THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST
[p. 386] THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST
2 Peter 1: 1 - 21; Revelation 22: 16
It is important to notice one feature which marks the so-called catholic epistles; that is, those which are not addressed to any particular church, such as this epistle and the first epistles of Peter and John. It has been pointed out that all these contemplate the last time. Even the epistles written to individuals have that character, for instance, Paul’s epistles to Timothy and Titus. They refer to the last days. They all contemplate the decay of christianity as a witness here. This is very much brought out in this epistle, and the same principle comes out in the writings of John. John speaks of the last time. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time”. There were many antichrists in the days of John and there are plenty of them in our time. John does not look forward to the last time, because in fact it had set in before the apostles passed off the scene. It is a very important point to bear this in mind. The time had not yet come for the revelation of antichrist himself, but there were many antichrists in that day; and I do not think we can doubt there are many antichrists in this day. In the first epistle of Peter it says, “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God”, because the house of God did not answer entirely to the mind of God. It was not the idea of the house of God at the outset that judgment should begin there. When we get the house of God in the early days of the apostles when they “had all things common” you would not connect the judgment of God with that; but even in Peter’s time (and Peter could go back to the day of Pentecost) he has to say, “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God”.
[p. 387] And in this second epistle it is much more advanced; you have only to read this second epistle and you will see a very dark picture drawn of what had come to pass, the introduction of damnable heresies that men would bring in, and that in that way christianity as a system on earth would be vitiated. That is what comes out in chapter 2 of this second epistle. When that comes to be the case you may depend upon it one thing is certain to happen, the kingdom will come into view. The same principle comes out in the Revelation. After the addresses to the seven churches, then you get judgment, and the introduction of the kingdom. There is nothing left but for God to come in, in the kingdom, when the church has failed as witness. This is exactly what we get in this second epistle of Peter. The apostle brings into view the kingdom, but in the second chapter he shows us the effect of these damnable heresies coming into the profession of christianity. He shews us the starting point of departure and the course the departure would take; it is all marked out in a striking way in chapter 2. These things to a certain extent are spoken of prophetically, though the germs of it were working in the apostles’ day. Every apostle speaks of the decay and ruin of christianity as a system down here. Paul spoke of “grievous wolves” and “perverse men”. John speaks of “many antichrists”. Peter speaks of “false prophets”. And one striking feature in regard to all is this, none of them held out any prospect whatever of recovery. Once decay set into the church accompanied by mischief and deceit, there is no prospect of recovery. God would come in and sustain faith and the faithful, but looking at the thing generally there was no hope of recovery. I see the great importance of saints being in the light of the future. We want to be very much in the light of the future. That principle comes out very distinctly here, and that is my reason for taking up this chapter. If we are in the light of what is to come, it has a reflex effect. We become light in a way; it is the day dawning and the day star arising in our hearts.
[p. 388] And that is a very important point with regard to christians down here; the place of the church as a kind of connecting link between Christ and the future is not always seen. Yet it is so in the ways of God. Beyond all doubt the beginning of God’s ways is Christ, and in a sense one may speak of the church, the body of Christ, as the continuation of Christ. Christ is no longer here personally, but His body is here, He lives in it, therefore Christ is here.
In Colossians 1: 27 you get, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Christ was in them; and if Christ is in the saints the hope of glory, then Christ in the saints becomes the connecting link with the past and the future. Evidently the church is the connecting link with the past because it is the body of Christ and it is the connecting link with the future because it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. The church is a kind of continuation of what had its beginning in Christ. Christ was the point of departure for God. He is the last Adam, the second Man, the Sun of righteousness: all that was true of Christ when He became Man. He was the beginning. We ought always to read the gospels in that light. He is “the first-born among many brethren”. It was not simply that He was the first-born in resurrection. He is the first-born from among the dead. All that is true. But He was the beginning in the very fact of His incarnation. You see that in a very marked way in the gospel of John. Christ is the beginning, the point of departure for God. The continuation of Christ is the church. Christ is in His body, and Christ in the body is the hope of glory. Glory means, I suppose, the effulgence of God when God sees fit to shine out through the veil of providence in all that He is. The apostle in 2 Corinthians 4 speaks thus, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. All that comes out in the gospel, the glory of Christ, and the knowledge of [p. 389] the glory of God. All has to come out in a public and manifest way and will come out in the kingdom.
That is most important in regard to us, and that would I judge have a great effect upon us. The effect would be that our souls would be in the light of that which is coming, and then we should be light here in the world. The apostle speaks from verse 3 as follows, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.... For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.... 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”. I want to speak about three things here mentioned. First, the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; secondly, the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and thirdly, the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are three thoughts in this second epistle of Peter peculiar to the moment. He speaks of abundant entrance into the kingdom, and then he speaks of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and refers to the scene which took place on the mount of transfiguration, which had the effect of confirming the prophetic word. The prophetic word up to a certain point was useful to saints “until [p. 390] the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts”.
I would like to lead you on to that point. In order to be here for God and to be here in the way of witness we want the day to dawn and the day star to arise in our hearts. It cannot arise elsewhere. The only place where the day could dawn is in the hearts of believers. It is the anticipating of the Sun of righteousness arising with healing in His wings. If we are not conscious of being in relation to the Sun of righteousness this will not be fulfilled in us. But it is the divine mind that it should be fulfilled in us by the day star arising in our hearts. All is dependent on the thought of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle marks out a path by which saints practically reach God. “In your faith have also virtue”, &c. It indicates a sort of progress, a sort of road. It gives the landmarks in a path by which we practically reach God. You see the purpose of the gospel: “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”. I have no doubt that will be completely fulfilled when we are brought to God’s own habitation. I do not think anything short of that can fulfil the divine purpose for which Christ died. That is, He will bring us to God where God is. But what I see in the meantime is this, that there is a way by which we come to God now. We come to God at the present time as being in accord with the mind of God. No one could be said to have come to God if he were not in accord with the nature of God. If a man does not love God, you could not say that man had come to God, for God is love. If you come to Him you must be according to His nature. People may take it up in a kind of dogmatic way that Christ has brought us to God. But as a matter of fact scripture does not speak so. Christ suffered, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. How we are brought to God is another matter. The thought of it is, I have no doubt, true in the case of the children of Israel when God brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness. “Thou [p. 391] in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed;” but then it goes further, “Thou shalt bring them in”. The great idea of God for His people is to bring them to the abode of God. Christ will bring us to God where God is in the Father’s house. “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am;” that is the full idea of being brought to God. But in the meantime there is a way in which we are brought to God at the present time morally, and that is, we are being practically conformed to God’s nature. Therefore, the apostle here shews the road to it — faith is the first thing — it is that with which everyone commences, “In your faith have also virtue”. You want a measure of courage to be able to stand down here to what you believe. Faith would not be of much value if you were not prepared to stand to what you believe, so you want to have in your faith courage. Then you want knowledge, which is an extremely important point, because none of us begins with very much knowledge. Then there is the danger of knowledge puffing up, therefore we want temperance in knowledge. Then patience which brings us very much in accord with God, because patience is characteristic of God, and when we come to patience we are in accord with God. Then other things come in, piety and brotherly love, and then you come to love. Christians are tested really by the brethren. A man proves that he loves God by love to the brethren. The brethren are practically the test. John puts it in that way, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom be hath not seen?” We are tested by the children of God. Brotherly love comes in and love follows upon brotherly love. Then I say you are in accord with the divine nature, because the point is that we may be partakers of the divine nature. We must all travel that road. A soul travels a certain road that brings him morally to God, and he realises that he is brought [p. 392] to God. He is not brought to God in heaven, he is brought to God morally, he is in accord with the nature of God. He loves God. Great and precious promises are given to us, promises which open up the whole extent of divine purposes in Christ: “whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”. I have said sometimes if I were to be asked where I live as a christian I should find it in a way difficult to make myself understood in reply, for I do not live actually in heaven and I do not live on earth as a christian. I live on earth as a matter of fact, I am a pilgrim and a stranger on it, but if I speak of myself abstractly as a christian I will tell you where I live — I live in the love of God. A christian will live in heaven, it is his home, but in the meantime he is brought to God in the fact of being in accord with the divine nature, see Ephesians 1: 4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love”. We are brought to God to be with Him and before Him according to His nature, and the result will be that we shall be with God in His own habitation. Now what the apostle puts before us here is that we are set on that way. It is a great thing for the christian to be conscious that he has escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The world is filled with corruption through lust, but here we read, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”. God and the world are in complete antagonism, the principle of the world is lust, and the nature of God is love. Those two things you can never mix, love and lust; and [p. 393] if I am a partaker of the divine nature, then I have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. If I have reached love, then I have escaped lust. It is absolutely impossible for the two things to go together. And practically if you find a man walking in the principles of this world and governed by the principles of this world, which are lust and pride, it cannot be true of that man that he is practically brought to God. It is an entire contradiction. On the other hand, if we are made partakers of the divine nature, if we know God’s love and love God, then we realise that we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, “so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”.
Now just a word about the kingdom. I think a great point is that what will rule in that kingdom is that which is of God. I think the thought of the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is that there is a complete putting down of all that is hostile to God. The Lord Jesus Christ is vested with power and authority to destroy all that is hostile to God. Not exactly to destroy it in effect but to destroy its power, and that is what will mark the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ: all evil will be annulled, whether the power of Satan, sin, or antichrist. Every power that is hostile to God will be annulled in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, on the other hand, what will rule in that kingdom will be of God, just as what rules in the world now is of Satan. Satan is the god and prince of this world, and what rules really in the world now is of Satan. Murder and lying and lust and all that kind of thing rules in the world. There is plenty of murder in the world. I do not mean murder in the common meaning of the term, but men are prepared to take away the life of their fellows, not by mere violence, but man is prepared to pursue his own advantage at the expense of his fellow man, and that is the principle of murder. Then as to lying, the world is [p. 394] to an immense extent a great lie. It is based on a maintenance of appearance. Things are not what they seem to be in the world; every one must admit that things are not what they appear to be. Society would not go on at all if everything appeared as it really is. The maintenance of society depends on things not being what they appear to be. Society is built up on appearance and underneath there may be anything so long as appearance is maintained. The principle of lust and pride is all around us; not simply in the immoral, but the moral justify ambition, pride, lust, and all that kind of thing, for the great principle in all is self-gratification. Lust and pride are expressions of self-gratification and self-satisfaction. How different to all that is of God! You see the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ brings in all that is of God. Christ — the Sun of righteousness brings the light and revelation of what God is, and what He brings is the love and righteousness of God; and that gives its character to the kingdom. The kingdom will really take its character from the revelation of God, that is, the light of God which will prevail and which will rule in the kingdom.
“For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”. I think we want to come into the intelligence of that kingdom at the present time, into the understanding of it. It is that which is ministered to us at the present time, the understanding of the principle, and power, and character of that kingdom. You must remember it is the kingdom of God. Dispensationally it is the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but morally it is the kingdom of God, because all that shines out is of God; love and righteousness rule in the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. On the other hand there is power and authority, for everything obnoxious or hostile to God will be annulled — Satan, antichrist, the sin of the world taken away, the whole world system broken to pieces, idolatry, love [p. 395] of money, and all the principles that rule this world, will be annulled in that day. What will prevail then will be the love and righteousness of God, and that love and righteousness will shine out in the Sun of righteousness; that is the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And it is extremely important that we should seek in some measure to understand the moral character of that kingdom, and its contrast to all that prevails in the world at the present time. It is the kingdom of Satan now. God has delivered us — christians, out of the authority of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The world is morally the kingdom of Satan, and the principles which govern and actuate men are principles which have their rise in Satan. I quite admit there are traces of God; you get natural affection, mercy, &c.; things in the world are very much improved by the light of christianity, but if you look beneath the surface you will find that all is very different to what I have brought before you, and that it is the strongest possible contrast to what rules in the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Next we read, “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance”. Now it is a point of interest here that the Lord had shewed to the apostle that he must put off his tabernacle. The great idea in christianity is that you are waiting for the Lord. The parable of the kingdom of heaven shows that the ten virgins went forth to meet the bridegroom; they do not go forth to die or in anticipation of death. Scripture sanctions the idea of saints being here in expectation of the coming of the Lord. It is the proper attitude of [p. 396] christians. The wicked servant says in his heart, “My lord delayeth his coming”. The saints, too, they become worldly; but the proper attitude is waiting for Him. If you look at things according to God there is no slackness in the fulfilment of His promise. There may be delay in relation to man, but there is no delay according to God. With God it is not lapse of time, but a question of things being morally ripe. You never find God interfering until things are ripe; the nations were not expelled from Canaan in order for Israel to take possession before things were ripe. Things must be morally ripe for God to interfere. As far as christians are concerned we are converted to wait for the coming of the Lord, and that expectation is specially encouraged in the epistles to the Thessalonians. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord”.
The expectation is not rebuked or checked by Paul, he says “we which are alive and remain”. So too he speaks about a crown of righteousness being given him and unto all them also that love His appearing. That is the attitude of the christian — loving His appearing, and “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”. Peter knew that he was to pass away, that he was to put off his tabernacle. The Lord had shewn him that he was to prove his fidelity to Him by martyrdom, but He had also shewn him that there were those who would be here until the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And, therefore, Peter writes to them in that way to confirm them; he would put them in remembrance;
[p. 397] he had been an eyewitness of the majesty of the Lord, and why do you think he would not be negligent to put them always in remembrance of these things? I do not think it was simply to confirm them in the faith of it, but that they might be in expectation of it and be coloured by it. If we have affection for the power and coming of our Lord it does tend to colour us down here. If christians had this affection in their hearts it could not fail to colour them in their ways and conduct. I do not think they would be going in for position in this world if they had the conviction of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what Peter sought to bring home to them — His power and coming; he says, I am going to pass off the scene, but others will be here until the coming of the Lord, and he would bring home to them the conviction of the certainty of the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore to that end he refers to the scene of transfiguration. It is rather remarkable that the account of the transfiguration is not given in the gospels by any one who was there. It is given to us by Matthew, Mark and Luke, but none of them was present at it, and John, who was present, does not recount it. Peter refers to it here, but only incidentally, and with the object of giving conviction as to the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I was saying at the beginning that Christ was the point of departure for God and we get Him owned from heaven two or three times. At His baptism and on the mount of transfiguration God His Father owns Him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. What is so important is this, that it is in connection with the kingdom; Christ becomes the connecting link between the kingdom and the Father. You see the source of the kingdom is the Father. It is the Father’s kingdom, and the connecting link is God’s beloved Son. And its relation to the Father and Son is what will give colour to the kingdom. The kingdom will take its character from the One who is the source of the kingdom, and the [p. 398] character of God, the nature of God comes out in His beloved Son. The character of Queen Victoria has had a great effect on this country from a moral point of view. If you have a highly immoral king it would affect the whole country, and also on the other hand the country would be affected by a king or queen in whom there is a high standard of morality. What then must be the effect of the Father’s King, and when all the mind of the Father comes out in the beloved Son. That is what will give character to the kingdom when the kingdom is set up. The source of the kingdom is the Father and it is the Father and the Son who will give character to the kingdom in that day, and I think that came out on the mount of transfiguration when the Lord received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. And what was “honour and glory”? It was the Father’s salutation. The Father saluted Him, that was honour and glory. Do you think when the kingdom is set up Christ will want any glory from man? His greatest glory is the Father’s salutation, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. I have not a doubt that the relation between the Father and Son (He is the Son of the Father’s love) is what will give character to the kingdom when the time comes for the setting forth of the King. All that is connected with the “power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. That is what Peter refers to. In the “power and coming” Christ comes to establish what is suitable to God in the way in which God is revealed. The veil of providence which tends to hide God at the present time will then be completely set aside. All that is in God, righteousness and love, will shine forth in the Sun of righteousness in that day, and there will be the absolute putting down of what is obnoxious to God. All this was the confirmation of prophecy, so Peter says, You do well to give heed to prophecy to a certain point, “as unto a light that shineth [p. 399] in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts”. It is of all moment that christians should be here in the light of the coming day, and it is a great point too that as we get near the end the Spirit and the bride say, Come. The Lord reveals what is of God. In Revelation 22: 16, 17, you get the “morning star”. Here (2 Peter 1: 19) you get “the day star”. Where now is the day star, the morning star, if not in christians? I cannot conceive where they can be found if it is not in the hearts of christians. Thus we are already in the light of the Sun of righteousness — He has not yet arisen above the horizon of man’s vision — but we have the day star, the harbinger of day, in our hearts. We are not curious about prophecy, it is not an absorbing object. It has its proper place, but everything is now changed for the christian; the world is a dark place enough, but for the christian the day has dawned, the day star has arisen in his heart. The christian is already a reflection in a way of the Sun of righteousness, but this could not possibly be if we have not Christ before us in the revelation of all that God is. For in the revelation of God in Christ we learn the great and blessed principles which will rule in the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Now as we come near to the end all these things are extremely important. There is no hope of the restoration of the church. It never will be restored down here. It will have its own proper place in glory. It comes down from God out of heaven. It will be displayed then, having the glory of God. But in regard to us down here, a few here on earth, our proper witness is this — the day has dawned, the day star has arisen. I cannot understand people who really take that ground being negligent of the truth of the church: that cannot possibly be. If the day star has arisen in your heart, what you seek to do until Christ comes is to maintain fidelity to Him. The effect of it is to be found here in the affection proper to the bride; Christ says, “I am the root and the offspring of David,
[p. 400] and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. If the coming of the Lord had its own proper place in our hearts it would not make us slack in any sense in regard to the place of the church here. How is the Lord displayed when He comes? What is it through which His glory is set forth? He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them that believe. It is that which is according to Him, the object of His affections, in which the glory of the Bridegroom is set forth. That is the display of Christ, and we should be here now in the affection of the bride saying to Him, “Come”.
Now I think these things are extremely important. If we want to be light here in the world we must be more completely separate from all the corrupt things that go on in the world, which all have their root in lust in some form. We must be apart from these and in accord with God in His nature, and “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works”. Remember that — “that he might redeem us from all iniquity”. The cry has gone forth. The Lord grant the Bridegroom may have His own proper place in the hearts of His own; it is not to be occupied with the details of prophecy but with the day star, the harbinger of the day, with the Sun of righteousness. If you are not under the influence of the Sun of righteousness you may depend upon it that the day star has not arisen in your heart. May God be pleased to grant that these things may be fulfilled in regard to those who have been brought to God according to His nature, that is love and righteousness. His is an eternal and enduring kingdom on account of the stability of the moral principles on which it is established. That is the reason of the endurance of that kingdom.