Well, I want to talk with you
about a few things that end up the parables or parable-like
sayings that you have in this 13th chapter. And again, I would
say, if you're coming in on the tail end of the study from last
time this morning and now, I would encourage you to get the last
time that we studied these parables. today so you can finish up this
13th chapter. And the Lord willing, the next
time we'll move over into Luke. I think that I'm scheduled to
be back in August, I believe the third Sunday in August. Jim,
I don't imagine you remember, but I think that's right. So
the Lord willing, we'll pick up right there and we'll talk
about some more parables. But I want you to look at something.
Jesus asked a question, having talked about seven different
parables. He gave the parable of the sower
and the seed, which is the accomplishment of God's Word, and then three
parables that concern false religion, the tares, mustard seed, and
leaven, which is the presence of false religion, the abnormal
growth of false religion, which ought to be a little encouragement
to us that we're not overrun with people. Having great numbers
of people is not necessarily a sign of God's blessing. Because
abnormal growth, growth, something that's small, something that
is in the mustard seed that's pungent and an irritating thing. Mustard seed is an irritating
thing. And for it to become big and acceptable, for that small
mustard seed to become a tree with birds in it tells us of
something abnormal. And then the 11, which is corruption,
and the corruption that permeates everything in Christendom. Then
we looked at three parables this morning concerning Christ in
the church, the hidden treasure, the precious pearls in the net.
And that's him finding the church, seeking the church, and separating
the church. But there is something that remains.
Therefore he asks this question in verse 51, Have you understood? Do you understand? Is it in your
mind? Is it in your heart? Do you understand my word and
its accomplishment in this age until I come back? Even though
there is much opposition, do you understand that I came for
a precious pearl? Do you understand that I came
for a certain treasure? Do you understand that I came
to separate the just from the unjust? Do you understand all
these things? And again, I say to you that
you feel a little sorry for the disciples, because here they
are facing God in the flesh, and in their arrogance they say,
yes, I understand. He didn't confront them. He didn't
upbraid them. They didn't have the courage
to even follow after all they knew, but we know they didn't
understand all things. And yet He says to them, In verse
52, and this is what we would call, the technical term for
it is a parabolic saying. So it's a parable-like saying. Therefore, every scribe which
is instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like. He's like. So he's talking about a parable-like
saying. He's like unto a householder
which brings forth treasure, new and old. Now I want to talk
with you a good bit this morning about what it means to be a scribe. I know that sounds boring to
you right off the bat. And when I tell you that I've
got to give you a little history, I may lose you right off of the
bat. But let me ask you to endure
with me for a minute and let me talk with you about what it
means to be a scribe. God gave law to Moses. And the law had to be copied,
it had to be protected, it had to be understood, and it had
to be declared. Because the law was constantly
the paper or what it was written upon, which was animal skins
or papyrus, which was reeds that they would take and they would
moisten it and then dry it and it would become the texture that
they would write upon. And so it was constantly decaying,
not like the paper that we have today or what you can put into
a computer. And so it became the responsibility
of someone. And it was the responsibility
first of the priest, and then of the Levites, and then it became
a select group from the priest and the Levites, and that select
group became the scribes. That group became the scribes.
Now the first time that this word scribe appears in the Old
Testament is in the book of 2 Samuel during the time of David. roughly
around, we'll say, a thousand years before Christ. And then
the word appears again about three to four hundred years later
in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse
8 refers to a scribe. And then the word doesn't appear
again until the book of Ezra, and that's another 250 years
after that, around about. Here is the background that leads
us to Ezra and to the end of the Old Testament. The fall of
the Jews began at the hands of the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Samaria
was over run by the Assyrians and took
some of them captive and little by little there was a captivity
that took place taking the Jews out of their homeland and taking
them over to the land of the Assyrians which was also known
as Babylon which is today is known as Iraq and little by little
they were taken away the Assyrians eventually fell to the Babylonians
and the Babylonians eventually fell to the Medo-Persian Empire
until finally in 586 BC Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple
was leveled to the ground, this important place of worship that
God had given to Solomon and it became the goal of Solomon's
life to build this magnificent edifice, this great temple, this
place of worship, the place of sacrifice, the place where the
people met with God, the place where God's Word was declared,
and it was leveled. And so by 586, it was destroyed. Now, when the medial Persian
Empire came in and took over from the Babylonian Empire, there
was a king by the name of Cyrus. And Cyrus was, for whatever reason,
probably political or he didn't want to deal with the Jews, but
the Jews looked upon him as being generous toward them. And he
let them return to their homeland. And so even though there was
opposition from the Jews, under the leadership of Haggai and
Zechariah, and that's what those two books are about, they rebuilt
the temple and it was finished in 586 B.C. And then, about 60 years later,
there was a man whose name is Ezra who came onto the scene.
And Ezra, who was still over in Babylon, came over to his
homeland, and he was there in order to restore the people and
instruct the people. And we won't take time to look
it up, but if you were to look back in the book of Ezra, in
chapter 7, in verse 6 and in verse 10, two times he is referred
to as a scribe. The first time he is referred
to as a ready scribe. You ever heard that little phrase
before? That he was a ready scribe? Well, that word ready is a word
that means that he was a skillful scribe. And he was skillful in
the Scriptures. He knew the Scriptures. He understood
the Scriptures. He opened the scriptures and
read them to the people. It was a momentous thing when
they opened the law and read the law openly. to the people
in a language that they could hear and they could understand.
He was a ready scribe means that he was a skillful scribe. Now that word skillful is going
to come back to us a little bit later in my message. So I want
you to kind of keep that in your mind. And it tells us in that
same passage in verse 10, not only he was a skillful scribe,
but he was there to teach Israel the statutes and the judgments
of God. He was to teach them the requirements
and the conditions of the law, and he was there to teach them
what it took to be just before God. That's why he talks about
the judgments of God. And then from Ezra down to the
end of the Old Testament, we come to a man by the name of
Malachi who came to begin his preaching in about 420 years
before Christ, and he continued in the same vein as Ezra being
a skillful scribe and teaching the Word of God. Now these scribes,
listen to me now, these scribes were to be caretakers of God's
written Word. They were to repeatedly, repeatedly
write these scriptures over and over and over again. Hebrew is
written from the right to the left and they had it numbered
Every single jot and tittle, which was just a little mark,
every jot and tittle and letter was numbered from the left to
the right in every line. They knew exactly how many we
were supposed to be. They knew exactly how many letters
it was supposed to be from the top to the bottom and the bottom
to the top. They had it measured out. They knew exactly what it was
supposed to be. They were to be zealous defenders
of God's Word. They were to be true teachers
of the people. But do you know what happened?
Instead of being zealous defenders and true teachers of God's Word,
they became the primary authors of what became known in the New
Testament as the Traditions. And the Traditions were, instead
of God's Word, they were interpretations of God's Word. And they developed
nearly 500 interpretations of God's Word, many of them having
to do with the Sabbath. And so instead of leading the
people into light, these traditions resulted in a legalistic system
that plunged this nation into deeper and deeper and deeper
darkness. the lack of knowledge, the lack
of understanding, the inability to declare a clear, simple, plain
message as to what God is about and what His Messiah that was
promised into this world is about. The scribes began as a scholarly
group from the priests and the Levites. But by the time of Christ,
By the time of Christ, they have become a class unto themselves. So that when you read the New
Testament, it's the scribes and the Pharisees. It's the scribes
and the Sadducees. It's the scribes and the Sanhedrin
court. It didn't start that way, but
it ended that way. Now, I want to say something
to you. They knew the letter of the law. But they did not
know the spirit of God's law. They loved to be called lawyers
and rabbis and doctors of the law. They were our today's reverends
and doctors. I drive by often a very, very
plain, very plain, simple little church building. little Baptist
independent church building and I've seen over the time they've
gone through more than one pastor that I've been going by there
and for the last several months they have a new pastor there
and he has a doctorate degree apparently and so it's Dr. so-and-so and the congregation
welcome you to church to worship whatever they say he wants everybody
to know he wants that community to know he is a doctor He loves
to be called doctor. He gives him credibility to be
called doctor. Or men to be called reverend.
But there's only one reverend. There's only one reverend, and
that's God Himself. I'm not a reverend. I've never been a reverend. I'll
never be a reverend. There's nothing reverend about me. There's
only one reverend, and that's God Almighty Himself. Men love The honor of other men. These men, these scribes, wore
clothing that was like those of nobility. So Jesus talks about
these scribes. You'll read about them, particularly
in Matthew 23. And he talks about them loving
to wear garments that are long and flowing and draw attention
to themselves. Why is that? Because they want
to be seen of men. They want to honor men. What
does Jesus say about the apostle, rather about the prophet John,
John the Baptist? He refers to him as the greatest
of prophets and he said he wasn't like a reed that was blown back
and forth. No sir, he was a man that was
strong and straight and stood alone and stood by himself. And
he announced the word of God to his generation. These men,
these men, loved the recognition of other men. Jesus gave in Matthew
23 a seven woe judgment. If you read it, seven woes or
seven judgments. And in there he called these
scribes hypocrites. He called them two-fold child
children of hell. He called them blind guides.
He called them fools. He called them serpents and a
generation of vipers. He had strong words for these
men. And these were men who were instrumental in the capture and
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. You read about them.
These scribes that began with the authority of taking care
of God's Word became men who were responsible for crucifying
the very one the book that they were handling talked about. What
was their central problem? There is a central problem. You
always want to get down to the central issue of a matter. Aren't
you like that? And that's the way we ought to
be. Well, I'm trying to get down and say, well, what is the central issue?
What's the central problem? I'm going to show you what it
is. I want you to look with me over to the book of Luke. Luke's Gospel, Chapter 11. What is the central issue? With the scribes. Luke, Chapter
11. Look with me in verse 46. I won't
try to read all this, but it's important. 46, Woe unto you also,
ye lawyers. Lawyers were scribes, you men
of the law. For you laid men with burdens
grievous to be born, and you yourselves touched not the burdens
with one of your fingers. Is there anything worse than
being lazy? I mean to be just out and out and lazy, and to
think you're better than others so that you'll give work for
others to do that they will not do, particularly in the world
of religion. Woe unto you, for you build sepulchers
of the prophets, and your fathers killed these very prophets. Truly
you bear witness that you allow thieves of your fathers, for
they indeed kill them, and you build their sepulchers. Therefore
also, said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and
apostles, and some of them they will slay and persecute, that
the blood of all the prophets that shed from the foundation
of the world may be required of this generation. For from
the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias, which perished
between the altars and the temple, verily I say unto you, it shall
be required of this generation." Now here it is, "'Woe unto you,
lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You entered not into yourselves
and them that were entering that you hindered." In other words,
you took away the key of knowledge and those who were coming close
to and seeking to enter in, you took away from them too. You
not only did not enter in yourselves, but you were a deceiver and led
others away from entering into the kingdom. It's a strong, strong
statement against them. The key of knowledge. The key
of knowledge. The key of knowledge. That's
their central issue. These men were to be men of knowledge. But they took away the key of
knowledge. Come back with me to our text.
Well, actually, I want you to turn with me over to 2 Timothy. Turn with me to 2 Timothy. I'm going to pronounce a Greek
word for you. I don't do this often. I try to do it not much,
but I want to pronounce a couple of Greek words for you just so
you can hear the distinction between these words. The word
scribe is the Greek word grammatos. Grammatos. And the root word
of gramatas is grama. So you have grama and gramatas. A gramatas is a noun and it refers
to a man of the letters. Whereas grama is a word that
refers to letters or to a writing. So a gramatas was a man of letters. He was a man of writings. He
was a man of the writings. He was a man of the Scriptures.
So, when this title came to be Grammatas, scribes, they were
men of the Scriptures. Responsibility to write them,
protect them, understand them, and declare them. Men of the
Scriptures. The scribes were to have one
toolbox. It wasn't the poets. It wasn't to be our day's positive
thinkers. And it wasn't to be other preachers. He had one toolbox. Everybody
has a toolbox. Of some kind, whatever work you
do. And this toolbox of the grammators. were the Scriptures themselves.
They were supposed to be. But instead of being satisfied
with the Scriptures themselves, they developed these traditions,
these 500 or so interpretations of the Scriptures, and so those
traditions became parallel to or even superseded the Scriptures.
Instead of referring to the Scriptures, they referred to the traditions. And so if you tell somebody that
I believe that God of His own choice chose a people from the
foundation of the world. And I believe that Jesus Christ
came to this world and He died for those people and He took
their sin and He earned righteousness that God reckoned to their account
as soon as He completed His work and He justified them at the
cross. And in time he reveals this truth to them, so that they
know it and understand it. You know one of the first questions
they'll ask you? Who else believes this? Who else believes this? Are you the only man in America
that believes this? Who else believes this? Because their authority is not
the grandma. Let me show you something. Look here in 2 Timothy 2, verse
15. Paul writing to Timothy, chapter
3, 2 Timothy 3, verse 15. Let me start with 14. Continue in
the things which you have learned, and you have been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Meaning, first of all,
his mother, his grandmother, and then Paul himself. And from
a child thou hast known the Scriptures. You know what that word Scripture
is? Gramma. And these Scriptures are able
to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. What is the purpose of the Gramma? It is to make a man wise unto
God's salvation. It is to help him to see God's
election before the foundation of the world, His justification
at the cross, and regeneration in time. Wise unto salvation. And how does he see it? How does
he understand it? He understands it through faith. Faith is the window by which
he sees this salvation which is in Christ Jesus and
not outside of Christ Jesus. There is no salvation outside
of Christ Jesus. Then when you come to verse 16,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
When Paul used this word scripture, he moved from the word grama
to another word, but it's just a plural word for the grama,
and it's the grafe. But the grama and the grafe are
the same thing. And here he used it and he said,
all scripture. Notice he added in this encompassing
word, all scripture. All of the Old Testament scripture.
that Peter said came not of men of old, of their own will, but
it came as they were moved along by the Spirit of God. All of
the writings of the Old Testament, they are God-breathed. That's
what it means. They are inspired of God. And
here are the four things that the grammatos, the scribe, has
in his toolbox, which is the Scripture. These four things,
doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.
Now, I don't have time to do justice to these four things,
but let me talk for just a minute about these four things. Now,
when I say a minute, I don't mean 60 seconds. I mean a little
time. Doctrine. Doctrine is profitable
for doctrine. You know what profit is. I don't
have to tell you what profit is. It means the same thing that
you know it is. Profitable for doctrine. What
is doctrine? Doctrine is a word that means
teaching. To most people, doctrine is cold, dry, distasteful. But do you know what God said
through Moses? He said, My doctrine shall fall as the dew. Dew is
moist. Refreshing. Encouraging. It causes life. You go into the
average place of Christendom, there's no doctrine there. Whatever
doctrine they had that started that little group, they've lost
their doctrine. What is the primary doctrine
of the Old Testament? It's the Messiah's coming. What's
the primary doctrine of the New Testament? Messiah's come. We're
always looking to the past. That's one reason that there's
not a lot of affinity with us. We're always talking about what
has happened. What people want to know is what can God do for
me? What can God do for me? I watched Charles Stanley, just
a snippet this morning, and he said, God has all the power to
do for you whatever you want Him to do. It's all about what
God is doing today. But that's not what the New Testament
is about. It's about what the Messiah has done. He was satisfaction
to justice and substitute for chosen sinners. It was narrow
in that he came not for every individual world without exception,
but it is broad that he came for all men without exclusion
to race, heritage, and so forth. And his work was complete in
that God had approved what he did, accepted it, and he established
justice and reckoned it to his people is complete. And so that
his people were justified. That's a little bit about doctrine.
But not only for doctrine, but it's also profitable for reproof.
What is reproof? It is when you lose... It's when
you don't know doctrine. When you've lost the sight of
doctrine. When you begin to veer away from
doctrine. You become disinterested in doctrine. You declare the
scriptures. You read the scriptures. The
agrammatos brings you back to the Scriptures, and you're reproved
by it. Scripture reveals heresies in
religious superstition and error. We live in a day of sloganized
religion. Everybody's trying to make it
as simple as they possibly can. There's a sign on a religious
building close to us that says, redemption, colon, God's recycling
plant. God's recycling plant? That's
what redemption is. On the way down here, we saw
a sign that says, Be ye fishers of men. You catch them, you'll
clean them. Sloganized religion. We saw a
Church of Christ. If you know anything about Church
of Christ doctrine, you know that these two things cannot
go together. But it was Liberty Church of Christ. There's no
liberty in Church of Christ. It's the very opposite. They're
trying to bind you up, keep you under the law. There's no liberty
there. Sloganized religion is what rules
our day. And what scripture does is it
reproves. It reproves error prone man. And for that reason, Paul said,
woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. The gospel. That's what it's all about. I
don't preach to you law, I preach to you gospel. But modern preachers
are satisfied to feather their nest on the back of culturalized
religion and scratch behind the ears of those who have itching
ears. We live in a day of religious mercenaries, stooges, pawns,
false prophets, just like the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes
of the day of our Lord. But the man of God is furnished
with a two-edged sword, the Word of God. And what is it Paul says
here? Look down in the fourth chapter, verse 2. What does he
say? Preach. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. Because that's
all you have. That's your toolbox. It not only
will set you straight with doctrine, but it will reprove you when
you're wrong, but it will also help you. Look at this next word.
Profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction. This word correction, we get
the word, well the Greek word is ortho. So orthodontics, to
straighten things out. Straighten out your teeth, for
example. The purpose of the study and preaching is not condemnation,
but correction. However, for us to pass through
the road of correction, we must also go through the valley of
contrition for pain. difficulty to be brought to a
close understanding. We often have to suffer considerable
pain, agony of soul, to come to the knowledge of the truth. We have a young man, say a young
man, he's in his thirties now, came to our congregation many
years ago when he was in his twenties. He left for a number
of years and he came back. But by this time he had married
someone who wanted no part, no part of what we believed. He tried coming back, but eventually
he stopped coming. Hasn't been with us for a long
time now. I would imagine that he's going somewhere with his
little family to a place where he knows he's being lied to.
He knows he's not being told the truth. I tell you, it's hard. Correction is hard. It's painful. I would never tell you that it's
easy. But if Scripture is for doctrine, is for reproof, and
it is for correction, for us to pass through and come to the
knowledge of the grace and the knowledge of Christ and what
He's done is difficult but pleasant in the end. But David had to
pass through it. And David said, though it not be so with my house,
this is all my salvation. His whole house turned against
him. But he had to go through it.
He had to go through it. Not only for doctrine, not only
for reproof, not only for correction, one more thing, instruction in
righteousness. What does he mean when he says
righteousness? He's not talking about the righteous character
of God, though the righteous character of God is a part of
it. He's talking about, I'm quite certain, that righteousness of
God wherein the gospel is revealed. The same thing that he's talking
about in Romans 1, 16 and 17. Now, notice it's the gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. He could have said the law wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. If he were doing that, he would
have talked about the righteous character of God, and that already
had that. But now that the Lord Jesus Christ has come, it's the
gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. In this righteousness,
it is revealed how God was both just and a justifier of His people. And when He became just, He became
justifier. There is no separation between
Him becoming just by the means of the satisfaction of Christ
He became just by that propitiation and he became justifier at the
same time. To separate those two is to take
a penknife to the scriptures that we have no right to take.
Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would bring in everlasting righteousness. He did that by obeying all of
God's requirements and enduring all of its penalties. And when he was finished enduring
all of those penalties, all of that suffering, all of that obedience,
there was one thing that remained. Righteousness. It's the remainder. Having passed through the fire,
righteousness remained. God accepted it. God had imputed
it. And everyone to whom it was imputed,
it can be said they are just before God. Now Paul reprimanded
the false prophets of his day as being unskillful, unskillful
in the word of righteousness. You remember what it says about
Ezra? It says that Ezra was a ready scribe. What does that word mean?
A skillful scribe. He was skillful in the word of
righteousness. He was skillful in telling them
not only about God's character, but he was skillful in telling
them about the righteous one who would come by which God would
justify his people. God's righteousness is the centerpiece
of our message. But if it is not the centerpiece
of the message, that man is unskillful. If imputation is separated from
the establishment of righteousness, he is unskillful. If imputation
is conditioned upon faith, he is unskillful. If imputation
of righteousness upon the completion of the obedience of Christ at
the cross isn't a declaration, that preacher is unskillful in
the word of righteousness. And do you know what that man
has done? Listen to me now. He has taken away the key of
knowledge. That is the key of knowledge.
If you understand righteousness, you understand how it was established,
you understand when it was established and when it was imputed, that
is the key of knowledge. And those scribes had taken it
away. Turn back with me on our text and I'll finish it up. Jesus said, therefore every scribe, instructed in the kingdom of
heaven is like a man that is a householder in verse 52 of
13 Matthew. He brings forth treasure out
of his treasure. He brings forth treasure new
and old. He called them scribes because
they understood the kingdom. He called them scribes because
they were to take on the role of protector and interpreter.
And it passed away from that organization that began back
in the day of David, and had lost all of its order and all
of its direction in the day of our Lord. And it passed away
from that group, and His disciples became the scribes. And I say
to you that it is passed from them to us to be protectors,
defenders, those who understand and those who declare God's Word.
And he said that the scribe is like a householder. What is a
householder? He is the man who is over a house
to oversee. He is to oversee God's truth,
God's Word, God's justice, how God's justice was satisfied.
And he is to bring forth. That's what it says. He's like
a householder who brings forth out of his treasure. The treasure
is the gospel in the Word of God. And he brings out of this
household, he brings forth treasure. And it's new and old. Truth is
always the same. It's new and old. From Genesis
to Revelation, it's the same. It tells of what God did in Christ
to save a people from the penalties of their sins. It tells of how
his effectual enlightenment regarding them has done to bring them into
an understanding and bring them to faith. That's what it's all
about. Go back with me to the beginning,
if you would, please. Go back with me to the end of
the twelfth chapter. Let me try to bring this to a
conclusion. Jesus said to his mother and
to his earthly brothers, Whosoever shall do the will of my Father
which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and
mother. Now I ask you, what is it to
do the will of the Father as understood in Matthew 13. Now,
having seen these parables, having heard me talk about these parables,
what is it to do the will of the Father? Well, I would enjoy
hearing what you say, but I'll show you a quick little synopsis
of what it is. Look to verse 23. It is the accomplishment
of God's Word, and in verse 23, It is 1323, not 12, but 1323. He then received the seed into
the good ground. The good ground was the prepared
ground. You have four kinds of ground in this parable. Only
one kind of ground did he prepare to receive the seed. He that
received the seed is the good ground. He hears the word and
understands it. Here are three words. Hearing
the word, understanding the word, and receiving the word. That's
what it is to do the will of the Father. It is to hear it
with your ear and with your heart, with your mind. It is to understand
it with your mind, so that you can say in your mind that you
know who God is, what He's done in Christ, why Christ came to
this world, who He came for, what He accomplished. Hearing, understanding, And it
is followed by receiving. What does this word receive?
It is a word that means to embrace with your mind, with your affections,
with your will, with your whole consciousness. The Greek word,
it means to take. It could be anything. To take
a shovel or to take this book. It's to take with your hand.
But to take The Word of God is to take it into your heart. It's
metaphorical. It's to take it in so that it's
in your understanding. It's in your affections. It's
in your will. You're not just going through
the motions. No, sir. It is to understand it. It is
to hear and believe the gospel of sin put away, righteousness
earned and imputed upon the condition of Christ alone. That's what
it is. to do the will of the Father. And when Jesus asked his disciples
in this last of the parables, have you understood? He's asking
them, have you done the will of the Father? Let us all, let
us all see that we're scribes to our generation. Our toolbox
is the Word of God. Let us declare to our generation
and to one another again and again this gospel that tells
of what God has accomplished in His dear and blessed Son,
the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us go on loving one another. Let us pray for one another.
Let us support and uphold one another in this dark day of false
religion. Let's pray together. Our Father, would you bless your
word to our hearts, make it clear to us, understandable to us.
Would you enable us to be careful defenders of thy word and message
to one another and to our generation for the sake and glory of Christ
alone. Amen.