They tell the story about a poor rabbi who was awakened one night by a noise in his house and he said, who's there? And his voice said, a burglar. And the rabbi said, what are you looking for? He said, money. He said, wait, I'll get up and help you. I love rabbinical humor. But the rabbis used parables to teach their disciples truth. But our Lord Jesus is talking not just to his disciples, that was important, but he was talking to this vast crowd. Verse 2, and a great multitude gathered to him so that he got into a boat and sat down and taught them from the boat. Here is this huge crowd. Now the disciples were quite happy about this crowd. I have no problem with crowds, providing you know what you're doing. We want crowds in our churches, not so that we can count people, but because people count. And it's important that they hear the word of God and be ministered to. But you can't measure ministry that way. You notice that our Lord used a phrase in verse 39, the harvest is the end of the age. May I remind my pastor friends that the harvest is not the end of the meeting. It's the end of the age. At the end of the age, we're going to find out what kind of a harvest we had. That's why Paul said, judge nothing before the time. that should be hung up in every church in the country. Our Lord is speaking in parables. Now, why? Well, for two reasons. Number one, something was wrong with the crowd. Here was a huge crowd of Jewish people, all of whom had been raised in one way or another on the Old Testament law. That law governed every aspect of their life, from when they got up in the morning to when they went to bed at night. And so they knew the law. But Jesus said they had some serious problems. Look at verse 13. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Why did Jesus give parables? To hide the truth From some people, yes. Our Lord said one day, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you that you've hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and you have revealed them to babes. What was he saying? Well, the crowd that had been taught the scriptures, especially the religious leaders, thought they knew everything. And yet it was fishermen and humble people who did see the truth and receive it. Now, why did our Lord give parables? Because this whole crowd was blind. They could not see. See what? See all of the things around them that God had put there to teach them the truth. What did Jesus talk about in Matthew chapter 13? You know the chapter. I'll review the things he talked about. He talked about seeds. That crowd had seen sowers go out and sow seed, but they didn't see what it meant. He talked about soil. They knew about soil. They didn't know what it meant. He talked to them about birds. about harvesting, about weeds being thrown into the fire. He talked to them in some of the parables about yeast being put into dough. He talked about finding hidden money in a field, buying a pearl, all of these objects and activities these Jewish people had seen. Did you know that God is preaching sermons day in and day out all year long and people don't see it? The sun comes up, the sun goes down. How many people stop to think one day I may be in darkness? The harvest is over and the winter comes, the cold soil and nothing grows. How many people stop to say, my heart is cold? In thousands of ways, day in and day out, God is talking to people through what he has put in this world and they can't say it. That's why they can't hear the Word of God. Not only are they blind to what God is showing them, but they're deaf to what God is saying to them. It's a problem of show and tell. God's telling them through the Word, God's showing them through the world, and they can't put the two together. So all our Lord did in these parables was simply say, you know about sowers, sure, we know about... Let me talk to you about sowers. You know about yeast? Yeah, we know about yeast. Let me talk to you about yeast. They were blind and couldn't see and they were deaf and couldn't hear. So our Lord used stories, parables, a very special kind of story. to awaken their interest, to arouse their curiosity. And they would go home and say, what was he talking about? And the more they thought about it, the more God spoke to them. Then they could believe and be saved. But there were the wise and the prudent who were proud of their knowledge. Nothing wrong with going to school and learning. I teach for a number of schools, and I'm glad for the privilege, but I meet some people who have studied themselves stupid. I heard about a... You know, there are in our schools students who have no intention of ever graduating and going to work. A fella asked a man one day, what's your son going to be when he graduates? He said, an old man. Now the second reason why Jesus gave parables, not only to arouse the interest of those who really wanted to know and confuse the thinking of those who thought they knew everything. The second reason was for the sake of his disciples. Now suppose that you and I were among that band of disciples. And we looked up and saw this huge crowd. We'd look at each other and say, man, this man's ministry is succeeding. Isn't it wonderful to be a part of a ministry like this that is succeeding? And Jesus was saying to them, boys, I'm sowing the seed of the word of God, and I want you to know that most of it will not bear fruit. And where it does bear fruit, it won't be a hundredfold, some it will. Some it'll be 50, some it'll be 30. Watch out when you use that word success. So Jesus looked within the hearts of those listeners and he saw hard hearts and shallow hearts and crowded hearts and some good hearts that were plowed up and prepared and received the seed. Jesus looked around and realized that not everybody up there was wheat. Some were chairs. In fact, the disciples didn't know it yet, but there was one on the disciple band. His name was Judas. Then Jesus looked ahead and saw that one day there would be separation. The seventh of the eight parables that are in this chapter, we often neglect the last one about the householder. The seventh parable is the parable of the dragnet, where the fishermen throw out the net and catch all kinds of fish. And then they're separated, the good from the bad. At the end of the parable of the tares, the true and the false are separated.