Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Matthew, chapter 13. Matthew 13. We've been going through the
Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5, 6, 7 of Matthew, but I'd like
to look at this chapter this morning, a portion of it. The Lord, if you go back and
read chapter 12 of Matthew, you'll see that there was a lot of opposition
to the Lord by the Pharisees. They were just as they always
were, trying to trip him up, catching him, saying something. you know, that they could accuse
him. And Scripture declares in that first verse the same day.
He was opposed by the religious, false, but religious leaders. In his day of earthly ministry,
his day of his humiliation, during those years in which he was upon
this earth. But the Lord was here to seek
and to save his people. He had a people that the Father
gave him before the foundation of the world. They were his sheep. That's in Ephesians chapter 1.
We know that. And he preached a message. Now
this chapter, chapter 13, there's a lot of parables in this chapter. But I want us to consider this
first message that he preached, a message that declared this
truth, that when the gospel is preached, And he's going to be
talking about a sower that goes forth to sow some seeds. It's a parable, it's a story. It's an earthly story, but it
has a heavenly meaning. And he's going to proclaim the
truth that when the gospel is preached... There's a lot of
stuff that's out there that's not according to these scriptures.
I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about when the gospel
of God's free grace, sovereign, saving grace, not the message
that lies about God and says God wants to do this and if we'll
let Him, if we'll this, that, you know. I'm talking about when
the truth of the gospel is preached. That truth is going to fall on
one of four different kinds of ground. And it always does. So what I want us to do before
we even start reading is realize that this truth that the gospel
goes and it falls upon the soil of all mankind, but there's only
four different kinds, and that's what he's teaching. And let God
be true and every man be a liar. Let's read the first 17 verses,
Matthew 13, one. The same day went Jesus out of
the house and sat by the seaside. And great multitudes were gathered
together unto him so that he went into a ship and sat. And the whole multitude stood
on the shore. And he spake many things unto
them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds
fell by the wayside. And the fowls came, devoured
them up, and some fell upon stony places where they had not much
earth. And forthwith they sprung up,
because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was
up, they were scorched. And because they had no root,
they withered away. Some fell among thorns. Thorns
sprung up and choked them. But other fell into good ground
and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold,
some thirtyfold. Who have ears to hear, let him
hear. And the disciples came and said
unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered
and said unto them, because it's given unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it's not given. 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. Therefore speak
I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing
they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, by hearing you shall hear,
and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see, and shall
not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross, Their ears are dull of hearing, 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, I should heal them. But blessed are your
eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For verily
I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired
to see those things which you see, have not seen them. hear those things which you hear,
if not heard them. Now, I want to deal with just
the proclamation of the parable in this first message and then
Lord willing in the second message I'm going to pick up in 18 and
the Lord will give an explanation of the message. Let's just listen
and consider what He said in these first 17 verses. He proclaimed a parable about
a farmer, a sower, that went into a field to sow some seed. And the Lord declared that while
this sower was sowing, the seed fell in different types of soil. And some of it, He said, fell
by the wayside. Now that wayside right there
actually means a road. Maybe just a path through the
field. You know, you that have fields
or have seen fields or something, it just may have a pathway and
it's trodden, it's traveled, it's compacted. It was hard. It was a road. Whether you walk
on it a lot or drive your tractor on it a lot or something, that's
the path. It's always taken and it's just down. Well, the scripture says that
the Lord said that as soon as the seed hit on that road on
the wayside, the fowls who were sitting around saw the seed and
as soon as it hit the road, the compacted place just sat right
on top of it. And as soon as the farmer kept
going, they just swooped right down got the seed and ate it
up. Then he said some of it fell
on some stony places. Now these were some There was
some ground, it was very rocky ground, just a lot of rocks,
but if you know how, you'll just see a bunch of rocks, but it'd
be a little dirt. Might be a little dirt on top
of it, you know, wind blows it and stuff like that, just a little
bit of dirt sitting on top of the stones, what it was, a stony
place. But the seed immediately shot
up. The sun came out, and when the
sun came out, the plant that had sprung up quickly, it was
scorched. And it withered. It didn't have
any root to it. And then some of it fell among
thorns. Now obviously this is a ground
that has been cleared, maybe brushed back a little bit because
it says that it fell among thorns, but something happened. Soon the thorns, the bush sprung
up. It fell in this place where there
was a lot of roots. of thorns, and it was there,
and when the thorn bushes came up, they choked out the seed. But then some of the seed fell
on good ground, and ground that had been prepared, been tilled,
had been worked, cultivated, and it said that that seed brought
forth fruit. some 100 fold, some 60 fold,
some 30 fold. And then after he told that story,
and then he said, now who hath ears to hear, let him hear what
I just said. And when that statement is made,
it's a statement that the Lord used often, and he was saying
those that have the perception to know what I just said, let
him perceive. Something that is said that just
is not naturally perceived seems to be confusing because it was
in a story. It just wasn't straight up, straight
out, you know, it just kind of has a way of having a little
bit of maybe possibly misunderstanding, but you that understand, you
understand what I just said. You be careful to give consideration
to what I just said. That's what he said. You just
really, you be alert to what I just said. Well, verse 10 to
12, the disciples came to him They said, Lord, why do you preach
in these parables? Why do you preach in Proverbs? Why these stories? They're stories and we understand
what you said, but why do you Naturally speaking, we understand.
You're talking about a man sowing seed, a farmer out there going
out and sowing some seed. We understand, but why do you
preach like that? And the Lord revealed a marvelous
truth. He said the reason that I preach
like this is because it's given unto you to know. the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven. But to them it's not given. I preach this way because the
privilege to know the secrets of the kingdom. That marvelous
truth of God's sovereign grace. That Almighty God is God. He
rules heaven and earth. He does as He will. No one stays
His hand. No one has the right to question
Him. He's the potter. Man is the clay. Romans 9 says He's got the right
to make one pot unto honor and another pot unto dishonor. He said it's given unto you.
to know those mysteries. To those, others, it's not given. He said there's some things that
the Father's been pleased to hide from the wise and the prudent
and to reveal them unto babes. God's been pleased to conceal
some things and to show to some His purpose He'll show mercy
and compassion to whomsoever He will. To some He's been pleased
to show the glorious covenant of His grace and the truth of
the gospel that's been given to you. He said, but to them it's not
given. And I'll tell you, God forbid that the very thought
Well, that's not fair. God forbid that go through our
mind. God forgive us for thinking it. And anyone that's sitting
here that doesn't express, I got an old man that doubts that.
I got an old man in me that wars against that, Mark. Somebody
said, I'd never think like that. Listen, I'm getting ready to
bring some scriptures out. I'm thinking the second one about things that
we do that we'd never admit outwardly, but we do. He said, to you it's
given to know these blessed truths. And then He said, verse 12, whosoever
hath, to him shall be given. He that, he shall have more abundance. Whosoever hath not, from him
shall be taken away, even that he hath. He said, whoever hath. He said, you ask Him, why do
you preach like that? He said, because God's been pleased
to reveal something to you. To them, He's not been pleased
to. Whosoever is a possessor of the
truth of God's grace, whosoever has been taught of God, not according
to any merit in themselves, because as I've said before, there's
nobody. If anybody thinks that they've merited being taught
anything of God, you're sadly mistaken. There's nobody in here.
We're all as an unclean thing. There's none of us. but that
God Almighty would be pleased to not allow the order of man. I told you, if God left the order
of mankind to Himself, to allow man to do whatever man wanted
to do. Well, let me tell you what man
is going to do. Go back to the garden and see what Adam and
Eve did. Now if you want to know what
man's going to do, just go back and read the first three chapters.
And we're going to know exactly what man's going to do. And let
me tell you what's going to happen if God left mankind to himself. God's going to put us all in
hell. That's why the scripture says, had God not left us a very
small remnant, we would have all been like Sodom and Gomorrah.
And whenever this old carnal heart raises up It's deceived
head and says, that's not fair. If God was fair, he'd give everybody
a chance. As I've said before, everybody
had their chance in the garden. If you want to talk about chance,
there he was right there and we all blew it. You said I wasn't
there. Oh yes we were. We were all in
Adam's loins and all of us rebelled against God By the grace of God,
we best be thankful that God Almighty was pleased to choose
a people out of every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue
to show mercy and compassion to helpless, rebellious sinners
like we all are. The Lord said it's been given
to you to know. To them it's not been given.
To those that hath, He said they shall Those that God's given light
to. He said they're going to have more light. They're going
to have more understanding. They're going to grow in grace.
What? Because of their wisdom? Because they're just so smart?
Because they realize these things and they're able just to pull
themselves up by their own bootstraps or something? No. No. Listen to this. It's because
God Almighty has been pleased to show them something. Philippians
1.16, being confident of this very thing that He which hath
begun a good work in you. Not me, not you. He which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. Whoever hath Whoever God's given
some light to, whoever God Almighty has been pleased to call out
of darkness because it pleased Him. He said, you're going to
have more. Those that hath not, what they
think they have, is going to be taken away. You see, the Lord
has eternally loved a people and His purpose to save them
But in time, He begins a good work. In time, He causes their
path to cross with this message. Now, if it's a message that says,
God loves you, God loves everybody, God loves everybody. Well, you
know, I can take Scripture and show you that's not true. But
if Almighty God is pleased to take the message that honors
Christ, that honors the Father, honors the Son, honors the Holy
Spirit, and sets forth man to be the recipient of God's mercy
and grace, compassion. That message is the only message
that God's going to bless to the salvation of His people.
That's it. That's what Paul the Apostle said. I'm not ashamed
of the Gospel. Romans 1.16. I'm not ashamed
of the Gospel. Whenever you hear somebody say
it, You know, man's got a free will. That's not the gospel.
That's not the truth. That's not true. That's not true.
How do you know? Go back and read the first chapter
of John. Who were saved not by blood, not by the will of the
flesh, not by the will of man, but of God. Those that God's
been pleased to grant repentance and begin in time in regenerating
grace a good work. He's going to perform it. He's
going to fulfill it further. That's what it means, perform.
Fulfill further. Execute, accomplish, and finish
that work. That good work begun will not
be finished for each of us until we awaken His likeness. Now, the Lord begins a work. He said He's going to finish
it. You know, there's times that Almighty God is pleased to call
one of His own out of darkness. And when He's finished, He which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it. He will finish
it. He's going to execute it until
the day of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Until the
Lord is pleased to take him home. Why did God take any of us that
were here, those that have been here since I was here? Why did
He take some at this time? Why did He take Brother Scott
when He did at 86? 86, 87, whatever it was. Why
did He take him? Why did He take Rob at 60? Why did He take Martha? Why did
He take Darris then? Why? He which hath begun a good
work will perform it until the time appointed." That's what
He did. He took them. Why? He was done. That was the course for them. That was their fight. He finished
the course. And the Lord performed His will
and received them unto Himself. But to those that don't have. Those that have not. Those that
think they understand. You know, I've said so many times,
we're going through the book of Proverbs. And you know you
can read the book of Proverbs, and it's got such a natural meaning
to it. I mean, you can naturally understand Proverbs. But unless
you see the glorious gospel of God's free grace, in it. You don't see it. You read it,
and you think you've got it, but you don't have it. They don't
see with eyes of faith the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then
he said, 13, 14, Therefore speak I to them in parables. Because
they seeing, see not. And hearing, they hear not. Neither
do they understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy
of Isaiah which saith, by hearing you shall hear and shall not
understand. And seeing you shall see and
shall not perceive. This is the reason I'm preaching
in parables, in proverbs. It was the pleasure of the Father
to give divine knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom to some
and not to others. Now, is that not what he just
said? Is that not what the Lord just proclaimed? There were some
that saw and heard the natural understanding. Some actually
saw and heard the Lord preach. They beheld His miracles, but
they didn't see. They didn't perceive. And some
hear now and don't. He said this is what was prophesied
by Isaiah. It took place then. In the time
of our Lord, it takes place today by hearing. So what Isaiah said,
hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, seeing you shall
see and not perceive. Man by nature, since fall in
the garden, he's never changed. Unless God does something for
a man or a woman that they can't do for themselves, they're going
to die. They're going to die in unbelief.
Verse 15. But this people's heart is waxed gross. Their ears are
dull of hearing, eyes they've closed, lest at any time they
should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and should understand
with their hearts, should be converted, and I should heal
them. The reason they don't see is
what the Lord said. The reason they don't hear, because
their hearts were waxed gross. What does that mean? Their hearts
are rendered calloused by sin. They were without understanding.
They could naturally see and hear, but spiritually speaking,
they were stupefied is what it is. They refused to hear, and
judicially, God left them to their own prejudice. The scripture says, now listen,
John 12. 1240, he hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes
nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should
heal them. Now let me just say this. We're dealing with God who is
true. Man's a liar and God's the truth. Oh, the horror of a man resisting
what God has to say. And arguing with him. And trying to tell God what man
thinks. And to do what man wants to do
and to God leave him alone. If I was in my stupidity. If I just closed my eyes, and
I told you I'm going to stand in the middle of that parking
lot right there, I'm going to close my eyes, I'll get myself set, and
I'm going to walk across that road right there. I'm going to
start walking. And if somebody were to tell
me, Marvin, now listen, there's a lot of traffic out there. And
I start going and they're trying to stop me. And I just resisted. They were to just leave me alone.
and let me do what I wanted to do. Were they the ones that were
so silly and stupid? Or was it me? It was me, I was
the one. If God leaves a man to himself,
to do what he wants to do, leaves him alone, God does that man
no wrong. If God leaves a man, God is right,
but if God is pleased to intervene, and give a man life. Take that
heart of rebellion out and give him a new heart. God is gracious
and merciful to do that. And no one has the right to question
what He does. Proverbs 20 verse 12, The hearing
ear and the seeing eye of the Lord hath made both of them. That's what He said in verse
16. Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears For they're
here. You're a blessed man. If you
see and understand and hear this truth. Now if this was just something
that I just made up, you know, and I just said, well, this is
what I think God's like. I'd make any of this up. All
I did is read it. And we read what the Lord says. And if God gives me a heart to
bow to that, it's by the grace of God. If he leaves me to myself,
let me tell you what you're thinking right now. If God leaves me to
myself, let me tell you what you're thinking. You don't like
that. I don't like that. That's rebellion. Verse 17. For verily I say unto
you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those
things which you see, and have not seen them, and to hear those
things which you hear, and have not heard them. Here, the Lord
further explains the blessing that was theirs to experience,
naturally speaking. He told them, he said that there
were many believers, many prophets, righteous men that desired to
actually see what you see and to actually hear what you hear.
Let me just read this Hebrews, I'll read to you Hebrews 11. Verse 13, Scripture says that
concerning those before the Lord came, Scripture says that they all
died in faith, not having received the promises naturally, physically,
like these did, that the Lord was talking to face to face.
And they looked at Him, they heard what He said. He was here on
the earth with them. He said, died in the faith. He's all died in the faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. First
Peter. First Peter chapter 1, verse
10 and 11. Scripture says, of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. The Lord said there was a lot
of prophets, a lot of righteous men that desired to see what
you see. John himself described it like
this. He said in 1 John chapter 1 verses
1 to 3, He said, that which was from the beginning which we have
heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked
upon, our hands have handled of the word of life, for the
life was manifested, we've seen it, and bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us, that which we've seen, and heard declare we unto you
that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Just like those Old Testament
prophets, righteous ones. They looked forward. They believed
God. They believed that God was going
to send the Savior. They believed it. They didn't receive the promise
naturally, physically. They didn't see like these did.
The Lord said, blessed are your eyes, many, many desire to see
what you see. I mean they, John said, we touched
him. I touched him. I sat there with him. He taught
me the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ taught
me the gospel. That's what John said. We've heard, we've heard,
seen. To be an apostle, you had to
learn the gospel from the mouth of the master himself. John said,
we heard it. We heard it. And today, what
do we do? We see with faith too. Though
our natural eyes don't see Him, I've never seen Him. But I see
Him. I've never actually heard His
voice like John did, Peter did. But I hear His voice. I hear
His voice in Scriptures, in Providence. That still small voice in the
heart. Many saw, the Lord said, by faith,
with great anticipation concerning His coming. And we today, we
look with great anticipation. for Him coming back. So, for
today, we hear the voice of the Master. I mean, you hear when
we read those verses, just read them a few minutes ago, and said,
and Jesus said, He, on the same day, the Lord began. And I mean,
just in your mind's eye, you know, you just, you know, you
know that, that the Lord, the Lord said that. And your heart
just goes to that truth. This was the Lord preaching.
The Lord preached this message. Same Lord that promised, He said,
two or three gather together in my name. I'm in the midst
of you. He's here today. I pray that today, that what
was said would be consistent, number one, with these scriptures.
Honoring to our Lord. And set forth with this thought
in mind. Concerning the preaching of this
Gospel. This Word. Being true to this Word. You
remember we considered the other night, we were talking about
Paul was talking to those at Corinth. He said, we're not like
that, we're not hucksters. He said, what we preach, we preach
exactly what the Lord preached, exactly what the Spirit of God
put down. We preach the gospel of God's
grace. And I pray, if God be pleased
to bless this, that He'd bless it to the salvation of His elect.
He'd call them out. that He'd honor Himself in saving
His own today for His glory and for our good. Amen.