Within; or, The Kingdom of God Is Within You

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SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
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“WEST FOOTHILL AT COLLEGE AVENUE CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA

WITHIN
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THE KINGDOM OF GOD I$

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SWITHIN YOU

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THE KINGDOM OF God IS
WITHIN YOU

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BY THE

REV. ANDREW MURRAY
Author of

“ABIDE IN CHRIST,” &c. &C,

LONDON
SERVICE & PATON
5 HENRIETTA STREET
1897

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Theology Library

SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
AT CLAREMONT
California

Note

The first three Addresses contained in this volume were delivered at the Mowbray Convention, Cape of Good Hope, and have since been revised and corrected by the

Author.

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Kingdom ae Goa:

HE first meeting of a Convention 45 in a new place is often a difficult one. The most of us are strangers to each other. An atmosphere of prayer and love has hardly yet been created. We do not know whether all understand the object of our meeting. But I am sure we may look to our Father in heaven to melt our hearts into one. We can ask Him by His Holy Spirit to make us of one heart and one mind in seeking His glory, in trusting His mighty power, and in looking to Him alone for a blessing. Let us all from the very commencement of our Convention look to God, not only for what each one needs for himself, but as members of one body, with the fervent prayer that there may be a blessing for all, Let us unite ourselves before God as a company of His own dear children, full of love to each other, and with the confident assurance that He will bless us. Our Father, do Thou melt our hearts into one by Thy Holy Spirit. Thou knowest the need of each one; let Thy word meet it. Give Thy servants grace so to speak that Thy children may know what their God has for them, and what they may expect Him to do for them.

The words from which I wish to speak to-night you will find in Mark x. 15: “Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”

Listen again: “Verily I ee unto you, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” We need at the opening of our Convention to look forward to all that we are going to speak and to hear during the coming days, and to try and take our right place before God, I think this word of the Lord Jesus will guide us exactly to where we ought to be, It will tell us what God asks of us if we are even now to enter His Kingdom and live in it: that each of us receive it into our hearts as a little child. These are the two things we need to know, to enter into the enjoyment of a full salvation, With these two things all our Convention teaching will be occupied: the wonderful blessing God has for us, the wonderful way in which we are to become possessors of it.

My text has

FOUR SIMPLE EXPRESSIONS

that we need to understand if we are to enter into its meaning and power. We must ask: 1. What is the Kingdom of God? 2. What is it to enter the Kingdom? 3. What to receive the Kingdom? 4. What to receive the Kingdom as a little child?

First: What is the Kingdom of God? You know how both John the Baptist preached that the Kingdom of God or of heaven had come nigh. During the Old Testament times it had been spoken of, and promised, and hoped for, but it had not come. During the life of Christ on earth there were mighty tokens of its coming and its nearness, but it had not yet come in power. What it would be Christ foretold when He once said, “the Kingdom of God is within you;” and another time, “There be some standing here who shall not see death, till they see the Kingdom of God come in power.” On the day of Pentecost that word was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit brought down out of heaven the Kingdom of God into the hearts of the disciples, and they went forth and preached the Gospel of the Kingdom not as at hand or coming, but as come.

It is not difficult now to answer the question

WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?

It is that spiritual state in which the life of God and of heaven is made accessible to men, and they enter into its enjoyment here on earth. If we ask what its marks are we find the answer in the

The Kingdom ef God 39

wondrous change we see in the life of the disciples.

The mark of a kingdom is the presence of the king. With the Holy Spirit Christ came down to be with His disciples as really, and more nearly, than when He was with them in the flesh, The abiding nearness and fellowship of Christ, and in Him of God the Father, is the very central blessing of the Kingdom. This experience was what the Holy Spirit at Pentecost made real. The disciples had their Lord with them as consciously as the angels in heaven. His Presence made heaven all around and in them. A believer to whom a full entrance into the Kingdom is given, has the Presence of God and Christ as the good part that cannot be taken away.

The mark of a kingdom is the rule of the king, We read, “His Kingdom ruleth over all.” Before Pentecost the disciples could not love or be humble, could not trust or be bold. But when the kingdom came the dominion of God prevailed, God’s Presence through the Holy Spirit gained the victory, sin was: overcome, and the will of God done in them as in heaven. When Jesus taught them to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven,” He promised this. As the Kingdom came down with the Holy Ghost the promise was fulfilled. And our entering into the kingdom means our being

The Kingdom of God ar

brought into a life in which God rules over all, His will is truly and joyfully done, and all the blessedness that reigns in heaven finds its counterpart here below. As it is written, ‘The Kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy

Ghost.” The mark of a kingdom is power.

“The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” Just think of the work these simple fishermen dared to undertake, and were able to accomplish. Think of the weapon with which they had to do their work — the despised Gospel of the crucified Nazarene. Think of all that God wrought through them, and see how the coming of the Kingdom brought a new power from heaven by which feeble men were made mighty through God, and the slaves of Satan were made God’s holy children.

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