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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/donald-armstrong/the-kingdom-expected-nt-part-2/
So, just to bring you in mindset into chapter 13, if you don't mind, Brother Donald. Do you see that there are three great sevens in the Scriptures? We've got Leviticus 23, and we've got the seven feasts.
And then we've got Revelation 2 and 3, and we get the seven churches. And then here we've got Matthew 13, and like yourself, I'm happy to say we've got the seven parables. But you know that those divide, and how they divide.
Are you happy here that in this chapter we've got a division of four, and a division of three? Four parables, and then a split if you want, and then the further three parables.
I would lean to the four and three, yes. I'm happy in this. I don't know how William would divide it up now, because he sees eight here.
Would you mind just telling the believers how we get four and three? Go ahead. So, what our brother Mark has showed us from Matthew 13. Look at verse number one, it says, The same day went Jesus out of the house, and He sat by the seaside.
Then He went into the ship, and He spoke to the multitude on the shore from the ship. Now, when we move down, just look down at verse number 34. All these things speak Jesus unto the multitude in parables.
Look at verse number 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house. So, He's given four parables. He's given it from the ship. Then He goes into the house, and He gives a further three parables.
So, it suggests to us a division in the chapter of four and three of the seven.
A division, no doubt, occurs there for that reason. But to balance the ministry, John, I would see it four and four. Okay. If you notice the last one there, in... Where am I at now? The householder, where am I at?
Yes, verse 52. Then said He unto them, Therefore, every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto... Now, that little formula of words introduces all the other seven parables.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto. So, you have it again. You have that formula of words. A householder, and he brings forth from his treasure things old and new. I link that with... There's a chiasm in these four.
So, the first one matches in with the eighth, the second with the seventh, and the third with the fifth, sixth... Oh, third and sixth. Anyway, you can follow that. I get lost in the numbers. So, the first parable is to do with the seed, the sowing of the seed.
The last one, in my view, the eighth one, has got to do with the old and the new. Old Testament, New Testament. There you go. That's simple to see that. And he's drawing from his treasure things both old in relation to the kingdom and things that are new in relation to the kingdom.
Brother Donald's only got eight minutes and we're in trouble.
So, let me ask you one of the big questions. You've emphasized this does not tell us about the kingdom and mystery. It tells us about the mysteries of the kingdom. Mystery, something that has been concealed and is now revealed.
New information. What's the new information in these parables? Amen.
I take it the new information in these parables primarily is that there is going to be a kingdom. It is going to have tremendous growth and there is going to be an end to it that will bring judgment and will bring blessing.
If you want to put it into a smaller sentence with it, given the time we've left, go further on that, Brother Mark.
So, you don't think then, do I take it, that the new information, so the Jews knew there was going to be a kingdom. They knew much about the characteristics of the kingdom and so on. But what they didn't know was that there was going to be a delay in the manifestation of a kingdom.
Right. So, I think the delay is what the focus is centrally on here. Right.
So, in the wheat and the turs, let both grow together until the time, there is the delay, until the time of harvest and then it will be sorted out. That matches in with the dragnet, the good fish and the bad and it's brought to shore and it's sorted out.
So, there's the second, the second and the seventh. Carry on. The Lord asked them if they understood and they said they did. And yet with all, when we get to Acts chapter 1, but the slave will still say, will thou at this time restore the kingdom.
So, would I be okay to suggest, I believe it, so I'm going to suggest it anyway. But I would suggest, Brother Donald, that what we're looking at is the time frame from the beginning of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus, right until the manifestation of his kingdom.
Amen. Yes, I think so. A sower went forth to sow. Yeah, right. And the sower that went forth to sow is the Lord Jesus in his public ministry. And these seven parables and the addendum...
Right, well, help me, Brother John. I did make this point at the start that I want to hear your views on. Is it looking at the period from Christ's public ministry right through to the millennial kingdom, including the little period of the church?
Or is it purely the period excluding the church, given that, for example, in chapter 13, we have no mention yet of the church? Yes. Well, haven't we decided that those that are born again are prepared for that coming kingdom?
Yep. And all through the dispensation of grace, people have been born again, prepared for that kingdom. And the subjects that will be in that kingdom has been growing all the way. So, I would say it's got to include the church age.
Right. So, while it would include the church age then, and this is going to maybe drop us into the parables in particular, do you feel that any of the parables are particularly the church, or do you believe that it is the response to the message in its entirety between the two events?
The latter? The last one. The last one. Okay.
I'm happy with that. Yes. Good. Go ahead. Maybe this is a very simple point, but it's maybe worth just emphasizing here something that's been kind of implicit in what we've been saying. When we encounter parables in Sunday school, we think about them as a way of communicating divine lessons.
And, of course, they are that here, but the point that the Lord makes is that for a nation who have rejected the overt message, who have refused to believe the evidence of all those miracles that are performed, what is communicating information to the disciples and what the Lord interprets for the disciples actually is a judgment on the nation because Christ is no longer teaching clearly.
He's teaching in a parabolic form that is a prophesied judgment on a nation that has rejected Christ.
I think the time is virtually gone, but I think what we've got to just keep in mind with all these parables, and we've talked about it already, one is it is not the kingdom now existing in mystery form.
Okay? We're happy enough with that. It is the mysteries of the kingdom, and what he's doing is he is unfolding to them, as it were, things that will happen that will, in principle, many of them running to the very end.
For example, in the parable of the sower, what is he looking at? He's looking at the fruit. In the parable of the mustard seed, he's looking at the final growth. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, he's looking at the judgment that is going to take place, not the salvation, but the judgment is going to take place.
In the parable of the pearl and the parable of the treasure, he's looking at the final taking to himself of that which he has invested so much money to get. And in the parable of the dragnet, he's looking at the principle in the dragnet that is actually dealing with the fish that are not suitable, so that the very emphasis in all of these parables is more towards judgment at the end than the blessing side of it, even though the others are included within it.
And that's why I take it it would carry us right to the very end. I think you left out the leaven.
I think you left out the leaven, Donald, and I was waiting to see what you were going to say about that. Can I speak about that for a moment? Sorry? Can I have a minute?
Oh, well, not a minute. Give me 30 seconds. Go ahead. All right. Let me flesh out those contrasts further as we move on, just for any that are interested. The mustard seed that grows into something, something small that grows into something big, right, would match in our analysis with the pearl.
Something that's small, but of big value. Something that's large, right? Now, relate this to the kingdom that's coming. Forget about the churches being the pearl. Forget about that. Who ever mentioned that?
Yeah, nobody mentioned that, but the Bible says the kingdom of heaven is like unto it. He's condemning himself. So be clear what the Bible says. Now then, the last one then would be the leaven and the treasure.
Well, in both you have the thought of something hidden. The leaven was hidden in the meal, right? And with the increase in size, you have the increase in corruption. We're going to level leaven in the normal way.
It's a principle of corruption, right? So keep that in mind. Then when you come to the treasure, you have something hidden. The treasure is hid in the field. Now, what do you have there? You have a man active in the one corruption site, but here is the securing of the treasure, and there's that action that's going on.
What is the treasure? The treasure would be what the Bible says it is. It's the kingdom of heaven. Does the Bible? See? I quote the Bible. Our brother Jar, others might think it's Israel. It doesn't say that in my Bible.
Anyway, there you have it. You can think it over. Ready for behavior. It's virtually a quarter past, and Mark is just bursting to get in on the leaven.
Go ahead, Mark. We should introduce another Bible reading and have a go at that tomorrow.
I became a serdo nerd during lockdown, and my wife tells me I'm not allowed to talk about leaven in meetings because I get boring on the subject. Go ahead. No, I think I agree with you that leaven, I certainly agree with William, that leaven is seen here negative as it is elsewhere in Scripture.
I think this is corruption spreading. All right.
Sorry I asked you because I don't. Would you mind, Brother Donald, if I suggested, just for a few minutes, I personally don't see what our brother William has told us. I personally see God's kingdom as the great viewpoint of the chapter.
I see the first four parables as problems, objectives. I see the last three parables telling how God is going to accomplish it. And so just for balance in the Bible reading, that's how I see it.
Wouldn't God be accomplishing his purposes through the sowing of the seed? Yes.
Yes. But with that, then there's profession. In the second one, there's imitation. In the third one, there's corruption. And we go through it, and we can see things which are against and mitigate against the kingdom of heaven.
Different ways of looking at levels of truth. Sure. That would certainly be the way that I would normally have held that, except that I do not see in the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven anything that is unseemly, anything that is corruption.
I see it as that which has come from God and that which is holy, and Mark is going to take us to that in the future. In fact, I see the kingdom of God, and I will declare it now, I see that the millennial is only the start of it.
I see it running right into the eternal state. And as far as the leaven is concerned, just quickly, and I know the clock has gone, I do not see the leaven in the negative corruption sense. Leaven is something that is used to, in a hidden way, permeate the whole of the loaf and produce in it a growth.
And it doesn't necessarily need to be that which is corruptive. It is something that, once it's started, once it's in, it can never be stopped. And listen, the kingdom of God will not be stopped. It cannot be stopped.
It will achieve its full growth. We see that in the mustard seed. But it is something that it will just quietly go on as the leaven, and it will reach its full potential, and there is nothing. Once leaven starts, you can't stop it.
So I don't see the leaven, in this particular case, as something that is speaking of corruption. I think that it's something that is quietly working that cannot be stopped. That's the slight difference I would take to you on that.
The fire will stop it. Thank you very much, brethren, for your help.