Today we continue our exposition in God's Word, as we do systematically week by week. At first there are one or two points I need to conclude on from last week's message concerning the parable of the mustard seed. We were expounding in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 31 onwards. A parable of considerable importance because it occurs in all three of the synoptic gospels, all three of the first three gospels. We saw already how important is the picture of the seed in the Lord's teaching. But there were some other points we have not seen. Let me read this parable to you once more so that for those who might not have been here last week, they are not entirely lost.
Here is the parable that the Lord Jesus taught: "Another parable he, that is Jesus, 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 is sown, it is the greatest of shrubs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.'"
The Lord Jesus, as he often does, teaches by way of a parable, perhaps pointing to a mustard plant, a mustard tree, that was standing there in the field for everyone to see. He said, "Now the kingdom of God can be pictured if you look at this mustard tree. You see, it was sown as a tiny little seed. And then look how it has grown." In Palestine, sometimes the mustard plant could grow to a height of 8 or 10 feet. That is why it is justifiably called a tree. Eight feet would be nearly twice my height. So that would be a very considerable plant, a very considerable tree, growing out of this tiny little mustard seed.
The Lord Jesus says, if you look at this, you will understand — if you look at it carefully and understand spiritually — that here is a picture of the kingdom. When the kingdom is sown, it is sown into this world like a tiny seed. And what do you expect from a tiny seed? You expect a tiny plant. But instead, what you have is this huge plant that grows into a tree. Actually, the mustard plant is not a tree; it is a herb, a vegetable. But it grows to the size of a tree, so enormous does it become. It also grows with considerable speed. So it is a picture of the kind of life power that is inside this little seed to produce so vast, so huge a plant.
The Lord Jesus says, from this you can get a picture of the kingdom. As I said last week also, when you look at the parable of the darnel and the wheat, when you see the mixed nature of the kingdom of God, with good and bad in it, you become somewhat discouraged. You wonder if there is still a future for the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus gives us this parable to say, well, God's power is there. Even if the work seems small, even if the seed seems little, a great work will come forth. How great will this work be? He says, even the birds of the air will come and live in it, will make their nests in it, will dwell in the branches of this mustard plant.
By using this picture, he at once directs our attention to the Old Testament — that is, if you are familiar with the language of the Old Testament. Here he deliberately uses the language of the Old Testament. What is the language of the Old Testament? Well, if we turn to Ezekiel chapter 31, verses 3 to 14, which I will not read in full now, it's much too long, and also to Daniel chapter 4, verses 7 to 9, you will notice there that the worldly kingdoms are described as great trees in which the birds of the air nest, and under which the animals of the field find shade.
But our reference of particular interest is Ezekiel chapter 17, verses 22 to 24. The reason this verse is of particular interest to us is because this verse in fact refers to the messianic kingdom, the kingdom of Christ. In Ezekiel chapter 17, verse 22 onwards, this passage I will just read to you now. "Thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it'." Israel is then this mountain in which this branch will be planted. "That it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar." And notice these words: "And under it will dwell all kinds of beasts. In the shade of its branches, birds of every sort will nest." And all the trees of the field shall know that I, Yahweh, bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree. I would like you particularly to notice these words: "make high the low tree."
The mustard plant is actually, as we saw, scarcely a tree. Yet it develops into a tree. He brings high the lowly things, the low tree. "Dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will do it." As it were, following exactly these words, the cedar in fact is a mighty tree, a very powerful tree. And so, as it were, with deliberate reference to bringing high the low tree in these words of the prophecy, the Lord Jesus speaks of a mustard tree — the lowest of all kinds of trees you could think of. The cedar is a mighty and powerful tree. The red cedar, for example, is a tree that has such durability that it becomes exceedingly fine wood, with high water resistance, that can endure corruption and so forth. But compared to a cedar, a mustard tree is really about the lowest tree you can get.
It is always like this: the Lord Jesus takes the lowly things of this world and exalts them. God takes the foolish things and confounds the wise with them. It is always his principle, in this way. When the Lord Jesus came into Jerusalem, he didn't ride on a great Arabian charger, as many preachers have noticed, but he comes sitting on a donkey — the lowest, the humbler form of transport. And so here we find the same thing happening. The Lord Jesus deliberately points to this reference in Ezekiel, and then makes an adjustment to it, indicating the nature of the kingdom in this present time.
What do these birds dwelling in the branches mean? If you look at this reference carefully, you will see that the branches, as in Ezekiel 31, verse 6 — the birds in the branches, in fact, refer to the great nations. In Ezekiel 31, verse 6, it tells us that the birds and the beasts represent all the great nations of the earth. So the parable is not left for us to guess what it means. The keys are all there, provided you know the Word of God.
The picture then is that the kingdom of God, beginning with these tiny, insignificant beginnings, becomes a great power in the world, so much so that the nations come to dwell under its shade. Now of course, when the disciples listened to this, they had only to take it by faith. They had nothing to see. There was no great nation living under the shade of the kingdom. The kingdom was at that stage the mustard seed. It was insignificant. Nobody took too much notice of it. It did shake the people in Palestine for a time, but the world at large hadn't taken any notice of the kingdom of God.
But we live in an age where we are eyewitnesses of the fulfillment of Jesus' teaching. He said, "Heaven and earth will pass away. My words will not pass away." And we see his words don't pass away. The disciples had to take Jesus' words by faith. How would they know that what he said is true — that one day the great nations of the world will shelter under the branches of the kingdom of God? But we see that what he said is true. Today, the great nations of the world, many of the mightiest nations, take shelter under the branches of this tree. They declare themselves to be Christian nations.
It's quite interesting, this picture of birds. I don't forget that the American emblem, the eagle, is constantly regarded as an emblem of the States. The double eagle has often been the emblem of Germany. In one form or another, either double or single eagle, the eagle constantly appears in the German emblems. It is curious that many nations portray themselves in one way or another by these birds. These are the nations that have sheltered, made their dwelling place in the shade of this tree. This does not mean that they are Christians in reality. Now this is very important to notice.
The mustard plant is the kingdom. The branches of that mustard plant represent the Christians. "Branches" is a common term for Christians in the Bible, as you know — John chapter 15, verses 2, 4, 5, and so on: "I am the vine, you are the branches." Or sometimes, as in Romans chapter 11, verses 17 to 24, you find that the Christians are pictured as branches of the olive tree. In any case, whatever tree, they are always the branches, of which Christ is the main stem, or the root, the foundation of that tree. The branches are the Christians. So these birds are not part of the tree. They are not part of the kingdom of God. But they do shelter. They try to gain some advantage and benefits from the kingdom of God.
Which is another way of saying that the influence of the kingdom of God has become so powerful, the teachings of Christ have become so pervasive through the world, that the nations find shelter in its teaching, in its shade, even if they don't practice that teaching. The Lord Jesus — and this is the amazing part of it, as I told you last week — this is a prophetic parable. He foretells what is going to happen. But this is not all there is yet to the parable. That is not yet the end of the matter, because the prophecy goes right on to the time when the kingdom of Christ will govern over the whole earth. The kingdom of Christ will rule in the world, and every nation will be subject to him.
This has already been prophesied in Daniel chapter 2, verse 35, for example, in the picture of the great stone, the stone which will fill the whole earth. And in the New Testament, of course, we see the same thing in Revelation chapter 11, verse 15, where the great words of the angel declare: "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of Christ, of God, and of his Christ." All the nations of this world, when Jesus comes again, will be subject to Christ. He will be King of kings, as the Revelation says, and Lord of lords.
Now you have to take that by faith, isn't it? You haven't seen it fulfilled yet, have you? But remember this: what he said the first time was true, and it was fulfilled, wasn't it? So it is a foolish person who does not realize that the ultimate fulfillment of these words, which are yet to come, will also be fulfilled. When Jesus comes again, he will reign as King of kings, Lord of lords. Every knee, the apostle Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, will bow to him. Every tongue shall confess him as Lord. All the nations will be gathered under his judgment. He shall judge the nations with a rod of iron. That's what the Bible warns us. Every one of us will stand, as the apostle Paul says, before the judgment seat of Christ. The first time he came as Savior. The second time, he comes as judge.
So here we find the situation: all this prophesied in this tiny little parable, so clearly stated in terms of Old Testament imagery, so clear to anyone who understands the Old Testament. There are no problems here whatsoever in understanding this parable. We find that already — and the beauty of it — a great part of this parable has already been fulfilled. We live in the privileged position of being in the 20th century to see it fulfilled before our eyes. But of course, way back already in the 4th century, the Christians saw it fulfilled when the mighty Roman Empire laid down the sword before the church. That nation, that no other country in the world could conquer, was conquered by Christ, who didn't even draw a sword. This great nation, under Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome, declared its surrender to Christ and put the nation under the shade of the mustard tree. That is remarkable.
Since that time, we have seen nation after nation — in those days, of course, America didn't exist, Germany didn't exist — but nation after nation have come to dwell in the shade of that mustard tree. Something remarkable. A mustard tree — what's impressive about a mustard tree? Nothing much. There are mighty trees in the world. But the mustard tree is the one that conquers. Such is the remarkable power of God. Any person who has any eyes to see, even if he is not a Christian, even if he does not own the lordship of Christ, should have been able to see the remarkable march of the kingdom of God, the remarkable growth of this mustard seed that conquers without drawing a sword, and the mighty nations find shelter in its shade.
In the end, I would like to remind you and press this fact upon your attention: inasmuch as what he has said has already come true so remarkably to this day, let me tell you too, his words never fail. Never fail. Those of us who have walked with the Lord know his words never fail. The day will come yet when every nation — there are some nations now that have not yet owned his lordship — every nation will bow under his sovereignty. His kingdom shall rule from shore to shore, as Wesley sang. And on his kingdom, the sun will never go down. His kingdom rules everywhere. That day will come yet, even as what he has said so far has all come to pass.
As I said, the disciples had to look at this and listen to this with a sheer act of faith. Because at that time, who was Jesus? Jesus was some person, some carpenter, wandering around there in Palestine, talking these enormous big words. They would say, "Who are you? This man — the whole world is going to be subject to his kingdom? I mean, he surely has got his hat the wrong size. His head has got too big for him. He's lost his judgment." And look at this small band of people, twelve disciples, following around him. The religious leaders, the political leaders, the social leaders — not one accepts him. And this poor man ends up dying on the cross. "His kingdom? You mean the great nations of this world are going to shelter in the shade of your tree like birds? My friend, you have one drink too many — maybe more than too many." By faith, could it be possible his words would be true?
But look — lo and behold, Jesus' words have never failed. He was the one who dared to say, "Heaven and earth will pass away. My words will not pass away." This truly was the Son of God. Incredible. Who can dare to say these things in advance and be proven wrong? Let anyone try to prove him wrong. "Which of you convicts me of sin? Which of you convicts me of saying the wrong thing?" That is the kind of thing the Lord Jesus dared to say to any person. And history has again and again justified his words.
He says, let us understand — he said to his disciples — "My kingdom shall go forth, not with a sword." There have been ideologies and religions that try to conquer with a drawn sword. Oh, we know that. Whole nations have been subjugated with a gun. Jesus doesn't need that. And there, now they are trying to hold their slaves down with their guns pointed at them, for fear that the moment you relieve the pressure, they will all revolt. So you have to hold them down with a gun. Jesus doesn't do anything like that. He conquers all, as Napoleon saw. As Napoleon realized. He says, "I conquered with the sword. I conquered with the armies. I conquered a great part of this world. But Jesus never drew a sword. And to this day, his kingdom has lasted thousands of years." Well, over a thousand, seven hundred years by the time of Napoleon. So we find that this is truly something wonderful — the word of Christ and its fulfillment.
So we can see that the Lord Jesus gives us the encouragement. As we saw in the previous parable, the darnel and the wheat, we nearly got discouraged. We thought, "Oh, if this is the case with the kingdom of God, that there is so much corruption inside the kingdom of God, what hope is left for us? What's the future of the kingdom?" The Lord Jesus says, "There is a great thing. God's purposes will be fulfilled upon earth. My purposes will not be defeated."
And he said, "I would like you to remember one other thing. Although the beginnings of God's work are always small, never despise the day of small things. God will do mighty things." Every great work — even a non-Christian philosopher could see that. Thomas Carlyle, the British thinker, once said, "Every great movement in this world began with the minority of one." When you think about that, even the worldly man is wise and understands that. Every great movement began with a minority of one. And that's true. He had learned something from history. One Alexander the Great stood up, and he conquered the world. One Caesar stood up, and he conquered the world. One man. But the other people who brought forth ideas — Confucius conquered China with the idea of Confucianism, with a moral teaching and a type of something approaching a philosophy, though not a religion. The whole of China lived under the teaching of Confucius for years, and in many ways to great benefit for the Chinese people. And so it goes on like this.
When it comes to the church, it has been the same thing in the history of the church. Time and again, one lonely man stood up and spoke, facing the entire world. He was condemned, persecuted, despised. But because it is God's power at work, he went through. Isn't that amazing? Take Luther. One man stood up facing the might of the Roman church at the time, the Holy Roman Empire. One single man, one poor, unknown person called Luther. Who ever heard of him before? He stood up and spoke out with the Word of God. They said, "Can you, one man, be right, and the whole church be wrong? Did you not hear that the Pope is infallible? I mean, were you born yesterday?" But he stood up and spoke forth the truth, proclaiming the Word of God. Today, even the Catholic Church, at last, has come to realize that Luther was right in many, many respects. He was right, after all. And hence, since Vatican II, an attempt at reconciliation. Nobody attempts at reconciliation unless they realize that he was right in great measure. One man stood up.
Back in the 18th century, John Wesley stood up in the face of the corruption of the Anglican church of the day, and preached forth on holiness. One man against the whole church. He was not allowed to preach in the churches. He was not allowed even to preach in his father's church, where his father had been a minister. And he himself was an ordained minister of the Church of England. He was allowed to preach nowhere. The church virtually condemned him to silence. He stood out in the field and preached. He stood on the street and preached, because he would not be silenced. One man against the whole world. How often he was attacked: "Wesley, what do you think you are? You think you are the only man who is right, and the whole church is wrong? Who do you think you are? You are too arrogant to believe." Everybody condemned him. He went on preaching, because God was burning in his heart this message of salvation and holiness.
Today, Methodism, which Wesley proclaimed for the time, has spread throughout the world. What has happened? The Church of England today seeks reconciliation with the Methodist Church, seeks reunion with the Methodist Church. They want to be united again. Why? Because they have to confess that the Methodists were right to a great extent. Time and again, in the history of the world, one mustard seed, one little work of God, built to a great thing. Of course, those early days are always lonely days — days when you will be persecuted, criticized, accused, as Wesley was constantly, or Luther, or whoever you like to mention, these men of God. But from that little mustard seed, there grows a mighty work of God.
Do not always be afraid to be in the minority. Men of God speak because the fire burns in their heart. As Luther said, "I stand here." When he was told to recant what he had taught, on the pain of excommunication, he said, "Here I stand. I can do no other. I cannot deny my conscience before God. What God has laid on my heart, I must speak. You can excommunicate me. You can exterminate me if you like. Do whatever you like. But here I stand. I can do no other." And we are grateful that he stood, are we not? These were the ones who had to pay the price. They had to fall into the ground and die, so that there came forth a plant that brought glory to God.
In the same way, as we saw last week, the Lord Jesus was all alone. All the leaders of the nation were against him — all types of leaders. The Bible scholars were against him, the scribes and all these people. The scribes were Bible scholars, of course. They are also called lawyers, which are Bible scholars — not lawyers in the modern sense of the word, but of the Old Testament law. They said, "Can you be right, and all the theologians are against you?" Look at this. I think that little band of people that followed him must have had incredible courage, by the grace of God. But look, what has come to pass. Jesus died. He rose again. This mustard plant came forth. And look — today the nations shelter in its wings. Today, in Canada, in the States, Germany, wherever you are, in the court of law, what do they produce? A holy Bible. You swear by the Word of God. They all want to shelter under that mustard tree.
Today, as I say, is coming — praise God for that — when every nation will come under his rule. Not just in this sense today, but when Jesus returns, he shall rule. Now that you have to take by faith. But I think that if you have enough, even just common sense, you can already see what's going to happen. As what he said was true before, it will be true again. As it was prophesied he will come the first time, so he will also come the second time. Let the scoffers scoff. But on that day, they will kneel down like everybody else and confess him as Lord.
What we see in this amazing parable of the Lord's teaching is that the kingdom of God will spread throughout the world. But notice now the perfect balance of the Lord's teaching. In case his disciples got too euphoric about it, too excited and too happy about the whole business — "Hooray, my Lord is going to reign from shore to shore. The sun will never set upon the kingdom of God, and we are going to reign with him. Wow!" — we start getting really excited. Well, that's true. And the Lord brings in the balance, and that comes in the next parable.
What is the next parable? The gist of the next parable is somewhat like this: the kingdom of God is going to spread in this age throughout the world. But let me tell you something else, the Lord Jesus says. The world is also going to spread into the church. Now, he says, beware of that. The kingdom, as it extends forth into the world, is going to result in the world also, to some extent, extending into the church. The Lord Jesus foresaw all that too. And how true it is, as we have seen, where the church becomes worldly, the church becomes corrupted by the world in many ways — the ideas of the world, the way the world does things. It becomes a situation now in which each interpenetrates the other. There becomes a mixing of the world and the church, of which the Lord Jesus warns us most seriously.
Here we have another parable, presented in one verse. One single verse. And how much the Lord Jesus can say in one verse. Most of us take a long time to say one thing. But he can say everything in one verse. This is really incredible. The only problem is that to bring out all the riches that are in that one verse, you have to say a great deal. Otherwise, you can read that verse and you see nothing. What do you see in this verse? What does this verse mean, exactly? Let's look at verse 33. "He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."
The Lord Jesus says, "Can you see — look through that window there, or look into that backyard there — do you see that woman there?" "Yes," the disciples say, "yes, we see that woman." "You see that she is kneading the flour?" "Yes, yes, we see that she is doing that." "What is she doing? She is going to make a loaf of bread, or several loaves of bread, or maybe some cakes." "Yes, we see that." "And do you see what she is doing now? She takes a small lump of leaven, that is yeast, and she puts it in the flour. And now, what is she doing now?" "Well, now she is kneading this flour so that the yeast, the leaven — leaven is simply yeast — is going to mix in with the flour, and it's going to leaven the whole thing."
You know very well, especially today you often have already self-raising flour, that is, the leaven is already inside the flour. But in those days, of course, they didn't have self-raising flour. And even in these days of self-raising flour, many people prefer to use the yeast to get better results. What happens is that they mix the leaven in with the flour until the whole thing is leavened — that is, it rises up when you put it in a nice warm place, not too hot, not too cold. Some of us who have made bread before know what it is. I have done this thing before. I like sometimes to eat whole meal bread, you see, and so I make it myself, and I mix in the leaven and so on. You put it in a warm place, and you see the whole dough rising up. What's happening? It's getting filled with air. That's what's happening. It's getting puffed up, you see. Then it becomes nice and fluffy, very crumbly and soft and breakable and all this kind of thing. And so you have here a nice leavened loaf of bread.
So we see the Lord Jesus is showing his disciples, by this parable, some great, important spiritual teaching. Now what is the spiritual teaching? There are only two basic ways in which to take this parable, so I'll start simply in expounding this parable from the beginning. What two ways? Well, either it is the case that the leaven is God's work and the bread is the world, and so this has become simply another picture of the mustard seed — that is to say, the church is the leaven working inside the world, the bread, and its influence spreads throughout the world. If that is the picture, of course, it is simply repeating the previous parable, and really not telling us anything that we haven't already learned from the previous parable. It is simply saying that the influence of the church will be pervasive in the world, and the world will be completely affected in some way or other by this leaven, and so the church will spread through the world.
But as I said, we have already seen that from the previous parable. And what is more, if this is what it means, it is not even as clear as the previous one, because it doesn't really tell us what it actually means to say that the influence of the church will spread through the world. In what ways does it spread through the world? The whole picture becomes too imprecise. We are left with no real definitions. What does it mean by influence of the church? Is it a spiritual influence? Is it a moral influence? Is it a literal, physical influence in which the church will spread through the world, gaining controlling positions in the world? Or is it a mixture of all of these? If it is a mixture of all of these, then it is not necessarily correct to say the spiritual influence is all-pervasive in the world. So we have problems here because it's too vague.
The other way to take it is that the world is spreading into the church. This I have already hinted will be the true exposition of the matter, and I have to give you the reasons. I cannot expect that you will simply accept my word for it. And even if you did accept my word for it, I wouldn't like you to do so, because I don't want you to accept the Word of God simply because I say so, but that you will know why the words of God mean what they mean. What is the evidence for this statement?
I have to tell you right from the beginning that virtually all modern commentators take the first alternative — that in fact this is merely a repetition of the previous parable, that the church is spreading through the world. If asked for any exegetical reasons for this view, the reasons are fearfully unconvincing. It is simply that it follows very well from the previous parable, as though that is some kind of evidence. We have seen, time and again, that the next parable often presents the other side of the truth of the Lord's teaching, and not just repeats it. In fact, we have no parable that simply repeats the previous parable in the Lord's teaching.
The second reason being given — the only two that I have been able to find in the commentators — is, as Fritz Rienecke, the German commentator and scholar, writes in his German commentary called "Lukas," he gives the reason as meaning that it is a very comforting promise. That's not a ground for exegesis, to say, "I prefer this view because it's very comforting." You see, the alternative view is very uncomfortable. The alternative view is that the influence of the world is pressing into the church. Now that's of course very uncomfortable to think about. But we don't decide on an exegesis because it's comfortable or uncomfortable. I mean, what kind of a reason is this? He speaks of this as a comforting promise of the development of the kingdom. But this comforting promise has already been given in the previous parable. Does he need two, or is one not enough for him? But apart from that, no single exegetical reason is given. Exegesis means the exposition of the Bible. The Bible expounds itself. We don't have to come and bring in our own interpretation. We don't have to invent an interpretation for it. The Bible entirely explains itself. It is self-explanatory, and you must check through how the Bible intends itself to be understood. But they fail to produce any reasons whatsoever.
This is a very puzzling thing for me, because both these views were held in the church — that is, both that the church penetrates the world and that the world penetrates the church — through the history of the church, both views were held. But now, in the 20th century, beginning actually probably in the 19th century, the view began to predominate, thanks to certain German scholars, who always seem to dominate the field of theology. Whenever a German scholar, or a group of German scholars, teach something, it is astonishing to see how meekly the British and American theologians all follow the Germans. Quite a remarkable thing. I have never quite been able to figure out the reason for this. Whenever you study theology, you would see that every major idea is propounded by a German theologian, and always the British, the French, the Americans all go and follow the Germans. Now this is very good when the Germans are right. But the Germans are by no means infallible.
So when I open the commentaries today, to my astonishment, every modern commentator follows the lead of these early German theologians, saying that it is the first alternative, namely, that the church is spreading through the world. As I have said, that has already been told us in the previous parable, in which case nothing new is being told us in this parable. But that is not the objection. The objection is that, exegetically, this kind of exegesis cannot be sustained on the basis of Scripture. I'm going to leave you, all who love the Word of God, to be the judge of this, when I've presented what is evidently overwhelming evidence to show the facts.
When I look at this, my heart has a sense of grief and sadness. Today, any pastor, say in a Chinese church, assuming he can read English — or if not, then he has to depend on a Chinese translation of an English version — and I look at the developmental...
# The Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven (Part 2)
So what do they do? They depend upon what they regard as the experts, the commentators. They follow the commentators. Little do they know that the commentators follow each other. So the result is that like a bunch of sheep, they all follow one another to the slaughter. When I look upon this scene, I am filled with a sense of grief. Why is it that such blindness has struck the church? Can it be that this very parable is proving exactly what we said, that the world has penetrated the church? They don't seem to even be able to see the meaning of this parable in spite of the overwhelming clarity of the exegetical evidence, the biblical expository evidence of this parable.
I ask you to concentrate for a few moments and look at the evidence of this. I can only present you part of the overwhelming evidence of this case, that what the Lord Jesus is saying — and when you realize it correctly, how rich is the meaning that comes out. This parable is not just repeating the previous parable in another way and really adding nothing of substance to the previous parable. What it is in fact saying is that the world is penetrating the church with its influences, and he is cautioning his disciples to watch out for this. We live in a day to see how true it is that the church has been penetrated by the world.
But apart from all this kind of reasonings, let's look simply at the evidence. Let's look at this parable. It begins with these words: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven." Aha! You say, "There you are! There is the case! The kingdom of heaven is the leaven that penetrates the world. Right?" That's exactly why so many commentators have gone wrong. They have not yet understood even the basic principle of expounding the parables. I beg your indulgence and patience that when I say this, it sounds too arrogant. I assure you, I am trying in no way to be arrogant but to tell you the truth of the matter. This is simply not how a parable is expounded.
The great German New Testament scholar Jeremias saw this very well. He understood this very well. And in spite of his perception of it, he failed to take up his own clue. Jeremias has pointed out in his standard work on the parables that every scholar reads, and every commentator who writes anything on the parables reads and depends on — in fact, when you look at many of the commentaries in the Pelican series, it is simply rehashing what Jeremias wrote in his standard work on the parables. He saw already, when it says the words, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven" — you don't read it like this. The case with the kingdom of God is, as with the case of leaven which a woman took. It doesn't say the kingdom of God is like leaven. But the whole thing continues without a break, right up to the end.
You say, "I don't quite follow." Let me explain it a little more clearly. If you read all the parables, you will notice, for example, by comparing it with the foundation parables — that is, the parables in which the Lord Jesus has given the explanation — he gives the explanation. He says, for example, "The kingdom of God is like a sower who went forth to sow," etc., etc. Now does it mean that the kingdom of God is like the sower? No, because the sower, the Lord Jesus told us already, is he himself. So is the kingdom of God like the wheat? No. The wheat is the harvest at the end. Well, is the kingdom of God like the seed? No. The Lord Jesus says the seed represents the Word of God. Well, does the kingdom of God represent the field then? Or does the field represent the kingdom of God? No. The field, the Lord Jesus tells us, is the world. So when you have seen his own explanation of the parable, you say, well, which one is the kingdom then?
Now to ask the question is to miss the point. None of these represent the kingdom. The whole thing together represents the situation of the kingdom. Not any one part. Any more than you can say, does this arm represent my body? No. Does my ear represent my body? No. Then what is the body, if it's not the arm, not the ear? It is the putting all of these together. The whole thing together is the body, not just the arm, the ear. You see what I mean?
So when you look at the kingdom of God, you do not read "the kingdom of God is like a sower," so you say the kingdom of God is a sower. No, no, no. The sower, he has already told us, is the Son of God. He is the Lord Jesus himself. Or else, if you don't understand this point, you will make a complete mess of trying to understand the parables. One moment he is the Son of God. The next moment the kingdom of God is leaven. The next moment he is a merchant. The next moment it's ten women. You say, "Well, I give up. Now what is the kingdom of God?" If you look at Matthew chapter 25, verse 1, you will see the words beginning like this: "The kingdom of God is like ten maidens." You say, "I give up." One moment it was Jesus himself. Now suddenly it's become ten maidens. How are you going to understand the kingdom of God?
The reason you get into this confusion is that you have failed to understand a very basic principle in expounding the kingdom of God: don't assume that the first word is the one that the kingdom of God is like. It's like leaven and so on and so forth being put into the bread by the woman and so on. The whole picture is involved, not just the first word.
Now many commentators, not realizing this point — and it's astonishing how poorly equipped some commentators are. I never cease to be astonished at people who have the courage to write books and commentaries. I really am amazed. They know so little and yet they try to write books. Their daring and audacity is astonishing. What they should do is just go humbly and learn the facts first. Spend lots and lots of time learning and then go and write a book. You go and write a book like this and you mislead everybody. "The kingdom of God is like leaven which a woman took." The substance would change in no way if you say, "The kingdom of God is like a woman who took leaven and put it in bread, in the meal." The meaning would be exactly the same. Or you could change the words around and the meaning would still be the same. You could say, "The kingdom of God is like meal which a woman took and put leaven into." The meaning would still be the same. Do you see the point? Now this is a fundamental, simple, basic point that every exegete must understand. It's astonishing how few do. But as I said, Jeremias saw it very well. He realized that this term did not mean that the kingdom is like leaven. But the case with the kingdom of God is as the case of leaven which was taken by a woman and put into the meal. All this is clear to this scholar.
So, this is the first point I would like you to notice. I have to clear the ground so that you understand the grounds for exposition. Having dealt with that, the next question to ask is: leaven — what does leaven mean in the Bible? Not what I say it means, not what I think it means. What does the Bible say that leaven means? That is exceedingly easy. The Bible has a lot to say about leaven. The moment you take out a concordance — and I hope that many of you who study the Bible seriously know what a concordance is — you open a concordance, you don't have to take my word for it, and look under "leaven" in the New Testament. You will find immediately one thing becomes clear: in the Bible, leaven always refers to something that is bad. This is a fact that every Bible dictionary can tell you.
Now what do the commentators do? Don't they read the standard reference works? Astonishingly, the German expositor, who is a very fine expositor in most other cases, says that in all other cases it refers to evil in the Bible, but in this case it is an exception. My question is: why is it an exception in this case? Can you kindly tell me? What makes it an exception? You would have to produce massive evidence to make this an exception. But he produces not one case, not one evidence, not one reason for it. Nothing. Because he has already fixed on the idea in advance. He has already let his own idea determine his exegesis. That's why every time I say to you, when you study the Bible you must come with no preconceived ideas. If you come with a preconceived idea, you are going to decide in advance what it means, and you are going to try to make it mean what you want it to mean. You want to make it mean that this is the church going through the world. So you say that's an exception. Why an exception? No reason given. There are no reasons to give.
If you look at 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6 — take one example, there are too many here to look at — but what is more remarkable is that the word for leaven in this passage is exactly the same word for leaven in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6. What does Paul say here in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6? He says this to the Corinthians: "Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" So, verse 7: "Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened." Do you see the picture? He says you Christians are a loaf of bread which should not be leavened. You are really unleavened. Cleanse out the old leaven of sin in your life.
If you look at 1 Corinthians 5, you will understand the context. 1 Corinthians 5 is in the context of a very serious sin in the Corinthian church, where a man commits incest — that is, has a sexual relationship with a relative of his own, in this case his mother-in-law. This is a dreadful situation. Paul says such a thing is disgusting even to non-Christians, to the heathen. "And you dare to have a sin like this in the church?" He says, "I excommunicate this man. Sling him out of the church. Remove the leaven from the church. Take out this sinful influence so that it does not pollute the entire church." Those were strong churches in those days that dared to deal hard with sin. Today everything is hush-hush. "Well, it doesn't matter. Let's play it soft with sin." Paul has no time to play soft with sin. He says, "Sling out the leaven."
That's the context. Leaven is the same thing he says in Galatians 5 and verse 9. Exactly the same thing. Galatians 5 and verse 9: he says again, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." And in this context he is speaking about the influence of false teaching in the church, in this case, the return to circumcision. Look at the situation. In fact, in the Greek New Testament, the Greek word for leaven is used only in this parable and in these two references I have just given. That's the only two places outside this parable where the same Greek word is being used. I trust that most commentators who write books do understand a bit of Greek. But it would appear that this has nowhere crossed their observation. They have nowhere noticed this matter.
Notice this: the leaven in the Bible always, without fail, refers to something sinful. That is why under Old Testament law, no sacrifice — a sacrifice, say, at the Passover — could not be presented with leaven in it. Bread had to be presented as unleavened. And everybody, all of you know that at the Passover feast, leaven had to be removed from every Jewish home, as it's still done today ceremonially. They must eat unleavened bread. Leaven was a sign of sinfulness. Now is that not very plain to us, that leaven refers to something evil? And in a moment we shall return to the Lord's teaching and see that the Lord uses the word in exactly the same way, with no exceptions whatsoever.
Then let us ask another question: what does the bread refer to? When you look at the Bible teaching of bread, you will notice one thing. The bread always, and again without exception, refers to believers. No exception at all. Always refers to believers. Now if we had at all followed the earlier parables, we would have observed a point. What is bread made of? Wheat. The Greek word here, translating "meal" or "flour," in fact refers to wheat flour. The word specifically speaks of wheat flour. That does not, of course, come out in the translation. But notice the other thing: if we had looked at the first few parables, what would we have seen? A parable of the seed. What seed? The sower. Sowing what? He was sowing wheat. We already saw the parable of the wheat and the darnel. Do we learn nothing from previous parables? The Lord has already given us the clue that the wheat is referring to the believers. So when we speak of wheat flour, of course we are talking about believers. It really puzzles me. What is happening to the commentators today? What utter carelessness. Perhaps we have to put it down to carelessness — a lack of sense of responsibility in exposition. Again I sound like a voice crying in the wilderness. But let any expert check the facts.
Here we find the situation. As we go through the rest of the Bible, we find this always consistently the same. The wheat, the flour, the bread always refers to Christians. In John 6, the bread is Christ himself: "I am the bread of life." And we, by extension, being the body of Christ, are called the bread. So in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 17, the church is spoken of as the bread. How more obvious do you need it? How more plain than that can you get? In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 17: "We are one bread." Because we are the body of Christ, who is the bread of life. It's too obvious to mention.
If this is not clear enough yet, we find the Lord Jesus saying to Peter, "Simon, Simon, Satan desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat." What does wheat represent? Every instance it represents a believer. Never in the Bible does it refer to non-Christians. That is in Luke chapter 22, verse 31. How the evidence is so plain, so overwhelming.
The next thing we have to ask then is to observe this: what does leaven do in bread? What does it do? What does it contribute to the bread? It contributes nothing to the bread. What does leaven do? Leaven simply becomes hot air. You see, when leaven becomes warm, it gives off a certain gas. It simply blows up, puffs up the bread. If the church were the leaven in the world, it would be saying the church really contributes nothing to the world except to puff the world up. What kind of an idea would this be? In fact, the very notion — if anyone studied it carefully — the words "puff up" always in the Bible refer to arrogance, to pride, to evil influence.
This is so plain. Just now we looked at 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6, where it says, "Remove the leaven." In the few verses before that, as hinting on the meaning of the connection between leaven and puffing up, we have 1 Corinthians 5, verse 2, where he says, "You are puffed up." And then a few verses later, he says, "Remove the leaven, which has puffed you up." How plain can you get? Isn't it so obvious, so clear, that the leaven refers to the undesirable influences of the world upon the church, that it puffs up the church, filling it with pride and arrogance?
I'm sorry to say, but many times when I look at the church, especially the behavior of the Catholic Church today — all parading around in these lavish jewels and ceremonial gowns, with gold crosses studded with jewels and ruby rings and the like — it seems to me this really is a picture of being puffed up. The church has become princes of this world. They behave like people in the world. The world has saturated the church so that the church behaves like the world — the whole structure, organization, behavior, each kissing the other fellow's hand and bowing to his feet and kissing his toe and all this kind of nonsense. This whole business is the behavior of the world. The Lord Jesus says, "Now you don't behave like the nations of this world. In the world the mighty ones lord it over the others. You will not be so. The greatest among you will be the servants of all." I must say I have no stomach to see church leaders being carried on people's shoulders and paraded around as though they couldn't walk on their own two feet. This kind of thing I find really objectionable, and I speak straight from the heart. The world has gone into the church, puffed up the church. This is the biblical teaching here. The word "puff up" is what leaven does.
Let's look at one other word, and that is the word "hid." Notice this word "hidden." "Which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour." Now "hidden" indicates two things: a certain act of secrecy, and a certain covering up of something. That is the last thing that God does. God doesn't take his kingdom and hide it in the world, does he? In what sense does God hide his kingdom in the world? The kingdom of God comes with no hiding at all.
When we look at this, we find that everything that is said is contrary to this matter. The kingdom of God comes into the world in such a way that the world is quite aware of it. Paul says, for example, in Acts chapter 26 and verse 26, "The things of which I preach were not done in a corner. They were not hidden from human view." The things he preached about what Jesus did were obvious to everybody. All Palestine could see what he was doing. He did nothing secretly. That is why when they came to arrest Jesus secretly, he said, "Why do you arrest me in the dark? Every day I stand in the temple. I stand out in the fields and I preach, and you never touch me. I stand in a public place. I don't hide myself. So why do you do this thing secretly?" Do you not see? Have we not eyes to see that the world acts secretly, but Christ does not act secretly? He does nothing in a corner. Nothing underhanded at all.
In the same way, the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 9: "We apostles have become a spectacle to the world." Now you don't hide a spectacle. The whole world can see it. There is nothing hidden about that at all. In Acts chapter 17, verse 6, the apostles are accused of turning the world upside down. Now how do you hide that one? If you're turning the world upside down, the world is aware of it being turned upside down. That is why they tried to kill Paul. That is why they persecuted the Christians. To talk about hiding the kingdom of God is really to entirely miss the point, because God's kingdom is not hidden. It is not hidden at all.
Paul says this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 3 and 4: "The gospel that we preach is not hidden. But if it is hidden, it is hidden to those who are perishing." And why are they perishing? Because God wanted them to perish? Not at all. He goes on in verse 4 to say, "Because the god of this world has blinded their eyes, so they cannot see the glory of Christ." In other words, the gospel is not hidden by God. If it is hidden, it is Satan that did the hiding. That is who blinded the eyes of the people who cannot see the glory of Christ.
The Lord Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 14: "A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hidden." Now isn't the scriptural evidence plain enough? How can we talk about the kingdom being hidden? It is not the church hiding in the world. It is the world that is entering secretly into the church — its pervasive, secret influence. That is what we see in Jude, verse 4, where Jude says that admission has been gained into the church secretly. It is the world and the false teachers who work secretly in the church, in a hidden way. The world works secretly. The church doesn't work secretly at all. The church works openly in the world. The church does not hide itself.
To speak about hiding is to miss one important thing about the kingdom of God, which I would like you to notice. The influence of the church never works in a hidden way. It works always from crisis to crisis. What do we mean by crisis? To turn the world upside down is a crisis. When you hear the gospel, the gospel grips your heart, and you begin to feel a crisis inside of you: "Shall I turn away from sin? Shall I become a Christian? Shall I not become a Christian? Do I dare to be a Christian? If I go back home, what will my parents say? What will my family say of me, that I am a Christian?" There is a crisis. There is nothing hidden about it.
The kingdom of God develops in the history of the church always from crisis to crisis. The moment the gospel hits you, you will face a crisis. And a crisis is always obvious to anyone who sees you. They see a crisis. The same thing with individuals, so the same thing with the church. The church is persecuted. If it were hidden, it wouldn't need to be persecuted. Because it is persecuted, many times the church does try to hide for a while. But it is very hard for the church ever to hide. A city set upon a hill cannot be hidden. The Romans could find them very easily. Just ask them to offer incense to Caesar. Anyone who refuses to offer incense to the idols — immediately you can pick them up. You cannot hide as a Christian. Even in China, you speak about underground church. What do you mean by underground? I was part of the church in China. Every communist knew that I was a Christian. How do I hide? The only way I would hide was that I would not confess the name of Jesus. But no Christian can fail to do that. Because we are commanded to witness for Christ.
Like my friend the surgeon who was baptized with me. When the communist told him to stop witnessing to his patients, he said, "I can do no other. I am under orders to witness. My Lord said to me that I must proclaim this gospel to the ends of the earth. I have to speak forth. He that believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth shall be saved." The very definition makes it impossible for you to hide. Cannot hide, at least not for any length of time. Therefore, the church is like a city on a hill. It shines out. Everybody can see it. To speak of the church hiding in the world is completely to fail to understand the church — the very nature of the church taught in the New Testament. Maybe that is what the church is doing today. Maybe they are hiding in the world. That is very possible. But we are talking about the New Testament church. That did not hide. Oh no. It stood forth, glorious, fearless. As the Lord Jesus says, "Don't be afraid of them that destroy your body. Don't be afraid." That kind of advice can be only given to those who are not afraid to stand up and proclaim the truth.
So now, finally, let me close with this one point only. How then does the church get penetrated by the world? We see that it is not the church hiding in the world. It is the world hiding in the church, and working inside to puff up the church, to ruin the church from the inside. That is what the Lord Jesus is warning his disciples about. He says, "I want you to be very careful about this. Watch and pray that you do not fall into temptation." Today nobody preaches on that anymore. Apparently nobody falls into temptation nowadays. And if they do fall into temptation, it does not matter very much. I tell you, the Lord Jesus warned, "Don't fall into temptation. Watch out for the leaven of the world that will come stealthily into your life."
Most Christians fall not because of persecution. Persecution is not the thing that causes people to fall. I have seen Christians stand persecution, unflinching. Who have been thrown out of their homes. Who have been dispossessed of a million dollar inheritance — and this is no exaggeration. A friend I knew who was the son of a rubber plantation heir in Malaysia, who was a fellow student of mine in London. He came to the Lord and he was dispossessed. He was given the choice: either you don't become a Christian, or if you become a Christian, I will dispossess you from my will. You will not inherit from me my fortune. He accepted to be dispossessed. He was thrown out of his home. He was hounded and persecuted. And he stood unflinching. But you know what broke him in the end? The secret influences of the world. Far more dangerous, my brothers and sisters.
I beg of you to understand this parable. The Lord Jesus knew that the Christians would stand to persecution. Most of them would not break. Some might break, but not most. I have seen them in China stand like a tree blowing in the storm — unflinching, shaken but not broken. Even the branches are torn down, everything is blowing away. But the tree stands, rooted in God. But you know what the world does? The world sends a little bug. A little disease that goes in through the bark, that works into the fibers of the tree. Corrupts it from the inside. Kills the tree. The fungus that grows outside distorts the tree. What the mighty storms could not do, that silent, insidious influence can do. I beg of you, brothers and sisters, to understand this most important teaching, that we must not allow anyone to rob from us. This is what the Lord is telling us in this most important little parable: beware of the leaven that will destroy you if you are not careful.
What then is the leaven? The Lord Jesus didn't leave us in the dark about the leaven either. He explains himself perfectly. I just find the Lord Jesus so wonderful. He doesn't leave us guessing so that I have to guess what this means. It's all there. He tells us. He says to the disciples in Matthew chapter 16, verses 6, 11 and 12: "Beware of the leaven." There he is warning his disciples. "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees." Now there is the leaven to watch out for, he says to his disciples. "Yes, I am confident that you will stand through the fearful days ahead. You have stood with me in my temptations and persecutions. But I want you to beware of one thing: that insidious influence that can destroy you from inside. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."
What is the leaven of the Pharisees? He doesn't leave us guessing either. Luke chapter 12, verse 1: "The leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy." You see, hypocrisy is not something that comes suddenly. You can drift slowly, slowly away until you become a hypocrite. People did not start out wanting to be hypocrites. Did you know that? The Pharisees were not insincere people who had the intention to be hypocrites. If you think that way, you have misunderstood the Pharisees. The Pharisees were sincere people to begin with, anyway. Like so many Christians, they were sincere Christians when they first committed their life to Christ. But after a time, slowly, little by little, drifting away.
That's why Paul says in Colossians chapter 1, verse 23: "Not shifting from the hope." I hope you look at this verse. Not shifting away from the hope of your calling. You see, shifting is a slow process. Moving slowly away, being moved away. Maybe by the current, maybe by the flow of water, maybe blown by the wind — whatever causes the shifting of it. You shift away slowly, imperceptibly. Hypocrisy then slowly sets in. It's the disease that kills many Christians. They start out as genuine Christians. They slowly cool down, cool down, cool down. And then one day they find what has happened. They have become hypocrites. And the church has too many hypocrites already — hypocrites in the church who have not started out with the intention, I remind you of that, of being hypocrites. But imperceptibly shifted away, so that eventually only the outward thing is left. The inside is gone. They honor God with their lips; their heart is far from him. I beg of you to understand that. This is so important.
The second thing. I would like you in this connection to observe one thing. I hinted to you how leaven works. Have you noticed how leaven works? Leaven prospers only in one kind of atmosphere. You know what kind of atmosphere? Lukewarm atmosphere. All of you who have baked bread will know that. You take leaven, you put it in a cold place — leaven does nothing. You put it in a hot place — if it's too hot, the leaven will be destroyed. It doesn't leaven anything. Some of you girls make cakes, and you are very hurried. You put the leaven in, then you shove it into the oven and say, "Hey, it didn't rise." Of course it didn't rise. It was baked to death inside. It was too hot. You didn't give it the lukewarm condition that it needs to rise. You see, it must not be too hot, not too cold.
Now that's not the way the church works. The church is never to be leavened. The church must be either hot or cold. As the Lord Jesus says in Revelation 3:16: "Because you are neither hot nor cold." Oh, they have been so leavened — neither hot nor cold. That is hypocrisy. Neither hot nor cold. They have departed from their first love.
The second one is the leaven of the Sadducees. What is the leaven of the Sadducees? We learn from Luke chapter 20, verse 27, that it is unbelief. Again, unbelief coming into the church. This is the fearful thing. There are unbelieving Christians — plenty of them. Slowly unbelief comes into the church. How does it come? Well, you begin to have some doubts in your mind. You don't deal with these doubts. The doubts become bigger. They slowly eat away your faith. You have questions. You don't know how to answer them. You have many, many questions, and slowly the unbelief takes over. Unless you know how to combat these questions.
I have seen people eaten away by unbelief. They read some philosophy. They get confused by the philosophy. Then their faith starts shaking. Then they read of this idea and that idea, and they are blown about with every wind of doctrine. And soon their faith is eroded away by unbelief. How many students of theology I have seen, who went into the seminary with the intention of serving God, and they came out shaken — not to say some have even been broken. Because they had to deal with so much unbelief in the seminaries, so much unbelief in the faculty of theology, for example. They couldn't survive. They did not have the spiritual faith, the spiritual depth, to draw nourishment from God, to draw strength from him to overcome these things. I was trained in a liberal faculty of divinity. I faced unbelief every day. I was attacked and pounded by unbelief and liberal teaching every day. But thanks be to God, it didn't scratch me. It didn't scare me. Why? Because I know whom I have believed. And I could see that these men didn't know whom they believed. On their own confession, they didn't know.
The leaven of the Sadducees is unbelief. Now finally, the last one, and we have to conclude here today. The leaven of Herod. We read that in Mark chapter 8, verse 15: "Beware of the leaven of Herod." You see, the Lord Jesus leaves us in no doubt what this leaven is. Mark 8:15. The leaven of Herod. What is the leaven of Herod? Well, to know that you have to get a Bible dictionary and read about Herod. But I'll save you that and just give you the clue. Herod is the picture of a man who is utterly self-willed. A man who, because he is self-willed, is worldly. Because he is self-willed, he is opportunistic.
Opportunistic people are people who bend with the wind, whichever way. They don't stand up for anything. They are afraid to stand up for Christ in college because they are afraid that somebody will snigger at them. "Oh no, no. You don't want to pray when you are sitting in the cafeteria. You don't want to be a Christian there. Hide yourself." I mean, you don't want somebody looking at you — "holy Joe." I don't mind being Joe, but not holy Joe. And the church people look at you: "Look at him. He is all religious. He has gone all funny upstairs." Oh, we are scared. We are scared of this. We are opportunists.
"No, no, no. What were you doing?" "Ah, I just — my eyes got tired. I had to rub my eyes a bit." "You did pray?" "Oh no, no. It is just the eyes. My eyes were tired." You see. And yet you dare not to pray because you are afraid, because you are scared what people will think of you. You are scared people will laugh at you. "You are a Christian? Nobody is a Christian these days." So — the leaven of Herod. Opportunists. You should read the history of Herod to see how he changed sides. He is marvelous. One day he is the friend of this guy, and when the next nation comes and conquers Palestine, he is the friend of the Romans. He is the friend of the Egyptians. He is everybody's friend, so long as you leave him to be king of his empire. He doesn't mind whose friend he is. He will fight for you if you like, provided you are on the winning side. Anytime you are the winning side, he will fight for you. The losing side, he will push you out. This is opportunism.
How many Christians are opportunists? They want to have the best of this world. They want to have the best of God's kingdom. They want to have everything. They want to have one foot in the kingdom of God, the other foot in the grave, and hope that the foot in the kingdom of God will hold them when the grave opens up. What kind of Christianity is this? Opportunism. This is the dreadful thing. And what are these Christians? They are always self-willed. They always want to do their own thing. They want to go their own way. The world works in their lives through the will. That is how the world works in us — by influencing our will, our desires. "Come on. You've got to stand up, you know." Self-will. Do your own thing. "Why don't you listen to what God tells you to do? I mean, this is not practical nowadays. No use loving everybody. You love them, they slap you in the face. That is not the way to live in this life. This kind of Christianity is no use. It is not practical. You've got to be practical. He slaps you in the face, you punch him twice. That is the way to do it. Give him back with interest. Ah, that is the wisdom."
So you be a Christian — by all means, go to church. But anybody there slaps you, you punch him twice. And if he is stronger than you, go and take a lesson in Kung Fu, and you come out and you are ready for it. So we put all the Christianity aside. We want to have both, the best of everything. We want to have our self-will. "Jesus is not practical. I like his teachings sometimes. They are not very practical. So I do my own thing. I don't mind getting baptized, so long as I can do my own thing. Okay. I can be a Christian because Christians are nice people. But so long as I can do my own will, that is fine enough." So the leaven of Herod comes in — opportunists, worldly people.
There we have to close. We can see how the influence of the world comes into our lives. That is what the Lord Jesus warns us. I remind you again: maybe persecution will not break you. But the subtle, slow influences of the world will get you where persecution cannot break you. Let us be aware. I am not afraid of persecution. I tell you this. None of us who came to the Lord in China were afraid of persecution. We knew. We were expecting persecution. What I am afraid of is the insidious influence of the world that draws your heart to the world — puts a little bit of self-will. You know how nice the world is. Look at this tree: nice to the eyes, good to the taste. Have a go at it. And so we are drawn away by the world. I beg of you to understand this.
Let us be quiet now before God in prayer.