And immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and thorns grew up and choked it and yielded no grain. And other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parables. And he said to them, to you it has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all parables? The sower sows the Word, and these are the ones along the path where the Word is sown. When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the Word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the Word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the Word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 30-fold and 60-fold and 100-fold." So ends the reading. Now, yes, please be seated. Doing something different, we're going to stand the whole time. Stand at attention, right? Now, this parable, it's a long one, but I felt it necessary to read all the way from verses 1 through 20. Now, of course, most of the time this is preached as a, Parable that has to do with the proclamation of the gospel and sowing seed and it does and it does It talks about that. There's going to be some people that respond Positively some that don't and the ones that do they're going to bear fruit. So it does speak of God guaranteeing that when he Prepares somebody's heart to hear the word that they're gonna gonna bear fruit. Okay, it shows his effectualness today I want to dig a little deeper and go into the preparation of the heart and why that happens okay so how many of you heard the phrase in church we all have maybe used it that you know it's time to give your hearts to Christ right or I gave my life to Christ at a certain date correct well is that true did we give our hearts to Christ or does Christ give us a new one do we give our lives to Christ or does Christ give his life for us those things are complete opposite now one of them has to be true they both can't be true So we need to find out which one is the truth and understand that and proclaim that. Now, one is man-centered and one is Christ-centered. And that's the biggest problem with what's in the church today is too much man-centeredness. And if you understand the parables that way or look at it in a man-centered way, you're going to preach in a man-centered way, you're going to evangelize in a man-centered way, you're going to counsel in a man-centered way, and you're really not doing preaching or counseling or evangelizing biblically when that happens. So this is very important to understand how God does this, because inside of this parable you have God's sovereignty, you have man's depravity, man's inability, you have the working of the Spirit, you have all these things, you have almost the golden chain of redemption just in this parable. So it's vital we understand what Jesus is really telling us here. I have a question, a couple of them. Now can the soil prepare itself to receive seed? And can we prepare ourselves to receive the word? It's an impossibility, right? Now the owner of the field must till the soil and prepare it to receive the seed and get a harvest, right? So in the same way, God must prepare our hearts by first giving us new ones, so we can receive his word and bear fruit. That's just, that ought to be self-evident, and to so many people it's not, and I don't really understand that. Now, the only ones who can hear and understand are the ones whom Jesus gives understanding to. Because remember, we're born dead in sins and trespasses from Ephesians, right? So we need to be given new life. Anything dead can't do anything unless it's given life. And this only comes by the power of God. Now, in order to demonstrate this, we need to do a little groundwork. Now, being dead in sins and trespasses is not just a metaphor that I hear a lot today. You're literally dead to the things of God. You're metaphorically dead to the things of God. Lazarus, Eutychus, the widow in the Old Testament, the widow's son, the widow's son in the New Testament, they were literally dead. They weren't metaphorically or figuratively dead. And they needed Jesus to literally give them life, right? So now since Jesus tells us the soul corresponds to hearts in the parable, it's in verse 15, also in Matthew, they use the word heart, the word cardia, then why did the last one receive the word, accept it, and bear fruit and the others did not? And that's a very important question. Now, the way we understand this affects how we view God and our salvation and the lost. Now, first let's see what God's word says about the heart. Now, I have at least 12 ways to describe the heart and the mind. We're going to go through these. It's quite a bit of scripture, but I think it's necessary to lay the groundwork. First of all, it's dead, right? It's evil all the time, it's deceitful, it's desperately sick, it does no good, it cannot understand, it doesn't seek, it renders us worthless, it does not fear God, it follows its own desires, it cannot change, and it takes no pleasure in the Word. And that's a lot. There's so much more than that, but I may see how I'm doing on time today. Number one, it's in a state of death. And I'm going all the way back to the beginning and working through the Bible to show this. Genesis 2, the Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day and the eat of it you shall surely die. Now he did die a spiritual death immediately because it says immediately their eyes were opened. It didn't take him 900 years to die spiritually like he did physically. It was immediate. And then, just a few chapters later, you're gonna see the culmination of that sin, what happened and what it did to the whole human race and the earth. Genesis 6-5, we all know it very well. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great. This is number two, all evil all the time. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth and grieved it to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I'm sorry that I've made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now, what is that talking about? He found favor because why? Because God promised Way before that, that they would be a redeemer, there would be redemption and salvation. So even though what man did and what man became after that sin grieved God to the point he wanted to blot everything out, he didn't because he's a covenant-keeping, he's a faithful God. So we're wicked, right? Every intention of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. That's a 24, that is complete opposite of God's nature. You see that? Complete opposite. He's all holy, all good, all the time. We're not. Then moving on further the Genesis 8 chapter 20 after they came off the ark I think this is very interesting here says then Noah built an altar to the Lord and Took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings in the altar And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma the Lord said in his heart I will never again curse the ground because of man listen to this for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth and Neither will I ever strike down again every living creature as I have done." Right? While the earth remains, sea, time, harvest, cold, heat, summer, and winter, everything will keep going. But you see that? For the intention of a man's heart is evil from his youth. Even though it is, it was going to continue to be that way. God said, I will never again curse the ground because of man, because of his faithfulness. Right? Number three and number four is deceitful and desperately sick Jeremiah 17 verse 9 the heart is deceitful above all things and Desperately sick who can understand it. I the Lord search the heart and test the mind And we need to remember that the heart and the mind are synonymous a lot of times in scripture So is deceitful above all things desperately sick and who can understand it? So we can't even understand the depth of our own depravity, is what he's saying. God knows that. God knows that. He sees the depths of our sin and our depravity, and yet still chose to redeem us in spite of that. We don't even know what he knows, and if we come to the point where we loathe our sin, Imagine what God knows imagine what that sin has done to God and he still forgives us because he chose to it's amazing It's absolutely amazing Number five it does no good Psalms 14 verse 1 through 5 the fool says in his heart. There is no God They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none who does good and The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand or who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people, as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord? So you can see all these descriptive terms, it keeps going from bad to worse, but it does get better in the end, right, when God does something for us. But you can see that, that there's no one understanding, no one doing good at all. And he doesn't mean that no one does any good deeds on a human level. Walking people across the street saving somebody from a fire. You name it. Those are humanly good things. Yes, but when God talks about No one does something good. You got to remember that when he talks about good. He's talking about it from his scale Okay from his standpoint Okay from his bar not our bar So when no one does good, that means no one's doing any of these deeds to His glory or for His namesake. If you don't do that to His glory or for His namesake, to God, it's not good at all. At all. And it doesn't please Him. It's not going to earn you heaven. And then we go number 6, 7, 8, and 9. Cannot understand, doesn't seek, is worthless, and doesn't fear God. I jump to Romans 3 for that one. Verse 9 through 19. This is an all-inclusive statement for everybody, unless people think it's just for the Jews, or just for people that are really bad, but not people that are not that bad. It's not true at all. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, that means everybody in the world, are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God, All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. Worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their path are ruin and misery. and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And that way of peace doesn't mean a lack of war, that's peace between people. And peace with God is a deeper peace than just a lack of war. And you can see that no one understands and no one seeks God. So what is it today with all these people that supposedly are seeking God? What do you make of that if someone looks like they're seeking God? How does that happen? That happens because God's actually drawing them. You're seeing the other side of it. It's this, I used this illustration last week at the study. It's this, if God has this giant magnet, and there's a bunch of metal balls out there, and that's people. And he's behind this veil, because we can't see God, right? And he's got a giant magnet, and he's holding that magnet out there. And what do those metal objects start doing? They start going toward God. But what do we see? To us, it looks like these people are seeking God on their own, but they're not. He's actually drawing them to Himself. But it looks to us like they're seeking. So no one's really seeking. He's drawing, if they're seeking. And then 1 Corinthians, that's another one. Now this is important in 1 Corinthians because it speaks of inability, not just depravity. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, it's 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12 through 15. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truth to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him. He is not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned and that's the key right there Because so many people in the church today do not agree with that. They agree. Yeah, they you me Yeah, you're depraved and we're sinful but we still have you know, our free will we can still choose God Well, he says we're not able to Accept them. We're not able to understand that word literally means Does not have the power to do so So if you don't have the power to understand something has to happen for you to understand Your your will it's not that our will is destroyed Our will is depraved. We still have a will, right? We still have a mind, but it's depraved. It's sinful. It's sinful all the time. It's constantly seeking its own. It doesn't seek after God. So yes, we have a will. We can do all kinds of things except for anything good. Isn't repentance a good thing? Trusting in Christ? That's a good thing, right? So how can you do a good thing of your own will and your own power? Then what do you need God for? If it takes you to actually unlock the keys to all this stuff God gives you, then who really gets the glory and who's really in control of your eternity? Ultimately, you are. And it doesn't work that way. And that's what's in the parable, and that's why those people ask the questions, and that's why the Jews were so offended every time Jesus said that, why don't you understand this? He said, because you're not of God. They offended him. 10. It follows its own desires. 15. The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on each corner. It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments the Lord of the Lord to do them Not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after You see God knows that that left to ourselves. That's where we're going to go after our own heart and things of our own eyes, right? The less of flesh lest the eyes boastful pride of life there it is right there Now, number 11, it cannot change, another verse about inability. Jeremiah 13, verse 22 to 25. And if you say in your heart, why have these things come upon me? It is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also, you can do good who are accustomed to evil? Well, obviously the answer is no. those two things are an absolute true Ethiopian change his spots or leopard his skin or lover his boss and you can't do good again you cannot do it right you cannot change that speaks of inability as well as depravity now number 12 it takes no pleasure in the word in Jeremiah 6 verse 10 To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised. They cannot listen." Oh, there it is again, our Arminian friends. They cannot listen, okay? Behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn, and they take no pleasure in it. That sounds a lot like 1 Corinthians, doesn't it? Right back over there. The natural pronunciation of things is the Spirit of God, for they are folly to Him. He's not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. See, God's been saying the same thing about humans from the Old to the New Testament. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. So if this is the condition of our hearts, then how can anyone possibly ask Jesus into theirs? Furthermore, why would Jesus want to even go into your stony, cold, dead, evil heart? That's a ridiculous notion on its surface. We need to stop and really think about what we say and when we use these phrases. Now, in order for someone to receive the Word, then all these conditions and more have to be turned around, right? And how is that going to happen? It's impossible for us to do it ourselves. It takes a miracle from God and that miracle is called being born again. And here we go in Colossians chapter 2 verse 11 through 14. says in him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, there it is, having forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. So we can see right there that God has to make us alive together with Christ. We can't do that because we're dead. just like Lazarus. Lazarus didn't have the choice to stay dead, did he? He responded to the effectual call of God. Now you can contrast some people being born again and people who are still dead, and it's in Jeremiah 17, you don't have to turn there. Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength. whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness and in inhabited salt land. Now that reminds you of the first three here as of the parable, doesn't it? You see that? They took no root, right? And what's gonna happen? Things came, trials and tribulations. They fell away, they got burned up, they got destroyed. They didn't bear any fruit because they weren't saved. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes with the trials and persecution on account of the word for it leads Remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit So there's no such thing as a Christian that is not going to bear fruit So Pete those teachings out there, which I've heard that once you're saved I'm still up to you. You know, you don't really have to obey God He'll chastise you but you know, it's still up to you. Well, I Don't think so that that's not the mark of the same person. That's the mark of a person who heard But didn't have a prepared heart to hear Okay God is gonna see to it that you change God's gonna see to it that you made more like him Through your trials and your sufferings, right? He's not going to leave you alone because he's promised to be with you forever. I Now this, the one we just described, looks a lot like the fourth here, right? Who bears much fruit and continues to bear much fruit. He perseveres through trials and persecutions on account of the word, not just any trials and persecutions, but it's on account of the word, there's a difference, and he's not anxious about the things of the world, right? So he's the one that God has prepared. Now, John 1. 12 through 13, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave them the right to become the children of God, who were born not of blood, it's not who, you know, what family line you're in, nor the will of the flesh, you can't cause that to happen because you want to, nor of the will of man, publicly pronounced saved, right, but of God. And again, that's so definitive, and it's so explicit, I don't know how more clear God has to be to let his people know that he's the one who does it all. I just can't, I can't for the life of me figure out the two things that God speaks most clear about in all the Bible is what? Is our depravity and helplessness, right? And how holy and powerful he is. If you don't get anything, that screams the loudest in the Bible. Every time you read it, you get at least those two things out of it. And this just shows me that so many people, especially the teachers, have a gross misunderstanding of man's depravity and sinfulness and a gross misunderstanding of grace. If they truly understood what grace is, they would know that you're not free-willing yourself into salvation. It's an impossibility. Because then it's not grace if you did something on your own without God. I just don't understand that. And it's so clear in scripture. And I just pray for these people that God gives them the truth. Because again, When you hear people like that teach in the books they write, the songs they sing, how they counsel, how they present the gospel, it all leans toward that. And all it's producing is a bunch of hearer, temporary hearers, surface hearers that don't persevere. And they wonder why people are going in and out of these places like a revolving door. And that's what you get from that. That's what you get from that type of teaching and that type of understanding. So we really need to make sure that when we're all learning the word, that we understand these deep truths about God, these important truths there. We can effectively preach the gospel and effectively comfort each other and counsel each other and admonish each other. I mean, everything revolves around the understanding of this. We can't, it's not okay that there's that kind of a misunderstanding in the church today. It's just not okay. Now, going to John verse 3, some more statements of inability here. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Inability, right? Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Now look, we can't see someone being born again. You can't see that, but you see the effects of it. Just like a hurricane, you don't see the wind, but you see the effects of it. And when someone's born again, it's going to have the effect of a hurricane coming to town, the way their life is going to change, and the way they're going to live. It's going to be obvious. And it's obvious to the people that are watching, and it's obvious to the person it's happened to, and that helps with our assurance. that we see what God has done with us. That's what He's talking about. And He does it to whom He wills. You can't ask God to be born again. It comes upon you, doesn't it? Just like the wind. Now, even back in the Old Testament, the psalmist understood this. And he understood the order of this, that you must be given life first before you call on His name. And he says that. It's in Psalm 80. Okay, I'll read a few verses of that. I just feel it's necessary to read these many verses to get the context. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who are enthroned upon the chair of him. Shine forth before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might and come to save us. Have mercy on us, God, come save us. They're not doing anything. They know he has to be the one coming to do it. O God, let your face shine that we may be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us an object of contention for our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among us. Restore us, O God of hosts. Let your face shine that we may be saved. You, listen, now this goes to the heart of the first part of the parable where Jesus is giving these agricultural references, okay? We'll pick this up and we'll recognize what he's talking about. It says, you brought a vine out of Egypt, God. You, God, brought a vine out of Egypt. You, God, drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took deep root and filled the land. Sound familiar? God is the one who tilled the land, right? He prepared the soil for Israel to be in there. The the the nations are like the rocks and the thorns and all that in the soil has to till it up to make it soft Right and ready to ready to receive The people he does the same thing with our hearts right Skip down to verse 17 says but let your hand be on the man of your right hand the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself and Then, listen to this, then we shall not turn back from you. After what? After God put his hand on the man of your right hand, right? So God's doing something first and then we're responding to it. This is most important. Give us life and we will call upon your name. Hallelujah, look at that. That's just like we're reading in Romans, right? Everyone calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Well, what is the order? Give us life and we will call upon your name. Not what's in the church today. We call upon the name of Jesus and then we're born again. You see how it's completely backwards in the church? There it is right there. The psalmist understood that for his people. When you be given life first, then we'll call upon your name. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts. Let your face shine that we may be saved. It's all of God. It's all from God. They knew that. They knew their depravity and their inability. That's why they cried out like that. We don't know that today. It's completely backwards. And then to show Another reference he's talking about the land again here in Ezekiel 36 verse 9 says for behold I am for you and I will turn to you and you shall be tilled and sown You see that? So God is for us first, right? from eternity past, correct? And He will turn to you, right? He comes to us, right? Through the Holy Spirit, conviction of sin, the new birth, and will be tilled and sown. See, that's a picture in the order of how salvation happens and how a heart is prepared when that Word of God is implanted into it. God is doing all this first. All this has to be done in order for that word to take root and to bear fruit. Any farmer ought to know scripture better than some people in the modern church today. You don't just throw stuff out there, you're going to get some great harvest just out in a bunch of weeds and rocks. You have to take all that out. You pick the land where you want the little farm to be, right? And you go out there and you take up all the rocks. You till it up. You make it soft and pliable. God takes out that stony heart to give us a heart of flesh, soft and yielding. Just like you pick up nice soil, soft and yielding, ready to receive. the Word of God ready to receive the seed. This ought to be kindergarten class for theology. We shouldn't have to discuss this in the church today. It's kind of crazy that we have to do that. I can't get over it. This is so obvious that I don't understand why they don't see it. But yet I do understand why they don't see it. You get that? Part of you doesn't, but part of you does. Alright, and then all in Ezekiel 36 again. He talks about the same thing again. This is the order how this happens Therefore say to the house of Israel thus says the Lord God it is not for your sake Oh house of Israel that I'm about to act but for the sake of my holy name. It's not about you It's not because of what you do or what you say it is for me. I'm acting because of me Okay which you have profaned among the nations which you came." See? There's the sin, but God, in His love and His faithfulness and His covenant keeping part of His character and nature, He's acting for the sake of His holy name, not because of Israel. Because His glory and His name means more to Him than anything He's actually created. If something that He created garnered more attention from Him or more love from Him, then He'd be in idolatry and He'd cease to be God. He's not going to make something that is equal to Himself. You can't remake God. Even though we're made in His image, but we're not God. Therefore, the people who believe that God cannot violate your free will, they've put man's free will even up there with God's will. So they've, in a sense, deified us. Whether they want to or not, they've actually done that. You can't do that. God can't create it. God is not going to create something that He can't have control over. He's God. It's impossible. That's because, like Brother Blair said, they don't understand God. They don't understand who He is, or why He does what He does, and they don't understand man. If they really did, if they were really taught right, they would not believe that. They would see that in a blink of an eye and correct themselves. And it's such a shame, it's such a shame. And God goes on to say, I will vindicate the holiness of my great name. I vindicate the holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring it to your land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean while you're in cleanliness. from all your idols, I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful obeying my rules. Come on. And I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant. You may never again suffer the disgrace of famine in my nations." He did all that without them asking Him to. Because if He didn't do that, Israel wouldn't be preserved, the Messiah wouldn't be born, and we wouldn't be saved, and He wouldn't get glory with everybody in heaven. You've got to understand the whole plan of redemption from start to finish. God gives us the beginning of things in Genesis and the end of things in Revelation. It starts with Him, God, in the beginning. It starts with God in the end. It ends with God being glorified forever, right? So when you look at the Bible from that standpoint, if you understand His whole plan of redemption, all this stuff makes sense. You've got to understand what it's all about. And when you come from a man-centered perspective, you're going to think it's all about you. And they're not going to understand why God moves on some and doesn't on others and why he does this and why he did that. And what does this verse mean here? Because they're looking at it completely wrong. And that's that's what a bad teaching does, even to people that are saved, because they can get very confused. All right, and then he ends in verse 32. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord. Let that be known to you. So he reiterated again. He said, look, it's not because of you I'm doing this. You're not deserving of me doing this. I'm doing this for me. I'm going to get glory through what I do for you. And then Jeremiah 31, the new covenant, right? Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, that's about all we did, is we broke the covenant. That's all we brought to the whole shoot match. Our sin, our breaking the covenant. He did everything else, right? Now, I will put my law within them, right? I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God. They shall be my people, right? No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. All who? All the ones that God does that to. We all know the Lord. We don't need to be taught that. The Spirit gives that to us. From the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. These are declarative statements. He's decreeing things. He's planning things that are going to come to pass. I will do this. This shall happen. It's not an if. Jesus didn't die to give people a possibility of being saved and a hope that He'd have a people at the end of the ages. That's not how this works. We're gonna move on now. That was discussing the first part of the parable with all the references to agriculture. Now we're gonna get to verse 11, all right? We're only in the middle, so I'm doing all right. Now, it says, to you, now back to verse 11, it says, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. That's a very heavy statement. And you know something? The first part of the parable, all those people understood at that time, right? They understood, yeah, you know, seed falls in the rocky ground, it does this, it falls on the side of the road, it does this, or it falls in the good soil, it does this. They understood that. So that wasn't anything profound to them, but what caused them to ask the question is the end, okay? It's verse 8. And when he talked about producing grains, he said, growing up and increasing and yielding 30-fold, 60-fold, and 100-fold. That really got the ears perking up because that was pretty much an impossibility. So that's what made them say, well, what is this about? It's not just simple, you know. Yeah, everybody knows what you do with seeds. But that spoke to them. That said something to them, right? So verse 11, it sure looks like God is being exclusive, isn't He, to who He gives the secrets of the kingdom to, right? I mean, that's pretty, again, that's pretty definitive. It's explicit. I just read it. I'm not making anything up. I'm not adding anything to the text. I just read it, right? Now, to show that it's his discretion who received, Jesus makes it clear to his disciples and us again in Matthew chapter 11. At that time, verse 25 through 12. At that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Wow. Yes, Father, with such was your gracious will. That's not true. God doesn't do that. He wants everybody to know who He is. Well, I mean, He hid some things from the wise men and revealed them unto little children, for such was His gracious will. Again, I don't know how you have to do hermeneutical gymnastics to turn that on its head. which I've heard some people do, and they're actually quite good, believe it or not. It's amazing what people can do, even when they're wrong, how right they can sound. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and here's another one, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal. Wow. I mean, what do you do with that? What do you do with that? But then at the same time, verse 28, it's interesting, God always does this. And then he says, come to me, all who labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Well, it sounds like he's asking everybody to come to him, but he just said that he's only going to reveal God to the one he chooses to reveal. So who's going to be the ones to come? The one his son chooses to reveal. That's what that means. It's not a contradiction. Read in context you find out what he's actually talking about there, okay? Matthew 13 Okay, he does it again verse 10 10 through 18 Then the disciples came and said to him. Why do you speak to them in parables? And he Jesus answered them to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven But to them it has not been given For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And this gets even heavier. Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. It says, you will indeed hear, but never understand. And you will indeed see, but never perceive. That's a judgment. That's why he's talking about that. That's judgment. Because they were so willful in disobedience and rejection to such a high degree that that is the judgment he pronounced on them. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I will heal them." So if you pay attention to this verse, and you read it from a different way, So, if God gives you ears to hear and eyes to see, right, then what? And then you'll understand, and then you will turn, repent, and God will heal you. So it works the other way when God is the one who gives that to you, that chain works the other way. But you see how that's working? For the sinful person, it's backwards. So it shows you that when God does things, that is what's going to happen. He will heal you when you have eyes to see. It's not that He gives people eyes to see, but they still, you know, still can choose, He's still giving me grace, and I understand, but it's still up to me. No, He's just telling you, when this happens, that happens, like a golden chain of redemption. Them He called, them He justified, them He justified, them He glorified. Right? All that. That's what that means. Now, and here's some more John 5, okay? John chapter 5, verse 41. I could have preached this all through John. I mean, there's so much here in John that proves all this. When I got started, I'm like, oh my gosh, I probably should have just preached through John. All right. It says, I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come from my Father's name and you do not receive me. You do not. Why? Because you have not the love of God. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes only from God? You see the predicament that people are in without God? John 6, 35 through 40, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But the people that come to Christ is the one that are drawn to him. But I said, we'll see that later. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. Now if you look at something here, everyone that is given to Jesus, He's not going to lose and He's going to raise them up. Right? So everyone that is drawn to Jesus is going to come to Jesus. Everyone that comes to Jesus, He's going to receive. Everyone He receives, He's not going to cast out and He's going to raise up. So everyone that is drawn is going to be saved. That's what that means. So God does not, if God was drawing everybody, as some people try to use, what is it? Is it John 8, where it says, the Son of Man lifted up, I will draw all men to myself? No, because then you have to be universalist, because it just says everyone that Jesus is going to raise Him up in the last day, everyone that is drawn will see that later. So that can't be the case. It shows you, again, we talked about that, this shows a specific redemption in this parable as well. not only the other aspects we talked about. In John 6 44, I'm going down through the chapter, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Again, inability. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. I will raise him up on the last day So that right there proves the point and I will raise him up on the last day So everyone no one kind of us the father draws him and I will raise him up That's telling that everyone that is drawn is raised up doesn't say don't come the father Who sent me draws him and then if he still chooses me, I'll raise him. No, do you see what he's saying? You stop and stop and look at that. No one can come to me unless the father sent me draws him and I will raise Him up on the last day. So everyone that is drawn comes, and everyone that comes is raised up. That ought to be game, set, and match for these people who, you know, this universal redemption stuff. I mean, it's right there, again, it's right there. And then going to John 6. Verse 60, when many disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying, who can listen to it? That has to do with he's giving the same type of talk throughout John, and these people are getting offended because they think it's about something they do, they think it's because they have the law, in the sense that they have the scriptures before them, that's eternal life, and that's not the case. He's offending them with teaching about God's grace and mercy, isn't that amazing? And many of the disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying, who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. Remember that Psalm 80? Give us life and we shall call upon the name of the Lord. It is the Spirit who gives life. You have to be given life first. John 3. The flesh is of no avail. So, your human will in the flesh is of no avail. Your will, you don't will yourself into the kingdom in any way, shape, or form in your flesh. Your flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life, right? But there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who those who did not believe and who it was who would betray Him, right? And He said again, here we go, this is why I told you, He's referring back, why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father. It's got to be granted. You're not only drawn, but it's granted. That doesn't mean that I say, I chose Christ. Well, no, you have to be granted. After this, many disciples did what? They turned back and no longer walked with him. They didn't like that saying. Why would that offend them so much when Jesus kept talking like that? That no man can come unless Father sent me to draw him. Why did that offend them so much? Why would that offend someone's flesh? Because of pride. You see, you all are well taught. You answered all of that. Man, I'm preaching to a mirror over here. You guys know everything I'm saying. But it's true. So you know that's true. He said, why would be offended by that? Because they had nothing to do with it. And that offends their pride. Amen. You got it right. Wow. All right. Moving on to John chapter 8. 42 to 47. Man, I'm past 12 o'clock. Look at that. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. Right? If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. There it is again. You have to be of God to hear God. So he has to make you one of his. Jesus talks about sheep that he has before he even goes and talks to them. He already describes an ownership. Does that make sense? We'll get to that in John Chin shortly. It says, why do you not understand what I say? It is because, here we go again, you cannot bear to hear my word. Inability, there's inability all over the place. I mean, you just need to accept it. You cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. Remember, we talked about the will. It doesn't want to do anything good. It goes after its own self. We did all that work back then. Well, that's true. That's the only thing that a lost person is going to do is do their own will and the will of their father, the devil. All right? Now, John chapter 10, I have a note here to go to another page, let me see if I'm still on track with that. Okay, alright. Now, John chapter 10, verse 1-5, again, this is going to be very explicit, definitive, Straight up the road, there's no eisegesis in here. It says what it says, means what it says. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, right? The whole theme of this thing is hearing with a prepared heart, right? And he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Not others' sheep. He calls his own sheep. So he says he has a specific flock. Does that make sense? And that's who hears his voice. A specific people. Not every single person. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, like the song, and leads us, right, by his hand, and the sheep follow him, why? For they know his voice. They recognize the voice of God. A stranger they will not follow. You're not going to follow a bunch of false teachers, if not for very long, if they're really hearing the voice of God. You can preach that, too. That's what that stuff is going to mean. But they will flee from him, right? For they do not know the voice of strangers. Moving on to verse 10. The thief comes only to kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Right? I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for who? The sheep. Which sheep? His own sheep. So Jesus did not die for every single person that has ever existed. He died for His sheep. I mean, it's right there. Right? A particular, specific redemption. He who is a hard hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches and scatters them. Right? He flees because he's a hard hand and cares nothing for the sheep. Am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me Right just as a father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep Right for the ones that know him and are known by him and I have other sheep that are not of this fold Listen to this. I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice what? He already has sheep somewhere that he hasn't talked to, but he's saying they will listen to my voice because they're his sheep that God is giving him. Do you see that? It's not everybody. Everybody hears his voice. And the Old Testament speaks about getting eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to believe just as explicitly in Deuteronomy 29. When God talks... to Moses, and Moses summoned all of Israel, Moses, and Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, you have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, but to this day, verse four, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. Goodness gracious. I mean, where's the problem? They saw all that. They saw miracles, signs, wonders. I've led you 40 years in the wilderness, but the clothes not worn out, shoes not worn out, eating bread that they didn't have to grow anything. Everything was right there before their eyes, and they still didn't turn. That proves, that shows how bad sin really is. It shows the depth of sin and the power of sin. And it takes the power of God to override that. That's how He gets glory. God can promise you, just like in Deuteron, the blessing, the cursing, promise you all the blessings of the world, that's not going to make you turn to all the punishment in the world, all the threats. They didn't turn either, did they? God's showing us something, how bad sin is and how much we need Him. It's not a contest to see if we can achieve some way we're pleasing God. So if God doesn't give us new life, then no one would ever be saved. Now, we're going to go on to the bottom part of the parable. The bottom is actually all the way to verse 29. But anyway, from 13 to 20, right? Now, the parallel passages in Matthew 13, Matthew 25, and Luke 8, and Luke 11, all paint a picture of what is meant by what Jesus said. It's a pretty clear picture, right? In the parable of the sower, Jesus uses the word here four times. One for each scenario. Remember, all four people heard the word. And when he's talking about hearing, he's not meaning just hearing sounds. That word means to hear with an understanding, OK? Not just to hear a sound. Now, remember, all four people heard the word, right? Two of the four appeared to have it for a while, but they didn't persevere. And one, obviously, just bounced right off. In one ear and out the other, the saying goes, right? And many people hear like that today, right? Some hear, like I said, and it goes in one ear and out the other. They're the kind that you preach the gospel to. They don't want to hear you. They don't want to be around you. Leave me alone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. I've got to go rearrange my sock drawer. I don't have time for you. I got to go, okay? Then you have some. Others get moved from a sermon or a speaker, right? And they quickly give their heart to Christ, which I remind you is not possible to do, right? And that these are the kind, we all know them, and I'm not being judgmental, I don't mean to sound it, I'm just saying we know these people and we see what's going on. That they're the kind, they come to church, They get into a small group, right? They get on a serve team, or what these people call it nowadays, right? They do all that kind of stuff, right? So they're hanging around for a while, they're in the prayer groups, and as soon as trials and persecutions come, on account of the Word, and sometimes even just regular trials and persecutions, what do they do? They fall away. And most of the time, these type of people, they're the ones that get mad at God. Because they were under the impression that God was going to do something special for them, fix all their problems. So when God doesn't come through, then they get mad at God. I personally know people like that, that I've talked to. They're literally, and they admit it, they're mad at God because He didn't give them this dream they thought they had, that He was going to work somewhere or do something. So they're the kinds, they pout, they go in the room, and they never come out, and you never see them again. Okay? And then you've got the other kinds, some of the other ones here, and they give their life to Christ, right? Again, I remind you it's not possible to do. And they seem to be going along okay, but as their lives get busier and they get more prosperous and their prayers are answered, right? Then what happens to those people? They just can't seem to find the time to be with Jesus anymore, right? He becomes boring and a bother to them, right? He just, you know, that job they got is really important and they got to go do this over here and that over there, right? So those are the kinds that kind of fade off. will kind of fade off right we know some like that too we need to pray for them just saying preaching through the parable this is this is the natural practical examples of what Jesus is talking about here and we see it all the time right now but he says of the good soil or the prepared heart right that they hear and understand they say that mark this is interesting here and in Luke it says they hear and accept right I mean, Mark, they say hear, yeah, and they hear and hold fast, or take root, that's another word for saying take root, right? So they hear and understand, they hear and accept, right? And they hear and hold fast, right? Not only do they bear fruit, but much fruit. And only the ones God has prepared persevered and bore any fruit. Those are the ones God gave new hearts to, the ones born again. And you can see how this ties in with what went in John, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah about getting a new heart and God tilling the soil, talking to Israel, right? That's the same concept. That's what he's saying that happens. If that doesn't happen, nothing's going to grow there. In Proverbs 2, verse 6, it says, it's the Lord that gives wisdom and understanding, right? And if the Lord does this, then the only reason why the fourth hears and understands is because of God. So this is a parable about hearing unto salvation. Someone truly converted will bear fruit and continue to bear fruit. And this sermon is actually a response to something someone wrote in a Bible study group I go to every once in a while about what this parable meant. And it was not about salvation. It was about something else. So that's how this came about. This is just a reworking of it. And we just read Romans 10, right? Where it says, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. It's speaking of saving faith, right? So, if you indeed heard the gospel, did you hear with understanding? Did you accept it and believe it? Did it take root and grow? Are you growing in your understanding? Are you growing in your faith? Right? Are you bearing spiritual fruit? If you are, then consider yourself blessed. because God has brought this in you. Do you see now how these parables are natural examples of spiritual truth? They show God's sovereignty and His grace and salvation. They show the difference between a real Christian and a counterfeit. The genuine born-again Christian will bear fruit and God will keep them until His return. In other words, it is a picture of perseverance and redemption. And you know, what we all have to remember is that All this stuff we talked about with sin and how bad it is, and it's not to browbeat everybody, but Bodie Bauckham said this one time. He said that sin leaves scar tissue. I think he's right. And, you know, when we have natural scars on our body from either things that were done to us or goopy things we did or accidents, what does it do? It reminds us of those occasions of sin. And it reminds us of who we were, right? And it reminds us of what God has done. So, you don't necessarily want the scar tissue to go away, lest we forget what God has done for us and through us, right? So by His grace, we get through it. And by His hand, He'll lead us through the darkest of times. And we can rejoice because we can look back on those scars and see what God has forgiven us for. So when you're going through something, a dark time here, you know that God was with you before. He's going to be with you through it now. And when you come through that, you're going to see the light of His glory shine more brightly. And when you get to the end of your days and He comes back and He brings you to Himself in your glorified body in that state of heaven, it's all going to be worth it. It's all gonna be worth it. All right, so that's it, and let's pray.