Joe and I did not speak at all,
but I think our messages are gonna sound very the same. You all bear with me here for
a minute, because what I'm gonna say, I mean, I do have a point
to what I'm gonna say. I am nothing, and I don't know
everything about God's word. There's a lot of things I don't
know about God's word. I get that I have no great ability
for oratory skills, and I know there are a lot of men who have
a better ability than me, and I'm not knocking that. I'm thankful
for it, to hear men and hear them preach good, understandable
messages. But if anyone is saying what
God's word says, they are saying what God says. So it's not them
saying it, it's God that's saying it. So it doesn't matter who
they are or how well they proclaim the truth, just that they proclaim
God's word. And you have, as Joe was saying,
you have the same word right here in front of you. God does not reveal to preachers
anything different or in more detail than he reveals to anyone
else. He has to open your understanding. There is study for sure that
goes into scripture. Anyone can do that same study. But God has to open our understanding
in any case. A preacher does not interpret
the scripture. He proclaims what God has said. We are told in 2 Peter 1 verse
20, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation. That means explanation. What
God says is what he means. God says what he means and means
what he says, in other words. And I hope if you're listening
to me today, or if you're listening to me anywhere else, that you
hear what God's word says today. Now if you would, turn with me
to Luke 8. This is a very familiar passage,
and you all are familiar with it,
I'm sure. All the passages I'm gonna use,
you're very familiar with it. Luke 8 and verses four through
eight is what I'm gonna read first. And when much people were gathered
together and were come to him out of every city, he spake by
a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed,
and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden
down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. Some fell upon a
rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because
it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns sprang up with it and choked it, and other fell
on good ground, and sprang up, and bear fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things,
he cried, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Our Lord sets forth a parable
here. He tells us here that a sower is going forth sowing seed. He
then speaks about four types of ground in this parable that
the seed falls on. These four types of ground are
there when the sower goes forth to sow. The seed sown is God's
word. Christ explains this to us as
we will see. It is the proclamation of the
gospel in one form or the other. Our Lord said himself here in
this passage just after the parable that he gave. that he gave parables
so that some men would not understand and would not see. He, Jesus
Christ, said this himself. But he also says that to some
it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. We can
read some parables and maybe there's questions in our mind
about what it's actually saying. And don't get me wrong, the parables
mean exactly what Christ intends for them to mean and say. They
are only known by Him giving it to us by His Spirit to know
the meaning of them. So how can I be sure what the
parable means? There are several parables that
Christ in Scripture tells us exactly what they mean by explaining
them. There are places where it even
says the disciples asked for him to explain them, and he did
to them only. In Mark 4 and verse 34, talking
about this parable, it says, but without a parable spake he
not unto them, and when they were alone, he expounded all
things to his disciples. I do believe Jesus Christ means
for his people to know what this parable is saying. Is this parable
important? First of all, it's in God's word.
And just for the mere fact that it's in God's word means it is
important. But what does our Lord say when
the disciples ask him what the parable meant? Again in Mark
4 in verse 13. He said unto them, know ye not
this parable? And how then will ye know all
parables? The indication seems to be to
me that this parable is a foundation to all parables. He is telling
us that it is vital to understand this parable. And if you do not
understand this parable, how are you going to understand all
the other parables? Get this one wrong and you will go wrong
in other parables. God's word must be revealed to
us. We are not going to know what
this is really saying unless he reveals it to us, not really.
even if he explained the parable. We can know it academically,
but we will not know it deep down in our soul what God is
telling us unless he comes to us in power and revelation by
the Holy Spirit. This parable has three parts,
or pieces as I see it. We have the word, we have the
heart, and we have fruit. The seed is the word, The ground,
which is the heart, and from these two vital pieces, the results
will be fruit to perfection on one of these grounds. Three grounds
bring either no fruit or no fruit to perfection. And one ground
brings forth fruit to perfection with patience. Briefly, I want
to look at the wayside ground, the stony ground, and the thorny
ground. And then I want to spend most
of my time on the good ground. So first we have the wayside
ground. The wayside hearers are those where the word is sown
into their heart and they do not understand. Does this mean
if you do understand God's word then you are saved? No, not necessarily. But if you understand it in the
way that we'll see in the good ground, yes. But these do not
understand and Satan takes it from them. So they get nothing
of God's word that has been sown, it is immediately taken away
from them. This is me by nature. If I'm
hearing God's word and get nothing from it, that is me and I am
as I am by nature. There is no fruit whatsoever
on this ground and it never makes it below the surface. This is all of us as we are born
in nature and this is the same heart in these other grounds.
But there are some different things we see in these other
grounds. So next we have the stony ground. The stony ground
hearers hear the word and receive it with joy. They believe what
they hear. However, it does not last. They
not too long afterwards forget about the word because it withers
to nothing. The heart that the word goes
into has no depth to it and nothing for the word to take root in
because the ground is hard and stony. So then these people with
this kind of heart have no root of the word. So when they are
afflicted or persecuted because of the word, because of the truth
of God, they become offended at God's word. They do not want
all the trouble that comes along with the truth of God. Then we
have the thorny ground. These are they that receive of
the word, and as one preacher put it, they go forth. They seem
to have gotten something from it and go forth. They believe
God's word and may show the beginning of fruit, but there is no fruit
to perfection. This ground is among the thorns,
so the word gets choked out because it is not important to them.
They have other things that are more important to them. It says,
the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and lust
of other things. These things come in a lot of
different forms. Riches are not just money, although
it does include money. It can be family. It can be friendships,
it can be a job, it can be an activity. Whatever riches or
whatever care in this world, if it means more to you than
the truth of God, that's one of these things. The gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace will be choked out if this is
the ground that it's on. You will say, I need these other
things more than I need the truth of God. Maybe even all the while
you were thinking, I believe God. Those things will mean more
to you than hearing the truth. It will mean more to you than
speaking the truth. It will mean more to you than
believing the truth. It will mean more to you than
doing the truth. And it will mean more to you
than standing for the truth. I want you to really notice here
that the seed fell on all these grounds. God's word was proclaimed
to all these people. The difference is the ground
that the seed falls on. There is a difference between
these grounds and the last type of ground which I want to talk
about next. The good ground. Christ himself tells us the meaning
of this parable. What I want to do now is read
our Lord's explanation of this parable and I pray by the power
of God he will open our eyes to see it. I want to go through
this first part of the passage talking about this good ground
as explained by our Lord. If you'll go down to verse 11,
verse 11, Luke 8 verse 11. Now the parable is this, this
is our Lord speaking. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they
that hear, then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out
of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on
the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with
joy. and these have no root, which
for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns
are they, which when they have heard, go forth and are choked
with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit
to perfection. But that on the good ground are
they, which in an honest and good heart having heard the word,
keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. Now I emphasize this honest and
good heart, and for a reason. We are told by Jesus Christ himself
what this good ground is. What men say about it does not
matter. I don't care what any man says about it, whether he's
a preacher or not. And I'll be even more clear,
I don't care if he's a sovereign grace preacher. I don't care
if it's myself. If he's not saying what Christ
explains to us right here, then he is wrong. Not because I say
he's wrong, but because Christ is telling us here what this
parable means. Christ tells us this good ground
that already existed and the seeds sown on it is this. He says an honest and good heart.
When you look at these two words, these are two different words,
but they're related, honest and good. And here is the meaning,
I wanna read the meanings of these words. First, honest. The meaning of this word is properly
beautiful, but chiefly good, literally or morally. That is
valuable or virtuous for appearance or use. and thus distinguished
from G18. It references the other word
good, G18. And it says about G18, it says,
which is properly intrinsic, better, fair, good, honest, meet,
well worthy. And then you have the word for
G18, which means good, intrinsically good. So this ground is an intrinsically
good heart that is honest, virtuous, or worthy for appearance and
use. An honest and good heart. You
can get your concordance out sometime and check these out.
I'm not making this up. If you look at the places where
this word good is used, or G18, in Strong's Concordance, it's
used in several places. But take a look sometime and
see all the places this word is used. But one of those I want
to look at, one of those places is in Matthew 19. If you would
just turn with me there real quick. Matthew 19. We'll get there in a minute Matthew 19 and verse 17 and He said unto him Why this
is Christ speaking? Why call us thou me good? There
is none good, but one that is God, but if thou will enter into
life keep the commandments and That's the same exact word used
in this parable. When Jesus Christ our Lord explains
to us what this means, he knows what he's talking about. These
words are not a mistake by our Lord or an exaggeration. He tells
us this heart is perfect. It does good. Where did that
come from? The seed fell on this ground.
The ground was already there. Nowhere does he speak of this
ground being tilled or prepared by anyone. The ground is just
there when the seed is sown. Christ does not say that the
seed sown makes the ground good. The ground is already there.
It is such a heart that the word sown has earth. The ground or
the good and honest heart is such that it can dig down or
take deep roots, the word of God, the seed sown. So much so
that Satan cannot take it away. Affliction and tribulation will
not wither the plant from it. And there is nothing that will
be more important to this good ground person that will carry
them away. They will want to hear the truth.
They will want to believe the truth. They will want to speak
the truth. They will want to do the truth.
And they will want to defend the truth. So I ask again, where
did this heart come from that will take in and receive the
word, the very truth of God, the word of God, like this? I
heard a preacher say that these grounds are our hearts, and I
wholeheartedly agree with that, it's what it says. He said, we have to prepare our
hearts to receive the word. I ask this, am I supposed to
prepare my heart, the heart I was born with as I'm born in Adam? I need to prepare that heart?
Scripture tells us this, that the heart is desperately wicked,
who can know it? In Jeremiah 17, 9 it says, the
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? My heart deceives
me, so how could I ever prepare this heart? I'm fallen, I'm dead. And I mean, I'm really dead when
it comes to God. I cannot breathe, I cannot drink,
I cannot eat, I cannot hear, I cannot believe while I'm in
this state. My heart is a part of my flesh
and it is as dead as I am. This heart cannot be prepared. This is all of us by nature.
Scripture tells us, it tells God's people that we were the
children of wrath even as others. We had wrath, and if you were
not in Christ, you have wrath against God. This is the kind
of heart you have and I have as we are born in Adam. There
is no preparing this heart. This heart has to be removed.
The heart is what the grounds speak of. So how do we go from
a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked to having
an intrinsically honest and good heart that will receive the word
and bear and bring forth fruit to perfection? Proverbs 20 and
nine says this. Who can say I have made my heart
clean? I am pure from my sin. There is nothing here where Christ
speaks about the ground being tilled. There is nothing here
where Christ says that the seed tilled the heart or made the
heart anything. He just said the seed fell on good ground.
He said the honest and good heart received the word. Do we believe
God or men? Or maybe you're one of these
other grounds. Do we not understand it so that
Satan comes and takes it away from us, takes the word away
from us? Do we receive the word at first,
but when the persecution comes because of the word, maybe when
someone comes and says, it is the seed that matters and only
the ground, the ground does not matter, do you shy away from
defending the truth of God? Do we receive this word, but
it gets choked out? Maybe we have friends who believe
something else. Maybe there are those that you
look up to that have preached or believe something else all
their life. Maybe we care more about keeping those friendships
or maintaining that fellowship more than we care about his word.
I hope that is not the case. But Jesus Christ the Lord gave
us this explanation. This is not my explanation. If
you want to say the seed made the ground good, you go right
ahead. Christ says the person with an
honest and good heart, having heard the word, brings forth
fruit. You get this parable wrong, then
it's very likely that you will go wrong on all other parables. Christ said this is well, not
me. God gives this new heart. In
Psalm 51 10 we read, create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right spirit within me. But now I want us to turn to
a familiar passage in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 11. Let's see what God says about it. I guess I should have marked
my place. Does anybody know where Ezekiel
is? Here it is. Ezekiel 11 and beginning
in verse 17. Ezekiel 11 and verse 17. Therefore say thus saith the
Lord God I will even gather you from the people and assemble
you out of the countries where you have been scattered and I
will give you the land of Israel and They shall come thither and
they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and
all the abominations thereof from fence and I will give them
one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will
take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them an
heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep
mine ordinances, and do them, and they shall be my people,
and I will be their God. You can also read this in Ezekiel
36. It says about the same thing there. If you hear, believe,
proclaim, and do God's word, you do not do this in a good
and honest heart prepared by the preaching of the gospel.
No. You do this in a heart given
by God Almighty himself. This is what this parable teaches
us according to Jesus Christ's own words. Christ nowhere explains
here to us that the same word makes any of these grounds what
they are. Nowhere. Not even the good ground. Christ
does not say the sown word makes the one ground good. He says,
he that receives seed into the good ground, sown on good ground,
in an honest and good heart, having heard the word. Yet men
insist on preaching that the proclaimed word gives a new heart
or that we somehow prepare our own heart. Why? I cannot really
answer that question. If they are like me and I know
they are, you can by your flesh try to make God's word say what
you want it to and to defend the doctrine. I've done this
very same thing myself surrounding this passage, folks. I looked
at the word and I knew what the meaning, I could see what the
meaning of it was, but then God had the next message was preached,
was on that very, I'm not talking about just chapter, it was on
the very verse and word that I was looking at. But God corrected
me. And if you're not corrected,
if God doesn't correct you, then you're a bastard. So it is a
good thing to be corrected by God. And I thank God for that. We all have this word. If it's
not in this word, God didn't say it. But if God in his word
tells us he gives a new heart, as we have read, and that the
seed sown, which is the word of God, not a false gospel, but
the truth of God, as it is in the face of Jesus Christ, but
if he tells us, and he does in the parable explained, if he
tells us that the seed sown falls on good ground, which is an honest
and good heart, and we know we do not have that by nature, it
is clear from scripture, Then we know God gave this new heart
so that when the seed is sown and so that when the gospel is
proclaimed, it will go not only on the ground, but into that
ground taking up root and then bringing forth fruit. Some more
than others, but it brings forth fruit to perfection and with
patience. Am I trying to make a point?
I am trying to make a point. I do have an agenda. The point
is this. God is sovereign and does as
he wills, and he does this as he has revealed it to us in scripture. God is right. My point is to
declare God's word. If this causes me not to have
fellowship with others, then so be it. It is the truth, and
Jesus Christ and his word means more to me than fellowship, where
the truth has to be held back. I love fellowship. I want fellowship. But if I'm asked to couch the
truth or hold back the truth or not speak the truth, then
it is not worth it to me to have. Some preach and some believe
the preaching of the gospel imparts life to a dead alien sinner.
Or you can say it this way, that the preaching of the gospel gives
a man or woman a good and honest heart. They are wrong, and our
Lord's words in this passage let us know this is wrong. Is
the sown word important? Yes. In fact, it's absolutely
vital. It is vital to there being fruit
to perfection. What does the scripture actually
tell us about this, about the word being sown and what it does?
In 2 Timothy, in verses 8 through 9, 2 Timothy 1, verses 8 through
10, we read this. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who hath saved us and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. There are two things here in
our passage that are vital. The existence of these two things
in time have results. You will not have these results
without both of these two things. I will give these in an order,
but the order's not important, and we've already mentioned them.
You know what they are. You have the seed, or the word,
and the ground, or the honest and good heart. You must have
both of these before there will be any fruit to perfection. It's not a question of which
one is more important, because they are both absolutely vital
to the bringing forth of fruit unto God. The fact is, I don't
know when that honest and good heart is created or put there.
What I do know is this, when the gospel is proclaimed and
it takes root, and then there begins to be some fruit that
shows, that is when I have an idea that God has done something
to an individual. It begins to manifest forth that
life. But we have to be careful because
some of these grounds, other grounds, look like they might
be the real thing as well. But they do not result in fruit
perfected. What kind of ground are you?
Do you believe what Jesus Christ is telling us here? These are
not my words. What I have shown you is what
Jesus Christ the Lord of glory has said. If whatever it is that
you believe is not what Jesus Christ has said in his word,
it is not me that you do not believe. It is God Almighty that
you do not believe. Are you a wayside hearer? Are
you a stony ground hearer? Are you a thorny ground hearer?
Or are you a good ground hearer? I don't know. I pray God that
he makes you and he makes me a good ground hearer. What is
important is that God give you a new heart that is good and
what seed is being sown. Is it the word of God? Some men
are very good speakers, some maybe not as good. Some well
known, some not. But what are they preaching?
Are they telling you the truth? Am I telling you the truth? You
can see it right in front of you because you have the Bible.
Preachers do not interpret God's word, they proclaim it. God's
word is revealed by his spirit. The preacher is not revealing
anything to you. He is hopefully proclaiming God's
word. We are told to try the spirits
whether they are of God. If it is not of God's truth,
then it is not of God. He gives us his word written
down so we can look and see what he has said. God's word being
proclaimed is important. He is the one that sends the
sower forth to sow. The gospel is vital because if
the seed does not go into the ground, all you have is ground,
whatever ground that might be. But if you, having been made
good ground by God himself, then have God's word sown in the heart,
you having heard the truth of the gospel as it is in the face
of Jesus Christ, then you will have fruit. What is that fruit? Believing God. You must be, believe
God. These good ground hearers, these
honest and good heart hearers believe God to perfection. Do you believe God? Scripture
says it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. Christ does not teach us that
the preaching of the gospel gives an honest and good heart. But
he does teach that he himself gives an honest and good heart
and then sends us the gospel through a God sent preacher by
the power of his spirit. And when those two come together,
there will be fruit to perfection. Amen. Mason, will you lead us
in prayer, please? Thank you, Heavenly Father, for
all the blessings that you've bestowed upon sinners. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for
allowing us to meet together. And thank you for these servants
that have brought forth the truth of thy word. Thank you. Go with us. Lead, guide, and
direct us by your good and holy spirit. In Jesus' blessed name,
amen.