If you want to turn with me to
my text this morning, you'll find it in Matthew's Gospel,
Chapter 13. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 13.
I was feeling a little queasy yesterday
evening, queasy. But I tell you, it's hard to
get sick around Mindy Mayhem. She just won't let you get sick. I've been treated like a king,
and I'm sure David and Teresa can say the same thing. I appreciate
that so much. In Matthew's Gospel 13, and let's
begin reading in verse 1, and reading a few passages, and we'll
try to get in this quickly. Matthew chapter 13 in verse 1,
the same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside. And great multitudes were gathered
to gather unto him, so that he went unto a ship and set, and
the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many
things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went
forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds
fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them
up. sun fell upon stony places where
they had not much earth, and forthwith immediately they sprang
up, because they had no depthness of earth. And when the sun was
up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered
away. And sun fell among the thorns,
and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell
upon good ground and brought forth fruit, some nine hundredfold,
some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear. And the disciples came and said
unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered
and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but unto them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall
be given, and he shall have more abundantly. But whosoever hath
not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Therefore
speak I unto them in parables, because they see and see not,
and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them
is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing
ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall
see, and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
gross, their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they
have closed. lest at any time they should
see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and they should
understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and
I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for
they see, and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto
you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those
things which you see, and have not seen them, and to hear those
things which you hear and have not heard them. Hear ye therefore
the parable of the sower. When anyone heareth the word
of the kingdom, the gospel, and understandeth it not, then cometh
the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which receives seed
by the wayside. But he that receiveth the seed
into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and
anoin with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself,
but he endeareth for a while. For when tribulation and persecution
arise because of the Word, by and by he is offended. He also
that receiveth seed among the thorns is he that heareth the
Word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches
choke the Word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that receiveth
seed unto the good ground is he that heareth the Word, and
understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth
some that are hundredfold, and some sixty, and some thirty."
The Lord is going to tell us about a mystery, and it is a
mystery. When you and I are gathered as
we are here this morning, there's something that's going to take
place in every heart. We can't see it. I can't see
it. No natural eye could see it. But the Word of God is going
to every heart. And it has no effect. A negative
effect or a good effect. And we can't always determine
what's happening. We can't see what's happening.
But our Lord, Jesus Christ, who knows all things, He knows what's
taking place in the heart. The heart is naked and open in
His eyes. The heart's deceitful and nobody
can know it but Him. But He knows it. And He's telling
us here this morning that while the Word is preached, while it's
read, while it's quoted, in some instances, while it's sung, He
tells us what is happening in a person's heart. He gives us
these four illustrations, these four examples. He tells us here
in verse 3 of my text, he said, a sower went forth to sow. That's what I'm doing right now.
All of us know something about sowing, don't we? I was raised
on a farm. I saw my dad just take a huge
sack of grass seed in his hand and he would just go across the
field throwing it. I don't do that. I've got the
little sower, the little broadcaster, you know, but it's the same difference.
We all know something, don't we, about sowing seed. The sower
went forth to sow. And he tells us here what the
seed is. The seed is the Word of God.
In Luke's account, you'll find this in Luke's account in chapter
8, in Mark's account in chapter 4, he said, the seed is the Word
of God. And I don't know all the means
that God is pleased to use to sow the seed in the heart, I
don't think it's limited to just preaching. Your pastor said one
time he thought it would be good just to get up and read out of
God's Word. I was reading a gentleman the
other day, and I think he's back in the 1800s, but he was a nobody. He was a preacher of the gospel,
but he knew that he was a man that nobody knew. But this man,
he was a rich man, a very influential man that lived in the city, and
they wanted this poor preacher to come in and talk to this man.
And he said, I felt so intimidated. What am I going to tell this
man? And he said, I decided this, that for every opportunity I
had, I would do nothing but read to that man from the Word of
God. And for many days, that's all he did. He sat down and he
opened up the Bible and he read from the Word of God to that
man. All he did. And he said he purposely missed
a day. And when he came back, he found
that man so anxious. Not so anxious to see him, but
so anxious to hear that Word. And before he left this world,
he said, that word took root in that man's heart, and the
Lord saved him. It's not about the soul, is it?
I was listening to Brother Mahan preach this morning, and I thought,
here's what's such a blessing about what he's saying. He has
hid himself. Nothing. You never think about
the sower. It's the seed. And that's what
this parable is about. What happens when the seed goes
into the heart? What happens when it touches
the heart? The Word never returns void. Never has and never will. It's going to accomplish a purpose.
And that's what the Master is going to tell us here. So let's
look quickly at these four seeds. The heart, the ground is the
heart. And then the seed is the Word
of God. And those who sow it are those who read it and preach
it. It's sown in the heart. And the first thing is found
here in my text in verse 19, when one hears, look at this,
"...then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away, he snatcheth
away, he taketh away that which was sown in his heart. Luke said,
then cometh the devil. Then cometh the devil. You and
I often rejoice in that blessed promise that where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. You
and I teach and we believe in a sovereign triune God. And He's here this morning in
our midst. But our Lord teaches us something else. There's somebody
else here this morning too. There's somebody else here this
morning too. And He don't love your soul.
He's an unclean, He's a fallen, He's a wicked spirit. And he
hates God, he hates Christ, he hates the gospel, and he hates
God's creation, and he hates you, and he hates me. And he
seeks nothing more than our eternal ruin. And but everywhere the
Word is preached, he's flying to and fro in the earth, seeking
to devour this seed. He's here. And I want you to
notice what our Master says about it. Mark and Luke says this about
it. When the Word is sown in this
heart by the wayside, then cometh Satan immediately. Isn't that
amazing? Immediately. Look how punctual
he is. Everywhere the Scriptures tells
you and I to redeem the time, doesn't it? Now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. Make the best of our time. Take
it in and use it promptly. Let's be prompt in serving our
Lord. Boy, I tell you, Satan has learned that lesson, hasn't
he? He's prompt. Everywhere the Word is being
preached and read, he's right there immediately seeking how
he may take that Word from the heart. I told somebody the other
day, I was raised on a farm and sometimes we would lose a cow
or we'd lose a pig or an animal of some kind and my dad would
take that dead animal and drag it back into the woods. And no sooner would he do that,
then you'd see all these little specks in the air. There wouldn't
be a buzzard any place. But it seemed like they had this
sense. Here's something I want to devour. And it wasn't long until the
whole sky was full of buzzards. Circling, circling, circling. Coming down. That's what the
devil does. He's here this morning. And he's
flying to and fro where the Word of God is preached. Trying to
snatch up. Snatch it up. Punctuality. Punctuality. Something else is
said about Him here, He catches the way, the Word that's sown
in the heart. Now look at His power. Look at
His power. Now, I'm not here this morning
to preach up Satan. We have but one Sovereign. One
Sovereign. And that's God. He's the eternal
God and there is none other. But listen, He tells us Himself
that Satan is a God. Does He not tell us that? And
that He's powerful. And when God gives Him leave,
and God's got Him on a chain. God has to give Him leave. But
I tell you, when God gives Him leave, I have no match for Him. And you that's hearing me this
morning, you're no match for Him. He can devour us if God
gives Him leave. Look what He did to David. Look
what He did to Job. Look what He did to Peter. He
goeth about seeking whom He may devour. And that's what He did
here. Stole the Word. I don't have
power to do that. I can't put it there in your
heart and I can't take it out. But if God allows Him, He can
snatch it. He snatches the Word out of the
heart. But one thing you notice in this
parable of our Lord, Satan didn't do this against the sinner's
will. Luke says it like this, talking about the seed that fell
by the wayside. The seed that fell by the wayside
and it was trodden down. It was trampled down. When a
man hears the Word of God and he tramples it under his feet,
I don't want to hear that. Got no use for that. He can't
complain when Satan robs him of it. A friend of mine used
to say, if a man won't believe, God will fix it where he can't
believe. If a man won't hear the Word of God, God will fix
it where he can't hear the Word of God. trampled it, and Satan
took it, his power. And notice his purpose. It doesn't
say it here in my text, but in Luke chapter 8, listen to this. Then cometh the devil, and taketh
away that which was sown in his heart, lest they should believe
and be saved. That's his purpose. to take it
lest they should believe and be saved. Satan is not about
masking kingdoms and building buildings and having bank accounts. He's about devouring a man's
soul. And he knows if the Word comes
into contact with the heart and abides there, it's going to produce
faith. And he knows faith saves. So
what does he do? He snatches it away, lest they
should believe and be saved. He's cunning, isn't he? He's
cunning. The Lord tells us here something
in Luke's account that is very enlightened to us, and it needs
to be preached up and told to sinners. Faith in Jesus Christ
will save you. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
will do for you what nothing else will do for you. He'll save
you. You can't work to be saved. You can't merit salvation. But
I tell you, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ will save your
soul. And you know something? He'll
save you immediately. Men try to work and work and
work to be saved and accomplish an end that they'll never gain.
But faith will save you immediately. You may be here this morning
dead in trespasses and sin, but if God gives you a heart to believe
in His Son, I'm telling you, you're saved that instant. Instant salvation. Don't you
love that? Oh, that's what I love. Dead
in sins one moment, and the next moment you're alive. Thy faith
has saved thee. Go in peace. That poor eunuch
seeking the Lord, didn't know who he was, and Philip preached
the gospel to him, and he says, here's water. Why can't I be
baptized? He said, if you believe with
all your heart, you can be. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. I do too, don't you? I didn't
always believe that He was that. Oh, when the Lord revealed Him
to my heart, I said, I believe that He's the Son of God. Saved. Saved. Look at the second thing quickly
in Matthew's Gospel chapter 13 in verse 20 and 21. This is the
next heart. The stony heart here. He said
in verse 20, He that receiveth the seed into stony places, the
same is he that heareth the word, and anoint, and immediately rejoiceth
with joy received it, yet hath he no root in himself, but he
endeareth for a while. He believes for a while, but
when tribulation and persecution arises because of the Word, he
is offended. Luke tells us that this seed
was sown upon a rock. Upon a rock! Now, it seems to
be that there was some soil on top of this rock, but right underneath
the soil was just rock. What was wrong with this heart? You see it immediately, don't
you? It's never broken. This heart was never broken.
The seed was sown upon a rock. You can't have seeds sown on
a rock. The heart has to be broken, doesn't it? And if the seed is
sown upon a rock, it'll come up quickly. Because the roots
don't go down. It springs up, but when the sun
comes up, there's no moisture there. Because there's no soil
there. And what happens? It withers
away. It dries away. God must break the heart. He
must break the heart. The sacrifices of God are a broken
heart. The Bible says that they received
the Word with joy, but you know it wasn't with joy of the Holy
Spirit. It wasn't a joy the Holy Ghost
had produced there. And it said they believed, but
they believed for a while. That wasn't the faith of God's
elect. If it had been the faith of God's
elect, what would have happened? They'd have still been believing.
They'd have never quit believing. But here was the problem with
the second Saul, when the sun came up. Man, I don't care what kind of faith
you have, it's going to be tried. It's going to be tried to what
sort it is. And I tell you one of the things it's going to try,
persecutions, afflictions, and temptations. It's going to get
hot. It's going to get hot. And that
faith that Jesus Christ gives and sustains, it's going to be
tried with fire, and you know something, it's going to become
stronger. But that faith, which is a natural faith, born in the
human heart, when persecutions and trials come, it's going to
wither away. You know what was the matter
with this heart? You know what was the matter with this faith?
It didn't have an advocate. Peter, I prayed for you. Satan
is going to get you, man. He's desired to sift you. But
I prayed for you that your faith fail not. Why did this faith
fail? Why did they quit believing?
No advocate. No advocate. I remember Bunyan's
Pilgrim Progress, I think it was. He had the pilgrim in the
house of the interpreter, if I remember it right, and he showed
him the fireplace. And in the fireplace, and he
had this man dressed in black, and he was taking buckets of
water and throwing it on the fireplace. And the fire never
went out. And the pilgrim couldn't figure
out why the fire's not going out with all that water being
dashed on it. And he tucked him around behind the fireplace,
and there was a man dressed in white pouring oil on the fire. That's Christ, isn't it? Where
He gives faith, He maintains that faith. And you'll never
quit believing until faith ends in sight. That's the problem
with this heart. In time, in time, It's going
to tell, ain't it? I used to have an old deacon
friend of mine, and somebody professed the Lord, and he'd
say, time will tell. Time will tell. Time will tell. You love the
Lord? Time will tell. You really believe Him in your
heart? Time will tell. You really hate sin? Time will
tell. Time's going to tell, isn't it?
When the sun comes up, time is going to tell. There's no moisture
of God's grace there in the heart to water it, to water the root. When testing time comes, it'll
tell. And in verse 7, some fell among
thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. In verse 22 of my text it says,
"...the thorns were the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness
of riches." Mark said, "...the lust of other things." Luke said,
"...the pleasures of this world." My goodness! Cares, riches, lusts,
pleasures. No wonder it didn't come up and
produce for us. Do you notice something as I read this? Do
you notice this? Everything is opposed to a man's
salvation. Satan, still in the Word. The heart is hard and adamant. And now you're the world. The
world and all its temporal advantages and pleasures. Everything is
opposed to a man's salvation. Ain't it a miracle that anybody's
saved? It must be a miracle that anybody's saved. There was a man, I read the account
of a man who had sat under this particular pastor almost all
of his life. And he was dying and he called
for his pastor. And he said, Pastor, I have sat
under your ministry all my life. And he said, I've never heard
the first message you've preached. And he said, every time you took
your text, I sat there and thought about
last week's business. And then if you preach too long,
I thought about next week's business. And I never heard a message you
preached. And I'm dying lost. Man. Man. The Lord said, plow
up the thorny ground. Dig up the soil. And don't sow
among thorns, didn't He? cares of this life, the deceitfulness
of riches. Man, are they ever dangerous.
Spurgeon said, I've never seen the first man leave Christ because
of poverty, but I've seen many leave Him because of prosperity.
That's dangerous, isn't it? That's dangerous. Many temptations
come to rich people. Fall into many foolish and hurtful
lusts. And here, look what it done to
these people. In verse 23, fourthly, look at
this. Verse 23. He that receives seed
into the good ground is he that sheareth the word and understandeth
it, and he bringeth forth the fruit. He heard, Mark said, and
he received it. And Luke said, which in an honest
and good heart, having heard it, he keeps it. It's a good
heart. What's the first thing we see
about this heart? First of all, it's a good heart. It's a good
heart. I tell you, there's something
very telling about that. You say, Bruce, I know one thing.
The Bible says, the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. And you know, it's incurable.
God don't mess with you. He doesn't put His Word in a
heart like that. You know why He calls it a good
heart? Because it's a new heart. It's a heart that God has given.
That's His covenant promise. I will give you a new heart,
and I'll put my Spirit in that new heart. That's why this heart
is called good. When the Lord made everything
by the word of His mouth, and He had made man, and He stopped
and looked at all of his work, and He says, it's good. And when
He gives a new heart into a poor sinner's soul, here's what He
said, that's good. That's my heart that I've given
Him. That's good. That's a good heart. The Lord
don't remodel this old nature, brothers and sisters. He puts
it down. Don't let it rule anymore. It
can't have dominion anymore, but He don't take it out, does
He? Takes it out as far as the dominion of it is concerned.
But he gives a new heart and he says, that's good. And something
else he said, in an honest heart. The parallel passage said, in
an honest heart. That's it, isn't it? That's it. An honest heart. A man ain't going to ever be
honest with God until he gives Him a new heart. There was a
woman that had that issue of blood, and she pressed her way
to the Lord Jesus, and said, if I can just touch the hem of
his garment, I'll be made whole. And she touched him, and immediately
she was made whole. And the Lord said, who touched
me? They said, Lord, everybody's touching you. He said, no, somebody's
really touched me. Somebody needs to come here before
me and acknowledge they've touched me. And she started just trembling.
And she came and fell down before His feet and told Him all the
truth on His heart. Told Him about all the doctors
she'd been to and all the false trust that she'd misplaced in
Him. And I never was whole until I
touched you, and that's the honest truth. I never was saved until
you saved me, and that's the truth. I never did understand,
brothers and sisters, and I'm not here to stir up some kind
of controversy, and I don't think I will. I never could understand
a person being saved under free will preaching. And then 20 years
later make a profession and yet hang on to that one. Tell the
truth. Be honest. There's not an honest
man in hell this morning. Honest people don't go to hell.
Only liars and dishonest people. At first he came to the Lord
and said, I thank you that I'm not like other men or you're
not being honest. You're a liar. You're just like
everybody else. Honesty. Rich young ruler came to the
Lord Jesus and he said, I've kept all of these things from
my youth up. That's not honesty. You ain't
done it. Your heart's full of covetous
now. You just don't know it. Another came to him and said,
Lord, suffer me first to go bury my dead father and then I'll
follow you. You won't do it. If you don't follow him where
you're at right now, you never will later. Be honest about it. That's what this heart did. Boy,
he was honest. He was honest. That poor publican
smote upon his chest and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Be propitious to me, a sinner.
I need to be saved. I need to be washed. I can't
save myself. Nobody else can save me. I'm
a lost sinner, Lord. Have mercy. Have mercy upon me. Mercy is what I need. Without
it, I'll perish, Lord. I'm telling you the truth. And
he went down to his house justified. Quit hiding things. You may deceive
yourself, but you can't deceive Him. Be honest about it. And
I tell you, when you're honest with Him, you're going to get
His attention. He's going to have mercy. He's
going to have mercy. Another way, right quickly, just
another minute, Pastor. Another way that we can look
at this, and it has been looked like this, the parable here applies
to believers. Every one of these could apply
to believers. Has Satan ever robbed the Word from your heart? Hasn't he robbed so much comfort
and precious promises that you just went on, sort of trampled
the Word under your foot? And you had to bear the trouble
of it, and you weren't saved from the trouble because he robbed
you. Has that ever happened to you? That's happened to you.
A rock? Has your heart ever grown hard? When a heart gets hard, when
my heart gets hard, do you know where it affects me? When hearing
this Word. David fell into that awful sin
with Bathsheba and his heart got so hard. You know he was
reading the Scriptures that year or whatever. He was going to
the worshiping year and the preaching, but his heart was so hard it
couldn't penetrate it until the Lord sent that prophet and said,
you're the man. And man, his heart was broken.
Oh, if God's broken your heart, dear soul, keep it tender. Keep
it tender. Use every means that God has
given you to keep your heart tender, because if you harden
your heart, He's going to have to break it again. Keep your
conscience tender. Remember when the Lord first
saved you? Oh, how tender your heart was toward Him. You wouldn't
do anything, oh, to offend Him. He loved His Word. And then these
thorns... Brother Cody just read it to
us this morning, how these thorns and cares, Martha, Martha, You're
so anxious about so many things and you're not getting any good
out of My Word. But Mary is. She's chosen these
good things. We don't talk about a sinner
choosing and his choice saves him. But I tell you, believers
make a lot of choices that's not good for them. We have people sometimes, we
were talking about, all pastors get together and talk about these
things. And we talked about sympathizing with the church. You know, you
have to work. Some of you are retired, but
you've not forgotten when you have to go to work. And man,
you work and you're tired. But listen, every chance you
get to come and sit under the gospel, every time something
comes up and you say, well, I need to do that, but can't that wait? Martha could have let the servant
go. There would have been a time
to do that and go sit with Mary at His feet. But she not only
hindered herself from Jared, she tried to hinder Mary. That's
another interpretation. But these three hearts, make
no mistake about it, none of them were converted. None of
them were converted. If you ever had somebody to interpret
this and say, these two hearts, they were really saved and they
fell away. No, they weren't. I think the Lord gives us a little
hint here when His disciples came to Him in Luke's Gospel
and said, Lord, why are you speaking in parables? He said, unto you
it's given to know the mysteries, but unto them that are without,
that's their whole problem. These first three grounds, they
were without. The Kingdom. They weren't in
Him. They weren't in Him. And then
He made a wonderful statement here in my text. He said, And
this was fulfilled, the prophecy of Isaiah, which said, Hear and
ye shall hear and not understand, and see and ye shall see and
not perceive. You know the only ground, the
only heart that understood was this last heart. Ain't that amazing? They seemed to understand. But
they really didn't. They seemed to love the Lord,
but they really didn't. And he said, they just fulfilled
prophecy. You know the Word can't return
void, brothers and sisters. It's going to accomplish its
purpose. Was the Word made void because Satan snatched it? No. No. Was the Word made void because
of the hardness of that heart? No. It accomplished its purpose.
Was the Word made void because the thorns choked it? No! That accomplishes purpose. My
Word shall not go forth without accomplishing my purpose. God
has a purpose. And however you leave here this
morning, His Word has come and it's accomplished the purpose.
I was talking to the dear friend of mine one time. He was an unconverted
man, but I worked with him for years and had an opportunity
to talk with him about everything. And I was talking to him about
God's purpose. God has an eternal purpose. And that's what he's
doing now. Accomplishing, fulfilling his
purpose. He said, you mean to tell me
if I go up there on that building and jump off, I've accomplished
his purpose? I said, if you jump off that
building, you're going to kill yourself. You're probably going to kill
your soul as well as your body. But you've not changed God's
purpose. Boy, man's cocky, ain't he? He's
so arrogant. Have you ever seen these t-shirts?
Up home there for a while, they had these t-shirts. No fear. No fear. I'm the captain of my
soul. I'm the master of my fate. Listen, you're not. The destiny of every man has
already been determined. It's already been determined.
It's already been written down in God's book of decrees. Either
through sin and rebellion and hardness of heart and unbelief
to hell, or through repentance and coming to Christ and faith
in Christ and through Him to heaven. It's already been determined.
And you'll not change it. You'll just live to prove it. You come to Christ this morning,
you give up yourself to Him, you look to Him, believe in Him,
you'll just prove God's purpose for you. You leave here this
morning in rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ and refuse
to bow and go on to hell, you'll just prove. You'll just prove. And when you get to hell, you
won't blame God. You won't spend eternity cursing
Him. You'll spend eternity cursing
yourself. And when you get to heaven, you won't go up there
and give any credit to yourself for being there. Not unto me,
O Lord. Not unto me. I'm here through
the fountain filled with blood that washed me. But the Word
is going to accomplish His purpose. That's a mystery, isn't it? God
bless you. Thank you, pastor.