Now turn with me in your Bibles
to the book of Matthew chapter 13. The message this morning will be
taken from verses 31 and 32 of Matthew chapter 13. The message is entitled, The Mystery
of the Church in the Last Age. The Mystery of the Church in
the Last Age. Now in Matthew chapter 13, these
are what we call the kingdom parables. Parables of the kingdom
of the Lord Jesus Christ wherein the Lord is teaching his disciples
the mysteries of the kingdom, uncovering the truth, revealing
truth to his disciples about what it's going to be like in
the last days. Remember the last age, the last
days, the New Testament days concerning the church of Christ. That is those days that range
from Christ's first coming into the world and his doing his great
work of redemption on the cross to secure the salvation of his
people up into his second coming. That's the days that the Lord
is talking about here. He spoke the first four parables. Remember, we've studied the first
one, which was the parable of the sower and the seed. And then
the second one was the parable of the wheat and the tares. In
these next two parables, here's the parable of the grain of mustard
seed. That's what I want to deal with
this morning. And then right after that, the parable of leaven
in three measures of meal. Very short parables. This one's
just two verses. The next one, one verse. And
he spoke these first four parables to the multitudes. And then he
sent the multitudes away. Look at verse 34 of Matthew 13. This is right after the first
four parables. There are eight parables in this
section, this Matthew 13, the kingdom parables. And after he
spoke the first four, he sent the multitude away. It says in
verse 34, all these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables,
Without a parable spake he not unto them. You remember the disciples
asked him, why do you speak in parables? And he told them back
in verses 10 and following. I'm not going to go into all
that this morning again. But he says in verse 35, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things which have
been kept secret from the foundation of the world. That's the prophecy
in the Psalms. I think probably you have that
maybe in your biblical reference, Psalm 78. But this is all the
fulfillment of prophecy now. And what we're seeing in the
revelation of these mysteries is God working all things after
the counsel of His own will. This is the predestinating purpose
of God. who works all things after the
counsel of his own will. This is not God's plan B. This is not some kind of contingency
plan because something didn't work before. This is God's will,
God's purpose all along. He says, which have been kept
secret from the foundation of the world. The foundation of
the world, it has to do with before the world was created.
This is in eternity. And so this is what God's revealing. And verse 36, it says, Then Jesus
sent the multitude away and went into the house, and his disciples
came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares
of the field. And so he explains the parables
of the tares of the field to the disciples. But he sent the
multitude away. Now, we don't really have any biblical explanation
of why he did that, but you can surmise from this, if you look
at the whole thing, Understand this, that the first, for example,
the first two parables, the parable of the sower and the seed, remember
what that was about, the preaching of the gospel going out in the
last age, and it's going to fall on different types of ground.
You had the wayside here, you had the stony ground here, the
thorny ground here, and then you had the good ground here.
The wayside, the stony ground, the thorny ground, that's all
different types of unbelievers. That's what that means. Some
didn't have any room to listen to the gospel. They didn't want
to hear it. That's the wayside here. Others received it for
a little while and then they left it for whatever reason.
Some over persecution. That's the stony ground here.
And others over love of the world. That's the thorny ground here.
And what you have in that parable and in the tares and the wheat,
where in the tares and the wheat he was saying that Christ sows
his true children. the elect of God, the sheep for
whom he died. He said, they hear my voice.
He redeemed them by his blood and they're going to be regenerated
by the Holy Spirit. They're going to be born again
and they're going to hear the gospel. That's the wheat. That's the good seed. That word
seed there means offspring. The word seed and the sower and
the seed, that's like a spore. That's like a seed you plant
in the ground. But the word seed and the tares
and the wheat, That's children. That's the children of God. That's
the offspring of Jesus Christ. His generation. And I showed
you that. But he says the tares are going
to spring up. They're sown by the devil. That's
false Christians. And what he's teaching there
is as the last age moves on and gets closer and closer to the
time of his second coming, They're going to be true Christians,
and they're going to be false Christians. And we can't separate
them as far as destroying the false, only the Lord. We can
know by men's testimony sometimes whether they believe or not.
I mean, if a person comes to you and says, well, I don't believe
what you preach, then you know they're not a believer. But this
is talking about false Christians, those who claim to believe in
Christ but who really don't. And we could go all over the
scripture talking about that. But those first two parables
show the sovereignty of God in the salvation of His elect in
the last days. God's going to save His people.
Now, I can't save them. You cannot save God's people.
We're just instruments in God's hands, doing His will, preaching
His gospel, and He calls His people into the fold. Isn't that
right? We don't do it. John the Baptist said, I'm a
voice. One crying in the wilderness. And he says, behold, the Lamb
of God. It is Christ who saves his people. Salvation is of the
Lord. But God is pleased. Now somebody
says, well, God doesn't need you. Well, it has nothing to
do with necessity. It has to do with what glorifies
God. It pleased the Lord. through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's
what pleases God. That's what honors God. You see,
salvation, we need to understand this. Salvation is not God just
choosing a people and plopping them into heaven, populating
heaven or the new earth. Salvation is the glory of God
in Jesus Christ, in the salvation of His people in a way that He
has purposed, that He works, that glorifies Him. And that's
what this is all about. He told His disciples in verse
11 over there, He says, Under you it's given to know the mysteries
of the kingdom, but under them it's not given. Salvation knowledge
is a gift of God, folks. Faith is a gift of God. Repentance
is a gift of God. Is that not right? It doesn't
come by our goodness. It doesn't come by our free will.
Our wills are not free. They're in bondage to sin. But
God in His mercy and in His power takes His people and by the power
of the Holy Spirit gives them a new heart and He changes their
will. He makes us willing in the day of His power to submit
to Christ, to submit to His righteousness, His way of salvation. And since
all people are spiritually dead, the only way that any can be
saved is if God chooses to save them and reveals Himself in the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's shown by the reaction
of people to the preaching of the word. The seed of the word
doesn't always fall on the same kind of heart. Same kind of soil. And that's why Christ threw out
these parables. And that's why he threw out, for example, in
the book of Revelation that we're studying in our Bible study.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear. We must be given spiritual
ears. Christ said you must be born
again or you cannot what? See the kingdom of heaven. You
must be born again or you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
You must be given spiritual ears to understand these parables.
And even though as the end of the age gets closer, there'll
be false Christians, there'll be tares, rest assured of this,
that God is going to have his purpose and his plan fulfilled
in the salvation of his people by his grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ and nothing will stop it. The gates of hell will
not prevail against it. Is that right? He said, upon
this rock I'll build my church. Now these next two parables,
the one I'm dealing with today and then the next week here in
Matthew 13, the parable of the mustard seed, the parable of
the leaven in three measures of meal. They both speak of the
sovereignty of God in the development of the church here on earth during
the last days. How this church will work out,
how this church will develop throughout the world. And you
know, there's something interesting about this. I want you to notice
this. It's interesting, as you read
through Matthew 13, you notice that Christ explained the first
two parables. But he gave no explanation of
the others. He stopped and he explained the parable of the
sower and the seed. Remember that? Over here in Matthew
13 verse 18, Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower, and
he explains it. He says this is what it means. And then he
explained over here in verse 38 the parable of the wheat and
the tares. They asked him, they said, declare
unto us the parable of the tares of the field. And he answered
and said unto them, here it is, and he explained it. But he didn't
explain any others. Now why is it? What does that
tell us? Well, I believe it tells us this. I believe it tells us
that all the other parables in this passage, the kingdom parables,
have to be interpreted in light of the first two. If you're going
to know what this means, this grain of mustard seed, What does
that mean? The leaven. And then we'll go
on to the pearl of great price, the treasure hid in a field,
the dragnet, the householder, those are the other. He offers
no explanation. How do we know what they meant?
You have to interpret these next parables in light of what he
said in the first two and how he explained them. You've got
to follow their pattern. Now, in both these parables,
these next two, the mustard seed and the leaven, We know this,
he's talking about something that starts out very, very small
and grows into something very, very large. Now let's just read
the text for today. Look at verse 31. It says, another
parable, Matthew 13, 31. He said, another parable put
he forth unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like to
a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
which indeed is the least of all seeds. But when it is grown,
it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree, so that
the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."
What's he talking about? Well, the first thing we can
ask is this, who is the sower here? Now, if we interpret this
parable according to the first two, what would we have to say? Well, look back at verse 24 of
Matthew 13. He's talking here about the tares
of the field. He says, Another parable put
he unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field. Almost the same exact
language. Here's a man who sowed seed in
his field. Who is the sower there? Well,
he tells us over In Matthew chapter 13 and verse 38, or the verse
37, he says, he that soweth a good seed is the son of man. The sower
of the grain of mustard seed is Christ himself. If we interpret
scripture with scripture, The Son of Man, that's a messianic
term for Christ. That identifies Him as Messiah,
the Anointed One. It identifies Him as the Lord
of Glory, the Lord our Salvation, the Lord our Righteousness. That's
who He's talking about, Himself. And this seed, look back at verse
31. A grain of mustard seed, one
grain of mustard seed. Something very small that grows
into something very large. What does the seed represent? Well, as we said, in the first
two parables, the seed represented two different things. In the
first one, the sower and the seed represents the gospel. Preaching
the gospel is compared to going out like a farmer sowing seed
in his field. And he casts that seed out. He
spreads that seed out. and that's what we do we preach
the gospel you say who do you preach to anybody who will listen you reckon they're all saved
well according to the bible no not all will come to faith in
christ some will turn a deaf ear some might think about it
for a while and receive it immediately but they won't last and others
they might receive it for a while and they'll leave for love of
the world Praise God, by His grace there
are some who receive it unto salvation and exercise God-given
faith and repentance and they believe it and they continue
by the grace of God. And we know their continuation
is not their own goodness or their own power, it's by the
grace of God. The only reason we persevere in the faith is
because we're preserved by grace. We cannot be charged with sin
because Christ was charged with our sin. We who believe are clothed
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That cannot be
taken away. It cannot even be contaminated.
It's our eternal standing before holy God in Christ. I'm washed
in his blood. I cannot be charged with my sin
because I'm in Christ. We have the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit who will not let us go. And he's given us
a new heart, a new spirit, a new life within. And we won't let
him go. Now that doesn't mean we're not
still sinners, we are. Doesn't mean we won't stray for
a while, but we're on God's leash and he won't let us go. He said,
I'll never forsake you or leave you. And so we know that's so. And then in the parable of the
wheat and the tares, the seed is a word that means offspring.
He's talking to believers there. These are the true children of
God, truly saved by the grace of God. The seed here in Matthew
13, 31, in this parable, the grain of mustard seed, represents
the origin from which the entire kingdom of God evolves. And so
the seed here is not talking about the gospel message nor
true believers. The kingdom comes, the kingdom
of God comes from one grain of mustard seed. One grain of mustard
seed. That word mustard seed is one
word in the original. It's a different word from the
word seed in the other two parables. But look down at verse 32. Now
this is interesting. He says, he took this one grain
of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field which
indeed is the least of all seeds. Now you know what the word seed
there is? It's kind of interesting here because here he is talking
about one grain of mustard seed. Now that's like a seed you plant
in the ground and I'm going to show you that in just a moment.
But when he comes down to verse 32, he says, which is the least
of all seeds, that's the same word used as seed in the wheat
and the tares, meaning offspring, meaning children, the least of
all. The kingdom of God coming from
this one grain of mustard seed, which is the least of all seeds,
of all the offspring, Where else do you see that word seed? Well,
we saw it in the wheat and the tares. But let me show you another
place. Turn over to Galatians chapter 3. In Galatians chapter 3. I want
to show you another place where this word, this same word, in
Matthew 13, 32 is used and to whom it refers. Galatians chapter
3, look at verse 16. What's he talking about? He's
talking about how sinners are justified before God. And he's
talking about this justification before God. How a sinner is declared
not guilty before God. How a sinner is declared righteous
before God. And he refers to that as the
blessing of Abraham, which includes spiritual life. And it's all
based on one thing, the fact that Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law. And he says in verse 16 of Galatians
3, listen to it. Now to Abraham and his seed,
that's the word offspring, where the promise is made, he saith
not unto seeds, plural, that's the same word in Matthew 13,
32. He's the least of all the seeds.
He saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy
seed, there's the singular of it, which is Christ. Offspring, speaking of one person. And here's what Paul was writing
in Galatians, and this is what Matthew's writing in Matthew
13, is this. The kingdom of heaven and everything
that is involved in his true kingdom originates from one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't start with you. Didn't
start with me. Didn't start with Peter, James,
or Paul. Didn't even start with Abraham.
Didn't start with Abel. Started with the Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation that we who are
in the kingdom of God and that we enjoy was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. And what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy
1. That salvation That kingdom was
established on earth in time when Jesus Christ came and obeyed
unto death, died on that cross, and established the only righteousness
whereby God could justify the ungodly. That's the origin of
it. In other words, what this parable
of the mustard seed teaches us is this, it's all about Christ,
it's all about his blood, it's all about his righteousness,
he is the originator of it, he's the builder of it, he's the sustainer
of it, he's the foundation of it, he's the life of it, he's
the heart of it, he's the head of it. He has the preeminence. Colossians
1 speaks of that. The Bible says, For by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship. Who's the we there? That's his
people. That's his kingdom. That's his church. We are his
workmanship. That's every individual believer.
You're not self-made. The church of Christ, the church
of God, is not founded upon, it is not built by, and it doesn't
continue upon the devices of men. It's all by the sovereign grace
of God in Jesus Christ, chosen of God, redeemed by the blood,
regenerated by the Holy Spirit, preserved by God, ultimately
glorified. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, that one grain of mustard seed. Unto good works,
not because of, but unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in. I want you to do something. I want you to turn to Luke chapter
13. Keep your place there at Matthew
13. But I want to do a comparison here. I had originally planned to put
this up on the screen so you could see them both together,
but it's not working today, Jim said. So the Lord didn't want
it up on that screen today. He wanted you to look at it in
the Bible. So anyway, here's the same parable, the grain of
mustard seed, in Luke's version. Now, let me say something about
that. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. You'll see differences sometimes
in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They do not represent contradictions. They represent different points
of view of the same truth. They're always right in line
with each other. What Luke says here does not
deny what Matthew said. Because what Matthew said is
true and what Luke says is true. They're not opposites, they're
not contradictions. It's just a different viewpoint. It's just
like, we see things, we might see the same thing, but we might
see it from a different viewpoint. And we describe the same thing,
both are true. And that's why you have three
gospels, four gospels actually, but the synoptic gospels, what
they call Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they kind of parallel.
But this is Luke's view in his hearing of the parable of the
mustard seed. And look at Luke 13, look at
verse 18. It says, Now Luke says, the kingdom
of God. Matthew says, the kingdom of
heaven. Folks, they're the same thing. Don't get bogged down in that.
I've read commentators who go all over the place. The kingdom
of heaven is a spiritual kingdom. We've already seen that. It's
the kingdom of Christ. It's a kingdom over which he
rules. And he says, what's the kingdom of God like and where
into shall I resemble it? Verse 19, it is like a grain
of mustard seed, the same word that Matthew uses. That word
grain, we'll see that in a minute. And then of mustard seed, that
one word. Which a man took, and notice what Luke says, he cast
into his garden. Now Matthew said he sowed it
in his field. Remember in the parable of the
tares and the wheat, the Lord said the field is the world.
But Luke puts it differently. He says he cast it into his garden
and it grew and waxed or grew into a great tree. And then Matthew
said the birds of the air Luke says, the fowls are there lodged
in its branches. So you see some variation there,
not contradictions. And what this tells us, first
of all, that word grain. That word grain is an interesting
word. What it refers to is a seed that
has to die that something more glorious would come out of it.
Let me read this scripture to you. You don't have to turn to
it, but this is in 1 Corinthians 15. You know what? 1 Corinthians
15 is talking about our glorified body. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse
35, I believe it is, talks about, they ask the question, how are
the dead raised up and with what body do they come? He says, Thou
fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.
He's talking about something that must die, speaking of our
physical bodies, so that something better will come out of it, a
glorified body. So that which thou sowest is
not quickened, except it die, and that which thou sowest, thou
sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain It may chance
of wheat or of some other grain, that's the same word grain in
Matthew 13 and Luke 13, but God give it a body as it hath pleased
him to every seed his own body. So, he uses that word to talk
about the death of this physical body and the resurrection of
a glorified body. Something must die that something
more glorious got to come of it. It has to die. Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. Now what the scripture
says, flesh is flesh. We'll all be changed in the twinkling
of an eye. And that's this body must die,
something better will come out of it. Well in Luke 13, you know
in this, when Luke puts this parable in, what he's talking
about, Christ had just healed a woman and a ruler of the synagogue
expressed his disapproval of that because Christ did this
act of mercy on the Sabbath day. And therefore Christ spoke these
words. And I believe what's being taught there is that what you
need to be concerned with is not these Sabbath rules and laws
of the old covenant, but you need to be concerned with mercy
and grace, which every sinner needs. And then he spoke these
words. The kingdom of heaven is like
a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his
garden. Luke says, cast into his garden. Cast instead of sown, garden
instead of field. The field represents the world,
the garden is something different. What is this garden? Turn to
John. Now y'all can see why I don't
want to use the screen. But turn to John. You'll see
this anyway. John chapter 12. Now this is
the passage of scripture that Brother Jim read. Verse 23. John 12. This was spoken on a,
what we would call in our calendar, a Monday. The 10th of the Hebrew
month of Nisan. When lambs were selected for
the Passover meal on the 14th day of that month. And on this
day, the Monday before Passover, in AD 33 here, We see the one
whom God himself selected to be his Passover lamb coming forth
and revealing himself to his disciples, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what does he say? Look at verse 23. Jesus answered
them saying, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be
glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
accept a corn of wheat. Now that word corn is the same
word in the Greek language as grain in the parable of the mustard
seed. Unless a grain of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, what happens? Brings forth much fruit. Just
like that grain of mustard seed, which when it's planted, it dies,
and out of that comes a great tree. And let me just remind
you, you know, I've seen Technical people like botanists, they'll
go into the scriptures and say, now wait a minute, now the mustard
seed's not really the smallest seed and it doesn't really grow
into the greatest tree and all. That's not the point of this
parable, folk. You're missing it. This is a spiritual lesson. This is not a lesson in botany.
All right? You know what happens? Satan
uses such things to divert people's attention away from the truth
of the gospel. It's a spiritual lesson. Here's
a very, very small seed that grows into a very, very large
plant. What does it mean? Well, He tells
us. That grain of wheat, that grain
of mustard seed's got to fall into the ground, and if it dies,
it brings forth much fruit. What's He talking about? He's
talking about Him and His death on the cross to establish His
church. To put away sin. To make an end
of sin, to finish the transgression, to bring in everlasting righteousness
for his people. That's what he's talking about.
How do you know he's talking about his death? Look down at
verse 32. He said in John 12, If I be lifted up from the earth
will draw all men unto me, this he said signifying what death
he should die. That's what the grain of mustard
he's talking about. He said, upon this rock I will
build my church. You see, there's several metaphors
in scripture that talk about Him and the origin and development
of His church. Out of His death springs His
church. So it speaks of His death on
the cross and the glorious outcome of that death through His resurrection
and the abundant fruit that would be produced and the growth of
the church that would follow. That grain, Christ Himself, would
die for our sins to endure the wrath of God in our place as
our surety and substitute, the glorious result in satisfying
the justice of God that we might receive the righteousness of
God in Him. Because all our sin debt, was
paid in full. Nothing can keep us from salvation. If God be for us, who can be
against us? And we're so intimately identified with Christ that He's
our surety, our substitute, standing in our place. We're represented
also here in this grain of mustard seed. We died with Him. We were buried with Him. We're
raised again with Him. In Christ, we died to the law
that we may become the bride of Christ. We stand in him as
our righteousness. How did he was cast into that
garden? The Lord cast himself into the
garden. That word cast, I need to hurry. The word cast is used
in many other places in the Bible, really in very bad settings.
Talks about people being cast into hell. The second death. Well, let me tell you something.
When Christ went to the cross as our surety and our substitute,
having our sins charged to Him, isn't that what happened to Him?
He was cast literally into hell under the wrath of God on that
cross. Started in a garden, didn't it?
The garden of Gethsemane. That word garden is used in three
other places, and every time it's associated with Christ's
death, the garden of Gethsemane, in one passage, Golgotha is called
a garden. I'll show you that next week. But here's what it's saying,
God in his wisdom chose the word garden, even though we might
think of it to be an inappropriate name for some place like Golgotha,
place of execution of criminals, place of sin and death, but that's
exactly where Jesus Christ went when he was made sin. as our
sins were charged to him. And out of that came a great
tree. Now I'll tell you more about
this next week when we talk about the birds or the fowls that lodged
in the branches, because that goes right along with the next
parable, and we'll see that. But isn't that something? Doesn't
that, to me, bring an assurance to the heart of God's people
to know that with that one grain of mustard seed, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was cast into that garden of death and hell and
wrath in our place, and what comes out of it? That great tree,
His glorious church, chosen of God, redeemed by His blood, regenerated
by the Spirit, preserved by His grace. All right.