We're going to turn to the book
of Hebrews chapter 6. As I was looking at this and
thinking about this, I wanted to bring another message to you
related to Hebrews 6, but not in that text of scripture. As
you're turning there, I want to draw your attention to the
words of this song we sang, Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness.
Specifically in the seventh verse, it said, Oh, let the dead now
hear thy voice. hear the voice of the Son of
God. What is that voice? It's His
voice. It's what He says. But what voice,
what words are those the Lord Jesus Christ now speaks? The
only words we have from Him is the gospel. It's the voice of
Christ in the gospel, or we could say this, the gospel is the voice
of Christ. That's how intimately connected
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 5, 24, that
the day is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. But
while you're looking at Hebrews 6, I want to read that to you,
and I'm going to draw your attention to a couple of other points here,
and then we'll get into the message for the day. Hebrews chapter
6, I want to read from verse 3 through verse 4, or actually
verse 6. It says in Hebrews 6 verse 3,
and this will we do, going on, leaving those principal things,
of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, and moving on to the
substantive things, the New Covenant in Christ's blood. This will
we do if God permit, for it is impossible for those who were
once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word
of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall
away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify
to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open
shame. There's a couple of points to
be made here. At the outset, first of all,
that those who do these things, who fall away, they fall away
permanently. Therefore, they could never have
been Christ's sheep, because the Lord's people never fall
away. That's the first thing I want to point out. The second
thing is, when you look at these things that are impossible for
those who were, and all that follows, let me list them for
you. Once enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift, made partakers
of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God and the
powers of the world to come. All those things sound just like
what we do when we believe. How can we divide between these
things? and the truth. Well, we may or
may not be able to rightly divide these things. Well, what if you
can't then? What if you can't divide them
rightly? What if you can't discern whether
or not these things pertain to you as they do to these who fall
away? How will I then know if I can know that I've been chosen
and purchased and given life from God? Remember who the one
that gave these words is the one who divides the hearts, who
searches the hearts and tries the inward parts of us. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
His judgments are true and right, aren't they? So we have to go
to Him who judges us to look and find in Him our salvation. And that's the message here.
You may not, and I may not be able to separate these things
in the sense of this is what a false believer, a false professor
believes, and yet falls away from that which we believe, which
is true. I think we can, to some extent. But ultimately, we're
going to take it back to the Lord, aren't we? Say, Lord, I'm
prone to wander. I'm prone to leave the God I
love, just like those Israelites we read about in Judges chapter
10. And so we come to him for the salvation we need. So those
are the first observations I want to make here, to direct your
hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in 1 John, the epistle
of John, 1 John chapter two, I want to read these verses with
you too, also as an introduction. It says in 1 John chapter two,
verse 18, little children, it is the last time Even when the
Apostle John was writing, he said, this is the last time.
And as you have heard that Antichrist should come, the word anti, the
first part of the word Antichrist, means in opposition to and in
place of, in the place of Christ. Antichrist is the one who comes
pretending to be Christ and occupying the place that only Christ should
occupy in the congregation, the gathered people of God. And he
makes as if himself is God. He said, you have heard that
Antichrist shall come. Even now, are there many Antichrists? We've often heard, well, there's
going to be this beast and there's going to be a mark of the beast
and all this stuff. But the Apostle John helps us understand that
there's not just one man. But there are many antichrists
because it's the spirit of the devil that works in the children
of disobedience that opposes Christ, and that's what we have
to be concerned with. And what is it, how is it that
these who stand in that place and oppose Christ do? What do
they do that opposes the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's read on.
He says, as you have heard that antichrists shall come, even
now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the
last time. They went out from us, But they
were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt
have continued with us. But they went out, that they
might be made manifest, that they were not all of us." That
sounds like Hebrews 6, doesn't it? They fall away and they never
return. There are those who professed
Christ in the Apostle John's day, but they went out. from
the body of Christ. They departed from what? From
Christ and his gospel. Because the opposition, that
which pretends to be Christ and stands in the place of Christ,
opposes the truth of his salvation. This is the issue, this is the
point at which they attack. It's the justification God gives
his people because of the righteousness of his son, the cleansing of
their sin because of his shed blood, alone. Given to us, made
known to us by God-given faith. That's where they attack. They
add works to that. They say it wasn't effective.
You have to do your part. You have to complete the equation.
You have to do things like just say, I believe Jesus, when you
don't know Jesus. Those are the things that men
do. There's one prominent evangelical ministry in the United States,
and they say, to be born again, you have to want to turn from
your sins. That's it. That's the conditions
you have to meet, and that's the way you make it happen. But
this is anti-Christ. This is opposing the truth of
the gospel that Christ alone accomplished our salvation. Let's
go on. Verse 20, but you have an unction from the Holy One,
and you know all things. I don't know about you, but I
don't feel like I know all things. But, no, you do know all things.
How can you say that you know all things if you don't really
know everything? Because all things are known, all that is
the will of God is known in the gospel. And we know the gospel,
don't we? We've been persuaded of that.
This is the eternal purpose of God in Christ. We know that,
don't we? We know how God saves sinners.
We know the glory of God. We know all things, therefore,
because we know the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our wisdom. Verse
21, I have not written to you because you know not the truth,
but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
Who is a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ. This is what we're talking about,
that he came and accomplished God's will for his people. He,
that one who denies Christ, is Antichrist, that denieth the
Father and the Son. So everyone who denies the Father
and the Son is what? Antichrist. Whosoever denieth
the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledgeth
the Son hath the Father also. Verse 24. Let that, therefore,
abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that which
you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also
shall continue in the Son and in the Father. What is it that
abides in us? The truth of our salvation. We
abide in Christ, believing, holding to Christ. Verse 25, and this
is the promise that He has promised us, even eternal life. These
things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
This is the way Satan works. He tries to tempt us and seduce
us away from Christ, away from the onlyness, the singularity,
and the simplicity that's in Christ. You need more. No, you
don't. Christ is enough. He's all. Verse
27, but the anointing which you have received of him, the Spirit
of God, we've received it from Christ, abideth in you, and you
need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, even as it hath
taught you, you shall abide in him. So we abide in him by the
teaching of Christ, the doctrine of Christ, which is given to
us by the Spirit of God. Verse 28, and now, little children,
do what? Abide in Him, that when He shall
appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him
that is coming. The only way we can have confidence and not
be ashamed before Christ that is coming is what? If we're found
in Him. The Gospel teaches this to us,
so we believe Him, we look to Him. Now, I give you those things
as background to Hebrews chapter 6. Consider those things seriously,
but turn with me now, because I want to spend some time in
the book of Luke chapter 8. Because in Hebrews 6, people
who fell away, that did not abide in Christ, that did not stay
with the truth of the gospel, but turned in their hearts to
deny Christ and forsake him and to teach the heresies that would
oppose Christ, and the Father, and our salvation. Those people
prove themselves to be reprobate. They apostatize. Those are the
words. To be reprobate is to be without
salvation. To apostatize is to turn away
from Christ permanently. And this is what happens when
we're left to ourselves. When we're left to ourselves,
what will we do? All of us. If we are left to ourselves,
all of us, without exception, will turn from God. We read that
in Judges chapter 10, didn't we? The Israelites, they all
turned. They served other gods. So look at Luke chapter 8 here.
The Lord Jesus gives a parable, and the parable is parallel to
Hebrews chapter 6, because in this parable we see four different
kinds of ground. that have to do with four different
kinds of hearts. In other words, this parable
of the Lord Jesus Christ describes the differences in men and women
and boys and girls, what we are by nature, and the difference
that God by his grace makes in us. So let's read this together
in Luke chapter eight, beginning at verse four, going through
verse 15. And when much people were gathered
together and there came to him, to Jesus, out of every city,
he spake by a parable. He said this, a sower, a sower
here means someone who plants seed, prepares the ground and
plants the seed. 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, the birds of the
air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock. And
as soon as it was sprung up, because the seed germinated and
began to grow, but as soon as it sprung up, it withered away
because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. Another fell on
good ground and sprang up and bear fruit a hundredfold. And
when Jesus had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him,
saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it
is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to
others, in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing
they might not understand. Verse 11, now the parable is
this. The seed is the word of God. 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.
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. And 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. But that on the good ground are
they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word,
keep it and bring forth fruit unto patience. Now, I don't know
about you, but every time I've ever read this text of Scripture,
it has given me great concern. Because I wonder, how is it that
I could be anything but these first of the three grounds here?
I want to bring some of Scripture to bear on this particular parable
of the Lord Jesus and his explanation of it. And so there's really
one seed here, one seed. What was that seed? The Word
of God. Who sows it? The Lord Jesus Christ,
called the Son of Man. And what are the four different
grounds? Those are the hearts of men.
Those are people who hear the word, hear what Christ has said. That's why I said this parallels
Hebrews chapter six. They were once enlightened, they
have tasted of the heavenly gift, were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world
to come. Sounds like they've got the truth, doesn't it? So
the main point of this parable is this. I want you to understand
these things clearly so that, like me and you both, we will
find all of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and not
look to ourselves. The main point is the difference
between hearing the gospel with a natural heart that heart we're
born with, in contrast to hearing the gospel of Christ in a heart
opened by the Lord. Now, if we don't understand anything
else, if we just get that, it'll help put the whole thing in proper
perspective here. Notice how in the parable, God's
word comes to us and shakes us. It causes us concern. We know
ourselves to be prone to be like the first three grounds, don't
we? This is me, it describes me. The seed that fell by the
wayside, the hard ground, and the birds of the air came and
took it, the devil came and took the Word before it could spring
up. What power do I have against the devil? How many times does
it seem I've heard the Word of God and it had no effect on me?
And the second ground was like the seed that fell on the rock
and it didn't have any earth, but it sprung up, it sprouted,
and the sun immediately blistered the roots and it withered away,
couldn't bear any fruit. How often do you think that could
be me with no root, no true root in me? Or the third ground, it
sprung up among weeds, thorns that choked. the seed after it
sprung up, and it could bear no fruit. And how often do you
think the cares of this world are going to choke out the life
of God in me, and I could bear no fruit to God? Can you identify
with those? I can. And who of us can look
at ourselves and say, I have an honest and good heart. I can
find myself in the first three. I have trouble finding myself
in the fourth. Don't you? This is why the word
of God comes and shakes us up, just like it did in Hebrews 6.
So the main point of this parable, as I said, is the difference
between hearing the gospel with our natural heart, without spiritual
ears, Jesus said, him that hath ears to hear, let him hear, or
in contrast to hearing the gospel of Christ in a heart the Lord
opens, as he did Lydia's heart and so many other places. So
Jesus taught by parables, and this parable is one, in this
parable there's only one type of seed. It's just one gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
sow different gospels. He sows one gospel. But there
were four different grounds, and so he explained the ground.
In the parable, the seed, again, is the word of God. 1 Peter 1.25
said, this is the word which by the gospel underscore is preached
unto you. How do we know the message? How
do we know the truth of God's word? How can we know, how can
we understand it if God doesn't reveal it? And how has he revealed
it? This is the word which by the
gospel is preached to you. And what is the gospel? Jesus
Christ in him crucified. Paul said, he sent me not to
baptize, but to preach the gospel. And I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ in him crucified. That's
the gospel. That's the gospel that saves.
That's the gospel that explains God's word. That's the gospel
that is the seed Christ sows. And that's the gospel we must
receive. That's the only gospel that produces
fruit to God. Now, there are four lessons here
in this parable, and let's see if we can get these lessons and
keep them in mind. First, as we examine this scripture,
here's the first lesson. First, God is sovereign in salvation. Some have ears to hear, some
do not. To some, it is given to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and to others, it is
not given. What can you say about that?
It means that we're in the hands and at the mercy of God, doesn't
it? Now, this is the way it is. This is the way that it is. There's
no sense in beating your head against an immovable truth. God
is in control. Salvation is of the Lord. Jesus
said this in Matthew 20, verse 16. Many are called. The seed
went out all over. Few were chosen. What does that
mean? How can I get myself chosen? You don't contribute here. You're
passive in this. You are a recipient of grace.
You ruined yourself. But there's only one hope. It's
in the sovereign Lord. That's the first thing. God is
sovereign in salvation. He's sovereign in providence
too, by the way. No one rules over men, no one rules in a home,
and no one acts in this world apart from God's overarching
sovereign will. Everything is done according
to His will. Everything. What does that cause
us to do? We better go to the sovereign.
With God, nothing is impossible. So the second lesson is this.
All men, all men, by nature, what we are naturally, are described
by the first three grounds. When we hear God's warnings,
our natural response is to try to find ourselves as those that
are not in danger. I want to find myself on the
good ground, don't you? Every time I've heard this sermon
before, I try to find myself over here and not over there.
But grace teaches us otherwise, because we are all described
in our natural condition by these first three grounds that did
not bear fruit. Therefore, what do we know? God
alone must make the difference in salvation. The difference
is the gospel applied to our hearts by the sower who not only
casts the seed in, but plows the heart to receive it. We are
therefore to react with a cry from our heart of our sinful
condition, that we are cursed, bitten, and dying without remedy,
and cry to the one who alone can save us, the Lord Jesus Christ,
by an all-sufficient salvation that's in himself alone, save
even to the uttermost. So that's the second lesson,
that by nature we are all described in the first three grounds. And
the third one is this. And this is where the light begins
to shine very brightly in a warm and glowing way. The gospel is
good news to sinners. Only those who hear the gospel
as sinners are themselves fruit. God bears and they bear fruit. because they are sinners. And
here's a truth, I've heard it from others, I didn't make it
up myself, but it's so true and it's worth repeating. It's not
your sin that will keep you out of heaven. It's not your sin
that will keep you from God. It is your righteousness. It is this attitude of indifference,
because I don't need salvation because I'm not a sinner. Or
this attitude that I bring to God something that He can value.
He finds me good and therefore He blesses me. All these attitudes
will leave us outside of the Kingdom of God. But it's the
one who knows himself to be in the first three grounds, helpless
against the devil, helpless against his own lusts, He bearing no
root in himself, and subject to perish, and deservedly so,
that man, to that man the gospel is good news. And so I want to go on to the
fourth lesson here before we get into the details. The fourth
lesson is this to keep in mind. So the third lesson is the gospel
is good news to sinners. And the fourth lesson is this,
that fruit is the work of God's spirit. It's not our work. We
don't produce fruit. We didn't produce faith, did
we? And fruit springs from faith. And God is the one who does both.
He gives us faith and he produces the fruit. Fruit is never the
byproduct of man's nature, not his natural nature, not of man's
efforts, not his natural efforts. Fruit to God are those who are
saved by the blood and righteousness of Christ, and fruit in them
is God's Spirit given to them that produces life and faith.
and fruit to God is the heart-born outward love of a believing sinner
for his God and Savior, willingly submitting and gladly trusting
his master in all of his word, in all of his providence, for
all of his salvation, so that he is a humbled person, humbled,
brought low, made contrite, like a horse, broken, he gladly submits
to his master. That's what the work of God does
in the heart of it. That's the fruit of God. Now,
let's talk about this first lesson here. God is sovereign in salvation. Consider the sovereignty of God
in salvation. Christ revealed his parable to
his disciples. He did not reveal it to everybody.
He didn't explain this parable to everybody. He did here in
scripture to us. In the same way, God has mercy
on whom he will. Romans 9, verse 15 says it. He saith unto Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. Therefore it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God which showeth mercy.
It's not your striving, it's God's mercy that saves you. Not all men have faith. 2 Thessalonians
3 verse 2. Faith is the gift of God. Ephesians
2 verse 8. And he gives it only because
of his own free and sovereign grace. Jonah suffered a hard
lesson because of his disobedience to God. Remember, he would not
go to Nineveh. He would not preach. He learned
this lesson from God in his affliction, and it was a saving lesson. He learned it in the whale's
belly. The lesson God taught him was the lesson of his sovereign
mercy. That fruit was God's doing. It was fruit to God because Jonah
expressed the truth of God and of Christ and of salvation by
him alone. He cried in his prayer, he said,
salvation is of the Lord. That's when he was humbled. That's when he was brought low.
That's when he saw Christ. And that's when he abandoned
everything else in his salvation but to the Lord. That was the
evidence of a good ground right there. While he was in the whale's
belly because of his sin, when he was utterly unable to deliver
himself, there and then God saved him. And God always saves that
way, so salvation is of the Lord. I know I am a sinner and I know
I am helpless to amend, to propitiate God's justice and wrath. God
saves sovereignly or He doesn't save at all. I cannot be saved
unless God saves me by His will, because of His work done in Christ
and by Christ alone, and because He keeps me in Christ. Christ
alone is not only the propitiation for my sins, but he is the savior
of my soul from first to last. Faith that saves is faith in
Christ alone. And this gift is the gift of
God. He keeps it. He keeps that faith that he gives.
He increases it. And this faith that he gives
is the foundation from which all fruit comes. When the Bible
says salvation is of the Lord, it means that salvation is by
our triune God, God the Father, chose us, and he chose that he
would save us before the world began. And the Son of God laid
his life down, and the Spirit of God raises us to life by a
look at the Lord Jesus Christ in saving faith. This is the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's consider these four
hearers one by one. Remember them? The second thing
in this parable that we saw was that there were four different
grounds. The first three grounds represent
all men by nature. That's the second lesson. The
first lesson, God is sovereign in salvation, in creation, in
providence. The second lesson is that the
first three grounds represent me and you by nature, what we
are in ourselves, without saving grace. Apart from saving grace,
we will not hear the gospel. We won't. We refuse it. We find
no good. We twist it to make God to be
unjust. We twist it to make God to be
unjust and ourselves to be profitable, worthy of saving. Somehow we
have to contribute. We have to make it happen. We
do our part, then God will do his part. All this is the false
religion of today and every day throughout time, even in the
Apostle John's day. Antichrist now and is come. And yet this fourth ground, those
are the first three grounds. The fourth ground teaches us
that God makes a difference by causing some of us by his mercy. And I trust all of you to look
to Christ alone. You might think, well, that seems
so arrogant when you say some of us. You're setting yourself
apart from others. No, I'm not. I'm exactly every
bit as deserving of hell as you are, as anyone is, as the worst
of sinners. No different. It doesn't matter
what your station in life is. I consider that probably to be
better than mine. It doesn't matter what race you
are, what your family is, your location. It doesn't matter. I'm no different than you. The
Lord makes the difference. He had to make the difference
or he would have to condemn me. He's just. He would have to condemn
me if he didn't find a way for his own glory, for his own name's
sake to save me when I deserved everything but salvation. So
it's not a matter of arrogance. It's a matter of glory to God. Unless Christ puts the gospel
in us and keeps the gospel in our heart, what will happen when
we hear the gospel? The devil is going to take it
away. The devil is stronger than we are, but Christ is stronger
than he is. That's what we believe. As a
sinner, this is our only hope. Yes, the devil is stronger than
me. The Lord Jesus, you're stronger than he is. We're foolish. We're
without understanding. And unless the Lord give us light,
we will perish. If he doesn't prepare our hearts,
if he doesn't put a root in us that's in him through faith,
then we will have no root and we will bear no fruit. And then
the second hearer. Remember him? He was the wayside
hearer. Notice how this one on whom the
seed fell, the seed fell and the devil came and took it away.
Consider this one. Why does it happen? Jesus said
he didn't have any understanding. He hears the word, but he doesn't
understand it. Does that describe you? Does that describe me by
nature? There is none that understandeth.
When the gospel is preached, the wayside hearer does not understand
it and never think that you and I are not included in that picture
of the wayside ground. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. They are all, according to God's
estimation, all gone aside. They're all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. That's from Psalm
14. Has this truth of what we are
before God, God having searched all men's hearts, has this truth
ever come home to you? To your heart? Has this thought
ever pressed your conscience that God searched you and your
heart and found nothing good in you? Think about that. This is God's conclusion of searching
your heart. There's none good. Not even you. Note well what God says here.
He did not find any that understood. Therefore, all of us by nature
are what? Wayside ground. We cannot retain what we don't
understand. Have you ever tried to keep things
in memory you didn't understand? I do that sometimes with words. You hear a word, I don't know
what that word means. So you look it up, you try to
remember it, but because you don't use it, it just goes away.
I remember when I was an engineer, they'd talk about complex things,
and I went out of the meeting or went out of that engineering
activity, and I don't even know what they're talking about. How
in the world can I apply it? I don't know. So what happens
when we hear the gospel, we don't understand it, we don't retain
it. The devil comes and takes it away. Jesus asked the blind
man, do you believe on the Son of God? And the blind man said,
who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Unless we understand,
And as the Lord Jesus explains himself to us, we don't know
who to believe. We don't know which Jesus. People
say, I believe in Jesus. Ask them this question, which
Jesus? Who is he? And Jesus said to
them, When he spoke this to the blind man, the blind man said,
Who is he, Lord? Jesus said to him, You have both
seen him, and he it is that is talking with you. And he said,
Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. That's
the result of Christ's given eyes of understanding. The Lord
Jesus must make me known the evil of my sin and God's judgment
and his own holy character, or else I will have no need for
the gospel. I have no interest in the gospel.
It won't mean anything to me. And therefore, even though the
gospel is intellectually understandable, I can understand it intellectually,
but it doesn't mean anything to me because I'm not a sinner.
I don't need a savior. So the gospel means nothing to
me. I haven't been broken. The problem is that I don't see
a need for the gospel when I hear it. Unless I'm a sinner, I will
see no need of Christ and I will find no beauty in him because
nothing about grace will be amazing. Nothing will be amazing about
grace unless the Lord makes that grace amazing to me as a sinner. Our guilt and our filth before
God must be the issue. Remember, it says in the Proverbs,
he says, the beginning of wisdom is what? The fear of the Lord. That's the first lesson. I'm
a sinner before God. I sinned against God and I am
a sinner before God. Like those Israelites said, Lord,
we've sinned. We not only sinned against you, we left you. We
actually served the gods of our enemies. That's the way it is. If we understand this all-important
point, that the gospel is good news to sinners, then we will
understand the parable of the sower. Jesus said, I am not come
to call the righteous. I am not come to call the righteous. Where does that make you want
to be found? I want to be found amongst the
publicans and sinners, don't you? Because I want Jesus to
come and save me. And yet we can't do this. I can't make you know your own
sin. That is God's work. Jesus said
the Spirit of God is the one who convinces the world of sin
because they don't believe him. Therefore, before I as a sinner
can believe on Christ as my Savior, I must be convinced of this.
I cannot do one thing of all God requires, especially to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Like the blind man, who is he,
Lord, that I might believe on him? So the devil takes away the ministry
of the gospel when someone doesn't understand it. He cannot take
away the grace that God gives. When God gives grace, God keeps
that grace there. When he plants the seed, it's
his seed. And his seed will always sprout
in the hearts of his people. Grace can never be taken away,
but if God does not first give us understanding, then the devil
can take away the effects of the ministry of the word. Just
the effects of the ministry. He can't take away the work of
God, but he can take away the effects of the outward ministry
of that word. And that's what Hebrews 6 is
talking about. They were once enlightened. They at once tasted
of the heavenly gift. Those are the outward things.
But so many in Scripture, Jesus said, He did not commit Himself
to them, because He knew all men. He knew His own. The foundation of God standeth
sure, the Lord knoweth them that are His. And then consider the
stony ground hearer. The stony ground hearer. Jesus
said that the seed fell on the rock, and that picture's the
one who, when the gospel is preached, he hears it, and immediately
he rejoices. But when trouble comes because
of the gospel, that stony ground hearer leaves the gospel. So
I want you to understand this first, that temporary faith is
not saving faith. And that sounds a bit harsh,
doesn't it? What do you mean temporary faith is not saving
faith? I just mean that. If we only believe for a time,
it's not God's gift of saving faith. What God gives, He maintains. What God starts, He finishes. What God deposits, He keeps.
The seed God plants, he brings forth fruit from it. His investments
never fail to produce, unlike ours. Remember what the Lord
has said in Numbers chapter 23? He said, God is not a man that
he should lie. neither the son of man, that
he should repent. God does not change, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's the truth. Jesus told
Peter, Peter, Satan has desired to have you that he may sift
you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that your faith fail
not." And that's the only reason Peter's faith did not fail. He
denied the Lord, didn't he? He went out and he wept bitterly.
But what was it? It was the Lord that called him
back in that look of his eye. He called him back. Christ did
not let Peter's faith fail because he will not lose one sheep for
whom he laid his life down. All who see and believe the Lord
Jesus Christ already have everlasting life. The gospel never penetrates
the heart of a stony ground hearer. He hears it academically and
he hears it generally, but he doesn't hear it spiritually and
he doesn't hear it personally. The gospel has no deep root in
him. He leaves when things get tough.
He has other options. That's the difference. A sinner
is convinced that there are no other options. I have but one
Savior, and his work alone can save. But that root has to be
planted by God. But the stony ground hearer doesn't
have that root. He leaves when things get tough
because he has other options. And you and I will never hear
the gospel with any profit to our souls if we only hear it
as if it's one of many alternatives. The gospel must be personal.
I must be guilty. I must be undone. I must be helpless. God must be sovereign over me
and my eternal life. And I must be helpless in my
sin and in my unbelief to do one thing about it. And I must
find Christ to be my whole, all-sufficient, and only answer to God. I personally
must believe by God-given grace. It must be good news to me, not
just general, not just a dictionary definition, but me. I experientially find the gospel
to be good news, and I pant like the deer after knowing Christ
because of that. Who's gonna do that? I'm not. This is the work of God. Christ
has done all to bring me to God. A shallow gospel will never be
worth fighting for. I will only have a shallow appreciation
for any shallow gospel. I will only have a shallow tolerance
for trials on account of a shallow gospel. Now, let me give you
this example. This is a copy of something that
I read a long time ago. It meant a lot to me, and everyone
I've heard talk about it. It has left a great impact on,
so I wrote it down here. There once was this poor man
named Jack. He was a huckster. I think that
means someone who tries to earn money by selling things to other
people on the street. So this man named Jack heard
a woman singing a simple song. The song went like this, I am
a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all
in all. Now this poor man, Jack, turned
the lyrics of that simple song over and over in his mind and
God used those lyrics to teach him that he was a great sinner
and that Christ is great because he came to save sinners, great
sinners. The song helped strip away from
Jack all that he previously trusted so that he might understand how
sinners come to Christ and are accepted by Him. The little song
answered all of his questions. What was his confidence before
God? What was his assurance before God? It was not found in himself,
for he himself was a great sinner and nothing at all. But it was
found in Jesus Christ, who was his all in all. After a time,
Jack asked to join the church. The pastor told Jack that the
deacons would ask him questions, and one deacon said this to Jack,
Jack, please tell us about your experience. To which Jack kindly
replied, I am a poor sinner, nothing at all, but Jesus Christ
is my all in all. Another deacon asked Jack, is
that all you have to say? Yes, said Jack, that's all. So one said, Brother Jack, have
you not many doubts and fears? No, said Jack, I never doubt,
but I am a poor sinner and nothing at all, for I know I am, and
I cannot doubt that Jesus Christ is my all in all, for he says
that he is, and how can I doubt that? Well, said another, but
sometimes I lose my evidences and my graces, and then I get
very sad. Oh, said Jack, I never lose anything, for in the first
place, I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, and no one can
rob me if I have nothing at all. And in the second place, Jesus
Christ is my all in all, and who can rob him? He is in heaven.
I never get richer or poorer, for I am always nothing, but
in him I have. I always have everything. Then
another began to question him this way, but my dear friend,
Jack, don't you sometimes doubt whether you are a child of God?
Well, said he, I don't quite understand you, but I can tell
you I never doubt but that I am a poor sinner and nothing at
all, but that Jesus Christ is my all in all. You see, that's
the evidence of a true child of God. When God convinces us
of our sin and by his grace convinces us that Jesus Christ and him
crucified is all of our standing and the only ground of all of
our hope before God, then we have nowhere else to go. That's
the deep root. Many of Jesus' disciples in John
6 heard him say that unless a man eat his flesh and drink his blood,
he had no spiritual life. They were offended by that. They
did not understand that eating and drinking meant to live in
dependence and in satisfaction on Christ alone for the cleansing
of all my sin and as all of my righteousness and life and acceptance
before God. So the offended disciples left
him They had no root in themselves. And when they left, Jesus turned
to the twelve, and he asked them, Will you also go away? Simon
Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that
Christ, the Son of the living God. The root of the gospel had
gone deep into Peter's heart. He was a great sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ was his all in all. In everything,
what does God require of me? He finds it in His Son. Where's
my assurance? It's in Christ. Where's my preservation
from falling? It's in the Lord Jesus. Christ
had the words of eternal life and Peter staked his eternal
soul on Christ and his word alone. Obviously, that route of saving
grace in Christ to a sinner like Peter meant everything because
grace had made the difference. The stony ground hearer cannot
tolerate trouble, cannot tolerate uncertainty, because the gospel
has not penetrated his heart in this way, therefore he has
no rock on which to stand when the storm is high. Take warning,
you and me, all who hear me, take warning, the one who is
now speaking to you and the one to whom I am now speaking are
all included by this description of the stony heart hearer. By
nature we have a heart of stone. God must remove our stony heart
and give us a heart of flesh. And so God commanded Israel to
circumcise their heart, yet he promised, and had to promise,
that he himself would do it. It must be the case that God
must circumcise our heart because our heart is evil. That's why
he has to do it. We're incapable of changing our
heart. And so we have to think of it this way. Does the trouble
of our sin in our heart drive us back to Christ or does it
drive us from him? Does his word that says, will
you also leave, does that drive us to him or does it drive us
from him? That he is sovereign in our salvation,
does it drive us from him or does it drive us to him? In Isaiah
9.13, the Lord said, they will not seek him who smiteth them. God's chastening is to his sons,
and that chastening produces the effect that the child of
God, chastened by the hand of a saving God and Savior in Christ,
drives the child into his arms. Lord, do whatever seems good
to you, but just save me, I pray. And so the thorn-choked hearer,
Let's consider him, the thorn-choked hearer. The thorn-choked hearer
also describes all of us by nature. The world and its cares dominate
the pursuits and provide satisfaction to our natural heart, don't they?
In this heart, this natural heart, the gospel is just another addition,
just like a diversity in an investment portfolio. I want to make sure
we have all of our bases covered, but my true treasure is over
here. The gospel is just another egg
in my basket, something else I can trust, something else to
add alongside the other things to make sure that I can have
peace and rest. The gospel is not the only thing
to the thorn-choked hearer. You see, that's the difference.
When we're stressed, when we're in trouble, the gospel seems
more important. But when trouble subsides, the
things of the world become more interesting and more important.
Things choke the word. Saving faith never makes itself
known in this heart. This third hearer lives not by
faith but by sight. The struggle of sin never drives
him to his knees to Christ to come to Him, never causes him
to cry to the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver him from his sins,
and never causes him to take God's promise in prayer and plead
to the Lord Jesus Christ as his only hope for salvation from
his wickedness and the justice he deserves. God promised in
Romans 6.14, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are
not under the law, but under grace. Not your own strength,
grace. But that is never seized in prayer
by the thorn-choked hearer. He never cries with Paul, oh,
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death. And he never cries with the psalmist, iniquities prevail
against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. He never cries with Paul, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. He never says with Paul, oh that
I might be found in him not having mine own righteousness. The things
in this world are substitutes to that man for satisfaction
in Christ. But notice, again, this is your
heart and my heart by nature. We're satisfied with everything,
like the Israelites we read about in Judges 10. We will serve the
gods of our enemies and put our trust in them who are no gods. The common lesson, the essential
truth from these first three hearers is now coming clearly
into focus. Our common lack by nature and
our great need is to hear the gospel of the grace of God as
sinners. And God must plow our hearts
so that we see ourselves as nothing but sin. And into that fallow
ground that he has plowed, he must sow the seed of Christ and
him crucified. money, music, friends, all give
pleasure, all have some place in our confidence in this world. But where can a sinner find any
refuge in his conscience from the heat of God's wrath against
his sin but Christ? What goods compare to the debt
Christ remitted by His blood? What can give peace and joy and
satisfy my conscience but knowing that Christ is my answer and
my advocate and my obedience in His obedience unto death?
And what can enable me to endure every trial, even that trial
of judgment, knowing that God only receives me as He receives
His Son for Christ's sake? That's the only thing. And so
the third hearer never talks about how Christ is precious
to his soul and conscience. Everything but Christ is the
subject of his conversation. There's no struggle with sin,
no fear that finds all comfort in Christ. There's no rejoicing
in Christ's triumph over my sin. There's no longing for the day
of deliverance from the sinful body, and there's no interest
in growing in grace. The wretchedness of my person
and the preciousness of Christ has not made everything else
a distraction that gets in the way of knowing him. The cares
of the world all find a higher priority in my time and in my
heart over the gospel. Our heart is corrupt and faith
in Christ is impossible for us. The leopard can't change his
spots. How can we then, who are accustomed to do evil, do any
good? A new heart must be given to
us. Souls must be resurrected. Christ must take root in our
souls. He must plant himself there and
become our only trust and desire. And now, let's finally look at
the last fourth ground, the honest and good heart. What is a honest
and good heart? Surely it is not our natural
heart. Our natural heart is deceitful
above all things. It's desperately wicked. Deceit
is the opposite of honest. Desperately wicked is the opposite
of good. Scripture is full of examples
that describe an honest heart and a good heart. Listen to this.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth
such as be of a contrite spirit. Who did that? not the man, God
in his affliction. Thou hast in faithfulness afflicted
me. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, but now have I kept thy word. A broken heart is a man that
knows his heart doesn't work, not in spiritual things. The
man with a broken heart is ready to hear the gospel. He's very
submissive to hear the gospel. Like a child brought to the end
of his stubborn and willful rebellion, Needing his father's love and
acceptance, he comes to his father and he lays down his opposition
and he embraces his father in love and glad trust. The man
with a broken heart is ready to hear the gospel that Christ
has done all and is all for me. A broken heart must find all
of my salvation outside of myself and in Christ alone. And now
this, and only this, gives us assurance that it's all in Christ.
Such a heart comes boldly into the holiest of all, because it
comes convinced that I come by Christ alone, and God has received
him. Now, here is the most concise
example from scripture that I can find of an honest and good heart.
What is it? Listen to these words. God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. That's an honest heart, isn't
it? He was a saved man. Jesus said he was justified.
Therefore, his heart was honest and good. What did he say? God, look to the Lord Jesus Christ
as my propitiation. This man was honest. He was convinced
that he was a sinner. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He could find no one worse than
himself. He therefore had only one plea, that God would have
mercy upon him in Christ and for Christ's sake alone, and
not for anything in himself. Not now, not ever. He was honest
in this. He was convinced of it. He believed
it. And his heart was good. How was his heart good? He understood
and was persuaded that for God, unlike men, to be merciful to
me, a sinner, he must satisfy his own justice and glorify his
own righteousness in my salvation. And so Daniel prayed, O Lord,
according to all Thy righteousness I beseech Thee, let Thine anger
and Thy fury be turned away from us. The truth is this, as a sinner
I cannot have peace in my conscience, not as a sinner, until I know
that God is at peace with me in his justice. And there's only
one way a sinner can see that, is when he sees God made his
son the propitiation for our sins. God has taken away his
wrath, therefore I can have peace. The publican had a good heart
because he asked God to look upon the sacrifice of Christ
and receive Christ's offering as full compensation and full
satisfaction for his sin. This is what the word merciful
means in Luke 18.13. It means propitious. That is,
be gracious to me on the ground of God's satisfied justice. The good heart, therefore, is
a heart that looks to Christ alone. You see, I'm a sinner,
that's the honest heart. A good heart? God accepts me
for Christ alone. Abel, remember Cain and Abel? He had a good heart. He offered
to God a more excellent sacrifice. If God accepted the sacrifice,
God accepted him who offered the sacrifice. No man offered
Christ. The Lord Jesus offered Himself,
but He offered Himself for His people, and God commands us to
look to Him and come to Him by His blood. What are we going
to do then? If we're honest, and God has
given us that honest and good heart, we're going to go to Christ.
We're going to look to Him. It's what God thinks of Christ. It's what God thinks of His blood
that saves. It's what he thinks of his son
alone. If we could ever get that in our heart, then we would have
an honest and good heart. My sincerity, my experience,
all my works, and everything that has to do with me is less
than nothing. It's worse than nothing. The
publican's prayer is the prayer of an honest and good heart.
That is what faith is. Faith looks only to Christ and
comes to God by Him. Faith excludes itself. A good
heart believes that only by the death and burial and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ will I ever be pleasing and acceptable
to God. That's it. The gospel is about
God providing, God working out all that is necessary that God
requires to save a hell-deserving sinner like me. When he accepts
his son and his offering of himself, the only issue in salvation is
this, did God accept the sacrifice? Romans 4.25 says this, He was
delivered for our offenses, He was raised again for our justification. Is that enough? Christ made atonement
on that day. When he had purged our sins by
himself, then he ascended and took his place on high. God is
satisfied with him. God rewarded him. By his resurrection,
God justified him and all for whom he died, because God saw
his blood, and with him he was satisfied for his people. And
God received his Son from the dead and received all for whom
he died with his Son. And now the Lord Jesus Christ
sits on his Father's right hand and rules over heaven and earth
on heaven's throne. He is now bringing those whom
he justified by his blood to see their justification by God-given
faith. Our faith doesn't produce some
decision in God to justify us. Faith is not righteousness. Faith
looks away from itself to see its righteousness in Christ.
There's a difference here between faith and righteousness. We couldn't believe there was
a righteousness by which God could accept us if it hadn't
already been provided and established and declared to us by God. Faith
doesn't make it happen. Faith sees that it's done. All
Christ died to save are justified. And now finally, I want to mention
this fruit. What is the fruit that is produced
by this root of faith in the Lord Jesus? First of all, believers
themselves are fruit to God. In the gospel ministry, God's
word always accomplishes his purpose. God accomplishes his
work by his word. Colossians 1, 5, and 6 says,
the word of truth of the gospel which is come to you as it is
in all the world and brings forth fruit as it does also in you,
in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God
in truth." We're the fruit. We are his workmanship. That's
the fruit. He produced it. When we know
the grace of God and truth in Christ as revealed in the gospels,
then we ourselves are fruit to God. And secondly, Believers
also bear fruit. How does faith work? Faith works
by love. The woman who was forgiven a
debt she couldn't pay one penny of, she loved the Lord Jesus
much because she had been forgiven much. Psalm 130 and verse four,
there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. That's the fruit. It's the fruit
of God's work, believed in the heart of a sinner. We all with
open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed
into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit
of God. God does the work. In 2 Corinthians
3 verse 18, the root produced by the gospel in the heart of
a believer is what? Faith. Faith in Christ. And faith
works by love, Galatians 5, verse 6. Faith expresses its fruit
as love to God and love to His people. We love Him because He
first loved us, and we love Him because He forgave us all our
sins. Psalm 116 says, I love the Lord
because He has heard my voice and my supplications, because
He has inclined His ear unto me, therefore I will call upon
Him as long as I live. Faith loves Christ for bearing
our sins in his own body on the tree. And love is in proportion
to our faith, isn't it? What do you do when you realize
how little you love Christ? Or what do you do when you wonder
if you love him at all? You come back to the same root, don't
you? I'm a great sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. And then with looking to Christ
comes that fruit of faith and love. Every believer is given
a measure of faith. God gives it. On his terms, in
his proportion. In terms of quantity, we have
different measures. But in terms of quality, we all
believe the same Lord Jesus. Why do we pray this then? Isn't
this what causes us to pray? Because isn't it faith that causes
us to pray this way? Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
you would give us this heart that is honest and good because
we know ourselves to be sinners. And you've convinced us that
in our sovereign Savior alone, there is a complete and perfect
salvation worked out by Him to the glory of God. And this will
be our praise and joy throughout eternal ages. Help us even now. now to give glory to you, now
to give honor and ascribe to you all dominion and power and
trust you to deliver us from our sins and to come to you at
all times for this saving faith, this deliverance from our sin,
this heart we need to know and worship you. In Jesus' name we
pray.