The Church.

A  NEW AGE WAS ANNOUNCED BY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Matthew 12:47-13:50

 "Then one said unto Him, Behold Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with Thee.

But He answered and said unto him that told him, who is my mother? And who are my brethren?

And He stretched forth His hand towards His disciples, and said, behold my mother and my brethren!

For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister, and mother."

Parable of the sower.

The parable of the sower is the first of the Mystery Parables and may be considered as the foundation for all of them.

In this parable the birds represent Satan.

The sower is the Son of man.

And the seed represents the Word of God.

Matthew 13:1 – 13:52

"The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the seaside.

("Out of the house"  speaks of  the house of Israel   -  the sea represents the Gentile nations.  The Lord Jesus  is leaving  the nation Israel  and  turning to the world.  He is talking about what will happen in the world until He comes back to the earth as King.  The act denotes a tremendous change in His method.  Great multitudes were gathered to hear Him.)

And a great multitude were gathered together unto Him, so that He went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

And He spake many things unto them in parables,  saying,

Behold a sower went forth to sow;

And when he had sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away.

And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and chocked them:

But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

Who hath ears to hear let him hear.

And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?

He answered and said unto them,

Because it is given unto you 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 more than abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Therefore speak  I  to them in parables:

because they seeing  see not;  and hearing  they hear not,  neither do they understand.

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias,  which saith,  By hearing ye shall hear,  and shall not understand;  and seeing ye shall see,  and shall not perceive:

For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and  I should heal them.

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 have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things  which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

When anyone heareth the Word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.

This is he which received seed by the wayside.

But he that received the seed into the stony places, the same is he that heareth the  word and with joy received it:

Yet hath ye not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

But he that received fruit into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

The sower  represents the Lord Jesus  -  we learn this from the parable of the wheat and tares (verse 37).

The Lord Jesus is the One sowing the seed, and I believe that this defines His work in the world today.

He was the King,  but He laid aside His regal robes,  and today  He is doing the work of a farmer,  sowing seed  -  but He is still the King.

The  seed, we learn from  verse 19,  represents the Word of God.

The field symbolizes the world (verse 38).

Notice that it is the world, not the church.

This is talking about a world situation.

The picture is something like this:

Here is the church in the world, and outside there are multitudes of people who have not received Christ. The Word of God is given out and one person accepts the word and another does not accept the Word.

Our business  is to sow the seed,  although  not  everyone will receive it.

The Lord Jesus has charge of this great program of sowing seed.

He has graciously given me a little corner to work in,  and my business is to sow seed.

I do believe with all my heart that we live in the day for sowing seed.

I  do believe that the "harvest"  is  not the picture for today.

But someone says,

Christ said,

Matthew 9:38  "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,  that He  will send forth labourers into His  harvest."

Yes,

But let’s look at it again:

Matthew 9:36–38   "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

Then saith He unto His disciples,  The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest"

This passage occurs just before the Lord sent out His apostles to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The age of the Law was coming to an end.

Harvest time comes  after  seed has been sown.

For fifteen hundred years, approximately, under Law, the seed had been sown. Then the harvest came,  and  a new age,  a new dispensation, came in.

At the close of one age  there is a harvest,  and at the beginning of another age  is the sowing of seed.

The harvest at the end of  an age  is    judgment.

This is clear in the the parables which follow.

In our day,  today,  we are to be sowing  the seed of the Word of God.

Oh  I do so rejoice when  I  hear of people who listen to  the Word of God  and finally  the seed germinates  and  brings forth fruit.

I  love to sow the seed of the Word of God while I am in this world,  and  I  believe,  that if you are a child of God, then it is also your business to sow the seed of the Word of God in this world.

Notice where the seed falls.

It  falls on four  types  of soil,  and three-fourths of the seeds do not grow  -  they die.

There was nothing wrong with the seed,

but the soil was the problem.

You can argue election all you want to,  but in this parable  there is a lot of free will exhibited.

The condition of the soil is all-important as far as the seed is concerned.

In the first group He says,  that some of the seed  fell by the wayside,  and the birds came and ate it up.

In verse 19 He explains to His disciples the meaning of it  -

Matthew 13:19   "When any one  heareth  the Word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not,   then cometh the wicked one,  and  catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.  This is he which received seed by the way side."

The birds represent the evil one  -  the Devil takes away the seed sown by the wayside.

This is something which ought to cause every church member  to examine  his own heart. Dear reader, do not apply this to the other person,  apply it to yourself.

Someone has written a clever little poem which says:

When you get to heaven

You will likely view,

Many folk there

Who’ll be a shock to you.

But don’t act surprised,

Or even show a care,

For they might be a little shocked

To see you there.

The wayside soil apparently represents church members, professing Christians.

They heard the Word of God,  but it was not the hearing of faith.

The Word was not mixed with faith  -  or if it was, it was a formal,  intellectual faith  which  simply nodded the head.

In other words,  to folk like this,  Christianity is a sideline.  Belonging to the church is like belonging to a lodge or a club.  These people are in deep freeze.  Not only do we find them in our churches,  but some of them have fallen away from the church and are in cults and "isms."

The second group are represented by the rocky soil.

Matthew 13:20–21  "But he that received the seed  into stony places,  the same is he that heareth the word,  and  anon with joy receiveth it;   Yet hath he not root in himself,  but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word,  by and by  he is offended."

These rocky-ground folk are the opposite of the first group.

It was the Devil who took the Word away from the wayside hearers,  but the flesh is the culprit with this group.

Instead of being in deep freeze,  they are in the oven  -  warm, emotional, shedding tears, greatly moved.

There is a lot of fizz in them.

They are always making a great fuss.

They have great zeal and energy during special meetings,

but they are like burned out candles after the meetings are over.

When there is a sensational meeting in progress,  they really get enthusiastic,  but they have  no real relationship with Christ.

It is just an emotional high  -  the are the rocky-ground people.

The third group of hearers are like thorny ground.

Matthew 13:22   "He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the Word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the Word,  and he becometh unfruitful."

With these people the world crowds out the Word of God.

The Devil got the wayside people,

and the flesh took care of the rocky-ground people,

but the world chokes out the Word for this class of hearers.

The cares of the world move in.

Sometimes it is poverty , and other times it is the deceitfulness of riches.

It is quite interesting that folk at each end of the social spectrum  -  extreme poverty and extreme prosperity  -  are people who are the most difficult to reach for Christ.

There are a great many people who have let the cares of the world crowd out the Word of God.

These three types of soil do not represent three types of believers  -  they are not believers at all!

They have all  heard  the Word  and  have only professed to receive it.

Dear reader, it is well  for all of us   to examine ourselves to see whether or not we are really in the faith.

Thank God, some seed falls on good ground,

The Lord Jesus interprets this for us.

Matthew 13:23   "But he that received seed into the good ground  is he that heareth the Word, and understandeth it;  which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

These are the hearers who receive the Word and understand it.

Some of them do not bring forth much fruit  -  only thirtyfold,  but some bring forth an hundredfold!

There must be an understanding of the Word.

The Ethiopian eunuch, you remember, was reading the Word, but he did not understand it - although he wanted to understand it.

So the Spirit of God put Philip there as a hitchhiker.

He took a ride with the Ethiopian and gave him a ticket to heaven.

He explained the Word to him.

He explained to him that the One, who was led as a sheep to the slaughter,  was the Lord Jesus Christ, and that  He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.

The Ethiopian believed and received Christ.

Philip was sowing the seed of the Word of God.

This  is a kingdom-of-heaven  situation  as it  reveals that the Sower, the Lord Jesus Christ, is sowing the seed of the Word of God in the world and that the Holy Spirit applies it to the hearts of those who want to believe.

After the Lord Jesus had given the parable of the sower, He said something quite interesting  -

Matthew 13:9    "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Well,  if we have these things  on the side of our head  called ears, can’t we hear Him?

Yes, of course,  but notice the question and His answer  -

Matthew 13:10   "And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?"

Someone has said that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. This is a good definition. But the word parable is from the Greek paraboleµ.

We get our English word ball from it.

You throw something down beside an object to measure it.

For example,  it is like putting a ruler down beside a table to measure it. That ruler is a parable;  it is put down for the purpose of measuring.

The Lord Jesus  gave parables to measure heavenly truth which He could set before us.

Why did He do it?

Matthew 13:11   "He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."

Do you see,  that if  a person  desires  to know  the Word of God,  he can know it.

He who desires to know the truth can know it.

But you can shut your ears to it.

There are multitudes of so-called broadminded people who shut their ears to the Word of God.

If you do not want to hear it,  you won’t hear it,  dear reader.

Not only would you fail  to hear it,  but you would not understand it  if you did hear it.

You must have the kind of ear that wants to hear the Word of God.

Matthew  13:12    "For whosoever hath,  to him shall be given,  and he shall have more abundance;  but whosoever hath not,  from him shall be taken away even that he hath."

If you know a little truth  and you want to know more,  the Lord will add to it.   If you do not  desire  to  know  the truth,  the Lord will see to it that you will not get it.

You see, the Lord will never shut the door to anyone  who desires  to hear.

He makes it very clear  that this is  His reason for speaking in parables.

Those who do not want to hear will not understand them.

The Lord drew His parables from commonplace things,  things that were at the fingertips of the people in that day.

He gave them great spiritual truths illustrated by things they knew and could see.

Someone has put this concept in verse.

He talked of grass and wind and rain

And fig trees and fair weather,

And made it His delight to bring

Heaven and earth together.

He spoke of lilies, vines and corn,

The sparrow and the raven.

And words so natural, yet so wise

Were on men’s hearts engraven.

In the parable of the sower, we see what could be called  a kingdom-of-heaven condition; that is,  it exhibits God’s present rulership over the entire earth as

He calls out a people to His name.

And God is carrying out His program today through the church, the called-out body, composed of every true believer.

We have in this world today a kingdom-of-heaven condition  

as God is carrying on His program of bringing people to a saving knowledge of Christ.

 Parable of the tares.

Matthew 13:24-30

"Another parable put He forth unto them, saying,

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.

But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto Him,

Sir didst not Thou sow good seed in Thy field?

From whence then hath it tares.

He said unto them,

An enemy hath done this.

The servants said unto Him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

But he said,

Nay;  Lest while ye gather up the tares,  ye root up also the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest:

and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers,

Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them:

but gather the wheat into my barn."

This parable is also interpreted by our Lord.

In this parable the Lord Jesus picks up where He left off in the parable of the sower.

He has told us that only one-fourth of the sown seed ever got into good ground.

The other three-fourths never did produce anything because the people who heard the Word did not respond to it.

In other words,  they were not saved.

Of the people who heard the Word of God,  only one-fourth were truly saved.

Today about one out of ten  people responding to the invitation to receive Christ, are genuine.

We cannot consider all converts to be genuine.

But we thank God for each person who does come to Christ.

We are in a kingdom-of-heaven  situation,   giving out the Word of God.

But now we see another facet of the kingdom-of-heaven condition in the world today.

It is a picture of a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Notice who is asleep.

While men slept, the enemy came.

Remember,  the sower is the Lord, and He neither slumbers nor sleeps.

Satan is the enemy, and  he sows tares among the wheat.

The tares is false doctrine.

There is a great deal of that type of sowing today.

As wheat and tares first begin to grow,  it is difficult to distinguish between them.

Frankly,  a lot of cults and "isms" also sound good at first.

You cannot tell them from the real thing until about the twelfth or thirteenth lesson.

Those are the lessons in which they introduce their false doctrine.

Some of them even preach the gospel every now and then.

But it is the other things  he says  that are in error.

He sows tares among the wheat.

We see that the sower  knew  who was responsible  for the tares.

This is a very important picture to see and to interpret.

The Lord Jesus says,

"Don’t try to pull up the tares. Let them both grow together, and when they finally head up, you will be able to recognize which are tares and which are wheat."

Somebody says,

Do you think the world is getting better?

Yes  I do think the world is getting better.

Then somebody else says,

Do you think the world is getting worse?

Yes I do think the world is getting worse.

A third person who heard me give both answers, says,

What are you trying to do?

It is not like you to try to please everybody.

But actually, both are true. 

The wheat is growing and the tares are growing. 

The world is getting better  -  the wheat is heading up. Never has there been so much Bible teaching as there is today. 

There are many wonderful saints of God who love His Word and who would die defending it.  They truly study the Word of God  -  The wheat is growing.

However,   the world  is also getting worse.

There are a lot of tares growing.

I belonged to a denomination  and thought I could be a witness there.

I soon  found out that I could not  straighten out my denomination.

I was thankful  to find out  from this passage,  and  related passages, that  my business was to give out the seed of the  Word of God.

I do not go around pulling up tares anymore because I found that when you pull up tares, you also pull up some wheat with them. 

My business is not  to pull up tares but to sow the wheat.

Sowing the Word of God is our responsibility.

Both tares and wheat are growing in this world.

This is a kingdom-of-heaven situation  in Christendom during this interval between Christ’s rejection  and  His return to establish His kingdom upon the earth.

It is not a picture of Christ’s church.

It is a picture of the organized church.

And the organized church is not

His church - His own called out body.

His church is composed of that invisible number of saints.

When I say invisible,  I mean that they are  not confined to an organization. (Actually, the term invisible is not really a good one).

The true church is made up of true believers, irrespective of any denomination.

True believers are those who have trusted Christ as Savior, are resting in Him, and love His Word  -  this is the real test.

Do not be disturbed that the wheat and tares are growing together.

One day the Lord will put in His sickle and separate the tares and wheat.

I am thankful it will not be my job because I am afraid I would pull up some of the wheat.

Parable of a grain of mustard seed.

This parable presents a different kind of seed.

Matthew 13:31-32

"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."

The mustard tree is an unlikely symbol of the church  or of individual Christians. Ordinarily, fruit-bearing trees  are used to depict believers.

Mustard is a condiment and has no food value.

It is not wheat germ,  loaded with vitamins;  it is just good on hot dogs and hamburgers. Mustard is not a food you can live on.

The mustard seed does not grow into a mighty oak like the little acorn does.

It is a shrub which thrives best in desert lands.

The mustard seed  "is the least of all seeds."

What did our Lord mean by "the least of all seeds"?

It was the least of all seeds that the people in His audience knew about. It is the least of all the seeds in the category of plants to which the mustard belongs.  It is a very small seed.

"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."

This little seed,  which should have become an herb,  got to the fertilizer  and became  a tree large enough for birds to roost in.

This parable reveals the outward growth of Christendom as the parable of the leaven speaks of the internal condition of Christendom.

The church has not converted the world,  but it has had a tremendous influence  on the world.

Any place that Christianity has gone can be called Christendom.

This parable reveals  the outward growth of the organized church.

The church and the world have become horribly mixed.

There has been real integration between man in the church and man in the world.

They live and act very much alike in our day.

The Christian should be salt in the world,  not mustard!

"The birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."

THE BIRDS ARE NOT DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS.

THERE ARE THOSE WHO SPEAK OF THE BAPTIST BIRDS,  THE METHODIST BIRDS,  THE PRESBYTERIAN BIRDS,  AND SO ON.

That, is of course,  a contradiction of the Lord Jesus' own interpretation of the birds in the first parable.

We can be sure that the birds in the parables of this discourse do not speak of anything good, but rather they represent evil.

The birds are the ones that took the seed which fell by the wayside.

The Lord Jesus  said that they represent the enemy who is Satan.

Today,  Christendom is a mustard tree filled with a lot of dirty birds!

The parable of the mustard seed suggests the rapid but unsubstantial growth of the mystery aspect of the kingdom from a small beginning to a great place on earth.

The Parable of the leaven.

Matthew 13:33

"Another parable spake He unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

The parable of  the leaven is the key parable of this chapter.

The Gospel of Matthew is the key book of  the Bible.

Secondly, chapter 13 is the key chapter of Matthew.

And thirdly, verse 33 is the key verse of chapter 13.

So actually,  what we have here is one of the key verses of the Bible!

Now notice  the very important teaching in this verse  -

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven" -  but don’t stop there  - "which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal."

What does the leaven represent?

The leaven is not the gospel.

Nowhere is leaven used as a principle of good;  it is always a principle of evil  -  it is always used in a bad sense.

The great scholar, Dr. Lightfoot, made the statement that rabbinical writers regularly used leaven as a symbol of evil.

In the Old Testament it was forbidden to be used in the offerings made to God.

In the New Testament the Lord Jesus warned  us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees (see Matt. 16:6).

Symbolism in Scripture does not contradict itself, and we may be sure that leaven is not used in a good sense here in Matthew 13.

Leaven is not the gospel.

The gospel is represented by the three measures of meal.

How do we know this?

Because meal is made out of grain or seed, and our Lord Jesus has already told us in the parable of the sower that the seed represents the Word of God.

Remember that this parable is a picture of what happens to the Word of God on this earth during the interval between Christ’s rejection and His exaltation when He will return to set up His kingdom.

What happens to the Word of God?

The woman takes the leaven and hides it in the meal.

If the leaven represents the gospel, why in the world did she hide it?

The gospel is to be heralded to the very ends of the earth.

Obviously, the leaven is a principle of evil, and the woman puts it in the meal, which represents the gospel,  the Word of God.

We certainly see this in reality in our day. There is no cult or "ism" which ignores the Bible. I find that even those who worship the Devil, the demon worshipers, use the Bible.

False teachers of every description put leaven in the meal, the Word of God.

What does leaven do?

Leaven is a substance,  such as yeast,  used to produce fermentation. When it is put in bread dough, it causes it to rise and it also makes it tasty.

That is the reason a great many people find a thrill in some of the cults.

Unleavened bread is just blah as far as the natural taste is concerned.

A little leaven really helps it.  Have you ever seen what happens when you let dough continue to rise? I tell you, it makes a pan of corruption  -  something you would not want to eat!

It was common practice to retain a lump of leaven  or  fermented dough  from a former baking and use it to leaven new dough.

Although Biblical truth has a beneficial moral influence on the world, the mingling of leaven is not the method of divine salvation  or  enlargement of the kingdom.

Leaven is a principle of evil.

This parable teaches that the intrusion of wrong doctrine into the church will finally  lead to total apostasy -

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself said,

Luke 18:8   "… when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?"

The answer is No.

The Lord Jesus was saying that when He does return  the world will be in total apostasy.

And the apostle Paul, writing to a young man studying for the ministry, warns that the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine (see 2 Timothy 4:3).

The final, total apostasy  of the church is revealed in the church of Laodicea (see Rev. 3:14–19).

Matthew 13:36  "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."

The Lord Jesus sent the multitude away and He gathered His disciples about Him.

Then He answered them and said unto them,

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;

The field is the world: the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

The enemy that sowed them is the devil;

And the harvest is the end of the world;

the reapers are the angels.

As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom

all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Who hath ears to hear let him hear.

The kingdom does not become the kingdom of the Father until Christ, having  “put all enemies under His feet,” including the last enemy, death, has “delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.”

There is triumph over death at the first resurrection, but death, “the last enemy,”  is  not destroyed until the end of the millennium.

Matthew 13:44   "Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for the joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."

The interpretation of the parable of the treasure, which makes the buyer of the field to be a sinner who is seeking Christ, has no warrant in the parable itself.

The field is declared to be the world.

THE SEEKING SINNER DOES NOT BUY,  BUT FORSAKES THE WORLD TO GAIN CHRIST.

Furthermore, the sinner has nothing to sell; neither is Christ for sale or hidden in a field;  nor, having found Christ, does the sinner  hide Him again.

At every point the interpretation breaks down.

The field is the world, which was purchased by our Lord, at the priceless cost of His own blood, in order that He might have the treasure.

As Israel was God’s treasure in the Old Testament times, so there is at the present time “a remnant of Israel according to the election of grace.”

Those who compose the remnant are no longer reckoned as Jews but as members of the “one body” together with saved Gentiles and thus Christ’s inheritance and His joy.

 Hebrews 12:2   "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

The parable of the goodly pearls.

Matthew 13:45-46 " Again, the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls:  Who, when He had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that He had, and bought it."

 THE TRUE CHURCH IS THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

Its formation covers a large part of the period of mysteries of the kingdom, and is itself called a mystery. A pearl is formed by accretion (the growing of separate things into one). And Christ, having given Himself for the pearl, is now preparing it for presentation to Himself.

THE KINGDOM IS NOT THE CHURCH,

but the true children of the kingdom  during the fulfillment of these mysteries, baptized by one Spirit into one body,  compose of the church,  the pearl.

Matthew 13:47-48  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away."

So shall it be at the end of the world:

The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just.

And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

The Lord Jesus said 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 an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."

The kingdom of heaven is like a net, which cast into the sea of humanity, gathers of every kind, good and bad.

These remain together in the net and not merely in the sea, until the end of the age.

It is not even a converted net,  much less a converted sea.

Much violence has been done to sound exegesis by the notion that the world is to be converted in this age.

Against the notion stands our Lord’s own interpretation of the parables of the sower, the wheat and tares, and the net.

Such,  then,  is the mystery form of the kingdom.

It is the sphere of Christian profession during this age.

It is a mingled body of true and false, wheat and tares, good and bad.

It is defiled by formalism, doubt, and worldliness.

But within it Christ sees the true children of the true kingdom who, at the end, are to “shine forth as the sun.”

In the great field the world, He sees His treasure that He redeems for His own through His cross.

Thus, in this aspect of the kingdom, He sees His Church, His body and bride composed of believing Israelites and Gentiles, and for the joy sells all that He has and buys the field, the treasure, and the pearl.

The Church was clearly prophesied by Him in

Matthew 16:18  "And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

IT IS UPON CHRIST HIMSELF THAT THE CHURCH IS BUILT.

The word “Church”  -  ( to call out)  is used of any assembly and in itself implies no more than a gathering of people who have been called forth, e.g. the town meeting at Ephesus, and Israel called out of Egypt and assembled in the wilderness. Israel was a “church” but not in any sense the New Testament church – the primary point of similarity being that both were “called out”  and  by the same God.

 The Church (called out ones), which was purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, with His own precious blood on Calvary, is composed of the whole number of regenerate persons (born again believers) from Pentecost to the first resurrection and they are united to Christ by one baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

This is Christ’s own body and as such, the church is a holy temple for the habitation of God through the Spirit and is “one flesh” with Christ.

It is espoused to Him as a chaste virgin to one husband; and will be translated to heaven at the return of the Lord in the air (the rapture).

1 Peter 1:18-19   "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:"

Acts 1:5   "For John truly baptized with water;  but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."

1 Corinthians 12:12-13   "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."

Because of the emphasis upon the Holy Spirit, this age has also been called  “the dispensation of the Spirit.”

The point of testing in this dispensation is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the message of good news about His death and resurrection.

John 19:30   "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said,  “It is finished”  and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost."

1 Corinthians 15:3-4   "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures:

And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures:"

2 Corinthians 5:21   "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who new no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

The continuing,  cumulative revelation of the previous dispensations combines with this fuller revelation to emphasize  the utter sinfulness and total lost-ness of man and the adequacy of the historically completed work of Christ to save by grace through faith all who come unto God by Him.

John 14:6   "Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Acts 10:43   "To Him give all the prophets witness,  that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins."

Ephesians 2:8-9   "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves;  it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast."

Hebrews 10:12-14   "But this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.  For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."

Hebrews 11:6   "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

All those who are born again in Christ, make up His true church or His true body.

They are by His own command, fulfilling His call on their individual lives, which is to preach the Gospel.

THE LORD JESUS DIED TO SAVE US, AND HE ROSE AGAIN AND LIVES IN HEAVEN TO KEEP US SAVED.

It is His divine purpose that we through the power of His Holy Spirit working through  us, preach this message to the ends of the earth until He comes again or He calls us home.

God during this age is taking out from the Jews and the Gentiles” a people for His name.”

Acts 15:14   "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name."

Called “ the Church”  and henceforth carefully distinguished from both Jews and Gentiles as such,

1 Corinthians 10:32   "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God."

Galatians 3:27-28    "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."

 Ephesians 2:11-18   " Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Having abolished in the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

The Lord Jesus warned that during the whole period, while the Church is being formed  by the Holy Spirit,  many will reject His Gospel, and many will pretend to believe in Him and will become a source of spiritual corruption and hindrance to His purpose in this age, in the professing church.

Those who will bring apostasy, particularly in the last days.

2 Thessalonians 2:5-8   "Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

And now ye know what with holdeth that he might be revealed is his time.

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:  only ye who now letteth will let, until ye be taken out of the way.

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming:"

1 Timothy 4:1-2   "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly,  that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;  Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with hot iron;"

 2 Timothy 3:1; 4:3-4   " This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

2 Peter 2:1-2   "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of."

1 John 2:18-20    "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things."

The Church age  will be brought to a close  by a series of prophesied events,

the chief of which are:

 1)  The translation of the true Church from the earth to meet the Lord in the air at a point of time known to God but unrevealed to men, and ever held before believers as an imminent and happy hope, encouraging them in loving service and holiness of life.

This event is often called  “the rapture.”

1 Thessalonians 4:17   " Then they that are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

2)  The judgment's of the seventieth week of Daniel, called  “the tribulation” which will fall upon mankind in general but will include the unsaved portion of the professing Church, which will have gone into apostasy and thus be left behind on earth when the true Church is translated to heaven.

This final form of the apostate church is described in Revelation 17 as “the harlot” which will first “ride” the political power only to be overthrown and absorbed by that power Revelation 18:2.

3)  And the return from heaven to earth of our Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory, bringing with Him His Church to set up His millennial kingdom of righteousness and peace Revelation 19:11.

The Day of the Lord is that period of time when God openly intervenes in the affairs of men, when man’s day has closed   - in judgement and in blessing.

It will begin with the translation of the Church and will terminate with the cleansing of the heavens and the earth preparatory to the bringing into being of the new heavens and the new earth.

The order of events appear to be:

1)  The rapture of the Church just preceding the beginning of the Day of the Lord;

2)  The fulfillment of Daniel’s 70^th week and latter half of that which is the Great Tribulation;

3)  The return of the Lord in glory to establish a millennial  kingdom

4)  The destruction of the beast, the false prophet, and the armies, which is the "great and terrible" aspect  of  the day;

5) The judgement of individual Gentiles according to their treatment of Christ’s brethren, the Jewish people and the judgement of Israel

6)  The millennial reign of Christ on earth;

7) The satanic revolt and its judgement;

8) The resurrection and the judgement of the wicked;

9) The destruction of the present earth by fire preparatory for the  future “Day of God;”

10) The creation of the new heavens and the new earth.

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THIS PAGE WRITTEN:  22-4-2007.