Parables On The Kingdom of God, Pt. 1 (01/30/2000) | NOTE: This sermon was split between two tapes.

The Mixed Multitude, the Church, and the Kingdom of God

A couple of Sundays we, in one way or another, talked about the mixed multitude, about God's people in the Old Testament, and how mixed in among them were some people who were not God's people, although they called themselves God's people, but they did not have the circumcision of the heart, it was just outward.

And then last Sunday we talked more about the Church, and how it's really the same way. And I believe the next few Sundays will be in Matthew chapter 13, and we're going to talk about some parables that our Lord Jesus Christ taught that specifically deal with the Church and the nature of what he calls the Kingdom of God, which you might liken to Christendom, in other words, everyone who professes to be a Christian, it would include everyone who professes to be a Christian, some are born again, some are not.

Some are good fish, some are bad fish, and there are several teachings in this passage about that. And so I'd like for us to take a couple of Sundays, or three, to go through and study some of these teachings of our Lord in chapter 13 of Matthew.

So starting this morning for a little while, we're going to have a verse-by-verse study on Sunday mornings through these passages. I think that in these last days, Christians have gotten to the place where they just assume if you live in the Bible belt and you say, I'm a Christian, that you are one.

And we want to believe the best of others, don't we? And sometimes our goodness in that area becomes our weakness. And we assume that everyone who claims to be a Christian is truly God's child. And that's not the case at all.

In fact, in the studies that we've done in the past couple of Sundays, we've seen that what happens is this mixed multitude creates an interesting situation. Because what happens is that the tares are mixed in with the wheat, and the wheat oftentimes will grow to the place where God's children will look at the others and kind of see the little things they bring in.

In the Old Testament, they called them little idols that sometimes the women from the world would bring in. God's people would always be intrigued with those little idols, and many times would bring them into their own tents.

Sometimes they would hide them. Sometimes they would just be right out in the open. But they would be intrigued by these little gods, these little idols, these false gods. Things which had their affection that were not God.

And always they would be brought down by these things. And so the mixed multitude has an effect on God's children, and then God comes in, and God moves accordingly. And we've seen the results of some of that in the past couple of Sundays through the messages.

So God's people are tested in this way. Their faithfulness to their Father is tested in this way. Will they love Him more, are these little playthings that the others bring in, who claim to be Christians but who are not, but these things that they bring in that the world has.

Will God's children love God more, are these things? Will their affection be after the one who created them and gave them life, or will it go after the things of the world, which tend towards death? And that has been the cycle that God's people have gone through.

The book of Judges is a great example, and we just get to the place where the Lord frees us from captivity, then we go through a time of prosperity, then we get to a place of complacency, and then we go into idolatry, and then we go back into slavery.

And that is the tendency, and God has given us this so that we might learn from it and not have to go through the same cycle. And so those are the things God's been dealing with me about lately. And if there is a certain somberness about our service today, it's probably coming from me, I would suppose, although I thought it was coming from y 'all.

I prayed about it before the service this morning, but I think it's probably myself. But we've had a very interesting and in many ways difficult week this past week, and I do want to meet with all the parents who have children in our school right after the afternoon service this afternoon to have a talk with you, although because of illness and so forth, we obviously don't have everyone here that we need to have, so this will probably be just a preliminary talk, and we'll get together at a later time when we have everybody here that needs to be here.

But I want to share my heart with you a little bit about what I think the enemy has done in our school this year, and how it has affected every family in this church. And yet, I want us to remember Romans 8, 28, God truly does work all things together for good to those who love him and who are called according to his name.

And so I also want to point out some of the things that I think will come that are good from some of these things to your children and mine and to us. So, I think the Lord's led me into these passages because we're actually here anyway.

So let's go to Romans, I mean Matthew chapter 13, I'm going back to Sunday school now, let's go to Matthew chapter 13 and start with verse 1. 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.

I've been to this place before a couple of times, and it's an amazing, natural theater. The acoustics would have been perfect for Jesus' voice to have carried, to easily carry to the ears of everyone present, and it really wouldn't have mattered how large that crowd was.

Brother Otis and I have talked about this before, but the water would probably have been a bit reflective, and maybe there was a sail behind him on the boat that he sat on that could have been like a backdrop, and then the land gracefully sloped up at a slight slope so that everyone as they were there could have seen our Lord, and the sound would have just been naturally focused towards them, the prevailing winds were probably coming off of the water towards them, and I've been there before, and just standing there is an amazing thing, just to think about this event, and of course this comes to mind when you stand there, and you can almost just be there, and see it, and smell the smells, and hear the sounds, and think about what it would be like to hear our Lord Jesus teach in person on this earth.

Well, he spake many things unto them. Wouldn't that be something? I don't think they were too worried about the fried chicken, do you? And maybe the wind was blowing the smell of that on past them or something, I don't know.

But he spake many things to them. He taught them for a while, and he was able to keep their attention. They were captivated, and he spake many things unto them in parables. Now this is going to be interesting to find out why did he speak in parables, and he's going to be asked that in a few moments.

So he begins to teach, and he starts with this teaching. He says, Behold, a sower went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places.

Now picture this as you read it, because you're going to learn a spiritual truth from the physical things that are happening. So the farmer goes out to sow seeds, and he's just casting them everywhere.

And some of these seeds fall on a stony place where there was not much earth, wasn't much dirt on top of these rocks. And forthwith, they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth. So the little plants did come up in this part of the ground, and they came up quickly.

But they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched. And because they had no root, they withered away. So that's the first kind of soil that the Lord mentions. And then he talks about a second kind.

He says, And some of these seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them. But other fell into good ground. Some brought forth a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. But in this ground, all brought forth fruit.

And then he says at the end of his story, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now the disciples were listening to the story. They were trying to figure the story out, having a little bit of difficulty with it.

But at the same time, they seemed to be a little bit irritated that the Lord was teaching in parables. And you can probably figure out how Peter was thinking. He's probably thinking, Well, you know, if you would just speak plainly, more of them would understand this.

Why don't you just speak plainly? Why are you speaking in parables? Almost like riddles. And a parable is a physical story that teaches a spiritual truth. But it's more than that. It's also a spiritual story or a physical story that is taught in such a way that you have to have a spiritual ear to hear the story.

And so the disciples came and said to him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? That's verse 10. Now look at verse 11. 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.

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away that which he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

And I think it behooves us to ask who they is and who we is in this particular parable. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. Whoever these people are that do not have ears that can hear, whoever these people are who don't have eyes that can see, in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.

For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, 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.

Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear, the Lord Jesus says. 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.

Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. And then he's going to go ahead and explain to his disciples what the teaching meant. Now that's mainly where we're headed is to get into this parable and to learn what the Lord's teaching us from the parable.

And it relates very much to our church, to our Christian school, to all of us, just as much as it did to those to whom he spoke almost 2 ,000 years ago. But as we study through this, before we get into the parable itself and the interpretation of the parable, I want you to look at verse 11.

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. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.

But whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that which he hath. You remember the story of the talents? There's this one poor soul who the master gave one talent to, and he buried it. No fruit came from it whatsoever.

And when the master came back, he rebuked him and called him an evil servant. And he said, tell you what, take that away from him and give it to the other man who invested and bore much fruit with it.

He took away that which he had. And it's very similar here, I noticed, where it says, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that which he does have. And these passages really didn't make a lot of sense to me in my earlier years as a Christian, the first maybe couple of times I read through these passages, until I started to understand the concept that at least as Jesus looks at the people he's talking to, he can tell who is who.

Now the great Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, said he was not able to tell. He said God didn't place a yellow stripe down the backs of his children, so I don't know who they are. So I just sow the seeds everywhere, because that's what God told me to do.

But Jesus could look at a person and say, you are of your father the devil. You hear not my words, because you're of your father the devil. He that is of God, heareth God's words. Jesus could do that.

He could look in their hearts and tell them, you're a child of Satan. But then he could look at certain others and say, blessed are you that have ears to hear. This is why I taught in parables, because this is for you.

This is not for them. I have a sneaking suspicion that that's true of this book. That this Bible is for you, God's children. Bible says the lost man cannot discern spiritual things. He's written the whole Bible in this way.

That when you are born again, your eyes are open, your ears are open. The Bible not only makes sense to you, but you love it for the first time in your life. You love being around brothers and sisters, really, for the first time in your life.

For that, you hated to go to church. For that, you used to say, well, the Bible's such a boring book, I can't handle it. Doesn't make any sense to me. I've had church members tell me that, and that's frightening.

On the inside, I always go, oof, when someone tells me, I just don't, I just can't get anything out of that book. And they're saying it as a compliment, because usually what they're saying to the pastor is that's why I need to come and hear you preach, so I can understand it, because I don't get anything out of it.

That's frightening. Because this is written to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. And you can go down through this passage. Let's look at verse 11, where it says, he answered and said to them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

It's kind of interesting, this little phrase, it is given, is in the perfect tense, which means it is viewed as having been completed in the past, never having to be done again. And it's also passive, which means this is something that was done to these people by a higher outside force.

Always remember what passive means in the grammar, and perfect is a beautiful thing to understand in the grammar. Perfect tense, doesn't have to be done again. It's done once and for all. And so when it says these things were given to you, it is very clear in the grammar that God had to give them to you, or you would have never seen them.

Praise be to God. Now, we live in a time when humanism has taken over all the colleges, universities, all the grammar schools, from kindergarten all the way through high school, and now it's taken over all of our churches.

We live in a time where people like to celebrate the fact that I accepted Jesus. I found him. We have bumper stickers about all these sorts of things. And people get angry sometimes when one would stand up and say, hey, God is the one who is the outside powerful agent who placed that in your heart.

You wouldn't have had it if he hadn't done it. Why did he do that? Because he's loved you from before the foundation of the world and known you. And so when it says he answered and said to them, because it is given unto you to know these mysteries, think about the phrase, it is given unto you.

The fact that they had ears to hear and eyes to see was a gift from God. Faith itself is a gift from God. It is the very faith of Jesus. It's his faith. And we studied last Sunday how it's on loan for a little season of time called the church age.

And when you see him with your eyes, you don't need faith anymore. He's given you his faith to be a good steward of it for this time on this earth. It's all a gift from him. So it's given unto you, Jesus says, to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

But to them, it is not given. Now, isn't that an amazing statement? That flies in the face of modern theology. It absolutely flies in the face of it because Jesus himself says, these people who don't have the ears to hear and the eyes to see, it's because whoever the giver is did not give it to them.

And then he comes in and emphasizes the truth by saying, the person who has, it shall be given. Now, what is it that this person has that others don't have? He has this marvelous gift from above, this gift of faith.

And he shall be given more abundance. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. But whosoever has not, now what is it that this person doesn't have? He doesn't have ears to hear.

He doesn't have eyes to see. He is a walking dead man. He is a whited sepulcher filled with dead men's bones. He is of his father, the devil, and Jesus knows exactly who he is. I'm not saying you and I can know, so we have to sow the seeds everywhere, but Jesus knows.

And he says, these have not had this gift given to them and to them, even the natural abilities and the things that they have been given, physical life, it shall be taken away someday. Now, that is a somber way to begin this.

And I think as we see some of the other areas that tie into this in a few moments, we're going to see that the people listening didn't like that preaching very much. Even his disciples said, why don't, why do you teach like that?

Put it out there plainly so that everybody can understand it. We want everybody to follow us. We want to have a mega church here. We want everybody, you know, to come and join and we'll be successful.

And then when you set up your throne over here, we can sit beside you up here. I love the Baptist churches the way we have the, you know, these are pretty nice, but usually you'll have a chair sitting up here that almost looks like a king's throne.

And you put the clergy in the chairs. I won't sit up here. Sometimes out of laziness, I may sit here if someone's going to give a short announcement, but they wanted to be seated there in these nice chairs that look like thrones and be right beside Jesus and have 10 gigazillions.

That's a big number of people. Every one of them right there. So don't teach in a way that they can't understand. They won't follow us. And Jesus didn't really overtly rebuke them, but he just says, you know, maybe I know how I should teach.

Maybe I know who I'm talking to and maybe I know that those people can only hear this message and the others aren't supposed to hear it anyway. They'll never understand it. They will never truly hear it with understanding.

Now as we move on into verse 14, it says, and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith by hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive.

Let's look at this word understand for a moment. This word in the Greek language really means to put together mentally to put it all together. Now, don't misunderstand everyone that was standing or seated around on this little incline on this beautiful hill, listening to Jesus speak from the boat.

Every one of them heard his words, his words hit the ear of everyone, but not everyone that heard it could put it all together in their mind and understand what he was saying. This word means to put it all together.

And this concept of seeing you shall see, but you shall not perceive this word perceive is a little Greek word, Ido, which it does literally mean to see, but it means to see with understanding and to know and to behold the beauty and the truth of something.

Now let me keep your hand there and Matthew, we're going to come back to it, but let me get you to turn to John chapter six. I want to show you where this word is used in another place, this word, to see, to behold, to see with understanding John chapter six, verse 36.

But I said unto you that you also have seen me and believed not. You see, there were some people there who saw, but they didn't see what their understanding they heard, but they didn't hear with understanding.

And then Jesus says, all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out for I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the father that sent me.

And this is the father's will, which has sent me that of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Now look at verse 40. And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the son, now mark that little word seeth, everyone that seeth the son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day.

Verse 44, no man can come to me except the father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. You realize that this drawing is the same thing we see in our study this morning where he says in the perfect passive tense that it has been given unto you to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

Who gave it? The father. The father had to give it. Now Jesus says no man can come to me unless the father does that. And he says but that person who sees, who beholds Jesus Christ, whose eyes are opened like Paul's were on the Damascus road, that person will be raised up in the last day.

And he goes on and says it is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God If you would mark the little word of out and put the word by that will make a lot of sense to you. They were all taught by God.

Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned from the father cometh unto me. Every one of them. Now we go back and we understand now why Jesus taught his disciples who were always learning, always asking, at least they asked the questions didn't they?

They weren't always, didn't sound smart sometimes when they asked them, but they were honest enough to ask the questions. And Jesus said the reason that I teach in parables is because it is not for them to hear.

It is for you to hear. Well let's look at verse 15, now this is fascinating, by the way I want to point out there in John chapter 6 that word where he says whosoever sees the sun and believes shall be saved, that word see is the word Ido which means to behold or to see with the understanding to know and behold the truth of something.

Now back in Matthew 13, 15 let's go on it says for this people's heart is waxed gross. Which people? The people that these parables are not spoken to. The people that are not going to understand and see and hear these parables, their heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed, I want you to underline the word they, lest at any time they shall see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them.

It's almost as if the Lord's saying these things are happening because if they didn't I'd have to save them. Now Jesus knows he will not save anyone that the Father does not tell him to save because when he was on the earth he was always subservient to the Father.

He said the words that I say are the Father's words and the deeds that I do are the Father's deeds. I do nothing outside of the Father's will and so therefore he spoke in parables so that those that the Father were drawing would be the ones that would hear and understand.

Jesus was always performing the exact will of the Father. For this people's heart is waxed gross, their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they might be converted.

It's interesting to look at verse 15 where it says the heart is waxed gross that this phrase waxed gross is in the passive tense. Now you read that in the English you don't get that. In the English it sounds like well they just they just turn their hearts away from God.

But in the Greek language it's in the passive tense which means something greater and outside of them is what waxed their heart gross. Are you hearing this this morning? I mean this is not what you're going to hear on TV if you go hear TV preaching.

It's not what you're going to hear in most places in modern day Christianity today because it's all humanistic today. For those who want to preach success gospel so that we can come and learn Bible principles be successful in our businesses in our lives you can hear that anywhere you want to go hear it.

It's like they want to say now teach this plainly so that everybody can come and be involved in this with us and we'll be one big happy family we'll have six zillion people here and we will be successful and we'll teach everybody how to be successful.

And now here Jesus is saying well these people have had their hearts waxed gross by a greater outside agency. Their ears are dull of hearing because their heart is waxed gross because it has been made to be that way.

Their eyes however look what it says they have closed and that's where you see that man does have a will and man does make choices and man is responsible. A hyper Calvinist is the person who will teach that man's not responsible man doesn't do anything you just open the doors back there and the elect walk in and all that.

I've never personally well I have met personally met one of those in my life he's a TV repair man over in Mahia years ago. He was like that I asked him if you had someone over in Africa that was of the elect and he never heard the gospel could he be saved and he said yep doesn't have to believe in Jesus to be saved if he's of the elect and so I just walked out that was a hyper Calvinist.

But the true Biblionarian the person who believes the Bible to get the name calling out of the way is a person that understands that God is not only in control but he also has put the means out there for everything that's going to happen.

Do you think it was an accident that well I'll use my life that my grandmom and my mom were praying for me to be saved for years for 24 years before I got saved? No the Lord was directing their hearts so they could be a part of his work and in his work in my life.

But here he says these people's hearts are waxed gross but they have closed their eyes. Now when you look at the word they have closed that's in the heiress tense which really has no regard for time but it's also in the active which means they themselves did this.

This was not done to them they made the choice. So here in verse 15 as in so many places we see the sovereignty of God and the will of man side by side. God does not have a problem with that we do some kind of figure it all out but it's there.

What we see and I've preached recently a message I think most of you were here when I preached on the Waldenses and how as you go back to John Calvin when he came to the place where he was beginning to so beautifully pin and write down systematic theology really maybe for the first time.

Well Augustine wasn't a bad theologian but Calvin in more modern times put it down where people could study it but what's interesting is there were people already on the earth that believed the same way he did they were called Waldenses.

We like to say those were the precursors of the Baptists. Brother Russ no matter what you say he's mocking me the other day for believing the Baptists go all the way back to but they do go back to John the Baptist that's why we're called Baptists.

I'm teasing now if you're new okay but let's put it this way they may not have always been called Baptists but there were always people who believe this book like it's written even during the time of the dark ages of the Roman Catholic Empire and so when John Calvin began to put his what they call Calvinism together he met some Anabaptists and some Waldenses who already believed that way and many historians say he learned it from them.

So study your history and at least see what your Baptist roots are you may reject it if you want to I mean if it's just traditionalist chunk it out but I mean if it's Bible at least we know we're not the only ones that see these things it's been this way in the Baptist line going back years and years and years and years and hundreds of years thousands of years actually and so look what happens you have a you have an understanding.

The only way you can put these two together in verse 15 is if you come at it from a sovereignty of God position because if you come at it from a humanistic position you can't figure out the part about his heart is waxed gross being passive you'll never figure out how that can be.

However if you understand that first and you understand that Jesus said of all them that the Father gives me I will raise them up so that he is doing the Father's will. And even when he speaks and he teaches he speaks in parables in such a way that only those ears would hear him in obedience to his father.

The disciples had the same view many Christians have today. Well let's just put it out there where everybody can get saved. They didn't understand not everybody can get saved and yet the seed is supposed to be sown so that everyone has an opportunity from our point of view.

But Jesus didn't have the same point of view because he had eyes that could see those things and he understood who his people were and who the father's people were. And doesn't it make sense though that if this beautiful gift of faith is something that has to be given that is passive from our point of view because it's something God gives us that only when our eyes are open do we have the opportunity when our understanding is there to make a choice.

That is right. I mean the Apostle Paul listened when he was going down that road he wasn't finding Jesus. He was going out finding Christians and killing them. But when that light came on and Jesus spoke to him he heard it and he saw it.

First thing he said was Lord what would you have me to do. That was his choice and it was the right one. But there are some people whose hearts are waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing in their eyes they have closed.

They made a choice of their will. They said I don't want anything to do with this. I mean there were people now. This is awesome. There were people sitting on that hillside this day with the pretty little flowers all around God in the flesh sitting in the boat preaching teaching preach teaching.

And they were hearing everything he said. And when they looked at him they were seeing God. But they weren't seeing God. There were some there who looked at Jesus and that's what they saw. But there are others who didn't want anything to do with it.

They didn't want to see it. They didn't want to hear it. They didn't want their life to go in that direction. And so they shut their eyes to it. It's like they washed their hands of it. They made the choice to do that.

And they are held responsible by Almighty God for eternity for that choice. That's the only way you can make it all fit together is from that point of view. In my view I mean that's my opinion as I've studied the whole Bible now this is exactly what Jesus is teaching here and now we see the sovereignty of God.

But we see human responsibility side-by-side in verse 15. Now let's look at verse 16. But blessed are your eyes. That's where we should really dwell. I mean we may not figure out theology completely on this earth.

Has that ever occurred to us. We may not put this thing together. We're certainly supposed to try though because he told us to study to show ourselves approved. I'm never of the group that says well we can't understand that.

So we won't study that anymore. That's not what God told us to do but some of it. We may not put it all together. But I tell you what we can put together. Blessed are your eyes. Listen. If you know that there was a time when you saw him.

If you know that there was a time when a moment before that you didn't and after that moment you saw him you beheld the glory of Jesus Christ and you were saved. And you know it. He's saying you're blessed.

Blessed are your eyes of understanding that have been open. If you're sitting here this morning you say well you know I've done the little religious thing and I prayed the little prayer and I asked Jesus come in my heart save me amen.

And I may have even gotten baptized. But I have never had a time when I beheld the Son of God when I just all the sudden knew him personally. I know I haven't. I'm dry on the inside. It's like a desert a dry and thirsty land in my heart.

And I've tried to play the game. I've tried to be in church. Maybe I've tried to be in the Christian school. I've tried to keep the rules. I've tried to do all this. And I'm not happy. I don't have peace in my heart.

I don't know that I have ever truly beheld the Son of God with my spiritual eyes. Tell you what if you're concerned about it this morning. That's a great sign. You may already be seeing a few beams of that light coming from the heavenlies and shining on you.

And all you need to do is just go like that and say Lord what would you have me to do. But if you've had that experience blessed are your eyes. For they see they I know they behold the things of God. And you can so vividly remember the time when they didn't.