So. I don't think I've ever been
able to enter in as many times I've heard both of those songs,
I don't. I don't believe I've ever been able to enter into
them like I did just now. And I appreciate it. Turn with me to Matthew 13. Matthew chapter 13 again. Now, I couldn't bring couldn't
possibly bring a more important message to you this morning. I hope. You hear it. Nobody ever goes away from here.
Nobody ever goes away from. Hearing the gospel without. Some
sort of reaction to it. Nobody. I believe, like Barnard,
that if a man preaches the gospel, he's to
preach for a verdict. I hope Barnard used to say in
his old North Carolina homespun way, he said, a man ought to
go away either mad, sad, or glad. Either mad, sad, or glad. But
I'll add to that, even indifference is a reaction. Indifference to the gospel is
a reaction, it's a bad one. It's a bad reaction, but it is
a reaction. And I'm going to call for a decision
this morning. I'm not going to have you make
your decision for Jesus. But I do hope that we all come
to some decision about ourselves this morning. Every sort of hearer. Everybody in this room right
here is described in Matthew 13. There's four types of people
that we're going to look at. Four types of hearers. Are in Matthew 13 and every one
of them described, everybody in here is described, you're
one of these four. Guaranteed. Now, Paul said, and this gives
me comfort. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2. You may or may not be burdened
about this message this morning. I hope you are, but I am. And I beg you to give me your
attention. I beg God to give me your attention. Now, Paul said this, he said,
thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph. The preaching
of the gospel would be a useless, worthless thing if God didn't
say do it. Those apostles went all over
the world, and I'm sure they went to many places where people
ran them out, and they were discouraged. He said, You go, preach it. He that believes will be saved.
He that doesn't will be damned. It's not up to you. It's not
left up to you, Peter, James, John, Matthew. It's not up to
you all. It's up to me. But you go preach.
And that gives me comfort. That after I preach, your blood
is not on my hands. There's nobody's blood going
to be on my hands after this morning. And whether men hear it or not,
their reaction or lack of one will prove their condition. Whether
you hear it or not, your reaction or your lack of one will prove
your condition before God. Paul said, We are unto God a
sweet saver of Christ. Whenever Christ is preached,
whenever the gospel is preached, God has his ears open. The angels
says which things the angels desire to look into, the angels
are listening. That's who they praise all the time. Anybody
praising their Lord, they're listening. He said to one, now we're going
to be the saver of death unto death. We're going to add condemnation.
Or the other, we're going to be a saver of life unto life. So this is life or death. It's
not just another Sunday morning sermon. He said God always causes this,
one of two things, death or life. So, this is life or death. Now, our Lord goes into great
detail here in Matthew 13 about the reaction of people to preaching. This is what he's talking about
here in this parable of the sower. The sower is a gospel preacher,
and the seed is the word of God, is the gospel. I'm a sower this
morning, and I'm going to throw some seed out there. All right,
now you're either one of four people here. One of four. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Now look at verse three with
me. And he spake many things unto
them in parables, saying, let's read this again. Behold, a sower
went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds
fell by the wayside. The fowls came and devoured them
up. Some fell upon stony places.
When they had not much earth, they sprung up, but because they
had no deepness of earth, when the sun was up, they were scorched.
Because they had no root, they withered away. Some fell among
thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them, but others
fell into good ground. and brought forth fruit, some
a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold, who hath ears
to hear." Let him hear. Well, Christ begins to define
what he's saying here. He says, now look at verse 18.
He says, Do you hear therefore the parable of Sower? Do you
understand what you just read? Do you? I ask everybody in here,
do you understand what you just read? And I hope somebody is
saying, well, how can we except somebody show us? All right,
I'm going to show you this morning if you're interested. He said
in verse 18, hear therefore the parable of the sower. Now, when
anyone hears the word of the kingdom. Now, let's stop right
there. The word of the kingdom. This
is not my words this morning. I wish that I could stress that
like it ought to be stressed. Paul said, we beseech you as
though God did beseech you by us. These are not my words this
morning. This is not my full sermon. This
is the Lord of glory. This is the King. And when we
preach, when a man preaches the gospel, He better do this. Necessity is laid on him. Woe
is on him if he doesn't preach this gospel, if he doesn't define
this gospel. The gospel is the gospel of this
king. And a man greatly errs if he
gives some little two-bit moral story about how you ought to
hear and doesn't stress the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of
the kingdom, he said, when anybody hears the word of the kingdom,
or the word of the king. The gospel of the kingdom means
this. The gospel we preach is that
there's a king. I wish, oh, I wish I could describe
this king. King on the throne. And we're all his servants. We're
all under his sovereign, divine dominion. Reign, rule, and power. He'll turn us whithersoever he
will. All things the scripture says,
we're in his hands, even our very ways, our very breath. We're
under his dominion. We've got a king. Contrary to what this world is
saying, that he's doing all he can and now it's up to you. God will do whatever He is pleased
with you or me. He'll save me or He'll damn me. I deserve to be damned. I don't
say you, I say me. If it applies to me, I know it
applies to you. God will do with you or me whatever
He pleases. We've got to see God as sovereign,
holy, holy. The gospel of the kingdom says
there's a king, he's a holy king, he sat on his holy hill of Zion,
and it says we're guilty, we're sinful, we're wretched. He's
a king and we're his servants, but we're rebels. This is what
God charges us with. God doesn't charge us with stealing
a watermelon or getting drunk. God doesn't charge us with adultery
or this and that and the other. He does, but that's not chiefly
what he is charging us with. God is charging us with rebellion.
See, God says, you will not have any other gods before me. Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Give thanks.
Give praise where praise is due. Thank God. God gives us the water
we drink, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the houses we
live in, our homes, our families. God says, now bow to me. Worship
me. Thank me for it. It's the least you can do. And
men go on and say, nah. So what does God charge us with? Rebellion. You won't bow? You
won't thank God? And then we said in Romans 1,
neither were they thankful or worshiped the creature more than
the Creator. God says you won't bow? All right. Die and go to hell. And that's what God charges us
with, you and me, unless we're in Christ by faith. And the good news of this gospel
of the kingdom is God sent his son. He said, now, I'm not going
to kill them all. They're unworthy, wretched rebels
against the king. They committed high treason against
the throne of heaven. But I'm not going to kill them
all. Oh, they all deserve it. like
a bunch of wiggling ants. They all deserve to be snuffed
out of God's holy presence. But I'm not going to do it. God
says, in love and mercy and grace, I'm just going to love some of
them. There ain't nothing lovable about them. Look at them while
they're in their sin. Ain't nothing lovable about them,
but I'm going to love them freely. Yeah, freely. God says, I love
that one. Oh, he's like the rest of them.
I don't care. I'm going to love him. Got to force himself, doesn't
he, Henry? I'm going to love that one, that
one. Not all of them. Ain't none of
them lovely. But God says, I'm going to love
that one, that one, and I'm going to save them. They're going to
go to hell like the rest of them if I don't do something. So God
sent his Son, Christ, down here. And Christ said, Here I am. Here
I am, here God is. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners. Anybody need help? Anybody guilty?
Anybody guilty of high treason against the king? Anybody in
here? Anybody feel your guilt and your
sin? God's hold you accountable for it. Do you feel it? Christ
has come to me. I'll give you life. I'll bear
your punishment." And Christ did that. He went to the cross
and God killed his son and put him through hell of some sort. Shed his blood, which he demands
for the remission of sins, and gave us his holiness. And now
God can look on us with favor and receive us into heaven. That's
the gospel. Christ came. And now God says
this. God says He took His Holy Son,
Christ, and set Him on His holy hill of Zion on the throne. It
says all authority is given unto His Son in heaven and earth because
He did this. He both lived and died and rose again that He might
be Lord both of the dead and the living. And He set Christ
on the throne and He said, Now all you grateful sinners, you
worship My Son for what He did. Aren't you grateful? Huh? Lift
up your voice, he said. Sing praise to my Son for coming
down into this cesspool of doing that for you. Least you can do,
isn't it? And that's what the gospel says. That's when we preach the gospel.
That's what we're saying every time. God's on the throne. We're
in the dust. We're on the edge of hell. God
sent his Son. Why will you die, he said? Come
unto me." Christ saved some people. He said, now bow, kiss him, praise
him, worship him. All right? That's what we say
every time the gospel is preached. Now, there's four types of people
that hear this. Number one. Verse four. It says, when he
sowed, I just sowed to you. I just threw out a little gospel
seed. When he sowed, some fell by the wayside. Verse 19, Christ explains this, the wayside
hearer. He says, Now, when anyone hears
the word of the kingdom, you just heard it, and understands it not. Then
comes the wicked one, or doesn't receive it, doesn't believe it,
doesn't understand it. Then comes the wicked one, that's
Satan and his devices, his emissary, and catches it away. That which
was thrown in the heart or in the ear, this is he which receives
seed by the wayside. Now when you think of a wayside,
what do you think of? When you think of a path, some
of you have a farm, and you go down to the barn a lot, and there's
a way down to the barn. It's a wayside. It's over here
at the side of your house. And it's a well-beaten, well-trodden
path, right? No grass, nothing growing there.
You travel that path a lot. Well, the Scripture says there
is a way, and it's a broad way. And it leads to destruction.
And the scripture says many are going that way. This wayside
is the way of the world. And many are going that way.
Fame, fortune, happiness, pleasure, material gains, possessions,
fleshly desires, broad road. Everybody's headed that way.
Nearly everybody. Nearly everybody. There's a view
over here. It's called the Brawler Road. You know what they say. Grab
all the gusto you can. You know what the Nike commercial
says, don't you? Life's short. Boy, they never
hid it any truer, did they? Life's short. Do it. Go for it. Grab it. While there's time, get all you
can. Why? What do you got after you've
grabbed it off? The Scripture says, grass and flowers, flowers
and grass. The grass withers and the flower
fades. The biggest house is going to
crumble. The strongest body, the Word says, not the strong
man glory in his strength. Boy, I tell you, I used to lift
weights. I can't glory in it any more. I'm a 97-pound weakling. I used to lift weights. I can
bench-press twelve million pounds. And you see these people, you
know. Letting up the wise man glory in his mind. Why, that
big strong fellow who can arm-wrestle any dude is going to be seventy
years old one day, and he's not even going to be able to get
up out of his chair. I used to plow the fields for
four hours straight without stopping. Where are you now, old man? Now what? Well, I know what, old man. You're going to face God. What have you accumulated? It didn't last. The most beautiful
woman. Oh, we got some pretty ones in
here. I'm glad. I'd rather look at pretty ones. You work hard at it, too. But
it fades fast. Wrinkles. Oh, we do everything
within our power to get rid of the wrinkles. There's coming
a time when you're just not going to be able to win the battle.
You're going to look in the mirror and say, oh. And your husband's gone that
used to just love to look and gaze into that pretty little
face. Your children are all gone. You're dying. And all pleasure, you know, robust,
young, healthy men and women, virile and just out after the
world and everything in it, you know, just enjoying life, you
know. There comes a time when that ceases, doesn't it, you
older people? He says, then what? That's the
wayside. He says, that's the way, that's
the broad way, that's the wayside hearer. And these people are
confronted with truth. Everybody, Paul said it in Romans,
he said, have they not heard? Oh yeah. He said, sounds gone
out throughout the whole world. Everybody's heard. Everybody
in Franklin County knows what we preach here. Yes, they do. One man preached it for fourteen
years, I've preached it another three, and everybody knows what
we preach here. Everybody knows, and everybody
all over the world has heard some truth. We saw it, sang it
in that song. Yeah! It's in the light, it's
in the hills. The invisible things from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, even these eternal power
in Godhead, so that they're without excuse, the Scripture says. Have
they not all heard? Yeah, everybody's heard. There's
a doubt. And they're confronted. Some fail. The Scripture says
they fell on them. Man can't get away from them.
He falls on them. And all here enough to make them
accountable. People go to church at some point
in their life. Everybody does. That man never
darkened the door of a church house in his life. Guarantee
you did. Guarantee you. Somebody had been in some church
somewhere and somebody got up and read a verse of Scripture.
He's turned on his radio and somebody's read a verse of Scripture.
He's turned on the TV and somebody's read a verse of Scripture. And
his soul will count. Right? He's heard it. They hear
a little Bible, leave the church house and... Maybe describe somebody here
this morning, going that wayside, a broad road. But look at what
he says happens to them. It says, the fowls came, verse
4, and devoured a month. Fowls. Satan is a foul thing. Catches away the word, verse
19, it says, catches away the word that was stoned in the heart.
Catches it away. Catches it away. It's quickly,
it's easily taken away isn't it? Huh? What did I preach Wednesday
night? What was my text? I'd have a
hard time thinking about it. I'd have to stop and think about
it. Psalm 119, verse 105. I'd have a hard time thinking
about it. I'm sitting here with doubts
running through my mind. What does that even mean? Why? Prince, the power of this air.
God of this world. God of this world and his things
catch it away. Catch it away. That's not for
you. You got better things to do.
Better things to think about. More enjoyable things to think
about. Forget that. You know the surest way to forget your
troubles? You know the word of God troubles
a man. The word of God will trouble you. It will. The Lord can, Satan
can use a crying baby. Yeah he can. Anything to keep
us here from hearing the gospel. Anything. Somebody needs to hear
this message tomorrow. And there's a baby crying. Surest
way to forget our troubles is to think about something else.
Surest way. And Satan is the grand master
at this. Makes you think about something
else, a father. You get a father in here thinking about his job,
thinking about his troubles, what am I going to do this, what
am I going to do that? You get a mother thinking about a child. Of the food. Now if anybody in
here... Roberta? If anybody's excused this morning
from thinking about the roasting in that oven, Roberta is. She's
got about 40 people to think about food. No. Need to hear this. Get thinking about the girl. Think about marriage, old people,
think about this, think about that and the other. Christ said
this, Matthew chapter 6 verse 34, he said this, if you want
to turn, he said, take no thoughts. No thoughts. Take no thoughts
for tomorrow. He said, don't think about tomorrow.
Why? You don't know if you've got
one. Right? Take no thought for the
morrow. The morrow, if there is one,
shall take thought for the things of itself. You're going to be
worried about the same things tomorrow you're worried about right now,
so why worry about them now? Sufficient under that day is
going to be the evil, the idle, the worthless, ridiculous, unbelieving
thoughts you're going to have tomorrow. Why do that now? Take no thought. You know, it
says three times in Hebrews 3, today. Three times. Today, if you'll hear his voice,
harden not your heart. Don't go the way, sir. Harden
not your heart as in the day of provocation when they broke
me, tempt me in the wilderness. Three times he said that. Today. Today. What's the date? Today, February
2nd, 1992. Today! We're not promised February
3rd. Today. Here are number two, Matthew
10. Here are number two. Look at
it. Look at verse five. It says, Some fell upon stony
places. They didn't have much earth.
They sprung up. They didn't have any deepness
of earth, and when the sun was up, they were scorched because
they had no root. They withered away. Look at verse 20. He that
received the seed in stony places, the same as he that heareth the
word, and anon with joy receives it. With joy. Here's the word,
and it said he sprang up. Now, here's a typical scenario. Here's a typical. I mean, if
there's one of these people in here, there's one billion out
there. And there's probably more than
one in here this morning. Now, here's a man or a woman. They've
lived a bad life. They've been in bad shape. They've
been down and out. They've lived in sin. They've
had a drinking problem or a promiscuous life or whatever, running around.
Perhaps they've been divorced and perhaps they're lonely now
or just looking for some answers or whatever. Somebody recommends
go to church. Go to church. Clean up your life. That's good advice. Clean up
your life. Quit your bad habits. Maybe this is me. This describes
me. Meet some respectable girl or guy. And then he goes and
her she goes and hears that God loves them and make a decision
for Jesus. Live happily ever after. Sounds
good. Sounds like what I need. Just what I need, I think I will.
So that person, that man, that woman, young person starts coming.
Spring up. People spring up in church all
the time, though. Spring up here, spring up there. Pop up here,
there's so-and-so, pops up in church. Spring up. Occasional
churchgoers are like weeds. They pop up everywhere. Out of
the cracks of the sidewalk. Had a man tell me, after going
to church a little while, he started feeling good about himself. That's not what this is designed
to do. That's not what this is all about. If a person ever hears
me preach and goes away and says, start to feel good about themselves,
they haven't heard a word I've said. This gospel is designed
to make a man feel bad about himself. And it says, verse 21, they endure
for a while. They endure for a while, spring
up, receive the word with joy. They spring up and they endure
for a while. And it doesn't say how long here,
does it? You know, I've known some people to be stony ground
hearers for thirty years. I know some people who seem for
thirty years to rejoice in the gospel, and then one day, where's
so-and-so? I know preachers. Where's so-and-so? Well, Christ
said the sun came up. The sun came up, the heat of
life. Everyday pressures, temptations, trials of living. The sun begins
to fade everything that, you know. And it becomes scorched. Look
at that. It says it becomes scorched. That old hothead temper rears
its ugly head again. That unchanged, that old nature
begins to really manifest itself, becomes offended, gets mad at
the preacher. Could be somebody's even mad right now at me. I sure
hope not. Verse 21 says, here's the problem.
Trials, tribulations, persecution arises, the Word, because of
the Word, preaching of the truth. You know, a lot of people hear
the preaching for long periods of time and don't really hear
it. You know that? Ron Trademan, I'll tell you his
story. He said he heard it for years and never heard it. was
in church every Sunday morning. Message after message. Hear it.
But he didn't hear it. One day he heard it. And this
is what I'm saying. A man ever really hears it, he'll
get mad. I don't like that. Or sad. That describes me to a T. What
am I going to do? Or glad. You mean that Christ
is for sinners? I need him. That's me. Me? Yeah, you. Just what I need. You can't go away unmoved. Can't do it. The Word. But, he says, all that newfound
excitement, a person does receive it. Some people do receive it. Where'd he go? Where do people
go when they leave the gospel? Back to the old lifestyle, don't
they? Right back to their old lifestyle that God was supposed
to have saved them from. Like the scripture says, the
dogs return to its vomit, the sow to its mire. God saved them, huh? Changed
them. New creature. Well. Verse 21. Defended by the Word
because they had no root. You see that? There it is. No root. No root. Now, all of you planted a garden
in here. Nearly all of you. And the plants are the healthiest.
Your best plants are usually the ones that have the deepest
root. Right? If you've got good soil, that
is. And this thing of a shallow religion, no root, a profession,
a mere profession of faith, you know, got baptized years ago,
believed, I believe, I believe election, yeah. But no heart, no affection for
the Word. General notions of belief, you
know, that a lot of people have this, I believe, you believe
in God, don't you? And this is, this is the ploy that modern
day religion uses on people. You believe in God, don't you?
Well, yeah. You don't think I'm a pagan,
do you? Yeah, I believe in God. Well, you want to go to heaven,
don't you? Well, sure I do. Everybody dies. I don't want to go to hell. Are you sorry for what you've
done? Boy, sure am. It caused me a lot of trouble. I'm sorry
for that life I've lived. Boy, I was down and out. Couldn't
get a job. That's being sorry for the consequences. That's
not sorry. That's Cain. That's Esau. He lost something. Not sorry about yourself. Sorry
about what you've done. getting caught. Do you believe
in Jesus? Jesus will get you out of it.
If that's what I need to do, yeah, I will. Make a phase of
your baptism? Sure, anything, whatever I need
to do. All right, going to church, better
be in church now, you could lose your salvation. All right. All
right. That's typical, isn't it? That's
millions of people all over this world. Now, here's more specifically,
though, maybe applies to somebody in here. General notions of belief,
and at long term. Some people can hear the gospel
for 30 years and get it all down pat. Yeah, I believe in total
depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible
grace, perseverance of the saint, sovereignty of God, holiness
of God, justification, sanctification, redemption, imputation. Justification,
I'm sure for heaven as if I'm already there, I'm a Calvinist.
got her down pat. I can recite it tongue, tooth,
and nail. I got her down pat. I got no
love for the gospel. Get enthused about it. You can
be enthused about doctrine for 30 years. Like to talk about
it. Sit at the table, talk about it. Yeah, talk good, too. Like
I said, I've known preacher. One preacher I heard preach one
time for Romans 4, the clearest, the best message on the imputation
of Christ I've ever heard in my life, bar none. The man left
his wife and family and he's out of the pulpit now. He knew it. But he didn't know
Christ. Christ said, more importantly,
he said, I never knew you. Spring up like grass. But grass
doesn't bear fruit, does it? It'd be some little flowers,
like a dandelion, and one wind would blow that away, won't it? Listen to me. Root. Heart. Beginning of salvation. And I
made this comment a while ago about feeling good about yourself.
The beginning of salvation. You know what a word, you know
what a real mark of the word of God taking root in somebody's
heart? You know what the first reaction
of a man is? And this, Ed, this is where this
generation has plum missed the boat. The first reaction of a
man upon hearing the gospel is, like at Pentecost, what shall
we do? I'm lost, I'm guilty, my sins
are ever before me." Sin, guilt. Didn't Christ come preaching,
repent, didn't he? John came preaching, repent.
They've totally borrowed that out of preaching now. Why? There's
no mention of sin. Joy is not the first reaction
upon hearing this gospel. Anger or sadness? One of the
two. I won't have that. I don't like
that. That's too hard. Or, that's me. Oh, that's me. Right? Oh, no. It can't be joy. You can't hear... Scott always
says, I've never heard any bad news since I heard the good news.
But I'll add to that. You can't hear the good news
unless you've heard the bad news. The good news is not good news
unless you've heard the bad news. Mercy doesn't mean a thing to
a man who's not guilty. Water doesn't mean a thing to
anybody in here but me. Why? Because I'm thirsty. Food, manna, Christ the bread
of life doesn't mean a thing to a man who doesn't hunger and
thirst after Him. Right? This is what He said over in
Revelation. If any man thirsts, whosoever
will, take of the water of life freely. That doesn't apply to
everybody. It applies to the thirsty. And the Spirit of God
does that. That's the first thing the Spirit
of God does. Thirst, hunger, guilt, sin, repentance,
bowing, mercy, grace. Not joy in Jesus and accepting
Jesus in my life, just whoop-dee-doo. No. It's doubts, fears. And then that brings a real abiding
need for Christ, right? Because that man that
comes in, you accept Jesus and everything will be all right,
he comes in, okay, I accept him, you're going to be, everything's going
to be okay, and everybody in the church just receives him
in open arms and everything just goes along so fine, until something
bad happens. The sun comes up. Trials and
afflictions. Somebody asked my father one
time, when my oldest brother was killed in Vietnam. Somebody said, where was his
sovereign God when his son died? And that's what a man will ask
by nature. You know what my father's answer was? Same place he was
when his son died, on the throne. Now by the faith, hope, and love,
though I understand the mysteries of the universe, Paul said, and
I can reveal all mysteries and have not love, nothing. I'm a stony ground hearer. I
got rock-solid doctrine, but I got a rock-solid heart to match
it. Verse 7, Christ said, And the
sun fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them.
Verse 22, Christ describes as he that receives seed among the
thorns, as he that hears the word, and the care of this world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes
unfruitful. Now, some people, for one reason
or another, are under the sound of the word. Everybody in here,
for one reason or another, I know who the reason is, but for one
reason or another, either a saver of life unto life or death unto
death, you're right now under the sound of this Word. All right? Yet, the heart and the mind is one
million miles away. The life is full of thorns, weeds,
and the Word never takes root. Henry gave me some winter wheat
to plant on my garden as a cover crop. And my garden, I tilled
it up, I plowed it up beforehand, had it real softened up, plowed
up real good. And I went out there and took
that seed. It was cold. Henry gave that to me back, I
forget when it was, it was last month or so. It was cold. I took
that seed anyway and threw it all over the garden. It was real.
I didn't spare it. I threw a lot of it on there. That's the reason Henry had so
much left over. He sowed a ton on his garden. He gave me some. Anyway, I had some left over
from the garden, and I've got a bank down in front of my house. Many of you have seen it. It's
a problem area. I can't plow it up. It's steep.
I can't do anything with it. I'll have to get down there someday
and plow it up. I'm going to grow anything. But
I thought, I'll try it. I'll just throw some of that
seed out there. Just throw it all over the bank.
Just really throw it all over the bank. Well, you ought to
see my garden right now. Got that beautiful green winter
wheat growing up, just full of cover. Beautiful. Looks good.
And I go down every day, nearly every day, drive by and look
at that bank. Henry, I don't see a blade anywhere. I won't. Why? You know what's on that bank?
The dreaded honeysuckle. Honeysuckle has got it. And it
won't honeysuckle. You know what honeysuckle is.
You battle that, don't you? Nothing will get rid of that, except
maybe that Japanese. What's that one they put on the
highways? Honeysuckle. Thorns. Weeds. Same principle here. Weeds. Choke
it out. Cares of this world, Christ calls
thorn. Many people sit in here this
morning and appear to listen. But your minds are a thousand
miles away. Why? You're thinking about something
else. That's Thorne. He cares of this world. And he
can't... What are we going to eat? What
are we going to drink? What are we going to do? My daughter takes
a piano lesson. And she just bides her time.
She's practicing piano. We make her practice. Mindy makes
her practice. Every day. If she ever becomes a good piano
player, Cherry, she's going to owe it to her mommy. That's us,
isn't it? That's us. If we ever become
anything, we're going to owe it to our Heavenly Father. But
anyway, Mindy makes her sit down and practice piano every day.
She doesn't want to. You don't like practicing, do
you? No, she doesn't want to. She's biding her time until practice
is over. Quit practicing piano so she
can do what? Go out and play. And there's somebody in here this
morning. practicing religion long enough that I can go out
and play. I can't really put any blame. I
can go play with my house, my car, my child. Whatever it is, it'll gradually
choke out the word, because that man or that woman is a lover
of pleasure more than a lover of God. Look with me at Exodus 32, and
I'll hurry. Exodus 32. Roberta, it'll all
keep. It'll be all right. I'll help
you warm it up. Exodus 32. This is too important.
We're not coming back tonight. This is just too important. Exodus
32, we read this in our Bible study this morning, 1 Corinthians
10, Paul quoted it. Moses went up into the mountain.
Christ left this earth. He's gone. He hadn't come back
for 1900 and however many years. He's been gone a long time. Peter
said that, that's what they're saying today, scoffing, where's
the prophecy is coming? Is that what Peter said, Sam? All things continue. We're tired
of waiting. Moses went up in the mountain,
and they heaped to themselves a teacher having itching ears.
They had gold in them. That's what itched them. That
was their God. They all wore in their ear what
was their God. And they all plucked off these
gold earrings and cast them into the fire, and they heaped, Aaron,
make us a God. And Aaron did that, look at it,
verse 1 of Exodus 32, verse 1. And the people saw that Moses
delayed to come down out of the mountain, and they gathered themselves
together to Aaron. They went to church. Make us
gods. Go for us as for Moses. We don't
know what's become of Moses. Yeah, we've heard that gospel
before. Aaron said unto them, give me your earring, and so
on. And Aaron built an altar, verse
5, and made a proclamation, marred the feast, verse 6. They rose
up early in the morning and went to church, offered burnt offering,
bought peace offering. The people sat down to eat, drink,
and they rose up to play." And it says, God finally came
down, Moses finally, after tarrying forty days and forty nights,
came down. And he was angry. Joshua said,
what's this noise I hear? They're crying. Now, Moses says,
that's not crying. That's laughter. They're having
a big time. Scripture says, let your laughing
turn to mourning. They're not crying. They're having
a big old time. They're playing. They're playing. And he came
down, and God was angry, and as I said, God killed 3,000 of
them and plagued them from that day forward. because they had
other gods, thorns, cares of this world, deceitfulness and
wretchedness. And I'll ask you this morning what Moses asked
those people when he came down there. When Moses came down from
the mountain and they had what was going on in the world, Moses
lifted up his hand and said to all the people, Who is on the Lord's side? Whoever wants to play and worship
false gods and play at religion, just make a half-hearted effort,
a head knowledge, whoever wants to do that, stay there. But whoever wants to worship
God and follow Christ, let him come unto me. Christ said the
same thing, didn't He? Any man will come after me, let
him take up his cross." That is of self-denial, affliction. Deny himself. Follow me. Lastly, he said, some fell among
good ground, verse 8, and brought forth fruit. Some a hundredfold,
some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. And verse twenty-three, he says,
Now he that receiveth seed unto the good ground, is he that heareth
the word, and understandeth it, and it bears fruit. Bears fruit. Now, there's none
good. No, not one. None that doeth
good. No, not one. None righteous. Scriptures are
clear. The heart is deceitful. Talk
about good ground. I'm talking about the heart here.
The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked.
Who can know it? But when God Almighty works on
a heart now, you can know it. Didn't Paul say that? Know ye
not your own selves? When God works on a man, he takes
out the old heart and gives him a heart of flesh. He takes out
the stony heart, gives him a heart of flesh, right? A malleable
one, a soft heart. He works on it by plowing. Plowing,
that's what has to happen, plowing. That's what I've been doing this
morning, plowing. Getting down, I'm telling you,
you've got to, you ever grub stumps? I mean, there's some
old notions that men have, superstitions and thoughts about themselves,
got to be grubbed out. Chopped, beaten, dynamite, whatever
it'll take to blast that notion out of a man's head. I feel pretty
good. You've got to grub, don't you? Grub, plow. No good. No good. God's going to damn
your soul, man, if you don't realize it. Put away the Torah. Why will you die? Who's on the
Lord's side? Quit playing. Bow down. Worship. Get serious. God's the Spirit must worship.
All that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. The Father
seeketh such to worship Him. Grubbing. Plowing. Christ said, we've wept and mourned
unto you, and you haven't lamented. He said, we've ploughed unto
you, and you don't dance. Keep ploughing, though. Keep
ploughing. Remove the stones. That's one
thing about Rocky Mount soil, boy, I found out about. You'll
never get them all out. I don't care. You're never going
to get them all out. And folks, we still got some. Why doesn't God get rid of it,
drive us to Christ? Drive it one little splinter,
keep bugging you, drive you to Christ. See your need of Him. Now, here's the growth process,
and I'll quit. All of you planted gardens, and
this is what happened. This is what happens now. Do
you want to know if God Almighty has worked with you? Now, this
is what happens. He said, some fell upon good
ground and it brought forth fruit. Now, no denying it, when God
Almighty works on somebody at first, most of the time, Most
of the time, nothing is noticeable at first. Most of the time. Henry, you plow up that garden,
get the soil good and loosened up there, and throw your seed
out there. Do you go out the next morning and say, that garden,
I planted seed. Why isn't it coming up? You don't
do that, do you? You can go out there for a week
or something, two weeks. When I threw that winter wheat down,
I went out there two or three weeks, and nothing had come up
yet. I thought, Henry sold me some bad seed. It came up. But nothing was noticeable at
first. If I've seen it once, I've seen it a thousand times.
Nothing noticeable at first. Nothing. A believer, you see,
a believer has got to go home and think about this thing. Paul
said, don't make your decision for Jesus, go home, search the
scriptures, count the cost, Christ said. See if these things are
so. Get in your closet, Christ said.
Don't come down to the aisle. That'll just make you a self-righteous
Pharisee. That'll make you give you a false
refuge, and you'll lean on that for the rest of your days. It's
little to say, don't do that. Don't come down here and make
your decision. Go home, get in the closet, and beg God to make
some decision. Then you won't help yourself.
Then you won't be able to contain yourself. And something will
happen. It'll begin to happen. Count
the cost. Doesn't spring up. Weeds spring
up. Good things take root first.
And then the rains come. Throw that seed out there, nothing
seems to happen. Then God. But God. The rains begin to fall. Former
and the latter. Message after message. After
prayer, after song, after message, after meeting, after fellowship,
after prayer, after message, after meeting, after fellowship,
rains keep coming for long. Ears begin to open. Like the thorn, ears begin to
open, eyes begin to see, understand it. For long, one who sits on
the back row has moved to the middle. That's wrong. And the one finally, a little
while later, he's down front. What's happened? He's growing. He's growing. The rains have
come. God's mercy, God's grace, God's
gospel has come. And finally, you see some change. But you know, it begins on the
inside first. You buy these hulls of beans. Let's take a Kentucky
pole bean or whatever, for example. Christ used to grain corn or
wheat. They look dead, don't they? There's
no hope for that. That won't grow anywhere. I've
got some that's staying in my cabinet in the garage that I've
had a couple of years. And I bet you some of it will
grow if I throw it out there, according to God's good mercy.
But it doesn't look like much, does it, when you buy it? There
ain't nothing good till it comes out of that. You throw it in
the ground. What happens first, Henry? It
doesn't all of a sudden, poof, it's a flower on the inside. Something germinates, right?
It begins to germinate on the inside, and then it pops its
head up. Do you ever notice about the beans, you go out there and
look, when they first stick out of the ground, what do they got
on them? That old hoe. That old hoe. They got to shed that thing,
don't they? Got to shed it. They will. I went out there,
first crop I got, the bees first started, I went out and started
picking the hull, helping them out, you know. Finally I saw, hey, there's too
many. Let them alone, they'll be all right. And I want to do
that with people. Come on now. What's wrong with
you? Grow old man. Don't you hear
this? I can't do it. Can't do it. But they do. And God's a good
time. Oh, I need to hear this. Oh,
I need to hear that. Mark 4, 28 says, The earth brings
forth fruit of itself. Jonah 2, 9 says, Salvations of
the Lord. You can't say, I can't get anybody
saved. I can't win any souls. Can you? I've tried. All I've
done is won enemies. How to influence a friend and
win enemies. I write a book on that. Salvations of the Lord. He said, The earth brings forth
fruit of herself. And he said, the scripture says,
let his work, his word, and have its perfect work. First, the
blade. Tender, little child of God,
young person, tender, sensitive, green, ignorant, weak, little
plant, but it drinks in the shower. Buddy, now I tell you what, you
can't take this. Drinks in the shower, boy. Every
one, you can see a noticeable difference. Those little plants,
they go very long without a shower, they wouldn't will. But drinks
in the showers of rain seem to grow daily, daily, with every
sunrise. It's out of the ground. And real
conversion brings enthusiasm. I know I'm an enthusiast. I am
emotional. I wear my emotions on my sleeve.
I won't give you a nickel for a man's religion who doesn't
have any emotion. He's telling me that the Holy Spirit can come
into a man's life and heart and change it and there not be any
outward visible manifestation of it? Come on! It grows! It grows! Enthusiasm, joy, desire. I remember as a young... I say
this over and over again, it's because I'm so perplexed about
it. As a young man, and I wasn't the only one, there's many young
people that the Lord raised up under the sound of the gospel
where I was. I remember when somebody said, hey, the pastor's
going to preach down in so-and-so. Really? Do you want to go? Yeah. You've got work in the
morning. It doesn't matter. We'll be all right. Drive. Wherever it took, wherever he
went. Whenever we got together, we talked, loved the gospel. feeding, soaking it up, interesting. If I've known one, I've known
a hundred. In love with the gospel, can't
get enough of it. Let it rain, I'll stand out in
it. Let preaching come within two
hours of me, I'm going to go hear it. There shall be showers of blessings
sent from the Father above. And if he's going to let some
drops fall, I want them to fall on me. Oh, I wish the Lord would do
that for our young people. What can I do here? Is there
anything I can do around here? I'm just so grateful for what
God's done for me. Can I wash the windows? Can I
cut the grass? Let me do this. Let me do that.
Where are you going? I'll go with you. Did you see
this verse of Scripture I was reading today? Would you look
at this? Isn't that great? What does that mean? Oh, I'd like to see that. Blade. In the blade, then the
ear, stalk of corn. Begins to look like a believer.
Some fruit. Some fruit. And then Christ said,
the full ear of the corn. Full ear. Christ said, This is
how you glorify God, by bearing much fruit. This is how. Begin
to experience these fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Begin to look like Christ. Begin to shed those old holes.
Begin to look like Christ. I've got a... I like houseplants. And anybody ever had a, what
they call a corn plant in your house? It looks like corn, doesn't
it? I mean, it looks just like it. One time we had one about six
or seven feet tall in our house, and I kept thinking, well, I'll
be glad when she gets some ears on it, some ears. You know, it's
called a corn plant. But is it? How do you know the
difference between what the world calls a corn plant, which is
a Dracaena marginata, or whatever, Nancy? and a corn plant. How do you know the difference
in her? Between this one in the house
and the one outside? It's a corn plant. It's got corn
on it. They may call that a corn plant
all they want, but unless I can find some corn on it, she ain't
no corn plant. You may call me a Christian all
you want, but unless I've got some fruit,
I ain't no Christian. You know what a sure sign of
work of grace is? Grace. Thorny ground hearer. Seems to
have some work and all that, but the thorns of cares, he can
gradually buy rope and begin to miss Wednesday and Sunday
night and the Bible study and then find, where is he? Thorns
of the world, cares, that's choked him out. He's gone. She's gone. Or one that the Holy Spirit has
plowed deep. Buddy, you rock bottom. You open
up. And like Peter, you have to say,
Lord, where am I going to go? I don't want to leave. I will,
Lord. I'm prone to wander.