John 19. Just a quick reminder we'll have
a meal this Sunday. Bring what you like. And tonight
I may go long. I might be a little reverse psychology
on myself. I'm gonna be real long tonight.
The title of my message is pilot was a hearer. We're gonna read
this just in a second, and it's so convenient just to have some
scriptures to, well, I know what that says, and I know what that
says. Let's understand this tonight. God be with us, and let's apply
this to us. Pilate heard some things, and
you know what's gonna happen to you, and you, and you, and
you, and you, and you, and you, and you tonight? And me? You're gonna
hear something tonight. And I'm going to hear something.
I might be the one saying it. That's kind of weird for you,
but it's going to be proved to me tonight. I'm going to say
it out loud and I'm going to hear it. I'm going to hear the Lord's word. So how
am I going to hear it? That'd be real awkward if I got
out of this pulpit this evening and I went around to each one
of y'all, made you line up before we walked out the door and said, tell me how
you heard that. How are you going to hear? I want to ask myself. I've been asking myself this
for three weeks looking at Pilate. You ask yourselves, this is how
the Lord is going to grow us. You want to grow? You want to
learn something or do we know everything? I want to learn something. I do. I want the Lord to grow
me. I want him to water me and nourish me and I want that. I want that for you. I pray for
your souls. I do. Same crew every Wednesday.
I know that. I still pray for you souls. You
know, that was Paul's biggest concern. Was Paul scared of men? He said, I fear not, man. Why
would he be afraid of a man? He knows God. Was Paul afraid
of getting whipped or beat? No, he's beat all to pieces,
wasn't he? Was he afraid of dying? He said, no, for me to live as
Christ, for me to die as a gay, that's a good thing. I ain't
scared of those things. I'm not concerned of those things. Do
you know what his concern was? False converts. He was scared
to death of people setting a pew and saying they pretty well pleased
to own the gospels of grace for 75 years and they didn't know
God. He was scared of that. Why did he tell them all the
time? Examine yourselves. Don't examine
the preacher. I mean, make sure I'm telling
you the truth, but don't henpeck the messages. Don't say what
everybody else said. Examine yourself. Don't examine
others. Examine you. I got to examine
me. That's why he was afraid of that,
wasn't he? He told us all the time. He was concerned of that.
And you know what his other concern was? That's the people that's
underneath the preaching of the truth. That was me when I was
sitting in a pew, when I was on your end. That's me when I'm
now. That's people in the confines
and in association with the truth of God, with people that know
God. And his other concern was false
gospels. Somebody preaching a false gospel, something that sounds
so, well, they're off a little bit. If a person ain't preaching
the gospel, it's because they don't know it, or they don't
believe it. That's just so. And that's the Lord's heart towards
his people. He has pity on them and he prays for them, right?
We've been looking at that a whole bunch. He put that in me. I pray it
for you. My pastor prays that for me. Looks after me. How are you going to hear us
tonight? How am I going to hear? We're going to hear something.
Now let's look here. Let's look together with our eyes. It's
going to do us good to hear it and read it at the same time. John
19, turn with me. I want to help you if I can.
John 19, verse five. Then Jesus came forth wearing
a crown of thorns and purple robe. And Pilate saith unto him,
behold the man. That could be read without Pilate.
The Lord said, behold the man. Then the chief priests, therefore,
and the officers saw him. They saw our Lord there. And
they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith
unto them, take ye him. and you crucify him for I find
no fault in him. You take him, I find no fault
in this man. And Jesus answered him, or I'm sorry, the Jews answered
him. We have a law and by our law
he ought to die because he made himself the son of God. When
Pilate therefore heard that saying, did Pilate hear something? God
says Pilate heard something, God said he heard that saying.
that this man here is declaring to be the God. When he heard
that, he was the more afraid. Oh, I think we're handling something
here that's real. This ain't just some article
I read on the internet and I'm gonna text somebody. I think we're
handling God here. He heard it. Did he hear it?
That's what it says. He heard that saying, he was the more
afraid. Verse nine. Jesus gave him no answer. Pride
kicked in a little bit. Then saith Pilate unto him, speak
thou not unto me? Knowest not that I have the power
to crucify thee? I have the power to release thee.
Don't you know who I am? Jesus answered, thou couldst
have no power at all against me, except it were given thee
from above. Therefore he delivered me unto
thee. He that delivered me unto thee
hath the greater sin. And from thenceforth, from the
time that he heard that, Lord spoke to him. God spoke to him. God preached his sovereignty
and his power and his might and his holiness to him. And it went
into his physical ear. And there was a reaction. Look
at the reaction. And from thenceforth, Pilate sought to release him. That sounds good, doesn't it? I want to do it. Well, then do
it. Who there had the power to release
him? Pilate did. He said, take him. We don't want
him. Too bad. This is my house. My house, my rules. That's common. Was so in Pilate's day too. But
he sought to release him, but the Jews cried out saying, if
thou let this man go, if you do this, thou art not, what's
it say? Caesar's friend. You're not Caesar's
friend. Whosoever maketh himself king
speaketh against Caesar. If you let him go and you don't
kill him, you ain't Caesar's buddy. You want us to go tell
the boss? You want me to tell the president you're against
the president? Verse 13, when Paula therefore heard that saying, is that what
it says? He brought forth Jesus, brought Jesus forth and sat down
in the judgment seat in the place that is called the pavement,
but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of
the Passover in about the sixth hour. There's a lot of different
commentaries and theologians, as they call themselves, that
tell you how long this has been. It was a while. He sat down,
the pilot's been at this since early morning, hasn't he? And
now it's almost noon. He sat in that seat there for
a minute, thought about this. He was, as we call, on the fence. He was on the fence. He was handling this gospel message.
He was handling this one that declared himself to be God for
a good long while, and the hour had come. Verse 14, the preparation was
to pass over in about the sixth hour. And he said unto Jews,
behold your king. That's telling isn't it? Behold
your king, not my king, your king. But they cried out, away
with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them,
shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we
have no king but Caesar. What an answer. Pilate was a
hearer. Everyone is. Everyone is. Those that God didn't give his
ascension gift to send somebody to preach to them, they've been
preached to. That's what the scriptures say. Job said, when
the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted
for joy. That's what David wrote about, said, the heavens declare
the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork.
Day in a day, other a speech, a night showeth knowledge. There's no speech nor language
where their voice has not heard. His power, his majesty is on
display in creation. It's on display in Providence.
We see those things, don't we? Turn over to Matthew 13 again.
We read this earlier, but we'll see it again. There's a lot of
implied meaning here. If we just read that parable
that our Lord spoke of when he gave the parable of the sower
and he said, he who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And we
stopped there. Would that be what some people
call a good three point gospel message? You better believe it. You better believe it. And if
you don't understand that, that God preached it, that's a good
message. You go run as fast as you can, and you find you a Philip
to get up in your high chariot to explain it to you. Ask some
questions. Ask the one that God taught to
teach you. Whoever's listening to this,
wherever, or somebody here tonight, you don't understand that. You
find you a man that does. Ask him to preach it to you.
This has an infinity point gospel message in it. We could spend
7,000 years and not scratch the surface. Not only on his explanation,
just on the parable. There are a few things I want
you to remember here. There's a few characters or players or points,
but there's the sower, there's the seed, And there's the types
of grounds. There's four types of grounds
that this seed that the sower throws lands on. This is about
a man that got up early one morning, a man on a farm, and he hired
a fella to go out. He said, here's a seed, go put
it on my farm. And he went out and he broadcast
the seed. He throws it. This was very common
and understood in that day. Everybody knew what he was talking
about, plain terms. But this is an allegory. We looked
at this before, but I remind you, an allegory, that's a noun.
That's a story or a poem or a picture or something that's interpreted
to reveal a hidden meaning. And typically a moral one. That's
what Webster's Dictionary says. And they used illustration. They
said, Pilgrim's progress is an allegory of the spiritual journey.
That's nice. That's sweet, isn't it? This
parable is a parable of God and his people and those against
him. This is one for all mankind throughout time. Nothing's changed.
It's for everybody. We're gonna see God in this. I pray so. Prayer
will reveal himself. There are three accounts of this
parable. This message that Christ preached, it's in Mark 4, Luke
8, and here in Matthew 13. But here in verse 18, Matthew
13, 18. Our Lord speaks, he says, he's gonna explain it. He says,
hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. He says, the sower. Who's the sower? The sower's
his preacher. I'm gonna say a lot of repetitive
things tonight, but the Lord did too, so that's fine. Things I've told you before,
and I hope I said a couple times tonight. The sower's the preacher.
This is God's preacher. In Mark, he records it. The Lord
says, know ye not this parable? He asked him disciples, they
said, hey, can you explain this to us? He said, you don't understand
this. He said, how in the world? How will you then know all parables?
If you don't understand this, how are you going to explain
these other parables to people? He said, the sower soweth the
word. The preacher is the one that
sows the word. I don't understand preachers that don't have the
word. People that just get up and tell what they think, or
self-help stuff, and I couldn't do that. I don't understand those that
don't get their seed ready in their sacks. There's some people
that handle this word very flippantly, and loosey-goosey, and like,
well, Lord, give me something. If he gives me something, that's
fatalistic. You better not do it. If we're gonna plant on the
Lord's field, this is the master's seed, and this is the master's
property. He's commissioned us to go out and spread the seed.
We better be mindful of it. Paul was serious about that.
He said, necessities laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I
preach not the gospel. If I don't spread that seed.
Isaiah said to the law and to the testimony, if they speak
not according to this word, if they speak not according to this
seed, It's because, you know how people used to not preach
the gospel? You know why they didn't? They had no light in
them. Kevin, that's harsh. God said
it. I don't ever ask anyone, after
I sow this seed and spread it and broadcast it, if they wanna
add anything to the seed sowing. Would you like to add some? I
want, let this soak in, and then let's apply this in the next
week, okay? The gospel seed's been thrown out. Whatever the
Lord had put in that bag for that day on his field, it's his
business. And I throw it, or somebody else throws it. And
they say, is there any questions, comments, or concerns? No, there's
not. That's serious business, buddy,
I'm telling you. Paul said, if any man speak,
let him speak as the oracles of God. This is God speaking.
This is God throwing his seed out there. The seed, the word
of God, it landed where it landed. You leave it be. Leave it be. Throw the dynamite, right? And
then don't go adjust the dynamite as it's sizzling. Leave it alone. We understand that, don't we?
The sower didn't make the seed, but he has it in his bag. The
husbandman, the gardener, the owner of the land, the master,
it's his seed. He's the one that bought the seed. He just gave
it to the sower. All he has to do is throw it. He didn't tell what he thinks.
The Spirit, Lord says, is gonna come. He's gonna say the words
that he hears. And then Christ came, not to
do his own will, but the will of the Father. And the servants,
these sowers, these God-sent sowers, they're no different.
They don't tell what they think. They don't tell you what they
perceive. They tell you what God says. They just throw the
seed. And if my opinion or somebody
else's opinion or their perception, that's the theme of their message,
they ought not be preaching. That'd be twofold a child of
hell. Lord said, I've not spoken of myself, but the father which
sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I
should speak. Jeremiah said, I'll give you
pastors according to Mine heart. We always say after mine own
heart, don't we? Well, they'll be after his own heart. They'll
be like it. But you know how many you gonna get? However many
he accordons you. Might be one, might be 10, might
be none. And they'll feed you with knowledge
and understanding. We'll see that at the end. So
we got the sower and we got the seed. What does the sower sow?
Sowers sow seed. They don't sow nothing else.
What's that? Mark 4 says, the sower soweth
the word. The word. Luke 8 says, now this
is the parable, the Lord said. He goes, now this is the parable. The seed's the word of God. That's
what he says. That seed's something special.
Seed has life in it. You know, there's flowers. that
are fake, and I can't tell the difference between the fake ones
and the real ones. I mean, you gotta wait a while. It takes time,
don't it? Because there'll be a difference in time, but you
just look at them at the store, I can't really tell the difference.
I can't. Or like those fruit bowls. You
ever seen that? They're getting better with time,
ain't they? And fruit bowls, they put in stage houses to decorate
stuff. Well, that fruit looks so real.
It looks just like real fruit. What's the difference? There
ain't no life in it. You go up and bite it, you'll crack a tooth.
It won't give you nourishment. There's no life in it. The master's
words, this seed, his word, there's life in it. There's life in it.
He said in John 6, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh
profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
that's broadcast to you, they are spirit and they are life.
This sower comes and he just throw in seed, but that seed's
got life in it. God may save some folks. His word, his seed, it's the
very thing we are born again from. He told Nicodemus that.
He said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except man be born
of water and of the spirit. That's the word and that's the
spirit of God. He cannot enter the kingdom of
God. How could I know that? James said, we are begat. of
his own will, he begat us. We're born with the word of truth,
that we should be the first fruits of his creatures. Peter said,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So that
sower, he sows the word, and he sows faithfully, faithfully. He preaches it sometimes. If
it's God's sower, he sows it all the time. He makes him faithful. That's what Paul said. There's
arguing over which preacher do they like the best? You know
who my favorite preacher is? And Paul snapped his fingers
and said, you're carnal, stop it. He said, it don't matter. You quit that stuff and you look
to Christ. He rebuked them sharply. That sounds sweet and less as
us, huh? He comes, snapped his fingers,
stuck it in Kevin's face. And he said, I have planted. And
Apollos, he watered. But God gave the increase. So
then neither, is it he that planteth anything, he ain't nothing, or
he that watereth, he ain't nothing either. But God that gives the
increase, that's one and something. So there's a sower, and he's
got seed, that's the word of God, and he's throwing it out,
isn't he? What's it gonna land on? Our Lord tells us. Here in
Matthew 13, look at verse 18. And he says, I pray he'd speak at tonight.
Hear ye, hear ye. Somebody hear. Hear ye therefore
the parable of the sower. When anyone heareth the word
of the kingdom and understandeth not, then cometh the wicked one
and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is
he which receiveth by the wayside. The wayside's a path. That's
a walking path. You ever seen a garden, right?
You gotta walk somewhere where you don't walk on where you grow
and stuff. You walk on a path. A path's useful. There's a purpose
for a path, isn't there? But as fast as that seed lands
on that path, we know this happens. There's people that's come here,
and there's people that still sit underneath the gospel for
a long time that do that. They're so hard. either in knowledge
or tradition or experience. They're so hard that that seed
of God, the word of God goes to them and just bounces right
off of them. Doesn't soak in, doesn't penetrate,
doesn't do anything. It just bounces off of them.
And then Satan comes in, the birds, the foul of the air, eats
it, takes it away, leaves them alone. Pharaoh's heart was hardened,
wasn't it? Just like the ground. The Lord
said in Exodus 7, I will harden Pharaoh's heart. And a lot of
people have trouble with that. They have trouble thinking the
Lord hardens people's hearts. And they charge God with folly.
They do. Do you know why? They're hard. Because they think they're so
good. And they think they're so soft. And that their ground's
just so ripe and nourished and so many minerals in it. And they
don't see that their nature's to be hard. Just like concrete.
Stop working it. You keep it in that truck, keep
filling water in it, that's concrete, it'll stay liquid as long as
you want it to. You stop working it, you take your hand off of
it. It's instinct, it's nature's to be hard, isn't it? Then there's
the stony ground, verse 20. But he that receiveth the seed
in the stony places is the same as he that heareth the word,
and hang on with joy receiveth it. Mark says, immediately receives
it with gladness, yet he hath no root in himself. But endureth
for a little while, he holds on for a while. But when tribulation
or persecution arises because of the word, by and by, he's
offended. Another place that says that
there's a little bit of thin, thin little bit of soil there.
It's rocky. There's a little bit of dirt. And that seed hits
it and it shoots up. And it looks like everybody gets
so excited. Look how excited this seed is. Oh, buddy, something
big's happening here. And we get pumped up over it,
don't we? But there's no root. You know why? There's no conflict
to drive that root down. There's no sacrifice. There's
no hardship. There's no root in themselves,
and there's no effort. A seed doesn't drive down. There's
no conviction. There's no God-given faith. There's
no true commitment. There's no digging deep. It's
fine as long as there ain't nothing comes and no hurdles coming our
way. I like that gospel just good. Boy, that sounds great.
Now don't expect me to do nothing with it. There's no digging deep. I feel like I never dug deep,
don't you? Turn over to Luke 6. Our Lord
illustrates this. Luke 6. Here in Luke 6, 47. Luke 647. He said whosoever cometh to me
and hearth my sayings. And agrees with him. And it what
says it says and do with them. I will show you to whom he's
like. I'm going to exactly who that's
like. It's like a man which built an house and. Dig deep. Commitment. Gave up everything
for it. Gotta have it. I have to. I have
to get to that moisture. They dig deep and they laid the
foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, that's
the trials of earth coming out of it. And the stream, that means
rain, beat vehemently upon the house, trials from heaven. No
matter who you blame it on. and could not shake it because
it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and doeth
not is like a man without a foundation built in a house upon earth,
built on the sand, against which the stream did beat vehemently,
and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.
What does great mean? It's eternal. I have concern
for those that shoot up but have no root in them. I have concern
that that's me. Paul was worried about that,
wasn't he? Paul had a concern over that. Over in other people
and himself. It's serious business. That root, that's the strength
of the plant. Not what above grounds, but what's hidden that
nobody sees. That's what's strong. That's
where the Lord looks at. Do you know that on the heart?
On the hidden places of a man? Not on the outside. Those without
root, it shoots up for the benefits. Pay attention to me. The root
shoots up because of benefits. I gotcha. Who wants to go to
heaven? Anybody that's sane, right? Who
wants fish for your belly? Well, that sounds good. I like
to be full. What about healing of the body?
I'm hurting all over. Oh, I wish this pain would go
away. That'd be great. You mean I could be whole? In
the body? What about freedom from the law?
Well, that sounds good. I hate being underneath that
law. I can't keep it. It's a burden. I don't like it. But there's
no love. There's no dedication to a person
that's our Redeemer and our King, our God and our King. And Luke,
it said, some fell upon a rock and as soon as it was sprung
up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. Christ, the greatest farmer there
was, it shot up, but it died, withered away because it lacked
moisture. Because there's no root in it. That root of Jesse,
right? Christ, the root. And there's
no way, without that root, there's no way to dig deep. and to get
all the way down where that sun's not beating no more and there's
moisture in the earth. If you don't understand that,
wait till it rains and then wait till it gets hot again and go
outside and dig down with your hands. Lord gave it all around us. You
can go look anywhere you want. There's no root to dig down to
get that moisture, that Christ the living water. And like I
said, this thing is so short, it seems so simple, but there's
a lot of implications, right? There's implied tasks. I was
telling a friend of mine that whenever we go on ruck marches
in the army, it's implied you don't wear shower shoes to the
ruck march, you wear boots. Do we have to tell you that?
No, it's implied, that's understood, right? That's why the Lord's
using a parable of a simple garden that anybody could have. Especially
in that day. So on the opposite end of the
spectrum, there's no root that can't dig down and get that water.
And that way, when the sun beats down, you ain't got nothing left
in you. You got something to dig into. It's Christ. Right? On the other side of the spectrum,
we had corn there in Kentucky. First time I ever planted corn.
I loved that corn. I watered it in the morning and
I watered it in the evening. I planted the seed, it come up.
It was beautiful, wasn't it? It was a beautiful stand of corn.
But the wind came, and every bit of that corn laid clean,
flat over. Do you know why? Hang with me now. The Lord taught
this way. I want you to understand. He
taught me something in this. I watered it morning, and I watered it
evening. I watered it in the morning, and I watered it—didn't miss
a day. But it didn't need to stretch down to get that water. That route didn't have to, through
trials and trouble and tribulation, drive down to look for water.
I was just covering it in water. That's it, just laid over. I
drown it in water. I can take a horse to water,
but I can't make it drink. I can sure drown one. What's
that mean? The same goes for us, doesn't
it? I've gave caution before, I'll
give it now. It takes small bites. Listen, whether it's here or
somewhere else, listen to the man that God sent to you, not
to 75 of them. Don't listen to a message 16
times a day and tune into 45 services a week. You're going
to drown. And you wonder why you're thirsty all the time.
You wonder why you have no assurance. You need to chew on this. And
sometimes we got to get a little drunk. I'm not encouraging missed
services, but go with the one that God sent you. That watering
can, that sower he sent, or Apollo's the water, hits the right proportion,
because God's the one telling him to go do it. That may offend
some, it's just gonna have to get offensive. I'm sent here
to water, and this is the water for today, and I hate it. God
gave us a garden, I've lived it, I'm telling you. Someone springs up, They seem
to be full of life, but when that trial comes in the body
or in the family, husbands and wives are like, baby, I love
this. Honey, I love it. And they say, I don't love it.
I was fine with you going to any other church, but now you're
going to that church, I don't like it. And there's trouble, hard
times in a family, in a home. And it's because of the word,
because of that seed, because of God's word, because of his
gospel, they have no root to dig down deep and draw from him
From Christ, he's the root and he's the moisture. And they're
offended. They're offended. And what happens?
I'll tell you what happens. They get mad at the sower, they
get mad at the waterer, they get mad at the seed, and they
get mad at the man that owns the land. They're offended. That's a topic
here. Went back in our text from Matthew
13. But he that receiveth, verse
20, Matthew 13, 20. But he that receiveth the seed into stony
places, that the same as he that heareth the word, and right away
with joy receives it. Yet he hath no root in himself,
but endureth for a while. Now stick around. But when tribulation
or persecution, some heavy trials come, because of the word, because
of that gospel that they seem to shoot up in, by and by, he
is offended. They're offended. There's other
plants that go up and say, sower, what'd you say to that plant
over there? Sower said, I didn't say nothing,
I was just throwing seed. What you got for it? More seed.
I just got water and seed, that's it. That's all I got. Well, there's
the thorns and the vines, verse 22. He also that received the
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. That don't work. Look up in verse seven, Matthew
13. I want you to see something. Matthew 13, verse seven. It says,
And some fell among the thorns, and the thorn sprung up. Doesn't say both of them sprung
up. It says the thorns sprung up and choked them. In all three
accounts of this parable that the Lord gives, that he's recording
his word, it's worded this way. The thorns sprung up, not the
seed. The seed didn't shoot up for
a little bit without root. We've already had that type of ground.
It was just resting up on top of some stuff and the thorns
shot up. Everything else around it grew. Now there may be the
perception Because there's nothing but leaves and the covering of
all the weeds and thorns that's on the ground, right? And that
seed lands on that, them dry leaves, and thorns are shooting
up and growing. It may have the appearance that
that seed's being upheld and exalted and lifted by this type
of ground, but it ain't. It ain't. Everything that's growing
around it is thorns. Do we have to sow thorns and
weeds? If you ever had a garden, you said, you know what, I'm
gonna put some weeds in this garden. Where can I get some
weed seeds? I'm gonna put weeds in this garden.
No, we don't have to try to do that, do we? This ground's different
than other ground. First, from the wayside, that's
hard. And the seed lands, doesn't do anything. Second, stony ground,
it sprouts up real quick, but it dies off at the first sign
of struggle. But this one, The seeds resting
on top of that covering provided for by the thorns and the weeds.
You get that? And another righteousness, another covering. Dead leaves,
not dirt. And it's never said to grow.
It never germinates. See, it doesn't grow just the
thorns. I've seen faithful pastors declare something or try to gently
give water to encourage growth, and the absolute opposite is
what happens the second he gets done preaching the gospel, right? We have no cause to murmur. Behold
your God. He's on his throne. He sent these
things. Thank him. and the service is
over. I'll tell you what, my week's
been horrible. My back hurts, my knee hurts, my boss is mean. I do it. A lot of times I feel
like I ain't nothing but thorns. Do you? Or I'm hard and things
bounce off of my thick head. Or I just get so passionate and
then where'd the passion go? You ever feel that way? I asked
you this in the beginning, what type of hearer are you? How you
hearing it tonight? I know how I've heard it in the past, how
am I hearing it right now? There ain't never gonna be no other
right now than right now. In the future, there's a future
right now, but right now is right now. How you hearing it? How
you hearing it? It may seem like it's supporting
and holding up that seed, but it never sprung up. What's this
ground's downfall? What's the thing that hurts this
ground? The word says there, the cares of this world. We have
so many cares, don't we? Especially nowadays. Especially
nowadays. We have so many cares on high
speed. Everybody's got the whole world in their hand and they
can't stop it. It's a drug. They're addicted
to it. And they have to show everybody
what they had for lunch on the other side of the world. It's ridiculous.
You're a child of God. We got football and baseball
and work and family. Oh, well, my kids are in town.
We got houses to take care of. And more prevalent now than ever,
activities and vacation entertainment and access to all those things
in the whole world cheaper than it's ever been ever throughout
history. I looked it up, 1941, it cost $6,000 to fly from the
West Coast to the East Coast. You had to make 15 stops. You know what it costs now? Go
on Frontier, 250 bucks, and sometimes direct flight from here to Philly.
Well, it's just more affordable for everybody. And then we bellyache
times are tough. So much more distractions from
God and his word and his seed that's being sown, isn't it?
And the support of the gospel and putting our shoulders to
work. And like I sent you that thing, getting that letter to
Garcia. We got more things to distract us. And it says the
deceitfulness of riches Is that monetary prosperity? Well, yeah. I don't think I've ever seen
anybody. If it did, it might've been a woman, I don't remember.
That's one of the rarest things I can come across, thought all
week. That somebody that went broke and became monetarily destitute
and they were separated from the gospel. I've never seen it.
I'm like David, I've never seen the righteous begging bread.
Now you may come to where you get hungry, but if you ain't
gonna go to no food bank, I'll feed you. Your brethren will
feed you. Somebody will take care of you.
You'll move in with us. That ain't happening. My family is
the true family. That's because we love them,
right? You wouldn't let your children starve. We wouldn't let our brethren
starve if we love them, if we're children of God. So it's not
just the monetary thing. I've seen people get rich and
leave. I've seen big things come up,
big jobs in different cities. Why, I gotta take it. I gotta
tell you, or it's cheaper to move there now that I don't have
a job. Does that hurt? I'm sorry, somebody needs to
tell you. Your eternal soul's on the line, and I'm gonna preach
like one that's gotta give account. Well, I had to move to that state,
because that's the cheapest place. There's cheap places all over
this country. My wife and another pastor's wife sat down, made
a big list for somebody that said it was too expensive to
live where the gospel was, gave them six options that was cheaper
than where they lived at that time, and they said, I'm not
interested. Bounced right off of them, didn't
it? Got choked up in thorns, didn't
it? I care for them people. I'm not
being mean. I'm not being uppity. I care for their souls. Worse,
there's a lot of people, they agree with what we preach, and
they just, that's great, and I'm just so, I don't have any
assurance. I've talked to people, and I've heard other messengers
and pastors throughout time, so I'm just tore up pieces. They
said, well, you're not where God's word is. You don't have
a pastor. You're not with the Lord's saints.
Go where they are. When I got a nice house and three
cars and a driveway, my wife's got a good job, and it's got
good benefits. Well, you got something more important than
God. You say you like it, but the thorns are on the thing growing.
And I'll choke you out. Boy, you worry about that? I
worry about that for you children. Every one of you. Worry about
that for us. Worry about that for my wife.
Getting a big raise next month. This ain't making it through
the end of the next 30 days. Do you understand that? It's the eternal things. They
don't have time for the word of God. Something comes up more
important instead of meeting with the Lord's people and a
fellowship with them. And the Lord said, no man can have two
masters. You can't do it. You can't do
it. You either hate one and love
the other, or you'll hold the one and despise the other, but
you cannot serve God and man. Can't do it. We see all these things around
us and we think they're all right, don't we? Well, I mean, it's
fine, right? I got offered a big job today.
A lot of money, wasn't it? Well, I mean, I've handled stuff
like that before. I can handle it again. Christ is telling us
here that this is a briar patch. He's given us words to tell us
this is dangerous. You think we ought to take heed? I read of these grounds, these
three grounds, these hairs, and I ask. I see that hardness, and
I see the stoniness, and I see all the thorns and the thistles
and the briars and the weeds. And you know the only thing I
have to say? Well, they ought to be like me. No. Lord, is it
I? I see myself as hard, I see myself
as thin, no depth to me, and I see myself as surrounded by
nothing but thorns and thistles, struggles and pains and benefits
of the world. Lord is it I. And when I read
about that stony ground, I read about that hard ground, and I
read about that thorny ground, you know what that makes me do?
Beg the Lord. Cry out to him. You're the husband. You can do anything you want.
This is your land. When I owned a farm, do you know
where the pathways were? Exactly where I wanted them. I owned
a tractor with a four foot box tiller. I put fields wherever
I wanted them. You know where the thorns grew
up? Right where I wanted them to grow up. You know where it
was plowed? Right where I wanted it plowed. He's able. And I said,
Lord, keep me. Put your seed in me. Plant it.
Plow my heart. I'm getting ahead of myself.
That's all right. Plow my heart. Bust me up. Break me. And then
water me and keep me and preserve me. Give the increase. Now, that's
my experience. I don't know about you. I know
it's experience with some other folks that God's worked in. I
hope that's yours. Lay all your care on him. Seek
ye first the kingdom of God. Do we do that and we build our
life around the hearing of the gospel? Or is it just something
we happen to squeak in in the nick of time? While I'm busy, I feed my family.
You're right. God gave us responsibilities on this earth. He did. Noah had
to build an ark, but he walked with God. Amos took care of sheep,
but he walked with God while he tended to them. You can be
busy and be exactly walking with the Lord. Be right where his
word is, right where his seed's thrown, right where that water
comes down. You can. I've lived that too. Well, the
good ground. There's implied application here
too. Verse 23, Matthew 13, 23. But he that received seed into
the good ground is he that heareth the word. Every ground heard
that word, didn't it? Well, they heard the gospel.
Everybody did. Didn't they? Everybody heard
the word. But this one's different. It's
he that heareth the word and understandeth. Did you get there on your own?
God said in Jeremiah's another way. He said, I'll send you pastors
according to my own. He sent me a pastor and that
man preached. He gave me knowledge and understanding.
That good ground is one to understand us, which also, and not just
understand it and go home. I got the bulletin ready today,
but you have to read it this weekend. Old Scott Richardson
had that. We don't hole up in some monastery
somewhere once the Lord saves us. We don't get in a cave somewhere.
We got a job to do. He hears it and he bears fruit,
and bringeth forth fruit, some a hundred, and some sixty, and
some thirty, some a whole bunch, some's used mightily, some used
a whole bunch, and some's barely used. But it's his, and it's
fruit. Good ground, good ground. That's
what Paul said, he said, after the wisdom, For after that, in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. He said
this parable, people say, why is he talking about gardens?
Is this an agricultural talk? I don't understand. World by wisdom knew not God,
but it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, by the foolishness
of some sower, nobody, hey there, to throw seed. and God walked
through in water. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe for it to land in the
good ground. Sowers broad cast seed, just like they cast the
gospel net, right? W-net. Doesn't just give knowledge,
that's bounced around. It's only temporary, it's choked
out, but understanding. That's the ascension gift of
God. He gives the root, he gives the increase. That's what my
brother's preaching this evening out of Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar.
He had a dream, he had this big tree, it took care of the whole
place, right? So Daniel interpreted this dream, he said, I wish this
was to your enemies. For an hour, he sat there and was astonished.
He said, I hate to tell you this, but it's my job to tell you this.
And he said, Lord is going to hew down your tree. That tree
is going to be cut off, but we're going to leave the stump and
the roots. Right. And in seven years, he'll
grow the tree back. That's his business. My job is
to tell you, he's going to send a servant to cut you off at the
knees. And he did, didn't he? That's
good. We talked about that the other
day. You pray your children until God breaks their hearts? I mean,
crushes them. You pray that for your children?
God, be hard on them. And then put your seed in them
and then water it. And you make it grow. That'd be good, wouldn't
it? It's your ground. You can plow
anywhere you want to. I ask you, plow this one. Plow that one.
Oh, would the dog hearts be plowed? There's some things that's implied,
isn't it? The Lord didn't mention these things, but we ought to
know. You walk to a farm, is everything good ground? No. There's no good ground by nature.
Do you know that? We're in a developed country.
If you go into a pioneer land, and the farmer doesn't buy land
or claim land, and they just walk in and throw seed down,
he's gotta plow it. I had a farm, I put them pathways
where I want them, I left some spots to grow over, I had some
rocky places, but I plowed my garden where I wanted to plow
it. He uses that as an illustration too, doesn't he? And he puts
his hand to the plow and looks back, ain't worthy to be holding
on that plow. That good ground is a heart where
the Lord has plowed. It was dead, but He quickened
it, and He cuts deep, and He gets the stones out of the way,
and He clears the thorns, and He prepares it to receive the
seed, and they hear that, and they understand it. That's what
He did to me. It hurt. That's all right. That
was good. I needed that. I need to get
plowed. I need to get cut deep. What
do they understand? What the Word says about sinners.
There's none righteous. None. No. Not one. They understand that. We drink
iniquity like water. We understand what the word says
about God. He's holy. He demands righteousness. He's on his throne. Not sometimes. If there's evil in a city, he
did it. He allowed this to happen. If
it wouldn't glorify him, he stopped it. He restrained it. He didn't
go no further. We get that. What the word says about Christ,
that one that's our righteousness. What it says about his blood,
when it covers our sins, it covers all of them. All of them. How Christ died that God may
be just and the justifier. Something man can't do, but it's
possible with him because his word says so. He gave me his
seed, I know what it means, I understand it. I stand on it. And when the sun comes, and wind
comes, and thorns come, or rocks start landing on my head, it
don't matter because there's root. He'll take the rocks off when
he's pleased. He gave me that root. It's tapped into his moisture.
You get that? Well, they went out from us.
Well, they weren't of us. I pray for them. Maybe that's just a
season of time. The Lord's putting a lot of sun
on them and withering them up, and they'll come back. I do.
If there's life, if there's breath in their lungs, there's hope.
But maybe they'll die out there. I don't know. I pray not. Third, all this will result in
fruit. This is his plant, his seed,
his garden. You're going to have fruit. That's going to be for
somebody else, isn't it? Some are going to bring forth
a whole lot. They're going to do a whole lot for their brethren.
Some are going to do less. But they're going to be equal.
They're all going to bring forth fruit. The same fruit because they all have the
same vine. They have the same root in them. Same seed, incorruptible
seed. It's going to be the same. It's
going to. I read that letter I sent to
you all today, that letter to Garcia. And it was about a man
needing a president, needing to get a hold of a general down
in Cuba. And who can we get to slay? We only know where he is.
And they said, I know a guy. We're only going to get it down
there. And he didn't ask, well, what happens if I don't do it?
How long do I have to do it? Well, do you have any idea where
he is? He didn't ask nothing. He just
went and did it. And three weeks later, come out the other side
of the jungle in a hostile land, and he said, yeah, I delivered
it. That's a good story, take it
home to your boys, make them read it. I made my boys read
it. But that's just a story. I read
that first time, I read that through the lens of a man that
knows God, through the gospel, and I said, I wanna be the one
that can take the letter, don't you? Lord's increased me and
I can do some more. Well, Lord, do you think you
can increase me a little bit more? I wanna do more. Well, maybe you can
grow me a little bit more, I can do more of that. Maybe you can
make me a better preacher, people. Start having our hearts moved. I want to do more, don't you?
If I bring 430, will you let me bring 460? I want to. Don't
you? Don't you? Yeah. I hope I do. I read that letter
and I thought of Christ. I read it in the light of Christ.
I read about this garden without him saying anything else because
he's gave me a lot of water over the years. Gave you a lot of
water over the years, ain't he? And I see it with the eyes and I
understand those implications made in the light of Christ.
Just in a garden. Victory Garden. I wrote an article
about that a couple of years ago as a fellow that liked it.
That's what plowed ground does. Did you know that? When you get
your ground plowed real good, you see seed all over the place.
You say, that's good, I get it. I understand that, I understand
that. It's amazing, it's amazing. Some 100, some 60, some 30. We're
at different times, isn't it? But the increase in the harvest
is from the Lord of the harvest. He said, the harvest is great,
but the laborers are few. He didn't say pray for old crusty
people to come down and have them preach. He said, you pray
for laborers, fresh ones in the harvest. I pray for those young
men raised up in this nation to preach his word. Because he's
the Lord of the harvest. He's the Lord of the harvest.
I just want to be a good servant. It's his seed, it's his land.
I just want to be diligent. I want to be faithful and just
throw him seed. There you go. Ain't hard, is it? A lot of sweating
involved. Your hand cramps up sometimes.
Do you see some resemblance in Pilot? Pilot heard some stuff. Just that night he heard, y'all
heard some stuff tonight, didn't you? But it's not, well, which
type of ground was Pilot? What type was I before God plowed
me? before he busted up his stony
heart. I pray we do. I pray we look to ourselves,
examine ourselves, and I pray the Lord plows our stony hearts.
Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this word.
Thank you for these parables you give us, so plain and so
simple in the light that you've given us to see. Make us be plain and simple to
those that ask questions. Thank you for the sowers you've
set up around this nation, around this world. We're grateful for
them. We're thankful for the tilled ground you've already
put out. We're thankful for that ground
you're not yet pleased to till. Lord, just make us faithful.
Make us faithful stewards of your mysteries and of your graces
to just tell what you said. Thank you for Christ. It's because
of him we come to your throne. Amen.