Is not that ideal? Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyvert. I'm speaking to you this morning
from Luke chapter 8 on the parable of the sower. And I've entitled
this message, the four types of hearers. And in this parable,
the Lord Jesus gives the four different types of hearers when
they hear the gospel. So I will be describing you and
I. from this passage of scripture.
I'd like to read the passage first. It's found in Luke chapter
eight. I want to begin reading in verse four. And if you can
get your Bibles and follow along, it would be helpful. Luke chapter
eight, beginning in verse four. 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. And 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 and choked it. And other fell on good grass,
and sprang up and bear fruit, and the hundredfold. And when
he had said these things, he cried, he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear. You know, not everybody has ears
to hear in a spiritual sense. Oh, ask the Lord to give you
ears to hear. He says, he that hath ears to
hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him,
saying, What might this parable be? They didn't understand it.
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of God, but to others in parables that seeing they
might not see. and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this, now
our Lord's going to give his explanation of that parable.
Now the parable is this, 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've heard, go forth and are choked. with cares and riches and pleasures
of this life, and they bring forth 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 the sower sows the seed. This represents the preaching
of the gospel. The seed is the word of God. The sower is the one preaching
the word. The sower didn't make the seed.
The seed was given to him, and he sows the seed. Now, some falls on a beaten path,
not plowed up ground, but a beaten path. And there it lays, and
the fowls of the air come and gobble it up. Some falls in soil
that had been plowed, but there was rock underneath it. It was
shallow soil. So when the sun comes down, the
seed that was sown in the shallow soil, it comes up immediately,
but it can't develop any root and soon withers because it's
scorched by the heat of the sun. Some falls in a place where there
are weeds. competing for the nutrients of
the soil, and the plant that did spring up never bears fruit
and is choked, and some falls into the ground that has been
previously plowed, and it takes root, it springs up, and it brings
forth fruit, the purpose for which the seed had been sown.
And there we have the four types of hearers. the wayside hearer,
the shallow ground hearer, the thorn-choked hearer, and the
good ground hearer. And I want to know what kind
of hearer that I am, and I want you to know what kind of hearer
you are. Remember our Lord said, he that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now the one thing that all of
these hearers had in common is they all heard the same message. They heard the gospel. They didn't
hear a false message. They heard the gospel. They heard
the Word of God. Now what is the Word of God? Well, it's the Word of God. It's
the Word. It's the message from the Word,
the written Word, which reveals the living Word, the Lord Jesus
Christ. They all heard the Word of God.
They heard the gospel. And I don't want to take for
granted that everybody knows what the gospel means. So what
is the gospel? The gospel It's the message from
God, the good news for sinners. And the only way you can really
understand the gospel is if you're a sinner. And if you're a sinner,
someone who can't save themselves, the gospel comes as good news
to you when you hear of the work of God for you. You see, the
gospel is what God does for the sinner. Now, what does God do
for the sinner? Well, if you're saved, it's because
God chose you before time began to be saved. It's called election.
You can't preach the gospel, not preach election. The gospel
is that Christ put away your sins. You see, those the Father
chose, Christ came to represent, and He put away their sins on
Calvary's tree. He didn't simply make salvation
available if we do our part. He actually saved. And the gospel
is that God the Holy Spirit comes in time, in power, and reveals
Christ. He gives a new heart and He reveals
the gospel to you. It's not something you can figure
out. It's something that He places within your heart and you believe. It's the work of the triune God. That's the gospel. The work of
the Father in election, the work of the Son in redemption, the
work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. The gospel is preached, and all
four of these types of hearers heard the gospel. Now let's consider
these hearers. First, there is the wayside hearer. And here's what our Lord says
about them in verse 12. 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. Now you can be sure of this,
Satan is always at work when the gospel is preached. Somebody
says, well, Satan's sphere of operation is in the bars and
the brothels and all the stuff where all that bad stuff is going
on. No doubt, he's there. But his main sphere of operation
is in the pew. It's in the pulpit. Remember,
he comes as an angel of light and he's always trying to work
against the gospel. Now, what about these hearers? Is Satan able to prevent someone
from being saved? Not if God saves them. He's not
able to prevent anybody from being saved that God saves, but
he's going to do all he can to prevent it. Now, Matthew's account
tells us that when they hear the word, these beaten path hearers
or wayside hearers, they do not understand. Now it's not because
of lack of intelligence. They may be much more intelligent.
They may have a higher IQ than the other hearers. But it's because
they have no sense of their sin. and they can't bring it together.
They have no sense of the character of God. When they hear of the
holiness of God, it means nothing to them. When they hear of the
sinfulness of sin, it doesn't seem to apply to them. They don't
see themselves that way. When they hear of the blood of
Christ, they really see no need for it. When they hear of the
freeness of God's grace, they don't see a need for it because
they don't hear as sinners. The only way you can hear with
understanding is if you hear as a sinner. Are you a sinner?
And I mean what the Bible means by the word sinner. All you are
in and of yourself is sin. You can't do anything but sin.
Now if that is what you are, you're able to hear the gospel. Now if you don't see yourself
as that way, you've never heard. You're on your own. And you have
no hope. You see, the gospel is only for
sinners. The gospel is a sinner's religion.
And when you're a sinner, you can hear what's being said. But
until you're a sinner, you can't understand the blood of Christ. You can't understand the grace
of God. You see, so no need for election or redemption or regeneration. So, the wayside here, he doesn't
understand. He's got a hard heart. His heart
is like, when the word comes on him, it's like snowfall coming
down upon asphalt that's warm enough to just dissolve it immediately.
That's what happens. There's no penetration into his
heart. He's not saved. He doesn't hear.
He doesn't believe. He doesn't understand. The gospel
means nothing to him. So he goes away and on to the
next subject. I mean, this is something else
more interesting. What about this shallow ground
hearer? I've seen him so many times over
the years. Let me read verse 13. Our Lord
says, they on the rock, or they, which when they hear, receive
the word with joy. And these have no root, which
for a while believe, which is for a time. But when temptation
comes, they fall away. Now these people receive the
Word, and they receive it immediately. with joy. I don't know how many
times I've heard people leave the church that come and visit
and they say, this was wonderful, I love this, I'll be back next
Sunday. And my thought generally is,
no you won't. When people make that response, I just know the
way people act. They receive the word with joy, this is wonderful,
but they have no root. They have no depth. They have
no grace is what it is. They have no real grace. They
hear the word temporarily and it sounds good, but they've never
really been stripped. They've never been Broken up. They hear, but they don't hear.
They say, I believe this. I receive it. I rejoice. But
as soon as any kind of temptation or trial comes because of the
word, if they're going to be persecuted because of the word,
it's not really that valuable to them. They think, I didn't
know this was going to happen. I didn't know this was going
to take place. I'm not going in this direction. And you see them no
more. Now, they had no grace in their hearts. That shallow
ground here, they had no root in themselves. You know, Job
said, the root of the matter is in me. That which you can't
see, they did not have. They didn't have the root of
God's grace in their heart. They didn't have a new heart.
God had never really done something for them. And the fact that they
received the word immediately, with no thinking, no struggling. You know, let me say this. Before
you're glad, you better first be sad. If you've never been
brought under the conviction of sin and seen your nothingness
and your need of Christ, it's bad at first. And when these
people hear the word, they go through nothing like that because
God's never really done anything for them. They hear it, receive
it quick, but they only endure for a while. And as soon as some
kind of persecution comes because of the word, when somebody says,
do you believe that foolishness? Or maybe some family member says,
I can't believe you believe something like that. Y'all don't believe
that. They think, well, okay. And they're gone. They're like
a shooting star. They're very bright for a while,
but they're gone soon enough. And then there is the thorn choked
hearer. Let me read about him in verse
14. 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 they bring
forth no fruit unto perfection. Now this is the hearer that scares
me the most because I fear being this hearer myself, a thorn-choked
hearer. He hears the Word and he agrees. It's not like he's fighting against
the truthfulness of the Scripture. He believes the Bible is the
Word of God. He believes that God is, as He's
revealed in the Word. He believes God is sovereign.
He believes God is holy. He believes God is just. He believes
God is all-powerful. He believes that the Bible teaches
that men are sinners and dead in sins. He sees that in the
Scripture. He says, I agree with that. He even gives assent to
election. You can't read the Bible and
deny that God elected who would be saved before time began. He
believes that Christ accomplished salvation. The Bible teaches
that. He said it is finished, it was finished. He believes
God's grace actually saves. He believes God's people persevere.
He believes all these things. He gives assent to these things. I don't believe this man ever
leaves the church. The shallow ground here, he left, he was
gone, but this guy's still sitting in the pews. Maybe not as regularly,
but the scripture says the weeds compete for his affections. And four things are mentioned.
Now remember, this man believes. He doesn't believe error, he
believes. He hears the word, he believes, he gives a scent,
but cares. The cares of this life and indeed
there are cares and troubles in this life. The cares of family,
of marriage, of financial problems, problems with your kids, stress
on the job, Physical sickness? Oh, indeed, there are cares in
this life that are most real. And these cares compete with
Christ. This man becomes consumed with
the cares of this life. He doesn't call upon the name
of the Lord. He doesn't look to Christ. He
just becomes consumed with these cares. And the next thing the
Lord mentions is riches. Riches, all men's preoccupation
with riches, the love of money. is the root of all evil. And people are going so hard
after money, more, more, more. And then you even have preachers
preaching this prosperity foolishness. God's blessing if you have more
and so on. And everybody's grasping for
more. Covetousness, covetousness, always needing more riches. And then the Lord mentions the
pleasures of this life. And indeed, there are pleasures
in this life, but are these pleasures worth coming into competition
with the Lord Jesus Christ? Somebody can become so consumed
with pleasures that they forget Christ. This person gets choked. You know, there are indeed pleasures
in sin for a season. The scripture says that. Men
wouldn't sin if there wasn't pleasure in it. But these people
know nothing of what David meant when he said, I'd rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of
the wicked. There's more pleasures in knowing Christ than any pleasure
this world provides. And these people never really
experience that. They're taken up with pleasures. They're more concerned about
material blessings than spiritual blessings. And then we read in
Mark's account, the lusts of other things. The craving, the
lusting for power, the lusting for prestige, the lusting for
human praise, the lusting for security, anything that comes
into competition with Christ, these things choke the word and
these hearers never bear fruit. There they sit, but they never
bear fruit. They know nothing of love. of joy, the joy of resting in
Christ, the peace that comes from knowing that His righteousness
is your righteousness before God. Long-suffering, believing
that God is the first cause behind all things. Gentleness, kindness,
goodness. Faith, meekness, temperance,
the fruit of the Holy Spirit, they know nothing of, they just
sit there without bearing fruit. Now if I bear no fruit, that
means I don't have the root. If I don't have the root, God
hadn't given me any grace. I'm not a believer. Here this person is bearing no
fruit. Now the fourth type of here we
read of in verse 15, 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 let's camp for just a moment
on this thing of having an honest and good heart. What is this
honest and good heart? Because these people, you ask
them, they have hearts that are just as bad as anybody else.
You know, the scripture says regarding the heart of man that
it's desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. And these good
ground hearers that have this honest and good heart, they know
they have this bad heart, this evil heart. But this honest and
good heart is a heart that God gives when you're born from above. When God gives you the new birth,
he gives you a new heart. He said, a new heart also will
I give them. And this new heart is called
by Christ, honest and good. First it's honest. You know,
somebody once said, honest people don't go to hell. And that's
so. People who are honest with the
word of God. They don't come to the Word of God and try to
manipulate it to make it say what they want it to say. They
don't come to it to use it to prove what they think they believe. They come to the Word of God
and bow to whatever God says. The Bible is God's revelation
of Himself. I don't come to the Bible to
prove what I believe. I come to the Bible to find out
what to believe. The Bible is the Word of God. Now I know a lot of people don't
believe that, but I do. I know it is. It's the revelation
of God. If we don't have the Bible as
the Word of God, what do we have? We have nothing but my opinion
or your opinion. What good will that do anybody? No, the Bible
is God's revelation of Himself. And an honest heart is honest
with what the Word says. It's honest with what the Word
says concerning the character of God Almighty. I bow to what
God says in His Word about Himself. He's holy. He hates sin. He's absolutely sovereign. He's
the first cause behind everything. He's the creator. He's the sovereign
of the universe. He's absolutely just. He's all-powerful. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere
at once. Oh, all the glorious things God
reveals to us about Himself in His Word, we bow to it. We're
honest with the Word of God. We don't make up a God that we
feel comfortable with. We bow to what God says concerning
Himself in His Word. And we're honest with what the
Word says about us. If I have an honest heart, I
know that I'm nothing in and of myself but sin. All I do is
sin. I cannot not sin. I can't look
down my nose in moral superiority at anybody. And I have no claims
on God because of my sinfulness. I am a sinner deserving of the
wrath of God and I can't do anything to save myself. I'm totally dependent
upon His grace. Now that's being honest. Anything
else is a lie. If somebody says, I'm not like
that, well, you've lied to yourself and you've deceived yourself.
I'm honest. If I've got an honest and good
heart, I'm honest with what the Word of God says about me, dead
in sins. I'm honest with what the Word
of God says concerning Christ. He is salvation. His blood is my only sin payment. His righteousness is my only
righteousness before God. All my hope is in Him. Now this
honest heart, good heart, you know, it's so good it doesn't
sin, not the new heart. Now the old heart, all it does
is sin, but the new heart, remember what John says, he can't sin
because his seed remains in him? That which is born of God is
holy. It's an honest and good heart, and there are five things
that are said about this honest and good heart. Matthew's account
tells us he hears the word and he understands. Now remember
what I said previously. You can really only understand
the gospel as a sinner. And when you're a sinner, you
can understand the message. You can understand how it's necessary
for God to choose a people because you know in and of yourself you
won't choose God. You're so wicked you'll fall away from Him. He
must choose you. You understand your need of a
perfect and complete atonement by the Lord Jesus Christ. You
understand the power of His blood. You understand how grace must
be utterly free. There's some understanding. Oh,
you don't understand anything completely, but you do understand
because you hear the gospel as a sinner. Now, Mark's account
tells us that he receives the word, and there the word means
he welcomes with approval. When he hears the gospel, he
welcomes it with approval. It's good news to him. It's not
just doctrine. It's not just one man's opinion.
It's not what this church believes. It comes as due from heaven.
It comes as the very word of God. It comes as good news. It's
good news to me. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, because I'm one of those. And what good
news it is to me that He came to save sinners. The freeness
of His grace is good news to me. The power of His blood is
good news to me. This person receives the Word
with open arms. He welcomes the Word. And Luke
tells us, having heard the Word, he keeps it. That means he holds
fast to it. Its value to him is infinite
and he cannot and he will not let it go. All of his eggs are
in this one basket and he can't let it go. He keeps the word. It's of infinite value to him. And then he brings forth This
is the reason the seed was sown in the first place. To bring
forth fruit, and that's a reference to the fruit of God the Holy
Spirit. Love. Love to God as He's revealed
in the Word, and love to His people. Joy in the Gospel. Peace. The peace of knowing that
God's reconciled to you through Christ and that all He requires
of you He looks to His Son for. You get peace from that. All
the joy and the peace of believing. Long-suffering. You really believe
God is on the throne and that He's the first cause behind everything.
Gentleness. Kindness. If God's been kind
to you, you'll be kind to others. Goodness, a merciful attitude. Faith, you believe the gospel. Meekness, you really believe
that God's brought everything your way and whatever he does
is right, whether you understand it or not, so you bow. Temperance,
control from within. If there's no fruit, there's
no grace. Now the good ground here brings
forth fruit, and then Luke says, with patience. Which means abiding
under, he abides under God, he submits. He submits. Not simply because he has no
choice, but he submits willingly. Whatever God does is right and
whatever he does with me is right and he submits. Now what type
of hearer are you and I? The wayside hearer? The stony ground hearer who immediately
receives but falls away? The thorn choked hearer who hears
and believes but becomes immersed in the cares and pleasures of
this life? or the good ground hearer who's honest with the
Word of God and receives and keeps and rejoices in the Word. May God make us good ground hearers. We have this message on cassette,
CD, or DVD. If you call the church or write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.