Well, good morning everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 4. Mark the 4th chapter. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord and give thanks. Our father. How thankful we are. goodness and mercy and your eternal
purpose for your people, that you've given us another opportunity
to meet together and to worship your matchless name. And Father,
I beg of you that you would send your spirit upon us this morning
and enable us to truly worship from the heart. Father, I pray
that you would enable me to rightly divide the word of truth, that
you would speak to my heart that you'd open my mouth and, Father,
enable me to rightly declare the glory of Christ our Savior.
And, Father, be with your people. Enable us to hear and to believe
the Christ that we here preach this morning. Father, we're so
thankful. So thankful for your mercy and your grace to your
people that you continue to keep your promise that you'll send
forth your word empowered to call out your sheep, to feed
and comfort and instruct and edify your people. Father, we're
thankful. Father, I pray you'd continue to bless us in the future
as you have in the past. Father, I pray you'd bless our
children's classes at this time. Father, I pray you'd be with
our teachers and our children alike that you'd use this time
that you might be pleased to plant the seeds of faith in their
hearts. Father, we can't thank you enough.
We can't praise you enough. Human language is not ever going
to be sufficient. But Father, also, while we're
in this flesh, we're a poor and a needy people. Father, I pray
that you'd bless those that you brought in the time of trouble
and trial. We pray a special blessing for
our sister Sandy Holbrook's family, Father, that you'd be with them,
that you'd comfort their hearts. We're thankful. that you gave
us, Sandy, for the time. We thank you for her faith and
her testimony. Now, Father again, bless us.
Bless us as we look into your word. Enable us to forget about
all the goings on of this life. And in this hour, set our affection
on things above. For it's in Christ's name, for
his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. I've titled the lesson
this morning, A Parable about hearing the gospel. Our lessons,
both today and next Sunday, I feel are very timely lessons for this
congregation. Both of these lessons, this week
and next, are gonna be about how we hear the gospel preached. How we hear it preached. I hope
we don't ever take for granted that we have this opportunity
in our town, week after week after week, to hear the gospel
preached. It's important how we hear. And I told you at the
end of the conference, I really felt like that the Lord was speaking
in an unusual way, an unusual, powerful, and special way through
all the messages that we heard that weekend. And I feel like
the Lord's continued to do that in all the messages we've had
since in a special way. And it seems evident that that's
what the Lord's doing because in three weeks we're gonna have
four brothers and sisters who've come to confess Christ and believers
baptism. Now that's special, that's special. And we're thankful. We are in
awe, just in awe of God's mercies to our own. And since it does
seem evident that the Lord's speaking in a special way. I
don't want to miss it. And I don't want you to miss
it either. I don't want us to miss it. This psalm has been
running through my mind for days. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. You're speaking to others. Lord,
speak to me. Let me hear. So let's look at this parable
on these different types of hearers of the gospel and see if the
Lord might be pleased to teach us something. Matthew 4, verse
1. And he began to teach by the seaside, and there was gathered
unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship and
sat in the sea, and the whole multitude was by the sea on the
land. And he taught them many things
by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken, behold,
there went out a sower to sow, and it came to pass as he sowed,
some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and
devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground,
where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up,
because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was
scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And
some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it,
and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground,
and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought
forth some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said
unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when
he was alone, they that were about him with the 12, ask of
him the parable. And he said unto them, unto you
it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But unto
them that are without, all these things are done in parables,
that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they
may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should
be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. And he said
unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all
parables? The sower soweth the word, and
these are they by the wayside, where the word is sown. But when
they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the
word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which
are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word,
immediately receive it with gladness. and have no root in themselves,
and so endure but for a time. Afterward, when affliction or
persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are
sown among thorns. Such as hear the word, and the
cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and
the lust of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh
unfruitful. And these are they which are
sown on good ground. such as hear the word and receive
it and bring forth fruit, some 30 fold and some 60 and some
100. Now, our Lord often taught in
parables. In a parable, you know what that
is. It's an earthly story about something everybody's familiar
with. Everybody's familiar with farmers planting seeds. A lot
of you have been planting seeds in your gardens already, haven't
you? Chris, I know, has got a hundred tomato plants ready to go, you
know, been planting seeds. But this is an earthly story
that illustrates a heavenly truth that's important for us to learn.
It's an earthly story, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly
meaning. Now this parable is about preaching
and hearing the gospel. And the first person we meet
in this parable is the sower. Now the sower is the gospel preacher.
You know, when we preach the gospel, we're trying to plant
the seed of the word of God in the hearts of those who hear.
preaching, sowing the word of God, that's not something that
God's servant does lightly. Just like a farmer. You know,
a farmer puts a lot of thought and energy into planting his
seed in the springtime. You know, he wants to plant that
seed in the right way, at the right time, at the right depth,
at the right spacing. I mean, a lot of thought goes
into this thing. Seed's expensive, and the farmer's gonna make sure
that planting is done right. God's preacher does the very
same thing. Puts a lot of time and effort into this thing so
that the seed is sown right. Look back at Isaiah chapter 55.
I hope you know this. I preach
the gospel with this intent that you'll believe on Christ. That's
my intent. I want God to be glorified. I
want to preach Christ in such a way His glory is revealed so
that you'll believe so that you'll trust him, so that you'll rest
in him. We preach the gospel because
we desire a great harvest of souls. And we preach with this
expectation. I remember Brother Henry saying
one time, I preach and I expect you to believe it. Because it's
true. I expect you to believe it. It's
true. We have an expectation of a harvest because of the promise
of God. Look here at Isaiah 55 verse 10. For as the rain cometh
down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but
watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that
it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. We preach trusting
God's gonna keep his promise, and it's my prayer that what
he's sending this forth, this word, what he's sending it forth
to accomplish this morning is a harvest. It's a growth in grace
for the oldest believer, and it'll reveal Christ to those
who have not yet believed. Now look at 1 Corinthians chapter
3. We preach the gospel, trusting
that the Lord is going to give an increase, that the Lord's
going to call out his people. 1 Corinthians 3, Verse four. For by one saith I am of Paul,
and another I am of Apollos. Are ye not carnal? Who then is
Paul, and who is Apollos? But ministers, by whom ye believed,
even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, and Apollos
watered. These are the farmers sown to
seed. I planted, Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. So
then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth,
But God's everything, God that giveth the increase. Verse nine, for ye are laborers,
we are laborers together with God, and ye are God's husbandry. You're God's building. You who
believe, you're God's crops. You're the building of God. God's
preachers are laborers in the field to help you grow, to help
you grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. Now, the gospel preached,
when it's preached, it has different effects on different people.
There's all kinds of different people here this morning, and
the gospel, when it's preached, always has different effects. As we go through these four types
of hearers, I want you to remember this. You and I aren't just one
of these types of hearers. At one time or another, If you're
a believer, you've been all four of these types of hearers. All
four. Sometimes even after you believe
Christ, sometimes you're one of these other ones. So keep
that in mind. All four of these different types of hearers are
in me. They're in you. First is the
wayside hearer. Back in our text, verse 15, our
Lord explains what that is. These are they by the wayside,
where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan cometh
immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. Now the wayside here hears the
word. They hear the gospel preached. It's just not all that important
to me. It really doesn't make any difference.
The wayside here, more than likely, doesn't disagree real strongly
with anything he's heard preached. There's just no real interest
in it. And right after the service, the wayside here immediately
is thinking about other things. Where are we going to go eat?
What do I got to get done at work this week? I'm going to
go in. What's the first thing that's
going to hit me in the face Monday morning I got to deal with? What about
all the other things going on in this life, responsibilities
and stuff that I have? They even think about those things
during the preaching, thinking about where you're going to go
eat this afternoon. Is there going to be a wait down
there at Cheddar's? And you're thinking about that and not hearing
the word whilst being preached. And you got to admit, it's a
whole lot easier for the natural man to think on those things,
isn't it? It's so much easier for us to
think about what am I going to do at work, man? You know, am
I gonna go through this week and maybe I'm gonna get a promotion? Maybe I'm gonna, you know, something
good. Thinking about work, thinking about cutting the grass, thinking
about whatever, you know. It's a whole lot easier for us
to think about those things than think on spiritual things. And
while we're thinking on those other things, it's so easy for
Satan to come along and take the seed of the word that we
just heard preached and take it away before it has a chance
to take root in our hearts. The wayside here, here's the
gospel. I mean, it's the gospel now. They hear God's word preached,
but they leave completely unaffected and unchanged. Now I really wish this were not
so, but that's happened to everyone who's ever heard the gospel,
believer and unbeliever alike. We've heard the gospel and left
unaffected, left unchanged. Now that's very sobering. We
forget what we heard. How often do we forget what we
heard? It's so sobering to think that Satan can come and snatch
that word away before the wayside here even knows it happened.
The unspeakable gift has been snatched away and we didn't know
it. And the Lord allows that to happen for many reasons, I'm
sure. He's not chosen to be merciful
to that wayside here. Not yet, he hadn't. He allowed
the word, he allowed Satan to take it away. You know, salvation
is the choice of God alone, isn't it? God chooses the people that
he'll save and he chooses the time when he's gonna apply that
salvation. God has a people and God's the one who chooses when
the fruit of that spirit's gonna grow, when it's not. The Lord
allowed Satan to snatch that seed away from the wayside here.
But don't you forget this, you and I are responsible too. The
wayside here is responsible for not giving diligence to the things
that we earn. We're not thinking on those things.
That's my fault. I can't blame anybody on that
but me. The wayside here just is not
paying attention. They're not seeking Christ. They
don't listen with an urgency because they don't realize their
need of Christ. That's the wayside here. Second
is the stony ground here, verse 16. And these are they likewise
which are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the
word, immediately receive it with gladness, but they have
no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time. Afterward,
when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately
they are offended. Now the stony ground here, they
appear to be very impressive at first. The stony ground here
comes, and boy, they hear the gospel. Maybe it's for the very
first time, and they're so excited. They're so excited, and they
hear the word preaching. It appears like they have a lot
of very fast, very quick growth. Oh, this person's latched on
to Christ. They're latching on to the gospel. They're growing
so quick. But their interest and their excitement is not in
Christ. Maybe they've got a lot of interest. This is a new doctrine. I've
never heard this before. Now you gotta admit, grace, salvation
by grace, that's a wonderful, isn't that such a wonderful message. God saves people by grace. Maybe
they never heard that before. Maybe they never heard you don't
have to keep the law in order to make God happy with you. It's
a freeing, it's a wonderful, they have an interest in a new
doctrine, but it's not the person of Christ. They have a lot of
enjoyment. Maybe they think the preacher's
awful gifted. But their interest is not in
Christ who is the message. See, the whole problem for the
stony ground here is this. There's no depth to their religion. They're not rooted and grounded
upon Christ. They don't have the root of Christ
in them. The stony ground here could be
impressed with a lot of things. but they're not impressed with
Christ. They're not taken up with Christ. They don't have
union with Christ. And before long, trouble is gonna
arise. Trouble's gonna arise. Persecution
because of the word. Persecution either by those who
are without, that don't believe the gospel, that hate the gospel,
and persecution from your own old man. That old man, boy, I
tell you what, you have some interest in Christ, that old
man's gonna be kicking up a fuss now. You're gonna have trouble.
You're gonna have trouble with him. And the stony ground here
says, I didn't expect this. Nobody told me about this. This
is what I signed up for. And the heat makes them wither
away and they're gone because they didn't have any root down
deep in Christ. You know the difference is the
difference between a weed and a tree. You know, weed can just
grow up in a crack in a sidewalk, can't it? Doesn't need much earth.
And eventually, the heat, the heat of the summer, the fall
comes, the cold, whatever, that weed's not going to last. But
there's the oak tree. It's been standing there for
years and years and years and years. Gets hot, gets cold, rains,
it snows, the oak tree's still there because it's got roots
down deep in the ground. 50, 60, 70, 100 feet down in
the ground. That's the believer. They're
trees planted by the rivers of waters. They got roots down deep
in Christ. And that's what lets them stand
up to the heat of persecution. But the stony ground here, it's
not going to last. Because there's no connection
to Christ. It could be doctrine. It could
be emotion. It could be I feel like I've got to be religious.
But there's not a connection to Christ. And that's the way
every last one of us will be. Unless God the Holy Spirit intervenes
and roots us, settles us in Christ alone. All right, thirdly, there's
the thorny ground here, verse 18. And these are they which
are sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares
of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other
things entering in, choke the word. and it becometh unfruitful. Now the thorny ground hearer,
they hear the word. There seems to be some depth
to their faith. It seems to be they're producing
some fruit of the spirit. But thorns come in and they choke
off the plant. Thorns come in and weeds and
thorns and they take away nutrients from the ground. They take away
nutrients so the good plant doesn't have enough nutrients and it
dies because the thorns got it all. Now the thorny ground here,
they hear the word, but the Lord says the deceitfulness of riches,
the deceitfulness of things of this life takes his attention
away from Christ. His attention starts to become
divided and pretty soon it's all on these other things and
not on Christ at all. Just like those thorns and those
weeds, they take away nutrients from that good plan and they
make it unfruitful. Now the thorns, They could be
worldly riches. They could be. They could be,
you know, somebody who's gonna work and chase after those things.
You know, oh, I've got a good job. I've got a good, it's gonna
be a promotion. It's gonna be a big pay increase.
I know it's not in a place where the gospel's preached, but oh,
this is opportunity. It's too good to pass up, you
know? And they chase those things. They think, I've got to have
that. I've got to have it to live. And they chase those things
rather than seeking Christ. The deceitfulness of riches choked
them off from hearing the word. But primarily, these thorns,
they're the curse of sin that's in the world. Our Lord says the
lust of other things entering in. These thorns are the curse
of sin that's in us. You remember when thorns first
grew in the earth? It's a result of Adam's sin, wasn't it? Adam's
sin brought forth those thorns. Those thorns are the curse of
sin in our flesh, it's the desire of our flesh to have our own
works instead of Christ alone. It's the desire of our flesh,
I'm gonna be my own God, I'm gonna make my own rules, I'm
gonna make my own way, I'm gonna have my own way of salvation,
I'm gonna establish my own righteousness. That's the thorns that will choke
us off from the word and make us unfruitful. You know, the
thorny ground here can become unfruitful because they begin
to care more about earthly affairs than they do about spiritual
affairs, the affairs of their soul. But I'll tell you something,
and that's a serious warning. If you've been around very long,
you've seen that happen. I've seen it happen, you've seen
it happen, it's just awful. It's heartbreaking when that
happens. But I'll tell you how else someone can be a thorny
ground here and become unfruitful, unfruitful in the fruit of the
spirit. They're trying to produce their
own fruit. They want people to see I'm a good Christian. I do it right. I conduct myself
right. I do the things, you know, that
the Lord tells me to do. And I want people to see that
I'm a good Christian. It's not good enough to do it
and not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
They got to be seen so everybody knows I'm a good Christian. They're
so busy trying to produce their own fruit, they become unfruitful
in the fruit of the Spirit. They're so busy trying to produce
their own fruit, they're not dependent on the Spirit to cause
that fruit to grow in them. See what I'm saying? Gotta be
careful now. You know, sometimes it can be
something we think is good that can make us become unfruitful.
You know, it's good that you're a moral person. I'm glad you
are. you're loving and you're giving and you're, you know,
all those things, you know, but if, if we're trusting in that
fruit instead of saying, well, that, that's the evidence of
my salvation, we're going to become unfruitful in the fruit
of the spirit. I promise you that. So all right, now we get to some
good news. Here's the good ground here. Verse 20 and these are
they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive
it and bring forth fruit. Some 30 fold, some 60, and some
100. Now the good ground here, they
believe on Christ. They hear the gospel, they believe
on Christ because the seed fell on good ground. The seed fell
on ground that has been prepared to receive the seed, and that
seed took root and it brought forth a harvest. Now some, some
harvest bigger than others. Some 30, some 60, some 100, but
it was all good fruit. We're not really necessarily
looking at the amount of it. It's what is the fruit? If it's
the fruit of the spirit, it's all good fruit, isn't it? The
good ground here, you know who that is? That's God's elect. And their time has come to hear
the gospel and believe it. God's appointed time has come.
And that heart has been made good. It's been prepared by God
the Holy Spirit. God plowed the heart. and made
it ready so that the seed could be planted. You know, just like
farmers do. Farmers don't ever plant seed
until they first plowed the field. Then they plant the seed. The
Holy Spirit does that for the hearts of His people. He prepares
the heart. He plows it and makes it ready and He gives life to
the seed that's been planted. And He does it at God's appointed
time. The Holy Spirit makes that person. They hear of Christ and
makes them believe on Christ when they hear him preach. The
Savior said, now he who has ears to hear, let him hear. For the
good ground here, they have ears to hear. You know why? The Spirit
gave them ears to hear. The Spirit gave them eyes to
see. They hear, they believe on Christ. And the Holy Spirit
brings forth the fruit of the Spirit as God's determined for
it to do. Now those are the four kinds Now I want to ask you, what makes
the difference between those four kinds of ears? What makes
the difference in someone never bearing any fruit, never showing
any interest in the gospel at all, starting to show some fruit
but becoming unfruitful? Someone that trusts Christ, that
has roots down deep in Christ, that brings forth the fruit of
the Spirit. What is the difference between those four ears? Well,
it's what Brother Eric told us Wednesday night. God made the
difference. God made the difference. If you
hear and you believe and somebody else doesn't, what made the difference? God made the difference. It's
not because you're smarter. It's not because you're more
religious. It's not because you're better. God made the difference. If you hear and believe, who
maketh thee to differ? If you believe Christ, your answer
will always be God made me to differ. Always. God's the one who makes the difference.
It's obvious, isn't it? All these four different kinds
of ears, they heard the same word. They heard it from the
same preacher. They all heard the same message
of salvation by grace in Christ. And they all have the same sinful
flesh. They're all born dead. They're born with the inability
to hear and believe. Yet one believes. Who made the
difference? It's not the preacher. It's not
their flesh. It's not, you know, God made
the difference. The results all depend upon the
Lord. They all depend upon Him. All
right. Now that's so. But let me give
you three things I thought of that we can do to help our hearts
prepare to worship God. There's three things I believe
we can do to prepare to receive the word into our hearts when
it's preached. Number one is this. Pray. Pray. If the Lord makes the difference,
I can pray and ask him to make a difference in me. Can I? Pray. I tell you this often, I'm gonna
tell you again. Pray for the preacher. I ask you to pray for
me. Eric's off preaching in Williamsburg
this morning. He's gonna preach here Wednesday night, and I promise
you, his heart's desire is that you pray for him. So he's able
to preach on Wednesday. Pray for the man that's gonna
preach to you. Ask the Lord to give him a message.
Ask the Lord to give him a message that glorifies Christ. Ask the
Lord to give him a message for you, that you need to hear. And
then pray for yourself. Lord, give the preacher, give
the pastor, give him a message, and Lord, enable me to hear it.
Would you enable me to hear it and believe it? You'd be surprised
how often you're praying about something and the Lord answers
it in the message. The preacher didn't know you're
wondering about this, you're thinking about this, but you're
praying about it and you hear the answer in the message. It's
amazing how often we find ourselves in trouble and we really pray
and ask God, bless your word to my heart, and he does. We
can pray. Number two is this. We can read
the word. We can read the word of God.
Go home and reread the text. Reread what was preached on to
help you remember it. Spend some time through the week
reading God's word. If you're reading the word, it'll
prepare your heart to hear it. And the third thing is this.
And this is just you have to pray and ask the Lord that he'll
enable you to do this. Listen to the gospel preached
as a sinner. As a sinner. The good news of the gospel is
for sinners. This good news is for me. This message that God's given
the preacher, it's for me. It's not, oh man, I hope old
so-and-so is hearing this because he really needs to hear this.
No, I hope I'm hearing it. Because I sure need to hear it.
I must, because I'm here listening to it. I hope I'm hearing this. I need the gospel. I need Christ. Oh, if the Lord will enable the
preacher to preach Christ and enable me to hear, because I'm
a sinner. If the Lord will make us hear
as a needy sinner, I can promise you this, we will listen to Christ
being preached with rapt attention. and we won't let it go quickly.
If I'm in need, I'm not gonna be thinking about other things,
am I? I'm gonna be thinking about what
I need. If I need Christ, because I'm a sinner, Satan's not gonna
come and take that word away from me before I even know what
happened. If I'm listening as a sinner, the thorns of this
life are not gonna choke it off and make me unfruitful. If I'm
listening as a sinner, I need Christ. I'm not just gonna spring
up quickly and then fade away. I'm not gonna fade away because
I still need Christ. Oh, if I listen as a sinner, God might prepare
my heart to hear the word and believe. That's what we can do
to help prepare our hearts to hear. I hope God will enable
us to do. All right, hope that'll be a
blessing to you. Yeah.