Matthew 13:11-12

Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

The preparation necessary for understanding the mysteries of the gospel

I. To explain what it is that we ought to have in order to attain an understanding of the mysteries of the gospel.

1. We ought to have an honest desire after light, and if we have this desire it will not remain unproductive. There is a connection announced in Scripture between desire and its accomplishment. The hungry are filled. Thousands are content that the Bible shall remain a sealed book-unto them it will not be given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

2. We ought to have a habit of prayer conjoined with a habit of inquiry; and to this more will be given. It is in the Bible and not out of the Bible, where this light is to be met with. It is by the Spirit of God shining upon the Word, that His truth is reflected with clearness upon the soul.

3. We ought to do all that we know to be God’s will, and to this habit of humble, earnest, desirous reformation, more will be given. Doing stands in the same relation to prayer that reading does. Without the one or the other it is the prayer either of presumption or hypocrisy. Christ is given to those who obey Him. Reading, prayer, and reformation are obvious things; and it is the neglect of these obvious things which involves guilt. It is for want of seeking if you do not find.

II. Explain how it is that the mysteries of the gospel are, in many cases, evolved upon the mind in a clear and convincing manifestation. The carnal mind is enmity against God; and Divine truth must be brought to man from above. (Dr. Chalmers.)

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given.-

Increase of gifts

God heaps upon His faithful and elect people (such as the apostles were) new graces and benefits day by day, so that they abound in virtue and holiness: but from the unbelieving, the ungrateful, and the unworthy, He gradually takes away His gifts, both of nature and of grace.

I. He who hath faith, to him shall be given the knowledge of the mysteries of God’s kingdom; for these cannot be known without faith.

II. They who have ears or hearing, who come to God with a pure desire to learn and to obey, to them shall be revealed celestial verities; but from those who have not this pure desire, and who indulge in their own lusts and errors, shall be taken away, by degrees, that little knowledge of Divine things which they possess.

III. He who hath doctrine-in the sense of using it-he who diligently preaches and communicates to others that which lie has received, shall never be at a loss for doctrine and words which he may speak and preach, for God will supply them to him. But if any one does not make use of doctrine, he will gradually forget it and lose it. (Lapide.)

More and more, or less and less

I. This principle as it is illustrated in the parable of the sower.

II. In reference to the experience of all gracious souls. Let us give instances:

1. When a man believes the gospel in its most elementary form, that man will soon be taught the higher truths. Use starlight and you shall have sunlight soon.

2. And as it is with faith so is it with the possession of any genuine grace, Faith, love, zeal, increase by use.

3. The way in which this promise is carried out by our gracious God is worthy of observation. God gives more by a process of growth, as in parable of the sower. The main point is, have we the living principle?

III. The other side of the truth as exemplified in the experience of the insincere. They who have heard the gospel from childhood, now give up hearing. No taste for it. Lost power to appreciate it. Others receive the grace of God, but not acting upon it, lose its power. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The law of increase

In the world among men it is commonly observed that it never rains “but it pours. Where you see a sheep there is generally a flock. Money makes money. Poverty remains poor. Want of capital brings bankruptcy. A company starts on imaginary or borrowed capital: it makes a fuss and a noise, but it never prospers. By-and-by it breaks up, and all is lost, and yet it never had anything of its own to lose: thus it verifies to the letter the truth-“whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” Ordinarily, prosperity is a hen which likes to lay where there is a nest egg, and when one swallow of success conies others will follow it. Certainly we have found it so in the things of grace; where grace has been given more grace comes; spiritual capital well worked multiplies the stock, and spiritual wealth is realized where there is a solid basis to begin upon. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Increase gradual through effort

Why did not the Lord give us the largest measure of grace to begin with-why promise more abundance as an after result? I think it is because we value grace all the more when it comes to us by little and little. Again, it is to our good to be exercised to get more grace. A poor woman is allowed to go and glean in a field; your generosity might say, “Come, my good woman, I will give you the corn, and you shall not have the trouble of gleaning;” but this might not be so good a thing for her as to allow her to gather the wheat by her own efforts. It is often much better to enable the poor to help themselves than to help them without their own exertions. God is wise towards us; he means to give us the corn, but he decides that we shall glean it, and so exercise ourselves unto godliness. We are to become rich in grace, but it is to be by heavenly trading. Growth is gift, remember that. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Life before increase

A dead post which we saw in the ground twenty years ago is the same post still, no bigger, no smaller, and only altered by becoming rotten underground; but the tree which you saw twenty years ago, what a difference there is in it. It was then a sapling which you could bend, but now it has become as an iron pillar, and there is no moving it. So ought it to be with us, and we must aspire to have it so. (C. H. Spurgeon.)