Series: Parables
Title: Like Unto Leaven
Text: Matthew 13: 33
Date: October 31, 2010
Place: SGBC, NJ
Matthew 13:33: Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
LEAVEN
"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven." Leaven is used in many places in scripture to denote the effect evil has in the world and in the sinner. Here leaven is used in a good sense denoting the effect the gospel has in the heart of one born of God and in his church. He uses this metaphor "leaven" because of the effect it has upon the dough--LEAVEN CHANGES THE NATURE OF THE DOUGH IT IS PUT INTO. A small quantity thoroughly leavens the whole lump of dough. So it is with the gospel.
WHICH A WOMAN TOOK
Christ is the Husband, the church is his bride (the woman). Christ is the Head of the house, the church serves Christ our Husband, like the woman serves her husband. We serve him in his purpose of spreading the gospel--bringing forth the Bread. The woman is the weaker vessel--this may represent the Lord's preachers.
2 Corinthians 4:7: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
PUT INTO THREE MEASURES OF MEAL
The Lord has been using metaphors to describe the believer: "seed" then "wheat". Here he uses "meal." We are born into this world with a heart of stone--like an unground kernel of wheat or corn.
Illustration: Yeast in a bowl of corn kernals--nothing.
The heart must be made new by the Spirit of God--like ground meal--dough, soft, able to be kneaded like dough. Put leaven in dough, it makes the whole nature of the dough new. The leaven is the gospel of Christ--when Christ enters the heart, the believer enters into Christ. The believer is made a new creature.
2 Corinthians 5: 17: Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18: And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
The church, the witnesses of Christ, the preachers of the gospel--like the woman--merely set forth the gospel, the effect is wrought by God--all things are of God.
What is the leaven of the gospel which makes all things new? What is the gospel? John said of the believers: 1 John 2: 20: "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." The revelation is given from God who is faithful to faith (those he has given faith). Paul began in his first letter to the Corinthian believers saying that they were
"in everything enriched by God, in all utterance and in all knowledge--even as the testimony of Christ {gospel of Christ} was confirmed in you:…God [is] faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor 1: 5-9).
So what is this "unction", the "all things of God" that make the believer a new creature? The "all things" made known in us from the Faithful God to those he has given faith? After stating the importance of the gospel, Paul tells us exactly what it is--this is the leaven. This is the substance of God-given faith.
1 Corinthians 1: 30: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
When all things are made new--every believer is made to know I am a sinner--therefore salvation has to be by God's free grace--of God, am I in Christ Jesus.
who of God is made unto us Wisdom,
Wisdom wherein God found the way to remain righteous and yet justify sinners. Christ is the Wisdom who accomplished it. God makes us to cease the old thing of resting in our wisdom and to rest in his
Righteousness and Sanctification
Paul to Galatians--"another gospel which is not another", "them that trouble you", "I wish they were cut off"
· Christ is my Righteousness--Gal 2: 16-21
· Christ is my Sanctification--Gal 3: 1-3
Redemption (Near kinsman, purchased me, liberty)
From bondage of my defiled ignorance (old thing I called wisdom), from the old thing I called righteousness and sanctification, Christ make the believer free indeed to walk after Christ my All.
I Corinthians 1: 31: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Old things are passed away, All things are become new--all things are of God, now I glory in the Lord alone.
This is the leaven which is put into the believer that makes all things new. This is the unction from the Holy One. These are the "all things of God". This is what makes the believer a "new creature". This is the substance of faith. The Life is the virtue that went from Christ into the woman with the issue of blood, the newness of life in the thief on the cross, what it is to confess Jesus is the Christ and the leaven put into the meal which leavens the whole--makes it entirely new.
1 John 2: 24: Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
Matthew 13: 33: Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
This parable, like the parable of the mustard seed, shows the effectual work of God in and upon his elect. Christ in you, like leaven, makes the believer entirely new. Note: "Till"--we keep putting in the leaven, the gospel, in the hidden man of the heart--it keeps growing us up into him in all things. One day he will raise us perfectly conformed to his image.