Now let's open our Bibles back
to Matthew chapter 13. Now you have heard read here
in these first 23 verses of this chapter a parable. There's a lot of ways you can
approach this parable and look at it. Most people call it the
parable of the sower and the seed. I'm going to take it a
little differently as far as the title goes. I'm going to
call this message, entitle this message, The Parable of the Soils,
the ground, the soils, because that's what the main lesson of
the parable is about. But as you've heard this, this
parable is found in all three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew 13 here, Mark chapter
4. In fact, you might want to Mark
your Bibles there at Mark 4 and Luke chapter 8, because I'm going
to be looking at those two to shed some light on what the Lord
has for us here this morning in the parable of the soils. Now, let's look at some things
here. You know, as Brother Aaron read it, verse 3 there, it says,
Behold, a sower went forth to sow. What is a sower? He's one
who sows seeds. He's a farmer. What is he? It's
like the farmer goes out and plants seed. He plants a certain
seed to get a certain crop. If you plant seeds for corn,
you hope the corn comes up. If you plant tomato plants, you
hope tomatoes come up. That's the way it is. So this
is a farmer. And this sower here, this farmer, is always the same. This is a common metaphor or
symbol. that the Lord uses for Himself. Over in the same chapter here,
Matthew 13, look at verse 37, He speaks of the sower. He says,
when they asked Him concerning the parable of the wheat and
the tares, which is the next parable, the disciples asked
Him some questions, and He answered and said unto them, He that soweth
the good seed is the Son of Man. So the sower, the farmer here,
is Christ himself, and it's always the same. Now, he sows seed through
his ministers. Some say, well, it's Christ and
his ministers, and that's so. What he's saying here is anyone
who's sowing this good seed is a minister of Christ. It's actually
Christ who is sowing the seed, even when a person like me or
any other gospel preacher gets up to preach the gospel. And
that tips you off as to one thing that you need to understand as
you get started trying to understand the Word of God and understand
the parables. Number one, you want to test
the preachers. John said that in 1 John 4. In
other words, you want to make sure that what I am telling you
is the Word of God and not just my opinion. There are too many
opinions going around, you see. Am I an ambassador of Christ? Paul said that in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. We are ambassadors of Christ. What does an ambassador do? When
our country sends an ambassador to a foreign country, that ambassador
is not there to spread his own views and his own opinions and
his own ideas. He's there to represent the United
States of America. And therefore, when he speaks
in his official capacity, he's not to be giving anything of
his opinion or his views, his personal. They may be his opinion,
but they better be representative of the United States of America,
a higher power. He doesn't speak for himself.
He speaks for a higher power, the government. And that's the
way it is with the sower here. The sower is the son of man.
If I'm preaching the gospel to you, and this is the second thing,
If I'm preaching the truth of the Scriptures, then you're to
look upon it as if it is Christ Himself preaching to you. And
I know that's a difficult thing. It is, because so many preachers,
and I'm subject to this myself, you know, we're so apt to put
in our own opinions and our own ideas and go above and beyond.
But you see, it's your responsibility To hear it as it is the Word
of God and to check it out with the Scripture. Be like the noble
Bereans when they heard Paul the Apostle. You know, there's
a lot of preachers who don't like to be tested. Forget them. Don't follow them. I'm telling
you now, this is too important. What we're talking about here
is life and death. And so just think about that. So the sower
is the farmer. That's the Son of Man. It's Christ
and His ministers who preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. Now,
the second thing, it says the sower here, he went forth to
sow. And when he sowed, some seeds. Now, it's taken for granted here
that what he's sowing is seed. And of course, he mentions that
later on specifically. But you see in verse 4 there,
the word seeds is in italics, which means it was supplied by
the King James translators. It didn't appear in the original.
But what he's sowing is seed. That's what a farmer sows. Seed. He doesn't go out there and sow
paper or he doesn't sow coins. He sows seed in the ground and
from that seed. And one thing, it's the nature
of seed. It's not created. You know, you can't create seed. Seed perpetuates itself. It comes
from the plant and then you plant it and plant it and plant it
and you get more seed. But you don't create seed. So whatever
he's sowing here is not the creation of man. You see, it's something
that always is, always was, always is, always will be. But what
is the seed? Well, the seed is always the
same. Look over at verse 19. He calls it here, he says, "...when
anyone heareth the word of the kingdom." Now, that's the seed.
It's always the word of the kingdom. In Matthew chapter 4, back here
in verse 23, he calls it the gospel of the kingdom. So the
seed is the gospel. It never changes. In other words, it's not one
seed for one group and another seed for another group. Now this
isn't like the farmer who's wanting to get different crops. This
is a farmer who sows one seed and he wants one crop. That's
what he wants. And so, it's not different seeds
for different denominations. Some people say, well, I'm preaching
to my congregation what they need to hear, and this guy's
preaching what they... Let me tell you what we all need
to hear. We need to hear the Word of the Kingdom. We need
to hear the Gospel of the King. And it's no different for any
other congregation in this city, or in this state, or country,
or this world. Christ said, go in all the world
and preach the Gospel. There's a fella who's got a big,
popular religious organization now, and a reporter asked him
one time, he said, he said, why don't you ever preach or mention
the name of Jesus Christ? And he said this, he said, well,
that's not my gift. And he said, that's not what
my congregation needs. Well, he's not sowing the seed
then. He's sowing something else. He's sowing unto destruction,
what the Scripture teaches. But this seed is the gospel.
It's the good news. Now, what is the gospel? Well,
we've seen that. The gospel is God's message,
good news of salvation, of redemption, of heaven itself by the grace
of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. We've spoken of it every time
we preach. That's the gospel. That's what
we're sent to do, to preach God's message. The message of the kingdom
is the kingdom of Christ. It's the kingdom of grace. It's
the kingdom of salvation. It tells us how God can be just
and justify the ungodly. How can a sinner, like me, how
can I stand whole before God who is holy and just and righteous?
How can I stand before Him complete? How can I stand before God not
guilty? cleared of all guilt. I'm a sinner.
How in the world could God, who must punish sin, receive in any
capacity a sinner like me? How can He do that? And it's
only by the shed blood and the imputed righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Gospel of the Kingdom.
That's the message that God has for His people. Sinners who are
in need of mercy. That's what we need. It's a message
of mercy. When we preach this message,
when we sow this seed, we're telling sinners how they can
find mercy at the mercy seed, which is none other than the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, to save
us from our sins completely. His blood alone washing all my
sins away. His righteousness alone making
me whole and complete and right before a holy God. It's a message
of who He is, the glorious person of Christ, who is both God and
man in one person. Paul wrote it in Romans chapter
1, he said, "...who according to the flesh was made of the
seed of David, according to the flesh, but he was declared to
be the Son of God." This is the type of person, this is the person
that it took to save me from my sins. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I strive not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
my salvation, he says. That's how God saves sinners.
It's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, are doing,
plan to do, will do. It's by His alone. And that's
the gospel of the King. That's good news to a sinner.
That's what the word gospel means, good news. You see, it's good
news to those who need Him. Now, it's not good news to those
who don't need Him. And you see, when He went through
here, you know, last week I preached on this passage here from verse
10 when the disciples asked, well, why do you speak in parables?
And then He made this statement, verse 11, because it is given
unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But
to them it's not given. If we hear it, with the ear of
faith, with the heart of faith, it's a gift of God. How blessed
we are! He said that. Blessed are your eyes, for they
see. Your ears, for they hear. And
yet, He comes down here and He puts all the responsibility on
man. They've closed their eyes, they've
closed their ears, lest they should see and hear and understand
and be converted. They don't want the conversion
that this seed brings out. that the gospel of the kingdom.
They don't want to come to repentance of their dead works. They're
too proud. And that's all of us by nature. The only reason
that we're not the same way is why? The grace of God. And that's
it. And yet he says it's their fault. Now, I know we have a hard time
trying to reconcile in our mind the absolute sovereignty of God
and the total responsibility of man. But the Bible doesn't
even try. It just says, here it is. You
either accept it or go on your way. Why did it even speak in
parables? To conceal it, to conceal the
truth from those who had hardened their hearts, who had shut their
eyes and closed their ears. But I'll tell you what. It's
the same message, it's the same light, you've heard it so many
times, the same sun that hardens clay, melts wax. It's the same
message of grace, grace, grace. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Christ has accomplished our salvation on Calvary. And
His blood and righteousness alone are the only grounds upon which
God will save me, keep me, bless me, reward me, and bring me to
glory. That's the seed that needs to
be sown. That's the message that this
generation is not hearing, on the whole, in the majority. But
now here he comes to the soils. He says, some of this seed fell
upon stony places, or fell by the wayside. It's like there's
ground here, but this seed falls like on a hard road. If you go
out there and throw seed on 13th Street, it's not going to grow,
is it? I noticed they're advertising this new miracle grass now that'll
grow on anything, grow anywhere. I guess you could put it on this
table down here and it'd grow. Doesn't work, does it? I heard
that. Ron tried it. Got anything to sell, call Ron.
Did you try it or just hear? Did you really? He did, he admits
it. But you go out there and throw seed on 13th Street, it's
not going to grow. And that's what he's talking
about. That's the seed that fell by the wayside. Fowls, birds came
and devoured it. Next, verse 5, he says, some
fell in stony places. There was ground there, but there
was a lot of stones. And they didn't have much earth.
There was ground, but not much. Soil, but not much soil. And
he says, when they sprang up, they didn't have any depth. No
root. And the sun was up and scorched
it. And it withered away. And then, verse 7, it talks about
the seed that fell among thorns. That sprung up. And the thorns
sprung up and choked them. But he says in verse 8, other
fell into good ground and brought forth fruit. It grew. Now, what's
he talking about? Well, look at verse 18. He says
there's four different kinds of soils here, four different
kinds of grounds. What do these soils represent?
Well, he says here, and he's talking, when he goes, he says
in verse 18, Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower, When
anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it
not, then cometh the wicked one. Verse 20, he says, But he that
receiveth the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth
the word, and anon with joy receiveth. That word anon means now, it
means immediately. He latched on to it quickly.
Hath not rude in himself. And then, verse 22, he receiveth
the seed among thorns, as he that heareth the word. The cares
of the world, the seedfulness of riches, and then verse 23,
he that received the seed into good ground is he that heareth
the word. Everything is related to hearing and understanding
here. That's what I want you to see. What these soils are. Now, we know that this is the
organ here, the inside of this ear here, that's the organ that
we hear with. Isn't that right? And we know
that this eye here, that's the organ that we see with. But we
also know this. He's not talking about just seeing
things with the physical eye and hearing things with the physical
ear. He's talking about seeing something
here to the point that you understand it. You know what understanding
means? It means you stand under it.
Think about it. It means you see what it means.
And you submit to what it means. You stand under it. You understand
it. In other words, it means something
to you. So what do these soils represent?
They represent the heart. Now, a lot of people have a lot
of different ideas about the heart and what it is. I've got
some ideas about it, too. But what does the Word of God
speak of when it speaks of the heart? That's what I want to
know. What God's Word here. I know I've got this organ called
the heart. We're trying to keep it healthy.
You're trying to keep yours healthy. We take all these medicines when
we get older and try to keep them clear. Everybody's looking
for that magic pill to keep those arteries clear. I haven't found
it yet. It's not there yet. They put stents in and all that.
Well, we know he's not talking about this organ of the heart.
And a lot of times we as preachers will do this. We'll talk about
the head and then we'll point down here to the heart. And that's
okay. I mean, if you know what we mean.
We're not talking about this organ. And we're not talking
even about this brain, even though that's where the information
comes through. We're talking about the inner being of man. We're talking about the mind,
the understanding, the affections, the will. We're talking about
that which shows what you love and what you hate. And what you
don't care about. You see, if you don't care about
something, let me tell you something, your heart's not in it. Isn't
that right? And if you love something, your
heart's in it. And if you hate something, your
heart's in it too. It's just in it against it. You
say, you hate this one? Love that one. When you young
people, as you grow up, when you fall in love, you'll find
that you won't be able to hardly get anything else into that mind
of yours. except that girl or that boy.
You'll be thinking about them all the time. Because your heart's
in it. And then when somebody does you
wrong and you get angry and get vengeful, your heart's in that
too, isn't it? And this is what he's talking
about here. Something that you understand, something that you
see, something that drives you, something that motivates you,
You see, now what's on the outside many times doesn't reflect the
heart. Did you know that? Especially in religion. That's
common. Our Lord said that. Matthew chapter 15 and verse
8. Let me just read this to you. He said this. He said, This people
draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with
their lips. In other words, what they say.
But their heart is far from me. Their heart's not in it. They're
just doing it to make a show. That's what he's saying. They're
just doing it because they want somebody to see it. In other
words, anything you do by way of what we call good works, if
all you're doing it for is to get recognition, that's who the
Lord's talking about here. Do you just want recognition
from men? Remember in Matthew chapter 6, He said, if that's
what you're doing it for, you have your reward. Your reward
is to get recognition from men. They give you the recognition,
you've got what you wanted. has nothing to do with salvation,
has nothing to do with heaven, has nothing to do with eternal
life, has nothing to do with spiritual life. You just got
what you wanted. You wanted recognition, you got
it. The Bible teaches this, the heart of natural man, Hebrews
chapter 3 and verse 12, the heart of a person who has not been
converted. Now, remember he said here in
Matthew 13? Look at it again. Look at verse
17. Or look at verse 16 again. Now
listen to this very carefully. He says, "...but blessed are
your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." They
see and they hear with the understanding, with the heart. That's what he's
talking about. I mean, you can see me and you can hear me, but
your heart just may not be in it. Right? I hope your heart
is. I hope my heart's in it. But
he says in verse 74, "...verily I say unto you, that many prophets
and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye
see." Now what he's talking about there is back in the Old Testament.
They believed the gospel, the prophets and righteous men, justified
sinners, that's what he's talking about. But you're seeing things
that they didn't see. They only desired to see. Here
is the Lord Jesus Christ standing before them and speaking to them. Now, people today say, well,
if God could just speak to me, well, here it is. There's no
if about it. This is His Word. Right here
we have the heart and the mind of God from Genesis to Revelation. Did you know that? So that if
we believe anything, it better be according to this Word, and
if we do anything, it better be according to this Word. This
is the heart and mind of God. I believe that. You young people,
I hope that the Lord will give you a respect and regard for
His Word. And I'll tell you what, I've
been there by experience. There was a time I didn't think
a flip of it. Didn't care about it. I thought
it was a pretty good little book. Had some good stories in it,
but that was about it. It was no better than any other
religious book. But this is the Word of God. Paul told that to Timothy. The
Word of God is quick. It's a life-giving word in the
hands of the Holy Spirit. And it's powerful. And sharper
than any two-edged sword. And it can reach right down into
the heart. That's what he means when he
put asunder the soul and the spirit, discerning the thoughts
of God. You see, I can't get to your
heart. You can't get to mine. We don't have that kind of power.
But the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit can do that.
Sure can. And you can't fool God. You can
fool me, I can fool you, but you can't fool God, can you?
This is the issue. So see, these things, the heart
of natural men, look back at verse 15 of Matthew 13. For this
people's heart is grown hard. That's what waxed gross means.
Grown hard. And their ears are dull of hearing,
their eyes, they've closed. You see, that's a willful closing
of the eyes. It's saying, Lord, I don't want
to hear what you have to say. That's what that is. He says,
"...lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears..." There's something they don't want to see and they
don't want to hear. "...and should understand with their heart,
and should be converted." And I should hear them. They don't
want to be converted. Now what does that mean? Well, the heart
of natural man is called this. Here's a good phrase to describe
the heart of the natural man. It's an evil heart of unbelief. Hebrews 3.12. You might look
at people and you'll say, well, they do works of charity, they
work hard for the community, he's a good father, she's a good
mother, a good worker, moral and kind and generous and all
of that stuff. But let me tell you something,
if they don't know Christ and Him crucified, if they don't
trust in Him alone for all of salvation, There is an evil heart
of unbelief. Now, you say, well, I don't want
to believe that. Go back to Matthew 13, 15. You've
closed your eyes and your ears. You know why you must believe
that? Because God said it. That's God's assessment of things.
God knows more than you do, and He knows more than I do. He knows
more than all of us put together. And if He says it's an evil heart
of unbelief, I'll tell you exactly what it is. It's an evil heart
of unbelief. You say, well, I'm not going to believe that. I'm
not going to hear that. Well, there you are right there in
Matthew 13, 15. Isn't that right? That's you. I'm just telling
you the truth. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm
not trying to run you off. I'm just telling you the truth.
God says any heart, any eye, any ear, any person who does
not look to Christ and Him alone for all of salvation is an evil
heart of unbelief. Somebody says, well, that's too
narrow. Well, that's what the Lord said. It's a narrow way.
It's a narrow way. Well, that's what the soils are.
That's the heart of man. These four soils. The heart that
does not know, trust, love, and follow Christ. You know what
it's called in Jeremiah 17? It's called a deceitful heart.
Desperately wicked. Who can know it? So now here's
the lesson of the parable. In the kingdom of God here on
earth, what we call the visible church, that is the place where
the seed is being sown, where the gospel is preached, The gathering
where the true gospel is preached, there are four kinds of hearers. Here today, there are four kinds
of hearers. Right here today. Now, which
kind? Which kind of hearer am I? Which
kind are you? That's what this parable is about.
The major theme has to do with how a person listens and responds
to the gospel. The message of the kingdom. Four
kinds of soils here. Four kinds of hearers. Three
of these soils represent an evil heart of unbelief. One represents
the heart of faith in Christ, a heart changed by the Spirit
and the power of the Word. And this parable is vital to
our understanding of all the parables. You know, if you don't
understand this parable, you can't understand any of them.
Let me show you that. Look at Mark chapter 4. If you
don't understand this parable, you won't understand any of them.
This is the foundation parable, actually. Matthew 13 is nothing but parables.
But then he goes on and on. But look at Mark chapter 4 and
verse 13. And this is our Lord speaking
to the disciples. They didn't understand the parable
when He spoke it. He had to tell them what it means.
And that's okay. You say, well, if I don't understand the parable,
does that mean I'm not saved? The answer is no. But here's
the question. Do you want to understand the
parable? Is it your heart's desire to
look into these things and see what they mean? That's the difference,
you see. That's the Holy Spirit's work in the heart to make us
desire to feed upon the Word of God and hear it and understand
it. So he says in verse 13 of Mark
4, he says, And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will you know all
parables? That's what he's saying. If you
don't understand this parable, how are you going to understand
the rest of it? Are you interested? Am I interested? Go back to Matthew
13. You see, this parable here has
to do with entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Those who
do not receive the word of God's grace in Christ are outside the
kingdom. They haven't entered in. We'll
show you that in a minute. But let's look at it. Look at verse
19. He says, When 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 receives seed by the wayside." This is
the wayside here. Somebody said this is the hard
heart. Hard like blacktop. Hard like
concrete. Again, put the seed on the concrete,
it's not going to grow. It's hard. And he says they have
no understanding. Last week I had Brother Ron,
I think, read that The passage of 1 Corinthians 2, "...the natural
man understands not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them." And the wicked one here is Satan, the devil.
He snatches it away. You see that in Mark chapter
4 and verse 15 and Luke chapter 8 and verse 12 in their version
of the parable. They say it outright. Satan,
the devil, snatches it away. Why does he do that? Look with
me. I want to show you a scripture that goes with each of these
hearers. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now this wayside hearer
is a person who has no interest in the gospel. He has no interest
in the Word of God. He hears what the preacher is
saying, but he doesn't even consider it, doesn't want to consider
it. That's the wayside hearer. That's
the hard heart. No interest. No understanding.
Maybe he'll say, I'll get to it at a later time. I don't know.
But there's a lot of ways in the psychology of a person that
he can justify such things. But this is a person who has
no interest in it. Just mark it down. He just hears
it, or she just hears it, because for some reason, they have to
be. It might be mom and dad. It might be society. It might
be a guilty conscience. I don't know what. But they're
not interested, really, in hearing the Word of God. And look here,
what happens, the Word is sown, and then Satan, if he can now,
and now listen now, don't blame it on the devil, blame it on
yourself if this is your case. Because he couldn't do this unless
you let him. I'm telling you that's the truth.
Now that's right. You see, I know it takes a sovereign,
powerful work of God. You see, but Satan's not that
powerful. He can only do what God lets him do. Look here, he
says in verse 3, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them which believe not. In other words, when Satan sees
unbelief, he capitalizes on it. He works on it. It's like a cancer
to him. He works to spread it. And so he says, he blinds the
minds of them which believe not. Now, Satan cannot blind the minds
of those who believe. Did you know that? But he blinds
the minds of those who believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, that seed, the message of the kingdom, who
is the image of God, should shine unto them. Then Paul goes on,
he says, for we preach not ourselves. But Jesus Christ the Lord, we
spread the seed. We're not preaching ourselves,
promoting ourselves. We're preaching Christ. And He
says, "...ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." For God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the seed sown on the good
ground. Well, while Satan contributes to our blindness, it's brought
about by our own hardness of heart. That's so. But go back to Matthew 13. Now,
that's the wayside here. No interest. Now, if you're here
today and you have no interest, just admit it. There you are.
Right there you are. I mean, there's no, listen, there's
no use us getting into some deep theological Debate about this
thing. If you're here today and you
have no interest in the Gospel, in the Word of God, in this parable,
right there you are. You don't have to walk out even
wondering. That's a sad state now. And I feel sorry for you. And I'll say this, but for the
grace of God, I'd be right with you. One time I was. But if you're here this morning
and you have no interest in this Word, in this Gospel of grace
now, You say, well, I'd rather hear about works. Well, you're
still right here. Now listen. Hear the word of
the Lord. That's what he said. All right,
now, here's the second one. Go to verse 20. He says, But
he that receiveth the seed into stony places, the same as he
that heareth the word, and immediately with joy receiveth it, yet hath
he no root in himself, but he endures for a while. For when
tribulation, that's trouble, or persecution, That's over the
word, ariseth because of the word. Now, that's not just any
persecution now. This is tribulation and persecution
that comes because of his receiving the word. By and by, he is offended. That word offended means he's
trapped. What traps him? His own heart. His heart's really
not in it. He received it quickly. This
is a person who hears it and embraces it quickly without any
thought. He's like the shooting star.
This is the stony ground here. Someone said this is the shallow
heart. The wayside here is the hard heart. The stony ground
here is the shallow heart. There's no depth, you see. No
root. What does that mean? There's
no real Holy Spirit conviction of the truth. They're like, turn
over to 1 John chapter 2. We read these verses not too
long ago. And this stony ground hearer,
here's what he's like. He gave mental agreement to the
truth. He claimed to believe it. And he put off a lot of sparks
about it. But when trouble came, and let
me tell you something, every believer here, will tell you
without hesitation that once you come to a saving knowledge
of Christ and identify with Christ and His people, trouble is coming
in some form or fashion or other. It may be from people at work. It may be from people of your
own household. What did Christ say in Matthew
chapter 10? A man's foes will be those of his own household. This message will set father
against son, mother against daughter. Isn't that right? They'll look
at you like you're crazy. Much learning has made you mad. That's what they said to Paul,
his Jewish family. But look here, he says in verse
18 of 1 John 2, little children, as it is the last time, and you've
heard that an Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many
Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. They went
out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of
us, They would no doubt have continued with us, but they went
out that they might be made manifest if they were not all of us."
That's a good description of the stony ground here. They went
out from us. The indication here in the context
of 1 John, it was because of persecution over the Word. Over the Word. The world hates
the message of grace. It does not exalt the flesh.
It does not give sinners room to boast. It says that we're
unworthy, we're undeserving. I told the Sunday school class
this morning, I said, do you know that there is not one time
in our lives, here and in eternity, that we'll be able to stand up
and say, we deserve the grace of God? Have you ever thought
about that? There's not one time in our lives
as saved sinners that we can say at any time, now I deserve
the grace of it. I said that in the context of
these people who say, well, you can be saved and then lost. What
they're saying is, well, you can deserve it here and you don't
deserve it here, but you better get back to where you deserve
it again. Listen, we never deserve it. Because let me tell you something,
if you ever get to the point that you deserve it, it stops
being grace. Then it becomes debt, what God
owes you. We never deserve it. It's always
mercy. It's always grace. And the world
hates that. The world wants to hear a message
that will uplift man and glorify man and give man some recognition
and something to do in order to attain or maintain salvation.
And they hate the light that exposes such religion as being
false and evil and wicked. And it always brings persecution.
That's why Christ said, blessed are you when men persecute you
for righteousness sake. And revile you and say all manner
of evil against you. We get upset when people say
all manner of evil against us. Christ said we're blessed when
they do. But the stony ground here, He
can't take it. He's like the man who built his
house on the sand. Here comes the storm. Here comes
the persecution. Here comes the trouble. And it
falls. You see, these are tests of faith. The stony grand hearer
has no root, he has no conviction, he has no unction. Right after
that, in 1 John 2, verse 19, he says, but you have an unction,
you have a conviction, you have the power of the Holy Spirit
who's brought you to faith in Christ, and you can't be moved
off of it, no matter what comes. Look back at Matthew 13. Look
at verse 21, or verse 22. Now here's the next one. Here's
the thorny ground here. He also that received 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. This is what one writer called
the crowded heart. The crowded heart. There's too
much of a crowd in there. You see, the Bible says those
who believe, know, trust and love Christ and serve Him, serve
Him with a what? A single heart. The whole heart. Now, if your heart's divided
between Christ and the world, what's going to happen? Well,
Christ said this. He said, you cannot serve two
masters. Either you love the one and hate
the other. Or love the other and hate the
one. That's right. And that's what
this is. This thorny ground here, he has
a profession of the truth. He knows it's true. Oh, I know
what you're saying is true. But there's no value for it.
There's no love for the truth. He's more concerned with what
he's going to eat, how much he's going to make, what kind of house
he's going to live in. What kind of car he's going to
drive? All of that stuff. Divided attention. Throw Christ a bone every now
and then. That's the thorny ground here.
And just think about it. He's like that man in Luke chapter
12 that he would spend his life amassing his fortune. And he
said, I've run out of space to put my stuff And I know I'm going to get more
stuff because that's what life's all about, getting more stuff.
Isn't it? We got to have more stuff. And then when you get more stuff,
you got to have bigger places to stuff the stuff. And so the guy says, what am
I going to do? I'm going to build bigger barns
to put my stuff. And then all of a sudden, the
Lord God calls and He says, this night your soul is going to be
required of you. Now where's your stuff? It's
going to fade away isn't it? And that's what He's saying here.
That pursuit of riches. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things will be added
unto you. Why do you take so much care and thought and effort? into what you're going to wear,
what you're going to eat. The Lord's not telling us to
be lazy and not prepare for those things, but He's saying you get
your priorities straight. You serve the Lord with the whole
heart, with a single heart. You realize that all that stuff
that you've amassed over all these years, what are you going
to do with it when you die? You think you're going to stand
before God in judgment worrying about your stuff? And who got
it? They'll be fighting over it anyway.
And there you are, naked, without a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice. Well, let me hurry.
Look at the fourth one. Now, here's the good ground.
He says in verse 23, He that receives seed into the good ground
is he that heareth the word and understandeth it, that is, with
the heart, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some
an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. This is the born-again
person. This is the person who has been
born again by the Spirit. John 1.11 says, Christ came unto
his own, and his own received him not. But unto them which
receive him, this is the good ground here. This is the heart
that has been prepared by the Spirit of God in conviction of
sin. You know the farmer, when he
goes out and he is going to plant his seed, he will prepare that
ground. He will plow that ground. He will work that ground. He'll
make that ground ready to receive the seed. And that's what God
the Holy Spirit does in the new birth. He prepares that heart. He plows that heart with the
law to show us our sinfulness and our depravity and our need
of salvation by grace, our need for Christ. Paul called that
being slain by the Spirit. Being slain by the Spirit is
not some guy hitting you on the head and you falling back down.
Being slain by the Spirit is when you become under conviction
that even the best you have to do in offering to God is not
good enough. You need a righteousness you
cannot produce and cannot have by anything you do or want to
do. You need grace. You need mercy. God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's that good ground heart.
That's the proud heart, that publican who's praying for mercy
at the mercy seat. The good ground heart is the
heart that's been pointed to Christ and Him crucified. It
can find no relief anywhere but in His blood for the forgiveness
of all sins and His righteousness for our complete standing before
God. He prepares our heart to receive
the good news by convicting us of these things. And listen,
that seed remains. I'll show you that next week,
but in 1 John 3, that's what he's talking about there. That
seed remains. It is the work of the Holy Spirit
in the heart to plant that seed and it will not be removed. This
is the purified heart, the new heart, the honest heart, purified
by faith, looking unto Christ, the author and finisher of our
faith. And it will bear fruit. Now, he doesn't really say what
the fruit is here, but in other places he shows us, and I'll
show you that too. But this fruit, you know, Some
will grow more than others, but they'll grow. There'll be growth
in grace and in knowledge of Christ. There'll be growth in
the Spirit. And some will grow at different
rates than others, but there will be growth. That's the good
ground hardening.