And it came to pass afterward
that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and
showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the twelve
were with him." Glad tidings of the kingdom of God, that's
the gospel. And certain women, which had been healed of evil
spirits and infirmities. Mary, called Magdalene, out of
whom went seven devils. And Joanna, the wife of Cusa,
Herod's steward. Now that's amazing. Here we have
King Herod's steward, and here's his wife, and she was a follower
of Jesus. Isn't that amazing? And Susanna,
and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.
Wouldn't you like to have seen that? All these ladies doing
whatever they could. Giving whatever they had in order
to make it possible for Jesus to go from town to town and place
to place and preach the gospel. And when much people were gathered
together and were come to Him out of every city, He spake by
a parable. Now, before I speak about this,
I'm going to let you know that I've read this and I've heard
it preached on many times in my life. I've never felt comfortable
with this passage of scripture. I don't know about you, and I
will address that in a minute, but it always arrests me. But that's the Word of God. It's
supposed to do that. He says, this is the parable. He spake, verse 5, a sower went
out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by
the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air
devoured it. And some fell upon a rock, and
as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked
moisture. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. Another fell on
good ground and sprang up and bare fruit a hundredfold, And
when he 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. 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. For a
while they believe, which for a while they 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 with patience. Let's ask the
Lord to be with us. Father, we pray that you would
give us grace to understand this parable of our Lord Jesus Christ
and his explanation of it as it applies to each one of us.
Lord, we pray that we would be given by your sovereign, free,
and almighty grace, ears to hear, that we would know what this
gospel is that's preached, and it would root itself deep into
our hearts, and it would accomplish in us your purpose your work
that you've purposed from the foundation of the world to bring
forth fruit to your name, to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and we would learn to walk with you in this faith, in this grace. Lord, open our hearts, pour your
word in, give us grace to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. In his
name we pray, amen. So the first thing I see, as
I said in reading Luke 8, verses 4-15, is we see these four different
types of grounds, which in Jesus' explanation are four different
types of hearers. Now, when you look at this parable
and you read it, what is your reaction? I hope that your reaction
is like the disciples' reaction, Lord, what does it mean? What
does it mean? And I hope that you also have
this other reaction, which I believe the entire Word of God is intended
to do to us. It's meant to strip us down.
It's meant to make us feel our poverty and nakedness and our
wretchedness before God, so that we might seek the Lord and find
all of our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That, I think,
is the intention of this parable. It's to cause us to look to Christ
only. And it's to cause us to call
upon the Lord in looking to Him, that He would save us and not
leave us to ourselves. So those are my opening observations
about this parable as I've looked at it, and thought about it,
and prayed about it, and studied it. And I think that if you keep
that in your mind, then it will help us as we read the entire
Bible, especially this particular parable. So there's a title to
this message. I would call it, One Seed for
Hearers. That may not be the best title,
but it helps organize my thoughts around this. And the first thing
I would see here is that this parable reveals our great need,
our great need. And what is that need? It's to
savingly hear and believe the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
unto salvation. That's our great need. We need
to hear the Gospel. The seed, according to verse
11, look at it again. He says, the parable, I'm going
to go from Jesus' explanation starting at verse 11. He says,
now the parable is this, the seed is the Word of God. There
can be no mistake about it. The sower is the one who goes
forth with the Word of God. The Lord Jesus Christ sent his
apostles, his prophets, his ministers, in olden times and even today,
with one seed. One thing that he compares to
seed, which is the Word of God, the Gospel of our salvation.
Our great need is to hear that gospel and that it would bear
fruit in us unto salvation and eternal life. That's our great
need. Many, according to this scripture,
many, there were four soils, four different types of ground,
many here, but do not believe. They are described here by these
four different grounds on which the seed fell. They never produced
fruit to God. Only those who truly believe
the gospel, who truly believe it, are themselves fruit. That
is, when the gospel comes to us, and it causes us to look
to Christ alone, that gospel, in itself, is bearing fruit to
God. Jesus said this to His apostles. He says, You have not chosen
Me. In John 15, verses 15 and 16,
He says, You have not chosen Me. But I have chosen you, and ordained
you." Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God. He chose His
disciples. He ordained His disciples. And
this was the purpose for which He ordained them, that they might
go forth and bear fruit. And in that context, the whole
chapter of John 15, it was to abide in Him. He said, without
Me you can do nothing. So that's the first thing. The
gospel is intended to bring forth fruit to God through the conversion
of those to whom God would send it. And God sent His gospel by
His apostles. He sends it today by His ministers.
The sower doesn't bring his own seed. He brings the seed of God. The seed of the Word of God.
Paul, in Romans chapter 1, told the Romans, he says, wanted to come to you many times. The reason I wanted to come to
you is so that I might have some fruit of you, even as among all
the Gentiles I go to throughout the world." He says this, I'll
read it to you in Romans 1.13, just so you hear what he's saying.
He says to the Romans, when he's writing the epistle to the Romans,
he tells them, it was my intention to come to you. Verse 13, "...I
would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed
to come to you, but was led hitherto." I was led here and there. "...that
I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other
Gentiles." He wrote the gospel to the Romans in order that that
gospel would itself produce the fruit to God. So we are, when
we believe, we are that fruit of the gospel. We ourselves are
that fruit. Paul loved the Romans and he
wrote to them with that purpose. Every time you find yourself
loved by the ministers of God, that's an expression of God's
love to you. The fact that God would send
a man, or men, not just one, but many, who bring the gospel
and pray for your soul and desire that you would hear it and believe
it, that's God's love expressed to you. And it's his gospel coming
to you. And so Paul's mind was that he
might have that fruit among the Gentiles, among the Romans. And
he told the Corinthians this, he says, when I come to you,
I didn't come to you speaking with you with the wisdom of man's
words. I did not come speaking with man's wisdom. But I had
this, I determined not to know anything among you. saved Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Paul knew a lot of things. He
was a wise man, very intelligent. But he laid aside everything
else in order to bring the one thing that God had given Him
to take and He knew was the one thing that could bear fruit to
God in the hearts of God's people. That was the gospel. The gospel
is the declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
It's about who He is. And it's about what He accomplished
in His death and in His resurrection and in His rule in heaven for
His people. So that's the first thing. The
second thing is that the gospel, the Word of God, when it comes
to us, This is attended by God's Spirit and we're given faith
by His Spirit. And that faith that He gives
to us, that faith that looks to Christ and finds all in Christ. All that it needs to come before
God, cleansed from all our sin. All that faith needs to come
to God in a robe of perfect righteousness before God. All that we need
as sinners to come to God, to know Him, and to love Him, and
to worship Him, faith finds it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
finding that in Christ, that faith in us is expressed in such
a way that we live according to the truth of the gospel. So
that in our lives, we do what we do out of love to God and
love for His people. It says in Galatians chapter
5, verse 6, I think, faith worketh by love. It's expressed out of
love. So that's the second thing. When the gospel comes to us,
it produces that effect in us as we look to Christ. So that's
our great need, is to hear the gospel. It's to remain in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's to continue. When we believe
the gospel, we don't... It's not like... I grew up hearing
this, and it was false. It was wrong. It was not the
gospel. No one could be saved by hearing that gospel. Well,
what I heard was this. Salvation is when you come and
make a decision. Or you come to that point in
your life when you commit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you decide to follow Him. You make a turnabout in your
life and you do what's right. There's a problem with all of
that. Because naturally, naturally we have this nature in us that
doesn't think right about God. We think wrong about God. We
do not know God. We can't receive the things.
A natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to him. So we don't know God. But we
think we know God. We think we can know God. We
say, well, if anyone can, I do. I've got it figured out. And
so when we're in this mindset of who God is and how we're to
approach Him, the way we think, we come to Him by nature. is
that we come to Him on the basis of what He finds in us. And so
our natural inclination is to say, well, I messed up. My life's
a mess. I need to straighten up. I need
to clean things up. Sweep away these things that
are embarrassing and shameful. And make me respectable before
God and men. It makes me feel good in my conscience.
It makes me respectable before men. I've cleaned up my life.
I've put my life on the right direction. I've turned over a
new leaf. I've chosen to follow Jesus. And then we ask God, change me
so that I'll look right, do right, think right, and all these things.
And our whole focus is on us. That's our natural inclination.
But God comes and he teaches us In the Gospel, through the
work of His Spirit, He plows up the ground and He teaches
us a lesson that we could not learn otherwise. That all of
your salvation and hope, your acceptance before God, your justification
before Him, all your righteousness is never going to be found in
you. You can never look to yourself. You'll have to live in looking
outside of yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. What God thinks
of Him is all that God accepts from sinners. And that's the
gospel. And that's the word that comes
in the preaching of the gospel. Now, God wants us to know this.
He wants us to have this before us. Because this parable is about
this gospel, this seed that's sown. The first thing we see
here, look at it with me in Luke chapter 8. He said unto his disciples,
when his disciples asked him in verse 9, of Luke 8, they said,
what might this parable be? Listen to his answer, because
this is the introduction to his sermon, to his explanation of
this little parable. 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. Now, this immediately rankles,
it rubs the porcupine quills in the wrong direction, doesn't
it? Because what this does is it says, God gives an understanding
heart to some, but he does not give it to others. What is your
reaction to that? What is my reaction to that first
thing we think of? The first thing we think of?
That's not fair. Why would God do that? Why would
God give this to some and not to others? I don't think that
that's a fair way to go. And why do we think that? Why do we think that? Well, we
think that because we think that if God were fair, He would treat
people alike. He would do for everybody the
same. He would consider the fact that
there's really nothing different so much about me than that other
person, that you couldn't also show grace to me. And we begin
to think, as I said, like a natural man, that God's favor and grace
toward us is somehow influenced by what He finds in us. But this
is the error that we make in our thinking about who God is.
Because God's love is never based on what he expects to find or
finds in us. It's never based on that. Think
about it. The eternal God created the world. It says in Jeremiah 31 verse
3, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Now that love of God is
everlasting. It doesn't change. It's like
Him. And it preceded the foundations of the earth. How could that
love be influenced by what you did? He hadn't yet created you.
All that you are comes from God. And so, if God is love, and He
loves His people, that love could not have been conditioned upon
what He found in them. In fact, He goes on in Jeremiah
31.3 and He says, I have drawn you." You see, God's
love isn't just something that resides in His heart hoping you
are going to do something. God's love takes action and His
action is irrepressible in its effects. It's efficacious. It
accomplishes His will in all cases. God's love will not be
frustrated. God will have those that he loves. But you say, well, that's a problem. I have a problem with that. You
know what? I do not. Why? Why can you say you don't
have a problem with that? Is it because you think that
somehow you're more spiritual than the other guy? Or have something
about you that you can achieve by God's going to love you? Not
at all. The reason I'm glad that God's love and His grace and
His salvation is free, and it depends not on what He finds
in me, but what He finds in Himself, in Christ, is because that's
the only hope that I have. You see, if God depended upon
me in any way, in something that He found in me, then I have no
hope. Because I know that I'll mess
it up. I've already messed it up. All have sinned. It says
in Psalm 14 verse 2-3, "...the Lord looked down from heaven
to see if there were any that did good, and He said, There's
none righteous, no, not one." They're all gone out of the way.
They're all together become filthy. That was God's assessment. When
He looked at my heart, and He looked at your heart, and He
looked at every man's heart, starting with Adam to the last
man on earth. That's the universal announcement
and proclamation and assessment from God's throne who judges
right. He's not so picky that he can't find good. It's obvious
to God. He cannot tolerate sin. And until
God shows us that we're sinners, until He shows us that we have
no hope, in ourselves or in anyone else, not until then will we
understand that God's mercy is all of our hope. And the fact
that He would show mercy unreservedly because of reasons found only
in Himself, That gives me great comfort. That gives me assurance
that my salvation is sure and certain. And it will not fail.
Because God cannot fail. He will not change. He cannot
change. He cannot lie. He will have and
do all of His pleasure. So that's the first thing we
see here at the outset. God said in Exodus 33, 18 and
19, that when Moses said, show me your glory. God said, I will be merciful
to whom I will be merciful. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And
Paul draws the conclusion on that in Romans chapter 9 verse
16. He says, Therefore it is not
of him that willeth. It's not of a man who wills,
but it's of God who shows mercy. Salvation is of God's will. And
until we are humbled in the dust before God as sinners, we cannot
hear the good news of the gospel. So that's the first thing you
see here. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3, 2, not all men have faith.
But we know that salvation is by faith. If not all men have
faith, then some, only some do. Where does that faith come from?
Well, Ephesians 2.8.9 says, Faith is the gift of God. It's not
of works, but of grace. Faith, therefore, comes from
God. It comes because God is gracious. And God is gracious
to whom He will. And since it's a gracious gift,
it doesn't depend on what He finds in us, but only upon His
own goodness, His character. Therefore, God gives faith. And
it's by hearing the Word of God that He gives faith. And so,
when we look at this parable, understand this. In fact, look
with me at a couple of verses in the book of Romans. Romans
chapter 1. These are going to help anchor
our thoughts. Romans chapter 1, he says in
verse 16, Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Listen to these next words, "...for
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek." It doesn't matter whether
you're a Jew or a Greek, the only power of God there is to
salvation is the gospel. That's the first thing we learn.
Look at verse 10, I mean chapter 10 of Romans. Chapter 10 shows
us where faith comes from, how God gives faith. He says in chapter
10, verse 16, But they have not all obeyed the gospel. So we
know we're talking about the gospel, right? But for Isaiah,
that's Esaias here in the New Testament, Isaiah saith, Lord,
who hath believed our report? Now that verse is quoted from
Isaiah 53 verse 1. What is Isaiah 53 all about?
It's about the sufferings, the vicarious substitutionary sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ, having been made sin, the sin of his
people, According to the will of God, Him taking that sin on
Himself, and as the High Priest, offering Himself, His own body,
a human soul and body, to God with our sins, the sins of God's
people, in His own body, and suffering for those sins, made
His, and answering for them so that God received satisfaction
for sins. That's what Isaiah 53 is about.
It's about the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the gospel. And he says here, listen, in
verse 16. And they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah
said, let's see, where am I? Lord, who hath believed our report.
The gospel is that report. So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God." Hearing by the Word of God. Look
at Isaiah 55. I'm just taking you to a few
places so you can see this. Isaiah chapter 55, I'll read
the first three verses there. He says this, "...ho everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money,
come ye, buy and eat." Notice how God appeals to mankind, and
He especially takes notice of those who are bankrupt, impoverished,
they have nothing to bring. You that have no money. Come,
and without money, buy wine and milk." That's what he says. Without
price. You can't put a price on it,
but you come and buy it without money. And then he raises this
question, because we're self-deceived and we're constantly pursuing
things that will not satisfy or give us life. He says, "...wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor
for that which satisfieth not?" And now listen to these next
few verses, these next few words. Hearken diligently. Hearken means
listen. Hearken diligently unto me and
eat ye that which is good. Eating refers to believing, faith
in whatever God is saying. And let your soul delight itself
in fatness. God's word reveals Christ and
Him crucified. God preaches that word to us
as sinners. As sinners, who have nothing
in ourselves, spend all of our labor and all of our money on
things that will not give us life. God says, hearken to me
and eat that which is good and delight yourself in fatness.
There's an abundance here. You'll never need to eat anything
else. And then He says this, "...incline
your ear and come unto Me. Here and your soul shall live."
Do you see that? This is speaking about the Word
of God. One more verse in 1 Peter chapter 1. I'm just having you
turn to these so you'll be able to look at them in your own time
again. 1 Peter chapter 1. Yeah, verse 23. He says, I'll
back up. Verse 18, for as much as you
know, 1 Peter 1 verse 18, for as much as you know that you
were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times
for you." It wasn't a surprise to God that man sinned. It wasn't
a surprise to God how He would save His people from their sins.
It was ordained. It was put in place by the will
of God, from before the foundation of the world. Verse 21. who by
Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed, the precious
blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, by Him you do believe in
God, that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory,
that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing you have purified
your souls and obeying the truth, that obedience of faith, through
the Spirit, unto unfeigned love..." Unfeigned means not hypocritical. "...unfeigned love of the brethren,
see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently."
Listen to these next few words. "...being born again, born of
God's Spirit, not of corruptible seed, But of incorruptible by
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." What's
the parable about? It's about the seed, isn't it?
The one seed and the four hearers. How are we born of God? By that
incorruptible seed, the Word of God. And listen, "...which
liveth and abideth forever for all flesh as is grass, That means,
look, when you consider us in our natural selves, what we are
in ourselves, it's just grass. Everything we can produce is
only going to last for a moment. Our life is only going to last
for a moment. Grass is a temporary thing. It only pops up and then dries
up and blows away. He says, "...all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The
grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away." But listen carefully.
But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you." What is the power
of God to salvation? The gospel. What is it that we
hear that our soul might live? The gospel. What causes us, what
does God use to birth us by the Spirit of God? The gospel. What
does the Spirit do when He births us? He gives us faith in Christ.
That's the subject of the gospel. Jesus is the author and finisher
of faith. He's the one by whom faith is
given and he gives it to us by sending his ministers to preach
his word, the gospel, and he sends his spirit to attend the
preaching of that to give us life in our souls that we might
live. Jesus said in John, you can turn
back now to Luke 8, Jesus said in John 6.63, the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak to you,
they are spirit and they are life. The spirit itself gives
life. God's spirit must give us life. And He gives us life
when He shows us Christ and He gives us that gift of faith by
grace to look to Christ only. It's entirely opposite to what
we would have expected God to do in our salvation. Give me
something to do. The Jews in John 6.27 said, what
should we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus said,
this is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has
sent. Look away and abandon all hope
in yourself and look to Christ who died, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God. Luke chapter 8. So, that was
the first thing that I wanted you to see. That the seed is
the Word of God. It's applied to us graciously
by the Spirit of God. It's the one seed that's preached.
And when God preaches that seed, there are four different soils. The Gospel is not about how to
get married, and have children, and go to work, and have a life,
and all these things in this world. The Bible is a book of
salvation. What is important? You hear on
the airwaves all sorts of noises and voices. People arguing and
blaming the problems on this, that and the other thing. That
religion and those politicians and those terrorists and all
these things. And all that does is a big distraction to what's
important. God is speaking to you from His
Word. He's speaking about your sin
and about His Son. That's what's important. The
rest of this stuff is just noise. And it deceives and distracts
us. And if we let it, it will choke out the very Word of God.
So God says here in Luke chapter 8, He wants us to know this. These four kinds of soils. The
first one is called the wayside soil. And one thing I notice
about this is I would never include this word in the name of my church.
Surprisingly, have you ever seen a church with the name Wayside
in it? What does that mean? You want to be a Wayside church?
A church where the seed falls, and the hearers don't even understand
it, and Satan comes and takes the word away? I don't. I would
never include that name in mine, but that's just a personal preference.
Maybe there's an understanding there. I wouldn't do that, would
you? The wayside ground. Let's consider
these four grounds, just briefly. What is this wayside ground?
Well, I want you to take the words that we see here in this
verse. He says, verse 12, those by the wayside are they that
hear, They hear the gospel preached.
They're not out there in a Buddhist temple somewhere hearing the
Buddhist gospel. No, they're hearing the gospel
in a place where it's really preached. They heard Jesus. He preached the gospel. They
heard John the Baptist and the apostles. They preached the gospel.
You're hearing the gospel this morning. But the gospel fell
on these hearers, according to Jesus, and the devil came and
he took away the word out of their hearts, lest they should
believe and be saved. Well, then you could say, well,
it's the devil's fault. No. The devil did this because there
was something wrong with the ground. This was the wayside
ground. It was trampled ground, hard
ground, where people walk all the time. It was unplowed ground. Again, whose fault is that? Now, if you say, well, it's somebody
else's fault, then somebody else has got to deal with the problem.
But if it's your fault, then you've got to deal with the problem.
And that's what God wants you to understand. That sin is not
someone else's fault, it's your fault. Because when it's your
fault, then you'll come to God like the publican and say, Lord,
have mercy upon me, the sinner. And he meant, look to Christ,
be propitious, be satisfied with what you've done in your son.
Look to him and what he's done and receive from him satisfaction
for all that I've done wrong. And receive from him obedience
for all I could never do, that I might be received in grace.
That's what he meant. Be merciful, be propitious to
me the sinner. But these people, this kind of
guy, and when I read about these four soils, we always think,
ah, I know. That person is just like that. Oh, that person is
just like that. I can see these people falling
into these slots. And I must be in the good slot.
But as I think about this, I have to tell you in my own conscience
and mind. I can find myself in every one
of these slots. Have you? I believe that the
Lord is describing our nature, what we are by nature here. By
nature, we're just like these wayside hearers, trampled down.
We don't care. We hear the word and we're indifferent
to it. It comes, it's like, it doesn't
sink in. We don't understand it. We don't
understand the implications of it. Especially this, we don't
hear the gospel as a sinner. If you don't hear the gospel
as a sinner, it makes no sense to you. Who cares if Jesus is
the only Savior of sinners? I'm not a sinner. I don't need
that. Who cares that He can raise someone from the dead? I'm not
dead to God. I don't need that. Or if I do,
it's just kind of, you know, what was that you said? Oh yeah,
hold on, I've got to hear this other thing. It doesn't even
sink in. It doesn't seem important. I
used to get my hair cut where I lived before. The lady who
cut my hair, cut my hair for years. Since probably 20 years. Frequently, not every time I
would be with her, but frequently I would talk to her about the
Lord. One time I gave her a sermon on a tape. I said, do you have
a tape player? Yes. I will bring you a sermon.
And I gave it to her and I told her, I said, this sermon is the
best sermon I've ever heard. It's the greatest gift I can
give you. Please listen to it. She took
it. A week or two or whenever I came
back the next time I asked her, did you hear that? Yeah, I listened
to it, but it just didn't make any sense to me. It just didn't
mean anything to me. That's a wayside hearer. We hear
the gospel and it just... You know, I'm just, there's just
nothing, it didn't take, there's no traction here. It didn't mean
anything to me. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. And so when they hear the gospel,
there's no need. And having no need, there's no
beauty in Christ. And having no beauty in Christ,
they don't care. They don't see God as the judge
of all. They don't think of themselves ever as standing before God in
judgment and having to answer for their sins. This is the wayside
hearer. They're dull. They're completely
at peace in the castle. Their heart is completely at
peace as captives in the castle of Satan. He rules completely
there. And they're happy to have it
that way. They aren't even aware that they're deceived. They go
on. And if you talk to them, it's
like, there's no interest here. That's a wayside hearer. Even
before the word of God has any effect, the devil comes and takes
it away. You know what I say to that?
Lord, don't leave me to myself. Don't let the word hit my heart
and bounce off like a wayside hearer. Now the next one we see
here is the stony ground. Look at this in verse 13. Jesus
said, they on the rock. Apparently there was a rock.
Some of the seed just came out. You know how it's hard to get
some stones out of the field? You're going to have a field
around some of these huge boulders. They're too heavy to move, so
you just leave it there. After a while there's some dust
on top of it. Some of the seed fell there. The seed immediately
sprouted, it says. That seed sprouted up. But when
it sprouted up, it says in verse 13, it's like those when they
hear the gospel, they receive the word with joy, and these
have no root. For a while they believe, and
in time of temptation they fall away. Here is another case. Again, we can think of somebody.
Oh, that's Bill over there. That's Mary over here. I know
they're just like this. That's not me. No! That's what
the purpose of the Word of God is, is to come and drill down
into you and open your heart. God's Word is like a two-edged
sword. It divides us under the soul
and spirit and opens up the thoughts and the motives and the intents
of the heart. There's no creature in God's
eyes. Everything is naked and open
before Him with whom we have to do. That's what the Word of
God does. Let that Word open your heart. Find your natural
nature inclined to be just like a rock. When God's Word is thrown
on it, immediately it seems like these people, they find it. Their
reaction is, I hear it, I understand it. It makes sense. It's great. Finally, things make sense to
me. And so they come and they talk
about it. Man, this is great. I'm glad
I found this place. I heard what you're saying. They
come and they come again. And then suddenly, they haven't
realized the implications of what the gospel is. They haven't
realized that, well, if that's true... then only those who are
trusting Christ, who believe Christ, are saved. I've heard
people say, well, you know, this person who died, they believed,
I mean, they went forward in church when they were younger,
but as they got older, they fell away, and then they died, and
then, well, we think that they were saved back then. I don't think so. Because the
believer is not described as someone who has believed. It's
always a believing in the active continuous sense. So it says
in 1 Peter 2 verse 4, he says, to whom coming. God describes
our faith as coming. It's a continual process. Jesus
used the words in the King James, it has an ETH on the end. Whosoever
believeth. It means not just once in the
past, but an active ongoing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For
example, look at John chapter 6. I'll read these verses to
you. Jesus is talking about believing
here. He says in verse 53, Jesus said to them, in verse 53 of
John 6, "...verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no
life in you." And then he says it in the present tense, he says,
"...whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh
is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
As the Living Father has sent me, And I live by the Father,
so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. I would have
read that when I was a young person in this church and I was
talking about my life. I went to so many different denominations. Baptist and Pentecostal and Reformed
and all these things, I tell you. These things aren't understood
predominantly. But when I read that, having
those things in my mind that I was taught when I was a youth,
I would have understood this. When I made a decision for Jesus,
back when I was 7 years old or whatever, when I was baptized,
I ate and drank then. But the Lord is talking about
something that we do because this is our life. The only way
I can live to God is by depending, coming to God on what Jesus has
done. And always coming to Him. We
see ourselves as sinners before God in need of an answer to God
in judgment. To know God. Who are you? What
are you like? And we find all of it answered
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our conscience is sprinkled with
His blood by drinking and eating from Him. This is what it means
to believe on Him. So these who have this rock ground,
are those who hear the Word of God initially, it seems good
to them. But when the implications come,
and they realize that, well maybe that means that I wasn't saved,
or maybe that means that my family isn't saved because they don't
believe this gospel. And they're challenged by these
things. Maybe they're even persecuted.
Trouble comes. And it's like, you know, it's
not really worth that much because they're not convicted of the
truth of it. They're not convinced in their
soul and persuaded that this is their life. Christ is their
life. They have nowhere else to go.
And so what do they do? They leave. They leave. It says they believe for a while
and then they go away. It doesn't use the words go away,
but that's what it means when it says believe for a while.
When time of temptation comes, they fall away. When trouble
and affliction because of the Word comes, and that comes, they
fall away. Even inwardly, when trouble comes
and you look at your life and say, well, you know, things aren't
working out by a salvation that's done by Christ alone. I've got
to do my part. I've got to fix this. This is
not working. Pull out the knife. Let's commit
some circumcision here. Let's do something to make things
look better on the outside because It's not good enough just to
believe I've got to look for something else. So we start adding
things in there. And they fall away. Christ isn't
enough. If Christ isn't all, then He's
nothing. And He must be our all. Lord, help me not be a big stone
where the seed doesn't sink in. Give me ears to hear. Do you
hear that? Does your heart cry out, Lord
don't leave me here? Let's look at the next one now.
The seed that fell among thorns. Now this is the one that really
is carefully crafted to set you off of your confidence, isn't
it? Verse 14, when 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. This is the ground where there's
other things growing. It's not just a weed-free ground. There's thorns and weeds in it.
And if you leave the weeds growing very long, out at our house they
have star thistle and all kinds of weeds. It doesn't matter what
you do. You can spray Roundup on them and the next year they
seem to come back. It doesn't get rid of the seeds. They spring
up and choke it. If you leave them alone, there
will be no fruit, no vegetables to eat. And so the Lord describes this
ground here as the thorn-choked ground. And just like the other
two grounds, I believe that we have experienced this in our
own heart. I know I have. Where the Word of God comes to
us, and yet things distract us. The cares of this world. What's
that? Well, it's the natural things we have to take care of.
Jobs, finances, family. And we make those things a priority.
Well, naturally we have to make them some priority, don't we?
I mean, I've got to eat, I've got to provide for my family.
That's a wholesome thing to do. These things that are wholesome
and good, so far as God has given to us, there's nothing wrong
with that. We have to do it. But all that you do, do it to
the glory of God. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians.
I think it's 1 Corinthians 1.30. No, it's not 1 Corinthians 1.30.
It's another verse. 10.30, 10.31 or something. The
point is that God has given us things to do in our life, but
those things are never to take the place of the one priority
that we have, which is being found in Christ and walking in
faith in Him. And that includes a lot of things.
But these thorn-choked hearers, our natural response is that
things that are naturally okay become overwhelming. They take
over and they choke out the Word. And I know that if I start getting
into the details of this, I'm afraid that it might prevent
the Spirit of God... Convicting you of the things
that you need to understand in your own life. This is the way
that God works. His word comes to us, the gospel,
these people, this attitude, the way that the response is
given here. They heard the word, they heard it, just like the
other one, just like the stoning ground. He heard it, in verse
14. But when they go forth in life, After hearing the word, these
other things come in. And they're all there around
us all the time. The cares of this world, the
riches, the deceitfulness of riches, it says in Matthew and
Mark. The pleasures of this life, or in Mark he says, the lusts
of other things, the desires for other things. You know, we
spend our lives going to work. It becomes a habit. You get up
in the morning, you go to work, you come home. You get up, you
go to work, you come home. Pretty soon you get in that muscle
memory and things just go on. And then you think, you know,
I'm bored with this muscle memory. What am I doing here anyway?
And you start thinking, I know, I need a car. So you start working
for a car. Oh, I know, I need a family.
So you start working for a family. I need a house. You start building
a house. I need another car. I need a couple of houses. I
need all these things. And pretty soon you're going to work to
get those things and you wonder, well, you know, if God is going
to give it to me, then I've got it. And if I've got it, you know,
it's good enough. I mean, who can fault me for that? That's
exactly what Balaam did. You know, I know you don't want
me to go down this place, but if you want to send me, go ahead
and I'll take the man's money. That's what Balaam did. It was
a sad thing to see him do that. It's a sad thing when I find
my own heart so Distracted and enamored with things that are
temporal. That I don't make the fellowship
of God's people in the gospel my first priority. And His word
and hearing it, because it's the washing of water by the word
that we're cleansed. We're conformed to the image
of His Son when we look to Christ. 2 Corinthians 3.18, when we look
into the mirror of God's Word, and we see the image of Christ
in that mirror, and we look upon Him, then we're changed into
the same image from glory to glory. These things must be so. It's only the Word, the nurturing
of the Word in our lives, that God uses to conform us to Christ's
image. And the roots go deep. And when
we think about that, we think, well, okay, so I got all these
problems. I'm enamored by the world. My
mind's not on the gospel. I'm ready to run away. And I'm
not able to withstand persecution. So I really need to get my act
together. I'm going to go in the closet. I'm going to turn
off the lights. I'm going to fix this thing once and for all.
I'm going to go forth and conquer. And that's what we do, naturally.
We're just going to fix this problem. But we can't fix it. Sin is in us, and there's only
one way we can be saved. Remember, what is the power of
God to salvation? It's what Jesus Christ has done.
It's what God's purpose is in Him for His people. And His active
work in our lives to apply that gospel, and He does it by the
Word. And so we need to come to Him
and say, Lord, give me these ears to hear that my soul shall
live. Don't leave me by the wayside. Don't make the Word so shallow
in my life, the Gospel so shallow that it doesn't mean anything
to me. And don't let things that my flesh is naturally inclined
to love overcome and throw out faith in Christ. Because we're
so prone to these things. And as I said, this is a message,
a sermon the Lord Jesus Christ gave. It's always been difficult.
But then he says here in verse 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 with patience." Now, we naturally
see this and say, see there's some people who have an honest
and good heart, other people don't. Obviously that was the
difference. Who made the difference here?
The honest and good ground. But how did the ground get that
way? Remember, you can't just take one verse and build a doctrine
on it. You have to take the whole Word
of God. What does God say as our condition before Him? We're
guilty. We're slaves of sin. When you
were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness, he says
in Romans chapter 6. What fruit had you then in those
things whereof you're now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. When you were the servants of sin, all you could do is sin. When you didn't believe Christ,
all you could do is sin. So where does this good heart
come from? Well, Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 25-27. He says, "...a new heart also
will I give you. I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I'll
sprinkle clean water upon you, and you'll be clean from all
your sins." And this is what God does. And how does He do
it? Do you know the answer? How does God give us a new heart?
How does He take away that stony heart out of our flesh? Through
the Word, the Gospel. It's always the same answer.
It's through Christ. Sometimes we might think, well
you just preach the same thing over and over. That's because
that's what the Bible does. It's all about Jesus, isn't it?
In these last days God has spoken to us in His Son. But an honest
heart, he says here. When you talk about an honest
heart, what is he speaking about? Well, this thing I know, is that
honesty is what God requires. The Gospel, if anything, teaches
us to be honest. Honest with ourselves. Honest
with ourselves before God. And honest with God. Honest with
Christ. Honest with His Word. Honest
with His people. An honest heart We'll be saying,
look, I am a sinner. Every description you can find
in the Word of God of some sin, you know that you have either
committed it or thought it. James said, if you've broken
one law, you've broken them all. So in seed, in thought, I've
done it all. I have no hope in myself. That's
what God's law is intended to do. It's intended to teach us
something we can't learn. And that's that we cannot be
justified. We cannot bring to God a heart
that's right, or anything that's right, by our own personal obedience. So then we're left helpless and
hopeless, right? Yes, you are left helpless and
hopeless in the hand of Almighty God. A God who is gracious to
whom He will be gracious and is merciful to whom He will be
merciful. So that when He saves a man,
he cannot not be saved. And when He saves a man, He gets
all the glory. That's why salvation is by grace. So that it might be sure to all
those God has determined to save. And that God might receive all
the glory in Christ. If you love that, if you love
knowing that the answer God is looking for is never found in
you, it's found in Christ. Then that's an honest heart,
isn't it? If you know in your conscience, I cannot bring one
thing to God that God can be satisfied with. I'm not even
satisfied with myself. How could God be satisfied? Other
people aren't satisfied with me. How could God be satisfied?
Well, He's not like other people. He's not so picky. Oh yeah? He's
very picky. He's so picky that He demands
continuous, complete, perfect obedience all the time. And He's
not going to receive that from you. He's only going to receive
it from the One in whom He is well pleased, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Only, salvation is only in Christ. And that's what an honest heart
comes to realize when the gospel is preached. Yes, I have to be
saved this way. God has to do the work. I need
this. Lord, give me ears to hear so
that the gospel you are satisfied with becomes all that I am satisfied
with. That's an honest heart, isn't
it? And that heart doesn't come from within us. It comes by God,
the Holy Spirit, giving us faith in Christ. That's the understanding
that God wants us to have here of this parable. It says in Galatians
5, verse 24, And then later on, Paul says in Galatians 6, verse
14, boast in nothing save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. All this stuff comes down to
this one thing. When you read these parables,
when you read the whole Word of God, it exposes you as a sinner. Needy before God. And helpless
to do what you need to do. Inclined to do all the wrong
things. Come, confess, agree with God. Yes, what you've said is right.
It's good. You're holy and good and gracious. And I need to be saved by you.
I can see that in Christ. That is where my salvation lies.
Lord, receive me for Christ's sake. and come and eat and drink
and be filled with what Christ has said in His Word. When you
read His Word, read it honestly and say, Lord, this describes
me. What am I going to do? I can't fix it myself. It's a mess. Lord, save me. That's what the gospel teaches
us. It teaches us throughout. The Old Testament, the New. I
wrote a little article. I encourage you to read it in
the bulletin today about the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil and the tree of life. Take that, see if it makes sense
to you, and maybe we'll talk about it another time. Let's
pray. Father, I pray that you would give us to eat of the Lord
Jesus Christ by faith. We would not depart from Him.
We would abide in Him and remain and stay and not go beyond Him. Thinking that there's something
more than we have in Him. Help us to find our satisfaction
and our living and our life in Him. We pray, Lord, that when
we meet together Our life would be, our fellowship would be in
sharing this great salvation you've given to us so freely,
so graciously, so completely that you've done it all. And that you're going to fulfill
your promises to eternity. That our hope is certain in Christ.
We pray Lord that your spirit would be given to us that we
might understand your word in our heart. and be given this
faith that not only believes for a moment, but believes all
the time, that you preserve us and keep us, because we know
that we're yours if we hold this confidence in Christ to the end.
And we can only do that by the grace of your Spirit. Lord, give
us your Word, day by day, week by week, all of our life, and
keep us in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.