Day 7: Unshakeable kingdom
Therefore, since we are going to receive an unshakeable kingdom, let us be thankful. This is how we serve God in an acceptable way, with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28 - EHV).
This kingdom which we have received has come to us by grace alone, We could not have earned it, or merited it, or won it by our own strength, but the Lord has given it to us in Christ Jesus. He has taken the beggar from the dunghill and set him among princes.
He has lifted us up from the ruin of the fall and redeemed us from the misery of our ungodly days, and has enriched us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus: shall we not serve Him out of gratitude for such inestimable benefits? No crack of the whip shall drive us to His service, for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.
No fear of hell, no hope of deserving heaven shall urge us on to please our Lord. Gratitude is the only fountain of acceptable service; without it the streams are far too defiled to flow in the paradise of God.
A large measure of the splendour of our kingdom lies in this that it is a “kingdom that cannot be moved.” Other kingdoms go to pieces sooner or later.
You and I who are in middle life can remember kingdoms that have been blown down by the wind, or toppled over... Empires that have rivalled Caesar’s in apparent strength have been swept down like cobwebs. As houses made of a pack of cards, so have dynasties fallen never to rise again…
Glory be to God, our kingdom cannot be moved!... No power in the world, and no power in hell, can shake the kingdom which the Lord has given to His saints. With Jesus as our monarch we fear no revolution and no anarchy: for the Lord hath established this kingdom upon a Rock, and it cannot be moved or removed.
Receiving such a kingdom, what are we bound to do? …You can never pay back the millionth part of what you owe. To-day, however, let the sweet love of Christ constrain you to judge that if He made you kings it is for you to crown Him King with all your hearts...
Alas, I confess that sometimes I have not served the Lord as a king: I have put on the ragged robes of my unbelief, and I have come... mourning and groaning when I ought to have arrayed myself in royal apparel and served my Lord with joy and gladness...
Brethren, your high dignity should make you joyful, and you should perform the Lord’s service with intense delight because of what He has done for you. It should be heaven upon earth to be allowed to do anything for Jesus. “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably.”
~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon ~ Acceptable Service, January 15, 1882
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