Now, if you would, let's open
our Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. A few weeks ago, I informed you
that I have it in my mind to preach through some of the parables. The parables of our Savior, the
parables of Christ. I say some of the parables. Somebody
asked me if I was going to preach through all of them, but however
many parables there are, that depends on how people define
what a parable is. But I'm just going to preach
as the Lord leads me, beginning here in Matthew 13, because there
are several parables here. But before I get to the parables
themselves, there is something that we need to do. And we need
to understand this portion of Scripture that I want you to
look at this morning, beginning at Matthew 13, verse 10. I want you to look at this, because
if you're going to study the parables, if you're going to
hear the truth, the lessons that Christ intended to teach from
these parables, then you need to understand these passages
right here. Back up in verse 1 of chapter
13, it says, "...the same day went Jesus out of the house,
and sat by the seaside. And great multitudes were gathered
together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat, and
the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many
things unto them in parables, saying..." Then he starts with
the parable of the sower and the seed, which I'll get to next
week. But as he taught that parable,
it says down here in verse 9, Christ said after he spoke the
parable, a very short parable, he said, Who hath ears to hear,
let him hear. And verse 10 says, And the disciples
came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? Now that's what I'm going to
deal with this morning. Why he did it. And like I said,
if you're going to understand Him, you need to understand why
He spoke in parables. Well, 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." You have a gift, He says. They don't have it.
Now, the title of this message this morning is, Mysteries of
the Kingdom. Mysteries of the Kingdom. And
I'll get to that in just a moment. Look at verse 12. He says, For
whosoever hath, that is, hath this gift, to him shall be given,
and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not from him
shall be taken away, even that he hath. Therefore speak I to
them in terribles, because they seeing see not, and hearing they
hear not, neither do they understand." Now that may sound strange to
you as you read through this. What in the world is he trying
to say there? Well, first of all, let me just
go back to some fundamentals. You know, I've preached this
message before, but I'm like the Apostle Peter, you know,
when he was writing, he said to repeat these things. put you
in remembrance of Him. It's not burdensome to me, and
for you it's good. Or Paul said that, rather. But
let's go back to the fundamental. You know what? The word parable
itself, literally it means to set alongside of. And what it's
talking about is comparing and contrasting an earthly reality
with a spiritual truth. In other words, I want to teach
a spiritual truth here, so I'm going to set something alongside
of that spiritual truth as a comparison or a contrast so that you can
see it. You can see these comparisons
and these contrasts. A lot of times the parables started
off like this, where the Lord said, the kingdom of heaven is
like. That's a simile, it's like, it's
compared. Go back to Matthew chapter 7.
Some people say that this is a parable, and that's okay, that's
fine, you can classify it as such. In verse 24 of Matthew
7, as he concluded the Sermon on the Mount, He says in verse
24, he says, "...therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them, I will liken him." I'm going to compare him
to. That's what he means there. I
will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a
rock. Now you know he's using earthly things there, earthly
realities, a rock, a foundation rock, you see. And he's comparing
what this spiritual truth is. He says, verse 25, And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house, and it fell not. Why? For it was founded
upon a rock. And so in verse 26 he says, And
every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them
not, shall be likened, or compared to, unto a foolish man, which
built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and
it fell, and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when
Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at
his doctrine, at his teaching, for he taught them as one having
authority, and not as the scribes." In other words, this wasn't just
the opinion of men. Just a bunch of guys, you know,
religious scholars getting together and saying, what do you think?
Well, this is what I think. And Christ would come along and
He'd say, well, who cares what any of you think? Here's the
truth. This is the way it is. And so He uses that sort of a,
some people say a parable or a parabolic saying, it doesn't
matter, but it teaches us one spiritual truth. And that is
that any person, any sinner, who is seeking to obey God in
any way, who is not founded and grounded and established upon
the rock, and what is that rock? Christ and Him crucified. That's
what that rock is. It's the person, the glorious
person, the God-man of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the work that
he finished in his obedience unto death at Calvary to redeem
us from our sins and establish righteousness for us. That's
the rock upon which we stand. So, in other words, you may have
the biggest, the most beautiful house in the whole county, but
if it's in quicksand, what's going to happen? It's going to
fall. If it's built upon sand, when the winds come and the rains
come and descend, and great's going to be the fault. The bigger
the house is, the greater the fault. You know, the bigger they
are, the harder they fall. And that's what he's teaching. You
may have a religious profession. You may be out in the community
trying to do your best. But here's the point. If you
don't have Christ, If you're not washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness, your house is built upon sand, and it'll
fall. Now that's the key. That's what
He's teaching there. My hope is built on nothing less,
you see, than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And if it's built
on anything else, it's going to fall. Now, that's the simple
lesson of that parable. Now, back over here in Matthew
13, you know, when they ask him, why are you speaking in parables?
Well, he had taught plain doctrine. Our Lord's teaching up to this
point had just been plain, simple doctrine. The kingdom of heaven,
you say. Preaching the kingdom of heaven.
What is a parable? It's an earthly story with a
heavenly meaning, someone said. And that's a good definition.
But now listen to me very carefully. I want you to hear this. Parables
are not children's stories. A lot of people think they are.
They say, well, just teach the children in parables. Christ
here is speaking to adults. I'm sure there were children
present in this mixed multitude here. But they're not children's
stories. And listen to me. They are not
illustrations that are intended to replace sound scriptural teaching. That's not what they were put
there for. It wasn't like Christ was saying, well now, they don't
understand what I'm saying in my sermon, so therefore I'm going
to make it simpler and preach to them in parables. No sir,
not at all. It was not used, parables were
not used to make spiritual truth easier to understand. They really
weren't. Ron read in 1 Corinthians chapter
2. What does it say about the natural man there? Let's look
back at that passage just a moment. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Now
he says the natural man. What is a natural man? A natural
man is a lost man. He's not been born again by the
Spirit. He's spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. He's
not been regenerated. He's ruined by the fall. Well,
has He been redeemed by the blood? Well, you have to wait and see.
Is He going to be regenerated by the Spirit? Because where
Christ died on the cross for His people, His righteousness
demands what? Life. So this natural man is
one who doesn't have spiritual ears and spiritual eyes. A spiritual
understanding. That's what the Scripture is
teaching there. That's why in verse 12, look at 1 Corinthians
2 and verse 12. Paul writes, now we have received,
now who's the we there? That's spiritual people. That's
born again people. That's people of faith, people
of grace. Sinners who have run to Christ
for salvation. Now have you done that? Have
you run to Christ? Have you seen your sinfulness
and the fact that you cannot be saved based upon your best
efforts to keep the law? Well, what is your only hope
then? Run to Christ. rest in Him, plead His blood
and His righteousness alone." And so he's saying, now we, now
we have received, you see that verse 12? Not the Spirit of the
world. The Spirit of the world will
not point you to Christ. The Spirit of the world will
point you to religion. It'll point you to good works,
what they call good works. It'll point you to baptism. It'll
point you to join a church. It'll point you to give your
tithe. It'll point you anywhere and everywhere but Christ and
Him crucified. That's how you know the difference
between the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit
of the world. The Spirit of the world will
not expose your sin for what it is. Oh, it'll make you feel
a little bad, but you'll find relief somewhere other than in
the person and work of Christ. And that's the difference, you
see. So he says, we have received not the Spirit of the world,
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are what? What's that word there? freely
given to us of God. In other words, we know that
salvation is free to a sinner. A sinner cannot earn it, and
he doesn't deserve it. There are no conditions on salvation
that's placed on the sinner. Christ had all the conditions
placed on Him, and He fulfilled the condition. He became responsible
for our entire debt to God's law, and He paid it in full.
And everything I have by way of blessedness and eternal life
and salvation and righteousness is a free gift of God's grace. I didn't earn any of it. And
if these fellows can run around here and talk about how much
they're going to earn their rewards in heaven, let them go. That's
the spirit of the world, not the spirit of Christ. We know
what we've been freely given. And I know this and you know
it too if you know Christ. That if God were to give us what
we deserved and what we earned, where would we be? We'd be damned
forever. Isn't that right? Oh Lord, if
thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would say? Well, he goes
on down, look down at verse 14. Or verse 13, let's read that. He says, Which things also we
speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him." Freely given? You mean I don't have to do anything
to earn it or deserve it? That's foolishness to the natural
man. And so he says, neither can he know them because they
are spiritually discerned. He doesn't have the spiritual
discernment. That's understanding, to see these things. But he that
is spiritual, that is the born-again person, judgeth all things."
He discerns, he understands it, yet he himself is judged of no
man. What that simply means is that
the world doesn't even know what a Christian is. They think they
do, but they don't. And he says, "...for who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ." Now, where do we have the mind of Christ?
Well, we have the Word of God, here in this book, the Bible,
the Scriptures, that's the mind of Christ, and we have the Word
implanted in our hearts. by His Spirit and the indwelling
of the Spirit. Now, go back to Matthew 13. Now,
if you want to understand the Bible, if you want to understand
the Scriptures, my friend, there is no replacement for sound verse-by-verse
preaching. There is no replacement. And
when you look into the Scriptures, where do you want to go? You
want to run to Christ. He said in John 5.39, You do
search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. They are they which testify of me." And he's the key. The person and finished work
of Christ is the key to understanding all Scripture from Genesis to
Revelation. Well, Christ had a distinct purpose
in using parables then. And it was not to make spiritual
truths easier to understand. It really was a two-fold purpose. It was number one to reveal,
but it was number two to conceal. Reveal and conceal. Just remember
those two words. The parables were to reveal spiritual
truth and to conceal spiritual truth. Now, as I said now, the
ability to understand spiritual truth is a gracious gift of God,
isn't it? It's a gracious gift of God.
But all men are held accountable. for how they respond to the truth. You listen to the scriptures,
you read them, you listen to them, you hear them preach, you
and I all are held accountable for how we respond to the truth.
Christ spoke in parables, basically, so that only those who really
care and want and desire to know the truth will come to know the
truth. That's why he spoke them. I want
you to look at Proverbs. Turn back to the book of Proverbs,
chapter 1. The opening of the Proverbs.
Now, in the Old Testament, the word proverb, when they translated
the Old Testament into the Greek language, they translated the
word proverb into parable. It's the same thing. So a proverb
and a parable can be the same thing. Sometimes these proverbs
are just one-liners, just a statement of wisdom. And sometimes they're
more than that. They're a story, like what we're
going to talk about, the parables of Christ. In verse 1 of Proverbs
1, it says, "...the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David,
king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive
words of understanding." This is what Solomon was instructing
his son to do. And he says, verse 4, "...to
give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and
discretion, a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and
a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel." Now
did you hear that? Am I a wise man? Are you a wise
man or a wise woman? Well, here's what a wise man
will do, or a wise woman will do. He will hear, and he will
increase learning, And a man of understanding shall attain
unto wise counsel." Now, where are we going to get our wise
counsel from when it comes to spiritual matters, when it comes
to salvation? We have to come to the mind of Christ. You can
go to the mind of men. I know there's so many religious
books written. Well, it's almost sickening.
But I want to tell you something. There's no replacement for the
study of this Word. And then look at verse 6. He
says, to understand a proverb or a parable and the interpretation,
the words of the wise and their dark sayings. Why does he say
dark sayings? Well, back over in Matthew 13,
Christ spoke of the mysteries of the kingdom. He called them
mysteries. Now hold on to that thought.
But here's the point. These parables, Christ spoke
in parables, not so much because of trying to to make it simpler,
but he had a distinct purpose. And again, he spoke in parables
so that those only who really care to know the truth, do you
want to know the truth? That's what you've got to come
to grips with in this issue of understanding a parable. Some
of you don't care. I mean, let's just be honest. I mean, you could care less whether
you hear the parable or not. Well, these parables are to conceal
truth from you. That's God's judgment upon your
indifference to His Word. That's a scary thought, isn't
it? Some of you say, well, I don't care. I just wish He'd shut up.
That's the way it is, isn't it? In the very first parable, Matthew
13, the very first one he talks about is the wayside hearer.
The word is sown by the wayside. They don't even consider it.
Just get through, let me out. That's the way it is. And there's
coming a time in your life, if things don't change by the power
and grace of God, that that'll be your lot in life. And we hope
not. I know there was a time I didn't want to hear, but God
gave me ears to hear. And He brought me to that point.
But here's what you've got to do. And here's what I've got.
Do you really want to understand the parable? Because that's why
He spoke in parables. And it was given not so much
because they understood the parable when He spoke it. Because they care enough to ask,
what does this mean? What are you saying? I want to
know this. There's something here that's important. There's
something here that's vital for me to understand. And I want
to know after the story's finished. I want to hang around long enough
to have it explained to me. That's what they're saying. The
others, they really don't care and they leave it and they go
on their merry way and do their thing. And these parables, again,
they weren't spoken to make truth easier or simpler. God, listen
to me, God's preachers are not storytellers. No, they're not. They're not entertainers. And
we use illustrations, but never to eclipse the Word of God. There's
nothing more precious than this right here. That's what Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 2, I don't preach with enticing words of
man's wisdom. This is the Word of God. Do you
realize that? I had a fellow tell me, he said,
you can preach verse by verse, and he said, one illustration
will go farther to help people understand the gospel. I said,
then the Word of God? Am I going to put the words of
Ben above? This is the Word of God. Treat it as such. Don't treat it lightly. This
is the Holy Bible. These are the Holy Scriptures.
This is God-breathed, right here. And I know not everything in
it is easy to understand, but I want to understand it, don't
you? That's what we're talking about. Do you want to understand
it? Do you want to see what its message is? And somebody says,
well, I want to know what its message is for me. Well, I'll
guarantee you something about the Word of God. Whatever its
message is for you, it's for everybody else here, too. The
Word of God doesn't have one message for you and another message
for another person. You see? The Word of God says,
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's not
just to you, that's to me too. The Word of God says that the
only way that a sinner can be saved is not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but by Christ on the cross who did all the
work that God required. That's for you and that's for
me. And it's not different. It's not how I see it or how
you see it, it's how it is. That's the dogmatism of it, you
know, that's the issue of it. Now, some people say, well, some
say people who cannot understand doctrine will understand an illustration
or a parable. Not so. Not so. The teachings of Scripture, the
doctrine of Scripture are not hard to understand. But they're
impossible for the natural man to receive and believe apart
from the Spirit of God. You see, the problem with those
who killed Stephen was not that they did not understand what
Stephen preached. Their problem was they hated
what Stephen preached. You see, this is the condemnation,
Christ said, that light has come into the world and men love darkness
and hate the light. So the doctrines of Scripture
are not difficult to understand. They may be difficult for us
to reconcile in our minds sometimes, but the truth of them is there.
The disciples did not understand the parables until the Lord explained
it to them. In fact, one time they said,
would you stop preaching in parables and just tell us plainly what
you mean? Over in John chapter 6 they said that. But you see,
he knew what he was doing. They found the plain teachings
of Christ easy to understand, but not the parables. Now, when
we look at parables, there's a couple of things we need to
understand. Number one, we do not build our doctrine on parables.
Parables do not establish doctrine, they illustrate doctrine. And
secondly, it's not necessary for everything in the parable
to mean something. I've seen people take a parable
apart and they analyze it, To death. Everything has to mean
something. No, just keep it simple. I tell
people I try to use the KISS method of preaching. Keep it
simple, stupid. And I'm talking to myself. But anyway, it's not necessary
for everything in the parable to be symbolic of something.
Listen to what he says now. Look back at verse 10. He says, They asked, Why speakest
thou in parables? Verse 11, He answered and said
unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven. Now, what is a mystery? Well,
in the Bible, a mystery is not some kind of a caper. It's not
some kind of a thing that you can figure out if you see enough
clues, or if you find enough clues. A mystery in the Scripture
is simply divinely revealed truth. That's all it is. In other words,
if we're going to know this, God has to reveal it to us. We
can't figure it out through science. We can't figure it out through
man's philosophy or even man's religion. Man cannot figure this
out on his own. It has to be intervened into
his mind by the power of the Spirit in revelation. That's
what a mystery in the Scripture is. Well, then he says the mysteries
of the Kingdom of Heaven. Well, what is the Kingdom of
Heaven? Well, the Kingdom of Heaven, and sometimes you'll
see the term Kingdom of Heaven, sometimes you'll see the term
Kingdom of God. They're the same thing. I know
there's some who say they're different. They're not. The gospel,
the good news of salvation by God's grace is called the gospel
of the kingdom. Now what is the kingdom of heaven?
It's simply this, it's the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the sovereign rule of Christ. It's the reign of grace over
His kingdom. His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom.
It's an eternal kingdom. It's founded upon His obedience
unto death. He told Peter and the disciples,
he said, upon this rock I will build my church. The kingdom
is His church. It's visibly manifest in Christ's
church, both present and future. Present here on earth where the
gospel is preached, both to the saved and to the lost, and in
the future in the church in perfection, the church glorified. But it's
His realm. It's where He rules. Now, He
sovereignly rules over the universe. But He graciously rules over
His kingdom. The kingdom of heaven. The kingdom
of God. That's what the kingdom is. And
you remember, you see, when I told you a couple of weeks ago when
I preached on self-examination. Examine yourself that you be
in the faith. Whether Christ be in you. I want you to look
at these parables as we go through them. as exercises in self-examination. Here's what the Lord's going
to do in these parables. He's going to show you what the
kingdom of heaven is like. He's going to show you what the
kingdom of God is like. I want to know something. I want
to know if I'm a citizen in the kingdom of heaven. Somebody comes
along and they say, well, sure you are. You're a preacher. That
doesn't make it so. You grew up in church, that doesn't
make it so. You've been baptized, that doesn't
make it so. You wear a Sunday school pin,
that doesn't make it so. I want to know, am I a citizen
of the Kingdom of Heaven? Well, these parables will help
you to have assurance of that if it's so. And if it's not so,
what will they do? Well, they're meant to cause
you to repent and run to Christ and believe in Him. Look at verse
9. Here's our responsibility to
hear. He says, who have ears to hear,
let him hear. Now certainly he's not speaking
of physical hearing, even though that is involved. Some of you
are losing your hearing. I'm glad we were able to get
these devices that you can put in your ear that helps you to
hear. But you see, if you've been given spiritual hearing,
you can do without the physical hearing. It has to be communicated
to you in some way. That's what it's saying. Over
in the book of Romans chapter 10, look over there with me. And this is the hearing of the
gospel of the kingdom. It's the hearing of the truth
as it is in Christ. Whatever truth it is, as it relates
to and is founded upon and redounds to His glory. Romans chapter
10, look at verse 13. He says, "...for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." That name that
identifies Him and distinguishes Him from all counterfeits. Who
is Jesus Christ? What did He do? Why did He do
it? Where is He now? He's God-man. He's the one who
satisfied law and justice. He's the one who brought in everlasting
righteousness. All of these truths that identify
Him and distinguish Him, that's His name, His glory. Now you
call upon Him, you'll be saved. That's what this book says. That's
what this book says. That's a promise from God. And
He's never gone back on a promise. And He says, now verse 14, now
look here, God uses means. He says, well how then shall
they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Now this calling
on Him is a matter of faith. It's not standing up in the pew
here and just saying, Jesus. or hollering out something. It's
a matter of faith. The calling upon Him is believing
in Him. That's what that means. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Believe who
He is and what He did and why He did it and where He is now.
Believe in His blood. The Bible speaks in Romans chapter
3 of faith in His blood. I trust His blood alone to cleanse
me from all my sins. Is that your trust? Have you
called upon Him? I don't trust my tears of remorse
to wash away any of my sins. I don't trust any of my doing
or not doing or promises to do better to wash away. I trust
Christ on the cross, His blood alone, to wash away all my sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Do you believe that? If you do,
you've called upon His name. That's who He is. We say it again
about His righteousness alone. I don't trust anything as my
righteousness, but Christ, the risen Christ, who is seated at
the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, whoever
lives to make intercession for me. That's calling upon His name. That's believing in Him, trusting
Him. It's more than just a profession
of faith. But it's a real, active, gracious,
honest, heart, faith, and trust in Him. And so He says, and how
shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? A preacher sent from God. And
how shall they preach except they be sent, as it is written,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace and bring glad tidings of good things? But they have
not all obeyed the gospel. Now this is quoted from Isaiah.
He says, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Well, we preach it. Some people hear it with the
physical ear, but they don't believe it. That means they don't
hear it with the spiritual ear. So he says in verse 17, So then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That's
what he's saying over here in Matthew 13. Who hath ears to
hear? Let him hear. Do you have ears to hear? Do
you believe and love the truth? You know, a person can't give
mental agreement to the truth and not love it. That's right. Not feed upon it. This is the
love of the truth that's shed abroad in the hearts of God's
people by the Holy Spirit. And it's who gives us a willing
mind to submit to Christ and His righteousness as our only
ground and entitlement to salvation. That gives us a willing mind.
We have the mind of Christ, you read. Christ loved His Father
and submitted to His will, you see. We have that. Now, that
doesn't mean we're perfect yet in ourselves. No, sir. We have
a battle. If you're perfect in yourself,
you don't have the battle. Do you know that? Your only battle
is with us. That's right. You don't have
a battle. You see, we do have a battle,
don't we? We have the Spirit and the flesh,
but we do have the Spirit. And we want to hear the gospel.
That's the only place I can get relief. It's where the good news
of God's grace in Christ is preached. I can't get it anywhere else.
You know, people say, well, I'll go here and I'll go there. Well,
what are you looking for? Well, I'm looking for something
to keep me awake. Well, then you'll be awake. You'll
have your reward. But I need rest for myself. Come unto me, all ye that are
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest." I want to rest in Him. Look at verse 10 of Matthew 13.
Here's the gift of hearing. He says, the disciples came,
why speakest thou in parables? He answered and said unto them,
because it's given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven. But to them it's not given. Now, to them it was given,
to the disciples, the gift of God. As it said, faith comes
by hearing. Faith is the gift of God. For
by grace have ye been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Hearing
is the gift of God. It's the sovereign work of the
Spirit in the new birth. Christ told Nicodemus in John
chapter 3, you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom
of heaven, the kingdom of God. That word see there means to
understand it. It takes the new birth. Just
like you have to be physically born to have physical hearing
and ears, you've got to be spiritually born to have spiritual ears and
hearing. Those who received Him not, you
see, John 1.11, that's man by nature. That's the natural man.
But to as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to
become the sons of God who were born not of the flesh, Not of
the will of man, nor the will of men, but of God. Born of God. Salvations of the Lord. And the
Holy Spirit is sent by the Son to give life and hearing. That's
why He said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
He says, it's given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom
of Heaven. That's the mysteries of God. That's who God is. What He's like. His nature. His
character. How He saves sinners. The mystery
of godliness. which is wrapped up in the person
and work of Christ, the mystery of faith, the gospel of Christ,
how God is just to justify the ungodly, the mystery of Christ
in the church. But then he says, but to them
it is not given. Now, who are the them that it's
not given to? Now, look at verse 12. He says,
for whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance. In other words, those who have
this Word, And treat it aright. Value it. Seek its understanding. Lord, help me to understand.
You remember when the multitudes turned away from Christ and He
turned to His disciples and He said, will you go away also?
And Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words
of life. Words of life. And He said, you
seek that? There'll be more abundance. You'll
grow in grace and knowledge. But he says, but whosoever hath
not from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Even that
he hath. He says, therefore speak I to
them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they
hear not, neither do they understand. Now that speaks of man's natural
inability to see and to hear, but let me tell you something.
It also speaks of man's unwillingness to see and hear. You see, they
have not, because why? They want not. Look at verse
14, And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which
saying, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand,
and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. Verse 15,
For this people's heart is waxed gross. Now what does that mean,
waxed gross? It means it's grown hard. They're
hard hearted. And their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed." They've closed their eyes to
the truth. Why? Well, look at it. "...lest at
any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted,
and I should heal them." They don't want to be converted. Somebody says, well, what's so
bad about conversion? Let me show you. Turn to Philippians
chapter 3. Let me show you what conversion
involves. Philippians chapter 3. We're
going to use the conversion of a man named Saul. Why don't people
want to be converted? Now, let me tell you something.
People want to be converted according to their view of conversion.
Well, you know, everybody will tell you, well, you know, someday
I'm going to join the church. I had a fellow told me, you know,
I should have joined the church long before I joined the church.
Someday I'm going to, you know, I'm not ready right now. I'm
not ready to commit right now, but someday I'm going to and
then everything will be fine. All that. Or I need to stop this,
quit that, start this, begin that. That's what people see
as conversion. Let me show you what conversion
is. Look at verse 3 of Philippians 3. He says, for we are the circumcision. Now, circumcision there is emblematic
of the new birth. That's what that means. That's
spiritual circumcision. The Jews looked upon physical
circumcision as a sign of being a child of God. But that's no
sign at all. Spiritual circumcision of the
heart, of the ears. You remember Stephen, when he
preached his message and they rejected, he said, you uncircumcised
in heart and in what? Ears. You haven't been born again. Or you'd receive the truth. That's
what he's saying. You'd love the truth. And he
says, "...which worship God in spirit, that is, from the heart,
and rejoice in Christ Jesus." That word rejoice means to glory. It's the same word Paul used
in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory, save in
the cross. It means to have confidence in. Our confidence is in Christ Jesus
and have no confidence in the flesh. Now look at verse 4. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I more. Now what was Paul trusting
in? What was Saul of Tarsus trusting
in before God converted him? Well, he says circumcised the
eighth day. Of the stock of Israel, I was
an Israelite. Of the tribe of Benjamin, an
honored tribe. And Hebrew of Hebrews, a pure-blooded
Hebrew, As touching the law of Pharisee, that is a zealous religionist
who went above and beyond the call of duty. Concerning zeal,
persecuting the church. In other words, when he looked
at the church as being heresy, he set out to stamp it out. And
touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Nobody
could look at Paul, Saul of Tarsus, and accuse him of anything justly.
But look at verse 7. Now here's what happens when
you're converted. But what things were gain to me? Those I counted
loss for Christ. That's why they shut their eyes
and their ears. You mean to tell me that all
my life, in my religion, in my ceremonies, in my Jewishness,
in all the things that I've done, you mean now I have to say that
was loss? because of, compared to what
Christ did on the cross? Well, go on. Verse 8, Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss. If I missed anything, Paul is
saying, all things but loss. For the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but what? Dumb. And that's just
exactly what you think it is. That I may win Christ and be
found in Him. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, I receive
it by faith. You mean all that that I used
to think recommended me unto God, I've got to put it in the
category of dumb? That's what conversion is. You
see, in light of Christ and Him crucified, nothing means nothing
in the Kingdom of God. It's only Christ and His blood
and righteousness. And this is why Christ said that
they shut their ears up. Their hearts grew hard. They
didn't want to hear that. Don't speak that to me. I was baptized
when I was 12. That's got to count for something.
Oh no. It's dumb in light of Christ. Take anything you think recommends
you unto God and compare it to what Christ did on Calvary. You know what it is? It's dumb.
That's conversion. And when they wouldn't receive
His Word, He concealed it from them. That's God's judgment for
not hearing. My friend, don't be found that
way. He said in verse 16 of Matthew 13 to the disciples, He said,
Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.
He said, For verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous
men have desired to see those things which you see and have
not seen them, and to hear those things which you hear and have
not heard them. Those prophets of the Old Testament, they saw
the glory of God in Christ to come. But here the Lord was standing
right before these disciples, preaching the gospel, And He
was ready in His life at the given time to go to the cross
and put away the sins of His people and establish that righteousness
for them. My friend, don't walk out of
here indifferent. Certainly don't walk out in opposition,
but don't even walk out of here indifferent to the Word of God. Listen and say, Preacher, I want
to hear that. I want to understand that. I
want to know what this Word is saying. I want to see Christ
and His glory.