Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. How would you define the kingdom
of God? That's a term that is used over
and over in the scriptures, the kingdom of God and the kingdom
of heaven. What does the Bible mean by the
kingdom of God? When our Lord taught us to pray,
the first thing we're taught to request is our Father who
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come." That's
the first thing we're taught to request in true prayer. Thy kingdom come. The Lord Jesus
said to His disciples, seek ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness. Seek this first and foremost
above all other things in this life. Now, what is this kingdom
that we are to seek first? Now, there are many references
to the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. I believe
them to be all interchangeable. And there are many scriptures
that tell us what the kingdom of God is like. Our Lord gave
many parables when he said the kingdom of God can be likened
unto or is like. But four times in the Bible,
We read what the kingdom of God is not. And sometimes the best
way to understand something is by understanding what it is not. I've entitled this message, What
the Kingdom of God is not. Now, the first verse of Scripture
I would like to read is John, chapter 18, verse 36. The Lord
Jesus says to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. 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 from hence. His kingdom is not of this world. It is not an earthly political
kingdom. All of the political activism
going on under the name of religion has nothing to do with the kingdom
of heaven. It's actually not right. Our
Lord tells us, My kingdom is not of this world. Men trying
to legislate the kingdom of heaven and bring it in through their
legislation and through their rallies and marches and so on.
Christ has nothing to do with that. He says, My kingdom is
not of this world. Now, what is meant by the world
when he says, My kingdom is not of this world? In 1 John chapter
2, verses 15 through 17, John says, Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that's of the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passes
away in the lust thereof, that he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever." Now, did you notice he said, all that's of
the world, the lust of the flesh, The cravings and desire of sinful,
fallen human nature may be craving something more fleshly like drugs
or sex. It may be craving power and prestige,
but it's the lust of the flesh. It's all evil. All the principles
of this world that are directed by the lust of the flesh. Many
speaks of the lust of the eyes. What's that? Being more concerned
about what men see than what God sees. Being more concerned
about pleasing men than God. Being concerned about what other
men see, where that's the determining factor of what I do because of
what others see. And the pride of life, self-righteousness,
man's religion, It's not of the Father, it's of the world. Our
Lord says, My kingdom is not of this world. You know, a believer
is a stranger and a pilgrim in this world. We're simply passing
through, waiting for a better and a heavenly country, that
place wherein dwells righteousness. We're just passing through. Now,
I'm in this world, Very much like I'm in a hotel room. I want
to have a nice hotel room. I don't want to have a dirty
one with dirty sheets and dirty floors. No, I want to be in a
clean, nice hotel room, but I'm not going to invest much in it.
I'm just there for a while. I'm not going to spend a bunch
on it. I'm just there for a while. No, we're passing through because
his kingdom is not of this world. Now, the next scripture is found
in Luke chapter 17. I think this is such an interesting
passage of scripture, beginning in verse 20. These are the words
of the Lord once again, and we read in verse 20, and when he
was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should
come, they heard him talking about a kingdom and they didn't
see it. They said, well, when's it going to come? When's it going
to begin? He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh
not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo, here
or lo, there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Now, my marginal reading says
the kingdom of God comes not with pomp and show. You see, the king of the kingdom
was born in a barn and nobody knew him. A few shepherds were
told about him, but the world didn't recognize him. When the
king walked upon this earth, nobody recognized him but a few
fishermen. I thought of the story of the
Old Testament where Naaman came to Elisha, God's prophet, to
be healed of his leprosy. And he comes with all this pomp
and circumstance and waits for the man of God to come out to
him. And Naaman didn't even come out. He sent a servant to him.
And said, wash in the River Jordan seven times, dip down seven times
and be clean. And Naaman was angry over this,
and he said, behold, I thought. He'll surely come out to me and
stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God and strike
his hand over the place and recover the leper. Naaman was looking
for something more impressive than wash and be clean. The kingdom
of God cometh not with observation. It cometh not with pomp and show
and something you can see. You see, the kingdom of heaven
does not come in a way the natural man can observe. It comes quietly,
noiselessly, unnoticed, and unrecognized by the world. The world can't
see the Kingdom of Heaven. The world has no understanding
of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of God, our Lord
says, is within you. Now, He's speaking to the Pharisees
at this time, and He is not telling them that the Kingdom of God
has been set up in their hearts. He's simply saying the Kingdom
of God is an inward, spiritual thing. Not an external, visible
thing. My marginal reading says the
Kingdom of God is among you. You're looking at the Kingdom
of God, and you don't even know it. He's right here in your midst,
and you don't even realize it. I'm the King, I'm the Kingdom,
and you don't have eyes to see, and you don't have eyes to appreciate.
He was speaking to the Pharisees. Now, whatever it is men think
about the kingdom of God, you can write this down, it's wrong.
Our natural thoughts regarding the kingdom of God, they're wrong. The kingdom of God cometh not
with observation. Now, here's the third scripture,
1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 20. The kingdom of God is not
in word, but in power. The kingdom of God is not in
word, but in power. Now, Paul said in verse 18 of
this same chapter, now some are puffed up. You're filled with
pride, hot air, self-important views. Some are puffed up as
though I would not come to you, but I'll come to you shortly,
if the Lord will, and will know not the speech of them that are
puffed up, that have these inflated views of themselves. And that's
such an accurate description of men, puffed up. Men have such
high opinions of themselves. But Paul says, I know not the
speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom
of God is not in word, but in power. Now, power means strength,
ability, might, the power to do. Now, it is one thing to say,
I have fellowship with God. It's another thing to fellowship
with God. It's one thing to say, I have
forgiveness. It's another thing to be forgiven. It's one thing to say, I love
God. It's another thing to love God. It's one thing to say that God
hears me when I pray. It's another thing to be heard
by the living God. It's one thing to say I'm saved. It's another thing to be saved. It's one thing to say you're
a Christian. It's another thing to be a Christian. It's one thing to speak of good
works. It's another thing to have them. The kingdom of God is not in
word. It's not in what people say and
profess. It's in power. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God, for our gospel
came not into you in word only, but also in power and in the
Holy Ghost and in much assurance. You were sure you were hearing
the very truth of God when we came and preached the gospel
to you. Now, David said regarding this
thing of power, power belongeth unto the Lord. You don't really,
he's the only one who has power. What you and I have is borrowed
power. Any power we have, if it's physical,
he gave it to us and he could take it away so easily. If we
have mental power, well, he gave that to us and he can take that
away just as easily. What do you have that you didn't
receive? The answer is nothing. All we have, we receive. But
only He has power. Power belongeth unto the Lord. And Paul said regarding the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said in 1 Corinthians 1, verse
23, But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God. The power of God is His omnipotence. That means whatever He has the
will to do, He has the power to make it come to pass. He is
all-powerful. Nothing is impossible for Him.
Is anything too hard for the Lord? No. He's all-powerful. Now, God's power is seen in these
three areas. First, His power to create. His power to make something from
nothing. When He created the universe,
before He created it, all there was was God. And He brought into
existence this vast universe simply as an act of His will
because of His almighty power. He spake the world into existence. God's power is His ability to
bring something from nothing. God's power is also seen in His
ability to make something nothing. Matter, once it's in the universe,
it can't leave the universe unless God causes it to. Matter is here
for good. It may change forms. There might
be a piece of wood. It's caught on fire. The energy
goes somewhere else. It ashes, but it's still here
in the universe. Matter's always here. Only God
can make something to actually not be. And only God can give
life. It can't be duplicated. It can't
be produced in a test tube. It can't be produced in a laboratory.
It doesn't happen because of mere chance or some kind of freak
happening. Only God can produce life. Now,
Christ is the power of God. He made something from nothing
with every believer. He made every believer who in
and of themselves are nothing, He made them the very righteousness
of God. Now, that's power, isn't it?
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. In and of myself,
I am nothing but sin. I couldn't make myself righteous. I certainly couldn't be the righteousness
of God, but He made every believer to be the very righteousness
of God. Their sin became the sins of Christ. He died for them,
and His righteousness becomes theirs. He made something from
nothing. And not only did He make something from nothing when
He saved me, He made something to not be. He took my sins and
my sorrows. He made them His very own. He
bore the burden to Calvary. He suffered and died alone. And
where are my sins now? They're gone. They're non-existent. You look in that tomb. There's
nothing there because the sins of everybody He died for were
blotted out, and they're now non-existent. And He raised me from the dead. He gave me spiritual life, raising
me from the dead. Christ is the mighty power of
God. The fact that I'm preserved up
to this point, the Scripture says, we're kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. The kingdom of God is not in
word, it's not in speech, but it's in power, the mighty power
of God. Now, I'd like to read Romans
chapter 14, verse 17. Here's another of the kingdom
of God is not. Paul says in verse 17 of Romans
chapter 14, that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink,
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now, what does he mean when he
says the kingdom of God is not meat and drink? In the New Testament
times, there were certain coming in trying to impose Jewish dietary
laws. True salvation is by Christ,
but you still need to stay away from unclean meats. You need
to only eat that which is clean. And they were trying to impose
these Jewish regulations saying you'll be more pleasing to God
if you eat this and if you refrain from eating that. There was another
issue going on in the New Testament, and that was that of eating things
sacrificed to idols. There were some people who said
you shouldn't eat meat that was used to be sacrificed to a false
deity. That would be wrong. And there's some people who said,
well, it's OK to do it. All it is is meat. And Paul told
us that it didn't make any difference as far as You're not better if
you eat. You're not worse if you don't.
But if someone is offended by it, you've got to stay away from
it. But as far as the actual act of eating meat or not eating
meat, there's nothing to it. It's not going to make you better
or worse. You see, the kingdom of God is
not about rules and regulations. The kingdom of God is not about
do's and don'ts. The kingdom of God is not a list
of the things you need to do in order to live the Christian
life. The kingdom of God is righteousness. The kingdom of God is peace. The kingdom of God is joy in
the Holy Ghost. Now, the kingdom of God, it's
not meat and drink. It's not rules and regulations.
The kingdom of God is righteousness. Now, what does the Bible mean
by righteousness? If I am righteous before God,
that means I have no sin. It means I can come up to the
Ten Commandments and the Ten Commandments can look me over
and say, no fault, no guilt. He's kept me perfectly. And that's what righteousness
before God is. Righteousness. The kingdom of
God is righteousness. Now, there's a man in the Old
Testament. You can read about him beginning
in Genesis chapter 13. He was the nephew of Abraham.
His name was Lot. And if you look at the life of
Lot, it is not very pretty. First, he was a self-centered
man. He didn't show deference to Abraham. He chose the well-watered plains
and let Abraham take the leftovers, when Abraham was the one who
should have been making the choice. But Lot didn't do that. He chose
the well-watered plain. He pitched his tent toward Sodom,
an evil, godless place. And he ended up living in Sodom. And when God sent the angels
there and said, I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, when
the angels came and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah said, To Lot,
when they saw those angels coming to their house, they said, bring
them out that we may know them. They were wanting to do something
evil. And Lot said, don't do this wickedness. And they said,
who are you to judge us? And when Lot warned his sons-in-law
to come out of Sodom because God was going to rain fire and
brimstone and destroy that place, his sons-in-law couldn't take
him seriously. He seemed as someone who mocked, the scripture says.
He just couldn't be taken seriously. Why, when they were getting ready
to destroy Sodom, the Scripture says Lot lingered, and the angels
had to grab him by the hand and pull him out. And then after
that, he became drunken and had incestuous relationships with
both of his daughters. Now, that is not very impressive,
what the Scripture points out about this man, Lot. But listen to this passage of
Scripture from 2 Peter 2, beginning in verse 6. And He turned the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making
them an example unto those that would afterward live ungodly,
and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation
of the wicked. For that righteous man, Now this
is what God calls Lot. That righteous man dwelling among
them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to
day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptation. Now this is what the Lord calls
Lot. Just Lot. Justified Lot. The one who stands perfectly
righteous for that righteous man. This is what God calls him.
That righteous man. And he speaks of his righteous
soul. Now, how can that be? Lot, you look at his life. I'm
not excusing it in any way. It was sinful. It was wrong.
Just one bad decision after another. And yet, look what God calls
this man. How could Lot be righteous? How could God say this? Is this
just so to speak? No. Lot. How is he righteous? Well, Lot's
sins were placed upon Christ. He bore Lot's sins in his own
body on the tree. And the righteousness of Christ
becomes Lot's. And He is a righteous man, and
He has a righteous soul. He was given life. A new nature. A holy nature. Righteous Lot
with his righteous soul. The Kingdom of God is righteousness. True righteousness. It's how
a sinner can be made righteous. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. That's how Lot was
righteous. The ungodly was justified by
the work of Christ on the cross. The Kingdom of God is peace. Peace. Now, what is peace? Well, it's
a feeling. It's a feeling of no turmoil,
no fear, no stress. There's peace. You see, if Christ
is my righteousness before God, If His righteousness is my righteousness,
and everything that God requires of me, I have in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If my sins have all been put
away by His blood, and that I'm going to stand before God, perfect
on judgment day, justified, you know what I feel? I feel peace. I'm not afraid of death. I feel
peace. Peace with God. Since He justified
me, since He put away my sins, since He made me a new creature
in Christ Jesus, I have peace. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. I see that God's at peace with
me. Christ accomplished my peace
with God. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. God is at peace with me, and
I'm at peace with God. I love His way of salvation. I feel peace. Not turmoil. Not always looking for something
else to make me feel better. No, I feel peace. Peace with
God. The Kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. It's righteousness. It's peace. And it's joy. in the Holy Ghost. Now where there is righteousness,
where there is peace, there is joy. Oh, the joy of knowing I'm
saved. Oh, the joy of knowing my sins
have been blotted out. Oh, the joy of knowing that I'm
complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, and you are complete. Nothing lacking. You can't get any more saved,
any more accepted, any more loved than you are. Oh, the joy that
is found in believing the Gospel. We read of the joy and peace
of believing. Now, religion is not about people
being joyful. Religions about people being
miserable and guilty and scared and looking behind their back.
Now, it produces a false joy, I realize that, a false sense
of peace. People will put on certain airs that make it seem
like they're joyful. But underneath it all, there's
not the joy and peace of believing. There's not the joy and peace
of knowing you're complete in Christ and you don't need anything
else. But when I believe the Gospel, Oh, the joy of knowing
that all that God requires of me I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is maiden of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. What joy to know that He is all
those things to me. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. It's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
The kingdom of God is not of this world. The kingdom of God
cometh not with observation. The kingdom of God is not in
word, but in power. And the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. Now, we'd like to invite you
to services at Todd's Road Grace Church. Our morning Bible study
begins this morning at 945, morning worship at 1030, evening six,
and you'll hear the gospel. We have this message on DVD or
CD, if you call the church, write or email, we'll send you a copy.
This is Todd Kniper, praying that God will be pleased to make
Himself known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen. It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord,