All righty. Again, everything
we need is in tonight's handout. I know we like to look at Scripture
sometimes, but I've got a lot of Scripture tonight. So I wanted
to take you through it kind of quickly. It's easier just to
have it in the handout rather than turning in our Bibles to
each one. And I begin tonight with the
title, The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now, listen to these
words in Romans 16, 25-27, Now to Him that is of power to he who has
the power is another way of putting that now to him that is of power
to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of
Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which
was kept secret since the world began but now is manifest and
by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment
of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience
of faith To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. In Matthew 13, we read
in verses 10 and 11, and the disciples came and said unto
him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered,
this is so key to everything that we're reading in the Bible
now when it comes to pictures and types. This is so key to
this. And he said unto them, and he
answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you. You can't be more clear about
this. Our Lord is so plain in his words. That's why the Pharisees,
the self-righteous Pharisees, got so angry. God was taking
away the power that they felt they should have of their own
will, of their own free will. their own decision to to follow
and to do what they thought was righteous. The Lord took all
that away and he says this because it is said unto them, it is given
unto you, given is the key fact here, key word here, to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is
not given. How more plain can God be about
there being two classes of people? Those who he loves and those
who he doesn't. Those who he blesses and those
that he doesn't. In this chapter, continuing on
in mid-page one, in this chapter 13, we are given several parables,
stories that picture spiritual truths referring to this kingdom
of heaven. And I give you the verses that
are the 31, 33, 44, and so on. Throughout the New Testament
scriptures, we are given many references to the kingdom of
God. But only Matthew was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to reference us to this phrase, the kingdom
of heaven is like. Now, you can look up the Kingdom
of Heaven or the Kingdom of God and find it in many different
places, but this is the only place where the Lord uses this
phrase, the Kingdom of Heaven is like, or likened. He used likened as once and then
like several other times, seven times. Folks, the word of our
Creator is not put in place to fill blank spaces. He doesn't
just have words out there willy-nilly. Oh, I need to put a word here.
Let's see what fits there. That's not the way the Lord puts
his word. Every space, every word is purposed by God for a
reason. Every single word. Just as the
details of the temple were given in great, minute details, our
God is a God of all details. Every molecule has its place
in God's creations. Every detail has its purpose,
and it all glorifies Him. John Gill wrote this, and it's
a rather lengthy one. It goes right into page two,
but we begin here at the bottom of page one. He says, by the
kingdom of heaven is meant the gospel, which treats of the kingdom
of heaven and of things pertaining to it. of the saints' meekness
for it, which is the regenerating and sanctifying grace of the
Spirit, and of their right to it, which lies in the justifying
righteousness of Christ, the mysteries of it, intent to sublime
doctrines thereof, such as relate to the Trinity of the persons
and the Godhead, to the incarnation of Christ, and the union of the
two natures, human and divine, in him, page two. He goes on
to say an eternal predestination, redemption by Christ, satisfaction
by his sacrifice, justification by his righteousness, and pardon
through his blood. He's talking about the people,
the kingdom of heaven, those who are of the kingdom of heaven,
through his blood, the resurrection from the dead, Things though
clearly revealed yet may have difficulties attending them,
he writes, and which are not very easily solved. Now to know
and understand the great truths of the gospel spiritually, savingly,
and experimentally is not from nature. or to be acquired by
men's industry, but it is a gift of God's grace flowing from his
sovereign will and pleasure, a favor which the disciples of
Christ as chosen people receive from the Lord and which is denied
to others." So that was a lengthy commentary, but I wanted you
to hear the full thing from John Gill. A little bit of it was
hard to understand, but I think you got the gist of what he was
saying. What a picture of grace. The Lord Jesus declares, it is
given unto you to know, but to them it is not given. And then
he goes on to speak in pictures or parables of what this kingdom
is likened into of this world. We looked a couple of weeks back
at the parable of the sower in verses one through nine. Then
in the answer to his disciples questioning his reasoning, he
says this, for whosoever hath to him shall be giving, and he
shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not from him shall
be taken away every even that he hath. Therefore speak I to
them in parables. Because they seeing not, and
hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them
is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing
ye shall hear, and shall not understand. and seeing you shall
see and shall not perceive for this people's heart is wax gross
and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed
lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear
with their ears or should understand with their heart and should be
converted and i should heal them but blessed are your eyes For
they see, and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto
you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those
things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those
things which ye hear, and have not heard them." Before we go
on, I want to make a point here, it just came to my mind. Did
you notice the Lord was talking about those of that time? This
is in Isaiah, by the way. I didn't, I should have looked
that up exactly where that quote was from, but it was back in
the days of Isaiah. Now, Isaiah was a prophet in the realm of the Jewish nation. He was part of the Jewish nation,
not the world, but the nation of Jews. And not all of the Jews
at that time even were of the truth of God, even in
those days. Even in those days, and we see
that's what this is telling us here. There are those who have
ears and do not perceive, there are those who have eyes and do
not, and they don't perceive, actually, they don't hear or
they don't perceive. It's talking about that very
thing that we've seen in these parables. And the Lord is standing there
talking to his disciples with all of those Israelis, all of
those Jewish people surrounding them. Remember, we go back, we
can go back to the beginning of chapter 13 there and see where
all of the different people where he had come out from that city
or from that house where there were so many people that had
been surrounding him, he wasn't even able to meet with his mother
and his brothers. And then when he came out, he
went under the ship because there were so many people, the ship,
there were so many people that he couldn't. So he's talking
again, He's showing us how the Old Testament relates to the
New. Here we are in the New and the
Lord is speaking the fulfillment of scriptures. The fulfillment
of that very time when the church, the people of God, Israel, the
chosen people of God, were not all Israel. In today's world, it's the same. And that's what everything has
been pointing us to in these parables. Let's go on the last
paragraph now of page two. Whoever has the true grace of
God implanted in him or her has a saving knowledge of Christ
and a spiritual understanding of the doctrines of the gospel.
He shall have more grace given him, he shall grow in the knowledge
of Christ, and the spirit of truth shall lead him in all truth.
That's what we read in John 16, 13. How be it when he, the spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. And it says,
and he shall have more abundance or an abundance of grace, of
light, of knowledge, of experience. I want to stop there for a moment.
You can talk to any one of the brethren who've been with the
Lord for so long. Pastor Harmon, Pastor Gene has
been walking with the Lord for over 40 years. I don't know how
long Mike Lovelace has been walking. Mike and his wife Shirley have
been walking with the Lord, but they've been walking with the
Lord for a long time. They understand exactly what this is talking
about. He's received more grace. The grace of God is magnified. As we get older and we see more
of the depth of where our sin is in this flesh, we understand
His grace more and more. We don't grow in ourselves in
being any better. If we grow anything, I was talking
with Brother Gabe Stoniker about this the other day, if we grow
in any way at all in this flesh, we grow in our depravity. We
come to understand our depravity more and more and more. We see
our sin, the sin of this flesh, more and more. But what that
does, what that does is it magnifies the grace of God. We see that
depravity raising up within us and we say to ourselves, praise
Lord for his salvation, that he loves the people and that
he's gracious and merciful to them. They will have an abundance
of grace and light and knowledge and experience. All grace shall
be made to abound towards Him. He shall be filled with all the
fullness of God and shall arrive to that measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ. And His light shall shine brighter
and more unto the perfect day. What is our light? Our light
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our light. You can't talk
to Gene Harmon or Mike Loveless or any of the folks that have
been walking with the Lord for a long time. You can't talk to
them without knowing who the Lord is. They just flow. It flows
from them. It flows from us as we get older. Paragraph 2, page 3. But whosoever
hath not, do you see the grace? The truth of grace. is what it's
talking about, whosoever hath not, if they don't have the truth
of grace, if they don't have the spiritual knowledge of Christ,
nor the experience of his doctrines of his gospel, from him shall
be taken away even that he hath, or that which he seem to have.
as Luke expresses it, for everything besides true grace is mere show
and it has no standing in it. Listen again, I quote again from
John Gill, he wrote this, he goes, the national state of the
Jews with all the outward privileges, now remember, God didn't give
his ordinances to anybody but Israel, Jacob, the Jews. And when he did, they had all
the ordinance of God. They had all the ordinance of
the prophets. They had the prophets. The world
didn't have the prophets. the national state of the Jews
with all the outward privileges pertaining to the word and the
ordinances, all which may be here meant and even speculative
notions of the gospel, the external gifts of the spirit, that means
of grace, the gospel of the kingdom of God and the ministry of it,
which in process of time were wholly taken from those people. The Lord took it all away from
them. We read that in the book of Romans. He took it away. Now last week, mid-page three,
last week we looked at the wheat and the tares, and God's grace,
and with God's grace forefront in our minds, let's look at another
of two parables which the Lord of all glory gave us concerning
the kingdom of heaven is like. I put the scripture in the handout
for you. It comes next. I want to read
the parable of the must receive, Matthew 13, 31 and 32. Another
parable put he forth unto them. Now this is right in the middle
between the two parables of the the ground, the sower and the
ground, and the sower and the wheat and the tares. Another
parable put he forth unto them saying the kingdom of heaven
is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed
in his field. which indeed is the least of
all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs
and becometh a tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge
in the branches thereof. Now, our brother Don Fortner
wrote this. He says, the parable of the grain
of the mustard seed is designed to teach us never to despise
the day of small things. And that can be applied to a
lot. It can be applied to small, minor
details. What about, you know, little
teeny details of how the Lord has brought somebody to hear
the gospel and they walked out saying, oh, I'll never, I'm not
that big of a sinner. That's a detail that some people
would just flat out forget. But that's what this is talking
about. Let us never despise the day of small things. Listen to
these words. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, this
is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might
nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, who
art thou, O great mountain? Page four. Before Zerubbabel, thou shalt
become a plain, speaking of that mountain that we just read about,
and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings,
crying, grace, grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house. His hands shall also finish it.
And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto
you, for who hath despised the day of small things? For they
shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel
with the pulpit. of the hand observable, and these
seven, and those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which
run to and fro through the whole earth." That's Zechariah 4 through
6 through 10. And that was, again, a reference
that Don had given us to look at. He goes on to say, God's
thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways.
God almost always does things exactly the opposite of what
we would and of what we imagine he does. That's exactly what
happened to the 11 apostles when they were supposed to be waiting
on the Lord. Well, you know what, we've waited long enough. It
seems right now that we should draw lots. Boy, were they wrong
in doing that, weren't they? The gospel does not triumph all
at once. The church in the kingdom of
God is not set up all at once, neither among us in the world
nor within us in our hearts. The church of God, Don goes on
to say, sprang from a very small seed sown in the earth. That would be Jacob, Noah, Abram,
I could go on and list a couple of others, but they were just
one and twos of men and women here and there. It wasn't the
whole world at once. That's what Don's pointing out
here. The church sprang up from a very small seed sown in the
earth. God's works almost always begin with obscurity. Nobody
even noticed how great a kingdom God was building, and with what
appeared to be insignificant things. and the gospel has been
spread through the nations of the world very gradually. Occasionally
there have been great sudden outpourings of grace upon multitudes
as in the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts chapter 2, but that has
never been the normal method of God's workings among men and
it is not now. Normally, God's church and kingdom
grows and spreads gradually. Consistently, but gradually. Like the grain of a mustard seed
sown in the ground, its growth is almost unobservable, but it
is steady. As the full-grown mustard seed
is the greatest and the largest of all herbs, so the church and
kingdom of God shall in the end of the world be immeasurably
great and large. And then he closes with his statement
with Psalms 80 verses 8 through 11. Thou hast brought a vine
out of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen
and planted it. thou preparedest room before
it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the
land. The hills were covered with the
shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs into
the sea and her branches into the river. So we can see how
that goes right along there. The number of gods elect shall
be more than any man can count. Untold millions and billions
of people shall inhabit heaven's glory with Christ. Our Lord also
compares faith to a grain of mustard seed. Our Lord also compares faith
to a grain of mustard seed. If he had faith, if ye had faith
as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine
tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the
sea and it should obey you. That's in Luke 17, six. It begins
small. Sometimes it grows slowly, it
becomes a great grace, honoring God and serviceable to men. As a little leaven, leaven is
a whole lump in other words. Robert Hawker wrote this, he
said, so the grace of God, when put by the Holy Ghost into the
heart of a sinner, small and unnoticed as it is, produces
such a vast things that angels look with wonder and astonishment. at the change which is wrought.
Which leads us to the next parable. Matthew 13 33 and another parable
spoke he unto them the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the
whole was leavened. Now the parable of the leaven
is often misinterpreted We are told that the leaven refers to
the ever-increasing evil of this world, and it does in many places
where the Lord gives us warning, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. It does refer to leaven in many
places. That's one of the reasons why
we eat unleavened bread. That's why the Lord commanded
it to be unleavened, because he didn't the leaven causes it
to grow. Well, that can be used in both
ways. And that's what the Lord is doing
here. Our Lord is not talking about the world. He's talking
about the kingdom of heaven. So it can't be used, it's not
being used as an evil thing here in this, it's being talked of
as something good. He's talking about his church.
The parable of the leaven is very much the same in the meaning
of the parable of the mustard seed. It teaches us that the
gospel prevails by degrees and works like leaven in the hearts
of God's elect. The woman, the weaker vessel,
could apply to the gospel preachers who have the treasure of the
gospel in earthen vessels. That's what we read in 2 Corinthians
4-7, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels, the excellency
of the power, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Again, a quote from Don Fortner,
he says, the leaven was hidden in three measures of meal. The
regenerate heart, like meal, is soft and pliable. Remember
the Lord said in the Old Testament he would take out, he would cut
away that old stony heart and give us a heart of flesh. That's
a heart of tenderness. Like meal, soft and pliable. Leaven will never work in corn. You can't mix leaven with corn
and make it work there. But only in ground meal. Interesting. Only in ground meal so that the
gospel has no effect upon the stony unregenerate heart. It
only works upon broken hearts that have been ground by the
Holy Spirit in conviction. Once the leaven is hidden in
the dough, it works. So the word of God hidden in
the hearts of chosen redeemed sinners by God the Holy Spirit
works and brings forth fruit. Listen to Hebrews 4 verse 12.
For the word of God is quick and powerful. Do you see how
it goes in and it works in the meal? And sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even the dividing asunder. You know what 11 is,
don't you? Leaven is yeast. What does it do? It causes it
to grow. It causes the bread to puff up
and grow. That's why it can be used in
both directions. We see it here being used this
way. It's a two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder
of the soul and the spirit, and of the joints and the marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4 verse 12, page five, or six. The change God's word
works, though it is universal, affecting the whole person, is
gradual. This parable, like the parable
of the mustard seed, is meant to show the wonderful works of
God in and upon his elect. The grace of God in His children,
like leaven, sanctifies them entirely. Sanctifies the whole
nature. Listen to 2 Corinthians 5, 17.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. In all these parables, our Lord
is declaring His works in all of salvation. The kingdom of
heaven is like, he says, he is the foundation of it. He is the foundation of it. That's
what we read in Matthew 16, 18. Upon this rock, I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
So he's the foundation. He's the rock. And we'll see
that in a moment, here in a moment, when we look at him being a builder.
But right now, I want to bring out, he is the ruler of it, mid-page
six. And Jesus came, and he spake
unto them, saying, all power is given unto me. All rule is
given unto me in heaven and in earth, Matthew 28, 18. And then
we come to him as the builder of it. And again, we refer to
Matthew 16, this time 16 through 18, and Simon Peter answered
and said, thou art the Christ. Remember the Lord asked him,
what do you say that, who do you say that I am? He says, thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. And the Lord says,
he answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father, which is in heaven. And we've seen that verse used
and expounded on that many a times. How are you gonna call on somebody
you've never heard of? Well, God takes that word from
the preachers, from God's ministers, and He applies it to the hearts
of sinners through His Father. It's revealed unto us by Heaven.
And then He says this, And I say also unto thee, thou art Peter,
and upon this rock, the rock that Christ is the Son of the
living God, I will build my church and the gates of hell. shall
not prevail against it. That word church, that's the
same as the kingdom of heaven, God's people, the called out,
the elect, those whom he has loved from before the foundations
of the world. Folks, do you catch that? We've
been loved before we've ever even walked this earth. If God
loves us, what can be against us? And we'll look at that, too,
in just a moment. But let's go on. And he is the only mediator
for his church, this church which is likened. For there is one
God. and one mediator between God
and men, the man, Christ Jesus. How is He a mediator? This is
how He sits on His throne today. He was risen, death could not
hold Him. He sits on His throne today because
everything He did was perfect. And God the Father accepted what
His Son did. And in doing so, he put him on
the throne, the right hand of God, and he makes mediation for
all of his people. You can't charge them for that
because I took those charges as my own. My last statement last week was
in reference to verse 43, where we read, who hath ears to hear,
let him hear. Our Redeemer calls us to pay
attention to and to ponder, to consider what He has taught us
in these instructive parables. Blessed are they who have ears
to hear, hear and understand by His grace the things here
declared by the Son of God. Looking on, our Lord gives us
two more to consider, page seven. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who when he had
found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he
had, and he bought it. That's the, uh, I didn't put the, that's verse
45. I forgot to put that on there,
sorry about that. That's verse 45 of chapter 13
of our text. Now, I've read the commentators,
excellent, excellent things for them to say, and I'll share with
you some of what they've said here. And they've given different
interpretations of this parable. And here's why. because the Holy
Spirit Nowhere in scripture gives us the interpretation like they
did the other two, the parable of the sower and the parable
of the wheat and the tares. The Lord explains those very
clearly. He does not with these. So it
opens the door for different men to look at them and apply
these parables in different ways. And I'll show that to you here
in a moment. The treasure hid in a field, and I'm paraphrasing
from Robert Hawker, he takes it to be Christ himself. hidden in the field of Holy Scriptures
from the wise and the prudent, but revealed unto babes. Can
you see how that would pick, how Robert would take that that
way? I can. The Lord says, I thank thee,
Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the
prudent, but revealed them unto babes. And that's throughout
all the scriptures. There are folks who can, to this
day, can read the Old Testament scriptures and say Christ is
not in them. Whereas God's people, we know
that it's all about him, don't we? Because he's revealed it
to us. So I can see where Robert Hawker
applies that to that parable, and I could call that wise as
well. John Gill, he takes it to be this, the gospel, which
is a treasure consisting of rich truths comparable to gold. Silver and precious stones now. I want to stop there for just
a moment because this is important. This is absolutely Absolutely
another good way to interpret that but it goes right back to
what? Robert Robert Hawker says it's Christ himself Christ is
our precious stone Christ is the gold of our gospel. He's
the silver of our gospel. Let's go on of the most valuable
blessings and the exceeding great precious promises and reveals
the riches of God of Christ and of the other world. and is a
treasure unsearchable, solid, satisfying, and lasting. And I say amen to John Gill as
well, but Brother Don Fortner goes a little deeper for us.
And I have his quote next. The treasure hidden in a field
is in my opinion, writes Don, and this is important. These
are opinions of men, because God doesn't come right out in
his word and tell us exactly like he did in those other two
parables. This is the opinions of men. But look how they apply,
look how these godly men apply this. All three statements coming
a little bit differently, but they still come back to the one
thing, Christ and Him crucified. Let's go on. The treasure hidden
in the field is in my opinion the church of God's elect. Now, I don't care what anybody
says, I know that it's talking about the called out, but we
wouldn't be called out if it wasn't for Christ and Him crucified.
I can point to each and every one that I think is a child of
God and I can say, it's all about Christ and Him crucified that
you're saved. Yes, we are the Lord's treasury. We are the Lord's treasure. Don
goes on to say, the portion of his inheritance, the apple of
his eye, and the jewels of his crown. Though in ourselves by
nature and by birth we are nothing but sinners, worthless and useless,
yet because of God's sovereign love, there's Christ, and distinguishing
grace, there's Christ, we are precious in his sight. Do not all the angels Do they
not all sing, hallelujah, another has come home? Brothers and sisters,
I'm telling you this afternoon, Maxine Bonner went home and the
angels cried out, hallelujah, another has come home. So precious,
so precious are they in his sight that he has sacrificed men and
nations for us. And Don gives us several verses
to consider with that statement, and I give them to you here,
beginning at Exodus 19, verses 5 through 6. Listen to these
words. This is how precious we are to God, folks. This is how
precious we are to the Lord who created all things. Now, therefore,
if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye
shall be a peculiar treasure unto me. Above all people for
all the earth is mine and ye shall be unto me a kingdom We're
talking about the mysteries of the kingdom of God. There you
go a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Let's read the next one. Here, when the Most High divided
to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of
Adam, he set the bounds of their people according to the number
of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his
people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance,
page eight. He found him in a desert land
and in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about. He instructed
him. He kept him as the apple of his
eye. That's Deuteronomy 32, 8, 10.
Are these not good words? Are these not blessing your heart? This is talking about us. These
words apply to you and I. Listen to Psalm 135, 4. For the
Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself and Israel. for his peculiar
treasure, or a treasure in the sight of God, a pearl, one that
you would sell everything for. Everything. Isn't that what God
did? He gave everything. He gave His only begotten Son.
He gave all things. That's everything right there.
Listen to Isaiah 43 verses 1-4, But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name,
Thou art mine. When Thou passest through the
waters, I will be with Thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow Thee. When Thou walkest through the
fire, Thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon Thee. For I am the Lord Thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, Thy Savior. I gave Egypt for Thy ransom."
Remember what Egypt was raised up for? Egypt was raised up so
God would show his power, and the world would know his power. He gave up Israel, or he gave
up Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou
was precious in my sight, he says, thou hast been honorable,
and I have loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee and
people for thy life. Now, I can see the reasons from
Scripture for all three commentaries. But the whole Gospel message
is God's grace in saving a people unto Himself. God's elect are
so precious as the object of His love and grace that He gave
His own darling Son to redeem us and to save us. 1 John... Oh, I'm sorry. Actually, this
is John 3.16. First, God so loved the world.
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here's
another one, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious
appearing of the great God our Savior Jesus Christ who gave
Himself for us. that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works." Titus 2, 13-14. Here's another one, 1 John 3,
16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us. Again, 1 John, this
time chapter 4, verses 9-10, In this was manifest the love
of God towards us, because that He has sent His only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son
to be the propitiation for our sins. I could not go without
mentioning these words as well, look with me at the bottom of
page eight. You know, you know what these words are. And we
know that all things work together for the good to them that love
God. To them who are the called, this is the church, the kingdom
of heaven, the called according to his purpose. For whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate, page 9, conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God before us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son. There it is, folks. That's the
gospel. That's the rock that he builds
his church upon. He builds his kingdom of heaven
upon, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? But that's not all. Let's go
on, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? How
can I lay, who can lay anything to the charge, to your charges,
Roger? God took those charges. The Son
of God, who knew no sin, was made sin that we would be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ. that died, yea,
rather than is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh the intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution? What about famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or the sword? As it is written, For thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. And then Paul
closes with this in his verses of Romans 8, 28 through 39. He says, for I am persuaded.
Are you? Are you persuaded as well? Oh
how I pray the Lord persuades you and persuades you and persuades
you and persuades you right to the point where he takes you
through that door and shows you his truths are true no matter
what. I am persuaded, writes Paul,
that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor
powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
any depth, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Again in our text we read Matthew
13, 47 through 50, Again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered
from every kind, which when it was full, they drew it to shore
and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the
bad away. So shall it be at the end of
the world. The angels shall come forth and
sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into
the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. It would seem, Matthew being
inspired by God to put this before the parable of the wheat and
the tares, that it might relate to that very next parable. The
parable of the net cast into the sea seems to show us the
true nature of Christ's visible church and the kingdom in this
world. The preaching of the gospel is
like the casting of the net. of a great net into the sea of
this world. It is our business to cast that
net. But as a net cast into the sea
gathers a great multitude of fish, some good and some bad,
so the preaching of the gospel gathers into Christ's church,
his visible church, both genuine, page 10, both genuine believers and carnal
professors, wheat with tares, both regenerate souls and unregenerate,
humble possessors of faith and hypocritical professors of faith. There is sure to be a time when
the good fish are separated from the bad, but that is God's doing,
not ours. And he will not do it until the
end of the world. Folks, I'm telling you, just
like I said last week, who are we? Who are we to look and say
that we can judge another man's heart? I know, and you heard
me say it a moment ago when I said I'm pretty sure, as much as a
man can be, that our sister Maxine has gone on to heaven. The outward evidences that I
saw in her, her love for the gospel, the belief that she had
in her heart for the gospel, those are things that we obviously
show in our walk in this life, but we can't tell for sure. Judas of Ascaria showed all the
right signs until that night he accepted 30 pieces of silver. It's not our job to judge the
hearts of men and women. It's our job to go out and preach
the gospel. And the gospel is this, Christ
in him crucified, saving his people. That's what Christ in
him crucified is all about. The word Christ is deliverer,
Messiah. Him crucified, well, why would
God send himself to be crucified but to save his people? That's
our purpose, that's our job. All the churches, going on now,
page 10, second paragraph, all the churches of Christ in this
world are mixed assemblies of good and bad fish. Throughout
these parables, our Lord repeatedly stresses this point. There are
good hearers and bad hearers, tares and wheat, good fish and
bad fish. Why does He do this? He means
for you and I to understand that there is no perfect church, no
perfect body of believers in this world. Gene used to tell
a story about how a guy came and he goes, I'm looking for
the perfect church, the church, the holy church. Gene said something
a bit like this, well you've not found anyone holy here outside
of those that are in Christ. This is a church full of sinners. No perfect body of believers
in this world. If we try to make the church
perfect, and pure by separating what we think is bad from the
good, we will both be disobedient to our master, who is very clear
in these parables, and possibly bring great harm to his people. I'm pausing because I want us
all to stop and think about that for just a moment. Okay, if I
was to point a finger straight across the table and where nobody
sits right this very moment, three fingers would be pointed
right back at John Reeves because John Reeves fails to follow his
own words right here. How often have I thought the
very thing that I just said not to do? How can that person be
saved? Who am I? Who am I to make that
decision? Who am I? Lord help me. Back in our handout, Lord help
us to never be satisfied with an outward profession of faith,
an outward church membership. I put this scripture in here
because I want you to understand this very first two words are
so clear. Examine yourself, whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? You
may be in the net, and yet not be in Christ. Multitudes have
been buried in the waters of baptism who have never been crucified
with Christ. Thousands around the world regularly
eat and drink the bread and the wine of the Lord's Supper who
have never fed upon Christ by faith. The true character of
every person's religion will soon be revealed. It says in
verse 49 and 50 of our text, so shall it be at the end of
the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from
among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire,
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. When the Lord draws
the net to shore, He will gather the good and He'll throw away
the bad. There will be an eternal separation between the wicked
and the just. There is a heaven for the just
and a furnace, a fire for the wicked. I deserve the furnace,
but Christ the Lord has taken it for me. Has He for you?