Grace and faith are the characteristics of the present dispensation. But Matthew 13 gives the history. It began in sovereign grace, but because it was grace, man despised it, and it ends in judgment. Faith was the substitute for law, but man has become firmer in unbelief than before and increased his condemnation. True, Satan had first to bring his own material within the sphere of the kingdom, and unwatchful man soon gave the opportunity. Men slept and the devil sowed tares, which give character to the whole field, and the harvest appears outwardly as a harvest of tares. Thus, judgment is the public end of the field where the good seed was sown. Terrible is the perversion of the good given, when He, who gave in grace, is forced to judge the place that received it. The authority of the Word has been used to shelter the birds of the air, and the truth of the Word leavened with corruption.
The Best Becomes the Worst
Satan was foiled in his attempt to turn the King aside from His divine path, but he succeeded with the servants, and thus the highest and best gift of God has been the occasion for the development of the worst evil. Sadly, man under the responsibilities which flow from this dispensation of grace has done worse than during that of law. The wickedness of Israel caused the heathen to blaspheme the name of Jehovah, but now, within the sphere of Christian profession, a worse thing is found. The Jew always professed reverence for the law, though he practically disobeyed. What do we see now in so-called Christian lands? The Word of God is esteemed by some to be no more than a myth, classed with the legends of paganism. By others the Lord is spoken of as a good, though mistaken man, esteemed as a hero who really wished to raise man morally, but who allowed His disciples to believe and propagate a lie to accomplish the end He had in view. He is looked at as an enthusiast who suffered death rather than withdraw His pretensions. The literature of the present day teems with writings containing this horrible doctrine, a blasphemy as absurd as it is repulsive.
Despite to the Spirit of Grace
Nor is this confined to writers who are professed infidels, for the truth of the Word is undermined, if not openly denied, by those who take the place of being theological teachers. All such books, by traitorous teachers, are far more pernicious and dangerous than the vulgar infidelity of previous centuries. A distinguishing feature of the present day is that every shade of infidel thought has its representative and teacher. Atheism is made the groundwork of science and taught in its halls, and, being exalted to the rank of science, it is applied as a corrector of God’s Word. It does not stop at material things, but enters boldly into the moral domain and dares to judge what God must be and what He must not be; decides how much — rather how little — of the creation belongs to God and how much to “evolution.” This is not confined to the “scientific” few; it is popularized, and the masses, inclined by nature to say “no God,” readily receive the dictates of atheism and materialism. God bears with all this, for the present day is salvation, not judgment, and His long-suffering is the proof. Human wickedness has made the patience of God a means of deeper condemnation. If “he that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith He was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:28-2928He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:28‑29)).
The kingdom of heaven is the rule of Christ from heaven over this world. But how does Christ reign when He is rejected? The principles of the kingdom were in grace made known to man, and after he had cast out the King, he used His name and the inherent subjugating authority belonging to it to establish a system for himself, where the name of the King is freely used, but His rights practically ignored. Instead of righteousness reigning, all the worst corruption of nature is dominant; the name of Christ may be on the lips, but the truth of Christ in its life-giving power is mostly unknown. Hence the present time discloses the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
Secrets of the Kingdom
A kingdom on earth as the scene of Christ’s power and glory was no secret; it was abundantly and clearly foretold by the prophets. Godly Jews were waiting for it, rejoicing in the hope of it. Further, it was predicted, though perhaps imperfectly apprehended, that the coming King should be despised and rejected, wounded in the house of His friends, valued at thirty pieces of silver — the price of a slave. But it was not revealed that the King should be nearly twenty centuries absent, and that during His absence men should arrogate to themselves His authority and establish human power by its use. Still less was it revealed by the prophets that the Jews’ rejection of their King should be, in the wisdom of God, the occasion for the calling out of a people for a heavenly portion, who, while here passing through a path of predestined suffering, would have “hope in Christ” for a heavenly portion (1 Cor. 15:1919If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (1 Corinthians 15:19)). It is these two things we see now — the absence of the Lord from the scene of His future glory, and the hidden working by which He secures to Himself a people who, in spite of suffering, are destined for a higher than earthly kingdom glory (2 Cor. 4:1717For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; (2 Corinthians 4:17)). These are some of the secrets — the hitherto unrevealed things of the kingdom of heaven.
The Lord’s Control Over Evil
In Matthew 13, all except the first parable are the mysteries — secrets — of the kingdom. The tare-field gives the fact that, where good seed was sown, the devil sowed tares, that both grow to the end, and then comes judgment. The aspect or form of the evil and its moral character are given in the mustard tree and the leaven. The first similitude — the sower — is history given in symbol, but perfect and complete in its brevity as divine wisdom alone could give it. Satan no sooner saw a new sphere of blessing opened for lost man than he hastened to bring in ruin. Just as he did when creation blessing and happiness were put into man’s hand, so now he seeks to turn away redemption blessings from man. He did spoil creation (yet only for a time), but redemption blessing rests upon a foundation which not all his power can touch. The floods of evil may rage and swell far more under a dispensation of grace than when law threatened from Sinai; the cunning and power of Satan may have now a wider field for display, but all this only proves how firm and impregnable is the Rock against which the mightiest waves of Satanic and human evil dash in vain. It is thus that the Lord reigns now, controlling the evil of Satan and of man by a secret power, which faith alone can recognize. Other secrets are brought to light by the tree and the leaven which show the tare evil in its double form —worldly power and doctrinal corruption.
Prophecy had announced the days when the God of heaven should set up a kingdom which is to subdue all other kingdoms and fill the whole earth, but it was never foretold that men would set up a power for their own glory and say it was the kingdom that God had announced. It is also said that righteousness will characterize the kingdom, but it was a secret that previous to its establishment an unrighteous power would prevail, giving harborage to the emissaries of Satan as the branches of a great tree to the birds of the air; that such a scene of evil through perversion of the truth would be presented within the sphere called Christendom, and that creedism would permeate the mass as leaven in three measures of meal. External grandeur and internal corruption! Truly, mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.
Judgment
Judgment is the only fitting termination. The Lord of the field is compelled to send the executors of His wrath upon the guilty and corrupt world, and the angels, like reapers in the harvest field, bind the tares in bundles for the fire. The angels “shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:41-4341The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 13:41‑43)).
R. Beacon (adapted)