When Kingdoms Collide

Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that warns that those who fail to learn from history are condemned to drag the rest of us through it again, kicking and screaming.

Two quick updates before we plunge in today:

1) For those of you who are new, last week I shared the podcast episodes that MICHAEL HEISER and I recorded together on the cosmic conflict. I appreciate all the positive feedback on them. Some of what saw coming with AI is here now.

2) Amazon is still running their insane discount on my new book, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded on Kindle for only 99 cents. The sale can end at any time. My publisher hasn’t told me when. Amazon just keeps extending it like a movie sequel nobody asked for. But it won’t last forever.

Also, the discount shows up for the USA and some other countries, though candidly, the publisher and I have about as much control over that as we do the USA-Iran “negotiations.” But if you don’t have the book yet, what are you waiting for? Do yourself a favor and grab it while the price is still embarrassingly low. If you don’t own a handheld Kindle, Amazon gives you a digital one. Aren’t they nice?

THE HIGH-WATER MARK OF DIVINE REVELATION

The gospel of the kingdom best fits that description. The following is the complete transcript of a conference message I delivered on the explosive gospel of the kingdom. All of us who attended the conference witnessed a wave of divine revelation that broke upon us and then rolled back. Only to give way to another wave.

Right after this particular message, people asked to be baptized. So we took over the hotel pool and baptized those who came forward in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, this world’s true King. I tell the story in the beginning of the book Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom.

This message stands alongside 19 others that I delivered on the same topic. They are all part of the “Everlasting Domain: Restoring the Kingdom Message” Master Class on The Deeper Christian Life Network. Details on how to access the Class (which contains all the messages from the conference along with other conference talks on the gospel of the kingdom) are at the bottom.

Since it’s long, I encourage you to print it out and read it offline. (That’s what I do with long pieces.)

To your transformation.

fv

KINGDOMS IN COLLISSION

What happened here last year, and what’s happening here this weekend, is important to the Lord. And we do have an enemy who is very real. He does use physical circumstances and material circumstances to obstruct what God wants to do. So I’m thankful that you pushed through and persevered, especially those of you who had a difficult time getting to this conference.

I don’t think it’s an accident that you had a difficult time. There is a passage in the New Testament that applies to this. It applies to so much more, not just this. But I see this conference as a kingdom event, and the kingdom of God is taken by violence, and the violent take it by force. We press in despite what’s going on externally, despite how we feel, and despite outward pressures.

If you have an issue going on in your life, a personal issue, something that your mind keeps switching back to, just take a moment right now to give that to the Lord. Put it in His hands. It’s very simple.

Pray, “Lord, you know what it is. You know I’m being distracted. You know my heart is burdened. You know my thoughts keep gravitating. I am now transferring the anxiety, the worry, and the care onto You. I am shifting the burden over to You. And I am letting it go. It’s in Your hands. And I am open to hear what You have to say to me this weekend—free and unshackled. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

The Gospel of the Kingdom Sounds Like Treason

The gospel of the kingdom, when it is preached properly, sounds like treason. It sounds like sedition. The Jewish elders asked Pontius Pilate to judge and condemn Jesus. And they accused Him of claiming to be the king of the Jews, which is a treasonous statement. It’s a direct challenge to Caesar, the Roman authorities, and to Herod.

We find the same thing in Paul’s preaching. In Acts 17, Luke says that Paul and Silas had turned the world upside down. The accusation was that they were acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, “There is another king.” That’s a treasonous remark. And that’s why wherever Paul of Tarsus went in the first century, people were enraged, government authorities were threatened, and there was a lot of persecution. Paul was proclaiming that there was another King.

Foundation Scriptures

I want to read some Scripture to you. The first one is Genesis 3:8. “And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

I want you to notice the words, “the presence of the Lord God.” Point: In the garden, in the beginning, in Eden, the first humans lived in God’s presence. That’s a profoundly important point.

The next text is Luke 1:30-33: “The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, He will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.’”

Praise the Lord! That is an echo of Daniel. “He will have an everlasting domain.” 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

The Three Chief Temptations

According to John, there are three chief temptations within what he calls the world. First is the lust of the flesh. That is the selfish, uncontrolled cravings of the physical body. The second is the lust of the eyes. That is what we know as materialism. You see it, you want it. It’s greed. The Bible calls it covetousness, which is idolatry. Today it’s called consumerism. All different names for the same thing. Third, there is the boastful pride of life, which is the grab for worldly power and ambition. Interestingly, these temptations that make up what John calls “the world” also appear in the three temptations in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:6: “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food,” that’s the lust of the flesh, “and pleasing to the eye,” that’s the lust of the eyes, “and also desirable for gaining wisdom,” that’s the pride of life. “She took some and ate it.”

The Prince of This World

This next set of passages is Jesus speaking. “Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out…. The prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me…. The prince of this world now stands condemned.” That’s John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11.

The word “prince” in the Greek means ruler. Jesus is calling the devil, satan, the ruler of this world. That’s significant.

“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4.

“The god of this age….” Other translations render it: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:4.

Notice that Paul is calling satan, the devil, the god of this age, or the god of this world. The apostle is agreeing with Jesus who called the devil the prince of this world.

And then Ephesians 2:2. “You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.”

Other translations render this text referring to satan as “the prince of the power of the air.” And Paul says we used to walk according to the course of this world.

“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” That’s Ephesians 6:12 in the NLT.

“The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12.

We are going to read Genesis 4 later on.

A Tale of Two Kingdoms

The story of the Bible is the tale of two kingdoms. The kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light warring against each other. It’s the story of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of satan. And the kingdom of satan is also known as the world, or the world system.

The Greek word that’s translated world in the New Testament is kosmos. But it has three meanings. One meaning is the earth. Another meaning is the people who inhabit the earth. But a third meaning, and the one we’re focusing on tonight is the world system. John the apostle used it over a hundred times in his writings. John was also the one who talked the most about divine life. So he talked a lot about divine life on the one hand and this thing called the world on the other. The term kosmos means a system that governs fallen humanity.

I think Watchman Nee’s definition of this is unparalleled. He said, “Behind all that is tangible we meet something intangible. We meet a planned system. And in this system, there is a harmonious functioning, a perfect order. There is then an ordered system, the world, which is governed from behind the scenes by a ruler, satan.”

Jesus, Paul, and the whole weight of the New Testament present this idea that there is a system on this earth that is governed by a mind. That system is ruled by a person who is unseen, and that person is the devil himself. And the world system that he runs has a pull. It relentlessly pulls in one direction, and that direction is away from God. If you and I get caught in the riptide of the world, we are drifting. We are being pulled away from Jesus Christ. We can say it this way: The world system is the order of things that prevail apart from redemption.

Why talk about the world system? Because we have to identify it. Why identify it? Because it is the number one enemy and hindrance to the kingdom of God. It’s actually the counterfeit to the kingdom of God. So I want to talk to you about how the world system was conceived and how it was born.

The Conception of the World System

Let’s talk about the conception of the world. I’m not going to go through these Scriptures, I’ll just mention them to you. But in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, we have some condemning words about two kings. They were human kings living in that day. But if you look at the texts very carefully, it can’t be speaking about a natural king only because there are supernatural elements involved.

The way that Old Testament prophecy works is that there are often double meanings. There are layered meanings. And so many scholars and Bible commentators have pointed out that Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are talking about the fall of a celestial being known in the Latin as “Lucifer.”

He is known in the New Testament as “satan” and the devil. He was once part of the heavenly host and he revolted. And he was dismissed from God’s presence. Where did God send him? To the earth. That’s not how he became the god of this world, or the prince of the power of the air, or the prince of this age.

If you remember God’s eternal purpose is introduced in Genesis 1. God gave dominion to human beings to rule the earth. It was as if God gave the title deed of the planet to humans, to men and women. God would rule the heavens, but humanity would rule the earth. They were to receive God’s life by eating from a tree, the Tree of Life. So God would be ruling the earth through humans. That was the plan. In other words, the plan was for heaven to rule earth. The kingdom of God would be on earth as it is in heaven.

Unfortunately, those first humans committed high treason. And they gave their God-given dominion over the earth to a fallen celestial being. They gave him the title deed. And so satan became the god of this world. That’s how the world system was conceived. The world system is life organized without God.

The Birth of the World System

Now let’s look at the birth of the world system. This is a story that’s rarely told. We have the story in Genesis 4:

“And Cain, Abel’s brother, went out from the presence of the Lord and he settled in the land of Nod.”

Let me make a little point here that I think is very interesting. I’ve investigated where the land of Nod was. And there’s a lot of speculation, but the best I can tell, it was in what later became known as Babylon. If Eden was in Mesopotamia (as commonly held) and Nod was east of it, Babylon could geographically fit that description, which is fascinating.

So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and he settled in Nod, east of Eden. And Cain had relations with his wife. She conceived and gave birth to a son and named him Enoch. Cain, then, built a city and named it after Enoch (Genesis 4:16-17).

Here’s the point I want to make. Cain leaves God’s presence, and what does he do? He builds a city. Why? Because there is a void in him. Cain is no longer in the presence of God, which was God’s intention for humans, to live in His presence. So he builds a city. And that is the beginning of fallen human civilization.

The Three Elements of Fallen Civilization

If you read further in Genesis 4, we have three elements in the city that Cain built. And these are the elements that mark fallen human civilization. They mark the world system.

• Provision. This is represented by livestock. It’s the systematization of food production. The first humans would just pluck fruit off a tree. But now with the birth of the city, it became a systematic industry. And provision is the number one thing we see when we look at the first civilization.
• Enjoyment. This is represented by musical instruments. Again, this is all in Genesis 4. This is the beginning of worldly entertainment. Humans are no longer in God’s presence, enjoying Him. Cain has been dismissed from the presence of God. So he has a void, and now he’s going to systematize and create entertainment to fill that emptiness—worldly entertainment. Entertainment and enjoyment without God.
• Security. This is represented by bronze and iron, which were used to create weapons and fortification. The weaponry was used for protection. It’s security without God.

So you have provision, enjoyment, and security, apart from the presence of God. In Eden, humans found their provision, they found their enjoyment, and they found their security in the presence of the Lord. But when Cain left God’s presence, he built a city to replace what He had in God. And he was in pursuit of those three things.

What, then, is the world system? It is the attempt to take what is natural and what God has made, systematizing and distorting it to the point where it enchains, ensnarls, engulfs, and enslaves human beings. All without God Himself.

If you look at the world and those who do not know Christ, what are they pursuing? Simple. They are seeking provision, enjoyment, and security outside of God’s presence. That’s what the world system is. And it leads to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Three Ways of Life on Planet Earth

I’m going to riff on something related. Consider this parenthetical. There are basically three ways of life on the planet. There is fallen human civilization, which is living in, by, and through the world system. I’ve been describing that to you.

Then there is tribal life, which is very rare on the planet today. The way tribes operate is very different from civilization. One of the things you don’t have is a system. There is no ordered chain-of-command hierarchy. Tribes operate very differently. When God created Israel, He created that nation not to live in fallen human civilization, but to live tribally. Have you ever heard of the twelve tribes of Israel?

Hierarchy, top-down, chain of command, pyramid-structured authority was never made for human beings. It was made for the celestial world of the heavenly host. And when it came to this earth, through fallen celestial beings, it has created oppression, injustice, and domination everywhere it has appeared.

The best scholars and theologians have proven that there is no hierarchy within the Godhead. The few passages that seem to suggest there is have been misunderstood and misinterpreted. But that’s a tangent. I have proven historically, sociologically, and biblically that hierarchy was not made for humans. It is part of fallen human civilization.

The goal of the world system is to get you so enchained, ensnarled, ensnared, and enslaved that you’re completely distracted from the kingdom of God. You’re distracted from Jesus Christ. Your heart, your mind, and your soul have been sold to live somewhere else.

The third way of life on the planet is ekklesia, the life of the body of Christ. We’ll discuss that later. It’s similar to tribal life, but it’s divine and human.

The Pervasiveness of the Kingdom of Darkness

Let me tell you how pervasive the kingdom of darkness is. And by the way, do you know why it’s called the kingdom of darkness? Because the people who are in it live in the dark. They don’t know that they’re in the kingdom of darkness. They can’t see that there’s someone invisible pulling the strings and controlling them. They’re blind to it. That’s why it’s the kingdom of darkness. Paul uses that phrase in Colossians 1:13. He describes the same thing in Ephesians 2:1-3:

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.” 

What I’m trying to do tonight is pull the curtain up. Because I think that’s what the Lord did, and that’s what Paul did, and that’s what the New Testament does. It gives us a peek behind the curtain to see what’s really going on. And it explains so much.

The kingdom of darkness, the world system, is so pervasive that it touches fashion, it touches business, it touches government, it touches politics, it touches entertainment, it touches education, and it even touches religion. You have distortion by the enemy of God operating through these systems. And behind the system is another system, and behind that system is another system. And they are all aligned with one objective: to keep you from the kingdom of God. To keep you from the bride of Jesus Christ. To keep you enchained, ensnared, consumed, possessed, and enslaved without even realizing it.

False Gods of the East and West

Let me get a little more specific. Many of us at this conference live in the West. And I would dare say that in the West we have two major false gods. Two idols. There are many more, of course, and they each have spirits behind them. Paul made this plain in 1 Corinthians 10. Greed, lust, and power all have spirits operating behind them.

Well, there are two gods that operate strongly in the West. One of them is nationalism and the other one is capitalism. And people kill, sacrifice, and die to preserve those two idols. How many deaths have taken place in the name of nationalism? How many deaths have happened to preserve capitalism?

Look, I’m not talking about politics and philosophy. I’m simply pointing out that these are two idols that people worship in the West. And because of those twin gods, the teachings of Jesus Christ have been watered down, diluted, and even ignored. They’ve been ignored and diluted to preserve the idols of nationalism and capitalism. (I’m not suggesting that capitalism is evil in itself. Nor am I suggesting that it’s wrong to be thankful for your country and nationality. I’m speaking about the worship of these two things. They are idols for many.)

Now in the East, the main idols are education and business. Countless people in the East cannot see past those two things. Even if they grow up in poverty, they’re still trying to get an education, and they’re still trying to have a business. And that’s what millions of people live for and die for. Their whole world is consumed with those two idols. And another one is socialism and communism. These are all gods. (Again, I’m not suggesting that business in itself is wrong. Or that education is wrong in itself. I’m speaking about the worship of them.)

The Gospel Declares War on All Kingdoms

There is a real strong spirit of nationalism among people who are over 40 years old in the USA. And there’s a real strong spirit of globalism among people who are under 40 in this country. And I am here to say to you, sisters and brothers, that the gospel of the kingdom declares war on both nationalism and globalism. It declares war on capitalism, socialism, and communism. Why? Because all those things pledge allegiance to another kingdom.

“Well, Frank, are you saying that it’s wrong to go into business?” The question isn’t, “is it wrong to have a business?” The question is, “why do you have a business? And how chained are you to it?” Now, I know Christian brothers who are businessmen and they have major health problems. And their health problems are related to their stress over their business. The men I’m talking about have sold their souls to their business. So the question is not whether or not you have a business. It’s why do you have a business and how chained are you to it? Whose flag are you giving your allegiance to? Many people in this world, including Christians, pledge their allegiance to their business.

What about education? Is it wrong to get an education? “I’m going to school right now,” somebody says. The question isn’t, “is it wrong to get an education?” The question is, “why are you getting an education?” And the answer to that for many people, even though they’ve never considered it, is to acquire wealth, to have a name, and to be successful by this world’s standards. If the motive is worldly ambition, then that’s something you have to bring to God yourself and consider if that ambition is in line with the gospel of the kingdom.

I am an American citizen and so are many of you. But I want you to know that I’m really not an American citizen. And neither are you if you’re a follower of Jesus. According to the Scripture, you are a citizen of another kingdom. Your allegiance belongs to another domain. You are a citizen of the kingdom of the heavens. And that’s not rhetoric. It’s reality. I love my country, and I am thankful to be here. I’ve been around the world, and I thank God for living in the United States of America. But I will renounce my American citizenship in a second if I have to choose between it and Jesus Christ and His kingdom. And sometimes it comes to that. I’m talking about kingdoms. I’m talking about rule. I’m talking about authority.

Deliverance from Tyranny

Sisters and brothers, Jesus Christ doesn’t just want to simply forgive you of your sins. He wants to deliver you from tyranny. He wants to break chains in your life and mine. And not just the tyranny to the Law. That was last year’s conference, Spiritual Graffiti: Galatians in 3D.[1] But tyranny to the world system, the system that tempts you and me constantly to find our security, our provision, and our enjoyment in the things of this world. And we don’t realize that there is another god who is pulling the strings. The gospel of the kingdom declares war on the whole thing.

And we’re going to find out how pervasive the message of the kingdom is, how powerful and radical it is. I told you it was titanic. And people in Century One were infuriated by it. And it wasn’t just the non-believers in the first century who took issue with it. It was people who were religious. It was God’s own people. Who do you think persecuted Paul? Who do you think put your Lord to death? It was the religious of that day. People who had a covenant with God.

Are you listening to this? Jesus Christ, the apostles, and Paul were all challenging that which the people were ensnared by. The world system—the pagan branch of the world as well as the religious branch.

The Political System

Consider the political system. It doesn’t matter what country it lives in. We’ll just take the political system of the USA as an example. Do you know who the head of the political system in the United States is? Can anybody tell me? It’s the devil, satan. Now, that sounds really bizarre in our twenty-first-century world. “Oh, come on. The devil is the head of the political system? Really? Give me a break!” Well, according to Jesus Christ and according to Paul, yes he is.

The political system is part of the world system. It’s a systematization of authority put into the hands of humans. Just look at it. If you’ve ever been in it, you can see the fingerprints of the enemy. God does have His people in it. But you know what? It is extremely difficult to stay in it without being corrupted. What Jesus said about the rich entering into the kingdom of heaven applied to those who are part of the political system.

Some preachers have diluted what Jesus was saying to the rich in those texts just to make it more comfortable. Jesus did say, “It’s easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle.” He was saying it’s humanly impossible. But then He went on to remark, “With God, all things are possible.” With God, all things are possible, including a person who is in the political system, surviving it without being corrupted. It’s only possible with God.

Let’s say that a genuine believer goes into politics to “get the rascals out.” Guess what will happen? One, two, three, four years later, there will be new rascals. Because the structure itself did not come from God. God did not invent the political system. I don’t care what country you live in, the political system is part of the world system. And when Jesus was tempted by satan, he came to our Lord and he said, “I will give you all the kingdoms of this world, all the governments, all of the leaders, everything that they have—every kingdom will be yours.”

Jesus never disputed that claim. He never said, “Well, Mr. Devil, you don’t have it. How can you give it to me?” No. The Lord’s response showed us that what Paul said, the devil is the god of this world. Jesus Himself said that satan is “the prince or the ruler of this world.” Therefore, the kingdoms of the world are in the enemy’s hands.

People can try to reform the political system. And when they do, I’ll just stand back … way, way back. I’ll watch and pray for you. If you can manage to turn that thing upside down from top to bottom, I will be the first to cheer you on. But three to five years later, it will be right back to where it was. And if you’re not corrupted by it, you will thank God for His mercies.

The educational system is not much different, although it’s not as intense as the political system. I was in the educational system for many years. I will talk about it tomorrow night, and I’ll tell you how I survived it.

The Matrix Illustration

The world system is passing away. It’s on a clock. It’s actually hooked to a time bomb. Don’t put stock in the world system. Because it’s going to be toppled over by another kingdom. So don’t pledge allegiance to the systems of this world because they are at variance with the kingdom of God to which you belong.

This is best illustrated by the 1999 movie The Matrix. If you’ve never seen it, watch it. And if you watched it a long time ago, watch it again. Because it’s a great illustration that people are in a system that is so pervasive it covers everything. And people don’t even know they’re in it.

This is exactly how the world operates. From the time you go to grade school, you are indoctrinated to pledge your allegiance to the flags of this world. And you’re indoctrinated to think a certain way about money, about success, about wealth, about relationships, about the meaning of life, and about what your goals in life should be.

Sisters and brothers, it’s all part of the world system. It’s not from your Lord. He is thinking a totally different way. His kingdom is not of this world, and we are part of the kingdom of God. And the Lord says, “Forsake it, get out of it, give it up, chuck it, cut your ties with it.” John the Baptist preached that. Paul preached that. Peter preached that. And all the apostles preached it. It is the glorious gospel of the kingdom. And it’s powerful. And it’s challenging. And it’s costly.

A Personal Testimony

I don’t feel qualified to preach on this subject. God, have mercy on Frank Viola. Because by the Lord’s grace, I intend to cut every tie. I’m in the process of doing that. I’ve been at it for a while. I’ve been cutting every tie to the world system. I’m still chasing things down that the Holy Spirit is putting His finger on. “This is the world. Forsake it. Get out of it. Cut it off.”

I’m rolling the dice here on my dream that God will have a people in this generation, or maybe the next generation if we don’t make it, that are completely and totally given to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. A people who have obeyed the gospel of the kingdom as thoroughly as any man or woman ever has.

Unplugging from the Matrix

Your need is not just to get your sins forgiven. And neither is mine. It’s something far greater than that. It’s to unplug from the Matrix. If you watch that movie with a spiritual eye, you will see a foreshadowing, a symbolic rendering of Jesus Christ dying and rising again from the dead. Jesus is the real “chosen one.” He took the red pill. Remember the choices? “Take the blue pill, and you’ll wake up, and this never happened. Take the red pill and you’ll see how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

There are men and women on this earth who name the name of Jesus yet they are totally and absolutely consumed with business. There are men and women on this earth who in their minds and hearts name the name of Jesus, but they are totally consumed with education. There are people on this earth who name the name of Jesus Christ, and they’re totally consumed with possessions. There are people on this earth who name the name of Jesus, and they’re totally consumed with politics, or entertainment, or you name it.

And sisters and brothers, Jesus Christ is after a people who will come under His full and absolute reign, and all that means. This is why I keep saying, it is by the mercy of God that we can respond to this high and holy call. It may take us a week. It may take us a month. It may take us several months. But if we are willing to follow the Lord wherever He goes (and boy, that’s a packed statement), it’s going to cost us something.

You know what His calling meant in the first century. He came along and talked to people who were in business. Then He said, “Follow Me.” And they knew what that meant. It was a massive cost for them. Lord knows each one of us, and He knows where we’re tied to the world. He knows where we’re ensnared by the world. And that will be different for different people.

Complete Surrender to the Kingdom

A person who has given themselves totally, utterly, and completely to the kingdom of God is someone who stands up and says, “I don’t care about wealth. I don’t care about poverty. I don’t care about academic credentials. I don’t care about status. I don’t care about worldly success. I don’t care about education. I care about one thing. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom. And His kingdom will one day topple every other kingdom, including the kingdom of darkness.”

The reason why the kingdom of God has not advanced more than it has is simple. It’s because the Lord’s people are ensnared by the world system. And the tentacles of the world are many and varied, and they stretch long and wide. We have people who have a view of the world that says, “Well, I don’t dance, and I don’t drink.” Yet many of those same people love money, and their possessions.

You have other people who say, “Well, the world—that’s war. We must lay down our weapons and stop serving the god of Mars. The world is bloodshed and violence. We have to protest against our government because war is evil. Jesus told us to turn the other cheek.” Yet many of those same people are okay with certain behaviors the Bible condemns, specifically certain types of immorality. They just blink at that and look away, saying, “Well, those things aren’t really important, what’s important is war, and violence, and taking over other countries.” And so, everybody plays their own sin metrics game.[2]

The point is: most all of us, unless we are willing to come under the penetrating light of the Lord, we will be in chains to some aspect of the world. And we can even become self-righteous in condemning other aspects of the world that we’re not personally tied to. May the Lord strike at your heart to make this plain and clear.

The gospel of the kingdom is quite a message. I meet so many Christians today, and they’re so exhausted. They’re so tired. Some of them have ulcers, and some of them have other health problems related to stress. Not because they’re wasting their life on the kingdom of God. It’s because they’re trying to preserve their “stuff.” It’s because they work so much. For what? Money, education, business, status, etc. And they are not content with what they have.

I want to give you the greatest honor in history. I’m talking about coming under the absolute, complete, full, and utter reign of Christ. I’m talking about what the early Christians understood when they said they were “following Jesus.”

I’ll tell you what you get if you respond to the gospel of the kingdom. You get the most priceless thing in the universe composed of atoms and molecules. You get to inherit the King in His fullness. You get the very presence of Jesus Christ. And everyone who followed Him in reality got to know Him really well. They got to live in the conscious presence of Christ. That’s what the Twelve got. They forsook all and followed Him, and they had the privilege of living in the presence of Jesus Christ for three and a half years. They had breakfast with the Lord of creation every day. They had dinner with Him. They watched Him sleep. They watched Him wake up.

But it didn’t end there. I’ll tell you what you also will get. You’ll get His faithfulness, for He has promised, “Seek first My kingdom and all the stuff you’re worried about, all the things you’re tempted to work so hard for, all the stuff that you’re trying to find your security in, I will give them to you. Seek first My kingdom, and all of these things that are pulling at you night and day, that people sell their souls for in this world, will be yours.”

You get set free from worry. You don’t have to be anxious about security any longer. You don’t have to worry about keeping up with the Joneses. You don’t have to fret about what people think about you. You have given it up. But you inherit the King, and the fullness of His kingdom. That’s what you get. And you also get His peace and His joy.

If it wasn’t a peaceful kingdom with joy, then I wouldn’t preach it. I wouldn’t teach it. I wouldn’t talk about it. But the kingdom of God is not food or drink. It’s righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And that kingdom bids all of us to abandon everything else. To leave everything the devil has invented, and to cut all ties with it.

This goes deep. This involves relationships. The Lord will put His finger on a relationship that is keeping us from the fullness of the kingdom. It involves material possessions. It involves activities. It involves pursuits. It involves all sorts of things. And my admonition and encouragement to you, as one who’s on a journey and inviting you to come along with me on it, is to open your heart to the Lord. Open your heart and let Him shine His light and hear Him say, “Follow Me in this area.” And sisters and brothers, may God tenderize your heart where you say,  “yes.”

God needs a people. God needs a gospel, once again, His gospel—the gospel of the kingdom. God has got to have it if He will have what He desires. The glory of the kingdom of God, the everlasting domain of Jesus Christ, awaits all of us. This is what baptism was all about in the first century. When you got baptized, you were saying, “I am dead to the world system. And I have severed all ties to it. I have abandoned it all. This is my burial. I am dying to all of it, and my whole life is now for the kingdom of God.”

I’m going to give you an assignment. I want everyone to write these four texts down. The first one is 1 Timothy 6:6-10. The second one is Hebrews 13:5-6. The third one is Philippians 4:12-13. And the fourth is Luke 12:13-21. Here’s the assignment. I’d like you to first read every passage at your table. Then answer this question:  What do you see in those four passages that the Lord is communicating to us through their words? What’s the common message? If you had to put it in a sentence or a paragraph, what is He saying?

F.F. Bruce wrote a book called The Hard Sayings of Jesus. And he covers all the statements by Jesus that we tend to read under a bed with a flashlight. They’re scary. And one of the points he makes is as follows, I’m paraphrasing:

“Different theologians and preachers have interpreted it this way, but they’ve done so because it’s so hard the way we read it. It’s so costly. It’s so challenging. So they’ve taken the sharp edge off of it.”

F.F. Bruce was one of the greatest New Testament scholars who ever lived. He said, “Whenever Jesus is making you uncomfortable, that’s the real meaning. When you dilute it down and you make it softer, easier to go down, that’s not the Lord.” I say that for one reason. Don’t water any of those passages down, please. Just read them as they are.

End of transcript.

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[1] The messages from that conference are available at TheDeeperChristianLife.com.

[2] For a discussion on this topic, see Frank’s article “Sin Metrics” in the Articles section at frankviola.org.