Matthew 13:1–52

At the close of the previous chapter our Lord disowned all the natural ties which bound Him to Israel. I am speaking only of His bringing it out as teaching. In terms of history, the moment of the final break with them was the cross. But in terms of His ministry, if we may say so, the break happened, and He signalled it now. He took advantage of a reference to His mother and brothers to say who His real kindred were. They were no longer those connected with Him after the flesh. The only family He could own now were those who did the will of His Father in heaven. He recognises nothing but the tie formed by the word of God received into the heart and obeyed.

Up to this time the house of God was connected with Israel. There God dwelt, as far as this could be said of the earth; He counted it as His habitation. But Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside. We all know what the sea stands for in the symbolic language of the Old and New Testaments. It represents masses of men, roving here and there outside, not under the settled government of God.

He leaves the house, to sit by the seaside. Let anyone compare the picture of the woman who "is seated on many waters" in Revelation 17:1, and he will find the meaning of this. The angel interprets it for us in that chapter: "The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages." So here the Lord leaves the house, the place of recognised natural relationship. He takes His place, as it were, in the highway of the world's trade, which is what the sea is.

He separated Himself from the multitude. While in the first part of this Gospel He moves among the crowds, here He takes His place alone. There on the seashore stands the crowd, and He is alone, some way out — no one can reach Him by touch now.

He leaves the house, goes to the seaside, no longer seeking fruit in His vineyard, which bore none but bad — sowing that from which fruit was to come. The kingdom of heaven in its mystery, with an absent king, takes the place of Messiah upon earth.

The seven parables unfolded there bring in the idea of an entirely new departure and manner of activity on God's part. The law addressed itself to man as though God had until then been seeking to get something from man. He got nothing. Now that day was over, and a new kind of ministry was coming. God was going to put something into man, instead of trying to get something out of him — that was the principle of law: "A sower went out to sow." And "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" take the place of the kingdom in open display. That open display is put off to a day of glory still to come.

And now the Lord begins to speak in parables. This is deeply significant of the moment, because this way of speaking was one kind of judgment upon Israel... The Lord tells us Himself that He was now speaking in parables to fulfil the word of the prophet: "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive." Each parable had its own secret; but it was not given to Israel to know it. The Lord had a people whom these parables would instruct — instruct in mysteries, mysteries of the kingdom; but they left Israel in darkness.

Up to this time the house of God was connected with Israel. There God dwelt, as far as this could be said of the earth; He counted it as His habitation. But Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea... The very action of our Lord showed that a very widespread testimony was coming... The Holy Spirit here gives us seven connected parables, all brought together into one consistent system, to give a complete account of the new order of things about to begin — Christianity and the Christian world, the true as well as the false.

Israel is seen as set aside because of unbelief. The Lord went out of the house — a picture of Israel's house — and sat by the seaside. The sea pictures the Gentile nations (Rev. 17:15). So in Chapter 13 we can expect the teaching of a new era: the gospel going out to all the world. Because of great crowds gathered to hear Him, He preaches from a boat to His audience on the shore of the lake.

So He leaves the house, the sphere of natural family ties, and takes His place by the sea. The sea is the picture of man in the restlessness and barrenness of nature — man apart from God, and so the Gentiles. The gathering crowd does not hold Him back; it hurries His departure. He gets into a boat and sits down there — taking His place apart from them for good.

He separated Himself from the crowd. In the first part of this Gospel He moves among the crowds; here He takes His place alone. What a scene it must have been! There on the seashore the multitude, and He alone some way off from the shore — No one can reach Him by touch now. All is significant. Then, when all eyes hung upon His lips, He began to speak.

And now, in the same way, the Lord begins to speak in parables. This is full of meaning for that moment, because this way of speaking was one form of judgment upon Israel... They had their own secret, each of them; but it was not given to Israel to know it. The Lord had a people whom the parables would teach — teach them mysteries, the mysteries of the kingdom. But the parables left Israel in darkness.

On the shore of the lake of Galilee the Lord spoke four parables where the crowd could hear: the sower, the weeds, the mustard tree, and the leaven. Inside the house, alone with His disciples, He explained the parable of the weeds... In parables to the crowd the Lord gave the outward character of the kingdom of the heavens, as men would see it. Its aspect from God's point of view He kept for the special instruction of His disciples.

He leaves the house. That is a sign, I do not doubt, of the immense change in the ways of God. He sits in a boat on the sea and presents Himself as a sower — that is, He no longer seeks fruit, but carries with Him into this world what was to produce it.

This is the first time the word parable occurs in the New Testament. The disciples, struck by this method of teaching, asked the Lord: "Why do you speak to them in parables?" (v. 10). The Lord's answer is telling. It confirms that the teaching of the parables of the kingdom of heaven relates to the rejection of the king… This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.

The identity of the sower is not difficult to clear up. In explaining the second parable our Lord says: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man." Our Lord Himself is the Sower. He came with the precious seed, the fine wheat, and of course He Himself is the grain of wheat. The seed He sows can only bear fruit as it falls on good ground. In the ground it dies, and out of death comes the fruit… We would take this parable in the first sense to apply to the days of our Lord on the earth. In a wider sense we must take it as a picture of the whole age, while He is absent from the earth and the Kingdom is in the hands of men. The sowing He began continues still, and the result of sowing is likewise the same.

The Saviour likened Himself to a sower of seed (Matt. 13:3–8). This marks a new departure in the ways of God with man. In the earlier ages of the world's history God had been looking for fruit from man, above all from Israel. He had every right to do so. But He sought it in vain, because flesh is evil beyond cure… God no longer looks for fruit from man. His present action is to sow the good seed of the gospel, and so produce His own fruit. This work has been proceeding ever since the Son of God came to earth.

Mark calls the seed simply the word, with no qualification. In Luke we read something more exact: "The seed is the word of God." This phrase states the divine origin of the word… But in Matthew we have not the general term but the specific one. The seed is there described as the "word of the kingdom." This phrase covered the subject of the word, while that of Luke looked to its Author.

The seed was pure; it was the word of God. There could be no doubt about its power to grow… So wherever it fell, the only hindrance to a full crop would be the condition of the ground — in other words, the heart of the person it might come to. Men might think of blaming the Word for the apparent failure of the work. Against such thoughts the Lord would warn us… All who preach or teach may make sure that it is the word of God they are using. They can count on it being enough, as the Holy Spirit applies it, to do a divine work in the hearts and consciences of men.

The first parable is not a representation of the kingdom, but of the work by which the kingdom is formed. All the other parables in the chapter rest on it… The seed falls on four kinds of ground, and in only one does it bring forth fruit… How empty is the hope that preaching the gospel everywhere would bring blessing everywhere! … Gentiles as well as Jews were to hear the word of the kingdom.

The very fact that Christ came as the sower proved that Israel was set aside. If He had still been coming to Israel as His vineyard, He would have come looking for fruit from the vine He planted long ago. He had already come to Israel, looking for fruit and finding none. Now He comes in the new character of the sower, which is a completely different thing. He comes into an empty world, where there was nothing, and He starts a fresh work.

Here the sowing produces nothing at all. The seed falls on a hard, closed heart. It does not even sprout. Man's spiritual enemy carries it off at once. None of the blame for this failure belongs to the Sower or to the seed. Both are perfect, without a fault of any kind. But the ground was hard and beaten down, never ploughed, and the birds of the air were watching to steal the good seed.

It is a solemn thing to read even of a man like this that the word was "sown in his heart" (v. 19). That does not mean he was converted. He does not even "understand." But why? Because, like the path, the ground it is sown on is trodden too hard for the seed to sink in. The seed lies out in the open in front of the birds of heaven, almost inviting the tempter to "catch it away." There are many souls like this. They are taken up with things that harden them and deaden them to everything else — business or pleasure, lawful or lawless.

The "wayside" hearers are those who hear, but the word never reaches their conscience. It is like seed that falls on the hard road and never sinks below the surface. The birds of the air can eat such seed without trouble. Satan can take away what held only passing interest for the mind and never touched the conscience.

Birds are used as symbols of evil agents. In the dream of Pharaoh's baker, the birds ate the baked goods he was carrying on his head (Gen. 40:17). In the parable of the Sower, Christ explains that the birds which ate the seed by the path stand for "the wicked one" (Matt. 13:4, 19). In the parable of the Mustard Seed, the kingdom of heaven becomes a great system with roots in the earth, and the birds of the air shelter under it (Matt. 13:31-32). The Greek word is the same in both parables: πετεινόν.

Birds you never saw a moment before appear and carry off crumbs thrown on the ground. In the same way the enemy takes away the seed that was sown, because the hearer did not care for it.

But is this a question of mental capacity, of intellectual understanding? Not at all. The Lord says the word was "sown in the heart." It aimed itself at the conscience, and the hearer could accept it or reject it. But the heart would not have it and turned against it. "And does not understand it" means "he would not understand or receive it."

The man who heard it is no less guilty. What was sown in his heart fitted every need — man's nature and man's condition.

It is rocky ground, not stony: bedrock, with a slight layer of earth over it. In it the seed grows fast, but only at the surface. That is the very thing that destroys it a little while later. At first the rock works like a hot-house: "immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil." Then the sun grew hotter and scorched it. And because it had no root, it withered away.

There was a more hopeful appearance in this case. The word was received, but the ground was rocky; there was no depth of earth. Appearances came very quickly — "immediately they sprang up." There is little or no sense of sin. Everything is taken in far too readily. "The plan of salvation" may be thought excellent. There may be no denying that his mind has been enlightened. But such a person has never measured his awful condition in God's sight. The good word of God is tasted, but the ground is rocky. Conscience has not been properly exercised. Whereas, in a real work of heart, conscience is the soil in which the word of God takes effect. There can never be a real work of God without a sense of sin.

Here it is the nature of the ground that is at fault. With the hearer beside the path, you could argue that circumstances made him what he was. The traffic over that ground had packed it hard. Here it was the nature of the ground itself. The prophet — or rather, God through him — speaks of a "heart of stone" (Ezekiel 36:26). Beyond question, that is exactly what is pictured here. Yet there is earth as well, a surface responsiveness which promises a great deal at the start.

In the next class of hearers, the stony ground illustrates the opposition of the flesh. And for this purpose it is pictured, not at its worst, but at its best... Here is not the natural man's rejection of the Word, but his reception of it. Yet there is no more real fruit than in the first case.

Some also received the word with joy. This was proof that the conscience was untouched. When the conscience is reached, the result is anything but joy — until forgiveness is known. The feelings may be stirred for a time, and the word listened to with a joy that will give way to sorrow. The reason truth is taken up so lightly with joy is that there is no root, and so it is received in joy and given up in trouble.

Everything is fine with those who receive the word with joy but have no root, while they live at ease in the world. They produce fruit as fair and promising as any seen in the church. But then comes worldly loss and persecution for confessing Christ. When trials and afflictions and the cross meet them on their way, they stumble. These are the scorching sun that withers the seed and all its fruit.

The importance of this process in the soul cannot be overestimated. The lack of it is the secret of so much of the shallow profession all around us. The seed gets no deep root in unbroken ground. The deeper the furrow made by the ploughshare of conviction, the deeper the root, and the more abundant the fruit in later days.

It is rocky ground, not stony: bed-rock with a slight layer of earth over it. In that thin soil the seed grows fast, but only near the surface. The very thing that destroyed it a little later was what first produced this hot-house growth: "immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil." Later the sun grew hotter and scorched it. Because it had no root, it withered away.

In the next case the word is received at once with joy. That tends to prove the heart will not keep it, for the conscience was hardly reached. A conscience touched by the word makes a man serious. He sees himself in the presence of God, and that is always a serious thing, however much His grace attracts him or His goodness gives him hope. If the word has not reached the conscience, there is no root. He received the word for the joy it gave; when it brings trouble, he gives it up.

All is well with those who receive the word with joy but have no root, while they live at ease in the world. They produce fruit as fair and promising as any seen in the church. But then loss in the world and persecution come on them for confessing Christ. When trials and afflictions and the cross meet them on their way, they are offended. These are the scorching sun that withers the seed and all its fruit.

Normally the sun's rays would have driven the seed to root deeper and firmer, as the root struck downwards in search of moisture. Here the heat withered it instead, and hurried the growth to its total destruction.

In this case the seed sprang quickly into life and showed very rapid growth. But the burning sun beat down on these lush young plants. They were so scorched that they withered and died. There was a great deal of green stalk and leaf on display, but no matching root development. So at the crucial moment, when they needed it most, they "lacked moisture" (Luke 8:6), and they withered away. They had no underground connection with springs or streams of water, such as the tree of the first Psalm had.

So there is no root in the man himself; Christ is not his real and great necessity. Therefore, "when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away." This is the religion of the flesh, of sentiment, of unreality. This is its end. It lacks the sign and seal of a work that is truly divine — permanence. It "lasts for a while." "I perceive that whatever God does endures forever" (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

Notice the words, "immediately receives it with joy." There is no deep work of conscience, no moral judgment of self or of sin. As a result there is no depth of root, no power of endurance… We should ponder with the greatest care how these expressions hang together: "immediately, with joy," "no root," "withered away." A person may take in the plan of salvation with the mind only, with no spiritual work in the conscience. That is a great danger. Such a reception often comes with the most joyful emotions. It stirs the natural feelings, but the truth has not entered the heart. The Word has cut no furrow.

Here the ground is already occupied with something else, and something that is native to the soil as well. The thorns were there before the seed fell among them. So much so that Matthew takes no account of the seed's apparent growth at all — only of the thorns. Luke mentions that growth only to show that the flourishing thorns choked the seed.

In the thorny ground hearers, the roots of thorns already filled the ground before the good seed fell into their hearts. Those roots are the desires for the things of this life, for riches and pleasures. They sprang up and choked the word. Although the roots were already in the heart, they did not spring up until the good seed was sown there. The heart may not show how firmly present things grip it. No one may even realise it, until the word of God comes and tests it.

"Other seeds fell among thorns." There you have the world. The Lord says, "the cares of this age" — that is the first thing mentioned. Then "the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things," or "pleasures of life." Those are the three things mentioned in Mark and Luke.

Poverty and riches, as Agur long ago noted (Prov. 30:8-9), are seen here as alike unfavourable to spiritual life. Yet riches may entice the poor, and care may weigh heavily upon the prosperous rich man. The deceitfulness of riches is so great a snare that the Lord said elsewhere a rich man can hardly enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 19:23). But He was careful to keep this from meaning that salvation itself differs for different classes of people. Everyone who realises his need of salvation belongs to one class only: "Christ died for sinners" covers every case.

The influence of present things on eternal things is not openly hostile, as affliction and persecution were in the previous class. But it is just as deadly, and far more dangerous, because it works so quietly. The thorns were growing too near the seed. A mile away it would not have mattered. Because they were close, they could secretly and effectively rob the good seed of the light, air, moisture and nourishment it needed from the soil.

The Lord shows here how utterly impossible it is to produce fruit for God while the heart is occupied with the world. In Luke the whole range of worldly influences is shown — its cares, its riches, its pleasures. The three combined, or any one of them, may so fill the heart that the word of God does nothing in it. It falls on the ear. The mind may even quietly agree with it. Yet it produces no saving faith in the soul and no fruit in the life, because there is no purpose of heart for God and no break with the world.

We all know that since the fall the ground produces thorns and briars. People have tried many methods to get rid of them. Experience has taught the farmer that there is only one way to do it. He may plough and harrow, but for every root he breaks, two plants will grow up, and his field will become a briar patch. Let him instead sow the field with grass seed, and as the grass grows up it will drive out the briars. This is overcoming evil with good... Let the positive things of Christ fill the heart. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Then we will have little room and less desire for the lusts of the flesh.

The Saviour likened Himself to a sower of seed (Matt. 13:3-8). This marks a new turn in God's ways with man. In earlier ages God had looked to man for fruit, and to Israel above all. He had every right to do so. But He looked in vain, for the flesh is evil beyond cure... God no longer looks for fruit from man. He now sows the good seed of the Gospel, and so produces His own fruit.

The sower here is the Lord Himself, yet out of four casts of the seed, three are unsuccessful. Only in the last case does the seed bear ripe fruit. Even there the result is mixed and held back — "some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." Natural things still hinder fruitfulness, more or less.

Someone may ask why the hearts of some are compared to good ground, when Scripture teaches that every heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. It is not because there is anything good in them by nature. Only the facts are given here, not the cause behind them. We simply see the preaching of the word and the receiving of it.

We are not told what has made it good. But if we have the devil, nature, and the world in the first three parables, what influence is left? There is nothing but the Holy Spirit. Today we badly need to say that the plough must come before the seed-basket. What makes the heart good? He who has gone out to plough the unbroken ground and sow the seed.

This group alone describes true believers, and all of them bear fruit, though the Lord names three different measures. Thirty-fold is not large, but it is fruit; sixty-fold is more fruit, and one hundred-fold is much fruit (John 15:2-5).

In the other cases the power of Satan and the attractions of the world kill the growth completely. Here they only reduce the amount of fruit produced.

If all that is in the natural heart hates and rejects the word, why does it bear fruit here? Our Lord Himself tells us at the start of John 15: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser." That is why the seed takes root in any heart and produces fruit. God values and loves every branch of the true vine so much that He Himself stoops to be their vinedresser. First He gives them the power by which the seed takes root and grows. Then, when it becomes a branch in Christ, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

Does the difference come from faithfulness or from opportunity? The Lord does not take up the question here. But other scriptures show that God will take both into account in the great Day of Rewards.

Is this difference of order a mere accident? No, it is designed, and there is a divine purpose in it... the order of the words in Matthew points to the decline of the whole company of people who profess faith — yes, even in the fruit-bearing of the good seed. This is not through any defect in the good seed, which is the Word, but through some bad quality in the good ground.

The suggestion that an age running to its end may account for the falling numbers will hardly fit here... Even so, may our hearts long to prove in full the work of God in our souls.

Even where the heart does not refuse the truth, but receives it outwardly, it can abandon it just as quickly. The same will that makes a man gladly receive the gospel makes him drop it in the face of difficulties. But in some cases the word does produce blessed effects. It fell on good ground and brought forth fruit in different degrees. "Who has ears to hear, let him hear." This is a solemn warning to souls. They must look carefully at whether or not they produce according to the truth they have received.

While He was here on earth, the Lord often cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." That is, the one who has an inward ear — an ear opened by the Holy Spirit to listen to the messages given and to receive them.

It is an ear to hear. It is the very lowest qualification. It is not, Can you work? Can you do anything? Israel in the wilderness had no ear, and was overthrown; so will you be also if you have none. God says: Does My word have any entrance into your hearts? Have you gained any blessing from anything I have ever said to you? Here is My challenge to you: "He who has an ear, let him hear."

He ended it with the solemn words, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Having ears to hear, or not having them, would show at once whether a man belonged "within" or "without." Most of His listeners thought it was a pretty story, pleasant to the ear. They left it there, which showed they were outside. Others, including the disciples, were not content with this. They pushed further to reach its inner meaning. They belonged to the inside.

It is not the law laid down to an ordered people on penalty of death. It is the word, wherever received in faith, to produce fruit. The great principle the Lord introduced when He was here is individual responsibility. This He repeats from on high. The kingdom, when set up, in no way weakens it, as we learn here. The church, as we know from elsewhere, brought in the communion of saints, shared submission, and shared action. Even so, God never allows anyone to give up individual responsibility.

"He who has ears to hear" answers, in principle, to "The sower went out to sow." He spoke it to Israelites, but not to them as a nation in a fixed position. He spoke it to the gracious work going on in their own minds and souls. But in principle, whoever had ears, this being so, it applied to him and was for his profit too; and here any Gentile, or anyone whose ear God opened, came in. It stands as a solemn warning on the sowing of the seed: everything is ruined, and God is acting in grace, taking these pains before judgment falls.

It was a summons to the individual to free himself from the heedless mass. The Lord made this appeal to His people on earth. He repeated the same cry to each of the seven churches in Asia: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." In the middle of general church decline, the Lord calls for individual faithfulness in paying attention to His word and His warning.

"The disciples came up to Him and said, Why do You speak to them in parables?" This question came right after He had finished this first parable. They had never heard a parable from His lips. Before this, He had spoken to the people and their leaders in simple words that everyone could easily understand. Now, for the first time, He said something they could not grasp. It was veiled. The answer our Lord gives is deeply solemn, because it announces the judgment upon Israel.

The prophet had said, "Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness" — here the King is rejected. Yet if they rejected Him, grace still goes on, and flows out to the Gentiles. The Lord had closed Jewish relationships, and spoken at the end of chapter 12 of a new family, a new relationship formed by the word of God. So He leaves the house, goes to the sea, and instead of a king reigning, it is "Behold, a sower went out to sow."

The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel in a former day — full of light to those within, full of obscurity to those outside. So it is with the sayings of our Lord. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn now that it was not His intention to give clearer light. Conscience was gone. They had the Lord among them, bringing in full light, and He was refused, especially by the religious leaders. He had now broken with them: here was the clue to His conduct. … The truth stayed hidden from the crowd, because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God.

The Lord's answer is telling. It confirms that the teaching of the parables of the kingdom of heaven ties directly to the rejection of the King. This was a case of "judicial blindness." … This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.

This does not mean God hid these things from them because He did not want them converted. In fact, if people would only admit their ignorance and ask in earnest, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.

A parable, then, especially in its more formal form, stated divine truth under the cover of an illustration. Only those who were truly hungry for the truth would look inside. For them, there would be no difficulty. … But this speaking in parables suggests a moral distance, a separation between the Lord and the mass of the people. If they were to grasp His teaching, they had to want to.

The mystery is no longer "hidden in God" — it is disclosed. You must always keep this in mind when you read about the mystery: it is now revealed, and nothing is left in the dark. The secret is set out in the light of God, and the simplest Christian is expected to receive it. So Christ said to His disciples, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." … Can any words do more to clear away the common idea that a mystery is something we cannot understand?

The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel long ago — full of light to those inside, full of darkness to those outside. So it is with the sayings of our Lord. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn that He did not intend to give clearer light. Conscience was gone. They had the Lord among them, bringing in full light, and they refused Him — above all the religious leaders. He had now broken with them: here is the clue to His conduct. It stayed hidden from the crowd, because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God.

This was a case of "judicial blindness." The Lord quotes Isaiah to show it. That people's heart had grown dull. They barely heard with their ears, and they had shut their eyes. This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.

The mystery is no longer "hid in God"; God has disclosed it. Always keep this in mind when you read about the mystery: it is now revealed and nothing is left in the dark. God sets the secret out in His own light, and the simplest Christian is expected to receive it. So Christ said to His disciples, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven." All the other mysteries of God are made known in the same way. Could anything more completely clear away the common idea that a mystery is something no one can understand, and that godly people dare not look into?

In Scripture the word mystery does not point to what is mysterious, the way people use the word. It presents some distinctive truth that God has disclosed for our understanding. The New Testament holds many such mysteries, and what they contain is there to enlighten the saints. But only those with faith can profit by these divine unveilings. Only the faithful are let into their truths. Only those who have the Spirit of God have the capacity and the power to grasp the mind of God revealed in this way. God wants to bring you and me into His secrets: do we want to know them?

We have not had the word "mysteries" before in connection with the kingdom of heaven. The testimony of the prophets about the kingdom had no mystery about it. This comes as a result of Israel rejecting Christ. So notice, in verse 35, that all this stayed secret until now.

While the King is rejected His kingdom cannot be a public affair. When it is public, the kingdom of heaven will be on open display: the thousand-year reign of Christ. Meanwhile the kingdom is in mystery. The rightful Heir is away, so the kingdom is left in the hands of men who are responsible for it. It stands in a world that has rejected the rightful Heir, a world whose every principle is against God.

Because of their faith, the Lord would make known to them the mystery of the kingdom of God. Even this was a display of His grace. Many prophets and righteous men in Old Testament times had longed to hear the things they were now hearing, but they never had that privilege. You could say this was the Lord's sovereign grace. He chose to bless those who had done what they were responsible to do: they received Him.

The same parable would be just like the cloud that led Israel long ago — full of light for those inside, full of darkness for those outside... The Lord was among them, bringing in full light, and they refused Him, above all the religious leaders. He had now broken with them, and that is the clue to His conduct... So it was with the disciples. They had already received Him, and now the Lord would give them truth to lead them on. "But from the one who has not" (Israel, who was rejecting Christ), "even what he has will be taken away" — the Lord's presence in person and the proof of His miracles would soon pass away.

Whoever has really made the truths he has heard a living possession will always be given more. But the one who has received it only as something dead and outward will lose even what he seems to have, but really has not.

What we do not have in the power of faith for real use, we do not have in deed and in truth.

To understand this verse we must see these people in the place of privilege God had given them as a nation. As such they had something the other nations did not have. But they did not have this new thing which Christ was opening out. So as a nation they were about to lose the standing they once had before God. Those who had received Jesus as their Messiah, though, were about to be brought into the kingdom of heaven in its heavenly character.

The end of verse 12 is very solemn: "from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." In another place it reads "seems to have." It is possible to have something that will be taken from you. Where the Lord speaks of the talents, the man with one talent is a servant of the Lord Jesus, yet his talent is taken from him and given to the man who had ten. That talent was light he had; people are responsible for the light they have.

But this two-edged sword cuts another way as well. The principle our Lord states here is still at work. The true believers who make up the church have, and in due time we shall have abundance. Meanwhile a Christian world that has fallen away from the faith has not, and will lose even what it boasts of having.

If you do not go forward, you will go backward. If you are not making progress, you are falling behind. If you are not entering into what God has given you in His word, you are losing what you already have... Thanks be to the grace of God, this loss is not absolute and final. But we do lose the enjoyment of what is our own.

This is the first time the word parable occurs in the New Testament. The disciples, struck by this way of teaching, asked Him: "Why do you speak to them in parables?" (v. 10). The Lord's answer is telling. It links the parables of the kingdom of heaven directly to the rejection of the king… This was a case of "judicial blindness". The Lord quotes Isaiah to show it: "their eyes they have closed" (v. 15). They could not see because they had refused to see.

This rejection of Jesus, and the destruction of Jerusalem that followed, cut short all God's dealings with them as a nation for the time. They were set aside, and a new work began. Meanwhile judicial blindness falls on them, and the words of Isaiah the prophet come true. So He speaks to them in parables… Before this the Lord had not spoken in parables. But now He is the rejected One, and Israel is cut off for the time. None understand except those He instructs.

These people the Lord was speaking about had closed their eyes. It does not say God closed them. They closed them themselves, and so they did not receive the light of this new thing.

Matthew 13:13-15 shows plainly that Israel's wilful blindness came before their judicial blindness… In His absolute justice, God has now confirmed that blindness for the whole time that grace is going out to the Gentiles.

suniemi (from sun and iemi) means "to bring or set together"… It then stands for the soul's built-in capacity to do this. It joins the outward object to the inward sense. It is to weigh a thing, think it over closely, and so grasp its meaning. See Matthew 13:13-14 and the parallel passages.

Take people who did not have the word of God, whom the gospel would test when it went out to them in due time. For them the question was believing something they had never heard before. In Matthew the words go to a people who already had the word, and for them the great thing was to understand it. This they did not do.

The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel in an earlier day — full of light to those inside, full of darkness to those outside. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn that He did not intend to give clearer light… He kept it from the crowd because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God… They loved darkness rather than light. What is the good of a light to one who shuts his eyes?

The design lies on the surface, so the opened eye can read it. Yet, clear as it is, "the wise and prudent" of this world do not see it… But it is always like this in God's teaching: to grasp the truth we must be taught by God. This is absolutely necessary. The keenest intellect is wholly unable to discern the mind of God.

He had also warned them plainly. If they refused to hear Him, He would bring on them the sentence He went on to pronounce… So they were without excuse. No one can accuse the Lord Jesus of unfairness when He chose to begin speaking to them in parables. The Judge of the earth will always do right, even in judgment.

If people would only admit their ignorance and ask in earnest, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.

suniemi (from sun and iemi) means "to bring or set together"... As a picture, it came to stand for the soul's own power to do this: it joins the outward object to the inward sense. It means to weigh a thing, think it over carefully, and so grasp what it means.

Israel, as such, had forfeited its place, and therefore was "a people of no understanding" (Isa. 27:11). Long patience had waited on Israel. Seven hundred years had passed since God gave Isaiah the word, "Go and tell this people: you will hear indeed, but not understand." As individuals they might gather around the person of the Lord, but as a nation they were blinded... The testimony to Israel is now closed, though God's final purpose for them is not.

The blinding here is plainly judicial. God Himself has given them sightless eyes and unhearing ears. But why is this? It is no arbitrary judgment. Matthew 13:13-15 shows clearly that Israel's wilful blindness came before their judicial blindness... Now God, in His absolute justice, has confirmed this blindness. It stands for the whole length of the present period of grace to the Gentiles — "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."

Turn to Matthew's Gospel and you will see this. The Lord speaks of the complete fulfilment (anapleroo) of this prophecy, and He quotes the Greek version, not the Hebrew text (Matt. 13:13-15). The people had themselves closed their eyes. Mark and Luke record only the first part of the prophecy, which states Israel's condition of hearing and not understanding. All three agree in showing that the Lord took up teaching in parables because of their unfeeling moral state.

Our Lord quotes another prophecy of Isaiah, which was now coming true... These words come from Isa. 6:9-10, and there they are joined to what follows. The prophet says, "Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities lie waste with no inhabitant, and the houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate, and the LORD has removed people far away, and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land." The Saviour's quotation from this passage matters. It settles that this predicted period of Israel's desolation is the period in which the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven exist and develop.

Paul spoke a final word to the unbelieving Jews before they left, quoting the passage from Isaiah 6 — the passage the Lord Himself quoted in Matthew 13, and John quotes in chapter 12 of his Gospel. This sad and terrible process of hardening and spiritual death had set in even in the days of Isaiah some seven centuries before Christ. It was much stronger when Christ was on earth, and now it has reached its final stage... As a nation they are blinded and without understanding in the things of God, though very sharp about the things of the world. This does not, of course, conflict with God still calling out a remnant according to the election of grace, as Romans 11 states.

The Lord's answer is telling. It confirms that His teaching in parables about the kingdom of heaven is directly related to the rejection of the king (vs. 11, 13). This was a case of "judicial blindness." The Lord quotes from Isaiah to show this. This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.

The heart of the people had grown fat. A thick insulation encased it, so that the precious truth of God could make no impression. Their ears had become dulled so as not to hear properly, and they themselves had closed their eyes. This was willful blindness, because they did not want the truth.

Compare these passages. The Gospels quote this prophecy, and so does the apostle Paul when he speaks to the Jews at Rome. Both point to the nation deliberately closing its own ears. "Their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed" (Acts 28:27). This wording comes from the Greek version of the Old Testament, which gives the passage this turn. Their sin was therefore their own deliberate action, and the nation is held responsible for it.

The hardening itself is clear and certain. God never made any man bad. But He may give people up to the consequences of their own folly and evil — and in certain cases He does. That is, He hardens in judgment those who despise and reject His grace. All are responsible. Sin destroys the capacity, not the responsibility, of obeying God.

The blinding here is a judgment from God. He Himself has given them sightless eyes and ears that do not hear. But why is this? It is no arbitrary judgment. Matthew 13:13-15 shows that Israel's willful blindness came before their judicial blindness. God, in His absolute justice, has now confirmed that blindness for the whole length of the present period of grace to the Gentiles — "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."

Understanding is of the heart (Matt. 13:15). Mary kept the deep sayings about the Christ in her heart. In secret she kept pondering them, so that she might understand them in time (Luke 2:19, 51).

If Israel would only listen to His voice, every present earthly blessing was to come upon them and overtake them, as the Lord's glorious promise put it. Among these blessings was the removal of all sickness, as we read again and again (Ex. 15:26; Ex. 23:15). So the pardon of their sins and their healing are treated as the same thing (see Matt. 13:15 and Mark).

The nation as such is given up to hardness of heart. There is no use in increasing their condemnation with more light. And yet the very fact that He speaks to them at all shows that all are not given up. If any are in earnest enough to look past the outward form, they will still find a gracious heart beating towards them. The national rejection leaves individual responsibility where it always is. He that has an ear, as the Lord tells them, still may hear.

Are you a self-satisfied rejecter of the truth? Then beware, in case He gives you up to blindness and hardness of heart too. How long has God held out His hands, ready to receive you?

That is how the Lord refers to them in verse 16 of our chapter... It is negative in verse 13, but positive in verse 16. It is striking that when our Lord quotes from Isaiah it says, "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive." That looks at their side, their responsibility. So hearing comes first. But where God is working in the heart, seeing comes first. The Pharisees saw only what natural eyes can see. They could not see these spiritual realities.

People say that we gain knowledge in three ways. By observation, using our eyes. By teaching, using our ears. By intuition, using our brains. But these human faculties are of no use when it comes to grasping divine things. That is why we read, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear."

The design lies on the surface, where an opened eye can read it. And yet, clear as it is, "the wise and prudent" of this world do not notice it. Like the pillar of fire, it gives light to Israel and is only darkness to the Egyptian. But it is always like this in divine teaching: to grasp the truth we must be taught by God.

Speaking to His disciples, He said, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." They were His followers, because they had heard Him. As the sheep of the "little flock" they had heard the voice of the good Shepherd. When He was instructing His disciples, He described them as those who heard... These had hungered and thirsted after the word of righteousness. They were blessed indeed, for His ministry as the Prophet filled them.

Until after the blood had been shed, they knew very little of what those words meant — "Blessed are your eyes, for they see." But what did they see? "The glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." And what they saw, and heard, and touched, they received — the eternal life which was in the bosom of the Father.

He Himself emphasised the privileges of their position in Matthew 13:16-17... Others had looked and longed for His coming; the disciples had Him before their eyes day after day.

The Spirit forms in the believer a faculty to understand what is revealed. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:16, "But we have the mind of Christ." This is a remarkable statement. It means we have the thinking faculty of Christ. God has worked in our hearts, so that we recognise He is revealing Himself. And He has given us His Spirit, so that we may understand what is revealed.

The Lord once said to His disciples, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." The crowd around them were hard of heart, dull of hearing, and their eyes were closed... Are our eyes and ears spiritually alert in this day? Are we able to enter into the mind of the Lord, and so walk intelligently in a dark world?

In verse 11 the Lord shows why He speaks in riddles to the crowd. There is now a clear distinction between the remnant and the nation. The nation was under the judgment of blindness that the prophet Isaiah pronounced. Blessed were the eyes of the disciples that saw Emmanuel, the Messiah — the One so many prophets and righteous men hoped for and longed for. All this marks judgment, and a called and spared remnant.

Because of their faith, the Lord would make known to them the mystery of the kingdom of God (v. 11). Yet even this was really a display of His grace. Many prophets and righteous men in Old Testament times had longed to hear the things they were now hearing, but had not had that privilege.

The word epithumeo means "to desire earnestly," and is often translated "desire," without the thought of the desire being an evil one, as in Matt. 13:17; 1 Tim. 3:1; 1 Peter 1:12.

The prophets did not see these things because they were not presented to them. They only came to light when the Lord brought them out. The Father raised up so many of those faithful men and gave them life. They worked wonderfully for God in their day, yet they did not know these wonderful things which have now been made known to us.

The prophets of old spoke both of the sufferings of Christ and of the glories that would follow. But we stand now between sufferings finished and glories yet to come. The prophets were foretelling these things, but they had not yet come. So they searched to see what kind of time the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing to. As they studied their own testimonies, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but us. This is very striking. They were so far from telling out the expectations of their own minds that they had to study their own prophecies to understand them, if possible.

We can recall the privileges of the patriarchs, the prophets and the kings of Old Testament times. The Lord appeared to them and spoke to them. But great as these things were, they could not compare with the presence of the Son of God who had come as man, and the words He spoke and the works He did.

But it is plain that even that wonderful privilege was below the mighty increase brought in by His death, resurrection and ascension. That was even more true once the Holy Spirit was given, to grasp it all fully and to bear witness to it.

Many prophets and righteous men had wanted to see what the disciples saw, but never lived to their day. Will they be robbed of their joy? No. They shall see the day of Christ's glory. They shall see the crop that has come from the seed they sowed in patience and under hardship — seed known perhaps only to themselves and to God.

Then follows the explanation of the parable. We have the meaning of "the birds of the air" given to us. It is not left to any guesswork of our own. In Matthew the point is understanding; in Luke, believing. The Jews already knew the word of God, so their great point was to understand what God taught — and self-righteousness never understands. Though they heard with their ears, they did not understand with their hearts.

The first parable stands by itself. Unless we understand it, we shall not understand the others. The great work now was to be the sowing of the "word of the kingdom" in the hearts of men. This does not give any special place to the Jew. In verse 19, Jesus said, "When anyone hears," so that opened the door to each hearer of the word, whoever he might be. What was needed was to hear with understanding. Three things work against that: the activities of the devil, the fickleness of the flesh, and the cares and riches of the world. But some do receive the word, and there is fruit in varying measures. This method of divine working is still in use. It marks the day in which we live. Christianity is based not on what it finds in man but on what it produces by the power of God.

The very fact that Christ came as the sower proved that Israel was set aside. If Israel had still been His vineyard, He would have come seeking fruit from the vine He had long before planted. He had come to Israel before, seeking fruit and finding none. He now comes in the new character of the sower, which is quite another thing. He comes into a waste world, where there was nothing, and He begins a fresh work. God is not now looking for fruit from man in one sense, because man has been proved to be a bad tree.

The Lord came and began to sow the seed which alone can make anyone fruitful. His coming and service proclaimed the ruin of man by the Fall. By nature none of us can be fruitful for God. The first need is the seed, and it must come from outside. The seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11). Nothing less will do. Civilization, training, education and example are all useful in their way. But alone or together, they cannot take the place of the seed. God's voice must be heard in the soul.

In Matthew it is the soil. He said, "Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom" (13:18-19). It is not hard to see why this should be so in Matthew. There Matthew presents Christ to Israel as the Messiah. Only this Gospel calls the seed "the word of the kingdom." Everything depended on how people received that word about His person and kingdom. That word tested the character of the soil.

We learn another solemn truth from this. The great thing that hinders spiritual understanding is religious prejudice. The Jews were charged with not understanding. They were not idol-worshippers or open unbelievers. But they had a system of religion in their minds, one they had been trained in from childhood. It darkened their grasp of what the Lord was bringing out. So it is now.

All heard, but how few cared to know the interpretation... There were those outside — and how many — who did not care to know. There were some who wanted to understand, which showed they were inside. To such it was given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. This was great favour, but it came with responsibility. The light they received was to be shown to others. So they had to take care what they heard.

Matthew speaks of understanding — that is the great point for the Gospel writer who speaks of the word of the kingdom. Luke speaks of the word of God — "the seed is the word of God" — so that those who believe (not those who understand) should be saved. Matthew speaks of hearing and understanding, Luke of believing and being saved. This fits the different aims of the Gospels well. In Matthew we see a people of God whom God is already dealing with. The Messiah proclaims the kingdom of heaven and puts them to the test. Those who had set their hearts on worldly things did not understand the Messiah, and did not care for the word of the kingdom.

Is it a question of mental capacity, of an intellectual understanding? Certainly not. The Lord says the word was "sown in the heart;" it had appealed to the conscience, and the hearer could either accept it or reject it. But the heart would not have it and turned against it. "And does not understand it" means "he would not understand or receive it."

Here is another solemn truth. The main thing that blocks spiritual understanding is religious prejudice. The charge against the Jews was that they did not understand. They were not idol-worshippers or open unbelievers. But they carried a system of religion in their minds, one they had learned from infancy, and it darkened their grasp of what the Lord was bringing out. So it is now.

The ground where the seed falls is too hard-trodden for it to sink in. It lies exposed to the birds of heaven, and almost tempts the tempter to catch it away. There are many such souls. They are taken up with what hardens them and deadens them to other influences — business or pleasure, lawful or lawless. What matters here is the effect, not how it came about.

True, the Lord says it was "sown in his heart," and that is a solemn thing... In the parable the word has first been sown in the heart: Satan could not prevent that. It has made its appeal to the conscience and commended itself there as truth. It was sown in the heart for the man to accept or refuse. Conscience approves it, but that is not faith; faith always engages the person's will. Conviction is not acceptance.

The word may be sown in a heart that does not understand it. It may create no link of understanding, of feeling, or of conscience between the heart and God. Then the enemy takes it away, and it does not remain in the heart. The one who heard it is no less guilty. The seed sown in his heart suited every need, both the nature and the condition of man.

The wayside hearers are those who receive nothing from God. The evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in the heart. Unless the word reaches the conscience, and the man judges his sin before God, there is no new life. The one who only hears stays in a death never lifted from him; he is not born again; he cannot see or enter the kingdom. The seed does not take root. Instead the birds devour it, that is, the enemy.

"Stony ground" may not mean quite what we usually mean by the word. It is not ground with stones in it, because stones alone would not stop the root from getting down into the earth. What the blessed Lord means here by stony ground is a solid surface of rock, with a very slight and thin coating of earth over it. The seed falls there and — a very remarkable thing — it springs up at once. … It springs up fast in proportion to the lack of depth.

"As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy" (v. 20). There you have the heart, moved in its affections, but without exercise of conscience. He receives the word with joy right away. There is great gladness about it, but there it ends. Only the Holy Spirit acting on the conscience makes a person see things as they are in God's sight.

The stony ground hearers are the impressionable yet superficial folk. They respond to the word at once with gladness, but have no real sense of what it means. It was said of true converts that they "received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess. 1:6). That affliction came before their gladness. It came from the word convicting them and waking them up to their sin. The stony ground hearer skips over the affliction, because he does not feel his real need. So he lands in a gladness that is only on the surface. It fades when testing comes, and he fades with it.

In the next class of hearers, the stony ground illustrates the opposition of the flesh. And for this reason it is pictured, not at its worst, but at its best. This man "hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself." This is not the natural man rejecting the Word. It is the natural man receiving it, and yet there is no more real fruit than in the first case. The seed grows fast. The rocky bed works like a natural hot-bed, so the seed shoots up quickly and full of promise. But the very thing that makes it grow so readily is what stops it from lasting.

Such a man believes. He is not insincere, and he is not a hypocrite. The Word simply has no root in him, like seed in stony ground. His heart was never ploughed up by conviction of sin, so it stays as hard as it was. The joy in him was too "immediate"; there was no finding out of self, no taking the place of the lost, that Christ might save. He believed a doctrine; he never came to Jesus. He had joy, not peace. There was no change in the man himself, and no root. Note, it was not what had root that withered, but because it had no root it withered away. It would not have withered had it had root.

Let us rejoice with trembling to see how far a person may go, and yet be deceived! … But the testing time came, and if there was no root, there would be no fruit.

The phrase "on stony ground" does not quite mean what we normally mean by that word. It is not ground with stones in it. Stones by themselves would not stop the root from getting down into the earth. By stony ground the Lord means a solid bed of rock with a very thin coating of earth over it… Its growth at the start is as fast as its withering at the end. It springs up quickly in proportion to how little depth there is… If the first case is indifference, this is shallowness.

A conscience touched by the word makes a man serious. He sees himself in the presence of God. That is always a serious thing, however strong the attraction of His grace or the hope His goodness inspires. If the word has not reached the conscience, there is no root. He received the word for the joy it gave; when it brings tribulation, he gives it up.

We cannot think too carefully about how these phrases connect: "immediately, with joy," "no root," "withered away." There is great danger in taking in the plan of salvation with the mind only, with no spiritual work in the conscience. This often comes with the most joyful emotions. It works on the natural feelings, but the truth has not gone into the heart. The word has cut no furrow there.

Such a man believes. He is not insincere, not a hypocrite. Simply, the word, like seed in stony ground, has no root in him. His heart, never ploughed up by conviction of sin, stays in unchanged hardness… He had joy, not peace. There was no change in the man himself, and no root. Note, it was not what had root that withered; it withered away because it had no root. It would not have withered if it had had root.

It is God's design for the trial of His saints. It distinguishes true saints from hypocrites. Unsound hearts make a fine show in prosperity, but in a time of persecution they fall away. Hypocrites will follow Christ to the Mount of Olives, but not to Calvary. Suffering times are sifting times. "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

He heard the word and immediately received it with joy, yet it had no root in the man himself. It lasts only for a while. But when persecution or tribulation comes because of the word, immediately he is offended — the same word as "immediately" above. Feeling is not conscience. Feeling will act at once to receive. But when trial from within or without tests it, his own feelings turn against him and catch him in a trap.

Every test and trial of life has its sure effect on us. They either scorch and wither us, like the corn on rocky ground that dies when the sun is up. Or they bring our Christian life and fruit to maturity. Our secret life with God decides which of the two happens in us. If we are much with Him, we strike our roots down into the knowledge of Him. We draw our refreshment and strength from the hidden springs in Him. Then we need not dread the trial.

The seed fell, but the ground that received it was already overrun with thorns. They appeared well. As far as anyone could see, they had received the seed. There were indeed roots in them, but they were the roots of something else — "other seeds fell among thorns." Those roots were growing there before the seed was scattered. No doubt these thorns seemed weak and unimportant when the word first fell on the soil. Someone may have thought they were pulled up. But the roots stayed in the ground. They sprang up, pushed out the good seed and choked it — and so no fruit came. These hearers profess to receive the word of the kingdom, but they are taken up with the things of this world — its sorrows, its sadness or its delights. The things they busy themselves with are the things that choke the seed — things tied, not to Christ, but to what He will judge.

The third class of ground, full of thorns, gives the seed no proper welcome either. Perhaps the seed makes a feeble attempt to grow, but the thorns crowd out the grain: it does not continue. This is explained in verse 22 as describing those who, though they hear the word, do not give it a more important place than the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. Present material concerns and desire for this world's goods choke out the more vital, valuable blessing of the word of God. Too many today prefer thorns!

These "cares" are very subtle things. They come in as necessary duties, and there is no sin in doing one's duty. In fact, it is right that a man should do his duty in his daily work. But if these duties choke the word, and a man loses his soul through it, what then? And if the love of possession slips into the heart, it checks the power of Christ over the soul and conscience. It eats out the practical life of the Christian, and his soul is withered, withered, withered.

The "cares" point especially to the poor man's struggle over how to live at all, how to keep the wolf from the door. This is the struggle for daily food, the cares of this life. If faith does not meet them, they stop the word from thriving in the heart. Those who are well off are especially open to the "deceitfulness of riches," above all when the love of money comes with having it (1 Tim. 6:9-10).

As riches are compared to "wind" to show how empty they are (Hosea 12:1), so they are compared to "thorns," to show the trouble they bring (Matt. 13:22). Thorns are no more likely to tear our clothes than riches are to tear our hearts. They are thorns while we gather them; they prick us with worry. As they pierce the hand with the worry of getting, so they wound the heart with the fear of losing.

As to the deceitfulness of riches, the smallest possession that the heart is set on is enough to choke the word. How we see this in people who make a profession of faith and have lost all freshness!

This is perhaps a more solemn warning than either of the others. Here the word seems to have taken deeper hold. What overthrows this faith is not the violent assault of persecution, but the quiet influence of things that surround us all. Care for the soul is not despised; it is just crowded out. No sudden attack, no pressure of temptation — just the ordinary wear and tear of life, and, like seed among thorns, the promise of fruit was choked.

The farmer may plough and harrow, but for every root he breaks, two plants will grow up, and his field will become a briar patch. Instead, let him sow the field with grass seed, and as the grass grows up it will drive out the briars. This is overcoming evil with good... Let the positive things of Christ fill the heart. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and we will have little room and less desire for the lusts of the flesh.

The sower here is the Lord Himself, yet out of four casts of the seed, three are unsuccessful. It is only the last case where the seed bears ripe fruit.

Why are the hearts of some compared to good ground, when Scripture teaches that all hearts are "deceitful and desperately sick"? Not because there is anything naturally good in them. This gives only the facts, not the cause at work. It is simply the fact of the preaching of the word, and the reception of it.

We are not told what has made it good, but suppose we have the devil, nature, and the world in the first three cases — what is the only remaining influence? There is nothing but the Holy Spirit. It is very necessary these days to testify that the plough must come before the seed-basket. What makes the heart good? He who has gone out to plough the fallow ground and sow the seed.

What distinguishes the good ground, as far as receiving the word goes, is that a man understands the word. In the opposite case, strictly speaking, he does not understand it. In the two other cases there is the appearance of it, but no fruit. Here one regards nothing but fruit.

What is it here to "understand"? It is the perception that the word of the kingdom, or of God, is what the soul needs. "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). If one may speak this way, God in the gospel says to the sinner: I know your need; you are lost, but I have given My Son to save you.

In this instance the word is heard in a prepared heart — in an "honest and good heart," as the Lord said (Luke). Looking at the three Gospels, we see three inward actions before the fruit-bearing. 1. Matthew: the hearer understands the word. 2. Mark: he receives it. 3. Luke: he holds it fast.

In Mark, as with a view to service, it is a question of reception or not. In Luke, as looking on to strangers of the nations, the point is "believing" and being "saved," keeping the word and bringing forth fruit with patience. But the Jew lived in constant contact with religious prejudice and tradition. So he was in particular danger of not "understanding" what was new and of God — the present test of faith.

This class alone describes true believers, and all bear fruit, though in three differing measures. Thirtyfold is not large, but it is fruit; sixtyfold is more fruit; and a hundredfold is much fruit (John 15:2-5).

Good ground is always prepared ground. The conscience has been reached, and as a result fruit is produced — but even so, it is in different degrees: some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. The things which are fatal to the unbeliever may seriously hinder the fruitfulness of the true believer.

Is the difference to be accounted for on the ground of faithfulness or opportunity? The Lord does not take up the question here, but other Scriptures show that both will be taken into account in the great Day of Rewards.

In Matthew 16 our Lord speaks of building His church, or assembly, as something still future. In the same way the kingdom of the heavens is always said to be "at hand," never come… In the great cycle of parables in Matthew 13 the first is not a likeness of that kingdom, because the Sower is seen here on earth. When He carries on the work in the world from heaven, the kingdom of the heavens is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. While the Son of man is above, this is that kingdom in mystery, as the Gospel shows it. It will be that kingdom in open display, as the prophets show it, when He comes on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

In Matthew 13:24 and Matthew 18:2 the words are "become like" or "was likened." These are historical likenesses, which the others are not. They are the form the kingdom took through the rejection of the Lord and His going on high. The rest (Matthew 13:31, 33, 44, 45, 47; Matthew 20:1) were only likenesses of certain special features at particular seasons.

The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He sowed it. It was good seed He sowed, and He sowed it in His field; and this is the world. He had a right to this field; it belonged to Him… The world was the field. The field belonged to Jesus, and He sowed good seed in it — something that had not been in it before, something planted that did not grow there naturally.

As He is the rejected but glorified Son of man, it is no longer the land of Israel, but the world. The needy, the guilty, the ruined world is the very object of His gracious care… Now, from the right hand of power, He sowed the good seed in His field, the world.

The Son of man comes to sow the gospel, the word of God, in the world — not in the church. The church has received it already… He does not sow it in the church — that would only repeat what was done before — but in the world.

Here the seed is not, strictly speaking, the word. It is the children of the kingdom, whom Christ brings into the world, and they have their life — their moral existence — from Him. We sow the word. But the great fact here is that the Son of man brings His own into the world. It is a work that He begins.

In the first of these we see the Lord begin the work. He has done so, of course, without any mixture of evil; the good grain is all good. The enemy does a separate work — he cannot do anything else… But there are two distinct works, and the two stay distinct until the end.

In this parable of the weeds, Satan was awake and men were sleeping. The result is the mixture of the evil and the good. This is now the work of the devil, mixing evil with good in this world. We can still say "an enemy has done this." Whether we can fix it is another question. But settle this as a first principle. If we see evil and good mixed in Christian profession, this is the work of Satan. And remember: the weeds are not simply unconverted men. There were plenty of those before the Lord came. The weeds are the work of Satan that followed His coming.

The Son of Man has sown good seed in His field. Christianity began with many people who were true sons of the Kingdom. Satan soon set to work to corrupt the new testimony. He achieved his purpose by introducing false brothers among the true. This happened "while men slept." Christ's servants grew careless about their Master's interests and dull in their spiritual perception. So they let into the outward fellowship of Christianity men they should never have accepted: unconverted people, sons of the wicked one (Jude 4).

The word beyond doubt means "darnel"… The "tare" or vetch is not a harmful weed at all. It is a wholesome grain, useful to the farmer in spring and winter for feeding his cattle. The two plants are as distinct as the two words. Since man began to observe, there is not the smallest evidence that wheat ever turned into either. That is a mere and baseless fancy… Writers old and new make an even plainer mistake. They overlook our Lord's interpretation of "the field" as "the world." To take it as "the church" opens the door to confusion and evil without end.

The enemy cannot do his work by sowing seed of the same kind. He sows darnel in the middle of it, and goes his way… Darnel is a poisonous rye. The Jews thought it was wheat gone bad. Its grain is black and bitter. So it is clear that we have here not just false profession, but error and its fruit. At first it deceives, and looks not very different from the truth. In time it grows into complete opposition.

How little men realise the tireless persistence of the enemy of souls! It is while men sleep that he does the mischief. It may not show itself for a time, but he has sown it, and it will soon spring up. Not even the good seed being there holds Satan back… You may not see the weeds at once, but they are still in the ground, and they take up much of it.

In this parable the Lord gives His judgment on the point. The evil Satan did in the field where the good seed had been sown would not be repaired. It would continue until the harvest… Keep this in mind. Our separation from the evil, and our enjoyment of the presence of Christ with the "two or three," is quite another thing from claiming to set the whole thing up again now that the evil has come in. The first is both a duty and a privilege; the second is the fruit of pride.

Good and evil stand side by side. Here is a stalk of wheat, there is a blade of the tare; both grow side by side. They look alike; they resemble one another on the outside. But you will never get any good fruit from a tare. The good wheat will produce the food that keeps us alive; the tare will not. Except in bearing fruit, the two look very much alike.

I think these tares — darnel is the better word — are very much like wheat. That would be why the Lord calls attention to the fruit.

Some time later, "when the plants came up and bore grain" — when Christianity began to spread fast across the earth — "then the weeds appeared also." But clearly the weeds were sown almost as soon as the good seed was.

At first you could not tell them apart. Before long the difference was plain. For the darnel are the sons of wicked ones. You find them all over the field, the world of Christian profession. That is Christendom, to say nothing worse, and worse evils appeared early on as well. But these are bad enough, and they open the door to every evil from below. The darnel are those who hold false teaching and those who live lawlessly among the baptised.

"When the plants came up ... then the weeds appeared also." This was the successful result of the enemy's work; they came up together. At first there was no outward difference; they were all mixed up together. For the present state of things there was no cure. God did not intend to set the world right at once. Man proved a faithless steward. He was careless, he let the enemy in, and weeds overran the field. But this did not frustrate God's plans.

In fact, the professing church has sometimes tried this — getting rid of those it considers heretics. These ambitious efforts have put many true Christians to death, while the tares carried on as strongly as ever.

So we can see this. When the Lord forbade His servants to pull up the darnel, He in no way denied the discipline that the Holy Spirit requires in the church (1 Cor. 5). Under the picture of gathering the darnel out of the field, what He forbids is the wiping out of wicked people who profess His name. Experience agrees. How often His disobedient servants have rooted out the good seed, on the plea of getting rid of the darnel! Grace is to reign now.

If we were more occupied with the wheat we should not be so distressed about the darnel.

At the beginning the servants could tell the good seed from the weeds, and they told them apart perfectly well. It astonished them to find weeds in a field where their master had been sowing. Yet it was not their place to carry out the judgment on the weeds. They worked near the master, caring for the good condition of the field that belonged to him. But only judgment could cleanse that field.

The household is a circle of even closer intimacy. Those who belong to it are attached to the person of the King. They know what suits Him, and it troubles them deeply to find that in His field He had been wronged. They also have access to Him. They can bring their concerns to Him and receive His assurance that the evil will not win.

He truly laid the foundation for the Kingdom. He laid that foundation and sowed the good seed in His field. Now His enemy is at work, sowing bad seed, just as He foretold. Do not think of the devil so much as your enemy. He is that. But he is the enemy of your precious Saviour. As it says, the Son of Man's enemy came and invaded His field and sowed the bad seed.

Satan soon set to work to corrupt the new testimony. He achieved his purpose by introducing false brothers among the true. This happened "while men slept." Christ's servants grew so careless about their Master's interests, and so dull in their spiritual perception, that they let into the outward fellowship of Christianity men they should never have accepted. These are called, not "tares," but "darnel" — a worthless weed very like wheat in its early growth.

The servants were eager enough to remove the bad effects, but He reproves them. He warns them about their effort to correct the evils brought into the field. Using the name of the Lord to reform the "Christianised" world only roots up the good as well as the bad, if not more so.

In that field the servants must not take on the job of destroying the weeds among the wheat. Care for the true, not judgment of the false, is their business. Others — the angels — will deal with the children of the wicked one in the time of harvest.

Keep in mind that the parable has nothing to do with discipline among God's children. It deals with the evil that Satan brought into the whole Christian era itself "while men slept." Can that evil be cured, and can the era be put back on its original footing? The Lord settles that question plainly and with authority: the answer is no.

In this parable of the tares we find that Satan was awake and men were sleeping. The result is a mixture of the evil and the good. This is now the work of the devil, mixing evil with good in this world. We can still say, "an enemy has done this." Being able to remedy it is another thing. But let us settle this as a first principle. If we see evil and good mixed in the profession of Christianity, this is the work of Satan. And remember, the tares are not simply unconverted men. There were plenty of those before the Lord came. The tares are the work of Satan after His coming.

The method was to put a counterfeit seed in the field. The darnel looks, in its seed, like the wheat. When it springs up it cannot be told apart from the wheat, yet it is a poisonous weed. The darnel stands for the lie the devil puts into the field. It is evil doctrine, a counterfeit of the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. The denial of the Deity of our Lord, the denial of the resurrection, the denial of the inspiration of the Bible — all belong to this darnel seed. It makes itself felt at the very beginning of this Christian age.

The Son of God looked down at His field, which He had sown with good seed, and found it filled with tares. Yet even in that position, we find it is not the wisdom of God to set the world right by plucking up the tares. The servants' offer to go and gather them up follows man's wisdom. Man would set the world right again by plucking up and rooting out heretics, purging out the wickedness as he desires.

Yet this does not make the field the church. The field is the world. Only those who understand neither are so deceived as to confuse the two. So when the Lord forbade His servants to uproot the darnel, He in no way denied the discipline the Holy Spirit demands in the church (1 Cor. 5). What He forbids, under the figure of gathering up the darnel from the field, is the wiping out of wicked people who claim to be Christians. Experience agrees with this. How often His disobedient servants have rooted out the good seed under the excuse of getting rid of the darnel! Grace is to reign now.

People who claimed to be Christ's servants handed supposed heretics and other spiritual offenders over to be punished by force. They did just what the Lord forbids for the present time. The value of our Lord's warning became clear when the Waldenses and others were persecuted to death. Here blind zeal tried to get rid of the tares, and rooted out at least some wheat. It is not for the servants, but for the angels of the Son of Man, to carry out destructive judgment on Christians in name only.

The tares are not simply wicked men — pagans; these have not been sown among the good grain. The tares are a particular evil sown by the enemy after Jesus Christ had sown the good seed. So what we may call heresy — corruption of the truth in any way or to any degree — will remain until the harvest. The evil which Satan has produced by a corrupted religion will exist until the end. We should aim all our efforts — not at plucking out the tares, but at gathering in the children of God, bringing together the co-heirs of Jesus Christ.

The weed sown among the wheat is darnel — a worthless weed very like wheat in its early growth... To gather out weeds is to kill them. In the same way, the only way to weed the wheatfield of Christendom is to put to death everyone who falsely claims Christ's name. The Lord expressly forbids this, and for a serious reason: erratic servants would be in danger of rooting up true wheat by mistake.

The servants are not capable of doing this. Their weakness and carelessness caused the mixture, and it is such that in gathering out the tares they would root up the wheat as well. To carry out their purpose they would need discernment and the practical power to separate, and both are missing... Their service is with the good. The work of purging Christendom from them was not in their province... The execution of judgment on the wicked in this world does not belong to the servants of Christ. He will accomplish it by the angels of His power.

Yet this does not make the field the church. The field is the world. Those who confuse the two understand neither, and are deceived. So we may see something here. When the Lord forbade His servants to uproot the darnel, He in no way denies the discipline the Holy Spirit demands in the church (1 Cor. 5). Under His picture of gathering up the darnel from the field, He forbids one thing: wiping out the wicked who profess His name.

Some argue like this: the tares and the wheat are to grow together in the world, so the assembly may knowingly allow evildoers to stay. That argument sets the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 13 in direct opposition to the teaching of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 5. It cannot stand for a moment.

Some claimed to be Christ's servants and handed over supposed heretics or other spiritual offenders for outward punishment. They did exactly what He forbids for the present time... Our Lord's warning proved its value when the Waldenses and others were persecuted to death. Blind zeal tried to get rid of the tares, and it uprooted at least some wheat.

No, says the Lord, "lest you root up the wheat along with them." See here the tender care the Lord takes of His own! He would rather let the tares grow than have one single ear of wheat hurt, or pulled up before it was ripe. He would rather hold back the judgment on the wicked than have the little body of true believers broken up in its infancy... The children of God now stand in grace, and only grace must they show; they have nothing at all to do with judgment on earth.

Yet the Lord fully recognises the coming of the judgment. It is only delayed, not set aside. In the meantime He allows evil to show itself. At harvest time He will say to the reapers, "Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn."

Scripture never speaks of the good seed or the weeds as sown in the church. They are sown in the world, for the field is the world. Many good men have gone astray by failing to notice this. The Lord told His servants not to root up the weeds, but to let them grow among the wheat till harvest time. Some have wrongly thought from this that evil men were to be tolerated in the church. This the Lord never said, and it is never contemplated in Scripture.

These weeds are darnel — a worthless plant that looks very like wheat while it is young. To gather out weeds is to kill them. In the same way, the only way to weed the wheatfield of Christendom is to put to death everyone who falsely claims Christ's name. The Lord expressly forbids this, for a serious reason. Erratic servants would be in danger of rooting up true wheat by mistake. Christendom has not heeded our Lord's prohibition. Zealous churchmen, Catholic and Protestant, have from time to time tried to wipe from the earth those they judged to be weeds. In doing so they fell into the very blunder the Saviour warned against. Some of God's best wheat has been destroyed in the process.

The first speaks of evil people who claim the Lord's name. They are not ours to wipe out. They live in the field of the world until judgment falls at the end of the age. The second commands the wicked man to be at once put out of the church. The third provides for the day when the professing church approves vessels fit only for dishonour. The faithful soul is bound to separate from them.

This is the Lord's verdict. Satan has done evil in the field where the good seed of the word was sown. That evil will remain and ripen there until the end. The Lord plainly declares that the efforts of Christians will not take the evil away. It stays until the day of judgment... We must keep in mind that now, in God's dealings with us and through us, we have to do with grace and not with judgment. We have not to judge the world. Suppose we could say with certainty of someone, he is a child of the devil. That is the very reason he is outside our authority. He is a weed. We have to do with grace. We cannot lay a hand on the evil Satan has produced. But we can act as instruments of grace, for God permits us to sow good seed.

"At harvest time" implies a certain period taken up with the various processes of gathering in. Nothing says the wheat must be bound in bundles to be taken to heaven. There is no hint of any special preparatory work about the saints before they are taken up. But there is such a dealing of God with the weeds. The angels are to gather the weeds in bundles before the Lord clears them out of the field.

We know very well what this is, and how many joyful hopes are packed into that short sentence. The scene is pictured for us in 1 Thessalonians 4. The descent of the Lord into the air; the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God; the resurrection of the dead in Christ... the change of the living saints throughout the earth; the meeting and the welcome; the "always with the Lord" from then on. All these are the parts and features of what these words picture to us: "Gather the wheat into My barn."

The Lord points out ahead of time the surprising contrast between how tiny it was when first sown and the height it would soon reach. He is not passing judgment here on its inner or moral nature. From the start He shows what the whole world can see once it happens. It is one of "the mysteries (or secrets) of the kingdom of the heavens," but secrets given for the disciples to know.

The field is the world (v. 38). The man who sowed is the Lord Jesus. The black mustard seed is tiny and unimportant. That makes it a fitting picture of how the kingdom began in its present form, seen from the outside. It began with only a few people. There were the 11 disciples who had followed the Lord Jesus, plus around 120 believers with them in the upper room (Acts 1). Afterwards, we see how the gospel spread and many accepted the Lord Jesus and became part of that kingdom.

The Lord Jesus then describes growth that does not match what happens in nature. The black mustard seed does not grow into a big tree. It grows no further than a bush, and certainly not into a tree in which birds build their nests. Of course, the Lord Jesus knew this very well so He drew this illustration with a special purpose behind it. The teaching lies hidden in the contrast between what happens in nature and what He describes.

This chapter does not explain both of these symbols, but God's book does, and it alone gives us the key to this parable... In Ezekiel 31:3-9 we find the Assyrian power compared to a great tree, a mighty cedar in Lebanon... Assyria is clearly a vast power here, because great nations lived under its shadow.

The mustard tree is the profession of Christianity. It began in the humblest possible way. In time it changed its character so completely that it became a great political force in the earth. Here, as elsewhere in Scripture, the tree is the symbol of worldly power (Ezekiel 17:3; Daniel 4:22).

The Lord Himself tells us, in the previous parable, who the "birds of the air" are, for He uses the same word in both places. As the sower sowed the seed, the birds came and ate it. The Lord explains this. "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart." ... So this, and not the conversion of the world, is what this parable says will result in the present age.

Suppose the Lord had meant His church by this mustard seed, which becomes a tree and a roosting place for birds. Suppose the tree really is the church, which is His body. Then this parable would flatly contradict what He and the Holy Spirit teach elsewhere about the church on earth, its mission and its future.

The parables of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven carry on the parable of the Weeds. They show the bad thing in the Christian world in its two forms: outward worldly greatness and inward spiritual corruption.

The mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. We saw this when we were looking at Acts chapter 2. About a hundred and twenty disciples of the Lord were together in Jerusalem — fishermen, simple people. What could such a small company do in the world? In men's eyes they were "the smallest of all seeds." Yet they began at once to grow in strength and increase in numbers. They kept multiplying until in time they became a great tree.

In Matthew 13 it says that when it has grown it is "larger than all the garden plants," yet it "becomes a tree." This reads as if its normal class was that of a large herb, but by some mysterious means it became a tree.

The black mustard seed does not grow into a big tree. It grows no further than a bush, and certainly not into a tree in which birds build their nests. Of course, the Lord Jesus knew this very well, so He drew this illustration with a special purpose behind it. The teaching lies hidden in the contrast between what happens in nature and what He describes.

In the parable of the tree we see what the kingdom of heaven becomes in worldly greatness. That this is not what God intended is clear from the enemy's work in the parable before it… Turn now to Daniel 4. Here Nebuchadnezzar himself appears as a great tree. The whole power of the kingdom rested in him alone. More cases could be added, but these are enough to show that Scripture uses a tree to picture an earthly power, for good or ill.

The kingdom itself is like a little grain of mustard seed that becomes a great tree. In the Old Testament that is the symbol of something raised high in the world, of a political power… The birds nesting in its branches stand for the protection it gives. Compare Daniel 4:12. This is the public appearance of the kingdom system as it has been for ages: here is no judgment.

This is ominous. In the parable of the Sower, the birds stand for the agents of the devil (vv. 4, 19). The mustard tree is the profession of Christianity. It began in the humblest way possible. But in time it changed its character so completely that it became a great political force in the earth.

The mustard seed springs up in the field — and do not forget that the field is the world. It roots deeper and deeper in the earth and spreads in this unnatural way, making room for birds. That is the picture of something quite different. It shows us a system rooted in the earth, a system aiming at greatness in the world… The Lord never meant His church to be rooted and grounded in the field, the world.

In less than 300 years the emperor Constantine the Great (AD 272–337) made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. That is the very reason why many professed to become Christians without having new life. They were Christians in name only. There was no reality behind it. This is true of many even today.

He used the same picture to assure the believing heart that in His mercy all will be reversed in the day to come. He will plant the tender twig on a high and lofty mountain, the height of Israel.

The Lord's parable of the woman hiding leaven in three measures of meal (Matt. 13:33) was not a picture of the church or assembly, but of the kingdom of the heavens, as the verse itself says. So it concerns Christendom — the whole mass of people who profess to be Christian. In this it agrees with the companion parables of the field and the tree. In both of those there are foreign elements too, the tares and the birds, just as here the leaven is hidden in the meal.

Exodus 12:15 and Lev. 2:11 are enough to show how the Saviour's Jewish audience must have understood the picture of leaven. For fifteen hundred years God had commanded them to keep leaven out of their houses during their religious festivals. He also forbade them to mix it into any offering made by fire. It is therefore the emblem of what is evil, and the Saviour often used it that way in His teaching. Again and again He rebuked the leaven of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees and of Herod. These stand in turn for ritualism, rationalism and worldliness.

It shows how a doctrine, or creed, makes a certain measured area like itself, until the whole of it is soaked through. That is very different from seed, which carries life in it and bears fruit. Seed is a fitting and frequent picture in Scripture. Leaven is never used that way anywhere else. From the earliest days it stood for a corruption that works and spreads, as at the Passover. 1 Cor. 5 applies it with authority to evil that must be purged out. Leavening works by fermentation. It makes dough rise, and makes it more pleasant to the natural taste.

The "three measures of meal" are the "fine flour" of the meal offering. No leaven was ever to go into it (Lev. 2:11). The essential point is that the woman is doing what was expressly forbidden. This at once brings the picture of the kingdom into line with what has gone before. The process of decline we see in the first three parables simply takes on a more decidedly evil character in the fourth. For the meal offering is Christ the bread of life, the food of the priestly people of God. Mixing in the leaven means Christ as that food is adulterated — and it is the woman, the professing church, who does it.

The suggestion in Matt. 13:33 is that the woman did not hide the leaven because she wanted a hiding place for it. She hid it because she meant to leaven the meal — and in the end the whole of it was affected.

Nothing is clearer than that "leaven," from its first mention in Exodus 12, has the uniform meaning of evil. The only passage claimed as an exception is Matt. 13:33-34. That argument comes from one mistake: confusing the gospel with the kingdom of heaven. It takes the leaven to mean the gospel and its effects in this world, as if the gospel will keep working until its blessed power and influence have spread through the whole world. But is some special evil meant by leaven? We think not. Any spiritual evil that might corrupt the saints or the church may rightly be called leaven.

The Son of man will, by and by, do in His kingdom what His servants are told to do now in the assembly. In the Gospel leaven is allowed to remain and spread; in the Epistles it is to be purged out so that it may not spread. In the Gospel the leaven is hidden; in the Epistle its presence is known.

Notice a change now. The Lord stops speaking to the crowds, who had been in view up to this point. As it says, "All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, He said nothing to them without a parable." But now Jesus sends the crowds away and goes into the house. I want you to notice this, because it divides the parables and begins a new set. The parables that follow were not ones the crowds could see or enter into.

The Jewish leaders had just gone as far as blaming His power on Beelzebub. They could go no further in wickedness. Leaders and people were so far from God that the blessings promised to Israel could not be brought in at that time. From that point the Saviour began to use this puzzling way of speaking. It was clear enough to the devout minority, but completely unclear to the godless mass. Like the cloud in Moses' day, which stood between Israel and the Egyptians, the parables were light to the one and darkness to the other.

The Lord of course knew this national judgment and its far-reaching results in advance. He told His disciples about it beforehand, for their instruction. He did not tell the crowds, except in parables only, because He was still presenting Himself to Israel, in both Galilee and Judea, as the promised King... His ministry in parables about the coming change in no way took away their responsibility to receive Him, since they did not understand.

By this way of teaching He tested everyone in the vast crowd who heard Him, to see who wanted to learn. For we read: "He said nothing to them without a parable." Yet He spoke, as Mark alone tells us, "as they were able to hear it." His aim was the good of souls, and all who wanted the meaning had it.

Verses 34 and 35 again stress the parable form of teaching. But now the quotation is from Psalm 78, written by Asaph — so we know he was a "prophet". It is not quoted for the blinding of the crowd, who rejected plain testimony when He gave it to them. It is quoted as holding things "kept secret" — hidden from the world's foundation. And so it indeed was, for a kingdom to be set up in this way.

Verse 35 of this same chapter tells us what the parables contained. Long ago it had been written, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." These truths about the kingdom of heaven were neither disclosed nor hidden in the Old Testament. They were secrets that God kept back until His Son came into the world. We have the divine nature, and the Spirit of God lives in us. So it is our privilege to understand the divine secrets spoken by the Son.

Here the Lord says, "The kingdom of the heavens is like." Suppose He had in view the Old Testament kingdom promised to Israel. Then He could not have said that He uttered things hidden from the world's foundation. For the kingdom in the Old Testament is not a mystery. It is clearly revealed.

Verses 34 and 35 again stress the parable form of teaching. This time the quotation is from Psalm 78, written by Asaph, who was therefore known to be a "prophet." It is not quoted for the blinding of the crowd who rejected plain testimony when it was given to them. It is quoted because the parables hold things "kept secret" — hidden from the world's foundation. And so it truly was with a kingdom that was to be set up in this way.

The prophet's word was being fulfilled in Him (Ps. 78:2): He was taking the place of another Asaph, to speak of things more deeply hidden than those Asaph spoke of. So the psalmist's words are quoted freely rather than exactly. Asaph's deep things lay in a past history, and it was given to him to tell its meaning. Christ's deep things lie in a history still to come. Its general lesson sadly echoes that older story of another people. Man's history does repeat itself. But now the subject was a state of "things hidden from the foundation of the world" — things the prophets of the Old Testament themselves knew nothing about.

So we are prepared to expect that in these parables the Lord would bring out things kept secret since the foundation of the world. And so it was. We cannot find anything like them in the Scriptures that came before. Some have fairly called this strange state of things the kingdom of heaven in mystery. The name marks it off from the kingdom of heaven that the prophets foretold.

When the Lord Jesus spoke His parables to the crowd in Matthew 13, the Spirit of God tells us why He spoke in this way. It was the fulfilment of the word of the prophet, "I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 13:35). Here were divine revelations for the disciples of the Lord. But He spoke them in such a way that the very words which revealed God's mind to His own hid it from those who had no divine perception.

Scripture often mentions the "foundation of the world" as the far edge of the past, the point "from" which human history is counted (Matt. 13:35; Matt. 25:34; Luke 11:50; Heb. 4:3; 9:26; Rev. 13:8; Rev. 17:8).

"Kept secret from the foundation of the world" simply means that in the ways of God the secret had not yet been told. It is Christ Who discloses that secret.

He often spoke figuratively. But parables only became prominent in His teaching after Israel refused Him... The group of parables the Lord gives there describes Israel's guilt in rejecting Him. They then show the kingdom of heaven set up in mystery by His ascension to the right hand of God... But from its beginning it held something dear to Him: His own special treasure, the church.

In verse 36 the Lord sent the crowd away and returned to the house (compare v. 1). In those four parables He has finished His treatment of the public character of the present kingdom. What follows is instruction for disciples: the explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares, and the last three parables. The world can know nothing of it today. It deals with God's counsels about the kingdom, not with the kingdom as it appears in the present age.

The Lord gives the last three parables — making up the third division — and the explanation of the three before them, in the privacy of the house, after He has sent the multitudes away. The house here does not represent Judaism, as it does in verse 1. It shows instead that the teaching about the three earlier parables, and about the three closing ones, could only be understood by those in relation to God when withdrawn from the world.

The disciples ask Him, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." They might be ignorant, but they still had confidence in their Lord. They trusted that what He had spoken He was willing to explain.

But in the house the Lord goes beyond the bounds of the present age, and we get a glimpse into the future one. There is the binding of the weeds, the gathering of the wheat, the closing scenes of this age. But the curtain lifts, and we see the terrible result of the judgment of the weeds: the weeping and gnashing of teeth. On the other side, we see the righteous shining as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. They are not established in the spoiled kingdom. They shine in the kingdom of their Father. That is why there is no question of purging the field.

It is a plain declaration that the efforts of Christians will not take the evil away. The evil is to remain until the day of judgment: "Let both grow together until the harvest." … We must remember that now, in God's dealings with us and by us, we have to do with grace and not with judgment. We are not to judge the world. Even if we could say with certainty of someone that he is a child of the devil, that is the very reason he is outside our jurisdiction; it is a weed. We have to do with grace. We cannot lay a hand on the evil which Satan has produced. But we can act as instruments of grace, for God permits us to sow good seed.

This teaching may be regarded as exclusive, entrusted in this way to these chosen witnesses, so that after the Lord's ascension it might be spread throughout the world. Even so, the general truth matters: God makes His ways known in the hush of the sanctuary, not in the noise of the camp. The warning of the coming destruction of the cities of the plain did not go to Lot in the busy streets of Sodom. It went to Abraham in the quiet of a hot noon at his own tent door. … So the Prophet of Jehovah revealed the truth about the special character of the coming kingdom — not to the surging crowds by the Galilean lake, but to the disciples who came to Him as He was alone in the house.

Again we are not left to search for an interpretation. After He had spoken two other parables, our Lord answers His disciples' question and tells them what He meant by it. We must turn to this perfect interpretation by the divine Speaker to find the correct and far-reaching meaning of this second parable.

A quick look is enough to show us that the Lord took up this title because the people of Israel did not accept the kingdom of God which He proclaimed. Instead, they met Him with personal hatred... All the passages agree in marking out this title. It is wider in meaning than "Messiah," and the Lord took it because the chosen nation He came to had rejected Him.

But Israel had been His vineyard, planted, fenced and cared for long ago, according to His own words at another time (Matt. 21:33). From it He had looked for fruit — not as a fresh field to sow for a harvest. So He had to "go out" from Israel to somewhere else. He carried that "word of the kingdom," which they had already rejected, to get fruit for Himself in the field of the world at large. For "the field is the world," as He Himself explains to us — not a chosen nation, but the whole earth.

Here the seed is not strictly the word. It is the children of the kingdom, whom Christ brings into the world. They have their life — their moral existence — from Him. We sow the word. But the great fact here is that the Son of Man brings His own into the world. It is a work which He begins.

Afterwards the apostles, in their ministry of the truth, became sowers themselves in a secondary sense. For example, Paul used this figure when writing to the Corinthians: "If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?" (1 Cor. 9:11).

The Son of Man and the wicked one, it has been well observed, are set over against each other... Scripture presents Satan as always acting as the great personal opponent of the Son. The Son of God appeared "to destroy the works of the devil."

Notice how absurd it is to think, as some do, that this passage speaks of the church. The Son of man comes to sow the gospel, the word of God, in the world — not in the church. The church has already received it. The church is made up of those who, either in profession or in reality, have already received the good seed.

That is a beginning which must produce an abundant harvest. It is important to grasp that a Divine Person set the beginning of Christianity in motion, and what He does is good. So the harvest must be for His glory. Much that is marked by failure has come in, but what He began will not fail.

If we treated these words as having the same meaning, we would miss the thought in some of the passages. For instance, in Matthew 13:38, "The field is the world" means the material world with people living in it. In Matthew 13:40, "The end of the world" is really "the end of the age" — the period that will close when the Lord appears.

Here the seed is not strictly the word. It is the children of the kingdom, brought into the world by Christ. They have their life — their moral existence — from Him. We sow the word. But here the great fact is that the Son of Man brings His own into the world. It is a work which He begins… When He has done that, Satan does the same, active in evil on the ground where good has been done.

In the parable of the tares, Scripture calls saints "sons of the kingdom" (Matt. 13:38), for they will certainly inherit it. Mere men of the world it calls "sons of this world" (Luke 16:8), who in their generation are "wiser than the sons of light."

The King was truly on earth, gathering souls around Himself by the word of the kingdom, the seed the sower spread abroad. All who heard and received His word became in reality what Israel was only as a nation: true sons of the kingdom.

The tares mean, not all the children of the wicked one, but only those sown among the wheat, as counterfeit and false plants. They are hypocrites — people of every kind who falsely claim to be Christians, whether they know it or not.

The Son of Man and the wicked one, as others have well remarked, are opposed to each other… Scripture always shows Satan acting as the great personal opponent of the Son. The Son of God has come "that He might destroy the works of the devil." The devil uses the world to entangle people and to stir up the flesh, working on the heart's natural liking for present honour and ease.

In His wonderful discourse in Matthew 13, our Lord teaches that the wheat and the tares are to grow together. Yes — but where? In the church? No. They grow "in the field," and He tells us that "the field is the world." To confuse these two is to falsify the whole Christian position and to do away with all godly discipline in the assembly.

They were not to be rooted out of the field. The church was to put them out when they showed themselves to be wicked persons. The church and the kingdom are quite distinct, though the one may be said to be inside the other. The limits of the kingdom stretch far beyond the limits of the true church of God… The tares are to be put away from the Lord's table, but not rooted out of the field. The church was not to use worldly punishments in dealing with offenders. But the very thing the Lord is here guarding His disciples against came to pass, as the long list of martyrs so painfully shows.

The devil is the enemy, and the sowing of the weeds was his countermove. He could not stop the kingdom of heaven from being set up in the world where he was the prince. So he went to work at once, with great cunning, to oppose it and spoil it. He opposed it by imitating it.

"The world" in verse 38 must not be confused with "the world" in verse 39. They are totally distinct words and things. "The world" in verse 39 means the age. It is a course of time, and not a geographical sphere. Verse 38 means the sphere, the place where the gospel goes out. Verse 39 means the span of time in which the gospel is either advancing or held back by the enemy's power. The harvest is the completion of the age, that is, of the present era. It is the time while the Lord is absent and the gospel goes out over the earth... The Lord shows here that an end will come to the present sending out of the word of the kingdom, and that a day is coming when the effects of Satan's work must be fully developed and judged.

I repeat that the end of the age is not the end of the world. The phrase "end of the world" in Matthew 13:39 is a clear error of translation... Far from being the end of the world, the very context proves the contrary. The Lord sends His angels and clears out of the field or world what is offensive to Him. The evil is judged, the scandals removed... So this is far from being the end of the "world". The harvest that closes this age will be the start of the world going on in blessing under the displayed kingdom of the Son of Man.

The servant wished to do the reapers' (the angels') work. Not so; the angels are the executioners of God's wrath. So this teaches us that the work of judgment is not the business of Christ's disciples while He is absent and rejected. We are not told to root out heresy and evil men by the strong arm of the sword. To do so is to leave the proper place of the Christian. We are to bear testimony to Christ and against the evil, most certainly. But we are to leave judgment in the hands of God, in the hands of Jesus.

The Lord settles this question plainly and with authority, and His answer is no. He tells us that nothing will remedy the evil for the whole length of this age. The time of harvest — that is, the judgment — will root it out, and until then the evil goes on. Remember, though: separating from the evil, and enjoying the presence of Christ with the "two or three," is quite a different thing from claiming to set that order up again now that the evil has come in.

Men's hands are declared unfit for this separation. It is left to angels' hands, in the day of the harvest of Christendom. They are the reapers then. The field is to be cleared of wheat and weeds alike. At one moment the order goes out to gather the weeds in bundles to be burned, and to gather the wheat into the barn. So solemnly the day of Christian profession ends.

If we treated these two words as meaning the same thing, we would miss the thought in some of the passages. For instance, in Matthew 13:38, "The field is the world" means the physical world where people live. In Matthew 13:40, "the end of the world" really means "the end of the age" — the period that closes when the Lord appears.

This is not the end of the world; the next verse proves the opposite. The Lord sends His angels and clears out of the field (that is, the world) everything that offends Him. He judges the lawless, removes what makes people stumble, and destroys the bad crop and the bad fish... The field, or world, that Satan's schemes had spoiled will be cleared of all its corruptions and of the lawless people behind them. So the harvest that closes this age is not the end of the world at all. It is the start of the world going on in blessing, under the openly displayed kingdom of the Son of Man.

The parable is not about discipline among God's children. It deals with another question: is there a cure for the evil Satan brought into this whole period "while men slept"? Can this period be put back on its original footing? The Lord decides that question at once, and with authority: no. He tells us that all through this period the evil will get no cure. The time of harvest — that is, the judgment — will root it out, and until then the evil will go on.

The angels bring in judgment from God, while the gospel lays hold of poor sinners to save them. The Lord shows here that the present sending out of the word of the kingdom will come to an end. A day is coming when the effects of Satan's work will be fully developed and judged. "The reapers are the angels." We have nothing to do with the judging, only with spreading the good; the angels deal with the judgment of the wicked.

The Lord does not say that the wheat is tied into bundles to be taken to heaven. Nothing points to any special preparation of the saints before they are taken up. But God does deal with the tares in that way. The angels are to gather the tares into bundles before the Lord clears them out of the field. I will not claim to know how that will happen. Perhaps the way people group themselves together today is paving the way for the Lord's final action about the tares. But the principle of worldly association is growing fast.

Then comes the separating. The angels gather the tares and throw them into the fiery furnace, and "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Notice how exact the wording is: they shine — it does not say they are caught up. It will be a new age, with no mixing of the good and the bad. The gathering out of the wicked for judgment closes this age, so that the good may be blessed in the next.

Far from being the end of the world, the next verse proves the opposite. The Lord sends His angels and purges from the field (or world) what is offensive to Him. In short, He punishes the living wicked, and the righteous shine in the kingdom of their Father… The harvest that closes this age will be the start of the world going on in blessing under the kingdom of the Son of Man on display.

Here we have the upper region, called the kingdom of the Father, and the lower, the kingdom of the Son of Man… Those gathered out are not even allowed to be on the earth. They are cast into a furnace of fire. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Both are "the kingdom of God." What a glorious prospect! Is it not a sweet thought that God will deliver even this present scene of ruin and confusion? That He will have the joy of His heart, not only in filling the heavens with His glory, but in honouring the Son of Man in the very place where men rejected Him?

"The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom" — it is now His kingdom, He is not simply sitting on the Father's throne.

Does anyone doubt that our Saviour speaks of the harvest-field, the world, as His kingdom? At His coming He sends His angels there to gather out all offences (or traps that make people fall) and those who practise lawlessness. … The earth is purged for the Son of Man's kingdom, not yet dissolved or destroyed. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father.

Weeds are in it as well as wheat, foolish virgins as well as wise. At the end of the age the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers. So the kingdom will be freed — but they must be in it to be gathered out.

The execution of judgment on the wicked in this world does not belong to the servants of Christ. He will accomplish it by the angels of His power, to whom He commits the execution of this work.

The children of the wicked one will be disentangled from the children of the kingdom and cleared right out. That happens when the Son of Man comes and opens the era of the kingdom displayed in power. Angels will do this work, not men. To clear the evil out of Christendom is no business of ours.

Matthew 13:41 and 43 only prove one thing: when the wicked are judged, the righteous shine out. But the righteous had already been gathered into the barn so that they could do so… Judgment leaves the just where they were. One is taken and the other left.

He gathers out of His Kingdom all things that offend. It must be so, for righteousness is about to reign. During the present day of grace righteousness suffers because evil is predominant.

"The reapers are the angels." We have nothing to do with the judging. Our part is only to spread the good; the angels' part is to judge the wicked… The harvest is the close of the age, that is, of the present period. It is the time while the Lord is absent and the gospel goes out over the earth. Grace is going out now. The only means God uses to work on souls are moral or spiritual. The angels bring in providential judgment; while the gospel lays hold of poor sinners to save them.

The earth is cleansed in this way for the Son of Man's kingdom — not yet dissolved or destroyed. Who can doubt that the righteous will then shine out like the sun in the kingdom of the Father? This is the age to come before eternity, the thousand-year age. The glorified are on high, and the earth is free from the usurper and blessed under the reign of Christ.

The explanation shows that the thought here is not extinction. People only reach that idea from what fire does to weeds. The effect of the fire, as of the outer darkness, is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So the effect shown is not the end of existence, as some claim, but suffering. It is suffering called everlasting, set against everlasting life. The fire is a figure, the usual figure of judgment… They will be tormented forever and ever — words used for the length of God's own existence.

The weeping is only in self-pity, not in repentance. Wailing is the attitude of complaining, because faith is absent. Gnashing of teeth is a spirit of rebellion, not corrected even by the solemn judgment of God.

The two words "weeping" and "gnashing" of teeth bring out different characters. I do not think both must be true of every person.

Weeping and gnashing of teeth! We point to this phrase, used elsewhere in the New Testament only by Matthew. It always refers to those who have made light of the offer of grace… The Jews boasted in their natural descent from Abraham and gloried in it. That descent will do nothing for them if they reject grace… They will show everlasting sorrow and regret for their folly in rejecting the salvation offered to them in this life.

We must never for a moment think that the judgment has to do with deciding whether a soul is saved or lost. That is settled in this life. At the Great White Throne, judgment will be measured out rightly, in perfect righteousness, and no one will have a word to say.

The severing then takes place. The weeds are gathered and thrown into a furnace of fire, and "then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Notice how exact the wording is: "Then the righteous will shine" — not "Then they will be caught up." It will be a new age, with no mixing of the good and the bad. The gathering out of the wicked for judgment closes this age, so that the good may be blessed in the next.

The weeds are gathered into bundles to be burned; and before they are thrown into the furnace of fire, the wheat is gathered into His barn... First we have the practical separation — the providential gathering of the wheat out of the way of judgment into the barn. Then comes the actual judgment of the weeds. And following on that, the wheat shines forth.

It is a matter of further revelation that then the righteous will shine as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. And it seems to me that the term "the righteous" is not necessarily limited to those who lived after the seed of the kingdom was sown. This is the reason why there was no question, in the meantime, of purifying the field here below. God had better counsels in store for us.

The Father's kingdom is heavenly, just as plainly as the Son of Man's kingdom is earthly. Matthew 13:41-43 proves it. The risen saints shine as the sun — and the sun is not earthly — in their Father's kingdom. Meanwhile the Son of Man, by His angels, carries out judgment on all offences and unrighteous persons in His kingdom, and just as plainly on earth.

Notice the contrast. The Kingdom of the Son of Man is below; the Kingdom of the Father is above. The righteous reign in the Kingdom of the Son of Man; they shine in the Kingdom of their Father. The Sun of righteousness has risen on the earth, and this is why the righteous shine as the sun. They are with Him, sharers of His glory. They are not suns themselves — central, independent orbs — but shining with the glory put upon them.

I note that this word "shine" is the same as the one used of our Lord on the mountain where He was transfigured — "His face shone like the sun" (Matt. 17:2).

Further, notice that it says, "In the kingdom of their Father." Here is great blessedness to the child of God in this word of happiness that makes it his own. It shows the position in which the Lord Jesus has placed them — associated with God as their Father, in His kingdom... He unites Himself to them as one who calls them brothers. He calls them to look up to God as their Father: "I will tell of your name to my brothers"; and again, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

Yet, though covering so large a sphere, the Lord says in verse 9, "He who has ears, let him hear." In the Old Testament the call went to all Israel, to all the people. Now it comes to each of us, to a Christian personally. Whatever happens, no one can hand this responsibility of hearing and receiving the truth of God to someone else. Woe to those who deny or weaken it.

Now is it not harsh in the extreme to infer that lost sinners are compared to a man in quest of fine pearls? It is not even true of the rare case of the rich young ruler. His conduct was blameless, yet he clung to his wealth. He gave up treasure in heaven and left Christ full of sorrow. He never knew his ruin and did not even seek to be saved. And there is no greater mistake than to say that Saul of Tarsus matches the merchant — "determined, discriminating, unremitting." By his own word he was "chief of sinners," and, like everyone else, saved in sovereign grace.

The usual thought is that the merchant is the sinner seeking salvation, and that salvation is the pearl. Some take Christ to be the pearl instead. Either way, it is far from the truth; far from God's thought. The sinner giving up all that he has to buy salvation — to buy Christ?! What has he to buy with but his sins. Is this the gospel of the grace of God?

It is Christ then who really seeks and buys. He alone has the perfect discernment of the moral beauty He saw and prized above all. Beyond dispute, He alone of men understood and sought fine pearls. And this one pearl of great price He saw, in God's purposes, to be saints like Himself, holy and blameless in love. Yes, one with Him — the glorious church, which He will present to Himself, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

The parable of the hidden treasure did not fully show what the saints are to Christ. For the treasure might consist of a hundred thousand pieces of gold and silver. And how would this mark the blessedness and beauty of the Church? The merchant finds "one pearl of great price." The Lord does not only see how precious the saints are. He sees the unity and heavenly beauty of the assembly. Every saint is precious to Christ; but "He loved the church and gave Himself up for her." That is what we see here. I have no doubt that its spirit may be applied to every Christian. But I believe it is meant to set out the loveliness of the Church in the eyes of Christ.

The term "treasure" might include gold, silver or any articles of value, and so be of a very mixed nature; but the beauty and value of the pearl depends entirely on its being all of one substance. So we find that in the second parable the merchant is especially said to have found "one pearl of great price."

This Church is one — one pearl. The pearl is brought up out of the deep sea. It is taken out of the rough shell that first encased it. And it is taken at the cost of the life of the creature that gave it being. So the pearl is a fitting picture of the Church. She has been drawn out of the sea of Gentile waters, and out of the roughness of her natural condition. It cost the life of Him in whom she was seen and chosen before the foundation of the world.

But who can measure how poor He became? To have that pearl, so precious to Him, He sold all that He had. He freely laid aside all the glory of heaven, all the joys of His eternal home, and all that was due to Him there as Creator and God. He took on all the sorrow, suffering, and shame of bearing witness here on earth. And He took all the judgment due to sin — our sin — on the cross. Who can measure that "all"?

It could not be fully said of a man awakening to believe the gospel that he is seeking fine pearls. Here it is one who seeks "fine pearls," which no unconverted man ever really sought. There is no possibility of applying these parables except to the Lord Himself.

People usually take the pearl to be Christ, and say the sinner sells all to have Him. Such a thought has no foundation at all in Scripture. What has the sinner to sell? Nothing, unless you count his sins as being worth something, which is worse than folly. The sinner is guilty, defiled, ruined, bankrupt, lost, and dead in sins.

He knew what he was about. He had taste, discernment, knowledge, about what he sought. It was the well-known beauty of the thing that caused his search... And he buys nothing else along with it... Until He found this pearl, He had no reason to sell all that He had. As soon as He sees it He decides; He gives up everything for it.

This stresses the unity of the assembly too, for it is "one pearl of great value." "Treasure," on the other hand, is no doubt made up of various parts, as there are twelve tribes in Israel... The best pearls take long to make, and God's grace has worked for long centuries to do His great work in the assembly. In the end she will be presented to the Lord Jesus as an adornment, to be worn near His heart forever.

It forms in the depths of the ocean, inside the shell of the pearl oyster, when some foreign matter gets in. The irritation this sets up calls out the best energies of the creature. It cannot throw the intruder out, so it covers it with fine layers of pure pearl. So out of what seemed only evil comes one of the purest, most beautiful and most valuable things in creation.

She herself is only the offending object that caused the sufferings and death of the Lord of glory. But she is clothed with radiant beauty, the work of God's sovereign grace and wisdom.

The "merchant" here is literally "a man on a journey," one who has come from far. He had come all the way from heaven's highest glory, down to seek pearls in the depths of the sea of the nations... This is not the word used of the man who sold all to buy the field in verse 44. It is our word piprasko, "to sell as a slave." The Merchantman not only sold all, whatever He had, but He sold Himself as a slave. "He emptied Himself, taking a bondman's form" (Phil. 2:7; the ESV reads "the form of a servant"), and bought the pearl.

To bring peace and righteousness on the earth, to rescue as the second Adam everything the first Adam lost from the grip of the enemy, to have Israel hail Him as king, to sit on the throne of His father David — all these were pearls in Messiah's crown. But to bring many sons to glory, and more, to bind them into one body by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit... THIS is the pearl of great value.

"The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl" (Revelation 21:21). What first meets the eye as you approach a walled city is its gate. So at every approach the pearl shines out from the surrounding wall of the divine glory. It is the chosen symbol of what the Church was to Christ, and of His own special delight in it as He saw it in eternity.

Amphiblestron occurs only in Matthew 4:18 and means a casting net. It was thrown around the object, which is where the term came from. The more usual word is diktuon... But the sagene (in Matthew 13:47 only), from sattein, to pack or load, was a dragnet or seine, on a larger scale.

In this last parable the kingdom is presented as it is in its effects and purpose in the eye of God. It is His purpose to gather out of the world a people for Himself, and the means He uses is pictured as a net cast into the sea. The net is clearly the preaching of the cross of Christ — to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness... The sea is the symbol of the inhabitants of the earth in a state of tumult and lawlessness. And that is very much the state of the world... Within the Christian world you find not only the greatest good on earth, but also the greatest wickedness. There are real and false disciples of Christ.

If the sea speaks of the nations, then the fish speak of the people in them. In God's purposes, the kingdom of heaven has to do not only with Israel and the church, but with the Gentile nations too.

This is like the parable of the wheat and weeds. In both cases angels do the untangling at the end of the age... But there is also a clear difference. In the earlier parable the wicked are in the world as the result of Satan's sowing. Here "the word of the kingdom" goes out among the nations like a net, and people of all kinds profess to receive it.

This parable does not assume a work of grace in every soul gathered into the net. Yet the net only gathers a small portion of the fish in the sea. How foolish then to think the whole world will be converted, when a scripture as plain as this says otherwise!

Who are "they"? We never find the angels gathering the good. They always separate the wicked for judgment. The fishers were men, like the servants in the first parable... The angels' business is always with the wicked; the servants' with the good.

The Christian worker is busy with the good. He is an agent of the grace that saved him. He leaves the worthless aside for those angels who excel in might... There is no question of a good fish turning worthless or of the worthless rising to good.

This is not the gospel net, as it is often called. After the one pearl is taken up, the end of the age begins. This parable falls into the completion of the age. The dragnet is let into the sea, which represents the nations. The parable refers to the preaching of the everlasting gospel as it will take place during the great tribulation (Revelation 14:6-7)... All this cannot refer to the present time nor to the church, but to the time when the kingdom is about to be set up.

Who are "they"? We never find angels gathering the good. They always separate the wicked for judgment. The fishermen were men, like the servants in the first parable. … The angels' business is always with the wicked; the servants' business is with the good. Separating the wicked from among the just is not the fishermen's work at all. And throwing the bad away is not the same thing as the furnace of fire.

The net has gathered in both good and bad. The good fish are those who have humbly admitted their guilt and ruin, and the Saviour's precious blood has cleansed them from their sins. The bad are those — and how many! — who "profess and call themselves Christians," but have no love for the Saviour's person and no living faith in the gospel. Mistakes in discernment are all too possible. Even so, everyone to whom Christ is more than a mere name carries a solemn responsibility to tell the good from the bad, in godly fear — keeping company with the one and avoiding the other.

In the net the mixture came from the work of man. The kinds of fish were distinct, no doubt, but a single labour gathered them all into the net — and that labour was man's, the fishermen's. This is not here a work of the enemy, but the imperfect work of man.

The fishermen are taken up with the good: they put them into vessels. The bad they only reject and set aside. What is the fisherman after? What does he care about? The good fish. To have them as he wants and intends, he must reject the others along the way. But he does that only so that he may have the good. Beyond that, he has nothing to do with the bad. They are not his concern. They are only in his way: the net was not cast for them. He gathers the good into vessels. Where they go after that is not his business either: his work is to catch them and gather them into vessels apart.

Putting the good into vessels is the closing act of the fishermen. The Holy Spirit gives them the ability to tell the good from the bad. This wisdom was not withheld before. From the beginning, receiving souls into the Church is putting the good into vessels. But the energy of the Holy Spirit in the fishermen makes care for the "good" the mark of the close. Some travel about proclaiming the name of Jesus, then leave those who may have been converted to go wherever they like. They may be doing only what they have power for. But they are not the fishermen who give character to the kingdom of heaven at the close.

The vessels would represent companies of saints, with nothing in them that points to different sects.

The fishermen will draw the gospel net to shore when it is full. No one but God knows how soon that will happen, though everything around us suggests the end of the age is near. The fishermen simply throw the bad fish out of the net. They were not the fish they were looking for. And angelic power, not human hands, will deal out God's judgement on those who falsely claim the Christian name.

In Matthew 13 we find the expression "the end of the world" occurring three times. A reader might suppose that this refers to the end of the world, as the Apostle Peter describes it: "the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed" (2 Peter 3:10). But the correct translation is "the end of the age." So it refers to the close of this present age of God's grace. God will then pour out His judgments on this guilty world, leading up to the Lord setting up His kingdom on this earth for a thousand years, called the millennium.

This is the clearance of the earth for millennial blessing. When the Lord comes for His own, which 1 Thessalonians 4 sets before us, He removes the saints. Then the wicked will not be severed from the just, but the just from the wicked. The righteous will be taken, and the wicked left. Here it is the reverse of this — the wicked taken and the righteous left... Here, on the contrary, the righteous are those not taken away to inherit heavenly blessing, but left behind to inherit earthly.

At the end of the age, the angels will come out and sever the wicked from among the just. They do not gather the just from among the rest, as the fishermen did. They will cast the wicked into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Nothing here says the angels are busy with the just. Gathering them into vessels was not the angels' work, but that of the fishermen. The angels are in both parables occupied with the wicked.

The fishermen gather the good into vessels, to take care of and preserve them — an act of interest and value. The angels sever the wicked from among the just. The fishermen sought out the good. The angels seek out the bad for punishment, and "cast them into the furnace of fire" — an act of vengeance and wrath.

This is not the Gospel net, as it is often called. This parable falls into the completion of the age... All this cannot refer to the present time nor to the church, but to the time when the kingdom is about to be set up.

Some who claimed to be Christ's servants handed over supposed heretics and other spiritual offenders for outward punishment. They did exactly what is forbidden for now... Destructive judgment on Christians in name only is not the servants' work. It belongs to the angels of the Son of Man.

This was the fishermen's work of careful sorting. It is all the more striking because in the first parable the servants were forbidden to gather the weeds. In both parables, it is the angels who deal with the wicked. They are, as the interpretation goes on to say (not only explaining, but adding), to come out and separate the wicked from among the righteous. This is another truth, which must not be confused with the fishermen's work of gathering the good into vessels. Both are true, but they differ in what they are and what they aim at. We, the servants or fishermen, have to do with the good; the angels will carry out judgment on the wicked. The Christian is called to the work of grace.

People used furnaces for many purposes: smelting raw metal, refining it in crucibles, making lime and bricks, and baking as an oven... The furnace also pictures the oppression of Egypt, out of which God delivered the Israelites (Deuteronomy 4:20). It pictures too the afflictions God later brought them into, to purify them from their idolatry and sin (Ezekiel 22:18, 22). In the New Testament the furnace of fire refers to the place of eternal punishment.

The explanation shows that the thought is not extinction, which is only a conclusion drawn from the effect of fire on weeds. The effect of the fire, as of the outer darkness, is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So the effect is not a ceasing to exist, as they claim, but suffering. It is suffering called everlasting (Matthew 25:46), in contrast with everlasting life.

The weeping is only self-pity, not repentance. Wailing is the attitude of complaining, because faith is absent. Gnashing of teeth is a spirit of rebellion, not corrected even by the solemn judgment of God.

We call attention to this phrase. In the New Testament only Matthew uses it elsewhere (Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). Always, you will notice, it refers to those who have treated the offer of grace lightly. Gentiles will accept grace and sit down in the kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matthew 8:11). Natural descent from Abraham, which the Jews boasted of and gloried in so much, will count for nothing if they reject grace.

Angels will bind the weeds in bundles, and gather the wheat into the barn, and also separate the wicked from among the just. I hardly need to say that the catching up of the saints is not a separating of the wicked from among the just. It is a separation of the saints from among the wicked, and will have taken place before the end of this present age.

This is not the Gospel net, as it is often called. After the one pearl is taken up, the end of the age begins. This parable falls into the completion of the age... The separating of the good and the bad is done by angels. All this cannot refer to the present time nor to the church, but to the time when the kingdom is about to be set up.

Crowds pressed around our Lord who had plenty of natural intelligence but not the least idea about these things. We see this when the disciples asked why He spoke in parables. He assured them that it was given to them to understand what He was saying. They did not have more natural ability to think these things out. But God did a sovereign work in their souls, and that gave them the ability to understand these things.

The parables presented the truth wrapped in a veil, which neither the disciples nor the crowd could see through. The Prophet lifted the veil to teach His followers. As we read, "He did not speak to them [the crowd] without a parable, but privately to His own disciples He explained everything" (Mark 4:34). So when He asked, "Have you understood all these things?" they were able to reply, "Yes, Lord."

To the Lord's question whether they understood all these things, the disciples answer "Yes," though their understanding could only have been small indeed compared with what they would later discern.

Even then they were able to understand something of what the Lord had revealed. But the full meaning would wait until the Holy Spirit came to live in them.

They answered, "Yes, Lord." But here is the proof of their understanding: they would be able to bring out of their treasure of knowledge things new and old. True wisdom would never discard the old. It would gain fresh value because of the new.

The scribe knew about the kingdom. But he had no idea at all of the character it would take on: the kingdom of heaven planted in this world by means of the word, on which everything here depends.

The least we can look for in those who minister is familiarity with the Scripture, the understanding of God's mind as He has revealed it in the word. There may be this, notice, without any gift of speech, without any ability to communicate it to others. But without this, what have we to communicate? God's saints surely do not gather in the name of Jesus to be handed crude, half-digested human thoughts. They do not gather to hear what others have said or written repeated back to them.

If the Lord should ask us, as He did His disciples, "Have you understood all these things?" may we be able to answer "Yes, Lord". If we can truly say so, then the understanding will enrich us spiritually, and we shall be "like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and old".

The least we can look for in those who minister is knowledge of the Scripture, an understanding of God's mind as revealed in the word. There may be this, notice, without any gift of speech, without any ability to communicate it to others. But without this, what have we to communicate? God's saints surely do not gather from time to time in the name of Jesus to be handed raw, half-digested human thoughts. Nor do they gather to hear repeated back to them what others have spoken or written.

It is significant that the Lord spoke the last three parables in the house, to the disciples. As we have seen, they contain the mystery of Israel, the mystery of the church, and the mystery of the ending of the age. The great crowd did not hear them, since they contain truths for His own. To them alone the Spirit of God gives knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom.

The scribe studied the Old Testament Scriptures. He knew its glowing prophecies of the Kingdom of Heaven well — a kingdom with the Jew at its centre, reaching through the Jew to the Gentile nations. He expected the glory of the reign of the Messiah. These were "the things old," known for long centuries.

The doctrine of the kingdom, for instance, was a well-known doctrine. But the kingdom would take the forms the Lord described. It would take in the whole world without distinction. The people of God would draw their existence not from Abraham but from the word. All this was quite new. It was all of God. The scribe had knowledge of the kingdom, but he knew nothing of the character it would take on: the kingdom of heaven planted in this world by means of the word, on which everything here depends.

The scribe was well taught in the law of Moses, so he could bring out the old things. And since he was trained for the kingdom of heaven, he could bring the new things out of his treasure too. He was indeed to have new things, but he was not to give up the old.

True wisdom would never discard the old. It would have fresh value because of the new. Both alike are the work of the Holy Spirit.

Here we have lessons about the kingdom of heaven applied to knowledge gained as by scribes in the Old Testament. Nothing here is about the mystery that was hidden and later revealed by the Holy Spirit to the apostles and prophets. Instead, the kingdom and its mysteries throw light on the promises and the government of God — things a scribe would have found in the law and the prophets.

He encourages them to be well-instructed scribes, saying that there is great treasure in the knowledge of the truth of the kingdom of heaven, and one so instructed is like a householder who makes well-balanced provision for his house, things both new and old.

If we are like Ruth, we will have something to give to others, and our ministry will be neither barren nor unfruitful. Many a believer sits silent in the meetings, year after year, just because he has not been out gathering.