The Lord and I is to see your glory in his face. Bless us this morning, Lord, with your presence, with your blessing, with the illuminating power of the Spirit to show us the things of our Savior. And Lord, help us to be renewed again this morning and rejoicing in him alone, finding in him all we need. Thank you for every blessing. May your name be glorified. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

So there's four or five things we need to talk about regarding this. The first thing is this. The disciples asked this question. They could see that most people were confused by what the Lord said. They indeed themselves were confused by it. They had to ask him later, what does this parable mean? So they were just as confused as everybody else. So they asked him why he taught the way that he did. He didn't have to teach that way. He didn't have to give parables, examples, illustrations. And often he didn't. Often he spoke very plainly with the Pharisees and with his disciples.

but he promptly answers their question. This is important, I believe. The Lord said, it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But consider this, when they heard the same thing that the Pharisees heard, they didn't understand it either. It wasn't that they had some kind of interpretive knowledge or or insight that made them able to understand the parable as it was given. They didn't understand it. They said, later, we don't understand it. It's, let's see, verse, where is it at? They asked him, what is this parable of the sower? It's in the same chapter, but I'm about half blind. And I can't find it. I've got my text on my iPad is 22 font. So that's why I'm able to read that. And I didn't put, I think it's verse 36. Let's see. Yeah, his disciples came in him saying, declare unto us the parable of the tears of the field. And that's the parable that he just gave, the tears. of the field.

So when he spoke these parables, the fact that it was given to them to know did not preclude them asking. When the Lord says, ask and you shall receive, that's how the gospel is understood. by instead of somebody getting mad and confused and blaspheming and opposing and trying to trip up the Lord with their questions and things like that, they simply said, Lord, we don't understand that parable. Will you tell us what it means? That's part of it being given to them to know. And I hope I'm making that clear. The way the Lord describes it is it's given to you to know, but their experience of it was, Lord, tell me what that means. They simply asked. They simply inquired. That's what the Lord causes within his people. That's what he gives in order to make them determined to understand what God said, to understand the gospel. to understand the truth of what's going on in this world. What is that all about? What does that mean? And he very simply explained it to them.

Could not the Pharisees have done that? It wasn't given to them. And so they didn't ask. You believe not, John chapter 10, because you're not my she. They didn't ask because they didn't want to know. They didn't care. It was just the fact that he was saying it that was that meant they weren't interested in it. They hated him, and so they had no interest in having it explained to them. But don't ever think that the disciples just had some superior intellect to where they could understand things. No, they didn't understand it either. The Lord had to explain it to them. He had to give it to them to know, to know. I wonder if the Lord would show us more if we asked Him to. You reckon? Does that not fit in with our, you know, what will be, will be, often we think, theology? I believe if we asked Him, He'd give us more understanding, don't you think? That's what He's always done. And He gives us that. He gives us a hunger and thirst after it, doesn't He?

It wasn't okay with them to think, well, that was a curious story. I wonder what he meant. They weren't satisfied to stop there. They wanted to know what the Lord Jesus was saying because they knew it was the words of eternal life. Simon knew that. And this is not just his 12 disciples asking here. This was his disciple, those that were following him, those that were there to hear and not to argue or oppose. question with bad intent. And I just reckon we can get in on that by his grace, if he's gracious to us.

Secondly, the disciples asked why the Lord taught them in parables. And the word them is interesting. Why do you teach them? And he said, it's given unto you. In effect, the Lord is saying it's not about them, it's about you. This is all about you. He does what he does, he teaches what he teaches, how he teaches, and determines the result of it because of you, his disciples, his people, his sheep.

The disciples, they didn't understand either, but the Lord said, hear ye therefore. In verse 18, notice when he gave the parable of the sower, he explained it to them. He gave it right before our text, and right after our text, he says, hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. Your ears are able to hear. And he told them, he explained it to them. It's given unto them to know. Listen to the explanation of the parable and hear it, understand it. That was his disciples that he was talking to then.

If you understand, if you hear this allegory of this, It's real simple, isn't it? Once you understand it, the seed is broken, the gospel is preached. And in many cases, people hear it and intellectually they're stimulated, they're, well that sounds right, that's the truth, and they get religious. Get excited and then the heat, the sun comes out. They have no root in themselves, of course not. By nature, we're not good ground, we're bad ground. There's no root. And often it falls on stony hearts. Falls by the wayside. It's only the good ground that takes it in.

And you know, whenever there's good ground, there's got to be a gardener. And he tells him another parable after this that we'll see Lord Willen next week, where he says the field, a man went out and sowed wheat in his field. And the wheat sprang up, but tares sprang up with it. And his servants asked him, why are there tares out there? And he said, well, an enemy hath done this. But in that parable, he very plainly explains to them again, they said, what does this parable mean? And he said, the field is the world. My field is this whole world. And I plant my seed in this world. I plant my word in the hearts of my people. And it springs forth. as he said in another place, as a river flowing out of us, but also the word comes down and the tender herb springs forth and it grows and it bears fruit, and that fruit is under his glory.

And so it's a simple explanation, but if you don't get it, why wouldn't you get that? Think about that for a second. Why would you not understand that the gospel falls on different kinds of ground and there's only one area, a garden, that has been tilled and the rocks have been thrown out of it and it's been fertilized because a garden A garden is something, you know, people wonder why if you plant tomatoes and squash and peppers and stuff like that, why do you have to fertilize it? You know, doesn't the earth have enough? You're taking something that doesn't belong and you're putting it in a foreign place and that's why you have to tend it and take care of it. These things aren't just going to grow in regular untended ground.

And so our Lord plants his seed in ground that he's prepared. A garden is my beloved, Song of Solomon. And he tends it and gives it everything it needs and carefully tends his beautiful garden. And when fruit is born, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, all of the virtues of a heart that's blessed by God, a new heart that's given by God. And God is glorified by that.

I was asking the question, I forgot, lost my train of thought, but why would you not understand that? Why would that be confusing to you? Because you just refuse to believe the truth. You start thinking, you start reasoning with yourself, and you're like, well, what's the stony ground? What's the, you know, what's the ground that has thorns and thistles and all this? And you're like, you know, all the Lord's parables taught the truth that he has a chosen people. Blessed are your eyes for they see. Blessed are your ears for they hear. He's telling them in the parable where the field is the world and that he planted his garden there and an enemy planted tares. And the Pharisees are listening to that and they know they're the tares because of the way the Lord spoke to them. And they didn't like that. It's not that they didn't understand the simple concept of the story. It just didn't fit with what they knew. quote unquote, what they believed, what they thought was right. So it confused them.

And in that regard and in that case, it's going to make you mad. It's going to confuse you and make you mad. And you're going to want to say, well, here's what I believe, and you're going to refute the truth of God. God's love and acceptance and favor and blessing is in Christ, and they hated Christ. They turned their ears away from the truth, the Lord said. They deliberately, we read it in our text, because they've hardened their heart. That's part of it not being given to them. It's got to be given, or you're going to do the same thing. You're going to harden your heart.

Where's that part of our text? I want to read that again while we're talking about this. For this people's heart is waxed gross. It wasn't eeny, meeny, miny, moe. It's that all of us deserve hell and God saved some of us in spite of us anyway. It's not just everybody's a sinner and the Lord just said, you know, closed his eyes, just picked some. No, he was, we all are worthy of him throwing us, we've all, all of our hearts are waxed gross by nature, and ears are dull of hearing. They hear it and intellectually, they understand the gospel. They understand that God's God. They get that, but they don't like it. They refuse to believe it. They will not believe, that's what he told the Pharisee, you will not believe. You will not come to me that you might have life. Listen, anytime they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them. They're not going to do it. And our heart is in the same condition by nature.

But blessed are your eyes for they see. Why do your eyes see and they don't? Because you're blessed of God. And your ears for they hear. How can you hear it and say, that's just the truth? But they can't do that because you're blessed of God. Your ears are blessed. Not better, not superior, blessed, favored of God.

Turn with me to Galatians chapter four, if you would, please. Verse 21 of Galatians 4. 21. Tell me ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise, a miracle of God's grace.

Which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, this agar is mount sada in arabia and answereth to jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children but jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all and so for there to be life for there to be understanding for there to be freedom from the law, freedom from bondage. There has to be a miracle of God's grace. And that's what this is.

The disciples were given not just an explanation of the parable so that they understood it in their minds, they were given spiritual understanding. Jerusalem, which is above, is spiritual. They were given faith. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, so that they would embrace the truth in their hearts. Receive the gospel. When God said, your dogs, you deserve help. Yay, Lord. When he told them of his father and who he is, they bowed. Cry to Abba, Father. because they were given a heart to understand.

The third thing about this is this. Our Lord's answer shows that His ministry was consistent with His purpose. It wasn't His purpose to save everybody. He said in John 6, 38, For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. As a man, he came down to this earth to do his Father's will, the heavenly will of God. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

And in John 17, he said, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me. Those that the father gave the son in the eternal covenant of grace. You won't find the words in scripture, eternal covenant of grace, but you will find the word covenant. And you will hear that it's an everlasting covenant. And you will hear that we got in on it. David got in on it, didn't he? The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Does that sound like it's up to you? Does that sound like that's up to the whim of man? Ordered in all things and sure. A covenant, a promise. Not a chance. A promise.

His ministry was consistent with his purpose. I pray not for the world. I don't intercede for... He was interceding for his people there in John 17. John 17 is Christ's high priestly prayer. Like in the Old Testament, the high priest would go into the most holy place, not without blood, and he would take a censer of burning incense in there. And that incense was the sweet savor of Christ in picture, Going up into the nostrils of God, God's well-pleased with this sacrifice. And that's Christ in John 17. It's the intercession. It's the sweet-smelling savor of His intercession as He laid down His life.

So there was incense and there was blood. There was John 17, and then there was the rest of the book of John when the Lord was crucified for our sins. He was about to give this parable we're going to look at next week about the wheat and the tares. Lord willing, we'll talk about that next week.

And it further explains there why he taught in parables. There wasn't a field full of tares and some of it turned into wheat. He didn't change tares into wheat. He planted the wheat from the start. He made a world to plant wheat in. And he attributes the planting of the tares to Satan because Satan, and all according to God's purpose, of course, came into the garden and sowed what? Lies, deceit, opposition to God, anti-Christ,

And so he explains there, he didn't say wait until we find out who the wheat and the tares are before we do. He already knew who they were. He didn't say we have to wait and see who's gonna reveal themselves as wheat. No, no, he already knew who they were. He said, you don't mess with them, I'll deal with it. He knew exactly who the wheat was. We don't. But he did, and so he could say to the disciples, to you it is given, to them it is not.

He knew the wheat from the tarry. Not only knew who to say that to, I can't do that, I can't say to you it's given and to you it's not. I can't do that, but he could, because he knew them from the beginning. He's the one that planted the wheat. He's the one who created the weed. He's the one who shines the light of his glory down and sends the blessed rain of his word. And he taught the people having that knowledge.

The Lord didn't fertilize the weeds, he was fertilizing his garden. It didn't disturb the Lord when the Pharisees didn't understand. It does me, it does us, doesn't it? It's heartbreaking in cases when people just are obstinate to the truth, people that you love often. Their heart is waxed. Their heart is dead before God. but it didn't bother him that the Pharisees didn't understand.

Listen to Matthew 15, 12. Then came his disciples and said unto him, knowest thou not that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this say? They were confused about that. These are the most religious God-fearing people on the planet, and they didn't like what you said. They came to the Lord about it. They were offended, but he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up. That's an interesting answer. That's the answer that the gardener is able to give. The one that planted him, that one that planted his wheat.

The father planted and the Lord Jesus is tending that garden when he says, He didn't say, oh, no, let's go back and explain it better. Maybe we can reach out to them. No. He understood what was going on. And here's the thing, we don't preach that way. Somebody asked Spurgeon, he said, if you believe in election, why don't you just preach to the elect? And he said, go around and put a mark on them for me, and I'll just preach to them. We don't know who they are. We preach to whoever will listen. But the Lord knows who they are, and that's important for us to know. Is it not? That's the business we're in, is calling out to the Lord's sheep with the very voice of the shepherd as he speaks through his gospel.

His gospel goes forth, and His sheep hear, and they know His voice. What do they do? They follow Him. As soon as one of His sheep hears His voice in spiritual power and understanding, when it's given to them to know, the very day when He says, hear ye the parable, hear it! They immediately turn to Christ and go right at Him for the rest of their life.

We don't know wheat from tares. We preach the gospel, therefore, without compromise, though. We're not trying to get the sheep and the goats. Calling out to the sheep, and the sheep need the sheep food, which is Christ. We can't tolerate any error. We speak with compassion. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, I beseech you. It's as though God did beseech you by us, be ye reconciled to God on the basis of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice.

So with compassion, but not with compromise. Our Lord's ministry was consistent with his purpose. Our message must be consistent with the purpose of God. We don't know what he knew, but if our purpose is to get everybody saved, then we're going to compromise. If our purpose is numbers, we're going to compromise. We're tasked with the calling out of God's sheep, and we know that it's only the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ that is the voice of Christ.

What's the voice of Christ? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. What's the voice of Christ? Come unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. What's the voice of Christ? Whosoever believeth on me shall not perish, but have everlasting life. What is the voice of Christ? You're not coming to me. You can't come to me unless my Father draws you.

So there's just not any glory in it for you. And that's going to be all right with you or not, one way or the other. The voice of Christ is his gospel, the truth concerning himself. And he said, my sheep hear my voice. We preach Christ crucified, who He is, and what He accomplished on Calvary. That simple. The power and the wisdom of God.

Finally, our Lord reveals here how sinners are saved. The Gospel, Paul said, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And so our commission from the Master is what? Go and preach. The Gospel's the power of God. We don't have any power to save anybody. We're not getting anybody saved. God saves His people as it pleases Him through the preaching of the gospel.

The gospel is the power of God, and so what do we do? We preach. That's what He told us to do. Go and preach. And now, just like then, some believe and some don't. Why? That's what the whole parable was about, the glory of God and His electing grace toward His people. They're not smarter than anybody else. They're not more spiritual. They don't make a better decision than other people make. They don't distinguish themselves in any way from other sinners.

The Lord reveals the lie of God has done all he can do and now it's up to you when he says these simple five clear, unmistakable words. It is given unto you. It's given unto you. That's how sinners are saved. Through the preaching of the gospel, God giving them a new heart to hear it, to see him, and to believe on him. Once it's given to you, the parable is very simple, isn't it? Very simple. And it's good to know what God's doing down here, isn't it? It's good to know what He's doing. It's taught all through the Scriptures. Paul said in Romans 9, God said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That's how sinners, so it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

Our Lord, in Matthew 16, 13, asked the disciples, whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? And they said, well, some say you're John the Baptist, others say Elijah or one of the other prophets. And then the Lord said, who do you say that I am? And Peter answered, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. To you it's given. It's given. What did the Lord say to Peter when he said that? Blessed are your eyes. You are blessed of God because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you. You didn't figure that one out. My Father in heaven revealed Salvation is the revelation of the person of Christ, who He is. Thou art the Christ.

The question is, who do people say I am? It's not what doctrine do they believe, or what are their practices? Do they wash feet or not? Are they infralapsarians or superlapsarians? Who do they say I am? And he only asked that question to show them the difference, and who made the difference. Well, they say you're John the Baptist, or this or that, or it's a reincarnation, you know, or something, whatever they, whatever their theories were, but then he deliberately made a distinction, who do you say I am? And he told them why, why there's a difference.

Acts 28, 23, when they appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning denominations, concerning theological doctrine. No, he persuaded them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from the morning until evening. He persuaded them concerning who Christ is and what he did for sinners. And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. Why? To you it is given.

Salvation is also the revelation of what he did, the death that he accomplished for his people at Calvary. Paul said we preach Christ, but also we preach him crucified. We preach him crucified. You can't separate his work from his person. It's important because if you do, you'll start saying, well, he died to save everybody. No, no, no. No, no, he's Christ. See, he can't do that. He can't fail because of who he is. If you talk about what he did without understanding who he is, then you'll miss out on knowing what he did.

Acts 17 to Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures. The only truth there is in this world, opening and alleging what? That Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few, But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

And then in closing, look at Acts 13 with me. This is what God's doing in this world now. This is how he saves his people. This parable is a very simple revelation of that. Acts chapter 13, verse 23. We're going to kind of skip down through this chapter a little bit. I want us to see the message, the result of it, and why. I can't get to chapter 13 for some reason. Here we go, verse 23.

Of this man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. He identified who the Savior is. Now look at verse 28.

And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead. He talked about what Christ did, who he was and what he did. Look at verse 38.

Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Verse 45.

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. It spake against those things which were spoken by Paul. It was their envy. It wasn't that they didn't understand what he was saying. This thing wasn't done in a corner but because of their envy, because they hated, because they were God in their own eyes. And God can't have any rivals. He was to them a rival. They envied how many believed on Him. And to believe on Him was to turn away from them. They envied and they hated They were filled with anger, those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

Who's behind that? Who's the very first one that contradicted the Word of God? Then Paul in Barnabas waxed bold, verse 46, and said, it was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. So hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have sent thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."

Religion would love to reverse that so bad, but you just can't do it, can you? It's not those who believed were ordained to eternal life. We see God's purpose in this world. It's ordered in all things, ensure this covenant now. It's not up to anybody but him. That's why we can preach with boldness. That's why we can preach without being discouraged because we know that whatever God sends it forth for, it will prosper in that thing. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnas and expelled them out of their coast.

But look at this. They didn't get discouraged and quit. They shook off the dust of their feet against them and came into Iconium and the disciples were filled with joy. And the Holy Ghost. Thank God for his electing, free, distinguishing, sovereign grace.

Our Lord Jesus rejoiced in spirit when many didn't believe on him, but some did. He knew them from the beginning. In Luke 10, 21, he said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. Well, that sounds like a strange reason to rejoice, that people are blind as a bat and can't see, but that doesn't stop there. And has revealed them unto babes. Thank God for the difference he makes. Thank God for his will in saving sinners by Christ.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. That doesn't seem good in the sight of this world's religion, but it does to God and his people. We see that in this parable and the explanation that the Lord gave of why he spoke in parables. He's revealed to us who his son is and why he did what he did and what he accomplished there.

in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people." And that's what he did.