Turn with me back to Matthew
13, the Gospel of Matthew, the 13th chapter where we read. I want to go back and read one
of the verses. And this verse has the response
of Christ when these men ask Him why He speaks to the multitudes
in parable. In verse 11, it says, He answered
and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."
Now we live in a generation of people who look to God as if
He were a kind of spare tire. He'll be there if you need Him. And they've been told endlessly
that salvation is based on their decision, on their free will,
on their choice. And they think they already know
God. They think that they know all
that there is needful to know about it, because they know that
God is love. And therefore, they think that
they can come to Him whenever they want to, and that they are
able to accept Jesus when they feel like it. But the Bible shows
that they are very wrong, sadly wrong, dangerously wrong. And like so many other places
in this book, our text here today shows it. Christ often spoke
and taught in these parables. But most that heard him, they
did not understand, they did not truly know the message. And it is the same with the gospel. Not only do we have what is said
in this parable, but we have in the midst of it, Christ telling
us exactly what it represents. There are some that hear now,
it says, because he commanded them to hear. And when he gave
that command for them to hear, he joined it with the ability
to hear. Hear ye therefore the parable
of the sower." And the fact that no man can of themselves hear
in this spiritual sense, it does not relieve them of the responsibility. He says this is the fulfillment
of Isaiah's prophecy that men would have ears But they wouldn't
hear. And they would see, but they
would not perceive. And here's the reason for it.
For this people's heart is wax gross, and their ears are dull
of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. They've closed their
eyes. Their blindness lies in a natural
unwillingness to see. We have a saying. And it is true. We say there is none so blind
as the one who will not see. This is a willing blindness. And these in our text, they learned
the meaning of this parable, and not just this parable, but
a lot of other things concerning Christ, because Christ revealed
it to them. He revealed it to them. And that is exactly what He has
to do if you and I are ever to hear and to see and to understand
the things of God. the good news of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. And we have to be confronted
with this reality of our condition. And not only that, we have also
to be confronted with this plain statement about the sovereignty
of God in grace. I don't know how it could be
any plainer than this. Unto you it is given, but unto
them it is not given. In other words, if we have any
understanding of the truth, if we have any real knowledge as
to who God is and what it is that Christ has accomplished,
it's because God revealed it to us. He reveals it to us. He said, it is given unto you
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
it is not And all you have to do is turn back just a couple
of chapters and you'll read where Christ says much the same thing
in chapter 11 in the face of so many, even described as virtually
whole cities. who didn't believe on Him. And
it says, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee,
O Father. This is Matthew 11, verse 25. I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, blessed Sovereign over all, because Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast reveal
them unto Babes. reveal Him. What we must have
is a divine revelation. And this is what Paul is talking
about when he writes in the epistle to the Ephesians in that first
chapter. And he says to them, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having
made known unto us. He made known to these believers
at Ephesus. And he makes known to all his
people in all times, having made known unto us the mystery of
his will according to the good pleasure, to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself. He makes known this mystery or
these mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to his people. He reveals them to us. And one
instance of that is when the apostle Peter, when asked by
Christ who men were saying that he was, he responded with the
various opinions and actions of men, and then Christ says
this to him, but who do you say that I am? Peter said, you are
the Christ, the son of the living God. And our Lord said to him
at that moment, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is
in heaven. You are a blessed man. I hear
lots of folks talking about how they're blessed. How are you? I'm blessed. Not if you don't
have this revelation of God. To know who God is in Christ. And we also see and find in this,
that it is the gift of His grace to you, He says, is given. Not natural. He said it's given. And it's sovereign grace because
He says, and to them, it's not given. Why? Because He gives
it to whom He will. He'll be gracious to whom He
will. And we know also that this has
to do with a kind of knowledge. I know there are some who make
little of knowledge and make much of experience, but if it
is not an experience based on knowledge, it's just mere emotion. He said, it is given to you to
know. And that means not only to know
in the sense of having knowledge of, but also to understand, to
delight in it, to be assured by it. He said, it is given to
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Mysteries. That means not simply those things
that heretofore were not revealed or made manifest, but this means
that they must be revealed. God has to reveal them to us.
And if you turn over, hold your place there, and turn over to
John chapter 3 when Nicodemus comes to the Lord Jesus by night. And he comes as a man who thinks
he knows something. As a matter of fact, he is himself
a teacher of men. And he looks at Christ and talks
to Christ as his equal. He says, we know, Rabbi, which
means teacher. We know that you come from God,
because no man could do these miracles that you do, except
God be with him. Look at what Christ says. Jesus
answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born again, or birth from above, He cannot see the
Kingdom of God. And just so you don't misunderstand
what is being said here, although Nicodemus did not understand,
because he immediately replies by an example of his own natural
knowledge, he says, How can a man be born when he's old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? You see, no natural explanation
for this will do. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
responds in verse 5 by saying this, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter. into the Kingdom of God. In other
words, apart from a work of God, and that work is a work of God's
Spirit through the Word of God, giving this life and faith and
understanding that only God can give, you cannot see and you
cannot enter the Kingdom of God. You can't enter in to the things
of the Kingdom of God. And this isn't something that
was new in Christ's day. This is the way it had been all
the way back to the early books of Scripture. Because he tells
us in Deuteronomy 29, he says, the secret things belong unto
the Lord our God. There are some secret things.
You and I will never know them. And the reason why is they can
only be known by the infinite God. But not everything's secret. He says, that they might believe. There
everyone, the scripture says, taught of God, born from above. And that was the experience of
the man that we have who was used of God to write the better
part of the New Testament. Paul's own testimony was this. to the church at Galatia. He
said, but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me, he said,
that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood. Whenever God is pleased to His
people to reveal to them the truth as it is in Christ Jesus,
they don't... Go to somebody else for a second
opinion. They don't need to. They don't
want to. And the only opinion that they
will believe is what God has revealed to them from this book. He said, I confer not with flesh
and blood. He said, I didn't even go find
Peter or James or John or any of them. Why? Because God had
revealed his son not only to Paul, But in Paul, in his mind,
in his heart. And these mysteries that Christ
talks about here, these are the mysteries which God's elect are
given to know, and they have to do with the Kingdom of God,
the Kingdom of Heaven. I remember hearing once where
somebody, in their efforts to set things the way they wanted
them, in their own little scheme, they said there's a difference
between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. Oh no,
there's not. Because in parallel texts in
the New Testament, in the Gospel accounts, sometimes it will be
Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven has to do with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they're made known to them
by the Spirit of Truth. That's what the Holy Spirit does. In other words, the Spirit of
Truth, Christ said, when He's come, He'll take the things of
Christ, which, by the way, are the things of the Kingdom, and
what'll He do? Show them unto you. Reveal them
unto you. In other words, open your eyes. Make you willing in
the day of His power. give you understanding that you
may know Him that is true, and to know Him that's true, that's
eternal life. Isaiah said it like this, Who
hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord? This report is proclaimed, but
just like it's spoken of in this parable as the seed, the sower
that goes forth with the precious seed of the Word, that seed that
is spoken of in the Proverbs, he that goeth forth weeping bearing
precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing
with him his sheep." It's the Word of God. It's the things
of Christ. And he tells us, he says in Luke
16, the law and the prophets were until John, but since that
time, The Kingdom of God is preached. When we preach the Gospel, we
preach the Kingdom of God. In Mark chapter 1, he says, Now
after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching
the Kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom
of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe the gospel. The kingdom is characterized
by the coming of the gospel, by the proclamation of that good
news that is in Christ Jesus and him crucified to a people
who God has purposed to be the subjects of this kingdom. Luke
7, he says, I say unto you, among those that are born of women,
there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he
that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. That simply means that these
in the kingdom have a greater revelation and are given a greater
understanding of who Christ is and God's salvation, even more
so than John the Baptist. You see, it has to do with the
knowledge. of who God is. God must reveal
Himself to us. In other words, we come even
to this book and we read the words just as words on the page,
but until He shines the light into our soul and causes us to
see really what He's saying here. Isaiah said, in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. How did you see Him, Isaiah?
high and lifted up. He wasn't some good little Jesus
buddy. He was high and lifted up and
his train filled the temple and all the created creatures around
the throne cried, holy, holy, holy. It's the knowledge of the
mercy that he's shown to us in Christ and saved us from our
sins through the death of Christ. That he has predestinated us
to be conformed to Christ and chose us in Christ and works
all things to that end so that it glorifies him. We're still
talking about what we do, what we felt. What we did, we've never
seen it. Because when Isaiah saw him high
and lifted up, the next thing he said was this, woe is me. I'm a man, I'm unclean, and I
dwell in the midst of an unclean people. And this kingdom is to
be desired above everything else. It's to be sought after and valued. and esteemed, more valuable,
and more precious than anything else." I said, don't be fretting
about what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, where
you're going to go. All these things that you know
and I know are so natural to us. He said, seek ye first. the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you. Seek first the
Kingdom of God, not where even you're going to get your next
meal, or your next dollar, or what you're going to do for your
children, or your parents, or your husband, or your wife, not
any of these things first. He said, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. He that hath given us his Son,
shall he not also, Paul says, with him freely give us all things? Just like Christ says there,
this kingdom has to do with righteousness. It has to do with that gift of
righteousness which God gives to these people, these subjects
in his kingdom, this righteousness of the King himself. Abraham
was returning from the slaughter of the kings. The Bible says
that he met this man, this most unique man, by the name of Melchizedek. And he was, from that day, never
the same, really, after having met this glorious personage who
was either a type and picture of Christ or the pre-incarnate
son of God himself. You know what his name was? His
name was Melchizedek, which means King of Righteousness, and King
of Salem, which is King of Peace. He's the King of Righteousness.
And this kingdom is the kingdom that He rules over all things,
but especially that He establishes in the hearts of His people.
He sets up His throne. In Hebrews it says, But unto
the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Now you think about that. The
scepter is that which is held in the king's hand, but it is
also that which characterizes the sum of his kingdom, his glory. What's the scepter in Christ's
hand? It's a scepter of righteousness.
You remember Esther? She was not supposed to go before
the king and ask for anything uninvited or uncommanded to come. And all the king had to do was
not hold up his scepter, and whoever came in that way, they
were taken out and slain. But when Esther came, the king
raised that scepter. She knew by it that she was welcome
to come. And that's the way it is with
the king of glory. In that righteousness which he
accomplishes in himself, a sinner, all the bride, the church which
Esther represents, they all can come freely. to the throne of
His grace. That's what the gospel's about.
Men reduce it down to a mere invitation. They reduce it down
to three statements about Christ. They do all kinds of things.
But Paul said it like this. He said, I'm not ashamed to preach
the gospel. I'm going to preach it as a debtor
to the Jew and to the Gentile. I'm not ashamed to preach it
to anybody. Why? For therein, in the gospel,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. In other
words, the gospel that is a declaration of good news that is based on
sound justice is a message that tells us how God can be just
and at the same time justify sinners like us. How could we
ever have any peace in our hearts? I'm talking about real peace.
If we did not know that the debt of our sin had truly and really
been paid to the justice of God to the extent that he's fully
satisfied. That He is now righteous to receive
us in Christ. That He has made Him to be sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You see, the Gospel of the Kingdom,
before it ever talks about service to the King, tells us how we've
been served by the king. You say, what do you mean? I
mean that Christ, the scripture says, humbled himself and took
on himself the form of a servant and was obedient to God, obedient
even unto death. and having served us, He saved
us. So that what we receive when
the Spirit of God reveals the Kingdom of God to us, what we
receive and understand first of all is what He's given us. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter
2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and listen
to what the Apostle Paul writes to these believers at Corinth
who had a multitude of problems. Now he doesn't hesitate in all
these verses to deal with some of those problems that they had,
those failures that they had, but he never writes to them and
addresses them or puts doubt upon them or suspicion of them,
but he calls them the saints that are at Corinth. I always
think how amazing it is in light of how preaching is in our day. I always find it so amazing that
to these who had problems with immorality and various things,
that Christ writes to them and addresses them as the saints
at Corinth, and then he writes to these in Galatia who have
mixed law and grace and works and grace, and he looks at them
and says, I'm in doubt of you. But in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse
7, Paul said that the big shots in this world, the kings, the
leaders, all these people in this world who think so highly
of themselves, they were the ones that took the Lord Jesus
Christ out and crucified Him. Why? They didn't know. Doesn't
make them less responsible. But they showed in the fact that
they took him out and hung him on the cross and killed him,
they didn't know who he was. They didn't know what Peter knew.
Why? Because he hadn't revealed it to them. So in verse 7, Paul
says, he says, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Christ is called the wisdom of
God. And that wisdom has to do with
how He, as God, infinitely holy and inflexibly just, can save
us and do so So he says, we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world under our glory. This isn't something Johnny come
lately. This is the eternal purpose.
This flowed out of the eternal counsels and foreordained purpose
of God Almighty. It was always the gift of His
grace to His people. This kingdom that He establishes
in and around the king of glory himself. He says, which none
of the princes of this world knew. For had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, see that
next verse, but God hath revealed them unto us. Now what is he
talking about there? He's talking about just exactly
who Christ is, and what He actually accomplished when He came in
this world, and who He actually accomplished it for, and where
He is now because of that. He says, But as it is written,
I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. I don't know what's in you. Don't
know much about what's in me that I'm willing to admit. You
don't know. Me, to some degree, in my spirit,
I know. And he says, likewise, no man
knows the things of God, save the Spirit of God. For what man
knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which
is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know. There's that knowledge again,
that we might be assured of, have understanding of, that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Somebody said, well, the Spirit
of God has to lead you in what you to do in your life. Well,
that's true, but not first. Not even the priority. You see, He has to first reveal
to us, and I might add continually reveal to us, because we're always
by this old flesh going back to the things that we do, the
things that we feel, that we might know the things that are
freely given unto us of God. What are they? All things, all
the things of salvation and righteousness given in Christ. Which things
also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but
which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual, but the natural man receives not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them, because they're spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judgeth all things. Now, a lady told me once years
ago about a certain church in the town, and she said all the
spiritual people go there. No. All of Christ's people, all
who are born of God, they're spiritual. They're born of His
Spirit. They're taught by the Spirit
of God. He says, "...the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned." But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself
is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of
Christ. We have the mind of God as it's
revealed in Christ. We have the will of God as it
is in Christ. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all that He'd given me, I'll lose none and
raise them up at the last day. You see, God in sovereign grace
has given us to know that as unrighteous sinners, we're to
submit ourselves to the righteousness of God in Christ. We're to bow
to the King and receive of His righteousness enter into his
kingdom, know of a certainty that it is not having to do with
external and earthly things. He said, my kingdom is not of
this world, that if it were, my servants would take up the
sword and fight. There are a lot of folks who
are trying to do that to this day, but it's not truly in the
name of the Lord. It doesn't have anything to do
with his righteous kingdom. Paul says that it is just the
opposite. He tells us in Romans chapter
14 and verse 17, he says, for the kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. It's not outward things, not
politics, not earthly pleasures. He said it's righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now that's a very easy thing
to determine in light of Scripture. Who is righteousness? Christ,
who is the Lord, our righteousness. What is true peace? The peace
that He made by the blood of His cross. And what is true joy? The revelation of Christ and
Him crucified in our souls. There is nothing that can bring
true joy to any son or daughter of Adam more than the knowledge
that Christ in grace and love came and died for our sins, according
to the Scripture. that God accepted it on our behalf
and raised Him up and seated Him at the right hand of the
majesty on high. So that right now I'm already
in heaven if I'm in Christ. You say, but we're on this earth
and it's a drag. It sure is. But really we're
in Christ seated in the heavenlies in our heads. We have prospect. We don't have to fear facing
God because our sins are no more. And he's promised us an eternal
inheritance. No need to grovel over a little
piece of land or a few trinkets or a handful of money that gets
more and more less valuable every day. He's given us all things
freely in Christ. Not this health and wealth gospel
of our day, but he reveals the truth. And when he was demanded
of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered
them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation,
neither shall they say lo here or lo there. For behold, the
kingdom of God is within you, among you. The king is there. The kingdom is there. The kingdom
of God is where his king is. It's in the king himself. It's
where he's enthroned upon the heart of humble, conquered sinners. And we know it's not some future
kingdom alone. It's an eternal kingdom. And
God has set Christ the king on his holy hill, as the psalmist
said. Thy throne, O God. is forever
and ever. We know that one day in the future
it will be manifested openly in the glory that is His, but
He's already revealed it and is revealing it to His people. God puts us in this kingdom and
gives us to know that this kingdom is the kingdom of His Son. Paul says to the Colossian, giving
thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet or fit to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Just because the masses
do not see and cannot enter into the things of the kingdom of
God, does not change the fact that he makes it a reality in
the hearts of his people. Not something that we conjure
up. It's something that is there
and real that God reveals to us. It is the only thing that
is real and true. If there's one thing you find
out about this world as you get older, it is that the things
that you thought were true Evidently, they weren't true. But the things
of God's kingdom, from the time He first begins to reveal to
us the King, we're found more and more seeing how true and
how real and how lasting and how genuine that kingdom is. The king is everything in his
kingdom. And when we are found, taught
of God, looking to the king, resting in him, pleading only
his blood shed for our sins, only his righteousness imputed
to us as the whole of our acceptance before God, we know ourselves
to be in his kingdom. We love the king. I've said for
a long time, rather than let me elect a president, give me
a benevolent, gracious king. All his people, they behold the
king in his glory. Why? Because he reveals himself. My prayer is that God will reveal
himself to all who hear me. I know in a general sense that
that won't happen. But evidently, if he sends somebody
out to preach the gospel of this kingdom, somebody's fixing to
meet the king. And it'll be the king in his
glory. Father, this morning we thank
you for this one who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We thank you for the kingdom
of your grace, for making your people the subjects of this gracious
King to receive everything, all that they need and all that they
could ever want at his gracious hand. We thank you for he is
our King Redeemer. our King Savior, the King of
righteousness, and because of that, the King of peace. Establish
your rule and your reign in our hearts. Give us eyes to see,
ears to hear, cause us to know and to understand the things
of Christ. For to know Him is to know you
as the true and living God and to have eternal life. In this
kingdom, no one ever dies eternally. They may die physically, but
they will not remain dead. But He'll raise us up, assemble
us around the throne that we might honor our King. Help us,
we pray. Cause your spirit to do that
revealing work in each heart. Teach us. Give us that understanding
that we might glorify you and praise you and thank you forever.
For we ask it all in our King, in whose name we pray. Amen.