THE KING’S BUSINESS
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answered and said, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; (38) and the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; (39) and the enemy that sowed them is the Devil; and the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are angels.” I call your attention again to the fact that these words are not found in the parable, but in the explanation of the parable, and our Lord here distinctly teaches that there is a person, named "the Devil,” whose work it is to sow tares among the sons of the kingdom. If there is not a personal Devil then our Lord Jesus was either a fool or a fraud. The question of believing in the personality of the Devil involves the honor of our Lord Jesus. If His teaching is not to be trusted on this point it is not to be trusted on-any other point, and the denial of a personal Devil involves the trustworthiness of the Lord Jesus as a Teacher and a Saviour at every point; so we see that the question of the existence of a personal Devil is fundamental and of vital import ance. 2. Now let us turn to the teaching of Peter. Turn first of all to 1 Peter 5 :8, 9, “Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a ibaring lion, walketh about, seek ing whom he may devour. (9) whom withstand steadfast in your faith.” The meaning of these words is evident. They teach us distinctly that there is not merely an impersonal evil that we must withstand, but a person who is himself the embodiment of evil, who is seeking our destruction, and whom we must withstand. We have another teaching of Peter on this same point recorded by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. Acts S:3: “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” Here Peter distinctly teaches that it was a person, here called “Satan,” who had filled the heart of Ananias with this awful pur-
has to say on any other subject settles that question. We will turn first to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, for there are many in these days who say that they accept the teaching of the Lord Jesus even though they are doubtful about the teach ing of John or Paul or other New Tes tament or Old Testament writers. Turn first to the 13th chapter of Mat thew and the 19th verse. - "When any one heareth the word of the,, kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart. This is he that was sown by the way side.” These words are found in the interpreta tion of the parable of the sower. It is impos sible to say that they are figurative. In parables we have figures : in the explana tion of the parables we have the literal facts that the figures symbolize, and these words are not taken from the parable, but from our Lord’s own explanation of the parable, and here we are distinctly told that there is a person who is here called “the evil one” whose business it is to snatch awa^ the Word of God when it has been sown in hearts that do not understand and heed it. If evil is only impersonal and our Lord had only referred to impersonal influences, or human influences, as taking away the word out of the hearts where it had been sown, these words of His would be utterly without meaning. That the Lord Jesus believed that there was a person whom He here speaks of as “the evil one” and whom he elsewhere speaks of, as we shall see directly, as “the Devil,” admits of no doubt, if we grant that the Lord Jesus was an honest man. We must, therefore, if we believe in the Lord Jesus, believe that there is a personal Devil. We can deny his existence only by questioning either the honesty or the intelli gence of our Lord. He certainly taught that there was a personal Devil. But let us read other verses in explanation of another parable, The Parable of the Tares! Matt. 13:37-39: “And he (Jesus)
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