Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.heritagesermons.org/sermons/11806/the-revealed-sovereign-will-of-god-quality-very-good/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] The Gospel according to Matthew chapter 13, with the Lord's help we will speak from the 17th verse. [0:13] Verse 17 in the chapter that we read, For verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them. [0:30] And to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. For verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them. [0:52] And to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. So, how did Jesus know? How did Jesus know? [1:06] Many prophets and righteous men in ages past had desired to look into the very things that he was speaking about, and yet they had not been allowed to do so. [1:25] How did he know that there were such things as these, which in that distant age of the prophets and righteous men, go back as far as you like, were in one form or another in existence, that is, in the word of God? [1:53] Why was there this eager looking for something that wasn't revealed? Something that wasn't clear? Something of which they'd got an inkling, and yet were not quite sure? [2:07] Why? What was it? Why did not God take the veil away, and let them see? Was it some profound thing? [2:22] Something of a deep mystery that had not yet been revealed? Was it something to do with creation? Was it something to do with taking man to the moon, to look at that, and stand upon it? [2:40] Was it something to do with the sun, or Venus? Or was it something to do in the depths of the sea, that had never yet been discovered? [2:54] Was it? What was it that Jesus was talking about? Something that you children do every day, at least in the summer, or in the spring, in your garden. [3:14] Sowing seeds. That's what he was talking about. Just sowing seeds. Well, you may think to yourself, well, that's very simple. [3:30] Yes, of course it is. The closer you look at it, the more you will see that it isn't simple. Sowing the seed is, of course. [3:43] What is there in the seed? Something you can't see. Something you hope is there, but you're not quite sure. [3:55] You're not quite sure that that seed that you plant, is going to grow. And yet you sow it, because you hope and believe that it will grow. [4:11] Some of you children have got your own little gardens. You start off very well with them. But come your summer holidays, and they're all weeds. [4:24] You don't look at them. I don't say all of you children, but some of you. I've seen these children's gardens. When you lose your interest, how do the weeds grow? [4:40] And the poor flowers have to struggle hard against the weeds. But you know the lesson, that you must put the seeds in the ground. [4:56] If you keep them in the packet, they won't do any good at all. You can keep them in the packet for years. But they'll never grow. [5:10] Now this is what Jesus was talking about, then something that you can understand. And as he sat in this ship by the seaside, it is generally thought that he saw a sower, sowing seed on the hillside. [5:37] That he took something that everybody could understand. Nothing that was mysterious or hidden. Commonplace. [5:49] And yet, as he goes on to speak, he speaks of the mystery of this sowing. [6:04] Now what about the sower then? Is he an important person? So far, yes. But not very important. Not if you children can go and sow some seeds in your garden just as well as your father can, well then, it isn't a very difficult thing, is it? [6:27] And what is important then? Surely it's the seed. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. [6:38] That is important. But that's not the most important. The most important thing is, as you read, where the seed falls. [6:54] That's the important thing. And you can see from what Jesus said, that out of the four things he mentioned, only one of them sprang up and bore fruit. [7:13] The other three were lost. If this were all, as regards the natural setting of it, it would be interesting. [7:31] But now, far, far more important than our gardens, our children, our patches, it's sowing the seed of the word of God. [7:43] which has been going on and on and on. And it's the same seed, a good seed, for the start. [7:58] We shall look at the bad seed in a minute. Now, what a fact this is, with regard to the preaching of the gospel, isn't it? [8:17] Do we know where the seed's going to fall, those of us that have to preach? It may be good seed, I hope it is. But do we know what's going to happen to it? [8:33] Where is it going to fall? Is it possible that it can fall anywhere else than upon good ground? Is there any other kind of ground that can fall on? [8:50] When you go to a little company of people in a chapel, or a church, or a hall, or where you like? Under the trees, in the forest, in the mountains, as they used to preach? [9:04] Doesn't matter that at all. Where is the seed going to fall? And can it fall in some place or places where it will do no good? [9:20] Well, according to the teaching of the Lord Jesus, it did fall. and most of it, if we may take the proportion of three to four, just one, and most of it, lost. [9:45] Is that true? true? If it is, my dear hearers, it's a very solemn thing. And it is true. It's solemnly true. [9:56] Now, what a poor sower then, he must be, whose seed falls upon stony ground, or the wayside, or a month or. [10:10] No, not indeed. Well then, what's wrong with it? Where is the mistake, if mistake there is? [10:22] What is this great matter of the sowing of the gospel seed? Well, first of all, as you children know, the sower in the east, he didn't draw out a line and sow his seed in a drill and put a label at the end of it and get the name on that seed. [10:48] He broadcast his seed. He threw it all round him. He had no such modern utensils as we have today. [11:03] So that it was bound to be that some of it fell by the wayside. He couldn't avoid it. [11:18] Some of it fell upon stony ground. Some of it fell among thorns. He couldn't avoid it. What a solemn company a congregation is, isn't it? [11:36] Whether they're young or old, you, as an individual member of a congregation, what a responsible character this position. [11:48] What is the other side of this matter then? It is this, that you are already aware of your responsibility. [12:05] You are already aware that the word of God can fall in stony places. that it can fall where it can be quickly gathered up because it's not understood. [12:23] There are those of you here, no doubt, who can go back to the days when it was all lost on you. Simply because you did not understand. [12:36] Where do some of you young ones stand today? You who are coming out of childhood, coming out of your teens, coming into the responsibilities of life, if the word of God ever rested and fallen off, being gathered up and the enemy come, the devil, as the word says, taking it away because you could not understand it? [13:15] Some of it, whether you're young or old, falling among thorns, what have the thorns done to it? [13:25] Choked it? What have the cares of this world done? Is it true that you can hear and forget and the word be choked? [13:40] Surely not. And yet this is what Jesus said should happen. [13:52] And this is what does happen. And this is what makes the parable of the sower such a rich parable of solemn instruction. [14:10] So this is what the prophets and righteous men desired to see these things which ye see and have not seen them. [14:27] Now I ask at the beginning was it something of great importance? Some natural phenomenon or something extraordinary like what we've witnessed over the past few years of men landing on the moon. [14:45] Another similar scientific attainment. Is it something like that? Far more important far more powerful far more vital yeah that the seed should fall upon good ground that a sinner should be influenced by the word of God saving them. [15:18] That outreaches all human attainment. No human hand can touch it. It's not in the power of man to penetrate the human heart. [15:31] the seed may be the word of God and so often it that it is not the sower that that be our first conclusive thought therefore that it is not the sower he is only an instrument. [16:03] It was not the pole that the Israelites in the wilderness looked at when they were serpent bitten. It was the brazen serpent on the top of the pole. [16:21] Preachers of the gospel are only the pole that's all and nothing else. They're only sowers that's all so don't get them out of perspective will you and put your confidence in them and say oh yes so and so so and so excels all others does he? [16:44] You never made a bigger mistake in your life upon that matter. It isn't a sower. sower. What a vital truth and one that we need constantly to have impressed upon us. [17:05] What is it then? if the sower is not important is the seed? Yes that is. That is important. [17:17] but is the good seed the word of God is that going to be lost? Is God going to have that cast on one side? [17:32] I wonder how much of the good seed has gone down there over the years this chapel has been built. Never reached a heart not because of the sower not because the seed was not good seed but because the devil took it or it was choked or else and it fell in stony places it sprung up for a while but what about you? [18:11] Have you come under this divine teaching to learn that it isn't sufficient to have the good seed only and the sour but there's something far more important than that? [18:29] this is what we tell the children isn't it? And yet how many are in themselves and those that we've watched grow up are living proof so far that the word has fallen upon deaf ears the unbelieving heart of the child or the grown up is such that the sour and the seed apart from the power of the Holy Spirit bring forth no proof now it was this that the prophets and righteous men desired to see now Jesus who had watched this over the centuries past knew very well that those prophecies which these godly men prophesied were stirring up thoughts upon earth [19:39] Peter is inspired to tell us this that they knew that they were writing for an age to come he says that even the angels desire to look into these things well Peter could have only had this from divine inspiration for nowhere else in the word of God have we such a even a hint that the angels desired to look into that which the prophets were writing and yet it was so so that this precious gospel day in which we live called in verse 11 the kingdom of heaven is beset with mysteries because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven now is the time of the kingdom of heaven upon earth the day the reign of grace now is the time when the seed is being sown constantly and will be until the end of time go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature every creature where it falls will rest with me says the [21:18] Lord but you preach it you preach it and lo I am with you all way how long even until the end of the world that is his divine promise and we may be fully assured that he will continue to raise up and send forth those whom he determines to be sower and those sower are written of like this how shall they preach except they be sent that in itself is a question within a question and the answer is very simple this intimation then came from the very garden of eden when the first promise was given and it was continued through the line of these righteous men [22:21] Noah you children all know about Noah and the ark if I were to ask you how many people were in it you could tell me I shall ask you some questions tonight if I have the opportunity why what is this to do with the sea today what about that little dove has that anything to do with the good sea what about the solemn judgments if we pass on to notice those who came later who brought Lot out of Sodom why was he brought out how many came with him what are these precious seeds if they are not the seeds of sovereign grace of God's eternal purpose [23:32] Noah found grace in the sight of God go on through to the time of the judges if you like and the kings and then the prophets and see how Samuel at his birth and early days was born in a time when the word of the Lord was precious there was no open revelation of it and he had to grow up among such strange characters who set him such a bad example as Hophni and Phinehas and yet he was kept clean all these tend to one end to the gradual enlarging of the gospel till the gospel day came when the prophet Isaiah in particular spoke of the [24:36] Lord Jesus in most clear terms and when what he should do was revealed and revealed with shells and wills there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots what you sang in your first hymn you read the eleventh of Isaiah you children and you'll find the word shall in every birth every birth shall there shall be a standard lifted up for the Gentiles it has been and to him shall the Gentiles come these precious seeds therefore in the heavenly kingdom the purposes and covenant purposes of God and gradually revealed to us in their beauty we pass to [25:53] Isaiah 53 as you sang in your second hymn the death of the Lord Jesus look at those seeds there look at them today what does the servant of God want more the sower as poor as he is what does he want more than the privilege of preaching Christ crucified what does he want more what greater favor can be bestowed upon him as a poor sower and sinner than to preach Christ crucified I say that to you all follow through with Jeremiah come into Zechariah and you can see the preciousness of the unfolding purposes of [26:55] God well now the apostle Peter he speaks of these exceeding great and precious promises where did he get them from from the very place we just be referring to there they were deeply hidden and embedded in ancient history and prophecy but look at the reality that these good men found in the time when these things came to pass but they had not seen them they had not seen them now let's take a look at the future the second part of this goes on to speak of the seed that was sown by the enemy tear and when this seed began to spring up and bring forth fruit and not until then not until then appeared the tares also now the servant said well shall we gather up the tares and so to speak weed the field [28:38] I spoke to you children just now about weeding your garden you know very well that if you do you've got to be very very careful for if you do not exercise care up comes your precious flowers as well don't they their roots are interwoven look at the simplicity of the subject look at the solemnity of it oh sinner solemnity of it and you know it some of you you understand it you understand it I'm not speaking riddles to you am I I'm not being mystical I'm speaking of the mysteries now this is so isn't it look at the heresy that there is a broad day and not only today but ever since the beginning of the gospel day why these good men lived to see it in their own day it wasn't as if [30:02] Paul and Peter and John had long passed away when these tears began to grow why the very object of the epistles in the mind was to counteract error take Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians what is he dealing with there to his amazement some of those people upon whom the word of God had taken effect yes and had fallen into good ground they attributed this some to Paul some Cephas some Apollos some Christ greater part of Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians taken up with counteracting some of these tears tears but they had to be exposed and they had to be exposed in this way if any man bring any other gospel unto you than that which we preach let him be accursed this is strong language but it's exactly what you do with your weeds isn't it you don't go and replant them somewhere else and say well we must keep these weeds what do you do with them you throw them on the heat and this is what [31:44] Paul did with heresy threw it on the heat let him be accursed it is so important that there's no room for sentiment there's no room whatsoever for anything that dilutes the honour and glory of God in Christ no room for it at all do not entertain it do not harbour it look at heresy today look at the uprising of those things which are shuddering the church the work of the adversary now what is this that comes so close it comes with regard to let us say the doctrine of repentance we are told that we should call upon men everywhere to repent did the apostles you say yes they did [32:52] Peter did yes he did he called upon them to repent when they were pricked in their hearts and said men and brethren what shall we do would you know what to do with anyone that came to you after a service you deacon and if there are any ministers our friend here if anyone came to him and said what shall I do would he know what to say repent and believe the gospel when Stephen under the same influence of the same spirit came to his martyrdom and they were so enraged with his teaching did they say unto [33:54] Stephen men and brethren what shall we do they gnashed upon him with their teeth and stoned him what is the difference between the two the difference is this that the seed had fallen upon good ground in the former case and on the byways in the second that's the difference and the difference is today and this is only one of the tears that spring out these therefore are the bane of the churches you can see Galatia you can hear those men coming down from Judea in the Acts and saying except you be circumcised you cannot be saved the apostles lengthy epistle to point out to them that this is not so but what does the [35:09] Lord Jesus say with regard to these tears let both grow together until the harvest and this is just what they're doing just what they're doing there are those who outwardly appear to hold some sound form of doctrine but when it comes to the reality of the fruit their fruit is entirely different from that of one thought of God entirely different their fruit is that of a legal nature do and live and they rest upon their doings labors merits this is their sole resting place place but with those who are taught of [36:18] God their resting place is not themselves their experience is not their tears which they present to their God could my tears forever flow theirs is repentance unto life did these prophets and righteous men then look into these things and want to know them were these things these truths I should say in existence in that day when they desired to really look into them they were where shall we go to find perhaps one or two of them well let us look at Balaam were ever more sacred words uttered by any man in the [37:26] Old Testament than those uttered by Balaam were they let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like it that rings in your heart doesn't it if the mystery of the kingdom of heaven is understood by you surely it where else shall we look king Saul I have done as thou hast bidden me he says to Samuel oh well then what meaneth the bleating of these sheep in mine ears and the lowing of these oxen no answer to it really only an excuse and a solemn excuse too that we preserve them to sacrifice to the [38:42] Lord our God hath God therefore says Samuel to Saul a pleasure in this to obey better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rats do we need look any further for those who when the time of fruit bearing came were very very close but they stand out in the Old Testament quite apart from Simon the sorcerer and Demas and others and Judas in the New is this a mystery let us ask another question is it a truth are there those to whom it is absolutely plain now this is what the prophets and righteous men desire to look into but as to the future what about the gathering of the tares and the wheat who's going to do it dear old [40:09] Mr. Cooper is he going to do it and say yes at Lake and Heath in those years Lord these were the people that were living souls he can't can any pastor do it can any sower do it who's going to separate between the chaff and the wheat or the wheat and the tares the angels can they do it what with their sinless perfection with their absolute discernment and knowledge of the divine purpose and ages which they have lived with their great God are they going to make a mistake and say ah no we're not sure about this one if you can be and I can be as clear about Balaam and King [41:18] Saul and Judas and Demas through the seeing through a glass darkly I trust without any evil spirit of criticism what of the holy angels that are going to divide between the tares and the wheat what of those they're going to make a mistake did these prophets and righteous men desire to see these things yes they did to Daniel was the revelation given that many shall run to and fro in the earth and knowledge shall be increased and further more that there should be resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous and the great question that was pressed home or out of his heart what shall be the end of these things my lord perhaps that's what you're asking what shall be the end of these things as regards myself you may be thinking [42:56] I hope you are go thy way Daniel for thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the day yes the prophets desire to look into these things what of Noah then when he came out of the ark amidst that awful scene of desolation and carnage when it was all over those hundred odd years that he built the ark and was a preacher of righteousness was laughed of scorn and after he had been that twelve months in the ark and once more trod a firm ground again what of his thought the awful reality of God's word that he had accomplished it and what of the awful reality that great day we go to another parable when five of them were wise and five were foolish and did [44:32] Jesus speak the same words and reveal the same truth so that when we come to the final revelation of his holy purpose what do we find in the book of the revelation we hear the thunderings of mighty voices in hallelujah like the sound of mighty water that's a very beautiful figure because if you come anywhere near a waterfall of any force or power you know very well you can't hear your own voice now it is said of that in the 19th of revelation that for the marriage of the lamb is come the bride hath made herself ready and to her was granted granted that's the word granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen white and clean which is the righteousness of the saints this therefore is the ultimate so eternal bliss or eternal condemnation the prophets and righteous men desired to see these things which ye see and have not seen them look at the discussion with regard to the end of the world look how every generation have said that their times are the most perilous why two three four hundred years ago you can read these godly men in their day said well things can't get any worse look what we say today that we're in the perilous times but are we are we were they that this remains true that those times of peril will come they will indeed and then as [47:16] Jesus said when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth they desire to look into these things so do we we are just like they were we look to the distant future we look for the children's future you parents you've got great concern haven't you for your children you look to the future you think well what is in store for you forget that your parents did the same for you but when you see these things come to pass said Jesus lift up your heads that's the injunction don't look down look up why why because all these things are in the [48:17] Lord's hand you say to me it's all very well for you to say that I repeat it the Lord reign in your children may be young they may be an anxiety to you yeah but Christ is the keeper of his saints and ever will be won't he so that we look to the future as far as we can see in the word of God and look the mystery of it have you ever found anything that satisfies your mind with regard to the book of the revelation all that is written concerning it tomes God has enshrouded it in mystery just as he did to the prophets and righteous men but we have got a glimpse of it and the gospel brings that glimpse home to us time and eternity heaven or hell saved or lost wheat or tail may the [49:33] Lord add his blessing amen one and together me to twist power the way we can see you the earth Mmm le mı Read