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Article created: 2020/05/09

Msg #2018 Behold Your King

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Israel was given opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as Messiah and King; they rejected him. The Gospel of Matthew shows the kingly person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first twelve chapters deal with our Lord's presentation of himself as a king, and in chapter thirteen there is a dramatic change in his presentation. His bewildered disciples ask, “Why speakest thou unto them in parables?” (Matt 13:10).

And his revealing answer is, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.... For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (13:11,15). Don't get the cart before the horse, it was not the parables that waxed their heart gross, it was sin; it was depravity that made them dull of hearing with closed eyes.

At this point they had already rejected their king, and going on from this point Jesus teaches his disciples about “the kingdom of heaven”, the first of seven “mysteries” revealed in the New Testament. The “kingdom of heaven” is unique to Matthew's gospel. From 3:2's repentance message to 25:14's fig tree its thirty-two uses deal with the Messiah's rule on earth from the throne of David. Rome, Luther, and Calvin had eyes closed to this mystery but the astute Bible student can fulfill 13:12's prophecy, “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” Study, and have more abundance during this pandemic.

An Essay for week #18May 3, 2020

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs200503.mp3

Good Samaritan Baptist Church

54 Main St. Box 99

Dresden, NY 14441