It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, O Lord, that could not be. Now last week in Matthew chapter
13 we actually looked, actually it was two weeks ago, but in
Luke chapter 8 we looked at the parable of the sower. If you
remember that, the parable of the sower, and there were four
different grounds. And this week we're going to look at some of
the other parables here in Matthew chapter 13. And the parable of the sower
ends with verse 23, so we'll pick it up at verse 24. And I'll
be reading through... I feel inclined to read through
verse 52, even though we will not cover that much in the sermon.
Because I want you to see this, at least in summary, at the outset.
I'll summarize each of the parables for you after we read all of
them. And then we'll look in particular
at the two or three that we're going to get to today. Matthew
chapter 13 verse 24 Jesus says here, another parable put he
forth to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept his
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But
when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then
appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said to him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy
field? From whence then hath it tares?
He said to them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said to
him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said,
Nay, lest while you gather up the tares you root up also the
wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of harvest I
will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares and
bind them in bundles and burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn. Now that's the first parable.
The parable that we saw two weeks ago about the sower. There was
one sower. And the sower went out and sowed
seed. And there was one seed. And that
seed landed on four different types of ground. And on only
one ground did that seed bring forth fruit. So the one seed,
four grounds. and the seed was the gospel and
the foregrounds represented the way in which people hear the
gospel and the fruit that it produces when they hear it. Now,
in this parable, there's actually a good seed and there's a bad
seed. In the first parable, the seed
was the Word of God. But in this parable, as we'll
see, the good seed are the people, the children of God, that are
sown by the Lord Jesus Christ. So, you can see here that God
at his pleasure chooses to represent different things with sometimes
the same thing in a physical way. But also notice that God
has used this physical world as a reflection of the spiritual
world. So we'll understand this parable,
this first parable that we've read here, the tares and the
wheat, in just a moment. But the main point of this parable,
of the tares and the wheat, if you understand these different
parables in their context, the main point of this parable is
that in the world, during this period of time that God has allowed
the world to exist, in His church, in the world, there are both
wheat and tares. And there will come a time when
God is going to remove the tares from the wheat. He's going to
remove those who are not His people from those who are His
people. And He's going to purify the
Church, the Kingdom of God, so that there will be no tares in
it. That's the main point of this parable. And that was needed
to give to the disciples because they, like most people at this
time, didn't understand that the Kingdom of God was more than
just setting up Israel as a national entity in which a physical king
would come and rule. He wanted us to know that the
kingdom of God is spiritual. It's throughout time. It includes
God's people throughout the world. And in this kingdom, there are
both wheat and tares. And at the end of the world,
God's going to separate the two. And He's going to have a purified
church, holy, with no evil in it. So the next parable, in verse
31. Another parable put he forth
to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like 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 again,
the main point, each of these parables has a primary teaching. The teaching of this parable
is that the Kingdom of God The Church of God starts out in what
appears to be an insignificant way. Like a mustard seed. You
look at it, it's so tiny. And it's the least among all
the seeds. But you plant it in the garden
and it grows into this huge herb. So much that it overtakes the
rest of the garden and even becomes a tree. And birds are able to
lodge in the branches of the tree. And the Kingdom of God
is like that. The Church of God in the world
starts small. It grows slowly. But it grows
consistently over time. And at the end of the world,
that church is going to be huge. And God is going to reveal how
big and how dominant it has been. And we'll see more about this
in a moment. So the second parable has to do with the small things
that seem insignificant to men, but result in the huge accomplishment
of God's purpose in saving His people in this world. Verse 33. 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 in this parable the main
teaching is similar to the mustard seed. In the mustard seed it
was about how the church grows from small to large. In this
one it's about how the gospel grows in the heart of individuals
in that kingdom. From what seems to be insignificant
till it infiltrates the whole person as grace grows in the
heart of that person. The woman in this parable is
the church of God when she brings through the preachers the gospel.
And sinners hear that and it spreads throughout their whole
life. It influences everything in them and changes not only
them but even the things around them because of that firm grasp
the gospel takes hold of them. And so we'll look at that in
a minute too. Verse 34. All these things spake Jesus
unto the multitude in parables, and without a parable spake He
not unto them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the prophet, saying, And this is from Psalm 78. So, the Lord
Jesus Christ at this time is clear. He's revealing things
that have been secret. But now God is revealing them
by His Son. In these last days God has spoken
to us by His Son. And the revelation of what He's
giving here are the invisible things which actually constitute
the purpose of this world's existence. Why God created it and His glory.
And so then in verse 36, Obviously, they didn't understand
it. And the Lord Jesus gives us here, I think, the clearest
explanation. It's a model sermon of clarity
and conciseness of the explanation of this parable of the tares
in the field. He says, He answered them and
said to them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. That's Christ. The field is the
world. Remember the ground in the other
parable, the sower parable, was the hearts of men. But here,
the ground 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 which 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 Son in the kingdom of their Father, who hath ears
to hear. Let him hear." Now it's clear
from Jesus' description of this parable that throughout the world,
throughout the geographical area of the world, and throughout
all kinds of people in the world, and throughout time, that the
Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, is using His Gospel to save His
people. That's the Son of Man who plants
His seed in the world. The children, that are planted
are the sons of God. The one who does the planting
is the Lord Jesus Christ through the agency of the Spirit of God
who gives life to them by the preaching of His word. As we
saw in the first parable, the effect of the preaching of the
gospel is to bring forth fruit. That is the plowing and the planting
and the watering and the increase that God gives when the gospel
comes. And the people who are saved
by the Lord are themselves that fruit, and they also, out of
that work of God in them, looking to Christ, trusting Him, produce
fruit to God. And that fruit primarily is love
to God and His people. which is the fulfillment of all
the law. But in this case, the fruit or
the seed that's sown are the children of God. They're created
in Christ Jesus. Isn't that what it says in Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 10? We are created in Christ Jesus
unto good works. Who created us? The Lord Himself.
We're going to look at a few scriptures here in a minute,
but understand that the Lord Jesus Christ plants His people. Those people really are the true
kingdom of God, the true church of God. But they're not the only
thing that appear during the time state of this world. In
the church, throughout time, there are also tares. Remember
Judas? Remember Balaam? Remember Demas
in 2 Timothy 4.10, he says, Demas has forsaken me. He was a companion
of Paul in one epistle, and then in another epistle he forsook.
He forsook Paul. Because he has loved this present
world, he said. So, Ananias and Sapphira, remember
them? Remember Lot's wife? Remember
all these who were revealed to be tares throughout time? And
the Lord says to his disciples, first of all, the kingdom of
God is not something that's coming right now. In a way that's evident
through a political establishment of a kingdom. It starts small. The people in it are planted
by the Lord Jesus Christ. It grows slowly over time. And finally at the end of the
world it's complete. But throughout that time it's
infiltrated by those who look like sheep on the outside, even
claim to be sheep, but are not. And the Lord Himself is going
to separate the tares from the wheat. Now the tares are planted
by the wicked one. The wicked one wants there to
be those in the church that look like the people of God so that
he can, through heresy and all sorts of factions and divisions,
divide the church and try to thwart the purpose Christ has
in saving his people throughout time. But he cannot succeed. Christ said in Matthew 16, 18,
the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church. It shall go
forth and it shall accomplish what the Lord intended. He will
save his sheep. He will bring his people. He
will purify him to himself a peculiar people. He will wash his bride. She will be spotless and holy
before him in love. All these things speak about
how God cannot fail. The Lord Jesus Christ will have
a people. But during this time, notice
a couple of things in this parable that are clear. First, the Lord
has explained this parable so clearly that it hardly deserves
more comment. But first of all, notice that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who plants His people in
the world. They do not plant themselves.
And He doesn't plant all of the people in the world into His
kingdom. So here we see, again, distinguishing
grace. And it's important that we point
this out because God points it out. Also because His word cannot
fail. God cannot fail. The Lord Jesus
Christ intends to do something, He does it. When He went to the
cross, He actually paid for the sins of His people. When He sends
His Spirit, He actually quickens them and makes them alive and
gives them faith. It's His power, not ours. The
operation is His, not ours. We are the objects of saving
mercy and grace. And so we see that grace is distinguishing. And sometimes we hear that, and
we hear it a lot, and we think, well, if God's got to do everything
and I don't do anything, then what do I even worry about things
for? That's the attitude of a proud,
opposing heart to God's mercy. Because it should bring us to
our knees and say, Lord, in your hand, like Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar's
son, in whose hand your breath is and whose are all your ways. God holds your breath and all
your ways are controlled by his sovereign hand. So what are you
going to do? Just stick your fist in God's
face and say, To heck with you! I am going to live like I want
and you are going to save me if you want and I am going to
do what I want? Or are you going to bow and say, Lord if you are
sovereign then you can overcome even this proud and rebel heart
of mine. You can bring life where there
is only death. You can give faith where there
is only unbelief. And you can open the eyes of
this blind man. And show me beauty in Christ.
And you can save me from my sins according to your righteousness.
You can do all that. You have power to save someone
even like me. And we bow to Him. And we plead
with Him. And we come to Him through Christ.
And that's the response that God works. So never let the sovereignty
of God create in us this... Never let it tempt us to accuse
God of wrong. How would we even know the truth
about His sovereignty if He didn't reveal it? And if we accept the
truth of His sovereignty, then why would we use that truth to
our own destruction in opposition to Him? So never do that. But also we see here that in
this parable, the other evident thing here is that God doesn't
want His people... to go about trying to remove
those who are not true believers from the church by identifying
who the elect are and who the non-elect are, who the saved
are and who the lost are. The gospel goes freely If freely
you have received, Jesus told His disciples, freely give. So
it goes out freely. The seed is sown on all the grounds.
And the Lord is the one who does the planting of His people. He's
the one who gives that seed success according to His will. And yet
we're not supposed to try to clean it up and purge it, because
the Lord is going to divide sheep from sheep at the end of time.
He says, as the shepherd divides the cattle from the cattle, He's
going to divide the sheep from the goats. And so the Lord's
going to do that. We're going to leave it up to
Him. And when He's done, guess what? that is left in this universe
will be according to his purpose he designed before the world
began. There will be no trace of evil left. God is going to
be completely on the throne and evil will be completely expunged.
There will be no traces. As someone said, there will be
not even the trace of the slime of the serpent on the ground.
It'll be gone. And at the end of time the Lord
is going to separate them and I also heard another analogy
which I really liked. That when all the tares, the
tares look like wheat. Tares are plants that look like
wheat when it's growing up. And so you can't tell, but when
you see them, the difference is that wheat actually has wheat
on it. Tares don't. So at the end of
time, the Lord's going to separate them. And when you think about
what will that look like? Where all this wheat in the field
and tares amongst it. And the wheat will be bowed over
heavily. And the tares will be standing
upright, very erect. And God will be able to see that
the wheat are those who say, Lord, when did we ever do that?
When He says, when you saw me in prison, you visited me. Naked,
you clothed me. Hungry, you fed me. Thirsty,
you gave me drink. When did we ever do that? Their
heads are bowed low because they don't see in themselves the grace
of God. They only see it in Christ. But
that's the point. Grace is known by the effect
it has on us in looking to Christ. You can't discover faith by looking
inside yourself. You only discover true faith...
in looking to Christ. If you understand that, then
you'll see the point here. The wheat bears fruit to God.
That fruit is faith in Christ and love for Him for what He's
done for them. Jesus said about the woman in
Luke 7, she's forgiven much because she loved much. She wasn't forgiven
because she loved, but she loved because she was forgiven. And
that's why she loves much. And so it is. He who is forgiven
little, loves little. Then one last comment on this
in verses 42 and 43. You see that there's a judgment
coming. And it's an awful judgment. It's something inexplicably horrible. And I think one of the most terrifying
things about this judgment is not only the fire and the gnashing
of teeth. But the fact that this judgment
is an everlasting punishment. And look at this in Matthew 25
with me. I don't like to think about,
I don't like to talk about hell. But it is revealed, in fact it
is commonly revealed in scripture. And it surprises me that anyone
would think that somehow there is not a hell. And that it is
not everlasting from scripture. How could you read the Bible
with your eyes open and deny the fact that there is an everlasting
punishment? And yet, it happens all the time. But look at Matthew 25. And verse,
let's see, I'm in the wrong chapter. Verse 20, let's see. Well, I'll just go to the end.
Verse 46. He says, "...and these shall go away into everlasting
punishment." But the righteous unto life eternal. You see those
two words everlasting and eternal? It's the same word. If there
is no everlasting punishment, then there is no eternal life.
But there's both. There's an everlasting punishment
and there is eternal life. And God says He's going to separate
the one from the other. And there will be a punishment.
It is going to be everlasting. And I cannot even bear to think
of what that punishment will be like. But it reflects the
fact that God is holy and sin is that bad. But it's more revealed
in the death of Christ than it is in our eternal punishment
in hell. But let's go on to the next parable. In verse 44 of
Matthew 13 he says, Now this parable and the next one talk
about the preciousness. The preciousness of the things
of God. And here, the parable is about
a treasure. And that treasure is the treasure
of God's people in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
that treasure, He sold everything that He had and bought the field.
He came into this world and gave Himself for His people in order
to... in order to take the throne and
rule as king over all things and give eternal life to as many
as God had given him." If you look at Psalm 2 and John 17 together
you'll see that. But again it says in verse 45,
"...again the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man
seeking goodly pearls, who when he hath found one pearl of great
price went and sold all that he had and bought it." So here,
again, we see that the Kingdom of God is precious. So precious
that this merchant man sells everything in order to have it.
And this, I think, is the believer. On the one hand, the Kingdom
of Heaven is like the treasure in the field where Christ buys
the world. and rules over it in order to
have his people out of that world. In this case, the merchant man
is the man of the believer who is given faith in Christ and
he gives up everything that he formerly trusted and everything
that he holds dear in order to have Christ. And then in verse
47 he says again, "...the kingdom of heaven is likened to a net
that was cast into the sea, and gathered every kind, which when
it was full they drew to shore and sat down, and gathered the
good into vessels, but cast the bad away." The net is the gospel. Those that cast it are God's
ministers. Throughout time and the world
it's cast. The gospel goes forth and it
brings in all kinds of vessels. And they have to separate them.
Again, this is the ministry of the Word and how God is going
to separate the good from the bad. He says, "...so shall it
be at the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever
the wicked from the just, and shall cast them into the furnace
of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Jesus
said to them, Have you understood all these things? They said to
him, Yea, Lord. Then said he to them, Therefore
every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is
likened to a man that is a householder which brings forth out of his
treasure things new and things old. The scribe described here
is the one who brings the gospel. And he brings forth out of his
treasure things new and things old. He takes the things that
God has revealed from eternity... And He reveals them as truth
that's newly appreciated and believed and understood in the
hearts of God's people. So what you see in the summary
of all these things, you see these parables are emphasizing
something. Take them together. What you
see is that there's an invisible kingdom. That kingdom is in this
world throughout time and across the globe. The Kingdom has a
King, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Kingdom has a people, it's
the Church of God. Those people are His by the purchase
of His own blood. And they are His by the operation
of His Spirit as He sends His Gospel throughout the world and
gives life to dead sinners. and he brings them into his kingdom
in their experience, but the kingdom itself was actually prepared
for them before the foundation of the world by their father.
You can read about that in Matthew 25, I think it's around verse
32 or 34. So in this same history of time,
the gospel not only goes out to his people, but it brings
in a lot of others. And in that crowd of others that
it brings in are those which are not God's people. It brings
them in like a dragnet. It brings them in, not only like
a dragnet, but the devil himself plants them like tares. And God's
going to separate them. So let's take a look a little
more carefully now, just at these first three, which is the parable
of the mustard seed, the leaven, and the tares. I've already discussed
the one about the tares, so let's go directly to the The one about the mustard seed
here. Because I think that when we see these things it's actually
surprising to us. It resonates with our experience. I don't like to use our experience
to validate scripture. But what you find in scripture
is that when God tells you the truth about the way things are.
That you can't see. That you would only know if He
revealed them. That you find a great peace that
comes to you and a comfort. First of all, notice how the
Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who planted this mustard seed. Now, the picture here is of Christ's
Kingdom beginning small. Beginning small and growing.
It began small because the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world.
He came into this world as an infant. The Lord of Glory became
an infant. He grew up in a carpenter shop.
A hewer of wood. The lowest occupation in those
times. There were hewers of wood and
drawers of water. Occupation for servants. His
father, Joseph, not his true father, but his earthly father,
was a hewer of wood and his mother was apparently nobody in particular. But he was born into this world
as an infant, grew up as a young man, and then no one even knew
he was the son of God until John the Baptist announced him. Behold
the Lamb of God. John the Baptist comes and prepares
the way. Just one man, one voice crying in the wilderness. The
Lord Jesus Christ is baptized. He's tempted. He comes and preaches
the gospel. He calls twelve apostles, twelve
disciples. And they go for three plus years
throughout the regions of Jerusalem, and Judea, and Galilee, the Gentile
area of Israel. And even in Samaria, and the
regions of the coast round about that. Tyre and Sidon. Remember
the woman who came to him with a devil that was troubling her
daughter, and she was delivered. All this work that occurred seemed
small at first. And then, talk about small, they
took the Lord of these disciples and they crucified him on the
tree. A cursed tree. Now it seems like this kingdom
has no chance of success, does it? No chance of success. Look
at the men who are supposed to be the pillars in this kingdom.
A bunch of nobodies, fishermen, a publican. Matthew was a public
and a tax collector. These guys were nobodies. One
of them was a traitor, in fact. But here the Lord of Glory hangs
on a tree. And the man beside him looks
at him and says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ, bloodied, whipped, beaten, about
to die. And this thief on the cross looks
at him and says, you're the Lord of glory and your kingdom will
come. And he says, when it comes, remember
me. All the men around, they're mocking, they're taking his clothes
and casting lots for them. They think they've won. And here
he dies. He cries before he dies. It is
finished! And all the powers of hell were
vanquished. All of sin for his people was
purged. God was glorified in all of his
perfections in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His people
were all saved. The kingdoms of this world became
the kingdoms of our Christ. He was seated on the throne of
glory, and He was given power to give the Spirit of God to
His people, and to call them from death to life, from darkness
to light. That's what happened in the beginning.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ comes to his disciples after
his resurrection and he breathes on them the Holy Spirit. And
they go with that gospel as he sits on his throne calling to
sinners, telling them about the great accomplishments of the
Lord, their Lord and their Master, their Savior. And sinners hear
it and they come. And what happens? It seems as
if what started out as insignificant... It grows and grows. It grows
slowly and gradually. It seems as if it's going to
be defeated, but it can't be stopped. And it's successful. And there's nothing in hell or
on earth that's going to stop it. It reaches into the heart
of Herod's own family. His steward's wife, we read a
couple weeks ago, was a believer. She ministered to Jesus with
her substance. Joanna, I think her name was.
And so all these things point to the fact that the Lord is
conquering. It says, "...thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power." The Lord Jesus Christ
is gained. The kingdom has come when Christ
hung on the cross and cried, it is finished. And he put away.
Satan was cast out of heaven. And as the gospel is preached,
he's overthrown in the hearts of his people. And so you see
this kingdom coming. But it grows gradually and steadily.
And it spreads the earth. These men who were in prison,
Paul was in prison. And with his pen, he writes epistles
that change, literally change history. Because God's people
are brought in. The whole world is affected by
it. And the governors of the world
know it. And so they try to kill, they
physically try to kill all those who profess Christ. And the more
they oppress them, the more it grows. This is the kingdom of
God. It's a spiritual kingdom. It
cannot be stopped. It will succeed. It will win. Christ will be glorified in His
people. And you see this in an account
in Daniel chapter 2. Turn with me in Daniel chapter
2. You see this and it was prophesied long before. It's prophesied
throughout the Old Testament, but it wasn't revealed until
Jesus is telling His disciples and now telling us. Isn't it
a merciful thing that when the Lord Jesus revealed these things
to His disciples that He recorded them for us? Isn't that amazing? What about all the people that
were there then? They didn't hear it and yet we have it right
here in black and white. But in Daniel chapter 2, look
at this in verse 1. It's a bit of a long reading,
but it's worth refreshing our memory. I love the story. We're
just going to enjoy it. In the second year of the reign
of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his
spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him. So he tries to
go to sleep, he can't sleep, he dreams all these dreams. And
so what does he do? The king commanded to call the
magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans
to show the king his dreams. So they came and they stood before
the king. The king said to them, I have dreamed a dream and my
spirit was troubled to know the dream. Now, these wise men, these
magicians, these astrologers and sorcerers. The king calls
them all in. You guys are the highest paid
wise men in the world. Come on in here. I've got a question
for you. I had this dream. It's troubling me. I can't even
sleep. Now, I want you to tell me what the dream means. But
for me to know that you actually know what the dream means. First,
tell me what I dreamed. Then the Chaldeans spake to the
king in Syriac, O king, live forever. Tell thy servants the
dream, and we will show you the interpretation. The king answered
and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me. If you
will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation,
you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. Yeah, so get out there and figure
it out guys. I can see them looking at one
another. We're toast. But if you show the dream and
the interpretation thereof, you shall receive of me gifts and
rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and
the interpretation thereof. They answered again and said,
Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will show you
the interpretation of it. Sounds very political, doesn't
it? The king answered and said, You think I'm just going to change
the time and let you know? No. You've got to tell me now.
Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can
show me the interpretation thereof. The Chaldeans answered before
the king and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can
show the king's matter. Therefore there is no king, lord,
nor ruler that asks such a thing of any magician, or astrologer,
or Chaldean. That's what they were. And it
is a rare thing. It is very rare that the king
requires, and there is none other that can show it before the king,
except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this cause
the king was angry, and very furious, and commanded to destroy
all the wise men of Babylon." Can you imagine what that is
going to do? We are going to empty senate,
and the supreme court, and the presidency, and we are going
to take you out, and we are going to start over. And the decree
went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they sought
Daniel and his fellows to be slain, because Daniel was among
those who were wise. Then Daniel answered with counsel
and wisdom to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, which was
gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said
to Ariok, the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from
the king? Then Ariok made the thing known
to Daniel. Then Ariok made the thing known
to Daniel. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that
he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house
and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, those are
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, his companions, that they would
desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret.
That Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the
wise men of Babylon. Oh, that's an interesting thing.
Just a few men are not going to perish with the whole wise
men of Babylon. The elect are saved, huh? Then
was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then
Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed
be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are
his. And He changes the times and
the seasons. He removes kings and sets up
kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise
and knowledge to them that know understanding. He reveals the
deep and secret things. He knows what is in darkness,
and the light dwelleth with Him. I thank thee and praise thee,
O God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might, and
has made known unto me now what we desired of thee, for thou
hast now made known unto us the king's matter." So God revealed
it to Daniel. Therefore Daniel went in unto
Ariok, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon.
He went and said thus to him, Destroy not the wise men of Babylon,
bring me in before the king, and I will show to the king the
interpretation. Then Ariok brought in Daniel before the king in
haste, and said thus to him, I have found a man of the captives
of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.
The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar,
Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen,
and the interpretation thereof? Now, at this point Daniel was
not going to take that temptation. So he said, Daniel answered in
the presence of the king and said, The secret which the king
hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians,
the soothsayers show unto the king. There is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar
what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of
thy head upon thy bed are these." So he's going to reveal the dream
now. "...as for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind
upon thy bed. What should come to pass hereafter?
And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall
come to pass." what shall come to pass. But as for me, this
secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more
than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known that
interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts
of thy heart." So he said, God has revealed this, not to me,
for anything in me, but to save his people, Shadrach, Meshach,
Abednego, and myself. And he's going to make known
the thoughts of your hearts. Thou, O King, here's the dream.
Thou, O King, sawest and behold a great image. This great image,
whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form
thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine
gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his
thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and
part of clay. Thou saw'st till a stone was
cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet
that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces. Then was
the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken
in pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer
threshing floors. And the wind carried them away,
and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the
image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."
This is a dream and we will tell the interpretation thereof before
the king. So he's going to tell the interpretation. And he says,
I'm going to jump ahead. He says in verse 44. And in the days of these kings
shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never
be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as
thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without
hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay,
the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to
the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain,
and the interpretation thereof." So then Nebuchadnezzar falls
down and worships Daniel. Interesting. So you see here
what is happening. All the kingdoms of this world...
eventually are going to be made known, evidently, to become the
kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the stone that the builders
rejected, that was cut out of the mountain without hands. He's
the stone, by His mighty power on the cross, destroyed the kingdom
of Satan and all of his minions. And it's His kingdom in heaven
now that rules. And in the last days, He's going
to come and He's going to remove from His kingdom all that offends.
And this is essentially what He's saying here. So in this
parable, you see how this mustard seed has grown huge. So huge
that, look at one more text of scripture in Revelation 5. I'll
show you this because this thrills my heart. So huge that, look
at the number of people in this kingdom. He says here... Revelation
chapter 5. He says in verse 9, and they
sung, in verse 8 he says, and when he had taken the book, this
is the Lamb. When the Lamb had taken the book,
the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before
the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full
of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. It represents
the whole church. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art
worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for
Thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made
us unto our God's kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth."
See his kingdom? Who's reigning? His people. And
I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the
throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them
was, notice, 10,000 times 10,000. That's a hundred million, by
the way. And thousands of thousands. That's
millions. So in other words, hundreds of
millions. Maybe billions. I don't know
how many people make up the Church of God. But isn't it good news
that through all of history and all across this globe, out of
every nation and tribe and tongue, there are people the Lord Jesus
Christ, by his mighty conquering power, has brought into his kingdom.
And that his kingdom is going to rule. Everything that we see
now is just a physical structure. The real happenings, the real
thing that's going on is that Christ is bringing His kingdom
to it's fulfillment. And when the fullness of the
Gentiles become in, then the end shall come. And all Israel,
all the church of God shall be saved. That's what God is saying
here. We want to be part of this kingdom, don't you? And how are
you part of this kingdom? Jesus told Nicodemus, you're
born into it. How do you know you're born again?
He told Nicodemus again. He that looks to the Lord Jesus
Christ as the serpent bitten people look to the serpent on
the pole has everlasting life. It is looking to Christ that
is the evidence of being born of God. Let's pray. Lord, thank
you that your kingdom will prevail. Our Lord Jesus Christ will rule.
All evil we know in our hearts and in this world will be put
down. We pray, Lord, that we would be saved by his almighty
grace like the thief on the cross. Lord, we pray, remember us when
you come into your kingdom. Bow our heads now. that our hearts
might be humbled and we might see that we are nothing and have
nothing but what you've given us by your free grace because
of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And Lord, make
us your servants, make us the wheat, don't let one of us perish.
Keep us from being these tares, Lord, sown in the field by the
devil. You alone can plant us in your
kingdom. You alone can give us life and
faith in Christ. You alone can take our sins away.
So we look to you, and we depend upon you, and we actually rejoice
in you. We have no confidence in our
flesh. Lord, save us for your name's sake. Bring your people
out of this world, prosper The weak and helpless efforts of
your servants here now as we attempt to preach your gospel,
prosper your word, bring your people, in Jesus' name we pray,
amen.