Whose Kingdom 1982

I'd like to begin today by reading some verses from the opening of Exodus 32. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

Aaron said to them, Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a molten calf.

And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.

And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And the striking thing about this passage is the ease with which the people of Israel make the switch from God to the golden calf.

Now notice, they don't give up religion. They don't quit worshiping. All they do is change the object of their worship from the living God to an idol.

If you were to ask these people, What are you doing? Who is it that you thought brought you out of Egypt and brought you this far through this desert? Who do you think is feeding you with manna from the desert floor, manna that you picked up this very morning? Keeping you alive without batting an eyelash. They would point to the golden calf. And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a molten calf.

And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it and Aaron made proclamation, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. What Lord? What does it matter? I mean, we have a clearer concept now than before.

We have something we can see and touch. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

They're more religious than ever. And their worship has more freedom. There's just one little problem.

Who's calling the shots? Who's telling them how to worship or when to worship or what to worship? They are. See, they're attributing to this new god that they have tremendous powers. These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

But the guidance which is coming from this golden calf is actually coming from them and from the demonic realm which always breaks forth like a running sore every time human beings succumb to the desire to have an idol, a god they can manage, a god they can manipulate in some way. Demons get into this little spiritual game and very quickly it becomes something quite unclean. Meanwhile, the god who spoke to Moses at the burning bush, the god who sent Moses to deliver these people from the hand of Pharaoh, the god who led them with the cloud by day and the fire by night, the god who is still feeding them with bread there in the desert floor, is not being listened to nor worshipped.

Moses comes down from the mountain and he's absolutely stunned that these people can sink into this kind of thing so rapidly and that Aaron fails to hold these people accountable and call them to account. Moses said to Aaron, What did these people do to you that you have brought a great sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not thine anger burn hot. You know these people, that they're set on evil.

For they said to me, Make us gods who will go before us. As for this man Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And I said to them, Let any who have gold take it off.

So they gave it to me. And I threw it into the fire. And there came out this cat.

When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose to the shame among their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

And he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword on his side and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor. Before somebody gets all bent out of shape over the severity of the treatment. Remember, if these people are allowed to take God's kingdom and make it their kingdom, if they're allowed to tamper with this holy thing which God is doing and bend it to their own whims, they'll never get to the promised land.

They'll all die in the wilderness. The same thing started to happen in the apostolic church very early in its life. There were people who wanted to take this wonderful move of the Holy Spirit that was transforming their lives and shaking up the city of Jerusalem and just put their touch on it.

Lord, we're still going to worship you and we'll proclaim your name and we'll serve you and we'll share what we have, but we are going to hold back just a little of our own life and keep it for ourselves. If this is allowed to happen, if these people are permitted to put their hands on this holy thing which God is doing, to dull the edge of it just the slightest bit, it'll be killed. It'll die before it gets going.

And so again, the treatment is severe, from Acts chapter 5. But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? Why did it remain unsold? Did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it then that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died.

And great fear came upon all who heard it. And the young man rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. Three hours later, his wife comes in.

Same thing happened. And the church gets the message. This is God's thing.

Don't mess with it. But for every case in which God sends a Moses down from a Sinai to straighten out the Israelites with instant judgment, for every case where God gives to a Peter a word of knowledge to expose some deadly threat to the life of the body of Christ with instant judgment, there are perhaps a thousand cases in which, for reasons of his own, God permits the false game to be played out to its bitter end. When Jerusalem fell into idolatry, God sent prophets to call it to repentance.

Jerusalem killed prophet after prophet and refused to repent. There was no lightning judgment. God simply allowed Jerusalem to slowly reap the consequences of its idolatry.

And in time, the people of Jerusalem found themselves captives in a city far away. And the city was battling the world capital of idolatry. You want idolatry? You got it.

Coming closer to ourselves, to all of us, Jesus says that there are people who will go through their entire life saying, Lord, Lord, but never seriously seeking to submit themselves to the righteous, holy, loving, pure will of the Father. No lightning strikes them. No plague visits their house.

They prosper. There will be people who will prophesy in Jesus' name, cast out demons in Jesus' name, do mighty works in Jesus' name, while, at the same time, the life they live is being lived not for Jesus, but for self. No angel comes to rip off their mask.

The earth doesn't open to swallow them up. They do very well. Then one day, everybody gets gathered together and is reminded whose kingdom it was that they've been messing with.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers, you workers of iniquity.

Behind every golden calf, behind every sin of an Ananias or a Sapphira, behind every person who says, Lord, Lord, or prophesies or casts out demons or does mighty works in Jesus' name and is still bound for hell is a simple creed which was inspired by the serpent in the garden and which still rules this race of Adam, a creed which consists of six words. I can do what I want. I can do what I want.

And this creed finds its way into the body of Christ so that vast numbers of professing Christians are in fact living by this creed. Scrape off the spiritual veneer and the pious jargon, and this is what you really hear. Don't be telling me what to do.

Don't be trying to make me feel guilty. When I get ready to do what I'm going to do, I'll do it. Nobody's going to stop me because I can do what I want.

And here it becomes apparent which kingdom it is that we're serving. If it's your kingdom, you can indeed do what you want. You can say, Lord, Lord, you can prophesy, you can cast out demons, you can do mighty works in Jesus' name and still do what you want.

But if it's God's kingdom, then you do what he says. Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father, which is in heaven. In God's kingdom, we do what the Father tells us.

Not what we want. And often there's a conflict. Our life is to do what the Father calls for.

Our joy is to do what the Father calls for. Our weakness is transformed into power when we do what the Father calls for. What does the Father call for? In the kingdom of God, the Father calls, first of all, for repentance.

The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

And repentance is more than shedding tears. Repentance is the turning around of my life from self to God, to his way, to his will, to his mercy, to his holiness, and moving that way and doing those things. In the kingdom of the golden calf, which is the kingdom of man, there is no repentance.

There is remorse. There is regret. There is despair.

Never repentance. But in the kingdom of God, the only way in is the way of repentance, and the only road we travel is the road of repentance all the way. A thousand times a day, turning the heart and the mind from me to God, from my way to God's way, and acting accordingly.

In the kingdom of God, the Father calls for submission. For how many years has that word been dirty around here, in all our minds? Submission. Submission to the Father and also to brothers and sisters.

I came not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. The Son can do nothing by Himself. Only what the Father does.

Submission. And the place where we learn to submit to the Father is here in the body, by submitting to each other. We are called to submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Out of reverence for Christ. We are called to get down and wash one another's feet. We are called to learn to yield and fit in, and be patient and forbearing and thoughtful of each other.

As we do these things, and we do them, we learn. We stumble, we make mistakes, we do stupid things, but we're learning. As we do these things, our submission to God begins to take on substance.

Now, if we insist on saying, Lord, Lord, prophesying, casting out demons, doing mighty works in the name of Jesus, but refuse to submit to brothers and sisters, we will very soon be dancing around the golden calf. Or, if we pick up our marbles and run, every time it gets a little hairy in the body, we'll soon be dancing around the golden calf. The Spirit of the Lord clearly is dealing with this area in all our lives.

Submission to me, He says to us, includes submission to brothers and sisters. When are you going to start? He says to us. Finally, in the kingdom of God, the Father calls for continuous service.

We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day. The night comes when no one can work. That still holds.

Simply, we're called to proclaim His gospel, to manifest His love in our daily living, to magnify His name in all we do, and we are all called to serve in this way, full-time. You know, this idea which some of us perhaps grew up with, the idea of, well, young man or young woman, have you ever thought of full-time service? Full-time service is for every believer. It doesn't mean seminary or Bible college or anything else.

For some, that's what it means. But for others, it means other things. But regardless of where the paycheck or the allowance check comes from, full-time service.

But the question we need to ask ourselves again and again and again today is, whose kingdom am I serving? My kingdom, religion on my terms, a Jesus that I can manipulate in some way, control, or limit so that I really end up always doing pretty much what I want. Or is it God's kingdom where God calls the shots? When He says, repent, I repent. When He says, submit, I submit to Him and to those to whom He's joined me.

And when He says, get out there and proclaim the gospel, I do it in the power of the Holy Spirit and in unity with brothers and sisters. Whose kingdom are you serving? Think about it. Act on it.

Let's pray.