OK, let's go to the book of Matthew
now, Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Let's read
the first three verses. Matthew 13. The same day went Jesus out of the
house and sat by the seaside. And great multitudes were gathered
together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and
a whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things
unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to
sow." Now, this parable This particular parable, this first
parable, is told in three of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark
and Luke. I want you to see something in
Mark's Gospel, OK? Turn there, Mark chapter four.
Something very important that he said that is not found in
Matthew. Mark chapter four. It says, The
Lord spake unto them in Now, a parable is a story, an
earthly story or illustration of heavenly or spiritual things,
a simple object lesson or story of something here in this life
that illustrates spiritual truth. And in Mark, look at Mark 4,
33 and 34, it says, With many such parables spake he the word
unto them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable
spake he not unto them. That's all he did at this time,
speaking parables. And when they were alone, that
is he and his disciples. No one else, just he and his
disciples. He expounded all things to his disciples. He revealed
them to them, the meaning of the parable. Only revealed in
private to his elect, his chosen ones. Now, there are seven parables. You can stay right there and
mark on, this is what I want to show you. There are seven
parables found in Matthew 13. We're beginning this morning,
we're going to study those parables. We've studied them before. But
there's seven of them. And the first one that he tells
is the key to all the others. That's what he says here in this
gospel. Look at verse 13. He says in verse 13, he said
to them, Know ye not this parable? How then will you know all parables? So you see that? He says this
one. It's the key to understanding
the others. In other words, it starts right
here. Why? Why did he say that? Why is this the key? Why did
he speak in parables? Go back to Matthew 13. Why did he speak in parables?
Now, you and I will tell a story to someone, use an illustration
to clear up the meaning of what we're trying to say. We try to
make it clear to someone and say, well, let me tell you this
or that, to clear up the meaning. The opposite is true here. According to what our Lord says,
and you read it with me in Isaiah 6, He spoke in parables for the
opposite reason. Not to clear it up. but to close their eyes, to hide
it from the average person. I can't help but think of a book
like The Revelation. The Revelation. And the whole
key to the book is found in the first verse, or the name, The
Revelation. Yet how do most people pronounce
that? Revelations. There's one revelation that will
open up the whole book. But that book is a parable. The whole book is, as it were,
a parable. And there have been many books
written on that to try to explain it. When they don't understand,
they really don't. The whole Old Testament, I heard
my pastor preaching on tape the other day, and he made this statement,
and it's true. If you do not understand the
Old Testament, at least some of it, types of pictures, you do not
understand the New. No way. You can't do it. can't
do you understand you understand that some of you bless it for
your eyes and your ears all over. Everything I'm saying right now
you understand some of you. Well the Lord said you know that
the reason he spoke in parables was to hide it from people. Not
clear it up. And one time after he said something
in a parable, you know, the Pharisees were offended at this. And he rejoiced. The Lord out loud said, I thank
you, Father, that you hid these things from the wise and prudent. So he spoke in parables for that
reason, to hide it. A parable, as we say, is an earthly
story. And look at verse eleven here
in Matthew thirteen. He said to his disciples who
asked him in private later on. He said it's given unto you to
know. It's given to you. Why do you know? Why do you know
the truth? Why do you know the meaning of
these parables? Why do you know? How do you know who God is, who
Christ is? Why do you know? How do you know
the truth? How? It's given to you. By grace you have been saved. Givens, grace bestowed upon you.
He said one time to his disciples, he said to Peter, who spoke on
behalf of all of them, you know, he asked the question, who do
men say that I am? And he knew what they were saying
about him, as he does now, all that's been
said. And Peter spoke up on behalf
of everyone. He said, Who do you say that
I am? And Peter said, We believe and are sure thou art the Christ,
the only one, the Christ, the Son of the living God, the offspring,
the expressed image of God himself, God manifest in the flesh. We're
just certain of it. He said, Blessed are you, Simon.
Oh, son of Jonah, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. but my Father which is in heaven."
It's been given to you. God in His sovereign grace gave
you this understanding of who I am. Otherwise you couldn't.
He gave you eyes to see. He gave you ears to hear. He
gave you a heart to receive. And you wouldn't not know who
I am. See my glory. See my beauty. Have a desire to me. Know the
living and true God. Turn from your idols. Know the
true Christ and so forth. And I'm way ahead of the story.
I'm always at the end. I'm tilling the end before the
beginning. But seeing you know these things already, seeing
you know these things before, you've heard this parable many
times. Some in here haven't, I'm sure of that. But, oh my,
you're going to know these things, many of you, before I tell you.
It's alright. They write the same things, tell
the same things. They're not grievous to men. But it's a free
gift. It's given to you. It's given
to you. Revealed to you. Verse 12. Now this is a solemn verse. Verse
12. The Lord says, Whosoever hath,
to him shall be given. He will have more abundance.
Whoever hath, more will be given to him. That is, whoever has
the true saving grace of God in their heart. More will be
given. He giveth more grace and giveth
more grace. And isn't that so? I see it. I witness it in you. These same things that we've
looked at for years and years, and we tell it again, it's brand
new. It's something new. In fact,
it's something new. And more grace is shown to us. We grow in more knowledge of
the Lord. That's the Queen of Sheba that
we saw. I don't know when I've enjoyed that more. I said that
the last time we looked at it. And these messages, you know,
and I bring up stories like Ruth, and it makes me want to go back
there so bad. Doesn't it, you? And if we do, we'll see something
brand new, and it'll be glorious to us again. That's what he's saying, that
him that hath more be given. Those that truly have grace in
them will grow in grace. Like old Hubert Davis. He passed
away. You remember that fellow I told
you about that went to see in the funeral or in the nursing
home? The fellow that put himself in
the nursing home to keep his son from going there. You remember
that? The old man, my dad and I went to visit the old preacher.
Remember, he had his back to me. He was in that nursing home.
He had his back to me. He was all hunched over with arthritis. You remember that? Me telling
you, I said, he didn't know I was coming, but he had his back to
me. I said, Brother Hubert, are you
alone? He didn't know who it was. He
said, No, I'm not. He said, The Lord's with me. And this man was sitting in a
wheelchair and he was all bent and doubled over. He could not
straighten up. Doubled over with arthritis and
Parkinson's and all that. His lips were slurring. He had a big old smile on his
face the whole time. My dad and I went in there to
cheer him up. And we left that place rejoicing.
Brother Hubert went to be with the Lord. Why did I say that? Oh, because
I was preaching one time in a meeting down in Rocky Mountain, North
Carolina, and he was there. He was there every time I went.
He was the only man I had any real fellowship with. He and
I roomed together in a motel together. Just, I loved that
man. And he loved me. And he loved
the gospel. And I can say this, every time
I heard him preach, it was Christ through and through. It really
was. Pastored in Farmville, Virginia
for years. Anyway, one time I was preaching down
there, and the Lord was blessing the preacher, preaching Christ.
And this is the illustration, the hymn that hath more be given.
And I was preaching, and it was just wonderful. You know, we were considering
what we had in Christ, who he was, and I said, I said, but
wait, there's more. It gets better. And he said out
loud, sitting on the front row, he said, I don't know how much
more I can take. Boy, he can now, can't he? He's taking it all in now. But that's what him that hath
more be given. You'd say, Boy, that's the greatest
thing I've ever heard. And the next time you say, No,
this is it. More given. But then it says, He that hath not. Verse 12, But whosoever hath
not from him or her shall be taken away even what he hath. No, it won't grow more glorious,
it'll grow less. That's horrible to think about. Now, I've seen it happen. I've seen
it happen many times, both ways. I've seen people, I'm watching
it happen both ways. People growing in grace and the
knowledge of the Lord and others. The Lord begins to remove the
problem. Well, look at verse 13. The Lord said, Therefore
I speak in parables, because they really don't see. They see,
but don't see. Hear, but they don't hear. Neither
do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah that you and I read, Isaiah 6. And I thought
about that chapter, and it made me go back there and read it
again. Do you know of a more glorious chapter in all of God's
Word? I'll never forget the first time I heard my pastor preach from Isaiah 6.
I thought I was there in the temple, beholding the Lord. I was. Well, right after that, right
after that is when he said this, that people will grow dull with
fear. Have to see in that. Not if you're really seeing it.
Well, OK. The Lord, you remember the Lord
said, if you don't understand this parable, you can't understand
the rest. Remember that? Because the key
to this one, the parable of the sower, is to see. It all depends on that. Right
now. It all depends, whether you get
a blessing out of this, whether I get a blessing out of this,
it all depends on what happens with this seed. The seed being the incorruptible
seed or word of God, Peter called it, the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. The word of God, the seed which
God said will not return void. will accomplish that whereunto
I send it. Like the rain that comes down,
bringeth forth seed for the soil. So shall my Word be that goeth
out of my mouth." It's God's Word. Never return void. As Paul wrote,
as Brother Bell commented on in the Bulletin, he always causes
us to triumph in Christ, the Word, the seed. Hidden Christ,
the seed. Hidden Christ, the Word. to truly
preach the Word. You must preach Christ. God always causes the Word to
triumph. Somehow, some way, somebody,
somewhere, it seems it's going to be some. It's not done in
vain. It's accomplished. To some people,
it gives light for the first time. To other people, it's growing
and growing in grace. To other people, it's adding
to their contentment. So it all comes by hearing it.
Life begins with hearing. Yes, it does. You see, life begins
when a person hears the Word of God for the first time. That's
when life begins. You can recall when pretty much
when it began with you, can't you? Not the day, not the hour,
perhaps, but you can recall a time, a season. Your ears were open,
can you not? Sure, I can recall plainly. Some of you, sitting there, you
know. And then one day, like, you know, like you heard a loud
noise, and that's exactly what you heard, the voice of the Lord.
It's full of power. It breaks a hard heart. But the
day when that God speaks, bam! Ears that were closed, all of
a sudden, having ears, getting hearing, you hear. Eyes didn't
see, I don't see anything in this, don't see anything. What
does everybody see in this? In you see. And a heart dead,
cold, heart that wanted to think, that went after nothing but the
things of this world, broken, overseeing, contract. It all begins right here. Oh
yes, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them from
the danger. And us which believe
it's Christ, preaching of Christ, the power of God, It all begins right here. Faith
comes by the hearing of God's Word. Growth and grace comes
by the hearing of God's Word. I made this comment to someone
the other night about this thing of attending to the Word. This
is the milk. This is the meat. This is everything. This is the believer's bread.
This is food. You cannot live without food. Can you? The food, the very food you eat,
physical food, you eat it, and the waste, you know, goes out
in the draft, doesn't it? But are you getting something
from that food? You don't know it, but everything you eat, you're
getting something from. Your body is assimilating vitamins,
nutrients, and so forth. You don't know it, but you're
getting something, whatever it is that you take in, something
is affecting your body. That's right. So it is with the
Word of God. Every message that you attend
to, every time you read the Word, something is, you're assimilating
something. You might not know it. You hear
me? Is it important? And the whole Council of God
You can't have some without all, can you? Sailors, old sailors
years ago, you know why they called the British sailors limes? They ate limes all the time. And why they did was to keep
them getting scurvy. Sailors for years were getting
this disease. Nobody knew what it was and dying
from it. Scurvy is a lack of vitamin C.
until somebody found out, some British fellow found out, that
if they start eating limes, fill the boat full of limes, eat those,
you'll be fine. British savers started limes. And the whole counsel of God
is necessary. Well, let's go on. So the hearing
of God's Word is the key to it all. And every time God's Word
is preached, there are four types of hearings. Every time these
four that our Lord mentioned, every time the gospel, the word
is preached, there are four of them. Four types of hearer. The wayside hearer, a stony ground
hearer, a thorny ground hearer, and a good ground hearer. All
right, let's look at it real quickly. Verse four, the Lord
said, when he sowed his sower, Some fell by the wayside. The
fowls came and devoured them up. Verse 19, he explains it
to his disciples. Let anyone heareth the word of
the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked
one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is
he which received seed by the wayside. By the wayside is someone
who hears it, but doesn't understand a thing that's being said. In
other words, they're by the way, but they're not in the way. They're
real close, but they're not in. What's the way? Huh? Christ is the way. Can somebody be real near and
not in the way? Certainly. That's what our Lord
said to that young ruler, that rich young ruler. Thou art not
far. Oh, wouldn't it be awful to wouldn't
it be tragic to be so near yet? Yes. Be under the sound of the
gospel and yet not. Be in Christ. To be right beside others that
are in the way. And you not be in the way. To die of thirst water right in front of you. That's just unthinkable. Wayside. Don't hear a thing. Verse 2,
or the second here, or verse 5, some fell upon stony places. They had not much earth, and
forthwith sprung up, that is, immediately sprung up, the seed
did, but because they had no deepness of earth, The sun was
up and they were scorched because they had no root. They withered
away. Verse 20 and 21, he explains
this to his disciples. He said, He that received the
seed in the stony places of ground, the same as he that heareth the
word and anon immediately with joy receiveth it, yet hath he
not root in himself. But dureth for a while, for when
tribulation or persecution, and Luke says temptation, arises
because of the word, by and by he or she is offended. And they leave. It's phony ground
here. It's someone who, he said, and
you've done this before, haven't you? Thrown grass seed out. Anyone who's sown grass seed.
You've thrown it out there and you can throw it on some hard
pan. That's stony ground. There's
a lot of that in it. And it'll come up. It'll come up. But it won't last. And it's the first to come up,
isn't it? Because there's no root, you
see. When seed is really sown and when it really germinates
or life is there, the first thing that's happening is what? Root. It's taking root. And what a picture that is of
life, you know. Most people that I have some confidence in that
they, the Lord has done a true work in them, at first when they
hear, and you see, you can see, that something's happening, but
they don't see it. And they're the last to recognize it and
the last to admit it. Why is that? Because that's humility. That's what's happening. Their
heart's being broken, contrived. But the root, Christ, is laying
hold of their heart. And their heart's laying hold
of Him. The light's coming on. They're
encountering all this darkness in themselves. They look in themselves
to find some reason to believe that they're believers, and all
they see is sin. And so they're not going to say, yeah, I'm a
child of God. And the preacher then has to
say, just rest. Just look to Christ. Don't look
to yourself. Until they finally, reluctantly,
and hopefully say, yeah, I believe that. I believe I'm one of the
Lord's. See, the root, it's all taken root first. You don't see
it. It doesn't spring up. Oh, wow,
look, didn't he, she, something. That's what's stoning around
here. Well, no root. What's the root of the
matter? That's right. There shall come
a root out of dry ground. The stem, the rod, the stem,
the root, the stalk, the branch, the vine, the grapevine, the
stem of Jesse shall grow up. A root out of dry ground. And this root of the matter is
like with Job. Take away everything from him. And the root of the matter is
in it. And he said, what was Job's profession? Here's the
confession of every true child of God. Here's the root of the
matter. Job said it in Job 19, I know that my Redeemer lives. My Redeemer. That's the root of the matter.
Christ is the root. Luke's gospel said no moisture.
Our Lord said there's no moisture in them. That's good too, isn't
it? What's moisture? You know, when
you die, all the moisture in your body is going to leave.
It's going to be gone. You know, we are dying. Oh, why
do old people wrinkle up? Drying up. Literally drying up. Young, little, why do babies
drool? Huh? They're just, boy, they're
just fat and dew of youth is on their brow. They're just full
of moisture, you know. They came out of a womb full
of water. They lived in water for nine months. And they came
out of there full of water. Moisture. What's that? Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. And you know that
moisture, a person with moisture in them, it leaks out. Leaks out. A person with no moisture,
you just won't see it much. person just dry doctrine, you
won't see moisture coming out. No moisture. Well, tribulation
and persecution reveal this temptation because of the Word, it says.
Our Lord said, because of the Word reveals these hearers. You
know, God's Word, the first thing God's Word does is demand, it
draws a line in the sand. You know what? This is the first
thing when you hear the true gospel, it will draw a line in
the sand. where it says, who's on the Lord's
side? This is what the gospel comes and says. First thing,
the Word of God says, who's on the Lord's side? All right, who's
really saved? It's who's concerned with God's
glory. Who's on the Lord's side? Not
man's side. Not his own side. Not his family's
side. Not the Presbyterian side. Not
the Baptist side. Who's on the Lord's side? The
gospel can't draw the line in the sand. Who's on the Christ's work, Christ's blood,
Christ's righteousness, the Holy Spirit's sovereign power. Who
cares about that? Come unto me, Christ said. Cross
the line. Though your family won't cross
it, you better get across. Come unto me, Christ said, because
the earth is going to swallow the rest of them up. But somebody hears of God and
they believe and they say, this is great. And they go home and
tell their husband about it and he says, I don't believe that. They
tell their mom or daddy about it. I don't believe that. You
don't believe that, do you? Sure you don't believe that. Your daddy didn't
believe that. Your mama didn't believe that.
Nobody in our family believes that. Or a husband or a wife says,
I'm not coming with you. Yeah, they will find out. They'll
find out. That'll tell. Eventually. They get tired of the fuss and
the fight and the persecution. And they'll find a way, somehow,
they'll get offended by something, and that's an easy way out of
it. And they'll get offended by the Word, something the preacher
says, and they'll get offended. And that justifies them leaving. They say, you know, honey, you
were right. That's not the only place there is to go hear the
gospel. Stony ground here. Bring it up.
This is great. I can't tell you how many people
I've heard come through the door in here. This is great. Not here. Not here. I had a man sit, a
man who sat in this congregation for years, if not years, quite
a while. And he told me in my face, he
said, now I'm just telling you what he said, okay? He said,
you're the greatest gospel preacher I've ever heard preach. I've
never heard anybody preach gospel like you. Well, there he got
offended because you were a teacher and he left and took his family
with him. Because a woman was teaching
his children. He was teaching in a Christian
school, so-called. And I later told him, I said,
do these people you send your children to teach, do they teach
the gospel, the truth? He said, well, no, but. I take with a grain of salt,
these compliments. I really did. Quit listening
to him a few years ago. Offended. Thorny ground here,
it says in verse 7, some fell among thorns. A thorn sprung
up and choked them. Verse 22, he explains it, he
that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the
word and the care of this world. Deceitfulness of riches choked
the word and he becometh unfruitful. Thorns being earthly difficulties.
Earthly difficulties. Well, you know, I've lost a job.
I've got to, you know, I've got to make a living, don't I? I'm
going where the gospel's not. Oh, you are? Yeah, we'll find
a church somewhere. That's not the way it's done. Not the way it's done. Job, home, family. Earthly cares. earthly care, deceitfulness of
riches, deceitfulness. Our Lord, in two
words, three words, can sum everything up, can't he? The deceitfulness of riches. That exposes everything,
riches. That means whatever it is that
we think is one treasure. He says it's deceitful. It deceives
you. Promises things that it can't
fulfill. People think I can just have
this and be happy. It's deceiving you. It's deceiving
you. Rich people are not happy. They're
probably the most miserable people on earth. He said these things choke the
word. They're more concerned about
they sold their soul for riches. But now we're to the good part. Some fell on good ground. Verse
8. Now we've come to that. and brought
forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold."
In verse twenty-three, he describes the good ground. He that received
the seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and
understandeth it. You know, Luke, is it possible
to have an honest and good heart? Can a person have an honest and
good heart? According to the You're afraid
to answer it. Yeah, I'm not trying to trick
you because Luke's gospel says that the Lord said he out of
an honest and good heart. You say, but the heart is deceitful,
but that's the natural man's heart. That's a stony heart. But God said in Ezekiel 36, I'll
give them a new heart. Where'd they get this honest
and good heart? Why is this ground good and not stony? Why is this
ground soft and not hard? Why does this ground belong to
the master who's going to sow his seed? Not by the way. It's
God's ground. And he made it good. He made it. What makes ground
good? What makes ground good, Henry? Henry, an old farmer,
used to plow with horses. He'll tell you. He knows. Anybody knows if he's done any
gardening. What makes ground good is not
that it looks good or not that it seems good. It's the more
torn up it is, the better it is. The blacker it is. the better it is. What an illustration that is,
huh? Oh, but I'm the chief of sinners. Who said that? Who said
that? Paul, the Apostle. The most fruitful
man on earth. He said, I'm the black. The Shulamite
maiden said, oh, I'm black. plowed up, God Almighty takes
His Word. And the Word is the key again.
The Word of the Lord just breaks the hard heart, the stony ground. It plows it up, churns it up. If you do any farming, you take
that disc and you turn it over. Turn over those nutrients into
it. Then what do you do? You go back
and you harrow it. What are you getting out? Rocks,
sticks, roots, stub, wood, hay, and stubble. Get all that trash
out of it. And then if you've got a good
rototiller, you're just going to bust it up real fine until
it's like sand. And it's ready. It's ready. For what? The sea. And the sower
comes forth. Who's the sower? Who's the sower
here? The preacher? Ah, no, no, no,
no. Oh, no, no, no, no. Unless the
sower sows that seed, it might be sown. The Holy Spirit is the
sower who goes forth. We cast seed, you know, don't
we? We cast seed. Who must give the
increase? Who must plant the seed? It's
not coming in. It's not going to be planted.
The Holy Spirit of God, He's the sower, and He sows the heart. prepared to receive the incorruptible
seed, prepared by God Himself. And the Word, as we said before,
that I'm quitting, I mean, for today, the Word of God's glory,
that's the Word, and the Word hasn't been preached unless God's
glory is sounded for. The glory of His person, the
glory of His Son, the Word of Christ's substitutionary We're
going to look, and I might not get to it, so I'm going to go
ahead and give you a preview, at the story of that ark and
everything about it. And when David finally, the Lord
used David finally to bring the ark back to Israel. It says when they were bringing
it back that they wouldn't take six steps unless they would sacrifice,
shed blood, And good preaching is not enough
to say things about Christ, you know. Oh, it ought to be just
every six words or so say blood. Our Lord, when he said greater
things shall these do, he's talking about his disciples expounding
and building upon all that he said. He gave this. And what's
the preacher's job to do? Rightly divided. and take it. There's a message in each everything
you see. The word when his word is preached,
truly preached, it's a word of Christ's substitution and that
word that that Christ crucified is the only thing that really
pierced the hard heart. Prick. They can't kick again. Quiet. You know, the word, the
word of Christ crucified will both convict you of your sin
and quiet you, give you peace. It'll both prick your heart,
break your heart, and ease your heart. It does all that. The
two-edged sword. And the Word of Christ, the Holy
Spirit's power gives joy and rejoice. And fruit, he said,
some hundred, some sixty, and some thirty. Same faith. Same faith. God's people have
the same faith. But this is degree of fruit. Service. Growth is different. Same seed. Same faith. Same salvation. Same way. Same
everything. Same beginning. Same end. But according to the husbandman,
he's the one that decides, according to the measure of Christ. He's
the one that decides who gets what. But see, the key
is to see it all starts there. Our Lord said, if you can't understand
this one, how are you going to understand that? It begins with
the seed. And the next one's going to be
the tares and the wheat together. Maybe we'll look at that Wednesday
night. OK. For the game you'll. Stand and sing number one fifty
eight first and last. One fifty eight. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening power, kindle a flame of sacred love
in these cold hearts of ours. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening power, come shed abroad a Savior's love,
and that shall kindle ours.