Mustard herbs are good for food. The whole world is hungry. The hungry world does not need a great tree; it needs a little mustard herb to feed people, to satisfy the hunger in all the human beings. Let all the local churches be small; even if we have a large number, we should be small in nature. We should always maintain the law of life and never grow out of proportion.
The parable of the leaven is next. As an evil bird, Satan snatches away the word, produces hard rocks under the soil, causes thorns to choke the growth of life, sows confusion by planting tares, and causes the growth out of proportion. All of these things are Satan's work to ruin or retard the proper growth of life in God's field. Yet God is victorious! Some grain is still produced. Therefore, we have the meal, the fine flour. Regardless of how much Satan attempts to frustrate God's farm, it still produces the meal, which is good for making a loaf. Of course, the grains first must be ground, blended, and cooked.
At this point Satan came in again to damage the meal by adding leaven. In both the Old and New Testaments leaven signifies an evil, corrupting element. If we study leaven in the Bible, we will see that it represents the satanic, sinful, worldly, and fleshly things.
In this parable there is the meal, the leaven, and the woman. This woman in Matthew 13 signifies the Roman Catholic Church. She is also Jezebel, the woman mentioned in Revelation 2. This evil woman, the great harlot, added leaven to the fine flour, producing a mixture of the real and the false, the good and the bad, the elements of Christ and the elements of Satan. In Christendom you can see some real things and some false things, some holy things and some worldly things, some elements of Christ and some elements of Satan, all mixed together. In the Roman Catholic Church and in all the denominations, there are many real Christians, yet there is also much leaven. The Roman Catholic Church has picked up many pagan things and mixed them with the things of Christ. For example, did you know that the origin of Christmas is pagan? Christmas Day, December 25, celebrated the birthday of the sun god. The Roman Catholic Church took in this pagan holiday, making December 25 the birthday of Christ. Many Christians may argue that Christmas is an excellent time to preach the gospel; that while men celebrate Christmas, they will take the opportunity to preach Christ. This is leaven and is the subtlety of the enemy. Easter is also a leaven. When the Catholic Church went to China, it even embraced ancestor worship. Not only in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in the denominations there are many worldly things and lusts added to the things of Christ to produce a mixture. Our eyes need to be opened to see this mixture.
We are against the birds of the air. We are against the rocks underneath the soft earth. We are against the thorns and we are against the tares. We are against the disproportionate growth of the great tree and we are also against the leaven. We oppose anything that corrupts. This is a matter of the Lord's recovery and of the Lord's kingdom. These parables are the mysteries of the kingdom.