The Kingdom in Essence - The Offer Declined - NT - Part 1

Now can you turn with me please to the gospel by Matthew. Our brother John this morning took us 2,400 years, is that right? And then our brother Brody has taken us about 1,000 to 1,400. I'm going to cover 36 years and that doesn't mean that we're going to have a dawdle, because what we've got to try and get through in an hour and a half is crammed full of the person of Christ.

And one of the things that I would love that we can do this afternoon, maybe in this reading more than any others, is to grasp something of the wonderful person of Christ. That's the pinnacle of all ministry. That's the one who our hearts love.

And despite us trying to look at this whole idea of the kingdom and it's when it's finished and when it'll come again in the great future, if you and I can get something just of the feeling of Christ in our hearts, these Bible readings will have been well worthwhile. So turn with me please to Matthew chapter 1. What I'm going to do is read a number of scattered verses throughout the book. I apologize that they are scattered, but it maybe will be the verses that we will pick up in the discussion and seek to learn something about our Savior.

Matthew chapter 1, verse 1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Drop your right down to verse number 6. And Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife, or her that had been the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Verse number 20.

But when he thought on these things that Joseph, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take on to thee, marry thy wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the Lord, by the prophet saying, behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Now chapter 2, verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem 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. When Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him.

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ or the Christ should be born. And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophets, and thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah, and not the least among, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of these shall come a governor, which shall rule my people Israel. Now chapter 3 please, verse 1. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Chapter 4. Verse 17. Matthew 4, 17.

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Verse 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Now go forward please to chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. Verse 1. Matthew 10 verse 1. And when he had called unto him his disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

Go down to verse 5. These 12 Jesus sent forth and commanded them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not. But go rather to the lost house of the sheep, lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give. Drop your eye down to verse 14.

And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust off your feet. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Now into the next chapter, chapter 11.

And it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding his disciples, his 12 disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, art thou he that should come? Or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again the things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.

Verse 11. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Now go down to verse 28. Come unto me, all ye that labor under 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 ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Chapter 12 verse 1. At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were unhungered and began to pluck the ears of corn to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day.

Verse 9. And when he was departed thence he went into their synagogue, and behold there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him? And down please to verse number 14. Then the Pharisees went out and held counsel against him that they might destroy him.

Verse 50. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother. On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside.

And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake unto them, and he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold a sower went forth to sow. Verse 10.

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. Verse 14.

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah with Seth, By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Verse 34.

All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables, and without a parable spake he not unto them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, and will utter things which have been kept hidden from the foundation of the world. Go over please to chapter 16. Just one verse.

Verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples that he must go unto Jerusalem, and to suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and raised up again the third day. Chapter 24.

We're near the end of the reading, so thank you for your patience. Chapter 24, verse 3. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, or I am the Christ, and shall deceive many.

And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars, and see that ye be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes in diverse places.

But all these things are the beginning of sorrows. Verse 21. For then shall be great tribulation, such as would not since the beginning of the world to this time know, nor ever shall be.

Verse number 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Chapter 25. We're almost finished.

Verse 1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Verse 13. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.

Now, that's our reading, and we look to the Lord to bless it, scattered though it was to all our hearts. Quite a number of years have rolled since 538 BC. Our brother Brody took us to the point where the nation of Israel, first with Assyria, and then with Judah, were brought down into captivity.

And we saw in the last Bible reading how that what God was doing in that captivity was taking an idolatrous nation and placing it in the very center of idolatry to teach them what idolatry was really like. And in 538 we find that they come back up out of idolatry, that little remnant, back to Judah. And they come to Jerusalem, and they start to build a temple, and they set up the altar, and they're starting again to build for God.

Encouraging, isn't it? And one of the things, I think our brother William highlighted it earlier on, and that is that great things for God often start with very small beginnings. And if you look down through the history of evangelism and the history of the work of God, you'll find very often that that which became great for him, it started with just a one or a two. It started with small numbers.

And so we have this little number, and they've come back up into Judah, and they have started to build, they've set up the altar, and they've started to build a house of God. Around about, I think it was 538 BC. When we come to 520 BC, we find the building's not going very well.

They've been persecuted, they've been built their own homes, they've got themselves cast down, and really that which they had came to do to build for God has just stopped. God sends them along in 522 prophets, one called Haggai, an older man, another called Zechariah, a younger man. And they had two messages.

One message was, turn unto the Lord and he will turn unto you. Oh, that we could grasp that ourselves. And the other message that he gave them was that you've got to get on with the building.

And so we find that the children of Israel, they had a will to work and they built the temple. It wasn't as grand as that which had been there before, but they built the temple. A wee while later on came along Nehemiah, and he encouraged them not now to build the temple it was built, but he encouraged them to build the wall.

And the remarkable thing about Nehemiah's ministry was that the people had a mind to work, and the wall was built, I think, in something like 52 days. So it took them far longer to build the temple than it took them to build the wall. You would say we're going well.

They've got rid of their idolatry. They've got the temple built, they've got the altar built. Ezra has been encouraging them back into the word of God, and things are going to go well.

And then Malachi comes along maybe 15 to 30 years later, and he's another message. And his message to them is, you're not really turning to the Lord. You're robbing God.

And what really had happened is this, that when they went down into Babylon, into the center of idolatry, and they came back up out again, they never touched the idols again, but they made an idol of themselves. They never went after the false gods, but they became so preoccupied with themselves. We are the people of God.

We are the people that God has chosen us. We are different to everybody else, that they actually made an idol out of their nation, and they could see no further than themselves. And brethren and sisters, that's just where Israel is today.

You know, whenever God made the covenant promise to Abraham, and God told him that out of him would come kings, and God told him that I would make of thee a great nation, and God told him that in him and in his seed, all nations or all families of earth would be blessed, Israel forgot that. Israel forgot that they were not the focus of God's attention for themselves, but they were the focus of God's attention, that they would be the instrument through which this great kingdom that God has promised, that it would actually come into fruition. And that's where we come to as you draw to the end of the Old Testament.

We have a nation, and they are been robbing God. They've become preoccupied with themselves, and we find that suddenly everything goes silent. It's not a word from heaven.

Malachi's word is ceased, and no more prophets. And then we arrive at Matthew chapter 1. And when we arrive at Matthew chapter 1, what do we get? We get here the announcement or the proximity of the king. There's a message that goes out here to a man called Joseph.

Who's Joseph? He's a man of the house of David. The generation is going to be listed out here, and it's the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David. Isn't it wonderful? After over 400 years, after all of the failure, the kingdom is certainly not in existence.

And we can differ as to when the kingdom stopped. I personally think that it finished in Eden, and all that you have are little pictures of it. You could say that it finished whenever they were taken into captivity.

Wherever it stopped, what we find is that when we come back into Matthew chapter 1 and Matthew chapter 2, God is starting to work again. Lovely to think of it, isn't it? And so we find that in Matthew chapter 1 and chapter 2, we have the announcement of the king, and we have the kingdom coming very near. Moving on from that, when we get into chapters 3, 4, and 10, we find here now not the proximity of the kingdom, but we find the proclamation of the kingdom.

Here's a man, John the Baptist, a rare-looking man, strange in his dress, strange in his food, strange in his manner. He didn't find a big auditorium and go and preach to people in it. No.

He preached, and the people all came out to him in the wilderness. And he's got a message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What was he doing? Was he telling them the kingdom had arrived? No.

What he was saying was the king is coming. He was a forerunner of the Messiah himself, and he's speaking to this nation that has been lax and full of idolatry about itself, and he's saying, now you need to repent because the king is coming. That's his message.

Go from chapter 3 into chapter 4, and we'll find then that the message hasn't changed much, but the person proclaiming it is. Because when we get into chapter 4, we find here now that it's the Messiah himself who's saying it. He's preaching, and he's saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

What is he really saying here? What do we mean when we look at that phrase, the kingdom of heaven is at hand? Does it mean the kingdom has arrived? No. It means that the kingdom has drawn near. That's really what the word means.

How has it drawn near? It's drawn near in the sense that the king is here at last. And the great test of Matthew's gospel is this. This nation that God has chosen to be an instrument through which the kingdom will ultimately come in, and Mark will take us to that tomorrow, is going to first of all accept the king.

That's what the great message is. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, he is not only proclaiming the kingdom, but he is actually showing by his miracles, and by his preaching, and by his teaching, that he is indeed the Messiah that was promised. And the responsibility falls upon the nation that they will, in fact, accept him the Messiah, and thus the kingdom.

When we get to chapter 10 then, we're skipping out a lot. When we get to chapter 10, we find then that the message is proclaimed again. The message has not now been proclaimed by the forerunner, nor has the message been proclaimed by the Messiah, but the Lord has selected out 12 messengers, and he is sending them out, and he is sending them out with power for miracles.

And what's the message he's saying? Now you go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and what are you going to tell them? The kingdom of heaven is at hand. So that in the forerunner, and in the Messiah himself, and in the 12 disciples who have gone out proclaiming the message, what is the message that is going out throughout all of Galilee and all of Judea? What is it? That the king is here, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What a great opportunity for the nation.

You would say that's good. You would say things are going in the right direction. You would say that this is really what the nation was looking for.

They were longing for the Messiah. The prophets talked about it. The nation longed for it, and surely everything is just going to go great.

Sadly, no. When we get to chapters 11 and 12, I have called them the rejection chapters. You would have thought with all the evidence, you would have thought with all the preaching, you would have thought with all the signs and wonders, you would have thought that here is one who has demonstrated emphatically his legal claim to the throne and his ability as the Messiah of fulfilling the prophecies.

You would have said they would have just thrown their arms around him. Chapter 11 and 12 shows no. We find, first of all, they take the very first messenger, John the Baptist, and they put him in prison, and they put him to death.

And then whenever we get to chapter 12, verse 14, isn't it, we find that they took counsel that they might destroy him. Sad, isn't it? That the very one who came as their king, the very one who had the right to reign and the one who will reign, that the very leaders of the people, they decided that we're going to destroy him. What's wrong with them? They still see themselves as the only thing that matters.

They still see themselves as the very idol of their soul, and they have no time for the Lord of glory, and they have no time for the great Messiah. So we find that they reject the king. Then we come to chapter 13.

Chapter 13 marks a big change in the gospel, by the way. Up to chapter 13, you have no parables at all. And then we get to chapter 13, we have seven, or William would suggest eight.

I've already talked to him about it. We have eight parables. Now listen carefully.

These parables are not about the kingdom changing. Okay? These parables are not the kingdom in mystery. These parables are the mysteries of the kingdom.

Now listen very carefully. It has come from reformed theology basis that when Israel rejected the kingdom, that God brought in a whole new idea. That instead of this literal kingdom of Israel, God is now going to have a spiritual kingdom.

That is the church. And that the church replaces or succeeds Israel, and that the promises made to Israel are now being made to the church. Dear brother and sister, I don't believe that that's what scripture teaches.

The promises of the kingdom never changed. The promises of the kingdom were never diluted. And what God promised in the Old Testament in relation to the kingdom, he will fulfill literally upon this earth.

It has a physical content. It has a spiritual content. The kingdom is made up of both.

But what God promised in relation to Israel, he will fulfill. How do we know that? Well, we've already talked about the covenants. That which was lost and destroyed in Eden, God says, no, I ain't going to bring it back.

And sequentially through history at a 400 year intervals, God brings in a covenant. First covenant is Noah. The arena is going to be secured.

The second covenant is Abraham. The nation through which the future is going to be secured. The third covenant is a Mosaic covenant.

The standards that are going to apply in that new kingdom when it comes. Following on from that, we have the government of the kingdom. We've just talked about in the last reading.

We have the throne of David and the one who's going to sit and reign upon the throne of David. And Mark will be telling us, it's not just for a thousand years, it's forever and forever. And then finally, in Jeremiah chapter 31, we have the new covenant.

What's that going to mean? Well, the God is going to take his laws and he's going to write it on the hearts. You know, Israel had showed in the Mosaic covenant that they couldn't keep God's laws. And you and I have shown in our own lives that we couldn't either.

But you know, there's a day in the future where God is going to write his law upon their hearts. And there's going to be that wonderful reign that Mark's going to tell us about tomorrow in the Bible reading. So what's Matthew 13 about then? Well, Matthew 13 is what is going to happen between the first advent of Christ and the second when he comes again.

I'm not going to steal Mark's territory. I'm going to leave a lot to him. But it's what's going to happen between it.

And they are parables of the kingdom. What you will notice principally if you look at them is that the focus in them really is upon what happens in the end. Now there's a problem in the parables and I'll be very interested to hear what my brethren have to say upon it.

Problem number one is this. To what period do they refer? You would say, they refer from when he was crucified until he comes again. Okay.

Now just bear in mind that the truth of the church hasn't been given until chapter 16. So there are two views in relation to what that period is between his coming. The context in Matthew is Jewish.

And there are some who will suggest to us that what he's looking at is the period between the king coming in his first and coming in the second, but not including the church period. Others take it that the view takes a whole lot. And I'll be very interested to hear.

I'm not even saying my view on it yet. They'll be very interested to hear what our good brethren think about it and how we apply these 13 parables. So there we have the coming of the Messiah, his announcement and his presence.

We have the proximity. We have the proclamation of the Messiah. We have the prejudices of the priest and we have the rejection of the Messiah.

And when we get to chapter 13, then the Lord himself in parable form, he opens up what the future is going to be like, particularly what will happen in the end times. Just very quickly before we sit down a little bit in Matthew 13. In Matthew 13, there are two or three questions.

Of those questions, I would judge that the Lord doesn't specifically answer the first one. You'll find the answer to that in Luke 21. But what he does focus upon is the last two questions and they focus upon what will happen at the end of the period of absence.

Now I leave it at that. There's a lot that I haven't said. There's a lot that our brethren can chew upon and help us out with.

And I trust that as we go through these, that one of the things that we will be able to do is see something of the wonder of the person of Christ and how he carries himself and what he says and how he deals with it. A bruised reed, shall he not quench a smoking flax and so on. We'll see something of the contrast between the character of the Savior and the character of those that he came to present himself to.

And I trust that we will enjoy the help of our brethren and more particularly the help of God as we try to glean something for our souls. So when it comes to the opening verse of the gospel, brother Donald, in a sense we're following on quite neatly from the Old Testament, aren't we? Because our brethren know very well, some in the audience may not know, that in the book of Genesis there's a number of generations. A Hebrew word toledoth that occurs 11 times in the book of Genesis.

10 of those are central to the fabric of the book. These are the generations. These are the generations.

These are the generations. The first book in the Old Testament is taken up with genealogies. Our brother Mark has told us that in a Hebrew Bible, the last book in a Hebrew Bible is Chronicles.

For us, it has been divided into two books, first and second Chronicles. For a Jewish person, it wasn't two books, it was one book. The book of Chronicles is front-loaded with genealogies.

Up to chapter 9 of Chronicles, it's all genealogies. And now we step into Matthew. We have left Chronicles, 400 years of silence, we step into Matthew.

And isn't this only the second time that we get the book of the generation, Donald? I'm not sure about that. Go ahead. So it only occurs twice in Scripture.

Genesis chapter 5 in verse number 1, the book of the generation of Adam. We've been moving from Genesis this morning. God's authority vested in a man.

The book of the generation of Adam. And we come now to the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham. No, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

The last Adam. Yes. And again, picking up on the point that's been made on a number of occasions through the Bible readings about God's control over all this.

We're told 14 generations, 14 generations, 14 generations. So you were emphasizing just the orderly spread of the covenants through history. And we're seeing again that history is not just a random jumble of events.

There's a great hand behind it all. And it's all under God's control. I think that's wonderful, Mark.

And it's nice to see that in God's movements in history, it's not sort of plan B because plan A didn't work. It's not God reacting to what has happened because it didn't fit what happened before. But God is very clearly working to, as our brother John talked about last night, purpose, singular.

God is working to a purpose. And as you will take us through tomorrow in the Bible reading, we will see the glorious finale of that purpose. So the proximity here under essence of the kingdom, the proximity, you've encapsulated that word, the kingdom has drawn near.

And that was the message that John gave. That was the message that the Lord gave and later his disciples. The kingdom has drawn near.

What kingdom? It seems that he didn't go into any detail. I mean, we've spent hours trying to define what this kingdom is. But the kingdom has drawn near, right? Well, there are several scriptures, of course, that would coalesce that thought.

Daniel 7 would be key. There was given unto him dominion and glory and the kingdom, that all people, 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.

That kingdom has drawn near. Why? Because the king has come. Yeah.

And I think that that's worth emphasizing because agreeing 100% Donald, what you've said about in Matthew 13, there's not a redefinition of what the kingdom meant. And when this message was announced to a Jew who knew their Bible, they would have understood just what we've been tracing through Old Testament revelation. And I think it's a, use the language of the country, it would be a total beaten switch to redefine language so that what they were expecting when they heard the word kingdom, it was actually something else that Christ meant.

Yeah. And when you go to John chapter three, when the Lord spoke to Nicodemus and said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, he would never have blinked an eye.

He would have known completely. In fact, in all of the gospels and in all of the interactions, there is never once anyone who questions what the kingdom is. And it's very clear that the kingdom is Christ reigning, the Messiah reigning as a man upon earth in the future.

So you've alluded to it, Donald, but I would like you to expand on it. Was there then an offer of that kingdom that brother William has referred to from Daniel chapter seven, was there an offer of that kingdom by the Lord Jesus? No. Yes.

Could you say that a bit louder and more emphatically? No, there was no offer of the kingdom. There was the presence and presentation of the king. So when he came, when the Messiah came, Israel looked forward to the Messiah coming.

That's what they were looking forward to. And the message is now here, the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven draws nigh. In what way? The Messiah himself.

So that they were presented with the king. And had they accepted the king, the kingdom would have come. But we know that it didn't do that.

No, I'm very happy with that because I've sat in Bible readings where that hasn't been made clear. And because of that, you would almost think that there's some kind of theological tension, but there is no theological tension. The kingdom was present.

Luke 17, the kingdom of heaven is among you in the sense that the king was there. Okay. So except the man born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Well, there's a number of people here today and we're born again. Can we see this kingdom? You will. I will.

I'm born again now. Yeah. But you will see the kingdom of God.

And a coming day. And a coming day. You're happy with that? Yes, absolutely.

So we are a people prepared now for that coming kingdom. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. So let us be very clear that we don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as our king. Amen.

Okay. We don't go out as messengers of the king. We don't go out to change this world as a kingdom.

We know him as our Lord and savior. That's our relationship with him. We are linked to him, Christ the head, us the body.

We are not, as it were, propagating the kingdom, but we are proclaiming a savior. What is it? Sorry, Brudy. Go ahead.

I'm just thinking, John emphasized for us in chapter one, verse one, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And I think it's good for us to understand that there can be no righteous basis for the establishment of the kingdom under the new covenant without the cross. Right? So it's a son of David first until chapter 16, when he begins to tell them what things he must suffer and be raised again from the dead.

Then he's the son of Abraham, the son of David presented as a son to the throne in the first part. Again, not a presentation of the literal kingdom, but then the sufferings are necessary as the son of Abraham. I think that's a very important point, brother Brody, because you and I, when we go into the old Testament, whether we look at the prophecy of Isaiah, we see that Christ must suffer chapter 53, whether we look at the prophecy of Daniel in the 70 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself.

And it is important to understand that old Testament prophecy clearly taught that the Messiah would come and the Messiah would be cut off and that he would come again. So what we're having in the new Testament is not a plan B as we've already talked about. It was something that was actually seen in prophetic scripture.

Just in relation to the point you were making Donald about, um, that we don't use, we don't speak of Christ as our, as our King. I've often found Luke 19 very helpful in that respect. There's the, the noble man who goes away to receive a kingdom.

Now there are those who are spoken of as his citizens, but then distinct from them, there are those who are spoken of as his servants. In a sense, the servants were citizens as well, but the relationship that was more important was that they were his servants who had to occupy till he came. And I take it that we can see ourselves in that parable as those who are his, his servants, uh, occupying until he returns to claim his kingdom.

And while it's your reading tomorrow, can I dare ask you, you see us fulfilling that role in the future, not so much as citizens, but primarily as those who reign with him? Yes. Okay. Yeah.

So you have mentioned the kingdom now for us and much of what you've said, I agree with brother Donald, but in the book of the acts, there are seven references and Paul was still proclaiming, even in acts 28, he was still proclaiming the kingdom of God. So isn't there a sense that there is an aspect that even in what we proclaim, we still are proclaiming the kingdom of God. Yeah, we are no doubt about that at all.

There are some who take it that whenever we come to Matthew chapter one and so on that chapter two and three and four, that the kingdom has been presented and they refused it. And that when we get into acts chapter two and chapter four, the kingdom is represented again. I don't take that at all.

I take it that when we get to Matthew chapter 11 and 12 and they refuse the kingdom, that's it. After that, it is on an individual basis where chapter 11, 20 had come on to me all year at labor and so on, um, that the king has been presented. And then when you get to the acts of the apostles, it is not being represented as a kingdom to the nation.

You happy with that? Yes. Yeah. Repent and be baptized.

Yeah. That's not something that happens to a nation. No, that's right.

That's individual. Yeah. Okay.

And Matthew chapter one, then just to pick up what John was talking earlier on, the genealogies, what we're seeing here in Matthew one is the legal right of the Messiah. Isn't that right? Yes. And so what Matthew very carefully traces out that he is legally the one who has a right to claim the throne.

And as the message of the gospel would go out to the, the gospel of the kingdom would go out to these people. They are told to prepare for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Why? Because here is one who has the legal right to be the king.

Just speak a word quickly, Donald, on the difference between the genealogy and Matthew chapter one and the genealogy that we get in Luke, right? The genealogy and Matthew chapter one is a legal genealogy. The genealogy that we have in Luke, if my understanding is right, is not so much the legal one, but the line one. And to show that in the, shall we call it the bloodline? Would that be right to set that Christ as the son of man is the one who rightly can claim to be the Messiah and Matthew's gospel.

It is Christ as a legal, uh, descendant of David who has the right to claim the throne. Right. So it traces Joseph's genealogy, Matthew chapter one, his legal, right? Then, uh, in the gospel of Luke, it is the genealogy of Mary through Nathan.

That's right. And that is, as you mentioned, the bloodline, it's the seat of the woman. And that's appropriate because in Matthew, he's a son of Mark and Luke's gospel.

He's a son of man and Matthew, he's a king, the son of David. So he is one who has all the qualifications to fulfill that divided covenant and he's being presented as such to the nation. The king has drawn near, but they will reject him.

Right. That's right. And, and, and in that sense, the kingdom cannot be found in Israel then established in Israel.

So there's no one else, brother Donald, it's a point that's often be made. There is not a Jew alive at the moment who could prove genealogy to take the throne. That's right.

There is no record that is available at all that would allow anybody else to ever claim the throne. I suppose it's interesting in this chapter, just for our thinking is that here is the one and the, the, the, the men from the East come, where is he that is born King of the Jews? There's another King from the throne, isn't there? His name is Herod. He's not the least bit pleased with that.

So the one who's on the throne more than likely cannot show his lineage and he's out to destroy the King who can show his lineage. And he seeks, he seeks with all his might to do that even at a very young age. So this messenger that came, John the Baptist, the Malachi spoke off the messenger of prepare the way before him.

The Lord said concerning him among them, which are born of women, there has not risen a greater than John Baptist, not withstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. So John was a great man at the best. And yet those that will be in the kingdom are greater than he.

What's your thoughts on that? Well, John wasn't in the kingdom, but those who are in the kingdom positionally are in a far greater position than John was ever in. He will be in the kingdom. There's no doubt about that in the future.

But John came as a forerunner of the King in preparation of a kingdom that had not yet arrived. But those who are in the kingdom, and it's not sort of those who were, but those who are in the kingdom, all those who are in the kingdom are positionally in a far better position than John was. So their privilege, brother Donald, is going to be so much greater because they are following Christ.

John came before Christ. That's right. Yeah.

And as a prophet, he actually saw the fulfillment of the one that he spoke about. So the very fact of John's arrival then should have, in a sense, been a voice to the nation. Had they been reading the Scriptures, one of the things that has come up is the fact that the King wasn't reading the Scriptures, but then the people themselves hadn't been reading the Scriptures because in Malachi, this forerunner was foretold.

They should have known the King will arrive, but before the King arrives, the forerunner will come. What will be the characteristics of the forerunner? You mentioned some preachers dressed different. Is that what you said? Yeah, he had a different dress and he had a different diet.

And I think if any of us dressed and had a diet like him, I think people would be walking the distance from us instead of coming to hear us. I don't own a leather girdle. I wouldn't mind a raiment of camel's hair, mind you.

Bit itchy. Keep you cozy. So just perhaps for clarification, because we've been talking, we went to Nicodemus, often misinterpreted, right? The kingdom.

I'm born again. Am I in the kingdom? You're prepared for it. I personally think no.

That's my own personal view on it. I'm aware that many are. I still see the kingdom as viewed here in Scripture.

The 69 times you have the kingdom of God, the 30-something times you have the kingdom of heaven. I take it that what these people were looking for was a future earthly kingdom with the Messiah, the Christ upon the throne. We're not in that.

We can't be in it if it's not here. That kingdom hasn't arrived. That kingdom, we can't be in it if it's not here.

Now, having said that, whenever we look at the universal kingdom, the sovereign rule of God over all, and we belong to him. If you want to look at the kingdom in that sense, you could say we're in that, but that's not how the kingdom is used in the New Testament. That's not what Nicodemus was anticipating when the Lord spoke to him about the kingdom.

He's speaking about the millennial kingdom. So as born again people, we are prepared to enter that kingdom. Donald, can I ask you just in relation to that and what you just said there, the obvious sort of sticking point with what you've said is Colossians 1. How do you address that? I won't say get around it.

Well, first of all, in Colossians 1, it's not called the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. It's called the kingdom or the dominion of his son. We have been brought into that and we are linked inextricably with him.

In fact, if you look, we are the body of Christ. So in that sense, we are linked and brought into the dominion of his son. But when you look at the terms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven in the New Testament, invariably, if not exclusively, I take it to be a kingdom on earth with Messiah.

It's not here yet. It hasn't taken place. So therefore we cannot be in it.

We belong to Christ. There's no doubt about that. We subject ourselves to his will and his dominion, but in a different context, in the context of the kingdom that we look at normally here, no, we're not in it.

Would you be happy with that? No, I don't think we're in the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. I do think there is a sense in Colossians that we are in the kingdom. Some will say, oh, they will say, well, you know, it talks about the inheritance.

So it's a future thing. I think that's a misreading of the passage because we're made meat to be partakers of the inheritance. And that's a present fitness for something future.

We're translated out of the power of darkness. I don't think that has happened. We're not sort of floating around freely until we're in the kingdom.

So there is a sense in which we are in the kingdom of the son of his love presently. But I agree with you that when we think about the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, that's a future thing. That should be helpful when we come to consider the pearl.

Brother Donald, even for the aspect that we have with relation to the kingdom, what we have been brought into will be a heavenly aspect of that kingdom. Yes. I'm thinking of second Timothy chapter four, where Paul says, the Lord shall preserve me onto his heavenly kingdom.

And that's the heavenly side of the millennial reign. Everything that we have looking forward is a heavenly aspect. There will be those who will enjoy an earthly aspect of the kingdom of God.

Right. I see. Where's Christ going to reign? So I take it that he will reign.

He will be on earth, not exclusively. I have no difficulty, no difficulty at all by saying that we will be with Christ. If he is on earth, we have the potential and possibility of being also with the Lord Jesus, but it doesn't necessarily mean that he will be always exclusively in Israel, in Jerusalem.

And if he is, if he is raining on earth, will we not be on earth with him? I have no difficulty with that. No, you not that the saints shall judge the world. First Corinthians six, but I don't believe it's our exclusive purview to be associated with the earthly side of the millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus.

It was a late, it was a late brother. Robert McPhee once said to me that he believed that there will be such a fusion between the heavenly and the earthly that it'll not make a lot of difference. But, uh, as much as it could be said there, but if in doubt, we don't quote the Bible.

No, we don't want it. We don't want to steal any of Mark's thunder on all of that. We're maybe encroaching enough on it.

Don't worry. My thunder will be fine. So we have the forerunner coming and John did no miracle.

So John simply had a message. Then we have in chapter four, the Lord coming and he has got the message. But in addition to that, he is demonstrating the mandate by his miracles so that he is fulfilling old Testament prophecy in relation to the manifestation, not legally now of who he is, but in terms of who he is, by what he does and what he says.

And he comes and he preaches and he teaches and he carries out miracles and he has shown the authenticity of his mandate to be the Messiah. The structure there is very important. So, so we go up the mountain and we get that wonderful unparalleled unfolding of truth in chapter five to seven, the principles of the kingdom, as we often call it.

And you say, well, that's fine, but how is that ever going to work? And what power could ever make it possible for those principles to operate? So we come down from the mountain at the end of chapter seven and in eight and nine, it's actually a very carefully constructed series of miracles, which are designed to demonstrate that Christ has the power to bring about the conditions that are needed for the sermon of the men to work for the want of a better term. When you read through Matthew eight and nine, and you think of the sort of individual miracles and then the kind of mass miracles in the area where Christ was ministering for a very small area for a brief snippet of time, there can hardly have been a sick person left. There was just a little slice of millennial conditions that were brought about by the power of the king.

Yeah. Wouldn't you wonder, and we'll not get to chapter 10, 11, 12 yet, but wouldn't you wonder how they could refuse him? Yeah. It's actually amazing when you get to chapter 10 and 11, the massive evidence that was available to that nation that they saw with their own eyes, it's almost incredible that they refused him.

Even his final approach into Jerusalem upon the fall of Annas, Zechariah nine and nine, and they said, who is this? Who is this? They hadn't read the Bible. They were ignorant of these things. When we come then to the third part of the proclamation, chapter 10, and as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand, these are the messengers that are now going to go out and preach the gospel of the kingdom, preach the message, and their specific task is to preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

That period of time for them was, I judge, possibly only months. It wasn't a very long period of time, a fairly short period of time, but it was very interesting that when he instructs them to go out and preach, we actually don't read of him going. We read of him going, but we don't read of them going.

Isn't that interesting, just Judas Iscariot, he was included. Again, we see the importance of validation because they're given power to do the miracles, and then they're sent with a message, and they're there to preach the message and do the miracles. Again, when we think about the transition that happens in the move to parabolic teaching, these people had received such light, and then they rejected it, that we can understand why that judgment comes in chapter 13.

The question I want to ask now is, why were they only to go to the nation? Let's hear your thoughts on that, Brethren. They were only to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. We haven't got to the end of chapter 12 yet, where the nation officially is rejecting him.

At this point, he's still being presented as the king. Isn't there a sense, Brother Donald, that as much as what we have said is true in chapter 10, chapter 10 goes in its picture form wider than the 12 and the immediate need, and it pictures a group in the future who are going to do the same and proclaim the Savior to a much larger audience. We get that when we get to verse number 17.

They shall deliver you up to councils. They will scourge you in their synagogues. Verse 18 says, you shall be brought before governors and authorities or kings, for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.

So in a sense, we see it commencing with that immediate little group, but it anticipates a group in the future who will actually proclaim the coming of the king during the seven-year tribulation. We can view this commission to go out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as a commission to do it for now. I take it that the reason behind it is this, that in God's purpose, Israel has a role to play.

It will not be that if Israel refuses it, the king will still come. He's going to sit upon the throne of his father David. Israel is integral to the future kingdom.

So the message goes out to Israel for to believe, because Israel is vital as part of God's purpose. So I appreciate John's point, because after the rapture of the church, there will not be one saved, born again person left on earth. Correct.

And immediately, I take it, or very soon afterwards, God seals 144,000 from the nation of Israel in their foreheads to be a witness, not only to the nation, but to the nations. And they would be representative of a nation. They will be those from within the nation who have believed themselves, so that they would be the ones who have received the message of the kingdom themselves and are now going out to spread it further afield.

So there is no reference of them preaching. No. We have to come to parts like this to see the basis of it is based on passages like this, rather than Revelation 14 or those passages in the book of Revelation where it doesn't explicitly say that they preach.

But on the basis of this passage, we can see that they do. Revelation 14 kind of suggests it. It's not explicit.

Right. But the angel with the everlasting gospel. Yes.

Angels don't preach the gospel. Right. It's men that do.

Let's move then to chapter 11 and 12. I'm just watching the clock there. In the early chapters of Matthew, then, we have chapter 1, we have the announcement of the king, and chapter 2, we have the arrival of the king.

So he's come. We've dealt with that. Chapters 3 and 4, we've had the proclamation of the king by John the Baptist and by the king himself, the Messiah Christ.

Chapter 5 to 7, Mark's already drawn our attention to it. We have had the teaching on the mount of the king. And then he followed that up, as Mark has already said, chapter 6 and 9, by the miracles that authenticate the king.

Then whenever we get to chapter 10, we've got the messengers of the king. And you would say to yourself, surely, with all the evidence, with all the witnesses, with all the preaching, with all the miracles, with all the teaching, surely they're going to say yes. And the sad thing is that chapters 11 and 12, they show us an awful sad record of the rejection of the king.

Is that actually pictured and portrayed then in the first verses of chapter 12, brother Donald? Because in a sense, it picks up David and what happened with David in a measure he was rejected. And so we've actually got a picture at the beginning of chapter 12 of David himself, who was rejected in the past. David, who was rejected in the past because of eating the show bread, is actually a picture of the rejection of Christ as king in the present.

So we get the correlation here right in this chapter. That's true. And at the beginning of chapter 11 and this inquiry of John, I think what we're seeing reinforced for us is the adequacy, the sufficiency of the revelation that they had.

So John sends and he has the question, are you the one that would come? And the savior doesn't really give any further. He just says, just tell him what's happened. So all the evidence that John required, all the evidence that the nation should have required was just there.

And in one sense, you would say, well, what's happened, John? Why is John asking this question? Are thou he that should come or do we look for another? Sure, John, you've known him from your whole life. You're the one who is the voice who's proclaimed it. And a lot of people are very hard on John.

But I take it that John's asking these questions because John has been proclaiming the kingdom of heaven draws nigh and the king has come. And what am I doing sitting here? He was expecting deliverance for the captive. If the forerunner, if the Messiah has come, and I've been preaching this for the six months, I've been preaching this message.

And well, if it's true, why am I in prison? You know, we needn't be too hard on John. There's many a circumstance each one of us get ourselves into in life and we wonder why. And we don't understand it.

I know it is often said that down here we have the tears without the reasons and up in heaven we have the reasons without the tears. There's many things you and I just don't understand. And the pathway that we're often called to pass, and this may be a practical just thing for all of our hearts.

We get down, things don't work out the way we thought. It certainly didn't for John. We find ourselves in a place we never thought we would find ourselves.

That happened for John. We could be in a hospital bed. We could be in a difficult family situation.

You know, the circumstances of life that you and I find ourselves in very often cause us to ask why. And listen, it's not wrong to ask why. It's not wrong to ask why.

But in all of that asking, we really have to just bow and acknowledge God and His overall control and trust Him for what's best. In chapter 12 here, we can see, frequently we hear that Matthew's gospel is to the Jews. Maybe.

But right from the beginning of Matthew's gospel, we've got Gentiles. A number of Gentile women in the genealogy of chapter 1. Those kings that are coming from the east in chapter 2. Here when we get to those verses, I'm casting my eye to verse number 38. We get Jonah who goes to the Gentiles.

Then we get Gentiles who come to Solomon. That will link us to our brother Brody's Bible reading. So in this, just at this hinged chapter in the gospel where the king is going to be officially rejected, we actually get the ministry that's going to take place.

Out to the Gentiles. And then because he's gone out to the Gentiles, following that, the Gentiles will come into the land and they will come to the king that's present in the land. Thanks, Brother John.

I think that what our brother John is saying is a very fundamental thought that we need to keep in mind when we look at scripture. And that is that Israel were never chosen for themselves. I know we've talked about it before, but it's well worth remembering.

Right from Genesis, God's plan was always to bless a world, a whole world. In thee and in thy seed shall all nations or all families of the earth be blessed. Never lose sight of that.

Israel were the instrument through which God would pronounce worldwide blessing. And Mark's going to take us to that tomorrow, that worldwide blessing. And when we come into Matthew, yes, it is the gospel of the kingdom, but Israel were the ones who were presented with the Messiah.

Why? So that they would fulfill their role with the Messiah and bring him blessing to the whole world. And if we keep that in mind, then it helps us in understanding an awful lot of prophecy. So thank you, John.

It's a very good point. So the next little part there, Donald, does that actually tell us chapter 12, verse 43, the unclean spirit gone out of the man? Is that back to your point that you told us about Babylon and the nation and the spirit of idolatry? Yes, I think so. One of the things that you do find throughout the gospels is that while they were not involved in the worship of idols, they were involved in the worship of themselves, that it was into their very selves that unclean demons came and that that was far worse than what they had been returned from in Babylon.

Do you think it also perhaps indicates a day when they'll accept the man of sin? Oh yeah, very much so. And so seven other spirits more wicked than himself. It will coalesce in the man of sin that's going to be, they will accept him after having driven out that spirit in the past.

Isn't that a, sorry, Mark. Go ahead. Sorry, I just, and the irony of that is that the very kind of zenith, the very high point of their rejection that we have here in this chapter, he casted out demons.

That's really the crunch point. They couldn't, they their rejection of Christ. And then the teaching that John has been bringing before us follows on from that.

Yeah. I was going to go off maybe on a bit of a tangent from that. And that is something that maybe is pertinent for us all to think about.

And that is that when God has shone his light into darkness and the people in darkness refuse that light, they will descend into a far deeper darkness. And one of the things that should make us sad is that in places like here, like back home in Ireland and so on, where the light of the gospel has shone brightly for many years and people are turning their back upon it, there's a darkness descending down that is almost frightening. There's an evilness and a sinister wickedness that is abounding in this land and in ours.

Look at our education systems and what's happening within all of those. Look at the laws of the land, whether state or whether federal or whether back home, those laws are evil in the extreme. And that may be coming about because when the light of the gospel has shone, they have chosen darkness.

Yes. So you see the last part of chapter 12, Jonah was mentioning some of the different aspects of it, but it's really showing that there's something different going to be presented here in chapter 13. Right? So Jonah is no doubt going to the Gentiles, but Jonah was also a man who came out of the belly of the whale, right? Or belly of the great fish.

So he's a picture of Christ and resurrection going to the Gentiles. Right? And then I take it that this unclean spirit is definitely the idea of the day when they will accept the man of sin. And then the natural relationships are addressed before he goes into chapter 13.

So the movement of location is very significant out of the house connecting again with what John was saying. Yeah. He was in the house.

So you're all happy brethren that whenever we get to chapter 11 and chapter 12, that this is a John talked about chapter 13, been the hinge point. Well, maybe the end of chapter 12, chapter 13, that this is the watershed. This is the leaders of the nation deciding on behalf of a nation.

No, we will not have the Messiah. And it's at that point that the preaching of the kingdom stops as it were. It's at that point that the parables now come in and they are blindness to one and they are light to another.

So the issue is defined then at the end of chapter 12 for whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heavenly sin, my brother, sister, and mother, the issue being either rejection of the king or reception of the king and the same day. So let's think of the same subject now will be the theme of these parables. Do you receive them or not? Uh, in some of the parallels, at least.

Yeah, maybe we should just, before we get too into that, the end of chapter 11, isn't it lovely that whenever the woes are starting verse 20 onwards, whenever he's speaking about more tolerable verse 24 for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment and for the, that we have this wonderful invitation, it's still there. Come on to me. All you that labor under heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you. The Pharisees had laid a yoke upon the people. They had put a burden upon them of, we'll call it religion.

They had oppressed them with that and kept them in the dark. And here's the message to go out. All you that labor under heavy laden, come on to me and I will give you rest.

And so we find that there is a rest to be found. And then when we get to the end of chapter 12, as brother William has drawn our attention to, we have the new relationship, that spiritual relationship that the physical relationship, the nation has said, no, the physical relationship is not there, but there is an important spiritual relationship. And I think we should remember that even when we come to the kingdom and tomorrow, that the kingdom is literal, it is physical, and it is also spiritual.