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Now, our topic, as I have announced for these three seminars, God will- God willing, is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God in the past, the Kingdom of God in the future, but with special reference to the Kingdom of God in our day and age. Indeed, I should like to put its main emphasis there. Because of that, it may seem to you that some of the things that I shall say will border on the controversial. If that happens, have mercy on me, for I am a very old man.
And assisted euthanasia is not thought to be ethical. At the same time, let me take advantage of this numerous class to get your help in cooperating. Now, they, various people have whispered into my ears all sorts of things about microphones and DVDs and videos quite beyond my understanding. So I'm not sure whether, when you, uh, make your contribution or give your answer, or more importantly, correct me where I need to be corrected, whether your voice will appear or your face in the right quarters.
I shall do my best to hear you and have a genuinely profitable discussion. It seems to me good to start off our thinking about the kingdom of God by reminding ourselves of the various meanings and connotations of the word kingdom. It can mean the kingly rule of some sovereign. I would quote in that particular, say, the book of Daniel chapter four and verses thirty four to thirty five, Where it says, and at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that lives forever.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. Quite clearly, that phrase, those phrases are not turning to, uh, concerning the geographical extent of the kingdom of God, but rather its endurance. It is talking of the kingly rule of God. And that is a usage of the term kingdom that occurs elsewhere, and we shall find it helpful to remember it when we come particularly to the New Testament.
Then the word kingdom can have a different connotation. It can refer to the people who accept or live under the rule of some potentate, and in many a context in scripture, people who live under the rule of God. Such a passage, of course, is Exodus chapter nineteen with its many echoes in the New Testament. Exodus nineteen, God speaking to Israel at Sinai, verse five.
now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. Where the term kingdom is not so much referring now to the actual rule of the sovereign, but to the people that form his kingdom, in the sense of the people that are under his dominion.
The term can be used territorially. We, uh, read about the sphere of the, uh, territory over which a king rules. The devil took our Lord up a mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth in a moment, all the various realms in which monarchs and others wielded their power. Then sometimes the kingdom is described as belonging to different spheres.
We are told by Paul that God will keep him unto his heavenly kingdom. Or again, our Lord taught his po- uh, disciples to pray according to certain principles, one of which was, thy kingdom come on earth. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In one case, we are thinking of the heavenly division to which Paul was looking forward to go unto his heavenly kingdom.
In the second case, it is a prayer that God's sovereign rule, which sways without opposition in heaven, should one day come, and his kingdom and his will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. Now let us notice, however, an important distinction in the use of the term kingdom of God. In one sense, it refers to the rule of God that always was and ever will be, and has ever continued without interruption.
An example of that would be in Daniel again, uh, chapter, uh, uh, 2 or in chapter um seven. Let's look at Daniel chapter uh four for the moment, eh, four twenty five. Daniel four twenty five. Uh, Daniel four twenty five. here is, uh, the, uh, king, uh, being addressed by Daniel, you'll see, about what is going to happen to him.
And verse twenty five, Daniel says, the discipline shall be such, thou shall be driven from men, thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and thou shalt be made to eat grass as oxen, and shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdoms of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. That has been a permanent truth. There never was a time and never will be when that isn't true.
God, in his sovereign rule, rules still in the kingdom of men. The fact that evil men come to power does not contradict this assertion, for God puts over it whomever he pleases, and sometimes in his sovereign will he allows evil men to seize the reins of power in this or that country. The kingdom of God, then, in that, uh, uh, sense always was, always will be.
On the other hand, the term kingdom is used of what we may call the messianic kingdom, the kingdom of God in the hands of his Messiah, in the hands of the Son of God, the Son of Man. And scripture there is explicit that that kingdom did have a beginning. There was a time when it wasn't. It had a beginning. So let us look in Daniel chapter two for a typical statement of that truth.
Daniel chapter two and verse forty four. And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. You notice the initial phrase, in those days shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom. It wasn't in existence as Nebuchadnezzar stood there talking, uh, as Daniel stood there talking to Nebuchadnezzar.
It was still in the future. A similar thing is said, is it not, in Daniel chapter seven? Daniel chapter seven. Verse thirteen says Daniel, I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man. And he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. There was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. But we notice the time element, when those beasts are eventually destroyed, then there comes one like unto the Son of Man, and he comes to the Ancient of Days, and the kingdom is given to him. That seems to me to be a fundamentally important distinction to make. We talk of the kingdom of God in the one sense as God who has always and will always rule in the kingdoms of men.
But that is a very different thing from what we think of if we're thinking, for instance, of the second coming of our blessed Lord, when he shall come to establish his kingdom over the nations. That is not yet. Though, as I say that, I am aware of serious theologians and honorable believers who hold that our Lord is being the King of Kings, is at this moment our Lord himself ruling, or should be ruling, over the kingdoms of men. I am putting forward the suggestion to you that that could possibly be a confusion in the use of terms.
God rules in the kingdom of men, has never ceased doing it. Our Lord? I have the impression that he shall take the reins of government when he comes. But that, you may think, is the first clear evidence of my aberration from the truth, and I look forward to your corrections, if need be. You'll see. Eh, that kingdom, our Lord, Messianic kingdom, let's read another feature about it.
1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. This is talking about the resurrection. Says that Christ is the first fruits. Then they which are Christ will be raised at his coming. Verse thir- twenty three, sorry, verse twenty four: Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he has put all his enemies under his feet.
Last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And, uh, so we are told in verse twenty eight, and when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all. He must reign until. So now, if we have thought about the distinction in the meaning of the connotations, the different connotations of the term kingdom, and secondly, made a distinction between the kingdom of God, the permanent, always existent kingdom of God, and the messianic kingdom of Christ that had a beginning, and in one sense will have an end, then it seems to me we have established some very clear parameters in our thinking about this topic.
Now let me observe another basic feature, particularly about the way that the New Testament speaks of the kingdom of God. It calls attention to the different phases of that kingdom. So, for instance, we have rightly heard thousands of evangelists preaching the kingdom of God from our Lord's words in John chapter three. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God.
I am presuming, but I, my presumption might be quite wrong. I'm presuming that all of us, or most of us, having, uh, uh, claiming ourselves to have been born again of water and of the spirit, would claim that we have thus already entered the kingdom of God. So let me try to see if my ideas are anywhere near the truth. Those of you who profess to have been born again. Any one of you would say that, yes, you are born again, you have not yet entered the kingdom of God, however.
Hands up. No, no, not, not the one where he's going to be, not the one where we were going to govern with him anyways. Ah, this good man is saying at the front, if you didn't hear him, he's saying, ah, we've not yet entered into the kingdom of God in the sense of when he comes to reign. We haven't yet entered that kingdom. Uh-huh. Sir, oh, there's a man here got a question. Uh, I just also, I never, I consider the kingdom of God to be when we'd be in heaven. When you'll be in heaven? I see. That's very interesting. Let's discuss it.
Unless a man be born of water and the spirit, now I paraphrase it, he will never go to heaven. Is that your understanding? You'll vote that through, will you? Uh, what it's saying, therefore, there is a door into heaven somewhere in the distant future. The term, the terms of getting in are that you shall be born again here in this life, and then when you reach that door, you will then enter the kingdom of God. Mm-hmm. Good? Any to the contrary?
There's a good man down there at the back there, lifting up his hands. The Lord said the kingdom of heaven will be taken. Oh, now you've raised a very interesting question. You better tell us where that is found. Yes, in the Gospels, my good man. Luke 17. Uh, Luke seventeen. what did you say it was? Twenty one. Yes. Now, since you have found the place, my good sir, uh, would you care to read out verse twenty one in a loud stentorian voice so that all around may hear? Luke seventeen and verse twenty one.
Neither shall they say, lo here or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Thank you very much, sir. Now let me observe, if I may, the context of that verse, and to whom our Lord was speaking when he said it. And being asked, the previous verse, being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God comes, he answered and said unto them, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, lo here, lo there, for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.
Is it your feeling, good sir, that the kingdom of God was in the Pharisees? No. Ah. But this will be important, isn't it? Because this is a thing that you will commonly hear from popular preachers, that the kingdom of God is in everybody. You only have to let it out, so to speak. All the potential is there. In my understanding, if you haven't been born again, you are not in the kingdom of God. Yes? So perhaps we ought to listen to alternative translations.
The kingdom of God is within you. Pardon the vulgarism, in, in Greek that ought to be en, the simple preposition en, if it meant within. It is in fact the preposition entos, which doesn't mean within. It means, to paraphrase it in modern English, the kingdom of God is within your grasp. In what sense? Well, standing there talking to them was the king. And he, at that moment, is correcting a one-sided view of the kingdom.
I say deliberately one-sided, because there is a sense in which it is true. The kingdom of God, you'll see, as he went on to say in verse twenty two, said unto the disciples, the days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you shall not see it. And they shall say to you, lo here, lo there, go not away nor follow after them. For as the lightning, when it lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall the Son of Man be in his day.
There is a sense when he comes in power and great glory to establish his reign. You won't need to tell anybody he's come. You won't have to say, look here, you'll find him over there. His coming shall be the li- like the lightning from one end of the firmament to the other. All will see him when he comes to reign. But there's another sense about the kingdom. It seems to me that that is what verse is, um, verses twenty and twenty one are saying.
The other view of it. He answered, the kingdom of God comes not with observation. You can't watch it come. Why can't you? Well, because the kingdom of heaven is within your grasp. The king himself was standing there. There were no signs in heaven above. The moon turned to blood and the sun be darkened. The earth wasn't shaking or the seas thereof roaring. The kingdom of God as come in Christ was not to be observed by that kind of phenomenon.
Why not? I would want to say, but you'll see, you'll say to yourself, well, he would say that, wouldn't he, because it supports his viewpoint. Here our Lord was talking about the spiritual aspect of his kingdom. And certainly John three will support me so far, at least, to say that seeing the kingdom of God is a spiritual thing. You won't even see it if you are not born of God's spirit. And you certainly won't enter it unless you are similarly born of God's spirit, because it is a spiritual thing.
Anybody like to comment? No? Don't hesitate. Colossians 1 and thirteen. Uh, Colossians one and thirteen. would you mind reading it aloud in a loud voice, sir? Colossians chapter one and verse thirteen. who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Oh, you are a lovely man because you agree with me, you see. That verse seems to tell me that I am in the kingdom of God's dear son already.
Anybody like to disagree with me on that score? No? Jolly good. Yeah, you'll say. So is every believer, surely, delivered out of the power and authority of darkness, the kingdom, if you like, of the devil himself, and translated us. You'll notice the verb is in the past tense. He has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Even better if you translate it like it should be translated, into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. All that glorious Son of God that expresses God to the full, because he is the image of the invisible God, and the express image that makes him known to man, and all the love of an infinitely loving God is expressed in God's Son, the Son of God's love, and we have been translated into his kingdom.
Ponder it, my brothers and sisters, and see whether you are going eventually to agree with me, that that means that the kingdom of Christ is a present, a presently existing thing. You don't have to decide on that issue till about perhaps our third, um, session, you'll see. But it's one of the scriptures that I shall appeal to eventually, to say that the kingdom of God's dear Son is a present reality, and we have been translated into that kingdom already. So my thesis there is that the kingdom of God in the hands of his dear son is, at this present phase of it, a spiritual kingdom.
There will be another phase of it. So to get that phase, let's think of one Corinthians once more, One Corinthians fifteen. One Corinthians fifteen and verse 50. And this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
In the sense of kingdom of God that this verse is talking about, we're certainly not in it yet. We are flesh and blood, are we not? Our bodies are subject to decay and corruption. And says the apostles, apostle, I say this very firmly, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. What should be necessary for me to enter that kingdom, that phase of the kingdom, if you like. Do tell me, who would like to venture an opinion on the matter?
What will have to happen to me for me to enter that phase of the kingdom? You got a vote? Resurrected? Yes. Are you hoping I'm going to die first? This man, well, he has a regard to my advanced age, you see, and he says I shall have to be resurrected, and certainly, my good man, if by the time the Lord comes again, I'm dead and buried or otherwise disposed of, I shall have to be resurrected to enter that phase of the kingdom. But I'm still alive when the Lord comes.
What shall have to happen to me nonetheless? Hello? We'll have to put on this incorruptible. Yes, you'll have to put on the incorruption, uh, incorruptible. And that is? Heavenly body. A heavenly body. What the Bible calls a spiritual body. Not because it's going to be made of spirit, of course not. Our Lord's resurrection body, he demonstrated it to the apostles. The spirit has not flesh and bone, said he, as you see me have. Handle me and see. Resurrection body had bone and flesh.
It is a spiritual body, says Paul. But if I were to, uh, you were to ask me, uh, uh, about my car, such as it is, and I asked you about your car, and I said your about what is your car engine, uh, do you say, and you say mine is a petrol, you wouldn't say that, would you? A gas engine. Uh, you would think me more than ordinarily stupid if I said, oh, you think I, uh, you say that your engine and your car's made of gas. No, of course not. A petrol engine isn't made of petrol, or a diesel engine made of diesel, nor an electrical motor made of electricity.
When we say it's a petrol engine, we're talking about the power that activates that engine. Our resurrection body will be a spiritual body because it will be activated by spirit. Oh, glorious thing, but I mustn't be tempted to dwell upon its glories. We are trying to follow out the idea that the kingdom of God in the hands of our blessed Lord is in different phases. And I think we have established that in one phase of it, we are already in that kingdom.
He's translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. In another phase of it, we're not there yet. And for it to happen, the Lord will have to come, raise the dead, change the living, which will put on immortality and incorruption. If, therefore, I have sown or re-emphasized the idea that there are phases in the kingdom of our Lord, now I want to talk, uh, about the first phase in our Lord's kingdom.
And this, uh, can begin to be a bit more controversial, so, uh, sting your eyes and look at it very carefully. Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one. And this is Mark one and verse fourteen. Now, after that John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent you and believe in the gospel. We notice the exactitude of the timing, the temporal cause, after John was delivered up, not before. After he was delivered up. Secondly, that point in history was a very special point. It was a point at which the time was, has been. Up till then it hadn't been fulfilled.
Now the time was fulfilled. And at the fulfillment of the time, our Lord says the hour is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. The Greek verb is engizo, which means to draw near. So literally translated, it means has drawn near. We must try and precise its exact meaning. Is our Lord saying the kingdom of God has now come nearer than it was before, but it isn't actually here? Or is it so that here, that Greek verb has drawn near means virtually has arrived?
We can help ourselves to decide, perhaps by reading from Matthew chapter twelve. Matthew chapter twelve. Verse twenty eight: But if I, by the Spirit of God, cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Here the word, uh, leaves no doubt.
It has come. The kingdom of God in the person of our Lord Jesus, acting in the power of God's Holy Spirit, that kingdom has come his upon you. The first phase, I want to suggest, in the kingdom of God, in the sense of the kingdom of God in the hands of the Lord's Christ. His own words. The kingdom of God has come. We could look back for convenience at this moment to chapter eleven of Matthew, and verse eleven.
Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. Yet he that is but little in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Why so? I stand with those in my thinking up to this point who will say the simple answer is that the kingdom of God, or as here pronounced, the kingdom of heaven, came when John had been delivered up.
Mark told us that explicitly, or at least the Lord did, when John had been delivered up. Then Christ came and said, now the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come. John was the forerunner, pointing to Messiah and the coming of his kingdom. John himself died before that kingdom was established. He was not in it. Yeah. Now, lest you think that this is arid, systematic theology, and you begin to thank God in your heart that God didn't write his revelation to us in systematic theology, but wrote it in Bible.
Well, let me turn to another point to say. The kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God in the hands of Christ, what was it like? Kind of a kingdom was it? And what was his rule like for those that accepted it? In Matthew, sorry. Oh, thank you for that question.
I can, uh, uh, I have only time now to give you a dogmatic answer. Do you see the clock is often an excuse for dogmatism. Uh, do you see? I know the matter is disputed. I personally hold that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are virtually the same, that the difference of language is a matter, uh, of old language, eh, but having confessed and made a clean breast of my opinion, please, uh, do bring it up in the second and third seminars so that they who have stronger reasons can, uh, proclaim them. Good.
What I was about to say now is that the so-called Sermon on the Mount, Matthew five, six, and seven, are instructions not so much for getting in the kingdom, but what the standards of behavior are for those that are in that kingdom. But now let me end this session on a better known theme, and this again is from Matthew eleven. Here is our Lord speaking. Notice, first of all, his authority.
Verse twenty-seven: All things have been delivered unto me of my Father, and no one knoweth the Son save the Father, neither doth any know the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal him. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your soul, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
We shall notice, I say, our Lord's sense of his divine authority. The Father has given everything into his hand. Now he invites us to come and take his yoke upon our necks. Question is, what did he mean by his yoke? Various answers have been given, and perhaps there is truth in all of them. One favorite with many people is to quote the habits of ancient farmers as they plowed their field, and they would have two animals pulling the plow, both under a yoke.
One side would be an ox, and the other would be an ass, and that was most unsuitable. So God forbade putting an ox and an ass together. Not fair on either animal, of course. So others have said they put a senior ox, you know, uh, at least a foreman ox, i- i- in the one side of the yoke, and a beginning ox in the other side. And that, uh, made it easy for the beginning ox to get used to bearing the yoke because the bigger ox took the heavier part of the yoke.
And that, uh, observation has been a comfort to many believers in the difficulties of life. They have felt, yes, they are under the yoke, but it's our blessed Lord who's in the other side of the yoke, and he carries the heavier burden. Let me not rob anybody of that comfort. I'd prefer to start my thinking in the Old Testament, and in particular in the First Book of Kings and chapter uh twelve. This is the story of what happened when Solomon died, and all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king in the place of his father.
So the people came to the king, and they had a proposition to put to him. They said, your father made his yoke very heavy, intolerably heavy. Now you make your yoke lighter, and we will serve you. What did they mean? Your father made our yoke heavy. They're talking about his rule as a king over them. And in his final days, building temples for all his strange wives, he acted the tyrant and made his rule far more rigorous than he had any right to do, as given in the book of Deuteronomy.
And this is what the people are saying. Your father made his yoke very heavy, intolerably heavy. Made his rule, his kingly rule heavy. Now make it lighter, and we will serve. The king consulted with the old men, and they say, yes, you do that, make it easier, and the people will serve you forever. He consulted the young men, and they said, nonsense, make it ten times harder. The king listened to the young men. And when the people came again, he said to them, my father chastised you with whips.
You count that heavy? I shall chastise you with scorpions. Uh, my little finger will be heavier than my father's loins. In other words, I'm going to make the yoke even harder. They said, goodbye. Now you see to your own house, David. And they revolted and never came back. What is the term yoke referring to? It's the yoke of a king, his government, his control.
All delightful words, come unto me, and I will give you rest. There's rest of soul, forgiveness, peace of heart, acceptance with God, marvelous promise made true to all who come to him. Then notice the second bit. Take my yoke. He is the king. And what he asks of us and expects us to do is not only to believe him and receive forgiveness of sin, but to take his kingly yoke upon us.
It's a yoke. Will it be heavy? What kind of a yoke will it be? All the wonder of the answer Christ gives to that age-old problem. Come take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You can see in which way my mind is going, can't you? And you'll have a whole day to think up your answers and problems and disputings, uh, and new ideas.
I welcome them sincerely. But as we go, let's revel in the wonder of it. All the wonder of him who is heir to the Father, and everything this universe through and beyond given into his hand, who invites us to come and he'll give us rest of heart, and then offers us his yoke, expects us to take it, assuring us that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.
Just let's give thanks for that, and then we shall go. Our Father, we thank thee for the coming of thy dear Son. And we thank thee, Lord, that in him the kingdom of God came. And we are delighted by thy grace to welcome him and own him as king. We long since have taken his yoke. Help us to bear it the more manfully and truly we do beseech thee. We say in response to thy word this afternoon, king of my life, I crown thee now.
Thine shall the glory be, lest I forget my thorn crown brow, lead me to Calvary. Amen.
