Matthew chapter 13. Again, we're
going to look at the parable of the tares and the wheat. I'm not going to re-read that
entire parable to you. Nor am I going to read the parable
of the sower to you. I hope that those two parables
have become familiar in your own thinking. But I do want to
re-read Jesus' explanation of the parable of the tares and
the wheat. And actually, I've entitled this
message, Tares Among Wheat. which I think is the best way
of summarizing this parable. It's the tares among wheat. Jesus
gives the explanation. If you remember the parable,
there was a man who went out and sowed seed in his field.
He sowed good seed, but while he slept, an enemy came and sowed
weeds, tares. The servants discovered this,
and they go to their master and say, what should we do? Should
we try to uproot the tares from the wheat? He said, no. No, if
you do that, then you're going to uproot the wheat also. So,
leave them both until the harvest, and when the harvest comes, then
I'll send the reapers out, and the reapers will separate first
the tares from the wheat, and burn the tares, and they will
gather the wheat into the barn. And so Jesus gives the explanation
for this parable in Starting in verse 37 of Matthew 13. He says, And he said to them,
He that sows, or soweth, the good seed is the son of man.
Now, in this parable you'll notice that Jesus gives an explanation
for every piece of the parable. Sometimes you hear people say,
parables only have one meaning and you should not deviate from
that one meaning. Just take that one meaning and
leave the rest there on the table. That's not what Jesus did. He
explained every part of it. It doesn't mean that we have
the ability necessarily to explain every part of a parable, but
it does mean that every part has a significance. So he says
here, the sower, the one who sows the good seed, is the son
of man. Notice, someone sows, what he
sows is good seed, and that someone is the son of man. The field
is the world. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. But the tares are the children
of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil. The harvest is the end of the
world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares
are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end
of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth
His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things
that offend and them that do iniquity. And shall cast them
into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father, who hath ears
to hear, let him hear." Now this parable, all of these parables
are complementary. They all go together. They all
describe what the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven
is like. And they describe it in a way
that reveals the mystery of it. You can't see the Kingdom of
God. You can't put physical boundaries
around it. It's not visible in that sense. Jesus said in Luke 17, verses
20-21, He says, when the Pharisees came and asked Him, when shall
the kingdom come? And He says, the kingdom of God
doesn't come by observation. Because the Kingdom of God is
within you. It's an inward thing. That's
the first thing we learn about it from what He said. And you
know that's true from John chapter 3 when Jesus told Nicodemus,
Until you're born of God, born from above, born of the Spirit
of God, you can't see the Kingdom of God and you can't enter it.
So the Kingdom of God comes to us when God Himself comes by
His Spirit and gives us life in our souls. And so the kingdom
of God, we could look at this in several ways. A kingdom, as
I've looked, we've done this before, but the kingdom, just
briefly, the kingdom, any kingdom on earth, sometimes we don't
think about kingdoms, do we? We think about, well, there's
the kingdom of the people in Saudi Arabia. They've got a king,
but we don't, so we're free of thinking about kings. But kingdoms
have a king. And kingdoms have a people. And
kingdoms have a rule of law. They have a government. And they
have a dominion, a sphere of influence, of governance. The
king in the kingdom of heaven is the Lord. He says in Matthew
6.10, when you pray, pray this way. Thy, by our Father, Thy
kingdom come. It's God's kingdom. But the Lord
Jesus Christ is king in that kingdom. He says in Isaiah 9.6,
"...the government shall be on his shoulders." Zechariah 9.9,
your king is coming. And when He comes riding on an
ass, in the fold of an ass, they cried, Hosanna to the King! He's
the King. The Lord Jesus Christ is King
in this Kingdom. He's King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. So the King is the Lord. God
the Father, it's His Kingdom. He has put it in the hands of
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ sits as
King. Psalm 2 says he's the king. God put it in his hand. And then,
the people of the kingdom are those called the children of
the kingdom. In this parable, Jesus says that
he sows the children of the kingdom. The children of the kingdom are
the children of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one who puts them into the kingdom. That's what it means
when he says, sows them into the kingdom. They're sown. And
that group of people, all the people who are the children of
God in this kingdom, are the church of God. The church is
not a building. We think of, I'm going to go
to church today. Well, it's not necessarily wrong to say that,
but really we understand that the church is comprised of all
those who are saved by the Lord. Those who have been saved and
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the church. So throughout
scripture, the church is described as a city. The city of the living
God. A body. The body of Christ. A
temple. God's dwelling place. It's described
as the New Jerusalem. It's described as the Heavenly
Jerusalem. The children of God. All those
things are synonyms for the church. That's the true church. And those
people are in the world. When the Lord Jesus Christ sows
them, they're in the world. And they're translated. Colossians
1.13 says, You were in the kingdom of darkness, but God has translated
you into the kingdom of His dear Son. So the king is Christ, the
people are the children of God. They get into the kingdom by
translation, by the spiritual birth. And the rule of this kingdom. What is the rule? Well, in an
earthly king he's got a set of rules. But the rule in this kingdom
is the grace of God. This is very important. The grace
of God. The gospel is the rule in this
kingdom. And then fourthly, the dominion. What is the dominion of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Over what region, what boundaries does He govern? And the fact of the matter is,
He rules over all heaven and earth. But He rules specifically
for the salvation of His people. And He rules to put down the
enemy. And that's what we're going to
see here in this short parable. So, that's the first thing I
want you to see, is what the Kingdom of God is. The Lord Jesus
Christ is King, it belongs to His Father, and we're to pray.
Remember what it says in Matthew 6? We're to pray that this Kingdom
come. Thy kingdom come, Jesus says. Pray this way. Thy kingdom come,
God the Father. You bring your kingdom. What
does that mean? Well, as you look at this parable
you understand that throughout time, throughout this world's
history, the Lord Jesus Christ has been building His kingdom.
He says in Matthew 16, I will build my church. The gates of
hell shall not prevail against it. And then in the next verse
he tells Peter, I've given to you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven. So the church and the kingdom
of heaven are synonymous in that sense. So you see that the kingdom
of God comprises all those whom the Lord saves and in whose heart
they recognize The lordship, the kingship of the Lord Jesus
Christ in everything. That's their heart. Their heart
and their mind, they think that way, they live that way. That's
the kingdom of God in the truth of it. But, in this true kingdom,
in this world, while we're in this world, there's also a mixture. And that mixture is made up of
those who are Christians or who are called by believers by name
only. Now, as you think about this,
we immediately start thinking from this point in time of history,
in our present age, looking forward. And there's nothing wrong with
that. But it helps for us to understand the Kingdom of God
by also looking at how it has been in history. Because there's
a great mistake, especially in this present religious age. The modern evangelical church
thinks of the kingdom of God incorrectly, and we're going
to see that in a minute. But I want you to think with me about
the mixture of the tares among the wheat. The tares among the
wheat. How do we see this? Well, it begins in the very beginning.
Remember the first two boys born into this world, Cain and Abel? Cain and Abel, both born to the
same parents, both of them come to worship God. And what did
they do? Cain brings of the fruit of the ground, of the labor of
his hands, of the sweat of his brow. And he offers the best
he has to the Lord. The best I can do. And he was
rejected. Abel brings a sacrifice. God
required a sacrifice. A blood sacrifice. God provided
what he required to Abel. He gave it to him. And Abel brought
that from his flock and offered it to God. And when he offered
his sacrifice to God, he was saying in that offering, look
upon the sacrifice. If you receive the sacrifice,
then receive me in consideration of what you see in the sacrifice.
As God told Moses in Exodus 12, 13, He says, When I see the blood,
I will pass over you. It's what God thinks about the
sacrifice that makes a difference between us and God. And Nabel
knew that. He said, The only way I can be received by God
and be accepted by Him is if He accepts me because of what
He thinks of the sacrifice. This is the Gospel. And Abel
came that way. He did not come because of what
he had done. He didn't look to what he would
become someday. He didn't think about the improvements
that he had made in his life, or even that God had made. He
only considered the sacrifice and whether God would accept
the sacrifice. And this is the big issue. This is the only issue
in salvation. What does God think of Christ? Because what God thinks of Christ
reconciles us to God, as we just sang in this song from Romans
5-10. God reconciled us to Himself by the death of His Son. And
that's the only way we can come. And so between Abel and Cain,
you see this difference. Both came to worship. Both brought
an offering. But the one was accepted and
the other rejected. One was a true believer. By faith,
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
It says in Hebrews 11. But Cain didn't offer a sacrifice
at all, and God rejected him. He was a man of the flesh, a
man of works, a man who wanted to come to God by what God found
in him, by what he could bring out of the works of his hands.
Now this sets the pattern for the difference between the true
and the false, brethren, throughout time. After Abel, we see a lot
of different cases we could look at. But look at the whole nation
of Israel. In the entire nation of Israel. Think about it. Over all their history, only
a small number of the whole nation were true believers. Only a small
number were saved. Look at Isaiah chapter 1. I want
you to see these things. Isaiah tells us that the biggest
part, the greatest proportion of that nation was lost. What
a shame that they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in
Isaiah chapter 1 verse 8. The daughter of Zion is left
as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,
as a besieged city. And then he says in verse 9,
"...except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small
remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and should have been
like unto Gomorrah." God is saying here that if He didn't have grace
upon this nation of Israel, the entire nation would have been
treated like Sodom and Gomorrah. Wiped out. And in two cities,
completely destroyed by fire from heaven. What is it that
made the difference between those who were the remnant and those
who were not the remnant? Well, God answers that question.
Look at Romans chapter 9. This is the mystery of the kingdom
of God. There's wheat among the tares,
and the one who plants the wheat is the Son of Man. He says in
Romans chapter 9, In verse 1 Paul laments the fact that the Israelites,
the nation of Israel was not saved. He says in verse 1, And
so he goes on and lists the blessings that they've had. They've had
all these things. And then he asks a question in
verse 5. I'm sorry, let's see. No, in verse 6 he asks the question,
sort of, he says, "...not as though the word of God had taken
an effect." The question would be, well, if God chose an entire
nation, all the children of Abraham, He gave them His law, He called
them His people, and He delivered them from their enemies, even
through them brought Christ into the world, what happened? Why did so many of them reject Christ?
Was it something better about those who didn't? Or was it something
failing in the Word of God? And that's the question he answers
here. He says, "...not as though the Word of God had taken none
effect." It's not because God's Word was ineffectual. But this
is the reason, "...for they are not all Israel, which are of
Israel." So the answer given here is that the fact of the
matter is that God never did choose all the nation of Israel. He only had a select people out
of that nation. Only some of that nation were
the wheat planted by the Lord. And so you see that throughout
history. You see it in the case of Ishmael and Isaac. Remember
Ishmael? He was the son of Abraham. The
first, in fact. But he was a son through Hagar,
the slave, the bondwoman. And God said about Ishmael, He's
not going to receive the inheritance. But then there was another son,
Isaac. He was the son of promise. God
promised Isaac to Abraham and Sarah when they were unable to
have children. Their ability to have children
was completely dead. And God brought Isaac out of
the deadness of Abraham and Sarah. And He gave them Isaac according
to His promise. And then He gave Isaac everything
He had promised to Abraham. And even promised that through
Isaac Christ would come into the world. He was the son of
promise. And that's what it says here
next in Romans chapter 9. He says, "...neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all children." Just
because you're born physically to Abraham doesn't make you Abraham's
child. That's what he says. But, in
Isaac shall thy seed be called. That's a quotation from the Old
Testament. He says, they which are the children of the flesh,
what men can produce, these are not the children of God. But
the children of the promise are counted for the seed. The children
of the promise means God Himself named them. God Himself put them. God Himself chose them as His
own. He wrote their names in heaven.
And they're the children of the promise. And those children are
the only ones who inherit the blessings in the promises that
God has made. And all those promises are given
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I point all this out in
order to uncover, first of all, an error that exists when we
look at places on earth where it looks like the Kingdom of
God and His purpose is there physically and externally and
in a political way. The nation of Israel is often
considered by many today to have a special place, the nation,
the political nation, a special place in God's purpose on the
earth. But this truth that Jesus revealed in Matthew 13, and Paul
later explained in Romans 9 and later in Galatians and everywhere
else, is that the people of God are never, never associated with
the physical political kingdom. They're always and only associated
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this in Galatians chapter
3 and 4. I want to just take you to a
couple scriptures here just briefly to give you, in your own reading,
confidence in what I've said here about the interpretation.
He says in Galatians chapter 3, And verse 26, For you are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And then in
verse 29, now let's go ahead and read through this. Verse
27, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. There's no distinction.
And if you be Christ's, Then are you Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise. Only if you are Christ are you
Abraham's seed. Who are the children of Abraham?
Who were the promises given to? Abraham's seed. Who are Abraham's
seed? Those who are in Christ. This
is reinforced through many scriptures. Romans 2.28 says, "...he is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit,
not in the letter." And so, In Scripture, over and over again,
it's made clear that the children of the kingdom are the chosen
people of God in Christ Jesus. And God did it this way for a
purpose. Romans 9, I didn't read this,
but he says Jacob and Esau were still in Rebekah's womb. Both twins in the same womb of
the same parents, born at the same time, God said to Rebekah
when she struggled, the children struggled within her, and He
said, "...for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said
to her, the elder shall serve the younger." God purposed election
As he says here in verse 11 of Romans 9, "...so that it might
not be of works, not of works, but of him that calleth." So,
back to the parable of the tares among the wheat in Matthew 13.
The first thing we see here then is that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who plants His people in the Kingdom of God. The ones
He plants are called the children of the Kingdom. And we just read
in Galatians chapter 3, the only way that you can be a seed of
Abraham is if you're in Christ. How can you be a child? How can
you be a son of God? Because that's the only way that
you're going to be in the kingdom of God. How can that be? What
does scripture say about that? How are we made the children
of God? There's three different ways
that God says in Scripture, we're made the children of God. And
I want you to get these firmly in your understanding. How do
you become a child of God? Do you put yourself into that
position? Do you make yourself a child
of God? Think about the consequences of that question. If you can
make yourself a child of God, what would that mean? That you,
a sinner, or you even just a man born into this world, that you
could make yourself a child of God? The Son of God? How could that be? First of all,
your nature is completely incompatible. You're a man, and He's God. Secondly,
you're a sinner, and He's holy. And thirdly, it's not up to you.
Since when do children put themselves as children of their parents? It just doesn't happen even in
an earthly... Our whole pattern of existence... goes against
the grain of even thinking that we can make ourselves someone
else's child. And yes, scripture says that
we are made, it says in 1 John 3, 2, "...behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the children, the sons of God." And it doesn't yet appear what
we shall be, but it shall appear soon. And that's what he says
in Matthew 13. How do we become the sons of
God? And the first answer is, we become the sons of God by
adoption. And what is adoption? Well, the
word adoption means to choose. Adopto means to choose. And so
when God makes us his son, first God the Father chooses us to
be his son. That makes sense to us, doesn't
it? We as parents have children, but we don't choose our children.
They're just born to us. God gives them to us. We think,
oh wow, look, there's a Hurley and a Taylor. Amazing. But we
didn't choose to have a Hurley and a Taylor. They just came
that way. God gave them to us. Or a Faith and a Hannah. It just happens. God gives them
to us. But when God has a son, people
as his son. He chooses them as his son. So
look at this in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4, and I'll look at two
scriptures with you just to confirm this. Ephesians chapter 1 verse
4, you can probably quote it, but we'll look at it together.
He says here in verse 3, God, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ." Just remember that. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. What is that saying? That says
that our inheritance is in Christ and it's in heaven. But doesn't
that remind us that because we're the children of Abraham, we have
all the blessings of Abraham? We just read about this in Galatians
3.29. And then it says here in verse 4, He's given us all spiritual blessings,
and here is the first and the most foundational of those blessings
that God has given to us. "...according as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love." In God's purpose,
He chose His people in Christ. The choice of them and giving
them to Christ was a single act. Choosing them in Christ. And
He chose them for this purpose, that they should be holy and
without blame. in Christ and being in Him, holy
and without blame, before God in love. God did this. It was
His choice before the foundation of the world. God, known unto
God are all His works. Before the foundation of the
world He does whatever He pleases in the armies of heaven and on
the earth. And this is His will. Remember
what it says in Matthew 6? Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will is already done. It's
established in heaven. And we're praying that God would
make His will to come to pass on earth that He's already accomplished
and established in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ was set
up from eternity to be the one in whom God would choose His
people, the seed God gave all the promises to. 2 Corinthians
1.20 says, in him all the promises of God are yes and amen. But
now look in verse 5 of Ephesians 1. He says, This is what God
did. He chose us in Christ to be holy
and without blame, before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will. God's choice of us was by Jesus
Christ, and it was a choice of making us His children, adopting
us to Himself as children in Jesus Christ. So that's the first
thing about being made the children of God. The second thing is we're
children of God by being redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
for this, look back at Galatians chapter 4. He says, In verse 1 of Galatians 4, Now
I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing
from a servant, though he be lord of all, but is under tutors
and governors until the time appointed of the father. In the
olden times, when you were born to a landowner, someone who had
a lot of money, he wouldn't just call you his son right away.
He would give you, he would make you like a servant. He would
put people, his servants, would become your schoolmaster and
they would teach you like a nanny or a butler. And they would make
you mind. They would correct you when you
were wrong. They would do whatever the father
asked them to do. So you were treated just like a slave until
an appointed time. So that's what he's saying. God's
people were chosen in Christ, but in time They were servants. They were under the law. He says
in verse 3, "...even so, we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world." The elements of the
world means we didn't know God. We were having to deal with these
ceremonies, these outward signs, these physical things that were
supposed to teach us about God, but we didn't We couldn't see
it. We're really just like every other slave. Trying to keep the
law and failing and becoming miserable and feeling hopeless
and helpless. And just like a slave, constantly
in bondage and fear and torment. Verse 4, But when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. Notice, how did we receive
the adoption of sons? Through redemption. A slave is
in bondage. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
paid the price by which we sold the debt we owed that constituted
our imprisonment to our master, slaves of sin, slaves of Satan,
slaves of everything except God, the Lord Jesus Christ had to
come and redeem us. He was made under the law, and
being under the law, He was made sin for us. He took our sins
and suffered the punishment of that law with our sins in His
own body, and having suffered in obedience to God, made us
righteous. And so we were redeemed, we were
free, we were set at liberty before God. And then in our conscience,
look at what he says in verse 6. And because you are sons,
before the Spirit of God is ever given to you, you are sons. Because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And that's the third way. Sons
by adoption, sons by redemption, sons by the Spirit giving us
life and faith in Christ. Faith in Christ causes us to
look at God and say, you've made me your son through redeeming
blood. You've taken from Christ all I owed and you've brought
me to yourself in reconciling mercy through the death of your
own son. So this is the way the children of God are made children. This is the way the Lord Jesus
Christ puts them into the Kingdom. I'm turning back to Matthew 13
now. These are the children of the
Kingdom. But in this Kingdom, this physical
Kingdom, now in this world, It's not a physical kingdom, it's
a spiritual kingdom. But in this world, it appears as a physical
church, doesn't it? We have buildings, we have people
in the buildings, and we go inside and we can count the number of
people. But the Lord is saying here that even in this world,
even though the Lord Jesus Christ plants His people in His church,
and even when the gospel is preached, the true gospel is preached from
His servants that He sent, Even though He does all that, yet
there will be, in this church, there will be those who are only
Christians by name, and not true wheat, not true sheep, but goats
and tares, false brethren brought in unawares, crept in unawares,
those who, like Ishmael, are children of the flesh, children
of the works of the law, like Cain, who bring an offering of
their own, like Israel of old, who didn't believe God, who fell
in the wilderness and didn't enter Canaan. They have eternal
inheritance of salvation in Christ. And that's the way it is in this
world. Now, he says all this, but in the total of chapter 13,
he also points out that there's these other aspects of the kingdom
of God, which when we look at them, we'll will help solidify
this. But before I say this, I don't
know if I mentioned this, but when we think about this kingdom,
the true church, remember what it says in Ephesians chapter
4? And we'll go there in a second
and look at this. But when we think about the physical, especially
when we talk about the nation of Israel, this is particularly
a problem for people in the world today. I remember I brought a
series of lessons on this at the previous church that I was
in. And someone came up to me and they sent me an email saying,
we're not going to attend anymore because we don't believe in replacement
theology. And I thought, what? What's replacement
theology? I had no idea what they were
talking about. come to find out what they were talking about
was that there's this thought that the church replaces Israel
in God's purpose and so on and so forth. But it's not replacement
theology. There's no such thing as replacement
theology. This is a man-made term. The
fact of the matter is, is that from the beginning, and let's
read this together in Ephesians chapter 4. This is God's purpose,
and He reveals it. It wasn't a newly come purpose. But remember, the kingdom is
established in heaven, but it comes. We pray that way. We believe
that. Because it's true. Ephesians
chapter 4. He says in verse 4, there is
one body. Only one. One church, one body
of Christ. There will only be one people
in heaven, the body of Christ. Remember in Hebrews chapter 12,
you're not come to Sinai. You're not come to that mouth
that might be touched and burned with fire. But you're come to
Mount Zion. The heavenly Jerusalem. The city
of the living God. To the spirits of just men made
perfect. To an innumerable company of
angels. To the blood of sprinkling. And all these things. It's speaking
about that one body. One spirit. The Spirit of Christ. The Spirit who gives us life
and faith in Christ. Even as you're called in one
hope of your calling. What is our hope? It's everlasting
salvation in Christ. It's not a place in this world.
It's not a land in Israel. Those who look for a land in
Israel are going to be disappointed. Because even if they have that
land, they're going to live 50 to 80 years and they're going
to die. And that's it. Israel as a nation is not the
Kingdom of God. The Church is the Kingdom of
God. The Body of Christ. And the boundaries
of that are in Christ. He says here, there's one spirit,
you're called one hope, our only hope, all those in this kingdom
have one hope, eternal life in Christ. One Lord, the Lord Jesus
Christ. One faith, we believe Christ
and Him crucified is all of our salvation. One baptism, our union
with Christ and His life, His death, His burial and resurrection
is the only hope a sinner has. One God and Father of all, who
is above all and through all and in you all. He's the one
who adopted and redeemed us by His Son and brought us by birth
by the Spirit of God into this kingdom. So I've said all that
in order to underscore the true church versus the outward, the
external church. While we're in this world, it's
outward and external. In Matthew chapter 13, he also
describes the kingdom of God as a mustard seed. And we went
over this last week, but I just want to point this out briefly
to you. He says in Matthew 13 verse 31,
that the kingdom of heaven is also like a grain of mustard
seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is
the least of all the seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest
among the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of
the air come and lodge in the branches of it. And then he gives
another parable right after that. The kingdom of God is like a
woman who took leaven, yeast, and put it in three measures
of meal until it spread throughout. Now both of these parables go
together. It shows us what the growth, the development, Jesus
plants his people in his church. But notice, it's not all at once. Christ didn't create the church
all at once and then that was it. It develops over time. The disciples wondered, are you
going to bring the kingdom into Israel now? And no, no, it's
not now. It's about over time. It's about
this small development over time. And the thing is about the mustard
seed. The comparison there is important because It shows us
that the Kingdom of God develops from something insignificant
and small, it develops slowly over time into something that's
enormous. When we think about this, think
that never despise the weakness and frailty and the small numbers
of the visible Church of God. When we look at ourselves, we
think, so insignificant and small and weak. What are we even bothering
with it for? We come together week after week.
It's like, what's the purpose? There's not four or five hundred
people here. There's less than twenty-five most of the time.
But, remember what Paul learned from the Lord when he had that
thorn in his flesh? Christ told him in 2 Corinthians
12, 9 and 10, He says, in weakness. In weakness! That's
the way the kingdom of God comes. Out of weakness, a few disciples,
a publican, a tax collector, and a few fishermen, a trader
who was one of the tares, this hodgepodge bunch of men, and
the Lord Jesus Christ changed the world, literally changed
the world outwardly, but saved millions, hundreds of millions
of people. through that one little seed
of his kingdom there beginning in the land of Galilee. So then,
he also says the kingdom of God is like this leaven that goes
into the lump and affects the whole lump. Now, realize that
just as the kingdom of God outwardly develops slowly from something
small and insignificant into something that God has... It's
not going to have any possibility of failure, but will achieve
God's purpose. Even so, in the heart of the individuals who
are born into this kingdom, faith starts small and seems insignificant. But as it grows, and it grows
slowly and consistently over time, God preserves it. Jesus prayed for Peter's faith.
He says, I've prayed for your faith that you fall not. that
your faith fail not. Still that faith grows and it
grows. It's like, how did you become saved? If you think back
about it, you say, I'm not even sure. I thought I was saved.
No, no, I wasn't saved then. Maybe, no, I couldn't have been
there because look at all that. And pretty soon you're not even
sure. Maybe I just got saved yesterday. Am I even saved today? The Kingdom of God starts slowly
in us and it grows. But it does grow consistently.
First of all, we learn that we're sinners. We wonder, is there
any possibility that I can be saved? And then you learn, everything
is done by Christ. And then you go out and you find
yourself enamored by the world or confused by some strange doctrine
and religion. And you get sidetracked. And
then you learn again. I'm saved by Christ alone. And
you keep learning this over and over, and you pray, and your
prayers like Psalm 65, 3, you say, Lord, iniquities abound,
they prevail over me. And then you say, ah, but you
shall purge our sins away. It's all in Christ. And so this
faith grows over time. At first, it just affects in
your conscience. And then it's throughout your
mind. Everything you think about, you see the gospel in it. You
desire Christ. And it affects your affections.
And it makes your will. It changes your will. It grows
throughout the whole man. And God says He conforms His
people to the image of His Son in looking to Christ. In 2 Corinthians
3.18 he says, So that's the way the kingdom of God grows outwardly,
the mustard seed, and inwardly, the leaven. But then over here,
just briefly here, I want to take you to verse 40. 4. He says again, the kingdom of
heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field on the which when
a man has found he hides it and for joy thereof goes and sells
all that he has and buys that field. And then again in verse
45, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking
goodly pearls who when he has found one pearl of great price
went and sold all that he had and he bought it. Now, There's
a couple ways of taking these two parables, but I think that
this is probably the best way. Maybe it's not. The merchant
man, what does he do? I'm sorry, the first man. He's
out in a field. He's digging. What's he digging for? I don't
know. He's probably planting something. Or maybe he's building
a house. He's digging in a field to create
a foundation. But he's digging in the field.
Suddenly, his shovel strikes something in the ground. What
is that? So he digs around. He finds it's
a huge treasure. But wait, I don't own this field.
I can't just take this treasure. If I do though, They'll hang
me. So what does he do? He buries
it, covers it up carefully. He goes, man this is huge. This
is worth so much more than anything I possibly have. All I have to
do is buy the field. No one knows the treasure is
in it. I'll buy the field. I'll get the treasure. So he
sells everything that he has and he goes and he buys this
field. He wasn't looking for a treasure, but he found one.
And it's in this field. So this is worth more than anything
I ever imagined. And he sells everything and he
buys it. And then there's another man. This man is actually looking. He's a pearl merchant. He's tried
the pearls from one place and from another place. But he's
always looking for that premier pearl of great price. And finally
he finds it. Wow! This one's worth all the
other pearls I've ever accumulated, all the wealth I have. And so
he goes and sells everything that he has, that he might have
this one pearl. Now both of these illustrate,
in a picture form to us, what the mysterious operation of God
in the heart of sinners is when he brings them to Christ. On
the one hand, the man in the field, he wasn't looking, was
he? Just BAM! Shovel struck the treasure. And
he discovered his price of infinite value, and he sold everything
he had to him. It was nothing to have that treasure. The other man, he was looking,
looking, looking. Finally, he finds it, and once
he's found it, man, he sells everything to have it. And this
describes the way God saves his people. How many times have you
realized, when I thought I wanted to find salvation, I was looking
in all the wrong places. And God, when you weren't expecting
it, showed you that all of your salvation is never in yourself
and only in Christ. And you're just like, oh man,
this is all the weight of my shoulders is just lifted off
of me. The guilt and the anguish and the trouble is gone because
Christ is all. I see that God has received Him
and in receiving Him, I as a sinner am received in Him. And that's
all my hope. If God has received him, it's
everything to me. And all that you ever trusted
in before, you consider it nothing. Like Paul says, I count all things
loss for Christ. You're like this man who, Paul
wasn't looking, was he? He was riding his horse off to
kill a few Christians, put them in jail, and the Lord Jesus Christ
speaks to him from heaven and says, Saul, Why are you persecuting
me? Who are you Lord? He didn't know
anything. He was ignorant. But God had
mercy on him. He's like the first man. The man in the field. He finds
a treasure and he sells everything that he has that he might have
it. And that's the way God comes to us. But the other man, the
pearl man. He was looking. He's looking
and looking and He finds this pearl of great price. This is
like those who seem like they're seeking Christ and seeking Him.
They don't know where He is. They don't know the truth about
how He saves by Himself. That it's all by grace. They're
continuing to look and they're banging their heads against the
wall of their works and their flesh and everything. And then
finally God reveals Himself to them and they find that Christ
is everything. And they also sell all that they have. I think
the Lord depicts Paul in the first case. I think he shows
us how, like the centurion in Acts, remember? He was asking
Peter and others. He says he asked God in prayer,
and God gave him the gospel that way. And there's others like
him. Remember the thief on the cross? He didn't seem to be looking,
did he? Jesus? He was casting accusations in
his teeth. And then he realizes, this is
the Lord of Glory. This is God in the flesh. He's
done nothing wrong. And then God teaches him, Lord,
remember me. And so he's like the first man. But then there are those who
seem like they're like the second man. They're searching and searching. I think of the centurion. I also
think of the Ethiopian. Remember in the book of Acts?
He goes to Jerusalem. He goes to worship. He's reading
Isaiah. He's looking. He can't see. God sends Philip,
reveals Christ to him, and he's born again. And so you see how
God saves His people. This is the mysteries of the
Kingdom of God. Christ plants His people in the world. The
devil plants False believers, those who are the children of
the wicked one. Those who trust in everything
but Christ. They reject Christ. And they're
only Christians by name. But those who are His people,
the seed goes deep into their heart, grows slowly, influences
their whole life, and makes Christ truly precious to them. And the
Lord says that throughout time, this is the way it's going to
be. And He warns His disciples. He says, no, don't try to separate
the tares from the wheat. Don't do that. Because first
of all, you, only God searches the hearts. You do not know who
is one of God's people and who is not. Someone you think is
a tarot today might become a wheat tomorrow. But it's not up to
you to decide. The Lord, the foundation of God,
stands sure. The Lord knows them that are
His. And it's because salvation is
by promise and by grace, that God gets all the glory and our
salvation is sure. There's many lessons that we
should learn from this, and not the least of which is that we
should bow. We should bow our knees to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we should come to Him as the sovereign of us who can only
save us. Sin is all my fault. Salvation
is all God's work. And it's all by grace alone.
And our entrance into heaven is by His choice, by His redeeming
work, and by our birth by the Spirit of God. How do I know
if I'm part of the true church? How do I know if I'm in Christ?
Because with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. In your heart,
you've looked to Christ only. And you found, like it says in
1 Corinthians 1.30, that Christ has made unto you righteousness. And you realize that the one
you're looking to is all your acceptance before God, all your
answer for your sin. He's all your standing and all
your hope. The evidence that we're the child
of God is that the Spirit of God has given us faith in Christ.
Who took our place and paid all the debt that God's people owed.
He has made Him our life, our living, and everything to us.
It doesn't happen all at once. But when you see Christ, you
realize this is worth worlds to realize. I would part with
anything. to have Him, because everything
but Him is but refuse. It's garbage. And even though
this influence of God's Spirit in our life occurs more over
time in our life, so that we more and more believe Him, more
and more love Him, yet nevertheless, in its seed, it's always there.
It's the same faith, it's the same love, but it grows over
time. That grace grows in time. And
so we say with all of God's people, unto Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and dominion,
honor and power forever and ever. Let's pray.