The kingdom which cannot be moved.
"We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved." "A kingdom which cannot be moved." Is there such a thing? What is it? Where is it? The great empires of antiquity—Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome—are all gone. Where is the immovable kingdom? Is there anything that cannot be changed, shaken, and destroyed? Physical comforts are torn away from their possessors. Health is not immovable. Wealth is not a lasting kingdom. Property is "unstable as water." What is the "kingdom that cannot be shaken"? Men are removed from earth and from the dwellers thereon. Entire families sometimes pass away. Generations are carried hence into the invisible world. Even whole races of men have completely disappeared from the earth. With all these changes, where shall we find the unchangeable and the permanent? The oak that has braved the storms of centuries, and the cedar and the yew whose years must be counted by thousands, will one day crumble into dust which will be scattered by the breeze. But the mountains and rocks—surely they abide? The sacred Scriptures speak of them as "the everlasting mountains, the Perpetual hills." Those Scriptures also say, "Surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place. The waters wear the stones." "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed." Geology proclaims the same truth. Even the very Churches pass away. The Jewish Church has departed, or only a feeble and faded remnant of it is left. And Christian Churches are planted, flourish, decay, and die. Is there anything here that is immutable-anything "that cannot be moved"? The kingdom which our text says is immovable is Christianity. In other places it is called "the kingdom of God," "the kingdom of Christ," "the kingdom of heaven." We also read, "The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." And again, "The Law," i.e. the Jewish economy, "was given by Moses; grace and truth," i.e. Christianity, "came by Jesus Christ." "Grace and truth," "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," are immutable and eternal; these are the elements which constitute the "kingdom which cannot be moved." Christian Churches may pass away; but Christianity ever abides and ever grows. Christian denominations and sects may die; but the Church of Christ ever lives and advances towards its position of supreme and world-wide sovereignty. Again, "grace and truth," "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," as realized by the individual Christian, are not constant and permanent. Our consciousness of these things may vary and fluctuate; but the things themselves cannot be moved. The presence of the sun in the heavens may be veiled from us; but the sun is there, calm and luminous as ever. Clouds may hide every star from our view, and present to us a canopy of pitchy blackness; but the stars are not lost—beyond and above the clouds they pursue their appointed courses. So the consciousness of the kingdom within us may be disturbed and suspended and lost fur a time; but the kingdom is not lost, or suspended, or disturbed. If we have received Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we have "received a kingdom which cannot be moved." Let us now fix our attention upon some of the chief teachings of the text.
I. CHRISTIANITY IS A SOVEREIGN POWER. It is "a kingdom;" "the kingdom of God;" "the kingdom of Christ;" "the kingdom of heaven;" the "kingdom which cannot be moved." Jesus claims supreme authority over the heart and life of all men, and over all institutions and societies. He claims to be the King of men. Have we received Christianity as a ruling power in our lives? Some accept it only for purposes of study and speculation; others only by manifesting towards it a little respect and interest; others admit it to a limited measure of control over them. But none of these has received the "kingdom which cannot be moved." He who has not welcomed the Lord Jesus as his King has not truly welcomed him at all. Personal Christianity is a sovereign power and person in the soul, ruling the thoughts and words, the desires and feelings, the purposes and actions of our being—ruling, in a word, our whole life. Have we so received Christ?
II. CHRISTIANITY AS A SOVEREIGN POWER IS UNCHANGEABLE AND EVERLASTING. "A kingdom which cannot be moved." We have seen that this kingdom is "grace and truth," "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." These are immutable and abiding things; They are essential to the being and character of God, and he is unchangeable and eternal. And these things as possessed by his people are derived from him. Ephemeral is the seeming reign of falsehood and wrong; eternal is the reign of truth and righteousness—the kingdom of God. Amid change and decay, amid revolution and dissolution, here is an abiding thing, a sovereign and eternal thing. Have we received the "grace and truth," the "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost"? Then we have received the immovable kingdom, the kingdom which rests upon the eternal and unchangeable God.
1. Mark the blessedness of the true Christian. Amid all the painful uncertainties and changes of this life, he possesses the unalterable and the certain. He has a portion and an inheritance which shall nut be taken away from him. He will carry his wealth with him into eternity, and it will increase forever. "Grace and truth," "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," are incorporated with his very being, and will never pass away from him. The blessed and permanent "kingdom of God is within" him.
2. Here is the basis of an argument for the immediate acceptance of Christianity, or rather, of the Christ. Christianity is not to give place to any other remedial dispensation. The patriarchal form of religion passed away, and the Mosaic system followed; that in its turn passed away with the advent and growth of Christianity, which will never be removed until the end of time. God will not speak to us with any voice more attractive, persuasive, or convincing than that by which he now addresses us. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not," etc.. Accept at once the blessings and obligations of this kingdom.—W.J.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG