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Last week we heard Jesus proclaim the parable of the sower. It's the first parable that he has given in the Gospel of Matthew. In this parable, there are four seeds and four soils. The fourth seed is the seed that everyone wants to be.
Remember, the seed is the Word of God, the Bible, and the soil is the human heart. In the fourth seed, the person receives the Word and the Word takes deep root in one's mind and heart. This is a person who follows Christ and grows over time.
So to be the fourth seed is to be in a very blessed position. But the first through third seeds, no one should ever want to be. The first three seeds all describe humans who have hard hearts. To have a hard heart means that when one hears the Word of God, it is not truly received.
The person with the hard heart does not bear fruit over the long haul and therefore does not truly follow Jesus. As we consider the first three seeds, each of them describes the unbeliever. During Jesus' ministry in the first century, he came across lots of people who are in the categories of the first three seeds and the first three soils.
These are people who heard the truth but ultimately didn't want the truth. During his ministry, the human heart that he saw most as he preached was probably the first seed and the first soil. In the parable of the sower, Jesus said that the first seed fell near the path on hard soil.
Since the seed was visible as it sits on the hard soil, the birds came by and grabbed it. And what this pictured was that Satan, as the Word of God sat on the human heart, he would just yank it right away.
As the birds stand there, they don't go after the other seeds because the other seeds take root at least a little bit. But this seed that was on the hard path, they had no problem just taking away. When the Word of God is spoken upon the human heart, it is often met with no possibility of penetration.
The human heart is that hard. This was Jesus' experience and this is often our experience as the message of the truth of Christ is put out there. In our text this morning, Jesus is going to explain this hardness of heart and how this connects to his purpose in telling the parables in the first place.
So this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew 13. We'll be looking at verses 10 -17. And if you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on pages 972 and 973. This sermon is titled, The Gift of Seeing Glory.
And we're going to begin by reading this text. Matthew 13, verses 10 -17. Then the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But for the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, You will indeed hear, but never understand. And you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Here's our big idea. The glorious truth of Christ is ultimately meant for believers. The glorious truth of Christ is ultimately meant for believers. We're going to see two reasons why in our text. I already told you about last week's text in the introduction, the parable of the sower.
So we will jump right in to the text this week. We'll begin by zeroing in on verse 10, where Matthew writes that the disciples came and asked him, why do you speak to them in parables? Remember, this is the first parable that has been spoken by Jesus, the parable of the sower.
In the first nine verses of Matthew. And they're wondering, what in the world are you doing? You haven't done this yet. So why are you speaking in parables? And he would tell parables throughout the gospel of Matthew, as we will see.
And since Jesus told this parable, they're wondering this question. The first question we need to ask is, what is a parable? A parable is non-literal language. Another way to say this is that it is figurative.
It is a picture. It is a story. The purpose of the story, the purpose of the illustration, is not just to tell an interesting story. I tell stories to my kids about bears in our woods, but that's just for fun.
There's no point to the story. But the purpose of parables is to communicate a divine truth through an image. Last week, Jesus communicated the different responses people have to God's word. He indicated four different responses through telling the parable of the sower.
The seeds go into the ground, and this is what they do. And each one describes a person. So what we saw is that Jesus explained the meaning of this parable to his disciples. But as we are going to see, the meaning of the parables would only be given to the one who truly desires to know the truth.
So let's see what Jesus says in the first half of verse 11. And he answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. So the disciples are that group that would receive the parables.
Minus Judas, of course. Judas is one with a very hard heart, as we would find out later in Jesus' ministry. But the other disciples, they were the ones who would understand. Once again, the meaning of the parables would only be given to the one who has a soft heart.
The fourth seed that lands on the fourth soil. The one who truly desires to understand the truth of God's word. And what Jesus says in verse 11 is that these secrets are being made known to his true disciples.
The Greek word for secrets is mysteria. This is where we get our word mystery. Some translations rightly say mystery. It's helpful to use this word mystery as we figure out what Jesus means by this word.
So what does it mean? In our day, when we think of mysteries, we think of mystery shows, mystery novels. Remember the show Unsolved Mysteries, hosted by Robert Stack? I used to enjoy watching that with one of my childhood friends.
In that show, what was presented was a mystery that needed to be discovered. Information that they didn't have that they needed to have. In the New Testament, when the word mystery is used, it is communicating information that was not known in the Old Testament, that has now been made known through new revelation in the New Testament period.
The disinformation that would come was predicted in the Old Testament. Down in verses 34 -35, the author mentions this, and I will read those verses right now. All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables.
Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.
The fulfillment that Matthew mentions comes from the Old Testament place in Psalm 78, verse 2. Old Testament saints only knew so much. It's interesting to think about what they knew compared to what we know, because of the time we live.
So what did they know? They knew they were sinners and their sins needed to be paid for, and that's why they followed God's instructions to offer up sacrifices at the temple to make atonement for their sins.
They knew that salvation came only by grace alone, through faith alone and God alone. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. They knew that the salvation was not for Israel only, but also for the Gentiles.
They knew that a Messiah was coming. They knew that God would restore the kingdom to Israel, where the Messiah would reign over them during an unprecedented period of prosperity and peace. They knew there was a future resurrection where both the blessed and the wicked would be raised from the dead with bodies that would never die.
They knew there would be a new heaven and a new earth, where God would reign forever with his people. Now this list I just mentioned is what the true believers of the Old Testament would have known, but there was information they didn't know because God had not yet given it to mankind.
So what didn't Old Testament saints know that believers have access to now, like us? We don't know everything, of course, but there's a lot of information that we do know because of what God has communicated through the New Testament.
We know clearly that the Messiah is also the second person of the Trinity. He is the Son in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now there were hints of this in the Old Testament, but it is made very clear in the New.
This same Messiah would be crucified once for all, making the sacrificial system null and void. Once again, there were hints of this in the Old Testament, like Isaiah 53 that describes Christ's crucifixion in detail, but the New Testament makes this crystal clear.
The book of Hebrews explains the whole point of the sacrificial system, and that is that it pointed to the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ. In the Old Testament, people believed in the God of Israel to be heaven-bound, that you needed to believe in Him to be heaven-bound, but now people are to specifically believe in Jesus.
For salvation, one needs to believe in Jesus because you are trusting in His finished work at the cross. We also learn something pertaining to God's kingdom that would not have been known in the Old Testament.
That is that a new body is formed known as the Church. The Apostle Paul uses the same Greek word for mystery when talking about this new body of God's people that sheds light on our passage. In Ephesians 3, verses 3 -6, this is what Paul wrote, By revelation, the mystery was made known to me as I wrote before briefly.
When reading this, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not disclosed to people in former generations, as it has now been revealed in His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, namely, that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
As God works through the kingdom of heaven on earth, it would not just be Israelites that He would work through like He did in the Old Testament, but a new body known as the Church was formed. That's us.
This body made up of Jews and Gentiles is a new movement that was not there in the Old Testament, and Old Testament saints knew that God had a future for the Gentiles. Who's a Gentile? Non-Jew. The nations.
God had a future for the Gentiles, but they did not know that God would combine Jews and Gentiles into this one body known as the Church. This led the Jews to marvel that the primary vehicle through which God would work on earth would no longer be Israel, but a new people that includes Gentiles.
The Church started when Christ came to the earth 2 ,000 years ago. Any Jew over the last 2 ,000 years that believes in Christ belongs to this new body known as the Church. But what is interesting is that while the Church started with mostly Jews, think of the disciples, they were Jews, over time the Church became mostly Gentiles.
Are there any Jews in this room right now? Maybe there is, but if there is, it's very small. And Romans 11 .25 explains this. There's a future for Israel, yes, but the fullness of the Gentiles have to come in.
God has to finish His work through the Church before Israel will be saved in the end times. And this would have baffled Old Testament saints. It would have baffled first century Jews that learned of this.
The Gentiles were the ones who were darkened. These were the bad people. They were the ones far from God. But God starts a people known as the Church that is made up mostly of Gentiles. This is a mystery of the kingdom that the faithful Israelites of the Old Testament did not see coming.
But the New Testament makes crystal clear. Jesus tells His disciples how blessed they are to know all this new information. In verses 16 and 17 of Matthew 13, He says, Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. They know more than Daniel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Moses.
They longed to see this. And you see it because of the time in which you live. The disciples and anybody after the time of Christ knows more than Old Testament saints. It is the Spirit of God in believers that shows them and us through the New Testament these truths.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2 .13, We impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. It's fascinating how the unbelieving Jews of the first century, the ones that Jesus had so many problems with, missed this.
They did not understand the Bible. They did not have the spiritual discernment to understand the Bible because they did not have the Spirit. They did not have eyes to see. It is only the soft heart, the heart where the Word hits and takes root, that gladly received the Word and by God's grace is able to live out the Word.
Everyone in this room who is a believer has a clarity of understanding that the unbelieving heart does not have. They don't understand why you love Jesus so much and why you love His Word so much. But the reason is you see it.
And they don't. Unbelievers are perplexed by pastors like me. Why would you spend your life doing that? I can't tell you how many times I tell an unbeliever I'm a pastor and they give me a funny look.
And you know what they're thinking. Why would you do that? Religion is boring. The Bible is boring. There's so many things you can do with your life. I used to sell running shoes. That sounds like more fun to the unbeliever, right?
You get to travel around, sell shoes, meet people. You don't have to hang out with all those religious people. Sounds like a nice gig. But I left that for this. Why would you do that? They don't understand.
My eyes are open to see the Word of God. It changed my life. When true Christians meet a pastor, they get it. They think what a wonderful way to spend your life. They think, thank you for helping us understand the treasure of the Word of God better.
Unbelievers don't understand that, though. The glorious truth of Christ is ultimately meant for believers. The first reason why is that believers gladly are able to see. Here's the second reason why the glorious truth of Christ is ultimately meant for believers.
Unbelievers are stubbornly unable to see. We'll see this in the second half of verse 11 to verse 15. But this is not so for the first three soils, the hearts that are very hard. As I mentioned, the Jewish nation that Jesus preached to is best described as the first seed in the first soil, where the seed falls on the hard ground near the path, and the birds have no problem coming and snatching it away.
It represents Satan. He has no problem snatching it away. This is what Jesus says in the second half of verse 11.
He says,.
But to them it has not been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus tells the disciples that it is for them to understand the truth of God's Word. But it is not for the one with the hard heart.
Jesus specifically has hard-hearted Jews in mind, but this goes for all who have a very hard heart toward God. What he says about them in verse 12 is this,. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance.
But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. What Jesus is doing is contrasting the believer who loves God's Word with the unbeliever who despises the Word of God. The one who loves God's Word will keep drinking from the fountain.
The one who loves God's Word, God through His Spirit, will continue to show more and more to the believer as the believer hungers for it and the believer will experience spiritual growth. That's the fourth seed and the fourth soil.
The one who has will be given more. And Psalm 1 verses 1 -3 really describes this well. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the seat of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. What you see in Psalm 1 is that true believers feed on the Word of God.
There's a desire, there's a hunger for it. I said last week that sometimes you don't feel it, but eventually it will come and you take it in and over time you will grow. The fourth seed, as we saw last week, that seed hits the soft soil.
And Jesus says in Matthew 13 -23,. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the Word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
Jesus makes clear that some believers grow more than others. But one thing is clear, every believer grows some. But the unbeliever with a hard heart is in a very bad place. In verse 12, Jesus describes the unbeliever as one who has not.
And even what he has will be taken away. As Jesus and all his spokespeople proclaimed the truth, the unbeliever in their midst always heard them communicate the truth. And instead of embracing it, they dismissed it.
The unbeliever will dismiss the Word even more easily on future occasions when hearing it. The hard heart will only harden and not soften. To hear more truth and reject it is worse than hearing less truth and rejecting it.
And so what we see here is a curse upon the one who rejects it. That's what we're seeing. What's interesting is that once someone rejects the Word, Jesus made it harder for the unbeliever to understand the Word.
He explains this in verse 13. He says, This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. He tells us the answer. Why does he speak in parables?
It's a judgment upon the unbeliever. Remember, a parable is a story, a picture that communicates a divine truth. And since it is not literal, it is harder to understand. But what Jesus is explaining is that he is doing this on purpose so that only followers would understand.
And the unbeliever who has no interest in spiritual truths would be even more turned off through these parables that Jesus gives. To this point in his ministry, he has spoken truth plainly to the crowd.
It's crystal clear, black and white, cut and dry. Think about the Sermon on the Mount. Some received his message, but many more did not. To the many who did not receive the message, the days of clear speaking are over.
Now it's going to be harder to understand. The only time he will speak clearly to this point will be explaining his parables to his followers. He would tell these parables and then explain it to them afterwards, the ones who received the word.
So he would do it then. The other time he would speak clearly is when he shot straight with the Jewish leaders. Where he called a spade a spade. Where he called them out for who they were. The clear invitation to believe and to follow him will no longer be spoken from the mouth of Jesus from this point forward in his ministry.
So what Jesus is saying is this. For him to speak in parables is a judgment on unbelieving Jews. He is essentially saying, you don't want to receive the truth that I have put before you?
Fine.
I will speak in language that makes no sense to you. As Jesus speaks in parables, they will believe he has gone crazy. Thinking, who is this man who tells these stories that don't make sense? About farmers throwing seeds in the ground.
This leads them to dismiss the only hope they have all the more easier. In this way, as Jesus has said, the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. You heard the truth, you didn't want it.
You're not going to get that anymore. Now what you're going to get is harder. You're not going to understand it. What Jesus tells them in verses 14 and 15 is that they are fulfilling the same prophecy their forefathers did.
He says this.
You will indeed hear, but never understand. You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull. And with their ears, they can barely hear. And their eyes, they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.
What Jesus does is quote this prophecy from Isaiah. It comes from Isaiah chapter 6 verses 9 and 10. And when Isaiah made this prophecy to the people of Israel, they were on the verge of being judged by God through captivity in Babylon in 605 B .C.
The people of Israel were told to repent by Isaiah, but they didn't. The Jews in Jesus' day were just like their ancestors. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. They loved their religious traditions, but they did not want true religion that comes through Jesus Christ.
They loved their cozy positions, their prestige, their power, their man-made laws, and they didn't want to give that up because if they followed Jesus, they'd have to give all that up. The message that Jesus gave them to humble themselves and follow Him was unattractive.
In that verse from Isaiah, we read that they will hear but not understand, and we might think that it was over their head. It was too smart, too intellectual, but this is not the case. The message was clear, so they most certainly did understand.
The problem was that they rejected what they heard.
They didn't want it.
This is like having a conversation with someone and you are trying to get through to him or her. You tell the person, you need to do this or there will be consequences. And the person who heard you, they heard you, they just didn't want to hear what you said, and so they didn't go along with you.
The person does not understand the magnitude of what you are saying and rejects it. It is like the person who comes to church on Sunday, hears the message, hears the challenge from God's Word, but it changes nothing in the person's heart.
And he or she goes on living a life far from God. The Word of God is meant to transform. And if it doesn't transform, it is because the hard sinful heart won't let the Word break through. Imagine the strongest, fastest person you know standing over there by the massive building.
Derek, you are strong and you are pretty fast too, right? I am thinking about Mike Brond, you are pretty strong and fast. Imagine these guys running as fast as they can. You think they are going to run through that wall?
It is a brick wall. It is not going to happen. I don't care if you are the strongest person in the world. I don't care if you are the fastest person in the world. You are not going through that wall. The same it goes for the one who hears the Word of God and their heart is hard.
It is not getting through. It is not getting through. The people that Jesus so often came into contact with were described this way. Hard hearted people who didn't want anything to do with Him. We don't want this to be any of us.
We want to be those who continue to move in the right direction. Even if it is slower than we desire. But at least you are moving in the right direction. And here is a good word from well-known pastor John MacArthur on this.
He says, all men are either progressing or regressing spiritually. No person remains static in his relationship to God. The longer a person knows and is faithful to Christ, the more his Lord is faithful to reveal His truth and power.
Therefore, the longer a person rejects the knowledge of God he has, whether much or little, the less of God's truth he will understand. Willful human rejection leads to divine judicial rejection. When a man says no to God, God says no to that person.
God confirms men in their stubbornness and binds them with their own chains of unbelief. What a dreadful place to be to have a hard heart. But what a wonderful place to be to have a soft heart where the seed can take root and grow and grow over the long haul.
That's who we want to be. I talk often about our mission statement as a church. What is our mission statement as a church? To grow in Christ together. I hope everybody knows that. May this be an environment where the soil is soft and deep, where growth can take place.
That's the goal. Eureka Baptist is a church that if you want to grow, you will grow. And I say this because we are a church of the word. We don't have over-the-top entertainment. We don't have a lot that's fancy.
We worship in a building that's 98 years old, for crying out loud. Some churches are built on the wrong things, far more than the word. And they are not places that foster true spiritual growth. But at this church, at Eureka Baptist, we just want to be a New Testament church.
A place where God is working mightily. A place where God looks down and He says, yes, I like what they're doing. They're not perfect, but they're doing to the best of their ability. What I want them to do.
And may we do that by God's grace. The glorious truth of Christ is ultimately meant for believers. And we've seen two reasons why. The first reason why is that believers are gladly able to see. You see with the eyes of your heart.
You hear the word.
You understand it. You like what you hear. You want to live it. The second reason why is that unbelievers are stubbornly unable to see. They hear it, but they don't want it. And the further you go, the harder it is.
And Jesus made it harder. But even if the word is spoken clearly from us over and over and over again, the harder the heart gets, the harder it is to receive. This is why the Bible implores people. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.
Receive the word. And my prayer is that everyone in this room would be in the first category. That when you read the word or are taught the word or the word is preached to you, that you value deeply what it says.
That you want to hear from God, even if at times you have to fight for the eagerness in receiving His word. As I mentioned last week, if you are not eager today, there will be a day when you will be if you truly know Him.
Just stick with it. To receive the word the way humans are supposed to is far from a guarantee. I mean, think about how glorious this book is. Why aren't people flocking to hear it? It's because of the sinful heart.
The way is narrow. And Jesus said it would be that way. Many are blind. The most glorious truths are put before people, but they want none of it. But to the one who has the spirit, who gives you sight, that's who we want to be.
And you and I need to follow His lead and hunger for the word that feeds our souls and transforms us. That's what I want to say today. If you're here today and you don't know Christ, you don't have a relationship with Christ,.
Believe today.
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. And you will hunger for the word. And you will grow. And you will be who God made you to be. Now next Sunday, we will see Jesus give another parable. And the parable is called the parable of the weeds.
And this parable will describe two categories of people that everyone in this world fits into. So I look forward to looking at that with you. But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for the word.
Thank you, Lord, that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it pierces soul and spirit and discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And my prayer, Lord, is that this word, with every heart that's here, would just go right through, right deep and take root, and that people would grow.
And if anyone does not know Christ, that they would know Christ for the first time. And follow you all the days of their life. In Jesus' name, Amen.