But we're going to pick up our
study where we left off of Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Before we
begin, let's bow together in prayer. Our father, how we thank you
that you've given us this, another opportunity to meet together,
to have your word open to us. to read it, to study it, to have
your word expounded to us, to have Christ preach to us from
your word. Father, we're thankful. And Father,
I pray as we preach the gospel, hear the gospel preached this
morning, that you would move in power and cause the seed of
your word to take root in our heart, to give life, to produce
abundantly, to produce an abundant harvest of life and faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Without thee, we can do nothing.
We can't preach. We can't hear. We can't worship.
Father, I pray that you'd enable us this morning to hear and to
believe and to worship. Worship you as you ought to be
worshipped. Well, we pray for ourselves in this class. We pray
for our children's classes that you'd bless richly, Father. We thank you for so many blessings
of this life. Pray you'd give us the wisdom
to use all these things wisely and for thy glory, not selfishly. Father, for those who are sick
and in great times of burden, trial, and difficulty, Father,
we pray for them. We're thankful to know that these
things are not accidental, but they're according to thy divine
will and purpose. And Father, we pray you'd give
those who are sick and hurting, those who are in in great difficulty,
that you give them a fulfillment of your promise, that you'll
never, no, never, no, never leave nor forsake your people, and
that you'll give them grace sufficient. Father, if it could be thy will
that you deliver quickly, that you'd heal, that you'd remove
the heartache and the difficulty and the pain and relieve your people, Father,
we pray. All these things we ask in that name which is above
every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right,
Matthew chapter 13. I've titled the message or the
lesson this morning, The Word Planted in the Heart. It begins,
verse one, Matthew chapter 13. The same day went Jesus out of
the house and sat by the seaside, and great multitudes were gathered
together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat. And
the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many
things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went
forth to sow." Now here, a parable. A parable, you know what that
is. It's an earthly story, something that happens on earth frequently,
something everybody is familiar with. But the story illustrates
a spiritual truth that we must be taught. And let me give you
this warning about parables. Don't make all your doctrine
out of a single parable. A parable is just a story. And
it illustrates a point, a single point of doctrine. Each parable
only teaches one truth. Don't stretch a parable too far
and try to make it teach many things, because a parable only
teaches one truth, teaches one thing. And the truth being taught
in this parable is the necessity, the absolute necessity of hearing
the Word of God with a heart that's been prepared by God the
Holy Spirit. And I thought what a good lesson
as we are able to begin, we've had our children's Bible classes
for a while, but to begin our adult Bible classes with this
parable, the importance of the Word of God, the importance of
hearing it, the importance of believing it. And I'm thankful
the Lord has given us a second opportunity today to hear his
word preached. You just can't overemphasize
the importance of God's word. Now in this parable, the sower
is the preacher. He sows the seed of the word
of God by preaching the word of God. And the preacher, the
teacher of this parable is the preacher, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he shows us how tireless that he was in preaching the
Word and teaching the Word. Verse 1 says, that same day when
Jesus out of the house, he just finished teaching them, the people,
about the family of God. Who is the family of God? What
does the family of God look like? And that same day, with no break,
he went out preaching again. He's just tireless in preaching.
And he also shows us faithfulness in preaching. The Lord was always
preaching. and teaching. He would stay up
all night praying and spend all day preaching and teaching. And
he was always preaching, he was always teaching the very same
message. In this parable, the seed is
the Word of God. That's what Luke tells us in
his account of this parable, Luke 8, that the seed is the
Word of God. And that's the only way any sinner
can ever be given life, is from the seed of life, the Word of
God. That's the way God has ordained
it. And our Lord was always preaching, always sowing the same seed. Never different kinds of seed,
always the same seed, the Word of God. That was the only seed
ever sowed. Every message He preached was
sowing the same seed. And I'll tell you what, if you
can find a man who's faithful to do the same thing today, to
preach the Word of God, to only sow the seed of the Word of God,
you'd do well to listen to him. Because He's got a message for
you. He's got a message for your heart from the Word of God. But
now every time that the Word is truly sown in the heart, you're
going to find a couple of things. Number one, you're going to find
a preacher. Sowing, preaching, teaching the Word of God. And
when the Word is truly sown in the heart, the Lord is the one
doing the sowing. Now, we preach here every week.
Sow the seed. Week after week after week, line
upon line, precept upon precept. But when God saves a sinner,
it's the Lord who sows the seed in the heart. You know, we plant
and we water all day long, don't we? But only the Lord can give
an increase. Only the Lord can give life.
And that's an important lesson for us to learn here. How dependent
we are on God. We're dependent on His Word,
and we're dependent on Him to give us faith to believe it.
We won't have ears to hear it unless He gives it. Now, every
time the Word is preached, every time the seed is sown, there's
a whole variety of people there listening. And the effect of
the seed on the different people is different. And the different
effects upon the hearer are always dependent on the Lord. So let's
look here, you already know this parable well. There are several
different kinds of hearers. The first one is the wayside
hearer, verse 3. And he spake many things unto
them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And
when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls
came and devoured them up. And the explanation of what the
Lord is teaching there of the parable is in verse 18. The Lord
says, Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When anyone heareth
the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh
the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in the
heart. This is he which received the seed by the wayside. Now
wayside hearers, they physically hear the word preached. They
physically hear the gospel preached, but it's not important to them. The wayside hearer hears the
word preached just like you'd hear a lecture on any other subject. And it would have to be a subject
that they're just not interested in. It's beyond their ability
to comprehend. They just don't get it. They
don't love it. They don't understand it. They're
the wayside here. I thought about myself when I
was in college. I went to a physics lecture,
gigantic. I mean, there had to be 500 people
in there. and listen to that lecture, that physics lecture,
and I was a wayside hearer. I mean, I just never got it.
I mean, I just didn't. I thought from high school, I
thought I loved the subject. I thought I'm good at this, and
I started hearing real physics, and I thought, I just don't get
it. And because I couldn't get it, I just was not interested
in it. I just could never be anything other than, at best,
an average student, because I just didn't get it. I didn't love
it, it was not interesting to me. That's the wayside hearer. They hear the gospel preached
and it's just beyond their ability to comprehend it, to love it,
to understand it. Because God hadn't given them
an ear to hear it. And the birds in the parable represent Satan,
the prince of the power of the air. And Satan comes, the seed's
been sowed by a person's heart. But Satan comes and takes the
seed away before it has time to take root in the heart. Before
the person has time to even think about what they've heard and
may be comprehended, Satan comes and takes that seed away. They
don't understand it. They don't comprehend it. But
before they can even think to ask any questions about what
they do not understand, Satan comes and takes the seed away.
Satan distracts the wayside hearer. with the trinkets of the world,
the ideas, the ways, the things that you can get in this world.
They think, who's playing in a ball game today? Wonder where
we're going to go eat? Wonder what's in the crockpot
at home for us to eat? They think about their job, what it is I've
got to do tomorrow, got all these things I've got to get done in
my job. And you know what? All those
things are much more interesting to the natural man than the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ is. And that's what they think about.
They're so easily distracted by that. The wayside hearer hears
the word preached, but when they leave, they're completely unaffected
and they're unchanged. That's a very sobering thought.
Satan snatches the word away, leaves the person completely
unaffected from the hearing of the gospel before they even know
it's happened. They don't even know. They don't
even know Satan's come and plucked the seed away. The unspeakable
gift, the message of the unspeakable gift has been snatched away from
them and they never even knew it. That's the wayside here.
Because the seed fell by the wayside. Beside, beside, beside
them. Not in them, but beside. And
the Lord allows this to happen. Because He's just at this time
not chosen to be merciful to this wayside here. At least not
yet He hasn't. Salvation is the choice of God
alone. God chooses the people that he
will save and he chooses the time that he's going to reveal
himself to them and save them too. Salvation is of the Lord. The Lord allowed Satan to snatch
this seed away from the wayside hearer. That's true. But this is also true. Man's
responsible too. You're responsible for what you've
heard. The wayside hearer is just It's just not interested. And he's responsible for not
giving diligence to what he's heard. He's responsible for not
thinking on these things. He's responsible for not seeking
Christ. By nature, he can't do it, but
yet he's responsible for not doing it. Because the seed fell
by the way. Hearing the gospel is just not
their way. Christ is not their way. It's
not the way that they're interested in. They're just by the wayside. They're just passing by the service
on the fringe and just really not paying attention. That was
me in physics class. I sat in the back. I was just
getting out of there as fast as I could, just a wayside here,
passing by, passing through. Maybe they've only come to here
because they're having trouble in their life. Maybe they're
only coming because somebody's making them come. They're a child
and they have to come. Maybe they're coming because
they're dating a pretty girl. There's a pretty girl there they got
their eye on, you know. But they're not seeking Christ.
That's the issue. They're there for a whole variety
of reasons except for the reason. They're not seeking Christ. The
wayside here is just not paying attention. They're not seeking
Christ because they don't see their need of Him. That's why.
And my constant prayer is this. The Lord will make us all hear
the gospel. Every one of us. as a needy sinner,
from the oldest to the youngest, from the oldest believer to the
youngest unbeliever, I pray the Lord would make every one of
us hear the gospel as a needy sinner. Because I can promise
you this, if the Lord ever makes us a needy sinner, we will listen
to the gospel of Christ with rapt attention. Because when
we're needy, we know he's all I need. And you're going to preach
him to me? I'm paying attention. I won't
be a wayside here if God will ever give me a need for Christ. If you're gonna preach to me
the remedy for my need, I'm gonna not be a wayside here, but I'll
listen with rapt attention. All right, that's the wayside
here. Now second is the stony ground
here, verse five. 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, because they had no root, and they withered away.
And the explanation for this is in verse 20. But he that received
the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word,
and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not rooted himself.
But dureth a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises
because of the word, by and by he is offended. Now, the stony
ground hearer, we've all seen a stony ground hearer. They appear
to be very, very impressive at first. They appear to have a
lot of growth very quickly. They have a lot of excitement
about what they're hearing. They hear the word preached.
They hear the gospel preached. They hear Christ preached. They've
never heard it like that before, and they're so excited. The stony
ground hearer hears, and they appear to have some very quick
growth for a while. But that interest and that excitement
is not in Christ. Maybe they have a lot of interest
in, and this is a new doctrine that they're hearing, but the
interest is not in Christ. Maybe they have a lot of enjoyment
in hearing a gifted preacher of the gospel. People like to
hear a gifted preacher, but their interest and excitement is not
in Christ, who is the message that we preach. There's a lot
of excitement in learning some new things, but the excitement
is not in learning Christ. Brother Fortner said in his commentary
on this, he said about the stony ground here, the message brings
forth a plentiful crop of warm feelings and good resolutions.
That's the stony ground here. It appears that they have some
very quick growth, but there's no depth. There's no depth to
their religion because they were never rooted and grounded upon
Christ. They don't have Christ the root
in them. See, the seed fell on the stony
ground. It didn't go in. It fell on. It fell upon. But, you know,
they seem to enjoy the service and enjoy being there. You know,
let me warn you about this. Enjoying hearing a gifted preacher
and enjoying being around the people of God who are nice and
kind people, that's not grace in the heart. I want you to enjoy
my preaching. I really do. I want you to think
that's a message I can understand. That's a message I can believe.
I see Christ. I want you to enjoy my preaching.
And I want you to enjoy being with each other. But I want you
and me both to be impressed with Christ. Now, there's a difference
in there. I want you and me both to be
impressed with Christ so that we believe Him, so that we trust
Him, so that we love Him. I want us to enjoy being around
each other, but mostly I want us to enjoy being around each
other because we're brethren who are in love with the same
Savior, who are trusting the same Savior, who all have the
same hope, who are serving the same Lord. See, Christ must always
be the issue. He has to always be the issue.
He has to be the issue in our preaching. He has to be the issue
in our faith. He has to be the issue in our
worship. And Christ must be the bond. that holds us all together.
Otherwise, it's going to fall apart. It's going to be like
a weed that grows up quick, you know, in the crack of the sidewalk.
But, you know, let it be about 95 degrees a couple of days in
a row, that thing's going to die. See, but that's not the case.
This being rooted in Christ and having Christ be the issue, that's
not the case with the stony ground here. And before long, trouble's
going to arise. Our Lord says it's persecution
because of the Word. Now that persecution could be
from other people. people outside the church, outside the faith,
out there in the world. They don't understand what you
believe. They don't understand what you preach. They don't understand
why you love it. How can you love being told every
week that you're a sinner and you've got no hope but Christ?
They don't understand. How can you love that? I'll tell you where
else that persecution comes from. It comes from that old man. That old man of the flesh who
loves righteousness that he can earn by the law. He loves things
that he can do that makes him better than his neighbor. And
that old man is going to persecute that new man as long as they
both live in the same body. And because of the heat of that
persecution, that heat is going to burn up the stony ground here.
Because he has no depth. He has no root down deep in Christ.
Now that heat comes. A little bit of drought comes.
That oak tree is about 100 feet tall. That oak tree is going
to stand. Because it's got roots down in the ground about as deep
as when it grows up tall. Those roots down deep. That's
going to keep that tree grounded and settled right where it's
at. But not the stony ground here, because it doesn't have
any root down deep in Christ. The stony ground here has no
connection to Christ. He's got an interest in doctrine.
He's got some emotion about this thing, but he doesn't have any
interest in Christ. And you know, every last one
of us will be a stony ground here if God doesn't stop it and
give us faith and ground us in Christ. We're completely dependent
on the Lord, aren't we, to hear and to believe. I want us to
be excited about the gospel. I want us to be committed to
this work, but because we love Christ, because we love Him.
All right, third is the thorny ground here, verse seven. And
some fell among thorns, and thorns sprung up and choked them. And
the explanation for the thorny ground here is at verse 22. He
also that received the seed among the thorns, is he that heareth
the word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness
of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. Now the
thorny ground here, he hears the word. And there might seem
to be a little bit of depth to their faith. But eventually the
thorns come and choke off that thorny ground here. It's like
the thorns and the weeds come and take away the nutrients out
of the ground from the plant and it dies. The thorny ground
here hears the Word and it seems to believe it, at least believe
the truth of it. You know, it says it's got to
be the truth. But the deceitfulness of riches, the Lord says, takes
his attention away. Just like thorns and weeds take
the nutrients away from the good plant and it becomes unfruitful.
A few years ago, we had some tomato plants, and my back was
hurting, and I just thought, I'm just going to let those things
grow. I wonder how they grow out in the wild, you know, if
they just, you know, nobody weeds anything around, stuff grows
in the wild, maybe these plants will grow. And I'm telling you,
now those, the plant, the tomato plant, grew pretty good size. Did not produce a single tomato,
not one. And one day, my back got feeling
a little better, and I thought, I'm going to go out there and
get them weeds out of there. I mean, Jan wanted me to just tear the
whole thing out, you know. I thought, I'm going to at least get the
weeds out and see what happens. I went and got those weeds out of there,
and I kid you not, in about three days, that thing was full of
tomatoes. Just, I mean, and they came out, and then they ripened,
and they're, you know what was stopping them all summer from
giving us good tomato seed? The weeds. Choking that plant
off and making it unfruitful. Not able to bear the fruit. And
for the thorny ground here are the thorns. It could be when
the Lord says the deceitfulness of riches. Maybe it's worldly
riches. You know, people think if I just,
you know, do good in my job and commit myself to my job and spend
so many hours at my job or maybe get two or three jobs, whatever,
just so that I can build up a big bank account because I think
there's some security and have a lot of money. Maybe the deceitfulness
of riches takes their attention off of Christ. takes their attention
away and their time away from coming to the service. And when
they do come, they're thinking about their job. What do I got
to get done? I got to get a bigger 401K. I wonder how my investments
are doing. I got to go do this job, go do
this job. This deceitfulness of riches takes their attention
off Christ and chokes them, makes them unfruitful. But I'll tell
you what primarily these thorns are. It's the curse of sin that's
in the world. That's when thorns started growing,
wasn't it? Adam sinned, and God cursed the ground for Adam's
sake. He said, thorns and thistles, it's going to bring forth to
you. And the thorns and thistles grow up the sin that's in us. Grow up and choke off the Word.
Our desire for the flesh to have our own works. Just like Adam,
we have the same nature. Adam's problem was he wanted
to be God. I mean, he knew this was sin,
but he wanted to be God. Adam wanted to make the rules.
Adam wanted to be his own God and say what's sin and what's
righteousness. And the desire of our flesh to have the same
thing, to have our own works. At least I want to have some
of my own works that contribute to my salvation. I want to have
some of my own works to make me stand out from these other,
you know, heathen or these other weaker brethren. I want my own
works. I want some credit for this thing. You know, I want
to make the rules. I want to decide which laws I've
got to keep and which laws I don't. And if I don't like the laws
that's found in God's Word, I make up my own. I think you've got
to do them things, you know. That is the desire of our flesh
to have some of our own righteousness. That's the thorns of sin. That's
the thorns that grow from the cursed ground. And that's what
grows from our cursed flesh. It's the curse of sin that comes
and chokes us and makes us unfruitful. And fallen man loves those things. It's the deceitfulness of riches,
the deceitfulness of your own works. The fallen man thinks
there's got to be some value. There's got to be something to
my own good works that make this thing of salvation better. And
you know what God calls those things? Filthy rags. That's what
God calls them. The fallen man thinks there's
got to be some security in my own good works because somehow
that's got to make me a little more righteous. It's got to make
me a little more savable. It's got to make me a little
more accepted. And you know what God calls that? A false refuge. A refuge of lies. Deceitfulness
is good. Bees all swept away. And it's
a very solid warning to us now. The thorny ground hearer hears
some of them, but they're made unfruitful by wanting their own
works, by wanting some of their own credit for this thing. All
right, here's the fourth hearer. This is the hearer I'm very,
very interested in. The good ground hearer. Verse 8. But other fell into good ground
and brought forth fruit. Some 100 fold, some 60 fold,
and some 30 fold. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear. And the explanation for the good
ground hearer is verse 23. But he that receives seed into
the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it,
which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some 100 fold,
some 60, and some 30. Now the good ground here heard
the Word preached. Heard the Gospel preached. Heard
Christ preached and believed on Him. They believed Christ.
And they believed Him because the seed fell into good ground. And it took root in that good
ground. And it grew. And it brought forth a harvest.
Some bigger than others. Some 100 fold. Some 60. Some
only 30. But it was all the same harvest. It was all a good harvest. Brought forth by the Word of
God. Now, the good ground here, what is the difference between
the good ground here, the wayside here, the stony ground here,
the thorny ground here? What's the difference? Well,
the good ground here is God's elect. God chose them before
he created anything. And now the time has come. God's
time of love. This is your time of love, God
said. His time has come for them to hear the gospel and to believe
it. the seed fell into good ground,
into a heart that was made good by God the Holy Spirit. Heart
that was made good and prepared by God the Holy Spirit. The seed
was planted and the Holy Spirit came at God's appointed time
and gave life. And that seed took root and it
grew and it brought forth fruit. See, it's the Holy Spirit that
makes a person believe Christ when they hear the word priest.
One hears the gospel, leaves unaffected. Another hears the
gospel and they're broken hearted and they seek Christ. They find
their comfort and their rest and their assurance in Christ.
They're never the same again. What's the difference? God the
Spirit gave life. God the Spirit gave the increase.
Our Lord says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. How did
this one hear? The Spirit gave them ears to
hear and a heart that believes. And it's the Spirit that makes
that harvest grow. It's the Spirit that enables
that believer to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit as God
enables it. And if the Holy Spirit does not
give us ears to hear so that we understand, so that we spiritually
understand and believe and perceive it, we never will love Christ. We never will believe Him. We
never will trust Him. Look at verse 13. Therefore,
speak I to them in parables, Because they seeing see not,
and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them
is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, by hearing
you should hear and should not understand, and seeing you should
see and not perceive. For this people's heart is wax
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have
they closed, 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. But blessed
are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men
have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen
them, and to hear those things which you hear, and have not
heard them. When God the Holy Spirit gives
us ears to hear, we'll understand, we'll perceive, we'll perceive
this is the message of Christ, and we'll love him and believe
him and trust him. But we never will. Unless God
gives us ears to hear. See, that leaves us totally dependent
on God, doesn't it? Totally dependent on His Word.
Totally dependent on Him to give us a heart to believe it. And
the difference in all these hearers is God who makes the difference. You know, these other hearers.
God just leaves them to themselves. The wayside hearer. The stony
ground hearer. The thorny ground hearer. God
just leaves them to themselves. leads them to their own nature.
But the good ground here, God doesn't leave them alone. No,
He gives them a heart to believe, ears to hear, enables them to
bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. Wherever there's grace
in the heart, there will always be the fruit of grace, the fruit
of the Spirit in a life. Some may be 30-fold, some may
be 100-fold, but it's the same fruit. It's the same fruit as
God enables us to bear it. But God is the one Who makes
the difference? In all these four different hearers,
they're the same word. They're the same preacher sowing
the word. They all heard the same message of Christ, and they
all have the same sinful flesh. They all have the same sinful
nature. Well, God is the one who made the difference in all
four of those hearers. God is the one. The results always
depend upon the Lord. It is my earnest, earnest prayer. As long as God enables us to
be in this place, that we will make much of God's Word. The
only way God's children will be fed is this Word. The only
way sinners will be given life is by the preaching of this Word.
May God enable us to make much of the Word of God. And may God
make us faithful in preaching it, tireless in preaching it
over and over and over again. And may God make us tireless,
faithful in listening to it, over and over and over again. I said, I've heard that before.
But make us tireless, faithful, hearing the same message over
and over and over. And then I pray the Lord will
give the increase for our good and for his glory. The importance
of the word of God. All right. Lord bless you.