The sermon titled 'Come and Nest in its Branches' by Scott Brown explores three parables from Matthew 13:24-43 – the tares among wheat, the mustard seed, and the leaven – to illustrate the nature and expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven. The parable of the tares and wheat explains the coexistence of good and evil in the world until the final judgment, where the righteous will shine, and the wicked will face eternal punishment. The mustard seed parable emphasizes the Kingdom's growth from small beginnings to a vast, sheltering tree, while the leaven parable highlights the Kingdom's pervasive influence. Despite secular trends and appearances, the sermon asserts that the Kingdom of Heaven is expanding. It encourages believers to consider their spiritual state and the genuine reception of the gospel. Fathers are urged to teach their children the 'dark sayings of old' from Psalm 78, emphasizing the role of the gospel in family teachings.

Our text for today is Matthew 13, verse 24 to 43. Another parable he put forth to the unsain. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. By while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. By when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, sir, do you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? He said to them, an enemy has done this. The servants say to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, no.

That while you gather up the tears, you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather together the terse and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gathered the wheat into my barn. Another parable he put forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man too can sow in his field, which indeed is a list of all the seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the earth come and nest in its branches.

Another parable he spoke to them, that kingdom of heaven is like living, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all living in it. All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables, and without a parable He did not speak to them. That I may be fulfilled which was spoken to by the prophets, saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will other things kept secret from the foundation of the world. Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house.

And his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the terrestres of the field. He answered and said to them, He who sowed the good seed is the son of man, the field is a world, The good seed are the sons of the kingdom, but the terrestres are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is a devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the rippers are the angels. Therefore, as the terrors are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.

The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend. And those who practice loneliness and will cause them into the furnace of fire, there will be welling and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father, he who has ears to hear, let me hear." Let's pray. Oh Father, Thank you for your word, Lord. Thank you for the blessing that we have to come and hear your word, Father.

May you please help us to hear that and understand your word, Lord. May you please convict us. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. When we get to verse 24, our Lord has come out of the house.

He's been explaining the meaning of the parable of the soils. And now, as we get to verse 24, the Lord is in public again, and He's teaching the multitudes. He's giving them parables. And In our text this morning, we're going to encounter three parables, the tares, the mustard seed, and the leaven. And what you find in these parables is an accurate analysis of what's going on in the world today.

In these parables, Jesus exposes what might not be detected by everyone in the world regarding the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is doing something regardless of what might be perceived in appearances in the world, because the Kingdom of Heaven is spiritual and it is moving. And the first parable, the tares and the wheat, what we find in this parable is that there are two kinds of people in the world. And then In the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, the Lord is telling us that something is happening in the world. There's an unstoppable force at work in the world, and it is overtaking the hearts of men.

And that the kingdom of heaven is expanding, regardless of what the newspapers and the pundits and the researchers and the statisticians might tell you. The kingdom of heaven is expanding. That's what's really happening in the world. Yesterday's edition of Wall Street Journal had a full-page layout on the state of America, and the headline was, America is Coming Apart, and talked about how secularism is up, marriage is down, unwed births are up, manhood is down, but regardless of what you might read in the newspapers, the kingdom of heaven is expanding in the way that these parables explain that it is expanding. And when we consider the parable of the tares and the wheat, let's just recognize the nature of this parable.

It's one of the most extensive parables that Jesus tells, second only to the one that precedes the parable of the soils. And it really is so significant because it gives the whole history of the world and everything that's happening in the world is explained in this parable and what happens at the end of the age to everyone in the world and then even their eternal state beyond the time of life in this world. So this parable is so comprehensive and it really helps you to understand history. It shows you the way that history is playing out. And it's all about the advancement of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now all the parables in Matthew 13 have to do with the advancement of the Kingdom of God, various aspects of it. And there are ways that it actually grows on the one hand, but As we saw last week, there are ways that it appears to be growing, but it's not his kingdom. And we saw that in the parable of the soils, how different people respond to the gospel outwardly. And what it looks like to the outside observer how a person one person will receive it with joy but actually it comes to nothing very quickly or in the instance of the fourth the third soil where the Word of God is apparently received, but there are so many weeds it finally chokes and kills the Gospel. It kills the life of God that was somehow apprehended by that person.

And they go on and on. This is the moral person who thinks that they are saved. But they have weeds in their garden, which choke out the life of the gospel. And so you have this picture in the first parable of the soils where there are matters of appearance in contrast to matters of reality. So in that first parable we're challenged to consider who we really are.

Not what experience we had, not what we've said with our mouth, not what institutions we've associated with, but what's really going on in our hearts. And who are we really? Are we really sons of the king? Or are we like that soil, so shallow, and there was an initial excitement, but yet we're dead today? You know, are we like the church in Sardis to whom the Lord said, I know your works and that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead?

Are we like that church or like the church of Laodicea in which the Lord said, I know your works, that you are neither hot nor cold. And I wish that you were hot or cold. But because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. But you will say, I have become wealthy and I have need of nothing, and yet do you not know that you are wretched and poor and blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in fire, that you may be rich and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed.

And anoint your eyes with Isav that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine and he with me." This is a picture of the visible dead church where people claim to have the name of Christian, but there is no true good seed in good soil, and nor is it growing." So that's the picture that we find in the first parable.

And there's a different kind of situation, but also very similar in the parable of the tares. And so that's what we are involved in here in this parable. And it gives a comprehensive worldview and understanding of history. So while the emphasis in the first parable is hearing and understanding the Word of God and how it really plays out in your life, in this next parable of the tares, It's about growing and gathering and the final judgment. And really the conclusion of the history of the world, where the terrors are gathered up by the angels and they're thrown into everlasting torment, while God's agenda for His people is to make them shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." So, this is the basic thrust of what we're doing here this morning.

So let's begin to look in detail at the parable of the tares. Beginning in verse 24, another parable he put forth to them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. So this tells about God and God's plans for the world. It is like a man who sowed good seed. And this just tells us that all of history really is about God and His sovereign plan.

The story of planet Earth centers around a Father who created the world and He made mankind and he set them in his garden, in his vineyard. And it is a Father in heaven, the creator of all there is, who makes, he makes the soil and he also makes the seed. And he makes some of the soil bad, and he makes some of the seed bad, and he makes some of the soil bad and he makes some of the seed bad and he makes some of the soil good and some of the seed good as well. And I just want us to notice that This parable begins and ends in the very same way with a father. And this father sows seed in his field, And then at the end of the age, he gathers his wheat and he puts it into a barn.

And then he has his angels gather the chaff or the tares and puts them into everlasting darkness. And in this first phrase of the parable, there's something that I want to draw our attention to. These are some of the most heartwarming words in all of the Bible. It's in verse 24, right at the end. You learn something about your life that I hope that we can grasp this morning.

And there are just two words. His field. It's His field. And He has planted you exactly where he has designed. It is his field.

To me, that's the most comforting thing that anyone can ever know, that this is my Father's world, and that He's arranged everything, including the place of my habitation, including the church that He has me gathered with, absolutely everything. He has planted me in His field, and He will reveal the sons of the devil and his own sons in this field of the world that he has made. And what we learn here in this field that there is an enemy, but in verse 25, but while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way." So there were men who slept. Men, the term is used for both male and female. The idea is that, is not really that the workers were sleeping, but that time has passed and something has happened during this passage of time.

That there is an enemy that has been active in the field. This is what happens in the passage of time. So in the passage of time in your life, individually, and in everyone's life in the whole world, there's this activity of the devil in the world. And You may be five years old or 25 or 35 years old, but as the time passes by, there's an enemy in the world. That's the idea here.

And so this farmer has an enemy and it says, this enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. Now the word enemy that Jesus uses here indicates hostility and hatred. It is the enemy of your soul. It's the devil himself. He came to kill and steal and destroy.

The Lord Jesus has already taught his disciples to pray, deliver us from the evil one. He's already said that. Now he's expanding on the reality of the presence of the evil one in the world here. And then he's sowing bad seed, tares, zanion or garnele. It's a weed that resembles wheat.

And it grows, and it's almost indistinguishable from wheat until it gets close to the time of harvest. So they grow together. They appear to be the same thing. You look out over your field, and you say, what a marvelous crop I have. And yet, there is a reality.

In the early stages of that crop, you don't really know the difference between the wheat and the tares, because they look very, very similar. You know, Jeremiah cried out, why does the way of the wicked prosper? And here what you find is the devil is sowing his seeds in the field of the Lord, and he's prospering in his way. And God causes the sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and he causes them both to grow. But he's an enemy.

He is a, is brutal. The brutality of the enemy here is shown. He sows, he leaves, he departs from the scene. He's sort of hit and run. The cruelty of this enemy is explained here.

He's a saboteur. He does a work of sabotage in the kingdom of heaven. And he goes his way. The word sabotage takes its meaning from perhaps a number of historical situations. And I'm not sure what it is.

But one of the ideas of connecting the English meaning of the word saboteur is derived from French factory workers who would throw their shoes, their sabots, into the machinery to jam up and stop production because they're discontented. They wanted to destroy the business because they hated the management of that business. Now who knows what the real root of that term is. That's exactly what's happening with the devil. He is a saboteur.

He's brutal. He does damage, and then he leaves. He goes off and does more of his damage in another place. So here, Jesus is explaining that there's an enemy in the world to destroy. But in verse 26 we read, But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So now this is the time of harvest. And now it's well known by everyone that there's a mixture in the field. And this mixture of plants symbolizes the mixture of people that there are in the world. There are two kinds of people. And so while Jesus, he's talking about the world here.

Now, Most of the commentators on this text say that Jesus is talking about the visible church. John Calvin, J.C. Ryle, all kinds of people. Really, the majority of authors say this is the visible church. Is it the church or is it the world?

And I just want to present an idea to you. It's probably both. That what the Lord Jesus is saying is that the whole world is like this. Everywhere you look in the world, if you look in a nation under a civil government, In that nation, everyone is a picture of this reality, that there are weed and there are tares in that place. It's the same thing in a home.

You have both weed and tares in a home. You also have weed and tares in a church. Everywhere you look, this reality rules and reigns. And what Jesus is just speaking of as a general reality everywhere. Now, well, what about, what about, are we supposed to, isn't the civil government supposed to put to death murderers and various other kinds of sinful people who commit sinful behavior?

Yes. So this doesn't contradict that there's discipline in the civil government. And it doesn't contradict the idea that there's discipline in a local church either, because we've been given very specific instructions about how to deal with sin in the church. Now in the church, we're commanded to deal with real sin. We don't know how to discern whether anyone or everyone is truly converted or not.

This is not our primary business. It is part of our business. But the business of the church in excommunication is to deal with real and known sin. And that happens because of this reality that you have wheat and tares growing in the church, in the home, and in the wider realm of the entire world. So when we look into the world, we should be mature when we look into every corner of the world, in the church, in the home, and in the state.

This is the way the world is. And I mean, this should be an antidote for people who go from one church to another because they found some hypocrites in their church. This is normal. This is the way that the whole world is wired. Now, the Church has particular responsibilities to deal with sin.

That's not contradicted here at all. But there will always be in the whole wide world, and in the family, and in the church, there will always be people who are in these categories. And they say one thing and they are found out to be inconsistent with what they really are. And so you have all these people who leave one church after another because they're hypocrites there, and they are absolutely correct. So I think this passage should serve as some kind of antidote for this immature view of the church.

And then the servants ask a question to the owner in verse 27. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tears? So the disciples are asking this obvious question. And then the owner replies, he said to them, an enemy has done this.

And then the servants ask another question, do you want us then to go get and gather them up? Because they seem to be anxious to eliminate the tares. And the owner gives the instruction and he says, No, don't gather them up now. Lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest.

And at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles and burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." So remember, Jesus is speaking to the multitudes now. He has not explained this parable. And then he moves on to the next, the parable of the mustard seed. Another parable he put forth to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds. But when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches." Now there are just a couple of things to get out of the way very quickly here.

He says it is the least of all the seeds, and the critics of Christianity have said, well, the mustard seed is not the smallest seed in the whole world. Well, that's really not the point. He's not saying that it is the smallest technically and scientifically. He's making a comparison between some of that, so incredibly small, but it becomes magnificently large in comparison to its start. That's the whole idea of it.

And the parable teaches that the Kingdom of Heaven is like that. It starts with such a small seed, and then it's always growing, and it's progressively branching out, and it's growing higher and higher. And the species that the Lord Jesus is referring to in Palestine is 12 to 15 feet tall. And while it's not scientifically and technically the very smallest seed, it's a very, very small seed that grows into a very, very large tree. That's the idea of the parable.

And you know, this is a picture of a number of things. Quite likely, it's really an illusion, an allusion to Nebuchadnezzar and the vision that was given of his own kingdom. That's such a great kingdom like a tree, and the birds of the air are seeking refuge there as well, but this kingdom is destroyed. So, you know, God here, He's promising to plant a tree in Israel that will be a source of blessing and safety and majesty and beauty. And it's a wonderful place of refuge.

Ezekiel 17 speaks of this. Ezekiel is speaking that God is going to plant a tree in Israel. And he says, thus says the Lord, I will take also one of the highest branches of the high cedar and set it out. I will crop off from the topmost its young twigs, a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and prominent mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, and it will bring forth boughs and bear fruit and be a majestic seeder.

Under it will dwell birds of every sort, in the shadow of its branches they shall dwell. And all the trees of the fields shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish. I, the Lord have spoken and done it." But the main thrust of this is that there's something happening in the world and that there is a seed that is expanding, that it has an insignificant beginning. And its first state is nothing like the last state of it. And it grows.

You might just think of how the church has grown and how it's spread throughout the whole earth. It's been estimated that by 300 AD there were five to eight million Christians in the world. But Think of it how Christianity has spread throughout the entire world. The Christian faith in one form or another is more widespread than any other religion or ideology in the world. The best-selling book in the world to date is the Bible.

Every year, every single year, it's the top-selling book. And So there's this expanding, growing kingdom that's there. The kingdom of heaven is not national. The kingdom of heaven is not genealogical. It's spiritual and it spreads throughout the whole earth.

And here a bird has found its home there. It's a place of refuge. It's a place of protection. You know, the Kingdom of Heaven is expanding. Here's just one example.

Many of you may know, tomorrow is my 30th wedding anniversary. And tomorrow I'm going to take my wife of 30 years to the place where the Gospel first came to her mother's family in the 19th century. And in the 19th century, some missionaries went to the island of Barbados and preached the gospel to her ancestors. They preached salvation by grace alone, becoming judgment, eternal security. And they were converted and they preached the gospel to their children and they went to the marketplace and evangelized, I'm going to take her to that marketplace.

I'm going to take her to the place where they went to church. I'm going to take her to the place where they were married. I'm going to take her to the place where they were married. I'm going to take her to the places where they preach the gospel, because we know where they are. It's a very small island, it's easy to find.

But this is the expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is expanding. And now, almost two centuries later, there's a pastor's wife in Wake Forest, North Carolina, preaching the gospel to her own children. And they're preaching the gospel to their children. The kingdom of heaven is expanding.

It is like this tree. It continues to grow and branch out. Don't let anyone persuade you that the kingdom of heaven is not expanding. The Kingdom of Heaven may be like that tree. It may go through periods of drought.

It may go through periods of faster and slower growth, but it is expanding. And this kingdom, this kingdom will swallow up the other kingdom, and it will completely dominate it. This is how the kingdom of heaven is. It might look to you like things are bad, but the Kingdom of Heaven is advancing like that tree. That's the way it really is in the world.

You should always read the statistics with a grain of salt, This salt here, about the Kingdom of Heaven. So then, our Lord speaks of this next parable, the parable of the leaven, in verse 33. And another parable He spoke to them, The Kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened." So the idea of the expansion of Leaven is the heart of the matter of this parable. Again, when you consider the parables, you don't want to over-interpret them. They have one core meaning.

And the meaning of this parable is found in what happens with leaven, and that is the expansion of leaven as its primary quality. Now, there are two uses of leaven in the Bible. There's the negative use of leaven and its same principle of expansion. Leaven is sometimes used to describe the growth of evil in his kingdom. The leaven is at work in the church.

This is why the Apostle Paul says, you know, remove the leaven from you in the church. When there was a man who was caught in a sexual sin, a public sexual sin, and he was removed. Because it was a removal of leaven from the church. In Galatians 5, 9, the apostle Paul says, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. So leaven needs to be purged from your life.

That's the idea. There's leaven in your life. There's leaven in the church. In a negative sense. And If you don't get rid of it, it will expand.

Even the littlest amount will make it expand. This is why we have to be absolutely relentless in what our eyes see, the songs we listen to, the films we watch, because a little leaven grows. It always grows. You can't play patty cake with sin. It always grows unless you get it out.

And you have to attack it in the fundamental level. One of my My experience with men who struggle with pornography, always, it's because way upstream, they're listening to songs that are not pornographic but they're on the edge. And they light a little tiny fire. Or they watch a film and there's only a little bit bad in it. And they light a little tiny fire.

It's just so small. But it's like leaven. And it may overtake you and swallow you up. So that's what leaven does. That's what evil does.

And so that's the image, that's one of the images of Levin. It's like, in fact, the entire community of God's people. This is what happened with Achan. His greed, his desire for self-exaltation affected and brought judgment on the entire people of God. Because leaven spreads.

And that's why It was the practice in Hebrew households to sweep up the leaven and burn it and throw it out. And the Jews would go through a ritual where they would spread leaven on the floor of the house and then They would sweep it up and burn it symbolically to tell the story of how devastating lemon is. Why? Because it expands. No one ever brings sin into their life and have it sit there.

It doesn't stay in its nice little cage Because it's actually a roaring lion disguised as some interesting thing. That everybody else seems to accept as well. So anyway, the idea of leaven is that it's expanding. Now, in the positive use of leaven here is that it works the same way with the Kingdom of Heaven. It expands in the heart, and it starts very small, and then it continues to expand.

And it's internal rather than external. It comes from the inside. The Kingdom of Heaven lives in the heart of man. And it expands. And at its very beginning, It's hardly visible at all.

It's very small. It's like a mustard seed. It's like a little bit of leaven. But then it permeates. In Jewish households, the bride was often as a gift from her mother, given a lump of leaven for her house.

And from that leaven, she would feed her household for the rest of her life. It's a very precious gift because it's something that expands and it causes the further feeding of the household in bread. And so there's this expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven. And we see it today. The Gospel is spread to every tongue and tribe and nation.

Well, not every tongue and not every tribe. There are still many yet that have not received the gospel. And that's what we are here for, is to expand it. Just like those missionaries that went to the island of Barbados in the 19th century, so God has called us to do the same thing and to sow the seeds of the kingdom, and then watch it expand by the power of the Spirit of God." And then in verse 34, we read that, "...all these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and without a parable he did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world." So this is an explanatory note that Matthew inserts here.

He's explaining why Jesus is telling these parables because now remember he's in public. He's come out of the house he's now told three more parables and And then Matthew wants us to know why The parables and he's already told us a little bit previously But But what he's saying here is that God has always given parables. And he's quoting Psalm 78. I'd like you to open your Bibles to Psalm 78, because this is critical in understanding what our Lord is trying to communicate to us here. There were many parables that the Lord delivered to His people in Israel.

There was the garden, there was the Red Sea, there was the striking of the rock, there was manna from heaven, there were so many parables, there are many, many, many, we could list, I had a thought of listing the Old Testament types and it would just take too long. All of them were fulfilled in Christ. It would probably take us over an hour just to talk about the types in the temple alone. So there are hundreds of types. There are hundreds of parables, dark sayings of old that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And These dark sayings of old are the things that God gave His people. And in Psalm 78, Asaph is setting an example and calling the fathers of Israel to teach the dark sayings of old to their children. What are the dark sayings of old? The types. The types of Christ.

He's really asking His readers to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. To give the dark sayings of old, the types of Christ. This is what fathers are supposed to do. In Psalm 78, verse 1, Give ear, O my people, to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works He has done. So, what fathers are supposed to be doing is to preach the Gospel to their children by telling them the dark sayings of old. And in our day, connecting the fulfillment of all those things with the dark sayings of old. To see the whole plan of God, to see the great Governor and Father of history, who has planted all these types and parables all throughout history as signposts to help us understand what it means to be sinful and to what it means to be saved by grace, through faith alone.

Because all of these parables speak of the gospel. And what this means is that this is the work of fathers. That's what Asaph is saying. I will utter dark sayings of old." And then he commands fathers to do the exact same thing, to preach the sweetness of the gospel day by day in their families. This is the role of a father.

This is the role of, this is the role really of all of God's people, is to speak the dark sayings of old, which are the shadows of the gospel, the stories of God's salvation for his people throughout the ages. Now, Psalm 78 is a long psalm. It's the longest other than Psalm 119. And it's the history of Israel. And in the Psalm are markers, one marker after another, of the story of redemption and the stubbornness and rebellion of the fathers of Israel in verse 8.

And may we not be like our fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation. And he speaks in verse 9 of their cowardliness, in verse 11 of their forgetfulness, in verse 19 and forward of their doubting of God's power and how God met them with manna and all kinds of parables, sayings, physical things that help them to see that God is good, that He does feed His people, that He is a good shepherd. In verse 34, that they flattered with their tongues that their heart was far from Him. In verse 38, that He was full of compassion and He forgave their iniquity and He did not destroy them, just as He has not destroyed us. And how they provoked the Lord in verse 40, and how they acted unfaithfully like their fathers in verse 56.

But it closes with this. It closes with such a beautiful picture of the Gospel. Verse 68 in Psalm 78. But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved, and he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever. He also chose David as his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from following the ewes that had young.

He brought him to shepherd Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of His hands. Now I did not count how many dark sayings of old, how many parables, how many types of Christ's are in those, just those few verses that I read. But there are many, just in those few words that I read. So that's what Jesus is explaining the parables that way.

He's saying, I've always spoken in parables. I'm speaking in parables now. And he's doing it in order to fulfill the prophecy in Psalm 78. And this is the gospel that fathers and all of us are commanded to preach in the world. And then the parable of the tears is explained beginning in verse 36.

So it's an interesting construct here. You have the Lord Jesus is with his disciples in a house, then they're in public, and then now they've come away. It says in verse 36, He sent the multitude away and went into the house. And so now they're in the house. It's an intimate setting of personal discipleship.

The disciples want to be taught. They're not afraid of their ignorance and they're hungry for the truth. And Jesus takes them away from the crowds into the house to instruct them and to give them more detail. You know, He's already said, blessed are your eyes that see and your ears that hear. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God.

And that's what's happening here in this house. The sweetness of the teaching of the Lord to his disciples. And he still does that, you know, when we open up his Word and read it. This is personal discipleship. And now our Lord is doing that here.

And he answered and said to them. And then what's amazing here is just how clean and clear and so simple the explanation of the parable is. He just says, and he said to them, he who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, the tares are the sons of the wicked one, the enemy who sowed them is the devil and the harvest is at the end of the age, and the reekers are the angels." There you have it. He just unpacked all of world history in just a very few words and told really how the whole world is wired.

Now, there is rich theology in every line here that we can spend the entire time on. For example, we could find ourselves spending the next hour talking about the role of angels and what they do. We learn here that one of their roles is to gather the wicked from all eternity and gather and bind them up. So we know that the angels are watching the harvest. We know that angels are sent.

It says the Son of Man will send out his angels. So here we learn that our Lord commands the angelic host. And God has granted his Son authority to deploy the angels. If you go to John chapter 5 verse 21, you read, For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to him who he will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, and that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father." So judgment has been given to the Son, and He deploys His angels for the final judgment.

Do you believe that the Lord Jesus is the Savior and the King and the final judge who will gather the wheat and the tares together at the end of the world. In Acts chapter 17 it says that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. God has given judgment to his son. And it says that they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness." So we're told who, how you can tell.

They practice lawlessness. Now Jesus has already spoken of this. The Apostle John has already spoken of this. That the way that you can see visibly the practice of lawlessness, rejecting the law of God, is the evidence that you're a tear. In Revelation 14 it says the angel will thrust his sickle into the earth and he will gather the vine of the earth and throw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

In Matthew 16 we read, For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. In verse 42, and will cast them into the furnace of fire." Now, imagine what it would be like to be thrown into the fire. But you do not die. You're continuously subjected to the fire. I mean, think about this for a minute.

What if that happened to you for ten minutes? Or what about ten hours? But that's not what it's like at all. Because you'll have to bear it forever and forever. It is the furnace of fire, as Jesus calls it in verse 42.

And there'll be no deliverance, there'll be no way out, because your name is not found in the book of life, as Revelation 20 verse 1 says. And then the experience of the wicked is explained here. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. So there's feeling in hell. Yes, you will feel.

Yes, you will know. And you're not separated from God because Jesus Christ himself is seeing your punishment. And this is explaining what hell will feel like to the soul. Wailing. The term that Jesus has chosen to use here is of a frightening, grotesque, offensive, just shriek for escape.

It is more visceral, it's deeper than anything you've ever known in your life. And it never stops. And gnashing of teeth, that's the other thing that he says. This indicates the anger and the bitterness and the revulsion of your life. Have you ever sinned and looked in the mirror and hated what you saw and cursed yourself because of what you did?

That's nothing. That is absolutely not even hardly registerable on the radar screen. Compared to this, compared to the gnashing of teeth, the anger, the gall, the bile, the bitterness, the hatred, the despising will absolutely consume you forever. That's what Jesus is saying. Jesus spoke more about hell than He did about heaven.

He spoke more about hell than He did about love. There are at least 42 times that Matthew alone speaks of hell in 28 chapters. We've already spoken of some of them. In Matthew chapter 3, when John the Baptist said, Brutus vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. In verse 10 of chapter 3, he said, Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire in Matthew 5 22 he says but I say to you whoever's angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says, Rock us, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, you fools, shall be in danger of hell fire. He's already spoken of this.

He said, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it's more profitable for you to lose a member of your body than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And he says the same about the hand. In Matthew 7 verse 13, he says, Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way. That leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. In verse 19 in chapter 7, he says, Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

In verse 23 of chapter 7, he says, Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. In chapter 8, verse 12, he says, But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In verse 28 in chapter 8, he says, And when he had come to the other side of the country of the Gyrgossines, there met him a demon-possessed man coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God?

Have you come here to torment us before the time? In Matthew 10, verse 15, he says, "...assuredly, I say to you, you will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in that day of judgment than for that city." In verse 28 in Matthew 10, he says, "...and do not fear those who kill the body, but who will kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to kill, to destroy both body and soul in hell. Our Lord has spoken so distinctly and carefully and repeatedly about hell. And He's speaking of it again here in this parable. In Matthew chapter 11 verse 22, our Lord says, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the Day of Judgment than for you.

In Matthew chapter 12, verse 32, He said, anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. But I say to you that every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it on the Day of Judgment. In verse 41 in chapter 12, the men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

And then the Queen of the South will rise up with that generation to judge also, that generation. And then in Matthew chapter 13, of course, we've already read, let both grow together until the harvest. And then the tares will be burned with fire. And they will be cast into the furnace of fire and they'll be wailing and gnashing of teeth. But our Lord Jesus is not done with the doctrine of hell in the Gospel of Matthew And those statements of His are ahead of us.

And when we get there, we must recall the importance of His doctrine to our Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 43 we read, And then the righteous will shine forth as the sun In the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. So this is life in the kingdom of the Father. And what a contrast it is, isn't it?

From the fires, the wailings, the gnashings of teeth of hell, rather the shining forth as the sun. In Daniel 12.3, he declares, Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever. The stars forever. Here you find the wonderful part of being a child of your Father in heaven, and that is that He shines His light upon you. He is the light of the world, and He will make you shine in the kingdom of your Father.

So here are a few of the meanings here. First of all, the Kingdom of God has come, and it will grow to maturity in the same way that a mustard seed and leaven grow and expand. And the wheat and the tares will be exposed at the end of the age. And in this whole history of the expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven. God, because of the power of His Kingdom, will overturn rebellion in the hearts of men.

This is what it means. It means that when you receive the Kingdom of Heaven, He overturns your heart of rebellion and He gives you a new heart. And what everybody thought was bad soil, what everybody thought was a bad seed, is found actually to be a garden of good seed and fruit. And this is the Kingdom of Heaven, as it overtakes the soul of man. And so we should not be The seeds, brethren.

Our role is to preach this gospel of the kingdom, to plant the seeds of the gospel. We do not know where the good soil is, And so we have to cast it everywhere. It will only be known at another time. And in this, our Lord has sent evangelists throughout the whole world, and He gives gifts to men. He sends out preachers into the world, and He's given to every one of us this responsibility.

We also have to be wise and understand that regardless of our feelings or the reporters of the day, The church is not dwindling, but Christ is building his church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Not the weeds, not the saboteurs, not the new atheists, not the Muslims. Nobody can stop the growth of the Kingdom of God. It will not, it cannot happen.

But for us we have to recognize that like the mustard seed and like the leaven, the growth is slow. It's imperceptible to the human eye, but it's growing and it's advancing, and it will completely overtake the world and heaven. It also tells us that there are more church attenders than there are Christians. There are more Baptists in these churches today than there are Christians. There are more Presbyterians in these churches than there are Christians.

There are wheat and there are tares. And many church attenders will be exterminated at the end of the age and will experience all the things that our Lord Jesus Christ has informed us about. But He will make His children shine. It's a bright light, it's a reflected light. He is the Father of lights from whom comes every good gift.

So here's the story of the world. God has created everything that there is, and He has established it, that there would be only two kinds of people in His world, the wheat and wheat and the tares. And he has allowed, it appeared to be, that the nations are expanding and the kingdom of this world is vanquishing. But it's not true. The Gospel is spreading.

And the leaven is growing and the tree is continuing to advance. And that's what our Lord Jesus Christ is telling us. Now, here's the question. Every one of us has to consider whether the Kingdom of Heaven has come. Do you practice lawlessness?

Is there fruit? Is there genuine affection for your Father in heaven? All these parables so far that we have encountered have to do with this principle. The expansion of the kingdom, the absence of fruit, the destruction of the wicked, and the salvation of those who are true sons of the kingdom. And so here we are in this church considering this now.

It's not an accident. God always leads his people through his Word, and he's just taken us through a season in Matthew chapter 13 to consider whether we are converted. And so let's don't miss this opportunity. And let's cry out to God to ask ourselves if we are bound for hell or whether we are sons of the kingdom. Would you pray with me?

Would you pray with me? How thankful, O Lord, I am for the coming of the gospel, that you preached your gospel to my family, and we loved the sound of your voice. And oh God, that you would cause all of us to understand where we are today. You have said those that you love, you discipline, and you are disciplining every person in this church now. As we consider the discipline of one, all are disciplined.

As one is asked to consider, everyone must consider in the same way. Oh God, help us to consider our latter end as these parables have helped us to do. Amen.