GOD'S KINGDOM AND HIS PROVIDENCE
GOD’S KINGDOM AND HIS PROVIDENCE
I desire to call attention to two expressions which occur in the above passage. One is in verse 11, namely, “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. The other is in verse 16, “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty”. Then the apostle recalls in the verses which follow what had taken place on the mount of transfiguration. Jesus received glory and honour from God the Father, when there came a voice from the excellent glory “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. He had taken three of His disciples with Him up into the mountain, and those three were eyewitnesses of His majesty. There is one thing to be remarked about the Lord, and that is that He received nothing but what was His own. It was impossible for Him to receive anything beyond this. Everything that that voice said was properly His. I think this presents a very different idea from what we regard as glory in this world. People look for and receive recognition and glory from men in the world, but with the Lord these have no place at all. It was impossible for Him to receive honour from man; and when He received it, it came from God the Father in the declaration of who He was. Then the apostle goes on to say, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy”. The word of prophecy referred to the glory of the Lord. Now, the word of prophecy was confirmed by the transfiguration, which James, Peter and John were permitted to see on the mountain, a vision of the kingdom of God.
I will say a few words on the distinction between God’s kingdom and God’s providence, for I fancy that people [p. 140] sometimes go so far as to mistake the latter for the former. But there is God’s providence, and there is His kingdom, which is the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The idea connected with kingdom is that of authority or sway, and there is a great difference between the kingdom of God and the providence of God. The kingdom is received by faith. It comes about in this way: a man apprehends by faith the Lord Jesus, and receives the kingdom, but every one has to do with God’s providence. There is on man’s part in the present day a strong tendency to rebel against the providence of God.
I will give you one idea of the providence of God as in contrast with His kingdom. I look upon providence as a veil that hides God. God is hid from men behind the veil of providence, but when I speak of the kingdom, God is no longer hid. He is not veiled there, but made known.
Now, I believe it is a great mistake to rebel against the providence of God. A man rebelling against that practically says, ‘If I had the opportunity I could rule the world better than God’. As I said, the providence of God is a veil, and to be veiled is the very opposite idea to being revealed. If you were veiled you would be hid, so God is hid by His providence. When I speak of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, I do not speak of a veil, but of a revelation. There are many things that I cannot understand which are allowed in God’s providence. I see some men very rich and others very poor, some struggling for a bare existence, and others rolling in wealth, and this without any moral title; and that is all allowed by God in His providence. And it is perfectly useless for man to struggle against the providence of God; but the providence of God is no revelation of Him; that I press strongly. I think it is wisdom to accept the providence of God. There is great effort in the world to do away with the effects of that providence. If it were possible for man to set aside the orderings of God’s providence, and to revolutionise everything, a state of things so brought about would never last; but it is impossible to do away [p. 141] with the existing order of things because God’s providence is stronger than man. Then there is another consideration, namely, that if as to outward things a kind of millennium could be brought about it would leave man exactly where he was before in regard to the pressure of death and judgment. It would not relieve man from that pressure. Men would die as they did before, and after death comes the judgment. It is plain to me that men will continue to rebel against the providence of God, but whatever change they can compass, it will leave them as to the most serious questions precisely where they were before. I think it is far wiser to accept the providence of God; God is perfect and therefore can rule the world much better than man can. There are many, suffering here in the world, who rebel against the providence of God; and there are others, who have a great deal of advantage in this world, and they practically worship the God of providence; but that does not alter in the slightest the fact that all are alike liable to death, and after death the judgment.
When the Lord Jesus comes, I do not think that God will be hid behind a veil of providence any longer. Wise men accept His providence now, but I do not think they will have to then. Now, I would have you mark this — whatever a man may have under God’s providence, is no sign of God’s pleasure or otherwise towards him. A man may be a wicked and designing man and yet may be greatly advanced in this world’s goods — for it is an evil world — but there is no pleasure of God in that man, because God looks not on the outward appearance, but on the heart. A man who has great natural advantages and worldly acquirements exercises a strong influence in the world by that which is outward — his appearance. The prophet Samuel was greatly taken by the appearance of the elder sons of Jesse, and even he would have chosen one of them to be king in the place of Saul, but the answer that God made to him was, “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance,
[p. 142] but the Lord looketh upon the heart”. God chose the youngest one, that was David. I believe that though a man be as rich as Croesus, and there are men with millions, God may have not one atom of pleasure in him. A man may be satiated with goods and then he himself ceases to have pleasure in them. Other people think him wonderful, but he does not think much of it himself. The wise man would seek to find out where God’s pleasure is. Under the providence of God men may have many things, but they do not thus get any knowledge of His grace. The pleasure of God is in grace, and the result of grace is the kingdom. It is important to see that the result and climax of the grace of God is His kingdom, and that means the setting aside of the power of every enemy of God and man. You get a type of it in David, who set aside all the enemies of God and Israel. Death, the last enemy, will be destroyed. That is the great end of God’s kingdom, and then the Son will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father. Now, the present moment is the moment of God’s grace. I will tell you what God’s grace is founded on. It is founded on the fact that redemption has been accomplished; God’s righteousness has been vindicated and reparation for sin made to God by One who was capable of doing so. The Son of God became Man in order that He might make reparation to God. The righteousness of God has been vindicated and sin put away, and the One by whom this was effected has been raised to the right hand of God. He is exalted. He received glory and honour on the mount, and that has now been confirmed at the right hand of God. That is what has now come to pass, and all is founded on the fact that He made reparation to God.
There have been many kingdoms in this world that have passed away. The kingdom of England will pass away some day; it is not an eternal kingdom. It will be succeeded by another kingdom. The Grecian kingdom and the Roman kingdom as well as many others have one after another passed away. If you look into the foundation [p. 143] of any kingdom that has existed in this world, you will find that it will not bear investigation. Now the kingdom of God exists on the foundation of righteousness — in the reparation made to Him by the Lord Jesus Christ. It subsists on moral foundations. The righteousness of God means that sin has been put away and the power of death annulled by the sacrifice of Christ, and that is the blessed foundation on which the kingdom rests. Grace will do for a man what providence never yet did for him.
I have seen men successful in the world; wicked men often become prosperous as this world goes, and God allows this in His providence. But God in His providence does not relieve a man from the pressure under which he lies. Prosperity leaves him as to this exactly where he was before. When a man passes out of this world he has to leave everything that he has received in the providence of God here, and to face judgment.
Now, I am going to tell you what the pleasure of God’s grace is. He has pleasure in the administration of relief. It is His pleasure to relieve man from the pressure and consequences of sin. I find that from Scripture. When the Israelites were in Egypt they were under the pressure of the Egyptians, their task-masters. It was God’s pleasure to bring them out of Egypt, but it was not His pleasure to prosper them with silver and gold, although He did allow this in His providence. It was His pleasure to relieve them from the pressure of their task-masters. Job was a great man in God’s providence, but he came under great pressure from Satan, and lost all his riches as well, which were afterwards restored to him. It was God’s pleasure to relieve him from the pressure of death and of Satan, though in His providence he restored to him too his riches.
I pass on for a moment to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ here on the earth. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil”. That is how Scripture describes His service. He was here in the ministry of peace. He preached peace towards men.
[p. 144] He made known that it was the pleasure of God to relieve man from the various forms of pressure under which man was suffering. He cleansed lepers, gave sight to the blind, raised the dead, and preached deliverance to the captive. He was making known, not the providence, but the pleasure of God. While the Lord was here He was always against one whom Scripture speaks of as the strong man, He first bound the strong man, and then spoiled his goods. To spoil the strong man’s goods the strong man must first be bound. It was the Lord’s great work to make evident to man what God’s pleasure is. No evil could stand before Him. All the power of evil disappeared before Him, and He went about doing good, for God was with Him. That was in a sense the beginning of the kingdom of God. It was only the beginning of it, but it was the power of the kingdom. It was the wonderful shewing forth that there was a power down here on man’s behalf superior to the power of the devil. That is what the ministry of the Lord meant. Other things had to be accomplished; Christ had to taste death for everything, by the grace of God, so that the kingdom of God might be established on solid foundations. He was raised again from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God. It is my pleasure to be able to tell you this. You can see that the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ has not altered the providence of God; it has left things here in that respect precisely as they were before. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes again He will change all. The Holy Spirit has now come down to make known His glory. Christ is Lord of all now.
Now I want to shew you the salvation of God. God’s pleasure is expressed in the Lord Jesus Christ. I will tell you what that is. It is ‘salvation’. It is summed up in that one word. I wonder if you would ask me what I mean by salvation. I mean salvation from God’s judgment and from Satan’s power. I will give you a picture of it in the case of the children of Israel. When they were in Egypt they were saved from God’s judgment when the destroying [p. 145] angel passed through, but when they had left Egypt and were on the way to the wilderness, with the sea before them and the Egyptians behind them, God saved them from the power of the enemy. I say that God’s pleasure as to man is salvation. Do you know the way to it? God only calls on you to believe what really is. He does not expect you to believe anything which is visionary or unreal. He calls upon you to believe that Christ is Lord of all. It is a great thing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but there is one thing even beyond that, and that is to confess Him as Lord. God’s pleasure is salvation. Salvation is found in receiving the kingdom of God.
Since reparation has been made to God by the Lord Jesus Christ, you have no reparation to make to Him. It is wonderful to think that we have no reparation to make. The Lord Jesus Christ has made reparation, and the proof is that God has raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to His right hand. If reparation has been made, the believer has nothing to be judged for. I am justified by faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. If a man believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he is removed from under the power of Satan to the authority of God. It is either one thing or the other with all here. No one is really his own master. You are either under the power of Satan, or under the authority of God. The escape is from the one to the other. Man is not, and never was, and never will be a free agent. Even an angel is not a free agent. There are angels who have fallen, and angels who have not fallen; but none of them are really free agents. It is a perfect illusion for man to think that he is a free agent. You have only to know a little of the world, and you will see what man is governed by.
You will never know Christ as Lord until you have believed that God has raised Him from the dead. The believer knows that God’s pleasure is in his salvation. It is the greatest possible comfort for him to know that the providence of God is a veil, and that it does not express [p. 146] the pleasure of God. If I wanted to know the pleasure of God I would get behind the veil. I see that the Lord Jesus was here on earth, the expression of God’s pleasure to man, and when I see Him at the right hand of God, I see expressed in him the pleasure of God. What a wonderful thing it is that I can, down here on the earth, be free from God’s judgment and from the power of the enemy. I have left the authority of the enemy for the kingdom of God, and that really means that I am delivered from the power of the enemy.
But you may ask, “What about death?” I will say a few words about death. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ really means that you pass from death into life. Reparation has been made and there is a perfect declaration of the righteousness of God in the death of Christ, and this is as true now as it was eighteen hundred years ago. It is just as true today as it was then that Christ is Lord of all. He was Lord of all then and is Lord of all now. The believer is in the light of life.
I am certain that there is no one here who has not heard of the light over and over again. To believe is to receive life. Have you believed in your heart? Have you been delivered out of the power of darkness and transferred to the authority of God? We read that with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Do you understand the value of confession? Scripture reveals that the pleasure of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ and to confess Him as Lord is to enter into that pleasure. The wealth of this world which a man may have in the providence of God does not secure his happiness.
May God bring you to understand what His pleasure is.