Address—Doug Buchanan
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We wait for thee, O Son of God, and long for thy appearing. A little while they'll come, O Lord, thy waiting people cheering.
Thus hast thou said, We lift the head in joyful expectation, for thou wilt bring salvation.
We wait for the content to share and patience days of trial.
So meekly thou the Cross did spare our sin, reproach, denial. How should not we receive with thee the cup of shame and sorrow, until the promised Mars 325.
I'd like to continue again today the Councils of God.
Yesterday we went over in brief the 1St chapter of Ephesians, where you have unfolded there the purposes of God gathering together in one all things both which are in heaven and in earth.
And we mentioned about the difference. There is an earthly side to the Kingdom. There is a heavenly side. The heavenly side was not made known in the past. It was a mystery kept secret from the beginning of the foundations of the world.
Now it's revealed and this is what we want to inquire into to search out.
The councils of God, then the purpose blessing intended for each one of us.
Today I'd like to pick up one more verse in the first chapter of Ephesians before we go on to consider some of the aspect of the Kingdom of heaven, the heavenly side. So if we could just turn back to Ephesians one again and read verse 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory.
Who first trusted in Christ?
In whom ye also trusted, after they ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of His glory.
I'd like to call extension to this expression those who first trusted in Christ or I believe the new translation says the pre trusters or those who pre trusted.
Because I believe that is helpful in understanding the characteristic of.
The Kingdom of which we enter into.
The Kingdom of God, The Kingdom of Heaven.
The gospel is preached, and God is calling sinners here on earth to enter into His Kingdom.
The Kingdom hasn't been manifested yet.
It's going to be manifested. We're waiting for its manifestation.
And when the Lord Jesus come back, comes back and manifests himself before the world and power and glory, he's going to have a people with him.
And that's what the Lord is doing today. He's filling those ranks for heaven.
When he comes back, it will be too late to enter into the Kingdom.
The door will be shut, just like the parable of the 10 virgins.
When the bridegroom came, those that didn't have oil in their lamps.
Were locked out.
They knocked on the door. Lord, Lord opened to us. They were professors. Oh, May God spare anybody here from that. But the children of those who have heard the gospel are those probably that are going to be knocking on the outside.
So it's a serious, it's a vital issue here, young people to enter into the Kingdom.
There is a Kingdom being formed, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Here it's called those the pre trusters.
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You trust before the Kingdom manifests itself.
You trust while the king is gone.
Into heaven.
They rejected Him here on earth. He would have formed His Kingdom here on earth had the Jews received him. But they rejected him. The Lord Jesus wasn't going to force the issue at that time. No, God knew that ahead of time. This was all part of His counsels and purposes.
He knew that they wouldn't reject him here on earth, and so he had the plan all worked out. He was going to fill Heaven first.
That's our portion, beloved. That's where we have the privilege of coming into blessing.
Entering into and participating in the heavenly side of the Kingdom.
When it manifests itself, yes, there will be Jews and there will be the nations here on earth.
And he's going to separate them as the sheep and the goats and on the left and the right. And those that are on his left are going to be cast into outer darkness. And those on his right, they're going to enter into the earthly Kingdom. They're going to live here on earth and under his reign participate. And all the promises that were made in the Old Testament are going to be fulfilled to the Jews.
But that's postponed now, as it were, because the Lord has a higher motive. And as we mentioned, the double portion, the paying double, the Lord Jesus is first of all filling heaven. And so I'd like to turn for a few verses in First Corinthians 15.
Just to to show the contrast between these two again.
First Corinthians chapter 15 verse.
45.
And so it is written, the 1St man Adam was made a living soul, The last Adam was made a quickening spirit, albeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural afterward that which is spiritual. The 1St man is of the earth, earthy. The 2nd man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthly. Such are they also that are earthy.
And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Here you have the two men, Adam and Christ contrasted, both of them the beginning of a new creation, a new race.
All of us partake of the first creation or children of Adam.
I trust most partake of the 2nd.
The heavenly, the man that came down from heaven, the Lord Jesus born into his Kingdom, into his family to participate with Christ the One, the 1St man that rose from the dead. He was the first fruits we're to follow afterwards when the Lord comes and he's going to call all his redeemed ones home to heaven to be with him, and then he's going to come back and reign.
Only the pre trusters will be called when the Lord when the shout.
Goes out.
Arise, my beloved. Come up. Hit her.
If that would happen at this moment.
How solemn to think if there was an there was a chair that still had somebody sitting in it. It could happen today, beloved. Momentarily, it could happen.
How wonderful for those that are saved, how wonderful for those who have entered into the Kingdom.
Oh, there's a struggle going on.
The Kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom of God, suffereth violence.
There's a struggle going on.
There's an enemy that would hinder us from entering into this Kingdom.
Not just in being saved, but in possessing the Kingdom to its full extent and really going into it, you know, I like to see it.
When the when we play the games.
That we.
Don't half heartedly play the games.
Now I know that's not the we've had some wonderful messages about how that sports.
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That's not the end, it's only a means.
And our time together here, the fellowship, even it's not the 1St and most important thing. But I don't believe I on the other hand, that we should neglect these things. And but I think that we should do it heartily as unto the Lord. Just because we can't do it to win, or just because we can't do it because we think we're the best, doesn't mean we have to do it half heartedly.
No, On the contrary, for the glory of God we do it, whatever it is.
If we can't do it for that reason, we probably ought not to be doing it, whether it's preaching the gospel or playing a game or helping someone.
All these things, dear young people, are possessing the Kingdom.
Sending our treasures ahead, as it were, and they'll be given back to us then in the eternal Kingdom, because we know all that's here on earth is going to pass away.
But the Lord Jesus died and he rose again, and he's given us of that new life, and that life is never going to die. It's going to go on. It's going to inherit the Kingdom. But what we've done in the body, Corinthians speaks about it as being put to our account there.
And so we won't be losers.
If we do all unto the Lord, if we do it for our King, the Lord Jesus in heaven, he's gone there. He's gone ahead of us, but he's coming back in the meanwhile.
We're as it were, as as John says, in the Kingdom and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ. John the Apostle was on the Isle of apartment when he wrote that.
Suffering and in affliction in bonds.
Because that truth was opposed by the enemy and it wanted to blot it out, but God has not allowed it to be blotted out.
And heaven is going to be full, it says. Every seat in heaven is going to be filled.
And when the last soul is called in, I don't believe the Lord is going to tarry long. I expect the rapture to happen immediately.
Now we bear the image of the earthy. We have our human bodies, our natural bodies. We don't yet have our spiritual bodies, but we have the life now. We possess that now, and we can carry it out, and we press into the Kingdom.
Says flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. That is, you can't get a hold of this by natural means. Nothing of the first man or what he has done is ever going to help us get into the Kingdom of God.
All our human intelligence, all our physical energy, nothing of the 1St man.
Oh, the 1St man still has his place.
And we need to respect it and use it properly, not to have used our bodies. The our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's what we have there in Ephesians than the last verse, the earnest of our inheritance. God gave his Spirit to dwell within us as a guarantee of what's yet to come.
And so by the Spirit we can cry. ABBA Father, we know it. When we're saved, we have that relationship formed with our Heavenly Father.
But it is a struggle. Young people, these two natures, these two kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly, the natural and the spiritual, we all know what that's about, those of us who are saved.
And that's not going to end until the Lord comes. But we have the guarantee.
How it's going to end. So we need not be fearful of that part, but there is such a thing as pressing into it wholeheartedly.
Now I'd like to turn back to Matthew's Gospel.
We might notice a verse in chapter 12 first.
Verse 48 We have the Lord Jesus here speaking to the multitude and his disciples there.
They had they had called the Lord and said his brethren, his mother, and his brethren were wanting to speak with him. He answers in verse 48.
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He answered and said unto him, and told him, Who is my mother, and who is my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren, For whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.
You see here the Lord Jesus was in that time of transition when the earthly side of the Kingdom was about to.
Become a disaster when he was about to be rejected.
He was already beginning to introduce the new because he knew that.
And so he said, he's telling them who his real brethren are, those that hear the word of God and do it, those that follow him, those that are going, are born again, are going to enter into the new Kingdom, the heavenly Kingdom. He was already making preparations for that.
And following in chapter 13, which we want to go over and brief we have.
The Parables The seven parables. The 1St 7 parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.
And this is what I'd like to go over in brief this morning because they give us a view of this Kingdom and how it's being formed, how you get in.
How you really take advantage?
Of your position and bear much fruit. We want to be fruitful Christians, but we don't want our fruit just here on earth. If it was just an earthly fruit we had, what would happen to it? It would be destroyed when the earth is destroyed.
Oh, there will be those that enter into it and possess it, but it's not the calling of the people of God today. And you have to see the difference between these two kingdoms, the earthly and the heavenly, to really understand your Bible. Or, right. And there's so many Christians that confuse this. They go back to the Old Testament and apply it as if we were Jews.
In the Old Testament, by and large was written to the Jews.
And for the earthly side of the Kingdom.
That's why in in Thessalonians, after the Lord speaks about the rapture, when the Apostle Paul had been given the revelation about the rapture, the Lord descending and calling his own home into his heavenly Kingdom.
The first verse of chapter 5 says, But of the times and season. You have no need that I read unto you, for you know. And he goes on and describes how they knew the description of the earthly Kingdom. The Old Testament is full of it promises.
Would be nice to go back and look at some of those.
Well, maybe we might just and we'll just hope we have time in Zechariah just just just so you'll have a, a scripture to to refer to as.
What the earthly Kingdom is?
Zechariah, Chapter 14.
Verse one.
Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy sport in the midst of the.
I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the house is rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of battle, and then he speaks of standing on the Mount of Olives.
Will drop down verse 6 and it shall come to pass in that day.
That the light shall not be clear nor dark, but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at even time it shall be light, and it shall be in that day that living water shall go out from Jerusalem. Half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea. In summer and winter shall it be, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth.
In that day shall there be 1 Lord?
And his name won.
Well, these verses in brief give us a little picture of the introduction to the earthly Kingdom, when the Lord is going to come back down to the Mount of Olives and set up His Kingdom here on earth.
And there are going to be a people on earth.
But I don't want to dwell on this because we don't have time and.
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I think it's more important that we speak about what really directly relates to us.
And our entrance into the Kingdom, though we will come back with the Lord, we will be with Him when he comes back to reign on the earth, and there will be a relationship there in both the heavenly and the earthly.
Now let's return back to Matthews Gospel.
Chapter 13.
I'm not going to read this whole chapter, but we will pick out certain parts of it.
I want to begin with verse 10A. Touch a few points.
And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries.
Of the Kingdom of heaven. But to them it is not given. For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.
But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away, even that he hath therefore speak I to them in parables, because that seeing they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Verse 16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them.
That refers back to the Old Testament Saints that didn't even understand their own writings, and there were little glimpses of the Kingdom and the heavenly side too, and they didn't understand it all.
But he's speaking a part to his own disciples, those who were genuine, He said. But ye see, and I trust that's true of us here. We are those who have the anointed eye. We have been born again, and we have eyes to see and understand, because these things are not perceived by the natural man, neither does the natural man.
Enter in inherit the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God.
These verses seemed a bit strange to me. For a long time I couldn't understand. Does it? Does the Lord not want people to understand? Why is this?
Well, I'll explain it this way.
You see, the Lord was about to be rejected.
It was the earthly people that rejected him.
And he was about to introduce.
The new Kingdom.
And.
The Lord informing that new Kingdom could not.
Openly form it.
Strictly by the earthly relationship that he had had with them.
Just like he had denied his mother and his brethren, and said, Who is my mother and my brethren? He that doeth the will of God, heareth the will of God, heareth the word of God and doeth it. Those are the ones that submit to his position as King.
And if you haven't submitted to the Lord as your King, you will not understand.
These points you will not understand this. It will not enter into your soul. You cannot.
You can read the parable, but it won't make sense to you.
Those of us who have been born again by the new nature, yes, we can enter into, understand, and we need to feed that new nature. We need to grow in it. We need to understand our position in order to walk as good Christians here on earth in order to represent our King. Why? We'll still hear because the King is not here. He's gone into heaven. He's left us here to represent him.
That's why we preach the gospel.
We don't preach a gospel to make the world a better place to live. We don't preach the gospel to tell people to turn over a new leaf and live better.
No, we we preach repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Entrance into the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God does not meet and drink. That is earthly satisfactions. Strictly it's righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
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So for us is the unfolding.
Of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now what is the Kingdom of Heaven?
The Kingdom of God is also used in Luke and I believe they are nearly synonymous terms, the Kingdom of God being more the moral aspect but of the same people.
By and large, the Kingdom of heaven, that gives us to think of the position where it is. It's heavenly, not earthly. And that's what you have here in Matthew, because Matthew was the Gospel written to, particularly to the Jews.
The Messiah, and so it introduces, in contrast to the earthly, the heavenly.
And here in this chapter 13 of Matthew, we have first of all the parable of the sword, which is the formation of the Kingdom. The Lord Jesus had come down from heaven and he started sowing the seed, the good seed, the word of God. And it's by receiving that seed into our hearts that we're born again. We enter into and become a part of the Kingdom.
We'll notice that.
In its wide extent it includes also all those who profess who make a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. And so in its widest extended it includes a lot of them. The Americas and the Christian lands by and large are the Kingdom of heaven here on earth. And it's interesting that other nations that are non Christian recognize us as.
Christian lands and they recognize that Jesus Christ.
Was the author of this? But they see a lot of confusion, don't they?
In the divided state of it and all the misrepresentation that exists.
Of what the King is really like. You could hardly come to a conclusion by observing publicly what the Kingdom looks like to know what Christ is really like, could you? It so failed.
But there is a genuine part of it, and we'll notice that in this chapter. And so we have the seven similitudes or likenesses of what the Kingdom is like, what it really is, and we'd like to go over these in brief.
1St we have the Lord Jesus as the sower. He sows the seed, and it falls some in by the wayside, some on thorny ground, and so forth, And only that which is fallen onto the good ground really brings forth fruit, although there is appearance of bringing forth fruit with nearly all of it until it dies or is trampled and so forth.
Birds of the air catch the seed sometimes.
And that's what often happens when the preaching of the gospel.
The enemy, it works, you know, during a gospel meeting. And he will distract us.
Even a little fly can come along and bother us and get our minds off of it, of the solemnity of the what is being spoken of.
All these things are distractions that the enemy brings along so that the seed will not bear fruit. But God's desire is fruit for him, fruit for Christ, many crowns and glory in in the Kingdom when the Lord is manifested, and all those things that are done for the Lord Jesus now.
Will be put to his account then, and it will bring glory and honor through the Lord Jesus.
For every scene of God who is there and has done something even to a cup of cold water, it says in His name will not lose its reward, and the Lord Jesus will receive the praise and glory for it. Then that's why we don't go to pains about getting praise and thanks here on earth now.
The Lord observed the scribes and Pharisees and that looked for that, and he said, verily they have their reward. That is right now they got it, but will they have it in heaven?
Only if you're really born again.
That is pressing into the Kingdom. We need to press into it. It isn't a question of justice being saved, delivered from hell. Is that enough? Is that all we're looking for? Oh, no, no. We want to have an abundance entrance into the Kingdom. Everlasting abodes. Why? So we'll be important? No, because Christ will receive it there. If we got it all now, I'm afraid he wouldn't get the credit.
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That he deserved to receive.
So you have some bringing forth 3060 and 100 fold.
Now we'll go on to the second parable.
And verse beginning with verse 18.
No, it's in verse 24.
Perhaps we'll read this one another parable. Put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven.
Is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. When the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, dost not thou? Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tears? He said to them, and an enemy.
Done this the servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will send to the reapers. Gather ye first together, first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn.
Now in these.
Next three similitudes we have the Outward View.
What the Kingdom looks like It's what is apparent here on Earth while the Kingdom is being formed.
It isn't the view that God sees of it from heaven, the genuine aspect, but it's the profession aspect of the Kingdom, and that's what we see out in the Christianity Today.
A vast sphere, wheat and tares. Tares are are a weed that looks just like wheat and you can't tell it apart until it gets near the time when the head comes out the fruit.
And when the head comes out of the tares, it looks totally different. It's easy to recognize the difference, but by just looking at the blade, unless you're an expert, you can't tell the difference. And so that's what the likeness is here in the Kingdom of heaven. You look out here.
And it's difficult to tell who are the real Christians and who are the false ones.
Sometimes the false ones put on a better show than the real ones. We get fooled. How many of the disciples recognized Judas?
But the Lord knew him.
He knew it before he chose it.
Well, it isn't our place, thankfully.
To make that decision.
No, our part is to help in the sewing, to sow good seed. The enemy does the sowing of the bad seed, and it brings forth.
No fruit.
And so, thankfully, it's not our position in the Kingdom of Heaven.
To separate.
And pull out the tares. No, let them grow. That's what God said to do here. This is not talking about the Assembly of God, the one body, or the church. This is not talking about those at the Lord's table and the sanctification that we maintain there. That's a different subject. That's not the Kingdom aspect, at least as to the reception at the Lord's Table.
We don't. We could not defile the Lord's name to just because somebody makes a profession was good enough to break bread.
No, that's a total different subject. We got to put that aside for now. We're not considering that. We're looking at the Kingdom of heaven and the vast view that it appears like here on earth today. And that's what we see. Not too difficult to understand this, I don't believe.
That what that is, it's what's noticeable here is that the disciples, when they, when they heard the parable, their first inclination was to go out and pull out the terrors. But the Lord told them, no, that wasn't their place to do that. We learned later in the chapter that he's going to send the angels to do that. The angels in heaven, that's one of their their services and they will do that.
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It says they are gathered first of all in bundles to burn, but I believe that wheat is gathered into the greenery.
First the bundles are burned, afterwards other scriptures. Putting it all together, we understand that order.
So as we are in this Kingdom, yes, we each one must press into it, seek to bear fruit. And if you're just a tear here, if you're just a weed here, you need to be saved, you need to recognize the Lord Jesus in heaven.
He is Lord, He is coming back to take His Kingdom, His heavenly Kingdom. Fill heaven with it.
Now we're going on to the next parable.
The grain of mustard seed.
The least of all seats.
Its own ******* into a great tree, and the birds of the air come and lodge in it and build their nests there. Now this is another public view of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. It wasn't God's intention that Christianity become a great big thing that is used for all different business religious purposes.
And every other imaginable purpose.
People like to attach.
For business promotional reasons, the name of.
The Lord to their thing, thinking that it will be beneficial for business purposes. That's not what God intended the Kingdom of heaven to become. It's grown into that, yes.
We learn later on what really God wanted or the Lord wanted. He wanted that Pearl, that treasure hid in the field. There was something genuine, yes, that he wanted, but to get it, he had to buy the whole field. And he did that.
So the Lord has the right and title of all creation. He has bought the whole field really.
He has right and title to it and he's going to take it one day. Doesn't mean that everybody because he's bought the whole field that everybody saved and that's in the field.
No.
Then we have.
The woman hiding.
In verse.
33 The woman hiding.
The leaven in the 33 measures of meal till the whole was 11.
The tree is the outward view of it, the external view of it.
The leaven is the internal corruption, the bad doctrines.
That are in Christianity Today that are leavening and ruining the true testimony or the Kingdom in its right testimony. And so you have these two differences here.
Work of the enemy doesn't mean there aren't genuine Christians.
And it doesn't mean that the Lord isn't going to have a people in heaven. He's going to have that.
Just because things are so confused today doesn't mean that he's not going to have a people.
Well, I see our time is about in the last three parables. We have the treasure hid in the field, the Pearl, and then the net cast into the sea.
Those are the last three are God's view, what God sees as genuine. And when God looks down on here on earth, he saw a treasure and the Lord Jesus came down to purchase that and he died to purchase it. He paid his precious blood. He bought the field to get not the field, the treasure. That's the Kingdom of heaven, the treasure.
Those are the ones that are going to be called up.
Do well with him there. The Pearl too. The last parable really the net cast into the sea. Sea brings out how the different how the separation process is going to take place.
Similar to the tares and the wheat. And the angels are going to do that. They're going to cast bad aside.
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And they're going to collect the good. And so only the true believers are going to be taken home.
To heaven, to dwell there. The rest are going to be all set aside and that's going to be the end of this age. After that will become the Millennium, and then the earthly side of the Kingdom will be introduced well.
That's in brief, a little resume of the Kingdom of heaven and are entering into it. May the Lord bless it. Shall we pray?