Compressed Truth
Art
Nelson
The last issue
of Present Truth presented “self-evident truths” that God
has built into creation as absolutes—there is an Unchanging
King and an Unshakable Kingdom. From these we derive certain
benefits—life, liberty, and righteousness. Our goal is to come
into the government of the Unshakable Kingdom by submitting ourselves
fully to the Unchanging King and exhibiting His life, liberty, and
righteousness.
This issue of
Present Truth will look at “compressed truth”. Anyone
who has used a computer for any length of time understands the idea
of compressed files, sometimes called “zipped” files.
These are files that have been compressed by having extraneous space
removed and repetitive data linked rather than repeated. This is
done to save disk space by reducing the size of the file that is
stored. A compressed file can no longer be read by the software that
created it unless the compressed file is first un-compressed or
“unzipped”.
The Lord has
done something similar to this with His presentation of Truth to us.
Many aspects of truth have been compressed and cannot be read, that
is, understood, until the Holy Spirit brings revelation by
de-compressing the truth so that we can understand. Compressed truth
is hidden truth which can only be revealed by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus spoke many
things very plainly to the people. At other times, He only spoke to
them in parables.
Matthew
13:34 NASB
(34)
All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did
not speak to them without a parable.
Parables
are a form of compressed truth. They cannot be fully understood
unless the Holy Spirit decompresses the truth, that is, expands the
fullness of the truth so that all aspects of it can come into our
understanding. Parables are a way of hiding truth from those who do
not have the proper “decompressing software”, that is,
from those who do not have the Holy Spirit to open the Truth.
Matthew
13:10-11 NASB
(10)
And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to
them in parables?"
(11)
Jesus answered them,
"To
you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it has not been granted.
From
this we see that Jesus purposely used parables so that the only ones
who would understand would be the ones who “had been granted”
access.
Matthew
13:13 NASB
(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.
While
people could see and hear what was said, they did not understand
because the parables were compressed truth that had to be
decompressed by the Holy Spirit in order to be understood.
The English word
“parable” is simply a transliterated form of the Greek
word parabole, a compound word which means “to cast
alongside.” By this definition, a parable is a truth placed
alongside of previously existing revealed truth with the additional
truth given to help explain the previously revealed truth.
This is why
these parables could be understood by the disciples but would be
meaningless to others. The matter hinged on whether or not the
previously revealed truths had been received.
Jesus
began to speak with parables when He began to speak of the things of
the Kingdom of God. Understanding the Kingdom is given to the
disciples of the Lord but not to the general public. The multitudes
only heard the beginning word of the Kingdom—the word of
repentance. So, one of the areas of compressed truth is in “Kingdom
understanding”, which requires the Holy Spirit to reveal it.
The
parables “cast alongside” each other by building on or
adding to the revealed truth of the previous ones. In other words,
one parable can take an “uncompressed” truth from a
previous parable and, when it is opened by the Holy Spirit, provide
further truth that adds additional understanding.
An
example of this is in Matthew chapter 13. Verse one tells us that
Jesus left the house and went down by the sea. There He spoke to the
crowds and told four parables of the Kingdom of God. Then, verse 36
tells us that Jesus sent the crowds away and went back into the
house. There He explained the parable of the wheat and tares to the
disciples and told them three more Kingdom parables.
So,
in this we see two groups of parables concerning the Kingdom of God.
The first group told by the sea is to the crowds and relate to one
another with general understanding so that each parable provides
additional truth to the previous. The second group is told in the
house and only to the disciples, so we would expect them to be
related with deeper understanding of the Kingdom for the disciples
than the previous group. Later, Jesus told His disciples another
group of Kingdom parables in Matthew chapter 25, which all related to
His return and events at the end of the age. The “compressed
truth” in each of these groups of parables can only be
understood as the Holy Spirit begins to decompress and relate them to
one another.
Later,
Jesus even told His closest disciples that He had things to say to
them, truth to be revealed, but they were not ready—they
couldn't handle the truth at that time. But, He was making provision
for them to understand later when the Spirit of Truth would come and
guide them into understanding.
John
16:12-14 NASB
(12)
"I
have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear
them
now.
(13)
"But
when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the
truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He
hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
(14)
"He
will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose
it
to you.
Paul
said similar things when he was teaching the Corinthians. From what
he said, it is obvious that their problem with understanding was
immaturity in spiritual things.
1
Corinthians 3:1-3 NASB
(1)
And I, brethren, could
not speak to you as to spiritual men,
but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.
(2)
I gave you milk to drink, not solid food;
for you were not yet able
to
receive it.
Indeed, even
now you are not yet able,
(3)
for
you are still fleshly.
For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not
fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?
They
could not receive more truth because they still operated in a fleshly
manner, being ruled by the desires and ambitions of the flesh.
The
writer of Hebrews had much more to say but found it difficult to
explain spiritual things to them because of their spiritual
condition. Apparently, their spiritual understanding had
deteriorated to the point that only basic truth was understood. They
had become “dull of hearing” which is what Jesus had
said, “hearing they don't hear”.
Hebrews
5:11 NASB
(11)
Concerning him we have much to say, and
it
is
hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
They
had become dull of hearing because they were not progressing toward
maturity but instead had actually “backslid” to an
immature level.
Hebrews
5:12 NASB
(12)
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need
again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the
oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
Maybe
this doesn't bother anyone else, but it bothers me. I want to
continue to grow, to mature, to come to full understanding of the
things of the Lord. I want to put off anything that hinders the Holy
Spirit from bringing revelation. I don't want to continually revert
to milk; I want solid food.
Paul
told the Ephesians that he gave thanks for them and mentioned them in
his prayers. This is what he included as things that he prayed for
them.
Ephesians
1:17-20 NASB
(17)
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
(18)
I pray that
the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what
is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints,
(19)
and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who
believe. These are
in accordance with the working of the strength of His might
(20)
which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead
and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
He
prayed that they would receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in
the knowledge of Him. Everything begins with revelation knowledge of
Jesus—He is Truth. The spirit of wisdom and revelation opens
the eyes of the heart and enlightens our understanding with the
result that we know these three things:
what
is the hope of His calling;
what
are the riches of His inheritance in us;
what
is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us.
These
are three areas of compressed truth. It takes the Holy Spirit and
His revelation in us to begin to comprehend the Lord's intention and
provision in these three areas. God has empowered the Spirit for
revelation in these areas with the same working of strength and power
that He used to raise Jesus from the dead and seat Him at His right
hand in the heavenlies. So, the moment that we reach a spiritually
mature place where we are able to “handle the truth”,
that is, able to bear it now, the Holy Spirit is ready to reveal it
with the fullness of the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
The moment that we are able, the power of revelation is available to
“unzip”, decompress, truth for us.
Since
the bulk of “Kingdom truth” is compressed into parables,
we could expect the first Kingdom parable to speak to the issue of
things that would hinder us from understanding. Jesus explained the
first parable for us and even told us that it is basic to
understanding the rest.
Mark
4:13 NASB
(13)
And He *said to them, "Do you not
understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?
We
call this first parable “the parable of the sower” but,
actually, it should be called “the parable of the soils”
because that is the key element for the seed and the fruit. The
“soils” are the hearts of those who hear the word of the
Kingdom, which is compared to a seed that is to grow and produce
fruit.
The
hindrances to understanding are given in Jesus' explanation:
Ignorance.
The hard ground of the roadside cannot receive the word of the
Kingdom. The Devil takes it away before it can sprout.
"When
anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the
evil one
comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the
one on whom seed was sown beside the road.
(Matthew
13:19 NASB)
Shallowness.
Rocky soil is not deep enough to sustain long term growth. The
seed cannot come to a place of productivity.
"The
one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who
hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
(21)
yet
he has no firm
root in himself, but is
only
temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the
word, immediately he falls away.
(Matthew
13:20-21 NASB)
Distractions.
Soil that is full of thorn bushes cannot produce fruit from the
Kingdom seed because the thorns choke out the things of the Kingdom.
Worldly distractions hinder the growth of the seed in us.
"And
the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who
hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of
wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
(Matthew
13:22 NASB)
Remember
that Jesus is speaking of the “word of the Kingdom” in
this parable, not the word of salvation. Jesus told Nicodemus that
you must be born again to see the Kingdom. So, the word of the
Kingdom is for the believer not the unbeliever. It is the
word of the Kingdom that is to produce fruit in our lives. Salvation
is just the beginning point.
Fruit
is hindered or even prevented by these three things: ignorance,
shallowness, and worldly distractions. The hearts that contain these
things will not be productive for the Kingdom of God.
We
need to ask the Lord to plow our hearts (soil); break up the “hard
pan” of the shallow ground and “bush hog” the
thorns so that our hearts can receive the seed and grow the expected
crop.
If
we don't do this, we may be shocked at the judgment seat of Christ.
We may find ourselves called an “unprofitable servant” by
the Lord.
©
2003-2008 by Art Nelson and
Lifestream
Teaching Ministries
Previous
issues of Present Truth are on the website:
www.Lifestreamteaching.com
For comments or questions contact Art
Nelson at this address:
artnelson@lifestreamteaching.com
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