Excerpts from Life-study of Matthew, Message 38 ... - Church in Manila

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This is what is referred to in Genesis 1, where we are ... This brings us to the parable of the leaven. Verse 33 says, â
Excerpts from Life-study of Matthew, Message 38 THE UNVEILING OF THE KINGDOM’S MYSTERIES (4) Bible Verses: Matthew 13:31 Another parable He set before them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 13:32 And which is smaller than all the seeds; but when it has grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and roost in its branches. 13:33 Another parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. [THE PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED] The Lord arranged the parables in Matthew 13 in a very good sequence. First we have the parable of the sower, who sows the seed to bring forth the constituents of the kingdom of the heavens. Then we have the parable of the tares sown by the enemy, the false ones among the constituents that cause the kingdom of the heavens to become Christendom. Following the parable of the tares, we have the parable of the mustard seed (13:31-32). Verse 31 says, “The kingdom of the heavens is like a grain of mustard seed.” The fruit, both of the wheat in the first two parables and the mustard here in the third parable, is for food. This indicates that the kingdom people, the constituents of the kingdom and the church, should be like a crop to produce food that satisfies God and man. As we shall see, the subtlety of the enemy with respect to the mustard seed is to cause it to grow into a huge tree that is no longer good for food. Verse 32 says that after the mustard seed has grown, “It is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree.” The church, which is the embodiment of the kingdom, should be like an herb to produce food, but it became a tree, a lodging place for birds, having its nature and function changed. The mustard is an annual herb, whereas the tree is a perennial plant. The church, according to its heavenly and spiritual nature, should be like the mustard, sojourning on the earth. But with its nature changed, the church became deeply rooted and settled in the earth as a tree, flourishing with its enterprises as the branches to lodge many evil persons and things. This has formed the outward organization of the outward appearance of the kingdom of the heavens. For a mustard seed to become a tree is a violation of the principle ordained by God in His creation for living matter— that every plant must be according to its kind. This is what is referred to in Genesis 1, where we are told that every life grows according to its kind. In keeping with this principle, a mustard must be according to a mustard, and a tree must be according to a tree. It is abnormal for a mustard to break God’s principle and become a tree. But by growing into a tree, the mustard herb breaks this principle. This kind of growth is abnormal, a violation of God’s regulation. Today’s Christendom is huge and devilishly abnormal. It is not only a tree, but a great tree. By this we see that not only the nature of the constituent of the kingdom has been changed, but that the size of the kingdom has become abnormal. If an herb is to be good for food, it should not grow too large. When an herb grows abnormally large, it is no longer tender, delicious, or good for food. As long as we are annuals like wheat and herbs, we shall produce the best foodstuff, grain to make loaves of bread and mustard to match the bread. This will afford others excellent food for their nourishment and satisfaction. However, the enemy has made the mustard a perennial tree that does not produce any foodstuff. [THE PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN] With the appearance of the kingdom, there are three items: the changed nature, the tares; the changed outward appearance, the façade, the big tree; and the inward rottenness and corruption, the leaven. This brings us to the parable of the leaven. Verse 33 says, “Another parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.” Leaven in the Scriptures signifies evil things (1 Cor. 5:6, 8) and evil doctrines (Matt. 16:6, 11-12).

Meal, for making the meal offering (Lev. 2:1), signifies Christ as food to both God and man. Three measures is the quantity needed to make a full meal (Gen. 18:6). The three measures of meal refer to fine flour made of wheat grain. This fine flour was always used in the meal offering, the food for God’s priests. The meal offering is a full type of Christ in His humanity, with the fine flour signifying Christ. When the Lord appeared to Abraham, Abraham told Sarah, his wife, to prepare a full meal with three measures of fine flour. Hence, in the Bible, three measures denotes a full meal. The fact that three measures of meal have been leavened by the woman indicates that everything related to Christ has been leavened by this evil woman. The woman of Matthew 13 is the Jezebel of Revelation 2. According to history, Thyatira signifies the Apostate Roman Church. Eventually this evil woman will become the great prostitute, called Babylon the Great, seen in Revelation 17. Thus, the woman in Matthew 13, Revelation 2, and Revelation 17 is the apostate Catholic Church. [BEING CAREFUL NOT TO TAKE ANYTHING BUT CHRIST] . The Roman Catholic Church has leavened everything related to Christ. They do have Christ, the meal, but they have put leaven into the meal. They also have the golden cup, but it is filled with abominations (Rev. 17:4). There is no doubt that the Catholic Church has some amount of the divine things, signified by the golden cup, but they are mixed with abominations and all manner of devilish matters. Whatever is not of the Spirit or of Christ is leaven. Leaven is something added to make things easy to eat. Without leaven, bread would be hard, and it would be difficult to eat and digest. Our natural being likes to use certain methods to make spiritual things easier to assimilate. This is what the Bible calls leaven, and we must be careful of it. We must be purged of all leaven. We must be careful not to take anything other than Christ for God’s purpose, because anything other than He is leaven. Oh, the subtle one is crouching nearby waiting for his prey! We can easily become his prey because in our human nature is the desire to make it easy for people to experience spiritual things. But whatever you use to help people to touch spiritual things is a type of leaven. The pure and sanctified way to preach the gospel and to bring people to Christ is prayer and the ministry of the Word. Do not take any other way. If after praying and ministering the Word, people will still not receive the gospel, that is up to the Lord. Whether or not people receive our word is a matter of the Father’s will. We do not want to use any gimmicks to help in our preaching. Every gimmick is leaven. We are not for a work or for a movement—we are for the testimony of Jesus. Be careful not to take anything other than Christ. In building up the church and spreading the Lord’s testimony, the only way is to pray and to minister the pure Word. In the eyes of God, any gimmick—anything other than Christ, the Word, prayer, and the Spirit—is leaven. We must pray until our preaching is in the power of the Spirit, and we must pray until our testimony is filled with the riches of Christ. This is the pure meal as food for God and man. This is what the Lord wants today. We must see the difference between the reality of the kingdom and the appearance of the kingdom. The reality is precious to God, but the appearance is abominable to Him. Therefore, we must treasure the reality and reject the appearance. Read the verses and footnotes online: http://online.recoveryversion.bible/ Read the complete message online: http://www.ministrybooks.org/life-studies.cfm

Excerpts from Life-study of Matthew, Message 39 THE UNVEILING OF THE KINGDOM’S MYSTERIES (5) Bible Verses: Matthew 13:44 The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid, and in his joy goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. 13:45 Again, the kingdom of the heavens is like a merchant seeking fine pearls; 13:46 And finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. [LIFE AND BUILDING AS THE BASIC THOUGHT OF THE BIBLE] In each of the first four parables there was something related to eating. By this we see that the first four parables cover the matter of food. God’s intention is to have a people on earth to be the constituents of His kingdom, and these people must be like food that is good to satisfy both God and man. [But the enemy came in with his subtlety.] Firstly, he sowed tares among the wheat to frustrate the growth of the wheat; secondly, he caused the mustard herb to grow abnormally and to lose its function; thirdly, seeing that some wheat was produced to make fine flour for a loaf to satisfy God and man, Satan added leaven to the meal. The first four parables are all related to the farm. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul says, “Ye are God’s farm, ye are God’s building” (Gk.). In this chapter we see that God’s farm eventually produces gold, silver, and precious stones. How mysterious it is that the produce of God’s farm becomes gold, silver, and precious stones, the materials for God’s building. God’s farm produces the things of life, and these things of life become the materials for God’s building. Thus, God’s farm is for God’s building. In the first four parables in Matthew we have the life growing, and in the next parable we have the treasure hidden in the field. The treasure must be made up of gold, silver, and precious stones, probably mainly precious stones. In the following parable we find the pearl. The New Jerusalem is built with gold, precious stones, and pearl. Gold is the material of the city proper, and precious stones and pearl are the two other building materials for the city of God. In the first four parables the Lord revealed the life that grows Christ into the kingdom. In the next two parables He revealed the matter of transformation for building. This brings us back to the basic thought of the Bible—life and building. The parables in Matthew 13 reveal the matters of life and building. Life is Christ Himself as the seed sown into our humanity. This life grows within us, growing Christ into the kingdom. The growing of this life eventually produces precious stones and pearls. [THE LORD SEEKING THE TREASURE AND THE PEARL] The first four parables in Matthew 13 provide a clear picture of so-called Christianity. After giving forth these parables, the Lord privately spoke to His disciples the parables of the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl from the sea. If we understand the significance of the earth in the Bible, we shall know that the treasure hidden in the field must be the kingdom, and that the pearl produced out of the sea must be the church. The kingdom is truly a treasure to the Lord. How precious it is in His sight! The church is also a valuable pearl to Him. The Lord is continually seeking two things—the kingdom as the treasure and the church as the pearl. Ephesians 5:27 says that Christ will present to Himself a glorious church without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. This is the church as a beautiful pearl produced out of the Gentile world. Verse 44 says that the kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in the field “which a man found and hid, and in his joy goes and sells all, whatever he has, and buys that field.” The man here is Christ. Christ first found the treasure when He came out to minister, declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” When the Jews’ rejection of the Lord reached its peak, He forsook them. From that time onward, He hid the treasure. Then He went to the cross to buy not only the treasure, but also the field, and He thereby redeemed the earth created by God.

Christ went to the cross to redeem the God-created earth because within the earth there was the kingdom, the treasure. For the kingdom, for this treasure, Christ redeemed the earth created by God. In order for Him to have the kingdom on earth, He must redeem the earth because it had been polluted and damaged by Satan’s fall and by man’s sin. The Lord sold all that He had and bought the earth; that is, He sacrificed all He had on the cross to redeem the earth for the treasure of the kingdom. The Lord is not only seeking the kingdom; He also desires a beautiful church, the pearl. [THE KINGDOM AND THE CHURCH] The treasure, the symbol of the kingdom, is concealed within the earth. Hence, it is altogether related to the earth. But the pearl, the symbol of the church, has nothing whatever to do with the earth. It is something produced out of the sea. Out of the Satan-corrupted and God-condemned sea such a beautiful thing as a fine pearl has been produced. As the church, we have been produced out of the world, but we no longer have anything to do with the world. Although we are the pearl out of the sea, we are no longer in the sea. We have been regenerated to become a beautiful pearl. Being in another category, we have nothing to do with this rotten world. As the kingdom we have nothing to do with the Satan-corrupted world, but we are related to the God-created earth and Christ-redeemed earth. On the one hand, we are through with the world; on the other hand, we are building up something on earth. We are not building a tower of Babel; we are building the kingdom of the heavens. As Matthew 6:10 says, “Let Your kingdom come; let Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” God’s kingdom cannot be established in the sea, and God’s will cannot be done in the Satancorrupted world. God’s will must be done on the God-created earth, and God’s kingdom must be established on the Christ-redeemed earth. At the same time we are both in the church and in the kingdom, in the pearl and in the treasure. When the New Jerusalem comes, there will be no more sea, and the earth will be renewed (Rev. 21:1). On that new earth there will be a combination of the treasure and the pearl, of the kingdom and the church. In the New Jerusalem the treasure will no longer be hidden in the field, but built upon the surface of the field. In that combination of the treasure and the pearl, the treasure will be built up with the pearl. If you have this vision, you will see that even among us today the kingdom and the church are built up together. We do not have two entities, but just one entity. On the one hand, this entity is the treasure, the kingdom; on the other hand, it is the pearl, the church. Read the verses and footnotes online: http://online.recoveryversion.bible/ Read the complete message online: http://www.ministrybooks.org/life-studies.cfm