The Parables of the Kingdom (3)

0:00We praise the Lord for thy great plan that we Thy dwelling place may be. Welcome to Life Study of the Bible with Witnessly, a program provided by Living Stream Ministry. During his ministry, Witnessly emphasized the experience of Christ as life and the practical oneness of the believers. He was unbending in his conviction that God's goal is the body of Christ. Through his messages, he stressed the importance for us to grow in life and to function as Christians so that the body can build itself up. We're happy to bring you recorded portions from his ministry today, along with some of our own thoughts. And we welcome your comments and questions. You can reach us toll free at triple eight life study. That's 888-543-3788. Now let's join today's program.

1:02The Bible is a book of life. In Mark chapter 4, the crucial item related to the parables of the Kingdom of God is that there is a gene or a seed of life, sewn into man that is growing and developing into the Kingdom of God. This is Matt Miller with Ron Kangus. And we're bringing you a special meaning today to the word life in the title of our radio program, Life Study of Mark. Ron, I don't think we need much introduction because Witnessly is going to give us a clear word at the beginning of God's purpose to sew himself through his word to produce the Kingdom of God. But I'd still like to ask you, do you have a brief word before he starts to help direct our listeners as they follow us? Through this Life Study of Mark chapter 4. My brief word, such as it is, is a continuation of your opening sentence.

2:02The Bible is a book of life. This governs our entire view of the Scriptures. The Lord Himself said, the words that I speak to you are spirit and life. The Bible reveals many things but one of the central subjects. If not the central subject of the New Testament is the Kingdom of God. And our approach, especially in this series of messages in the Life Study of Mark, is to see the Kingdom as a realm of the Divine Life. This is what our listeners should be prepared to consider. It will be very new to many. Some either do not consider the Kingdom or they collapse the Kingdom into the Church or they regard the Kingdom in terms of a social gospel or they postpone the Kingdom to another age. The Lord and the apostles at a different view of the Kingdom.

3:07They are fully aware of the future aspect, the dispensational aspect. But their emphasis and hours is on the Kingdom as a realm of the Divine Life. The Bible is a book of life. Mark is a book of life. Chapter 4 is a book of life. The Kingdom is the seed of life growing in us to produce a realm of life. I think this is sufficient to get us ready to receive a very precious word concerning the Kingdom viewed from the point of view of the Divine Life. It's a good word Ron and it helps make me appreciate more every time I hear it why we call this program a Life Study. Let's go now to witness from his original speaking on December 26, 1983 and see this matter of the gene or the seed of life that was sown into God's chosen people. What the New Testament teaches us? It teaches us that the Triangard incarnated to be sown into his chosen people.

4:17This is the intrinsic element of the New Testament teaching. In light of this, you come to New Testament again. You can see, yes, the Triangard was incarnated to be a man. And this man came out to praise the gospel, to teach the truth, but you have to realize his preaching and his teaching was to sow himself. His preaching was a sowing, his teaching was a sowing. See, he teaches, he praises, while he was preaching, while he was teaching, he sowed. His word into his hearers, and what is conveyed in his word? That is, he himself. When he's teaching people, heard the word, they receive it. They receive the word, actually, they receive this dear one.

5:26They receive this excellent, wonderful person who is both the Triangard and the very real man. This is what is recorded in the four gospels. Whoever was to the Megad, after hearing this word, received the word. That means, they receive the seed, they receive the gene, and this is the seed, the gene of the kingdom. And this seed, this gene, is just incarnated God, the Triangard in human. On this seed is the Triangard God incarnated in humanity, and I'd like you to explain how the Lord actually sowed himself into his chosen people through his word as a seed. The words used to convey this thought are simple, but the thought here is deeper than any human philosophy.

6:32God needs the kingdom established on the earth. The Lord Jesus came, and when He came, the kingdom came in Him and with Him, where He was the kingdom was. He was not only the king, but according to Luke 17, He was the presence of the kingdom. According to the records of the transfiguration in the gospels, the kingdom is the shining out of Jesus in His resurrection life. This person, who was the king and the kingdom, being the Christ, the one anointed by God to carry out God's purpose, came not only to preach and teach concerning the kingdom, but to establish the kingdom, meaning to expand and grow and develop the kingdom, by sowing the seed of the kingdom.

7:34This brings us to your question. We know from those elegant words in the gospel, used by the Lord to describe Himself in His ministry, a sower went forth to sow. And the seed, sowed, is the word, and the word is the word of the kingdom. The Lord in His ministry of teaching and also of preaching was speaking the word. The essence of this word was the divine life itself as the element of the kingdom. As the Lord spoke the word, He was sowing the seed, which is Himself as life embodied in the word of God. According to God's creation, we human beings are the soil. Significantly, we were made from the dust of the ground. We are the soil to receive the seed of the kingdom.

8:37What a picture. And the seed, according to God's sovereign election, landed in our receiving human heart. And the seed did not simply remain there as a seed, but as we may see, it grows and develops into a harvest. That growth of the seed is the growth of the kingdom, that harvest will be the manifestation of the kingdom. The central thought is that God, to establish His kingdom on the earth, came by incarnation in Christ the Son, who sowed Himself into God's chosen people by speaking the word. That word was the seed of the kingdom. The kingdom's seed containing the gene, even we may say, in quotes, the DNA of God, that seed came into human beings and grows within them as it grows in millions of believers.

9:53It becomes a realm where God rules in the divine life. This is the kingdom of God. Wow, Ron, it's a classic definition of the kingdom of God, but we better keep going. Let me read a verse in 1 Corinthians that's going to lead into witness Lee's next portion. It's 1 Corinthians 3 and 9. He said, you are God's cultivated land, or some translations say you're God's farm, so the church is God's farm. And verse 6 also says, I planted Apollo's water, but God caused the growth. Let's go on and see the growth of this seed. In the form of God's rules, the suing was not that spread. You must spread a little bit from one source to twelve source, from twelve source to seventy source, right? But in the hex, my hundreds, thousands of source will rest up, and all the source are who?

10:56The source are those who received the gene. By receiving the gene, they became the seed again. So they sow the gene into tens of thousands, right? Millions. Now you can see the propagation of the suing and the propagation of the seed. Then listen, in the epistles, you can see the growing of the gene. Paul says, you are the farm of God. I planted an Apollo's water, and God gives the growth. And the growth is there in 1 Corinthians 3. And then in 2 Peter chapter 1, which says, all things pertaining to divine life have been given to us. For what? For the development?

11:56The church stands here, where? In the period of development. The church is the development of this gene. What is the church's life? The church's life is just a growing life. A transforming life. Oh, we are all here growing. We are all here being transformed. You know, in Paul's two epistles to Corinthians, in the first one, what you have? Growing. In the second one, what I have, transforming. In chapter 3 of the first book, 1 Corinthians is growing in life. In chapter 3, in the second Corinthians, is the transformation of life. Right? I printed a Apollo's water, God gives the growth. This is 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Then we always unveil faith, beholding and reflecting, into this image, being transformed.

13:02Foundry to glory. You see, you have one chapter in the first book for growth. You have one chapter in the second book for transformation. And this is the church aid, an aid of growth in life and transformation in life. Ron, these are great words. They are blessed words, growth in life and transformation in life, describing the church age that we are in today, yet even though it is so central to the New Testament teaching, why don't we hear this more commonly among the Christian teachers today? It is because of the widespread ignorance that begins with theologians, Bible teachers, ministers, pastors, evangelists, ignorance of a central matter in the Bible. The very matter we're emphasizing here. And let's put the matter this way.

14:04According to the full revelation in the scripture from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, God's eternal purpose to have a corporate expression of Himself in, with and through His chosen people is fulfilled by God Himself as life. That's why the tree of life is so central and crucial. God's purpose is fulfilled by God's life. Sorry to say. And we say this on the basis of decades of study and observation and experience. It is rare to find someone clear concerning God's purpose. It is also rare if not more rare to find someone clear about life as the means to fulfill God's purpose. When the kingdom is taught, is taught dispensationally or theologically or doctrinally,

15:06but rarely as a matter of life. So the foundation is missing for there to be teaching concerning growth and transformation. But if we see that the kingdom is brought in through the Lord's sowing of Himself as the seed of life into God's chosen and redeemed people, then we will realize this seed must grow and develop. And Peter speaks of this in 2 Peter 1. And the age in which we're living, being the age of the church, the age of grace, the age of mystery, should be the age for the growth and development of the kingdom's seed in the believers. Paul was absolutely clear about this, and he viewed the church as God's farm, as God's tilled ground. He said, I planted.

16:07Apollo's watered God gave the growth. In Romans 14, he identified the church life with the kingdom. Only when we have this view of God's purpose accomplished by God's life, of the Bible being a book of life, of the kingdom being a realm of life, and being established through the growth of life, will we be in a position to understand and then teach concerning growth and transformation? One of the greatest shortages in Christianity and North America, which is our point of reference today, is the lack of the biblical emphasis on the growth and development of the divine life within the believers for the fulfillment of God's purpose. That is why we are burdened and have been burdened for decades to have a life study of the Bible in order under the Lord's grace and blessing

17:13to present the open scriptures as a book of life that ministers' life, so God's purpose in life can be carried out through the experience and growth in life of God's people. This need to grow and mature in life is more desperate than we can ever describe. God's people everywhere need to wake up and to reread the Bible and to have a fresh appreciation of the eternal life that we have received in the Son. This eternal life is the life of the kingdom. It came into us as a seed. What a shame, what a defeat, what a reproach to us. If we just become religious and mature in a human way as we age, yet the seed of the kingdom lies dormant in our being with little or no development. We are burdened to call God's people back to the God of life, back to the book of life,

18:19and back to the kingdom as a realm of life that they may pursue the growth in life for God's eternal purpose. Ron, that's a frank word, but it's also an honest word and I hope our listeners would take it to heart. You mentioned Peter and also Paul being very clear about this matter of life and the development of life. Let's go on to the conclusion of today's program where we'll also see John, the writer of Revelation was clear in chapter 14 of Revelation. He talked about a harvest at the end of the Bible. Here's witness for the conclusion. The church is the continuation of the issue of this sin until this continuation will reach its highest. And that is the full development of this sin. Then the kingdom will be manifested. And we who through all the centuries have received this sin will be developed to that extent.

19:25We all will become the kings. All the Jin receivers will become the kings. That totality of all the kings will be the kingdom. And the kingdom is just the development of this sin soon by that little necessary. It's wonderful. In the last book of the New Testament in Revelation, what you have there? You have a harvest. When millennium comes, that is the full development of this sin. Our God, He will have a show thousand years ago to demonstrate His wonderful kingdom. And in the New Heaven and New Earth, God will have an everlasting and eternal kingdom with New Jerusalem as the capital filled with all the kings.

20:29That is the full development of this sin. Soon, in the four gospel, by that little man, the very child in humanity. Ron, this is incredible that you had a little man there in the gospels. And the gene was sodened him, the complete triune God was there. And then through a miraculous process, this gene has grown into the New Jerusalem, the expression, a wonderful display to the whole universe. We've virtually run out of time, so we don't have much to conclude, but I want to give you the final words. The Lord came as a sower sowing the seed of the kingdom, the church's God's farm in which this kingdom seed grows and develops. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul first says you are God's farm, then he says you are God's building in that building is the temple.

21:31In Revelation, we have a fulfillment of both lines. On the one hand, we have the fulfillment of the line of the growth and development of the seed in the good soil. And that consummation is in Revelation 14 with the rapture of the first fruits, those who experience growth and development unto maturity and are raptured first before the Great Tribulation. And then you have the rapture of the harvest. It's clearly revealed there, those that are taken later because they simply are not grown and developed in life. There you have the harvest of the seed of the kingdom sown in the Gospels. But ultimately, the harvest of the growth and development of the kingdom's seed is the holy city itself. The seed becomes the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God, which is an organic entity built up by the mingling of the processed and consummated triune God

22:40with his tripartite people into whom he has sown himself in the sun through the Word as the seed of the kingdom. The New Testament begins with the sowing of the kingdom, it continues with the propagation of the kingdom, it advances with the growth and development of the kingdom and it consummates with the harvest of the kingdom. This is the kingdom of God as a realm of life, this is the New Testament not only as a book of life, but as a book of the kingdom. Let us ask in love all the children of God, where are you personally in this picture concerning the sowing, the propagation, the growth, the development and the harvest of the kingdom. If we are not in the growth and development today, we will not participate in the rapture of the first fruits. This is a crucial matter because those who are matured in this age will be kings in the coming age, ultimately all the believers will be the components of the eternal kingdom as the New Jerusalem.

23:52But we come back to what emerged as our central burden in this broadcast, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to grow in life. Paul can plant a polyskin water, in this program we are doing a little watering, only God can cause the growth, we all need to turn to Him, to open to Him, to contact Him and pray to Him that He will cause us to grow. For the sake of the kingdom of God. If there is any way that you can stop what you are doing right now and pray this prayer, Lord, grow in me. Lord, may your life spread in me and develop in me so that I could be one of those first fruits that you come before the great tribulation. I am here in the studio today and I feel convicted personally and I hope and believe that you also, as you are listening wherever you are, are feeling that same presence of the Lord. And light shining as a result of the speaking today.

24:54If you would like to get more information, we hope you will call us at 1-888-Life Study. That is 1-888-543-3788. We have run out of time, thanks for being here today, Ron. Praise the Lord, may He bless His word for the sake of His kingdom. Amen. Thank you also for being with us and we hope you will join us for our next program. To be, we see the sin to thy wife and... You've been listening to Life Study of the Bible with Witnessly brought to you by Living Stream Ministry. Whether you're hearing this program via radio, online or as a podcast, you'll find hundreds of audio studies just like this one by visiting our website, LSMRadio.com. We also hope you'll email us with your questions or comments, radio at lsm.org or call us toll-free, 1-888-Life Study.

25:54That's 888-543-3788. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening.