Are You Fit for the Kingdom?

Introduction

And uh with this, thank you very much for the invitation and for the opportunity to be with you. So many of you we have known in days gone by in so many different capacities, both here in this state of Florida and in other places where we have been, and so Sister Payne and I are so glad to be with you, so inspired by the beautiful songs we have sung together, and so appreciative of the good leading of Brother Miller here in these songs, and uh the good prayer and the wonderful thoughts in the prayer that Brother Johnson as he led us. I thank the elders of the congregation for this opportunity, and you for your willingness, I trust, to spend a few moments and listen together.

I said a few moments, Brother Hulk was uh insistent that he observe the time limit for him as the Bible class teacher this morning. I think he was giving me a hint. He might have known something that you don’t know. But at any rate, that’s all right. I know that we want to strive to stay within a reasonable time, and we’re glad to be able to have the opportunity to speak. If you want to be looking up in your scripture the passage that I want to read, it’s found in the ninth chapter of the book of Luke. Gospel according to Luke, the ninth chapter. We’ll be reading some from that and striving to emphasize to you uh Bible lesson, a gospel lesson I’ll trust that will be a benefit unto all of us.

I could spend a great deal of time talking about persons here whom we know and whom we have loved and worked with in other places. Certainly glad to see the Duncan’s here, whom we worked with over at the congregation in Tampa. And most of you know that uh we worked with the school there from about 1954 until retirement in 1978. And after that, we continued to work with the church for a while in Trenton, or rather in Tampa, until the brethren of Trenton invited us to come up there. That was in the summer or in the early part of 1983. Maybe you don’t know where Trenton is. It’s up about 20 miles or 25 west of Gainesville, over close to Fanning Springs, where you cross the Sewanee River on the bridge between Chiefland and Tallahassee or Perry.

And certainly we’ve enjoyed the work in Trenton. Felt like that we did a good work and hope that the Lord will continue to bless that work. The brethren at Trenton are still looking for a preacher to come and move with them and to work there. And if you know of anyone that you you could suggest that you could recommend, certainly we’d be glad to hear of that. Sister Payne and I are glad to be living now in uh near our daughter, Virginia Pauly, brother and sister Pauly, Brother Ed Pawley is one of the fine members of the congregation in Claremont. Most of you probably know him or know them in this area. We’re glad to be down in this part of the state. I might just say, if I can help you in any way, or if you know of other congregations around that might need my help on a part-time basis, certainly we want to be living in Claremont, but working around with the Lord’s work, either there or somewhere in these areas.

So it’s so good to be with you this morning and to have this opportunity. Look with me now to the last paragraph of the ninth chapter of the book of Luke. In this last paragraph, which begins at verse 57, we have this statement. And as they went on their way or on the way, a certain man said unto him, that is unto Jesus, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, the foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests. But the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And he said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But he that is Christ said unto him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead.

But go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God. And another also said, I will follow thee, Lord, but first suffer me to bid farewell to them that are at my house. But Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. My question to you this morning is, are you fit for the kingdom of God? I believe that you believe you are if you have become a Christian. And I hope that you believe and earnestly desire to be, after you have become a Christian, fit for the kingdom of God. The word fit suggests meet for, suited to, capable of and prepared for the duties that accrue to and that belong to citizenship in the kingdom.

1. Three Would-Be Disciples

What is it to be fit for the kingdom of God? I know that this is a lesson that every one of us as a Christian needs and can profit by if we will but let the word of the Lord guide us. I believe we have here in this context three would be disciples they were more would be than they were fit. How many of us are would be I wish I could be I would be if such and such I would be if the elders would just encourage me. I would be if the church members just acted right I would be if maybe I could see and recognize a little more benefit in it what things would come to me if I were really fit and working in the kingdom of God.

You know a lot of questions may not like that run through our mind but on the other hand maybe many times we do wonder we wonder if we’re getting the most out of our relationship unto God of our membership in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ and particularly of the congregation where we’re now working and striving to serve the question then I’d like to ask you and like for you to consider, is am I and are you fit for the kingdom of God? Fit for, suited to, prepared or engaged in preparing better, that we might be servants of God. We do not want to be like these three, to whom Jesus strove to teach lessons, lessons that would make them awaken and be more faithful and more desirous of being faithful unto our Lord.

They wanted to follow him, for he says here in verse 57 that there, behold, a certain man, as they went on their way, said unto the Lord, Lord, I’ll follow you wherever you go. Lord, you couldn’t go to a high enough mountain that I wouldn’t be willing to climb it to. You couldn’t delve down into and have to live in a deep enough valley that I wouldn’t be willing also to suffer whatever deprivation it took for me to do that. Whithersoever thou goest, I will follow thee. The Lord wanted to challenge him to make him realize the Lord is not seeking for you simply to follow me on earth and to have the things of earth. For the Lord hath not where to lay his head.

He did not come to build houses and to establish earthly kingdoms. He did not come to amass great sums of wealth upon this earth. He came to seek and to save that which is lost. If we could but realize in our own hearts sincerely, as to the lost condition of the world around us, to those who have not come to Christ, then we would be better fit for the kingdom of our Lord and better fit to serve him in a faithful and dedicated and consecrated way. So also in the second case, although we see many things in that that we would wonder about, he says unto another Phalomene said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. And the statement of Jesus can be taken as either one of the hardest sayings of our Lord, or else it can be taken in context and taken to mean with softness and with love and with care, for Jesus did care, and Jesus did weep with those who wept.

And Jesus was concerned with the fact that death is in this world, but he also emphasizes his first responsibility, and the church’s first responsibility, and yours and mine as those who would be fit for the kingdom of God, is not in the taking care of those physical things and those things that come in everyday life that, of course, we know to be necessities, things that have to be even as Abraham, when he was saw that his dear wife Sarah was dead, he sought to buy a field or to use the cave that was in that field, the cave of MacPela. But in order to receive that cave and to use it, he felt that he needed to own the land, and thus he sought to buy the land to have a place where he might put his beloved wife’s body away with a decent burial.

I don’t think Jesus is teaching against decent burials. He may would like us to consider how very, very much people put into things today that are maybe not as important as other things. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all of these things shall be added unto you. No, Jesus was not unconcerned with our sorrows, with our necessities, but Jesus was majorly concerned with seeking the kingdom of God and doing those things that will build up the things of God, the things of the spiritual man, the things of the preparation for eternity. And this the member of the church today who would be fit for the kingdom of God needs to do. Do not be a wavering disciple, always finding excuses or reasons for not doing what the Lord would have us to do.

And that seems to be the point in these three illustrations. Look at the third one as he closes this particular chapter. And another said unto him also, Lord, I will follow thee, I will follow thee, Lord, but first suffer me to bid farewell to them that are at my house. But Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Thus the idea that Jesus saw, maybe that we do not see, was that the man not only wanted to go back and say goodbye to those before he started out upon that trek with his Lord, but he also had in mind, evidently, that there would be a good bit of this. A good bit of the taking care of those things that were not as important as the work the Lord would have us to do.

What does this suggest to you? As Jesus said, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. The illustration that he uses here is of a plowman. I don’t know how many of you, brethren, had fathers who were farmers. I did. Many of the older ones here probably did likewise. We’ve gotten away from that so much so that I hear more and more that farming is not profitable. You can’t make a living farming these days. I come from a farming section of the state of Florida. Gilchrist County is the smallest county in the state of Florida. Trenton is the county seat, and it doesn’t even have two thousand people. And the church building where I preached is right across the street from the courthouse.

Stan here, who’s dead and mom go to the congregation where I preach or where I was preaching, uh knows all about that situation and the the relationship there. But what my point is, they’re farmers. But how many of those farmers I’ve talked to in the last few years have said we just can’t seem to make a living at it? They don’t any longer put their hands to the plow and themselves cluck to old Beck, as it were, that they might go and plow that furrow or cultivate that field. No, they get in there fine, expensive tractors if they are farming in that way, and they go there and they do whatever needs to be done in that way. But even if you were sitting in the seat of one of those seventy-five thousand dollar machines that many times farmers use today, you wouldn’t turn loose and look back and expect to do your job.

That’s the point that Jesus has in mind here. When he says, Whoso putteth his hand to the plow and looketh back, he is not fit for the kingdom of our Lord. When you decided to serve the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, did you decide? Did you make a commitment? Did you turn unto him with all of your heart and soul and mind? Did you want to be found faithful even unto death? And the Lord would give you, as he promised, the crown of everlasting life. That he doesn’t promise it to the looker back. He doesn’t promise it to the quitter. He doesn’t promise it to the half-converted. He doesn’t point it to promise it to the person that has just enough religion in his life or just enough practice of religion to make him miserable.

He promises it to the person that has put his hand to the plow. And that will plow through, as we say. Are we fit for the kingdom of our Lord? Today I don’t know of any business in this United States of America that is more fruitful and more emphasized on TV and in other places than fitness. Fitness. Well, when I was a boy, fitness had to do with uh, well, getting enough to eat and getting your job done, and uh, and maybe uh if you were in school, maybe going out for football or basketball or something. But fitness now is a big business. Fitness is a millions and billion dollar business in there. And the fitness which has to do with taking off the flab, the fitness which has to do to make you able to jog, or able to do this or that or the other, or able to carry forward with a degree of health that you might not otherwise have.

And there’s a lot of good in that. There’s an illustration of it, there in Claremont, down in the center of the city, there’s a little lake they’re called Center Lake, which is just down a little piece from the church building where Brother Barry Hudson preaches, and where we’ll be going most of the time, I guess, as we live there. But around that little center lake, there’s a there’s a mulch, Cypress mulch pathway. And it’s just across also from the hospital over there, and that’s called the fitness path. The fitness path is supposed to be another encouragement for those who in our generation, because of their type of work or one thing or another, have need for some extra type of exercise that they might become fit or be fit and continue to be fit.

And in the on this fitness path, there are about 10 or 15 stops around there, and at each stop, there’s a little sign and another little place there where you could stop and where you could uh exercise for a while in some other way. So it really goes all out for fitness. But you know, I don’t see many people who really need it using that pathway. My wife and I have used it a time or two, but we don’t use it regularly. My daughter and some of them there do use it regularly. The idea that I’m trying to get over is if you are to stay fit, you must work at it. And many of the people of the country and of the area know that, and many people are in business simply to make fitness a great business, to bring them in millions of dollars of money.

I’m suggesting to you the fitness that I’m talking about this morning that has to do with the word of the Lord, is that which will be hindered if we do like the plowman, put our hands to the plow and look back. Or ask the Lord to let us go do something else for a while, other than serve him. Or ask the Lord, I’ll follow you whithersoever you go, Lord, if you’ll just not ask too much of me. Really, you were bought with a price. You are not your own. You are to glorify, therefore, God in your mortal body. There is no time, brother or sister, in the service of our Lord, for you to take out from this service and go serve, who else would it be?

2. Divided Affections

If you were not serving the Lord and not living in Him and not being with Him, Jesus says, He that is not with me is against me. And he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Every conscious hour of our day we are serving the Lord. In every conscious moment of our life, we need to be fit for our Lord’s service. And we need not to allow anything to cause us to be sidetracked from that. Here are some things that are involved in that sidetracking. And I have about 10 or 15 minutes, and I want in this part of my lesson to emphasize those things that I think he is implying here and give you some scriptures that I believe show this. For instance, a plowman looking backward suggests to me divided affections.

Divided attention. And Jesus says in Matthew the sixth chapter, in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, and verse 24, he says, You cannot serve two masters. No man can serve two masters. For he will either hate the one and cleave unto the other, or he will love the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And mammon is anything that is of a physical and earthly and temporal nature. To serve that. That’s not saying you can’t work for a boss, that you can’t have a foreman, or you yourself cannot be a manager of men and a people, but that’s saying whatever your position in life and whatever your place, you as a Christian, are not to serve just for mammon, whether that be money or position or possessions or whatever it might be.

You cannot serve as a bond servant. God and mammon. You can be only a bond servant of the one. And as a Christian, you are a bond servant of God. That doesn’t sound good to us. We do not like indentured slaves. We’ve gotten rid of slavery. We don’t like the idea of being a bondman. But we are bond servants of Jesus Christ in the sense we could not save ourselves.

It is the blessedness and righteousness and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord that redeemed us from our iniquity and gave us a right to seek for that home that is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We are indeed purchased with a price, and therefore the bond service that we owe unto our Lord is a loving one, a joyous one, a profitable one, the only one that will grant unto us everlasting life. And why shouldn’t we why shouldn’t we be working for that while all these other things are simply, as the old miller said, covered with the meal and the dust of the old grist mill, as he said, as someone asked him, what is your real purpose in life? He said, My purpose is to serve the Lord.

My purpose is to serve the Lord. Well, why are you so dirty and messed up with all this meal and stuff, with all this grist mill work? It’s a hard work. He said, I do this to make expenses. But my real work is to serve the Lord. In whatever you do in a physical way, you’re doing to make expenses, not to make for yourself a home upon this earth. For he that would turn back unto that kind of thing is not fit for the kingdom of God. What is it to be fit for the kingdom of God? It’s to be not as the plowman who tips his hand to the plow and looks back, but who serves God in that way that God would have us to.

In 2 Timothy 4, verse 10, he gives a living example of that very thing of divided affections. For in 2 Timothy 4, he says, Demos hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. And Paul there emphasizes the idea of divided affections. The love of the world is enmity with God for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye, and the vain glory of life. And that’s the thing that 99 and 9 tenths percent of the time is presented in every kind of program that you see. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride and the vain glory of life. But those things are of the world, and the world perishes and the works thereof.

But he that loveth and would serve the Lord shall endure forever. 2 Timothy 4, then verse 10. Let’s look at verses 9 and 10 together, and then pass to another point. Give diligence, Paul says to Timothy, to come unto me shortly. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. And he went unto Thessalonica and goes on to comment about some others. Just as an illustration, am I fit for the kingdom of God? Then if so, I must not be engaged in dividing my affections between the Lord on the one side and the devil on the other. Whatever I have and whatever I own belongs to the Lord. My very life if I’m a Christian. My home. Yes, my family, and I should so strive to raise my family that I know also that we might all be striving to belong to the Lord.

3. Double-Mindedness or Instability

A second thing that it indicates, if a man puts his hand to the plough and looks back, indicates sort of instability. And instability is emphasized in James the fourth chapter and verse 8, as we think about the man who is unstable and undependable in all of his ways. James chapter 4, if you look at the first verse of that, he asks, Whence do wars come? And whence come fightings among you? Do they not come even from this, even from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust and you have not. You kill and you covet and you cannot obtain. You fight and war, and you have not because you ask not. And you ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may spend it in your pleasure.

You adulteresses, and he’s not speaking of them as physical adulterers and adulteresses, but as those who in their spiritual life and in their fitness for the kingdom of God have turned rather to adultery spiritually than to the things of our Lord, as he would have them to. He says, Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God. And then down to verse 8, as the emphasis there is, draw nigh unto him or unto God, and he will draw nigh unto you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. So the idea of double-mindedness or instability is involved in that passage in James chapter 4, verses 1 through 8.

4. A Lack of Confidence or Trust

And there are many like unto that, for doesn’t Paul say in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, be ye therefore steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, inasmuch as you know that your labor is not vain in the Lord. A third thing is a lack of confidence or a lack of trust. In Matthew chapter 25, verses 24 through 30, we have the illustration or the lesson taught by Jesus at the judgment scene, when some would say, Lord, when saw we thee such and such, or such and such, or such and such. And he said, Inasmuch as you did these things on one of these least of my brethren, you have done it unto me, to help the poor and the weak and the needy, to have trust in our Lord that he would provide for us those things that are good.

Matthew 6, 33 emphasizes that when he says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. The plowman that puts his hand to the plow and turns back is not fit to raise a crop. Because he would like to plow up what was already there if he didn’t watch out rather than cultivate it. He would likely be so unconcerned, he wouldn’t care which way the beast of burden went, but he just put his hand to the plow and started looking back. He would never get the job done. And the point there is, we are not to be wavering servants. We’re to be fit for the kingdom of God. And you know, fitness in the physical man takes some exercise.

It takes some good atmosphere. It takes a good building type of diet, whereby you could have some help rather than just satisfying the lusts and desires of the flesh. Fitness requires discipline. Fitness requires thought. And fitness in our Lord’s service requires prayer. And fitness in our Lord’s service requires regular attendance at the services. And that helping one another that we might encourage and strengthen one another. And fitness requires the eating of the food that God has provided, that we might eat and live, and thus have the health and strength of our body and of our mind spiritually. And this kind of fitness he’s talking about. And it does not include, as I suggested, divided affections. It does not include instability of character and of person, it does not include lack of confidence and lack of trust in God and in one another, though we sometimes have to watch out about confidence in man.

For man can deceive, and man can fail. Yea, even elders of the church and preachers of the gospel have quit. They have turned away from our Lord. They have no longer desired the fitness that it takes to be a servant of God and to seek for the kingdom of God. Will those preachers or those elders who thus do be acceptable unto God no more than you or I should. What I’m saying, the reason for saying that is our dependence is not to be in man, our dependence is to be in God and in God’s word. Then if we can serve and work with one another and help one another, so much the better. If we can have confidence in one another, good. But that confidence has to be built up.

That confidence has to be because of my words and actions toward my fellow man, my faithfulness and dependability in word and in deed to him. And that must be built up. It cannot come in a snap of the finger in a moment of time. But God is eternal. We can all trust in him, and his word shall never fail. Heaven and earth passeth away, but his word will not pass away. You can trust in God and in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit implicitly. There is no need for our having to build that up and say that it needs a little more strengthening. The only strengthening that is needed is in me. In me with regard to God, in me in the building up of my faith, in me in my willingness to put my hand to the plow so that I might serve.

I’m the one that needs the working on. I’m the one that needs it constantly. I’m the one that needs to be fit for the kingdom of God. And if you do not think with regard to that, I, I, I, what I need, then you can’t do what Peter said on the day of Pentecost to that great crowd. With many other words, did he testify and exhort every one of them, saying, Save yourselves from this wicked and untoward generation? Everyone had to be interested in saving himself. Not in saving the apostles or someone else, but everyone needed to be interested in saving himself, giving himself unto the Lord. And in that sense, that’s that glorified selfishness that the Lord expects of us if we would be fit for the kingdom of our Lord.

5. No Place for Slothfulness or Lack of Objective

So there is no place for slothfulness, and we illustrate that many times in the Bible. There’s no place for foolishness and jesting and such as that, which would turn away from the word of God. There’s no place for the lack of an objective. For to close the lesson this morning, Paul said, This one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind and stretching forward to those things that are before. I press on unto the prize for the mark of the high calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And thus Jesus, the Apostle Paul considered himself not yet to have laid hold. He still needed to work on Paul.

6. No Fear of the Future

He still needed to look unto that recompense of reward which will come at the end of this life. Do we have a lack of objective in our lives? This also would be like the plowman that looketh backward. And then certainly no fear of the future. For as we would fear the future, we would be contrary to what the apostle says to us in that beautiful passage in the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 5. Be free, brethren, from the love of money, content with such things as you have. For himself has said, I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee. So that with good courage we say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What shall man do unto me?

Conclusion

Whoso putteth his hand to the plow and looketh back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Looking back in our case might be divided affections. Looking back in our case might be instability of character or of Christian life. Instability, wavering. Looking back in our case might signify a lack of trust, a lack of confidence in God and his word. Looking back in our case might indicate slothfulness in the work of the Lord with a slack hand. Looking back in our case might indicate foolishness, the foolishness of the world, rather than the foolishness of preaching the gospel. Looking backward in our case might be that we have a lack of objective or purpose in our lives. We’re not striving unto that goal. Looking back in our case might be a fear of the future.

The fearful and the abominable and the unbelieving shall be the ones that will not be found faithful in the kingdom of our Lord. We have a song that has been chosen for the invitation. We would pray that some listening this morning might have thought seriously about your fitness for the kingdom. There are two sides to that. One, if you’re not a Christian, you need to become fit for the kingdom of our Lord. The God of heaven has made it possible for you and me to call upon his name. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And we studied that wonderful question in our Bible class this morning. Are you calling upon the name of the Lord so as to be fit for his kingdom?

This doesn’t mean just calling out or crying or saying words. This means looking unto him for what he has directed for you and me to do. Whoso calleth on the name of the Lord must first hear, for how can he call upon him unless he has believed? And how shall he believe upon him of whom he is not heard? Romans 10. Have you heard the gospel of Christ, the power of God unto salvation? Have you turned in your mind and heart unto belief in Christ with all of your soul and with all of your being, realizing that he died for you? Have you repented of your sins that you know of? Turned away from willful sinning by word or by deed. And ask God, as it were, to be willing and as he is to forgive you.

Repent of your sins. Confess the name of Christ before men and be baptized for the remission of your sins. Thus you can be born anew and arise to walk in newness of life. Fitness to the non-Christian would be turning away from sin, and through faith in Christ, being baptized for the remission of your sins. But fitness for those of us who are already Christians includes all of these things suggested, and a faithful, devoted life of service unto Christ, unto God, and through the Holy Spirit and through His Word day by day. Would there be one this morning that as we think seriously about these thoughts and reflect upon the words of this invitation song? Would you come while together we stand it as we sing?