Luke 8:8b-10

This morning, let’s turn to the book of Luke, chapter 8. The book of Luke and chapter 8. I want to read from the middle of verse 8 through verse 10. Luke chapter 8 beginning in the middle of verse 8 and reading through verse 10. We looked at the parable of the sower last week. And so this morning we want to look at a section that I didn’t cover last week that I think is important for us to cover. So Luke 8, I’m going to begin reading in the middle of the verse. It’s the second sentence. And when he had said these things, he cried, he that have ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples ask him saying, what might this parable be? And he said, unto you, it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, in hearing, they might not understand. May God bless to us. the reading of His sacred and holy word this morning. Now we see from verse 4 that the Lord had a multitude of people who came to hear him preach. However, not everyone understood what Jesus actually taught, or he often spoke in parables. As he says here in verse four, he spake by a parable to this audience. Christ gives, as I said, the parable of the sower in this passage of scripture. He speaks, and we talked about last week, the four different soils on which the seed lands. We talk about the primacy. of preaching in the first three verses of this chapter. And then in verses 4 through 15, we talked about the importance of how you hear what is preached. And there’s really only four different ways a person hears the Word of God. And Jesus lays them out for us here in this text. Now, obviously, people, at least some of them, had trouble understanding the meaning of this parable of the soul. In fact, even the disciples asked for more clarification on the matter, as verse 9 tells us, and the disciples ask him saying, what might this parable be? Jesus used language. which was suitable to make a powerful impression on one’s mind. In fact, it’s very vivid, and you won’t have any problems remembering the actual parable itself. You can visualize it. And it’s not hard to grasp the actual parable. But the disciples here were inquisitive. about the meaning of the parable. For they knew that there was something that Jesus was teaching, some spiritual lesson that was behind the story that he told about the sower, sowing seed on the field. So they were inquisitive. They wanted enlightened about this. Now, the lesson, obviously, that we should learn from this, is that you should earnestly desire to know the true content of whatever God has said. There are going to be times when we read scripture, and we do not know or quite understand what is being talked about, or what the meaning spiritually is for us, and what the benefit is for us. So you as a believer at the privilege of seeking divine help, from the Lord. Now they had the Lord present with them and they could say, Lord, explain this to us. We can go to the Lord in prayer and ask that he through his spirit may enlighten our eyes to understand the meaning of Scripture. However, the majority of people who may come across this parable or the message of Scripture will not understand it. they will remain in the dark as to its actual spiritual meaning. I want to speak here about the purpose of parables. Now, you find the negative purpose of parables here in verse 10, the second part of it. When he says here, but to others in parables, that seeing they might not see in hearing, they might not understand. Here we find that God sovereignly hides from some the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The parables of Christ are ordinary every day, earthly stories like a farmer going out in the field, sowing his grain, whether it be wheat or barley or spelt or rye or whatever the case may be. However, hidden within this figure and in these stories are divine truths that relate to the kingdom of God. But he calls them a mystery. A mystery is a history. hidden divine truth that God must reveal to you. The gospel is proclaimed by God to men for various reasons, which one of them here in verse 10 indicates to us that it leaves them excuseless even though they do not understand the message that is being taught. Right. Christ tells us here that he has intentional, spoken, obscurely, in order that the teaching might be a riddle to men. It is the will in the good pleasure of God to reveal divine truth to some and to hide it from others. I want you to look with me, if you would, to the Gospel of Luke in Chapter 11, verses 25 to 27. Jesus says this. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them on the bays. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy son. All things are delivered unto me and my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomever the son will reveal him. And here we see in this passage of scripture that it’s hidden from those perhaps who we might call the religious leaders, the so-called wise and the prudent of this world, but those who are the common folk, those who perhaps have not the so-called education of the religious leaders are the very ones that he reveals it to. So that we have many times the publicans and the harlots entering into the kingdom of God, while the religious leaders still are in the dark about spiritual matters. And so we see here the gospel is hidden. But it’s hidden to none but the non-elect. And the gospel is revealed to none, but those who are the elect. As Romans 117 says, Israel hath not obtained that which he seeked for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. So Christ here spoke in parables, which on a whole, are clear and plain, but their spiritual significance is somewhat hidden, and therefore is not always easily discernible. Jeff Pierce was the 1994 captain of the Chevrolet, L.A. Sheriff, professional cycling team, and a top competitor in cycling. In 1987, he won one of the legs of the Port of France. 94, however, he accepted an interesting and somewhat potential dangerous assignment. And that was, in order to prepare for an article that he was going to write for a bicycle guide, he would work a month as a bike messenger in downtown New York City, taking messages from one place to another within the city and dodging all the traffic in order to get the message through. He would be on the streets for 11 hours a day, dodging taxis and buses and cars and so forth. Sometimes, he says, reaching speeds of 39 miles an hour on his special $2,500,500 racing bike. Now, his only problem, he said, was he worried while he went in to take the message into the store that someone might see that nice, expensive bike, and steal it. So what he did was, he said he wrapped it with duct tape completely, and then spray painted it black and didn’t care whether he did a good job or not. So that it looked like a common, ordinary bike in one that was a common, one that was a good job, wasn’t that worth any money at all. And no one touched his bike. But underneath, hidden by the paint and the tape, was his special racing bike. In a similar manner, the spiritual truth, is disguised here in this prayer. And yet, in plain view in the parables Christ. So the parables are sort of like the seven sealed book that we read about in the Book of Revelation that Christ has to open. If he doesn’t open it, we don’t know what the contents are, that he opens it so that we understand. And the same way with the parables. Until he opens the sealed parables, how are we going to understand what it means? The contents have to be revealed to us. So God sovereignly hides from you, or at least from some, the mysteries of the kingdom of God. He has his purpose in doing this. Now, Christ’s parables illustrates, these parables illustrate the kingdom of God so that you can’t plead ignorance with regard to the kingdom of God. Now, Jesus refers here to verses 9 through 11 of Isaiah chapter 6 here in verse 10. Under you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but the others in parables that seeing they may not see and hearing, they may not understand. Let’s look at that passage. Isaiah chapter 6 and verses 9 through 11. And he, this is the Lord said, Go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long And he answered until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. The prophecy that is spoken of here certainly began to be fulfilled in the days of Isaiah, but its final fulfillment we see is in the days of the Messiah. the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul will quote it, if you look with me at Acts chapter 28 here. Acts chapter 28, he quotes it in reference to the charge that he gives the Jews because of their obstinate rejection of the gospel. Acts chapter 28, beginning with verse 23, it says this. and when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, Jesus was a Jewish background, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from morning to evening. and some believed the things which were spoken and some believed not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word. Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah’s the prophet unto our fathers, saying, go unto this people and say, hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand and seeing, ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with your ears, understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it none unto you, therefore, or be it known, therefore, unto you. That the salvation of God ascended the Gentiles, and they will hear it. And so we have the same kind of teaching here from the Apostle Paul. People hear the gospel, but they’re still blind to it, and they oppose it, and they refuse to believe the message. And Paul sees in this, really, a fulfillment of what Jesus said in the parable here of the sower. It’s revealed on the sun, but the sun. it’s not revealed. It’s hidden. It’s hidden from them. And judicial blindness that’s predicted would continue to the land is utterly desolate. The cities and houses left without inhabitant, despite hearing the gospel preached, the Jews of Christ’s day rejected the gospel for the most part. And what happened? Well, in 70 AD, the whole land was wiped out. And they all went into captivity, and it was just a devastation that fell upon him, upon them. The parables made the truths of the gospel as vivid as possible, but at the same time, the unbelieving, carnal element of Christ audience, did not accept the mass You can’t hear a parable like the parable of the sower without it sticking your mind. However, what you do understand if you’re an unbeliever, you may not like. You know, it’s interesting when Jesus taught a parable one time, the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, and they perceived that he spoke of them, and he spoke negatively about them, the vineyard owner, renting out the land and so forth, and how they killed his son when he sent to get some of the produce of his vineyard and so forth. So we have this idea. Horatio Nelson was the British fleet commander and the victor of the British fleet commander and the victor of the decisive battle of Trafalgar against the French. Nelson was blinded in one eye, so he had a patch over it. In the heat of the naval battle, he was sent a signal by his superiors that he was to break off the engagement. He thought he could win. So he switched the patch from his good, from his blind eye, switched over his good eye, and then he could claim later, I didn’t see the Sigma. So he continued the battle and won it. When he looked through his glass, his telescope, he said, I didn’t see it. This is the way people hardened in their sin react. They close their eyes to God’s truth. They don’t see it or hear. They don’t want to see it or hear it. And therefore, while not fully comprehending the divine message, they can’t totally plead. ignorance because they willfully shut their ears to the message and they willfully don’t want to know the actual meaning. Let me draw a couple of lessons from this section. And the first is this. The gospel is preached to many people who will not believe the message. We should realize that. They cannot believe without an internal, divine operation of God’s grace. Who have believed our report, Isaiah 53-1 says? Well, how can they? Who has the arm of the Lord then revealed and opened their minds and understand? Christ talks about those who could not believe in John 1239. It’s impossible for the natural man. You can be like King Belchazer. You remember in Daniel chapter 5, he sees the divine handwriting on the wall. He’s capable of reading meaning meaning technical eupharson. He’s capable reading that. He may actually know what the meaning of the word is, but he has no clue about what the spiritual implication of that word is. Without divine illumination from Daniel, he can’t interpret it. He cannot benefit from it. And this is. This is the way people are. are. We should understand God must open people’s hearts to receive the message. This is why we pray. You know, people talk about witnessing and reaching out to people with the gospel of Christ. You have to be praying that God will also open their hearts to receive it. For the natural man cannot do so. The second lesson is this. Those who suppresses the truth in their unrighteousness may be given over to a reprobate mind. God gives you over the blindness and hardness of heart at times and never will give you grace. In such a state, there’s no remedy for you. Eternal doom is what is certain. You’ll never see. You’ll never understand. You’ll never be converted. This is a frightening prospect and serves as a warning to those who have obstinate unbelief. So you find the negative purpose of parables here. But secondly, you find the positive purpose of parables also in this passage. Verse 8B says this. And when he had said these things, he cried, he said these things, he cried, he is to hear, let him hear. And then the first part of verse 10. And he said, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. It’s interesting, Matthew Henry, in his commentary on this passage of scripture, says a parable is like a pillar of cloud and fire. that was with Israel, remember guided them in the wilderness. He said, it turns a dark side to the Egyptians, and that confounds them. But it also turns a light side to the Israelites and provides light and guidance for that. So that there is a two-fold purpose to the parable, he says. We see here that God grants his spirit. spirit, to open your eyes to understand the divine message. He that had ears to hear, let him hear. Now we know that everybody has physical ears. So he’s not talking about physical ears. He’s not talking about having auditory ability. That fact doesn’t allow you necessarily to understand the message. When it comes to spiritual things, most people we would say are deaf. They don’t actually hear the message. They can’t really hear and grasp it. Do you remember how Paul and Saul at the time, of course, was traveling to Damascus on the road there? He was converted by an appearance of Christ. And Christ spoke to him. stopped him from going and arresting and jailing the Christians at Damascus. Now, Paul had other men with him at the time when he was confronted by Christ and when he was brought to salvation. But the scripture says that Jesus spake directly to Paul, and he was the only one who heard the message. In other words, the others were deaf and they didn’t hear. what Jesus said to Paul. Here’s what the scripture says in Acts 229. And they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. Christ confirms the truth of what he himself has said in John 10. My sheep, here my voice. And none other. Nobody else hears it. So your ears have to be opened. You have to be given some type of spiritual sense, if you would, so that you have ears capable of hearing and understanding the message of the kingdom of God. Man in his natural state, unchange by the message of God. grace is completely death. You remember when Jesus came to Decapolis, he encountered a deaf man who needed to be healed. And Jesus put his fingers in this man’s ears. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and he said, Effatha, be opened. And straightway his ears were open. Mark tells us in chapter 7 of verses 34 and 35, we find this account. If you desire to have your ears open, then you have to pray to the Lord and plead with him to say, be open. Say it to you. So you may savingly believe the gospel. Because we can look around us and we see everybody using cell phones and electronic devices in which their voices are passing through the air all the time. Think about all the traffic, if you would, the voice traffic if you were, traveling through the air at one time. But you don’t have an ear to hear all that traffic, do you? However, if someone calls you on your cell phone, they’re calling you directly, you can hear the message. Spiritually, you can’t hear the divine message unless Jesus Christ calls you. His sheep, hear his voice. and they respond. And that’s what Scripture said. Now, the lesson we learn from this is this. Once again, you’re reminded here of how dependent you are upon divine grace and salvation. You are deaf by nature, and you cannot comprehend and believe the gospel message unless you’re healed of this death. We can’t open our own eyes. Jesus Christ is the only one who can open our ears in eyes to the truth. And then and only then are we capable of grasping and the knowing the truth of Scripture. Now, even as believers, we also have to ask the Lord to open our understanding. We may have some inkling of what Christ says. We may not be able to fully grasp. everything that is being said which leads though to the second part of your God sorbony grants his spirit to open your eyes to understand the message you as a believer are privileged to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God as verse 10 the first part tells us to you it’s given now there is a mystery associated with the gospel of the kingdom there are hidden things in it that God must reveal. Now when you think about it, we talk about the gospel being plain and simple, but there are things about the gospel that are complex. The actual message is fairly simple. But there is a deep mystery associate. Here’s what the scripture says in 1 Timothy 316. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Godliness. manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached under the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up the glory. Think about the Son of God’s incarnation. God taking upon himself a human nature, making himself of no reputation, coming in the likeness of men. That’s not always easy to comprehend, is it? In this union of God and man, there’s some mystery to that. We can talk about it and just talk about it very plainly, but when we actually get down to trying to grasp the depth of that, there’s a mystery to it. Christ’s redemptive work, that he being a substitute, for sinners, dying in their place, enduring the curse of the law, God’s wrath upon is a great mystery. Even the angels desire to look into that aspect of the work of Jesus Christ. Christ’s justification of man, his perfect righteousness being granted and imputed to the sinner without works and his next. could he be and forgiven is also a deep mystery that we had, that we could be granted, imputed to our account, this perfect righteousness. Christ’s resurrection. He had the power to lay down his life, and he says he also has the power to take it up again. How do we understand that? He had the power to conquer death. He is the first begone of the dead. He is the first He has the keys of hell and death. And he can claim, I am he that liveth, it was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. That’s an amazing fact. Christ’s present reign in heaven. He was received up the glory. He’s seated at God the Father’s right hand. He has power and authority over all things. He will prosper his people by governing all things for their ultimate benefit in his glory. That’s a high and glorious truth also. So there is a mystery to some of this. Indeed, the whole work of redemption from first of last is, in a sense, a great mystery. Without divine revelation, how would we even understand any of it? What Jesus declares is unto you, my disciples, my elect people, it is given to know, the knowledge, the know, the mysteries of the kingdom of God. To grow up to know and understand this great truths of the gospel spiritually savingly experimentally it’s not something that occurs natural. Now think about this. That word no there. Think about the implications of the word no. It’s given to you to know. So you are not wise enough to see and comprehend it on your own. It’s not that you’re smart enough or that you were discerning enough that you could grasp this on your own. It’s not a matter of your efforts. Well, if I just study long enough, if I self-educate myself, if I engage my mind upon this long enough, I can understand it. No, the word given here, implies the saving knowledge about the kingdom of God is something that is a gift. It’s a gift to you. A gift of God’s grace flowing from his sovereign will and good pleasure to you. Behold the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. Ephesians 119. God’s mighty power must work or we cannot believe. The exceeding greatness of it is it’s an effectual power that God exerts. It’s toward us for it. Because this power is exerted toward the elect, it is the working of his mighty power because the power that works in us is God’s power. and therefore it is a tremendous power. So God would have you recognize how his mighty power. It must work within you to bring you to a knowledge of the truth. God would have you give him all the honor that prays for your salvation and claim that salvation is of the Lord or I would not understand, grasp or know the truth. Let me close with this final lesson. salvation we should realize is not a cooperative effort then between God and man. Scripture never allows you to think in your fallen and depraved condition as a sinner that you have any part in this glorious salvation that’s been granted to you by the Lord. On to you, my disciples, my elect, it is given to know. the mysteries of the kingdom of God. It’s a gift that you wouldn’t be able to savingly understand and believe the gospel. Yes, you believe the gospel, but you only believe the cause of the mighty power of God working with you. I have a relative that, you know, he’s always, you know, quoting John 316, you know, if you believe, you know, if you believe the message of the gospel, you’ll be saved and he’s our in his thinking. He says, don’t you believe that? I said, sure. I believe that. I said, how is it that a person believes? If a person is dead in trespasses and sins, how is it that he’s capable of believing? It’s just that he doesn’t go back one step to the point where God regenerates the person. Therefore, he is enabled. to believe by God. It’s a gift. Faith is a gift. It’s a divine gift, but God grants you. It’s not your contribution. So, if somehow or other, we claim that we had our part of, we cooperated with God that we’re stealing God’s honoring glory that’s due only not to Him. And thus you see the real difference here between Armenianism and Calvinism and why it makes a difference what you believe. Let me close this morning by saying this. The great multitudes are heard Christ preach, heard the parables that he talked. But they didn’t understand the spiritual significance of these parables, which we tried to explain last week. Or in those enlightened by God’s grace could truly grasp the meaning all the others would remain in the dark. It’s hidden from that. You should realize that. without question, the true teaching of the absolute sovereignty of God in the salvation of man. It is plain as day for anyone who will take the time to read the scriptures carefully. It’s there. It’s obvious. It’s plain. It’s plain. And we shouldn’t miss it. So that when credit is given, it ought to be given to God for the salvation that we have. Well, let us close with prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, we are thankful for this opportunity we have had to look at this passage of scripture, these few verses. And as difficult as it is to hear some of the things that we talked about this morning, may we receive it because you said it. May we embrace it because you said it? our Savior has said this is the truth. By our own flesh, not rebel, and be defiant toward this teaching of your sovereignty and salvation. The way we embrace them wholeheartedly and give you even more thanks and even be more grateful because you enlightened our eyes to embrace it and believe you. the truth. We ask these things in the name of Christ, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, with Thanksgiving. Amen.