Kingdom Parables, Part 2 B

Jesus says, I'm going to show you mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

Never revealed to anybody, but they're given to you to know. But not to them, because they don't accept the king. So the Lord then unfolds and hides at the same time. Bible commentator Matthew Henry said that parables make the things of God plain to those willing to be taught and more difficult and obscure to those who are willfully ignorant. Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn't just make his teaching plain to everyone? Why conceal truth from those who arguably need it the most?

Why make the meaning difficult to grasp? Consider those questions today on Grace to You as John MacArthur continues his study from the thirteenth chapter of Matthew titled, The Parables of the Kingdom. And now with the message, here's John. Now as we look at Matthew 13, I want to give you just a general overview and a sense of what's going on in the mind of our Lord as He teaches here. Three points that I want you to note. The plan, the purpose, and the promise. And I think these three will help us to get a grasp of this great chapter. First is the plan, verse 3. And He spoke many things unto them in parables. The plan of our Lord was to speak in parables.

Now listen very carefully. Admittedly, while parables explain things and parables help us understand things and parables make things clear, listen, when they are explained to us, an unexplained parable is nothing but an impossible riddle. An unexplained parable is an impossible riddle, unable to be understood. And that is why He had to explain everything, even to His own disciples. In Mark 4-10, indicating the same occasion, when He was alone, they that were about Him with the twelve asked of Him the parable. And He said to them, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto those who are outside all these things are done in parables.

He said, it's only for you. Jesus only explained the parables to the twelve and those who believed, not to the rest. All they got was unexplained parables.

And those are nothing but riddles, unable to be understood. Now that takes us to verse 10, and the purpose for His plan. The disciples came and said to Him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? Why do You just give them these parables without explanation?

Why do You do that? He answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Now that tells us about the purpose of parables. They are to reveal and they are to what?

Conceal. To some they make truth clear, to others they make it even more unclear. Now Jesus says it's for you to know the mysteries. Now when He said that word, no doubt their cultural identification helped them to understand it better than we do. When we think of the word mystery, we think of Agatha Christie or somebody.

We think of some kind of who done it. But that is not the way they did. In the Greek culture, in the Hellenistic world of that era, mysteries were sacred secrets known only to upper level religionists. They were truths only for the initiated. Now we have a parallel to that with the secret societies of today like the Masons and others who have these secret truths that nobody knows except the people who get to certain levels to know them. That's really a heritage born out of Gnosticism from the word gnosis, to know. We are the ones who are in the know.

We know the secrets. And the mystery religions of Greece which were born out of Babylon were religions in which there were these secrets that you attained as you moved up the ladder of that religion. For example, one of the most famous mysteries was the mystery of Isis and Osiris.

Osiris was a wise and good king. Seth, his wicked brother, hated him and with 72 conspirators persuaded him to come to a banquet. And when he came to the banquet, he put him in a coffin and threw him in the Nile River. But he was found by his wife and brought home. And while he was at home, this gets complicated, Seth came again and cut his body into 14 pieces. And shipped them to 14 locations throughout all Egypt, figuring that would be the end of Osiris.

However, Osiris pulled himself together. Actually, his wife went everywhere and collected the pieces. And he rose from the dead and became forever after the immortal king of the living and the dead. Now the initiated people were told what that story meant. Every one of those little things had a little secret.

It talked about goodness, being attacked by evil, the sorrowing search of love, the triumphal discovery that love finds its object, raising to life, death conquered, reborn for eternity. And the ultimate secret was that if you as a worshiper would say to Osiris, I am thou and thou art I, you would then be placed in union with Osiris and live forever. That was the ultimate secret. Now without an explanation, you could only do your best to make sense out of that whole thing.

But they had it down to a gnat's eyebrow. Jesus says, I'm going to show you mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. The secrets never revealed to anybody, but they're given to you to know. But not to them, because they don't accept the king. And so the Lord then unfolds and hides at the same time. Look at verse 12. For whosoever hath, and here's the principle that he uses, for whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. Oh, what a great statement that is.

You know what he's saying there? Whoever has, whoever has what? Well, whoever has in the sense of having received from God that which comes to those who believe.

Whoever is regenerate, whoever is a part of the kingdom, whoever has received the king and believed in the king and therefore identifies with the king, whoever has accepted God's truth will get more of God's truth. That is assent. That is enlightenment.

That is illumination. As the one who has gets more and more and more. You remember the parables of our Lord where you find the unfaithful servant and invariably the Lord will say, take what he has and give it to those who already have more. And what he has, he loses. To the one who accepts the simplicity of the king and his kingdom, God will begin to reveal an ascending revelation of truth.

That's what he says. To those who live up to the light of Christ, he will give more light and more light and more light. But then look at the rest of the verse. But whosoever hath not, that is whoever is not regenerate, whoever does not accept the king and his kingdom, whoever does not believe God, from him shall be taken even what he has.

What does that mean? Well, there may have been a little bit of light dawning as he was being led to that point. Certainly that was true of Israel. The king had come. He had taught. He had preached. He had done miracle after miracle after miracle. They had some understanding of who he was.

Some understanding of what he could do. Some glimpses and foretaste of the kingdom. They had seen the signs of the Spirit of God. They had seen wonders. They had some of that. But when they said no to the king, even what they had, they lost.

None of it made any more sense. And they began to descent into more profound and deeper darkness all the time. I think we see that today. Nobody in our society, no group of people in our society are as lost in terms of disorientation from their religion as Jewish people. They had the covenances, the promises, the gifts of God, the fathers, the adoptions, all of that stuff in Romans 9.

Paul says you had everything. And as soon as they rejected the king and the light went out, they began to lose the meaning of everything they had. You see, if you live up to that light which Christ gives, then more light comes. If you refuse that light, then deeper darkness ensues.

And the parables of the servants and the talents reiterate this again and again. Take away what he has and give it to one who has rightly responded to me. And so he says, even what they have, they will lose. All men then, now listen carefully, all men then are in progress.

Up or down. That's a fearful thing. No man stays static. The longer you know Jesus Christ, the more faithful he is to reveal his truth. The longer you refuse Jesus Christ, the deeper the pit of darkness becomes. Verse 13, Jesus says, therefore, I speak to them in parables. I speak to them in parables because this is an act of judgment. They seeing, see not. Hearing, they hear not. Neither do they understand because they will not hear with understanding. They will not see.

I will now speak to them so they cannot see. You see? So what happens is that willful rejection becomes judicial rejection. Man says no, so God says no as well. God confirms men in their own stubbornness. God binds them by their own chain. And for them, the parables become interesting stories and they really don't know what the point is.

Just riddles. And then marvelous statement in verses 14 and 15. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah.

Right on schedule. This was no surprise that they rejected the king. No surprise. They fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 6 verses 9 and 10, which saith, by hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is become fat, gross. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they've closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. You know when Isaiah wrote that? Isaiah wrote that at a time of profound judgment on Israel. He had just pronounced a series of curses on them. He cursed them for all of their drunkenness, debauchery, their immorality. He cursed them for their bribery. He cursed them for their oppression of the poor. He cursed them for their hypocritical religion. And then, of course, at the height of all of that cursing, the king Isaiah died, and the country plunged into the darkest days in a long time. They were on the edge of imminent conquering, and the Babylonian captivity came as that judgment. And Isaiah says to them, now God's going to judge you.

You wouldn't hear, and you wouldn't see, and now you can't hear, and you can't see. You wouldn't be converted, and you wouldn't be healed, and now you can't be healed or converted. And it wasn't long after that Jeremiah echoed the message of Isaiah, and the great hordes came and swept away the people into Babylonian captivity. That was the first fulfillment of Isaiah's words, and Jesus says, here's the second. So parables, listen carefully, are a judgment on unbelief. The fact that the natural man understandeth not the things of God is not only a statement about his ignorance. It is a statement about God's judgment on that individual. And the fact that we who love Jesus Christ understand the Bible is not a statement about our intellect. It is a statement about God's gracious illumination of our hearts and minds. This is judgment.

Look at it this way. When Jesus first came, his words were very clear. He said he was the king. He proved he was the king. He preached the kingdom message. He said, here's how it is in my kingdom. He said, repent, the kingdom is at hand. He gave them all they needed to know about the kingdom. They didn't hear.

They refused him. So when they wouldn't listen to the clear words that he spoke, and you remember back in Matthew 5 to 7, he would say, the kingdom of heaven is like, and then he would use that analogy, salt or light or birds or lilies of the field, and he would always explain its meaning. Therefore he said, seek ye first the kingdom and all these things would be added. It was always very clear what he meant. And then when they hardened their hearts and blasphemed him and said he was from Satan, then he talked to them in riddles that he did not explain.

And you want to see what the third step was? Look at the 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians. The 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians and verse 21. In the law it is written, he says, quoting out of Isaiah 28, and here is another word of judgment pronounced by Isaiah in Israel, With men of other tongues or languages and other lips will I speak to this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me, says the Lord. Wherefore, languages or tongues are for a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. Now listen, people always ask me, what are tongues for?

It says right there, they are a sign. For whom? Not for those who believe, but for those who believe not. Where was tongues primarily used? The day of Pentecost in the face of the Israelites.

Why? Listen clearly. They wouldn't listen when he spoke to them clearly in their own language. So he judged them by speaking in riddles. They wouldn't listen and seek the truth then, so thirdly he spoke to them in a language they didn't even know.

You see the progression of judgment? Tongues are a sign of judgment upon Israel. God is now talking, so you can't even understand the language. Now go back to Matthew 13 with that in mind.

So that he says the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled. So the plan was to speak in parables, and the purpose of the parables was to reveal and to conceal. Now we've seen the conceal, let's look at the reveal in verse 16. But, blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

Isn't that great? I mean that's the other side. We understand the parables.

You say, how so? Because Jesus explained them and we have the New Testament text and also because the Spirit of God is our teacher. That's the illumination. Mark 4.34 of this same incident says, He expounded all things to them. And over in verse 52, do you see it there, of Matthew 13, 51 rather? Jesus said to them, Have you understood all these things? And they said unto him what? Yes, Lord.

They weren't smarter. They just possessed the illuminating presence of Jesus Christ. This was part of His ministry. At the end of Luke's gospel in verse 45 after the road to Emmaus, it says, Then opened He their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.

And you want to know something? Listen to me. Even though you're regenerate, you would still not understand the Scripture were it not for the illuminating work of the Spirit of God. That is His marvelous illuminating work and that is why the psalmist in Psalm 119 18 cries out, Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of Thy law. That's the heart of Isaiah in 64.1 when he says, Oh God, rend the heavens and come down.

I've got to have an explanation is what he's saying. But verse 17 says, I say unto you, many prophets and righteous men desire to see those things which ye see have seen them not and to hear the things you hear and have heard them not. Isaiah said, rend the heavens and come down.

And he wasn't alive when the heavens were rent and he did come down. They were not perfected, Hebrews 11 says, without us. Peter says they were looking into their own prophecies and searching what person and what time these things would come to pass.

They didn't get to see what we see. They didn't see what the disciples saw in the heavens being rent and God coming down in human flesh to reveal His truth. Oh how wonderful it is that we now have the resident Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. That one of whom it says in 1 Corinthians that He searches the deep things of God and reveals them to us. And we only know them because of the Spirit revealing them to us. Even for the saved there has to be divine illumination. That doesn't mean we don't have to study.

We have to study to keep from being ashamed. There's the discipline of study and in the process the illumination of the Spirit of God. So parables conceal as an act of judgment against Israel. At the same time they reveal because Jesus gave the parables and gave the explanation.

Today we have the Word. You say Jesus isn't here to explain. No, but He said when I go away I'll send another explainer, the Holy Spirit. And He'll lead you into all truth. Do you realize what a privilege we have?

Do you realize that we not only have this book but we have its author living in us to explain it to us, to interpret it to us, to apply it to us? How they of old hungered for that. And so the plan and so the purpose. One other thought came to my mind. That is the promise.

The promise. As a person who tries to think logically and as I try to anticipate the question, the inevitable question and it came from several sources is, well, if the king offered the kingdom and they rejected it, did this foul up the plan? Is God up in heaven making alterations? Is He adjusting, saying I sent the king, if they accept the king they get the kingdom, if they don't accept the king they don't get the kingdom, so I got to have plan A and plan B.

Does this alter what's going on? The fact that He had to judge these people for their unbelief and the kingdom had to be postponed and the mystery age had to be dropped in, was that sort of an additional thing tacked on when things didn't work out the way they were supposed to? Let's look at the promise in verse 35. Verse 34 says He spoke only in parables and verse 35 says, In order that, for the purpose that, it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Marvelous. You know who said that? Asaph. Asaph was a prophet and a seer and that is what he said in Psalm 78 verse 2. That's a Psalm by Asaph. And Asaph predicted that the Messiah would have to speak in parables, that He would have to speak in parables as an act of judgment and that to His own people He would reveal a secret kept from the foundation of the world. Listen, God didn't adjust before the foundation of the world.

He knew they would reject and He knew He'd have to put that secret mystery period in there. What does that say? It says everything's on schedule. God is not making alterations as He goes.

He's sovereign. Everything is on schedule. Well I hope that wets your appetite a little bit for the message of Matthew 13. That's just the beginning. Now listen carefully to what I'm going to say. There are some great profound lessons that we've seen.

Let me sum up the key ones. First, truth is only available to people who believe and are taught by God. The other side of that is the second truth. Rejection of Jesus Christ means the decreasing darkness of unbelief. You don't stay in the same spot.

It gets deeper and deeper and deeper. And the third point that I want you to see is that God's plan is on schedule. It's big enough to encompass the unbelief of Israel and the mystery of this age. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John has been our featured speaker since 1969. He's also chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, and our current study is looking at the parables of the kingdom. John, today you talked about the important discipline of studying God's Word, as well as the role of divine illumination, the work of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten us as to the meaning of Scripture. But of course, God also provides preachers and teachers, gifted men, to help believers grow in their understanding of Scripture, and I think we would say humbly and gratefully that Grace to You is part of God's provision for equipping his people with the truth.

Yeah, that's absolutely right. The truth of God's Word depends on preachers and teachers, but I think it goes beyond that. You would see this, of course, at Grace Community Church all these years. We not only tell our people what this text means, we show them why it means that, and consequently we're teaching them how to do the same thing that we do.

So in expository preaching that is done right, you are showing the meaning of the Scripture, and you're showing the people how you got to that meaning of Scripture, which then teaches them the same process. This is just an incredible blessing for the people who sit under that kind of preaching, and we believe it's an incredible blessing for people around the world who do the same because of Grace to You, and that happens because of your support. So if Grace to You has fed your soul, and if you want to share in making it possible for us to continue doing this, we need to hear from you, and we would love to have you invest. When you lay up your treasure in heaven, you know, moth and rust doesn't corrupt, thieves don't break through and steal, Jesus said, and you're basically laying up an eternal reward.

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