THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM - PART 2 (Matthew 13)

THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM - PART 2 (Matthew 13)

H. A. IRONSIDE

Throughout the Word of God leaven is used always in an evil sense. Of old the people of Israel were to put all leaven out of their houses during the Passover season, and the apostle Paul explains this when he says, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7, 8). Leaven, then, speaks of malice and wickedness, and the Christian is to put this out of his life. The Lord Jesus warned His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy and self-righteousness; the leaven of the Sadducees which is false doctrine and materialism; and the leaven of Herod, which is worldliness and political corruption. In the Book of Leviticus (chapter 2) we have the meal offering, in which there was to be no leaven. This represents our Lord Jesus Christ’s Humanity which was absolutely without sin. In the parable the woman is surreptitiously hiding the leaven in the meal offering. The three measures of meal certainly do not represent the world, but rather the truth of God concerning His Son. The woman is not the Church, as such, but is the false church—that woman, Jezebel, of whom we read in Revelation 2:20, who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches the servants of God unholy principles which are subversive of the faith. Is not this exactly what has been taking place during the past almost two millennia of Church history? “The mystery of iniquity” began to work in apostolic days, and it has spread throughout the centuries until today there is practically no great doctrine of Scripture that has not been perverted by false teachers. 

 They asked regarding the tares of the field. He explained by telling them that He Himself was the Sower of the good seed; the field is the world. It is important that we remember this because of what follows. The field is not the Church, but rather that world out of which the Church was eventually to be gathered. “The good seed,” Jesus said, “are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one.” Here we have the result of the sowing: those who believe the gospel message are the wheat; those who accept the teachings of Satan are the tares, for the enemy that sowed the evil seed is the devil himself. He has ever been busy sowing the tares wherever servants of God have sown the good seed.

At the end of the age—it is not the end of the world He has in mind but the end of the present age—“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.” Notice that the Son of Man sends forth His angels. What a definite proof of His Deity we have here! He is both Son of God and Son of Man in one blessed, adorable Person. The angels are His, and they do His bidding. 

 In the fifth parable the treasure is not the sinner seeking after Christ, but the blessed Lord Himself who came from heaven to earth to find that which to Him was of inestimable value: namely, His own people Israel. In order to redeem Israel to Himself He died upon the cross, but they were not yet ready to receive Him as their King, and so the treasure was hidden in the field, and would remain hidden till He returned.

From of old, Israel was recognized as God’s special treasure (Ex. 19:5). The Lord Himself is represented by the man who found and hid this treasure. At Calvary He sold all that He had and bought the field, which is the world (ver. 38). At present the treasure remains hidden. When Israel turns to the Lord they will be manifested as Jehovah’s peculiar treasure (Mal. 3:17, R.V.), and through them blessing will come to all the Gentile nations.

“The kingdom of heaven,” is likened next “unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls.” Again the seeker is Christ, who came from the throne of glory to this poor world, seeking for jewels to adorn His crown forever.

“One pearl of great price.” This is the Church, which is of supreme value in His eyes, for which He gave Himself. At the cross He “sold all that He had, and bought it.” There He literally impoverished Himself to purchase the Church as His own choice pearl (Eph. 5:25; 2 Cor. 8:9). Many think of salvation as the pearl and the sinner as the merchantman, but that is to invert completely the message of the gospel.  

  “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net.” It is, literally, a dragnet. This illustrates the present work of the professing church when vast numbers of both saved and lost are gathered in from the waters of the nations (Rev. 17:15), and are numbered among the professors of faith in Christ. “So shall it be at the end of the age” (margin). It is not the end of the world that is in view, but the consummation of the present age of grace, immediately preceding the ushering in of the age of the kingdom in full manifestation.

“Wailing and gnashing of teeth.” The last expression shows that judgment does not necessarily produce repentance. When the final separation takes place the false professors will be cast away in judgment, which results in wailing because of their suffering, but gnashing of teeth because of their hatred against God and His Christ (Ps. 35:16; Lam. 2:16). 

The one great truth that this chapter in the life of our Lord demonstrates clearly is that unbelief on the one hand, or faith on the other, are not dependent on intellectual difficulties or logical arguments. The secret of both is the state of the conscience. Where one is determined to go contrary to what he knows to be right, he will continue in unbelief and refuse to submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. When one repents of his sins and honestly seeks deliverance from them, he will have no difficulty in believing the record God has given of His Son (1 John 5:11).

  Men often speak of “building the kingdom.” This is an expression in common use, but never found in Scripture. We are commissioned to preach the gospel to every creature, and when men believe the message they become members of the Church, the Body of Christ. As such they are in the kingdom of heaven also, but our primary object is to lead them to recognize Jesus as Saviour and Lord.