Taken by Violence — G.W. North

Heaven on Earth Through God's Kingship

Shall we turn to Scripture? I remind you that not so very long ago, or was it so long ago now, we were thinking about that wonderful word in Deuteronomy, where God said in the eleventh chapter, that he intended our days to be as the days of heaven on earth.

That's not wishful thinking on God's part. It's a blessed intention, and it's a wonderful experience when you come there. I suppose that most people would say that they don't enjoy that at all. Most people would think they have to endure the misery of hell on earth.

So many people one meets that talk about things like that, and indeed their lives seem to furnish good reason for such statements. It seems that all hell is let loose sometimes in some people's lives, and what's in their hearts, from what comes out of their mouths and so on like that, you know perfectly well that there's hell in their hearts as well.

But God intends us to enjoy heaven on earth. And you may remember a statement by the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke's Gospel from chapter 10. At the end of chapter 9 you'll find the phrase, the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God. Amen. Well, you can't dissociate the kingdom of heaven from the kingdom of God. And the only way that we can really enjoy the kingdom of heaven on earth is to know the kingship and sovereignty of God in our lives.

But men and women don't know this. If I was to say to you all, and then come around and ask you individually and say, is God king of your life? Is God sovereign of your life? If you're well taught biblically, you could come up with the correct texts about it.

But that doesn't alter states. Is God king in your life? Does he rule? What a blessed state it is. You'll surely know what it is to have heaven on earth then. And after these things in chapter 10, the Lord appointed other seventy also, because in this ninth chapter you will find that he appointed his twelve apostles.

The Seventy Sent Into the Harvest

And he sent these seventy out two by two before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

I would make a little note here as we go through, beloved, that he didn't say to the seventy. Now notice to whom he says this. It's important for you to notice when the Lord says anything to whom he says it.

He didn't say to these seventy, now all go home and pray that the Lord will send forth labourers into the harvest. He sent them out and then said, now you pray. Yeah. Has that sunk in? The only real people who can pray for labourers to be sent out in God's harvest are those who have already gone forth to labour in it.

The others, just nice biblical ideas. He sent the seventy out two by two and he sent them into every city and place whither he himself would come. You think he'd dare send you somewhere in Scotland because he wants to come there?

What sort of a state would happen? I mean, would it be heaven on earth or hell on earth when you got there? I mean, would you take heaven with you? Would you take the power of God with you? Would you?

It's marvellous, this Bible of ours, you know. And as they go forth, he says, now you pray, the Lord of the harvest. I'll tell you why. It's only these that go out like this, whether they be weeping and bearing precious seed or whatever they do when they go out.

It's only these that really see that there is a harvest. The others only have the theory of it. And as they go, oh Lord, send forth labourers into the harvest. Lord, send forth labourers into the harvest.

Jesus seemed to think it was a bit of a cheat to stay at home and say pray for the Lord to send out harvesters. He seemed to think so. Mind you, it's based on sound psychological principle and spiritual action.

He came down here himself to reap the harvest before he sent others out, you see. He prayed, sent others, says now you pray. It seems to be a continuous precious life, doesn't it? You know, say you go, I'll stay away and pray.

I'll stay at home and pray for you. It's very easy. It sounds good. It's very pious. Go your ways, he says in verse 3. I send you forth as lambs amongst wolves. Amen. Carry neither purse nor script nor shoes.

Salute no man by the way. Into whatsoever house ye enter, first say peace be to this house. It sounds as though he's in a hurry, doesn't it? Don't say, well, no, I've got to prepare my kit for going abroad.

Six months time. You know, I've got to prepare my kit. He says, go on, go your ways. Hallelujah. I send you forth as lambs among wolves. I haven't given you a missionary call. I'm sending you out. Amen.

Don't carry a purse nor script nor shoes. Salute no man by the way. This is, somebody's in a hurry here. I mean, you haven't got to stop saying, good morning. Keep going. The Lord is revealing his heart.

The Urgency of Following Jesus

There's something desperately urgent about this. Desperately urgent. This is the thing that's got to sink into all our hearts. Let's go back into the end of chapter 9. Verse 57. It's coming to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I'll follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

Are you sure you will? You sure you will? I mean, in about two minutes he's going to say to you, go on out. Oh well, I didn't come to be a missionary. I came to follow you. Why? You've only got about six verses in between.

Do you know what you're after? Do you know what you're doing? I tell you, the Lord, he's absolutely explosive. He says, I'll follow you whithersoever thou goest. And the Lord knew perfectly well what he'd got up his sleeve for him.

Where he was going to send him out in a hurry, he wouldn't find a hole or a nest to go to. There's something about this blessed gospel, beloved, that's got to click home in every heart in this room tonight.

There's something that's got to come to us. Deeply within us. We've got to see the spirit of this man. This blessed Jesus. He'd been talking about that a little higher. Let's go up into verse 51 of chapter 9.

It came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up. He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. And you can see another reason why he set others out. He was in a hurry. The time had come.

He was going to go out there. And he wanted to lead down here on the earth a people with the urgency and the urge in their hearts and the spirit about them to get this glorious gospel over to the hearts of men.

We'll read this thing because we're going to come across another revelation here. And the messengers went before his face and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him.

You see the connection, don't you? He said, you're to go. He sent out the 72 by 2 before his face. Now his face was steadfastly set to go to Jerusalem in verse 51. And he wanted them to go to every place where he wanted to come himself.

Verse 1 of chapter 10. You see? He sent the messengers before his face. Verse 52 of Luke 9. And they went. And they entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. And they didn't receive him because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

There's something about a face, isn't there? Let me have a look at yours. Come on, hold your head up. Don't you try and hide. Let's have a look at yours. We recognize faces, don't we? Don't look somewhere else.

Look at me. Just let me look at you. I'll know you right down to the bottom of you. Just let me look at you. His face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. You could read the intention in his face, don't you?

Go to the cross. There's something. The mystic signs on his face. They could read a sweet, persistent love. They could read a transcendent thought higher than theirs. It's all there. It shows on the face.

It all shows on your face, beloved. And the longer you live, the more plainly it shows. It's as inescapable, beloved, as the judgment seat. It all shows there. And you can't cover it up with a pot of cream and color for your eyebrows or wherever else you put it.

Or aftershave lotion. His face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did?

But he turned and rebuked them. And he said, You know not what manner of spirit you are of. There it is. The setter, the manner of your spirit, the urgency that was in him. Your face, your spirit, your urgency.

Glory be to the name of the Lord. This is it. You know what's happening now, don't you? He went to another village. End of verse 56. And that's when they come to him in the way. And he says in verse 58, to this man who says, Lord, I'll follow you, whither thou goest.

Jesus said, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. He says to another, Follow me. He said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead.

Go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Now we're introduced then to this tenth chapter. You might have thought it was a strange way to introduce ourselves. The great urgency of it. Gone, he says. What's this thing that's spurring him on? I hope that it lies hard upon our spirits tonight that God should teach us the truth.

Go your ways, he says, verse 3 of chapter 10. I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse nor script nor shoes. Lambs among wolves. Don't fight anybody. Don't bark at anybody. Don't run away from anybody.

It's no good a lamb trying to escape a wolf. Don't run away. Don't fight. Don't do anything. Just go. Hallelujah. When you get to a house, verse 5, whatsoever house you enter into, say, Peace be to this house.

If the Son of Peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it. If not, it shall turn to you again. In the same house, remain eating and drinking such things as they give, for the labourer is worthy of his hire.

Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you, and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

Into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you. Notwithstanding, be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in thee, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than to you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell. He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that despiseth you, despiseth me.

He that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devil is a subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions. And over all the power of the enemy, nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice, not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.

All things are delivered to me of my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. And he turned him unto his disciples and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them.

And to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them. Amen. You see, the Lord in dealing with these men of his, he had to get them to this glorious place, beloved, where they saw something of what their ministry was all about and what God was really wanting.

You see, when they came back and made their reports about devils being subject to them and everything like that, he said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. You see, this is what happened. Satan was cast out of heaven, and he smoked the earth through Adam, and heaven or paradise on earth turned to hell on earth.

Bringing Heaven to a Fallen Earth

God made Eden a paradise, a heaven on earth, a garden, and put man in it. He came down and walked in the garden himself with man. Satan, as we were thinking more directly this afternoon, he turned this planet into a hell on earth.

And the Lord called these 70 disciples in the urgency of his spirit that these should go out in his name and by his precious appointing and anointing and bring something of heavenly blessing, heavenly good to the earth, as he himself had done.

You remember that when John Baptist, the great forerunner of Jesus, introduced him, he started off talking about the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's how John Baptist came. And that is how the Lord Jesus himself started up in his earthly ministry.

Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he proceeded to move on that tremendous ground of bringing heaven to men, heavenly states to men. Oh, he didn't change their surroundings. Time is not yet, nor was it then, when he should make a new heaven and a new earth, that on that new earth they should enjoy heaven on earth.

A new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Praise God. Peter tells us about it. And you will know that when he first began his great moving out, this is why you will see how we were saying this afternoon how the scripture is so gloriously, inherently true and wonderful.

It was Peter was the first one he called when he was walking by the sea. You read it in Matthew's gospel. He saw Andrew and Peter called them. And it's Peter who talks about the heaven and the earth state in his epistle.

It's marvellous how this thing goes right the way through scripture. You must get to know your Bibles. You must let the Spirit teach you the spirit of the scripture. The glorious rightness of it all. Not a word out of praise.

Not a word spoken by one writer in the plan that should be spoken by another. One of the most wonderful things about the Bible is this, that Jesus gave Mary to John to look after. He said, son behold your mother, mother behold your son.

Now you would have thought that John would have had first hand knowledge about the marvellous conception and birth of Jesus. But he doesn't talk about it. Doesn't talk about it. Yet he was the one with whom Mary would have talked it over again and again and again.

But God didn't want John to talk about the natural birth of the Lord Jesus. He wanted him to talk about another birth. You must be born again. So he goes a long way back before the angel came to Mary and said In the beginning was the Word.

And he just says, well the Word was made flesh. That's it. That's John's account of the virgin birth. The Word was made flesh. Isn't that a precious thing? He passes it over in a verse. You see, God controlled this tremendous thing.

But anyway, Jesus is walking by the sea of Galilee and he is saying, Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Hallelujah. And of course people began to follow him. But what he was wanting was that these men, not only the twelve privileged apostles of chapter nine, but also the seventy quite non-entities if you like to put it like that, like you and me, these seventy that are not named, that they should go out too so that you and I should say, well it's all right for John Baptist and it's all right for Jesus and it's all right for these twelve marvelous men that have this glorious privilege but how about us?

Jesus has a genius for anticipating all objections. Hallelujah. That these seventy unnamed people should go out two by two and they should begin to learn of the glory of the kingdom of heaven coming onto this earth.

Go to those houses, says Jesus. If there's anybody in the house sick, you heal them. Hallelujah. Let them know that I'm not the author of sickness. Let them know that this is a devilish thing. Sickness is a hellish thing.

Praise God. You see the trouble with so many of us is that we can't learn the high great spiritual lessons but we do very much understand, well I don't know whether we do, I was going to say we understand these bodies of ours but you know what I mean.

We understand when they don't feel too good and we understand when they're sick, at least we think we do and this is how it goes on and Jesus said just go out, heal them. Oh he said I beheld Satan's lightning fall from heaven.

You men don't see the grief of God's heart. You see it was Jesus who threw him out of heaven. It was Jesus that turned him out and just to think that this devil was going to come down and victimize and fasten on mankind.

You know it's for this reason that the devil's got to go to hell. You know that, don't you? It seemed that when he rebelled against God that was alright, he was turned out of heaven but once the devil fastened on man, you've got to make a fire now devil, you see.

Hallelujah. God does love men, doesn't he? Jesus absolutely loves us, beloved. Absolutely. And he wants us to come into and enjoy the heavenly states. The first hint of it I suppose really in these verses is that he said you ought to go to these houses and you ought to say peace be to this house.

Peace be to this house. Hallelujah. Oh, that's a marvelous thing. When you have real peace in your home, isn't it? You've got peace in your home. Real peace in your home. Hallelujah. No warfare, no fighting, no bickering, no talking about one another behind your backs.

None of this. Peace in my home. Praise God. Real peace. Hallelujah. God wants us to have that. He didn't say now go and preach the gospel to them or anything like that. He said just go there and say peace.

If the son of peace is there your peace will rest there. If the son of peace isn't there it will return to you. Can't have any peace wasted. Peace is a precious thing. Peace is a precious thing. And the thing that he said, beloved, and you and I had better take this so deeply into our hearts that we never lose it out of the leaky vessel.

He said that we are to say peace. In other words, we've got to give them our peace. Here. Dare Jesus send you your peace. You got any? I mean, Jesus doesn't want us to bandy about and say peace be to this house in a sort of an Episcopal state or something like that.

No. It's not the pronunciation of a blessing. It's the impartation. Glory. Be wonderful, beloved. Why did people say that man's a benediction in our home? That woman, thank God, as soon as she came across the doorstep marvelous peace settled down on us.

Amen. Isn't this precious? You know, beloved, these things that God has given us have got to be so real in our lives. We've got to get beyond just the words of things, just talking, talking, talking. The whole secret of living in the kingdom of heaven is living.

That's the secret of it. Just living. A man living a heavenly life. A woman living a heavenly life. So that everybody can see it. And everybody can know it. And everybody can partake of the blessings.

And when you come to consider it, beloved, that these people at that time weren't born again people. Nobody born again before Calvary. Yet they were his people. He called them and he expected them to be able to take peace to these homes.

Precious, isn't it, that the Lord should do this? Oh Lord, they said, the devil's a subject to us in thy name. Hallelujah. You know, this is another thing I've discovered about Jesus. I don't know whether you've discovered these precious things about him.

They may seem very little things. But it's these little things that prove to be so great. When the Lord blesses you, when the Lord ministers to you, when the Lord does anything, you always have more than you think.

Always. See, he said, now just go, don't take any purse, any script, anything like that. Don't stop for anybody. Just go to a place and say, peace be on this house, you see. Stop there, eat everything they get.

A labourer's worthy of his hire. And he seemed to think that the hire of a labourer was just the food and the house he got, the comforts of the home. That was sufficient for him. Apparently, he said, don't take any script.

You haven't got anywhere to put money then, have you? You see. But you've got a stomach that can be filled up. That's plenty. Amen. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right, isn't it? He didn't say take your bank book with you, or anything like that.

And he said, just stay there, eat the things they put before you. It takes a bit of doing in India, I tell you. Did I tell you that the secret, the secret of eating Indian food is very simple? You do know, don't you?

You push the next mouthful in.

To stop the last one coming up. That's the secret of eating Indian food.

That's the secret, isn't it? You stuff in the next bit before the last bit comes out. Well, of course, some people, they seem to be born to be able to eat it, but others are decent. They, uh, they, uh...

But the whole... Just eat what they sit before you, he said. That's all, hallelujah. Heal the sick that are therein. Hallelujah. Isn't that marvellous? Just heals. That's what he said. And as they just did, as Jesus said, they found they'd entered into a world that they never dreamed.

I've discovered that, you know. I know this. The Lord will take a nobody, and, uh, I mean, his name's not known anywhere. You just, you get sent out. You just send out. You just do that to which he sends you, and more and more and more.

God just, I don't know.

Spiritual Power and Revelation Through Obedience

And when you go back to give your report, you go back and, uh, he says, The Lord, they said, even the devil is a subject unto us through thy name. And he said to them, I behold Satan's light befall from him, but I give you power.

Now, you see, the right use of power, the correct obedience to Jesus will bring you to the place where you'll receive more power. This is why people don't get more power, because they're not faithful in what they have.

If you're saying, if you're one of these Christians and you say, I don't seem to be getting more love, more peace, more power. You're not being faithful in what you've already had. It's as simple as that.

If you use what you've got, you'll find it's greater than you thought it was. And when you go back to your Lord, and how quickly you can get to the Lord now. I mean, you haven't got to go and find him somewhere in a village over there.

You go back to your Lord, he'll give you more. Give you more. The only one thing he's concerned about is, don't start rejoicing in your own exploits. Don't start rejoicing in that. You just keep rejoicing that your names are written in heaven.

I give you power, he said, to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you. Your names are written in heaven. What a precious thing, you see.

And all this is hidden from the wise and the prudent. It's only revealed to the babes. It's a revelation. And when the revelation comes to your heart, and it's revealed to you, not just as a revelation to the heart, Mark, do you?

Because this wasn't a revelation to the heart. It was a revelation to the life. You see, they went out and did it. And as they did it, the revelation came that their words were effectual. That their works stood and were established.

Amen. Have you had that kind of a revelation? Now, old Peter had a marvellous revelation. He was up on a mountain. He said, when Jesus said, Whom do you think I am? He said, Thou art the Christ, the soul of the living one.

Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. He had a revelation on the person of Jesus Christ. That's a marvellous revelation to get.

But when you get revelation in your own works, and the things that Jesus has said are working all around you, that's the kind of revelation you've got to get. It's alright to have a secret revelation from Father in your heart.

But he wants to get us in the place where we find out that this thing works. The revelation's got to be all around us. Everywhere. When we've been somewhere, and we come back home, it's all there. In that village where I've been, there's the revelation.

That place I've been working in, there it is, be the name of the Lord, to move into this state. Now, beloved, that's one side of the picture. It's not all of it. There's another side to it entirely. I like the Lord Jesus very, very much, and I love his methods of doing things.

The Light of Open Discipleship

And for my own part, I try to move in this as much as possible. I don't know whether you do. Often you'll find, in reading the scriptures, that Jesus, he would talk to his disciples in the presence of the multitude.

There were times that he took them on one side and talked to them, but there were others when he talked to the multitude and he wanted everybody else to hear what he had to say to his disciples. Hallelujah.

He didn't want his disciples to be on sort of secret orders, you know, like the masonic people, or like the buffaloes, or whatever they are, or the royal ancient order of foresters, or something like that.

Do you have them in Scotland, these buffaloes? And freemasons, and all this business. God's heart loathes masonry. Absolutely loathes it. And all secret societies, God hates and detests them. No secret society can exist without oaths and execrations.

They can't exist without oaths. That's why you're not to swear anyway. You can't turn one of your hairs white. All mine have gone white, but I didn't do it. You can't do that. All these things where there have to be hidden things and secrets, and I don't know what, beloved, God detests them.

I'll tell you this, seeing that I was touching a little on this subject this afternoon, not from this angle, that all exclusiveness provides the ground for demonic activity. All exclusiveness, whether you call yourself exclusive brothers or sisters, or whether you call yourself exclusive masonic this, or exclusive that, or exclusive something else, it all provides grounds for demon activity.

Let's get out in the light. Amen. That's what Jesus is all about. Let's get right out in the light. If you belong to any kind of secret, exclusive body, get out of it as you value your soul. If you lose your job or lose your reputation, all the better.

It's about time you lost your reputation. The whole thing, beloved, is that we've got to be right out here in the light. Jesus often used to talk to his disciples right out there in the light. I've got nothing much secret to say to you.

When he really wanted to talk secretly to them, you want to go to chapters like 13, 14, 15, 16 of John. These are the chapters to go to. He wanted to talk love to them. Hallelujah. He wanted to talk love to them.

The blessed, glorious, shared life. That's why he wanted to talk to them. But otherwise, he said it all right out for everybody to hear. In fact, one of his disciples said once, Lord, are you saying this to all men or are you saying it to us?

Because he was announcing right out in public. He said, who then is that faithful and wise steward? Do you remember? Do you think it's them, Peter, or do you think it's you? Amen. Right out for the public.

The Kingdom of Heaven Suffers Violence

And so tonight, I've said this thing right out clear about the real relationship of disciples to the Lord and their call. He wants the world to know. He wants everybody to know what they should expect of a church.

This is the trouble. The people in the world, they don't find these things in the churches. They don't find these things in the places where they go. Bless the name of the Lord, beloved. God wants the whole wide world to know the kind of people that he commissions and sends out.

But the other side is this. We'll turn to Matthew's Gospel. And then we're going into Matthew chapter 11. And in Matthew chapter 11, we read these words. He's saying almost identical things as he said in Luke 10.

For instance, he talks about Chorazin in verse 21, Bethsaida, Tyre, and Sidon. About the works being done and so on. But a little higher up in the chapter, this is what he says. Speaking of John the Baptist, he says in verse 11, I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.

Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence. And the violent take it by force.

That's the other side of it. Some of you probably are not in the kingdom of heaven because you've never taken it by force. What does that mean? Does that mean that I've got to sort of wrestle it out of him and fight him for it?

And get it from him against his will? Nah, it doesn't mean that at all. For what the Lord Jesus is making us understand, beloved, is this. That in the kingdom of heaven, only the violent approach will bring us into it.

That's all. It's true he sends out his people to minister the things of the kingdom of heaven. It's true that he wants heaven to come into our lives. But until we understand, beloved, that the whole basis of the kingdom of heaven is violence, we shall never enter in.