Mark 4:21 ¶
And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or
under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? 22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be
manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.
23 If any man have ears to hear, let him
hear. 24 And he said unto them, Take
heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and
unto you that hear shall more be given. 25
For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him
shall be taken even that which he hath. 26
And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into
the ground; 27 And should sleep, and
rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of
herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is brought forth,
immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. 30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the
kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed,
which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the
earth: 32 But when it is sown, it
groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great
branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.
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.
23
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 24 And he said unto them, Take heed
what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto
you that hear shall more be given. 25 For he that hath, to him shall be given:
and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.
The
phrase let him hear used in verse 23 is repeated several times in the
first few chapters of Revelation. The word, hear, in this context, means to
hear with understanding.
Nehemiah
8:2 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and
women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the
seventh month.
Job
34:16 If now thou hast understanding, hear this: hearken to the voice of my
words.
Proverbs
1:5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of
understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
Proverbs
4:1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know
understanding.
Jeremiah
5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have
eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
In
verse 24, to mete is clearly defined as to measure out, to dole out, to give
out. Look it up. The Lord Jesus Christ did not just demand that the Apostles
tell others about how to get saved but;
Matthew
28;19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world. Amen.
Teaching
all nations would not involve making the Bible a confused mess by not rightly
dividing it as called for in 2 Timothy 2:15. Saying things like the Old
Testament Jews were looking forward to the Cross when the Jews of the Gospels
clearly had no idea what was happening or saying that the Bible is all the same
forcing verses in different parts written to different peoples to contradict
each other is not teaching anyone anything. You will be held accountable for
how you presented God’s word. These verses about parables are about
understanding, being willing, having ears, and being willing to give. Denying
the final authority of the Bible in all matters of faith, practice, and
doctrine while setting up conflicting authorities so that you can be the final
authority is not meting out the words of God as He expects you to do.
There
are many preachers out there confusing their congregations and making the
Bible, if they even have the Bible, a closed book for them and making it
difficult to understand. It is enough to deal with the hardness of heart of
unbelief without making it tough for those who want to be fed with God’s word.
The church is the people of God meeting to worship. The house of God is where
God dwells which is in God’s people. The church is not a building or an
organization. The house of God is not a building or an organization. God does
not come down on a congregation of believers. If He’s not already in them, they
are lost, and therefore not His church. There are no angels with wings in the
Bible. The Devil is not a fallen angel, he is a cherub, a living creature,
reptilian in form, not a chubby little baby. Baptism does not save you. There
are no sacraments in the Bible. Salvation is predicated upon belief not works.
I have given the verses so many times.
God
has given you much. What are you doing with it? Will you be given more or will
what you have be taken away? God expects more from you, Christian, than from
those who don’t know the truth. These verses are not about material possessions
or health literally. There are about your understanding and how you impart the
truth of God to others, how you measure it out. If you wonder why so many
people come forward in a fundamentalist church service to “get saved” but very
few ever darken the door of a church again then think very clearly about what
you’ve measured out to them of the truth.
When
evangelical churches like the Baptist, the Methodist, and the Presbyterian
began replacing God with the government in the 1800’s to make society better
and began placing their faith and their frustration in men who ran for
political office God took away their understanding, allowed the Bible that
saved them to be replaced with counterfeits, and made them spiritually
powerless as they grew politically stronger. Satan is the god of this world and
the stronger a church becomes politically the weaker it becomes spiritually. It
got so that at the end of the Civil War Ulysses Grant said that there were
three political parties in the United States to contend with; the Republicans,
the Democrats, and the Methodists. The Christians in America were given much but
that was taken away. While they were
glory-glory-‘hallelujahing’-his-truth-is-marching-on God’s glory was departing.
Also,
a significant amount of Americans, a majority even, have never been a member of
a church, even in colonial days. The unbelievers derived a great deal of
benefit though by the activity of Christians. But, increasingly, as they would
not hear and clung to worldly philosophies and godless ideologies from Marx to
Darwin to Freud, even that which they had was removed.
In
William Jay’s (son of Founding Father and First Chief Justice of the United
States, John Jay) 1849 book A Review of the Causes and Consequences of the
Mexican War he says on page 289 after an argument about whether or not it was
America’s military prowess that made the country great and ensured our freedoms
finally concludes, “Were we permitted to trace effects in their causes, in the
moral government of the world, we should doubtless find that much of our
prosperity as a people flows from the labors of faithful pastors, self-denying
Sunday-school teachers, and sincere, zealous, but humble Christian men and
women. It is chiefly by such patriotism, gentle and noiseless as the dew of
Heaven, that our land is clothed with moral verdure and beauty, and that those
who sit under their own vine, with none to make them afraid, are indebted for
the peace and security they enjoy.”
Now,
the conservative Christian sends out emails to his or her friends equating the
soldier to Jesus Christ and doesn’t feel that that is blasphemous. I know and
respect a lot of service people and former service people but they are not
sinless nor are they God in the flesh and I don’t know of one who joined the
service with the intention of dying for my sins.
The
liberal Christian lost his way long ago. President Obama, in his famous and
classic “Call to Renewal” speech lamented how the left had forgotten that all
of the great liberals of the past where Christians. He said, “…there are some
liberals who dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or
intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them
as fanatical, or thinking that the very word "Christian" describes
one's political opponents, not people of faith…..secularists are wrong when
they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the
public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryant,
Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - indeed, the majority of great reformers in
American history - were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used
religious language to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women
should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy
debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of
morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.”
The
left has abandoned the faith that inspired them because the activist Christians
viewed the government of man as God’s agent on earth and lost their way.
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