The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1910-06-30
The
Sunday School
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM.
MENTS FOE JULY 8.
Subject: Pictures of the Kingdom,
Matt. 13:31-33, ,44-52-Commit
to Memory Verse IL.

GOLDEN TEXT.-"The kingdom
OF God is not meat and drink: but
righteousness and peace, and 10y in
the Holy Ghost" Rom. 14:17.
TINiE.-A. D. 2S.
PLACE.-By the Sea of Galilee.
near Capernaum.
EXPOSITION. II. Outward
Growth and Inward Rot, S1-33. Two
more parallels of growth and both
about the kingdom Of heaven" The
parable of the mustard seed shows
the marvellous outward growth of the
Kingdom from the smallest begin
nings. Christ began His work with
Iew obscure men. and it spread until
the nations took shelter I'm its
branches. Some would take the birds
or heaven here to be evil spirits. as in
verses and 10, but it is not safe to
take the imagery of one parable over
into another. The reference seems
rather to be to Eek. 1923, "a, where
the birds represent the nations. But
another growth is taking place. "leav-
en- Cor yeast. the product Of putre-
Iaclonl within. Leaven is every
where in the Bible a type of corrup-
tlon. we have an inspired interpre-
tatlon OF this parable in l Cor. 5:6.
z; Gal. SIS, 0. The woman, the amos.
tate church, mixed the leaven'' of
false doctrine Matt. 1876. I2) into
the children's bread and the whole
doctrine and life of the church was
leaVened. History fulfilled this pre-
diction.
Ill. Finding Without Seeking. A..
In this parable the great value of the
Kingdom is brought out. it is a treas
ure hidden from the eyes of men
Jesus spoke the words in q land where
treasure was often hidden for security
and sometimes found by accident.
ne man in this case stumbled on the
treasure without seeking for it. He
represents the man who stumbles on
the Gospel truth entirely without his
own seeking. The fact that the field
represents the world in the parable Of
the tares Goes not necessitate our in
terpreting 1T as the world in this par-
able. In verse "A the treasure reprv-
sents one thing and in verse SO some
thlng entirely different. The man
nad TO sell all that he had to get the
helu ana the treasure it contained
ana we must give up all if we would
gain Christ and the treasure that is
IN Him (Lu. 14:33). What the man
sold and gave up was little indeed
IN comparison with what he got.
and what we sell or give up to
gam Christ is little indeed in
comparison with what we get (PhiI.
81, 81. 1t is not likely that this
man, after he got his treasure, talked
nucn OF the sacrifice he had made in
oruer 10 acquire 1t. 1t is the constant
teaching of the Bible that salvation Is
free gift (Eph. 2:S; Rom. 6:e35,
put there is sense in which grace is
bought Isa. 55:1; Rev. 3:S: Prov
1879; Matt. 25:9, 1O), there are
sacrlhces that must be made if we are
/ TO obtain eternal life. Jesus sought
treasure in us in this world and
gave up that He had in order to gain
1t q Cor. So; 1921.
III. Seeking and Finding, 45. 46.
There is similarity between this
parable and the preceding and also a
dinerence. In the preceding parable
the treasure was found by one not
looking for 1t. In this parable the
one VINO finds the pearl of great price
Is seeking goodly pearls. So there are
tnose VINO are earnestly seeking the
truth when they find the kingdom.
Sucn are represented by this parable
(cf. Job 2S:12, 13, Is, 1S). The
pearls sought were wisdom or truth
In general: the One Pearl found is He
In whom all truth is incarnate (Jno.
1850. Jesus is the one Pearl of
Great Price. In verse A the man
DouSht the field, not for itself. but
lot What was in it. In this case the
man bought the pearl for itself. Men
OFTEN seek to gain Christ for what
they can get in Him, but we ought to
seek Him for what He is Himself
lhe one seeking goodly pearls needed
10 be on his guard against imposition.
ana so do we need to be on our guard
In TINS day when there are so many
false Christs and so many false svs-
TENS. The man did wisely when he
SOFA all MS other pearls to gain this
one pearl, and We do wisely when we
part with all other pearls to gain tbe
one Pearl of Great Price.
~. Gathering of Every Kind a..
30. In its outward manifestation the
kingdom of heaven at first gathers.
or every kind, good fish and bad fish
Inc sea into which 1t Is cast is the
sea OF the nations. The time will
come when the net will be full and
then will come the separation. The
bad fish represent the wicked (49:
CT. 3S). The good fish the righteous
The good fish are gathered into a
place OF safety. The bad are cast
away and burned. The separation
takes place "at the end of the age"
The angels will do the separating.
Ihe furnace of fire represents the ul-
innate destiny of the wicked.
v. Giving Forth the Treasure
round, 81, 52. 1t is an important
question that our Lord puts as He
brings to a close the seven parallels.
He is putting the same question to us
to-day. There is only one way that
we can understand the teaching of |
Christ Himself, by the Holy Spirit Il |
Jno. 5:20; Jno. 16:12-14; 2:2O; 1 |
Cor. 2:14; Jas. 1:5). The disciples |
said they understood, but 1t is doubt |
full If they did Matt. 1911; Nix. 7:
18; 9:31, 80; 8:15). Neither do We |