I'd like for us to go back to
the book of Matthew chapter 13 this morning. I preached on this
passage last week and I'm going through this chapter concerning
the subject of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. You
recall in Matthew 13 verse 11 Christ told his disciples in
answer to their question, why do you speak in parables? And
he says, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven. And what he's talking about is
the progression of the plan of God in bringing
his people together in this kingdom age, in the new covenant, the
new testament age. And what it's going to be like
as this age progresses, as this time that we're living in, as
it gets closer and closer to the end time. the time of Christ's
second coming, what it's going to be like. And that's what he's
doing in these kingdom mysteries. You know, we talked about the
kingdom of God, how it's a kingdom of righteousness, how it's a
kingdom of grace, how it's the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the
king of kings, and how it's a spiritual kingdom. And then we talked about
mysteries, which has to do with things that must be revealed.
God must reveal these things or we won't know them. A man
by nature doesn't know them and cannot find them out. Science,
religion, philosophy will not help us. Education will not help
us. They must be revealed by God. That's what these mysteries
are. And the first mystery that he
reveals to them is what I call the mystery of preaching the
gospel. And that's the title of this
message too. This is part two. The mystery of preaching the
gospel. And I want to go through this parable. It's called the
parable of the sower and the seed. Sometimes it's called the
parable of the ground because it talks about four different
types of hearers represented in four different types of ground
that the seed is sown on. The seed being the word of God,
the preaching of the gospel. And that's what I want to deal
with. I want to get through this and I want to mainly spend time
on talking about the good ground hearer. that is found over in
Matthew 13, 23. But let me just go through the
parable and say a few words. As you know, the Lord, before
he ascended into glory, after his death, his burial, and his
resurrection, he gave the disciples a commission called the Great
Commission that says, go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. And they were to do this because
all power and all authority was given to Him. In other words,
the basis of preaching the gospel is the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the power that He has to give eternal life to
as many as the Father had given Him. Remember He said in John
chapter 12, He said, And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all
unto Me. on the basis of his death, burial,
and resurrection, which is the establishment of righteousness,
which demands life, the putting away of the sins of God's elect.
He said, I'll draw them to me. And we'll see another parable
in this Matthew 13 later on called the parable of the drag net,
where he cast the net out and drags the fishes in. And that's
what he's talking about. He's going to draw them. No man
can come to me, he said in John 6, verse 44, except the Father
which hath sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise him
up again at the last day. But he's saying, now as you go
out and preach the gospel, this is what it's going to be like
when you preach it. And it's a mystery. We sometimes
take for granted the preaching. In fact, most churches today,
they don't even major on the preaching, and what they preach
is not even the gospel anyway. They want to sing, they want
to entertain, they want to keep people busy. But this thing of
the mysteries of the kingdom and the progression of the kingdom
of heaven is about preaching the gospel. You read that in
Romans chapter 10. Faith cometh by what? Hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. He said, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they going
to call upon him of whom they not believed? How are they going
to believe in him of whom they not heard? And how are they going
to hear without a preacher? That's what this is all about, preaching
the gospel. Somebody said, well, that just
doesn't get them in and keep them in. Well, I want to tell
you something. It does the true people of God.
When Christ is preached, Those who are made by the Holy Spirit
to hunger and thirst after righteousness, the only way they're going to
be filled is to hear Christ preached in the glory of His person and
the power of His finished work. Now the others, they've got to
be entertained and you've got to tell jokes and stories and
get them active, do whatever you need to do. But this is what
the kingdom of heaven is like, he says. And he starts out, let's
just read through the parable quickly, and then he says, it
says in verse three, look at verse three of Matthew 13. He
spake many parables unto them, saying, Behold, a sower went
forth to sow. A sower's like a farmer casting
seed on the ground. Seed he wants to grow. And he
went forth to sow. Verse four, when he sowed, some
seeds fell by the wayside. There's the wayside here. And
fowls, like Like the crows, they came and devoured up the seed.
The seed didn't go into the ground. It stayed on the surface. Some
fell upon stony places where they had not much earth and forthwith
they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth. And when
the sun was up, they were scorched and because they had no root,
they withered away. This is the preaching of the
word. This is the stony ground here. Incidentally, I love how
this is put because I told you last week There's no excuse for
any of us to walk out that door today after this sermon and not
know what kind of here we are You know that Because it tells
you right here I'll show you in just a moment verse 7 some
fell among thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them And
other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some
an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear." Now, go over to verse 18. This is where he explains
the parable. First they ask him, now why are
you speaking in parables? And then he told them, we're
going to come back to some of that. I've dealt with it before
though. But in verse 18 he says, Hear
ye therefore the parable of the sower. He says in verse 19, now
here's the wayside hearer. when anyone here at the word
of the kingdom the gospel that's what he's talking about the kingdom
how is the kingdom of heaven established it was established
by christ on the cross of calvary he is the king of kings the lord
of lords when he died for the sins of his people satisfied
the justice of God, and brought forth everlasting righteousness,
whereby we stand before God justified, not guilty, not charged with
sin, righteous in God's sight, based on the righteousness of
Christ imputed to us, which we by the Holy Spirit have received
by faith. So that's the word of the kingdom. It's the gospel
of God's grace. It's not a false gospel. You say, Christ is the main sower
here, but you could also say his preachers sow that seed when
we preach the gospel. And he doesn't sow false seed. This is the preaching of the
true gospel. Understand that first. If you're
sitting under the preaching of a false gospel, this seed is
not being sown. A gospel of salvation by the
works and the wills of men. But this is the word of the kingdom.
So here's the wayside here. When anyone heareth the word
of the king and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked
one, that's Satan and his cohorts, and catcheth away that which
was sown in his heart, this is he which receives seed by the
wayside. This refers to those who simply
do not care, do not want, have no desire of this preaching of
the gospel. They're just not interested.
That's what he's talking about. As soon as they hear it, Satan
snatches it away. And that didn't give them, you
know, say, well, we'll blame the devil. No, no, listen. This
is the heart of natural man right here. This is one segment of
people, the heart of natural man, who has no interest in the
gospel. It's like this. If you're already
full of self-righteousness and self-love and religious pride,
you don't see your need of Christ. This is a person who doesn't
see his need or her need of God's grace, of Jesus Christ and his
righteousness. You see, just like in Matthew
5 when he said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
they'll be filled. Well, this is a person who has
no hunger or thirst after righteousness. If the Holy Spirit has given
you a hunger and thirst after righteousness, let me tell you
how you'll know that for sure. The only way that that thirst
will be quenched and that hunger will be filled is the preaching
of Christ crucified and raised from the dead. The preaching
of His righteousness. Mark read it there in Romans
chapter 10 when Paul said, my heart's desire and prayer for
Israel is that they be saved. He said, I bear them record,
they have a zeal of God. They hunger and thirst after
religion. They hunger and thirst after experience. But they are
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness. They're hungry and thirsty after
their own righteousness, which they have none. They're ignorant of God's righteousness,
for Christ is the end of the law, the fulfillment, the finishing
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. If
God the Holy Spirit ever shows you who you really are, shows
me who I really am, we'll hunger and thirst after righteousness
and that hunger and thirst will not be quenched and filled except
with Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead. The grace
of God in him. That grace that reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing
else will do. But this is a person who has
no need for it. Has no need at all for it. And
then look at verse 20. There's the wayside here. They just don't want to hear.
And that's the natural man. He understands not. When it says
he doesn't understand, it doesn't mean he doesn't know what you're
saying. It's just he doesn't care. It's not part of his needs. You know, they'll tell people
today, well, when you're searching for a church, you're looking
for someplace that will meet your felt needs. Well, the problem
is that man by nature doesn't know what he needs. he needs
righteousness from god he thinks that he just gotta straighten
up and do right fly right like i heard a fella say well i'll
straighten up and fly right when it's time and that'll be okay
but you see that's the wayside here look at verse twenty he
says but he that received the seed in the stony places the
rocky ground the same as he that heareth the word and anon with
joy receive it the word anon means now it means immediately
in other words he hears it And he latches on to it quickly,
with joy. Yet, verse 21, hath he not root
in himself? It didn't take root, but dureth
for a while. He lasts for a while. For when
tribulation, trouble, trials, or persecution ariseth because,
now underscore this, because of the word, by and by he's offended. And that's what happens. Now
notice here he's talking about persecution over the word. He's
not talking about just general trials and tribulations that
everybody goes through. But here's the stony ground here.
Here's one who hears the gospel of God's grace and it sounds
good to him or her, and they latch on it with joy for a while,
but there's no root. It's like a person who goes into
the battle without, goes into building of the building or in
the battle without counting the cost. And it didn't take root, and
then trouble, tribulation, persecution comes, and what happens? They
leave it. Now, that's the natural man too.
It didn't take root in the heart. That's the stony ground here.
Then look at verse 22. He says, he also that received
seed among the thorns. thorny ground here, is he who
heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness
of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful. That's
the thorny ground here. He's talking about inordinate
care. You know, we all have things we have to care for and care
about in this world. We have jobs we have to put our
time and our efforts into, we have families, we have all kinds
of things. that we have to care for. But
what he's talking about here is an inordinate care that invest
ourselves in causes and issues and matters that are passing
away of no eternal value to the exclusion of the truth, to the
exclusion of Christ, to the exclusion of the glory of God. That's what
he's talking about. For example, he talks about the
deceitfulness of riches. What is the deceitfulness of
riches? Well, there's a lot of ways riches
can deceive a person. Riches can deceive a person in
the sense of just being he or she has the means to do everything
and anything they want to do except what they should do. That's
a deception. Riches can deceive a person in
the sense that they can consider that because they're rich, that
that means they're blessed of God. That's why I wrote that
article on the back of the bulletin, Curses in Disguise. As we all talk about blessings
in disguise, what about curses in disguise? Think about the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Here's the rich man. He doesn't like anything. He
can get anything he wants. And there's old Lazarus laying
out there at the gate. The dog's licking his sore, just
begging for bread. Which one was blessed of God
and which one was cursed of God? Think about the rich man in Luke
chapter 12. He had so much that he didn't have enough barns to
put it in, so what's he going to do? I'll build more barns.
I remember the story of the reporter that asked Howard Hughes, They
said, Mr. Hughes, why do you want so much
land? Why do you want to buy so much
real estate? Don't you have enough? And Hughes
said, I don't want that much. I just want whatever is next
to mine. And that's the way it is. Riches
can be deceptive in the sense of people think that gain is
godliness. But you see, this choked the
word of God out. There's no place now for the
worship of God. There's no place now for the
service of God. There's no place now because
you've got other things to do. No love for the truth. You know,
2 Thessalonians chapter 2 talks about those who receive not the
love of the truth. And for that reason, God brings
judgment on them in this form. He says he sends them strong
delusion that they may believe a lie. Well, what is that strong
delusion? Well, it could come in a lot
of different ways. More gain, more money, more health, whatever. Anything that would take their
minds off. That's the thorny ground here. You remember Christ
in Matthew chapter 6 told the hearers there, He said, Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these
things will be added unto you. I can tell everybody in this
world, including myself, what they need more than anything
else. Can you? I can tell you exactly what you
need more than anything else. You might think about a lot of
things you need right now. I can think about a lot of things
I say I need. I can tell you what you need
more than anything else. You need Christ. You need his
blood to wash away your sins. You need his righteousness. You
need him to give you a new heart, a new mind. And that brings us
to the good ground hearer. Now listen to this, verse 23.
There's the good ground hearer. Who is this good ground hearer?
Who are the good ground hearers? Here he gives us four types of
hearers. Think about it. Three of them lost in their sins, wayside,
stony ground, thorny ground. And one, now this is what he's
saying, as you go out and preach the gospel, here's how people
are going to receive it. Some of them are going to care,
they don't want to hear what you have to say, they don't want
to listen to you. Some are going to latch on to it quickly. But
when the trials and the persecutions come over the Word, they'll leave
it. Remember, Paul spoke of those who left him. He spoke about
Demas, Alexander the coppersmith. These were men who latched on
to what Paul preached and then they left it. And then some are
going to latch on to it and receive it, but when the cares of this
world come up, they'll leave it. They've got other things
to do. They're too busy. But there's
one segment here of people who are going to receive it, believe
it, love it, and bear fruit. Now, what separates the good
ground hearer from the rest of them? Who are these good ground
hearers? Well, if you listen to most religion today, here's
what the implication is of whether or not they say it like this
or not. That's the people who just are better than everybody
else. Isn't that right? Isn't that what they say? Do you have a good heart? That's
what this is. This ground represents the heart. Here's the wayside heart, the
stony ground heart, the thorny ground heart. That's three different
ways of expressing the natural heart of man. We read it in Jeremiah
17 last week, verse 9. The heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked. Above all things, who can know
it? That's the heart of natural man. Think about 1 Corinthians
2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, they're spiritually discerned.
So who are these people with a good heart? Are those the ones
that the preacher, you know, today, I grew up in this way
in religion, that we would go to church and we'd go to a meeting
and the preacher would would say some words, not really preaching
the gospel of God's grace and the righteousness of Christ.
And then they'd stand down at the end of the aisle and they'd
beg people to come down. And it was by using means of
persuasion, you see, trying to get people to choose God. And
if any did choose and walk down the aisle, what made the difference
as far as they were concerned? Were they less obstinate? Were
they less rebellious? Were they just better people? That was the implication to me
as a child growing up in that. You know, God, he's done everything
he can do, now the rest is up to you. That was the message
I heard. He's built, I remember hearing
a message one time about Christ built a bridge and he got it
like 99 and 44, 100% across the gap, and now you've gotta build
the rest of it. Is that what the good ground
here is? Well, if we listen to the religious world, that's what
it describes, those who are in some way, either in their works
or in their wills, better than others, less obstinate, less
rebellious. What does the Word of God say? Who is the good ground here?
Who has the good heart? Look back at Ezekiel. Turn to
the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament. Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel the
prophet, right after what, Jeremiah? And look at chapter 36 of Ezekiel. Now let me tell you a little
bit about what Ezekiel's doing here. I won't get into the whole
thing. But Ezekiel is a prophet from
Judah who is prophesying in a foreign land, Babylon. to about 10,000
Jewish refugees who had been deported from their land by Nebuchadnezzar
and the Babylonian army, who had conquered Jerusalem and Judah. Took about, well, it took more
than 10,000, but Ezekiel is on the outskirts of the city by
the river, I think it's the river Kibar, I think it is. And he's
preaching to these refugees, and here's what he's telling
them, that the reason we're here is because we're a sinful people
and God's judgment is upon us. That's what he's telling them,
and that was the truth. And that's just a testimony.
If God ever gave any of us what we deserve or what we've earned,
it would be condemnation. And then he tells them, he says,
now don't hope in Jerusalem and in the temple because they're
going to be destroyed. You see, the people were saying
to each other, they said, well now, God's not going to abandon
us. We're going to go back to Jerusalem.
We're going to go back to Solomon's temple. And Ezekiel says, oh
no, don't put your trust in those things. God's going to destroy
them. And so one day, a fella comes
from Jerusalem to Babylon and gives them the news. Jerusalem
is destroyed. The temple has been destroyed.
Their hope is gone. Their salvation's gone. You see,
if you hope and put your trust in the things of this world,
what's it gonna lead to? Disappointment. But Ezekiel then,
in these last chapters, he begins to preach a word of hope, a word
of salvation that was totally dependent on something to come
in the future. And you know what that something
that was to come in the future was? Well, God's just going to
raise up a better class of people than this bunch here in Babylon. Is that what it was? Is it because God's just going
to raise up a better class of people? The people in the future
are going to be better than you all. No. The hope of future glory
was based on one thing, and that was the coming of Christ, the
Messiah, into the world to save his people from their sins. That
was it. Messiah's coming. He's going
to put away sin. Daniel, he prophesied in Babylon. He was just in a different area.
He was in the king's court. What did Daniel say? Messiah's
coming. He's going to make an end of
sin. He's going to finish the transgression. He's going to
bring in everlasting righteousness. He's going to seal up the prophecy
and the testimony. In other words, the hope of salvation
always has been, always is and always will be on one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ and the righteousness that He establishes.
That's it. And here's what God's going to
do for those people who are under the Messiah. It's the same thing
that God had already done for men like Ezekiel and Daniel,
Jeremiah and others who were true believers. And look at what
he says in verse 27 or verse 26. This is what's going to happen. He's talking about the church.
He's talking about the kingdom of heaven. He says in verse 26
of Ezekiel 36, A new heart also will I give you. In other words, the hope of the
future was not because they had a good heart. It's because God's
going to give them a new heart. He says, a new spirit will I
put within you. You see that? I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh. The stony heart is like the wayside
hearer, the stony ground hearer, the thorny
ground hearer. It's the unbending, unsubmissive,
unbelieving heart. And I will give you a heart of
flesh. Flesh meaning bendable, pliable, submissive. Verse 27,
I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes,
his commandments. And what is his commandment?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Call upon the name of the Lord
and you shall be saved. And you shall keep my judgments
and do them and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God. Now that's
one of the many, many prophecies of the new covenant. What's he
talking about there? You know what he's talking about?
He's talking about the new birth. Christ said the same thing in John chapter
3 to Nicodemus, but he used different words. But it's the same thing. He said, you must be born again
or you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You must be born again
or you cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is this good ground
heart? Let me give you these things.
The good ground is the ground that has been prepared by the
Holy Spirit in regeneration. Prepared by God the Holy Spirit
to receive the seed. It's the heart of God's elect.
Paul, when he wrote to the church at Thessalonica, listen to what
he said in 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 4. He says, knowing brethren,
beloved, your election of God Here's what he's saying, this
is how I know you're God's elect. Verse five, for our gospel, the seed,
came not unto you in word only. In other words, it wasn't just
words falling on deaf ears, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. The gospel, the gospel, was the
power of God unto salvation to you, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith." You believe it. The good ground here is the one
who has a new heart. Life has been given from Christ
by the Holy Spirit. He's been raised from the dead.
That's what happened spiritually. And it's a heart of faith. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the heart of the redeemed
and the regenerated. You see, the natural heart of
man is not naturally good if we measure it by God's standard
of goodness. If the ground is good, we know
it's the new heart given by God in the new birth. So if you were
to ask the question, which kind of hearer am I? Which kind of
hearer am I? Well, how do you respond to the
preaching of God's grace in Christ as a sinner seeking mercy? You
remember the old publican? God, be merciful to me, the sinner. You remember when the multitudes
turned away from Christ and he turned to his disciples and he
said, will you go away also? What did Peter say? Where are
we going to go? You've got the words of life.
Nobody else has them. There's no hope for me anywhere
else. How can I, a sinner, approach
God? Well, there's no way else for
me to do it. But by the grace of God in Christ. Here's the
second thing. The good ground hearer, the good ground, the
heart, receives seed with faith and understanding. You see, there's
the contrast. Look back at Matthew 13. Look
at verse 15. Remember, he told them, he said,
They ask him, why do you speak in parables? He said, because
to you it's given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom.
To them it's not given. Now listen to what he says in
verse 15. For this people's heart is waxed gross. Now that's just
another way of saying it's grown hard. And their ears are dull
of hearing. And their eyes they have closed.
They don't want to hear or see what you're saying, lest at any
time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
and should understand with their heart, and should be converted,
and I should heal them." They don't want to be converted. In
other words, I don't want to believe that what you're saying
is true. Because if I believed that, then I'd have to turn away
from all that I hold dear, and all that I have refuge in. Listen,
I was saved when I was 12. I was baptized. I've tried to
serve the Lord. And you're telling me that's
not good enough? That's exactly what I'm telling
you. Well, I don't want to hear that.
That's a conversion I don't want. That's what they're saying. So they shut their eyes. But
the good ground here doesn't. And you know why it doesn't?
Because he can't. You can't do it. Go ahead and
try. You can't get away from it. If
your heart's been prepared by the Holy Spirit in the new birth,
you cannot get away from it. That's exactly right. You can't
help but face it. As the old guy said, it'll dog
you the rest of your days. And you won't be able to. You see, you've got an understanding.
We know that the Son of God hath come and hath given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true and we are in Him that is
true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
in eternal life. And then lastly, the good ground-hearer
bears fruit. Look back at verse 23. He said,
this good ground-hearer, he bears fruit, bringeth forth some a
hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Now there's a lot of
argument, a lot of misunderstanding. over this fruit bearing. He doesn't
really explain it here in detail. We know that Christ says in John
15, I'm the vine, you're the branches, you're going to bear
fruit. We know every good ground hearer, every regenerate sinner
bears the fruit of faith in Christ, submission to him as the Lord
their righteousness. We know every good ground hearer
bears the fruit of repentance of dead works. That's common
to all. We know there's the fruit of
the Spirit listed in Galatians chapter 5. We're to cultivate
that fruit. But one thing I know about this,
this is not a competition. Well, I want to bear more fruit
than Jim does. Jim wants to bear more fruit
than me. And this is not works-oriented salvation. This is the forward
nation of God. Some's gonna bear a hundredfold,
some sixtyfold, some thirty. We don't know which is which,
but we know. Listen. Listen, you think about
it. God works in and works within
a lot of believers in a greater way, not in salvation necessarily,
but in the ministry of the Word. Look how much he used the Apostle
Paul. He used the Apostle Paul to write over half the New Testament. But don't get bogged down in
this. Just understand this is not a competition, this is not
works oriented. It's an ordained quantity. If
they bear what God has ordained, it's always 100% complete. If
God ordains I bear 30 fold instead of 100 fold, I know this, it's
100% complete. And I don't have to look at myself
and say, well, I'm just not bearing enough fruit. How do I know that?
Or look at you and say, you're just not bearing enough fruit.
We don't know what we're talking about when we do stuff like that. What is this fruit? It's a broken
and contrite heart, convicted over sin. It's a believing heart,
believes in Christ. It's a repentant heart. It's
a heart filled with love, the love of God. It's a heart of
liberty, liberty to serve God. It's the new heart. It's the
regenerate heart. How do you know you have that?
Do you see Christ and Him alone as your only righteousness before
holy God and you have no other? And serve Him out of that assurance
of grace that's in Him. All right. Okay.