I want you to turn in your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Now, last
week I began this as a series of messages called the Mysteries
of the Kingdom. And if you look down at verse
10 of Matthew 13, And as you know, Matthew 13 is where the
Lord began speaking to his disciples concerning the parables of the
kingdom, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like, or the kingdom
of God is like. And last week I dealt with that
word kingdom. Look at verse 10. It says, the
disciples came and asked and said unto him. Now he'd just
spoken what we call the, what many call the parable of the
sower and the seed. And I'm going to be dealing with
these parables as we go through these passages. But I want to
deal with these two things first. The disciples asked him, they
came and said to him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? Why
are you speaking in parables? You know what a parable is. A
parable is a story that uses earthly objects and persons to
symbolize and teach spiritual things. The word parable literally
means to be alongside of. So in other words, the parable
is not an end of itself. It goes alongside of spiritual
truth to illustrate it and to teach it. And so that's what
a parable is. Well, why are you speaking in
parables? That's what they said. Now, up until this point, he
had not done that. There were parables in the New
Testament, in the book of Matthew, but here he's speaking exclusively
in parables to them. And so they asked him why in
verse 11. He answered and said, because it is given unto you,
it's a gift to you, a gift from God, to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. In other
words, there's a gift given to the people of God. To what? To know. The word know there
means to understand. to perceive the reality. In other words, the knowledge
that he's talking about is not a bare recognition or memorization. You know, today in religion it's
common for people in what they call evangelism to say, repeat
this prayer after me. That's not the kind of knowledge
we want. That doesn't save anybody. Repetition. there's nothing wrong
with memorizing scripture back i wish i could memorize more
than i know do and uh... of course we know as we get older
that's more more of a problem but the thing about it is this
knowledge here is an intimate knowledge that is wrought or
worked within a center by the power of the holy spirit in revealing
to that center the realities of the kingdom of heaven and
Jesus Christ who is King. Now last week I dealt with the
phrase Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven, it's a
kingdom of righteousness. Anybody who's a citizen of this
kingdom is righteous. And there's a problem there because
we know that among us by nature there's none righteous, no not
one. So how in the world could we ever think rightly that we're
citizens of the kingdom of heaven. It's a kingdom of righteousness,
no sin. And that's why, secondly, it's
a kingdom of grace. Salvation is by grace. It's not
what you earn or what you deserve. It's what God gives you in Jesus
Christ, who is our righteousness. I can honestly say to you that
I am a righteous person and that righteousness in which I exist
before holy God had nothing to do with who I am, where I come
from, or what I've done for God. It's totally by the grace of
God. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And so thirdly, this is the kingdom
of Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead. Righteousness
comes from Him. And we who are righteous, we
who are citizens of this kingdom, we stand in Him. And He is our
righteousness. And then fourthly, this is a
spiritual kingdom. I dealt with that. This is not
an earthly kingdom. It's not wrapped up in the things
of this world. It doesn't originate or come
out of the things of this world. It's from heaven. It's a heavenly
kingdom. It's a kingdom of the heart. We're going to see that
when we get to the parable of the sower and the seed. It's
not a kingdom of geography or real estate here on this world.
Well, today, I want to deal with this word, mysteries. And I assure
you in this series, I'm not going to deal with every word individually,
one sermon on every word. So don't get frightened about
that. But this is the thing. If you're
going to understand the parables of the kingdom, you have to understand
the mysteries of the kingdom. This is what he's doing. He said,
I'm going to tell you about the kingdom of heaven, what it's
like, who are the citizens of this kingdom, who are not citizens
of this kingdom. And so he says, it's given unto
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom. Well, what about
this word mysteries? What's it all about? Now I've
already said this, but let me say it again. Mysteries in the
Bible. are things that are unknown to
man by natural intellectual efforts and pursuits. These are things
that man does not know and cannot know by any human effort or intellectual
pursuit. In other words, science cannot
reveal unto you these mysteries. Science can reveal a lot of things,
can it? I mean, it's amazing what scientific
progress has made. Sometimes it's not so good for
us, but the knowledge that we have today that didn't have 50
years ago, 100 years ago, it's amazing. But science cannot reveal
this to you. Science cannot uncover this.
You see, when we normally think of a mystery, we think about
something that's unknown, and if you're given certain clues,
you can figure out the answer. That's not what a mystery is
in the Bible. That might be a good Agatha Christie novel or something,
but that's not what the Bible means by it. And that might be
interesting, but that's not what the Scripture is. Science cannot
reveal this to you. Human creativity like literature,
poetry, philosophy cannot reveal this to you, these mysteries.
And let me tell you this, human religion certainly cannot reveal
it. In fact, human religion does
more to cover it up even more than it is. Human religion will
not do it. Religious efforts, religious
pursuits, you can make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or to Mecca or go
on the high mountain to see the high llama and it will not do
you any good in these mysteries. Just cannot. You can read all
the books in the library written by man and it will not. What
is this mystery? These are mysteries that come
only to people by revelation from God. God must reveal it. There's a whole book in the Bible
called the Book of Revelation. That means an uncovering. But
if you think about it, the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation
is in a sense God's revelation. And I'm going to show you that.
Look at what he says back in verse 11. He says, He answered
and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And to them it's not given. Now
who gave it? God did, not man. God may have
used a human instrument to show it, to uncover it, to reveal
it. I think about Acts chapter 8 when there was an Ethiopian
out on the backside of the desert away from Jerusalem and he was
reading Isaiah 53 and God the Holy Spirit sent Philip out there
to meet that man. And when Philip heard him reading
Isaiah 53, which as you know is a great prophecy of Christ
as the suffering servant, the suffering substitute, the Lamb. And when Philip heard him reading
that, Philip asked him, he says, do you understand what you're
reading? And the Ethiopian said, how can I except some man show
me? Some man, sin of God. So God
may use human instruments to reveal these things. In fact,
the scripture says that that's his way. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, who are called.
But these are revelations from God. It's given unto you. And
what I want to deal with, just in a few moments here, is that
in the Bible, there are different types of revelation. And I want
to show you that. First of all, turn back to Psalm
19, the passage that Brother Randy read. There is the revelation of creation. That's what this is. The revelation
of creation. Now what does that mean? Well,
look at verse 1 of Psalm 19. Psalmist writes, the heavens
declare the glory of God. What's he talking about? The
majesty, the power, the greatness, even the goodness of God. You
see it's Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory.
The heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the rain,
the firmament, that's what that's talking about, showeth his handiwork. In other words, you look at these
things of creation. And you could say that about
everything in creation. David talked about even the human
body, the physical nature of the human body. He said, how
fearfully and wonderfully I'm made. You think about that. The
order of it. How everything works together
in harmony. So that we can walk and talk
and see and all of these things. The brain, the brain itself.
The heart, the physical heart. The firmament shows God's handiwork. He says, verse two, day unto
day uttereth speech. It's like they're speaking to
us. And night unto night showeth knowledge. And what are they
saying? That there is a God and that
he's a great God. He's a sovereign God. He's a
wise God. Verse three, there's no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. You know, I hear
people talking about, well, what if somebody over in this remote
country never read a Bible or never saw a Bible, never? Well,
listen, there's no language, he says here, there's no language
on earth, no speech where their voice, they have the revelation
of creation. And I want to tell you what the
Bible teaches now. I know people don't like this, but that's all
right. It says that that's enough for God to hold them accountable.
Accountable to do what? To seek the Lord. But hold on,
I'll get to that in just a moment. Verse 4, their line has gone
out throughout all the earth. In other words, that voice is
heard. He says their words to the end of the world. In them
hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. The sun was created
by God. The sun is not God. The sun is
not to be worshipped. People say, the sun God. Oh,
no. God created the sun. The invisible God created the
sun. The trees are not God. You know
what pantheism is? You ever heard of that? I mean
that people say, well, God is in everything, so that tree,
don't cut it down, that's God. Don't step on that ant. We worship
the trees. No, no, no. That's idolatry. God created that. What we ought
to do is seek the God. I want more knowledge of the
God who created such a wonderful thing. That's what man ought
to do. Look here, he says in verse 5,
which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth
as a strong man to run a race, his going forth is from the end
of heaven, his circuit, that is the orbit, under the ends
of it, and there's nothing hid from the heat thereof." It's
all out there. It's all out there. There's the
revelation of creation. Now, I'm going to come back to
Psalm 19, but I want you to go to Romans chapter 1. Now, the question is, is that the revelation that God
gives to His chosen people that brings them to a saving knowledge
of the mysteries of the kingdom, a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ,
a saving knowledge of our sinfulness, for example. Is that revelation
in creation enough to do that? And the answer is no. That revelation
in and of itself will not convert the soul. We'll see that in just
a moment back in Psalm 19. But you look at Romans 1. Now
here's my question. Here's the revelation of God
in creation, the revelation of His majesty, His power, His goodness,
and other things. What does man, by nature, do
with the revelation of creation if left to himself? That's right. Look at Romans
chapter 1 and verse 18. Now, Paul had just spoken of
the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. And that righteousness
of God is the obedience, the merits of the obedience unto
death of the Lord Jesus Christ that justifies sinners before
God, saves us from our sins. It's his righteousness imputed,
accounted, charged to. What he does, he begins in Romans
1.18 and he shows us why we need that righteousness of God. Why
we, listen, why we can't make ourselves righteous. We cannot.
We're sinners. We're totally depraved. It means
we don't have righteousness, we can't work righteousness,
and thirdly, we don't want it God's way. But here's what he
does. In Romans 1.18, he begins to
show us why we need Christ. Verse 18, for the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, what truth
is he talking about? Well, specifically, he's talking
about the truth of the gospel. How God saves sinners by grace.
How do men hold that truth in unrighteousness? They don't believe
it. They don't live by it. But we could apply that statement
to any truth. What about the truth of creation?
We'll look here in verse 19 of Romans 1. Because that which
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed
it unto them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, Being understood
by the things that are made, that's creation. The heavens
declare the glory of God. Even His eternal power and Godhood.
The heavens creation is enough to tell sinners about God's eternal
power and Godhead. So that they are without excuse.
God holds them accountable. Because that, verse 21, because
that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Now
here's man left to himself. This includes you and me apart
from God's grace and God's sovereign power, isn't it? Neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. Think about scientists today
who study creation, and they think they're so wise.
And they look at it, verse 23, what they did, they changed the
glory of God, changed the glory of the incorruptible God into
an image made like to a corruptible man, to birds, four-footed beasts,
creeping things, that's what men worship. What did Israel
do when they got, when Moses went up in Sinai? What did they
create? A golden what? Calf. Men will worship a calf. And creeping things, beasts,
four-footed beasts, creeping things. Verse 24, wherefore for
this reason God also gave them up to uncleanness through the
lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.
That refers to the rituals of man and their idolatry who change
the truth of God into a lie, the truth that's revealed in
creation. Here's the son. Boy, it must have been some,
some God who created that. I need to know more about it.
No, no. Here's what they did. They turned it into a lie and
worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is
blessed forever. Amen. And so that's what happened. That's man left to himself. And
let me tell you something now. Understand that when you read
passages of scripture like that, He is not talking about some
degenerate class of people over which we rise above. He's talking
about you and me by nature left to ourselves. You understand
that? The most religious, the most
irreligious. But that's what man by nature
does with the light of creation. Revelation, the mystery of creation,
if left to himself. Let me give you the second one.
Turn to Romans chapter 2. Secondly, there's the revelation
of conscience. Conscience. What is the conscience? Well, you can describe it several
ways. It's the seat of judgment in the mind. It's how we judge right and wrong,
good and evil. We have a conscience. God has
given every man and woman naturally a conscience. Now, that conscience
is just as fallen in Adam as the person is. It is a defiled
conscience, but it is still a conscience. And here in Romans chapter 2,
he's talking about the Jews who had the law of Moses. The Gentiles
didn't have the law of Moses, but they had a conscience. And
look at verse 14 of Romans 2. He says, For when the Gentiles,
which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law, they do by nature the things contained in the law.
Even the Gentile nations, listen, the Gentile nations back then
didn't have the Ten Commandments, but they had laws against murder.
They had laws against stealing. Now there were other laws they
didn't have, but they had that conscience, that light of conscience
that God gives to every person by nature is enough. And he says,
these having not the law are a law unto themselves, verse
15, which show the work of the law written in their hearts.
Now who wrote it there? God did. Their consciences also
bearing witness, and their thoughts demean while accusing or else
excusing one another." They either accused or excused based on that
conscience. And that's what we have by nature. Now, what do men by nature do
with the law of conscience? We'll go back to Romans 1. Look at verse 26. The law of
conscience, if left to ourselves, here's the way it'll go. If left
to ourselves, it'll go one of two ways. It'll either go the
way of abject rebellion against everything that God says is right,
or it will go the way of self-righteous works religion that glorifies
man. That's the way that conscience
will go, if left to itself. But look here at how it's described
in Romans 1, 26. He says, For this cause God gave them up unto
vile affections. For even their women did change
the natural use into that which is against nature. You know what
that's talking about. That's talking about homosexuality.
In other words, what he's saying here is that is the mark of a
reprobate conscience. People don't know what's right
and wrong. They have some sense of it. But they are law unto
themselves, every man does that which is right in his own eyes.
He says in verse 27, likewise also the men, leaving their natural
use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another. Now
what is that talking about? Somebody says, well, that's Old
Testament stuff. Oh no, right here it is. Men with men, working that which
is unseemly, receiving in themselves that recompense of their error,
which was meat, And even as they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge or in their conscience, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. And he goes
on. You can read the rest of it.
But that's what happened. Now that doesn't mean that everybody
in their natural conscience is going to go that way. But like
I said, it'll go one of two ways if left to ourselves. Either
the way of just abject perversion and rebellion or the way of self-righteous
religion. And the reason I know it'll go
the way of self-righteous religion is because in chapter two, you
know who he's talking about mainly? Not the homosexuals, the irreligious
Gentiles. He's talking about the religious
Jews who had perverted the law. And that leads me to the third
issue of Revelation. Number one, creation. Number
two, conscience. Man left to himself will pervert
both of them. That's right. Thirdly, the revelation
of God's Word. And what do I mean by that? Well,
think about Israel. And I want you to turn to Romans
chapter 9. Look at Romans 9. Israel had the law of God. That was a revelation to that
nation. And that law contained the Ten
Commandments. It contained the ceremonial law,
the laws of the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the altar. It
contained their civil laws as a nation that was meant to keep
them together in a barbaric, tough world. They had dietary
laws. All of that was meant by God
in His providence to keep that nation together during that time
when most nations did not stay together and were totally obliterated. That's why God gave it. Mainly
to show them their sinfulness and to show them their only way
of salvation was in Christ. But they had that revelation.
They had the oracles of God. That's the Word of God. But look
at verse 31 of Romans chapter 9. Israel had the law, and it
says in verse 31, but Israel which followed after the law
of righteousness, they had the Mosaic law, they had the Ten
Commandments, they had the laws of ceremony and sacrifice and
priesthood, they followed after the law of righteousness, hath
not attained to the law of righteousness. Now what happens if God leaves
them to their own ways, even under that revelation? He says
they followed after the law of righteousness but they didn't
make it. Verse 32, why, wherefore? Because they sought it not by
faith but as it were by the works of the law. They stumbled at
that stumbling. In other words, instead of using
the revelation of the law to seek salvation as a sinner by
the grace of God in Christ Jesus, the promised Messiah, who was
prophesied, preached, and typified in that law, they sought righteousness
by their works. They went the way of self-righteous
works religion. So, in other words, what we're
seeing here is that man will pervert every revelation that
God gives him if left to himself. What about the Gentiles? Well,
how many people do you know today who have a Bible and read the Bible? Do you know
what that Bible is? It's God's Word, isn't it? It's
God's inerrant Word, His perfect Word. Paul told Timothy that
this Word, the Bible, is able to make you wise unto salvation. But what do most people do with
that revelation? They rest it or twist it to their
own destruction. And just like the Jews who had
the Law of Moses, most people who have a Bible today, even
those who read it, twist it and make it, turn it into a self-righteous,
works-oriented religion. that puts the ultimate way of
salvation solely upon the shoulders of man and gives him room to
glory and boast. Isn't that what they do? Christ told the Pharisees, He
says, You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. They are they which testify of Me, He said. You read
Moses, and you boast in Moses. You say you keep the law. Moses
will be your judge. He said, If you'd believe Moses,
you'd believe Me. Moses wrote of Me, He said. But
here's the fourth thing. Now go back to Psalm 19. Fourth revelation. The first
one is the revelation of creation. That's a mystery. But God reveals
something of himself in creation. Secondly, the revelation of conscience.
Thirdly, the revelation of God's word. You might say his outward
revelation. Here it is right here. This is
God's word. God wrote this book. Now I know
he used human instruments. But God wrote this book, didn't
he? And this God's Word? Man didn't write it. Put it this
way. It's kind of like man was this
right here. God was the author. You see what
I'm saying? I take this pen and I write something.
The pen didn't write it. I did. The pen's just the instrument.
Well, that's the way Paul the Apostle. And Paul said that. And they recognized that. Look
down at verse 7 of Psalm 19. The fourth revelation is the
revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy
Spirit. You understand? What are we talking
about? We're talking about the invincible, irresistible work
and calling of the Holy Spirit when He reveals to a sinner who
Jesus Christ is and what he accomplished on behalf of sinners. The revelation
of the righteousness of God in Christ. That's salvation. Look at Psalm 19, 7. This is
what the psalmist is talking about. The law of the Lord. That
word law there could be better translated word. It's the word
of the Lord is perfect, complete. Converting the soul. When does it convert the soul?
When the Holy Spirit reveals in the new birth who I am. I'm a sinner without hope, without
righteousness, without any ability to save myself. And He reveals
that in light of God's holiness like He did to Isaiah. Holy,
holy, holy Lord God Almighty. God is just. He reveals that
if God were to ever give me what I deserve or what I've earned,
it would be eternal damnation. And then He reveals Christ, the
Lord of glory, who came to this earth, God in human flesh, and
obeyed that law in my stead as my surety and my substitute,
my sins charged to Him. And He went to the cross and
drank damnation dry. and satisfied the justice of
God, and brought forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value,
not the righteousness of man, but the righteousness of God,
whereby God is just to justify sinners like me." That's converting
the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. See, that's the mystery. It makes
wise the simple. Verse eight, the statutes of
the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. When does the heart
rejoice? When it sees Christ. Joy and peace in believing. Joy
in the Holy Ghost, righteousness and peace. The commandment of
the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. What does the commandment
of the Lord do when the Holy Spirit reveals this mystery to
the heart of a sinner? He says it's pure, enlightening
the eyes. How is it pure? It drives me to Christ, by whose
blood I'm washed clean in the sight of God. Verse 9, the fear
of the Lord. What is the fear of the Lord?
That's respect, regard. It's worship. The fear of the
Lord is clean. How is it clean? Because it drives
you to Christ. Why are you here this morning?
You're here to hear about your standing in Jesus Christ and
what He is and how great He is. Enduring forever, the judgments
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Whatever God says
is true. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the
honeycomb. And you can go on with the rest
of it. Look back up at Matthew 13 now. Somebody said, well, I believe
that if a man walks by whatever light he has, God will accept
him. Now listen to me very carefully
what I'm going to say. Do you know that's true? Any
man who walks by whatever light he has, God will accept him. But let me tell you something.
Here's the truth. Nobody, by nature, walks by the
light they have. The light of creation. Let me
tell you something. If God doesn't use that light
to ultimately drive you to his word and to Jesus Christ as the
only hope of salvation and righteousness, you're not walking by the light
you have. That's right, the light of conscience.
When God the Holy Spirit convicts us in the conscience, what does
he do? He convinces us of sin because we believe not on Christ,
of righteousness because Christ is our righteousness, and of
judgment because the prince of this world is cast out, because
Christ died and my sins were judged in him. If the light of
conscience doesn't ultimately drive you to the word of God
for salvation by his grace through Christ, you're not walking by
that light. You're going against it. The
same thing with God's Word. You read your Bible. People can
read their Bible. Now, I'm glad people read the
Bible. But you can read this and memorize
it from Genesis to Revelation, and if you don't see Christ and
the grace of God and salvation through Christ, you're not walking
by this light. You understand what I'm saying
now? No sinner by nature walks by the light he has, ultimately. He may be moral, he may be religious,
he may be sincere, but until a sinner is brought by the Holy
Spirit under the revelation of the mystery of the Kingdom of
Heaven and brought to Christ for all salvation, for all forgiveness,
for all righteousness, he's not walking by the light he's given.
What do we by nature do with the light of the Word? The scripture
says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned.
Man by nature, left to himself, will always turn God's revelation
in any form, shape, or fashion, either into a point of open rebellion
or a point of self-righteousness. And it takes a sovereign, invincible
work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to see and hear and to faith.
That's what he's saying here. Verse 11. It is given unto you,
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Christ said
it this way, you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom
of heaven. And you may look at the sun and
you may say well that's something God created and that's right.
You may in your conscience think well I'm going to be the best
person I can be and I'm going to join the church and I'm going
to get baptized and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do
that. You can read the Bible But until it is given unto you
by the Spirit of God to know Christ and Him crucified. You don't know the mysteries
of the kingdom. Now we're going to see that as we go through
these parables. You're going to see it in vivid technicolor. That's what he's talking about.
The mysteries of the kingdom. The gospel of Jesus Christ revealed
in the power of the Holy Spirit.