Good morning. Let's be turning
now to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. This chapter
begins with the parable of the sower. And it speaks to how men
and women hear the word of God. And there's a number of details
that were taught in the giving of this parable. And it makes
known to us that how we hear is very different in sinners. That is, there's a difference
between sinners who hear without grace and sinners who hear by
the grace of God. Now this parable, another word
for that parable is a similitude. Our Lord uses a similitude, taking
things that are familiar to us, especially to these people, with
regards to seed and soil. And the seed is the word of God. And by that I mean it's the Gospel
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because all the Word of
God is given to reveal Christ to us, who He is and what He
accomplished for us and who we are, sinners. who cannot save
ourselves or make a righteousness for ourselves. And the soil or
the ground, it describes the preparation of the heart in receiving
the word. And the first three examples,
our Lord gives four similitudes using seed and soil. And the first three give us a
picture of a man without grace. and hearing the word of God without
grace, hearing that word in the flesh. And it means that what
he hears will not profit him. It'll bear no fruit unto God. And the last example, the fourth
one, is what we see of God's free, sovereign grace. what God produces in his people. How that by God's grace we hear
the word and receive that word and it's received into good soil,
a heart prepared by the Lord in grace. And we know it's of
him because it's fruitful, it's productive, it produces fruit
unto the glory and praise of God. It's true living faith. So I'd like to read the parable
first, the way in which the people heard our Lord speak it. So we're
gonna pick up now in verses five through eight. Luke eight, verse
five. A sower went out to sow his seed,
and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. And it was trodden
down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon
a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away,
because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorn sprang up with it and choked it. And other fell on
good ground, and sprang up and bare fruit and hundredfold. And when he had said these things,
he cried, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now, the first thing I notice
about this is that the sower is very liberal in his spreading
of the seed. He didn't take care to not put
it a certain place. He just cast that seed far and
wide. And the next thing I notice is,
well, what does this mean? What is the Lord teaching us
by this parable? Now we have the benefit today
of the Word of God. We have Bibles that we can open
and read down a little further and see what our Lord said in
explaining the meaning of this parable to his disciples and
those that followed him. But the people who heard him,
there was many people, much people were told that came out to hear
him, and they received no explanation of what this parable means. They were given no understanding. And everything they needed to
understand what our Lord meant by giving this parable, it's
necessary for us. Whatever they were given that
they were not given, we need it. We need our God to give us
what they lacked. without him giving to us that
grace, that to understand his word, we're gonna be left not
understanding the word. We're gonna be left in darkness. And there were many there that
heard this, but we need our God to be gracious to us. And what
we'll see here in this parable, in the giving of this parable,
are these truths. One, God must choose to be gracious
to us. God must be gracious to us. We are so dependent on the grace
of God that without His grace we have no understanding. The
second thing is that the word here which is preached is Christ. It is the Gospel. That is the
second thing that we see here. The third thing that we see in
the giving of this parable is we must be born again. And so you see there the work
of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy
Spirit. That's all present here in our
understanding. And that's brought out in this
parable here. And fourth, we need the patience
of faith. We see that we need the patience
of faith. And what we see in this further
is that we may have an understanding, right? We can read a little further
and we can see how our Lord interpreted this word for his disciples. But even though we can read a
little further, that does not mean that we have ears to hear. That doesn't mean that we understand
the truth of what our Lord was saying. We're told that Judas
was present. He heard our Lord's explanation,
and he didn't have ears to hear. The word that he heard wasn't
made profitable to him. He had no understanding. in spirit
and truth of what Christ was saying here. And so our Lord
spoke this parable, and it was probably very understandable.
The uses of soil, the use of seed, they understood that because
they relied on that. They sowed a lot of seed themselves
back then. And I'm sure there was a number
of people who had an understanding that, you know, I'm sure he's
saying something deeper here than just teaching us how to
be efficient farmers. But they needed something more.
When I was young, I remember hearing this parable, and I did
not understand it at all. And I saw the explanation that
Christ gave, and that was somewhat enlightening, but I still didn't
understand it. I did not have ears to hear what
Christ was saying, and I know that because I came away from
this parable looking at what Christ said. I thought I understood
it better, but I didn't because I still was looking at me. I
still was looking at what I needed to do to prepare my heart, to
prepare the soil of my heart to receive the word. And I was
still looking at what I did or didn't do rather than seeing
I need God's grace. I need his grace because I can't
understand his word. I have no understanding except
God be gracious to me. And so we need these four things
present for us to understand. First, that God chooses to be
gracious to whom he will. Second, that the word we preach
is Christ. Third, we must be born again. And fourth, we need God's patience,
his patience of faith. And that means this is all the
work of God. This is the work of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost to save his people entirely, entirely by
his grace. And it's not a work that we do.
This isn't merited by our works or that we don't make decisions
for it. If it was a work that we did,
it wouldn't be grace. It would be wages for us. So God must give it. Now, the
Spirit tells us in verse 9, Luke 8, 9, and his disciples asked
him, saying, what might this parable be? And so we see here
that it's God who must give us ears to hear it. And so what do we see the disciples
doing? They ask him. They ask him. They asked, Lord, what is the
meaning of this parable? What is the meaning of your word?
And so that's a good example for us to follow. Whether you
think you have ears to hear or you don't think you have ears
to hear, first, I would say what we see here is be here. Be here
as often as you can to hear the word, because there was a lot
of people that were there. Do your best to be here and not
to miss services reasonably. Do your best to do that. Because
who were the ones that were moved to ask the Lord, what does this
mean? It was those that were present
to hear his word. That's where the Lord made known to them,
I have no understanding, Lord, I need you to teach me. And so they heard the word and
then they asked, Lord, what does this mean? So that's the first
thing that we see here, right? And we were told there was quite
a mix of people. First, at the end of verse one,
we're told that the 12 disciples were present. Second, we're told
of several women that were present that had been healed of evil
spirits and infirmities, their names being Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
and Susanna. And so powerful was the grace
of our Lord for these women in healing them and in helping them
and delivering them from their bondage that they gave of their
substance. They supported the Lord and his
work out of their substance that God had given them so that our
Lord and the disciples could minister the gospel without distraction. And then third, we're told in
verse four, that when much people were gathered together and were
come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable. And that's
amazing because we're told that the Lord went into every city
and village and preached the gospel. And yet they were still
coming to him out of every city, which means they were coming
multiple times. They wanted to hear. They didn't
want to miss it. They would go beforehand to where
he was. They might go after that he'd
already been to their city. And while he was in their city,
they were coming and hearing. And then we're told out of all
those people, Mark, because this is recorded for us in Mark and
in Matthew. And Mark tells us that when he was alone, they
that were about him with the 12 asked of him the parable. And so that's what we're to do
today. You that hear be about him. Come
and draw near to the Lord and ask the Lord, teach me Lord,
what does this mean? Because every time we hear the
word preached, if the Lord isn't gracious to us, it is a parable
to us. It remains a mystery to us. It
remains unprofitable for us. It's not fruitful in us without
the grace of God. And so every time we come, first
be present, but then every time you do come, beg God, Lord, what
does this mean? What are you teaching me here?
Because otherwise it just remains a parable to me. And I might
think I understand it, but I don't know anything except you give
it to me. And that's true. I don't know anything except
the Lord teach it to me. Because otherwise I'll just see
works and dead works and what I need to be doing rather than
seeing and hearing the gospel and seeing and hearing Christ
speak to me. And that's what we want. Now
the first thing I want us to see now is that our Lord teaches
the people that that it's according to the election of grace that
we are made to hear and understand the word of God. It's by grace
and the election of grace that we hear and understand the word
of God. And some might hear that and
say, well, why are you putting up a wall? Oh no, that's not
a wall at all. Because what grace teaches us
is that God is the one who draws us. You that are thirsty, and
hungering and trembling at the word of God, wondering, is this
for me? Well, you that are hungering and thirsting, that's actually
something that the Lord does in those that he's chosen and
draws to himself. His people want to hear the word. His people need to hear what
Christ has done. His people are afraid to know,
because they don't know how to save themselves. they don't know
what what the Lord does and so his people are made afraid and
so it's by his grace that he draws us and he reveals to us
that it's according to the election of grace that we would know that
if I have any interest or desire for Christ that's of the Lord
give God thanks for that that's of his grace and mercy to draw
you Now verse 10, here's where we see that. Our Lord said, unto
you, now these are the people that were there about him, asking
him, what does this mean? Unto you it is given to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to others, in parables. It's gonna remain a parable.
They'll come from every city, they'll come in here multiple
times, but it remains a parable. that seeing they might not see,
and hearing they might not understand. And so our Lord is telling us,
he's revealing to us right here that God must be gracious to
us. We need God to be gracious to
us and draw us and teach us, otherwise it's going to remain
darkness. It's gonna stay in darkness to
us. But if he's drawing us to himself, it's because of his
grace. And he said to Moses in Romans 9, 15, and 16, he saith
unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it's not of him that willeth. It's not of him who makes a decision
for Christ. It's not of him who raises his
hand while every eye is closed and every head bowed and people
walk in the aisle and that's not how we're saved. We're saved
by the grace of our Lord. And he reveals Christ in our
hearts. He shows us our need and the
sufficiency of Christ. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And that's because in Adam, we
all died. We all died and none of us comes
forth with an understanding. It's not an intelligence thing.
It doesn't have to do with our IQ or how smart we are, whether
we went to private school or public school. It's not those
things that enable us to hear. It's by the grace of God that
enables us to hear. There's some very intelligent
people who are dead in trespasses and sins. And then there's some
other people that are ignorant in book learning in the world,
and yet They have the grace of God and the joy of Jesus Christ
in their heart, and they rejoice in his salvation. And so we need
his grace, because we're born spiritually dead. We're born
in darkness. We're born in bondage to sin. And so we need our God to give
us his spirit, to open our eyes and our ears, and to give us
an understanding of what the voice of Christ is saying to
us. to hear Him, to understand Him, to believe Him. And Christ drills into election
even more if you go over to Matthew's account. Look there in Matthew
13, verses 14 and 15. He says, is fulfilled the prophecy of
Isaiah, which saith, by hearing, ye shall hear, and shall not
understand. And seeing, ye shall see, and
shall not perceive. And it's describing our nature
is in willful sleep, in willful disregard to the word of God.
That's how we are by nature. Verse 15, for this people's heart
is waxed gross. And that sense there is that
it's just full of fat. That is the fatness of this world,
and the pleasures of this world, and all the sights, and the sounds,
and the news, and everything going on. It's just full of that,
so that there's no more room to take anything else in. And
there's no feeling or sense that we need anything more. It's like
food in the middle of the supermarket, right? The processed foods, they
say it's just full of fillers. It's just full of junk food in
it that is of no nutritive value at all. And so people don't eat
that which is healthy. They don't seek out that which
is nourishing because they're full of garbage. And that's how
it is in the world. We go out in the world, and we
just get so full of the world, and there's just no no desire,
no ear to hear what God is saying, no hunger, no thirst for Him,
because we're satisfied with empty calories, empty religious
calories, just dead things that cannot save. And their ears are
dull of hearing, and 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,
and I should heal them. And so that's why we need the
grace of God. One, to be here, and then being
here to ask, Lord, I don't know what this means. Please, please
show me Christ. Give me understanding that I
might understand the scriptures. Because, you know, we could be
under the gospel for years and years and years, and if we're
left to ourselves, there's no understanding. There's no understanding
of it. But to you that do hear and believe,
our Lord said in Matthew 13, 16, blessed are your eyes for
they see and blessed are your ears for they hear. And to those,
he said, hear ye therefore the meaning of this parable. And
that's what he did. So let's go back to Luke 8, 11. Luke 8, 11. Now the parable is
this, he said, the seed is the word of God. And our Lord tells
us what he means by the word of God. Look up at verse one,
Luke 8, verse one. And it came to pass afterward
that he went throughout every city and village preaching and
showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. That's the word
of God he's talking about. He went about preaching and showing
the glad tidings, the good news, the gospel. He went around declaring
that the promise of God, the seed of woman made back there
in the garden, is come. God is fulfilling his promise
unto you. Just as he said he would provide
your savior, your salvation, your deliverer, the forgiveness
of your sins, he's come. In the flesh, the Son of God,
speaking the words of God, of the Father, doing the works of
the Father, He's come. It's good news. That's what He
was declaring. That's the seed that He spread. And so Christ was preaching Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ preached
and revealed and taught Himself, the Savior, the Salvation of
God for His people, freely given for His people. And He tells
the Church, He teaches the Church, you go and do the same. Don't
deviate, don't depart from what you see Christ doing. Christ
preached Christ. Turn over to Luke 24, the last
chapter in Luke, Luke 24. And we'll pick up in verse 44. He said unto them, this is after
his death and resurrection. Now he's appearing to his disciples. And he said unto them, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me." That's the whole Old Testament. Moses, the prophets, and the
Psalms. And he's revealing to them, these
things are speaking of me. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures. That is, to know,
this word is revealing Jesus Christ to me. That's understanding. It's speaking of Christ. And
he said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day and
that repentance and remission or forgiveness of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And when man hears repentance
he immediately runs to the law. Oh, I better stop doing this
and stop doing that and stop doing this thing and start doing
this thing over here and he thinks So he ties repentance to the
law in with salvation and starts saying to people, well, if you
keep doing that and you don't stop that, you can't be saved. And that's not what repentance
is. What our Lord is saying is the coming of Christ and the
declaration of Christ and the revelation of Christ is be turned
from trusting your works in the law and your works and practices
in dead letter religion, thinking this is my salvation and this
is my acceptance with God. Be turned from that. Be turned
to Christ. He's your salvation. He's your
Savior. He is the forgiveness of our
sins. It's in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the repentance He gives
His people. Be turned from trusting dead
works and trust Christ. And if you can stand here and
say, well, I know Catholicism is dead works, and I know Islam
and Muslims is dead works, and I know Mormons, that's dead works,
and I know the Jehovah Witnesses is dead works, and I know all
these voodoo doctors in Africa and the Caribbean, that's dead
works. If you know that, that those are dead works, how do
you not know that just because you slapped the label Christian
on it, that that's not also dead works? It's dead works. We need Christ. Christ is the
Savior. He is salvation. Be turned from
trusting what you are doing and trust Christ. Because the Jews,
the Pharisees, they were in the Bible, and they had the law,
and yet they were trusting dead works that cannot save. And so
all of it is just a veil of religion and darkness that cannot save,
and that's our repentance. Be turned from trusting those
things and trust Christ. And so he preached repentance
and forgiveness of sins. And so that man, with the understanding
that Christ gives, is the man who preaches Christ's accomplished
redemption. And the church that is the church
in the earth of our Lord, she is the church that witnesses
of these things. I didn't finish verse 48. And
having said all these things concerning himself, ye are witnesses
of these things. That's why we preach these things,
because that's what he tells us to preach. I've made you witnesses
of Christ. Go and declare him. Teach the
people. Preach Christ. And so, that's
what we're preaching. So when the apostles went about
preaching, whether they were in Jerusalem, or Judah, Judea,
or in Samaria, or out to the Greeks, wherever they went, they
said through this man, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. They preached Christ, because
that's how we receive the forgiveness of sins. That's how we know with
understanding what God has been telling us in the scriptures.
You're dead by nature in Adam. You can't save yourselves. I've
saved you in Christ. He's the one I've provided for
you, your salvation, your deliverance. So he does that. Now, our Lord
warns his hearers all the ways in which we hear, or rather are
kept from hearing the word of God. This is how you won't hear
Christ, these first three things. And I would say every believer
here who does trust Christ has some experience and understanding
of these three things and how we've heard the word in these
ways without profit. We have all experienced this.
We all have the shame of knowing how these things have kept us
from hearing the word of God and hearing it without profit.
Verse 12 Those by the wayside are they that hear, then cometh
the devil. and taketh away the word out
of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. And Luke is the only one that
adds back up in verse five that that seed was trodden down. The seed was trodden down. And
that's the natural man's heart. That's this flesh. It takes that
word and just lets it fall and just tramples right over it.
Just disregards it. I don't need to hear that. This,
I'm tired of hearing that thing. That's not necessary. I don't
need to hear that anymore. And you get tired of it. And
we start treating it with indifference and contempt and just trample
upon it. And say, that's just, I don't
need it. And that's just being careless.
And it's hating the very gospel, the manna of heaven. We begin
to loathe that manna. We get tired of this light bread,
like Israel. Tired of the manna. And so that
word, the Lord says that word's removed, it's forgotten. And
this is why we need not only a new heart, but we need the
constant refreshing and the constant grace of our Lord to soften us. to give us that heart, to hear
his word. We need his spirit to give us
a new birth and to constantly refresh us because we're so prone
in this flesh to be turned to fleshly things and carnal things.
I mean, look at the church in Corinth. They were very carnal
in their practices and how they treated Paul with contempt. They were very carnal. and how
they viewed him and what they said about him. It was just flesh
going in there. And so we too can grow very complacent
and we can have our hearts and ears filled with fat, the fat
of this world. And that's why we need his grace
to keep us, to turn us again to Christ. We need that constantly.
Then we see in verse 13, They on the rock are they which, when
they hear, receive the word with joy. And these have no root,
which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. What is the root of the believer? The root is Christ. Root is Christ. And we see that there are some
who can hear the word and receive it for a time. They can rejoice
in it. It meets their need. It sounds
good. It sounds different from anything
they've ever heard before. And for a while, it meets their
need. And some, it's a very short,
short while. When a person, I've seen people,
when they hear grace, they rejoice. A burden's been lifted off of
them. And it just drives them right
on into more and more death. And it dies. Or they hear for
a time, but temptation comes. And temptation comes in many
forms. But there's some that rejoice. And then they start
going through hard and difficult trying times. And because they
don't have Christ in them, because it's not of Christ's work, they
wither and die, and they fall away. And there's always going
to be temptation. Whether you're a believer or
an unbeliever, when you've heard that word, whether you have the
root in you or not, there's always going to be temptation because
the Lord is pleased to send various manifold temptations to try that
word, to prove that word, to reveal them that are his and
have the root of Christ in them, and them that are not his and
have no root in them. Matthew calls this temptation,
he describes it as tribulation and persecution. Mark uses the
word afflictions. And we know that temptations
come in these forms, in difficulties, hardships, setbacks, disappointments. It could be persecution and tribulation
and sorrow and failures. And all these things start coming.
You could lose your job, crash your car, break down again, your
dog can die, like all kinds of things that can happen. And it
troubles people, and a lot of people You know, look at that
and say, I think God's telling me I made a mistake in trusting
Christ, because all these problems started happening as soon as
I confessed Christ and got baptized, and they fall away. And that's
just showing they don't have the root of Christ in them. We
need Christ in us. We don't save ourselves. We don't
make decisions, and then that makes salvation effectual to
us. No, Christ makes salvation effectual in our hearts. Listen
to how Peter describes believers in 1 Peter chapter one. Turn
there, 1 Peter chapter one. Picking up in verse five, five
through seven. believers and he says we are
kept by the power of God through faith. Faith is the gift of God. He gives that faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time wherein He greatly rejoiced,
though now for a season, if need be, and God knows the season.
He knows whether it's necessary or not. Ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried
with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ. And so it pleases our God to
bring us through temptations, to bring us through these various
trials and manifold temptations, because through that, he removes
the grave clothes that are still wrapped around on us. We come
with all kinds of baggage. We have all kinds of religious,
foolishness that we grew up with and we carry superstitions and
various thoughts and thinking this is somehow good or needful
or useful. And we put a lot of trust and
confidence in those things. And those are grave clothes.
That's what was wrapped around Lazarus when Christ raised him
from the dead. And the Lord said, remove those
grave clothes. Well, how are the grave clothes
removed? Well, through the preaching of the gospel, and our Lord sends
various trials to burn those things up, to remove those things
from us, and to reveal the precious metal, the precious metals of
His grace, that gold, silver, and precious stones, that it
might shine forth more brightly and clearly. And so he does that
for our good. And those with the root of Christ
in them will not be destroyed. Their fleshly things may be destroyed. and be whittled down and brought
down and reduced. But Christ is never destroyed
in you. That's kept. And he shines forth
more bright. He tells us, I am the vine. Ye
are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye
can do nothing. So he does that, brethren. You
that have many trials and temptations, you that are drawn near to Christ,
that's his work. Others without the root are pushed
away from Christ. They're driven away from Christ.
And that means they don't have the root of Christ in them. But
he does the work there. And if they don't have the root,
they'll wither and die. That profession of Christ will just
disappear eventually. It'll go away because there's
no moisture. They don't have a thirst, a hunger
and thirst for righteousness like he's given to his people.
Then in verse 14, that which fell among thorns are they which
when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and
riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. And this is an area that's just
so subtle. It's so subtle in how it is.
And before you know it, the vines are just wrapped around your
neck. And you're just choked out. You're just choked out.
And because of that, they don't bring forth any fruit to perfection.
You may see the beginnings of fruit. The flower may set. And
then something might start. But it dies. It dies. I have
a peach tree. I told you about this peach tree.
And this thing is just awful. And finally, I had a good year.
where a lot of peaches were set, more than I ever saw. And there
was no late frost that knocked them off. But they started growing. And they only got just a little
bigger than a tennis ball. Sorry, a little bigger than a
golf ball, not quite the size of a tennis ball, not like your
normal peach. And I thought, well, maybe that's
just how it's going to be. And they're still hard right now.
They're still hard. And two things have happened.
One, a lot fell off before they ever matured, just from the wind
and the rain and all that stuff. The other ones, I look out my
back window, and I can see squirrels just going down the fence. And
then they come back the other way with them in their mouth,
just chucking off. And almost all the peaches are
gone. And so I went out there, and I thought, well, maybe I'll
get some peaches and put them in a bag to try and ripen them
off. And I look, and a lot of those
peaches were turned to dust. They just rotted right on the
tree. So all that was remaining was their little stone. The pit,
still attached to the tree, covered in this dust, and it just never
came forth to perfection. It just died there on the tree.
I don't know what's going on with that, but I see these things
in the garden all the time. I have this wild growing morning
glory. and that thing is really dangerous
because it puts out these vines and before you know it they're
wrapping around the things I want to keep and it's just wrapping
around them and if I don't rip them things off Like, it'll just
smother the plant and kill it before it can bring forth any
fruit to perfection. And that's in the garden every
season. Some season, this thing grows
good, and that thing doesn't, and that thing grows good the
next season, and that one doesn't. But one thing that remains the
same is it's full of weeds and vines and things that choke and
kill. There's pests here or diseases
there each year. And that thing always happens.
And that's what the cares of this world and the deceitfulness
of riches is like. It just comes. And before you
know it, it's consumed that plant before it brings forth any fruit.
And our Lord compares it to that which fell among thorns. And
what is he saying? That's the curse, right? That's
what he told Adam. By the sweat of your brow, you'll
be laboring, and it'll bring forth thorns and thistles and
bramble bushes, and it'll produce nothing. But that's just from
looking to the world and loving the world and just trusting the
world. But what our Lord does is, He
shows us don't trust the world, love not the world. You need
the grace of God. And without the grace of God,
we will be consumed by these things. We can't do it by our
own strength, by our own wisdom, by our own fortitude. We need
the grace of God to save us. We need his care. And his care
is ministered to us through the gospel and in giving us an understanding
of what he's done for us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so all three of these examples,
they come and go like various seasons in the believer's life.
And there's various times where one is more prevalent in the
stem than at another time. But the Lord showing us is That's
me without the grace of God. And I need his grace always. And that never changes. We never
get to a point where we're strong enough to make it on our own
without Christ. We always need Christ. And he's
given to us for our provision, for our care, for our protection,
for our help, for our salvation. He's given for that very reason
to keep his people. And so without that, we would
just hear this word as carnal men and women, and we would apply
it in a very carnal, deadly way, useless way that doesn't profit
or bring forth that which our Lord produces in us. And then
verse 15, but that on the good ground are they, which in an
honest and good heart And that means it's a new heart, by the
grace of God, an honest and good heart, having heard the word,
keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. And so our Lord,
he teaches us and it's a patient. work. We don't see things rapidly
the way we would think that we should see them, but it's a patient
work, lest we should be puffed up and lifted up in pride, and
that it keeps us leaning upon the Lord, looking to the Lord,
crying out to the Lord for His grace to be worked and accomplished
in our hearts. And so I'll close with this,
Hebrews 12, verse 1. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. and despising
the shame, and to sit down at the right hand of the throne
of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary
and faint in your minds." And you see there, in those verses
there, our hearts and minds are set upon Christ. That's how these
things are put away. That's how we're delivered from
the hard ground and delivered from the stony ground, trusting
the law, trusting dead things, and delivered from the choking
weeds of this, the curse of this flesh. It's all in Christ, by
the grace of God, who does this for you in mercy and in compassion. Amen.