Matthew 13:10-16

Now it is not just on God. I was going to go to Matthew 13:10-16. That is where the disciples asked Jesus, Why do You speak in parables? And Jesus says, "It's been given to you to know these things, but it's not been given to them." And then He goes on to say that they have actually refused to hear. They have stopped their ears, they have covered their eyes, and they will not hear. And Paul says in Romans 1, starting in verse 18, going down through verse 24, a similar thing. That even though God's attributes are evident, they, the people, have come up with weird and strange ideas and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator. And God said, "Well, okay, I'm just going to let you go down that road," and gave them over then to a mind that just does not understand and becomes more perverse as it goes along.

So, human unbelief has two prongs, two causes we could say: God's withholding His Spirit from humanity, and also on the other hand, deliberate human refusal to hear God. And think about it. Even when God gives us His grace and His Spirit, we still have a lot of unbelief to overcome because it has been there in our human nature for so long. It takes a long time to overcome it.

Matthew 13:11-13

A big thing right there: "It has been given to you." It is not something that they discovered. It was something in which God took the initiative and gave them even as He has given you and me—the same thing. He gave it. He did not have to. He was not forced to. But out of His mercy and out of His desire to see you share life with Him in the Kingdom of God, He gave it—the ability to see the mystery.