33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. 34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.
Jesus talked to His disciples in parables in front of the crowds but explained those parables when they were alone. Why was this? I’ll repeat some things I said earlier in the chapter when the question came up.
To these people who want the truth God promises to give more truth. Read your Bible once through and God will give you truth. Read it through multiple times and you’ll keep growing as He gives you more truth. If you reject what little truth He has given you, He’ll take away what little you have. There will be a great test for Christians. The more you read the greater the challenge will be when Satan attacks you with doubts and unbelief. The closer you get to God, the deeper the mud, the thicker the briars. The Christian must keep pushing through toward the goal of knowing God and ignore Satan’s pleas and attacks and his deceptions. This is not about salvation but about your sanctification, being set apart for God’s purpose through Jesus Christ.
Many people who get deceived start out with the right intention but one little twist of the truth takes them far off the mark. Others start out using God’s word to justify their convictions rather than being merely open to the Holy Spirit’s leading and guidance and then they wind up way off the mark. In church when we talk about not setting a stumbling block before other Christians we often forget to mention that twisting the Bible to make your own personal convictions doctrine is just as wicked as putting a bottle of hooch in front of an alcoholic.
I’ll give you two examples. Modern Christians, brainwashed in government schools, will accept the current scientific theory about the origin of life and the age of the universe, atheistic and materialistic, totally without proof of any kind other than the vain ramblings of so called educated men and women. They will try to hold the two very conflicting beliefs; that God created all things by His Word, and that all existence, including the complexity of life, happened by chance. In the end they will wind up with a strange and very twisted view of reality that denies the Bible that God has provided. The ultimate conflict arises in their hearts. They cannot be special creations of God and random accidents of impersonal nature at the same time. Heresy and Christianity as a philosophy, with Christ as merely the ultimate philosopher and teacher, are the result if they don’t just outright leave the faith entirely, to be kicked around by Satan.
The second example I’ll give you is of a fundamentalist Christian. He or she has a conviction that women should not wear slacks because of the immodesty of most styles and verses such as this one written under the Law;
Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
The fundamentalist then takes the word, breeches, which was the underwear that Aaron and his sons wore;
Exodus 28:42 And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach:
….and make them trousers, an item of apparel that wasn’t even written about for hundreds of years after this, a Persian innovation for riding on horseback, used by both men and women. Fundamentalist dictionaries of Bible words will even mistakenly call breeches, trousers. Do you think the deception ends with just one word? If you do you are not reading the Bible. Everything you believe must be examined in the light of God’s words in the Bible as your final authority in all matters of faith, practice, AND doctrine. I assure you it is not a far distance from calling breeches trousers to Ron Williams of Hephzibah House infamy telling you to spank a six month old baby. All you have to do is to take your own personal convictions, fetishes, and perversions and find a verse to justify them.
The Bible is God’s truth revealed. Just be after God’s truth and what is right, and plead with Him not to let you be deceived or to deceive others which was one of the prayers of the translators of this Bible.
Deuteronomy 29:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
Isaiah 6:9 ¶ And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Isaiah 44:18 They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
Jeremiah 5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
Isaiah 66:4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
If you reject salvation and truth then God will deceive you or allow you to be deceived. Yes, our Creator will deceive men who reject His salvation. God examines the heart and what happens after that is up to Him if you are worshipping self. I have been to a few church services that were humanistic in execution and were self worship. God will propound that foolishness which serves only Satan by deluding those self worshippers.
The lesson in these verses seems clear to me. Those of the multitudes who came for a physical benefit but lacked true belief and genuine faith would go away but those who sincerely wanted to know more would have approached Jesus. The majority did not. Those Christians today who want to know more about God’s words in His Book will dig deeper and deeper into it to seek more. Those who don’t want it, aren’t interested in it, and won’t hear it will not. The latter will be deceived.
There are preachers and scholars out there who spew out foolishness because in their heart they have rejected God’s words and God has turned them over to delusions and falsehoods. And sadly, there are Christians who follow them, always looking for an excuse not to believe and their false teachers giving them many.
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