THE KINGDOM OF GOD 3

THE KINGDOM OF GOD 3

As we continue our study of the subject of the Kingdom of God

we find ourselves confronted with some quite weighty problems

so far as that is concerned.

We have undertaken to sketch over the New Testament Scriptures

where the Kingdom is mentioned.

Not only do we have the problem

of trying to note from time to time

what bearing various passages have on the Kingdom subject:

we are also quite often presented with the matter

of interpreting the general meaning of those passages of Scripture.

The mystery parables of Matthew 13.

Strange sayings concerning John the Baptist

which mystifies many people.

The Kingdom of God is righteous men under Christ

ruling the earth in righteousness.

The Kingdom is the millennial reign of Christ and His saints

on the earth when it comes to its fullness.

But, to say that is all the Kingdom

would put us in the position

of explaining away a lot of passages of Scripture

which refer to the Kingdom as a present thing.

There is a present phase

of the Kingdom in operation and during this,

the church age, the saved compose the membership of the Kingdom.

Jesus says from John 3

that, One must be born again to see,

or to enter the Kingdom of God.

In another Scripture <ref>

Fear not little flock, (referring to the church)

It is the Father’s good pleasure to give unto you the Kingdom.

The church is that body that has the Great Commission,

to uphold the Scripture and the Scripture truths,

and preach the gospel unto the ends of the earth.

That is what we mean by the church

being the executive body of the Kingdom,

The time element is very important

in dealing with the Kingdom subject,

or nearly any other subject that is discussed in the four Gospels.

This is because with the passing of time and

development of situations, things change,

and Jesus taught His disciples things in the latter part of His ministry

that he did not teach them at all in the early part.

He did not tell them anything about His crucifixion

and resurrection from the dead

until a long time after His public ministry had begun.

There is a turning of events notable in the development

of the Kingdom idea that we should try to keep in mind and observe.

dealing with the words of Jesus

concerning John the Baptist.

Matthew 11.

11 Verily 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.

12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now

the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,

and the violent take it by force.

13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

14 And if ye will receive it,

this is Elias, which was for to come.

There are several things in there we would like to know more about.

Note the first statement that is in the words of Jesus,

Among those born of women there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.

Then he turns right around and says that the one who is littler,

or least in the Kingdom of the Heavens is greater than John the Baptist.

We have an apparent contradiction in that statement

that is evident on the very surface of things.

There is none greater than John, and yet,

the ones who are very small, even down to the least in the Kingdom

are greater than John.

J. R. Graves was a great Bible scholar,

and went great length, and in my mind great extremes

to prove it does not mean what it says

His idea was to place John the Baptist in the Kingdom,

and to make that later one in the Kingdom Jesus.

That is the idea he tried to establish

and he made it to read that John was the greatest of all humanity.

Jesus, who later in the Kingdom economy was greater than John.

I do not think that is what Jesus meant at all.

Beyond a doubt, from the moral and spiritual standpoint,

there has never come a man on this earth greater than John the Baptist.

We could go on and expand on that subject,

how that John the Baptist,

filled with the Holy Spirit from the time of his birth,

lived a life of the Old Testament Nazarite.

This type of life could not be excelled by mortal men.

We will now go spiritually,

Jesus, of course excepted,

there has not arisen a greater than those who are little,

those who hold only small positions in the Kingdom of the Heavens,

are greater positionally than John the Baptist,

who was not in the Kingdom in the first place.

John was a man sent from God.

He was a forerunner of Jesus Christ.

He introduced Christ and the Kingdom message.

He only said the Kingdom was “at hand.”

It is notable that Jesus took up that same message

after John the Baptist had been cast into prison.

He preached it exactly the same that John did,

that the Kingdom was still at hand.

This New Testament economy of things is so far superior

to anything that prevailed in the Old Testament times

that Jesus says that the small ones in the Kingdom

have a position that is far superior to that of John the Baptist.

That is the only way I have been able

to get that passage to harmonize.

This statement has greatly puzzled most Bible students.

Moreover, from the days of John the Baptist

until now, the Kingdom of the heavens suffers, violence

When John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness

many of the Scribes and Pharisees who were congregated in Jerusalem

came out to where he was preaching.

They evidently signified that they wanted to unite with him

and become part of the body of people he was preparing.

John, however, said, Everyone of you repent.

These people came right back on the claim,

We are the children of Abraham,

we do not need to repent,

we are under the law of Moses,

and our lives are so excellent that we are alright the way we are,

and do not need any repentance.

John’s answer to them was,

You generation of poisonous snakes,

flee from the wrath to come.

To this Kingdom of the Heavens suffering violence.

I do not think that is anything in the world

but these Pharisaical Jews

attempting to come and claim the Kingdom position

and the Kingdom blessings on the basis of their own self-righteousness.

I have given you one illustration,

I will give another to try to make this point plain and clear.

There came a young man to Jesus and said,

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

He said, Keep the commandments.

The young man said, I have kept the commandments.

Jesus said, That is fine, go and sell all that you have

and give it to the poor, then come and follow me.

The young man went away sorrowful.

This teaches us that he had not kept the commandments as he said

and teaching us once again that he stood on the basis of self-righteousness,

and these Jews tried constantly to get recognition from Jesus

of their own self-righteousness,

but always without success.

This suffering violence and the fleshly assaults

that were made on the Kingdom were not a thing in the world

but the Jews trying to come into this new order of things

without repentance and faith,

upon the basis of hypocritical self-righteousness upon which they stood.

He goes on in that same passage to say,

For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

That means that the Old Testament Dispensation actually continued

up until the crucifixion of Jesus.

In the meantime, the church had come into existence

and had operated for about three years.

We thus have the law dispensation overlapping there for about three years.

The prophets and the law prophesied until John.

The next statement in which we are vitally interested is,

And if ye will receive it,

this is Elijah who is about to come.

John the Baptist came to fulfill that ministry of Elijah

Jesus here says that if ye will receive this,

that is, John the Baptist is Elijah who is to come.

It is true that the Pharisees asked John,

“Are you Elijah?”

There is yet another passage where Jesus said,

I tell you that Elijah has come already.

They did unto Him whatsoever they would.

John the Baptist was the Elijah of prophecy

Luke 16.

15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men;

but God knoweth your hearts:

for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

16 The law and the prophets were until John:

since that time the kingdom of God is preached,

and every man presseth into it

Trying to come in the new order of things

on a basis of fleshly self-righteousness.

On to Luke 7.

28 For I say unto you,

Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet

than John the Baptist:

but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Luke 8.

1 And it came to pass afterward,

that he went throughout every city and village,

preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God:

and the twelve were with him,

That is introductory to these mystery parables,

Matthew 12.

28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God,

then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

That is a notable passage of Scripture.

Jesus had cast out a demon, and the Jews were faced with evidence

that they could not deny,

that the mighty works had been done.

They then said that Jesus had done it by the power of the devil.

His answer was that if it was in the Spirit of God

that He had cast out this demon,

or these demons,

then the Kingdom of God had approached,

or come right up to where they were.

That is another one of the passages that teaches me

that the Kingdom in its ultimate expression

must be that time when the Devil is dethroned as the god of this world,

Christ is enthroned as the God and King of this world

and He takes authority over the material creation,

and makes righteousness the ruling principle in the material realm.

That is the condition that certainly does not prevail now.

I understand it is to prevail in the millennium.

Jesus says as He gives them samples in the miracles of healing, and so on,

that if this work is done by the Spirit of God,

then the Kingdom is come up mighty close to where they are.

Parallel to that is

Luke 11.

20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils,

no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.

The Kingdom is right up in your presence,

Matthew 13 called the “Mystery Parables.”

The time element here

is that we are about the middle of the public ministry of Jesus

His ministry had already gone on about two years.

There was about a year and a half or two years yet

before His final rejection and crucifixion by the Jews.

He offered the Kingdom first to the Jews, exclusive of other nations.

In my estimation, along here is the gradual turning point.

Jesus is gradually beginning to reveal

that He is going to be rejected by the Jews,

and they are going to turn down the offer of the Kingdom.

The result is going to be that the Jews are going to be rejected,

cast out of the center of the Kingdom economy.

Then the other nations are coming in,

and this the age

which we call the church dispensation is going to ensue,

the Jews are going to be offcast and chastised

in order to finally bring them around to acceptance of Christ.

So, the mystery parables have to do with the church and its operation

in the Kingdom economy that has prevailed and does prevail

through this age in which we live.

From that standpoint a long step has been taken in the Kingdom teaching.

This thing we call the Gentile church

had not been clearly revealed up to this time at all.

Matthew 13:10, 11,

And the disciples coming forward said to Him “Why doeth thou speak to them in parables?”

(Referring to the unbelieving group of Jews.)

He answering said,

To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven,

but to those it is not given.

Now, that is a strange and perhaps difficult situation.

A parable is usually a physical illustration of a spiritual principle.

The Kingdom is like such and such a material thing and situation.

From that standpoint parables are given to aid the understanding

of spiritual principles by illustrating them

by common, ordinary, everyday things.

But, if people are not skilled

and do not have understanding in spiritual matters,

instead of the parable clarifying the situation,

it only makes it more mysterious,

and so here is the practical result of the parables –

that they brought the disciples of Jesus

to a clearer and better understanding of spiritual principles.

They threw the unbelieving Jews into greater doubt and confusion

concerning these things, spiritual matters.

That certainly should teach us this practical lesson

of dealing honestly and in full integrity with the Word of God.

We should be trying to learn what it would teach us

instead of trying to fix the Bible or Scriptures

to make them say what we already believe

and want to establish as a Bible fact.

Twisting of Scriptures, dishonest dealings with the Word of God

is the best way I know to be utterly mystified by the Bible as a whole,

and bring us to the same condition in which the Jews were brought

by these parables they did not understand.

Let us keep in mind that the principle reason

that He spoke in parables to enlighten His disciples,

but to mystify and confuse those who rejected Him.

Luke 8:9, 10,

His disciples asked Him what might the parable be,

and He said,

To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God,

but to the others in parables in order that seeing they may not see,

and hearing, they may not understand.

That is just a verifying of the principles I have already pointed out.

Mark 4:10-12, And when they were alone,

the ones about Him with the twelve asked Him the parables,

He said to them, to you it is given the mysteries of the Kingdom of God,

but to those outside all things come about in parables

in order that they may see and not understand,

hearing they may hear and not comprehend,

lest they should turn about and it should be forgiven them.

That is a rather mysterious thing,

“lest they should turn about and it be forgiven them”

seems to me to indicate that the Jews

had already offended in a religious way to the extent

that it was not going to be forgiven them.

They were already marked for judgment as a religious group and a nation.

We have already touched on that principle,

but I would like to make this observation as we pass.

You have perhaps noted that I am rather narrow minded and emphatic

in my viewpoint of not only who has the authority

to handle and preach the Word of God,

but also with reference

to who has the right understanding to these things.

Look again at this thing in a plain, common sense viewpoint –

it was the disciples of Jesus who were given understanding.

The disciples of Jesus were those saved people,

those believers who were scripturally baptized

and who had followed Him.

They literally followed Him as he went about the country,

but also followed Him embracing the things he taught.

I claim the same thing is true exactly, today.

Those who follow Him in believing and practicing what he teaches

are the ones who have an understanding of the Word of God.

Just like those Pharisees of the ancient times,

the ones who reject, the ones who walk in their own paths,

have little more understanding of the deeper things of God

than the beasts of the field.

Matthew 13:3-9, which is the first of the mystery parables,

the Parable of the Sower,

A sower went forth to sow,

and when he sowed, some indeed fell by the roadside,

and fowls coming devoured them.

Some fell upon the rocks,

where they did not have much earth,

immediately sprang up.

Because they did not have depth of earth, and it was withered.

Some fell among the thorns,

that the thorns came up and choked them out.

Some fell upon the good earth and bore fruit,

some an hundred, some sixty, and some thirtyfold,

one having ears to hear, let him hear.

Then, we have the interpretation given by Jesus of that parable

in verses 18-23.

We go on and read,

You therefore hear ye the parable of the sower.

Everyone hearing the word of the Kingdom and not understanding it,

the evil one comes and sees the things that are sown in his heart,

this is the one sown by the roadside.

This one sown upon the rocks, this is the one hearing the word,

immediately with joy receiving it,

but he does not have root in himself,

but is for a season affliction or persecution coming about

on account of the word,

immediately is he made to stumble.

The one sown among the thorns,

this is the one hearing the word and the worries of the age

and the deception of riches chokes out the word

and it becomes unfruitful.

The one sown on good ground,

this is the one hearing the word and understanding it,

who indeed bears fruit and makes some an hundred,

some sixty and some thirty-fold.

We have in these four classes of people represented.

I have made the first one,

the one sown by the roadside or wayside,

unsaved people who hear the Gospel message.

They are so involved in the things of the world

that they just throw it off

and it never makes a dent or impression on them.

Then, the second group is the seed sown on stony ground.

I made those likewise unsaved people whose influence is swept along

with every new movement that comes along.

So as unsaved people,

these profess religion and join the church,

and go on and when the going gets a little rough

they just abandon the whole thing.

Then, we go to the third group,

the seed thrown among thorns.

I made those saved people who go so involved in the things of the world

that the spiritual angle of their life was kept choked down

to where they did not bear fruit to God.

Last, we have the fourth group, of course,

the seed sown in good ground.

These are saved people who walk uprightly according to the Word of God,

and bear much fruit.

personal salvation

is not the vital and primary matter under consideration in this parable.

We will just presume that all these four groups are saved people.

To the first group,

the appeal is made to come into a real church of Jesus Christ,

and serve God in the only way and place that is acceptable.

Oh, our church is just as good as that one,

I can live just as good a Christian life

out of the church as I can in it.

There are people like that and you know it just as well as I do,

and saved people at that.

That would be the first group, the seed sown by the wayside.

Then, the second group, sown upon the stony ground.

Jesus said of the Jews,

John the Baptist came as a bright and shining light

and some of you rejoiced for a season in his light.

Then persecution came and they departed.

Well I think there is such a thing as people getting saved,

hearing the church truths and the church doctrine,

joining the church and starting out with enthusiasm and good intentions.

Then, there comes about some unpleasant things.

There comes a matter of going to church when the weather is not so good.

There comes the matter of being ridiculed

for the doctrinal stands we take,

and many other things.

These folks have just not enough resolution

to go through with a thing like that.

That is, those who were actually saved.

They join the church, come to church a few times,

and you never do hear from them, or of them any more.

The third group,

the seed sown among the thorns has a distinction

from the seed sown on stony ground

that has given me more trouble than any other thing

in this particular passage.

The only distinction I can make clearly between the two is this:

that the seed sown on stony grounds indicates those

who depart from the faith for religious reasons.

The seed sown among the thorns indicates those

who depart from the true faith for a worldly reason,

making money, keeping up in society and that kind of thing.

I repeat as we leave this parable of the sower

that I am inclined to think that is the real interpretation of it.

It is how various groups of people respond

when that appeal comes to actually take up the Cross

and walk in the footsteps outline for us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

I would like for us

to sketch over all this groups of parables if we possibly can do so.

We will go ahead and try to deal with them briefly.

Matthew 12:24-30, Another parable he set forth to them, saying,

the Kingdom of Heaven is like to a man sowing good seed in his field.

While the man slept,

his enemy came and sowed imitation wheat in the midst of the wheat

and went away.

When the grass grew and made fruit,

then the imitation wheat was manifest.

The servants of the household are coming forward said to him,

Lord, is it not that thou sowed good seed in the field?

Whence then does it have imitation wheat?

The servants said to him doest thou wish going forth

that we gather them out?

He said, No, that lest gathering out the imitation wheat,

you allow to gather with it the wheat.

Permit them both to grow together until the harvest

and the season shall we say to the reapers,

gather ye first the imitation wheat and bind it into bundles

that it may be burned,

and the wheat gather ye into my storehouse.

As long as I saw that the wheat are the saved and the tares,

or imitation wheat are the unsaved,

I had trouble with the proposition

that the tares are gathered together into bundles

before the wheat is harvested.

The way I would read my Bible,

the wheat is supposed to be taken out of the world first,

and then the tares judged and burned later at the White Throne judgment,

so I always had a lot of trouble with it

when I tried to deal with it like that.

We have the interpretation of that,

Now, dismissing the crowds,

He came into the house,

His disciples came to Him saying,

Recount to us the parable of the imitation wheat of the field.

He answered and said,

the one sowing the good wheat is the Son of man,

the field is the world,

the good seeds, these are the sons of the Kingdom,

and the imitation wheat are the sons of the evil one.

An enemy sowing them is the devil,

and the harvest is the consummation of the age.

The Son of Man shall send forth His angels and

they shall gather out of His Kingdom all the things

that causes ones to stumble, and ones doing lawlessness,

they shall hurl them into the furnace of fire,

and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Then, the righteousness ones shall shine forth as the sun

in the Kingdom of their Father,

ones having ears, let them hear.

The one sowing the good seed is Christ, or the Son of Man,

and the good seed shall be the heirs,

or the mature sons of this Kingdom.

The tares are the heirs,

or mature sons of the devil.

The ordinary sinner out here on the street is not the son of the devil, in my estimation. It is folks who have ultimately committed themselves to falsehood and error in religion, who are recognized by the Bible as the mature sons of the devil. Here is what I believe about this parable of the tares in the wheat field.

I believe that Jesus came

and established His church in the world on New Testament principles.

The devil then came

and sowed false churches all over the Christian realm in the world.

These false churches look more or less like the truth

and the ultimate of these religious bodies that are called churches.

Of course, there are ways

that we identify most of them now as likely being true or false.

But the ultimate test in my estimation is

that in the last days all of the false churches

are going to proclaim and accept the Antichrist as Christ,

The saints are going to be taken out of the world,

the church is going to be raptured in that group.

Then the real sons of the Kingdom will shine in the Kingdom of the Father.

Mark 4.

26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God,

as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day,

and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself;

first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth,

immediately he putteth in the sickle,

because the harvest is come.

It is not in the seven parables given in Matthew 13.

It teaches us that God has a hand in Kingdom affairs.

He directs the great overall movements.

The Kingdom runs the course that God has foreseen

and comes to its ultimate conclusion

then it the time of the harvest.

When mankind in general has made his final decision

that he wants the devil for the god of this world,

he wants Antichrist for his Christ,

the harvest is going to come.

We go back to Matthew 13.31

31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying,

The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed,

which a man took, and sowed in his field:

32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds:

but when it is grown,

it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree,

so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

We have a plant which is by nature an herb,

coming from a very small seed.

This particular mustard did not stop at being an herb,

but it grew up to a mighty tree,

and overgrown thing, a monstrosity.

Jesus established the Kingdom of saved people

who hold to and carry out His Word in the world.

As already indicated the devil got into this Kingdom business.

He created all these false and counterfeit churches and they said,

“We are the Church of Christ.

We speak the word of God,

and we speak with God’s authority in the world.”

The trouble is, from man’s point of view,

and that is the viewpoint we have here,

the viewpoint of mankind.

We do not know who is saved and who is not.

We may have a pretty good idea about who is teaching Bible truths,

but the religious world in general

does not know who is and who is not telling religious truths.

Therefore, the Kingdom, the religious world can not distinguish

between the true and the counterfeit.

Thus, the Kingdom of God is a monstrosity,

composed of what is commonly called the Christian world.

Only a fraction of it is legitimate,

and that is the departure from our original definition

that the Kingdom is probably composed only of the saved.

That is true from God’s viewpoint.

However, man’s viewpoint is that the Kingdom is probably

composed of all those who say they are saved.

There are a lot of folks in that group who are not really saved,

therefore the Kingdom is a lot larger from man’s viewpoint

than it is from God’s viewpoint.

Next we have a repetition of the parable in

Luke 13.

18 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like?

and whereunto shall I resemble it?

19 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden;

and it grew, and waxed a great tree;

and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.

Mark 4.

30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?

or with what comparison shall we compare it?

31 It is like a grain of mustard seed,

which, when it is sown in the earth,

is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:

32 But when it is sown, it groweth up,

and becometh greater than all herbs,

and shooteth out great branches;

so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

Not only does this mustard plant grow into a monstrosity,

but the buzzards come and roost in it.

This is exactly what happens.

Buzzards are false leaders in the religious world.

They wear their collars hind part before,

either literally or figuratively, usurp the place of Christ,

and the New Testament in speaking and acting in authority.

We have next the parable of the leaven,

And he said, To what shall I liken the Kingdom of God? It is like to leaven which a woman takes and adds three measures of meal until all is leavened.

That is one of the most difficult of these parables,

for the same simple reason that Jesus said the church

should continue until the end of the age,

but the church has become badly polluted down through the age.

I am afraid that today we are not standing just foursquare

upon the Scripture teachings

as did the church in earlier centuries of this age.

I am afraid that we are leavened with doing things

because the Protestant world is doing so and so.

I do not believe the church is going to apostatize,

so far as that is concerned.

But, I do believe that we, as Baptists,

in this modern day have picked up a lot of things

that are a great hindrance to us rather than a help.

That parable is also given in

Matthew 13:33,

but let us go on to

Matthew 13.

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house:

and his disciples came unto him, saying,

Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

37 He answered and said unto them,

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;

38 The field is the world;

the good seed are the children of the kingdom;

but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil;

the harvest is the end of the world;

and the reapers are the angels.

40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire;

so shall it be in the end of this world.

41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels,

and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend,

and them which do iniquity;

42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire:

there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

next to the hidden treasure.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a treasure hid in the field,

which a man finding, hidden from his joy, goes and sells all things which he has and buys the field.

He buys this field in order to get the treasure.

Christ gave Himself up for the whole world, but Ephesians 5.25

tells us that Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for it.

that is, to my notion, that the hidden treasure is the church

that was an extra attraction under Christ,

that He paid the price for the sins of the world.

Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man,

a merchant man seeking good pearls and finding one highly valued pearl.

Going away, he sold all things whatsoever he had and bought it.

The difference between the hidden treasure and the pearl

is that he bought the field to get the hidden treasure.

In this instance he bought only the pearl,

teaching us that Christ paid the price both for the whole world,

and this special treasure,

which I take to be the church.

The parable of the net.

It says, The Kingdom is like a net which is cast into the sea

and gathers all kinds of goods, both good and bad,

and when it is filled they draw the net upon the shore;

they sit down and gather the goods into vessels

and they cast away the bad.

The application is,

in the end of the age the angels will come and separate the righteous men

from among the just,

and to my mind, that parable is practically identical in its application

to the parable of the tares and the wheat field.

It is simply the separating of that which is true and legitimate.

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