The Return of the King

In the previous message I ended by asking “to what extent do we really know the kingdom of God?” This should be a very important question for all of us. There were thousands of years of prophecies and promises, types, shadows, descriptions, and illustrations, and finally the kingdom of God drew near to us in the Person and power of Jesus Christ. All authority in heaven and earth was given to Christ to reign and rule, to put all enemies under His feet. But are we really experiencing this rule? 

Have you ever noticed that in our day, when people preach the gospel, they generally do not preach the kingdom of God. Jesus traveled around Israel declaring the presence and power of the kingdom of God. He said “The kingdom of God has drawn near to you, repent and believe the gospel.” In the very last two verses of the book of Acts, Luke tells us how Paul spent the last two years of his life in Rome. It says, “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence.” 

I find this interesting, because when people today go about preaching the gospel, they rarely preach the kingdom of God. They proclaim forgiveness of sins, various doctrines, provision and prosperity, a future heaven, or a plan of salvation. Some of these things may have truth in them, but it’s interesting to me that Christ did not do it this way. Christ did not walk through the streets in Israel telling people to accept Him into their lives, or believe certain doctrines, or to start studying their Bibles. Christ announced the arrival of a kingdom. He described this kingdom in a multitude of parables, and told the people in very strong terms that they were living in and under another one. 

What I’m trying to suggest to you is that the reason we often don’t preach the kingdom of God, is because we don’t really know it.  In other words, to most of us, Christianity is not the experience of a kingdom. It is the experience of beliefs and doctrines, songs, Bible studies, meetings, theology, and morals. But we don’t preach it as a kingdom, because we experience very little of the indwelling reign, government, and power of Jesus Christ ruling in our hearts, destroying our uncircumcised flesh, casting out every appearance of sin, pride, self, and darkness. If we experienced Christianity in this way, we would certainly go around preaching it as a kingdom. Do you see what I mean? If we experienced an inward power that bound and cast out a strong man, an inward King that put every enemy under His feet, then (like Paul) we would naturally talk to everyone who came and visited us about this kingdom of God. But, my suggestion to you is that we preach what we know, and we DON’T know a kingdom. We preach theology and ideas and provision and prosperity because this is what Christianity is to us. 

So why did Jesus preach the kingdom of God? What IS the kingdom of God? How did Christ see and understand it? If I had to try to define it in a few words (as far as I have seen) I would say that when Christ announced the kingdom of God, He was proclaiming the coming of a reign of God where all things could live in and under the government of His life,  live in perfect conformity and unity with His nature, will, purpose, and righteousness. The kingdom of God is like a conquered land, an environment over which God has total sovereignty, and in which God has perfect expression and glory. It is a land or environment or creation that becomes a perfect reflection or manifestation of the life, the nature, the government of the King. It is an environment that has nothing contrary, no enmity, hostility, or enemies. It is totally subdued, totally inhabited, and totally alive with the will, nature, and glory of the King.

Now in the Old Covenant, God gave the world pictures and testimonies of this reality. He gave a very particular land to the seed of Abraham, and declared His purpose was to fill this land with His kingdom. He told Moses, “Truly, as I live, all the land shall be filled with the glory of the LORD” (Num. 14:21). This land was first overrun with seven uncircumcised nations that filled it with every form of evil and abomination. But Joshua (a type of Christ) invaded the land, spread God’s judgment, tore down strongholds, destroyed uncircumcised flesh, and filled the land with the Seed of Israel who lived under the righteous law and government of God. Here is a vivid outward picture of the coming of the kingdom of God. 

After this, when a kingdom of SELF had risen up in the land under the leadership of Saul, God appointed David to make manifest the nature, power, and coming of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of David began small and was unrecognized in the land of God’s inheritance. David was anointed king by Samuel when not even his brothers recognized His kingdom. But His kingdom increased in these two important ways: 1) by the judgment and destruction of uncircumcised Philistines, and 2) by a long struggle with the house of Saul to rescue Israel from the wrong king. Much could be said about these details. They are all important, because they describe for us the nature, the coming, the experience, and the purpose of the kingdom of God. They show us how Christ works in us to crucify the nature of flesh, and to save the soul from the dominion of self. Perhaps we will talk more about these details at another time.

And after David had removed every enemy from the land of Israel, and brought the land into submission to the righteous law of God, then Solomon reigned for 40 years. Sadly, we know that Solomon’s heart turned away from the truth when he had grown old, but for 40 years Israel enjoyed peace, rest, righteousness, and joy in what was an outward picture or shadow of the kingdom of God.  In fulfillment of this picture, Paul tells us in Romans 14:17, that “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

This has been God’s purpose from the beginning, and all of these outward stories and kings and battles and kingdoms paint for us clear pictures of the nature and purpose of God’s kingdom. But the fulfillment, or substance, or realization of these shadows is not found in this or that person, or this or that place. The fulfillment of these pictures is found within us. The truth is that WE are the land that God has promised to the Seed that is Christ. Gal 3:16  “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘AND TO YOUR SEED,’ who is Christ.” WE are the land that God desires to fill with His glory, His nature, His power, and His will. And just like the outward land of Israel before Joshua and David, we begin as a land filled with uncircumcised nations, a nature that thinks, desires, and commits every sort of evil and abomination. 

Do you see the parallel between these things? Do you see to what great lengths God has gone to show us these inward realities through so many clear outward pictures? 

In Luke 13:18 Jesus says, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?” And then He tells us that our hearts are like a land that receives a Seed, and that the Seed cannot grow where there are rocks, weeds, thorns, and birds. He tells us that our hearts are like a garden filled with many large weeds, and that the kingdom begins in us like a grain of mustard seed. Paul says, “ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase…For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field.” (1 Cor. 3:6-9)

What is this increase? Where is this increase? It is the increase of God’s government, God’s nature, power, will, righteousness, in the land of the human soul, the land that had lost its King. It is the increase of Christ where Christ was always meant to reign. This has been the one purpose of God since the fall of man. God has not had another one. As we said before, man has only ever had one problem, and God has only ever had one solution. 

Man’s problem can be very correctly described as the loss of the right King in the land of his heart. Man lost His king, and then the land turned to darkness, idolatry, selfishness, evil, pride, and lust. Isn’t this what happened immediately after man’s fall in the beginning? The inward land lost its righteous king, and then the outward land was filled with violence and evil to such a degree that God grieved for having brought men into this world? Gen 6:11 “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” A righteous king was dethroned from the heart of man, and the earth fell into pitch blackness, filthiness, selfishness, and violence. This is the problem. 

And therefore man’s salvation, or God’s solution, must be more than doctrines, beliefs, and church attendance. No. Man’s salvation is the return of the King! It is the coming of a Stronger Man to take back his house. It is the coming of the king, with power to put every enemy under His feet. It is the Seed of God crossing the Jordan and conquering every uncircumcised city by the sword of the Lord, the cross of Jesus Christ. 

God has never had another plan, another purpose, or another salvation. I think it is right to say that from the perspective of God, the salvation of man IS the kingdom of God. It is an inward land that has been subdued, conquered, changed, cleansed, and filled with the reign of the King. This is what man needed. This is what Christ provides. Everything that God has said to man, and done for man, through words, prophets, miracles, through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, through the giving of His Spirit and giving of the Scriptures, all of it was with this one purpose — to fill the souls of men and women with the kingdom and glory of God.

Consider for a moment the story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. God took a people out from Egypt and told them that He was going to use them to fill the land of Canaan with the glory of God. Exo. 23:30 “Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.” For the first two years after the exodus, God tolerated their unbelief and disobedience, while he led them by a fiery cloud towards the promised land. God forgave their idolatry with the golden calf, their rebellion against Moses, their murmuring and complaining, and continued to lead them towards his one and only purpose. But when at last they came to the border of the land and refused to go in and fill the land with a righteous seed, what did God say to them? Did he say, “Well, at least I brought you out of Egypt. That’s good enough.” NO! He said that that generation could not enter into His rest, they would all die in the wilderness, until another generation was willing to fulfill His purpose. He said (in essence), “I only have one plan, one salvation, one story I’m trying to tell here. You can refuse it, but I will not change it. In Numbers 14:23, He declared that not one of these men “shall see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.” Vs. 21, “But truly, as I live, all the land shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” 

Once again, these are outward pictures, outward stories, but they speak of an inward reality. This was an outward land, with outward enemies, an outward seed, and an outward increase. But I hope you can see the inward realities behind all of these outward things. God is not trying to fill outward places with outward religion. He is trying to fill the eternal soul of man with the life of God, with the KINGDOM of God.

We must ask ourselves, what kind of environment could truly fulfill this purpose? What kind of land, in reality, could be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea? Consider this question for a minute. With a little thought, we should be able to understand that a physical land could never bear the glory of God, or the expression of His nature and purpose. A tree could never do this. A building, a mountain, a city, natural things, natural places, natural kingdoms, natural wars, these could never contain or carry the living nature and government and glory of God.

The most that we could find in the natural realm would be a testimony of the kingdom of God. Natural and outward things can point or testify to spiritual things, but if we are seeking an eternal kingdom, then we need to find a spiritual kingdom. We have to look beyond the veil of natural things, behind the pictures, testimonies, and words that are only arrows that point, or testimonies that describe. The kingdom of God, the realm of that alignment, union, congruence, government, reign, and glory cannot be anywhere else but within you. The SOUL was created by God to be a living vessel for His glory. The SOUL was created to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be transformed into His image from glory to glory. 

I understand the obstacles that we have in our natural minds. At first glance, a kingdom WITHIN us doesn’t seem big or important enough. To the natural man, the physical world is the most real and important realm. In our darkness, we think planet Earth must be what God wants to conquer. It’s hard to believe and comprehend how or why God would seek to achieve His eternal purpose WITHIN the human soul. Carnal man thinks, “Wouldn’t God prefer to dwell, reign, and establish His kingdom in New York or Tokyo or Mexico City? Wouldn’t it be a greater achievement to fill planet Earth with the glory of God? We think that false religions and false doctrines are the true opponents of God; that atheists, humanists, and Satanists are the enemies, and that God has to fight against outward kingdoms, armies, and evil men to establish the kingdom of God in the natural creation! This is more like the movies, more in line with our ideas and dreams. Why would God want to fight against the enemies, idols, high places, lies, and uncircumcised flesh in my heart?

We’ve read stories or watched movies where men use mighty weapons to tear down strongholds, destroy opposition, take prisoners captive, and punish disobedience. And we don’t understand why Paul would speak of an inward war, saying, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

However, in the light of Christ, all of our human ideas are flipped completely upside down. In the light, we can see that a planet conquered by angels, ruled by Christians, filled with churches and Christian music, could never be the kingdom of God, unless the HEARTS of men were filled with His life, and conformed to His nature, love, purity, and power. In the light we see that killing evil men, stopping evil governments, foiling evil conspiracies is not how God establishes His kingdom. 

God is not looking for an outward theocracy, where people are ruled by words, rules, commandments, threats and punishments. No, He is seeking a people who will “volunteer in the day of His power” (Psa. 110) to be ruled by His nature, constrained by His love, walk in His light, manifest His righteousness, and experience His truth in the inward parts. His heavenly kingdom is ruled by the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” This is the only law that He needs. And with this one law His subjects are moved, constrained, governed, and transformed. 

The soul of man was created by God to be a living vessel of His living kingdom. The soul is a fertile garden for a heavenly Seed. And though it is certainly true that the life and nature of God has all sorts of outward, natural, and physical expressions through the body of Christ, yet there can be no true outward manifestation without inward conformity. I am not speaking against any outward and visible expressions of God’s righteousness, or love or power. Such things become the natural manifestations of a conquered and transformed soul. But the king comes first to our hearts, meek and humble, riding on a donkey. He first enters into our hearts, turns over tables, drives out beasts, and makes our temple a house of prayer. The kingdom of God begins with the return of the King, and He must reign where sin and self and pride and lust have formerly reigned. Romans 5:20, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin REIGNED in death, even so grace might REIGN through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

How hard was it for the Jews of the first century to believe that Christ came to establish an inward kingdom, and not an outward victory over the Roman Empire. How hard was it for them to believe that their greatest enemy was alive and ruling in their own heart. But now, look to yourself! How hard is it for us to believe, 2000 years later, that our soul is a land where two kings battle for their increase and glory! How we scoff at the idea that the world within us is more real, more permanent, and more important to God than any external city, or land, or planet! But look now at what God says through the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 66:1-2 “Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist," Says the LORD. "But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.

Can you see that we are making the same mistake as the Jews of the first century? Perhaps we are not waiting for Christ to lead a military campaign against an oppressive nation, but we are looking for His kingdom where it will never come, and resisting it where it seeks to come every single day.  

It is so important, my friends, to understand that God wants to establish His kingdom in your heart, and that His kingdom must come during your time in the body. Heaven is already in and under His reign. The outward creation still declares the glory of God. But you and I, are a land that has lost its rightful king. It is with us as it is written in the book of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

I ask you, what good would it do you to see Christ’s kingdom come outwardly if you have not experienced it inwardly? I mean, what peace or rest or joy could you ever find seeing an outward rule of Christ, if inwardly you were still governed by lust, pride, envy, fear, anger, covetousness, bitterness, unforgiveness, and the like. How could you find joy watching Him reign over a city, if He was not reigning over your tongue? How could you celebrate His victory over demons, if your heart was still a legion of self-will, ambition or earthly desire? Please, let us think about these things seriously. These are serious subjects. The kingdom of God does not come with observation; the kingdom of God is within you.