Well, this morning we're going to be preaching and teaching on the issues of why Jesus taught in parables. And of course, the subject of we are still addressing is a continuation from last week on the doctrine of reprobation. The doctrine of reprobation would be a simple doctrine if it had not been so muddied by corrupt reform theology. Calvinism, for instance, teaches that God has pre-temporally, before time, reprobated certain individuals to eternal damnation. They couldn't get saved if they wanted to get saved. Of course, their argument is that because they're not elect, they wouldn't want to be saved anyway. God has simply chosen certain people to be saved, and the rest of the world, those who have not been chosen to be saved, are eternally reprobate. Now, we're going to tell you from the Scriptures that that's not the case. Reprobation is the last outcome of an individual continually rejecting Christ in this life. And there is a time in your life when you continue to reject Jesus Christ, continue to put him off, continuing to harden yourself to the things of God, and refusing to repent and turn from God's warnings that God does give you over to a reprobate mind. And that, of course, is the ultimate end. People say, well, how do we know if someone is reprobate? We don't. We don't. preaching and teaching the Word of God, but there is a warning regarding reprobation. There is a time that you have to understand that God will no longer draw you. There is a time when God's going to say, enough is enough, and God's long suffering runs out. And that's what we're going to look at. We're going to look at some of the reasons why Jesus taught in parables, and that's truth. Let's stand together again this morning, Hebrews chapter six, the text we're going to read this morning is up there on the screen, but I trust you brought your Bibles with you and you can follow along. I'm gonna read verses one through eight. Paul says, therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, doctrine of Christ is all that the Bible teaches about Christ, beginning with the eternal promises in Genesis 3.15, the Protevangelum, going through all the gospel up until where we come today, all of the Old Testament gospel and the law, all of those things, Paul says now, let's go on, let's go on unto perfection or to spiritual maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith towards God, All of these things are repented of eternal, of the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away. to renew them again unto repentance, saying, They crucify themselves, the Son of God afresh, and put Him to open shame. This is a warning of reprobation. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet or fit for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, or near to the curse, whose end is to be discerned or is to be burned. Again, another warning regarding those who just keep putting Christ off. Father God, we bow before you this morning and trust that, Lord, you'd impress upon the hearts of each of us the importance of the scriptures that say today is a day of salvation, now is the accepted time. We pray, Lord, for those who, Lord, might be an earshot of what we say today. whether it's on television, over the internet, whether it's here in this room this morning, that Lord, you'd speak to their hearts, help them to understand the danger in which they live. And Father, that the opportunity, if they're hearing the gospel and still sensitive, that they still have an opportunity to be saved. We trust that you bless today in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The concluding foundational truth regarding the pre-salvation work of the Holy Spirit immediately precedes the warnings of Hebrews chapter six, verses three through eight. Now these two verses carry enormous theological weight going on through Hebrews chapter 10. Otherwise, this is gonna go all the way through chapter 10 and then chapter 11 of Hebrews. He begins to give us there the great examples of the faithful. or what we call the great hall of faith of Hebrews chapter 11. And of course, beginning there, that faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And of course, the great examples of those who lived through all kinds of difficulties in their faith towards God. So they were going to hear, some had already closed their minds to the definitive details regarding the new covenant truth, rejecting them. I have had the opportunity many times the privilege of sharing the gospel of salvation by grace through faith with many of individual at the end of that time asking them if they understand everything and if they're willing to repent of their false beliefs and come to put their trust in Christ at which time they will say something like this, I'm not ready yet or I'm maybe a little later, maybe another day. And they're putting you off. But I have found in that time that another day never comes. And they keep putting you off. And one day you open up the newspaper into that little column called the obituary column. And you have read there that individual's death. And you wonder. I wonder if they were able to put Jesus off until the last day. And somehow that seems to be a victory. But remember this. There's not one unbeliever in hell. Not one single unbeliever in hell. Every person in hell is a fundamental Bible believer who believes every single word of God. And they in hell would love to have another chance to repent, but there will not be another chance. their destiny is sealed. That's the warning that we find here in Hebrews chapter six. They were going to continue in false teaching and the misrepresentation of the old Mosaic covenant. If they're going to do that, the warning is you are approaching reprobation. And if you go there, God is not going to redo what he has already done in your life. The Spirit of God was leading these people away from false beliefs to bring them to truth and the things that they needed to understand regarding the six areas of repentance discussed in Hebrews 6, 1 through 2. To reject this definitive teaching of the Holy Spirit was to reject the only means for anyone to know truth and come to a correct vision of faith. That's the work of the Spirit of God you're doing. And we'll look at a parable later on of those who accused the works of Jesus that he was doing by the power of the Spirit and accused him of doing those works by the power of Satan. You are relegating and obfuscating, if you will, the very work of the Holy Spirit in your life when God brings you to the understanding of the gospel and you reject him week after week, day after day. You are working a work against the very work that the Spirit of God is trying to do in your life. You are resisting Him. So rejecting this pre-salvation ministry, the Holy Spirit would seal their eternal judgment, and the Holy Spirit would not work to bring them to the place of decision again. I'm going to look at Matthew 12 there in a little while. This defines reprobation. Otherwise, this whole issue is that the Holy Spirit of God is the only one who can bring you to the threshold of salvation. He's the only one who can give you the understanding of the doctrine of condemnation. That you are condemned already because you've not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That you are a sinner that stands before God. That the wages of sin is death. God brings you to that conviction. Brings you the understanding of the gospel that every sin you've ever committed in your life, God has paid the penalty of that sin and remitted the penalty of that sin through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That's a propitiation of God. And because of what God has done, he affords you the opportunity of the gift of God kind righteousness and the gift of the ministry, a gift of the person of the Holy Spirit, that justification. If you understand that, if you understand that God's brought you to that place of understanding, you are standing on the very precipice of hell. You are standing in a most dangerous place that any person can stand. Even more dangerous than the person who is an atheist, the person who is out there in the world decrying everything that is true of God. You are in more danger because you are in the danger of the place of reprobation. because you are standing there with an understanding and rejecting Jesus Christ. That is the text before us today. This defines reprobation. Now Jesus makes some remarkable statements in Matthew chapter 12 verses 14 through 37 that warned the Jews about certain statements and thoughts that reflected the reprobation and hardness of their unbelief towards him. The Pharisees were the epitome of legalistic thinking and hardness of unbelief towards Jesus. The Pharisees manifested the manipulative, controlling, and diabolical opposition to Jesus and his loving desire to help people escape the corrupt grasp of legalism upon those Jewish people who were truly seeking the truth. This is what legalism always does. Legalism did this for centuries. Let me get my water here. Some churches this would be enough to baptize you with. Let me tell you what was going on here. This is the same thing that happens in many of the denominational churches over the century. The same thing that the legalists of this time were doing, they do the same thing. They want to silence anyone who preaches salvation by grace through faith in Christ. They want to silence that voice. And so for centuries, the Roman Catholics just sought to kill them all. You say, well, a reformed theology, they didn't do that. They were reforming Roman Catholicism, but no, the reformer did the same thing. And they sought to kill him. And that's exactly what happens in legalism. They try to silence the voice of grace. The voice of grace is speaking to you today. You're sitting under the preaching, the teaching of the voice of grace today. It's the voice of God. The voice of God pleads with you to be saved. Don't you find that amazing? God, the Holy One of Israel, the God who created heaven and earth, pleads with sinners to be saved. That shows you the love of God. And you reject that? You harden yourself to that? Is there any wonder that eventually God's going to say, well, okay, I'll give them up. In the first 13 verses of Matthew chapter 12, if you turn over there, the disciples had gleaned a little corn from a field for some food for the day on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees in their legalistic rules had taken the Sabbath day and made it for man when the Sabbath day was intended to reflect a person's relationship of faith towards God. Bleeding was a right of the poor and the stranger traveling through Israel. Leviticus 19.10 and Deuteronomy 24.21 tells us that the poor and the strangers, they traveled through the nation of Israel. The farmers were supposed to leave portions in their field that they didn't harvest portions around so that the poor and the stranger could come and take a little bit from their food. Now Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for their condemnation of his disciples for simply gathering a meal for themselves as they walked through a field of corn. Probably wasn't even a whole field. But the Pharisees in the hardness of their unbelief put Jesus to the test to have something of which to accuse him and to have him thrown in prison. That's what their objective. So Jesus then leaves the field with his disciples, enters into a nearby synagogue where the same Pharisees now follow him. And upon entering, if you can see the hardness of what they're doing, they're still living in unbelief, the Pharisees discover a man there with a withered hand and they see an opportunity. Matthew 12.10. Seeking to find another accusation of unbelief against Jesus, they ask him if it's lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. Then, before their very eyes, Jesus asks the man to stretch forth his withered hand, and immediately it is completely transformed to a hand of strength. Now surely we would think that such a miracle would soften the hearts of these Pharisees. They see this crippled man, his hand withered, unable to be used, he probably has to beg because of it. And now he is restored to complete wholeness, right before their eyes. Can you imagine? A hand that is withered and crippled and I remember my son-in-law Seth and after the accident that he had, his hand was all crippled and he couldn't use it. It just kind of hung there and flopped at the side. Can you imagine seeing that completely restored to being whole and usable and strengthen it again? The hardness of your heart. It would have brought me to tears. But this is what reprobation looks like. Even when they saw this great miracle, their hardness was so hard to the things of God that they would not believe that he was a Messiah. Even though prophecy had said he would come and do these very kinds of things. Now, Matthew chapter 12, we go over there again, we're gonna read this, some of it in verse 14 down, is intended to teach that teaches about the hardness of the heart of the reprobate. That's what the teaching is about. That's a context. What's the three basic rules of biblical interpretation? Context, context, context. So get the context. The context here is that Jesus is teaching about the hardness of the heart of the reprobate. How hard it is. There are some people that just won't believe. I mean, I have seen people in this auditorium brought to tears under the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God. They've walked out the door in hardness towards the things of God, never to darken the doors again. I weep for them. I'm sure that God grieves about that, but there comes a time when God has to say, enough is enough. there comes a time. Legalistic unbelief binds up this type of person's heart to such a degree that he is blinded to the obvious miraculous events that manifest the one who accused him of unbelief and hypocrisy was right in his accusations. How many times I've been in churches where I have seen young people who are in rebellion against their mom and dad. They grow up in that church. They sit under the preaching and the teaching of the word of God week after week after week after week. They go to your youth group and they hear the preaching of the gospel. They are in young people's ministries as they grow up. They hear the preaching of the gospel and they get hardened to it and hardened to it and hardened to it. until finally their rebellion just springs up. They're right at that precipice. Right at that most dangerous place. That was my greatest fear for Joshua Carlson. When Joshua was there. Right at that point. Just right there. All but by the grace of God, God reached down and touched his life. And returned him back to grace. One of the most difficult persons to persuade of damnable heresies is a spiritual elitist who bathes himself in his own educated ignorance to the point of his own apostasy. What a horrible thing. How often I've seen that happen. Come having some kind of claim to the knowledge of the word of God, but at rest the scriptures of the word of God says to their own destruction, finding excuses for their own unbelief. Go over there to Matthew chapter 12 with me and beginning at verse 13, verse 14, we want to begin reading here. This is right after this restoration of this man's withered hand, right before their eyes. That's what the then is here. Otherwise this man is, they've just seen this man's withered hand be restored to wholeness and strength. Then, The Pharisees went out and held counsel against Him. Do you sit there and shake your head like I do? They just saw Jesus miraculously heal this man's hand and restore it to full strength. And yet, in the hardness of their heart, they went out of that synagogue and they held a counsel against Him, how they could incriminate Him, that they might, what? Destroy Him! For what? Healing a man's hand? Oh, you see, it was much more than that. The truth that Jesus was preaching was contradictory to everything they were teaching. And therefore, the only solution they had, rather than change their beliefs, was to kill the messenger who was the very Son of God. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence, and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them... What's the next word? All! He healed them all! And the Pharisees were right there watching it. He healed them all! Everyone in that crowd, the Word of God tells us that Jesus healed them all. And charged them, Jesus charged them, that they should not make him known that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him and he shall judge me. And he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice and his hurt in the streets. And a bruised raid shall he not break, and smoking flack shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. What's he talking about? Through his death, burial and resurrection. The judgment upon sinners was made a victory in Jesus Christ. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust. Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed and said, is not this the Son of God, Son of David? Isn't this the one? Isn't this the Messiah? Isn't this the promised one of God? Isn't this the one that all the scriptures spoke about? Look at verse 24. But when the Pharisees heard it, See, unbelief hears things differently. Unbelief, hardness of heart, does not see, does not hear, does not understand. Because it is blinded and deafened and made ignorant by its own hardness. It just will not be moved. I've often said, sometimes I think the best closing hymnal at the invitation time is, we shall not be moved. I think that's the Pharisees closing him. We shall not be moved. But the Pharisees heard it and they said, look at their answer to this. Now he just healed everybody in this crowd. He'd just taken a man who was possessed by a devil and he was blind and he was dumb. He couldn't see and he couldn't speak and he healed him so he could both see and speak. All the people saw it, they knew that this was the Messiah. But when the Pharisees heard it, the unbelievers, the reprobates heard it, they said, this fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. You see the miracles and you can't deny the miracles happened, right? You can't deny, they're right there before your eyes. And so what's the other solution? Well, this isn't of God, this has to be of devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts. What does that tell you? Sinner, you're in this room right now. You're hardening your heart. Jesus knows your thoughts. He's listening to you. He's listening to your heart. He's listening to your thoughts right now. You are not pulling anything over God's eyes. Jesus knew their thoughts. It is amazing how hard the heart of the rebel can be. Isn't it? And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. Otherwise, there are people, he says, that cast out demons who are the names of Jews, and if they can cast them out, and you say it's of God, why is it when I do it, it's of the devil? He says, but if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, referring to Satan and the power of Jesus to bind Satan in order to cast out demons. He says, how can one enter a strong man's house and spoil his good except he bind the strong man? How did Jesus cast out demons? Well, he bound the strong man. That's Satan. They possess that man by the power of evil. And Jesus says, I had to bind the power of evil in order to cast it out. He says, and spoil is good, except he first bind the strong man and he will spoil his house. He that is not with me is against me. Now look at this text. If you're not with Jesus, you're against him. Understand this. If you are not a believer and have not yielded to Jesus Christ, you are against him. There's no middle ground. There's either obedience and there's disobedience. There's no middle ground. There's no gray area here. And so he goes on and he says, wherefore? I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. Now this is what the hardened Pharisees were doing by crediting Satan as the power of Jesus' miracle. They were blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God. Now, every time you harden your heart to the things that God is teaching you from his word, you are approaching a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, because it's the Holy Spirit of God who brings those things to your understanding. And you are rejecting that ministry. Now, they were going beyond this. They were going beyond that. They were actually crediting Satan with the power of the things that the Holy Spirit was doing. And that was a serious blasphemy. Now, it says, whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of God, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by his fruit. Otherwise, what am I doing? He says the statement addresses the issue of the miracles of Jesus. It addresses the issue whether these miracles were benevolently good or were they evil. Were they good things to do or were they evil things to do? Well, obviously we can see that these were good things to do. Now he begins to address those who are saying that the good things that Jesus had done were evil things. Okay? He says, oh generation of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the treasure bringeth forth evil things. Now, I always tell this to children. I get a chance to speak to a lot of kids, and one of the first things I say, are you saved? I said, I'm sure I'm saved. I'm sure I'm saved. I said, are you really sure you're saved? I said, sure, I'm saved. I've trusted in Jesus. I've asked him to be my Lord and Savior. And I said, now, what does that look like? What does being saved look like? What do you mean? You can't see salvation. I said, no, but you can see the fruits of it. Amen? So if you're saying there ought to be fruits of that salvation, you've got a new root, you got a new foundation, you're a new tree, and there ought to be some new fruit. And one of the ways you can really tell with kids is how they treat one another. Now there's always sibling rivalry in the home, right? But should we just excuse it? Should we just excuse it just because they're brothers and sisters? Would you and your wife apply those same principles to your relationship? Or would you like to see those things resolved? No. You see, we can't hate our brothers and sisters and be saved. The Bible says that in 1 John chapter 3. You can't hate your brothers and sisters and be saved. So there's a tell here. Verse 36, but I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Now, what's he talking about? He's talking about your testimony, talking about the words you speak, how we talk to one another, how we treat one another. He says, for by thy words, thou shalt be justified, your testimony. What is your words? Your testimony of faith. Your testimony, and it says, and by their words I shall be condemned. Your testimony. What is your testimony? Your testimony is not just a word you say, it's the life that you live. Now, I wish I could go on here this morning. We just barely touched upon this. We're going to have to come back, hit it again tonight, maybe again next Sunday, maybe next Sunday night too. But, what is the issue before us today? You know, the issue is every one of us need to understand that the people we deal with every day, sometimes when they hear the gospel and God is drawing them, if we are presenting the gospel in a clear manner and giving a clear invitation to the gospel, otherwise showing them what a biblical response to the gospel is, and they continue to reject the gospel of Jesus Christ and refuse to respond in a biblical way to that gospel week after week after week. That individual is in one of the most dangerous positions that any person in the world can be, even more so than the atheist. Now, yes, the atheist will come to that place sometime in his life in Romans 1.32, but the person who has now heard all of these things, have the understanding of all of these things, but week after week after week rejects Jesus Christ, rejects calling on him, confessing him as Lord and calling on him to be saved, that individual is in a very, very dangerous position. How hard is your heart? You know it's a simple thing, the solution of your heart? Let it break. Just let it break. That old stony thing in your being has no value. It will never help you. A stony heart, an unbroken heart, will hurt you week after week, year after year. It will destroy your life. It will keep you on the throne of the world. It will exalt your selfishness to the most prominent place that you will allow it to be exalted. It will destroy everyone around you. Let it break! And be saved. you