Matthew 13, go back there with
me. Matthew 13, I was reading just
for my own enjoyment, Matthew 25, and the Lord said these words
there, and I looked it up, and it's recorded five times. Five
times. Verse 12 is the verse that really
caught my attention. It is quoted five times. Whosoever hath to him shall be
given, or more that he hath, he shall have more abundance. And whosoever hath not from him
shall be taken away, even that he hath. What the Lord is speaking
of and all through we just read is hearing the word, receiving
it, faith. If you really have God-given
faith, I hope I do. I hope you do too. I believe
many of you do. He said, you'll be given more. And it'll bear fruit, some a
hundred, some sixty, some thirty. I want to bear fruit. I want
the fruit of love. I need love. I need more love.
Joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Don't you? Now herein is your
Father glorified that you bear much fruit. I want to love God
more. I want to love you more. And
on and on it goes. Peace. I want peace that the
world can't take away. And that's just faith in Christ,
faith in God. So he says, he that hath, more
will be given. And but he that hath not. And in Mark's gospel, it says
he that seems to have faith is going to be taken away. If there's
not that real God given faith, it's going to be taken away.
And so that's. Frightening, isn't it? I want
real faith. So, look at verse 3. He spake many parables, many
things unto them in parables. And at the very last, verse 34,
it says, All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables. Without a parable spake he not
unto them. This Matthew 13 is full of parables.
The parable, as you know, is a very simple, everyday, earthly
story of very plain, earthly things that we do and know about. And they illustrate heavenly
truth. And this is how our Lord spoke. This is a good lesson for us,
preachers, teachers. You know that? It says, without
a parable, He didn't preach. And the common people said, heard
him gladly. After the Sermon on the Mount,
it says the people were astonished. He spoke as one having authority.
He didn't speak like the scribes. They were reading papers. They
were preaching doctrine. only, the letter and not spirit. So this is a good lesson for
that. I want to preach in a way, not
to the head, but to the heart, and I want God's people to understand. It
was Jonathan Edwards one time that said, of all people, because
he was hard to understand. But Jonathan Edwards said, I'd
rather be understood by 10 than admired by 10,000. And my father once said, pick out
a 12-year-old boy out there and preach to him. The adults will
understand it. And the young ones will get something
to them. So he spoke in parables. Very simple story of earthly
things that tell heavenly things. But it's still a mystery until
the Lord reveals it to you. That's why the Pharisees were
so angry. They thought, this is beneath
us. But they didn't understand what he was saying. And the disciples asked him here
in our text, they said, why, verse 10, Why speakest thou unto
them in parables? And he said, because it's given
to you. It's not given to them. Why didn't they understand it?
Isn't this a clear revelation, John, that the truth is by revelation,
not education? You don't figure anything out.
God said, the things of God are foolishness to me. He doesn't
understand them. If you have an understanding, what I hope
after tonight is if we have ears to hear and eyes to see and understand
and love Him, I hope we'll go away from here so thankful that
God has opened our eyes and opened our ears and opened our understanding. And He's promised to give you
more. So, He says, given to you, verse 11, to know the mysteries
of the kingdom. Not given to them. That's election. Here he goes again. Election.
Yeah. Who believes election? The world
doesn't believe election. They don't preach election. They
don't believe it. You've heard their idea, let
God look down through the telescope of time and see who would believe
and He chose them. That's ridiculous. Why choose
them? It's up to them. What's His choice
got to do with them believing? Nothing. But we know, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach Him today.
Blessed be God according as He has chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world and given us an understanding. Election
is unto salvation. We wouldn't know, we wouldn't
call, we wouldn't believe. That's where it all started.
That's God's glory. Given unto you. Not given to
them. By grace, he said. It's a gift. And he said in verse
12, more abundance will be pressed down. Remember the Lord said,
you give and it'll be given to you. Pressed down, shaken together,
running over. Well, that's what he's going
to give. Fullness. Fullness of joy. Peace. Fullness
of peace. Where is fullness? Somebody? In Christ. Please God, in Him
should all fullness be. So it's all got to do with Christ,
doesn't it? Every line, every word points
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that, don't we? We know
that. And once you see Christ, the
Scriptures keep saying, well, there He is again. And sister,
the world doesn't see Him at all. That's proof, isn't it? They
can read, you've got smart, intelligent, educated people who can read
the same book as you and they don't see Jesus Christ in it. And we look and say, how can
you not see Christ in it? Because their eyes... He's blinded
them. Before this, in Matthew 11, it
says, The Lord, thank God, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven,
because you've hid these things from the wise and the prudent
and revealed them unto me. Alright, look at verse 1. Let's
go back to verse 1. The same day went Jesus out of the house
and sat by the seaside. Great multitudes were gathered
together unto Him. Oh, I thought of that great multitude
in Revelation that says that no man can number is going to
sit by the crystal sea and hear Him
who's sitting on the throne preach. Won't that be something? Gathered
unto Him. Gathered unto Him. And you see,
he went into a ship. There it is again, verse 2. He
was always in a ship. Why is that? Because we have
this fellowship of the mysteries. That's what the Scriptures say.
The Gospel. Fellowship. What a fellowship. What a joy divine. We just sang
that. Leaning on the everlasting hour. What a fellowship gathered unto
Him. Listen to these scriptures you
know so well, and I looked them up for you. John 17. John, are
you going to preach on that Sunday? Okay. John 17. Listen to this. Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am. I will. that they may behold my glory."
See His glory that you gave me before the world began. Gathered
together. Listen to Ephesians 1. You know
these verses by heart, but let me read them to you. It says
in Ephesians 1, in the dispensation of the fullness of time, He's
going to gather together in one all things in one. Christ, both
in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. It's all about Him. This gathering, this eternal
gathering of multitudes out of every kindred, nation, tongue
under heaven, is gathered to Him, the Lord Jesus. Like this
multitude in Matthew 13. Listen to this. We were dead,
but He quickened us together with Christ. Oh, it's my grace,
he said. He's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places, gathered together. You would not be here if He hadn't
chosen you and gathered you together with the saints by the river,
by the crystal sea, flowing from the throne of God. You wouldn't
be here. I wouldn't be here. And John said this, he was in
a ship there. John said this, truly our fellowship,
our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
Isn't it? Is that why you're here? I ask this a lot. Is that
why you're here? Are you here because you want
to hear Christ pray? You know, He's not enough for
most people. He is for God's people. He is
for God's people. That's how you know the difference.
And so, in our text, it says that, verse 3, he spake many
parables, many things of parables saying, and he preached this,
taught this parable of the sower. Notice with me, it's all about
hearing the Word. Right? He talked about stony
ground hearer. And it didn't have any earth,
deepness of earth. It sprung up, but when the sun
came up, it was burned and withered away. It had no root, no earth. And our Lord said, that's those,
well, look at it. Verse 19, the one hears the word,
the wicked one comes. Well, that's the wayside. You
know, the seed falls by the wayside and the wicked one comes, and
that's somebody who's around the Word, but they, you know,
their heart is hard. The next one is someone that
received it in stony places. Verse 20, he hears the Word,
seems like he enjoys it or she enjoys it, and it doesn't have
root. What's the root of the matter? Christ is the root of the matter.
He said, I'm the vine. You're the branch. He's the root. The root of David. He doesn't
have Christ in him. He may endure for a while, but
when tribulation, verse 21, persecution arrives, because of the Word,
because of the truth, by and by he or she is offended and
they leave. And then it says that some, verse 8, fell into
good ground, brought forth fruit, hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold.
That good ground is a heart that's been broken. What breaks the
heart? The same thing that's planted,
the Word. The Word of God convicts us of
our sin. Only good hearts are broken hearts,
contrite hearts. Over what? When our Lord was
preaching the Sermon on the Mount, the very first thing he said
was, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who
mourn. Over what? Sin. A heart broken
over sin. The Gospel is only for sinners.
This whole book is about salvation for sinners. And so the Word
of God comes and breaks our heart and convicts us of our sin. And
we cry with David, have mercy on me, O God, according to your
loving kindness, according to the multitude that I tend to
mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly from iniquity,
purge me with hyssop, and I'll be clean. Wash me and I'll be
clean by the blood of the Lamb. And so we, all our lives, We're
convicted, and we need Christ. I've seen it. And we hear the
Word because we're sinners in need of Christ. He is the Word. Alright, look down at verse 10.
The disciples asked, why do you speak in parables? He said, because
it's given unto you to know the mysteries. Given by grace. By
grace. The mystery. The mysteries. It's
all a mystery. But listen to what Paul said
in Ephesians 3. Listen to this mystery. People say, I know the
gospel, it's very easy. Isn't it? Yeah, God loves you
and Christ died for you and you need to accept him as your personal
savior and that's it. That's not the gospel at all. Paul said in Ephesians 3, he
said, the God by revelation made known unto me the mystery. Paul thought he kept the law,
didn't he? Paul thought he was blameless. Paul thought he kept
the Ten Commandments. Paul thought he knew God, thought he knew
this Jesus. No, no, no, he didn't know Him
at all. He thought he knew the Bible.
He could probably quote many, but he didn't know the Bible.
Why? He didn't know Christ. He knew the letter, not the Spirit.
He said, In all ages before, it was not made known unto the
sons of men, but is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets
by the Spirit of God. The mystery. Listen to Colossians
1. Listen to what he said in Colossians
1. He said this, in the same spirit. He said, verse 26, the mystery
has been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made
manifest to Hussain. And here it is. to whom God would
make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, you and me, which is, here's the mystery,
Christ in you, the hope of God. Christ in you. What does that
mean? How many times do we read in
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and on and on, be
in Christ and Christ in you, in Him, of Him, through Him,
to Him, for Him, in Christ. It's all about Christ. It's all
about being in Christ. Robin Pendry may be listening
to this tonight, Robin, but I remember her telling me that she heard
the story of Noah's Ark in Methodist religion, and everybody has. She'd never heard Christ's name
mentioned. My mother said the same thing. She was in Southern
Baptist religion. And she said the same thing.
We never heard Christ mentioned in those old stories. If any preacher stands in this
pulpit, when he brings up these Old Testament stories, you're
going to hear Christ from start to finish, aren't you? Christ
in you is a A knowledge and understanding of Christ. A need for Christ. A love for Christ. A hunger and
a thirst for Christ. Christ in you. Christ in you. Not religion. Not your church. We're not attached
to this building. An organization. We're attached
to Christ now. We've got to hear Him. Christ
in you. Hope, glory. Paul said, I travail
and birth to Christ be formed in you. That you see that He's
all. He's all you need and all you
want. Could you quote 1 Corinthians
1.30 right now, Pastor? Of God are you in Christ. who of God is made unto us. Now, the world doesn't care what
I'm about to quote. You'll never hear it. But you
hear it a lot here. He's made unto us. Wisdom. Righteousness. John read Psalm
71 tonight five times. Five times David said, Thy righteousness
deliver me Die righteousness. I'll make mention of die righteousness
and dying only six times. Then what is his righteousness? It's not a doctrine. It's a person. We're not going to get the glory
because we believe in putative righteousness. We're going to
get the glory because we know that we don't deserve to be there
and we deserve there. We're going to be there on the
merits, the glory, the work, the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, accepted in the blood. He is our righteousness. Jehovah
Sidkenu. What's that mean? The Lord our
righteousness. Christ is formed in you, you
see. He's in you. He's in your brain. He's in your
heart. It really is. Given unto you to know the mystery.
We need to give thanks for the grace given us to know the mystery. And this, and I'm not, I didn't
mean to dwell on this parable or any of the parables, but to
dwell on this thought that we're so blessed to understand these
things. Our eyes have seen His glory,
our ears have heard His voice, and we're so blessed. It's given
unto us to know His mystery. You know, there are two great
mysteries that the world still doesn't understand, but we know,
we understand. Creation and salvation. That's everything in it. Creation,
the whole world is still a mystery. They're still trying to figure
out how all this came about. And our Lord said they're in
darkness. So much so that our most brilliant
people on earth are looking into black holes in the universe. Get this now. They're looking
into darkness for the mystery? And here is condemnation. Light
is coming to the world, but men love darkness rather than light.
What's that? Who? Christ is the light. Creation. We understand. Hebrews
11 says, By faith we understand that all things were created
by the Word of God. Romans 1. All things are clearly
seen to God's people. The eternal power of God. Genesis
1 begins with the triune God, doesn't it? In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth, and the Spirit of God
moved on the face of the water, and God said, what was the first
thing God said? Let there be what? Light. What's that? It's a person. John 1, God is light. 1 John 1. John 1. Hebrews 1. We understand them. And there in Genesis 1, it goes
on, in creation, it goes on to talk about the waters. The waters. There are three that bear record
in earth. The Spirit, the water, and the blood. These three are
one. Creation. In Genesis 1, it talks
about seed. It talks about tree. It talks
about fruit. What is all that? It's all Christ. He's the water of His Word. He's the water of life. He's
the voice. He's the light. He's the sea. He's the tree of
life. He's the fruit. All that. Mysteries to know.
Listen to Isaiah 45. I wanted to quote this to you.
Isaiah 45. Listen. Let the earth open up. Let them
bring forth salvation. Let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.
Isaiah 45. Listen to Isaiah 55. Listen to
this. Brothers and sisters, the world
doesn't have a clue what this is talking about. He says, As
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your way, my thoughts than your thoughts. Didn't Christ
say, I'm from the love, you're from the... I'm come down from
heaven. As the rain cometh down, and
you see that rain fall and you think of Jesus Christ. He couldn't
live without death. He can't live without Christ.
And the snow from heaven returneth not thither, but watereth the
earth, and maketh it bring forth, and bud that giveth seed to the
sower, and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. Who's that? Christ. It shall
not return unto me void. It shall accomplish that it,
this ain't talking about an it, it's talking about Christ. How
clearly we see that. He says, when you realize this,
you'll go forth with joy, be led with peace. The mountains
and the hills will break forth before you, and the sea and all
the trees of the field will clap their hands. No more thorns,
no more briars. Christ! It's Christ. Blessed
are you. Your ears, your eyes. It's a
mystery to most. It's given to us. Well, go back
to our text and I want to say it. Matthew 13. He said in that verse 12, Whosoever
hath the hemp shall be given, and he shall have more abundant. Don't you love to hear a new
type that you never heard before? Oh, man. And we go back and see
some of these old types that we have heard before and we always
see something new, don't we? I don't know how many times I've
heard these things, Most of the time I read them again and I
think, you know, we went through Genesis years and years ago and
we went through it again and I thought, it's like I never
read this. We went through Exodus years ago and went through it
again. That's why we're taking two years to get through it.
It's like it's all opened up again. Because it's not just
words on paper, it's his voice. It's his mind, it's his will.
He's making things known. We're getting more in abundance.
He said, I have many things to say and he was not able to bear
them right now. So he keeps opening his thing,
more in abundance. But whosoever hath not, this
is frightening. and be taken away. Faith. Hope. Someone says they have
faith. And notice when you hear people talk about faith, they
never use God's name or use Christ's name. They just say faith. Don't
they? Oh, I have my faith. So what? Where's your faith? Have you
ever noticed that? Oh, he has faith. In who? In
what? It says Abraham did what? Had
faith. Believed God. That's counting
on Him. You can't get away from that
word, can you, John? Counting on Him for righteousness. That's
the first thing you heard when you heard the Gospel, wasn't
it? Righteousness. Passive righteousness. Propitiation. Oh, we're so blessed. But people
have faith. They say they have faith and
they have hope. If it's not in the true God, if they don't believe
the true and living God, if their hope is not built, if
their hope is built on anything less than Jesus, Christ's blood
and righteousness, it's on shifting sand. If it's not God-given faith,
it won't last. And it will be tried. But Christ
said of the peace, the faith, the hope, the peace that He gives
His people, He said the world can't take it away. If your faith
is in living a true God, God who really is God, if your faith
is in God who is God, I mean Lord over good and evil, And nothing and no one can bother
you, no matter what happens. If your faith is in Christ, your
hope of heaven and eternal life is 100% Jesus Christ. And not
anything in you, not your knowledge of what, it's not anything about
you, but your faith is completely, your hope, your assurance of
being granted into God's presence is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ
only. You've got faith. That's faith. That's sure. Well, verse 13. He said, I speak unto them in
parables, because seeing they see not, hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand. And this is fulfilled in the
prophecy of Isaiah. And that's found in Isaiah 6,
and I want to close by reading that, Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6, as
most of you know, is one of those fundamental, foundational passages. If you've never heard this, Isaiah
6, I'll never forget the first time I heard a man preach from
Isaiah 6. Do you remember? Oh, I do. Isaiah
6 tells us who God really is. Isaiah 6 tells us who we are,
what we are. And Isaiah 6 tells us the only
way that our sins can be purged. Look at it. The year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up, and His train filled the temple. You saw who? Who
did He see? Jesus Christ is the Lord. He saw Jesus Christ on a throne
before this world ever began. He's always been Lord. God made
Him Lord before the world began. And God just created everything
for His glory. Read on. And above the throne
stood the seraphims, each one had six wings. With twain covered
his face. That's humility. With twain covered his feet.
That's modesty. And all this is gone today, isn't
it? There is no humility. There is no meekness. There is
no modesty. Why? They haven't seen the Lord. The fear of the Lord is what
brings these things. It clearly tells me that my generation
doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. Else they would be humbled before
Him. Modest. Cover your flesh. With twain they did fly. That's
the urgency of this message. Today's the day of salvation.
It can't wait. Go with this message. Read on. And here's what they cried. They're going to give one word
to describe the God of the Bible. One word is going to declare
the Jesus Christ of Scripture. One word. What is it? Holy. Holy. Holy. Before we ever find out anything
about the love of God, We find out about His holiness. You ask
every single believer, the chief attribute of God, the chief attribute,
that which describes God more than anything else, that which
describes Jesus Christ more than anything else, and they'll tell you very clearly,
He's holy. He's holy. He's a just God and
a Savior. How can God be just and justify
sin? How can God be holy and forgive
sin? How can God punish sin and forgive
sin? You know it. Isaiah said, woe is me. When
Isaiah saw the Lord, the Lord Jesus cried, he said, woe is
me. He said, I'm undone. I'm not
complete. I fall way short of this holiness. He said, I'm a man of unclean
lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Unclean,
unclean. Brother Bruce preached on the
leper. We're all lepers. Well, how can a leper get in
the presence of a holy God? And the angel came from the altar. What altar? What's this all about? That's the tabernacle really,
the altar of incense and the blood on the mercy seat and the
cherubim with their wings covered. He said, I'm going to meet you
at the mercy seat. What's the mercy seat? Jesus Christ. He took one of those live coals.
Christ, the burnt offering, took that coal and laid it on Isaiah's
lip and said, Your sins are gone. Now go tell everybody. Christ. Blessed are your eyes. You see
clearly. When you open this book, you
see Christ, don't you? Blessed are your ears. When you
hear a man preach, you're going to hear Christ's prayer. And
blessed is your heart. You receive it. Okay, stand with
me.