's got to be all of
Him. Has He given you that heart to know that? Is your one desire
to be found in Christ's robe, His royal robe of righteousness? Is your heart to honor the King
in everything you do while you cry out and confess to Him Everything
I do is sin. That's a paradox to a carnal
man, but that's so of the substance of his kingdom. We live in this tumultuous time,
and rulers are corrupt, and the citizens of this country are
divided, and the citizens of this world are divided. Other
countries are at war, and more wars are coming. Just a matter
of time. But let us have grace. Let us
have grace, be at peace with one another, don't strive with
the potteries of this earth, and certainly don't strive with
each other. Let us be content, let us worship Him, let us serve
Him with reverence in all things. That means not fearing anything
or anybody else but Him. Knowing He's ruling it. He's
at hand. Don't be anxious. He's at hand.
He's our sovereign. He's ruling everything in this
world. He's ruling His kingdom. He's ruling His people. And here's
the fact of it. If you're a member of this kingdom,
you have received a kingdom that cannot be moved. Nothing can
shake it. It cannot be moved. Hebrews 12, 28. Can't be moved.
And I pray God be pleased now to make us loyal subjects of
his kingdom. Be true to Christ our King. All right, Brother Art.