THE KINGDOM OF GOD 2
THE KINGDOM OF GOD 2
The first New Testament reference might be entitled,
“The King Proclaimed,”
Speaking of Jesus,
- 32 He shall be great,
- and shall be called the Son of the Highest:
- and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
- 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever;
- and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Christ is to be King, and not only that,
He is to rule over the house of Jacob forever.
The ultimate goal of the Kingdom of God,
is righteous men under Christ, ruling the earth in righteousness.
We do not have that condition prevailing now,
though I shall offer proof,
that the Kingdom does exist at the present time.
The millennium is the time when righteous men under Christ
will rule the earth in righteousness.
The church will have the ruling part of that fullness of the Kingdom in the millennium,
but we note from the scripture just read that Israel, as a nation,
also has a part in this Kingdom.
Christ shall rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and so far as the millennium is concerned,
Christ and His saints shall rule over the nation Israel
and the other nations of the world in righteousness.
As the thousand year reign comes to an end,
and we enter into the Heaven Ages,
that both the Church and the nation Israel will maintain their identity forever.
So, that is our first Kingdom reference,
wherein the king is proclaimed, Jesus of Nazareth as the one who should be the king
and reign over the house of Israel forever.
Thus far, we have only the king and Kingdom idea, and the house of Israel.
The church, as such, has not come into the picture at all,
though it does necessarily come up later.
The second New Testament reference is Matthew 2.
- 1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king,
- behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
- 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?
- for we have seen his star in the east,
- and are come to worship him.
This is the account of these mysterious wise men who came from the east.
The significant thing about this passage is these men from the east,
in some way by revelation from God,
by some of the ancient writings had the idea
that one was to be born to become a king of the Jewish people.
They had seen this guiding star in the east.
They had followed its direction to Jerusalem,
and were seeking Jesus of Nazareth who was to be king over the nation Israel
That is all the Kingdom references we have at the time of the birth into the world.
We next pass over that span of approximately thirty years from the birth of Jesus
to the time He left his private manner of life and launched out on His public career in the world
to fulfill His public ministry.
- 1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
- 2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The ministry of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus
has begun and we are told the burden of his message
Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand
Matthew is the only gospel writer who mentions the Kingdom of Heaven.
Some make a distinction between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven,
which I have never been able to see.
John does not say that the Kingdom is an accomplished fact.
He does not say it is established.
He does not even say He is going to establish it.
In fact, He did not.
He is paving the way for establishing of the Kingdom and the coming of the King,
who is to establish the Kingdom,
who is Jesus of Nazareth, both the Son of God and the Son of Man.
The Kingdom is at hand is as far as John the Baptist went
with reference to the establishing of the Kingdom.
The next Kingdom reference is
- 48 Nathanael saith unto him,
- Whence knowest thou me?
- Jesus answered and said unto him,
- Before that Philip called thee,
- when thou wast under the fig tree,
- I saw thee.
- 49 Nathanael answered and saith unto him,
- Rabbi, thou art the Son of God;
- thou art the King of Israel.
That is a peculiar situation of the meeting between Jesus and Nathaniel.
Before the two of them ever got together Jesus said of Nathaniel,
- Behold an Israelite, indeed in whom there is no guile.
Then after they entered into conversation, Jesus brought up a strange incident.
He said, Nathaniel, before Philip ever called you,
while you were back yonder at home,
underneath the fig tree, I saw you then, or I knew you.
I knew what was going on in reference to you.
My guess would be that back yonder under that fig tree a month ago,
or maybe ten years ago, Nathaniel had been convicted of sin,
had put his trust in Christ, and was saved;
that he experienced the New Birth.
If that is so, and it seems evident to me that it is,
then the meeting between Jesus and Nathaniel does not indicate the personal salvation of Nathaniel,
which he probably had for some time before.
Significant rather is the calling of a saved man unto Jesus to become His disciple.
For our present purposes the significant thing when Jesus told Nathaniel
that He already knew things that Nathaniel knew that He did npt have any reason to know
from the natural or human standpoint.
Nathaniel made a great confession.
He said in substance,
It is just bound to be then,
that you are the Son of God, and you are the king of Israel.
That is interesting.
It reveals to us a great spiritual insight and understanding of the New Testament writings
as to who and what nature of man that was to be who was to become the King of Israel.
Israel chose Saul as their first king.
They accepted David as their second one,
Solomon as the third one.
No doubt many of them thought that each of these three men
was the prophesied king of the Old Testament scriptures.
But all along there seemed to have been those who had a deeper insight in things
and understood in a more or less clear manner
that it must be through the God of Heaven.
He must come down to earth that the Kingdom would be established.
Thus, Israel would be lifted out of that bondage in which they were held
from the political, economic and religious standpoints.
This completes the Kingdom references
that have to do with the first year of the public ministry of Jesus.
We will have to turn aside just for a moment here to explain the phases of His ministry.
The ministry of Jesus was divided into one year periods,
marked by the yearly Passover Feast that was held in Jerusalem.
The reason for that was that Jesus went yearly to Jerusalem to the Passover.
There He met the religious leaders and authorities of the Jews.
From the very beginning of His ministry almost,
there was conflict between Him and them.
Apparently, the cause of that fact was when the Passover Feast was finished,
Jesus would leave Jerusalem and Judea and go back to the northern region of Galilee
where he got a more favorable reception generally among the people.
So, in a manner of speaking,
it was one of the high points of His life from year to year
as He went to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast.
So, what happened was that sometime during the year between the two Passover Feasts,
Jesus went to John at the Jordan River and was baptized and continued His ministry.
Then, until the next Passover Feast came up and thus far,
the Scripture readings that we have given,
that is that have to do with the time after Jesus began His public ministry
happened between His baptism and the next Passover Feast that came up.
Then, He went to that first Passover Feast after His baptism.
It was while He was still in Jerusalem at that period of year
that Nicodemus came to Him as recorded in John 3.
Our next Kingdom reference is given from
- 1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
- 2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him,
- Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God:
- for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
- 3 Jesus answered and said unto him,
- Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
- Except a man be born again,
- he cannot see the kingdom of God.
- 4 Nicodemus saith unto him,
- How can a man be born when he is old?
- can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
- 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
- Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
- he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Many Baptists have taken the position that the church is the Kingdom.
I think rather that the Kingdom is composed of all the saved in the world at a given time.
That the church is the executive body of that Kingdom,
meaning by executive body that group to whom Jesus has given the Great Commission.
The Great Commission is not given to the saved,
it is given to the church.
So, the group composing the churches who have the Great Commission
are given authority to carry out, or execute the laws of Christ in the world.
That is what we mean by saying the church is the executive body of the Kingdom.
We do npt mean to remotely imply that the church makes any spiritual laws whatsoever.
It does execute the laws that Christ and the apostles have given in the New Testament scriptures.
The new birth is the way of entrance into the reality of the Kingdom.
Nicodemus says to Him
- How can a man be born when he is old?
- can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
He, of course, thought that Jesus was talking about the natural birth.
Evidently, that is the only birth that Nicodemus knew,
though he was a great religious leader and teacher.
- 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
- Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
- he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That being born of water and spirit is a passage that has puzzled people much.
The water and spirit may mean the same thing there.
The sense of it is, except one be born of water, even the Spirit of God,
he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
Constantly throughout the scriptures,
water is used as a type of figure of the Holy Spirit.
It seems to me that the fundamental teaching is
that the New Birth is the way of entrance into the Kingdom of God.
- 12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison,
- he departed into Galilee;
- 13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum,
- which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:
- 14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
- 15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim,
- by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
- 16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light;
- and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
- 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent:
- for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The thing that puzzles me is that He took up this message,
seemingly only after John had finished his ministry and had been cast into prison.
So, it is still an announcement that the Kingdom is right at the door,
not an established fact as yet, but is near.
We pass then to
- 43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also:
- for therefore am I sent.
His disciples wanted to claim His full attention
and direct all of His attention and energies to one particular place.
He reveals in this statement that it was His duty,
it was His goal to go throughout the land and proclaim the Kingdom message to all of the Jews.
The Kingdom message was only to the Jews at this time.
When Jesus directed His disciples not to go to the Gentiles,
to rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
the goal of Jesus was to form this Kingdom and center it in and around the Jewish people.
This was because that every Jew was to repent and enter the Kingdom.
Then, those of other nations were to be brought into that Kingdom economy
that was to be centered around the Jewish people.
Well, we pass from Luke 4.43
with the observation that the mission of Jesus was to go throughout the land
and enlist people in the Kingdom of God.
Now, that is a mysterious thought to some people and one that many reject.
It is not a bit more strange, or out of harmony at all
than the fact you admit that not all the saved people in this town are not here in this church.
I believe that every one of you will admit
that there are some saved people in the other religious bodies in this town,
some of which, at least, you do not even recognize as churches.
I believe you will admit that there are probably saved people in this town
who are not affiliated with any religious group as far as that is concerned.
They are just standing alone and isolated out yonder as the children of God.
If we will admit that much with reference to the situation
that we all know exists among us today.
I do not see why in the world we will not admit
that the mission of John the Baptist and Jesus was two-fold.
In the first place, it was to call together people who were already saved,
and get them enlisted in this new group and movement that was proclaimed as the Kingdom of God.
Then, on the other hand, they did exactly the same thing we would do in our evangelistic endeavors.
They went out and called on the lost,
they got them saved first.
But, they did not stop there by any means as modern evangelists are prone to do.
They went on and scripturally baptized those new converts
and brought them and enlisted them in this group,
everywhere heralding the gospel of the Kingdom,
healing every sickness and infirmity among the people.
Now, there is an interesting connection there,
that He went about all the land of Galilee teaching in their synagogues.
I supposed there is where the congregations came together to worship.
But Jesus, being a Jew and being under the law,
had been accustomed to going to the synagogues all His life,
preaching the gospel of the Kingdom.
Here is the striking thing:
As He preached this gospel of the Kingdom,
He healed every sickness and every infirmity among the people.
Now, those two things are coupled together so frequently
that it becomes striking to me.
I have already pointed out that the fullness of the Kingdom is the millennial reign.
When Christ shall be the God and King of the whole world,
when righteousness shall be the governing principle,
and peace shall cover the whole earth.
There shall not be sickness then,
there will not be crippling infirmities, sorrows and disappointments among people in general.
Here to me is a logical case:
Jesus said, Repent ye for the Kingdom is at hand.
Or, maybe by this time, the Kingdom has already become an established fact.
Well, the Jews said, “This is something new.”
Well, in a way it was.
- “We would like to know about it,
- we would just like to know just what this Kingdom amounts to.”
I am as certain as anything in the world
that Jesus did those works of healing partly to demonstrate and to show those Jews
what the Kingdom of God would be when it came in its fullness.
And, I am inclined to think that Jesus offered that Kingdom almost,
if not entirely in its fullness to the Jews at that time.
They crucified the Messiah instead,
There are two companion statements that are repeated a number of times.
He preached the gospel of the Kingdom,
He healed sicknesses and diseases among the people.
That brings us through the second year of the public ministry of Jesus in the world,
approximately a year and a half of His public ministry,
and there are only about two years of His public ministry left.
As we draw nearer and nearer to the cross,
the Kingdom references increase in number,
and the nature of the Kingdom teachings change.
That is what is really interesting about the whole matter.
As we enter into this period following the second Passover
which Jesus engaged in after beginning His public ministry,
the first situation that comes up is the Sermon on the Mount.
It was a year and a half or two years after Jesus began His public ministry
and had disciples about Him that He preached the Sermon on the Mount.
It was addressed specifically to His church
and deals largely with the contrast between the old working rules of the law of Moses
and the new working rules
that are to prevail in the Kingdom in this the church dispensation of the world.
- 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit:
- for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
There are some competent Bible students
who have taken the position that the Kingdom does not actually exist now,
will not exist until the millennium.
This promise is in the present tense,
that blessed are those who are poor, meaning humble,
as opposed to proud and haughty,
in their spirit beings and in their spiritual dealings,
because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
That is closely allied to what Jesus taught Nicodemus in John 3
that it is those whose hearts have been made right by the New Birth
who have a right to citizenship in the Kingdom of God.
- 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake:
- for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Essentially the same idea that it is those who have humbled themselves in the sight of God,
have received salvation and received the spirit of walking in repentance and faith before God
who are worthy of citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven, or the kingdom of God.
Then we pass from those statements from the Sermon on the Mount to
- 20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said,
- Blessed be ye poor:
- for yours is the kingdom of God.
That is parallel to the statement in Matthew
Matthew calls this thing the “Kingdom of Heaven,”
and Luke calls exactly the same thing the “Kingdom of God.”
How does Mr. Scofield and Baptist preachers then
make a distinction between the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of Heaven
- 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments,
- and shall teach men so,
- he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven:
- but whosoever shall do and teach them,
- the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
- 20 For I say unto you,
- That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
- ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
We have the law of Moses under consideration, including the Ten Commandments.
The new dispensation and the old overlap
from the baptism of Jesus
until the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.
So, if you please you have a church operation under the law of Moses
for a period of about three years, at least.
And thus, Jesus tells them they were still under the law,
not that they would lose citizenship in the Kingdom for breaking the law,
but that they would be called least in the Kingdom
if they did not keep those Mosaic precepts.
The ones who did keep them would be called great.
- 20 For I say unto you,
- That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
- ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
(Only made righteous by the blood of Jesus}
- 9 After this manner therefore pray ye:
- Our Father which art in heaven,
- Hallowed be thy name.
- 10 Thy kingdom come.
- Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
The Kingdom view there is future.
The disciples are to pray to God to let His Kingdom come.
Not a present thing, but a thing to desire in the future.
Many, probably a large majority of the New Testament Kingdom references are future.
And, refer to that future manifestation of the Kingdom in that period we call the Millennium.
So, the disciples were to pray to God,
let this Kingdom come.
There is not a reason in the world that I can see why we should not pray the same prayer today.
The Kingdom exists in its spiritual phase and aspect.
It does not exist in the material sense.
It is a thing to be ardently longed for by us,
that the Kingdom should come in the sense that God should rule over this material creation.
- 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
- shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
- but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
- 22 Many will say to me in that day,
- Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
- and in thy name have cast out devils?
- and in thy name done many wonderful works?
- 23 And then will I profess unto them,
- I never knew you:
- depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
There are two ways to look at this passage of scripture.
The Lord never knew certain people would mean
that though they were religious, though they had professed some kind of a hope,
that they were not saved.
Therefore, Christ denies them in the day of the coming of that millennial Kingdom
simply because they are not saved.
There is a strong possibility, if not a probability that something else is meant.
In kingdom activity the great unit of work is not individuals,
but a church of Jesus Christ.
The Commission is given to the church, as such.
The outstanding unit under consideration in the New Testament scriptures in general is the church?
There is the personality of this church, as such.
There is the doctrinal stand of this church, as such.
There are the practices of this church, as such.
If you, as an individual agree to all of those things,
your destiny will be the same as that of the church.
Individually, if you do not agree with the voice and stand of the church,
your destiny will be just as different from that of the church.
He may be talking here about ones
who make claims from the religious or denominational standpoint.
What have we done as a religious group?
We have prophesied in thy name, we have cast out many demons,
we have sprinkled many babies, we have preached falling from grace,
we preached baptismal regeneration,
and Jesus will profess to that church or religious group,
I never did know you because I never taught anything like that.
When it comes to individual judgment,
the same decree will go forth to those who have practiced those things concerning their works,
even though they might be saved.
I am going to get down to brass tacks.
If you are going to make an individual application of this thing,
there will be a saved Methodist preacher who will stand before Christ in judgment
and begin to talk about how many babies he has sprinkled,
how hard he taught that nonexistent universal, invisible church.
Jesus will say, “I do not know anything about such deals as that.
I do not know you concerning such works as that.”
Though the man himself might be saved,
and according to 1 Corinthians 3,
having all his works burned up.
Saved, so as by fire.
Well, those things are rather complicated,
but I suggest that as a possible explanation is that Jesus says He never knew them.
You may have it that it is just unsaved religious people if you want,
but do you think for one moment that the Catholic church as such
is going to stand in judgment before Christ and be accepted of Him?
No, we do not believe anything like that at all.
I am suggesting that as the possible application of the scripture just read.
I would like to read just one more passage.
- 11 And I say unto you,
- That many shall come from the east and west,
- and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
- 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness:
- there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Here many are coming and taking their places in the Kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
It has to be the millennium.
The "children of the kingdom" must be unsaved
they are cast into outer darkness. (hell)
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