The Parable of the Sower

The parable in Mark, the fourth
chapter, which we read a moment ago, is recorded in detail three times
in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, and in the book of Luke. In verse 14, our Lord said, Mark
chapter 4, the sower soweth the word. Now the preacher of the
gospel is the sower. I know in one of the records
of this parable, the son of man is the sower and Christ our Lord
was a preacher. He was sent to preach the gospel.
It said our Lord began his ministry and he began to preach and to
say repent. So the sower of the seed is the
preacher of the gospel, and he goes forth in his master's name
to sow the seed of God's Word. And that seed is sown on fallow
ground, it's sown on thorny ground, it's sown on stony ground, it's
sown on good ground. Now if the preacher of God's
Word always knew where the good ground was, he might limit himself
to that area. But he does not know, he does
not know the hearts of men, so he preaches the gospel as his
master commanded him to every creature. Our Lord said, go into
all the world and preach the gospel, sow the seed to every
creature. And so the preacher of the gospel
with the seed goes forth and he sows it. And he throws some
on stony ground. He throws some on thorny ground,
he throws some on hard ground, he throws some on plowed ground. But he sows the seed indiscriminately. He preaches the gospel to everybody
who listens to him. The sower of the seed is the
preacher of the gospel. Now the preacher has got to learn
to lead the fate of the seed in the care of the Lord. Our
Lord called himself the Lord of the Harvest. The Apostle said,
I sow, somebody else waters, God giveth the increase. And
the one who gives the preacher the seed, and the one who commands
him to sow it, is the Lord of the Harvest. And the preacher
is not responsible for the harvest, he is responsible for something.
He's responsible for the care of the seed. He's responsible
for the faithfulness with which he sows it, and the plainness
in which he distributes it. And if not a single green blade
comes up as a result of his sowing, he sows the seed. And if the
Lord of the harvest is pleased to give a rich harvest, an abundant
harvest, he still sows the seed. Now the sower is the preacher,
and the seed which he sows is the Word of God. Now this is
important, very important. It's important to me, it's important
to you, it's important to all who would teach God's Word or
preach God's Word. The seed which is sown is the
Word of God. The sower does not develop his
own seed. He goes to the master in secret. And he asked the master to teach
him the gospel, to reveal to him the gospel. This is what
Paul did. When God saved him, he said, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood, but I went into Arabia and I abode
there three years. And afterwards, he said, I looked
up Peter and James and John and the rest of them, but the true
servant of God goes to the master. And he asks the Master to fill
his basket with the Word of truth, with the Word of life, and then
he goes forth and sows that seed, the Word of God, which the Master
gives him. And it is the incorruptible seed. Turn to James, if you will, chapter
1, verse 18. Now, the seed is the Word of
God, and the Word of God is the seed of life. In James, chapter
1, verse 18, listen. of his own will, beget he us
with the word of truth. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. The gospel is the power of God
unto eternal life, unto salvation. Now, 1 Peter, turn over there.
1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible seed. by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Only the Word of God is the seed
of life. Now this is what's wrong with
most tracts that people pass out. I don't object to tracts,
I don't object to what we call Christian or religious literature,
but I'm saying this is the problem with most tracts and most literature,
there's not enough of the Word of God in them. This is what's
wrong with most sermons. There's not enough of the Word
of God in it. It is not our argument. It is
not our logic. It is not our reasoning. It is
not our illustrations. It is not the preaching of our
doctrines. It is not the preaching of our tradition. These are lifeless
seeds. They cannot give life because
they don't contain life. The seed of life is the Word
of God. God has promised to bless his
word, not my words, his word. He said my word will not return
unto thee void. He doesn't say the preacher's
words will not return unto him void. He says my word. And I
say this is what is wrong with most sermons, this is what is
wrong with most tracts, this is what is wrong with most literature,
this is what is wrong with most of the books on our shelves.
There's not enough of God's Word. God promised to bless his Word.
He said the seed of life is the Word of God. We are begotten
again unto a living hope by the Word of God. And you'll find if you read these
men who've written the books, that it wasn't the arguments
of a preacher or the persuasion of a soul winner that brought
them to Christ, it was the Word of God. And I think practically
everybody in this congregation who's had a real experience of
grace can take you to some scripture which God used to empty them,
to reveal Christ to them, and to bring them to faith. Some
scripture. It is the Word of God that will
comfort the brokenhearted. It is the Word of God that will
speak peace to the despairing. It is the Word of God that will
lift the heart of the fallen. It's the Word of God that's the
life-giving saint. I heard an old tradition one
time, not a word of truth to this, not a word of truth to
it. Let me precede the illustration with, and on the tape, not a
word of truth in it. Now let me give you the tradition.
It's an old Catholic tradition, but it illustrates my point.
It is said that the Empress Helena had them dig around on Golgotha's
Hill to hunt the crosses, the crosses that disappeared. She
wanted to find the cross of Christ. The tradition goes. So they dug
around and they found all three crosses, but they were mixed
up. She couldn't tell which one was the cross of Christ and which
the cross of the two thieves. So she had them find a dead man,
someone who had died recently, not corrupted yet, not decayed. And they brought the dead man.
She said, put the dead man on that cross. And they laid the
dead man, stretched him out on that cross, and he didn't move.
She said, put him on this cross. So they stretched him out on
that cross, and he didn't move. She said, put him on this last
cross. And they put him on that cross,
and he came to life. That's the tradition, not a word
of truth to it. But it illustrates what I'm saying.
We can sit down beside a person and give them our experience. We can give them our arguments.
We can give them cold, hard logic. We can give them doctrine. And
it'll all be lifeless seed, but it will give them this book,
the Word of God. God has promised to bless His
Word. His Word is the Word of reconciliation. His Word is the
Word of salvation. His Word is the Word of righteousness. His Word is the Word of life.
His Word is the Word of faith. His Word is Christ. The Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And when this seed, the Word
of God, is faithfully scattered by a faithful minister, maybe
one out of four of the seed that falls will give life, but God
has promised to bless His Word. Now let's take this parable,
and the disciples came to the Lord and explained the parable
to us, which He did. And we're going to look at these
four types of heroes. Now, there's a word here for
me. There's a word here for you. I know there is. I know that
in God's Word there's a message for everyone who's interested
in a relationship with the Redeemer. There's a word for the man who
does not know Christ. There's a word for the man who
is a babe in Christ. There's a word for the man who
is an elder in Christ. Now, there are four types of
heroes. First of all, verse 4, let's look at this. And it came
to pass as he sowed, Some fell by the wayside. Fowls of the
air came and devoured it up. Verse 15, And these are they
by the wayside, where the word is sown, where the word is sown.
When they have heard, Satan comes immediately and takes away the
word that was sown in their hearts. All right, what are we talking
about? Get the picture. Here is a sower sowing the seed
out in the field. Here is the wayside, a beaten
path. trodden down, smooth and hard,
and the seed falls on that beaten path, on that hard ground. And
as the sower moves on, the birds are right behind him, and they
swoop down. It can't take root. There's no
soil. There's no plowed ground. There's
nothing but laying there like on concrete. And the birds swoop
down and pick it up, and they're gone with it, and the seed has
disappeared. And our Lord said, these are those who find their
way where the gospel is preached, sometimes accidentally. But I
underscored something in verse 15. These are they by the wayside
where the word is sown. Somehow they get under the sound
of the gospel. Somehow. They don't go to church
to get a spiritual blessing. That's not why they go. They
don't go to church to worship the living God. They don't go
to church to really be affected by what they hear. They don't
turn on the television with a contrite heart, with a broken spirit,
with a hunger and a thirst and a desire to be fed from God's
Word. They're like the highway that
was never intended to be a cornfield. That beaten path, that wayside,
was never intended to be a cornfield. The seed fell on it, but it was
never intended to be a cornfield, but they are where the Word is
sown. It falls on them, the gospel. And it says here, "...and when
they heard." Now somehow they were exposed to the gospel. Maybe
they turned on the television. And it would amaze you that the
people that are listening to our television program, unaffected,
unmoved, not disturbed, but they see it and they hear it. It's
providential. It's so in the sea. We are preaching
to thousands and thousands and thousands of people over this
vast area who just turn it on. And they sit and listen to it.
And people come to all the churches and they sit and they listen.
And when they hear, what kind of hearing is it? What kind of
hearing is this? A man who sits down in front
of the television, and he hears the gospel. He hears me talk
about man's fall, and man's depravity, and man's inability, and he hears
me talk about God's grace, and God's mercy, and God's purpose,
and he hears me talk about God's covenant redemption in Christ,
and how Christ is the hope of every sinner, and how that Christ
alone can save not works, not the law, not these things, not
our deeds, but Christ alone. And He's our Mediator who pleads
for us, our High Priest who puts the blood on the mercy seat,
our King who reigns over us, and I see Him downtown. There's
a good sermon you preach Sunday. And I think, well, you don't
believe that. You don't believe a word of that. What kind of hearing is this?
They heard it. It says here, These are they by the wayside
where the word is sown when they have heard. They heard it. I
had to hear it. Well, they didn't hear it like
Jacob who held on and said, I won't let you go till you bless me.
They didn't hear it that way. And they didn't hear it like
the eunuch who was reading God's Word and turned to Philip and
said, now, who's he talking about? Who's he talking about? Is he
talking about himself or is he talking about somebody else when
he says there, by his stripes we are healed? Who's he talking
about? And they don't hear it like the
Bereans who went home and did what? Searched the Scriptures
to see if these things be so. Nor like Samuel who said, when
God said, Samuel, he said, Speak, Lord, I have all ears, thy servant
heareth. How do they hear? Well, I'll
tell you how this barren land hearer, this wayside hearer,
this fallow ground hearer, he is the one who hears it inattentively. I see people when I'm preaching
different places, not especially here, but I see them, they're
listening inattentively, they're listening carelessly, they're
listening oftentimes prejudiced by tradition. It's like seed
falling on the beaten path, falling on fallow ground, falling on
that old dry, hard, ground, and we know it's not going to bring
forth any fruit. And our Lord said, when they
hear it, Satan comes immediately, immediately, and takes the seed
away. Now this type of hearer, he listens
to you, but he does not even contemplate or consider what
he's heard. When he turns off that TV and
goes back and sits down, he reaches and picks up his newspaper, and
it's all gone. Or he comes in church, and he
sits down and listens to you preach. He hears the Word. He
sits there, carelessly, indifferently, inattentively. He hears the Word,
and he steps outside, and he says, that tire's low over there.
See that right side over there? That tire's low. I'm going to
have to get these things lined up. This one over here is showing
some wear on that side. Well, I think we ought to trade
cars anyway, honey, don't you? Where do you want to eat dinner?
It's gone. Well, who does this? Satan does
it. That's exactly who does it. That's
what our Lord says. Satan comes immediately. He will
not let you contemplate or consider. He comes immediately and picks
up that seat, lest you be converted and your sins Be forgiven. And
he doesn't frighten the person. This person's not disturbed by
persecution as the stony ground hearer. He's not disturbed by
worldly cares as the thorny ground hearer. His mind is what? Diverted. That's Satan's way. The spirit
that worketh in the children of disobedience. The spirit that
worketh. And Satan diverts the mind somewhere
else. When seed falls on a beaten path,
why doesn't it grow? Too much traffic there. Why doesn't
the grass grow? You've got a corner lot, and
all the kids take a shortcut across your corner lot. Why doesn't
the grass grow there? Too much traffic. And this is
what's wrong with our minds. We have cluttered minds. we can hear a wagon load of sermons
and walk away as dead and unmoved as a seed on a beaten path. That's
right. Too much traffic. Just as soon
as you hear the word, just as soon as that seed is sown, Satan
rushes in a care. He rushes in at something else
to take your mind off, rushes in something else to divert your
attention, anything in the world. He picks that seed up and replaces
it with something materialistic, physical, something to do with
this world. Well, you say, why do people
then go to church? Why would a man turn on the radio
and listen to a preacher if he has no intention of searching
the scriptures to see if it's so? Why do people go to church
and sit and listen to a message which a man's worked on for hours
and God has given him, a message from God, if they have no plans
whatsoever of going home and sitting down and weighing the
message and considering the message and contemplating the message
and doing something about it? I can give you four reasons. Number
one, men and women go to church or they listen to sermons because
it's respectable. It's respectable. Secondly, I'll
tell you another reason. People go to church or listen
to sermons because if they didn't, if they didn't, once in a while,
their conscience would bother them. They'd really be in trouble
if they didn't go once in a while. Their conscience would bother
them. And then people go to church and they listen to sermons to
please somebody else. I got a letter from a fellow
today, I'll let you read it. He's first married, he said,
I went to church. Why'd he say he went? To please
my wife. That's exactly what he said. Other people go to church, conformity. In the United States of America,
people go to church. I'm not an either, I'm an American.
In the United States of America, you go hear preachers. You have
preachers that pray at your ballgames, that's the custom. Don't change
our customs. In the United States of America,
when somebody dies, we all stand in silent prayer. That's our
custom. We all do it. We go to church on Sunday. That's
our custom. But this precious Word is not
going to bear fruit on that kind of ground. It's not going to
do it. It falls on the wayside, and
these cluttered minds, these materialistic minds, Satan comes
and replaces it, takes it away, and no possible way for it to
bring forth any kind of fruit for our good or God's glory.
All right, secondly, look at verse 5. 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 the sun was up too,
and it was scorched. And because it had no root, there's
the key, it withered away. All right, verse 16, our Lord
explains it. 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 of
persecution arises for the word's sake immediately They are offended
Now let's treat this and let's do it kindly But let's do it
honestly Now these people here are different type of here we've
been talking about the wayside the hard ground indifferent careless
nominal heroes Come and go But now these people are not indifferent
Not these people. And they're not inattentive.
And they're not accidental heroes. You'll find these people, most
of them, to be professors of religion. Professors of faith. And notice what our Lord says.
First of all, He says, These are they, sown on stony ground,
who, when they have what? Heard the word. These people
heard the word. Not philosophy. Not speculation. Not tradition. They heard the
Word of God. More than that, they received
the Word. These people went further than
just hearing. Be not hearers of the Word, but be doers of
the Word. And that's what they did. They received the message.
They received the Word. They didn't fight it. They didn't deny it. They didn't
rebel against it. They recognized it. and received
it. They received it, and it produced
an effect. And notice another thing about
them. They heard the Word, they received it. How did they receive
it? Immediately. The preacher preached
about sin and its consequences, and they ate it up. The preacher
preached about God and His saving grace, and they said, The preacher
preached about Christ and His cross, and they said, Amen. The
preacher warned them about hell, and they said, We don't want
to go there. And the preacher told them about heaven, and they said,
That's for me. And the preacher said, Well, Christ died for sinners.
Trust Him, and they trusted Him. Believed on Him, and they believed
on Him. Immediately, they adopted it. They heard the Word, and
they believed it, and they received it immediately. While other people
were wrestling over a thousand difficulties, not them. while
other people were distressed over their sins and troubled
over their guilt and wondering if God had shown mercy and seeking
and searching for the way of life and praying for a revelation
of Christ to their hearts. These people without any problem.
Well, I see that. What's your problem? There's
a heaven to gain and a hell to shun and Christ is the way. I
found it immediately. Well, I walked in there and sat
down and that preacher told me the way of life and I got up
and skedaddled down the aisle and shook his hand and I said,
I believe it. Hallelujah. Look here. It says in verse 16, they heard
the word, they received it immediately. How? It's fun being saved. They received it with gladness.
I'm not making fun now. The immediate effect was to make
them happy. And every other word was praise
the Lord, well, praise the Lord, well, hallelujah, praise the
Lord, brother. They received it with gladness.
Old John Gill said you better examine your happiness. The rich
man outside whose gate Lazarus rotted and died, he was happy. The prodigal son who took the
father's money and wasted it in a foreign country was happy. The farmer who would pull down
his barn and build bigger barns was happy. I don't find any unhappiness
in those people. Happy, happy all the time. When the Word was preached and
these people heard it, immediately, without any problem, without
any struggle, without any difficulty, they sprang up. That's what he
said back here in verse 5, and they sprang up. Now listen to
me. They heard the gospel one day,
believed it, made a profession, and were happy. A week later
they were teaching Sunday school. They began to teach others. And
they were vexed. They were troubled with these
people who talked about conflict. They didn't have any conflict.
They get vexed with these people who talk about being anxious
and troubled and waiting on God. They didn't have any trouble
like that. They can't understand why others didn't grow as fast
as they grew. Didn't learn as fast as they
learned. They looked at some of these old-time Christians
and said, Boy, I passed by you a week ago. I'd just been saved
two weeks and I went by you a week ago. What you been doing? I'm happy. And this man comes
and says, Tis a point I long to know, oft it gives me anxious
thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not? And this brother says, well don't
look on the inside, look on the outside. Praise the Lord. But something happened. Something
happened. It says here, they received the
word with gladness, but they had no root in themselves. They
had a lot of exterior faith and a lot of exterior piety and a
lot of exterior happiness, but they had no depth. You know, two men built houses.
Our Lord said one of them built his house on the sand. There
was no trouble. Just go out there and lay down four great big boards
and start building a house. But the other man, he dug deep. A lot of work went on down where
nobody could see it. This fellow built on the sand,
you could see everything that was done. Everything was right
out there and open. But the man that built on the
rock, he digged deep. It took him days and months and
finally he found the rock. And he laid that putter down
there on that rock. And he built slowly. That other
guy finished his house, put a roof on it and moved in before that
fellow ever got on the first floor. And he digged deep and he laid
it on that rock. And he did a lot of work down
there where nobody could see it. And something happened. Now what happened? It says here
in verse 17, when affliction and persecution came. Nobody
could tell the difference in those two houses. One of them
built quickly on the sand, no foundation, nothing underneath,
no root, just sitting out there where everybody could see it.
Pretty house. Went up fast. And this other one, you couldn't
see the difference. God could see the difference.
And that house knew the difference. When the rain came, that's trials
from heaven. When the flood came, that's trials
from the earth. When the wind blew, that's the
mysterious trials. You don't know where they come
from. They're just there. They come from in here a lot of times.
That house was built so quickly, they heard the word, received
it immediately, and sprang up with gladness. What a wreck. It might have stood 20 years,
but it's a wreck now. It might have stood 30 years.
It might not have stood a year. It all depends on when God sends
the trial. Untried faith is not faith. Untried
grace is not grace. Having no root, they wither. You see that? Having no permanent
heartwork. Somebody said believe, and they
believed. Somebody came along and said don't believe, and they
didn't believe. They got their religion hot out of the oven
and dropped it just that quick. Just that quick. Just as quickly. It says here that they heard
the word, verse 16, and immediately they received it, verse 17 now,
and when persecution and affliction came, that word's used again. You see it, Charlie, you see
it, immediately they dropped it. It went the same way. The preacher admitted them in
the front door, and they had a big shindig, and everybody
congratulated them and bragged on them. They had religion. About
a few years later, he let them quietly out the back door. What
happened? What happened? They were offended. They were offended. They got
offended at the minister, they got offended at the organist,
or they got offended at the song leader, or they got offended
at God, or they got offended at the Word, they got offended
though, and that was it. That was it. What a tragedy. What a terror. And that's the reason that when
we preach the Gospel, the Word of God, Let's wait on the Lord. Our Lord said, sit down and count
the costs. Don't be in too big a hurry to
profess anything. Don't be in too big a hurry.
All right, there's a third class of hearing now. Let's look at
this. In verse 18 and 19, our Lord said, And these are they
which are sown among thorns. Now, Henry, you listen. You listen, such as hear the
word of God and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the lust of other things. Now these thorny ground hearers
are much like the stony ground hearers. They hear it, and they
receive it, and they manifest a lot of interest, and they show
some signs and evidence of life. But this seed was sown among
the thorns. It might have had some depth,
but it had another problem. Now, what are these thorns? Our
Lord gives us three here. First, he says, the cares of
this world. Now, I looked into some writers, Spurgeon, Gill,
and a few others today, and this is what they say about these
three things, the cares of this world. What are they? What are
your cares? What are my cares? Well, myself. My health, my happiness, my wife,
her happiness, her health, what we shall eat, what we shall drink,
what we shall wear. My family, my children, they're
my cares. I don't care how big they get,
they can have a family of their own, children, grandchildren,
they're still your cares. Our jobs, our indebtedness, our
bills, Our social contact with the people of the Church and
the people of the world. Our freedoms, our feelings, our flesh. These are the cares of this world.
You know what they are. The cares of this world. You
can't make anything else out of that. The cares of this world. What are the cares of this world?
What do you care about? What do I care about? This is
what I care about. I care about how you feel toward
me, Lester. I care. Perhaps too much. I care. I care how she feel. I come in,
I can tell when she's feeling. She'd never make a poker player.
She can't. No way. Well, what's wrong with
you? Well, how do you know anything's wrong with me? I can tell. They're
my cares. And I go off to a meeting somewhere,
and I'll call and talk to her, and things could have fallen
to pieces, and she'd never tell me, not till I get home. That's
good, you know, because she knows the cares of this world. No use
knowing about it. But these are cares, and you
know what they are. Now that's the second thorn.
These are the thorns. The deceitfulness of riches.
Materialism. Riches, I don't care who you
are, are deceitful. Notice he doesn't say riches,
he says the deceitfulness of riches. Riches are deceitful because
they don't give the joy that they promise. They don't give
the pleasure that they promise. Lester's grumbling about that
dirt road in front of his house in the study tonight. And I said,
you remember when we all lived on a dirt road? Huh? You remember?
We had a dirt road right in front of the house and a railroad in
back of the house. But we didn't know any better.
But we moved up in society. And now we got paved streets
and air conditioners and we couldn't get along without them. But you
know something? I ain't a bit happier now than
I was then. These things do not. They promise happiness. If I
could just get the big house I wanted, and the fine clothes
I want, and the big paying job I want, and the security I want,
and all these things I want, I'd be happy. No, you wouldn't.
That's the deceitfulness of riches. That's what you think. That's
the reason our Lord says riches are deceitful. They deceive people
into working themselves to death to get them. And then when they
got them, they ain't got anything, and they know it. Riches are
deceitful because they deceive people into living for material
things and living for physical things. And when they get these
things, they've got no happiness. They deceive people into hoarding
them and buying for them and competing for them. And when
they get all these things, they find the maximum of luxuries
and the maximum of materialism didn't bring any joy. And they sit there among all
their plenty with their cares and trouble and anxiety and fretfulness
and ulcers and all these things, wishing for a little place in
the country where they could sit out there under the tree
and whittle and drop a line in the creek and listen to the birds sing.
Oh, that's right. Riches are deceitful. They deceive
us. They deceive us. They promise
good things and they don't bring it. No way they don't bring it. You can see if you can outspend
the other fellow, and you can out-fancy the other fellow, but
I guarantee you can't out-praise the Lord if he knows Christ and
his life is dedicated to the Son of God and he don't have
a thing. That's right. We know that. I don't know why
we have to be told that because all of us, any of you could preach
this sermon. And then the third thorn is this, the lust of other
things. Now this is going to rock you
back on your heel, but this ain't original. What are these lusts
of other things? If any man spends his life on
any object that does not result in his spiritual growth or the
glory of God, it's an inferior object and it's the lust of other
things. Did you know, Mike, that your
music can be a thorn? to choke the Word of God. I've
seen that happen. I've seen men excel in music. And what does it become? It becomes
their life. It becomes their interest. It
becomes their passion. They want to talk music. They
want to hear music. They want to indulge in music. That's their life. And this goes
leading away. Same thing with sports. I've
seen people take sports and these things, exercise is necessary,
I realize that. But I've seen it absolutely crowd
God out. Politics, I've seen preachers
get interested in politics and it's good by gospel. That's right. I've seen people take the arts,
anything, anything like this. Social life. It's an inferior lust, and it
masters the mind. And the cause of God and truth
take a secondary place. You say, this is easy for you
to preach because you sit in there and read all the time.
I realize that. Nobody realizes that more than I do, but I've
got to tell the truth. But we preachers can get involved
in this thing too. John Gill says, when we become
bent, on satisfying the material and the physical urge of our
flesh, it becomes a thorn. And what happens? Well, the seed
was sown among the thorns, among the cares of this life. Children,
wife, friends, family, jobs, home, clothes, cars, all these
things, and these things sprang up and choked the Word. And you
know something about these thorns? They were there before the Word
was sung, because we're born with them. We're born with them. The deceitfulness of riches,
the hunger and thirst for gratifying what this flesh wants, we're
born with it. And also these lusts of other
things, fame, acclaim, honor, pride, all of these things. These outside interests, and
it's good a man's got to have, I realize, an outside interest,
I suppose, to some extent. But what the problem is, is when
these things, we realize it, these things begin to crowd and
to choke the Word of God. And we don't have that time to
study and that time to pray and that interest in the service.
Oh, we go to the services because, well, we should go. They'd think
it's strange if I didn't go, you know. this sort of thing,
but where there's a hunger for this work, which is the greater
hunger? Your music, or the Word of God? Sports, or the Word of God? Your entertainment, or the Word
of God? Your friends, or the Word of
God? Which one masters you? That's
what we're talking about here. That's when the, and this, this,
these thorns grew up. Choke the Word of God and it
became what? It became unfruitful Unfruitful
and this is a warning to me and it's a warning to you and it's
a warning that we need to heed They'd pay some attention to
it because these things aren't important. They're gonna pass
away They're gonna pass away but he said my words going to
endure forever and last of all and these are are they which
are sown on good ground." Now, who made it good? It wasn't good
by nature. God made it good. God plowed it by the Holy Spirit. God busted it up. God's got to
do it. The preacher can't do it. If
he does it, it's not going to last. It won't amount to anything. It will just be his convert. But if God does it, God, just
like he did Saul of Tarsus, just humiliate him. Like he did The
Apostle, like He did some of you, just brought us down in
the dust. And God made the ground ready
for the seed. Sin became a reality. Inability
became a reality. Our need became a reality. Our
desire for His presence became a reality. The death of His Son
became a reality. And it was, give me Christ or
I die. And that seed, boy, when it fell
on that ground, it's like sponge taking up water. That's what
makes it so pleasurable to preach to you. It's because, like this
is a hard message tonight, I'm preaching to all of us, but every
one of you sit there and just soak it up like a sponge. That's
right, preacher. I'm the guiltiest one here, but
praise the Lord. I'm going to do something about
it. That's ground prepared by the
Holy Spirit. It's plowed up, it's turned over, it's dished,
it's gotten ready for the seed, and then when the seed comes,
takes it in and goes home and falls on our face and cries,
Lord, he's talking to me tonight. He's talking to me. And make
it effectual to your glory, to my good. Take away my interest
in inferior things and give me more interest in the gospel.
Don't let the thorns of this natural material life take place
of him who's so precious to me. And Lord, above all things, Don't
let me be a stony-ground hero. When the affliction comes, give
me the grace and the courage to stand for your gospel, whatever
it costs. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we do give thanks
for the blessed Word of God. Without Thy Word, we'd have no
message, have no understanding. We'd have nothing to correct
us and rebuke us and instruct us and to reveal Christ to us.
And let us say with Samuel, Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. I'll not let thee go except you
bless me. I want to know more about Christ.
I want to know more about myself. I want to be whittled down. I
want to be stripped. I want, O Lord, to be what you
want me to be for your glory. But chiefly, I want to walk with
thee. I want fellowship with thee. above all things, the reality
of Thy presence, when everything in this world is brought to nothing,
and Christ is all, and in all. In His name we pray, and for
His glory. Amen.

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The Parable of the Sower

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