“Kingdom of God: The Violence/Corresponding Revelation” 

‘The kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force’, Jesus said.

And - according to the Old Testament records, included in His statement is the ‘violence’ taking place behind the scenes, as we see in Ps 18.

There, blessedly, David ‘saw’ - in the ‘violence’ depicting the movement toward the kingdom of God - the way of the Lord that revealed God’s saving, loving character to David.

He could ‘see’ God forging His way through with ‘arrows’, ‘coals of fire’, the earth shaking and mountains trembling at His mighty presence.

Through these, David could see God’s attributes actively becoming for him his ‘rock’ in Whom he could take refuge, his ‘fortress’, ‘deliverer’, and his ‘high tower’.

It was certainly no problem for him to speak confidently of the distinction between God’s action for the righteous and His opposition toward the evil doers.

And, since he was on the side of the righteous, he had only the blessings to report as the outcome of his ‘pressing’ into the kingdom of God.

But - how could David know these things about God?

Look at v 28 of Ps 18: ‘For Thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.’

What a tremendous thing: God’s light dispelled the darkness about all of the trials and tribulations he had suffered!

As proof of the violence the Kingdom of God suffered, he saw a universal truth about God through it all! Look at vs 26-27.

I would like to focus our attention on this aspect of it tonight. Let us read them quickly - vs 26-27.

‘With the merciful, thou will show thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt show thyself upright.

With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward, thou wilt show thyself unsavoury.’

David saw that how God’s actions are interpreted by man is according to the relationship he holds in his heart with God.

What he said here was not, principally, a reflection of his own heart and mind in what he thought of God.

It was, rather, that what God did reflected and confirmed that relationship David had with God.

David was a man of undivided devotion to God. It was a relationship in which he was fully and totally consecrated to Him as he pressed into God’s kingdom.

And in that relationship and dedication, God honored him by showing the ‘behind-the-scenes violence’ God had called forth of His might and power on David’s behalf.   

It is the same truth seen in 1 Sam 2:30: there God said: ‘...them that honor Me, I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.’

In other words, those devoted saints of God, who are troubled by affliction, experience God’s intervention for their deliverance and salvation because they do have that relationship with Him. 

That is the positive side of this tremendous ‘seeing’ of the ‘behind-the-scene violence’ given to David as he ‘pressed’ into the kingdom of God.

But he went on to the negative side to say: ‘...with the froward, Thou wilt show Thyself unsavoury.’

That is, when God exalts Himself in the ‘violence of His might and power’, those opposing Him reap their due at the same time.

They will ‘see’ God in His resisting, opposing check of them since their relationship is in opposition to Him.

In Rom 1:28, men who disapprove of retaining God in their knowledge sit in judgment of Him, making of Him a liar, and so they know Him only as their opposition.

See how this is explained in that passage - Rom 1:28-32.

‘And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts which are not fitting;

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, depravity, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, ill-nature...’

v 30: ‘...they invent new kinds of mischief, they show no loyalty to parents... they are without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but even applaud those who do them.’

Yes - ‘...with the froward, God shows Himself unsavoury to them, so repugnant or loathsome, that they become even more obtuse in showing their opposition to Him. 

And God shows Himself as opposing and challenging them.

But how is man to pass from one side to the other, from the evil side to the side of the righteous?

The Gospel is the perfect answer to that problem.

To explain that, let me start by first saying that God always had in mind nothing but the salvation of the whole world when He sent His Son.

In the Old Testament, it was the nation of Israel, as a whole, that God dealt with which was for revelatory and preparatory reasons.

But we have already seen how God’s heart reached out to the nations, specifically in Isa 41.

He invited the nations to come to Him, to come to a hearing in His court of judgment. 

His purpose was to bring all peoples into His kingdom, the design of which Paul saw, in Eph 3:5-6, by the Gentiles as also being ‘...fellow-heirs and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel.’ 

It was a mystery hidden at the time of David’s writing even though he saw the indication of his posterity being blessed  with the mercies of God as he had been blessed.

But it is in the Gospel where God’s plan is unfolding: Christ is the very ‘Crown’ of the ways of God. 

In these last days, God has spoken through Him and He put all things in subjection under His feet.

And He left nothing that is not put under Him. (Heb 2:8)

It is in the Gospel plan where God heads up everything again toward His kingdom, only now He is doing it in Christ.

That is His great and glorious purpose about which the world knows nothing, except in theory, perhaps, but certainly not in a personal relationship with God in Christ. 

And - yes - I am very well aware of the current tenor, the prevailing theme of ‘many ways to God’.

But that does not change the fact of the truth of Christ. It changes nothing except the level of violence against Him!

Thus, the Gospel is the perfect answer to the question of how a man passes from the evil side to the side of God’s kingdom.

It is His Gospel that shows how ‘all have sinned and come short of God’s glory’ and all share in loss for opposing God’s will.

But it also tells us that a man can switch from one side to the other by simple faith in the Servant/Son God has sent, as stated in Isa 42:1-4.

A person can become one of the righteous on whose side Christ works in all of God’s way.

As we have already seen with David, that person can draw  all the attributes of divine ‘violence’ of His might and overcoming power and have Him - at the same time - as his mighty Refuge in time of trouble.

There is absolutely nothing more needed than to take God at His Word. 

We can make that great message our own untroubled blessing by simply accepting it.

It is then that Christ’s work becomes the fortress in which we are guarded from the shaking and trembling in sin and guilt.

It is then that Christ becomes our high tower from the arrows of temptation.

It is then that He delivers us from the coals of the damning fire of eternal separation!

And, so, now, when troubles seek to overtake us, the devoted child of God sees Jesus standing in his stead - Jesus bringing him into the glory of God’s kingdom in surety and safety.

And the ‘unseen’ now becomes ‘seen’ and the ‘glory’ becomes exceedingly glorious! 

But, and here - we go back to the negative side, as David did - where brighter the light is, the darker the shadow is. 

And the shadow side is that - if it is not accepted, it is still actively working - but not as the glorious reality that it is! 

Do you remember the pillar of light that symbolized the presence of God as the Israelites marched toward the promised land?

It sent down influences on both side - to the troops marching under Moses’ leadership, it was seeing and comfort.

The troops advancing under Pharoah’s command saw the dark side of it.

Sight depended on which side a man was on. 

That which is meant to be the vital criterion that brings Life to life must either be that or the deadly fume that kills. 

This is why Jesus Christ is ‘something’ to every man!

And here is the terrible problem about this truth of God in Christ: the truth of Christ and His kingdom is not just ‘nothing’.

It is the great ‘something’ that does its work of ‘violence’ on both sides.

Christ and His kingdom leaves no man at the same level on which he first heard of Christ.

Christ either opens the door to the reality of God or He, in an unsavoury place, induces the opposer of Christ to sink even more deeply into an ever-descending pit of darkening separation from Him. (I refer you back to Rom 1:28-32)  

In other words, every single person who has lived, and will live on this earth - past, present, and future - is in a full-blown crisis of choosing Christ or staying on the death side of the crisis.

Either man believes in, adheres to, and relies on the record God sent of His Son or He makes God out to be a liar. 

Let me read the exact words to that from 1 Jn 5:10. It says: ’He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar: because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son.’

That clearly says that no person can indulge himself in neutrality: ‘neutral you cannot be!’

Christ must be ‘something’ to all! Either He is a ‘life’ or He is a person’s death.

He is one or the other for He cannot be ‘nothing’!

For those who know Him, the relationship with Him has settled their condition. 

As they press onward in Christ, the ‘behind-the-scene’ violence is more fierce and intense.

But it will prove Him as the tried Cornerstone, the sure Foundation, on which a man can safely build life.

For those opposing Christ, He is a stumbling stone, the stone that inevitably will crush and break as it falls on the opposer.

Thus, we can safely ask the question: ‘Which is He to you?’

All of eternity is at stake here, as far as each individual man is concerned.

This is nothing to trifle with nor treat lightly.

It is dangerous to play with hell-fire or to make fun of it, or to play the fool and make God out to be a liar, or to settle for the cheap and mundane of life that lasts so temporarily. 

We are not ignorant of the character of Christ, His attributes of holiness and pure righteousness.

As of this moment, there is enough light to know Him to be the Truth.

And, as Truth, He can speak only truth which ought not to be difficult to believe.

And, thus, in that truth, there is the life-changing power to believe what He has said and done in the record God gave of His reconciling work.

God has given Him the authority to move heaven and hell in a ‘violent, smashing storm’to ‘save to the uttermost’ the one who trusts Him in all situations! 

As foolish and as poor as some of our excuses are for not opening our hearts to the fact of Christ, yet He does honor even a feeble faith and meets it where He sees it in each problem. 

And He supplies those outward things by which that feeble faith can rise to an apprehension of spiritual realities.

This is precisely what David received in all of his trying experiences. 

Spiritual truth was unveiled in the outworkings of those things within his heart and he found himself lifted to ‘see’  
the lofty truth of God’s intervention on his behalf.

And Christ does likewise and is now doing that on our behalf so that, through Him, our spirits can climb to the apprehension of the ‘King eternal, immortal, invisible’ and the realities of His spiritual kingdom.

Commit yourself to Him in faith and He is your refuge, strength, your high tower, your deliverer.

Turn from His offered grace and He is the opposite: an ‘opposing, violent force’.

And the day lies ahead when there will be a humbling with shame to every opposer of Christ for ‘The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.’ (Isa 2:11) 

Amen. 

I will close here for tonight.

May the Lord open our eyes to the truth of His Word and bring us deeper into His light and life!

Let us pray.