This kingdom of God existed 
before the foundations of the world 
because God created man pursuant to a plan, obviously.
Its amazing how the obvious has been so absent
from our perspectives.
We assume that the beginning
was simply where God decided
to fashion or to ‘squeeze out' the form of man
from the dust of the earth.
No, God created man pursuant to an existing plan.
Because you see, there are factors attending
the creation of man that are eternal,
things known in the mind of God
that explains why God would make man.
And the kingdom of God was the concept
that God envisioned by which to take man into Himself,
into His purposes for man.
And as a result
the kingdom is both eternal and invisible,
eternal and invisible;
invisible in time but eternal in nature.
So in the book of Matthew chapter 25, listen to this.
In one of the parables Jesus speaks
of the end of the age and in verse 31 Jesus says,
"When the Son of Man comes in His glory"
"and all the angels with Him,"
"He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory."
"All the nations will be gathered before Him"
"and He will separate the people one from another"
"as a shepard separates sheep from the goats."
"He will put the sheep on His right hand"
"and the goats on His left."
"Then the King will say to those on His right hand,"
"Come you who are blessed by My Father"
"take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you"
"since the creation of the world.'"
The kingdom existed since the creation of the world,
before God formed man from the dust of the ground.
When the earth was without form and void
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
When God stretched out
the foundations of the earth upon nothing.
Before that time the kingdom existed.
You see it's a mistake to think
that the heavenly kingdom will come
only at the end of the age.
We will see the progressive revelation of the kingdom,
and part of what we will see is a form of the kingdom
at the end of the age.
That is, the New Jerusalem
that comes down out of heaven.
But do you know that that appearing of the kingdom
is really the appearing of WHERE
the kingdom will reside,
not necessarily the kingdom itself.
The New Jerusalem is a city
but the kingdom, you see, is within you,
the kingdom is within you.
Jesus once said to His disciples
when He spoke of the kingdom, He said,
"Don't say look here the kingdom"
"or look there the kingdom,"
"for behold the kingdom of heaven is within you."
Wait a minute, how could the new Jerusalem,
if that's the kingdom,
how could that be within you as a person,
whether in your spirit or within your being?
No, that's not the kingdom per say,
it's part of the kingdom in that
it's the dwelling place
of those who are in the kingdom,
it's the house but it's not the residence;
it's not the thing itself.
Romans 14:17 puts it this way,
"The kingdom of God is not food or drink"
"the kingdom however is"
"righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit."
Righteousness, that's the character of God;
peace, that's the result of His rule
because He can suppress His enemies.
Someone who lives in righteousness and peace
with the character of God and in harmony with God
has joy in their lives.
The world is looking for joy,
joy is the result of the kingdom resident within you.
Evangelicals have classical deferred
the appearing of the kingdom
to the return of the Lord.
And in that way they've been able to dispense
with the need to deal with the gospel of the kingdom,
consequently, the only thing that they deal with
is the gospel of salvation.
But again, the things that are being said
as to what a person needs to do
are deliberately being said to point a person
to a destiny of going to heaven, not to anything else.
So for the majority of churches and church goers
there is no concept of a life supported
by the authority of Jesus Christ
which life is lived out within the context
of the body of Christ,
the purpose and direction of that life
being ruled and governed by the Holy Spirit
and that internal to you are changes
that transform you as a being in this earth.
If you don't understand that,
then what is your life going to consist of
except trying to use God to promote your own success,
rather than living the life
that God put you here to live
for which purpose He dwells in you,
to which end He will empower you.
That's why Christians seem so routinely schizophrenic,
they have visions and beliefs about heaven
but they're fully vested in trying
to live in the earth in the way
that the unbelievers live.
Such a dichotomy does not result in peace
and there is no explanation of anything
that happens in the earth in any other way
or from any other viewpoint except cause and effect.
Hurricanes come and batter our coasts
destroying lives and property
in almost unimaginable dimensions
and the purveyors of religion wring their hands
and have nothing to say to the culture.
Why?
Because this gospel that they've preached is bankrupt,
it's a gospel of the earth,
it's a gospel of delayed hope,
it's a gospel that if it has any value
has a futuristic value.
But it hardly does anything for the present life
and the people who follow it
their lives are not significantly impacted
by the gospel that they believe
because it's really not the whole gospel,
it's only part of it.
It selects items that are true and throws them at you
without any kind of context.
The context is the gospel of the kingdom.
There is no place in the scriptures
that speaks of any other gospel.
I'm convinced that the any other gospel
we're told not to preach
is largely the gospel we are in fact preaching;
which is about the death, the burial,
and the resurrection of Jesus
and His ascension to heaven.
All of which are true
but without the context of the kingdom
you don't know what it means
in terms of it's application.
So how is it applied?
It is applied to say, "If you will try Jesus,"
"He will save you and will take you to heaven,"
and some will add to that,
that He'll change your life.
All of which are true
but it's so much more than that.
The kingdom is within you,
all of the kingdom is in the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit who is in you
reveals the nature of God, reveals why you are here,
empowers you to function here in the things
that God put you here for.
You weren't just created and dumped on the planet
to sort of squirm your way up
and then hear the good news of going to heaven,
stand up in that and that's the end of the matter.
The kingdom was prepared for you
from the foundations of the world.
Now as we have said in a previous broadcast,
when you refer to the kingdom of God
you're referring to authority and power
that come from the throne of God,
and I assure you there is no higher,
there is no greater authority.
But when you refer to the kingdom of heaven
you're hearing about the reality
of being an eternal being who lives in time
and within this eternal being
the kingdom of heaven exists.
It is not a delayed entity
to come sometime in the future
although the nature of the kingdom is
it's continuing to be revealed from age to age
and from glory to glory.
And the more mature you are in God,
the more of the kingdom is revealed TO you,
and the more of the kingdom is revealed IN you.
But the kingdom already is in you.
And at the end of the age,
those aspects of the kingdom, reserved for then,
will be brought forth and given to you then;
so it's a progressive revelation.
For the kingdom itself existed
from before the foundations of the world
and the question is, why?
There are two responses to this,
they're corollaries of each other
and they're compliments of each other;
they complement each other.
One is the purpose of God
and the other is the opposition of the enemy of God.
The purpose of God in creating man
was to make man into sons of God.
And God would have done that
even if there were no one
who opposed God in the matter.
The fact that there are those
who oppose God in the matter means
that God has to protect, defend,
and otherwise make sure that His purposes for man
are not frustrated.
Now that makes perfect sense, after all,
God knew what man would endure and why.
You see, man has an enemy.
The enemy of man is the devil
and the devil himself is arrayed against man
in a multiplicity of ways.
First he has under his control
approximately a third of the angels who sinned.
In a series of broadcasts entitled 'The Sons of God'
I have fully explored this subject
so I will give you the briefest synopsis here.
God, when He created man,
created man to be the sons of God.
The evil one was not chosen,
God never said to any of the angels,
"You are My Son, this day have I begotten You."
The angels are only the sons of God
in the sense that any created being
may call it's creator it's father.
But we who are the sons of God
are not just the sons of God because
we've been created to be the sons of God.
We're also the sons of God,
we are especially the sons of God,
because we've been born of the Father.
That's how you get to be a son
in the most proper and complete sense.
Not just a created being
but a being who is born of his Father.
Now to be born of God
means you are born of the Holy Spirit.
“For the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirits"
"that we are the sons of God.”
Romans 8:11 says,
“And if the Spirit of Him"
"who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,"
"then He who gave Christ life from the dead"
"will also give life to your mortal bodies"
"by His Spirit who dwells within you."
That's how we are born of God.
So the Spirit gives life to us
because the Second Adam is a life giving Spirit.
Before you can be born of God
you're brought to the place of being dead
to the nature of Adam that is within you.
All of this is Romans 6, 7, and 8.
The Spirit raises you from the dead
and by that self same Spirit
once you are raised from the dead
you cry out 'Father, Father'; Abba, Father.
Because the Spirit Himself testifies with your spirit
that your born of God, you're sons of God.
So you're not the sons of God
simply because you're created a different species
from the angels but you're born again.
Born again implying that you were once born
and then you are born again.
You are first born of your mother's womb
and then you're born again of the Spirit of God.
So you have first a natural existence
and then agreeing to being led by the Spirit
you now are born of the Father, by His Spirit.
And that Spirit quickens your understanding
of the heavenly things that surround you,
which things you cannot see
unless you are born of the Spirit.
Jesus put it this way
when He spoke to Nicodemus in John 3, He says,
"Unless a man is born again"
"he cannot see the kingdom of God."
"For that which is born of flesh, is flesh"
"but that which is born of Spirit, is spirit"
"marvel not I say unto you, 'You must be born again.'"
There are different ways to see
and the reality of the kingdom of God
can only be seen through the eyes of the Spirit
because by the Holy Spirit you have every access
into the grace of God.
The thought that you can logically understand God
is foolishness.
The natural mind can only see those things
for which the natural mind was created.
To see the kingdom you must be born of the Spirit,
to enter the kingdom you must actually step across
the barrier of the rational and to do that
you do that by faith.
That is, you believe in the thing that exists
of which you have evidence, but it's not seen.
For the kingdom is invisible, you can't say,
'Look here is the kingdom or look there is the kingdom'
for behold the kingdom of heaven is within you.'
Don't you understand that
the substance of the kingdom is heavenly,
therefore it does not need
to take on the dimensions of the earthly.
The measurable, the quantifiable,
the things that may be apprehended by the senses.
If it were of such a world as that,
then it couldn't be also at the same time
the kingdom of heaven, now could it.
If it's of the earth, it's of the earth;
if it's of heaven, it's of heaven.
So it requires belief.
The single greatest sin in the church today
is the sin of unbelief.
Jesus put it this way, "The work of God is this",
"that you believe on the One who has been sent,"
and in my earlier analogy of Jacobs ladder,
Jesus once said to Nathanael,
"Nathanael, if you believe you will see heaven open"
"and angels ascending and descending"
"upon the Son of Man."
Those who believe in the existence of the kingdom
admittedly are not going to be well received
by those who believe only in the rational.
You notice how I said that?
Those who believe in the kingdom
are not going to be approved
by those who believe only in the rational,
only in the rational.
The funny thing is,
the people who believe in the rational
think that they're the smart ones,
that they've got the edge, they've got the advantage.
When what they have is a self imposed blindness,
for they seek to explain the existence of everything
using only the tools of the rational.
I have nothing against reason, you understand,
but I will not bow to the imperialism of reason.
Reason, by definition, is a highly limited tool;
it is limited to the measurable, to the quantifiable,
the observable, the scientific if you like.
And there are things that may be properly studied
and observed by this methodology
but the kingdom is not one of them,
for the kingdom is an eternal existence in time.
Now in this dichotomy, the great tool of our enemy,
the one who opposes us; is unbelief
and he entraps men in the cycle of unbelief.
Humans who do not believe
in the existence of an eternal kingdom,
who do not believe in any more than the rational,
are the ones to be pitied
because they are at a profound disadvantage.
By definition, everything that exists
outside of the scope of the rational
does not exist to the mind of the rational;
if you cannot prove it, it doesn't exist.
That's a fascinating thought, isn't it?
And that's the imperialism of it.
There are so many things in the human experience
that cannot be explained by reason.
Psychology makes the best attempt to put the things
that cannot be explained, into rational terms.
Everyone knows the woeful and dreadful
limitations of psychology
because it is an attempt to quantify the unquantifiable;
the super rational by the rational.
It is not the better thing to dismiss the things
that you cannot understand
and to say there may be some explanation
but because we don't have a way of knowing
what these explanations are
then these things do not exist.
The person who takes that viewpoint
would fit well in 14th century Europe,
where the prevailing theory was
that the earth was flat because they did not possess
the tools by which to observe and analyze the data
that was visible to them.
Their senses said if you sail beyond
the pillars of Hercules then you will fall off
the edge of the earth.
The reality is, there is so much more,
there is in fact so much more.
The kingdom of heaven was created by God
as the operating context
in which to protect and preserve His children
from the enemy and at the same time
the kingdom of God was created as the context
in which for the body of Christ
to live out a destiny of sonship.
An eternal destiny known in the mind of God
before the foundations of the world.
One speaks of the power by which we are meant to live,
the other speaks to the reality in which we do live.
The power by which we live is necessary
because our enemy understands how to entrap us.
Our enemy knows that the human being
lives primarily by his soul,
by the reasoning of his soul,
by the rational processes.
And he knows exactly how to use this against us.
The human being desires greatly
to pursue understanding of the things
that stir within the being of the person.
But if all that you have are the tools of the soul,
then whatever conclusions you come up with
will be tainted by the process you used to get there.
So the enemy sets his entrapment,
not on the path of the human being
seeking God by his spirit,
the spirit of man pursuing the Spirit of God;
for he knows that there is no success possible
on that path.
The path on which he is much more likely
to be successful is the soul's emotions
and the souls reasoning as the tools
that the human will use to understand
the eternal things.
At that point, you see,
everything is subject to these
very, very limited tools.
The product of this process
is a counterfeit of the truth.
So for example God intends to give us
a relationship with Him as His sons
in which He lives in us,
in which we live by His strength and power
and we pursue destinies that He has created,
in advance, for us to walk in.
In that sense the kingdom is within us.
The alternative is the product of the soul,
it's religion.
All of the souls creation,
which may be rationally explained to another
who also lives by his soul and makes complete sense,
all of that is the counterfeit to the truth.
This counterfeit is really a product
of the kingdom of darkness, the evil one.
And so in the next broadcast
I want to talk about how the enemy entraps us
in the process of the soul and makes us slaves
where we were meant to be set free
as sons in the kingdom of God.
When we look at this comparison what we will see
is the importance of the gospel of the kingdom
to free those who have been trapped
in such a way as this.
And we will speak about
what is the nature of repentance,
from what must we repent
when the gospel of the kingdom comes to us.
I'm Sam Soleyn,
I hope you'll continue to study with me
as we explore the gospel of the kingdom.
Bless you. I'll see you next time. Bye bye.
