I want just to talk to the boys
and girls for a moment or two about some of the parables that
we have been thinking about in recent weeks. We've spent a little
bit of time thinking about the parable of the sower, and you
remember how the man went and he sowed his seed. and the Lord
used that picture, which was a very ordinary picture of a
man out sowing his seed in his field, to give us a spiritual
lesson that we could understand about the way in which the gospel
comes to different kinds of people. How different people hear the
gospel and react differently to it. And then we had the parable
of the weeds. And we thought about the fact
that when a man, a farmer, has planted his fields with good
seed and the gospel has gone out and it has been planted,
it has been fixed, and it has germinated and started to grow,
that an enemy came and sowed weeds or tares in that field. which was a very damaging and
destructive thing to do. And that enemy was endeavouring
to cause the owner of that field as much trouble as he could.
And the disciples asked whether or not they should go and pluck
up the weeds out of the good seed. And the Lord said, no,
let them grow together until the end of the age, and then
there will be a separation. And we discovered that the Lord
was teaching his church that even although a good gospel is
preached, there will always be those in the church who are like
the weeds amongst the wheat. There will always be those who
make a pretense, they look as if they're part of the church,
they look as if they believe in the things of God, and yet
time proves that they don't have any real interest or part with
the true church. Then we thought about the mustard
seed and how small it was. And we thought there that the
mustard seed was like the planting of the gospel in a very small
and almost imperceptible way. And yet, when that mustard seed
grows, it grows large, it grows powerful, and it gives both shade
to the earth, which speaks of refreshment and also protection
to the birds of the air, and how that that speaks also of
how the gospel can enter into someone's heart and almost imperceptibly
begin to grow and develop to the point where that person becomes
a useful person, that person becomes a helpful person, and
they find an occasion to serve the Lord and they are a blessing
to those around about them. But there was also the question
of the leaving and how that there is a way in which trouble and
sin can come into a life and it can spoil even the best churches
because of the things that go on amongst them. Then we heard
about a hidden treasure and a man who went out and he found a treasure
in a field and he bought that field. He wanted that field.
He found a pearl there and he bought that field with its pearl. and how the parable of the treasure
and the parable of the peril spoke to us of discovering the
wonderful things about the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel and
treasuring those things up, holding them amidst all the other things
which seem attractive and important in this world and in our lives,
realising that the most important thing is that peril of great
price, that knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and endeavouring,
as the Lord enables us, to defend the possession of these treasures
against the attacks which come against us. And when we thought
about the drawnet, I think that was perhaps last week, and how
that, the net of the gospel goes out and it collects in all different
kinds of creatures when it is cast out into the sea. the Gospel,
it also will bring in all different kinds of people, all different
circumstances and situations, all different backgrounds, all
different beliefs and ideas and thoughts and philosophies. And
then there comes a time when a separation has to take place
and some are separated out for destruction and discarding and
others are gathered in because they are useful and they are
profitable and they are beneficial. And again, this speaks to us
of the work of the gospel and how it is that that gospel goes
forth and it touches some people in their hearts and it makes
them new creatures, useful to God, a member of his kingdom.
And yet there are those who never will be useful to the Lord, never
will be joined together and united to his church and people because
they are for discarding. And it reminded us that there
is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a time
of peace and blessing coming when the Lord gathers his church
to himself and a time of separation and putting away where there
will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The Lord had
given all of these parables to his people, his disciples, and
those that were gathered there around about him. And then he
asked them a question. He said, here are seven parables
that I've just spoken to you about. Did you understand what
I was telling you? Did you understand these things
that you heard? these truths about the kingdom
of heaven, how it is that I'm gathering in a people for myself,
that this people are my church and they're precious to me. Did
you understand what it was that I was telling you in these commonplace
stories, which nevertheless have a deeper, more profound, heavenly,
divine meaning? Did you understand? Now the disciples didn't always
learn quickly. They were a little bit slow on
the uptake from time to time and I guess that's something
which we all can identify with. Sometimes we don't understand
things when we hear it the first time or we have to have these
things explained to us and we don't see them quite the way
that we should. And it's always good for us to
be humble in the presence of the Lord and not to imagine that
our ideas are going to overturn the settled way in which people
have understood these things for years. That's not to say
that new ideas are bad. But just the same, there has
been a proven track record of gospel reception for the Church
of Jesus Christ for hundreds and thousands of years. Don't
think that you're going to come and change everything in a moment. A bit of humility in the presence
of the Lord, a bit of readiness to hear the word of the Lord
and to have ears to hear, and to have eyes to see is a gift
which comes from God to his people. The disciples answered the question
that Jesus asked. They said, yes, we do understand
what you've said. And in Matthew chapter 13, verse
51, Jesus saith unto them, have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, yea, Lord,
Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed
unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder,
which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and things
old. The disciples said they understood.
The Lord accepted that they did. Indeed, I suspect that the Lord,
having purposefully spoken these parables on this occasion and
then explained them to the disciples, not all of them completely, but
explained them to a degree, was careful that the disciples did
understand and revealed these things to them. These were things
that they would hold in their memories because we're told that
after the Lord Jesus Christ was risen and ascended back into
heaven that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and he reminded
them of the things that they had heard the Lord Jesus Christ
say so that these men were being prepared to take upon themselves
the responsibility of carrying this message to a new generation. And that's what the Lord was
talking about when he mentioned the scribe. He wasn't talking
about the Jewish scribe. We sometimes talk about the scribes
and the Pharisees. He wasn't talking about those
scribes. He was talking about a scribe in the sense of being
a teacher, a leader, a director, an educator, a declarer of the
things that are true. And so the Lord says to his disciples,
every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven. That's
important because in order to teach the gospel, the message
of the kingdom of heaven, the message of the kingdom of God
here upon earth, in order to preach the gospel, a man must
be instructed in it. He has to learn himself. in order
to be able to pass those things on. And that's why the Apostle
Paul said to Timothy that these things, he said, these things
declare to faithful men so that they might in turn carry that
message to the next generation. I think it's a lovely thing that
we see a spread of generations in the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Some of us, are getting a little
bit older. And then we see that there are
younger men coming up behind us. And then we see that there
are children. Now to an extent, I have a desire
to speak to you all broadly, and I'm pleased to see that we
all sit together and listen to the things of God. But I know
that sometime in the future, I will have to hand That responsibility,
that baton, as it were, to someone else. And the Lord will provide
that person for he will not leave his sheep without a shepherd.
He will not leave his people without the source, the wherewithal
for their spiritual nourishment. So that will happen. And this
is what we do. We hand on that information from
generation to generation. The scribes are gospel ministers
who have been instructed in the truths of the gospel. The house
of the householder is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
these scribes that have been instructed are like householders
that have a house over which they have charge and responsibility. And in that house there are those
that are there to hear the things that are said and to observe
the things that are done. The house is the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the gathered people. Now we know that that
church isn't going to be a pure church because we've learned
about the drawnet and we've learned about the seeds getting sown
in the field and then the tares being sown as well. So we know
that the kingdom of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to have lots of problems, but there is going to be a treasure
within it. And even amongst the problems,
so this picture of the householder is a man who deals with the issues
that arise in the house of the Lord within the kingdom of God. And there's something interesting
said about this householder. The Lord Jesus Christ says of
him, he brings forth out of his treasure things new and old. Things new and old. Now that's
not a reference to the New Testament and the Old Testament. It's not
a reference to the law and the gospel, as some people have thought. What this is telling is it's
all speaking about the gospel. And a preacher of the gospel,
a householder, an instructed scribe, brings a message which
is old and new. It's the gospel that's the old
gospel. It's the gospel that's so old
that it's eternal. So old that it is beyond years. It is the gospel of the eternal
covenant of God, his purposes and his promises being revealed
to new and successive generations. being revealed to those who are
able to take these grand old truths of God's purpose and to
apply them in new ways, to new circumstances, in a new day,
in a new part of the world. And so here is the continuity
that we have in God's plan and in the church of Christ. This
is an old, this is an old message with a glorious pedigree, and
yet it has an immediate and a personal and an imminent application in
each of our lives. And this is a lovely thought
for us to take away, whether we're younger or whether we are
older. In Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus
Christ says to his disciples, Blessed are your eyes, for they
see, and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you,
that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those
things which ye see, and have not seen them, and hear those
things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Blessed people,
blessed people to receive at the hand of a householder things
old and things new. The glorious gospel of Jesus
Christ. taken and received by a new generation. And those are the things which
hold us and bind us together. And give us a glimpse of the
Lord, give us ears to hear his word, eyes to see his glory. And may these be our portion
as we recognize and understand the revelation of scripture to
the hearts of the people of God. Amen.