Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Narrator (Male): The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: It is a most solemn thing to realize that the Lord Jesus Christ walks in the midst of the churches and holds the ministers in his hand. It is a solemn thing to note that someday he's going to remove all faithful ministers into his glory. And that he will then close his hand into a fist to crush the unfaithful ones. Though they cry out, but Lord, have we not cast out demons in thy name and in thy name done many mighty works? He will have to reply to them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. It is indeed a solemn thing to name the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For we are either in his true and spiritual kingdom through the new birth, or we are in that kingdom in mystery, which will undergo severest judgment.

Perhaps the most solemn statements of judgment to be found in all the Bible are those addressed to the priests, apostles, and ministers of religion who follow their own way and who do not walk in the way of Christ. May God search our hearts.

Narrator (Male): Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio ministry, which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's word, as taught by Dr. Barnhouse, is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago. The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled The Spiritual Kingdom.

In one scene in Shakespeare's Richard III, the king frantically cries, a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse. An entire kingdom in exchange for one horse seems like a bad deal to us. But countless people reject Jesus Christ and thereby trade the eternal blessings of God's kingdom for cheap worldly substitutes that will not last. Do you hunger and thirst for the kingdom of God? The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 14 and verse 17. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, with a message entitled The Spiritual Kingdom.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto the our Father and our God and in the Holy Spirit. We worship thee and rejoice that thou art our God. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him, our Father. We ask thee this day that thou shalt speak to each listening heart and teach us thy word and thy ways, that we may walk in the paths that please thee. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We continue our study of the kingdom of God. In our last study, we saw that Satan claimed to have a kingdom, in fact, to possess authority over all the kingdoms of the earth. Christ did not deny the claim. Indeed, he later stated, Satan had a kingdom, that it was divided against itself and could not stand. Here is a hint that some of the principalities and powers who followed Lucifer in his rebellion, later broke away from Satan. This would explain much of human history. Satan's fallen angels in charge of Russia, for example, are at war with Satan's former cohorts in charge of other earthly powers.

Over against such an earthly human, in the last resort, devilish kingdom, stands the kingdom of the men chosen by God and the people chosen by him. Legitimate proprietor, indeed representative of the kingdom is King David. Thus, Schmidt in Kittel, introduces the question of the kingdom of Christ. Unfortunately, he fails to distinguish between the earthly kingdom and the spiritual kingdom. The crowds of Jerusalem who strewed palms in the path of the Savior were wiser in their ignorance than men of our day who failed to distinguish this important difference.

Those that went before and those who followed cried, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom of our Father David that is coming. Hosanna in the highest. Their cry was solidly founded on the Old Testament prophecies, that kingdom is coming. We must be very careful to distinguish between the outward rule of God over the entire universe. All that is included in his absolute sovereignty, and the spiritual rule of God over the redeemed, which we shall consider in detail when we study the latter half of our text, which states that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Many who are in the universal kingdom of God, since all creatures are in it, do not know its spiritual aspects. Indeed, they cannot see that kingdom unless they have been born again. This was the word spoken to Nicodemus by our Lord. Nicodemus had approached Jesus with what was intended to be a compliment. Rabbi, he said, giving him no more than an earthly title, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. There is an amazing amount of ignorance in that remark, and Christ responded with a sweeping indictment of this Pharisee's lost condition.

A thousand teachers had come from God, but Christ was not one of them. He was God come to teach and to redeem. This was the only time that God would ever come in human form for such a purpose. The man who was not born again could think only human thoughts. He could see signs and wonders and know vaguely that there was a divine power back of them. But he could not discern that here before him was the Lord God Almighty, the word made flesh. Nicodemus' answer further revealed his abysmal spiritual ignorance, and Christ again revealed to him his position outside the pale of truth. Except a man be born of Hudar Kai Pnuma, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

It's most unfortunate that the translators took these two nouns and translated the first, while translating and interpreting the second. Both of these Greek words have come into English. Hudar, water has given us hydroelectric, hydroplane, and similar forms. While Pnuma, breath or wind, comes to us in pneumatic and pneumonia. The verse should have been translated, except a man be born of water and breath, or water and wind. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Or else, if interpretation is admissible in translation work, the verse should have been translated and interpreted, except a man be born of the word and the Spirit.

I like the way in which the Southern Baptist Hymnal has changed the old hymn, The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by spirit and the word. This is correct. Of one thing we can be certain. When Jesus said, except a man be born of water and wind, it is not a reference to water baptism in any form. To turn Dean Henry Alford's words back against himself, it seems to me that all attempts to get rid of these two plain facts have sprung from doctrinal prejudices by which the views of the expositors have been warped.

Failure to understand it thus, forces Christianity into the mold of sacramental religion, and contradicts Christ's declaration that God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The importance of all this is that here before us is the great spiritual truth that a man, a creature in the universal kingdom of God, a subject of that kingdom in spite of his own will and desires, is by the new birth, transferred into the spiritual kingdom of God.

This spiritual kingdom has given various names in the New Testament: the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of his dear Son, the kingdom of Jesus, and above all, this spiritual aspect of the rule of God is called the kingdom of heaven. At this point it is necessary for me to state that I am changing the vocabulary which I have used through most of my life. Earlier, I accepted without question the vocabulary presented by Dr. C. I. Scofield in his note on Matthew 3:2, and I taught that the kingdom of heaven signifies the Messianic earth rule of Jesus Christ. It is called the kingdom of the heavens because it is the rule of the heavens over the earth.

This note and vocabulary are quoted by Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer in his Kingdom in History and Prophecy. They make much of the fact that John the Baptist came presenting the kingdom of heaven. There is one little difficulty which soon becomes a stupendous difficulty. Mark in his gospel presents Jesus Christ, after John was arrested, preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. I do not find it possible to interpret this in any way other than the direct statement by Christ, that the kingdom of heaven, spoken of by John the Baptist in Matthew, is none other than the kingdom of God of which the Lord is now speaking.

Now some people may want to cast the whole subject aside and say that the matter is unimportant and it's confusing. But we are dealing with the word of the eternal and living God, who has told us that we are to live by every word that proceeds out of his mouth. We remember also that this word is profitable for teaching, for final evidence, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The importance of this study is that it produces an entirely different world outlook on all aspects of human life. Whether political, social, or economic. It also leads to an entirely different outlook on all aspects of the church of Jesus Christ. Those who believe that the church replaced the kingdom of David can easily adopt that point of view which looks for the church to conquer the world. The next step is to accept the idea that a man can become a bishop and may wear a crown that is placed on his head with the formula that he is the ruler of the world, Lord over all earthly kingdoms.

Ultimately, this leads to rejection of all the promises which have been made in the Bible to Abraham and his seed, and causes men to hate and despise the Jews as a race. Now these ideas can never be accepted by those who understand that the kingdom promised to David will actually be established upon this earth at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the key passages of all scripture is the 13th chapter of Matthew. In this chapter, in which the Lord Jesus spoke in parables for the first time, note that the chapter begins with the words that same day. Whereas the previous chapter begins with the words at that time.

This indicates that the events of chapters 11 to 13 took place on one eventful day when six new words appeared in Christ's vocabulary. It would take six chapters to study this matter in detail, but the careful student will note that on this day, the Lord, for the first time, one, began to upbraid the cities saying, woe to you. At the same time, we find, two, the first gospel invitation, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. At that time, Christ entered the great conflict with the Pharisees on the Sabbath question, and when they took counsel against him how to destroy him, he announced, three, the fulfillment of the prophecy that he would turn to the Gentiles.

As they laid the charge against him that he was working by the power of the devil, his wrath broke out against them in personal judgment, as he called them, four, brood of vipers and other names of judgment. They thought he had gone mad and called his mother Mary to quiet him. She came with her other sons, but Jesus refused to see them, and announced the principle that he could not be approached by such a channel of earthly ties, and for the first time, five, he used the blessed word, whosoever, applying it to even the last and the least of his followers, who now may approach him with full assurance.

Entrance into the presence of God is through Christ, and entrance to Christ is not by any mediator or mediatrix. Christ says, whosoever does the will of my Father, the same is my brother, my sister, and my mother. It was on that same day that Jesus went out of the house where he had evidently taken refuge during the noonday heat, and sat beside the sea, and he told them many things in parables. It was the sixth new word of the day, and he taught many things about different phases of the kingdom of God in its various aspects.

After the first parable, and before he had explained it, the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them, to you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, it has not been given. For to him who has, will more be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

What Matthew describes as the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, Mark calls the secrets of the kingdom of God. Another proof of the interchangeability of these terms. Now this is really an enlargement of what he said to Nicodemus. The man who has not been born again cannot see and cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Such men may look to the heavens and understand the universal sovereignty of God. They may be aware of the kingdom promises that had been made to David, and thus know the plan of God to establish his government upon the earth. But because they have not been born again, they have no knowledge of the spirituality of his kingdom or of its outward form.

It could be paraphrased, to him who has new life in Christ shall be given spiritual understanding. But to him who does not have new life in Christ, shall be taken away, so far as spiritual understanding is concerned, even that high intellectual knowledge which makes him a master in some other field of thought. While teaching in parables, Christ told the crowds the parables of the sower, the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, and the leaven. At this point, we read in Matthew 13:34 and 5, all this Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

We are brought to the inescapable conclusion that the parables of the 13th of Matthew concern an aspect of the kingdom of God which had been hidden since the foundation of the world. The disciples were now to hear these secrets. The Greek word translated secrets is Musterion, found only in this context in the gospels, but 21 times in Paul's epistles. Arndt and Gingrich give this wonderful definition of the Greek word in their lexicon.

Our literature, they say, uses it to mean the secret thought, plans, and dispensations of God, which are hidden from the human reason, as well as from all other comprehension below the divine level, and hence must be revealed to those for whom they are intended. Knowledge of the universal kingdom had been well known to all, since it is clearly stated that what can be known about God is plain to them, ungodly men, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

Furthermore, knowledge of the Davidic kingdom was plainly revealed throughout the Old Testament. The fact that this would someday become an earthwide kingdom was also plainly revealed in the Old Testament. Since what is now being revealed are secrets that have been hidden since the foundation of the world, we are faced with that something entirely new, which we shall call the kingdom in its mystery form. Many things will become clear if we realize that just as the universal kingdom has under its sway the kingdom of Satan and the kingdoms of men, both of which are evil.

So the spiritual kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven, is existing within the kingdom in mystery, which has some very evil facets. In our next study, we shall see that the kingdom in mystery might well be called Christendom. And we shall see the vast difference between the church and the churches. Now, just as the Lord God Almighty is sovereign, even over the rule of Satan, so the Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign, not only of the church which is his bride, but also of the churches, which contain the bride, but which also ultimately produce the great whore seated upon the beast and coming to power in rebellion against the true God.

In the first chapter of the Book of Revelation, there is a wonderful vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. Standing in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands is one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle around his breast. His head and his hair were white as wool, white as snow, his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

This vision was not made to be seen with the eyes. Any attempt to paint it would produce a, believe it or not, monstrosity. Careful reference to a good concordance will reveal that each item, except the lamp stands and the stars, refers to some prophecy of the Old Testament. For example, Daniel saw the ancient of days, his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. Each other phrase in John's vision of the Son of Man shows that the Lord Jesus is none other than the Lord Jehovah of Hosts of the Old Testament. The ancient of days, God of gods, Lord of lords.

The lamp stands and the stars do not refer to an Old Testament vision, and so the Lord himself identified them as the churches and their messengers, their pastors or overseers. It is a most solemn thing to realize that the Lord Jesus Christ walks in the midst of the churches and holds the ministers in his hand. It is a solemn thing to note that someday he's going to remove all faithful ministers into his glory, and that he will then close his hand into a fist to crush the unfaithful ones. Though they cry out, but Lord, have we not cast out demons in thy name, and in thy name done many mighty works? He will have to reply to them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.

It is indeed a solemn thing to name the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For we are either in his true and spiritual kingdom through the new birth, or we are in that kingdom in mystery, which will undergo severest judgment. Perhaps the most solemn statements of judgment to be found in all the Bible are those addressed to the priests, apostles, and ministers of religion who follow their own way and who do not walk in the way of Christ. May God search our hearts. And the Lord willing, we will see more of this subject in our next study.

And our God and Father, we pray thee that the Holy Spirit shall take these great truths to us. We acknowledge that thou art our king and our God. There is none like unto thee. And we pray, as so often we pray, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in me as it is in heaven. We give thee the glory through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Narrator (Male): The kingdom of God is unlike any earthly kingdom. It is a kingdom of incomprehensible purity, peace and majesty, and its glory shall never come to an end. We hope you've benefited from today's message, The Spiritual Kingdom. To listen to additional studies by Dr. Barnhouse, visit us online at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll-free, 1-800-488-1888. Today's message again is entitled The Spiritual Kingdom, or simply request message number R14-31.

We would also like to make available to you a free CD copy of Dr. Francis Schaeffer's message entitled What Difference Does Inerrancy Make? At the heart of Dr. Barnhouse's ministry was the bedrock conviction that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. But many people believe that the Bible is just a man-made book of fantastic tales, or that it merely contains the word of God mixed in with errors and human ideas. That's why we're making available to you a free CD copy of the message, What Difference Does Inerrancy Make by Dr. Francis Schaeffer?

This powerful message reinforces the vital doctrine of biblical inerrancy and its critical importance to every area of your life. Ask for your free CD copy of, What Difference Does Inerrancy Make, when you call or write. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

We also produce the radio broadcast, The Bible Study Hour, featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and Every Last Word, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken. For a complete list of radio stations carrying our programs, visit our website at alliancenet.org. Would you like to build your own audio library of Dr. Barnhouse's timeless messages so you can listen to them anytime, anywhere? Then you will be interested in our Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible audio commentary series. Visit our website at alliancenet.org, or call us at 1-800-488-1888, and find out how you can sign up for the Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible audio commentary series.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible comes to you through the generous gifts of listeners like you. If you have benefited from the broadcast and would like it to continue, please prayerfully consider a donation to help us keep this ministry on the air. For more information or to make a contribution to further our work, contact us by calling toll-free, 1-800-488-1888. Again, that's 1-800-488-1888. Write to us at Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Box 2000, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. Visit us online at alliancenet.org.

Remember to request your free resource catalog, featuring books, audio teachings, commentaries, booklets, videos, and a wealth of other materials from outstanding reformed teachers and theologians, including Doctors Donald Grey Barnhouse, James Montgomery Boice, Martin Lloyd Jones, and Philip Graham Ryken. Thank you for listening. Join us again next time for more classic teaching on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible.