Similitudes of the Kingdom

Proverbs 8:22
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Address—P.B. Geveden
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Seems to me a quite different world, different to Kentucky.
But my Bible reads the same here as it does back home.
And we thank God for His grace. And by the grace of God, I am what I am.
Having confessed the name of Christ.
69 years ago.
And following on to that which became.
A blessing to the soul.
By God's grace, it is my privilege to be your speaker here this afternoon.
And as an introduction.
You recall these words?
Why legit? He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
When he prepared the heavens, I was there when he sat the compass upon the face of the depth, when he established the clouds above.
When he strengthened the fountains of the deep. When he gave to the sea his decree.
That the water should not pass his commandment when he appointed the foundations of the earth.
Than I was by him.
As one brought up with him.
And I was daily his delight.
Rejoicing always before him.
Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth. And my delights were with the sons of men.
Here in the personified way, we have the record of the rejoicing of our blessed Lord and Savior as He anticipated the journey that He would take into this world of ours.
To accomplish the work of salvation, whereby we would be brought into blessing.
And become his companions forever.
He was rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, those places where our houses could be built or where our tents could be pitched, those parts of the earth that were suitable for the habitation of mankind.
He looked forward to that day because.
He knew that he would be coming, and isn't it wonderful that everyone of us have come into a world where the precious blood of Christ has already been shed with remission of sin?
Is a wonderful fact. This is what we have in Christianity.
God's Son sent into this world.
To die for and recover sinners, and make them Saints and the members of the body of Christ, and to open up to them a heavenly destiny.
For we are on a journey here. We have the earnest of the spirit, the enjoyment of that portion that is to come.
We are also sealed by the Spirit, made secure, and we know that all is certain and well with our souls.
And at our destiny, our arrival there.
Will be.
On time.
And positive and absolutely sure.
There was a request that this address be oriented toward.
The young people.
Many years ago.
An outline was given to me as a young man.
Which proved to be very profitable in my lifetime.
It is the outline of the Kingdom in the form that it would take because of the rejection of Christ.
You'll find it in Matthew's Gospel.
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There are 10 similitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Others have suggested that there could be more.
But there are at least these 10.
In uniform style.
Carrying out a message and outline that is suitable for the encouragement of those who are younger.
And these similitudes begin in chapter 13.
To which you will please turn.
And the last one is found in chapter 25.
There is a difference between a parable and a similitude.
And maybe it's not very readily defined, but.
This has been observed.
In the library of a brother that was taken home to visit with the Lord, a volume was found.
That was written by scholar from one of the principal theological seminaries that are founded.
In this country.
And the title on this book was The Kingdom.
Gospel.
And the author dealt very well with the subject of the parables, but there was number notice whatsoever of the similitudes.
He missed on that point.
Matthew opens with the Foundation parable. The oldest Thor went forth to soul.
And.
You recall?
That some seed fell, but the waste side, some seed fell on stone, the ground.
And other seeds fell among thorns. And finally some seeds fell on good ground.
And brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some 60 fold and some 30 fold.
We are in a world where 2 powers work.
There is the power of the Spirit of God, the working.
In the lives of mankind to those who respond to the Word of God.
Bring them in and lead them along and give them that which.
Is the satisfaction to their souls, and their feet are found on that journey that leads heavenward.
But his opposition to that, and that's the reason we have the different measures of fruitage a hundredfold, 60 fold and 30 fold. Some feedback seeds were plucked up by the wayside. Valves of the air came, plucked the seed away and that which fell on stone. The ground sprouted immediately there was warmth and grew up in Withers didn't last.
And other seed fell among thorns, was choked with the cares of this life.
But aren't we glad that seed does fall on the good ground? The Spirit of God works and it brings blessing to our souls. But this is not a similitude.
You find the first one beginning with verse 24.
And another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is legged into a man that soweth good seed in this field.
But while men slip, his enemy came and sow tears among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit that appeared, then appeared the tears also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, it's thou not so good seed, and I feel, From whence then hath it tears? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then there we go and gather them up. But he said, Nay.
This while you gather up the tears, you root up also the wheat with them.
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Let both grow together unto the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers.
He'll be together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather wheat into my barn.
Now we've had the parable of the sore.
Here we have something special.
And we'll find out later.
That the soar.
Is named.
Very specifically.
In the beginning parable.
There was a lack of specificness.
A sore went forth to soul.
Which indicates that a new beginning was necessary.
And there was a new beginning.
When the teachings of the Christian faith were being introduced.
But we come to the explanation of this similitude a little later on in this chapter.
And.
We'll find the name.
Of the soul.
What was that name?
We'll move ahead a little if you please.
Verse 36 Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house, and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare thus the parable of the tares of the field.
He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is.
The Son of Man.
And.
He goes on to say the field is the world, the good seed of the children of the Kingdom, the tares of the children of the Wicked One, the enemy that sowed them as the Devil, the harvesters, the end of the world, our age, and the reapers are the angels.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in fire in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this.
World or age?
And so on. Now why do we get?
This differentness about who the sore was.
He's not named in the beginning of a chapter, it's just simply behold a sore when forth the soul.
But here he is named. The sore is the Son of Man.
And what do we get in that similitude of the wheat and tares? We get a mixture of things.
And also we have the recommendation that the tears are to be left alone and not to be pulled out.
What would that teach us that would teach us?
That we are to expect a mixture of things in the Christian profession.
Here in this world where we are.
There will be the true and the false, the right and the wrong, the good and the bad.
And.
That.
Similitude also teaches us.
That we are not obligated.
To correct the ills of the world.
They were not to pull up the tares, lest they disturbed the wheat.
Let it go, let it run on, and when the harvest time arrives, the angels are sent, the tares will be gathered together in bundles to be burned, and the wheat will be gathered safely into the garn.
And if that has been an encouragement to me because?
You can't expect.
Reality in every case, because the Gospel has a mighty effect even on the natural man.
For there were those in Kentucky in 19114 who trembled under the Word and never did confess Christ. They were affected by it.
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But we can thank God for those who really believe and prove this soul.
To present himself.
As the Son of Man.
Is to say.
That had you received me.
You would not have been burdened with these tears.
Because my Kingdom and power would control that element of opposition.
It wouldn't be that way.
And it will not be that way when our Lord comes to reign in power to establish His Kingdom here in this world for 1000 years.
The tears will be removed, the wicked will be slain each morning.
And will not be bothered with a mixture of things that give us.
Our headaches and our problems and our difficulties.
Now just remember.
That's the son of man that sold the good wheat seed. There's nothing wrong with the seed.
An enemy.
Came in to do damage.
We have the same intimate today. He liked to do his harm.
And that's the reason that we all no more need to cling closely, to cleave closely to our Lord and Savior, and to follow in the pathway that He so carefully marked in His Word.
Now in verse 30.
One another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is like their grain of mustard seed, to which a man took and sold in his field.
Which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh the tree, so that the birds of the air come enlarged in the branches there off.
The Christian faith has a very small beginning.
There were only 12 disciples, one of them was false, and the number of the names together in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost where about 120.
The mustard seed was very small.
But it did surprisingly well. It germinated, it grew, and it became a tree and was the largest among the herbs.
Saw that it was big enough, large enough, inviting enough, for the fountains of the air to come and lodge in the branches thereof.
The fellows were there, as we learned elsewhere, were the agents of the.
Evil 1.
So in the development of the Christian faith.
The tree, the branches of the tree, the wonder of this great thing that has developed in the world has been favorable to those that want to take protection from it.
So we find in the Word of God not only true servants, but wicked servants.
Now they further parable verse 33. The Kingdom of heaven is likened to live in which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the hole was leavened.
There's a woman.
She doesn't have the place of public responsibility.
As to teaching the word.
And here she is presented.
As introducing 11 into 3 measures of meal until the whole was leavened.
Now if the.
Similitude of the wheat and tears would bring to our attention the very.
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Early beginnings of the Christian faith.
And the mustard seed would also tell us of the early beginnings, how it was a small.
Sort of thing. A propagation of.
Growth that was not very prolific or large.
But yet it has become a tree with branches, so it's inviting and.
Many take protection from it, even those that do not. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who only know Him in the way of profession.
But you come to that third case or the 3rd similitude of the Kingdom of heaven.
Is likened to living with a woman introduced into three measures of meal until the whole became leavened.
There is an order of religion in the world today that proclaims very loudly the truth of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Perhaps you could read that or associate that with the three measures of meal and the woman. That is never to teach yet.
That great power takes the position of being teacher in the world.
And in the Book of Revelation, at the end, we are warned about those that add to the Bible.
Add to the Holy Scriptures.
And that's a way of adding because.
Many are told that you must listen to us because the Bible is insufficient as a guide for you and you might misunderstand it. We'll have to tell you what it means.
Much more popular today, and there's a loosening on that point.
We do need the Holy Scriptures, but all this, 1111 and all, speaks of a corrupted principle. That's what the housewife puts into the bread when she begins to prepare for the weekend or some other suitable time. And the yeast works and the bread rises and so on, and it's down again and up again. And if it's left alone, turns blue and turns sour, begins to rot, and it's done a great damage.
Well, the leaven, you know, has been introduced and it has worked so thoroughly through that it's difficult today, you know, to find a suitable, clean place in the Christian profession where you can keep his words and not deny his name. Well, that brings us up through the Middle Ages. This is an outline.
Of the similitudes of the Kingdom. Where is the Kingdom? Well, it suffers violence now. It's not established in power.
And that's the reason we have to have these mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven.
So that we shall be in the secret of the Kingdom as it is known today.
And.
Your speaker would venture to say.
That everyone present here today is in the Kingdom of heaven.
You're in the sphere of favor and the blessing in this world.
Where this book has been introduced, where the seed has been sown, you have been favored. With what has happened, you might not be in the good of it entirely.
The report was told of a man that came into this country from a heathen world, from paganism, and he got off the plane in Boston. New Yorker, LA.
And the illustrator said to Ellie, came from heathen darkness and landed in the Kingdom of heaven.
He looks around and he sees things like this sticking up and he says, oh, those people are going there. What about me maybe?
That should be where I should go. And he goes there and he sees what takes place and he's impressed with what is going on and he decides that he would take a part in it and so he gets identified with it.
And he becomes.
A part of the House of God, where God dwells by his Holy Spirit.
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But there is something lacking yet.
It's not.
Fully understood. He hasn't come.
Into the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel.
He knows the privileges that come to God's people in this world. He knows something of that which is connected with the Kingdom. Of course, the Kingdom is in mystery form now.
That's the reason for these similitudes. You know. The first mention of Jesus as the Son of Man is in the 8th chapter.
The birds of the air have nests and the foxes have holes.
But the Son of Man has not where to lay his head.
We are to follow. We are called upon to follow.
A rejected Christ.
Wanted.
And the legal system of the Pharisees. Religion in its best form.
Was the greatest instrument in his rejection.
Of course, as we sung this morning.
He was alone in that dark hour. Our sins and all their terror was there.
Goes Roth and Satan's power.
But he triumphed through his old he's risen.
A life ever more, blessed Lord.
Precious Savior.
A true hearted evangelist is heard. Thank God for those who proclaim the gospel.
And that man.
Became convicted of sin.
And that's the reason the Holy Spirit was sent down to convict the world of its sin of rejecting Christ.
And also.
To.
Bring forward.
The subject of righteousness.
Because he went up into heaven.
Righteous. This, you know, is in John's gospel chapter.
16 perhaps, if I may turn a moment to that.
And you'll excuse me for the delay, These pages are a little difficult.
Is it it is expedient for you that I go away? For if I go another way, the comforter will not come unto you.
But if I depart, I will send him unto you. When he's come, he will reprove the world of sin.
And of righteousness.
And of judgment.
Of sin because they believed not on me.
Will not have this man, they said.
Crucify, Crucify.
Our righteousness because I go to my Father.
And you see me no more.
Our judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged, and the day of judgment will come.
That's the office and the work of the Holy Spirit.
But we've started with an outline of the similitudes of the Kingdom.
And we have mentioned, but we have started with an outline of the similitudes of the Kingdom.
Mentioned briefly the basic parable of the sore, which is introductory.
And the first similitude of the Wheaton name tears.
Of the small mustard seed that turned into a tree.
And of the three measures of meal.
Into which a woman introduced 11 and it was spoiled.
Now a little further over, in the same chapter, there are three more stability of the Kingdom.
Verse 44.
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Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field.
The witch, when a man has found the highest, and for joy thereof, goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buys that field.
Now, perhaps his thought was a little flimsy.
As to that individual, that.
Came to.
Favorite land?
And got into the House of God.
By baptism.
And then he really got saved.
Repentant he was, and believing also.
And the Spirit of God sealed him.
And he found out that in the gospel message of the day, the blessing is so wonderful that he.
Was a member of the body of Christ.
And we see something of.
That suggested here, although.
The truth of the oneness of the Body of Christ.
Was left a while until the apostle.
That started himself as the apostle to the Gentiles, was converted and given his special responsibility of the administration of the truth of Christ in the Church.
You know.
And.
You can question me about this.
Because.
There is the responsibility of speaking, and there's also the responsibility of those who listen.
The others who judge.
It seems to me that the.
Feast of Remembrance was given twice.
From the presence of a rejected Savior and Lord on the earth. From the upper room, shall we say.
And then later on Paul could say, I've received of the Lord.
The exalted Christ.
So that remembrance must be very important, having been instituted on the earth and also given to us the second time from the Lord in heaven.
It was more individual at the beginning and there were only the favored people of Israel that were partaking perhaps.
But when the gospel came out to us in the fullness of the Gentiles had begun to come in, then Paul.
Establishes further truth as to the meaningfulness of the remembrance of the Lord, as He teaches in First Corinthians 10.
And then we find it in Chapter 11 for his openness. Ye eat this bird and drink this cup. Ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
So we have a responsibility as well as enjoying a privilege when we announce the Lord's death, discerning his body.
If my temper runs high through the week, I'm not very careful in discernment of the Lord's body.
The price that he paid, the offering that he made on calvers cross for my sin.
But here's a treasure hidden field.
There's some question about this.
As to whether it could be Apple applied to Israel or properly?
Connected with the value of the church, however that may be.
We do know that God has a treasure in his people.
And he bought the field in order to have this treasure.
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And 45 The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly peril, a Pearl City head.
And aboard it.
Well, the Pearl is a very suitable emblem of the church.
Has developed.
By growth and the church is a living Organism.
Growth unto a whole into a holy temple in the Lord.
And in that little oyster shell.
Grain of sand sharp. Fix that thin membrane.
And there's a nose of the flow of life.
And the development there, that turns into a beautiful Pearl. And they're so valuable that men prize them greatly.
And it grows down at the bottom.
And those who?
I gather them must go down.
And our blessed Lord came all the way down from heaven's eyesight. He thought that no robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no repetition, and took upon him the form of the servant.
Only a divine one can do that.
And was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man.
He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.
Therefore God is highly exalted Him and given Him a place.
Above all others.
So we bowed that name already, and others will have to later on if they are not willing to bow the head to bow the knee now to respond to the message of the Gospel when we have this.
Pearl of great price.
Jim of Beauty.
And the church, you know, was seen in that way. It's seen as the body of Christ.
And as a Pearl.
And as the wife of Christ.
And so on.
And this is a display, an indication of what has come about.
And this time?
When the Kingdom of heaven is running on.
In a state of.
Umm, run, shall we say. At least there's.
Violence against it.
There's contention, there's difficulties, there's opposition, but God still works.
He's worked for us.
Through the gift of his son and his work on Calvary's cross.
And raising him from the dead.
And in the other case in Ephesians, he is working in us now.
By the spirit of gold. And so we ought to be thankful for the work of God, that this forest connected with our state and our standing, and His work in us, that is connected with our state of soul. Well, these are 6 similitudes of the Kingdom.
And now we'll go to the last one. In the 25th chapter we shall omit.
The other three.
Chapter 25 then.
Shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins?
Which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil and their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom carried, the old slumbered and slipped.
And at midnight there was a cry made behold, at the bridegroom, going out to meet him.
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And all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish said unto the wise, Give us a few oil, for our lamps are going out.
But the wise answered, saying Not so, lest there be not enough for us in you, but go you rather to them, and sell and buy for yourselves.
While they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage.
And the door shut afterward came out. So the other virgin saying, Lord, Lord open to us.
He answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Watch therefore.
For, you know, neither the day nor the hour.
Well, this is quite a description of how things have come.
To us in our day.
Much profession is empty.
Conversions, all with lamps of profession.
But five wise with oil in their vessels.
Others foolish.
Having not obtained the oil, which is absolutely necessary.
For we must have a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There must be a work of the Spirit of God in our souls, and He wants to do that work.
God has made everything possible for your fullest blessing. The finished work of Christ is all sufficient for every need that you have as a Sinner.
And Christ has gone up into heaven and righteousness, and in this time of our God is saving souls, grace is reigning through righteousness unto eternal life.
And this is by grace, this Romans 5 at the end of the chapter. Grace is reigning through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God has a righteous way to save a Sinner, to bless him in his soul, and that's the character of our day. But here we have these 10 virgins.
All as much empty profession today.
We find it almost among ourselves, and we are no better than anybody else. Not a bit, because the grace of God has acted in our lives. And that's the reason we're together here this afternoon under the sound of this precious word.
And there are no doubt what has been said.
Is short.
But we are thankful to God and for that blessed one.
That deserves.
Our praise, our respect.
And honor that it's due him rightly.
Now we have here that they all slumbered and slept. Are you asleep?
They all slumbered and slipped. The church lost the hope of the Lord's coming, but it was revived.
At midnight the cry was made. Behold the bridegroom.
And there was a rustle, a hurried preparation.
Some found that their lamps were going out.
And they wanted to share those that were real from them. But that wasn't the source. Each one has to go to the source for himself.
All those that went into the Ark, you know that gangplank went up those gangplanks in their own steam.
As individuals.
But there was Noah and his household.
So we can thank God for the Gospel message, and here is how it goes. And someone has suggested that there are 10 similitudes of the Kingdom in Matthew, and we're in the very bottom half of the last one. We're up close to the Lord's coming.
There are 7 stages of the Church's prophetic history on the earth as given in chapters 2 and three of Revelation.
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And we've come down to the very last one.
And there's also a mention of the fact that the mystery of iniquity does already work. So we're face to face with crime today more than ever before.
And there's also the reference made.
To the fact that Israel is in the land.
And that religion is climbing swiftly into the saddle to take control of things.
And how do we?
Consider our wish.
To be.
Are you satisfied with the teaching that is found in general in the religious world today that we struggle on and that eventually good is going to overcome evil and that the Church will have to go through the tribulation and to come out on the other side? And finally, by the faithfulness of God's people and the workings of the Church, the Kingdom of heaven will be.
That's man's theology.
His teaching.
Isn't it better to value the truth that has been taught and given to us into the word by the word?
That there are different dispensations of where there was a time under law, there's a time under grace, and there's a time under the kingship of Christ.
And all we can entertain the thought of something very special that Christ is coming.
Before he comes in judgment of this world, he's coming in a way of relief.
As we find in First Thessalonians 4.
He comes with that shout, the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ. Rise 1St, and we with your alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Not in the smog.
To meet the Lord as we leave this dreary planet.
To be forever like and with himself. And what is your attitude about this? Would you take the attitude of that?
Wicked services that said, my Lord delayed this coming.
He began to smite his fellow servants. That's what goes on in the religious world today.
Smiting others, putting them down South, that we can be advanced ourselves all the way up is down to the bottom. That's where we need to be.
How would you take that attitude of the reasoner, the rationalists that you read about in Peter second epistle, who is the promise of His coming by everything? Just like it was like it has been this way all time, it's going to be this way forever. That's the reasoner. Where is the promise of His coming? Well, we don't want to take the position of the Lord delaying his coming.
That's a religious man.
The man of profession. Nor should we take that position of the reasoner.
The scientific mind that questions the Lord's coming.
Nothing to it, but what should we take? What would be your attitude?
You know, there was a man of communion.
The one that leaned on the bosom of Jesus.
And in Revelation?
The statement was made.
Behold, I come quickly.
Three times in that 22nd chapter.
Here is a man of communion there, John the Apostle.
Behold, I come quickly, the Lord says. What was his response?
Amen. Amen. As Even so, come Lord Jesus.
So may we entertain that thought of the Lord's coming and our deliverance from this present evil world, where He gave Himself for us, that we might be delivered from our sins and the wrath to come.
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And all what a favorite people we are. And shall we sing 124.
Great and glory.
You may be wondering.
What are the other three similitudes of the Kingdom?
You will find the other three in chapters 1820.
And 22.
Their parenthetical, that is become in between.
And are descriptive.
Of those earthly people.
For they were in need of great grace because of their great obligation, for they had been favored.
They owe 10,000 talents.
Grace was needed.
And sovereign Grace was offered in chapter 20.
Some went out early and got a penny.
Others without mid morning, noon, mid afternoon and the 11Th hour and go to Penny Sovereign Greece in chapter 2.
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It is refused.
They made the excuse.
Shall fail in the blessing.
Now we recommend.