Today we continue our exposition of the Lord's teaching. You remember that last week we studied this very important parable of the weeds and the wheat, or more accurately, the darnel and the wheat. I would like briefly to sum up what we learned before we continue, since there are some points of some importance in that parable we have not yet dealt with.
If you know any person sitting beside you who may not understand English too well, would you make it known to them about our simultaneous translation that is going on right now, with the earphones at the back. Now, let us consider then this parable, and first let me summarize what we learned last week.
We saw in Matthew chapter 13, in verses 24 onwards, in this parable of the wheat and the weeds, the darnel, that the Lord Jesus is saying that in the kingdom of God there are two kinds of plants. The one kind of plant is the wheat, which the Lord Jesus has sown. We saw in his own explanation of that parable that this wheat represents the sons of the kingdom, that is, the children of God, in verse 38 of Matthew chapter 13. Then we find that after the Lord Jesus has sown this seed in the world — the field is the world — the devil comes along and sows among the wheat. He sows darnel. He sows the weeds. But not just any kind of weeds, but the weeds that we know as darnel, or the bearded darnel.
We saw first of all that these weeds do not represent unbelievers, that is to say, people who have never heard of the gospel and who have never received the gospel in any sense whatsoever. We saw that these weeds represent people who are inside the church. A tragic situation. We see that because these weeds, these darnel, were sown by the devil after the good seed, the wheat, has been sown. Now, unbelievers were in the world long before the Christians appeared. But these are no ordinary unbelievers. These are darnel, which are sown after — it's very important to observe this — after the wheat has already been sown. And they are sown not anywhere else in the world, but precisely among the wheat.
We noticed secondly that these darnel look very much like wheat. In fact, they are indistinguishable from wheat in the early stages of its growth. That is why we see in the parable, in verse 26, when the plants came up and began to bear fruit, when they bore grain, then the servants realized that there was not just wheat in the field, but there were weeds, or more precisely, darnel in the field. We saw too that these darnel, because they are so hard to distinguish from the wheat, represent the kind of people who are in the church, who look like Christians, who have the outward behavior like Christians, who know all the right things to say, who talk like Christians, but they are not Christians. They have the resemblance of being Christians but are not Christians. As Paul says in Timothy, they have the form of godliness but deny the power of it. They do not have the life inside of them; they only have the outward appearance of godliness. They behave like Christians, they look like Christians in their outward behavior, but not in their heart. These are the darnel.
Then we noticed too that when the darnel brought forth fruit, then they realized that these were not wheat. As the Lord Jesus says, "By their fruit you shall know them." Now by their fruit means their spiritual fruit, if any. That is very important to observe. And we realized one more thing about these darnel: not only do they look like wheat and grow among wheat — which they in fact do in all the Middle Eastern countries even today — they don't grow in the wild; they grow among the wheat. That's where they grow. Some even think that they are a degenerate form of wheat, although other specialists deny that they are a degenerate form of wheat because they are structurally different. We noticed too that these darnel — the grain that they produce, and they do produce a certain type of grain — is in fact poisonous. We saw that anybody who eats the darnel by mistake, mistaking it for wheat, will end up with a whole list of symptoms including nausea, convulsions, sleepiness, drowsiness, and even death. In other words, the darnel is poisonous.
All this showed to us that the Lord Jesus, in this prophetic parable, is saying that where God is working, Satan will also work, and where God is bringing forth life, Satan is busy bringing forth death. We concluded last week as we asked the question: are you wheat, or are you darnel? Do not satisfy yourself by saying, "I am in the church. I am a church member. I am very active in the church. I have been baptized," and all this. That is no consolation. Remember, the darnel are all inside the church. They are in there, as we saw in other parables of the Lord Jesus. Time and again you have the situation in which those who are not genuine Christians are found in the church — and not only found in the church, but found in abundance. Because of course, when Satan sowed these darnel among the wheat, he didn't just sow one or two. Why did he sow darnel? You know what his purpose is? Very easy to understand. His purpose was really to choke the wheat.
As it says in this parable, it was done by an enemy. Why did the enemy do it? To spoil the crop. To choke the wheat, so that this growth, coming on top of the seeds of the good seed, will choke it — just as we saw in the parable of the sower, where some of these seeds were choked. They had a genuine response to the gospel, but they were choked by the thorns that surrounded them. So now we notice that here we find this situation, and we ask ourselves this question: do you know whether you are wheat, or whether you are darnel? The fact that you are in the church itself proves nothing. There are two different kinds of life in there. One is the life of the seeds of the wheat. The other is the life of darnel. One comes from God, the other from the devil.
We saw then also that when it says in this parable that these are evildoers — these darnel represent evildoers — we saw how this word "evildoers" and "sons of the devil" are used in the Bible. We found, maybe to our shock and to our surprise, that these names were reserved for religious people. We saw also last week, in John chapter 7, at the end of John chapter 7, that the words "depart from me, evildoers" was not addressed to unbelievers who had never heard the gospel, but it was addressed to people who cast out demons in Jesus' name, who did mighty works in Jesus' name, who did healing miracles and things of this sort in Jesus' name. We saw too that the people who do this kind of thing must have a certain faith in Jesus. So what went wrong?
The Lord Jesus tells us what went wrong. They did miracles, but they did not obey the will of the Father. "Not all who say to me, 'Lord, Lord'" — notice, they even address Jesus as Lord — "will enter the kingdom of heaven in that final harvest, but those who do the will of my Father." Those who do the will. We saw that unless we learn to do God's will, that we are committed to doing his will, that we are totally committed to him, then we are in danger of finding ourselves to be darnel.
We also saw the distinction between two kinds of people in the church. The one kind of person who wants Jesus as Savior only — they don't want him as Lord. They just want him as Savior. "You saved me, you get me to heaven, that's all I want." Jesus is there to do something for me. If that's the way you think, then you are in danger of being a darnel. Because here we see again the same thing: they want to have eternal life, they want to have salvation, but they don't want to do God's will. That's why they don't want Jesus to be Lord in their life.
We saw that A.W. Tozer, this great servant of God, in his book called "The Root of the Righteous," said this is the great heresy of the church today: to teach Jesus as Savior without teaching him as having to be Lord at the same time, and to show that unless he is Lord, he cannot be your Savior. He is only Savior to those to whom he is Lord. That is why in the Bible you will find that Jesus is always spoken of as Lord and Savior, in that order. Lord first, and then Savior. We do not have him as Savior without having him as Lord. We saw that today, so often in the teaching of the church, evangelists and pastors like simply to say, "Accept Jesus as Savior." Not a word is said about Lord. Only the preaching of the lordship of Christ is reserved for consecration meetings, for devotional meetings, meetings of the higher life. First you become some sort of a Christian, and later you become a higher type of Christian where you consecrate yourself to the Lord. We saw that this is entirely unscriptural. We saw that unless Jesus is Lord right from the beginning, he is not your Savior at all, because then you are not doing his will. And the Lord says, those who do not do his will will not find salvation in him. They will not enter the kingdom — that is, the kingdom in that final stage of the harvest.
All this is exceedingly important for us to understand. It is very basic to understanding this matter of salvation. But then we ask the question: if this is so, if the church is a mixed church, a church in which good and bad are mixed, why does God tolerate this? Why does not God separate the weeds from the wheat? Why does he not tear the weeds out? Why doesn't he allow his servants to go and pull them up?
Consider carefully. The answer to this question depends on whether you have understood what the weeds are, what the darnel are. In the first place, we have seen already just how difficult it is to distinguish between a darnel and wheat. If you are going to go out and pull, which one are you going to pull? Do you know which is wheat and which is darnel? We saw in the tragic case in John chapter 8, last week, that these Pharisees and Jews thought themselves to be sons of God because they were sons of Abraham. They thought that they were. But the Lord Jesus said to them, "You are of your father the devil." Now that's a shock. "You are of your father the devil." Why? His answer was straightforward and simple: "If you were sons of Abraham" — spiritually speaking, and therefore sons of God — "you would do what Abraham did." That's how we know. You would live and behave as Abraham lived. He was a man of faith, a man of total commitment to God. When God said, "Go," he went, asking no questions. Whatever God said to him, he did. He was a man of faith, which as we saw in the Bible, is a total commitment. He simply obeyed God totally. And the Lord Jesus was saying to the Jews, "Don't say to yourself, or don't think to yourself, you are sons of God. You are not, because you do not do the Father's will." You see, exactly the same teaching as in Matthew 7:21 onwards. Exactly the same thing. If we were God's children, we would be doing his will. The Spirit of God in us would motivate us to live the kind of life that he lived.
But how can you see whether a person is doing the Father's will or not? The Lord Jesus can see that, but can you? Well, to some extent we can, but we cannot be that sure. It is not up to us to judge. I cannot say to you, "Well, you know, you did one or two things not right, and I don't think that's very good, therefore I have decided that you are not a son of God. You are a weed. You are a darnel." It's not for me to judge. I cannot judge that.
There are many Christians today who do not do God's will in their lives. They do not live under God's kingship. They do whatever they want to do. They do not behave even like Christians, to a great extent. But they have not committed any serious sins, like these people in Matthew chapter 7, verse 21, who say, "Lord, Lord," but do not do the Father's will. They did not commit any crimes. They did not commit murder. They did not commit adultery. You cannot deal with them in church discipline because they have not done anything terribly serious. But the same is true, of course, of most non-Christians. They also didn't commit murder. They also didn't commit adultery. They live reasonably decent lives when you look at them from the outside. What can you say? On what basis will you exclude them from the church? If you put them through a test of faith — "Do you believe in the name of Jesus?" — they would say yes. These darnel would say yes, just as those people in Matthew 7:21 said, "Lord, Lord." But they didn't do the Father's will. Everybody can say, "Lord, Lord." The Israelites said the same thing. In the prophet Isaiah it says, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." You see, they have the form of godliness. So how are you going to judge them? How are you going to remove them from the church? On what basis can you remove them?
Once you understand the true nature of these darnel, you can see that you simply cannot remove them. Firstly, because they are so hard to distinguish. Secondly, because it is not up to us to judge. It is my task to preach the gospel; it is not my task to judge people. But do they cause harm? Sure, they cause harm to the church. They cause great harm to the church. In what way do they harm the church? Notice the way they cause damage is not by anything they do outwardly. If you look at the field of wheat with the darnel in it, the darnel are not doing anything to the wheat, are they? The darnel stands there and the wheat stands there. Nobody is hurting each other. The darnel is not hurting the wheat. He says, "I haven't done anything." That's right — that's the whole problem.
So where is the damage being done? The parable tells us the damage is being done underground, invisibly, by the roots. The roots are causing the damage. Why? For one thing, they are removing the nourishment from the wheat. They are soaking up the nourishment that the wheat could use, and so to some extent slowing down the growth of the wheat. Some of these roots might even succeed in choking some of the wheat, as we saw in the parable of the sower. They do cause damage. These darnel really cause damage. They hinder the general witness of the church. The church should be shining out much more brightly than it is. Why is it not shining? Well, look at a church full of darnel. It's very hard to shine with all this darnel in it.
But how can we remove it? If you pull up, the parable here tells us, if you pull up the darnel, what you will do is you might pull up the wheat with it, because the wheat has its roots tangled with the darnel. They are so closely together that if you pull up the one, you might pull up the other. In the very attempt to remove all the false Christians from the church, you could damage an awful lot of true Christians. That's not what the Lord wants. He doesn't want one true Christian, one true disciple, to be damaged. He cares for every one of them.
So what can we do? We can't do anything. We just have to wait for the judgment. We have to wait for the harvest, when the Lord himself will separate out the wheat from the darnel. Until then, we have to wait. But then you might say, rather impatiently, "But we can't do anything about this. Why doesn't God do something about it? I mean, we can't remove the darnel from the wheat — okay, I understand the situation. It's hard for me to distinguish, and the roots are entangled, and so forth. I might hurt some of the wheat. So why not God do something about it? Why is he there doing nothing about it? Why doesn't he strike down these phony Christians? Why doesn't he purge his church so that the church will truly become what it should be right now?"
Oh, how we long, isn't it, like the disciples, we want to call down fire from heaven. We want to say, "Burn these darnel up!" Well, there are ways of dealing with darnel. Maybe God could devise a special kind of bug, you see. This bug will only attack darnel, will not attack wheat. I mean, you have heard of biological warfare against pests in the world. So why not devise some kind of a bug? That's not beyond the capabilities of God — to devise a bug that will go and chew up all the darnel and leave all the wheat standing. In this way the darnel will be destroyed and the wheat will not be uprooted. That is the way we think. So why does he leave the darnel there, and he doesn't seem to do anything about it?
That's the way we think. Let's wonder for a moment: hasn't God got a purpose there? Hasn't he a purpose in all this? What purpose? Well, we find, first and foremost, that whereas the darnel do in fact become a trial to the wheat, what does the wheat have to do? The wheat, in its struggle to survive against the darnel, becomes a stronger type of wheat. The struggle for survival, the struggle to live, has a strengthening effect. We have seen always these illustrations: the trees that grow upon the mountains, blown by every fierce wind, have powerful roots. They are strong. They can withstand disease. They can withstand the weather. But those trees in sheltered places — the storm comes unexpectedly and they fall down, because they have never learned to put their roots deeply down to anchor upon the rock.
You see, for us, trials are unpleasant. We don't like trials. We don't like sufferings. We don't like to be tested by fellow Christians. We say, "I am willing to take all this from non-Christians. Let the non-Christians do what they like to me. But I don't want to be persecuted by people who call themselves Christians." If you have followed the biblical teaching so far, you will know, brothers and sisters, Christians — and I say it to you dearly beloved — you will know that those who will torment you most, who will persecute you most bitterly, will be those people who call themselves Christians. It has always been the case down through the centuries. You will suffer most at the hands of those who call themselves Christians. And I want to say to you, beloved brothers and sisters, as I have said to those before many times: understand this thing well. Understand it very well, because unless you understand it, you may fall.
This is why the Lord Jesus told us: "You are going to have trials. They are darnel amongst the wheat, and they will test your patience no end. They may choke you if you are not careful. So put your roots down deep. Draw deeply upon my grace, because my grace is sufficient for you."
When I was a young Christian, I nearly went down. Hardly was I a few months an older Christian when I saw the behavior of certain Christians. Many of you know that I never wanted to become a Christian in the first place because I was disgusted by Christians. How many non-Christians I have met today — and I never cease to meet these non-Christians — who tell me, "Well, I don't want to have anything to do with Christians, because I have seen the Christians and they disgust me." I have complete sympathy for them, for these non-Christians, because that's exactly the way I felt. I didn't want to become a Christian because the Christians disgusted me. The way they behaved was even below that of other non-Christians — not to say that Christians are special; they are not even as good as non-Christians. I know non-Christians who are nicer than Christians, who are more considerate than Christians, who are more generous than Christians. I'm sure you know those non-Christians too. No wonder the non-Christians say, "Who wants to become a Christian? Look at these Christians." I have complete sympathy for them. I know exactly how they feel, because I never wanted to be a Christian because of all these people.
Until I began to look at Jesus. I don't look at these Christians anymore, these so-called Christians. I look at Jesus. I said, "Oh, now I begin to understand." My heart is attracted to him, not to these people, but to him. After I became a Christian, I lived with a certain Christian lady, an elderly lady. Oh dear me, I think more than once I nearly decided, "I've had enough. That's enough of Christianity for me." This person had been a Christian for 20 years; I'd been a Christian for two months. Look at the way she behaves. It's disgraceful. Until the Lord said, "You fix your eye on me. You draw your grace from me. My grace is sufficient for you. Just follow me. The church has all kinds of other people in it. Don't you worry about them. What's that to you?" Like the words he said to Peter: "You follow me. Never mind what happens to them, or what they do."
I know that for us it's hard to think of this. You say, "But they have been Christians longer than me. Shouldn't I have an example in them?" Yes, you should, but unfortunately, often you will not have an example. They may or may not be darnel. They may be very weak wheat — very weak and sickly — or they may be darnel. That's not for me to judge. I don't know. God will separate them one day. As for me, I will keep my eyes on Jesus.
All through my Christian life, I have had the same problem. I have not had much problems with non-Christians. I have suffered a little persecution from the communists, but that's nothing much compared to the problems you have with Christians all the time — people who simply do not do God's will, who do not live under God's kingship. Yes, in due time, I was able to see that many of them were darnel. One after the other, they fell away, as John said: "They went out from us because they were not of us." They fell away — people who used to be active youth leaders, who used to be loud in the churches, who used to organize this and organize that. Where are they today? Nowhere. Far from the Lord. They don't even pretend to be Christians anymore, which is just as well for the church. But unfortunately, there are others who still call themselves Christians. They don't live in this total commitment to Christ. It's these who give us an awful lot of headaches.
So bear this in mind then, and we say, then why does God not destroy them all? Oh no, God has a purpose. They are there. They test us. They try us. But thanks be to God, because so we will learn to put our roots down deeper. So we will draw more completely upon his grace. So we will learn to look to him who is the author and finisher, the perfecter, of our faith. So maybe we do not like this way of doing things. As for us, we would like to remove the darnel. As for God, he has a purpose to leave them in. And this of course answers the same question: why didn't God prevent Satan from sowing the darnel in the first place? The answer would be exactly the same, whether he allows Satan to sow the darnel, or whether having sown the darnel, he destroys the darnel. Either way, it comes to the same thing. The fact is that he allows the darnel to be in his field for the present time.
Now of course, this may not make very good agricultural sense, but the Lord Jesus here is not here to teach agriculture. He is teaching spiritual truth. You see, I doubt that many farmers would like to sow darnel among their wheat to produce a strong crop of wheat. Here you can see that the parables are not here to teach us agricultural logic. They are here to teach us spiritual reality. In the field, it may not work like this, but in the spiritual life, it does work like this.
Let us also realize one thing: if we begin to get discouraged when we look at the church today, we look around and we say, "How will this church ever be the light of the world? What hope is there in a church like this, full of people who simply are so superficial, at least, who are perhaps not even genuine Christians?" We feel so discouraged. Don't be discouraged. The Lord is Lord of the harvest. He knows what he is doing. Don't worry about the harvest. He will fulfill his purpose. And so we see, at the end of this parable, the fact that there is a great harvest. The wheat are brought in. God's purpose is accomplished, not only in spite of the darnel, but in a certain way because of it. He produces a strong, vigorous crop of wheat.
Now, as it were, to reinforce this very important point — the fact that God's purpose cannot be defeated — and to reinforce this point, in case we become discouraged, he gives the next parable, which we will deal with now briefly before we close. The next parable is called the parable of the grain of mustard seed, and it follows precisely in order to provide us with the encouragement that we need after a parable like the wheat and the darnel. Because, looking at a parable like that, as I say, we might well become discouraged and say, "Well, what future has the church got when it is such a mixed bunch?" Well, here then is the Lord's reply, in Matthew 13, verse 31: "Another parable he put before them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is the greatest of shrubs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.'"
Now what does all this mean? The Lord Jesus speaks constantly in parables, but for those who know the Word of God, there is no great problem in understanding them. The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Notice the first thing: again we have a parable concerning the seed. Very important to notice this. So many parables about the seed. We had the parable of the sower, the parable of the seed growing by itself, the parable of the darnel and the wheat, and now we have another parable of the seed. This time it's a mustard seed, and the reason the mustard seed is chosen is because it's the smallest of all seeds sown by people.
That last qualifying phrase is very important, in case you have studied a little botany. You might start getting wise in your own mind and saying, "Ah, wait a minute, the mustard seed is very small, yet it is not the smallest of all seeds in the world." Oh yes, okay, we grant you that you know something about botany, but that's not the Lord's point. The mustard seed is the smallest seed — not that ever exists, but the smallest that any person sows in Palestine. That's what we are talking about: the smallest seed that a farmer sows. It is not a statement that it is the smallest seed that ever exists. Somebody might say, "Ah, but the poppy seed is smaller." Yes, but the farmers in Palestine don't sow poppies, and they don't smoke opium, and therefore to tell me that the poppy seed is smaller is quite beside the point of this parable. The point here simply is that this is the smallest seed that the Palestinian farmer sows — for that matter, that farmers sow.
Now let us pause for a moment to consider this matter of the seed, because now we realize how many parables the Lord Jesus speaks of in which he speaks of seed, and there is a very good reason for it. I'd like to pause for a moment to ponder the seed. The seed is something wonderful, and the more you understand the Lord's teaching concerning the seed, the more you will understand the whole scriptural teaching of salvation. In other words, if you want to understand the scriptural teaching of salvation...
# A Parable of Life and Transformation (Part 2)
It dies, or disintegrates in a certain way; it germinates, it bursts its body, and it rises again. Marvelous! A whole picture of death, of burial, of death and resurrection. It's marvelous. New life comes forth literally from the burial, the death and resurrection of the seed. So the Lord Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a grain of seed — maybe very small, small as a mustard seed if you like — but it's sown into the ground. It disappears from view. It's buried in there. It dies, and it rises again to new life.
In the same way, the Lord Jesus died, buried, seems to have gone, finished. And he rises again to new life. That is wonderful. So we find that the whole teaching of God's kingdom is right there. And now what happens? When it rises again to new life, it produces a whole new batch of seeds. A whole new batch of seeds comes from that one seed. This is the whole teaching of the Lord Jesus in John chapter 12 and verse 24. He says, "Unless the seed dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." And so it brings forth a whole batch of new seeds through dying and rising again. In the same way, the Lord Jesus, through his dying and rising again, brings forth the church, brings forth us.
Now what happens here is, one seed goes into the ground and produces a whole batch of wheat, or new seeds, or whatever is sown. And that new batch is then sown again and produces another batch of harvest. And so it goes on and on. But notice another thing: the life that is in the new batch of seeds is the life that that new seed derived from the first seed that died. Do you see? In the same way, we derive our life, the new life, from the Lord Jesus, who died, and so passed on this new life to us. The life in the seed — the new seed. You know, the grain of wheat is simply seeds; that's all it is. When you have an ear of wheat, all the ear of wheat are simply the new batch of seeds. When you eat wheat, what are you eating? You are simply eating seeds. The wheat itself is a seed. If you don't eat it, and you sow it in the ground, it will grow again and produce another batch of seeds. So you can choose to eat those seeds, or you can sow them. What the farmer does is that he eats part of them and he sows another part of them. Every wheat is itself a seed. That's what it is. That's wonderful. And so it shows that we derive our new life from the resurrection life of Christ. We live because he died and rose again.
You see, the whole biblical theology, the whole teaching of Scripture, is there in that seed. But if we stop there, we have made a mistake. What happens to this new batch of seed? Does it get life from that first seed just so that it can sit there in the ear of wheat and enjoy itself and twiddle its thumbs? No. The new wheat is sown again, and it in turn dies to produce fruit.
Now you see, many people in teaching the gospel have stopped at the first point: we got new life through Christ's death and resurrection. That's true. But in turn, do you realize that we ourselves become a grain of seed, which in turn is to die and rise again? That part people don't understand. If you look at John chapter 12, verse 24, and look at the next verse, John 12, verse 25, you will see that that refers to Christians. The first part refers to the Lord Jesus, and then the next verse, verse 25, refers to Christians, who are also to die and rise again.
This comes out in the parables of the Lord Jesus in the same way. Look at the three parables of the seed, and you'll see what I mean. If I take them backwards, it might become clearer to you. This parable of the mustard seed, that is sown into the ground, that dies and rises again — what is the picture of it? Here, the mustard seed is representing Christ himself. Is it not? For the kingdom of God is personified in himself. He is the kingdom of God. Here he is not describing a situation inside the kingdom of God as such, but describing the growth of the kingdom itself. Here it is the Lord Jesus himself who dies, and through rising again, the kingdom of God becomes a reality in the world.
But do you remember the previous parable, the parable of the wheat and the darnel? There we saw that the seed that is sown is what? The Christians. The seed that is sown were the sons of God, the sons of the kingdom, as we saw in Matthew chapter 13, and verse 38. I hope by now you can see: "The field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom." In other words, when the Lord Jesus has given new life to us — this is the exciting teaching of the gospel, the exciting teaching of the Lord Jesus — when he has given new life to us, he sends us out into the world. The field is the world, where we, in our turn, become seeds. We die, and we rise again, bearing fruit to God. That's what the Lord Jesus says.
That is why he was saying this very thing right after speaking about the seed in John chapter 12, verse 24. In John 12, verse 25, he says, "If any man tries to save his life, he shall lose it. But he who loses his life for my sake, he will have it." How many Christians cannot understand that. When you understand the Lord's teaching about the seed, you understand very easily. Unless you, in your turn, become a seed — unless you, in your turn, go out into the world and live for Christ, and die for Christ if necessary — you will not be able to have the fullness of his life. You will not have his life. If you try to save your life by not dying, you will lose it. If you have a grain of wheat here and you put it there, nothing will happen. If you leave it long enough, it will mildew and die. But if you take this grain of wheat, without waiting for it to get mildewed and perish, or be eaten up by some insects or worms, and you drop it into the ground, it will bring forth life. This is so wonderful.
As we look backwards still further, to the parable of the sower, we saw that the seed was the Word. So you notice that in each of the parables, the seed represents something different. The first parable, the seed is the Word of God. This parable of the wheat and the darnel, the seed is the sons of God, the sons of the kingdom. And now, this parable of the mustard seed, the seed is Christ himself. So the Word of God is sown into my heart; we change the picture, as it were, and I become a son of God, who is going to be sown into the world. This is marvelous — so many facets of God's riches and truth, and yet all summed up in this picture of the seed. Have you got the picture? Or are you finding it difficult to follow? You just think through the picture of the seed.
Now let's return to this picture and let's continue to think about it. The seed is the Lord Jesus in this parable of the mustard seed, that dies and brings forth a new crop — in this case, a crop of mustard seed, if you like. The new crop of mustard seed derives its life from the death and the resurrection of that first seed, that is, Christ himself.
But notice still further: not only do we have the life of Christ in us — and this is very important for you to understand — a true Christian is somebody who has the life of Christ in him. Not just having the form of godliness. Not just having good religious behavior. Not just being nice and smiling at everybody. Not just saying the right things, knowing how to pray the Lord's Prayer, or even praying any kind of prayer. Not just doing all these things externally, but having the life of Christ in you. Do you have the life of Christ in you? What is that life of Christ? It is the new resurrection life that the Holy Spirit creates in you. That's why you become a new creation, a Christian. That's what it means to be a true Christian, not to be a darnel.
But notice another thing: if you have this true life of Christ in you, notice what happens. Look at one seed and look at the other seed. What happens? That latest seed, that new seed, looks like the original seed. Isn't it? That's the beauty of it. The true Christian, because of the work of the Holy Spirit in him, takes upon him the beauty of Christ. He even becomes like Christ. If you are a true Christian, you will find yourself becoming more and more like Jesus. In the way you think — as we saw at the communion today, we learn to think as he thought. He lived only for others. We learn to live for others and not for ourselves. We become like him in all our conduct as we go on: in holiness, in love, as the Spirit of God sheds abroad God's love into our hearts, as Paul says in Romans chapter 5, verse 5. So that our conduct becomes more and more like him. Or as the apostle Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 18: "We are changed from glory to glory into his image." The true Christian takes on a likeness of Christ. He must have a certain beauty of Christ. That's very important.
Are you a true Christian? Then the likeness of Christ should be manifest in your life. You become more and more like him. And once you understand this point, you understand why you can speak of sowing the sons of God into the world. We are Christ's representatives in the world. We are his body in the world. How is the world going to know Christ unless it sees Christ in us? A true seed bears resemblance to the original seed. Do you bear resemblance to Christ? Do I bear resemblance to Christ? Is the life of Christ powerfully working in me? Is my thinking being transformed so that my selfishness is being put away, and I'm becoming more and more like him? Only then I know whether I'm a true seed or not. Only then I know whether I am a true mustard seed or not. Whatever the picture you like, it's the same thing.
This is the glorious truth of God's Word. That's why I said right at the beginning: the whole of salvation teaching, the whole of gospel truth, is summed up in this matter of the seed. I would like you to ponder about it, think about it more carefully. There are still more riches in this parable, but our time is gone. I should have closed there for today. So I'd like you just to bear in mind and ask yourself again this question: Am I truly a seed that has been born from that death and resurrection of the first seed, namely Christ himself? Is Christ's resurrection life in me? Am I becoming more like him in my thinking and in my ways? I know I have many faults and many shortcomings, but am I in the process of being changed, as Paul says, from one degree of glory to another? Maybe your degree of glory and my degree of glory, showing forth the image of Christ, is very limited at this stage. But at least we are moving forward, progressing, as the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ.
This is a wonderful message that the Lord Jesus gives to us in these parables. It is a powerful message. It is a message of life and transformation. May God grant that each one of us knows the truth of it in our own experience.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer.