Now let's go back to the book
of Matthew chapter 13 for the message. The title of this message is
taken here from verse 11 of Matthew 13, when the Lord told his disciples
in answer to their question, why do you speak in parables?
Verse 11 says, he answered and said unto them, because it is
given unto you, that means it's a gift from God, to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, he's mainly speaking
of the Pharisees, but there are others, to them it's not given. The title of the message is Mysteries
of the Kingdom. I've preached through the parables,
what is known as the kingdom parables, several times in the
30 odd years that I've been in the ministry, but I want to do
it again. Several of you have not heard me go through these
parables that begin in Matthew 13, the kingdom parables, they're
called. In just about every one of them,
the Lord says, the kingdom of heaven, this is what the kingdom
of heaven is like. And he begins there with the
parable of what most call the seed and the sower. I normally
call it the parable of the soils. And I'm not going to preach on
that today. I'm going to get to that. But
I'll be doing those parables of the kingdom that show the
nature of the kingdom of heaven and what it is. But let me explain
to you what got me on to this, how the Lord brought it to my
mind, laid it on my heart to preach it. And I was looking
on television, just searching around. They say we men, we channel
surf all the time. And I come upon a movie, and
it was called The Kingdom of Heaven. And I thought, well,
I'll stop and see what this is about, see what they're doing.
And you know what it was about? It was about the Crusades, called
the Kingdom of Heaven. You remember the Crusades? And
where Christendom, as they say, which is pretty much a perversion
of Christianity, went to take, you know, in the Middle Ages,
when they went to take what they called the Holy Land back. Jerusalem
in that area from the Muslims, the Turks. And I got to thinking,
I thought, well, you know, really the Crusades had absolutely nothing
to do with Christianity or the Kingdom of Heaven. And that's
true. It had absolutely nothing to
do with true Christianity. I mean, it was in the name of
Christianity. They wore those tunics with the cross on them
and had the shields, but it had absolutely nothing with true
Christianity and certainly nothing to do with the kingdom of heaven.
In fact, I'll go this far. The Crusades were an example
of how Satan and the world have hijacked Christianity and done
much evil in the name of Christ. That may sound like a strong
statement, but it's true. Those Crusades were rooted in
the false idea that there was some virtue, some power, even
merit in going to places where Jesus of Nazareth literally was
born and walked and crucified and buried. And that's not in
the Bible. Now, you can make a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem if you want. That's fine if you want to just
see some history and all that. But there is no virtue in that. There is no merit in that. That
land is not holy. That's what I'm saying. And listen
to this, in the beginning of the Crusades, near the end of
what they call the Council of Claremont, that's where Pope
Urban II, the Catholic Pope, here's what he promised. And
this is the beginning of the Crusades. Here's what he said,
and this is a quote. He says, all who die by the way whether
by land or by sea, in battle against the pagans, shall have
immediate remission of sins. He said, this I grant them through
the power of God with which I am invested. So that's what it was
all about. It's your ticket into heaven.
You die. Well, that's what the Muslims
teach. You know, under Islam, there are several ways for a
Muslim to get into heaven. But there's only one sure way
for a Muslim to get into heaven. According to the Quran, there's
only one sure way for a Muslim to get into heaven. And you know
what it is? Die for their faith. That's the only sure way they
offer. Now, there are other ways, and they're all ways of works.
But that's what this pope said about the crucifixion. So my
point is this. It has nothing to do with the
kingdom of heaven. And I thought of this passage right here when
I was thinking all this through. He said it's given unto you to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And so what I want
to do is deal with that very subject. Now it says the kingdom
of heaven. The kingdom of heaven. What's
he talking about? Sometimes the scripture uses
the term kingdom of God. In fact, Mark, in his gospel,
uses the kingdom of God even in passages such as these. And
a lot of people, they'll argue with you, say, well, the kingdom
of God and the kingdom of heaven are two different things. Well,
sometimes they can be in certain contexts, but basically they
can be the same thing. This could be said, unto you
it is given to understand or to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of God. But we can look at this way. Think about this.
Now, you could say the kingdom of God is the rule of the eternal
sovereign God over all creatures, over all things, over this whole
universe. We've talked about that in the
book of Revelation. God's on the throne. He's in control. of all things. Psalm 103 verse
19, it says, the Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens and
his kingdom ruleth over all. Nothing excepted. Nothing's out
of God's control. The book of Daniel chapter 4
and verse 3, listen to this, how great are his, God's signs,
and how mighty are his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. His dominion is from generation
to generation. Time will not diminish or strengthen
God's kingdom. It's always the same. God is
on the throne. He's working all things after
the counsel of his own will. As one old king said, he works
all things according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand, none
can hinder him or stop him or say unto him, what doest thou?
In other words, God's sovereign control and rule over all this
universe is such that nobody can stop him and in reality,
nobody can question him. What are you doing, God? None
of your business. Basically, that's what it says.
That's the kingdom of God. But here, when we look at this
term as Christ uses it, the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13, what's
he talking about? He's talking about a specific
kingdom, and it's what we call a messianic kingdom, the kingdom
of the Messiah. That's what he's talking about.
And it's talking about the rule and the reign of the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ, here on earth, during the New Covenant
age. This is what he's explaining
to the disciples. Now this is what it's going to be. Your future. Here they are. And they're following
the Savior. And it's not long after this
that He is going to the cross. He's going to die for the sins
of his people. He's going to establish the righteousness
that's been prophesied, pictured from the very beginning. And he tells them, now all of
this is going to happen. He's already told them that.
And he said, this is what it's going to be like as this age
continues, this New Testament age, this New Covenant age, what
we would call the church age, some of them. And during this
time wherein Christ, the Lord Jesus, the sovereign God of this
universe is working all things in the salvation of his people
and in his judgments upon the wicked. So the kingdom of heaven
here refers to the establishment of his kingdom by his death on
the cross indicating its success in that he is raised from the
dead and he's in control as Lord of all and it shows the progression
of his kingdom on earth as he continually throughout this age
accomplishes his purpose to save his people from their sins. He
established this kingdom by his obedience unto death on the cross
as the surety and the substitute of his people. The cross is the
establishment of this kingdom here. Did you know that? He said,
upon this rock I will build my church. That's his kingdom. And
the gates of hell will not prevail against it. This kingdom was
purposed and planned before the foundation of the world. And
the whole Old Testament pointed toward this kingdom. And it was
established when he died on that cross and put away the sins of
his people and established the only righteousness that enables
God to be just and justified. It's sometimes called the kingdom
of God. It's sometimes called the kingdom of Christ. It's sometimes
called the kingdom of God's dear son. And there are four things
about this kingdom that show us the nature of this kingdom.
I've already mentioned one of them. This is a kingdom of righteousness. That's what it is. This is the
only kingdom that that can be said of. A kingdom of righteousness. You take the best kingdoms of
men that were ever found on earth, it was still full of sin. Because
the best man can do is still sinful in the eyes of God. But
this is a kingdom of righteousness. The scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 1 and verse 8, this is quoting from Psalm 45, talking
about the king priest who is none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our prophet, he's our priest, he's our king. And
the father said unto the son, he said, thy throne, O God, is
forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. It's a kingdom of righteousness
and it's ruled by a righteous king, ruled over by a righteous
king, and he rules in righteousness with a scepter of righteousness. Christ is the son of righteousness. And here's what it teaches us
about this kingdom. None shall inherit or inhabit
this kingdom who are not righteous. That's right. Somebody says,
well, wait a minute. We're not righteous. Not in ourselves. Doesn't the scripture say, Romans
3.10, there's none righteous, no, not one. It says there's
none that doeth good, no, not one. And we cannot make ourselves
righteous by our best efforts. Going on a crusade, getting baptized
in the Jordan River will not make you righteous. Sending money
to rebuild the temple over there will not make you righteous,
whatever you believe about that situation. There by deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified, not guilty, made righteous in God's sight.
Sin cannot enter this kingdom. That's what he's saying. So what
is the hope that this kingdom has for any sinner? Well, what
did I say before? This kingdom was established
where? Upon the cross of Calvary. And
what was the king of kings doing on the cross of Calvary? The
scripture said he was made sin. People today, they talk about,
well, sin was literally transferred to him. Yes, it was, by a divine
act of imputation. God accounted him to be sin.
God charged him with all the debt of the sins of his people,
his elect, his sheep. And he, by his death on that
cross, in that untold agony and suffering, what did he do? He paid that debt in full. He
suffered unto death the wages of sin. He paid the wages that
we wrought up. And in that transaction, He successfully,
fully, and completely brought forth not only an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value, but the only righteousness that
God Almighty will accept as the ground and cause of a sinner's
justification. So the nature of this kingdom,
which is salvation, based on the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, shows us that man's greatest need is what? to realize
our sin and our depravity and our inability, and to find out
how to have a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ,
escape His wrath, escape the curse of God because of our sin,
and to be clothed with the righteous merits of Jesus Christ and have
spiritual life from Him. Oh, that I may know Him, Paul
wrote. and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of
God, which is by faith. How do you seek this kingdom
then? Well, Matthew 6.31 says it, or 6.33. Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these other things that
we worry about and complain about will be added unto you. God will
give you what you need. But here's what you really need.
If you want to seek the kingdom of God, seek His righteousness. Seek Christ. That's where righteousness
can be found. Don't seek it in religion. Don't
seek it in good works. Don't seek it in experiences. Don't seek it in baptism. Seek
it in Christ. He's the only one where righteousness
is found. Where am I going to find forgiveness
for my sins? the blood of Jesus Christ. That's
the only thing. The waters of baptism will not
wash away my sins. Only Christ. Where am I going
to find righteousness to stand before holy God and be accepted
eternally without corruption, without sin, without tank? Only
in Christ. Where am I going to find life,
spiritual life? Only in Christ. Why? Because
righteousness demands life. Sin demands death. The wages
of sin. Righteousness demands life. Find it in Christ. Where am I going to find glory?
In heaven. In Christ. That's why the gospel
of the kingdom is the revelation of Jesus Christ as the very righteousness
of God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It's the power of God and the salvation. To everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written. The just shall live by faith. We look to Christ.
You remember when John the Baptist came in and began preaching his
message. It's recorded in Matthew 3 and
verse 2. He said this, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. What was he talking about? Messiah
has come. Christ has come. The one who
was prophesied, pictured, typified in the Old Testament, he's come.
The one who was set up from everlasting has come. And what has he come
to do? To establish righteousness, to establish the kingdom. Even our Lord in Matthew chapter
4 and verse 17 it says, from that time, that is after his
baptism and after his temptation, he began to preach and to say,
repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He had come. And
the scripture says in Matthew 5 and verse 3, blessed are the
poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The poor
in spirit are those who are convinced of sin by the Holy Spirit to
know that we have no righteousness in ourselves. I'm poverty stricken. I'm bankrupt as far as righteousness
goes. I must have Christ. And that's
why he said, Matthew 5 and verse 10, blessed are they who are
persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. What righteousness sake are they persecuted for?
For preaching Christ and his finished work as that which alone
will save us, preserve us, and bring us to glory. That's the
kingdom of righteousness. Here's the second thing. This
kingdom is a kingdom of grace. In other words, being that it's
a kingdom of righteousness and we have none, the only way that
we can be called citizens of the kingdom is by the grace of
God through Jesus Christ. In other words, this kingdom
is made up of sinners saved by the grace of God through Jesus
Christ. That's who makes up this kingdom. It's not made up of
perfect people who are perfect in themselves. We're perfect
in Christ. We have His righteousness imputed,
but in ourselves we're still sinful people. And that's why it's a kingdom
of grace. There's only one person who's in this kingdom by right
of worthiness and merit, and that's Christ the King. But no citizen of this kingdom
can claim citizenship by right of merit. I deserve to be here. I've earned my way in there.
And you know, people all over this world who claim to be Christian,
they claim to be citizens of this kingdom, and whether they
realize it or not, they claim it by right of merit. Because I'm telling you, if your
citizenship in this kingdom, you say I'm a citizen of the
kingdom of heaven, and that's what the Bible calls a believer.
a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, if your citizenship is based
on anything but Christ's righteousness alone, then your claim has to
be by right of merit or deserving. But there's no citizen of this
kingdom. Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, brought that point
home in Matthew 5 and verse 20. You remember what he said? He
said, I say unto you, except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now to the people
that he was preaching to, the Pharisees and the scribes were
the best people on earth to them. And Christ said this, he said,
except your righteousness go further, exceed theirs, you can't
enter the kingdom of heaven. You're not a citizen of this
kingdom if you think that their citizens, based upon their works
and their efforts and their improvements and their morality and their
sincerity and their religion, you've got to have one that exceeds
that. Well, how far does it have to go? And then he began relating
the law. He said, well, here's what the
law says. It's not only a sin to commit murder, it's a sin
to think it. It's not only a sin to commit
adultery, the act of adultery, it's a sin to lust, to think
it. In other words, the law of God
requires absolute perfection, not only in what we do and don't
do, but in what we think and what we imagine, what we dream. You see, sin is a heart matter,
and it reaches to the heart. You may go through your life
and never commit the acts of murder or adultery, but what
about the thought? What about the motives? What
about the goal? What about the purpose? What
about the dreams? That's why the Apostle Paul said
in Romans chapter 7, he said, I was alive without the law once,
but then Then the law came, the Holy Spirit revealed the reality
of the law, how far that law reaches and what that law requires,
and he said sin revived. Sin came alive. I didn't think
I was a sinner, but now I see I'm a sinner. Sin revived, and
what happened? I died. It killed me. Sin demands death. So what did the Lord show Saul
of Tarsus? He showed him his need of Christ.
Salvation is by grace. It's all by grace. This is a
kingdom of grace. It's through righteousness that
comes by grace. For as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You say, Lord, Lord, haven't
we preached in your name? Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied?
Lord, Lord, haven't we done many wonderful works? Cast out demons.
He says, depart from me. I never knew you. You didn't
make it. You fell short. God be merciful to me, the sinner.
It's grace. Here's the third thing about
this kingdom. And I've already said it, but I want this point
needs to be established on its own. It being a kingdom of righteousness,
it being a kingdom of grace, Thirdly, this is the kingdom
of the crucified, resurrected Jesus Christ. That's the kingdom
that he's talking about here. You see, if we're going to understand
mysteries of the kingdom, and next week I'm going to talk about
mysteries. That's Revelation, is what it is. Not the book of
Revelation, that's included. But a mystery in the Bible. is
not something that is kept secret that we as human beings can figure
out if we put the clues together. It's not like a mystery novel
or a mystery movie you see like we see. A mystery is something
that the natural man cannot know or figure out whether through
religion, philosophy, science or whatever. It has to be revealed
by God. And that's what he's talking
about. Look at it again, verse 11. He answered, why do you speak
in parables? Because it's given unto you. In other words, this is a gift
from God. The Holy Spirit reveals this to the heart of God's people. The heart, the mind, the affections,
the will, the inner man, the new heart that he gives us in
the new birth. It's given to you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, it's not given.
Do you realize what a gift it is to have ears to hear and eyes
to see? We take it for granted, don't
we? We should. How many times have we said this?
A sinner saved by grace, born again by the Holy Spirit, is
a walking, talking miracle of God's sovereign power and grace,
isn't he? He's not a self, he or she's not, they're not self-made
people. They realize it's not by my will or by my power or
by my works. It's all of God. Well, to see
our need of Christ and the merits of his obedience unto death is
a gift of God. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is the King.
It is His kingdom, we are His subjects. That's what this is
about. All things are put under Him
who is the captain of our salvation. 1 Timothy in chapter 6, Paul
wrote to Timothy about the potentate. What is that? That's the one
who has all power. Christ said, all power has been
given unto me under heaven and earth. He's the King of Kings. The Bible says that if we're
in Christ, we have been made priests and kings under the Lord.
Well, Christ is the King of Kings. And even the evil kings and magistrates
of this world, the scripture tells us that their hearts are
in the hands of God to turn whether He will. Figure that one out. Somebody said, I was talking
about it this morning on the TV program. Somebody said, well,
I can't figure that out. And I said, well, join the club.
I just know it's so because God said it. And that's good. That comforts the hearts of God's
people. But think about that. You know,
in the book of Revelation, chapter 17, listen to this. And there's
so many passages that talk about the lordship of Christ. You know,
there's a controversy today about what they call Lordship Salvation,
and I'm not going to go into all that to explain it to you,
but there's a form of preaching called Lordship Salvation, and
the problem with it is it focuses the attention on ourselves rather
than upon Christ. has to do with gaining assurance
by looking within. Well, you can't have assurance
by looking within. You have assurance by looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. Look to Christ. Well, why should
we look within at all? To see our greater need of Christ.
If my self-examination doesn't ultimately lead me to end up
with Christ as my whole assurance of salvation, then what good
has it done me? I look to Him. But here it talks
about Satan and his allies, the beast, in Revelation 7, 14. And
it says this, These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb
shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings.
And they that are with Him are called and chosen and faithful. We could go on and on with that.
The prophecies of the Old Testament talk about the establishment
of His kingdom. upon judgment and justice. He's
called the Lord our righteousness. Here's the fourth thing about
this kingdom. It's a kingdom of righteousness, it's a kingdom
of grace, therefore it's the kingdom of the crucified, risen
Lord Jesus Christ. Fourthly, this kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. It's not taken with swords and
shields and chariots and tanks and bombs and guns. The weapons of our warfare, Paul
wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, are not carnal. They're not
engaged against the flesh, that is, the physical. But the weapons
of our warfare, what are they? They're spiritual. What is our
main weapon in the warfare that we engage against Satan and the
world? The gospel, the message. And where is that weapon aimed? It's aimed against the mind,
the heart. It's a spiritual kingdom. Christ stood before Pilate, who
had the authority of Caesar of Rome, and he said in John 18,
36, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of
this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews? But now is my kingdom not from
hence. It's not of the world. It's not
from the world. It's not physical. Now Christ
suffered physically in his human body as the result of sin imputed
to him, but the kingdom he established in these sufferings is not a
physical kingdom to be established here on this sinful earth. It's
a spiritual kingdom. And when we say it's a spiritual
kingdom, don't get the idea that the kingdom is not real, therefore.
Listen, spirituality is real. It's like people today, they
don't believe the doctrine of imputation is real. It's real.
The warfare that this kingdom wages against the world is not
physical. You know Christ, you remember
when the soldiers came to get him and arrest him and Peter
drew his sword and cut that fellow's ear off? And you remember what
Christ said to him? He said, don't you understand
that if we were engaged in that kind of warfare, I could pray
to my father and he'd send 12 legions of angels. Just wipe
them out. Remember, he just spoke two words
to them and they all fell back. He said, who do you seek? They said, we're seeking Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, I am. Boom, they went. But that's not
the kind of warfare they engaged in here. This is the realm of
salvation, referring to his spiritual kingdom, the church of the living
God, created in Christ Jesus, made up of his elect, the redeemed
of the Lord, and how they enter into that kingdom. How? by a
spiritual birth. Remember Christ said, except
you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. That's
a spiritual birth, isn't it? Born from above, born of God
by the Spirit. That's regeneration and conversion. Except you're born again, you
can't even see this. So that when he looks at his disciples
and said it's given to you to know the mysteries, He's talking
about, they've been born again. Look back up at verse 9, after
he finished the parable of the seed and the sower, he said,
who hath ears to hear, let him hear. How many times does he
say that throughout these parables? How many times does he say that
in the book of Revelation? I'm talking to you, if you've
got ears to hear, hear. If you've got eyes to see, see.
Some people don't. Some do. He said, except you
be born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. It's a spiritual
kingdom. There's two things about this
kingdom. Righteousness is the ground of
this kingdom. Spiritual birth is the fruit
of this kingdom. Man's born dead and trespasses
in sin. We enter the kingdom of heaven by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, evidenced by repentance. It's an amazing thing, isn't
it? An amazing thing. of the nature of this kingdom.
And that's the beginning of understanding the mysteries of the kingdom.
What is this kingdom? What's it like? Well, it's the kingdom
of righteousness, and therefore it's the kingdom of grace, and
therefore it's the kingdom of the crucified, risen, ascended
Lord Jesus Christ, and it's a spiritual kingdom. All right?