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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

Chapter 7 Seek First The Kingly Rule of God (Matthew 6.33).

When Jesus began to preach He declared that the Kingly Rule of God was at hand, that men could now enter into it if they would. Each person, He said, could subject himself to the king. Each person could become a royal servant, no, rather, a royal son! Indeed, He said, that is what they must seek. ‘Seek first the Kingly Rule of God and His righteousness’ (Matthew 6.33). By this He did not mean that they should seek it first and then they could seek something else. What He meant was that the Kingly Rule of God should always have prime importance in our lives. But how do men enter into the Kingly Rule of God? The answer is, by submitting to the king.

For the Kingly Rule of God is not a piece of land, or determined by boundary lines. It has nothing to do with land. It is found in any one through whom God is truly worshipped and obeyed. When anyone, anywhere, submits to the King and begins by faith to obey Him and do His will as a settled policy, he enters into the Kingly Rule of God.

When a Bedouin king moves around the desert with his tribe his ‘kingdom’ moves with him. For his kingdom goes as far as his influence reaches. Let him catch you in the desert and you are in his kingdom, whatever your map might say. For where he exercises power, there is his kingdom. It is made up of his people.

So it is with the Kingly Rule of God. It is made up of all who are in subjection to Him wherever they are. It is present wherever someone is dedicated to obeying the King, wherever the power and authority of the King is exercised in a man’s heart. Today it stretches around the world among many nations. For in many nations there are those who are in submission to the King. And each one of us is under the Kingly Rule of God once we submit ourselves to the King.

But as we have seen, this involves responding to the King. It means obeying the King. It is no good claiming to be in the Kingly Rule of God if we defy the King. In the present His Kingly Rule is enjoyed by God’s true people in this world. In Acts 8.12 the Samaritans responded to preaching concerning the Kingly Rule of God, and came in submission to the King, the Lord Jesus, and they were baptised and received the Holy Spirit. In Acts 19.8 Paul proclaimed the Kingly Rule of God in Corinth, calling on men to submit to the risen Christ. In Acts 20.25 we learn that Paul had preached the Kingly Rule of God to the Ephesian church, and that is why they wanted to go on in God’s way. In Acts 28.23 he taught concerning the Kingly Rule of God, and this was described as ‘persuading them concerning Jesus’, for in Him the Kingly Rule of God was now available. In Acts 28.31 preaching the Kingly Rule of God was the same as teaching those ‘things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ’. To submit to the Lord Jesus Christ was to enter under the Kingly Rule of God.

In 1 Corinthians 4.20 we learn that the Kingly Rule of God comes not in word but in power. And in context it is therefore found in the preaching of the cross which is ‘the power of God to those who are being saved’ (1 Corinthians 1.18). We come under the Kingly Rule of God by trusting in the One Who died on the cross for us and experiencing His saving power in our lives. In Colossians 1.13 we learn that there is a ‘tyranny of darkness’ in which all men live, and in contrast there is ‘the Kingly Rule of His beloved Son’ into which all believers have been transferred. And that is where we live in the spiritual realm. And under that Kingly Rule of God there is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14.17).

So if we claim to be under the Kingly Rule of God, if we claim to be those who are being saved, it can only be by responsive obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not do this in order to be saved. We do it because having come to Him to find forgiveness through the cross we cannot help but love Him and want to please Him. And this submission will then result in a further submission of our lives to Him, so that He might possess us and live out His life through us. To have Jesus Christ living out His life through us is the equivalent of being in the Kingly Rule of God. And in the future it will become a heavenly kingdom, for all who are called by God in Jesus Christ will enter that heavenly kingdom (Acts 14.22; 1 Corinthians 6.9-10; 15.24, 50; Galatians 5.21; Ephesians 5.5; 1 Thessalonians 2.12; 2 Thessalonians 1.5; 2 Timothy 4.1; James 2.5; Revelation 11.15; 12.10).

Meanwhile those who continue in sin will never enter it (1 Corinthians 6.9-10; Galatians 5.19-21). For only those can enter it who through the cross have been washed clean from sin (1 John 1.7), have been set apart by Him as belonging to God, being made acceptable in His sight through the purity of Christ, and have through His death been declared righteous in the sight of the great Judge of all (they have been ‘washed -- sanctified -- justified’) (1 Corinthian 6.11-12). And these are those who in Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and desires, and walk by the Spirit of God (Galatians 5.24.-25).

Thus the idea of the Kingly Rule of God brings us back to our original message. We are to reckon that we are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We are to reckon that we are dead and have crucified our flesh with its affections and desires. We are to walk by the Spirit of God. We are to allow the risen Christ to live through our daily lives. And thus we will begin to live in accordance with His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). We will love our neighbour as we love ourselves. We will do to others what we would wish them to do to us. We will cease to be judgmental, while exercising right and compassionate judgment. And then the world on seeing us and our obedience to Him will become aware that God’s Kingly Rule is really among them.