The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN PARABLES:
(Math 13:35) The reason for speaking in parables. “I will open my mouth in Parables, I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
NOTE: The Parables could not have been describing the “Messianic” or “Millennial Kingdom”, because the figures used are of an Earthy nature. Therefore they describe the character of the Present Dispensation in its Earthly aspect, during the absence of the King.
NB!! Jesus used the Parables so that those who would not believe would not understand, and also fulfill the Prophecy, (Isa 6:9-11)(Math 13:13-17) of Isaiah, and because blindness in part had fallen upon Israel. (Rom 11:25) and a clear revelation would only discourage them or drive them further into unbelief.
7 of the “Kingdom of Heaven” parables are found in Matthew’s 13. All of the twelve, except the Parable of “The Saver”, begin with “The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto”.
1. THE SOWER:
The purpose of the “Parable of the Saver” seems to be, not so much to show the “character” of the “Kingdom of Heaven”, that is the “proportion” of those who hear the Gospel and fail to profit by it, though that it is clearly revealed, as it is to show the causes that hinder, the growth of the seed. NOTE: there are 4 classes of Hearers”
a) The “Wayside” hearer: The seed does not have a chance to “take root”. The Devils birds, (verse 19) “criticism, doubt, unbelief, prejudice, preoccupation,” etc. snatch up the seed before it can be worked into the soil.
b) The “Story Ground” hearer: The seed does take “root”, but dies before it can grow up because of the “shallowness” of the soil. Emotional souls caught by some sudden fear of hell, or moved by some strong appeal, profess conversion, but not counting the cost they soon fall away. Jesus mentioned “two stones” that underlie the soil of the heart of the “Stony Ground Hearer,” “Tribulation” and “Persecution”.
c) The “Thorny Ground” hearer: The seed takes root and “grows up”, but it does not bear fruit. The soil of the heart of the “Thorny Ground Hearer” contains the seeds or roots of “thorns” and these spring up, and outgrow, and overshadow the wheat, and absorb from the soil the nutriment needed by it. Matthew mentions two of these “thorns”, the “Cares of the world” and the “Deceitfulness of riches” (Mark 4:19) mentions another, the “Lust of other things” and (Luke 8:14) a 4th, “Pleasures of Life”.
d) The “Good-Ground” hearer: The “seed” takes “root”, “grows up”, “bears fruit” but the amount varies. 30,60,100 fold. It was not the fault of the soil, but the lack of “cultivation”. If the soil had been properly cleared tilled, and cultivated, and the proper atmospheric conditions prevailed, it would have brought forth a uniform crop of 100 fold. This parable teaches us that Christianity is a New Thing, that it does not like weeds, grow up spontaneously of themselves, but it must be sown and cultivated like wheat. The figure is of a “Farmer sowing seed,” and not of a “King setting up a Kingdom”. (i.e.) This dispensation is an “Agricultural One,” for the purpose of getting the “wheat of the Church”. Surely this parable does not teach that the world is to be connected in this dispensation by the preaching of the Gospel, because of the apparent fruitlessness of the soil, only ¬ bringing forth fruit, and that in unequal proportions.
2. THE WHEAT AND TARES:
(Math 13:24-30) Christ Himself interprets the Parable of the Wheat and Tares. (verse 37-43) thus forbidding any fanciful or unscriptural interpretation. He says, the “Man” is the “Son of Man” who sowed good seed. (Verse 37) He sowed it in His “Own field. (Verse 24) and that the field is not the Church, but the world.
NOTE: The claim that the “Field” is the Church, and the “Wheat and Tares represent, “Good and Bad” professors, is thus abolished.
NB!! The Son of Man, the “Saver”, in the 1st Parable sowed the seed of “The Word”. In this Parable He sows “Men”. (The Children of the Kingdom.) This is beautifully illustrated in the persecution that followed the martyrdom of Stephen. (Acts 8:1-4) It was the Son of Man Himself, through the agency of Saul of Tarsus, and not Satan, who scattered the Church broadcast throughout Judea scattering has been going down through the centuries.
The field was not left to the “wheat”, the Devil came and sowed “Tares”. The “Tares” or “Darnel”, so closely resemble “wheat” that its true nature cannot be seen until it has “matured”.
NOTE: The sowing of the Tares was done, not while the Saver slept, for He never slumbers or sleeps, but while the “Men” He left to look after the field slept. (Verse 25) This sowing is still going on.
The Tares are called the “Children of the Wicked One” They are men of the character of those Jews to whom Jesus said – “ye are of your father the Devil. (John 8:44) It is important to note that the Devil cannot “change” the Wheat, he can only sow Tares, but he can sow in such large quantities as to completely change the aspect of the field.
NOTE: When the servants saw what was done they said, “Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?” The Master said, “Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up the Wheat also with them.”
This is no argument for Church “Laxness” in discipline. This Parable has no reference to the Church, as a Church. Men and Woman in these days are trying to root out all manner of obnoxious evils, to no avail. It does more harm than good. There is to be a twofold development of Good and Evil, down to the end of the age. The Good growing better and the Evil, worse. This Parable teaches that when the time of harvest approaches, the difference between the Wheat and Tares will become more strikingly and clearly manifest.
SUMMARY:
The conflict between good and evil will last until the Harvest, (verse 30) which is at the “end of this age”, and the “reapers”, are the Angels (verse 39) as soon as the “Wheat of the Church is ripe,” Jesus will come back.
NOTE: (Verse 30) “Gather ye together first the Tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the Wheat into my barn.”
The claim that the Church is to remain on the Earth until the tares are burned, thus necessitating that the Church go through the Tribulation, is false. The fact is that the Tares are gathered together in “bundles”, not to burn them “before” the Wheat is harvested, but to have them ready, and “separated” to burn after the Wheat is harvested, or gathered in the “Heavenly Barn”. This is going on in the Farm of the “Christian Science”, “Mormonism,” “Theosophy” etc…
3. THE MUSTARD SEED:
The Kingdom of Heaven is not the Church, but it is Christendom. For clearness sake, we shall let the Mustard Seed represent the Church which is visible, which is composed of all the churches called Christian. “The Mustard Seed” represents the Church which is visible, which is composed of all the churches called Christian. The “Mustard Seed” shall represent the “External Growth,” and condition of the Visible Church, and the “heaven” the “internal development”.
The Mustard Seed began with the 120 believers who receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and continued to enlarge until its branches spread all over the Roman world. But the “birds of the air,” the Ananias and Sapphiras, the Simon Magus’s, the Hymernaeus and Philetus and other emissaries of Satan, began to lodge in its branches and befoul its purity and when in 324AD the Emperor Constantine united Church and State many thousands crowded the Church crouched beneath its shadows, lodged in its branches, fattened on its fruit, and have continued to do so until today. According to the Parable, the “Kingdom of Heaven” is a vast worldly system, rooted in the Earth, bearing the name Christ, possessed of wealth, standing and power, but sheltering the agents of the “Ruler of the Darkness” of this age.
4. THE HEAVEN:
(Math 13:33) The common interpretation of this parable, is that the “woman” is the Church, the “Heaven” is the Gospel, and the “Three measures of meal”, humanity, and that the “Heaven of the Gospel” is to be so introduced by the Church into the “Meal of Humanity” that the whole world will be converted to Christ.
NOTE: But “heaven cant be the Gospel, because heaven in the scriptures is the “symbol of Evil”. It is a species of corruption produced by fermentation and tends to putrefaction, and will corrupt everything in which it comes in contact. The Children of Israel were commanded to put it out of their houses at the time of the “Passover” on penalty of excommunication. (Ex 12:15) It must not come in contact with the sacrifice.
(Ex 34:25)(Lev 2:11)(Lev 10:12) Christ used the word heaven only three other times.
The heaven of the Parisees, of the Sachucees, and of Herod. (Math 16:6-12)(Mark 8:15) He calls the heaven of Parisees and Saducess, “false doctrine.” The False doctrine of the Parisees was “legalism” the “farm of godliness without the power.” The False doctrine of the Saducees was “Skepticism”, the denial of the resurrection of the body, saying, that there was neither Angel or Spirit. The False Doctrine of Herod was “materialism”, a mixture of religion and worldliness.
NB!! Christ only used the word “Heaven” in an evil sense, and so did Paul. (1Cor 5:6-8) “Purge out therefore the “Old Heaven” that ye may be a new lump. In the same passage he calls heaven, “malice and wickedness” as contrasted with “sincerity and truth”.
(1Cor 5:6)(Gal 5:9) Paul writing of “evil practices” warns that, “a little heaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
NOTE: There are two exceptions to this universal rule. (Lev 23:6-14) The “wave sheaf” of “first fruits” was to contain no leaven because it represented Christ, the “first fruits” of the resurrection, who is “without sin” But the new “Meat offering” of two wove loaves,” offered 50 days later, at the Feast of Pentecost (Lev 23:15-17) was to contain leaven, because the Feast of Pentecost was typical of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit on the Disciples on the day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:1-4) and those who received it were not sinless. The other exception is in (Amos 4:4,5) where the Lord is “rebuking transgression,” and “sarcastically” refers to the use of Leaven as a multiplying of transgressions. We see that even where the use of leaven is commanded or permitted, it is a symbol of evil. Thus the Leaven is meant to be false or corrupt doctrine.
NB!! If by “leaven” is meant the Gospel we have a queer contradiction, for the Gospel does not work like leaven. Leaven when put in meal works by “itself”, and if left “alone” will leaven the whole batch of dough. The Gospel has been implanted in every country and yet when left alone unattended dies out.
Paul writing to Timothy describes the “character” of the leaven. (2Tim 4:34) The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they leap to themselves teachers having “itching ears;” and they shall be turned into fables. The Apostle Peter also sounds a warning (2Pet 2:1-2) “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers. Among you, who privity (like the leaven in the meal) shall bring the damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their Pernicious Ways by reason of whom the Way of Truth shall be evil spoken of”.
WHAT IS MEANT BY THE 3 MEASURES OF MEAL?
The meal does not represent the “unregenerate mass of humanity”, but the pure seed of the Word of God. It is quite a coincidence that the three major divisions in the church, (i.e.) Roman Catholic, Greek, Protestant, have false and corrupting doctrines of Baptismal Regeneration, Prayers for the Dead, Image worship, Sacrifice of the Mass within them. The women who hides the “Leaven” corresponds to the woman Jezebel of the Church of Thyatira. (Rev 2:20) and foreshadows the “System” (Papal) referred in (Rev 17:5) as the “Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth.”
5. THE HID TREASURE:
The Parables of the hid treasure and the Pearl have been interpreted to mean that Christ is the Hid Treasure and also the Pearl, and that we are to sell all, that is, give up everything for Him. But this is contrary to the Gospel plan of Salvation.
The Field is the world, the same as in the wheat and tares, and the sinner is not to purchase the world, but to give it up. The sinner has nothing to sell, and Christ is not for sale, nor is He hidden in a field, nor does the sinner having found Christ hide him again.
NB!! Salvation is not something that can be bought, it is a free gift. (Rom 6:23) The Sinner does not buy Christ, Christ buys him. (1Cor 6:20) Salvation is free and something to be received (John 1:12) and that without money and without price. (Isa 55:1) The Field is the world, the Man is Christ (the son of man). Christ is the purchaser. Although the world belongs to God, the Devil had taken possession of it.
The Hid Treasure was not in the field when he took possession, it was placed there afterwards. Thus God hid it because it did not belong to the Devil, and the only way to get it back was to buy the field from the Devil. (2Cor 8:9) The price He paid was all He possessed. The Hid Treasure is Israel. God said to Israel at Sinai, “ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the Earth (world) is mine.” (Ex 19:5) “For the Lord hath chosen Jacob for Himself and Israel for His Peculiar Treasure”. (Psa 135:4)
NOTE: Christ purchased the Field on the cross, but He has not taken possession of it yet, and thus the treasure still remains hidden in the field, until the time comes for the
“Redemption of the Purchased Possession.” (Eph 1:14)
(Rom 11:25) “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this Mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the Fullness of the Gentiles become in”.
6. THE PEARL
The Merchant Man is Christ. The Pearl is the Church. In the Parable of the Hid Treasure, the treasure was not purchased, but the Field. In this Parable it is the Pearl that is purchased. One Christ is in full possession of the Pearl, it will never be on the market again. It will be His forever. We see that this Parable describes the securing (formation) of the Church, in this dispensation, and not the conversion of the World.
7. THE DRAG NET
This parable also covers the present dispensation. The Net is the Gospel Net. The Parable describes the work assigned to the Disciples when Jesus said to them, “I will make you Fishers of Men”. This is like the revivals that take place outside out the buildings called churches, but it results in the netting of Good and Bad fish.
NOTE: The ending of this parable is the same as the parable of the wheat and tares, where the separation of good and bad does not take place, until the Harvest, which is the “End of the Age,” and the separation is done by “Angel Reapers.” The good fish are separated into “vessels” (leaven) before the bad are cast away..
8. THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT
(Math 18:23-35) This parable has to do with the conduct of the members of the “Kingdom of Heaven” towards each other during this dispensation.
9. THE VINEYARD LABORERS
(Math 20:1-16) It does not teach that the penny is Salvation, for Salvation is a Gift and cannot be earned as wages or merited as a reward. It does not teach that the 3,6,9,11th hours, represent the different ages at which sinners may come to Christ. Neither that because each received a penny that men shall be equally rewarded in the next world.
In context it shows (Math 19:27-30) that the Parable was spoken to rebuke “hireling spirit of Peter and is to teach that men will be judged for the motive of their service, and not for their amount. (1Cor 3:9-15) At the “Judgment of Reward” all will be revealed by the consumption of the wood, hay, stubble works of all Hireling Laborers.
10.THE MARRIAGE FEAST
(Math 22:1-14) This is not the “Great Supper” of (Luke 14:16-24) That Parable was spoken in the house of a chief Parisee in Persia, 3 months before Christ’s death, and refers to the “Gospel Feast.”
The Parable of the Marriage Feast was spoken in the Temple at Jerusalem on the morning of the Tuesday preceding His crucifixion, and was spoken to the multitude. The Parable extends from the Mosaic Law” to the “Marriage of the Lamb.” The certain King is God, the Son is Christ. The first bidden were the Jewish Nation.
Moses and the Prophets announced the Feast, John the Baptist, the twelve and the seventy, notified the Jewish Nation that it was about ready. When Jesus the Lamb was offered up on Calvary, the feast was ready, and Peter John and others were the “other servants” sent forth. This was the “second” call. (Acts 3:19-21) But the Jewish Nation made light of it. Then the “Remnant” took Stephen, James, and others and “Intreated them spitefully ” and “slew them”. This made the King angry and He sent His armies and “burned their city” This was prophetic of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70AD. Philip, Barnabas, Paul and others, were sent out into the Highways of the “Gentile World” to gather in those who were willing to accept the invitation to the “Marriage Feast”. This Parable looks forward to the “Marriage of the Lamb,” where there is to be a “separation” among the guests, those not having on the wedding Garment being excluded. The end of the Parable is the same as the “Wise and foolish” virgins.
11.THE PARABLE OF THE 10 VIRGINS
(Math 25:1-13) This is a picture of what will happen to the professing church when Christ comes to gather out His Saints. Thus the true and false Professors cannot be detected in the Church until the time of separation comes and that the possession of the Holy Spirit, represented by the oil, will be the supreme test.
12.THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS
(Math 25:14-30) Not to be confused with the Parable of the Pounds in (Luke 19:11-27) The Man is Christ, the far country is heaven, the departure is Christ’s ascension, the return His second coming. The Parable of the Pounds is Jewish and picture what will happen when Christ having received the Kingdom, returns to Earth and rewards His servant the Jews) by giving them Authority over different cities. The one pound man loses the pound and the right to rule, but is not cast out. In the Parable of the Talents, the one talent man is cast out.
The theme of this Parable is “Christian Stewardship” and the fact that the one talent man complains of the strict accountability required of him, shows that the one talent man is a more professor, and his character is revealed by his commission of the “Napkin Sin”.
NOTE: The time of accounting synchronizes with that of the separation of the “Wheat and Tares” the “Good and Bad fish”, the “Wise and Foolish Virgins,” and reveals the
fact that unfaithfulness in “Christian Stewardship,” will be punished.