Matthew 13:10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; 15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.
We are told in our day that Jesus spoke in parables to make things clear to people. They say that He spoke in these nice little stories in order to make things simple. But when Jesus was asked why He spoke in parables, it was in fulfillment of the passage in Isaiah 6 where Isaiah was sent out to harden hearts and hide the truth until the nation was basically destroyed. The disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables and His answer should set the record straight for all who have ears to hear. Jesus spoke in parables in order to hide things from some and yet give blessings to those who could see and hear.
This teaching lands like a bomb when it is taught and when it is understood. This is not the easy teaching of a feeling oriented modern “church”, but instead this is solid truth that hits hard and requires a broken heart to love and adore the grace given by God. The proud heart hates this, but the heart that has been broken from its pride and sin by the grace of God will learn to sit at the feet of the Master and worship regardless of what is taught for it has learned to adore the grace of God. The proud of heart rebel and want to be masters of themselves and of their own destinies which they want to be determined by morality and work. But God works by grace and grace alone. God gives grace to the humble while He fights against the proud to bring them down.
We can also see that the real issue is the state of the heart. Those who do not see and do not hear spiritual things are those with dull hearts. The dull heart (in the spiritual realm) is one that has closed eyes and ears. But those who are blessed are those with eyes that see and ears to hear. These are the ones that see and hear spiritual things rather than just the physical things. But once again we have to be careful here. People are not blessed because they hear, but they hear because they are blessed. Hearing the Gospel with spiritual ears is because of grace and not because of efforts to hear. Seeing the glory of Christ in the Gospel is because of grace and not because of efforts to see. The glory of the Gospel of grace is that it gives eyes to see and ears to hear as opposed to expecting man to do something where God will then give him grace.
Here is a clear distinction between the teaching of grace in the Bible and much of what is going on in Reformed circles and other circles today. The Bible knows nothing of a grace that man can work for or deserves to hear. The Bible knows nothing of a grace that can be given if man will meet a condition of some sort. The Bible only knows of a grace that saves because of who God is and cannot be merited or earned in any way. The heart of men are unable to turn to God and unable to hear and see the grace of the Gospel until God opens the eyes of man to be able to hear. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a Gospel that is all of grace and man can do nothing to bring this grace to himself. There are no conditions to the Gospel that the man in his flesh can do, but instead all the conditions of the Gospel have been merited and fulfilled by Christ. It is true that sinners must repent, but they must be given a true repentance by grace alone or it is a work of the flesh. It is true that sinners must believe, but they must be given that faith by grace alone or it is a work of the flesh.
How freely ministers should preach a real Gospel to sinners on which nothing depends on them, but instead sinners must look to God to save them apart from all their works or merit or worth or anything else. Christ has left nothing for sinners to do in terms of merit or fleshly works, so why do ministers leave men a lot to do in terms of merit and fleshly works? Men must be broken from their self-sufficiency that Christ and His grace would shine forth. Even the receiving of Christ is by grace alone. Until sinners see that their hearts are wrong and they are unable to receive Christ apart from grace, they will not understand the Gospel. Until sinners see that they don’t deserve to hear the Gospel, they may not be ready to hear the Gospel of grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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