Will you please turn to Matthew 13? We will read from verse 1 through verse 17.
Now, to save time, I will ask my brother to read it through.
Yesterday morning, we started to speak on this matter of the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens, because it is the message of the kingdom of the heavens that brought in this age of grace.
We know that we are all living in the age of grace. But what brought this age of grace to us? It is through the message of the kingdom of the heavens.
We often think of the kingdom of the heavens as being stricter than the law, and yet it is that message that brought in the age of grace. Strictly speaking, the message of the kingdom of the heavens is grace upon grace, because we find that it is totally the grace of God that brings us into that kingdom.
Yesterday morning, we started already on that message. We find that in Matthew 5–7, the so-called Sermon on the Mount actually shows us what the kingdom of the heavens really is.
To put it simply, the kingdom of the heavens is none other than the King Himself, because it is His character that characterizes the whole kingdom.
It is the will of God that we who believe in the Lord Jesus, who are all His disciples—because oftentimes we divide believers and disciples—should understand this.
It is as if you can be a believer, but you do not necessarily have to be a disciple. But according to the will of God, this is not so. If you are a believer, then automatically you are a disciple.
The problem with many people who are saved, but who do not grow safely, is that they want to be believers, but they never present themselves to the Lord to be disciples.
I think of the story of Watchman Nee. When he was saved, it was not simple, because he knew that the gospel was the right one. He wanted to believe in the Lord Jesus, but there was one thing he struggled about.
To his understanding, to believe in the Lord Jesus and to accept Him as his Savior meant that, at the same time, he must surrender himself to the Lord Jesus. This was something he could not do.
As a young man, he was full of plans. He was very ambitious. But as he considered the Lord Jesus, he realized that he had to give himself completely to the Lord and allow the Lord to direct his life. He found it very difficult.
For days he struggled over this matter, until one day, when he was praying, he told us himself that he saw the blackness of his sins, and he also saw the redness of the blood of the Lord Jesus. The love of Christ constrained him, so he gave himself completely to the Lord.
This was how he was saved.
So, brothers and sisters, I hope we all remember that if you are a believer, you are supposed to be a disciple. The love of Christ should constrain us. Then we cannot live for ourselves, because He has bought us with a great price. We are His.
Because we are His, we have to surrender our lives to Him, acknowledging Him not only as our Savior, but also as our Lord. That is the way into the kingdom of the heavens.
Dear brothers and sisters, the kingdom of the heavens brought in the age of grace. Strangely, it is the same message of the gospel of the kingdom that will bring in the second coming of Christ.
In Matthew 24:14, the Lord said:
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations;
and then shall the end come.
Why is it that today everybody is talking about the end? Not only Christians, but even people in the world are talking about a doomsday. Yet the end has not come.
One reason is because the message of the kingdom of the heavens has not been preached to all the nations. There is no such testimony yet. People do not live out the life of the kingdom of the heavens, and this is the reason the end has not yet come.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we feel a very deep responsibility, because the Lord’s coming depends upon our condition. We are the people who should usher in the age to come. God has given this responsibility to His people.
How can we be in the kingdom of the heavens? In Matthew 11, we are told that the kingdom of the heavens is taken by violence, and men of violence take it by force.
If we want to live today in the kingdom of the heavens, we have to follow in the footsteps of our King—how He denied Himself, and what a denial of Himself that was.
Because He was God, He was equal with God; yet He was willing to empty Himself, to take upon Himself the form of a slave, the form of a man, and to become obedient to His Father even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Brothers and sisters, this is the example our Lord has given to us. Whoever would follow Him must deny himself, take up the cross, and follow Him.
If we are all doing that by the grace of God, then even today we are living in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, under the rule of our King.
When the kingdom of the heavens shall publicly appear on earth, the Bible tells us that we shall reign with Christ for a thousand years. This should be our encouragement.
This morning, we would like to come to Matthew 13. We have already said that if you study Matthew, you will find that there are three peaks.
The first peak is Matthew 5–7, which tells us the reality of the kingdom of the heavens.
Then, in Matthew 13, we have the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens. In Matthew 24–25, we have the public appearing of the kingdom of the heavens on earth.
Why is it, then, that in Matthew 13, our Lord Jesus did not speak plainly and directly? He spoke to the people in parables. Of course, there was a reason for it.
If you want to find the reason, you find it in the preceding chapter. In Matthew 12:31–32, the Lord said:
Therefore I say unto you, Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men;
but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him;
but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.
We know that our Lord labored upon the earth for some time, especially in cities such as Chorazin and Capernaum. They did not believe. They hardened their hearts against the Lord.
Because of this, the Lord Jesus said that it pleased the Father to hide these things from the wise and prudent and to reveal them unto babes.
People considered themselves wise and prudent, and they rejected the Lord. But thank God, there were some people who were like babes—not childish, but childlike. They were open and trusted in the Lord.
In Matthew 12, there was a man possessed by a demon. He was blind and dumb, and the Lord healed him. This had never happened in the history of Israel, so it was a clear indication that our Lord Jesus was the Messiah.
Yet the Pharisees knew in their hearts that this must be the Messiah. But because of their opposition to the Lord, they said that the Lord was casting out demons by the prince of demons. This was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Because of this occasion, even though our Lord still spoke to the people, He had to speak in parables.
When you speak in parables, those who have understanding will find it clearer and easier to understand. If you have no understanding, you only hear a story. That is all.
That is the reason why the Lord began to speak in parables. When He spoke these parables, He told us that they concerned the mysteries of the kingdom.
There are seven parables, or, as some people say, eight. Yet all these parables are concerned with the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens.
The Lord had already shown us the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. Why, then, does it now become a mystery? Because when the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens was spreading, Christianity began to spread, and you began to see a Christian world.
Wherever Christendom is, the name of Christianity is there. But within Christianity, gradually, it became a mixture. Because of this mixture, it became a mystery.
When you touch reality, it is simple. But when you touch something that is partly true and partly false, that becomes a mystery.
All these parables are concerned with the kingdom of the heavens, but they are talking about a mystery. People try to explain these parables, and we find all kinds of teachings coming out of them.
So we need to stick to the Bible. There are some parables that the Lord already explained to us, but there are others He did not explain. When they are not explained, the way to understand these parables is to compare them with the whole Bible.
Remember, these mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens refer to Christendom—that is, wherever the gospel has spread, wherever there is the so-called Christian world. That is what you see in Christianity today.
How did it begin? It began with the first parable. A sower went out to sow in the field.
When he sowed the seed, some fell by the roadside, some fell upon shallow ground with stones underneath, some fell among thorns, and some fell into good ground.
Those sown on the hard ground were on the path where people walked. The birds came and took them away. Those sown on the shallow ground sprang up, but dried up in the sun. Those sown among thorns grew, but could not bear fruit.
Only those in the good ground produced fruit: a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold.
Who is the sower? Of course, the sower refers to our Lord Himself. When He was on earth, He sowed the seed in the field.
What is the field? The field is the human heart. What is the seed? The seed is the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world and spread the gospel, you find four different kinds of hearts, because the field here refers to the heart.
The first kind of heart is like the pathway. People tread upon it, so it becomes hardened. The seed cannot get into the ground. Then the birds come and snatch it away.
Brothers and sisters, when the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens is preached, this is the seed, and it falls upon human hearts. God’s Word always aims at the human heart. It does not aim merely at our minds; it aims at the heart.
But some hearts have been trodden so hard. In other words, they are so worldly and so connected with the world that their hearts become hard. When the seed comes, it does not enter into them. The bird comes and takes it away, and of course the bird refers to the evil one.
The second kind of human heart is like shallow ground. There are stones underneath it. When the gospel of the kingdom comes, they receive it quickly and begin to grow.
But because there is no depth of earth and the stones underneath have not been removed, the plant cannot bear the sunshine and withers away. This shows that when the gospel is preached to these people, they are emotionally affected.
They seem to receive the gospel very quickly, but whenever trouble, hardship, or tribulation comes, immediately they give up everything. There are some people who are all emotion, but there is no root. So they do not grow up.
When the kingdom of the heavens is preached to another kind of heart, they receive it. But because the thistles and thorns have not been removed, they are choked and cannot bear fruit.
The Lord told us that this is because they love money, they love the world, and they have the cares of life. All these things choke the seed.
How often, brothers and sisters, we hear the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens and receive it. It seems to begin to grow within us. But then all the cares of life, all the worries, and all these things begin to choke it, and we cannot bear fruit.
But thank God, there is a certain kind of heart that the Holy Spirit has prepared beforehand as a result of repentance. They receive the Word and patiently bear fruit—perhaps a hundredfold, perhaps sixtyfold, but thank God, at least thirtyfold.
We know that this is the parable that our Lord Jesus Himself explained.
Then the Lord began to speak the second parable. He said that the kingdom of the heavens is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
Who is that man? Again, the man is singular in number. It is the Lord Himself. He began to sow good seed in His field.
What is the seed now? There is a progression in these parables. In the first parable, the seed is the Word, the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens. But in the second parable, the seed is persons, not the Word: the sons of the kingdom.
Those who receive the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens become the sons of the kingdom, and the Lord sows them in the field.
The field here is not a human heart again, because the Lord said that the field is the world. It is the so-called Christian world, and He sows them in the world.
Brothers and sisters, we are here in New York. Remember, you are not here by accident. The Lord sowed you here. He sowed us here and there to be a testimony to His name.
But then the enemy came. When men were sleeping, the Lord’s servants were not watching. The Lord never slumbers nor sleeps, but the men refer to His servants. They refer to us.
Unfortunately, God’s servants sometimes go to sleep. They are not watching, and because of this, the enemy comes secretly and sows his seed in the same field.
The seed sown by the enemy is the sons of the evil one. He also sows his seed in the same field. That is why you see such a mixture in Christianity.
There are some who are sons of the kingdom, but there are others who may be sons of the evil one. They are in the same area, and they grow up together.
In the beginning, you cannot distinguish them. But when they begin to grow, it becomes evident that there are two kinds growing in this field.
The servants were surprised. They said, “Lord, You sowed good seed. Where did all these evil ones come from? Shall we go and root them out?”
But if you try to pull them out, you will pull out the good ones too. So let them grow together until the end of the age. Then He will send His angels to divide them.
Brothers and sisters, this shows us what Christianity has become. There are so-called Christians, but what a difference there is among them. It seems as if you cannot separate them.
These two parables our Lord Himself explained, so there is no problem.
The Lord then began to speak the third parable. He said:
The kingdom of the heavens is like unto a grain of mustard seed,
which a man took, and sowed in his field:
which indeed is less than all seeds;
but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree,
so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof.
This parable was not explained by our Lord Jesus. For this reason, you find all kinds of explanations. But the secret of interpretation is that you have to compare Scripture with Scripture, because the whole Bible is a unit. The Scriptures never interfere with one another; they explain one another and give us the right interpretation.
What is a mustard seed? If you read Luke 17, you find that our Lord Jesus said:
If thy brother sin, rebuke him;
and if he repent, forgive him.And if he sin against thee seven times in the day,
and seven times turn again to thee, saying, I repent;
thou shalt forgive him.
The disciples said, “Lord, increase our faith.” The Lord said:
If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye would say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea;
and it would obey you.
Here we find that the mustard seed is a symbol of faith. Even if our faith is very small, yet it can do great things.
Because of this, many people explain this parable by saying that Christianity, or the church today, has grown like a mustard seed because of faith.
But the parable says that this mustard seed has grown into a tree. Now, that is the problem.
You remember in Genesis 1, when God created this earth and plants and trees grew up, it says, “after its kind.” In other words, when God created all these plants and trees, they were after their own kind.
If it is a plant, it is a plant. If it is a tree, it is a tree. Everything is after its kind.
You remember Genesis 6. The angels came to marry the women on earth, and they produced giants. Why was this so serious? It was not after its kind. Angels are one kind, and men are another kind. When you mix angels with men, you produce giants.
That was something God hated. The flood came upon the earth because of this. When God created everything, it was according to its kind. To confuse the kinds or species is abnormal in the sight of God, and it is sin against God.
This mustard seed, this living faith, should produce a plant. But now it has grown into a tree. It is abnormal growth.
What happens then? The birds come and lodge in it. The birds, of course, must be understood according to the first parable. In the first parable, the birds refer to the evil one. So the evil one comes and abides in it.
This parable speaks of the abnormal growth of Christianity. In church history, people use it to say how Christianity grows and grows, and that it is a glorious thing. They do not know that it is against the will of God.
So this parable refers to the abnormal growth of Christianity.
Then there follows another companion parable. The Lord said:
The kingdom of the heavens is like unto leaven,
which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal,
till it was all leavened.
What is leaven in the Scripture? You remember one day when our Lord Jesus and His disciples were in a boat, the Lord Jesus said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” This is found in Matthew 16.
In Matthew 16:6, Jesus said:
Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
The disciples reasoned among themselves, saying, “We have taken no bread.” The Lord explained to them that He was not referring to bread. In Matthew 16:12, they understood that He was speaking of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
In Scripture, leaven is something evil in the sight of God. In Old Testament times, when you offered sacrifice, there should be no leaven in it. There was only one sacrifice with leaven, because that referred to the church. Otherwise, leaven was something forbidden by God.
We all love leaven, because without leaven bread is hard, and with leaven bread becomes palatable. But leaven always refers to something evil.
Here it refers to the teaching of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The teaching of the Pharisees is hypocrisy, because they teach people but do not do it themselves. The leaven of the Sadducees is unbelief, because they do not believe in resurrection.
The Lord says, “Beware of such teaching.”
Here you find Christianity today: it grows abnormally. How we love to see it grow and grow and grow—the bigger, the better. Then you find within it these corrupt teachings and doctrines.
This is what you see in the kingdom of the heavens today. This is the state of the kingdom of the heavens today. That is why it is a mystery.
But thank God, to balance these two parables, the Lord began to speak another two parables. These are not explained in the Bible, so we have to use other parts of the Bible to understand them.
The Lord said:
The kingdom of the heavens is like unto treasure hidden in the field;
which a man found, and hid;
and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath,
and buyeth that field.
In the hymnbook, there is a hymn that says, “We love the treasure,” because the treasure refers to Christ Jesus. But, brothers and sisters, that is not the right interpretation. The treasure here does not refer to Christ.
That which refers to Christ is the man who is looking for treasure. He is the One who is seeking for treasure.
The treasure is the real kingdom of the heavens, and it is represented by the true church today. It is something hidden from the sight of man, but the Lord knows it. He came for that purpose.
He saw it, but He hid it. Then He bought the field. Brothers and sisters, this is what the Lord has done. He used His own blood to buy the earth, and the purpose was to get that treasure.
How our Lord Jesus loves His own church. To the public eye it is hidden, not until the day when it shall be manifested.
As a companion parable, in Matthew 13:45–46, the Lord said:
Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls:
and having found one pearl of great price,
he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Again, this merchant refers to our Lord Himself. He was seeking for beautiful pearls, and He found a pearl of great value. So He sold everything He had and bought it.
The treasure refers to teaching; the pearl refers to experience. The pearl is the experience of a clam. After suffering, it becomes a pearl. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Again, you find teaching and experience. The teaching refers to the treasure, and the pearl refers to experience. But how our Lord Jesus paid everything for it! This is the love of the Lord toward His own church.
Finally, there is another parable. It is the parable of the net. In Matthew 13:47–48, the Lord said:
Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a net,
that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach;
and they sat down, and gathered the good into vessels,
but the bad they cast away.
This is a concluding parable. It refers to the end of this age. Then the angels will come and divide them, and the evil will be cast into the furnace of fire, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Brothers and sisters, from these seven parables, the Lord tells us the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens today. But that outward appearance is deceiving.
People are being deceived. Christianity has grown so much, not knowing that it has become abnormal and has been filled with false teaching.
But the Lord’s heart is toward what is really there. There is His kingdom. There is His church. At the end of the age, everything will be divided.
In the second peak of Matthew, we see the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens. The Lord does not want us to be deceived. He wants us to understand, and when we understand, we will cooperate with Him.
May the Lord use these words to encourage us and give us discernment.
Dear Lord, we do want to thank Thee, because Thou dost use parables to give us more understanding of truth.
May we really understand and move on together with Thee, not in any way to be deceived by outward appearance. By Thy grace, may we be treasure and pearl in Thy sight.
In Thy precious name.