{"id":19199,"date":"2017-09-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-019\/"},"modified":"2017-09-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-019","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-019\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 019"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19199","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-matthew","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 019","sermon_date":"20170913","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4928,"sermon_slides":4931,"sermon_mp3":4932,"sermon_id":"9131718381110","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"13:31-33","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n9-13-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 13:31-33\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 19\n\nIf we could take our Bibles and open them to Matthew 13, verses 31 and 32.\u00a0 If anybody did not get a copy of the book that this Study is based on, well, the study is based on the Bible but I did write a book about the Bible so if you never got one of my books the church bought some more for you so just come see me after and we\u2019ll get you those.\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 13:31-33 is what we\u2019re going to cover tonight.\u00a0 You say oh great, we\u2019re going to be out early then, just three verses.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be shocked at how much is in here once we start moving.\u00a0 As you know we\u2019ve been doing a study on the kingdom.\u00a0 This is lesson 19, and we\u2019re trying to ask and answer what does the Bible teach about the concept of the kingdom, which once you get into that topic it takes you into the whole Bible.\n\nSo we have carefully developed the doctrine of the kingdom from the Old Testament and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to review every little point, but we\u2019ve gone from Eden to Abraham to Moses to the Divided Kingdom to the times of the Gentiles, to the Old Testament prophets, to the return from the exile right up unto the ministry of Jesus.\u00a0 And it\u2019s in the ministry of Jesus that the kingdom is offered to Israel on a silver platter in what\u2019s called the offer of the kingdom and we know that Israel did what with that offer?\u00a0 Rejected it.\u00a0 That rejection takes place in Matthew 12.\n\nSo what has happened by the time you get to Matthew 12 is it\u2019s pretty clear that that generation is not going to receive the offer and the way God has the whole program set up with Israel\u2019s various covenants is Israel has to respond to this offer for the kingdom to come.\u00a0 That apparently is not going to happen so what Jesus begins to do is He begins to articulate an age of time, called the interim age, an age of time that\u2019s really been going on for the last 2,000 years.\u00a0 I\u2019m a part of it, you\u2019re a part of it.\u00a0 And essentially what it is, is the program of God, it\u2019s never been revealed before, until you get to Matthew 13, it\u2019s the program of God that\u2019s to take place on the earth.\u00a0 It\u2019s the course of the present age while the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 And that interim age is developed in two concepts, the Matthew 13 parables which is what we are studying right now, and then something called the church age.\u00a0 And those two ideas sort of overlap, as I\u2019ll be showing you.\n\nWe\u2019re not quite yet ready to talk about the age of the church; we\u2019re talking about a slightly broader time period that really begins with the first century ministry of Christ after Matthew 12 and goes all the way to the second advent.\u00a0 What is life going to be like as that kingdom is in a state of not cancellation but postponement?\u00a0 So Jesus explains this time period, it\u2019s never before explained, in the form of eight parables.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve already looked at number one, the parable of the sower.\u00a0 The parable of the sower is during this age of time the gospel is going to be faithfully preached and the whole world is going to be won to Christ.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 NO, not exactly!\u00a0 It\u2019s going to have different results depending on what kind of soil the gospel falls on.\u00a0 So the soils represent different kinds of hearts, and in only one of four soils is the gospel going to be productive.\n\nSo He\u2019s teaching there that yes, God is going to be at work in this age but it\u2019s not going to be like the kingdom, where the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.\u00a0 And we very carefully explained that this can\u2019t be the kingdom for a lot of different reasons, only one type of soil is fruitful and even that soil is fruitful 160\/30, declining as we pointed out.\u00a0 And Satan is very active in this age, thwarting the hearing of the gospel and progress of the gospel in people\u2019s lives. That can\u2019t be the kingdom because in the kingdom Satan is bound.\n\nThat takes us to the parable of the wheat and the tares, which we studied last week.\u00a0 And the wheat and the tares is the idea that throughout this age of time it\u2019s going to be difficult to distinguish between the saved and the unsaved within professing Christendom.\u00a0 So it\u2019s talking about God at work, because we have wheat, praise God for that, but there\u2019s also what\u2019s growing up with the wheat?\u00a0 The tares, and they are coexisting; you have the coexistence of both and they\u2019re not to be uprooted, the tares, until the kingdom starts.\u00a0 And we talked very carefully last time we were together how that parable can\u2019t be describing the kingdom because the tares actually increase in number, to the point where they have to be bundled\u00a0 up at the return of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And Satan, just like in the parable of the sower, is very active in this parable as well.\n\nSo this takes us now to parable number three and as God allows it we\u2019re going to try to cover the parable of the mustard seed tonight and then the parable of the leaven.\u00a0 And these two parables, I\u2019m convinced are totally misunderstood by 99% of Christianity.\u00a0 Most denominational Sunday School programs, when they send out their weekly bulletins and weekly programs and denominational quarterlies have lessons on the parable of the mustard seed and the leaven and almost every single one of these I\u2019ve looked at has it completely incorrect.\u00a0 So I\u2019m going to be trying to show you what I think is the correct interpretation, and I think as I get into this you\u2019ll see it very clearly for yourself in the Bible.\n\nSo let\u2019s take a look at the mustard seed.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go to Matthew 13:31-32, Christ\u2019s third parable covering this interadvent age.\u00a0 It says, \u201cHe presented another parable to them, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; [32] and this is smaller than all other<\/em> seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.\u201d\u2019 \u00a0\u00a0Now people interpret this parable as follows:\u00a0 Christian is going to start small and get big and cover the whole earth.\u00a0 And that\u2019s true but there\u2019s more to it than that; certainly Christianity started off very small, with Jesus in the Upper Room with eleven disciples and then three thousand get saved on the Day of Pentecost.\n\nAnd as you go through the Book Acts then five thousand, and then the number keeps increasing and finally the gospel makes its way outside the borders of Israel in Paul\u2019s three missionary journeys and finally it makes it all the way to Rome.\u00a0 And here we are in the year 2017 in a totally different continent and we\u2019ve been touched by the gospel.\u00a0 Most people interpret this parable of the mustard seed as simply the growth of Christianity.\n\nBut here\u2019s what I actually think the whole thing means.\u00a0 The parable means this:\u00a0 Christendom will experience great numerical and geographical expansion from a humble beginning and yet will ultimately represent an apostate form, let me interrupt myself, apostate means departure from truth, an apostate form, a great variance from its pure origins.\u00a0 So Christianity will start off on the right foundation but it will morph into something that God never intended as time progresses.\n\nNow why do I think this?\u00a0 Let me give you five reasons why I think this.\u00a0 Number 1, these parables have to be understood in harmony together.\u00a0 You can\u2019t interpret parable three inconsistently with parables one and two.\u00a0\u00a0 And in parable one, the parable of the sower, we saw that the seed is only fruitful on one kind of soil (out of four).\u00a0 We also saw in the parable of the wheat and the tares that the tares are going to grow, the unbelievers, are going to grow to the point where they have to be bundled up.\u00a0 So those two parables do not teach the Christianization of the world;\u00a0 I mean, they teach an era when God is at work but it\u2019s certainly not the kingdom of God.\u00a0\u00a0 And therefore I can\u2019t come up with a definition of the mustard seed that is different than the prior two parables.\u00a0 If the prior two parables teach the increasing progress of evil alongside good I can\u2019t go to parable three and just say Christianity is going to take over.\n\nSecondly, you\u2019ll notice that this mustard seed grows into the tree.\u00a0 Now a tree has its roots where?\u00a0 Into the ground or into the earth.\u00a0 That cannot be describing the people of God because the people of God are not an earthly people.\u00a0 Philippians 3:20 says our citizenship is in heaven.\u00a0 1 Peter 2:11 says that we are strangers and aliens in this world.\u00a0 [Philippians 3:20, \u201cFor our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;\u201d\u00a0 1 Peter 2:11, \u201cBeloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.\u201d] \u00a0And the tree with its roots into the ground is very much at home in the world.\n\nThe third reason why I think this parable is talking about the progress of evil is because it talks about an herb becoming a tree.\u00a0 Take a look at verse 32, it says, \u201cAnd this is smaller than all the seeds but when it is grown it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree.\u201d\u00a0 Now does an herb or a garden plant ever become a tree?\u00a0 No it doesn\u2019t because those are different species.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 The Book of Genesis, chapter 1, of the different species, says each produced \u201cafter its own\u201d what? \u201ckind.\u201d\u00a0 So if \u201ceach produces after its own kind\u201d you can\u2019t have an herb becoming a tree because those are two different ideas.\u00a0 So what is happening is Christianity is starting off at a very pure level but it\u2019s morphing into a different type of spiritual species that God never intended.\n\nAnd I really recommend to you, not everything that Arthur Pink has written, but I really recommend to you his treatment of the Matthew 13 parables.\u00a0 His understanding of them far exceeds anybody I\u2019ve ever read.\u00a0 And Arthur Pink writes this of the parable of the mustard seed.\u00a0 \u201cThird, that which Christ here describes is a monstrosity. We are aware that this is denied by some, but our Lord\u2019s own words are final. He tells us that when this mustard-seed is grown it is the \u2018greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree\u2019 (v. 32). \u2018Herbs\u2019 are an entirely different species from trees. That which distinguished them is that their stems never develop woody tissue, but live only long enough for the development of flowers and seeds. But this \u2018herb\u2019 became a \u2018tree;\u2019 that is to say, it developed into something entirely foreign to its very nature and constitution.\u201d\u00a0 [A. W. Pink (2005). The Prophetic Parables of Matthew Thirteen<\/em>. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.\u201d]\n\nNow those of us that aren\u2019t farmers and are sort of insulated from farming life and an agrarian society really don\u2019t pick up on a lot of these issues that the Bible brings up because it\u2019s written to an agrarian culture and unless you have farming in your background a lot of the things the Bible says you have to study farming just to kind of pick up on the metaphor.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re living in a first century agrarian culture you would see the point that you don\u2019t get a tree from an herb.\u00a0 So obviously this tree is developing into something foreign from its original origin, nature and constitution.\n\nThe fourth reason why I think this parable of the mustard seed is talking about something that starts positive and ends up negative is because of the birds.\u00a0 Take a look at Matthew 13:32, they very end of it says, \u201cthe birds of the air come and nest in the branches.\u201d\u00a0 Now the same Greek word for \u201cbird\u201d or \u201cbirds\u201d is used back in verse 4, the parable of the sower.\u00a0 And all these parables have to be understood in harmony with each other. \u00a0\u201cBehold, the sower went out to sow and he sowed some seed [4] and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 13:3-4]\u00a0 Now in the parable of the sower who do the birds represent?\u00a0 If you go down to verse 19 as the parable is being interpreted it says, \u201cWhen anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the\u201d what? \u201cevil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.\u201d\u00a0 So the exact same Greek word for bird or birds used in parable three is also used in parable one as interpreted as the devil.\n\nSo the birds coming and nesting in the branches of the tree, if you\u2019re going to be consistent, is not referring to something good; it\u2019s most likely referring to something evil or satanic.\u00a0 And people kind of look at this issue of birds and they think that every time the Bible mentions a bird it\u2019s got to be good because after all, the Holy Spirit at Jesus baptism came as a what?\u00a0 As a dove.\u00a0 And of course in Noah and the ark story Noah sent out various birds that came back.\u00a0 And so we think that every time the bird or birds is mentioned it has to be good.\u00a0 But as you go through the Scripture what you\u2019re going to find most of the time is birds can be good in some contexts but in many contexts the birds are something bad.\n\nYou might recall when the Abrahamic Covenant was entered into and Abraham cut the animal pieces and what did the birds do?\u00a0 They came and what did Abraham do with the birds?\u00a0 Shooed them away, Genesis 15:11.\u00a0 [Genesis 15:11, \u201cThe birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.\u201d]\n\nIf you go over to the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28 and verse 26 your printed versions say verse 16 but I had to go back and correct that just about an hour ago so I have it right here on the screen, you might want to make a note of it in your notes.\u00a0 But Deuteronomy 28:26, it\u2019s talking about the covenant curses that Israel would experience.\u00a0 It says this:\u00a0 \u201cYour carcasses will be food to all\u201d the what, \u201cbirds of the sky\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Again birds there is not something good, it\u2019s something negative.\n\nAnd when\u00a0 you go to the Book of Revelation, chapter 18 and verse 2, which is talking about the end time city and system of the antichrist, called Babylon, it says right there in Revelation 18:2, \u201cAnd he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, \u2018Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful\u201d what? \u201chateful bird.\u201d\u00a0 So the birds nesting in the branches, if you will, of the tree, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s talking about something good; I think it\u2019s talking about something pernicious or evil.\n\nAnd then a fifth reason why I interpret this parable the way I do is a tree with branches with birds in it, which is what\u2019s being described in Matthew 13:32.\u00a0 [Matthew 13:32, \u201c and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.\u201d]\u00a0 Does anybody recall where that imagery is used before?\u00a0 I\u2019ll give you a hint, we\u2019re studying that book on Sunday morning; it\u2019s in the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 Anybody know what part of Daniel I\u2019m referring to?\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s insanity and restoration.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar was the king that was removed from his throne over Neo-Babylonia.\u00a0 Neo-Babylonia is not a good guy in the Book of Daniel, it\u2019s a bad guy.\u00a0 Under Neo-Babylonia the temple was destroyed, the children of Israel were taken into captivity.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t even Babylon that released the Hebrews from captivity.\u00a0 That had to be done by the Persians after the Persians overthrew Babylon.\n\nBut when you go back to Daniel 4:10-12 you see this imagery that I believe Christ is borrowing from when He describes the mustard seed.\u00a0 It says in Daniel 4:10-12, \u201cNow these were<\/em> the visions in my mind as I lay<\/em> on my bed:\u201d Nebuchadnezzar is speaking, \u201cI was looking, and behold, there was<\/em> a tree\u201d sound familiar? \u201cin the midst of the earth and its height was<\/em> great.\u00a0 [11] The tree grew large and became strong and its height reached to the sky, and it was<\/em> visible to the end of the whole earth.\u00a0 [12] \u2018Its foliage was<\/em> beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was<\/em> food for all.\u00a0 The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the\u201d what\u201d of the sky dwelt in its branches?\u201d The \u201cbirds of the sky dwelt in its branches,\u201d so when Jesus is talking about a mustard seed that becomes a tree with these branches that bird sit in, the imagery is not something good, it goes back to Babylon.\n\nAnd if you go over to Daniel\u2019s contemporary, Ezekiel, both Daniel and Ezekiel prophesied during the days of the Babylonian captivity, this is how Ezekiel describes another one of Israel\u2019s enemies, Assyria, with the exact same imagery.\u00a0 It says in Ezekiel 31:6, \u201cAll the birds of the heavens nested in its boughs, and under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth\u2026.\u00a0 So what I\u2019m trying to get at is if you\u2019re a Jew who knows the Old Testament and you\u2019re hearing Christ talk about a tree that grows to giant proportions and the birds come and nest in its branches you would immediately not think this is something positive of something good; you would think it\u2019s something negative or wicked.\n\nAnd so Arthur Pink makes this statement considering all we\u2019ve put together here on the following related to the parable of the mustard seed.\u00a0 \u201cThe history<\/em> of Christendom clearly confirms this...Failing to intimidate as the roaring lion, he now sought to insinuate as the subtle serpent.\u201d\u00a0 Speaking of the Devil.\u00a0 \u201cCeasing to attack from without, he now worked from within<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 See, Satan has two strategies, if he can\u2019t persecute the church out of existence he will apply for membership in the church.\u00a0 \u201cCeasing to attack from without, he now worked from within.<\/em> In the first parable the assault was from without\u2014the fowls of the air catching away the Seed. In the second parable his activities were from within\u2014he sowed his tares among<\/em> the wheat.\u201d\u00a0 And you might recall from last week, \u201cwhile everyone was sleeping\u201d in the story, not you guys out there sleeping, that\u2019s when he did his work.\u00a0 \u201cIn the second parable his activities from within\u2014he sowed homosexuality tares among the wheat.\u00a0 In the third parable we are shown the effects of this. Satan now moved worldly men to seek membership in the churches of God. \u00a0These soon caused the Truth to be watered down, discipline to be relaxed.\u2026\u201d\n\nYou know, most churches today don\u2019t even practice church discipline.\u00a0 Most parishioners don\u2019t even know what church discipline is; it\u2019s something taught in the Bible\u00a0 yet it\u2019s hardly ever practiced.\u00a0 \u00a0So \u201c\u2026discipline to be relaxed, that which repelled the world to be kept in the background,\u201d you know how churches are, don\u2019t say anything too offensive, don\u2019t mention the \u201cS\u201d word---sin, that\u2019s going to alienate somebody.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve had churches, I know for a fact some churches have done this, when\u00a0 you sing Amazing Grace<\/em> don\u2019t sing \u201cwho saved a wretch like me,\u201d because that\u2019s a negative statement and we all need to be positive.\u00a0 And don\u2019t mention blood either, because that alienates people.\u00a0 We see all these things happening in our church world today, it\u2019s the very thing Jesus said would happen in this parable.\u00a0 \u201cThese soon caused the Truth to be watered down, discipline to be relaxed, that which repelled the world to be kept in the background, and what would appeal to the carnal mind to be made prominent.\u201d\n\nSo how do you get churches to grow?\u00a0 Well, the strategy is you go out to the unsaved world and you figure out what the unsaved man (or woman) wants in a church.\u00a0 Well, we want short sermons, they say, and don\u2019t talk so much about sin and hell and the devil and damnation.\u00a0\u00a0 What we really want is something uplifting and we want a lot of skits and entertainment.\u00a0 And we want to be visually stimulated and all these kind of things.\u00a0 And so then you go make your church that way and the world flocks to your door.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what they call church growth.\u00a0 I\u2019m not against church growth but not like that.\u00a0 You know how to get the church to grow, God\u2019s way?\u00a0\u00a0 You persecute the church.\u00a0 Everywhere the church is persecuted, China being an example, churches in the Middle East would be an example.\n\nSo \u201c...The lowly upper room had long been forsaken, and the honors of kings\u2019 courts coveted\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thus we may discern in the first three parables of Matthew 13 a striking and sad forecast of the development of evil<\/em>. In the first, the Devil caught away part of the good Seed. In the second, he is seen engaged in the work of imitation. Here, in the third, we are shown a corrupted Christianity affording him shelter.\u201d\u00a0 [A. W. Pink (2005). The Prophetic Parables of Matthew Thirteen<\/em>. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software]\n\nAnd I get their and Pink gets there with these five ideas.\u00a0\u00a0 You have to understand parable 3 in harmony with parables 1 and 2.\u00a0 The roots to into the earth, that can\u2019t be describing God\u2019s people because we\u2019re not an earthly people.\u00a0 And by the way, when does an herb ever become a tree?\u00a0 So what the final form of Christendom is obviously a different spiritual species than how it began.\u00a0 The birds represent Satan, and the branches with birds in the branches, when you study that imagery out it never refers to something good, it refers to something negative or evil, like Babylon.\n\nSo that would be the parable of the mustard seed.\u00a0 Christianity grows but its final form is different than its original pure design.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Jesus is tracing here is going to happen in the interadvent age.\u00a0\u00a0 Is God at work?\u00a0 YES, but so is the devil.\u00a0 Well, cheer up, it\u2019s about to get worse.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to take a look at one more parable tonight, another radically grossly misunderstood parable and that\u2019s the parable of the leaven.\n\nSo let\u2019s go back to Matthew 13:33 and let\u2019s take a look at parable number four in the sequence.\u00a0 \u201cHe spoke another parable to them, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 So here is what I think is an accurate interpretation of the parable of the leaven.\u00a0 Christendom, as it grows, will also experience ever increasing internal corruption as the age progresses.\u00a0 In other words, as the dough grows, which would be Christendom or Christianity, something negative is at work within the dough called the yeast.\u00a0\u00a0 And the yeast is working its way through the dough and Christendom that God started on pure origins is gradually becoming corrupted.\n\nNow what I just said is 180 degrees different than probably what 99% of you have heard on this.\u00a0 The way most people interpret this is this is the yeast is not something bad, the yeast is something good, so isn\u2019t it great that the world is being evangelized.\u00a0 So Arthur Pink writes this: \u201cThe popular interpretation of this parable regards the \u2018leaven\u2019 as representing the Gospel and its power, the \u2018woman\u2019\u201d who planted this yeast, we\u2019re told, is \u201cthe Church,\u201d and Arthur Pink says, \u201c the Church. Here are the words of Dr. John Gill;\u201d Gill was a kingdom now theologian, he believed that we\u2019re in the kingdom now so people that believe we\u2019re in the kingdom now are almost always going to interpret the yeast as something positive.\u00a0 Gill says, \u201c\u2018Leaven is everywhere else used in a bad sense . . .\u201d I agree, but \u201chere it seems to be taken in a good sense, and the Gospel to be compared unto it.\u2019 The \u2018woman,\u2019\u201d he tells us, is \u201c\u2018the church\u2019 or the ministers of the Gospel\u2026.\u201d\n\nJust to show you how close this interpretation hits home, here\u2019s John MacArthur who some of the things I agree with, many of the things he says I disagree with, that\u2019s why it\u2019s difficult for me to recommend people MacArthur\u2019s Study Bible.\u00a0 But here in his Matthew Commentary I think he completely gets this parable wrong.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThe first point is that small things can have great influence. . . . The second point . . . is that the influence is positive. . . . When the kingdom of heaven is faithfully reflected in the lives of believers, its influence in the world is both pervasive and positive.\u201d\u00a0 Now remember, he is a Lordship salvation advocate; he believes that if you\u2019re saved there\u2019s no such thing as a backslidden Christian, there\u2019s very little such thing as a carnal Christian and so everybody becomes fruitful.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re not fruitful then maybe you were never saved to begin with.\u00a0 See, so this interpretation of the parable fits his understanding of soteriology, which is the doctrine of salvation.\n\nWhen the kingdom of heaven is faithfully reflected in the lives of believers, its influence in the world is both pervasive and positive. \u00a0The life of Christ within believers is spiritual and moral leavening in the world. . . . To the average person of Jesus\u2019 day, Jew or Gentile, there is no evidence that leaven carried any connotation of evil or corruption. . . . To take this leaven as representing evil that permeates the kingdom is to twist the obvious meaning and construction of words.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 8\u201215,<\/em> The Macarthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1987), 372\u201374.\u2019]\n\nIn McArthur\u2019s Study Bible on Matthew 13, and I give you the page number where you can look this up on your own if you have one, it says basically the same thing.\u00a0 It says, \u201cHere the kingdom is pictured as yeast, multiplying quietly and permeating all that it contacts. The lesson is the same as the parable of the mustard seed. Some interpreters suggested since leaven is nearly always a symbol of evil in Scripture.... It must carry that connotation here as well. They make the leaven some evil influence inside the kingdom. But that twists Jesus\u2019 actual words and violates the context, in which Jesus is repeatedly describing the kingdom itself as their pervading influence.\u201d\u00a0 [Ed. The MacArthur Study Bible (Nashville: Word, 1997), 1418.]\u00a0 So the leaven is good in his mind.\n\nGeorge Zeller correctly says this about John MacArthur\u2019s interpretation.\u00a0 George Zeller of Middletown Bible Church, he says: \u201c\"MacArthur\u2019s interpretation is not far away from that of the postmillennial reconstructionist\u201d that\u2019s the kingdom now person, \u201cwho also would understand the leaven as being used in a good sense and indicating the growth of the kingdom of heaven by means of the penetrating power of the gospel ultimately leading to the conversion of the world.\u201d\u00a0 [\u201cJohn MacArthur and Dispensationalism: And Our Response,\u201d 13, accessed April 5, 2016, http:\/\/www.middletownbiblechurch.org\/dispen\/jmacdis.htm<\/a>.]\n\nSee, this is all kingdom now teaching that the gospel is going to go out there and the world is going to get Christianized, and people use the parable of the leaven to try to teach this idea.\u00a0 As much as I would like it all to be true is that what Jesus is getting at here?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so at all.\n\nSo let me give you very quickly seven reasons why I think the leaven does not teach kingdom now theology.\u00a0 In fact, the leaven represents something bad rather than something good.\u00a0 And by the way, if you ever want to figure out where a pastor is at or a Bible teacher, where they\u2019re at, or should I drop dead of a heart attack and you get a new pastoral candidate,\u00a0 you might want to ask them this question: how do you interpret the leaven in this parable, because that will tell you exactly where they\u2019re at on this subject of the kingdom.\n\nSo number 1, the first 3 parables, sower, wheat and tares, mustard seed, do they teach the conversion of the world.\u00a0 No, so why would I interpret parable four that way?\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019d be coming up with an interpretation that\u2019s at variance with the other three parables.\n\nNumber 2, \u00a0<\/strong>the parables are a mystery, and we\u2019ve talked about mystery, haven\u2019t we.\u00a0 What is a mystery?\u00a0 A new truth never before revealed. We\u2019ve looked at verse 11, verses 16-17 and verse 35, which communicate that Jesus is giving truths never before revealed.\u00a0 And if the yeast is the gospel then the gospel itself must be something brand new.\u00a0 Right! \u00a0Do you follow me on that.\u00a0 I mean if all these parables are teaching a mystery truth and the yeast is the gospel then the gospel itself must be brand new.\u00a0 Is the gospel brand new?\u00a0 No, the gospel is as old as\u2026 I would trace the gospel all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God said to the serpent there\u2019s coming One who is going to crush your head.\u00a0 That\u2019s the introduction of the gospel.\u00a0 We know that the gospel is at least as old as Abraham, 2000 B.C. because Galatians 3:8 says, \u201cThe Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the\u201d what? \u201cgospel beforehand to\u201d who? \u201cAbraham, saying all the nations will be blessed in you.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0The gospel is not a mystery truth; the gospel has always been around.\u00a0 So therefore how could the yeast be new truth and the gospel.\u00a0 See how that doesn\u2019t fit.\n\nNumber 3, the leaven is not the gospel; leaven cannot be the gospel!\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because the way the leaven is described here is everywhere it goes, if\u00a0 you interpret it as something good, everywhere it goes there is a positive reaction; everything the leaven touches is positive if you understand it as the gospel.\u00a0 Let me ask you this: is that true of the gospel?\u00a0 Does the gospel everywhere it goes produce a result?\u00a0 In fact, it does NOT, in fact, many, many people preach the gospel over and over again, and I have people like this in my extended family, they\u2019ve been taught the gospel over and over again yet there\u2019s no response of faith.\u00a0 So the gospel is not some kind of dynamic force that everything it touches produces fruit because God is not going to shove His relationship with people down their throats if they don\u2019t it, because God respects free will.\u00a0 God respects volition.\u00a0 If a person wants to go to hell God says okay, I won\u2019t bother you any more.\u00a0 That\u2019s part of our status as image bearers.\u00a0 So the leaven, if it\u2019s something positive it has a very strange description of the gospel because Jesus told us in parable one that as the gospel is preached it\u2019s only receptive on one of four soils.\n\nNow don\u2019t get mad at me for this, this is something Arthur Pink brings up, is you\u2019ll notice that the person, the gender of the person that put the yeast into the dough was what?\u00a0 Female.\u00a0 Now that doesn\u2019t make it bad in and of itself, of course.\u00a0 I\u2019m a big believer in the role of women in ministry.\u00a0 You read the Book of Luke and you read The Book of Acts and you see women are very strategic in the advancement of the gospel.\u00a0 In fact, women, financially supported Christ\u2019s ministry when you study Luke\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 But you see, we\u2019re not in Luke\u2019s Gospel here; we\u2019re in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 And in Matthew\u2019s Gospel, Matthew 10, we have the appointing of the disciples and the sending out of the disciples to preach.\u00a0 Now of those disciples how many of them were women?\u00a0 Zero.\u00a0 So it would be very strange then for Matthew in chapter 13 to make the primary preacher of something good or the gospel a female.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 I say that delicately because sometimes people will mishear and say well,\u00a0 you don\u2019t like women and women have nothing to do with Christianity.\u00a0 The reality is this church would collapse without the women and their involvement here.\u00a0 I\u2019m just saying given the development of Matthew\u2019s Gospel to make the woman a preacher of the gospel, at this point in Matthew\u2019s Gospel would be a very sudden, abrupt and strange transition.\n\nAnd what happens as this yeast goes through the dough?\u00a0 What happens to the dough?\u00a0 It puffs up, doesn\u2019t it.\u00a0 Is that what the gospel does to people?\u00a0 Does it puff them up and cause them to strut their stuff?\u00a0 Quite the contrary; if someone receives the gospel on God\u2019s terms it is one of the most humiliating evasive thing that can happen to a person because that person is acknow\u00adledging \u00a0that they can\u2019t save themselves.\u00a0 No amount of effort on their part can gain God\u2019s favor so they have to, in a sense, reach out for a life preserver.\u00a0 And to reach out for a life preserver requires humility because you have to recognize you\u2019re drowning.\u00a0 So this pumping up motif here really doesn\u2019t fit with the proclamation of the gospel.\u00a0 And beyond that this parable is talking about yeast going through the dough and it\u2019s talking about the gospel\u2019s progress throughout the world.\u00a0 And let me ask\u00a0 you a question: how much progress has the gospel really made in the world?\n\nArthur Pink writes this: \u201cThe popular interpretation\u201d that\u2019s the yeast is something good, \u201cis contradicted by the plain facts of history and by present-day experience. . . . The Gospel has now been preached for nineteen centuries, yet not a single nation or state, no, nor even city, town or village, has been completely evangelized\u2014let alone won to Christ! If the popular view is the correct one, then the Gospel is a colossal and tragic failure.\u201d [A. W. Pink (2005). The Prophetic Parables of Matthew Thirteen<\/em>. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software]\n\nSo you don\u2019t have a situation where the gospel goes into a whole family even, or even into a whole city, or into a whole country and the whole place gets converted.\u00a0 What happens is there are some within each of those areas that get converted.\u00a0 But see, this yeast is talking about something monumental, universal, and that\u2019s not what happens when the gospel is faithfully preached.\n\nWe know this because of our own country, right?\u00a0 Did you know that everywhere the gospel gets a foothold and everywhere the gospel becomes fruitful and everywhere where the gospel germinates it eventually dies out?\u00a0 We know that because we can travel to the east coast and we can see all of the Christian insignias and signs and Bible verses inscribed into our monuments and our buildings.\u00a0 We know from archeology and history that this nation was started as a Christian nation; it was started by the Pilgrims and the Puritans, who came to the United States to build what Roger Winthrop called \u201ca shining city on a hill.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s how Harvard started, that\u2019s how Yale started, that\u2019s how Princeton started, and all of them were started, these Ivy League Schools, to train ministers for the gospel.\n\nIn fact, these are the original rules of Harvard University going back to 1636.\u00a0 \u201c\u201cLet every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Prov. 2, 3). Everyone shall exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein.\u201d\u00a0 [Rules of Harvard in 1636; quoted in David Barton, Original Intent<\/em>, 81]\n\nYou read that and say where do I get my kids signed up.\u00a0 And look at Harvard today; Harvard, like any other place where the gospel has a foothold did not grow in the gospel, they departed from it.\u00a0 And as you study history that\u2019s what you\u2019ll see.\u00a0 The Puritans built what they thought was a Christian civilization, a shining city on a hill, which is a reference that Jesus made, by the way, in the Sermon on the mount and they lost the whole thing; within one, two, three generations, it\u2019s gone.\u00a0\u00a0 I wish it was true that everywhere the gospel went the whole world, the place would be Christianized and stay Christianized and Arthur Pink is saying that contradicts the known facts of history.\n\nBeyond that, the leaven in the Bible is not good but it is bad.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because Jesus, when He gave this parable, is talking to a Jewish audience, an audience who understood the Old Testament.\u00a0 And go through the Old Testament and you\u2019ll see that leaven always is something negative.\u00a0 Back in Genesis 19:3 it says: \u201cYet he\u00a0 urged them strongly so they turned aside and entered his house and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened<\/u> bread and they ate.\u201d\u00a0 That was what was being fed to the angels; they took the leaven out because the leaven is something negative.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nIn Exodus 12 what did God tell the children of Israel to do?\u00a0 To leave the leaven behind, Exodus 12, as they were coming out of Egypt.\u00a0 And that becomes a symbol throughout the Bible of leaving sin and the sanctified life.\u00a0 Leaven is removed from the sacrifices in Exodus 34:25 and Leviticus 2:11.\u00a0 [Exodus 34:25, \u201cYou shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning.\u201d\u00a0 Leviticus 2:11, \u201c'No grain offering, which you bring to the LORD, shall be made with leaven, for you shall not offer up in smoke any leaven or any honey as an offering by fire to the LORD.\u201d]\n\nYou say well, gee, pastor, that\u2019s just the Old Testament, surely the New Testament doesn\u2019t teach this, does it?\u00a0 Well, notice Matthew, same book, right, I went from Matthew 13 to Matthew 16, not that far away, and what does Jesus say here about the leaven.\u00a0 Matthew 16:11-12, \u201cHow is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.\u201d\u00a0 Those are the bad guys, right, the false teachers.\u00a0 Jesus analogizes their teaching to leaven.\u00a0 [12] \u201cThen they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.\u2019\u00a0 Luke 12:1 you\u2019ll see the exact same thing.\u00a0 [Luke 12:1, \u201cUnder these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, \u2018Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.\u2019\u201d]\n\nThe apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5:6-7, where they\u2019re dealing with a man who is in an incestuous relationship and the church was just kind of acting like it wasn\u2019t going on, Paul says you need to exercise church discipline on this guy.\u00a0 And in the context of kicking this guy out of the church notice the analogy that Paul gives here.\u00a0 \u00a01 Corinthians 5:6-7, \u201cYour boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little\u201d what? \u201cleaven leavens the whole lump of dough?<\/em> [7]<\/strong><\/a> Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact<\/em> unleavened. \u00a0For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.\u201d He\u2019s calling leaven here not something good but something bad.\n\nAnd one more for good measure, Galatians 5:7-9, and he\u2019s talking about legalism that\u2019s coming into the Galatian flock there in southern Galatia, he says, \u201cYou were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? [8] This persuasion did<\/em> not come<\/em> from Him who calls you. [9] A little\u201d what? \u201cleaven leavens the whole lump of dough.\u201d<\/em> See, no matter where you go, Old Testament or New Testament leaven is never something good.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s always evil.\n\nSo if you want to give a positive spin in the parable of Matthew 13 you have to ignore the rest of the Bible.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Beyond that, if the leaven working its way through the dough is not bad but good, it\u2019s the gospel, then the meal that the leaven is touching must be what?\u00a0 Bad!\u00a0 It has to be bad because it needs to be affected by what is good.\u00a0\u00a0 But study the concept of meal through the Bible and you\u2019ll see that meal does not represent something bad but rather represents something good.\u00a0 See, people have got this whole thing backwards; they think the leaven is good and the meal is bad and it\u2019s the opposite.\n\nNotice Genesis 18:6, just a couple of things here on the meal, Genesis 18:6 says, \u201cSo Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, \u2018Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Is that something bad or good?\u00a0 That\u2019s something good.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a01 Kings 7:14-16, you\u2019ll see that same imagery that God uses to feed Elijah a meal.\u00a0 How could God give Elijah something bad; it\u2019s got to be good. \u00a0[1 Kings 7:14-16, \u201cSo she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.\u00a0 [15] So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.\u00a0 [16] The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.\u201d]\n\nAnd then over in John 12:24 Jesus analogizes Himself to a meal.\u00a0 [John 12:24 \"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.\u201d]\u00a0 So how could the meal be something bad; it\u2019s got to be something good. \u00a0\u00a0And\u00a0 what people are doing is they\u2019re coming in here with their technological belief, whatever it is, and they\u2019re not paying attention to how the imagery is consistently used elsewhere in the Bible.\n\nAnd then a final reason why the parable of the yeast going through the dough, the yeast is a bad thing rather than a good thing.\u00a0 Go back to Matthew 13:33, it says, \u201cHe spoke another parable to them, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and\u201d what? \u201chid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.\u201d\u00a0 Is that what you do with the gospel?\u00a0 Do you hide it?\u00a0 I hope you are saying no to that question because Jesus, a couple of chapters earlier in the same book, Matthew 10:27, it says, \u201cWhat I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus already told them that the gospel is to go out openly and publicly.\u00a0 So how could a woman taking\u00a0 yeast and hiding it be the gospel?\u00a0 What\u2019s being hidden is not the gospel, it\u2019s the false doctrine that Jesus predicts will permeate Christendom as it grows.\u00a0 See that?\n\nPaul, over in the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 4 and verse 2 says, \u201cBut we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.\u201d\u00a0 Paul is never hiding anything with the gospel.\u00a0 It\u2019s an open proclamation.\n\nSo why would I think that the yeast here is something bad?\u00a0 Seven reasons.\u00a0 Number 1, The first 3 parables do not speak of world conversion, so how could I interpret parable four that way?\n\nNumber 2, These parables are a mystery and the Gospel is not a mystery, it\u2019s always been around.\n\nNumber 3, the leaven cannot be the gospel because many hear and don\u2019t respond; the idea of women preachers in Matthew seems a little odd, and the gospel does not tough up but humbles.\n\nNumber 4, the parables alleged gospel progress contradicts the known facts of history.\n\nNumber 5, leaven is bad rather than good, Old Testament and New Testament, and a Jewish mind hearing this\u2026 remember, Matthew\u2019s Gospel is the most Jewish gospel we have.\u00a0 So it\u2019s most likely written to Hebrew Christians and they would understand that Old Testament imagery.\u00a0 Of course you go into the New Testament you just go three chapters to the right, Jesus is not calling leaven good, He\u2019s calling it bad.\u00a0 And that theme goes all the way through the writings of the Apostle Paul.\n\nNumber 6, if the yeast is good the meal that\u2019s working through must be bad but the meal in the Bible is never bad.\n\nAnd number 7, this can\u2019t be the gospel because this woman hides it and the gospel is to be openly proclaimed.\n\nNow some of you are thinking well, pastor, you sure have some funny ideas about things.\u00a0 Let me just read you this quote from John Walvoord, just to show you that I\u2019m not up here just inventing things, even though what I\u2019m saying is counter intuitive to most of the teaching you\u2019ve ever heard on this parable.\n\nWalvoord, in his Matthew commentary says: \u201cWhat does the leaven represent? Postmillenarians and amillenarians...\u201d kingdom now people, \u201cusually assume dogmatically that leaven cannot represent evil in the parable, although it is universally used to represent evil in both the Old and New Testaments....It is more evident than ever in the last third of the twentieth century that the gospel has not permeated the world and that evil tends to permeate the entire professing church, which is exactly what Matthew 13 teaches. In the Old Testament leaven is consistently used to represent evil....\u00a0 In the New Testament, leaven was used by Christ of the externalism of the Pharisees, of the unbelief of the Sadducees, and of the worldliness of the Herodians, and in general of evil doctrine\u201d and Paul\u2019s letters likewise leaven represents evil and we\u2019ve gone through the passages. In the parable, the meal represents that which is good.\u00a0 The professing church, however, is permeated by evil doctrine, externalism, unbelief, and worldliness, which tends to inflate the church and make it larger in appearance, even as the leaven inflates the dough but actually adds nothing of real worth. The history of the church has all too accurately fulfilled this anticipation, and the professing church in the world, large and powerful though it may be, is permeated by the leaven of evil which will be judged in the oven of divine judgment at the end of the age\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Remember what Jesus said?\u00a0 Let them both grow together until the end of the age.\u00a0 \u201c To some extent, evil will extend even to\u2026 the body of true believers\u201d people that are born again, regenerated, \u201cin the church as well as those that come to Christ after the rapture... even true believers\u201d watch this very carefully because this is completely contradicted by John MacArthur theology, \u201ceven true believers fall far short of perfection and can embrace to some extent worldliness, externalism, and bad doctrine.\u201d\u00a0 [John F. Walvoord, Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come<\/em> (Chicago: Moody, 1974), 102\u20134.]\n\nThe MacArthur mindset denies that and yet even a Christian can be deceived.\u00a0 Even a Christian can become carnal; that\u2019s why you have to come to a church like this where we teach you the Bible, where the Word of God can confront you, us, of sin in our lives so we can grow correctly.\n\nOne more quote and I\u2019m finished.\u00a0 Dr. Stanley Toussaint, who passed away Tuesday of last week, one of my mentors at Dallas Seminary.\u00a0 He writes in his Matthew commentary: \u201cThe discussion revolves around the significance of the word \u00a0\u2018leaven\u2019 (zym\u0113<\/em>)\u201d in Greek. \u201cMany contend that leaven is used here in a good sense and pictures the spread of the gospel throughout the earth. Others state that the word represents evil and is used to illustrate the growth of evil within the group which professes to inherit the kingdom. This latter interpretation has the stronger support.\u201d Leaven being something bad rather than good in other words.\u00a0 \u201cIt is consistent with the doctrine of Scripture concerning the evil character of the end of the church age and the tribulation\u201d period.\n\nNow we read about a lot of these things, didn\u2019t we, when we were in 2 Timothy, how the church would with evil men and imposters in the church would wax worse and worse.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 3:13, \u201cBut evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u201d]\u00a0 Didn\u2019t we read that in Paul\u2019s final letter, where \u00a0a time in church history would come and people would want their ears tickled rather than receive truth.\u00a0 See, that teaching that Paul gave in 2 Timothy is consistent with the teaching I\u2019m giving here on Matthew 13:33.\u00a0 One of the greatest supports for the interpretation that leaven speaks of evil is the use of the word in Scripture; invariably leaven pictures sin.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019ve gone through all the verses .\n\n\u201cFinally the verb used here \u2018to hide\u201d\u2019 which is what the woman does, \u201c\u2026 is very unusual if \u2026. .leaven represents good. \u00a0It is a much more fitting word if leaven is to have a sinister effect. This is similar to the idea in the parable of the wheat and the darnel. The way the woman hides the leaven in the meal parallels very closely the manner in which the enemy sowed darnel by night.\u201d\u00a0 See, her hiding it in the leaven is completely consistent with what we learned last week with the wheat and the tares, where the devil is working secretly while men slept he sowed tares amongst the wheat.\u00a0 \u201cThis parable reveals the fact that evil will run its course and dominate the new age. But it also indicates that when the program of evil has been fulfilled,\u201d what will come? \u201cthe kingdom will come.\u201d\u00a0 [Stanley D. Toussaint Behold the King: A Study of Matthew<\/em> (Grand Rapids, Kregel, 2005), 182.\u2019]\n\nNow I realize you guys are very depressed and you need to put yourself in the shoes of these disciples that Jesus just unloaded this teaching on in four parables.\u00a0 So this is why there\u2019s a transition in the parables; the first four in the open, the second four are in the house as we\u2019ve talked about.\u00a0 And He\u2019s dealing with these dejected disciples who think that the kingdom is imminent.\u00a0 Jesus says the kingdom is not imminent, in fact, there\u2019s a coexistence of good and evil coming BUT don\u2019t be depressed because, number 1, God has it all under control.\u00a0 Number 2, even in this evil age God is going to work and He reveals that in the final four parables.\u00a0 We know God is going to work because there\u2019s wheat and tares and at least one of the soils is productive.\u00a0 Evil is going to do its thing but God is at work and He begins to highlight the work of God in an evil age when the kingdom is absent in the final four parables.\n\nSo if you\u2019re depressed cheer up, it\u2019ll get better next week.\u00a0 So at this point I will stop talking and let folks that need to go and get their young ones and if they complain you\u2019re late just tell them I was early, ten minutes last week, so I\u2019m still running a five minute credit.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t