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It
Is Given Unto You To Know
When you see
many people running around, even when they call themselves
members of the church of God, who say, "That's just
foolishness" - If it is the Word of God, you 'mark'
that fellow. He's a 'natural man.' We read in the 12th
verse of the 13th chapter of Matthew: "For whosoever
hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him it shall be
taken away, even that he hath." Also, dealing with
the same parable In Luke, the 8th chapter and the 18th
verse, it reads: "that which he seemeth to
have". This is a give and take proposition. Whosoever
hath, to him there shall be more given.
Now, as
we deal with these parables, If you have truth and have
truly been born of the Spirit of God, more will be added
to you, but if you have false conceptions of God's Word,
that which you have will be taken away. If you ever get
anything from God, you must trade something in. Too many
people want to be given things without giving anything
themselves. But we must turn something in to God. You are
not going to hold on to your old false conceptions of
God's eternal Word, and expect to get right. When you are
ready to trade the other in and to take it God's way, then
He will deal with you.
We read
In Revelation, the 16th chapter, which deals with the same
thought of the vials and why they were poured out. They
were given to take men's false hiding places away. Men are
hiding under the fact that they joined a church and make
some kind of profession. These vials were poured out so
that men may stand out naked with no place to hide and God
can better reach his soul. God is interested in dealing
truth to men and has always been since the fall. But there
have been so many false hiding places for them to hide
behind that It was necessary to pour out the vials of
God's eternal truth and do away with the hiding places and
pull back the cover, as it were, that man may stand out
with no place to hide. Then God will deal with him through
His Word and give him the true experience he stands in
need of.
We
realize that a mystery Is beyond human comprehension. The
next thing to consider is the parable. I want to refresh
your memory for our common benefit. Jesus said: "I
spake unto them in parables". But for what reason?
That to some the lesson might be revealed and at the same
time hidden to others. He said: "I spoke in parables
that I might get the message to some people and it might
remain hid to others." In the 10th chapter Jesus told
the people that some of them were blessed for kings and
prophets and righteous men in their day desired to hear
the things they were hearing.
Parables
are used all through the Word of God. A parable is like a
pillar of cloud and fire. The same pillar of fire brought
darkness on the Egyptians and confounded them on their
side of it, and on the other side it brought light to
Israel and lit their pathway. God deals in parables and
symbols. Why? I should like to express it this way: When
in the service, I operated a radio for the Colonel of the
regiment. We had what we called an MG-09 converter and
when we would send messages in enemy territory, I would
just take the message from the colonel, set up a couple of
letters on that converter and run the message through.
When it came out it was just a jumbled mess of letters of
the alphabet. I would get the 'key' and send It over the
air. The first two letters that I sent were the 'keys'
that I used to my machine. The operator on the other end
had a machine just like mine. He would get those two keys.
He would set it up on his machine and send the message
back plain. But the enemy couldn't make anything out of
it. That is why God deals in parables and symbols--He has
the enemy spotted. We know the devil is working today.
Paul said that we are not ignorant of his devices. The
truth is hidden, but God reveals it to us through His Holy
Spirit. The parable is like the pillar of cloud and fire.
While it confounds the enemy, it lights and comforts the
children of God.
In the 6th chapter and the 11th verse Christ took the
church down in the valley of Nuts. The Word of God uses
many symbols and expressions. Why did He do this? So He
could crack the shell and give us the meat therein. The
modern ministers of today are through the revised versions
and other means, looking over these expressions of God's
eternal Word, and they examine it and pick on it and see
nothing there and throw it away. I thank God I have been
picking it up and cracking the shell and finding meat for
souls In it.
Not very
long ago I spoke to the congregation in Newark along
certain lines and they were thrilled and said,
"Brother Wilson, we enjoyed that." I answered,
"If I had been preaching from a revised version, I
could not have preached that message because the
scriptures I used are not In there. But it contains
spiritually rich food for the soul." The great need
of the hour is for the Church to 'turn back' to the
leadership of the Holy Spirit. He and He alone can open
the Scriptures.
Christ
said: "It is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom. Then He proceeds to give the seven parables.
He shows us the preceding age back of Ephesus, which we
know was the sowing age.
And He
presents here a story of different kinds of ground that
covers all mankind. Every one of us is represented by one
kind of ground or the other: That of wayside ground, stony
ground, thorny ground, or good ground. That was Christ's
way of beginning the teachings of the kingdom of God.
Looking
at the seven parables, we see that they compare with the
seven churches of Asia. Some people may say, "Those
were just seven letters addressed to seven congregations
of the church at that particular location. Leave it
there." Let us think it over. There is the letter
written to the Church at Philadelphia. First of all, if
these letters were just addressed to this congregation,
and was written for them and sent to them, for them alone
to read, why was it put in the Bible?
Paul
wrote to the Church at Corinth. Don't preach out of it any
more. It was just written to the Church at Corinth. He
wrote to the Church at Thessalonica. Leave it right there.
It is not for you. When the Spirit of God sees the people
get into the same shape Colosse was in, the letters come
to you. And also, why did He close every one of them by
saying, "He that hath an ear let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the Church." Because those letters
were written for the congregations down through the
generations and different periods of time.
The next
thing we want to consider is this: Why around the throne
of God was the Holy Spirit symbolized as having seven
eyes, which are the seven spirits of God? There is only
one Spirit. Why did the lamb have seven horns? Because it
symbolizes God's Power of Salvation through these seven
different ages of time as meeted out as the light was
given, The seven spirits of God symbolize one Holy Spirit
working through the seven ages of time as was needed.
Now, we
must have the 'letters' to understand the parables. Some
will say: "I don't think that you need the letters,
for I have dealt with those parables." In the fourth
parable where the woman took three measures of meal and
put leaven in, you tell me who the woman is, by the Bible,
and tell me what the leaven is, and the meal. You can't do
it unless you go to the 'letter' and he'll tell you who
the woman is, what the meal is, what the leaven is, and
what the outcome of it was. It all works together and will
show us the kingdom in its completeness right on through.
We will
deal here with the Ephesus age after we consider the
different kinds of ground. Christ said: "A sower went
forth to sow. Now, when He began to teach about the
kingdom, the Word of God tells us in the 13th chapter and
the 37th verse that Christ Is the sower. The 8th chapter
of Luke and the 11th verse says: "The seed is the
Word of God." Also Matthew, the 13th and l9th verse
says:"the seed is the Word of the kingdom." So,
the Word of God and the Word of the kingdom is the same
thing.
If we
preach the Word of God, we will be building the Kingdom of
God. To build up anything else besides the Word In the
hearts of men and women, we will have to teach them
something else besides. In Matthew, we read that when he
sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the fowls came
and devoured them up. This is the wayside seed or the
first kind of ground that Jesus spoke of. But we must
remember that four types of people as well as four types
of ground are mentioned. There is no 'middle place'--we
are either wayside soil, stony, thorny, or good soil. We
shall locate them all in time.
I am glad
that the disciples asked about them. Some people never
learn because they are not humble enough to ask. The best
way to find out about anything, in which you are
interested, is to Inquire. Jesus said, "Ask and ye
shall receive,"
Now,
when He talked about these parables, they did not
understand, and He gave them understanding. And Matthew
wrote it down so you and I could get It. He said that when
any one heareth the Word of the kingdom and understandeth
it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that
which was sown in his heart. This is he that receiveth
seed by the wayside.
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