I will read from Matthew 13:10.
And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?
And He answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Verse 16:
But 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 desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not.
Hear then ye the parable of the sower.
Verse 24:
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field.
Verse 33:
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven.
Verse 44:
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field.
Verse 45:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls.
Verse 47:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind.
Verse 52:
Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
Let us have a word of prayer before we begin.
Lord, we thank You once again because it is by Your mercy and grace that we are here to listen to Your Word. Especially, Lord, You are going to show us the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
Lord, we thank You. We thank You so much because, when we come into Your presence, it is Your delight to show such wonderful things to us. Lord, we thank You. Our eyes are blessed. Our ears are blessed, because we are going to see and hear these wonderful mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
So, Lord, this morning we ask You once again, draw our hearts into Your very presence. While we are here, we are just like Mary, really sitting at Your feet. Dear Lord, speak to our hearts. May Your Word really sink very deeply into our hearts.
Lord, we are waiting before You. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
This morning we will be occupied with the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
Now, we know that Matthew 13 is the high point of the whole Gospel according to Matthew. All the thoughts, all the will of God, and all the doing of our Lord somehow converge in this wonderful chapter.
The most important thought in this chapter is the phrase that we have just read: the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Some other translations say, “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven.”
Now, you know that these mysteries are connected with eight parables presented in this chapter.
We have mentioned that the whole Gospel of Matthew has five peaks, because our Lord gave five sermons. I have demonstrated this with five fingers; then you have four valleys, two slopes here, and two plains here.
Now, in this chapter we have eight parables. We will discover the same symmetry. This chapter has a symmetry just like the symmetry of the whole book.
Here we are told eight parables. The first is the parable of the sower; the second, the parable of the tares; the third, the parable of the mustard seed; the fourth, the parable of the leaven; then the treasure, the pearl, the dragnet, and the scribe.
Fortunately, I have eight fingers. If you put them together like this, you get eight parables: the parable of the sower, the parable of the tares, the parable of the mustard seed, the parable of the leaven, the parable of the treasure, the parable of the pearl, the parable of the dragnet, and the parable of the scribe.
The first and the last form a pair. In these two parables, the Lord did not say, “The kingdom of heaven is like this,” or, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to something else.”
Then you have the six in the middle. The Bible always says, “The kingdom of heaven is like this and like that.” So we have been shown six pictures concerning the kingdom of heaven.
Then, if you compare the second parable with the seventh—the parable of the tares and the parable of the dragnet—you find a correspondence between them.
In the parable of the tares, you have the phrase the end of the age. In the seventh parable, you also have the end of the age. In the first, you have angels; in the second, you also have angels. In one, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; in the other, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then you have the furnace of fire in both parables. One speaks of the righteous; the other also speaks of the righteous. One speaks of the wicked; the other likewise speaks of the wicked, though with different descriptions.
Anyway, brothers and sisters, if you read these two parables carefully, you discover a one-to-one correspondence between them. In this way, you discover another beauty within this great chapter, Matthew 13: the same symmetry.
If you meditate upon it, and especially when we know the mysteries of the kingdom of God revealed in this chapter, then we will discover that it is indeed a wonderful design by our God, by the Holy Spirit.
This morning we will cover only the first two parables.
The next message will cover the third and fourth parables: the mustard seed and the leaven. Then, in the final message of this series, we will cover the parable of the treasure, the parable of the pearl, the parable of the dragnet, and the parable of the scribe.
These eight parables can be divided into groups. The first four parables were given by our Lord publicly, to the crowds. The last four parables were spoken only to His disciples in the house.
These are very important features, brothers and sisters, for understanding the eight parables, especially when we come to the last four.
We have no argument concerning the first two parables because the Lord explained them. In the seventh parable, the Lord also explained part of it. So I think we have no argument concerning these three parables.
The problem is with the others. The Lord did not explain them directly. Yet, if we know the Word of God well, and if we know the intention of the Holy Spirit in giving us such a chapter, we ought to understand them in a plain and simple way.
Let us remember: these eight parables are not meant to confuse us. They are given for us to understand, because the Lord said, “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom.”
At the very end, our Lord asked them, “Have ye understood all these things?” Brothers and sisters, these things are supposed to be understood.
But it is sad to say that, when you read many books, commentaries, notes, and studies on Matthew 13, the impression can be this: the more you study, the more confused you become. You discover that you simply cannot understand.
You may read the exposition of a spiritual giant who truly knows the Word of God, such as G. Campbell Morgan. When you read his commentary or explanation of these parables, you are touched because you know that he is indeed a student of the Word. He does not spoil the Word of God, but follows the rules of interpretation.
Then you come to another master of the Word, such as Govett. Someone even suggested that Govett was one hundred years ahead of his time. Spurgeon said of Govett, “When you read this book, you will find some gold.”
If you read other books by able students of the Word of God, you come to the conclusion that almost no one agrees with the others in their interpretations. So we become confused.
What does that mean? Are we supposed to understand, or are we supposed to become even more confused after interpretation and explanation?
But this was not our Lord’s original intention. When the Lord spoke these eight parables, He wanted us to understand. He wanted us to know. He wanted us to enter into the spirit of these eight parables.
So, brothers and sisters, the rule of interpretation for this chapter is this: we have to return to simplicity. We have to remember that.
When the Lord interpreted the first two parables, He laid down certain rules. Then everything becomes simple.
For example, when we read that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, we do not need to ask, “What is this field?” It is simple, because the Lord has already told us what the field is: it is the world.
Remember the first parable: a sower went out to sow. We know that the sower is our Lord. When we come to the second parable, a man went out and sowed good seed. Our Lord said that this man is the Son of Man.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, when you study the treasure hidden in the field, or the merchant seeking fine pearls, and who upon finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it, you must remember that the Lord has already indicated who that person is.
If the man meant someone else, and if the matter were as complicated as we make it, the Lord would have told us. If He did not tell us, it means that we should go ahead on the basis of what the Lord has already explained.
We have no freedom to interpret the Word of God according to our own will. The Word of God is always bigger than we are. We cannot interpret the Word of God at our pleasure.
That is why, brothers and sisters, you need not be confused. Some people come to the parable of the pearl and consider the pearl to be our Lord. Then they ask, “Who is this man?” They say, “We are the man. We discover the great Saviour, and then we pay the price to gain the Saviour.”
But, brothers and sisters, we are saved by grace, freely. How can we pay a price to gain the Saviour? Certainly, and reverently, we can compare our Lord to a pearl of great value. But if we go on to say that we buy salvation by paying a price, is that possible?
As Samuel Rutherford said, we can never buy heaven. It is impossible, brothers and sisters. Heaven is like a pearl; even the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl. But how can we buy it?
Therefore, if you read the Bible carefully in this chapter, let us remain with the simplicity of the passage. If the Lord intended some other meaning, He would definitely explain it to us. Otherwise, it is simple: the field means the world, and a man means our Lord Jesus Christ.
If something else is mentioned, such as a woman, then of course the woman is not a man. In this way, as you go on, you begin to understand the parables.
I offer these few words especially for the young people. When we come to this wonderful chapter, let us be humble before the Lord.
Especially when we come to the last four parables, the disciples are already in the house. The Lord says that it has been granted to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. There is no reason for the Lord to put another veil between Himself and the disciples.
Everything is crystal clear if we listen carefully to the Word of God and to the words of our Lord. Then we should be able to receive the answers concerning these eight parables.
Why did our Lord speak about mysteries?
Let us read Matthew 13:35:
I will open my mouth in parables;
I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.
What are the parables, and why did the Lord speak in parables? Because these are things hidden since the foundation of the world.
This means that the mystery of the kingdom revealed in Matthew 13 is something very new. No one knew it before.
What is a mystery? A mystery is actually a divine purpose hidden in the counsels of God for long ages, but finally disclosed in a new revelation by our Lord.
Therefore, when we come to Matthew 13, we come to a very important turning point in the history of mankind.
Before our Lord opened His mouth in parables, something was hidden in the heart of God. No one understood it, because it was a mystery. Then this mystery was revealed by our Lord. It was a brand-new revelation.
That is why the Lord said, “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” He also said, “Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”
Then the Lord immediately said, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”
Why were the disciples’ eyes blessed? Because they began to see something new, something never seen before. They were going to hear something they had never heard before.
Brothers and sisters, there is something new here, something great. It is our Lord who is going to reveal the secrets of the kingdom of God.
Before this, no one knew these things concerning the kingdom of heaven. That is why our Lord said that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what the disciples saw, but did not see it; and to hear what they heard, but did not hear it.
Jeremiah, Isaiah, Abraham, David—the prophets and righteous men of the Old Testament—desired to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.
Something had been hidden in the heart of God. Now our Lord was going to reveal that secret, to reveal that mystery to us. Then we begin to understand what the kingdom of God is.
That is why Matthew 13 is such a great chapter in the Bible. It is a turning point in the history of mankind. Before this, certain things were unseen; but now the Lord says that the mysteries of the kingdom of God are going to be seen and heard.
That is the first point we must keep in mind. The second point comes from the final parable.
Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.
The Lord spoke about a scribe who was familiar with the Old Testament and well trained in the Word of God. But if that scribe was taught by our Lord and became a disciple of the kingdom of heaven, something happened.
He became like a head of a household who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.
The kingdom of heaven is something new, but it is also something old. This is very, very important. If we do not understand these two principles, we will become lost among the eight parables.
Thank God that, in these eight parables, we begin to understand that the kingdom of God is something new, yet also something old.
It was something old because, when our Lord preached the kingdom of heaven, He did not need to explain to His audience what the kingdom of heaven was. He did not have to define it. Everybody knew about it.
The term kingdom of heaven was old. The Jewish audience knew it.
If they knew Daniel well, especially Daniel 2, they remembered the great statue. A stone would strike the feet of that statue. Daniel’s interpretation was that the God of heaven would set up another kingdom, which would endure forever.
What is the kingdom of heaven? It is a kingdom completely different from all the kingdoms of this world. It is a kingdom ruled from heaven.
Even in rabbinic literature before the first century, the Jewish people used this phrase, “the kingdom of heaven,” frequently. So let us remember that this was something old.
When the Lord said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel, because the time is fulfilled,” His Jewish audience ought to have known what He was speaking about. He did not have to explain to them what the kingdom of heaven was.
The kingdom of God had been predicted and prophesied in the Old Testament. There would be a literal kingdom that would endure for a thousand years.
This is the fifth kingdom. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, will establish another kingdom. This kingdom is also called the kingdom of the Son of Man. He will descend with the clouds and receive such a kingdom.
The Old Testament stands behind this truth. Most Old Testament prophecies converge upon this point. If you read the Old Testament, you are supposed to know the kingdom of heaven.
Yet our Lord said that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what the disciples saw and did not see it, and to hear what they heard and did not hear it.
This means there was something new, something different. People thought they knew because they were wise; therefore, God hid these things from them and revealed these secrets to babes.
May the Lord bring us to the point where we return and become childlike. Then we discover that our Lord says, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.”
When the Lord said, “Hear then the parable of the sower,” we know that all eight parables are connected with the mysteries of the kingdom.
In this way, brothers and sisters, we are going to see a brand-new revelation of our Lord. It is our Lord who opens the secret and opens the mystery, so that we begin to understand and enter into the picture of the kingdom of heaven.
It is interesting that the Lord not only said, “Your eyes are blessed,” but also said, “Your ears are blessed.” Our ears are blessed because we are going to hear these parables.
These parables are not allegories in which every detail must be explained. A parable is like a picture. You hear it, and when you hear it, you receive a picture.
May the Lord be merciful to us. Through these eight pictures, we are going to understand the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God.
But our Lord also said, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see.” Therefore, the mysteries of the kingdom have two parts: one part is connected with what the disciples see, and another part is connected with what they hear.
The word mysteries is plural, so there are many mysteries here. If we gather the whole Gospel of Matthew, or indeed the whole Bible, into one thought, what is the greatest mystery of the kingdom of heaven?
We must ask, “What did the disciples see?” They were in the presence of our Lord. What they saw was our Lord Himself.
The greatest mystery of the kingdom of God is the King of the kingdom of heaven. This King is completely different from every other king.
How do you know that you have come to the right kingdom? How do you know that you have not made a mistake? Brothers and sisters, there is no mistake, because here you find the greatest mystery of the kingdom of God: the King of this kingdom is completely different from any other king.
We need to gather the information from Matthew. If you read through the whole Gospel of Matthew, you will see a picture.
Only Matthew pictures vividly for us the King of the kingdom, who is very different from the kings of other kingdoms.
What is the feature of our King? Remember Matthew 27:
And they stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe.
And they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they kneeled down before Him, and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
Brothers and sisters, you can scarcely find such a vivid and perfect picture elsewhere. This is our King. This is the King of the kingdom of heaven.
Why? Because this King wears a crown of thorns. In His hand is not a royal sceptre, not a rod of iron. In His right hand is a reed. They kneel before Him and mock Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
This is the secret. This is the mystery never revealed before.
The people crucified Him because they did not know that He was the Messiah. According to their judgment, He ought to be crucified. If He was crucified upon a cross, He must be cursed according to Deuteronomy.
They knew Daniel. They knew the prophecies of Isaiah. But they could not see Isaiah 53. They expected a glorious Messiah, but they could never understand a suffering Messiah.
If you visit England, Holland, or Japan, you may find kings with crowns of glory. But the King of this kingdom is different.
If you come to a kingdom and discover the One who sits upon the throne with a crown of thorns and a reed in His hand, then you know that you have come to the right kingdom. You know that this is the kingdom of heaven.
This is one of the greatest mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and they did not see it.
Many prophets and righteous men desired to see, but they did not see. Why? They saw something correctly, because one day our Lord will come again. His feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives.
Every faithful student of the Old Testament, especially those who suffered under the empires of Greece and Rome, longed for deliverance from tyranny. They understood that the King Messiah would come down in glory.
They imagined the glory of the Messiah, but they missed one point: they could never understand Isaiah 53. They could not see that it would be fulfilled by a suffering Messiah.
Therefore, they sought another explanation, saying that Isaiah 53 applied to the people of Israel. But they did not see it. They thought they saw it, but they did not see.
Our Lord is indeed the King of the kingdom of heaven. What is the mystery? The mystery is that our King wears a crown of thorns.
How can you combine these thoughts? A crown represents glory, while thorns represent reproach. This is the greatest mystery of the kingdom of God.
When John the Baptist preached that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, he did not explain the whole matter because everyone understood. They knew that he was speaking of the Messianic kingdom, the coming kingdom.
The Jewish audience had Daniel’s great statue in view: the golden head representing the Babylonian Empire; the silver chest, the Persian Empire; the bronze body, the Greek Empire; and the iron legs, the Roman Empire.
Then comes the fifth empire: the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven will establish a kingdom upon this earth. Therefore, when John said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” everybody understood the meaning.
When John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said:
Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance:
and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father:
for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
And even now the axe also lieth at the root of the trees:
every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
John continued:
I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance:
but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:
He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire:
Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His threshing-floor;
and He will gather His wheat into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire.
The kingdom of heaven, then, was connected with the wrath to come, the day of judgment, and the day of the Lord predicted in the Old Testament.
John expected that when Messiah came, He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. According to Old Testament prophecy, the Holy Spirit would be poured out. If people did not yield, they would face judgment.
All wickedness and iniquity would be swept away. The Messiah would come with judgment.
This helps us understand John’s question when he was in prison: “Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for another?”
Why did John ask? Because our Lord did not act according to what John had preached. If the Lord were the Messiah, John expected to see an axe and a winnowing fork in His hand. He expected Him to baptize the world with fire.
But that did not happen. The Roman Empire remained. The people still suffered under their enemies. Therefore John was, in some sense, stumbled.
What did our Lord answer? He said:
Go and tell John the things which ye hear and see:
the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear,
and the dead are raised up,
and the poor have good tidings preached to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in Me.
What a different picture. He did not bring the fork and the axe. He brought oil and wine.
Like the Samaritan who came to the wounded man, He had compassion, bound up his wounds, and poured oil and wine upon them. This is the Messiah. This is the side of the Messiah that they missed.
If you know the prophecies of Isaiah well, you discover that the first time the Lord entered the synagogue, He quoted from Isaiah—but He quoted only part of the prophecy, and then He stopped.
What does that mean? The Lord was going to show us the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, because it was exactly this part that people had missed.
The Roman Empire was still there. Violence was everywhere. The Lord had not yet baptized the people with fire. Therefore they asked, “Are You the coming One?”
They were like John, like many prophets, and like righteous men: seeing, yet they did not see; hearing, yet they did not understand.
This means that something was wrong with their eyes.
If you have a cataract, how do you know it? When I had cataracts around the age of fifty, I discovered something. You hold up two fingers and ask the person, “How many fingers do I have?” If he has a cataract, he may say, “One.”
Seeing, yet he does not see.
The problem with the people of the Old Testament and with those righteous men was not that they saw nothing. They saw something, but they did not see the whole picture.
They saw only one finger. They saw only one coming of the Messiah. They did not know that there are two comings of the Messiah.
Messiah came two thousand years ago, and one day He will come again. They had a cataract.
If the cataract is removed, I congratulate you: you will see two fingers. You will see two comings of the Messiah.
In the first coming of the Messiah, He brought oil and wine. He is the Lamb of God. He entered Jerusalem upon a donkey.
The cross was His throne. He established His throne on the cross. The Jewish authorities challenged Him: “He cannot save Himself. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on Him.”
But our Lord remained on the cross because He had established His throne there. The cross was something they could never see.
The people of God are different from other peoples. The Romans always dreamed of something in the past, of a golden age behind them. The Greeks also spoke of something in the past.
But only the people of God, instructed by the Word of God, are always looking forward. Their golden age was not behind them; their golden age was ahead of them.
This is the wonderful lesson God taught Daniel. Daniel was almost ninety years old when God showed him the seventy weeks.
If Daniel looked back over seventy years, he might have said, “I was carried captive. I had no contribution to the kingdom of God. I wanted to serve Him, but I was taken captive.”
If he looked at himself, he saw nothing. If he looked only a few years ahead, he might not dare to look forward. Old people often look backward because they feel there are not many years left to look forward to.
My mother used to tell me that, when she was young, she had to kill three tigers. She said she was very strong. Of course, she was always talking about something in the past. This is human nature.
But thank God: the gospel of the kingdom of God is this—the kingdom is not merely today’s kingdom; it is the kingdom of tomorrow. We are always facing the future.
God said to Daniel, “Look forward. Go ahead, ahead, ahead.” After many centuries, Christ would be born in Bethlehem and die upon the cross.
The future lay not merely with Daniel, but with Christ. This is very, very important.
Only the Jewish people, only the people of Israel, were looking forward to the golden days. But unfortunately, their great goal was glory without understanding the way.
What is the way? What is the path of glory? It is a great ideal, but our Lord teaches us that the kingdom of God is not merely a goal; it is also a way. The kingdom of God is also life.
It is a growing power. Our Lord speaks about something that gradually grows. It is a matter of the growth of life.
Can you believe that the kingdom of God is not man’s seed? It is God’s seed. That is why we have the parable of the sower: a sower went out to sow.
Our Lord was among those who sowed in tears. Why? Especially in dry and difficult weather, if you scattered seed, you scattered the life of your whole family. You were not sure the seed would enter into the ground.
That is why the sower sowed in tears. He knew that some of the seed would be carried away by the wind and never return. He had no assurance of success.
When the Messianic kingdom comes in its public power, it will come with one hundred percent success. The rod of iron will smash the nations, and the stone will strike the kingdoms of this world.
But what is the secret of the kingdom of heaven? When the sower went out to sow, only a portion received the word of the kingdom. The word of the kingdom can be accepted or rejected. There is no outward, uniform success.
That is the secret of the kingdom of heaven.
When our Lord sows His Word in us, He sows the word of the kingdom in us. All we need to do is accept His Word into our hearts.
When that Word grows in us, then we are saved. Then the word of the kingdom has fallen into good soil. That is the whole story.
But remember one thing. Our Lord today does not send an angel from heaven to say to the people in the United States, “Believe in the Lord, otherwise I will give you a stomachache for three days.”
If our Lord did that, everybody would believe. But that would not be the mystery of the kingdom of God. That will happen at the end of the age, no doubt about it.
People must never overlook the first coming of our Lord. In His first coming, our Lord came as the Lamb of God. When He comes again, He will come as the Lion of Judah.
The first time, He came with wine and oil. The second time, there will be fork and axe. The first time, He came upon a donkey. The second time, He will come upon a horse.
The first time, there was a reed in His hand and a crown of thorns upon His head.
Our Lord teaches us the way: without the cross, there is no crown.
People today desire a glorious goal, but they never reach it. It is our Lord who has paved the way for us.
This is the secret of the kingdom of God. Today we can only persuade people; we can never demand.
After we labour in tears, perhaps we receive only twenty-five percent success. Remember, it is not we who sow the seed. It is our Lord who went out to sow, and the apparent success was only twenty-five percent.
Why? Because this is a growing process. The Lord begins to work in our hearts. He does not transform the whole outward order immediately. He patiently works in our hearts.
His love begins to touch us. His love begins to persuade us. Then we are conquered.
Our Lord did not use a bullet. He did not fire a weapon. Our Lord did not use a missile to conquer us.
But we thank God that one day the Holy Spirit worked in our hearts. He worked in the United States. He worked in China, where people had worshipped idols for many thousands of years.
The Holy Spirit works in our hearts. Somehow the seed, the word of the kingdom, falls into the heart and bears fruit.
Then you find the sons of the kingdom—the wheat. The wheat is born. The sons of the kingdom are born.
In the second parable, we discover how our Lord sows the sons of the kingdom in this world.
Sometimes we think that, after we are saved, we should immediately be raptured. How wonderful that would be. This is a terrible world. This is a bitter world.
But thank God, by His grace, He plants this good seed in this world.
He is the wheat. Every other life is tares. Thank God, because He fell into the ground and died, and bore much fruit. Because we received Him as our Saviour, He conquered us with His love.
Then He plants us in this world. Our life is the life of wheat.
We know that wheat is an annual plant. As the wheat ripens, the part connecting it to the earth dries first. The more it ripens, the more the moisture dries up.
When it is fully dry, then it is time to be reaped. What does that mean? It means the time of rapture.
Here you find the inward reality of the kingdom of God. We are sons of God. We are sons of the kingdom, sown in this world.
But again, our Lord did not sweep away all iniquity. He allowed the tares—the sons of the evil one—to grow together with the wheat.
Thank God, this is only the outward appearance of the kingdom. This is so-called Christendom.
Unbelievers and people in the world do not understand this. They may think that Gandhi was a great Christian, or that Immanuel Kant was a good Christian, because they associate a name with Christianity.
Here you find that the kingdom of heaven has an outward appearance. Wheat and tares grow together in one field.
This is the secret of the kingdom of heaven.
May the Lord be merciful to us. Let us see something that many prophets and righteous men desired to see.
May the Lord be merciful to us so that, through these parables, we may understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
I will leave the remaining part for another time, because at the end of the age you will discover that the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of the Son and the kingdom of His Father. Then we will speak about the public manifestation of the kingdom of heaven.
Because of time, we will stop here. Next time we are going to continue. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we thank You for such a wonderful revelation. It is Your delight and Your pleasure to reveal such a wonderful mystery to us.
Lord, we hate that we are so inadequate to deliver this Word, because we are so small and the kingdom of God is so great. It is beyond us.
So, Lord, we ask Your Spirit to continue to work in our hearts. May that small seed really grow in our hearts.
Lord, we welcome the word of Your kingdom into our hearts. Let it grow, that we may become sons of the kingdom, that we may be sown in this world until the end of the age, when You will come back and take us.
So we thank You, Lord, for such a wonderful Word. In the name of our Lord, we pray. Amen.