|
|
| |
|
The Kingdom, The Church |
|
Author: Fred Pruitt |
|
The blood-washed redeemed children of God who are
in the world but not of the world are designated or symbolized
in the Scriptures by different names which show up the different
phases of their living and working positions in this world of
sinful, deceitful, religious and irreligious people.
The prophets who prophesied long before Christ was born tell us
about the Kingdom of God and also about the Church. In Daniel
2:44, we read, ³And in the days of these kings shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the
kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand
forever.²
When the prophet said, ³In the days of these kings,² he was
referring to the four literal kings who were universal rulers in
their turn or time, the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and
Roman kingdoms that literally ruled the world. He said in the
days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom.
God set it up, so it is called the Kingdom of God. It is
synonymous with the Church, so the Church is called the Church
of God. It could be said of Godıs people, ³They are the Kingdom
of God, the Church,² or ³They are the Church, the Kingdom of
God,² because God is the giver and originator of both, which are
practically the same. Although in the parables that Christ gives
concerning the working of the Kingdom of God, it varies to some
extent in contrast with the clearly, divinely organized Church
of God, and shows that Godıs kingdom would also include those
without knowledge of the divinely organized family or Church,
but such souls who keep themselves free from joining the many
earthly religious bodies called churches and free from the world
would easily be led of His Spirit into the divinely organized
family or Church, which is the Church of the living God, and is
the pillar and ground of the truth. (I Tim. 3:15).
Jesus says also in this verse that this kingdom shall never be
destroyed, and that statement harmonizes with what Jesus said
concerning the Church in Matthew 16:18, which reads thus, ³And I
say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it.² He did not mean to convey the thought that He was
going to build His Church upon Peter, but upon the solid truth
He had uttered which God the Father had revealed to Him, ³Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God.² For any one to know
Christ, the Father will have to reveal Him unto that one by His
Spirit, and this is the kind of material that the true Kingdom
of God, or Church of God, is built of, Jesus Christ Himself
being the chief cornerstone. (Eph. 2:20). Jesus also makes this
plain in Matthew 21:42 when He says, ³Did ye never read in the
scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is
become the head of the corner. . . ?² In Acts 4:11, we read,
³This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders,
which is become the head of the corner.² In saying this, Peter
denies that he is the stone that the Church is built upon; and
declares that it is Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom the builders
(Pharisees) crucified and God raised from the dead.
In the next verse, Daniel 2:45, we read, ³Forasmuch as thou
sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands,
and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the
silver, and the gold; . . .² This image that had the brass, the
iron and clay, the silver, and the gold represented four literal
kingdoms: one then ruling, and three yet to rule the ancient
world, but the little Stone, which represented Christ, broke
them to pieces, and He set up His kingdom, which is spiritual
and is now ruling, not only in the Church but also the world,
and is now giving to every man according to what he finds in his
heart. That is why we are exhorted to, ³Keep thy heart with all
diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.² Prov. 4:23.
In the seventh chapter of Daniel, where he was speaking of the
fourth beast, which represents the Roman Empire or Kingdom, read
the 23rd verse. The time of the reign of the fourth king when
the Roman kingdom was flourishing was when Christ, the little
Stone, was born. He began to preach to the people, ³Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand,² and judgment was set; so
reads the 26th verse, ³. . . And they shall take away his
dominion [his kingdom], to consume and to destroy it unto the
end.² Christ, the little Stone, brought judgment against the
Roman dominion and it was destroyed so far as it being any more
a universal kingdom. Verse 27 says, ³And the kingdom and
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole
heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints [the Church]
of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and
all dominions shall serve and obey him.² Blessed be the name of
Jesus! We read again in the 14th verse of this same chapter what
the Son of God has done, ³And there was given him dominion, and
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages,
should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed.² The gates of hell shall not prevail against the
Church. Read the 18th verse, ³But the saints of the most High
shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even
for ever and ever.² They took and began to possess the kingdom
on the day they received the Holy Spirit and have and are
possessing it today, and shall possess it forever.
Christ is the little Stone which is the chief corner stone of
the Church. Jesus said to His disciples, ³Behold, the Kingdom of
God is within you.² When Christ is in us, we are in the kingdom
and the kingdom is in us. As we yield to Christ, He makes us
kings and priests unto Him and we reign over sin and over all
the evil spirits in the world, giving glory to our King whose
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. ³The gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.²
³Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand [present tense.
At hand now, not over in an imaginary Millennial in some future
age]: repent ye, and believe the gospel.² In Matthew 6:33, Jesus
exhorts the people to seek first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness. In Mark 9:1 we read that Jesus said, ³There be
some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death,
till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.² This
prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy
Ghost was poured out upon 120 souls and they were given power to
witness for Christ in Jerusalem, in Judaea, in Samaria, and unto
the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8). This kingdom that
came with power was also the Church, for the record is, ³And the
Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.² (Acts
2:47). In Hebrews 12:22 it is written, ³But ye are come
[speaking to His believing children] unto mount Sion [a metaphor
of the Church], and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To
the general assembly and church of the firstborn [who was God
manifested in the flesh] which are written in heaven [our names
are on the Lambıs book of life], and to God the Judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect.² Glory be to God!
We can see very plainly that he is speaking of the Church, the
family of God, saved people. In verse 28 of the same chapter the
apostle Paul calls it the kingdom. Let us read, ³Wherefore we
receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace,
whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly
fear: . . .² This Church or kingdom of which we are members can
not be moved; it abideth forever. The gates of hell shall not,
and can not, prevail against IT-just one.
This one body of saved people is the divinely organized Church
of God, and it has never been destroyed or put out of existence
since Christ built it and divinely organized it by the Holy
Spirit. It shall never cease to be a reality so long as this
world stands, then it will shine in the glory world. When Jesus
said the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church, we
know His statement is true, for we have no record of its ever
being extinct in the earth since that day. Even during the
hundreds of years of dark Catholicism, Godıs Church existed.
Also, during the 350 years of sect making, or Protestantism,
when it is stated that the two witnesses, the Spirit and the
Word, lay dead in the streets, there was a remnant of the Church
existing. There were groups of saved people drawn together by
the divine love of God and functioning by divine leadership. God
has always preserved a body which has never drifted from the
real apostolic truths, and has not conformed to the world (Rom.
12:2), nor given way to man-made rules and systems in making an
³Image to the Beast²; but have allowed, and are allowing, the
Holy Spirit and the Word to govern and rule in all their
functions, and so it always will be.
Any group of saved people at any place and at any time who are
allowing the Holy Spirit to govern them , are not conforming to
the world, are not of the world, but constitute the Church of
the living God, and are also the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of
God is also referred to in the Bible as a universal kingdom,
ruling over all the world, as God sets up literal kings and puts
down kings. He also rules over Satan and all his imps, for His
power in a universal sense is unlimited.
In I Corinthians 15:24, we read, ³Then cometh the end, when he
[Jesus] shall have delivered up the kingdom [the Church] to God,
even the Father; . . .² We read of the end of the world and of
this taking place in I Thessalonians 4 beginning with verse 13,
and we are told that the righteous dead will be raised up, and
we who remain and are alive at His coming will be caught up with
them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. This is the Kingdom of God which stands forever, the
Church which is delivered up to the Father. According to John
5:28, the wicked and unsaved will be resurrected at the same
hour unto damnation, but they will be cast into the ³lake of
fire² which is the second death. (Rev. 20:14-15).
Knowing these things, brethren, let us be ³stedfast, unmoveable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know
that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.² (I Cor. 15:58).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Printed By: Faith Publishing House,
P.O. Box 518, Guthrie, OK 73044 |
|
|
|
Top of Page
I Tract Index |
|
|
|
