Okay, brethren, let's turn back
to Matthew chapter 13. I have found great encouragement
as we've looked at these parables to know that the Lord is able,
that He shall make His Word effectual, that it shall not return unto
Him void, and that He shall grow His children. everyone in the
Gospel. Now, this morning we're going
to look at the parable of the leaven. And we'll look here in
Matthew 13, 33. Another parable spake he unto
them. This is the Gospel Himself speaking. This is Christ Jesus, the Word,
the Lord, the Savior of His people, the Son of God, the Son of Man,
speaking. And he says, another parable
spake 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, leaven. He says here, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven. Now, leaven is used in
many places in Scripture to denote the effects evil has, falsehood
has in this world and upon a people. The leaven itself is not the
thing, we're looking at the effect it has. And when it's used for
evil, it is showing how that evil and falsehood in every false
way began with one word in the garden. Falsehood did. And it spread to all mankind
in that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It
created spiritual death. It changed the whole nature of
man from being upright, the creation of God, to being a fallen, evil,
wretched, godless, spiritually dead creature. Well, here in
this case, we're speaking of leaven, the effects it has in
a good sense. He's speaking about the kingdom
of heaven and the effect that the gospel has in a good sense. He uses this metaphor leaven
because it changes the nature of dough. Leaven is yeast when
you put it in dough that's been ground and made into meal and
has had some water mixed with it and it's been formed into
a paste in a dough and you put yeast in it, it changes the nature
of the dough. And that's what he's speaking
about here. A small quantity of leaven leavens
the whole lump of dough. That's the gospel that he's talking
about. We're talking about the gospel
and the effects that the word has. Now he says here, which
a woman took, which a woman took. Christ is the husband, the church
is the bride, the church is the weaker vessel, the woman. And
it's through the church, through His messengers, through His witnesses,
that this gospel goes forth, this gospel that leavens the
whole, that it goes forth. When he speaks here of the woman,
the weaker vessel, I'm reminded of Paul who said, we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, weak vessels, vessels of clay,
just clay pots, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. And it is. This excellency is
of Him. He says here too that it's like
a woman who took and put, let me read it, The kingdom of heaven
is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid." We're talking
about this being hidden somewhere. Hidden somewhere. She hid in three measures of
meal. Now, the Lord has been using
metaphors here, describing the believer as seed. Well, seed
grows up and from the plant comes forth wheat. which is seed. Children. That's the metaphor
here. Wheat. And from that, that wheat
is gathered and it's ground. It's ground up and that makes
the meal that you make the bread with. Well, Here he speaks of
this meal. It's been ground up. And that's
a good description of what has happened in a regenerated sinner. Whenever God, we're born with
a heart that is stony, a heart that is hard, just like a corn
kernel, like a kernel of corn. It's just hard. Can't penetrate
it. Well, You take yeast and you
take a bowl of corn kernels, like what you're going to make
popcorn from, you take that hard kernel and just fill you up a
bowl of that, take you three measures of corn kernels, and
you put you some yeast in it and see what happens. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But you grind
it up. You grind it up in the meal and
make it into that pliable dough. And then you put this yeast in
it and see what happens. And it changes the nature of
it. This is what happens with a believer
when he's made a new creature. God gives him a new heart, a
new nature. And this gospel is in the hidden
man of the heart. That part that's been made teachable
and understandable and to rejoice in the message of God's grace.
And he makes that heart, he makes that spirit, he makes that that
pliable dough, and He adds this leaven of this Word to that to
create a whole new creature, a whole new creation. Look over
at 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. He says, If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. We're going to see this in a
moment. You're going to get in Christ by God putting Christ
in you and putting you in Christ. And he says, therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. The old way we thought, the old
way, the old wisdom that we called wisdom, the old way we thought
who God is and how God saved, the old things are gone. They're passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And all things, all these things
are of God. who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation."
Paul is writing to the believers at Corinth, and he's saying,
this is what God has done. He's made us new creatures. He's
done all these things. This is all, and all things are
given of God in Christ because of the reconciliation He's wrought
in His Son. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
1, and I want to ask you this question. What is the leaven? What is this gospel leaven which
makes all things new? What is that? It's of God in
its entirety, in its entirety, and God gives it. And He says
here when He gives it, He makes all things new. And the old things
pass away. This is grace, sovereign ability
of God to do what only God can do. Now what is it? What is this? John said, writing
to the brethren, those who This change has been wrought by God.
He said to them, you have an unction from the Holy One. An
unction from the Holy One. And ye know all things. Paul
just said, all things are of God. And he said, all things
is what makes this new creature. And the old things pass away.
The revelation is given from God, Paul said. God who is faithful
to the one in whom He's given God-given faith to receive that
work that He has freely wrought. Reception is a free receiving. It is an open-handed reception
of what has already been accomplished. That's what faith is. And it's
from God. They're of God. All these things
are of God who gives them Himself and makes this new creation.
Now, in 1 Corinthians, Paul is talking about the gospel leaven. He is one of these earthen vessels,
one of these weaker vessels, pictured here as the woman who
took the leaven and hid it in three measures of meal. He is
going forth with the Word that is the leaven that is going to
make all things new, that is going to make the new creature.
And he starts out here, he is talking to Corinthian believers.
He's talking, and they had a lot about them outwardly that a lot
of folks would want to major on. And Paul didn't major on
those things. He majored on this. Look in the
first chapter, verse 5. Verse 4, he says, I thank my
God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given
you by Jesus Christ. It's always a gift given them
by grace. That in everything, in everything,
ye are enriched by Him. You've been given this enrichment
by Him. In all utterance, in all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ,
the gospel of Christ was hidden in you, confirmed in you, put
in you. This is how they had all things
of God, were enriched in all utterance and in all knowledge.
Does that mean they knew everything there was to know about God?
No. But they knew all things. The
believer knows all things. so that you come behind in no
gift. Everything God has to give you,
He's given you. And you've got it. You've got
all things. Everything. That's what He's
telling them. You've been enriched in all things. And you're waiting
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also confirm
you unto the end. He's going to keep this put in
to the whole lump eleven. He's going to keep putting it
in, and putting it in, and keep you individually and all together,
adding to it as should be saved, and He's going to confirm you
all to the end, He said, that you may be blameless in the day
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where all spiritual blessings
are. They're in Christ. These are
the all things that are in Christ. And he says, God is faithful.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of God, for therein
is the revelation of God. Divine revelation from faith. God is faithful. To faith. by whom ye were called unto the
fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. God the faithful one
has made all things known unto you. He's made you to know all
things. You have an unction from the
Holy One and you know all things. All things. Alright, now, what are these
all things? What is this unction that He
gives to the believer when He creates life and faith in a believer
and grants repentance to the true and living God? What is
these all things? Paul spends these first three
chapters talking about how that our message is not to point you
to the person, our message is not to point you to the preacher,
our message is not to point you to the world, our message is
not to point you to the flesh. He's saying this is the problem.
This is where the origination of all your problems you got
in Corinth are coming about. It's because of this. Our gospel
is to point you away to Christ. And he spins through and he says,
this is how God determined to save people. He determined to
hide this leaven in those that He's made new, in those in whom
He's made their heart new. He's determined to use the weaker
vessel to prepare this bread by casting in this seed, casting
in this leaven. And he gets to the end of speaking
about this and talking about God's purpose in this, and he
tells us exactly what it is that the believer knows from the very
first hour God saves him. So that he has an unction and
knows all things. And here it is. Here it is. 1 Corinthians verse 30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus. You see, when I'm made to know
my sin, and I'm made to know what I am, God makes me to know
it so that I can fail. I know, right? I know that if
He's going to save me, it's got to be by grace. It's got to be
God's free gift. It's got to be not based on anything
in me. I know that because I see what
I am. If I don't see what I am, I don't
know that. I don't believe. I think I'm
in Christ or I've done something by my will. This is what every
believer knows. That thief on the cross knew
these things as fully as the believer that dies who's been
in the faith for 60 years. That's true. This is the very
virtue that went out of Christ into the woman with the issue
of blood and made her every whit hole. This is the healing of
Christ. This is the leaven. This is it. And He makes me to know that
it's of Him that I'm in Christ Jesus. And from day one, I grow
knowing more and more about that. This increases like leaven makes
the... leavens the whole lump. I grow
more and more to behold He put me in Christ before the world
even began. He put me in Christ before I even existed. Not only
did He put me in Christ in the day He called me by His grace
and made this revelation known in me, He did this from the very
beginning. So that I know nothing about
this came about by me. And here's what He makes me to
know. Who of God? All things are of God, Paul said.
All this is of God, and He's made Christ unto us wisdom. He makes me to behold, when I'm
made to see what I am, nothing, absolutely nothing. My cry is
going to be that, how can a man be just with God? How can I be
just? How is it God could even save
me? And He makes us to behold, in Christ is the wisdom wherein
God found the way that he can be just, still be just, and save
a sinner who deserves no mercy whatsoever. And he makes me to
behold Christ is that wisdom who actually accomplished this
work, this purpose of God. He did it. He did it. He actually did it. He declared
God just. and he declared that God is the
justifier. He's God in the flesh. He's the
wisdom that honored the law. that never broke any precept
of the law in thought, in word, in deed, in His very nature.
He's the one who came forth and fulfilled all righteousness.
He's the one who went to the cross and died with my sin upon
Him and completely put it away and justified me from all things
from which I could not be justified by anything I've done. He did
it And he's wist. I see him as absolutely wise
in doing so. And then he makes me to see that
he's my righteousness and my sanctification. This is what
I behold when I behold Christ. He is my righteousness and my
sanctification. Not the one who will make you
righteous or will sanctify you, He has made unto us righteousness
and sanctification. He is the one who sanctifies
and His children are the ones who are sanctified. But He has
made unto us all our righteousness and all our sanctification. This
is the all things of God. Now let me show you something.
Turn to Galatians 2. Hold your place here in I Corinthians
1. Turn to Galatians 2. The Apostle Paul, when he was
writing to the Galatians, he said to them, that there were
some that troubled them. And he said, they came preaching
another gospel, another gospel, another gospel, which is not
another, which is not another. It had the form of a gospel,
but it was not gospel at all. And he said, it's trouble, it's
bewitching, it's damning. And Paul said, I wish that these
that came with this gospel were completely cut off. And he used
that term because that's what they were trying to do to the
people. Cut off. Make you cut off this. Cut off
that. Stop doing this. Stop doing that.
Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. That's how you're going to be
saved. Cut, cut, cut. Paul said, I wish they were cut
off. How Christ is my righteousness.
Galatians 2 verse 16. Now this is the gospel. And this
is opposite to that other gospel. And this is what God makes us
to know when he makes us to behold Christ. This is it. Galatians
2 verse 16. Knowing. Knowing. That's what he makes us to do.
He makes us to know. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law. And you can just right there
where it says works of the law, you can put in by himself. You
put by myself. I'm not justified by myself.
I'm not justified by something I do. Period. Period. But by the faith of Jesus Christ. Not faith in Jesus Christ. Not
yet. The righteousness of God is not
manifest in you by your faithfulness. It's manifest by what He sent
His Son to do and what His Son accomplished and the faithfulness
of His Son. If that's not there, you're going
to trust in your faith. And that's the same as trusting
in the works of the law. It's the faith of Christ. Alright? Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ. This is why we believe in Him,
because we behold the faithfulness of Him. We believe in Him. This
is what faith is. Faith receives the faithfulness
of Christ by faith in Him. All right? And He says that we
might be justified by the faith of Christ. Not my faith in Christ,
but the faith of Christ. What He did. He declared God
just and He is the justifier. God Almighty in Christ justified
His people. He did it. And when He gives
you faith, He gives you faith to behold what He did. And you
enter in, receive freely what He already did. It's the faithfulness
of God. That's the difference between
a truth and a lie. Not by the works of the law. not by anything
mere you did. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified." Nothing we could do to manifest the righteousness
of God. Nothing we could do to make ourselves
righteous before God. Nothing we could do. But if,
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners, you know what he's talking about? If we go
back to ourselves and go back to the law of Moses and go back
to something we've done, to try to be righteous, to try to be
holy. He says, is Christ the minister of sin? Did Christ do
that? Did God do that? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
In other words, if I go back to my own vomit and go back to
that which After God has made me to behold in the gospel this
word, if I go back now and try to be justified by something
I've done, sanctified by something I've done, it's another gospel,
Paul said. I wish they would cut off. Oh,
I do wish they were cut off. It's troubling, troubling, troubling,
troubling. Always pointing you away from
Christ to man. Always pointing you away from
Christ to man. Always pointing you away from
Christ to man. And it's troubling, it's bewitching, it's the subtlety
of Satan. It's the seducing of Satan himself.
It's the lie of Satan himself. And he said, if I do that, I'm
the only one to blame. The only one to blame. For I,
through the law, through the complete upholding of God's law,
am dead to it, that I might live unto God. How'd that come about? Because the faith of Christ,
what He did. I'm crucified with Christ. When
He died, I died. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The leaven's been put in me.
It makes the nature different, new, completely new. It's been
hidden in me. A new creature's been made. Christ
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, though I'm still in this old body of death, I
live one way, by the faith of the Son of God. What did Paul
say? This One who called you, this
One who enriched you, this One who did all this grace by Christ
Jesus, this One who confirmed the Gospel of Christ in you,
who enriched you with all things, who made you to know all things,
will continue to keep you in Him. God's faithful. And that's
exactly what Paul says. I live this way by the faith
of the Son of God. He's keeping me. He's keeping
me. That's what we read in the back, fellas. He turns you to
destruction when anything comes between you and Him and He says,
now return to Me. And He leaves you right there
until all your gourds are blasted and then He comes and turns you
back to Him and says, now then, see how I'm faithful and I'm
not going to let you go? It's the faith of Christ is how
I live. who loved me and gave himself for me. All this is focusing
on what he did and what he does. And I don't frustrate the grace
of God. I don't renounce it. I don't
try to speak against it. You can't do that without speaking
against God. Period. For if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now Paul said
we know this. That's the first thing. He's
my righteousness. Here's the second thing. That's no truth.
That is a lie. Period. Just period. Period. And that's here Galatians 3,
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should
not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you. This only would I learn of you.
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the
hearing of faith? Was it the hearing of the gospel that did
this? Was it Christ entering in and God making Christ unto
you sanctification? Is that how you were separated
from the evil of unbelief? Separated from the evil of your
own ignorant heart? Separated from the ignorance
of foolish, ungodly religion? Is that how you were separated
from that into the truth? Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit, are you now going to be made perfect by something
you do in your flesh? This is sanctification. He's
made unto us righteousness and sanctification. All. All. And when He does this, now
back in 1 Corinthians 1.30, He's made unto us redemption. There's
so much more in the way that Paul says this, when he says
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. He could have
said, He's made unto you the one who makes you righteous.
He's made unto you the one who sanctifies you. He's made unto
you your Redeemer. But he doesn't say it that way.
He says, He's made unto you these things. He is these things. Not just He does these things.
Christ the person is these things to the believer. He is these
things. He is these things. And when
He does this, you behold, Christ is the near kinsman. You behold,
Christ is the one who purchased me. You behold, Christ is my
liberty. This is what He said, if the
Son shall set you free, make you free, you shall be free indeed. When he breaks the shackles,
he breaks them. When he breaks them, he breaks
them. When he says, Lazarus, come forth, Lazarus comes forth. Now that's so. And when He set
you free, He set you free from that wisdom that you thought
was wisdom, that was just ignorance, that nobody could convince you
was total, absolute ignorance, but God. And He did it by making
Christ wisdom. And He freed you from that ignorance.
He freed it to you. He said, now you're going to
know all things. He frees you from that other
gospel wherein you thought righteousness and sanctification was by your
faith, by your faithfulness, by what you have done. Frees
you from that lie. Makes you to receive the faithful
one, the holy one in whom this whole book is about. He truly
sets you free and you're free. Oh, this is the leaven that changed
it. And when he does this, verse 31, then he that glorieth, glories
in the Lord. That's what he does. He glories
in the Lord. Now, this is how old things are
passed away. This is how everything becomes
new. And this is how God receives
all the glory This is the auction from the Holy One. These are
the all things that are of God. This is what makes the believer
the new creature. All the healing Christ did. This
is the hearing of the deaf. This is the seeing of the blind.
This is the light of those that are in darkness. This is the
arms and the legs of the one who was an impotent man. This
is the leaven that leavens the whole lot. It makes a new creature. This is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. That's what we're talking about.
And John said, after he said that to them about them knowing
all things, he said, let that therefore abide in you. Do nothing
to hinder this Word, this hearing of faith, nothing to hinder this
from being hidden in your heart, coming into your heart, continually
coming into your heart. Because if that which you've
heard from the beginning abides in you, you shall continue in
the Son and in the Father. This is how He puts you in Christ
and makes you one in Christ. And this is how we continue.
How we continue. So, back in our text, He says, This kingdom of heaven is like
unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of
meal till the whole was leavened. It's like the mustard seed. When
He puts this work, begins this work, We begin knowing Christ
is all. And from then on, we grow in
the strong meat of learning just how fully Christ is all. This word is fire, and it burns
up everything. Gold, silver, precious stone,
wood, hay, and stone. Now you're supposed to divide
those first three and those last three. I'm not so sure about
that. There's a whole lot of gold and
silver and precious stones, religious things that men build on that
they consider to be gold and silver and truly precious stone. But this gospel will strike to
the core of the heart and reveal the thoughts and intents of the
heart. It's the fire that burns up. You say, well, gold and silver
and precious stones can't be burned up. He said when He comes,
when the fire comes, when the word comes, the elements will
melt with a fervent heat. That means gold and silver and
precious stones. But there's one that won't melt,
the foundation, Christ Himself. You don't build anything. Everybody
knows wood, hay and stubble is trash. But you don't build anything
else but on this. You learn of Christ. Him alone.
Him alone. That's why, that's the fire that
won't be quenched in hell. It's the gospel fire. It won't
ever be put out. You'll get to hear this for all
eternity and hate it with all your being and know that it's
because of your own hatred that you didn't Heed the Word that
you're tormented night and day with it. And that's why there
is no hell for the believer. This fire that hardens the clay
warms the heart of the believer and causes him to rejoice. And
he'll rejoice in this, warm himself by this fire for all eternity.
That's how. This is the leaven. And until
we keep putting in this leaven in the hidden man of the heart,
and He keeps growing us up into Him in all things, until that
day that He raises us incorruptible, in corruption, glorified, perfectly
conformed to the image of Christ. And then we'll truly know Him.
Amen.