299: Len Richardson - Citizens of the Kingdom

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:13

   Welcome to Good Chris Selfie and talks. I’m Levi and I’m Chris and I’m Brian. Thank you for joining us this week on this podcast. We select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week, with the short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you’re about to listen to.

2. 0:33

   And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Hi everyone. This is Jason Hensley, and this week we are going to be listening to a class by Brother Len Richardson given at the Oxford Bible Conference in 1980. That’s kind of fun. It’s a little bit of a throwback, and this is a class that was suggested to us based off the fact that it’s just an incredibly good beginning to a series on the Sermon on the Mount.

3. 1:16

   What I really liked about this class is he emphasizes the fact that citizenship in the Kingdom of God, it’s all about who we are. Sometimes I think we focus on other things like the things you own or the things you know, or sometimes the people you know. And we forget that citizenship is really about who we become what, what kind of people are we? And I think that Brother Len brings that out very powerfully. Now, additionally, I love the way that he ends this class because he really focuses on what it means to be salt and what it means to be light.

4. 2:03

   Preaching is something that isn’t necessarily in vogue. And so it’s good to just get this reminder that we need to be out there. We want to show people that we’re different, and why are we different? We’re different because we have this hope of the Kingdom of God. We know, and we love the Lord Jesus Christ.

5. 2:25

   So I hope that you enjoy listening to this class. I think that you will find it stimulating. It will give you a lot to think about and maybe challenge some of the thoughts that you’ve had in the past. So here we go. This is Brother Len Richardson, 1980 Oxford Bible Conference class #1 called Citizens of the Kingdom. When Jack Balchion said he’d rather listen to Len Richardson and look at him, he didn’t know what Len Richardson’s voice was going to be like.

6. 2:56

   Let me hasten to assure you that there’s nothing wrong with my voice. It’s your hearing. I don’t want you to worry about me, because I should probably be like this all the week. I’ve got South Africa bug and it’s gone to my larynx at the moment. It moves about me from place to place and with God’s help, up to now, I’ve managed to do everything that’s been asked of me and I believe that He will help me to do what I’ve got to do. And it may even help you to concentrate rather on the message than the man, if you don’t have a melodious voice like Leslie Johnson’s talking to you and have to put up with that croaky fellow from Hereford.

7. 4:01

   But I don’t want you to be all the time thinking what’s the matter with the man? You know, there’s nothing wrong, actually, it’s just a larynx trouble, and you’ll be interested to know that it does gradually improve as a rule, as I go on, after the 1st 2 1/2 hours, it’s not too bad.

8. 4:25

   Our reading is from Matthew’s Gospel chapter 5, the 1st 16 verses. We quite often hear it said, brethren and sisters, my brethren, speaking on the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, that Jesus went about everywhere preaching the Kingdom of God as though he went about giving Christadelphian lectures on the Kingdom of God.

9. 4:56

   And when we come to read the Gospels, we’re surprised sometimes to find that he didn’t seem to say the same kind of things that we do in our lectures about the Kingdom of God. That is to say, when we are preaching the Kingdom of God, we are at pain to talk about the promises to Abraham and the covenant to David and how it will be fulfilled in what we call quite rightly, a divine political Kingdom soon to be established from the earth.

10. 5:30

    But when we read the Gospels and we find Jesus preaching the Kingdom of God, he doesn’t seem to deal with those aspects of it. He seems to be more concerned with human behaviour. He speaks of the Kingdom of God in a a different sense to this. Now of course it is perfectly correct to say that the Kingdom of God is a divine political Kingdom. It may even be correct as they soon to be established on the earth, though the soon is not our province to say. But it seems probable that it will soon be established on the earth.

11. 6:12

    But when Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, all this was underlying his message. This was something that was there at the background of it. The Jews themselves perfectly understood the divine political Kingdom aspect of it. That was all they did think it was, and they were expecting a great Messiah to arise who would establish His Kingdom, and they would have the preeminent places in it, and their enemies would be trodden on their feet. So when Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God, his understanding of the Kingdom in its political sense must be read into what he said.

12. 6:57

    But what he was more concerned with was what I’ve called in my title, the citizens of the Kingdom, the kind of people God wanted for his Kingdom. In a sense, he was saying to his compatriot Jews, it’s all very well to be so wrapped up in the idea of the establishment of Israel as the Kingdom of God and the restoration of the throne of David.

13. 7:25

    But unless you change your ways, you won’t be there except you be converted, he said, and become as little children. You cannot see the Kingdom of God except you receive the Kingdom of God. Notice this way in which he uses the term except you receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, you shall in no wise enter there into there is this idea of receiving thee sovereignty of God now in this life becoming subjects of God and of God’s Kingdom, beginning to live in a sense, beginning to live in the very spirit of the Kingdom now in order that you might inherit it.

14. 8:18

    Then to live like the skies in Pharisees you do knew perfectly well all about the covenants to Abraham and David, and expected that it was all being kept up in store for them was to receive the rebuke of Jesus. You will see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and you yourself thrust out unless you change your ways. John the Baptist, the great preacher. There has never been a greater than John the Baptist. The law and the prophet were until John. Since then the Kingdom of God is preached and all men press into it.

15. 9:03

    Here was the proclamation of the Kingdom of God in a moral sense, to be received now by men and women prepared to become citizens of the future Kingdom to be established.

16. 9:20

    So when he wanted to give descriptions of the Kingdom of God, he didn’t in fact go back and start talking as we do about the abolition of war and the doing of way of sickness. And the eyes of the blind should be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be under. Oh, that is perfectly true.

17. 9:43

    It’s all part of the proclamation of the message. But when Jesus said, And what is the Kingdom of heaven like? And with what comparison shall we compare it? Isn’t it like a man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he has found one Pearl of great prize, going and selling all that he had that he might possess it? Or a man who finds treasure hid in a field? Or a woman who hides how many measures of leaven in three measures of flour.

18. 10:24

    I’ve forgotten the my computer’s not working. But you know the idea. This was what Jesus was concerned with, the quality of life of people called to the Kingdom, the kind of people God was looking for, for his Kingdom. That’s what Jesus was concerned with. And all the way through the Gospels, all the way through the Gospels, this is what the preaching of Jesus about the Kingdom of God was.

19. 10:54

    I know, of course, when he spoke to his disciples privately on the Mount of Olives, he gave a more detailed, what we might call political interpretation of of what was to take place. But when He was preaching to the people, His emphasis all the time was on the quality of its citizens, the kind of people God was looking for to be heirs of the Kingdom when at last it should be established upon the earth.

20. 11:23

    And when He’s thinking of His second coming in order that the Son of Man in the fullness of time might sit on the throne of His glory again, it’s always the preparation of the hearts of His disciples to be ready against that day. The servant serving their master in his absence, Those who did what they could for his brethren while he was away from them.

21. 11:54

    These are the principles of the Kingdom that Jesus preached because He was concerned that people should not just have a surface understanding of the divine political Kingdom, the politics of it, as it were the property of it, if you like, but that they should have an understanding of the moral content of those who were to be heirs of the Kingdom of God.

22. 12:28

    So the manifesto of the King I called it was the Sermon on the Mount, almost certainly early in his ministry, when if it were proclaimed two men and women everywhere into the Jews, especially the terms on which God would be prepared to receive them into his Kingdom at last, the kind of people God was looking for as citizens of the Kingdom.

23. 12:58

    And the Beatitudes, which we’ve just read in the future from Matthew, are really a description of a man of God. This is the kind of person that God is looking for and preparing for his alternate Kingdom, the beatitudes, the blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the pure in heart, and so on them all together. And you have a portrait of Jesus, the King of the Kingdom. Here he is.

24. 13:41

    This is what the Kingdom of God is all about. When God’s glory, God’s will, is established on earth over all the world, these kind of people will be there to live with Jesus everlastingly in his eternal Kingdom.

25. 14:08

    Not only a portrait of Jesus, of course, but a portrait of the complete Christian character as well, living in the world but not belonging to it. I want to begin, then, by looking at these a little more closely. Of course, we can’t, in what’s left of the time, go into each one in detail, but I want to look at them a little more closely now. I want you to notice how unnatural these qualities are. Christianity is an unnatural religion. That is to say, there’s nobody naturally like this. You must be born again, Jesus said. You’re not born like this.

26. 15:09

    You may be born with a quiet disposition. There are many people with a much quieter, quieter disposition than Len Richardson. There are a lot of people, quite a lot of our brothers and sisters who are nice, quiet, humble people. They’re not, you know, not naturally. Nobody’s naturally humble. You know that no one is naturally humble.

27. 15:32

    They may be naturally a little bit timid, or they may be naturally a little less aggressive. Their genes may have been ordered in their structure a little differently to mine, so that they’re less aggressive than I am and and and more ready to give way than some of us are. But humility is a spiritual quality.

28. 15:58

    You must be born again to these things. These are qualities that Jesus says belong to discipleship, and they can only be produced by the work of the Spirit in our lives. William Paley in his famous book, You May. I don’t know whether you do remember. Let’s start that sentence again. William Paley wrote a book which used to be famous in Christadelphian.

29. 16:30

    So it was, even though it wasn’t written by a Christadelphian and that was some testimonial for it and it was called Evidences of Christianity. Some of the older brethren here are nodding their heads because they read it. How many of you have read it? Hands up those who have read it, not many. Well, I’ll tell you what it was all about. It was a very good book.

30. 16:52

    And if you get the chance to, sorry, Lesnar, yes, two points. If you get the chance to pick it up on the bookstore, grab it. It’s very good. And it is, to me, one of the classic defences of the Scriptures and of the Christian position. It’s called paled evidences of the truth of the Christian religion, and one of his evidences is that the qualities inculcated by Jesus Christ are so unnatural, and that means to say they’ve come from heaven, they belong to God, they are divine qualities.

31. 17:38

    He divides virtue into two. He says there are what are called what he calls heroic virtues, and there are the patient virtues and the two classifications. No heroic virtues. Strength, patriotism, selflessness, courage, these sorts of things are natural qualities. There are very great men in the world. There are very great people who have done great things, things that make us almost feel ashamed of ourselves because they they are so great.

32. 18:19

    But they’re only natural. They are natural qualities. Some men are naturally more courageous than others and they do great things and they get statues put up to them in the marketplace. These are the natural things you say, the heroic qualities, but the patient qualities. He says these are the mark of divinity in the Bible and in the Christian brain because Jesus Christ talks about meekness, purity of heart, humbleness of spirit, gentleness.

33. 18:58

    Now he says these are not things that naturally you think are important. We admire naturally the go getters, the great men who do great things. Jesus says let it are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Of course he doesn’t mean poor spirited, He means those who are humble and contrite in spirit.

34. 19:31

    David is an example in the 51st Psalm. We can’t look at it now, but you remember it when he pleaded with God to forgive him for his sin. He was so abased he hated him though he despised himself. He was poor in spirit, broken in heart over his sins. Jesus says that’s the man God looking for. The man, the woman who is humble enough to recognise their deficiencies, their frailties.

35. 20:10

    Great man David was courageous, but his greatness in God’s sight was a humble and the contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise. Blessed obey that more.

36. 20:31

    There’s no special blessing in being bereaved of your loved ones and and weeping for their laughs. It’s not that kind of mourning. Jesus thinking of sober people, people who mourn for their sins and perhaps for the sins of others. There’s so much to mourn about in our world. The name of God being despised is something to mourn about. Man in humanity, to man the vast oceans of suffering in the world is something to mourn about.

37. 21:15

    My own sin is something to mourn about. Christianity is a joyous religion, but it’s not jolly. There’s a tendency for men to make it into a rather jolly thing. You know, as long as you’re all happy and jolly, you’re a good chap. That means a good Christian. But Christianity isn’t jolly. In fact, it’s rather sad. It looks on the reality of things, and it’s those that mourn, Jesus says, who are truly blessed. Of course, he doesn’t mean leaving it at mourning, wringing your hands and feeling desperately broken, but seeing the answer to our mourning.

38. 22:14

    Weeping may endure in the evening, the psalmist said, but joy cometh in the morning as sure as day follows night. Those who mourn over the right things, those whose hearts are quiet and sober before God in the reality of their understanding of their own frailty and sinfulness, and of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ, will be made happy in the morning. And that is the blessing that he attaches to those that mourn. The meek, not the weak.

39. 22:58

    Jesus was meek, but he was never weak. I like to think of this as being the non competitive. Now you think about that, try to save yourself. What is meekness? What is meekness? Moses was meek, one of the one of the the meekest man that ever lived after his time anyway. What a mighty man he was.

40. 23:30

    He wasn’t weak. I think the meek man is non competitive and we live in a competitive world. If we’re on this, you know we’re all competing all the time, at least if you’re not careful. Trying to be well thought of,

41. 23:54

    trying to make a name, really, Oz, trying to get somewhere, trying to be recognized. Jesus is not like that at all. Not like that. Self effacement. You’re not in the race. You’re not trying to glorify yourself. You’re not trying to promote an image. You haven’t gotten the image to promote the make those who want God to have all the glory, those who who are prepared to go where he wants to go and do what he wants them to do, but not to get anything out of it for themselves. They’re not in the competition with other people. They’re just trying to please God. You shall find race for your souls. Jesus said Look at me, look at me, Jesus said. I am meek and lowly of heart.

42. 25:05

    Follow my example. Yoke yourselves up with me and you shall find rest. Now, do you know, brothers and sisters, I am absolutely convinced, absolutely convinced that this is something we are all desperately wanting in life. Rest for our souls to be at peace with God, to be at peace with our neighbour, to be at peace with ourselves.

43. 25:46

    Jesus as you can have it, but you can only have it my way. Come unto Me, all you who are competitive, all you that labour and the heavy laden. Come unto me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you’ll find it.

44. 26:19

    You’ll find this elusive thing you’ve been looking for all your life, and you recognized it or not. Peace I give unto you, My peace. Rest for your souls.

45. 26:44

    Hungry and bursting after righteousness. That’s the crunch, isn’t it? Oh, I think this is wonderful. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. You really mean what do you want? The other life? What are you trying to get? Where are you going? What’s life all about as far as you’re concerned? It’s one thing to be a Christadelphian. It’s one thing to what we call understand the truth and be baptized and go to all the meetings. But it’s a different thing to hunger and rest after righteousness.

46. 27:34

    I know, I know brethren and sisters, that my hunger and bursting half the time 3/4 of the time isn’t really the righteousness I want So many things, old as I am, I have to say that now. So many things you hunger for, look forward to enjoy. Jesus says righteousness. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

47. 28:14

    Now do you? Do you really love it so much, long for it, so much that you can really describe it as hungering and thirsting for it? Jesus did thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed me with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. That’s why he’s going to be the king of this everlasting Kingdom.

48. 28:54

    That’s why the Lord has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name, because he who is to judge the world in righteousness and establish God’s will upon the earth over all nations, first receive God’s will into his own life and let God be king over all his desires. He loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and that qualified him to be the head of the Kingdom of God.

49. 29:32

    If you want to be there, Jesus says you’ve got to learn it. You’ve got to learn to love the things that the Kingdom of God stands for. Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word of God, the merciful. Blessed are the merciful. How shall we hope for mercy? Giving none? Portia said to Shylock, didn’t she? How shall we hope, woman?

50. 30:04

    Where would you? If justice be thy, please consider this, that in the course of justice none of us should seek salvation. We do pray for mercy in that same prayer that teaches all to render the deeds of mercy. It means being kind, isn’t it? That’s all kind, I think. Being merciful in this state, being being kind.

51. 30:34

    Kind to other people, kind about other people, kind in your judgements of other people. You want to receive mercy from the Lord, then being merciful to others, give, and it shall be given unto you. Jesus said good measure. Pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men pour into your bosom. He meant justice.

52. 31:13

    The merciful shall obtain mercy even in this life. It’s true, you know, the critical carping spirit is usually unhappy and the generous man received generously from others. Blessed are the merciful. Goodbye Ruth and Tom, safe journey.

53. 31:43

    Blessed are the merciful. Now notice this, there’s a present blessing in all these things. It’s a present tense blessing, not just something reserved for the future. One day, if you grit your teeth and carry on, one day you’ll get blessings. That’s not it, he said. Now tremendous blessing. Now the merciful obtain mercy now and in the world, the cut by the grace of God, eternal mercy in His everlasting Kingdom.

54. 32:22

    Blessed are the pure in heart, those who are clean inside. Jesus always insisted on inner cleanliness, didn’t He? Not the outside appearance, not just scrubbing out outward man and trying to put on a good face to others, but what we are like inside, the motivation of a man. This is what matters, the pure in heart. They shall see God.

55. 32:58

    I don’t know what that means. I just do not know. I don’t think we can know the fullness of what that expression means. They shall see God, but you’ve got to be pure inside. Jesus says, is one of the conditions of his Kingdom, that we first cleanse that which is within, that the outside also may be clean also.

56. 33:34

    Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see our God. The secret of the Lord is theirs. It’s a wonderful phrase, isn’t it? The secret of the Lord is theirs, the pure in heart. Their heart is Christ’s abode. Blessed are the peacemakers, not the peacemakers. Notice we tend to give so much credit to people who blaze trails and lead things and fire the guns. Peacemakers.

57. 34:24

    One of those qualities you see that Paley talks about unnatural qualities. Not the arrogant, not the vengeful, not the fighters, the peacemakers. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. And there’s one dear old brother of Hereford, his daughter’s here tonight so she can tell you. I said it. George Merrick said that our Bible class once you don’t sow seed on the battlefield, thought for the day, you don’t sow seed on the battlefield.

58. 35:13

    The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace, and the persecuted and the reviled, and those who are hate with contumely and shame, for the name of the Lord Jesus. He says, Thou the place, thou the truly happy. It’s a contradiction, isn’t it? Nothing at all like you would imagine. But of course you wouldn’t imagine it, because these are not natural thoughts.

59. 35:43

    These are divine thoughts. This is God’s estimate of what makes up the complete man. And those who were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name rejoiced and praised God that they were counted worthy to endure these things for his name’s sake. Now I’m only very briefly run through these qualities that Jesus said are the first principles really of the Christian life.

60. 36:24

    And having described the citizens of the Kingdom, he now goes on to describe their function. Verse 13 to 16 he uses 2 figures to describe the function of those who belong to the Kingdom of God.

61. 36:51

    First of all, he says you are the salt of the earth, and he says you’re the light of the world. There are two functions of salt. One is to preserve and the other is to flavour. And there is an implied criticism of the world in the very fact that Jesus said it needs this salt. You are, he says, you followers of mine, you believers are the salt of the earth.

62. 37:24

    You see, the world is always tending to putrefaction led to itself. Society corrupts again. A gaggle of people together, they nearly always, gradually, increasingly descend in their mode of conversation. Human nature, we say. The world is evil and not good.

63. 37:52

    The constitution of mankind is one that is going rotten. That’s what’s happening in our society today. Society is going rotten. It’s flavourless, it’s insipid from God’s point of view. Now salt is an additive. It’s quite different in kind from the material into which it’s placed. I forgot to salt the potatoes. There are the potatoes bubbling away in the pot, no salt in them. You know what’s going to happen.

64. 38:34

    They’re going to have no flavour. Your guests are going to not enjoy the meal. So you hastily add some salt at the last minute. Give them another 5 minutes so that the salt can permeate through and give flavour to the meal.

65. 38:51

    And Jesus says the function of his disciples is to give some kind of flavour of Christ in their society. Even as thou sent me into the world, Even so have I sent them into the world. John chapter 17 to preserve men from corruption and to bring the Saviour of Christ into their environment. So when you go about your daily allocation, that’s a good word, isn’t it?

66. 39:35

    When we go about our daily living, think of ourselves as being sent into the world by Jesus. Notice that we have tended to withdraw from the world. We’ve been afraid of the world as a community. We’ve had a policy of Western withdrawal. Come inside, shut the door, pull the curtain down and leave them to Stew in their own juice. Jesus says I have sent you into the world, not to become like the world, but to change the world if possible, to try to bring something of the flavour of Christ into the environment in which you live.

67. 40:24

    If a child, you may be able to. Save them that believe. Let your speech be always with salt, with grace, seasoned with salt. Salt. See, you are the salt of the earth. They’re our brother and sisters, of whom it’s true to say they are the very salt of the earth. But in a very special sense, Jesus is saying you have a mission to fulfil.

68. 41:00

    I want you to take me with you into the world and to bring something of the flavour of Christ into the life and environment in which you daily live.

69. 41:19

    And secondly, you’re the light of the world. Salt mixes with and influences its environment, as it were, filthily taking Christ in our daily life and showing Him to men. But the light stands up and shines out in the darkness. The clear evangel of the Church is here proclaimed Shine ye of light in the world, holding forth the word of life. The world is dark, you are its light. Jesus says.

70. 42:03

    The world is infected. You are its health. The world is in sipping. You are its flavour. You are the salt of the earth, You are the light of the world, and then you make it a personal responsibility. Not just you conglomerately, but me, you individually. Let your light so shine before me that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

71. 42:46

    Men and women who have these qualities of life within themselves and who through their daily ministration to others, reveal Christ and all that Christ stands for to their fellows. These are men and women who are citizens of the Kingdom of God, who when the day comes for the Kingdom to be worldwide and the name of God to be glorified in all the earth, having some measure began, begun the journey now and even now begin to sing the song forever new.

72. 43:58

    Thank you for listening to the Good Kuz Adelphian Talks podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes. We are on all major podcast platforms and also on YouTube. If you enjoyed this particular talk, please share it with someone else who you think might enjoy it too. For show notes on the talk you just listened to, visit [email protected] or check out the Show Notes section of your podcast player.

73. 44:27

    Please share your thoughts on the talk from this week on our Facebook or Instagram pages where we are at Good Christ Adelphian Talks or leave a comment on our YouTube channel where these talks are posted as well. If you enjoy listening to the talks that we post and here one that you think we should share, please tell us about it.

74. 44:43

    You can send a suggestion using the contact us tab on our website or message us on any of our social media accounts. Thank you for listening. God bless and talk to you next week.