George Whitefield: 17th c. Preacher & Revivalist Issue 38 | 1993 Purchase this issue

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Whitefield preached this sermon, titled “The Kingdom of God,” on September 13, 1741, in Glasgow, Scotland. His text was Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Here are excerpts.

As God shall enable me, first, I shall endeavor to explain what you are to understand by “the kingdom of God”; secondly, I shall endeavor to show that “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink”; and thirdly, I shall show you what “the kingdom of God” positively is, namely, “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

We are to take the kingdom of God in the text as signifying that inward work of grace, that kingdom which the Lord Jesus Christ sets up in the hearts of all that are truly brought home to God; so that when the apostle tells us, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink,” it is the same as though he had said, “My dear friends, do not quarrel about outward things; for the kingdom of God, or true and undefiled religion, heart and soul religion, is not meat and drink.”

By “meat and drink,” if we compare the text with the context, we are to understand no more than this, that the kingdom of God, or true religion, doth not consist in abstaining from a particular meat or drink. But I shall take the words in a more comprehensive sense, and shall endeavor to show you that the kingdom of God, or true and undefiled religion, doth not consist in any, no, not in all outward things, put them altogether.

Denominations. The kingdom of God, or true and undefiled religion, doth not consist in being of this or that particular sect or communion. Perhaps, my dear friends, were many of you asked what reason you can give for the hope that is in ...