I ask you to turn in your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 13, please. Have any of you ever attended
a motivational seminar? Kathy and I, we were young, Foolish. Now we're old and foolish,
but we were young and foolish at one time. Okay, I'm sorry. I can't blame her for it. This
is all me. I was not very smart at the time. We joined this thing
called Amway. And Amway is an idea It's a pyramid scheme is really
what it is. But it was an idea, if you sell so much soap, you're
going to make so much money. But if you get others to help
you sell that soap, you're going to make more money. And after
you get thousands of people helping you sell that soap, you're going
to make great money. And they would do motivational
speakings. They would come to buildings such as this, And they
would invite people in. That was the number one selling
point. You've got to bring people to the meetings. You've got to
get them down here. They've got to come and hear
me speak. And I will build up their faith
in themselves. Well, that was the Amway way
of doing it. There's all kinds of other motivational speakers,
too. There's plenty of them who go out Come to businesses. They'll go
to businesses. And they'll try to pump everybody up and get
them all pumped up. Saturday Night Live did a thing
on it with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'll pump you up. And that's what they did. That's
what a motivational seminar is. It gets the people all excited
about everything. And next thing you know, they're
going out the door afterwards. I'm going to save the world.
Yes. I fell for that stuff hook, line,
and sinker. Sadly, very sadly, that's what most pulpits are
today. We attended a church with my
money man, my investor, and that's all it was. We just, they had
fog going across the back behind the guy, you know, to make it
more eerie, and they play a music. If you play the right music,
you can touch people's emotions. Did you know that? It's a fact. If you play the right music,
that music that they played in Old Yeller, nobody cried for
the dog. It was the music they cried for.
Seriously. They figured out that they can
play certain types of music and it will touch the emotions of
everybody. And it got everybody all pumped up about how good
we can be. What good we can do in the world
around us if we just give it a little more money. It was all about how you can
quit being a smoker. You can quit being a drinker.
You can quit being a fornicator. You can quit being all these
other things. And this is how you can do it. It's a motivational meaning. This is how you can do it, is
what they want to teach you. It's all about you. It's all
about I. Motivational speaking, building
people up. That's what people want to hear.
Nobody wants to go somewhere where you hear, you know, you're
a sinner. You're not just a sinner. You
are sin. from the top of your head to
the bottoms of your feet. The world doesn't want to hear
about God is going to punish sin. Not just punish it, but destroy
it, burn it up in everlasting fire. No, they'd rather go to the places
where they can hear, I'm going to be better tomorrow. No. They don't want to hear things
like, there's nothing you can do about your sin. It's the way
you are. It's the way mankind is. A country singer wrote it this
way one time. He wrote a song that says, looking for love in
all the wrong places. We love to hear things that make
us feel better about ourselves. We love to go places where we
feel better about ourselves. Pastor Tim James brought a message
two weeks back. If you want to look it up, you
can go on to Sermon Audio and scroll down, you'll find it.
It's called, Do You Feel Better? I highly recommend that message
to anybody who is interested. If you're going to somewhere
where you're walking out of there feeling better about yourself,
feeling better about what it is you are, then you're not hearing
the true gospel. You see, Christ came to save
sinners. That's what the Lord Jesus, that's
what Jesus the name means, Savior. He shall be called Jesus, for
He shall save His people. You're not going to be able to
save yourself. Everything that you do yourself
is sinful if it's outside of Christ our Lord. If it's not
Him doing a work in your heart, then it is flesh. And God's people have no confidence
in the flesh. That means not just, I don't
have any confidence in my arm, it means I don't have any confidence
in my mind. It means I can't be confident about what I'm even
thinking about, but I know this. I know that the Word of God says
my Savior will never leave me nor forsake me. He says that
all that the Father giveth him shall come to him. I don't have to trust my thoughts
on that. That's His. That's His Word. We have no confidence in our
flesh. These other churches, they'll build you up. Look at
how good you're doing. You're doing such good things
for the community. See how good you are? Who wants
to come to a church where a pastor stands there and says, you're
all sinners. Scriptures tell us that we're
just like the disease with boils and all that all over you. Leprosy. That's how it describes all mankind. In the sight of a holy God who
is so holy, how can we expect him to look
upon us? I can't help but think to myself,
why does he look upon us? Because of my Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you feel better? Look it up. Listen to it. It's a great message.
This is a great question for anyone who sits before a pulpit
and listens to one who speaks. Is the message glorifying man?
Or do you hear a message that gives Christ all the glory? In
2 Corinthians 10-17, 10, 17 it says, but he that glorieth. If you're going to glory in something,
if there's something that John Reeves does good, it's because
Christ the Lord has done it in me, or is doing it in me, or
is giving me the ability to do it. If it wasn't for him, I'd be
flat on my face like a lot of people in drugs. And I know,
because I've been there. But that's not where my Lord
would have me be today. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. God will not share his glory
with another, and the only message that will bring true hope to
a lost and sinful world is the message of Christ in him crucified. But that message doesn't bring
hope to everyone, does it? brought hope to everyone like
they say it does, then everybody would be saved, would they not? If the God of all creation went
to the cross and shed his blood on that cross, his perfect saving
blood for all mankind, could anybody go to hell? No. But yet some do, don't they?
Some hear the word of God preached, yet they get up and they walk
out and they say, I'm not that kind of a sinner. I've heard
a woman do that. We shouldn't be any surprised
about that, should we? That some will get up and walk
out on you. First off, we did at one time, did we not? Is there,
was there not a time in your life when you, you know, I don't
want to hear that. I got other things to do. I got golf to go
play. I got football to watch. I got
a hangover to go nurse. Whatever it might be. How should, why should we be
surprised that not everybody hears this message of Christ
and Him crucified and have no hope afterwards? Why should we be surprised if
the God of all creation, the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked
this earth and preached Himself, and men turned a deaf ear to
Him, how should we be surprised that they would do it for us? Not only did they turn a deaf
ear, they crucified Him. They hated Him for it. Because
he claimed that he was God in the flesh, equal with God the
Father and equal with God the Spirit. Because he claimed that
all life is his to give. Sovereign ruler of all things.
They hated him for it. Because he claimed that his blood
is the only way into heaven. They hated it for. Because he
claimed that his flesh was the only thing that feeds the soul
of his people. These are hard things to hear. They hated him for it. It's the only message that'll
save, but not all will hear it, nor listen to it. The Gospel
is preached to many, but few understand. Are you with me in
Matthew chapter 13? Let's begin with verse 10. No, verse 9. Our Lord Jesus says,
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples came
and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? Now
let's go back up to verse 3 and read this parable. Behold, a
sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed some seeds
fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and just devoured
them up. Some fell upon stony places where
they had not much earth, and forwith they sprung up, because
they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they
were scorched, and because they had no roots, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked
them. But other, but other fell in good ground and brought forth
fruits, some hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold, who
hath ears to hear, let him hear." Why, Lord, why do you speak to
them in parables? And He answered in verse 11,
Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not. Lord Jesus Christ walked this
earth and He did miracles, so many miracles. that even all
the books could not contain all the miracles that he did. And
he didn't do them in hiding. He didn't go into the back room
and say, come here, let me fix your hand. Let's go over here
though, I don't want everybody to see it. No, he did it right
in front of everybody. What do you think, what would
go through your mind if you seen a withered hand all of a sudden
become whole? Whoa! That would blow me away. Well, it blew those people away
too. He did things that nobody could
do but God. And even in doing those things,
proving that he was God, they still didn't believe him. Why?
You're not my sheep is what he told them, isn't he? You don't
hear my words because you're not my sheep. And here comes the blessedness
of His words, My sheep hear My voice. In the title this morning, Blessed
are Your Ears, our Lord says, My sheep hear
My voice. We look into the Word of God,
that's the voice of God Himself. This is how our Lord speaks to
us now. Before the book of the Bible was put together and written
by Moses and all the other prophets, before all that came together
as this book that we have right now, He spoke in the tongues
of prophets, through visions. But now He speaks to us through
His Word. And His Word is very clear. You
are not My sheep. My sheep hear My voice. My father
gave them to me, which is greater than any, and no man can pluck
them out of my father's hand. Because he's God. Who can turn
the will of God? If God is determined to save
somebody, he's going to. No, he's not going to come and
pick you up and drag you down the aisle, kicking you. No, I
don't want to be. No, I don't want to be. No. He's
going to move into that heart and cut that old stony heart
that says, I don't want this burn to rule over me, and he's
going to give you a new heart. Through the preaching of his
word, he comes to us all, and he takes that heart out, and
he puts a heart in that believes God. Whosoever shall believeth
on me shall be saved. And he answered and said unto
them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but unto them it is not given. For whosoever
hath to him shall be given and shall have more abundance, but
whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore I speak 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 ye shall hear, and
shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.
How are you going to call upon the name of the Lord if you've
never heard of Him? How are you going to hear if God doesn't
send a preacher to preach about Jesus Christ and Him crucified?
See, that's the good news. That's the only gospel there
is. Christ, my Savior, crucified
for my sins, taking my iniquities upon Him
into the grave so that I can have His righteousness from my
own, perfect in every way, that I can stand before the Father
and say, Father, oh merciful God, Verse 15, for this people's heart
is waxed gross, 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 as I should heal them. But, but, from all of that out there,
from all those other religions, Yeah, I know, folks. No, I'm
not trying to say this is the only spot in the world. I hear
that. I hear that. People come, what,
you're such an isolationist group. You think you're the only people
in the world that are saved? No. No, I know some over in Marysville
that are. I know some out in Danville that
are. I know some that are down in
San Diego that are. I know several little groups
around the world that are. It's not just this little place.
But it looks kind of like this little place because there's
so much of the other stuff. There's so much of the I-worshippers
and very few of the Him-worshippers. Blessed are your eyes and for
they see and your ears for they hear. you hear the gospel because Christ
has given you ears to hear. The only reason that this message
would bring joy is if God has revealed to you
the sinner that you are. Because when the Lord reveals
to us that we're a sinner, we have no choice but to come
to Him broke completely destitute of anything. Nothing have I to
offer Him. Only my Savior. See how that
works? Nothing have I. Only my Savior. It raises Him up like the brass
serpent. Raises my Lord up to where He
should be, on the top of everything. Blessed are my eyes, for we see. Blessed are your ears, for you
hear. For verily, for verily I say unto you that many prophets
and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye
see and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye
hear and have not heard them. So now he does it again. He says,
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. Well, we just read
a moment ago. Behold, a sower went forth to
sow, right? When any one heareth the word
of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked
one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is
he which received the seed by the wayside. Many come into this church over
the 17 years I've been here. And like the woman and child
that got up and walked out and said, I shall not be, or I am
not the sinner that that man is describing. She walked out because it was
by the wayside. I wonder where she went. Did she find one that tickled
her ears? made her feel good about herself? She obviously didn't feel good
about what Christ has done, because that was what was being preached.
There was no message about what we have done, but there was a
message about what He has done. Isn't it amazing that God Almighty
would shed His own blood, lower Himself to become flesh, so that
he could have blood and shed it for others? Could anyone describe mercy more
greater than that? Grace more greater than that? But he that receiveth the seed
into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word and
in none which joy receiveth it. He heard it. Oh, that's a great
message. Yeah, I love it. Put all my cares
and wants into him. Yet hath he not root in himself,
but he dureth for a while? For when tribulation or persecution
ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. That's the ones who say, where's
your God now? It was great as long as everything
was going fine in my life, but now I've got problems. I need
a real God. I need one I can touch. That's
what we see Saul doing in our Bible. Oh. I had it there somewhere. That's what we see Saul doing
in our Bible study. He went to the Lord. He had seen
the good of the Lord, but the Lord's not answering him anymore.
So what did he do next? He turned to the devil. As soon
as this one is offended, he turns. He also that received seed among
the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and
he becometh unfruitful." What do you mean I have to give up
this or that? What do you mean I have to stop
doing that? Really? I can't do that. And it chokes out the word. But
he that receiveth seed into the good ground Here we are, back
at the Gospel once again. He that receiveth the seed into
the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it,
which is also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some, and
hundredfold, and some sixty, and some thirty. Now skip over
to verse 37, will you? And let's just spend a couple
of seconds, a couple of moments here looking at this further
description of the sower. This parable. Our Lord describes
it completely this time, without question. Doesn't beat around
the bush about it. Doesn't tell it in a picture.
But He comes out and very clearly says, He that soweth the good
seed is the Son of Man. God Almighty. He's the one who
places the good seed. He's the one who waters it. He's
the one who feeds it. Yes, men bring water and stuff
and they plant this, but it is God who gives the increase. He that soweth the good seed
is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good
seed are the children of the kingdom. But the tares are the
children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil, and the harvest is the end of the world, and the
reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world."
Everything is going to be burned up, folks, except for those who are in Christ,
and only because of Christ, and only because of what He has done
for us shall we be in the glory and in heavenly bliss. The Son of Man shall send forth
His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity. Depart from Me, ye
workers of iniquity, for I never knew you, and shall cast them into the
furnace of fire, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as a son in the kingdom
of their father, who hath ears. Let him hear. Do you hear the word of the Lord,
folks? I don't know about you, but it
brings a great joy to my heart to know that not all shall perish. To know that there are a remnant. a small few that God has chosen
to have mercy upon. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. Not for anything we have done,
but for his son's sake. Our Lord has mercy on us. Amen.