Romans 11:8 says, “As it is written, ‘God gave them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, until this very day.’” This verse says that God has given the Jews a spirit of deep sleep. They have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear until this very day. The situation in Matthew 13 is more serious than the situation in Matthew 11. In chapter eleven the Lord only spoke of hiding things. In chapter thirteen there is more than an ordinary kind of hiding; it is a hiding that is based on chapter twelve. It is an eternal rather than a temporary hiding. In chapter twelve the Lord Jesus cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Jews who hated Him for no reason accused Him of casting out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons (v. 24). They hated the Lord so much that they closed their eyes and accused Him of casting out demons by the ruler of the demons. They clearly knew that the Lord Jesus cast out demons by the Holy Spirit, yet they hated Him for no reason at all. When they hated the Lord, they blasphemed the Holy Spirit and said that He cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. They were prejudiced. They knew that the Lord cast out demons by the Holy Spirit, but they were determined not to believe this. They were determined to reject the Lord, and they insisted that He did not cast out the demons by the Holy Spirit, but by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. They were so hardened in their hearts. This is the picture in chapter twelve. These ones will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the one to come. Clearly, the Holy Spirit was working, yet they insisted that Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, was working. The name Beelzebul means “the lord of flies.” The Lord Jesus was casting out demons by the Holy Spirit, but they associated Him with “the lord of flies”; they accused Him of casting out demons by “the lord of flies.” Such was the hardness of man’s heart! This is the greatest sin in the whole Bible. No other sin is as serious as this one. Man commits many sins, but no sin is as great as this one. This sin will not be forgiven in this age nor in the age to come.
Then in Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus spoke in parables. The disciples asked Him, “Why do You speak in parables to them?” He answered, saying, “Because to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it has not been given” (vv. 10-11). They heard about the sower, but they did not know what it meant. They heard about the rocks, the birds, and the thorns, but they did not know what they meant. They also heard about the good earth, but they did not know what it meant. The Lord Jesus shows us a basic principle here: When men commit a grave sin, God closes up His word so that in hearing they would not understand, and in seeing they would not perceive. “For the heart of this people has become fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed, lest they perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and they turn around, and I will heal them” (v. 15). It seems as if God was preventing them from repenting. Once a man has his own inclinations, prejudices, reluctances, and fault-finding attitudes, even God’s light has to stop. Some people can preach outwardly, but they no longer have new revelations. What they see is passed on from one printed page to another mouth, and from that mouth to another printed page. The words pass on, but there is no new revelation and no new light. These ones are passing their days in darkness. We are afraid of committing sin, but we should be more afraid of committing sin without knowing that we have committed sin. Please remember that sinners could be saved at the time of the Lord Jesus, but the Pharisees could not be saved. God has a way to deal with the sinners, but He has no way to deal with those who are blind and in darkness. Seemingly, the Pharisees were not sinners. Actually, the Lord said that they were blind guides of the blind (15:14). The blinder a person is, the harder it is to deal with him.
Matthew 13 and Romans 11 show us a principle: A man can become so fallen that God’s light is completely sealed off from him. We call this God’s prohibition, or His sealing. Some people are in deep errors, not because they are foolish but because they are wise. A man who errs through foolishness is easily forgiven. But a man who errs through wisdom is not easily forgiven. Some people not only err; something is wrong with their heart. When a man errs through a deviation of his heart from God, God closes the door to him. This is a very serious matter. God has no desire for some people to see Him; He hides Himself from these ones. If God deals with us in this way, we are through. No loss is greater than the loss of vision! If God closes the door on us at any time, we are through. We should pray, “Lord, do not allow me to be so foolish as to say anything arrogant. Do not allow me to be so foolish as to reject the light. Do not allow me to fall to such an extent that there is no chance for me to repent.” Without revelation, there is no repentance. The sealing off of revelation means the sealing off of repentance, and the sealing off of repentance means the sealing off of forgiveness. The Pharisees blasphemed the Holy Spirit; they could no longer repent, which meant that they would no longer receive any revelation. They heard, but they did not understand. They saw, but they did not touch anything. In other words, they only had words; they did not have revelation. Some brothers and sisters are unwilling to submit to others and to accept many things. When a person is prejudiced against something, he will say that it is wrong even when it is right. In order for a person to receive revelation from God, he must always be afraid of making mistakes. He dares not make presumptuous judgments, because he is afraid of being wrong. In order to receive light, one must not be presumptuous. When a man is weak and meek, it is easy for the Lord to grant him light and revelation; such a one receives the basic revelations as well as the extraordinary revelations. We have to learn to open our hearts to the Lord and to continually receive from Him. Once God seals up anything, we will not see any light. If a minister of the word encounters a person sealed from God, it will be impossible for him to release any light to that person.