Gooding, David: 5 - Strategies of the Kingdom

Gospel by Matthew chapter uh eleven. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and preach in their cities. Now, when John heard in the prison the works of the Christ, he sent by his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Go your way and tell John the things which you do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me. Chapter twelve, verse thirteen. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth, and it was restored whole as the other. But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how they might destroy him. And Jesus, perceiving it, withdrew from thence. And many followed him, and he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry aloud, neither shall anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, until he send forth judgment unto victory, and in his name shall the Gentiles trust. Chapter thirteen and verse twenty four. Another parable he set before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in the field. And while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. And the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it tares? And he said unto them, An enemy has done this. And the servants say unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he says, No, lest haply, while you gather up the tares, you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather up first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn. Verse thirty three. 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 it all was leavened. Verse forty four. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid, and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls. And having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all he had and bought it. God give us good understanding of his holy word. In the past weeks, we have been considering together the third section of the gospel by Matthew, and found it to be concerned with the twin themes of the authority of our Lord and of our response to him as his disciples. Now we move on to the fourth major section of this gospel, and what theme it deals with, we shall soon perceive if we pay heed to the first story that opens the section. We notice in passing the little introductory word that when Christ had finished commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and preach in their cities. You may say, but surely Christ was forever teaching and preaching, and that is perfectly true. But Matthew wants particularly to stress that fact at this juncture, because he is presently going to lay it down as one of the master strategies of the Lord Jesus in this present age. That upon which he, and after him his apostles and disciples, will be called to concentrate, as the master strategy of the Messiah will similarly be to teach and to preach. It is, after all, this fourth section of Matthew, is it not, in which Matthew includes that famous and strategic parable, the parable we call the parable of the sower, that stands in the prime position when the Messiah announces his strategy for this present age. The sower went forth to sow. The seed he sows is the word of God that he sows by teaching and preaching. So let us notice that as we pass and tuck it up under our caps, and we shall come back to it in a moment. With that, we come to the first major story of this section of the gospel, and it is the story how John Baptist heard in prison the works of the Messiah, sent his disciples with a puzzled question, Art thou he that comes, or look we for another. Why did John Baptist ever ask such a question? On the surface, it looks quite clear, doesn't it, as though the man in prison were having his doubts about the person of Jesus. Was he, after all, the Messiah? At least, was he the Messiah that they had been given to expect from their reading of the Old Testament. But of course, John Baptist was a very famous prophet. Indeed, as our Lord, uh, presently says, of all men born of women, there was none greater than John the Baptist, greatest of all the prophets, because to him was given the sacred and elevated charge of being the forerunner to Messiah himself, and therefore many believers have felt a little bit nervous at the idea that John Baptist ever came to doubt whether Jesus was really the Messiah. But then, of course, there are many believers out there who feel that doubt is a very bad thing, and something which, if ever happens to you, you should do your best to keep dark. I don't know what you have found. I have found it over the years, how many believers there are that, if you can really get close enough to them, have very serious doubts in their hearts, and often doubt matters of their own personal salvation, and are scared stiff to let anybody know it, lest they be thought to be terrible people and forthwith cast out of the synagogue. Or if they should have doubts about their salvation, whether it should, so to speak, disqualify them for being saved or something, and therefore they keep their doubts suppressed with a great deal of consequent misery. So let us anyway, at this level, get this matter, uh, uh, straight, uh, uh, shall we not? If we have doubts, then let us be open and honest with them, with the Lord. It has been my good fortune, having been saved, I wouldn't like to tell you how many years, by God's good grace, I have never doubt- doubted my salvation. It's none of my cleverness either. I have doubted many times whether there is anything true in Christianity at all. Yes, if Christianity is true, I'm saved, but is Christianity true? And is it true, objectively true, or have I managed simply to play a psychological trick upon myself? How do I know it's true? Well, if you have never had any doubts of any kind, you qualify for a special blessing this evening that our Lord in the verse six sums up, blessed is he whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me. Yes, you're a happy Christian indeed if you can sing that hymn that all congregations sing so lustily, whether truthfully or not, I don't know. He is not a disappointment. That is, you've never been disappointed. Never found any problem, never had anything to trip up over in Christ and his gospel. Very blessed you are indeed. And know this, that many people have and do have doubts, and not only doubting Thomas either. And you will observe on every occasion where people have doubts, our blessed Lord, instead of rejecting them, encourages them. He might chide them for having unnecessary doubts, but he always solves those doubts for them by giving them that kind of evidence that is necessary to resolve the doubt. Permit a gray head to turn aside to a little exhortation. If we have doubts, let's do with them what John the Baptist did with them. Let's tell the Lord honestly about them. And people have emotional doubts, some people go through patches of difficult health and nervous problems and have doubts. And some folks come to universities or colleges and meet the full blast of atheism or agnosticism and develop intellectual doubts, and a miserable experience it can be. Of course, there are people that hide behind their doubts and love them, and the last thing on earth they'd want to do is to give up their doubts, because as long as they've got doubts, then they can go and engage in all sorts of sinful and worldly practices and, and, and use their doubts as an excuse. But that's a different story altogether. The genuine believer finds doubt a miserable thing and vastly unsettling. And the first thing to do with it is not to suppress it or try and hide it, but to do what John Baptist did and take it to the Lord and say, Lord, I got these doubts. Now please, Lord, for that is your job really, supply me in your good time with the evidence that will banish the doubts. You say, Mr. Preacher, you're still taking it for granted that John the Baptist doubted, and you oughtn't to do that. Oh, I'm sorry, I was forgetting this. I oughtn't to do that. He didn't doubt. No. What did he do then? Well, the only explanation, alternative explanation I've ever heard runs as follows. Of course he didn't doubt what the man who stood and said to the crowd, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, the, the, the, the preacher who baptized the Lord Jesus. Just imagine the privilege of baptizing the Lord Jesus. And the preacher who stood and saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove upon him and light upon him. You say it's impossible, the man had doubts. I get it then. It was impossible. So what did he do? Well, it was like this, say some. Perhaps you'll have a better reason, and I haven't heard of it. What was happening was this, that John the Baptist knew full well that Jesus was the Messiah. He was the Christ, the Messiah. Only Jesus wasn't advertising it well enough. Indeed, as we have read in these verses, curiously enough, when he healed people, he told them not to make it known that he was the Messiah. Therefore, John felt that, uh, something must be done about this, because the world did need to know that Jesus was the Messiah. And therefore he hit upon a little ruse. He waited until he could be sure that there would be a vast throng about the person of the Lord Jesus. Then he sent some apostles, some servants, some disciples of his, who should come upon the Lord Jesus while the great crowd was there and put the leading question to the Lord Jesus, are you or are you not the Messiah? And of course the Lord would have to answer it, uh, and all the people would hear what he said. Yes, I'm the Messiah. Ah. Are you sure that means that John wasn't doubting? You say he didn't doubt that Jesus was the Messiah. No, but he doubted, uh, whether our Lord was going about it quite the right way. And whether our Lord was, uh, dragging his heels, as we should say, and not getting on with the job of telling the world that he was the Messiah. And so John Baptist thought he better put a, a spoke in it, a hand in it. Get the Lord to act a bit more quickly. And that, my good friends, is, of course, doubt, isn't it? That the Lord wasn't doing it the right way and wasn't acting soon enough. I don't know about you, but it seems to me a common cause of doubt amongst believers that when we pray, God doesn't always answer our prayers soon enough. So anyway, John sent these messengers. And shall we notice the Lord didn't rebuke them? Nor John either. What did he do? He sent him Evidence. evidence. Why do you suppose John got upset then? I think I can give you a better reason. I think Matthew gives us a better reason. He says it came to pass when John heard, uh, in prison the works of the Messiah. Then he sent the messengers. You see, I imagine things sound different in prison from what they sound outside. Why was he in prison anyway? Matthew will subsequently tell us in chapter fourteen, it was like this, that John had come preaching as the Messiah's forerunner, and he had boldly proclaimed to the nation that Messiah would do two things. He would baptize with the Holy Spirit, that is to say, he would bring life and salvation to men. Ah, but he had preached that the Messiah would do another thing, that he would baptize with fire, and he would truly and thoroughly purge his clashing floor and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Messiah would do two things. He would bring life to the repentant. He would bring the fire of God's judgment upon the impenitent. And as John looked around, he saw, of course, a lot of those that professed to repent, and he baptized them. But then as he looked around, he saw a lot that looked uncommonly like chaff, ready to be burned. He looked around, in fact, and saw Herod living in sin with his brother's wife and setting the whole nation this terrible example. And in the name of the coming Messiah, John Baptist pushed his fist into the face of Herod, called upon the man publicly to repent. King or no king. He called on him to repent, and he called on him to repent in the name of the coming Messiah, whose forerunner he was. For the Messiah was coming, and if Herod didn't repent, Herod would be among the chaff, and the Messiah would burn up with unquenchable fire. Herod didn't like the preaching. It wasn't to his wife's taste. So Herod added to this above all his other sins that he put John in prison. But come now, that was a solemn th- solemn thing to do, wasn't it? John Baptist was in fact the forerunner of the Messiah? In putting John in prison, Herod was challenging the Messiah himself to do anything about it. So John sat in his prison with his bowl of water and plate of dry bread. And what do you suppose John was thinking and praying? If he was thinking and praying anything, it was, well, Lord, hurry up. Please, you'll now have to deal with Herod. Not a question of personal spite or revenge upon Herod, but here am I, John Baptist, your official forerunner, and I have declared before the whole nation, before this guilty king and his queen, I have declared in your name that he must repent. If not, you'll deal with him, and he put me in prison and defied you. You must vindicate your name, Messiah. Of course you will, won't you? That's what you've come to do. There came some footsteps down the passage. You could hear. That'll be an angel come. Whether angels speak, make any noise, I don't know. Perhaps that will be Messiah himself coming down to let me out. But it wasn't, it was just a man with the bread and water. Well, where'd Messiah got to then? And when was he going to act? And then he heard the works of the Messiah. So Messiah was going around the countryside. Well, why wasn't he letting John out of prison? And establishing the fact that he was Messiah by dealing with evil. Deliberate. Hostile. Evil. Messiah didn't come. And as the weeks and months dragged by, doubt began to nestle in John Baptist's heart. How can Jesus be the Messiah if he doesn't deal with evil? That, of course, is a very big question. And we, perhaps, who have led sheltered lives, sometimes do not feel the force of it. It used to be said in the war, didn't it? If Jesus is God, why doesn't he stop the Germans, the V-bombers, the slaughter? You say, but Jesus saved my soul. Well, that's good stuff. He i- he has if he is the Son of God, but if he's the Son of God, then why doesn't he deal with evil? Why does he allow brutal men to go in and slaughter women and children wholesale? Why does he allow oppression? Why does he allow the wicked to prosper in politics, in business, or wherever? Does he care for justice? And what is more, you'll see, the Old Testament said quite plainly, here John the Baptist was certainly right, wasn't he, that when Messiah came, he would judge evil. And here was Jesus. He appeared to be making no attempt to put down either evil or wicked men. And of course, one day John heard other footsteps coming down the corridor to the prison, and the key was put in the door. Perhaps at last this was the Messiah then. And the old rock creaked and the door opened, and it wasn't Messiah. It was a soldier with a sword, and presently John's head was on the charger to be brought upstairs to the banquet. And my, didn't she laugh? Did Herod's queen. That's what's come of your preaching. And Messiah did nothing. Well, how can he be the Messiah? You will notice, of course, a similar problem, if not so dramatic, that we read in chapter twelve. Our Lord was in the synagogue on a Sabbath day. Now, these people weren't iniquitous like Herod, were they? But he was in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he healed a man's withered hand. And the Pharisees were so incensed that they took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And Jesus... faced with evil in the most sacred place. Very representatives of Satan opposing the word and work of God in the synagogue. And Jesus did what? Thruly purge his threshing floor and burn up this jar. He just turned round meekly and walked out. How can he be the Messiah then? Or was he the Messiah? Let's begin to hear his answer. First to John, he did a lot of miracles, and then he said to the messengers of John, go and tell John the things which you do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good tidings preached to them. What was that meant to convey? Why this, as John sat in his gloomy prison and went back in his mind over the great promises of the things that Messiah would do when he came. Here were some of the things that Isaiah had preached. Some of the positive things that Isaiah said Messiah would do, and Jesus was doing them. He wasn't doing nothing. There were broken hearts he healed. There were the dead that he raised up. The deaf heard and the and the blind saw, and the gospel was being preached as it never had been preached before. Something was being done, and certain Old Testament scriptures were being fulfilled. That, that satisfied John for the moment. Oh, just as a practical thing, you know. You got doubts? Hmm. Well, too bad. But you don't doubt everything, I suppose. The thing you've got doubts about, well, let it be. But pray to remember the things about which there's no doubt whatsoever. And hang on to the bits you can believe. The bits that have been demonstrated true, while you wait for the further answers to the bits that you as yet can't see the answer to. So our Lord was positively preaching the gospel, bringing sinners to repentance, spreading forgiveness and the love of God, the dead raised, the, the deaf hearing, signs of the Messiah, the delightful, positive, healing gospel evidence of the Messiah. How would you say, what about this problem of evil? On that side, we begin to find our Lord's answer, do we not, in the words that Matthew recalls to us in chapter twelve and verse, uh, nineteen and twenty. For when our Lord was faced with the Pharisees in the synagogue, and they took counsel to destroy him, and our Lord simply turned around meekly and walked out, Matthew gives us a poke in the ribs. How about that, he says. Do you perceive that now Messiah is doing exactly what Isaiah said he would do? Well, what's that? Well, he should not cry aloud, neither should his voice be heard in the street. A bruised reed, he would not execute judgment on it and smash it. A smoking flax, he would not, uh, execute judgment on it and put it out. He would tolerate the both until he should send forth judgment unto victory. And of course, Isaiah was writing as a Jew, and Matthew was writing as a Jew, isn't he? There was this to be said, that at the time our Lord Jesus was on earth, the vast masses of the Gentile had never heard of him. And Isaiah had said quite plainly that it was God's good program, that judgment would not come until the great masses of the Gentiles had had the opportunity to hear. And so he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. In his name shall the Gentiles trust. He shall not break the brooded reed, and he shall not quench the smoking flax until brought forth judgment unto victory. Now watch how that theme is developed. According to Isaiah, then there's going to be what you might call an until period in Messiah's operation. And so consistent therewith, in chapter thirteen, our Lord begins to preach by the seaside his parables, and eventually he takes the disciples into a house and explains the meaning of the parables. And there arises a very interesting thing. He talked in parables so that the others shouldn't understand. You say, that's a very funny thing to do, isn't it? Why didn't he, why did he talk in parables? Why didn't he want everybody to understand? And one of the answers is that he wasn't talking the gospel, he was talking the mysteries and secrets of the kingdom. He was talking strategy, he was talking tactics with his disciples. What were Messiah's tactics going to be for the setting up of his kingdom? What were Messiah's tactics going to be for the preaching of the gospel and the putting down of evil? How would it be done? Well, Peter had a notion, and it stayed in his head quite a long while as to how it should be done. Evil? Of course, there were some evil chaps around. One there was, there was the local income tax man, you know, who swindled all the farmers around about the place, the rotter, in toe with the Romans, a virtual quizzing, there was a few of them around about the place. And then there were these hated Romans, the imperialists. And Peter, like got a good many other Jews, and his fellow apostle Simon, who was a zealot, that is a as a right-wing activist in politics, or had been until he got converted. They knew how they thought God was going to deal with evil, like he'd done with the Maccabees. Quite simple, really. Messiah would come, you would raise an enormous army, you would sharpen your swords, and you'd go around and every evil man you caught, you'd cut his head off. Simple, isn't it? And when you got rid of all the evil men, our life would be a paradise. And he expected Messiah to do it. A lot of folks have the idea now that's the way to do it. Be the extreme right or extreme left. They have an idea of the world so simple that all you've got to do to get paradise is to get your sword or atomic bomb, whichever it is, more convenient. All you have to do is get it out and eliminate the wicked. And then it'd be a lovely world for you and me to live in, wouldn't it? Which implies, of course, that you and me are not wicked. We're not part of the problem, are we? It's the others that are the bad lot. That's what the communists think of the conservatives. It's a curious thing, the conservatives think it of the communists. And you've only got to think a moment to see what an absurdly childish idea it is that the great problem of evil in God's universe could be solved by getting out a sword or two and cut- cutting off a thousand heads or more. And you know better anyway, if the world doesn't. If Messiah had there and then taken out his sword and cut off all the heads of all evil people, how many people would have been left? If Messiah nowadays cut off the heads of evil people, would yours stay still on your shoulders? I thought I heard you saying the other day that you were worthy of execution. Indeed, if Messiah had risen up and executed the wrath of God, there wouldn't have been man, woman, or child left. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Some other way will have to be found, won't it, with coping with evil, for my sake at least, and for yours. How will Messias go about dealing with the problem of evil? So he announces to his apostles what his major strategy is going to be. He's going to set up the kingdom. He's going to start right now. He's not going to leave it till some future date. He's going to start right now. How is he going to set it up? By a sword or by ten thousand swords? No, indeed not. But by a sower. Behold, a sower went forth to sow the word of the kingdom. By the teaching and the preaching of the word, Messiah is going to set up his kingdom. By preaching the word of the kingdom, bringing it to bear upon men's conscience, and giving men the chance with their free will to make their response of repentance towards God and faith in the Lord. That's how he proposes to set up the kingdom of God. And he himself began it. He went around preaching and teaching, and ever since, as he sent out his apostles on that same strategy. What does our Lord say at the end of Matthew? As his final words to his church, go and make disciples. What are his final words to his people in the Gospel of Mark? Go and preach. What are his final words in the Gospel by Luke? Thus it is written that the gospel should be preached to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. And what does he say in the Gospel of John. Well, as I, my Father sent me, I send you. You are to go and preach. Messiah's main concern. How will you set up a kingdom unless you bring men and women out of their ungodliness, out of their rebellion, to bow the knee of repentance and to be reconciled to God. No good clothing the enemy in Christian clothes unless they repent, is it? So the mus- the sower must go out and sow. Men be given the chance to repent and become sons of the kingdom. But that again, as you will now perceive, is going to take some time, is it not? And so our Lord told a second parable, how a man sowed wheat in his field, and when he sowed wheat, the enemy came along and sowed tares. And presently, when they both began to grow, it became obvious that there were some tares around here, the servants came to their master and said, would you that we root out the tares? And he said, no. But let both grow until... There's got to be an until period there. Until harvest. And when shall harvest be? Presently he told them it shall be the end of the age. Oh yes, he's not denying that judgment will come. There will come judgment. There will come the furnace of fire. The wicked shall be bundled up into their bundles and cast into the furnace. The dragnet will be pulled to the shore, the fish sorted out, and the bad fish thrown away. Yes, judgment will come, but not just yet. There must first be that until period, and the tares and wheat grow together until the harvest, and the harvest is the end of the age. I consider another thing. Who sowed those tares? You say his satanic majesty. Huh, that highlights the problem, doesn't it? Why doesn't God get rid of him? I mean, say, the moment he sinned, what a lot of trouble God could have spared himself if the moment Satan had sinned, God had destroyed him. Why didn't he? And if he's overlooked it till now, what about suggesting it now? The earth isn't going to be at peace until he's put out of the way, is it? Why doesn't God deal with Satan? Not alone for his own sake, but all his fooling around and putting tears in the weed and persecution of Christians and making life difficult for you. Ah, but you see, they're problems, aren't they? This matter of evil. When God made Adam in the garden, we are told that God put him in the garden and, uh, pointed out that in that garden they might eat of all the trees that they'd like to eat of, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And God told them, you won't eat of that, for in the day you eat of that, you'll die. Did you know what that implies? The very fact that God said, no, don't eat of that tree, implies they could eat of it if they decided to. Which shows us a very interesting fact that when God made us, he made us with the ability to sin. Didn't he? God tells you don't do this, and you and I find ourselves quite free to do it if we did make up our minds to do it. There's no sort of chain, no prison house. We, we can do it. Which is another way of saying God made us with a free will. Consider only what it means if God gives us a free will. He gives us a genuine choice, you know. Not like Master Ford is reputed to have done, and told people they could have any color car they like so long as they chose black. God isn't like that. Gives you a genuine free will. And if you use it to sin against him, he will allow you to sin. Because if he gave you a free will and then every time you're about to do a sin he stops you, you wouldn't have a free will, would you? And if God is going to give people a free will, then he must give them choice and time to develop that choice in. Ah, and that means also that when he offers them salvation, that must be free as well. You just imagine the situation in which you could say in Ashley Street Gospel Hall on Sunday night, when you got to the appropriate point, now I have an offer to make to, uh, to Trust Christ tonight, from now on you will suffer nothing. The devil himself will be restrained. You will never suffer illness, you will never suffer persecution, you will never suffer any pain, you will never suffer any financial want. Only trust Christ tonight, and all your troubles will be immediately over. Of course, heaven cooing up from there. Would that be faith, do you suppose? Or cupboard love? No, the reality is that if faith is going to be genuine and repentance be genuine, then when a man or woman receives the Savior in repentance and faith, God must still allow Satan to get at his work to try then as he tried Joel, to see whether the faith be genuine, whether we trust in God for what we get out of it, or whether the repentance and the faith are genuine. And we shall stay by our decision to believe whatever. That's the only kind of faith worth having. And to grow such a faith in this ungodly world means God has got to let us have time, and he's got to grow his wheat in a world where Satan is allowed to do his work. The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. And if we wanted another scripture to put alongside of these ones from the Old Testament, there's one ready to hand, isn't there, at the end of Matthew's gospel. That great, uh, cardinal scripture of timetable from the old. This is what Old Testament said the program was going to be for Messiah. Psalm one hundred and ten verse one, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. That's the ascension of our blessed Lord. Until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. Yes, there's judgment coming. Pray notice the thing was said in the Old Testament, it remains true in the New. The Old Testament said there got to be a period between the ascension and the coming again in judgment. Messiah was not proposing to deal with evil then. Why didn't he get John out of prison? Because he was not proposing to execute judgment at that stage. The awful day of the Lord not yet come. He read in Nazareth that delightful passage and said, this day is it fulfilled in thy ears. What is fulfilled in thy ears? The acceptable year of the Lord, and he closed the book, for the very next statement was, and the day of vengeance of our God, and it hasn't come yet, thank God. There's the until period in between. That solves the problem at the intellectual level, doesn't it? Gives an answer for our heads. There's no good being disappointed with Christ for not putting down evil if he didn't intend to put down evil at that point. We see now how it was necessary for the gospel to have the until period. We are assured and promised that one day the judgment will come. An answer for our heads. What about an answer for our hearts? It's all right knowing the theory, isn't it? You try to get to sleep on a prison floor, filthy and dirty and damp, with a little straw. You want more than an answer for your head. You want an answer for your heart. So said our Lord, the Kingdom of heaven. Do you know what it's like? This great kingdom that Messiah is putting up. You know what it's like? Like the man, you know, and he found a treasure in a field, and he went and bought the whole field to get the treasure. That was his sense of value. Do you know how Messiah looks on his kingdom? Well, I can tell you. I can tell you even more about that. I can tell you some of the detail that makes up the treasure, the various bits and pieces in front of me here, golden candlesticks and beautiful oil lamps and all these other things that sit before me here that go to make up the great treasure of Messiah's kingdom. I can tell you something, how he looks at the treasure that is his kingdom. It is said he bought the whole world to get the treasure. Vast universe. The whole of it is there, so that God might get his people, his treasure. Do you know that treasure is at the moment hidden in the field, isn't it? I read the Times this morning and th- this evening. I haven't read the whole lot. You don't read it every word. You know, I couldn't find anything about the gospel meetings in Apsley or so many souls saved up and down in Gaul. There wasn't a word about it in the Times. There were all sorts of things about strikes, and Mrs. Thatcher, she manages to get in quite regularly, I notice. And there was the sport, and how many goals have been kicked here and kicked there, and, uh, you'll see how the shares are down on the market, and you would have thought that these were the important things in the world. All the nonsense it is, you know, that's only the manure that makes a grass grow. Do you know what the world is really about? That wasn't in the times as more. The world is really about the salvation of your soul and his soul. The growing of wheat for God's farm. The amassing of the treasure or the Father's treasury above, and the world goes on and knows nothing about it. They think that their affairs are the big affairs. They're only the fee. The real significance and value is the great treasure that God has hid in that. It's like, if you understand how the Lord views it, like a pearl so magnificent that when at last he came across that pearl, he sold all he had and bought it. Ah, John, old boy, wouldn't you have loved to tell? John, old boy, sitting on that jail floor and wondering why God, Messiah, doesn't come to vindicate you and prove you right against that woman up there aloft in the palace. Has Messiah forgotten? Oh, how you would have loved to tell him, John, my boy, just think how Messiah values you. One day he shall sell everything he has at Calvary's His cost cross and and by buy you. you. Hold on a bit longer, John, for it matters to him about you. Herein is the faith, patience and the faith of the saints, that we dare trust the Messiah in the days of persecution and suffering, until the necessary suffering be passed and the Lord come again and we be taken home to heaven.