Mark 4:33
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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