Norbie, Donald: Mysteries Of The Kingdom-07 ~ The Two Debtors

We just finished reading this section here of Matthew on the chairs, Matthew ah thirteen twenty four to thirty, and then thirty six forty three. We ran over a few, but that's good too. Now, I'm going to go back and just review a little what we covered last week on these parables. There are seven parables here. As we're going along, if you have a question, feel free to ask it. Um, Seven parables. On these parables give us the progress of the kingdom. This is what I call it. In Matthew thirteen, the progress of the kingdom. The first two parables have to do with sowing, and then parables three and four have to do with growing, and these four, the first four, give us earth view. It's told to the crowd, it's told to people in general. Remember, he was in a boat, and the people were up on the, the, uh, beach, and they were listening to him. And it emphasizes man's day, and it emphasizes Satan's activity. His activity is very prominent in these first four parables, and it emphasizes man's failure. You have these notes in these first four parables. And then the next three, parables five and six, have to do with buying, parable seven has to do with separating, and these give us heaven's view, and they emphasize reality, and emphasize the fact that God's purpose is going to be realized in spite of all of Satan's activity and in spite of man's failure. And so the last three are, are parables that h- have real, uh, real optimistic notes. And I mentioned this too, that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, as far as we're concerned in this study, are synonymous. And they are speaking of God's rule, whether it's, it's his genuine rule or the professed kingdom, these who profess to be his followers. Now, let's just run over the, uh, parable we had, uh, last time. There were four kinds of soil. What were those first four types of soil? Carl? Think of one or two? Okay, the road, the path, well-worn. What was another soil? Bob? Shallow. Shallow, okay, a layer of rock underneath. What was another soil? Thorns. All right, thorns and thistles. These things that came up and they choked out the seed. And then fortunately, there was another kind. Good soil, all right. And um, these soils, the Lord himself here, uh, describes the, the parable, and he, uh, explains it. The sower, he is, uh, himself or a messenger bringing the seed. And the seed is what? The seed that he's scattering. The word of God. All right, the message of God and the gospel in particular, the word of the kingdom. The soil is what? All right, the hard condition. Can that condition ever be changed? Yes, it can. So it's, it's not a parable that's saying, look, this is the kind of soil it is now, so it must be this way forever. Soil can be broken up, soil can be improved, soil can be changed. I know I've been working out in my garden some, and that soil is being improved because we're turning a lot of compost into it and so forth, and you can just see the soil getting more loose and richer and full of humus, and it's becoming good soil. So you can improve soil, and as we think of working and sowing the seed, we realize too, you talk to a person at one time, his heart may not be in the same condition, it will be a year from now, so you don't want to give up on the person. And the purpose of the parable here, I think, is to show the disciples the different kinds of responses they'll receive. Um, can be kind of disillusioning when you first become a Christian, you think, well, I'll just run out and give out trash and everyone will be saved. And you just, you're full of joy yourself, and you think, well, how can people be so stupid that they don't accept, you know, the message and get saved? And then you get discouraged, you know, like this morning, you find everyone doesn't want to get saved right away. Uh, and I think also the parable is such that it should make a person question himself as he reads it. What kind of heart do I have? As I hear the word, what's my response? As the word of God comes to my heart, what is my response to it? Is my heart good, or is my heart, uh, hard soil? Is it rocky? What is the nature of my response? What is God getting from me as his word comes into my life? And this is a good question for us to ask ourselves as Christians, isn't it? And in this, uh, first parable, the stress is on the fact that there's will be difference in response because people are different and hearts are different, so don't get discouraged. Don't feel because you're sowing the seed, if you don't see everyone respond, that you're a failure. Don't feel that she's a failure. Realize the human heart is a very vital factor here, and this emphasizes the individual responsibility. You're responsible for your response to the word of God. And, um, we don't need to feel defeated, and it's, it's possible. I've had people say to me, well, you know, I've worked with different people and I've witnessed to them, and I just think I'm a failure. I just am not seeing the response that I, I think I ought to. Well, it's good to be concerned about how we're functioning, you know, how good a job we're doing the sowing. But on the other hand, don't get really discouraged and think you're a failure. Realize the heart here, the individual heart is responsible. Now, this parable introduces something else. Um, the first one stresses false reception. Not every heart receives as it should, or wrong reception. But the second one, uh, is actually an action of sabotage, isn't it? It isn't only that soil here is different, but there's an enemy that's involved, that's very active, and trying to destroy and, uh, and hurt the work of the sower. And in this parable, you have, again, the matter of sowing, but, uh, i- it's- it's a different parable. Who's the man? It has a different stress. Who is the man who goes out to sow here? Could you say this is anyone sowing the word of God? What is the seed? All right. Christ himself. So here in this parable, you don't, you can't really put yourself in as one in sowing. Here the Lord Jesus says, I'm the one who's basically doing this sowing. And as he goes through and sows, uh, he's sowing in the field. And what is the field? The world is the field, okay. He sowed good seed in his field, and uh, after he's through, it says an enemy came in at night and went through and planted weed seed. And his purpose was to, uh, try to destroy any way that he could the crop, you see, that, uh, the man had who sowed the good seed. He goes away, and then the, the uh, wheat starts coming up, and also the weeds. The field is the world. And what is the seed now that the Son of Man is sowing? All through the world, the, the Lord Jesus says, I'm the Son of Man, I go through and I'm planting seed. In this case, what are the seeds? Now, it's different here, isn't it, from the, um, from the word. What is it in this case? The good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, right. So these are believers. Now, these are real. These are those who have accepted the Lord Jesus, and he is planting them throughout the world. He has his witness throughout the world. It's a wonderful thing. If you go to different parts of the world, you find Christians. Now, some places are kind of scarce. You go to Turkey, and they're kind of scarce. But if you'd go to Istanbul, you'd find some believers, and there are some real Christians in Turkey. And in other countries as well. And throughout the world here, the Son of Man is seen as going around and he's planting his children. Now, who is the enemy who comes in and who, who sows the tares, who sows the weed seed? Who's the enemy? The devil. Okay. So the devil has come in, and he has sowed weed seeds, which it says here, uh, are the sons of the evil one. And he's gone through, and he's deliberately sowing weed seeds mixed in with the good seeds. What is the purpose? Why should he do this? Rick? Deceive. To deceive? All right. What is the weed seed going to do as far as, as the field is concerned. All right. It's going to, it's certainly going to weaken the crop, isn't it? It, it's going to, uh, instead of there being a beautiful field, a uniform field, it's going to be blotchy, there are going to be weeds here and there, and, uh, it's going to, in a way, hinder really the growth of the crop the way it should. And yet these weeds as they're growing up are very hard to distinguish from the wheat. Have you ever tried the weed in your garden when things are first coming up? If you've ever planted a vegetable garden, you wonder, well, now is this a carrot or is it a weed, you know? Yeah, what is this thing coming up? And you have to be real careful. You go in there and pull up all your crop and leave the weeds if you're not careful. So the thing to do as you wait, though, with time, it's going to become evident what this really is, isn't it? And this is, is true in this parable. Now, what I think he is, is showing us here is that here there's a warfare going on that Satan is trying to come in, into the field that really belongs to the Lord, and he's planting here, uh, this which is going to hinder, really, the purity of God's work. He plants weeds that in many ways look like wheat, and this confuses the whole picture. So he's very active doing this. Not only is there the problem, the individual's heart is, is, uh, doesn't respond, isn't good soil, but here Satan comes in, and he deliberately counterfeits, and he tries to sow throughout the field that which looks like wheat and yet isn't real. And this creates confusion. It really creates confusion. And you know, as we think of this, we realize how down through the years Satan has done this. Now, he can come out with a, a frontal attack and just persecute Christians, as the Roman Empire did. Or he can come along with Constantine and completely switch the whole thing and make Christianity a state religion, and then just baptize nations, make Christianity a state religion, and confuse the whole issue so that no longer can you say this person is a real Christian and this person is not a Christian, but you could have to say, well, they all say they're Christians. This guy goes out and roars around, gets drunk and chases women. He says he's a Christian, goes to church too, and the whole thing is confused. There isn't that clean, sharp line, and this is the way he's been working. And I think a lot of us, uh, as you've been having contact, as some of us did this morning, in connection with many church people, you realize many of them, uh, are not Christian at all. This one man, as he was talking to us this morning, said, this stuff that you're telling people is a damnable doctrine. It'll damn people. He says if people believe that, they'll be in hell forever. Because we were not insisting people be baptized in order to be saved, and we were not insisting that people had to keep rules in order to go to heaven. Because we were saying it was grace, because we were saying God loves people, and he wants to forgive their sins on the basis of Christ's work and that alone. If you'll accept him, if you'll trust him. He says it's a damnable doctrine. He says he's a Christian. He came out of a nice brick church building. He's putting his, his energy and his life into that thing. He argues for it. And yet his message is diametrically opposed to the message of grace. And you can see how Satan's been so active. Here is someone who, even though he, he may represent himself as a Christian, he doesn't have the Christian message at all. And so there's real confusion, isn't there? And it's a tragic thing. And ever since, uh, Constantine, we've had this problem, and even some before, but I want to turn to second Corinthians eleven and notice that in the days of Paul, he's warning about this. Second Corinthians eleven. Two eleven. And verse thirteen, he says, such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. Don't marvel, for even Satan fashions himself into an angel of light. This is in Paul's book. Satan has his messengers who go about as apostles. They say, we're ministers of God, we're servants of God. And Paul says that they're false apostles, false messengers. And they bring a false gospel. If you turn to Galatians one, do you notice this false gospel? In verse six Paul says, I marvel, he says, I'm amazed that you're so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel, which is not another gospel, only there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. So the false apostles, they have a false gospel. He says they perverted it. And Paul says very strongly in verse nine, as we have said before, so say I now again, if any man preaches to you any gospel other than that which you have received, let him be accursed. Strong language, isn't it? But false apostles with a false gospel will produce false brethren. And if you turn to, uh, Galatians chapter two and verse four, Paul says, and that because of the false brethren privily brought in, who came in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus. So here you have false messengers with a false message, and it produces false brethren. And this is sowing tares. This is what he's talking about. This is diluting the testimony of God. This is confusing the issue. This is, uh, creating a situation where many people will say, uh, I don't even know what a Christian is. I know what the guy's like that I work with, goes to church on Sunday, but he's got a filthy mouth on Monday. Is that Christian? What is Christian? And so the issue is very confused. Now, what happens in time? How is reality revealed? Say the farmer goes out, he looks at the field, uh, his servants come in and say, look, should we go out now and start pulling up the weeds? And he says, no, let them grow together until harvest. Let them grow together till harvest. And then I'll say to the reapers, go ahead, now you can gather them. Why did he say wait until the harvest? Because then the good seed, as he knew, would be brought out of the field. Okay. Wouldn't the wheat produce a certain kind of a, wouldn't it produce food in the other place? Okay. In time, time is going to show the reality of, of this, uh, type of plant. If it's wheat, it's gonna have a head of wheat. There's gonna be fruit in time, see? And so it's going to become obvious, it's going to become apparent in time. The Lord said, by their fruit you shall know them. And here in time, he says, you'll be able to tell which is the weed and which is true, uh, wheat, which is the, the real, uh, thing. Now, what is the Christian's attitude to be in connection with the world in which we find ourselves? And I want to read second Timothy two and verse twenty. He says, now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some unto honor and some unto dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work. Now, nowhere are we told to try to get rid of heretics forcibly. You know, they, the quote church at times has tried to do this. During the Inquisition, they would take a guy, and if he didn't agree with their doctrine, they'd put him on the rack, and their, their attitude was tighten it up another notch, because if we can save the man's soul, it's worth his suffering now. We make him recant, you know? The end justifies the means. Bring out the red hot poker and lay it across his lap and let the flesh sizzle, and if he'll recant, if he'll change his belief, you've saved his soul, and the end justifies the means. But the Lord Jesus certainly warns us against any, doing anything forcible. He says, let them go together. But what about us in our personal relationship? Here, I think we're, it's our personal obligation to, uh, disassociate ourselves from that which is false. For example, the church where we were this morning was a church which is not preaching the gospel, which says the gospel of God's grace is a damnable doctrine that will drag you down to hell. Now, could I, as a Christian, you know, go in and join and say, well, yeah, I believe like you do? Uh, we couldn't do it at all. So that here, as a Christian, my responsibility is certainly, uh, not to identify and be linked with that, and still to show love and to present the message of God's love, and not in any way to try to, to, uh, persecute or do anything to forcibly remove these heretics from the field. At the end, he says, there's judgment. The tares are going to be gathered and then cast into the furnace of fire. And what is the, what is the stress on here in this, would you say? Okay, when the Lord returns, there is going to be a separation, there is going to be judgment, and out of these seven parables, two emphasize judgment, and two emphasize the reality of hell. This one says there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so the Lord stresses very strongly, doesn't he, the reality of hell. It is real. There is judgment. God will punish the sinner. God is just, and he must judge sin. He must punish sin. And then he says, the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He that hath ears, let him hear. And so there's a tremendous stress here on judgment, uh, in connection with the sinner. Let me suggest a couple of purposes here in giving this parable. To warn us as disciples of Satan's counterfeit. Satan wants to dilute the testimony. He wants it to be such that people will look on there and say, well, that's Christendom, is it? Well, you know, I know this guy and, and know this other person, and uh, and they're just living a wicked life. They're living just like I am. To dilute the testimony. So as Christians, we're to be warned about this. He wants, if possible, uh, to keep the, the, uh, witness to his grace, to God's grace, uh, from being pure and simple. And we'll see that in the next two parables as well. And then he wants to also, um, I think, warn us against forcible measures to purify Christendom. Our responsibility is to keep ourselves pure and to, to stand for the Lord and to love all men. Never should there be any desire to any way forcibly, uh, take things in our own hands. We leave that to the Lord. He's going to separate, and he's going to separate the wheat from the tares. And, you know, then in connection with that too, I think there's a real note of optimism. At the end, does the, uh, farmer have a crop? Yes, he does. The enemy's busy, there's opposition, and, uh, uh, there's this struggle going on, but in the end, he says the wheat's going to be gathered, uh, into the granary. And so there- there's- there's this- this promise, and I can look with optimism to the end and realize, well, the Lord's purposes are going to be fulfilled, people are going to be saved, they're going to be gathered together. And so we can, as we even we think of this struggle and this, the forces of evil struggling against the word of God, uh, it can give you a note of real optimism. Any questions on that parable before we go on to the next one? Carl? Well, he uses his angels, and this is stressed. He sends forth his angels. He speaks the word, and they, they are his messengers, his servants, and they're seen here as harvesters going through and separating. Of course, now actually it's not going to be that hard for them. I mean, they're not going to have to go along and pull out one of us by our hair or something like this. Um, but eh, the idea is he he's using this figure here to emphasize the separation. He's going to speak the word, his servants are going to do the uh, the separating. And it's going to be uh, this final separation when he comes back to set up his kingdom. I'd like to say one more thing. Um, if you ever do talk to a Jehovah's Witness, they might, they might, uh, give you this, this argument, well, you call yourself a Christian. Why? Just what is Christianity? And they try to put you on the defensive. Mm-hmm. When you say that you're a Christian, but we can certainly use this parable in Matthew thirteen about the wheat. Right. Or the word rather than our own argument. We don't have to identify with all of Christendom. And, uh, I feel, I feel no responsibility for what, for example, the National Council of Churches is doing or the World Council of Churches. I don't feel I'm a part of it. I feel it's, it's the kingdom of the enemy mainly. Now, it's possible for a real Christian to be involved in this, in a compromising position, to be supporting it. And this is why, in connection with Babylon, remember he pleads with his people in Revelation eighteen and, um, verse four. He pleads with them to come out of Babylon. And so the picture there, here's this big false religious system, and and the Lord is pleading in the last days, come on out of that system and be a a faithful, loyal wife to me, bride for me, rather than being involved and mixed up in this, which is really contrary to God. It's very sad. There are many frustrated Christians that are staying in systems where they they're constantly, uh, feeling the thing is wrong. I've had people say to me, well, I don't feel, uh, like I can give money to the mission program because I know it's going to, uh, the World Council of Churches, and they're just using it for this and that and everything else, and it's not really going to spread the gospel. And they're frustrated. Well, it's tragic if you can't be wholehearted, you see, in what you're supporting. Scotty? That's good. That's good. Okay, I want to go on and notice the, uh, next two parables here. Craig. In the last parable, I always look at the, the sequence of the pears being taken out first, and it seems like in the rapture, so with the wheat taken out. Well, the point here is, is mainly separation. I don't know that you can stress the, the sequence of it, except that, uh, in some of these parables, he, he does, uh, use the, the natural situation. And when a man was, when it was time for harvest, he would go through first and cut out the weeds, and uh, and then go through and harvest the wheat. And he's, he's using the, the, the natural, uh, scene that they were familiar with, without, I think, necessarily stressing a time sequence, an exact time sequence of prophecy. So I wouldn't get hung up on that in this parable. Verse forty eight, he takes just the opposite order. He gathers the good fish first, cast the bad away second. Yeah. Well, the point is separation, not the time sequence. So I think we you, you need to, that's a good question. Now, let's read the next two, because they're going to give us some other, uh, light on what happens here, this progress. Verse thirty one: another parable said he before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is less than all seeds, but when it is grown, is greater than the herb and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another parable speaking unto them, the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven or yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leaven. Mustard seed. Now, let me suggest, I think we can, uh, follow a parallel along here. Since the Lord himself has said in both of the first two parables that here the man is, um, is the son of man. I think we can say the same could be true here. A man took, it's Christ himself. The field is the world. The mustard seed, a very small seed, about the size of a radish seed, and uh, this is a seed which, if it's planted, especially in a warmer climate like this, will grow into a, a small tree. It's not a that big a thing really, but it's larger than the herb, which is what he says. And it's big enough, it's like a bush, so the birds can come and and land in the branches, and they eat the seeds and so forth. Now, a small beginning and great growth. And I think you can say here the picture is great outward growth. Isn't that what happened? The Lord Jesus planted the seed. He started with twelve apostles. It grew to seventy. It grew to one hundred and twenty at Pentecost. And today, Christianity, quote, is one of the world's great religions. There are millions, I suppose over a hundred million people in this country would say, I'm a Christian. What's your religion? I'm a Christian. And so it's become a great thing, uh, that, uh, spreads all over the world, really. Now, what other things do we notice here? Well, it says the birds come and lodge in the branches. And I, I really think there's significance here because of what he said earlier about the birds coming and taking the seed away. And I would connect this, uh, with, with the fact that here, this which started so small has now become that which is like a tree that gives shelter to even Satan's messengers, to false teachers. Even as Paul could say in his day that here there are false apostles. And so here's this that starts small, it becomes huge, it becomes great, and now it's that which gives shelter to, even to, uh, Satan's messengers, the birds. And, uh, thi- this is the, the thing that we see today. A very, very tragic thing. A great, great organization, and yet some of the worst enemies of the gospel are those who are taking shelter in this great, uh, world church that we see around us. And so he stresses here a great outward growth from a very small beginning. He says that's the way it's going to go. The next one, and I'm kind of hurrying here because our time's getting away from us. The next one is a woman who takes yeast, and she mixes it in her meal, and this yeast spreads right through the meal until it is all permeated with yeast. What is yeast a picture of? The gospel. Um, now this is one interpretation of this, Bob. Some say this pictures the spread of the gospel through the church. But in other places in the New Testament, how is the word yeast used? So let's turn to Matthew sixteen and verses six and twelve. Matthew sixteen and verses six and twelve. Burro, do you want to read? Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Then understood they that he bade them not to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Okay, the teaching. And all through the New Testament, there's nowhere that leaven or yeast is used in a good sense. It's used in an evil sense. And perhaps that goes back to the book of Exodus, where on the day of Pen- of, uh, Passover, they were to have all yeast out of the house, and for a week they had this feast of unleavened bread, no yeast, and the Jews today still have a ritual about it. The man will go through the house and he said take a candle, and he looks under the bed, and he looks everywhere. No yeast in the house. I- it's quite a ritual, and they go through this at the beginning of this feast. The house is to be completely purified of all yeast, and it became a symbol of evil, and the Lord Jesus uses it as a symbol of the evil teaching, he says, of the scribes and the Pharisees, the Sadducees as well. False teaching. And I think we can say here in connection with the, um, church that false teaching has just, uh, permeated. Another scripture on that, Galatians five nine where he's speaking here of the false teaching that has come in. False teaching has spread, and the woman here is not a picture of the Son of Man, but I think actually of the, the false bride, uh, that is spreading teaching, a picture, in other words, like Babylon is, an evil woman. And this spreads through the whole of the meal. Now, the meal is supposed to be food. It's supposed to be, uh, good food, but here she takes this, which is supposed to be food, and she takes that which is a picture of evil, and it spreads all the way through. And I believe we have a picture here of the false teaching that has come into the church. And, uh, let's read a few scriptures here. Second Peter two and one to three. Second Peter two one to three. There There arose ro- false prophets also among the people, as among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privately bring in destructive heresies, denying even the master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. Many shall follow their lascivious doings, by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of, and in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose sentence now from of old lingers not, and their destruction slumbers not. False teachers, spreading false teachings, producing false brethren, deluding the testimony of the church, destroying truth, so that we go to places that say they're Christian churches, in many cases. Now, we're thankful, let me say this, that every, every place with a steeple on it is not necessarily preaching false doctrine. We're thankful for every place where the truth is preached. But the thing is, it's confusing now. If you move into a strange town, you go up and down, you look at churches, you don't know when you go in whether you'll hear the word of God or not. And the situation is confused, and there's so much false teaching. A very tragic thing. Churches which once stood for the gospel and stood for the deity of Christ and, uh, were strong in the teaching of the word. Today they're, you know, they're talking about the United Nations, or the most they can get excited about anything is the war in Vietnam. I don't know what they'll be excited about now. It's all over. Uh, they have no message, nothing positive. They're dealing with earthly issues, and it's very, very sad. And so here the, the picture is, you see, of the church coming in, or, or rather Christendom, and um, and completely deluding and corrupting the, the mer- the word of God, the message of God. And uh, let me give you a couple other scriptures in connection with this. Second Timothy three five to nine, and Second Timothy four one to four. where there's this stress on this false teaching that has been spreading. The last one was, uh, Second Timothy four one to four. You could also put down Jude verses twelve and thirteen. Now, the Lord told his followers these parables to prepare them, so you shouldn't be confused, but we need to be discerning. This means you have to evaluate, you have to, uh, when someone comes to you and he says he's a Christian, you have to say, well, what do you believe? What do you believe about Jesus? Is he the Son of God, or is he just a man? How do you believe a person gets right with God? Like some of these dear people, and you know, my heart was heavy as I saw them, and kids coming out of there, uh, beautiful children, and uh, happy, friendly, nice people. And yet the gospel of grace, which we were trying to present and love, they said is a damnable heresy that'll drag you down to hell. How sad, you see. The deception, the terrible deception that's come in. Recently, there was a, a conference of the Episcopal bishops and leaders out on the West Coast, and, um, a man who was there, who was a Christian, said, uh, here they were hassling about these different things, and one man was saying, well, uh, that that he, uh, he felt that really no longer did we talk about God and us, that we were gods now, and we just need to be humbler gods. And there was a, he says the only word he heard that was encouraging there was a little black woman who sat in back, and she said, the only way is to believe in Jesus. And, and then finally she got up and she walked out, and she was muttering, we could hear her. She says, I can't take it anymore, I'm going home. And she left. But here are the bishops, you know, uh, that, and the leaders in, in this case of a church that professes to be Christian, the tragedy of it. And yet, uh, denying basic truths of God's word. And this is the world in which we live.