Lessons from the Parable of the Sower

If you would take your Bible turn back to Matthew chapter 13, I will get us to look at a few verses along the way and do that on purpose because we do need to put our eyes on the scriptures sometimes throughout the message. Now I do want to say one thing before we get started. This message may be a little on the long side, short for me is about 38, 40 minutes, I think you know that. If it gets close to 50, that's a little on the long side. If this is a little bit long, don't let your flesh talk to you about it. Listen, Friday morning I got in a deer stand at 5.30 and I sat there till 10.30.

Some of you this week sat at a football game and sweated down for over an hour. We do the things we want to do and we love to do and look church, we need this. We need it. I need it more than you know, more than you know. Now last week we had a special service and a special message because we deviated from our series in the book of Hebrews. We celebrated and we worship through baptism, it was glorious and it was wonderful. I enjoyed it all. Chris Travis made public his conversion to Christ and he was scripturally baptized. In his testimony he described being a false convert in the life of the church for years.

He described the work of the word, the work of men preaching the gospel, and the work of the church that brought him to a point of savingly trusting in Christ. Of course it was the power of the Holy Spirit using men, using preaching, using the work of the church that brought all this about, brought all this about. Our message was special in that I taught through the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13 and I went that direction for several reasons. First of all that teaching helps us understand the work that God did in Chris's life.

Jesus teaching in the parables illustrates why Chris's previous profession of faith was false and how God has given him a new heart to receive the gospel. More importantly, Jesus teaching in the parable shows us two life and death realities. First of all the parable teaches how a person is truly converted to Christ. The parable shows how only one type of heart can receive Jesus and the gospel and be saved, therefore becoming a Bible Christian and that one heart is the good heart. Listen to Mark's version, Mark 2, verse 20, how Jesus explains it.

I'm reading from the Amplified, "And those in the last group are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the good soil, and they hear the word of God, the good news regarding the way of salvation, and accept it and bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much as was sown," and something else that is vitally important. In the message I explained the only way a sinner can have their heart changed from an utterly sinful heart to a good heart that can receive the gospel, that is if God changes the heart so the sinner can receive Christ savingly. And then second, this parable is the first of what is called the kingdom parables.

In Matthew 13, Jesus taught seven or eight parables, depends on how you interpret those last verses, which explain the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. He started that portion of the teaching in verse 10. Simply the kingdom of heaven Jesus spoke of is the church and the church age here on earth which began when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost.

And these things are called secrets, the King James uses the word mysteries because these things were mysteries kept hidden from the Old Testament saints of God before Christ and these secrets were made known to Christ's disciples and his followers but they were kept hidden now from those rejecting Jews, even the entire nation of Israel that rejected Christ as the Messiah. So church I want you to sit up straight and notice how critically important this first parable is. The parable of the sower tells us how one becomes a true Bible Christian therefore entering into the kingdom of God on earth the church.

And Jesus tells us that there are many, many, many who profess to become Christian and come into the kingdom but they are false. Now I want to ask you a couple of questions that will help us all see the life and death nature of this parable. How important is it to know truly what it means to have a good heart that can receive Jesus in the gospel and be saved? Let me restate that. How important is it for us to know truly and fully what it means to have a good heart that can receive Jesus in the gospel and be saved? Another question, how important is it to know truly what it means to gain entrance into the kingdom of God on earth the church?

I do not condone sloppy theology but we can be wrong on things maybe like the second coming and still be a faithful God honoring church member and Christian for a lifetime. We can be wrong on certain things and still die and go to heaven and be with Christ for all of eternity. But if we are wrong in what it means to be a Christian and a member of God's kingdom on earth then we go to hell and there are no do-overs. I have preached quite a few funerals in my ministry career.

In this past few months I've preached to the most important my parents but it doesn't matter who I preach a funeral for when I stand over that casket and I stand in that podium to preach that funeral I'm reminded afresh and anew that death is final. They don't come up out of that casket and get a do-over. And look folks, the time to make sure we understand what it means to become a true Bible Christian is not when we come to the end of life and we want to just make sure we go to heaven.

The time to get it right is now when we can first become a true Bible Christian and second we can help lead others around us to become true Bible Christians especially our children and family. So this is where I'm going in the message this morning. I want to continue with last week's message taking the teaching in the parable a little further and I want to make some application, help us to gain some understanding and help us to apply what we have here. And as your pastor I have some goals in mind with these two messages last week and this morning first of all if you are lost like Chris Travis was I want you to come to saving faith.

If you are lost like I was I want you to come to saving faith. If you are lost this morning come to Christ, come to Christ, hear the message of the gospel and come to Christ and after that I want us all to better understand the nature of true conversion to Christ and I want you to understand false conversions so we can relate to the lost well as we should especially our family and I want us all to better understand what happens in churches when rocky and thorny hearted quote unquote Christians are accepted as true believers and I'll touch on this some in the message but especially at the conclusion.

So this morning I'm going to give us what I call lessons from the parable of the sower that's the title of the message lessons from the parable of the sower. Now let's get started and I did say we will look at a couple of verses as we go through the message. So number one the hard heart or the unresponsive hearer verse 19 Jesus says when anyone anyone is anyone hears the word of the kingdom that would be the gospel and does not understand it the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path or the road. Now this person should be easy for us to identify in life.

We know lots of people just like this. We may even have people like this in our families and they may even go to church but this person hears the gospel the truth of God's word but they are unaffected they are unfazed they hear of Christ his death on the cross they hear the gospel but the gospel message has no effect on their mind and heart. This person is obviously lost and in need of Christ. Now here I want to ask three questions that will help us with the hard hearted here. These are three lessons in the form of questions. First question what makes this heart hard? What makes this heart hard?

This person's heart is hard because of their sin nature and because they sin they are born in sin therefore their nature is to be a sinner and to sin because they are a sinner. They are sinful and on top of that they embrace the world the sin of the world and worldliness. So their heart is hard from their very sin nature that their sin and sins and sinfulness and the world and the sin of the world and worldliness all around them. In his commentary on the parables Richard Trent says and I'm quoting, "He has exposed his heart as a common road," you see that imagery?

"He has exposed his heart as a common road to every evil influence of the world till it has become hard as pavement," it's very accurate. This is the person that is described in Romans chapter 1, they have suppressed the truth about God that they know. They have suppressed the truth about God that they know. In the original language the picture here is that they have truth all around them and they're pushing it down, they're pushing it down, they're pushing it down.

They have suppressed general revelation of God all around them in the creation and they have suppressed the specific revelation of God from his word that they have heard and seen and by suppressing the truth that they know they embrace sin and more sin. James Montgomery Boyce in his commentary on Matthew 13 describes this as a circle. Sin leads to a rejection of God and his truth and that rejection of God and his truth leads to more and greater sin. You see, their rejection of truth is this big circle of sin and rebellion. More sin and more rebellion and more suppression of truth. But what causes such behavior?

Again, Romans 1.18, the suppression of truth. Listen to 1.18 in the Amplified, "For God does not overlook sin," let me pause there. Look at me, church. When we look around, it may seem like sinners are getting away with sin. They're not. They're not. What does the text say? "For God does not overlook sin, and the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness suppress and stifle the truth." Now, this is my point here, church. We must see what makes this person's heart hard and impervious to the gospel. We must see the depth of this sinful, hard heart.

We must see the danger of suppressing truth. Let me stop here. If you're here this morning and you're lost and you are suppressing truth, you are in a very, very, very dangerous place. Don't be comfortable in that position. We see the danger of suppressing truth. The truth of God through general revelation, that's seen in the creation, the truth and the revelation of God through God's Word and the gospel. If you're here and you're lost, you're hearing more truth about God. Every time you sit in here, you'll be held accountable by that truth.

And the fact that rejecting truth leads to more and deeper sin, this leads to the hardening of the heart more and more and more. Second question, can this hard-hearted person be saved? Yes. Sure. I don't say that flippantly now, but as with all people, only God can save them. The hard-hearted person cannot save themselves. Another person cannot save the hard-hearted person. I refer to John chapter 1, verses 12 to 13. I read that last week. We cannot be saved by inheriting a Christianity. We cannot save ourselves and others cannot save us.

A few examples before Saul was the Apostle Paul, his heart was hard from sin, his sin nature, his sinfulness, and specifically the persecution of the church and Jesus and violence and murder against Christ and the church. Nicodemus, his heart was made hard from religion, external religion, the woman at the well. Her heart was made hard by gross immorality. But in every one of those examples, it was God by grace who broke through into that hard heart and he changed their hearts and he brought them the faith in Christ. And listen, church, all people are saved the same way.

First, God the Holy Spirit works to draw that person to himself by and through the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. Second, the Holy Spirit of God convicts them and convinces them of their sin. God's righteous standards and the judgment that is to come. Third, God grants them repentance in faith which is a work of regeneration. And then fourth, that person cries out trusting in Christ. That person repents of sin. They demonstrate a trust and a belief in Christ Jesus. Look folks, I would call you to make sure you have a copy of our church statement of faith. Here's my old copy, the cover is about one out you can see.

If you look at how the 1833 New Hampshire and our revisions deal with the way of salvation that includes grace in regeneration, repentance in faith, it is wonderful, it is beautiful, it is very accurate, it helps us understand how the center is saved. Another question, what can we do? First and foremost, we must grasp the reality of who this hard-hearted person is. That can be hard because sometimes we don't want to accept the truth. We can't sugarcoat it. We can't make excuses for them. If we're going to deal with them properly, we have to know who they are, what they are from the start. I have known so many people through the years.

They have a hard-hearted mother, they have a hard-hearted father, they have a hard-hearted spouse, they have a hard-hearted son or daughter and they just won't get to the place where they fully, truthfully grapple with who they are. But what do we do? In my opinion, the first thing we do is pray. We pray and we pray more. We pray sacrificially for the hard-hearted person. In chapter 11, Jesus teaches us that when we know of those who are in need, we pray for a work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They need bread, heavenly bread from heaven, which is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, even the Spirit of God Himself.

Then we look for opportunities to share Christ with them. We need to share the gospel with them. We need to call them to see their need for true salvation in Christ and to see their sin and sinfulness. Now let me speak to you about witnessing here. We must be direct, personal, confrontational, loving yes, rude no, loving yes, rude no, but direct, truthful. We must point out their sin, their sinful condition. We must tell them what God says about their sin and their sinful condition and we must expose their lostness and we must tell them of the judgment to come, the eternal damnation that awaits them.

We must show them the eternal consequences of their sin and we must call them to repentance and faith. And I've said this thousands of times to you. We use the personal pronoun you, you, this is what's wrong with you. This is what you need. Also we need to try and get them to attend church and even small groups. This is going to shock you. They need to be under the taught word of God. They need to be around true Bible Christians. They need to be in and around the work of the church. Not members know. Remember that part of Chris Travis's testimony? He was in church for years. He was under the word of God for years.

He talked about preaching he heard at the true church conference. He talked about my years of preaching and teaching God's word. He talked about the preaching and teaching of Tommy and Keith. He was under the preaching of God's word for years and look church, the best place for a lost person to be is under the preaching of the word and around God's people. Get your lost family to church if you can. We'll love on them and I promise I'll work my fingers to the bone to preach the word to them but we have to see them for who and what they are. We pray. We pray more.

We share the gospel personally with them as long as it takes and we must see our utter dependence on God. We need God the Holy Spirit to work but we must be willing to be his ambassador. You see that? We need God to work but we must be willing to be his vehicle and the church must be willing to be the vehicle as well. So the hard hearted person can be saved. Next, number two, the shallow heart or the superficial heart.

Verse 20 and 21, "As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away." Now this person may be hard to identify for some. We have all seen the superficial shallow hearted quote unquote Christian but we may struggle to understand who they are especially if we're young, if we're a young Christian, especially if we're an inexperienced Christian. But this person is the one who hears the gospel, the truth of God's word.

They respond in a seeming genuine manner with a profession of faith in Christ but Jesus tells us they fall away. Verse 21 and this phrase fall away, it means to be offended. It means to stumble because of that offense and ultimately they fall away. Jesus says they receive the gospel, the truth of God's word immediately with joy but they are offended, noticed by the word of God and the cost of true discipleship so they stumble, they are offended and they fall away. Now there are a few key truths and facts that will help us see that these are not true converts. First they fall away.

First John 2.19 helps us here, I'll read that verse in the Amplified. John says they went out from us, what's the picture there? Body of believers, a church. He says they went out from us seeming at first to be Christians but they were not really of us because they were not truly born again and spiritually transformed. For if they had been of us they would have remained with us but they went out teaching false doctrine so that it would be clearly shown that none of them are of us. So it's difficult to accept but easy to see but they are fake false Christians who go out from us.

Second, there was no root to the gospel seed because their hearts were shallow, all their change was on the surface, it was superficial, it didn't take root in the heart. And then third, they produce no fruit in the life even though they had great emotion, probably great enthusiasm in their profession of faith. They had no genuine fruit that comes from a good heart that allows the gospel seed to take root, to grow, to mature and produce Christian fruit. Now I want to give us a couple of lessons here. These are in the form of questions as well. First lesson, the Word of God persecutes people.

Yes, that sounds strange to some, the Word of God persecutes people. This means that the truth of God's Word and the cost of becoming a Bible Christian is too high of a price to pay so they are offended. The Word of God persecutes them. This means the truth of God's Word and the cost of the true Christian life is too high of a price to pay so the Word of God is a stumbling block to them, it offends them, it persecutes them, you see? Quite a few years ago I picked this up from Brother John O. He said this of his church and when he said that it was like light bulbs going off and I thought that's exactly what goes on in our church.

There are only two kind of people that attend our church. If you think about it you'll see that this is true. There are people that will come and they will say, "Wow, wow." They say it with their eyes, with their facial expressions, what they say and what they don't say. They'll say, "Wow, where's the door?" It's sad but they do. But there's another kind of person that comes and you can see it in their eyes, in their facial expressions, how they react when they're in our services and you can see it by what they say.

They'll say, "Wow, where have you been?" Some of you in this room have attended and you've come up to me and said, "I've been in the desert for years. Where's this place been?" And look church, I don't want to say that arrogantly like we've got it figured out. The road that I have been on through the years to get to where we are has been difficult. God had to change me immensely. I had to die to so many things to get to where I am. God by his grace led me here. It's not that I got it figured out, no. Second lesson, this isn't a question. It's just simply called decisions and decisionism. Let me explain.

You see, today in our southern Bible belt Christian world that we live in, our churches sadly are flooded with shallow hearted hearers. Simply they are produced in mass. We live in a day when there is an emphasis on decisions and numbers and baptisms of all sorts for all sorts of reasons. Today people join the church with ease. There is no counseling. There are no membership standards. How does this happen? What does this look like? We've all seen it. We've all seen it. I will unpack that a little more. But we have all come from churches and really a church culture that pushes decisions for Christ.

This is what some call decisionism and in these churches people are urged to make a profession of faith. People are taught to simply pray the sinner's prayer. People are taught to make a decision for Christ and they are taught that those things will make them Christian. Most if not all of us have been around emotional alter calls, evangelistic programming that plays on the emotions and calls for that decision at the end of the service. And sadly in these settings the cost of true discipleship is de-emphasized, it's ignored, it's never communicated and in many cases sadly it's never even known.

Now this will shock some of you but we must understand how Jesus dealt with the emotional superficial follower. I want you to go and read these verses on your own. I didn't tell you to turn there earlier. Let me be quick here. John chapter 2 verse 23 to 24. I've taught on these verses before and I've had people say pastor that's hard for me to believe it's there but it's there. Chapter 23, John chapter 2. Now when he, that's Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man. Now this is what the text means at the Passover feast because of the many signs it says many believed in him but in the original language verse 24 literally says Jesus on his part did not believe in them because he understood they were unbelieving believers. They were following him for a miracle. They wanted a while they were following through their emotions. Now this is my point here.

Jesus knew the crowds were not true followers but they were following for a superficial reason and John tells us that he would not believe in them and entrust himself to them because they were not true followers. Decision and decisionism. Jesus faced it too. Number three, third lesson and this is a question, why do so many churches and church leaders engage in this type of evangelism? Why do so many churches and church leaders engage in this type of evangelism and even believe in propagate this kind of a gospel? I think for several reasons. A big part of it is this many are simply doing what they've been taught.

I was, I did, easy believism, decisionism, emotional evangelism is what's been modeled for them. It's what's been taught. That easy profession of faith and the repeat after me sinners prayer is all that they know is what they've been taught is what they've been shown is the only model they've seen. But also for some it is a complete failure of understanding vital biblical truth sadly many do not understand first the sinfulness of man or the doctrine of man. Many do not understand the doctrine of regeneration. Many do not understand who the Holy Spirit actually is much less the works of the person of the Holy Spirit.

Fourth many do not even understand the work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of sinners. Many do not understand the order of salvation and this is the biblical order. Man responds in repentance and faith trusting and believing after a work of the Holy Spirit in the man. Man is able to cry out in saving grace after only he has been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. A dead man cannot repent. A dead man can't believe. A dead man can't trust but when that dead man is made alive by the power and the work of the Holy Spirit he will cry out. I did.

So in my opinion many pastors and church leaders use cheap unbiblical methods of evangelism and they believe that cheap unbiblical gospel because it's all they know they're just ignorant of so much. And old church I had to go through years, years of back breaking, heart wrenching, reprogramming to get to the place where I understood these things. Fourth, fourth lesson question, what do we do? Here at Grace Life Church first of all we must understand that if the Word is taught many of the superficial believers and people will fall away. They'll run for the door.

If the Word is taught and the true cost of discipleship is brought to bear upon their life they will be offended, they will stumble, they'll fall away. They may be nice to our face but listen folks it may sound arrogant but that's right. In so many churches today the superficial here does not fall away because there's no persecution from the Word. There is so little preaching from the Word there's no heat. All they experience is superficial evangelism, weak, compromising Christianity and there's no cost attached to the Christian life before them. In many churches all that is taught is superficial.

The entire work of the church is designed to be cost less. The gospel that they hear is cost less and I'll come back to that but what do we do? First we understand that they will fall away if they're forced to pay the price for their Christianity or they'll come to true saving faith. Second, we do not create a place for them. We're nice to them yes, we love them yes, we welcome them in our pews and small groups and in our life yes but we do not create shallow superficial Christianity, a shallow superficial costless church, Jesus never did. Those words we were singing earlier, where else can we go, where else can we go?

You have the words of eternal life that happened at the end of John chapter 6, Jesus had thousands following him and he identified their reasons and he called them out with the truth and at the end of that two day event, it was just the disciples. He looked at them and said you're going to leave too, Peter stood up and said we don't have anywhere to go, we left at all. It went from thousands to just the disciples. Jesus would have failed church growth class but what do we do with these people? We evangelize them. Now there's a warning here, if you deal with these folks as lost people, listen close church.

I'm going to say what I said at the beginning, this is going to be a little lengthy, you need it, I need it. If we deal with the superficial here as lost, you will be accused of believing one or two things or both. You will be accused of calling for people to be saved again. They'll say well they got saved when they were nine, they got saved when they were 15, you're saying they need to get saved again or you will be accused of believing and preaching that someone can lose their salvation. People will say well they got saved at nine and you're saying they lost it and they got to get saved again, that's not what we believe.

They were never converted to begin with. Well what do we do? If we truly believe Jesus teaching here, look, the parable of the sower, then we hold high of this standard, his standard. His standard is this, the shallow hearted here who received Jesus with great joy, yet they fall away when the word of God is pressed into their life. Well they're not true Christians, they've got to be called to be saved. Listen to what Matthew Henry says of this superficial Christian I'm quoting, observe how soon they fall away by and by, as soon rotten as they were right.

Notice that, as soon rotten as they were right and he goes on to say lightly come, lightly go. I've seen many, I've seen many lightly come and go. Next number three, the strangled heart or the worldly here, the strangled heart of the worldly here. Verse 22, verse 22, as for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches or wealth choke the word and it proves unfruitful. Now earlier I said the shallow hearted, superficial quote unquote Christian may be hard to identify. Well the strangled hearted here can be hard to identify as well.

But if we accept and understand what Jesus teaches here, we can understand and identify these individuals but this takes a little more time. Now this is the one who hears the gospel, the truth of the word, they respond but not like the previous one. They do not seem to respond with great joy and emotion but they seem to be considered a Christian and notice the gospel seed does not take root and become fruitful in their heart either. It seems to temporarily take root but it is choked out by the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, that sin.

Simply the gospel seed is choked out by a love for the world and a preoccupation of worldly things. It is choked out by their love of riches and the world. It is choked out by the love of sin. I think Richard Trench's description is accurate here. He says in this case the profession of the spiritual life is retained but the power of religion or true Christianity is by degrees choked out. And I think Richard Trench helps us see something here. This person makes a profession of faith in Christ yet they hold on to the world in riches and in time the seed of the gospel and the Christian life is choked out.

The gospel seed grows up to a point but because they are unrepentant the seeds of sin and sinfulness and wordliness grow as well, choking out the gospel and Christianity thus revealing they were a false convert all along. Now I want to offer some lessons here first. When does this one reveal themselves? Whereas the shallow superficial here falls away quickly the worldly hearted here seems to take a little more time to develop. It seems to take some time for these thorn seeds of sin and sinfulness and wordliness to grow into thorn bushes of sin.

It seems to take time for the thorn bushes of sin and sinfulness to choke out the gospel seed, Christianity and the word of God in their life. Second lesson not a question the thorny hearted Christian keeps his name on the church roll and is placed on the back pew for the occasional time that he does come to church. Let me explain. You see the emotional hearted here is kept in the church because of superficial preaching, superficial church and superficial church life. The superficial here is comfortable in church because of superficial surface preaching, superficial church and discipleship life because it's all catered to them.

Think about it. Well the worldly hearted here stays in the church because sin is tolerated in the church and in the life. The preacher never preaches on sin and worldliness and the love of riches in the world is not condemned. These people can keep their name on the church roll and they can come to church sporadically, conveniently when they feel like it all while posting their worldly sinful living, their love for the world all over social media. Number three, third, this is a question. This is a lesson. Is it a sin to have wealth? No, it is a sin if wealth has you. Let me restate that.

It is not a sin to have wealth, it is a sin if wealth has you. First Timothy 6, 17 to 18 helps us here. Listen to those verses. I'm reading in the Amplified. "As for the riches of this present world, instruct them not to be conceited and arrogant nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works or deeds, to be generous, willing to share with others.

Here Paul was calling on those who were wealthy to use their wealth for good deeds in kingdom work, and he was calling them not to put their hope in riches, but to keep their riches at Jesus' feet." Fourth, this is a question, a lesson. How do we respond to these? Well, we evangelize them when they're made known, just like the shallow hearted here. Fifth, fifth lesson, question. Can a saved person get sucked into allowing possessions, jobs, vacations, success and riches to strike them? A saved person can be distracted by possessions, jobs, vacations, money, success, sure.

And listen, when a professing Christian is confronted with their sin here, if they show no concern that leads to repentance and a surrender to God and His Word, we have reason to pause. If they continue in their sin, we have reason to suspect that they may not be a Christian. But when a professing Christian is confronted with sin here, if they are a true Christian, they will work towards repentance, thus becoming a fruitful and more fruitful Christian. Now, church, I want to pause here. I know it's warm. The air conditioning is not working up to par, but listen close.

I believe many churches are flooded with rolls, church rolls and pews that are shallow hearted Christians and worldly hearted Christians, false converts. Entire churches have been made to accommodate these people. And let me show you how you know. Listen to the gospel they preach. Listen to the sermons that are regularly preached. They accommodate these people. Some questions, do they have biblical church membership standards and policies, or do they just let anybody sign up? Do they practice loving biblical church discipline?

Are their church rolls overflowing with people who do not come to church, who lead very questionable lifestyles, who even live in sin? In so many places, that's just normal. And are their leaders even qualified to be biblical leaders within the life of the church? You see what I'm aiming at? There are even entire churches and movements and denominations that accommodate the shallow superficial "Christian" and the thorny, sinful "Christian." And look, church, in the south, the church has been so good at churning out shallow hearted, many hearted Christians, a healthy church is rare, it's weird, and when people see it, they think it's a cult.

Last, number four, the open heart, the receptive heart. Jesus explains this one in verse 23, Matthew 13, and we're going to look here in a minute at Mark 2 and Luke. Now I can make a lot more comments about the different hearts that we have examined. But eventually, we have to see the goal Jesus has in mind here, only one heart receives the gospel, the truth of God's word about Christ and His Lordship, and is saved. Only one now, they hear the gospel, they receive it, they understand it, it takes root, they produce fruit because they've been given a good heart. Now listen to the different gospel accounts of this teaching.

Matthew 13, 23 asks for what was sown on good soil. This is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case 100 fold, in another 60, another 30. Mark 4, 20, "But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it," and bear fruit 30 fold, 60 fold, and 100 fold. Luke 8, 15 says, "As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience." But church, how can this be?

How can this sinner, who is utterly sinful and unable to take one step towards God, understand, accept, and hold fast with an honest good heart the gospel? John MacArthur says it is because his heart has been prepared by a work of the Holy Spirit as described in John 16, 8 to 11. Albert Barnes says this heart has been prepared by a work of grace to receive the gospel honestly. John Gill says this type of heart comes by a work of God and this is owing to God's efficacious grace, in other words, affecting grace. And look folks, I don't have time to go through it, but our statement of faith unpacks this in detail beautifully.

Now I want to give two lessons here. I don't want to ask one question. First, for one to have a good heart, it must come from a work of God. You might say, "Pastor, you said that over and over." I can't say it enough because our flesh always reaches for what we can do. Our flesh always reaches for what man can do. Man cannot accomplish this, folks. Man cannot somehow change his bad heart to a good. Another person can't do this for you again, John 1, 12 to 13. And if we do not understand all the ins and outs of what happens here theologically, it can be a great difficult thing to try to get our mind around.

We must understand that this happens by God and for God. It's all of grace. Second lesson, the good heart is rare. The good heart is rare. When we look at all of the gospel seeds that are sown and all of the different professions that are made, the good heart is rare, very rare by comparison. Look at the ministry of Jesus in the gospels. How many people followed him for a time and they left? It happened over and over. Jesus would have failed modern day church growth classes. How many followed him? How many stayed? How many stayed when the cost of discipleship was laid out? It was always too high for the crowds, but just the few stayed.

Look, hadn't we seen the same thing on Wednesday nights in our study of Acts as Paul and his associates go through town after town after town? The many rejected the gospel, but the few were converted and stayed. By the way, if you're missing Wednesday nights, you're missing a blessing. If you're missing Wednesday nights, you need to get caught up. It's been rich and good. Third lesson, what is the fruit? You've been reading about fruit, fruit, fruit. What is this fruit? This fruit can be seen in three ways. First off, the fruit here is the fruit of the Spirit of God working in the life of the believer.

And we see this listed in Galatians 2, 22 to 23. Listen to those verses, Galatians 2, 22 to 23 in the Amplified, but the fruit of the Spirit, the result of his presence within us is love, unselfish concern for others, joy, inner peace, patience, not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against these things, there is no law. And we can summarize this by saying this fruit is the fruit of the character of the believer as the Spirit of God abides in them and works in them. Second, this fruit can be seen as Christian good works.

Almost the entire second chapter of James is about how a true believer demonstrates faith, genuine faith, by and through good Christian works. Verse 17 of James 2 says, "So to faith, if it does not have good works to back it up, it is by itself dead, inoperative and ineffective." Third, this fruit can be seen as converts to Christ. You might say, "Oh, pastor, I'm not an evangelist." Listen to you, pastor. Bible Christians may not be evangelists, but they should influence others, at least their children and their family. Bible Christians influence those who are closest to them to Christ, fruit. Bible Christians produce fruit.

There's no such thing as a fruitless Christian in the Bible. Now I want to close quickly by pointing out just how important this parable and this teaching is. Notice church, this is all about the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth, the beginning of the church. We can say it like this, this is all about who a true Christian is, who gets into the church and how they get in, and, and, if we do not understand, accept, and stay with biblical Christianity and conversion to Christ, we will fill up the church with lost people. We will lose the church. We will lose the church.

On a personal note, if we do not understand, accept, and stay with biblical Christianity and conversion, I've already said this, our children and our grandchildren and our families will not be saved. They will go to, go to hell. Look, do you see what's at stake? We lose our families, we lose our sons, we lose our daughters, our parents, our grandparents, we lose the church. Entire denominations are gone because they left the gospel, and they were once gospel-preaching churches and denominations. We can't be that. So this is all about additional teaching and lessons from the parable of the sower. It's a lot, but we need it. Let's pray.