Would you turn with me in your
Bibles to Luke chapter 4? I'm going to read Luke's account
of the passage that we just read from Mark chapter 1. Verse 42, And when it was day, He departed and went into a desert
place. And we know from Mark's account,
he went into this place to pray. That was his purpose, to pray
unto his father. And I think there's something
so powerful about that, the Lord Jesus Christ praying. We cannot
possibly emphasize enough the importance of prayer. the Lord
prayed. And understand this, everybody
is in the Lord's hand. Everybody's heart, the Lord is
in control of. And we're encouraged to pray
to him regarding everything. He's the only one who can do
anything. You and I can't, we have no control. And he has all control. And whatever
it is that we desire to pray about, we're to pray to him also
with the spirit of submission, knowing that what he does is
right. And if he doesn't give us the
answer to our prayer, it's because it wouldn't be good for us. And
we submit to him whatever he does is right. And the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed to his father. Early in the morning, he got
up and he went to a solitary place to pray. And there, maybe
an hour or two later, everybody got up. He wasn't there and they
went looking for him. Verse 42, and the people sought him and
came unto him. and stayed him that he should
not depart from them. We don't want you leaving us.
We want you to be in our presence. I understand that. Don't you
want him to stay with you, to be in your presence? I mean,
his presence is salvation and they wanted him right there.
And he said unto them, verse 43, I must preach the kingdom
of God to other cities also, For therefore am I sent. And he preached, and I know what
the subject matter of his preaching was, the kingdom of God. He preached
in the synagogues of Galilee. Now, our Lord tells us, I was
sent for this purpose, to preach the kingdom of God. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
called the apostle or the sent one of our profession. He said,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath
sent. He defined eternal life like
this, John 17 three. This is eternal life that they
might know thee, the only true God. and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. I think of what our Lord said
of his disciples in John chapter 17. And when he's praying to
his father for them, he said, they have believed that thou
didst send me. Do you believe the father sent
him? That's a simple enough question.
Do you believe the father had sent him? Listen to this scripture
from John 6, 38 through 40. He said, this, he said, I came
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the father's will, which hath sent me that of all, which
he had given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me that everyone that seeth the son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at the last
day." Now, our Lord says, this is the reason I was sent. I must
preach the kingdom of God. Now, there's only one reason
the son of God must do anything. He must do his father's will. And he said, I've been sent to
preach the kingdom of God. I've entitled this message, Preaching
the Kingdom of God. Now, I know that preaching is
derided in our day, but that doesn't negate this scripture. It still pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And our Lord was a preacher. Look in Luke chapter four, verse
18. He reads this passage of scripture from Isaiah 61 concerning
himself. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel. to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach,
there again, to preach the acceptable year of our Lord. And the subject
of his preaching was the kingdom of God. Now, what is the kingdom
of God? We read that so much in the scriptures
about the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? There
is such a thing as the kingdom of God. Now, what is interesting about
his kingdom is it's not seen with the natural eyes. A natural
man, and by natural man, I mean someone who's not been born again.
Someone who's not given a new heart and a new nature cannot
see the kingdom of God. The Lord said, the kingdom of
God cometh not with observation. It's not something, well, there
it is, I see now. It cometh not with observation.
Our Lord said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. Now this kingdom, the kingdom
of God, is the only stable kingdom there is. The kingdom of men
will all crumble and fall. Every kingdom will not last,
but this kingdom is the only kingdom that is stable. Now,
the kingdom of God is the sphere of his rule or dominion. It's his jurisdiction. the kingdom
of God, the sphere of His rule. Would you turn with me to Daniel
chapter 4. Daniel, the fourth chapter. Right after the book of Ezekiel,
Daniel chapter 4. Beginning in verse 34. And at the end of the days, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding
returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. And his kingdom, we're talking
about the kingdom of God, is from generation to generation,
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will. in the army in heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand. None
can stop him from doing his will. None can thwart his will. Whatever
he wills must be done. And no one can say unto him,
what doest thou? Give an account of yourself.
Why are you doing this? He's God. He does according to
his will. So in this sense, the kingdom
of God is infinite, isn't it? absolutely infinite. But we also
read of people being not far from the kingdom of God. That
means they're not in. And we read of people who are
thrust out of the kingdom of God. That lets me know that his
kingdom, yes, it's over everything. But it's also true his kingdom
is where his rule and his will is acknowledged and embraced. Now that's the kingdom of God.
Not just a view of his complete sovereignty, which he is, he's
absolutely sovereign. You've never worshipped God unless
you've worshipped an absolute sovereign God. It's impossible
to worship without some understanding of the absolute dominion and
rule of God. He controls everything. But the
kingdom of God is where his kingdom is acknowledged, loved, and embraced. And there are great mysteries
in his kingdom. Now, a mystery in the scripture
is not something we don't know. It's something we do know because
God has revealed it. And the only reason we know it
is because God has revealed it. the mysteries of the kingdom.
Great is the mystery of godliness. Unto you is given to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of God. The Lord said that. Any understanding,
any knowledge that I have of the kingdom of God is because
God has revealed this great and glorious mystery to me. And oh, the mysteries. One of
the things, the gospel just keeps becoming more mysterious to me.
more glorious, more awe-inspiring. The truth of the gospel comes
from God. This isn't man's word. This isn't
man's invention. This is God. Oh, the great mystery
of the scripture. Oh, we declare the mysteries
of God, don't we? We don't say, what's mystery
mean? No, we declare, as God reveals in his word, the great
mysteries of the gospel. Paul said, the kingdom of God
is not in word, but in power. Where is the kingdom of God?
Where the king is. That's where the kingdom of God
is, where the king is. And this leads me to the points
of my message. What is a kingdom? What's essential
to a kingdom? There are three things that are
essential to the kingdom. When we talk about the kingdom of God, three
things are essential. First, if there's a kingdom,
there's got to be a king. And second, where there's a kingdom,
there's the subjects of the king. And third, where there's a kingdom,
there's the law of that kingdom, the law of the great king. Now remember when the Bible talks
about a king, Not talking about a king that has no power. In
the scripture, the king had power over you. It was up to him as
to whether or not you'd live or whether you'd die. And if
he willed your death, you were put to death right then. No questions
asked. It was up to him as to whether
or not you would be prospered or impoverished. You were in
the hands of the king. The king of the kingdom is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now unto the King, eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. He was born King of the
Jews. Now do you remember what was
written over the cross, over his head when he was hanging
on that cross? What was the accusation written against him? Jesus of
Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And those fellows objected to
that. It was written in Greek and Hebrew and Latin, the language
of the religious, the language of the intellectuals, and the
language of the common man. All languages. Everybody had the
same message. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Jews. And they say, his opponents said,
don't say King of the Jews. But then he said, I'm King of
the Jews. And Pilate said, what I've written stays written. Jesus
of Nazareth, the King. of the Jews. Pilate said, Are
you king? He said, To this end was I born,
and for this cause came I into the world. The king. Oh, I love to think of the king
of the kingdom. Revelation 1916 says, And he
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of Lords. Now what does a king do? A king
rules and a king reigns. A king has a throne. Isaiah saw
the Lord high and lifted up, sitting on a throne. He rules
and reigns from his throne. And oh, the highness of his throne. It's called in the scripture,
an eternal throne. Thy throne, oh God, is forever. And that's God, the father speaking
to God, the son. Thy throne, oh God, is forever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. It's a throne of holiness, justice
and judgment to the habitation of thy throne. and thank God
it's a throne of grace. Let us come boldly unto the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. A king has a throne and a king
has a scepter. Now you remember them giving
To Christ, that hollow reed for a scepter, and then they smote
him on the face with it, making fun of his kingship, putting
some kind of robe on him and bowing before him saying, Hail,
King of the Jews, making fun of him. They didn't know that
at that time he had a scepter they couldn't see. It's called
in the scripture, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter
of thy kingdom. Turn with me to Romans chapter
14 for just a moment. There's not a more important
verse of scripture in all the Bible than this one. Romans chapter
14. Verse 17. For the kingdom of God, it's
not meat and drink, It's not do's and don'ts. It's not man-made
rules and regulations. It's not if you eat this, you'll
be better, but if you drink this, you'll be worse. It's not you're
more pleasing to God if you use the proper dietary laws and so
on. It's not meat and drink. It has nothing to do with that.
What is the kingdom of God? Righteousness. Righteousness. Do you know what
righteousness is? Christ is the righteousness of
God. If you want to know what righteousness
is, you look at the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
never sinned. He kept God's law perfectly. And He has made a way for somebody
as sinful as me. And that's what I am. In and
of myself, nothing but sin. He's made it to where I am the
very righteousness of God. The kingdom of God is righteousness,
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The kingdom of God is righteousness,
so that I stand before God as righteous as Christ, better than
that with the righteousness of Christ. Not, here's my righteousness
alongside of His, but His righteousness is my righteousness before God.
That's why Paul said in Philippians 3, 9, Oh, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. Now, if Jesus Christ
is my righteousness before God, do you know what I have? I have
peace. God is at peace with me. And I am at peace with God. There's nothing for me to fear
because I have the very righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
only thing that makes you scared is sin, isn't it? But if I don't have
any sin, if I'm righteous, oh, the peace I have. And you know
what? Even when I don't feel peace,
I have peace. Isn't that wonderful? Sometimes you feel filled with
torment, filled with, but even when I don't feel peace, I have
peace because God is at peace with me through his son. Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. It's righteousness, the righteousness
of the king. and the peace that He worked
out for us. And third, joy. Oh, the joy of having Jesus Christ
as my righteousness before God. The joy of knowing that all that
God requires of me, I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Oh, what joy. That's the kingdom
of God. It's not all these rules. Men's
religion is so offensive, all the rules and the foolishness.
No, kingdom of God has nothing to do with that. It's righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. A king has a crown. On his head were many crowns,
the scripture says. The crown of the king, the crown
of the savior, the crown of the one mediator between God and
me and the man, Christ Jesus, a crown of glory, all because
he one day wore that crown of thorns. And because he wore that
crown of thorns, his head is now crowned with many crowns,
exalted by his father, that in his name every knee is going
to bow, and every tongue is going to confess that he is Lord. A king has a royal robe, doesn't
he? Remember how his robe was seamless?
Remember they couldn't, it was seamless and they cast lots because
it couldn't be divided. It was seamless. The Lord has
a seamless kingdom. It's absolute. It can't be divided. The king don't do the kid. He's called the king of saints
and he's our king. The king of this kingdom is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the excellency, the glory,
the greatness of the great king, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what
a king there is of this kingdom. Now, what else is essential to
a kingdom? Well, subjects. subjects, his loyal subjects
in his kingdom. He's got his loyal subjects.
He's called in Revelation 15, three, the king of saints. Every believer is a saint. St. Todd, look at him, St. Todd,
St. John, the divine or St. Paul,
St. Todd, St. Dwayne. Every believer
is a saint of God. A saint means a sanctified one,
a holy one. sanctified, set apart for holy
purposes, set apart in eternal election, according as if chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy, that we should be saints. Sanctified by Christ on the cross,
whereby one offering He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Sanctified by the Spirit of God,
given in new nature. He's the King of saints. Now, I'm going to give you every
description of the subjects of his kingdom. First Saints, but
listen to this, Luke 6, 20. Blessed be ye poor. Poor. For yours is the kingdom
of God. Blessed be ye poor. Well, who's
poor? Poor somebody doesn't have anything.
They don't have anything to buy their salvation. They don't have
anything to commend themselves to God. They're without. They're
poor. They have not one work that can
commend them to God. They're poor. The Lord says,
theirs is the kingdom of God. You see, the gospel, never forget
this, the gospel is essentially and fundamentally a sinner's
religion. Every other kind of religion
is for good people. The gospel's for bad people. Isn't that wonderful? It's for the poor. It's for those
who have nothing to commend themselves to God. Every poor person is
in the kingdom of God. What a glorious kingdom His kingdom
is. I want you to look at this with
me, Revelation 17. Revelation 17, verse 14. These shall make war with the
Lamb. And the lamb shall overcome them.
He'll utterly defeat them for he is Lord of Lords and King
of Kings. And they that are with him, here's
his subjects. Threefold description called
chosen and faithful. Now there's his subjects called. called by invincible, irresistible
grace. Well, how can I know if I've
been called? You can know the called call. They call upon the
name of the Lord. They ask the Lord to save them.
They know who He is. Lord, save me! The called call. To them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ the God and Christ the wisdom of God.
I know this, they who are called, they see Christ as the very power
of God and Christ as nothing less than the wisdom of God.
Called. Next description is chosen. Our
Lord said in John chapter 15 verse 16, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. I tell you who loves election,
the elect. Every one of them. It may be
the world has no love for election, but the elect do. And our Lord
said they're chosen. Chosen by God. And faithful. They believe. They believe the gospel. They
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They're faithful. They believe
and they can be believed. They trust and they can be trusted. It's required in stewards that
a man be found faithful. Now here are the subjects of
his kingdom. Called, chosen, and faithful. One other description. Turn with
me to Psalm 110. I love this. Now the first words of this psalm
are about the great King. Verse 1, The Lord said unto my Lord, God
the Father said to God the Son, this is David speaking, David's
Son and David's Lord. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. That's the king and his reign.
Rule thou. Now look what verse 3 says. Thy
people shall be willing. The subjects of his kingdom are
willing. They are willing for him to be
king. They love him to be king. They love his way of saving. They are willing. There are no
unwilling subjects in his kingdom. They love his kingship. They
love him. So this is a description of every
believer. He's a saint. He's poor. He's called, chosen and faithful
and He's willing. Willing to be saved by the grace
of God. Willing to be saved in a way
that gives Christ all the glory and none to Him. Willing to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ all the way to the end. Willing to jump
into a fire if that's what He calls me to do. Willing. All
of His subjects. are willing subjects. I love it when the Lord said
to that fella, will thou be made whole? And he didn't understand.
He said, well, I don't have anybody to bring me in, but that's not
what the Lord asked him. He said, are you willing to be made whole? Yes, I am. I am. I'm willing
to be made whole by the power and word of the great King. Well, what else is in the kingdom? law, the government, the rule
of the kingdom. Now these people are made willing
because they've been born again. Remember how the Lord said, no
man can enter the kingdom of heaven except he be born again.
They've been born from above. They've been made willing and
they love his rules. They love his command. They love
his government. Wherever you have a king, wherever
you have his subjects, you also have the laws of the kingdom.
Now here's the first law of the kingdom. The Lord said in Matthew
7, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the
kingdom of God, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which
is in heaven. There is no part of this kingdom
unless I'm somebody who really does do, do not admire, the will
of God, not know what the will of God is, but do the will of
God. Do I do the will of God? Well, turn with me to 1 John
chapter 3. Doing the will of God is keeping
his commandments, not just knowing what they are, but keeping them.
He that keepeth my commandments, he it is that loveth me. Now
look in 1 John 3, verse 23. And this is His commandment,
this is His will, that we should believe on the name of His Son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandment. Now, here's a commandment that
I keep. I do believe on the name of his
son. I believe the name of Jesus Christ
is the name that will get me into heaven. I am relying on
his name. His name is who he is. It's not
just the audible sound of the word. His name is who he is.
I'm relying on him to bring me to the father. I keep that commandment. I'm relying on him. I'm not looking
anywhere else right now. At any rate, I'm not looking.
I have one hope. It's that Christ died for me. That's it. No other hope. And I love everybody who loves
him. I really do. You love the Lord
Jesus Christ, I'm your biggest fan. You're fine with me. Hope I'm fine with you too. God's
people love one another. Where that commandment is not
kept, someone's not in the kingdom of God. There is a doing of his
will, a keeping of his commandments. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
18. Our Lord said, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom
of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Now
here's the rule of the kingdom, Matthew chapter 18. Verse 1,
At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is greatest
in the kingdom of heaven? Good question, isn't it? And Jesus called a little child
unto him, and he set him in the midst of
them. I love thinking about that, don't you? The Lord called this
little child, and this little child is embarrassed, humiliated.
There he sits. He doesn't know what he's around
these apostles, the disciples. There he sits. He doesn't even
know what to say. He's very unassuming. He surely doesn't believe that
he has the place with these fellas. There he sits. Verse three. And he said, verily, I say unto
you, except you be converted and become as little children,
you won't even enter. You don't need to worry about
who's the greatest. You won't even enter, except you be converted
and become like a little child. The humility. You know what a
child does? A child believes what his father
tells him. He just believes what his father
tells him. He might grow up and find out his father's wrong when
he's an adult, but when he's a kid, he has this capacity to
simply believe what his father tells him. A child, look what
our Lord says in verse 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself, Humble yourself. What's it mean
to humble yourself? It means you take the lowest
seat. You don't take the highest seat.
You take the lowest seat as the very chief of sinners. The one who doesn't have the
right to look down his nose on anybody. You humble yourself
and you look to Christ only. And the only way you can look
to Christ only is from that place of a little child. Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same
is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." And here's the third rule, and
the last we're going to consider, Luke 9. First, I've got to keep
his commandments. I've got to believe the gospel. Second, I've got to take the
lowest seat. I've got to humble myself. Look at Luke chapter
9, verse 61. And another also said, Lord, I will follow Thee, but let me
first go bid them farewell which are at home. at my house. Verse 62, And Jesus said unto
him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back,
is fit for the kingdom of God. You put your hand to the plow,
believing the gospel, believing grace, believing Christ, Believing
the word. You put your hand to the plow
and you look back. Remember Lot's wife? She looked
back. And she was turned to a pillar
of salt. Now, I don't know how much time I've spent agonizing
over that passage of scripture, because I try to put myself in
her place. When they're fleeing out of Sodom,
and they hear the crashing and the thundering of the lightning
bolts and the smoke and the fire and brimstone, wouldn't you want
to look back and see? Sure you would. I'd want to.
As a matter of fact, I know I would have. What this is a reference
to is once you've heard grace, And you look back to works. You're not fit. You never really
believed in the first place. The Lord looked at that group
of people leaving him. After he preached 5,000 people. And one of the things that scares
me is he. Didn't ask him to come back.
He didn't say, let me rephrase what I said. He looked at the
12 and said, will you also go away? I'm not going to have any unwilling
disciples as he's watching those people leave. You fellows want
to leave too. There's the door. My people are only willing people.
And you know how Peter answered Lord, Where would we go? It's not like we even have a
choice. Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe
and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God. Nowhere to go. No, we ain't going
back. We don't have anywhere. Want to go back to the law? Go
back to... No, no. now has the words of
eternal life. Now in Mark's account, he said,
let us go into the next towns that I may preach. We are privileged
to accompany him in his preaching. And this is our mission in this
world, preaching the kingdom of God. The Lord said, go and
preach the gospel to every creature. Now, there are two ways that
we preach with him. And I want to be one of these
people with him, preaching the kingdom of God, don't you? He
said, let us go and preach the gospel of the kingdom to these
other cities. That's why I'm spent. Two ways
of preaching. Number one, by my word, preaching
his gospel. Number two, by my life, by my
conduct. by the way I live in this world."
That's a sermon too, isn't it? Remember what Peter said? You
women who have unbelieving husbands, he said, let them be won by your
conversation. I preach by my word, the gospel
of the kingdom, and I preach by my life, my life saying whether
or not I really am a subject of his heavenly kingdom. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
the bread of the kingdom, and forgive us our debts, our sins,
our transgressions, as we forgive those who sin against us. And
Lord, lead us not into temptation. Don't even let us be tempted.
We know ourselves enough to know that if we're tempted, we'll
fall. So we're asking you, don't let us be tempted. Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Deliver us from
the evil of our hearts. Deliver us from the evil of this
world. Deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom. Thine is the power. And thine
is the glory forever. Amen. Let's pray.