Would you turn with me in your
Bibles to Matthew chapter 13? This morning, I want to speak
to you on the subject of the parable of the sower, the sower
and seed. Last week, I dealt with a few
verses here in Matthew 13 concerning the purpose of parables in a
message entitled Blessed Eyes and Ears, Blessed Ears. And that
came from where the Lord told the disciples here in verse 16
of Matthew 13. He said, blessed are your eyes
for they see and your ears for they hear. And of course, the
question that each and every one of us need to confront for
ourselves is, do I see and do I hear? That's the issue of these
parables. Do I see the truth here? See
it in a way that I've never seen it before. See it in a way that
I believe it. See it in a way that it is my
life. These are the words of Christ,
the words of God, as the whole Bible is. When our Lord was on
this earth and he was preaching the gospel to the multitudes,
there came a time when many of them turned away from him. He
turned away and he turned to his disciples and he said, will
you go away also? And Peter spoke up. And he said,
to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. Words of life. That's a good
thing to hear, isn't it? Words of life. It's kind of like
we use the analogy of Christ, the great physician. He is the
great physician. And that means whatever spiritual
disease that we have, he has the ability to cure it. And when
he speaks out that cure, speaks those words, they're words of
life to those who know their situation, who know their sin,
and know that they cannot save themselves. Well, why did our
Lord speak in parables? I told you last week. There are
basically two reasons. It's very simple. Number one,
to conceal truth. And that sounds strange. Why
would the Lord want to conceal truth? Well, listen to it. It's
to conceal truth from those who obstinately and rebelliously
rejected the plain teachings of the gospel, the plain teachings
of who God is in His holiness and in His justice, who we are
in our sinfulness and depravity and who Christ is as the only
way of salvation, those who did not want to be converted. That's
what he said. Those who did not want their
sins to be forgiven. You know, that's strange. Over
there in Mark, where Brother Jim read, you know, this parable
is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And it's interesting
to see the parallels and how each of the gospel writers put
it. But Mark went on to say, who
refused to be converted so that their sins may be forgiven. Now,
you know what it is there. Now, this is the situation. Why
would anybody not want their sins forgiven? That just sounds
strange. If you saw something sinful in
yourself, you would certainly want that forgiven. But why would
a person not want their sins forgiven? I'll tell you why.
Because they don't see the sin. They don't see their sins as
sin. And that was the problem with
these here. That's the problem with man by
nature. He doesn't see himself as the sinner he actually is.
He doesn't see his sinfulness and his depravity. The Bible
calls that the deceitfulness or the deceptiveness of sin. And if you want to see sin in
its utter deception, read Philippians chapter 3 sometime, the first
few verses. Here's Paul the Apostle talking
about his past life as a moral religious Pharisee. And he spoke
of all the things that he boasted in and he thought recommended
him unto God, his heritage. He said, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews.
Circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin. His attempts
to keep the law. He said, I've tried to keep the
law all my life. All my life. And he said, I even
sought to stamp out heresy. But when I saw the glory of Christ,
when I saw the the holiness of Christ, the goodness of Christ,
and what it took in Christ for God to forgive sins, then all
that I thought was good about myself became sinful. That's
what he's saying there in Philippians 3. Everything that I thought
recommended me unto God, I saw really brought me farther away
from God. And the Bible puts it this way.
There is absolutely no way that a sinner can be justified, made
right with God, made righteous with God by their works. And
even our attempts to be made right with God by our works are
sinful in his sight because they deny his glory, they deny his
holiness, they deny his honor, they show nothing but pride and
self-righteousness in the sinner, and they deny his son. They deny
the Lord Jesus Christ and what he came to do on this earth.
And that's what it is. You see, they didn't see their
sinfulness as sin. And that's why Mark said they
didn't want to be forgiven because they didn't think they had anything
to be forgiven of. We be not sinners, they would
say, were Abraham's children. Well, these parables were spoken
to conceal the truth as a judgment against those who refuse the
plain teachings of Scripture. And God let them alone. Now,
what a sad commentary on man. God just let him alone. Oh, God,
don't leave me alone. Don't leave me to myself. We're
going to sing at the end of the message today. Pass me not, O
gentle Savior. Don't pass by me. Don't pass
by me. But there's a second reason that
these parables were spoken. And I want you to think about
this this morning in the main. You're here this morning for
a reason. I don't know really what the reason is. I know why
I'm here. You know why you're here. You may think you know
why somebody else is here. And you may have every good intention
and every good reason to think about that. I hope you're here
for a good reason. I hope you're not here trying,
just saying, well, I ought to be somewhere. Everybody's got
to be somewhere. Somebody said, well, Well, wherever
you are, there you are, you know, that kind of thing. No, no. I
hope you're here for a good reason. But I hope you're here to hear
the word of God, to hear the script, to hear the words of
life. To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of God. I'm
talking about me. I'm talking about Christ, who is the word of life.
But these parables were given for this reason, too, to serve
as an incentive. for those who desire to seek
the Lord, that they might inquire after their meaning." And that's
what these disciples are doing here. Lord, what does this mean? Why do you speak in parables?
Over in Mark chapter 4 and verse 10, as our brother read, it says,
when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve,
ask of him the parable. Lord, what does this parable
mean? That's a good question. Don't be embarrassed or even
disappointed. If you don't know what the parable
means, they didn't know. They went on in verse 13 of Mark
chapter 4, it said, he said unto them, know you not this parable,
and how then will you know all parables? You don't know what
it means? Luke's version of it, Luke chapter
8 and verse 9, his disciples ask him saying, what might this
parable be? Now again, don't be embarrassed. And don't be disappointed if
you don't know what the parable means. Now, many of you have
been here for so many years. You've heard this message preached
I don't know how many times. You know what it means. But you
who don't, don't be embarrassed. Don't be disappointed. Only be
disappointed if you don't care what the parable means. You see
what I'm saying? If you don't care, if you're
not concerned, if you don't want to seek into this and find out
what it means, then you ought to be worried. Isn't that right?
You just don't care. And here's the disciples sitting
there. What does this mean? What does it mean? The parable
is explained over in Matthew chapter 13 and in Mark 4 and
in Luke 8. The sower. He says a sower went
forth to sow. A sower. What is that? It's a
planter, like a farmer, sowing seed. Who is that sower? You remember a parable now takes
earthly things. to teach a spiritual lesson. This is not a guidebook on how
to plant corn and have a good crop. He's not talking about
a literal farmer here. He's using a symbol here. And
who is this sower? Well, the sower is Christ and
His preachers. Our Lord Himself sowed seed when
He preached the gospel. And obviously, the seed here
is the Word of God. He says that. In Mark, he says
the seed is the Word of God. It's not literal seed that you
plant in the ground. But it's the Word of God. It's
the gospel of God's grace in Christ. So here's the story.
Our Lord Himself, He sowed seed when He preached the gospel.
But that's not when seed sowing began. It began way back in Genesis. Chapter 3. the seed of the gospel
when God revealed to Adam the promise of the coming Messiah.
It was sowed on throughout. Moses sowed seed when he brought
Israel the law and wrote of Christ. All the prophets sowed seed when
they prophesied of the coming holy and just one who would save
his people from their sins. These disciples themselves sowed
seed when they went out to preach the gospel, and every gospel
preacher since then has been sowing seed. That's what it's
talking about. What is this seed? It's the gospel.
Look over Romans chapter 1. Let me show you this. It's a
specific message now. It's not just any message. And let me tell you something.
It's not just any truth. It's not just any truth. Now,
you can preach a lot of truth without sowing seed. And I think
that's something we need to understand. For example, I could stand up
here and give you, I noticed in the paper there's a group
that's having a fellow come in and he's going to talk about
creation versus evolution. Now, I don't know what the guy's
going to say, but, you know, I could talk to you about creation
versus evolution and tell you the truth and still not sow seed. Preach a lot of truth. God created
this world. This world did not start in some
big bang theory and everything rise up from the primordial ooze
to what we have today. Even though some of us aren't
too far from the primordial ooze. But that's not how it happened.
Man didn't start low and evolve up. The Bible teaches that God
created man. Man started high and he fell. That's what the Bible teaches.
Man fell in Adam in sin. And all that's true. And I can
say that I can preach an hour on it and still not sow seed.
The seed here is the gospel of the kingdom. These parables are
parables of the kingdom. And what is the kingdom? The
kingdom here is the sovereign rule of Christ over his church. And who are the church? They're
the chosen of God. redeemed of Christ, redeemed
by his blood, clothed in his righteousness, and called out
by his Holy Spirit in the new birth. That's who the church
is, gathered together. But while the church is here
on earth, it's going to be mixed. There's going to be true believers
and there's going to be false professors. So what he does in
Matthew 13 in the parables of the kingdom, he shows how this
thing works out over time. And he starts out with the parable
of the sower. The sower went out to sow seed. The preacher of the gospel went
out to preach it. And here's what he preached.
Look at Romans 1.1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God. That's
what is the gospel of God. That's what the seed is. And
it's not a new gospel. Look at verse 2 in parenthesis. Which he had promised before,
that's what that means, before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
The prophets preached it before me, Paul said. Well, what is
this gospel? Look at verse 3 now. This gospel
concerns his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son of God. And
it says, which was made, Christ was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. That speaks of his humanity.
He is man without sin. And then verse 4, it says, and
declared to be the Son of God with power. You notice it says
he wasn't made to be the Son of God. He was made the seed
of David. That's his humanity, created
for him in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit without sin,
without the aid of man. But he was declared to be the
Son of God with power. He wasn't made the Son of God.
He was declared to be what he already was. He is the Son of
God, the second person of the Trinity. That's his divinity.
He is God. Let me tell you something. If
something is divine, it cannot be created. Does that shock you? It should. People talking about
something divine created? Impossible. If it's divine, it's
God. That's what that means. God has
no beginning and no end. And in His deity, Christ is the
eternal Son of God, the Alpha and the Omega. He has no beginning
and no end. Divinity cannot be created by
nature. It's the nature of divinity. That's what it means. And that's
why He was declared to be the Son of God with power according
to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
Here it shows this gospel, this seed that's been sowed, concerns
the person of Christ, who he is, he's God and man in one person,
and he was raised from the dead. Now why was he raised from the
dead? We'll jump over to verse 16 of Romans 1. It says, For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Greek, the Gentile, Now look at verse 17, for therein,
in that gospel, in that seed that's sown, is the righteousness
of God revealed. From faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. This seed is the preaching
of the righteousness of God. Not the righteousness of men.
Not the righteousness of angels. But the righteousness of God.
Well, somebody said, what is that? Why do I need that? Why
do I need a righteousness of God? Look at verse 18. It says,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Talking about people who hold
truth in unrighteousness. What does that mean? That means
they don't believe it. They don't submit to it. They don't love
it. The truth. Now that's what we're
talking about in the parable of the sower and seed. The sower
went forth to sow. And you have four different hearers
that are mentioned there, four different types of hearers that
are mentioned. You have the wayside hearer,
the thorny ground hearer, the stony ground hearer, and then
finally the good ground hearer. Three of those hearers, wayside,
thorny ground, and stony ground hearer, are described in verse
18 of Romans 1. They hold the truth in unrighteousness. What truth? The truth of the
person and the finished work of Christ. Well, what is the
righteousness of God? We'll look over at Romans chapter
3, verse 21. Here he defines it for us. He
shows us exactly what that term, the righteousness of God, is
and what it means. Now, we know God is righteous
in himself. He's holy within himself. That's
true. But that's not what that means there in Romans 1, 17.
This is, you see, This is good news. Whatever he's
talking about in the gospel, the word gospel means good news.
And it has to be good news to a sinner, because that's to whom
it's addressed. It's addressed to sinners. Now,
just the bare truth of God's holiness is not good news to
a sinner, even though it is true. Well, what's he talking about
in verse 17? Well, look over at Romans 3.21. He says, but
now the righteousness of God without the law, that is, without
our works of the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. You remember, Paul said, which therefore was preached
by the prophets. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God, which
is by faith of Jesus Christ, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ,
and is unto all, that is, is to be preached to everybody.
That seed is to be sown everywhere. You see that? I can't say, well,
I'm going to look over here. I'm not going to sow any seed
over on this side of the church building. I'll just sow it over
here. No, it's sown out there. Sown
right all out there. Just broadcast right out there.
Not hidden. And he said it's upon all them
that believe. It's imputed to all who believe. It's placed upon them like a
robe. For there's no difference for all sin that comes short
of the glory of God. Everybody's missed the mark. You say, well,
I know I'm a sinner, but I'm not as bad a sinner as that one
over there. Well, that doesn't matter. You still miss the mark.
And that's enough. James said to be guilty of wants
to be guilty of all. Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, there's
what the righteousness of God is, is the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. It's his finished work on the
cross to establish a full payment for all the debt that his people
owed to God's law. It's the establishment of righteousness,
his obedience unto death, that enables God to be just and justify
the ungodly. That's what the gospel is. It's
the proclamation of a past act finished by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is. Not by works
of righteousness which we have done, are doing, or will do,
but what Christ has accomplished on the cross. Now go back to
Matthew 13. It's the gospel of God's grace. The gospel of salvation. My friend,
your only hope of eternal life is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Don't look to your heritage.
Don't look to your works. Don't look to your denomination
or church membership. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is all my wisdom, my righteousness,
my holiness, my redemption. I have nothing to plead before
God, but Christ died for me. That is my justification before
God. And that is, if the Holy Spirit
has done any work in me at all, that's what He's going to direct
me to and show me. and calls me to glory, and God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross." Now, that's what
it is. Now, the ground, he says, this
seed, this sower came forth to sow seed on the ground. And he
gives us four types of ground here. What is that ground? It's
the hearts of various kinds of hearers. Various kinds of hearers. Now, you know, Scripture's not
near as complicated as we want to make it out to be sometimes.
Somebody says, well, what kind of hearer am I? Well, look at
the parable. It'll show you. In fact, you
don't have to walk out those two doors today and not know
what kind of hearer you are today, if you'll just follow the Word.
Four kinds of hearers here. The seed is sown. I can give
you two extreme examples. Back when the New Testament church
was started in Jerusalem, Peter stood up at Pentecost in Jerusalem,
on the day of Pentecost, and he preached the gospel, the gospel
of the kingdom. He showed them their sins in
his preaching and pointed them to Christ and His blood and righteousness
for salvation. And Acts chapter 2 and verse
37 says this, now when they heard this, when these hearers heard
this, they were pricked in their heart. That means they were convicted. And they said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do? What are we going to do? We're
in a mess. And of course, Peter pointed
them to Christ. And 3,000 souls were saved on
that day. Later on, there were 5,000 more. And then there were
more until God was finished in that area and had Stephen stoned. That allowed them to stone Stephen.
Well, Stephen, he got up, he sowed seed too. Sowed the same
seed that Peter sowed. Preached the same gospel. But
what happened? It says in Acts 7 and verse 54,
when they heard these things, when these hearers heard the
seed sown, they were cut to their heart, and they gnashed on him
with their teeth. That sounds strange, doesn't
it? Gnashed on him with their teeth. What does that mean? It
simply means this. They got so angry that they gritted
their teeth at him. That's how angry they got. Different
reaction, wasn't it? When Peter preached it, God blessed
it to the salvation of 3,000 souls. They were pricked in their
heart. They were convicted. But when
Stephen preached it, they gnashed on him with their teeth. Now,
it's two extremes, isn't it? Well, look here at this parable.
Look here, first of all, the wayside here. Where do I fall
in this parable? Verse 19 of Matthew 13. Christ
said in verse 18, Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. Now,
are you interested? Do you want to find the meaning?
Verse 19, When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, that's
salvation now, 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." Now Mark and Luke identified
the wicked one as Satan. As Satan. Here's the wayside
hearer. What's the problem with the wayside
hearer? I'll tell you exactly what it
is. He doesn't care. It's indifference. He hears it, but he just doesn't
care. He goes away unaffected. He doesn't
understand it, and he doesn't try to understand it. You know,
the Bible says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. The wayside
hearer is not going to seek it. It's not what he wants to hear
naturally. It doesn't make him feel good about himself. It's
not the power of positive thinking. It's not a moral pep talk. It's
just words to him, the wayside hearer. And it says immediately
Satan comes and snatches the word away. In other words, the
wayside hearer doesn't even consider what's being said. It's kind
of like the guy who says, I just can't wait till it's over. That's the wayside hearer. I
just can't wait. I can get on doing something
else. And you know, this tells us something very, very important.
Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now, this is what the preaching,
you know, we see the importance. We've got to evangelize, you
see here. Sow the seed. The preacher is
not responsible for the hearer. The preacher is responsible for
what he preaches. He's got to preach the gospel
of the kingdom. But I can't make you hear it, I can't even make
myself hear it. But here's the wayside here, but he says the
wicked one, Satan, Mark says, the devil, Luke says, came and
snatched it away. Now that tells us something about
Satan. You know I hear these preachers talking about Satan
and they don't even know him. They think they do. But the Bible
says know your enemy. Well look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4 and verse 3. Now, here's Satan's main goal
in his workings in this world. 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, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. That's Satan's main goal, to
keep you from hearing The Word of the Kingdom, the Word of Christ,
the Light, the Light of the Gospel of Christ in Him crucified. And
I'll tell you what, Satan's real subtle. He's real deceptive. You know, most people say, well,
Satan's goal is to get you on drugs and get you down at the
bars and get you doing this and that, keep you out of church.
Listen, let me tell you something. Satan has a hold on most organizations
that are called churches. You go into any religious organization
where the gospel of the kingdom is not preached, the gospel of
God's grace, that's just exactly where Satan desires to have you.
Think about it. And that's the problem with the
wayside hearer here. He just doesn't care. The seed
falls by the wayside and immediately. It's taken away, doesn't even
consider it. The Bible says that the natural man will receive,
if not the things of the Spirit of God. Look back at Matthew
13. Here's the second one. Here's
the stony ground here, verse 20 of Matthew 13. It says, but
he that received the seed into stony places, now the picture
is like this dirt with stones on it and
the seed doesn't reach down. And take Rudy, says, the same
as he that heareth the word, and anon. Now that word anon
means immediately. Mark said immediately in Mark
chapter 4. It said, and the whole point is here, is this is a person
who hears it and receives it with joy. It says with joy receiveth
it without really counting the cost. without really considering
it and putting his mind and his heart into it and seeing what
it really says. And it says in verse 21, yet
hath he not root in himself? Now look here. He says, but dureth
for a while. It endures for a while. All right. For when tribulation. Now, tribulations,
trouble. For when trouble comes or persecution
arises because of the word. Now, the Bible teaches plainly
That wherever the word of the kingdom of Christ is preached,
wherever the gospel is preached, there's going to be persecution
over the word. Not everybody is going to like
it. Stephen experienced it. When Peter preached at Pentecost,
he didn't experience it right then, but he did later. Every
gospel preacher, every prophet in the scripture experienced
opposition because of what they were preaching. Paul said it
this way in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 12, he says, Yea, and all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So listen to me now, there's
going to be trouble. It's not going to be a bed of roses, this
thing of salvation, this thing of believing. Somebody said one
time, he said, I just want to be where there's peace. None
here. None here. When trouble comes
in the church, somebody hightails it and runs because they want
to be where there's peace. That's not promised here in this word.
Trouble. Job said it. You say, well, Job
was pretty bad off. Job was pretty well off, too.
He had his moments. He said, man is a few days and
full of what? Trouble. Trouble. You see, this world is not our
home. This world is just a pilgrimage. And there's going to be persecution.
So when it arises, because the word has not taken root, it says,
by and by, he is offended. Now, that word offended means
basically that he rejects it. Look over at 1 John chapter 2.
1 John chapter 2. Now, this is
the stony ground hearer. What happens is he claims to
believe it. He has an outward profession.
See, the wayside here doesn't even have an outward profession.
He just walks away unaffected. He doesn't have anything. He just doesn't care. But now
the stony ground here, he receives it with joy immediately for a
little while. But when the trouble comes, when
the persecution comes, then he cuts back and leaves. Then he
runs. Then he leaves it. Well, I didn't
buy into this, you know. But look at 1 John 2, verse 18.
Listen to what John says about the stony ground here or here.
He says, little children, it is the last time. And as you
have heard, the Antichrist shall come, even now there are many
Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time, verse
19. They went out from us. They left. 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, that they were not all of us."
You see, the stony ground here, he didn't lose his salvation.
He never had salvation. He just had a profession. And
when the trouble came, when the trials started, you see, God
sends trials to His children. Do you know? Saving faith is
tested. It's going to be tested. These
tests do not produce faith. You see, faith is the gift of
God by His Spirit in the new birth. The trial does not produce
faith. The trial either reveals faith
or it exposes the unbeliever. I lie. That's right. And that's what happened with
the stony ground. The trial revealed that he didn't have faith. He
says in verse 20, look here, but you have an unction from
the Holy One. That's the power of God in Christ
by his spirit to implant the word indelibly into your heart. And you'll never leave it and
it'll never leave you. And you know all things. And
he says, I've not written unto you because you know not the
truth, but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth.
You see that? So this stony ground here, he
receives it for a while, and then he leaves it. Look back
at Matthew 13. Here's the next one, number 3. Here's the thorny
ground hearer. Look at verse 22 of Matthew 13.
It says, He also that receives seed
among the thorns is he that heareth the word, now look at this, and
the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke
the word and he becometh unfruitful. I want you to notice something
about this, you know, preachers have a lot to say about riches,
the Bible says a lot about it. But it doesn't say riches choke
the word. Did you notice that? It doesn't
say riches choke the word, what does it say? It says the deceitfulness
of riches choke the word. There's a deception, you see.
Mark adds in his version in chapter four is that the lust of other
things enter in. What is a lust? It's an unlawful
desire. It was not wrong to desire things,
but there is an unlawful desire. It's called covetousness in the
scripture. Luke adds the pleasures of life. Our Lord spoke of a rich man. who was investing his life in
this world. And he filled up all of his barns,
all of his warehouses, all of his storage houses, and he stepped
back and he looked at his riches and he said, what am I going
to do now? What did he come up with? Well,
I'll build more barns, bigger ones this time, and I'll fill
them up. What is the deceitfulness of
riches and the cares of this world? Now, listen to me. Here's
the thorny ground here. Here's the person who has a profession
of faith. A profession of faith, it says
he received the seed. Among the thorns and these thorns
choke out the word. Riches and the cares of this
world. We have cares in this world. You care for your family,
don't you? And you should. The Bible says a man don't care
and take care of his family is worse than an animal. Do you
know that? You have a job. You care for
your jobs. The Bible says care for your job. If you don't work,
you don't eat. Scripture says if you're capable. You have all
kinds of interests that you have to take care of. But here's where
it becomes a problem. Here's where it becomes deception.
When they take your heart. When they take your love. When
they tie you to the world. When they distract you from seeking
the Lord and His righteousness. Huh? That's what Christ said
in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, take no thought for
what you wear and what you buy and what you eat. He said, seek
ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. when they
cause you to judge blessedness based on worldly wealth. You
know, that's a big problem. That's what that rich man who
built the bigger barns was thinking. The Lord's really blessing me.
You know, those riches were a curse to him. Remember what happened?
He died. This night thy soul shall be
required of thee. Let me tell you something. Anything
that takes you away from seeking the Lord and hearing His Word
and serving Him and worshiping Him is a deception that'll choke
it out. That's the thorny ground here.
That's the problem. It's not sinful to seek riches,
but it's a sin to neglect the Word of God. That's right. To let anything take you away
from the Word of God. Anything. I don't care what it
is. Family, friend, job, whatever. That's what the thorny ground
here. But look at verse 23. Here's the last one. Here's the
good ground here. He says, but he that receives
seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and
understandeth it. Remember it said there that the wayside here did not understand
it. The stony ground here, he received
it for a while. The thorny ground here, he received
it, but he got choked out. But here's one who understands
it, which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth. That's proof. Some 100 fold, some 60, some
30. Now, what is described here in
the good ground here is the one who's described in verse 16 of
Matthew 13. Look at it again. But blessed
are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear.
That's the good ground here. He said it's been given unto
you. Christ said it's been given unto you to understand and to
know the things of the kingdom of God. This is the heart that
has been prepared by the power and the grace of God by the Spirit
in the new birth. Ezekiel called it a new heart.
Paul called it a circumcised heart. It's one that's been made
pliable to cement and bow and to love the Word of God. Over
there in 2 Corinthians 4 that we read a while ago, we saw Satan's
goal. to keep sinners from seeing the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ. But look
at verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 4. It says, For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Have you beheld his glory? What
is this bearing fruit? Well, people worked on that 20
ways from Sunday. Some say it refers to the ministry
of the Word. For example, when Peter preached,
3,000 souls were saved. That's a lot of fruit, isn't
it? When Stephen preached, nobody was saved. Some 30, some 100,
some 60, some 30. I believe here it's referring
to the believer, though. There'll be fruit. And notice it says
they bear fruit or bring forth fruit. They don't produce it.
We don't produce fruit. We bear it. Christ is the vine,
we're the branches. The life is in the vine. We're
just the branches. We bear what He brings forth. And some will bear more fruit
than others. That's what it's talking about.
Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. But all will bear
fruit. Christ said those branches that
bear not fruit, He said I'll cast them away. They just only
have an appearance of being a branch. It's the fruit of faith, it's
the fruit of love, it's the fruit of obedience, the fruit of service,
all of this that they bear through it by the power of God. But they
love the Word. They love the truth. Like Peter,
they say, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. Well,
what will you do with the Word of Christ sown to you? Sown to
me. Is it not worth your time? Is
it too risky? Do you have better things to
do? Or is it your very life? That's the issue, isn't it? That's
the issue. All right. Brother Joe is going
to come and lead us now in hymn number 235, Pass Me Not, O Gentle
Savior, 235.