[Biblemat] S) "A KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN" (3)

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  Here is the third and final 
installment of this particular study.  Use to the glory of God.

"A KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN"  (3)

It Cannot Be Shaken By False Teachers: -- False teachers have 
always arisen from among the people of God.  "But there arose
false prophets also from among the people, as from among you
also there shall arise false teachers, who shall privily bring in 
destructive heresies" (2 Petr. 2:1).  One might think that false
teachers would be able to "prevail" against the church, but Jesus promised 
otherwise.  The truth will continue to be the truth, no matter how many lies 
are told about it.  And some will
continue to accept the truth, no matter how many false teachers
proclaim error.

       The Lord warns us, however:  "Beloved, believe not every
spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because
many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 Jno. 4:1).  In
the early days of the kingdom, they did just that:  "Thou didst try
them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst
find them false" (Rev. 2:2).  The way that they tested for false
teaching was simple:  "They received the Word with all read-
iness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these
things are so" (Acts 17:11).

       False teachers tried to "shake" the kingdom nearly 2000 
years, but failed.  They try again and again, in every generation,
in every place.  But they are doomed to failure, as the Lord has
promised.  The warning in 2 Cor. 6:14-17 must still be heeded by
those who would serve God.  "Be not unequally yoked with un-
believers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity?
or what communion hath light with darkness?  And what agree-
ment hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the
living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in
them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  Wherefore come 
ye out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord" (2 Cor. 6:14-17).  Even all the efforts of false teachers 
cannot "shake" the kingdom of Christ, for He will not 
allow His truth to be destroyed.  (It is true that He tells us in the 
Book of Revelation, that if a congregation of His people does 
not follow all of His teaching, that He will come and remove their
candlestick from them.  In other words, He will no longer accept
them as a congregation of His people, JWS).

Christ Has Promised To Save His Church: -- When Jesus prom-
ised to build His church, He promised:  "The gates of Hades
shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18).  There is surely the im-
plied promise of His continual protection of that church.  When
He sent the apostles out to preach to all nations, He said to them:  "Lo, I 
am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:20).  That 
church (kingdom) will not be shaken
because Jesus Christ cares for it.  Notice how Jesus loves the
church:  "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved
the church and gave Himself up for it...Even so ought husbands
also to live their own wives as their own bodies.  He that loveth
his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh
but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church
because we are members of His body" (Eph. 5:25-30).  Christ 
takes care of, loves and protects His church -- even as a husband should 
care for his own wife.

       The apostle Paul wrote:  "I know Him Whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have
committed unto Him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12).  What assur-
ance we have, when we are in that "that kingdom that cannot be
shaken!"  Christ has promised to take care of us, and He will!  "He is the 
Savior of the body, the church which is His" (Eph. 5:23; 1:22,23).  And no 
one can rob us of "the unsearchable
riches that are in Christ" (Eph. 3:8).

       Notice what Paul wrote:  "What then shall we say to these
things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  He that spared not
His Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also
with Him freely give us all things?...Nay, in all these things we are more 
than conquerors through Him that loved us.  For I am
persuaded, that  neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principal-
ities, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:31-39).  If we are in that kingdom
which cannot be shaken, then we cannot be shaken!

       Satan attacked in various ways.  Unbelievers scoffed.  False
teachers perverted the gospel teaching.  But the kingdom was not shaken, 
none prevailed against that church which Jesus
built.  "So mightily grew the Word of the Lord and prevailed"
(Acts 19:20).  None could overcome the Word of Christ, the king-
dom could not be moved.  And those who are in the kingdom are assured of 
His help and His strength to overcome the "wiles
of the devil" (Eph. 6:1).

       Friend, you can be in that kingdom that cannot be shaken.  In Acts 
2, we read that people were told:  "Repent ye and be baptized" (vs. 38).  
When they gladly received his word and obeyed what he taught on that day of 
Pentecost, they were there-
by saved from their past sins and the Lord added them to His
churche, His kingdom, that kingdom that could not be shaken.
(Acts 2:41,47).   Adapted from an article by Clem Thurman, found
in Gospel Minutes, Vol. 59, No. 33, Aug. 13, 2010.

</HTML>