Matthew 13:24-33: "24 He put another parable before them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?" 28 He said to them, "An enemy has done this." So the servants said to him, "Then do you want us to go and gather them?" 29 But he said, "No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn."'
"31 He put another parable before them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.'
"33 He told them another parable. 'The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.'"
Matthew 13:45: "'Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls'"
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The illustrations in these verses from Matthew 13 appear in the opposite order in the hymn text.
The pearl in Matthew 13:45 (the citation should probably include verse 46 too: "'who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it'") is at the beginning of the first verse: "Your kingdom, O God, is my glorious treasure, / My pearl of incomp'rable worth."
The leaven in verse 33 and the mustard seed in verses 31-32 are in the hymn's second verse. The leaven is near the beginning ("Like yeast, they [Your Word and Your Spirit] affect the whole measure of flour"), and the mustard seed is at the end ("And bring ev'ry planting to perfect fruition, / A mustard seed grown to a tree").
The field in verses 24-30 appears in the first half of the third verse: "Your kingdom, O God, is a field for the growing / Of seeds that Your mercy has sown; / But still in our midst is the enemy sowing / The weeds that imperil Your own."
