THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND THE CHURCH LIFE
Message One
The Development of the Kingdom of God into a Realm over Which God Rules in His Divine Life
Scripture Reading: Mark 1:15; John 3:3, 5; Luke 4:43; 17:20-21; 2 Pet. 1:4-11
I. The kingdom of God is God Himself—Mark 1:15; Matt. 6:33; John 3:3:
A. God's kingdom has God as its content; God Himself is everything as the content of His kingdom—1 Cor. 4:20; 15:28.
B. God is life, having the nature, ability, and shape of the divine life, which forms the realm of God's ruling—Eph. 4:18; John 3:15.
C. The life of God is the kingdom of God and also our entrance into the kingdom of God; we must see this basic principle—vv. 3, 5, 15.
D. In actuality, God's reigning over us is not an outward matter but a matter of the innate ability of the divine life—Rom. 8:2.
II. The kingdom of God is the realm of the divine species, in which are all the divine things—John 3:3, 5:
A. God became man to enter into the human species, and man becomes God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to enter into the divine species—Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; John 1:12-14.
B. To enter into the divine realm, the realm of the divine species, we need to be born of God to have the life and nature of God, thereby becoming God-men in the kingdom of God—vv. 12-13.
C. We were regenerated of God to be the species of God and enter into the kingdom of God—3:3, 5.
III. The kingdom of God is the realm of the divine life for this life to move, work, rule, and govern so that life may accomplish its purpose—Matt. 6:13b; John 3:3, 5, 15-16:
A. The kingdom of God is an organism constituted with God's life as the realm of life for His ruling, in which He reigns by His life and expresses Himself as the Divine Trinity in the divine life—v. 5; 15:1-8, 16, 26.
B. The unique way to enter into the kingdom of God is to receive God as life and gain God Himself; this is regeneration—3:5, 15; 1 John 5:11-12.
IV. The kingdom of God is Christ Himself as the seed of life sown into His believers, God's chosen people, and developing into a realm over which God rules as His kingdom in His divine life—Luke 4:43; 8:5, 10; 17:20-21; Mark 4:3, 26-29:
A. The kingdom of God is a wonderful person—the Lord Jesus Christ, the embodi-ment of the Triune God—Col. 2:9:
1. Wherever He is, the kingdom of God is—Luke 17:20-21.
2. The kingdom of God is with Him, and He brings it to His disciples—4:43; 17:21.
B. The Lord Jesus is the seed of the kingdom of God to be sown into God's chosen people to develop into God's ruling realm—8:5, 10; Mark 4:26-29.
V. We need to experience the development of the divine life and the divine nature contained in the divine seed that has been sown into us so that we may have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom—2 Pet. 1:1, 4-11:
A. We have been allotted the wonderful equally precious faith, and this faith is an all-inclusive seed—v. 1:
1. All the divine riches are in this seed, but we must be diligent to develop them; to grow to maturity is to develop what we already have—vv. 1-8; 3:18.
2. By developing these virtues, we grow in life, and we will eventually reach maturity, be full of Christ, and be qualified and equipped to be kings in the coming kingdom—Eph. 4:13-15; Col. 2:19; 2 Pet. 1:11.
B. We should be diligent to pursue the growth and development of the divine life and divine nature for a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom—vv. 10-11:
1. The bountiful supply that we enjoy in the development of the divine life and divine nature (vv. 3-7) will bountifully supply us a rich entrance into the eter-nal kingdom of our Lord.
2. This supply will enable and qualify us to enter into the coming kingdom by all the riches of the divine life and divine nature as our excellent virtues (energy) unto the splendid glory of God—v. 3; 1 Pet. 5:10.
3. The entrance into the eternal kingdom is supplied to us richly through our growth in life and through the development of the divine life within us.
VI. As those who have been born of God to enter into the kingdom of God, we need to be recovered to the direct rule of God by the intuition of our spirit— Matt. 5:3; 1 Cor. 2:11; Mark 2:8:
A. In the dispensation of innocence we see the principle of God's rule; in the dis-pensation of conscience, the principle of self-rule; and in the dispensa tion of human government, the principle of man's rule:
1. Before the fall man was ruled directly by God; he lived before God and was responsible to God—Gen. 2:16-17.
2. From the time of Adam's expulsion from the garden of Eden to the time of Noah's departure from the ark, God established the conscience within man to represent Himself in ruling over man—Acts 24:16.
3. After the flood, because man was subject neither to God's rule nor to self-rule, God authorized man to represent Him in ruling over man—Gen. 9:6; Rom. 13:1.
B. Because man has been degraded from God's rule to human rule, God, in saving man, must recover him from human rule to divine rule so that once again man may live before God in simplicity and under His direct authority—Matt. 5:3, 8; 6:33.
C. In God's plan of recovery man must retrace his steps from human rule to God's rule, passing through self-rule in between.
D. The final goal of dealing with the conscience is not merely to restore us to self-rule but to bring us back to God's rule and to recover us to God Himself and, thus, to live in the presence of God—5:3.
E. There is a great difference between self-rule and God's rule:
1. Self-rule means that we live by the feelings of our conscience, being respon-sible to our conscience—Acts 24:16.
2. God's rule means that we live by the intuition of our spirit, being responsible to the intuition, that is, being responsible to God:
a. Within our spirit there is a function to have a direct sense, to realize, dis-cern, and perceive things; this is the intuition in our spirit—1 Cor. 2:11; Mark 2:8.
b. When we live by our intuition and are controlled by our intuition, we are living in the presence of God and are ruled directly by Him.
F. When we are under God's rule, we live by the intuition of our spirit according to the sense of life—Rom. 8:6:
1. The divine life is the highest life, with the richest, strongest, and keenest feeling (Eph. 4:18); this feeling is the sense of life.
2. The sense of life makes us know whether we are living in the natural life or in the divine life, whether we are living in the flesh or in the spirit—Rom. 8:6.
3. The sense of life guides, governs, controls, and directs us—v. 4.
4. The kingdom of God has its reality, and this reality is the living of the divine life under the direct rule of God—Matt. 5:3, 8, 20; 6:33; 7:21.