Well, good morning, if you will please open your copy of the scriptures to Matthew Chapter 13. The Gospel of Matthew. Chapter 13. Beginning of that chapter, we find. The first of the parables that Jesus spoke and we find there. The parable that Jesus actually interprets for us very clearly, explicitly. Matthew 13 and verse 1, on the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea, and great multitudes were gathered together to him so that he got into a boat and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow. The context of what he's about to say, these words that he speaks, they come in the context of his ministry, his preaching ministry. Matthew's already made that clear for us earlier in the gospel, he said this, this is a summary of what Jesus is doing. We find in Matthew nine, I'll just read it for you. It says, Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages. Teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. So the parable that we're about to read and think about comes in the context of Jesus preaching and teaching in the synagogues, cities and the villages, like in this example, he's outside in the open. But it also comes in the context of people responding to what he's been saying. You can see, for example, here in chapter 11. In verse 20, then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. Preaching from him was being met with increasing opposition. Another example, look at look at how chapter 12 begins. At the same time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And even that doesn't escape criticism. The Pharisees come along and they accuse him of being a Sabbath breaker. The pressure increases more and more against him. Look at verse 14 of chapter 12. Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him. Again, chapter 12, look a little further down at verse 22, then one was brought to him who was demon possessed, blind and mute, and he healed him and he gets criticized for that. So here he is, synagogues and in the countryside preaching and teaching the gospel of the kingdom, Matthew says. And the pressure is increasing against him, people hating him. rejecting him, plotting how they might destroy him no matter what he says, no matter what he does. They're hating him and they're criticizing him. So here's Jesus in Matthew 13. He's. Standing in a boat there, they move it out, then he sits down to teach to speak his first parable, and really up to this point, Matthew has told us plenty of what the people think of Jesus. But now in this parable, We're going to learn about what Jesus knows about them. He's sitting there in the boat, you see there, Matthew 13, and the crowd is gathered on the shoreline. They push the boat out a little bit, so now he's looking back at the shoreline. And he's going to say what he knows about them as he as he looks out from the boat, he looks up at that shore and he looks out into all those faces. He sees different kinds of faces, he sees different kinds of hearts. Now, when you go to the doctor, do you go hoping for a diagnosis? You never want to go to the doctor and lay out all of your symptoms and for the doctor there to say, hmm, this is intriguing. You know, you don't want the doctor to say that. You go, you want him to say something definite to you. You want the diagnosis. Well, as important as that is, the condition of your soul is much more important. And here at Matthew 13, I want you to observe the physician of souls. As he looks out on all the faces that are looking back at him, he is able as this kind of physician to see in them and to see in all of you what nobody else can see. Are you interested in knowing what he knows about you? He's going to give a diagnosis of your soul today. Look at what he says. Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched because they had no root. Because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. The others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold and some sixty and some thirty. Well, think about the first type of soil here. Jesus is painting a picture for you. Maybe you think of that large field or maybe even just a small garden and it's organized in rows or it's organized in patches. The gardener or the farmer understands that you can't just plant the seed in any kind of way. There has to be proper field management. There has to be proper garden management that allows for paths for the harvesting of the crop. For the paths in our modern day, we would think of these rows that are specially spaced for the tires of the tractor and the tires of whatever implement they roll That's all by design. It all rolls along without crushing the crop. In Jesus' day, without all the modern implements, in their minds, they're thinking of the walking paths where the person would have a bag over their shoulder and they'd dip their hand into that bag to spread that seed. But there would be these regular worn down, hard paths that the workers would walk along as they spread the seed. Here's a picture of that worker and he has his bag and he is manually scattering the seed. Well, what's going to happen? Well, Jesus here says some of that seed is going to fall on the wayside, that is, it's going to fall along that path. That's hard from the repeated walking of the workers. The seed is not settled down into that soil, the soil around it would be softer, it settles down into there, but Here on the wayside, on this hard packed down part of the field, the seed is spread and it does come into contact with the soil, but the soil is so hard, the seed just simply rests on top of the soil. There's no real engagement between the seed and the soil. And you notice what happens, the birds come along there in verse four, they come along and they devour the seed. There's no real engagement there between the seed and the soil. It makes it easy for the birds to come along. They hardly have to work at all because there is the seed right there on the top for them. They come along and simply pick the seeds off of that hard and packed down surface. There's a path in my backyard. It's a walking path. It's a wagon path. It's a bicycle path. And I've tried before. to spread some grass seed on it, but there is no grass growing on it, no matter what I do. It's just so hard and packed, and even if I could get some seed to stay there, I know within the next few hours, there's going to be, the wagon's going to come across, and the bicycles are going to come across, and there's that path behind my house that is packed down, and nothing grows there. You can think maybe driving along of the fields where you have the The road, maybe it's some kind of fence maintenance road. You know that path that runs along the fence line where the farmer drives his truck repeatedly. And you can tell exactly where the two tires or the four tires, that double track runs along the fence line. You can see it there. It's amazing how long that track will stay there. And it's amazing how different it is from everything else around it, how it's packed down and it's obvious. How much less or nothing grows there, you can tell that worn down path. This is the picture that Jesus is painting for us. But it's not it's not dirt that Jesus is concerned with. It's you. What he's concerned with and what he's concerned that you understand is for you to understand and think about what kind of listener are you? to the gospel of God when it is preached, what kind of listener are you? That's his concern. Notice now in verse 18, when he gives his interpretation, he says, therefore, hear or listen or understand the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom. And does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he. who received seed by the wayside. To ask this question of yourself this morning, what kind of a listener are you? Some people are like those paths that went along the fence and some people are like those paths where the workers walk and some of the some people are like those places in the field where the tires of the tractor roll over and over again. Some people are like those paths where nothing grows. Here is the first kind of listener. They're at the right place. They're there at the right place at the right time. Notice that Jesus says in verse 19 that they do actually hear the word of the kingdom. They hear the preaching of the word, but this person does not understand. This this person hears what's being said and nothing happens, nothing happens. The seed is there. It's there in contact with the soil. The person actually comes into a hearing contact with the word, but there's no real engagement between their heart and the word that they hear. There's no real taking in of the word. Jesus is sitting there in the boat, and when he when he looks out on all those faces that are looking back at him, he knew that Some who were there were not really understanding at all what he was saying. There were some there. Sure, they were following him. They found him curious and they found him interesting, but they weren't understanding at all what he was saying. So he begins this parable by saying that there are some people who actually hear the word of the kingdom. And they have hearts that are hardened against the preaching and the teaching. Notice Jesus says there is the wicked one and he's like a bird. You see that there in verse 19. He comes and he snatches away whatever was preached. He's like a bird and there he is perched. There he is in that tree, there he is perched on that fence. There's that bird and he knows what's happening when the farmer dips his hand into that bag of seed. Do you think that the bird just accidentally happens to be there along the fence line? He knows where the seed will be easy to pick. Have you ever seen birds following someone mowing in a field? They know where all that stuff is going to be stirred up and easy to get. I grew up in Houston and very often we would go down to Galveston or some nearby area there and we'd watch the shrimpers come in and other fishermen come in with their boats, coming in with their catch and those boats were always followed by a It was like a cloud of seagulls, a cloud hanging and swirling around those boats. Well, those birds were smart as far as birds go. They knew that those fishermen would be going through those nets and throwing back stuff that they didn't want to keep in there. The birds were ready to swoop in and get the easy stuff. They didn't have to work for it. So the bird is there, you see, in verse 19, this bird is waiting, ready to swoop in and catch The easy see that just is resting on top of the soil. There is that bird waiting. He's smart as far as birds go. He knows where the hard path is and that is where he waits ready to take whatever seeds are given there. But Jesus does not talk about the wicked ones so that we can pass all the blame to him. Well, it's the birds fault or the devil made me do it. No, it's not. It's not that at all. We can't say it's all his fault. No, the devil comes and takes away the seed because the condition of the soil, the hardness of the heart makes it easy for him to do it. What kind of a listener are you? When the word of the kingdom of God comes to you, when you hear it, what kind of a listener are you? Jesus was looking out into some of those faces that were looking back at him. And He's wanting them to look at themselves and He's wanting them to look at their own hearts. And the Lord this morning is, through the Scriptures, asking you, do you have this hard heart? Are you that kind of person? Maybe you've heard the Word of God many, many times and nothing ever happens. There's never any response. There's never any Grow. There's never any fruit that is born in your life. You've heard the Word over and over again and nothing ever happens. Jesus, by the Word, is asking of us today, what kind of a listener are you? What kind of listener are you? Are you the kind of person where Sunday after Sunday you come and week after week and year after year perhaps? But you're like that path where nothing grows. You've maybe heard more sermons than you can count, but you've never professed faith in Christ. You've had all these sermons in your ear, you've had all of these Bible studies that you've gone to, but they really, if you were to be honest with yourself, they've really made no difference at all in your life. I want you to think about what might be some of the reasons this hard ground of the heart is found in Several different kinds of people. Let me give you just a few options today for you to think about. If you'd be willing to listen for just a few moments and think if any of these descriptions describe you. This hard heart, hard ground of the heart may be found, number one, in the prejudiced listener. In the prejudiced listener, there are some who come and their minds are already made up that they're not going to listen. They may hear, but they're not really going to listen and take it in. Their minds are already made up, maybe for a variety of reasons. It's the crossed arm listener, you know, they're here, but they're ready to reject anything that's going to be said from the scriptures. The hard ground of this heart may be found in the prejudice listener. The prejudice listener comes with perhaps a variety of excuses. Here's one excuse that I've heard. I don't go to church because the church is full of hypocrites. Maybe you've heard somebody say that to you before, or I know a lot of people who are baptized in their church members and they still sin. So I'm not going to listen. I'm going to listen to what the preacher says. Well, think about this excuse for a moment, perhaps if you thought that to yourself, that church is full of hypocrites. Christians are a bunch of sinners. I don't want to listen. Well, think about this question. Where would you rather all the sinners be on a Sunday? You don't want them to be in church on a Sunday. Where would you rather them be? Do you expect to find a church where nobody sins and where nobody will sin against you? This kind of thinking might almost sound righteous and spiritual, except it's the very same way that the Pharisees thought. Oh, those sinners. All those wicked people don't have anything to do with that. We're not going to listen. Look at who Jesus surrounds himself with. We're not going to listen to him. We're going to dismiss what he says. For example, in Luke 5, it says this. After these things, Jesus went out and he saw a tax collector named Levi. He sees Matthew there. Now think about what kind of friends a tax collector would have had. He probably only had other tax collectors for friends, mainly. He sees Levi sitting at the tax office and he said to him, follow me. So he left all rows up and followed him. Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house. Here's this tax collector and he wants to show Jesus hospitality and bring him into his house for a feast. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with him. Who else is Levi going to invite? Who else is he friends with? So him and a lot of other tax collectors, despised by most everybody else because of their cooperation with the Roman government, there they are gathered for a feast. And the scribes and the Pharisees complained against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick Well, where else on a Sunday do you wish all of those sinners and hypocrites would be, if not in church? Jesus says it's those who are sick who need to be made well. It's those who are sick who need a physician. He said, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Would you ever refuse to go to the doctor because that's where all the sick people are after all? Would you ever refuse to listen to what the doctor says because his office is full of weak people? But you would never say that, would you? Think about the excuse that some make. Why? I'm not going to listen to this gospel. Look at how Christians act. They still sin. I'm not going to listen to that. I'm going to dismiss it. Would you have all the sick people somewhere else on a Sunday morning? Are sick people hypocrites because they go to the doctor? Are sinners hypocrites because they sin and they still go to church? Well, you know, the evil one doesn't care if this is your excuse. Evil one doesn't care if it begins to sound like a silly excuse when you begin to think about it. All he cares about is just so long as your heart is hard. Just so long as you're not listening To the word of God today, that's all he cares. He would just like to be able to come along and whatever it is that you might have heard today, just so long as that seed is right there on top, he can just come along and sweep it up. There's other excuses, some people who have this hard heart with a seed lands just on the top and they've come prejudiced, they've come with the decision, no matter what said, they're really not going to engage with it. They've already made their minds up. Some people have the they find excuses of the extreme, and these are always easy to find. They look at the TV preachers and they say, well, it's obvious now their motives are so shallow, all they want is my money. I'm not going to listen to that. They're fake, it's easy to see. I've had this extreme excuse given to me. I'm not a Christian because of the Crusades. What? You're talking about the Middle Ages, right? You're not a Christian because you don't like what you saw in the crusades. It's easy to find extreme examples. This is the person who comes prejudiced. They've come with their mind already made up. These are easy excuses. You know why? Because every church has sinners. It's easy to find examples of the extreme. It's easy to find the blasphemous clowns on TV. It's easy to find Old abuse is done in the name of God and modern abuse is done in the name of God. The evil one doesn't care what your excuse is so long as whenever you hear the word, it just sits right there on top and he can easily come and sweep it. He doesn't care so long as you're not listening and truly taking in the word of God today. It doesn't matter to him if it's if it's a silly excuse, if it doesn't really make sense. Just so long as there's no engagement between the word and your heart. What kind of listener are you? I'll list one more excuse here, and I think of all the ones that I have encountered personally, I think this is probably the number one. And I've met a lot of different people. This comes out in a lot of different flavors, but it's because of past bad personal experience. Sometimes it's with other Christians or people who claim to be Christian. Sometimes it's with past ministers. I met a young man one time. I was in California one time and I met a young man who was a little younger than me, I think, and he had come out of a Jehovah's Witness background. He was a smart guy and he began to investigate. And he'd been raised in that system. Mom had given him all of this stuff, and he began to do some research on his own, and he began to discover all the false prophecies and all the ridiculous things that had been predicted by that organization and published in the Watchtower magazine and began to see how all these things were false. He had a real bad past personal experience with people who were telling him things supposedly about God, and he had come to the decision when I had met him and was talking with him, He had made the decision. He just he wasn't going to listen to anything else that anybody had to say about God because he had been lied to before. And so he was just going to protect himself. He wasn't going to be lied to ever again. Well, that's come. I've heard that in a variety of flavors. People have been to church and somebody abused them verbally or otherwise, and so they've just made up their mind, they're not going to listen anymore. to the word of the kingdom. It doesn't matter who it is. They're just going to protect themselves. Satan may use your own suspicions from the past to doubt any good from any minister now or from any Christian ever because of these suspicions, you feel like you need to hold on to to protect yourself. Well, the evil one doesn't care. He doesn't care if your attention is on on the hypocrites. He doesn't care if your attention is on all those other really bad centers. He doesn't care if your attention is on the distant past or the recent past, so long as your attention is not on the Word of God today. That's what matters to him. You might convince yourself. You might say to yourself, oh, I'm not going to fall into that trap again. You may say to yourself, I've fallen into that trap before. I'm not going to do it again. I want you to consider Proverbs 26, 27 that tells us whoever digs a pit will fall into it and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. Maybe you think this way. That your excuse for whatever reason it is that you come ready. To not even engage with the word that you're going to hear. Maybe you think to yourself, That's the perfect pit. And all those other Christians, they're going to fall into it. This stone I have, it's the perfect stone. I'm going to roll it right over the preacher. The Proverbs tells us that he who digs a pit falls into it. And he who rolls a stone will have it rolled back on him. People in Jesus' day found lots of excuses. to not truly with their heart engage in the word that he was preaching. Consider a couple of examples of excuses that they made to him in his day. Think about why they didn't want to listen to him when he came back home and he preached his first sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth. He got a very cold reception that day. You know why? Listen to this excuse that they gave. This is from Matthew 13. It says, And when he had come to his own country, that is, he'd been out, he had already been performing some miracles and preaching in other places. And he comes back home. He'd come back to his own country. He taught them in their synagogues that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? So they had heard the stories about the hometown boy, how he had gone out and they have heard these stories about miracles and wonderful things happening. And here he finally he comes back home. He's going to he's going to preach to us. I mean, heard all these stories about him. And in that context, he preaches from Isaiah. That there would be one who would come and would proclaim good tidings. And he preaches that sermon and he indicates that he's the fulfillment of that messianic prophecy, and they are amazed and they are Astonished, and they say, where did this man get this wisdom in these mighty works? And then they begin to say things like this. Is this not the carpenter's son? Hmm. Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas and his sisters? Are they not all with us? Wait a second. Wait a second. We know who he is. He's familiar to us. Yes, some of the older members of that synagogue perhaps remembered him growing up in the streets there in Nazareth. They remembered. They know his dad. He's just a carpenter. They know his mom, his brothers and sisters. Why, they're all here with us. He's normal. Why, he's just ordinary. He's just... Why, he's not better than us. Wait a second. He's claiming now to be the fulfillment of a messianic prophecy, Matthew says, they begin to ask these questions. Well, we know whose dad is. We know who his mom is. We know his brothers and sisters are all here with us. Matthew says there. So they were offended at him. They were offended him. Do you hear the excuse? Do you see why the seed that the sower spread in the synagogue in Nazareth, why it landed just right there on the top and there was no engagement of the soil of their hearts with the word, the very gracious and wonderful word that he preached? There's no way he can be better than us because we know him. He's ordinary. You see how they were only cheating themselves. Oh, they thought they had a pit, didn't they? They dug it. Well, we know his dad. He's the carpenter. We know his mom and his sisters. They're all here with us. This is a pit that he can't get out of, but they dug it. And they're the ones that fell into it. They're the ones that were only cheating themselves. Does this describe you? What kind of a listener are you? Are you not receiving God's word because you are nurturing some kind of bitterness? Do you not receive God's word because of unreasonable suspicions? Will you let another's sin keep you from finding forgiveness for your own? Perhaps you think to yourself, That if you saw Christians doing good works, if you could find Christians or if you could find a church doing really good works, well, then you would listen and then you would believe. But that excuse was also made in Jesus day. Remember from Matthew 12 here, here in the context, look at the chapter 12 and verse 22. Then one was brought to Jesus, who was demon possessed, blind and mute. And he healed him. Can you think of a better work that Jesus could have done for this man, demon possessed, blind and mute? And then Jesus heals the blind man, so that the blind man, the man that was blind and mute, he now he is both speaking and he is seeing. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, could this be the son of David? That was the right question to ask. Oh, but the Pharisees, then now when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub. What? Are you serious? Here is Jesus doing the most amazing of works, the best of works, a work that cannot be denied. And they come up with an excuse. You might think if they had seen him doing a good work, then they would have Believe him, but here they see him doing the best of works, a work that no other man could have done. It's irrefutable evidence of his divine power. And here is one who is able to bind the evil one and go into the house of the strong man and plunder his house and take whatever he wants. But no, they have an excuse. Now, he he's he's fighting demons because he's with the demons. Yes, that's right. You see, It's an excuse no matter what they see him do, they're going to find it. Do you think yourself if you could only find Christians doing good works within? No, the heart is hard. They rolled a stone, didn't they? There they come with this stone rolling it. Well, he only cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub. And the stone is actually rolled back on them. They dig a pit and they're the ones falling into it. They're the ones cheating themselves because they won't hear his word. There is an excuse. What if you saw someone raised from the dead? Now, that would be impressive. Would you then listen for preacher raised someone from the dead? Would you then hear the word of God and really engage your heart with what was being said? Well, you remember the story perhaps from Luke 16. Jesus tells a story there. There's a rich man and there's a poor man and both die. The rich man goes to torment. The poor man goes to heaven. And the rich man is able to speak with Abraham. And he says, I beg you, therefore, that you would send him. That is, send the poor man in heaven. Send him back to my father's house. I have five brothers. Let the poor man Come back from the dead and send him to my house that he may testify so that my brothers don't come and join me in this place of torment." And Abraham said to him, they have Moses and they have the prophets. Well, what did Abraham mean by that? It means that they had the Old Testament scriptures. They had the word. They had the words that Moses wrote and they had all the words that the prophets had spoken and were written down. They have Moses and the prophets. Let them do what? Let them hear them. Let them listen to them. Let your brothers engage their hearts with the Word that God has given through Moses and the prophets. The rich man said, he said, no, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But Abraham said to the rich man, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, even if one were to rise from the dead. The heart is hard. This hard soil is so hard that the seed can land on it. And even if one who has this hard heart were to see someone raised from the dead, they still would not believe if they're not engaging their hearts with the Word of God and truly listening and entrusting themselves and believing the things that they hear. So let's be honest about it. If you have this excuse that you're not listening because you don't see enough good works. Well, even if you saw works performed with divine power, let's be honest, you still wouldn't believe that's the condition of the hard heart. You've got to acknowledge this. The Bible is not lying to you. God knows. Even if you were to see someone raised from the dead, you still would not believe. Hard heart is very, very hard. The problem is not with the sower and the problem is not with the sea. The problem is not with anybody else. Jesus is here sitting in the boat and he looks at all these faces looking back at him and he wants them to understand that they can't if they're not engaging with the word, they can't look to their left and they can't look to the right. They need to look to themselves. It's not because Jesus needs to do something better or needs to say something different. He's giving them the word of the kingdom. The problem is if you are not engaged in the word, the problem if week after week you come and you listen to the word of the kingdom preached to you and nothing ever happens. Jesus is saying it's your fault. It's the condition of your heart. It's not anybody else's fault. It's not it's not the Crusades and it's not anybody else. Jesus himself spoke about another excuse or this this general idea of excuse making no matter no matter what happens, and that's the way excuses go. He said to the Pharisees at one point, this is from Luke seven, he said, John the Baptist came. And you remember how he came? He would have been an odd man to look at. Even by first century standards of living, he would have been very odd and different. There he is dressed in very odd looking clothes and there he is eating very odd food, locust and wild honey. Jesus said, John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine. And you say he has a demon. That's the way the Pharisees thought and justified to themselves why they weren't going to listen to the preaching of repentance from sins that John was preaching. That's this was the excuse that they had to themselves and that they had of them in themselves, and they walked out of the Jordan. They hear this man preaching that they have to repent of their sins, that that God, if he chose to, could raise up children to Abraham from these stones here on the shore of the Jordan. But he's preaching to the Pharisees that they have they ought not say that they are not even begin to think in their hearts that they're the children of Abraham, because God could raise it up from the stones if he wanted to. They stood there listening to John and they justified their rejection of his preaching, they justified the rejection of the word of the kingdom by saying to themselves, he doesn't eat bread and he doesn't drink wine. Look how he's dressed. Look how he looks. He has a demon. We will dismiss him as if to imply what? You know what? If John, if he would just dress like we're dressed, if John would just come out of the wilderness, if he would eat bread, if he would drink wine, if he would just be normal, well, then we might consider what he had. That's implied in that excuse, isn't it? But what happened when the Son of Man came? Here's what Jesus says, for John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say he has a demon. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collars. You can't win, can you? Here comes someone He doesn't drink wine. Here comes someone. He does drink wine. It doesn't matter what you want. You've already made up your mind. You've already made up your mind as the prejudice listener, the Pharisees had said within their hearts were hard. It didn't matter what the messenger looked like. It didn't matter what he ate or drank. Their minds were made up. They weren't going to listen to the preaching of the word of the kingdom of God. So this. The hard ground of the heart may be found in the prejudiced listener, and we could go on, couldn't we, with the excuses? Well, there's a second place where the hard ground of this heart may be found. It may be found in the frivolous or the careless listener. Consider this if this applies to you. The Lord's day arrives. And this kind of person sits in the pew, but is given no thought. And has made no preparation for the consequences and internal effects of the word. They're just careless, they've given no thought to what is about to happen. No thought and no mental preparation is given to the possibility of being affected by the preaching of the word of God. Listen to what one commentator says here, he says. In such cases, the lack of understanding is the fault of neither the message nor the messenger. In a basic sense, the hearers do know what is being said. They know the meaning of the words, sentences and concepts. The point is that it all means nothing to them. It has no attraction to them, no claim upon them. They're just not interested in the dirt and therefore unresponsive. Many, probably the vast majority of unconverted people are like this. They can be the nicest people, but to them, church is a bore. And they just have no interest in the gospel. Their minds are on other things, they have other commitments, and they do not listen out of any zeal to learn from Christ or to change their ways. They don't even know that they have let Satan come and snatch the seed away. So the hard ground of the heart may be found in the prejudice listener. It may be found here in the frivolous or the careless listener. This frivolous or careless or non engaged listener immediately forgets what he has heard or what she has heard, because no effort is given to take the Scripture in thoughtfully, to take it in personally. And in making that choice, if you make that choice to come and just sort of be zoned out every Sunday. Do you hear what Jesus is saying there about this soil? Do you hear what he's saying about the bird? When you make that choice to come week after week and just be totally zoned out and disengaged from what is happening, you're actually choosing to be in cooperation with the wicked one. Not thinking about a sermon, we have to be sure about this doesn't mean you're not thinking it's just that you're choosing to think about other things. What is your mind on on a typical Sunday morning when the word is preached? Think about it this way, consider this, if you will. Failing to repent of carelessness, it creates a playground for the devil. Or maybe a better picture here, drawn more directly from the parable, carelessness lays out an easy banquet for the wicked one. He's like a bird, Jesus says, he's like a bird that swoops in, but he's not he's not a gentle songbird. He's more like a vulture. No, he's no, he's worse than a vulture, because at least vultures have the decency to wait until something is dead before they swoop in. He's worse than a vulture. There he is in the tree or in the fence post watching that hard ground. He knows where that seed is going to land and not be engaged. And here he comes. He's worse than a vulture perching and watching and swooping to come and feed in on living souls. Remember Alfred Hitchcock's movie I've mentioned before, I like scary movies, right? One of the classic the birds. I love that movie. To me, that's just genius how you can take birds and make a scary movie. I like I like that movie. But you know, in that movie, the birds, at least the people are trying everything they can to stop the birds. They're very diligent, coming up with everything they can to try to get away from the birds. And it's a scary movie. Jesus here in this parable is describing the person who isn't doing anything at all to stop this wicked vulture of souls from freely feeding upon themselves. And all the person has to do is just simply be frivolous or careless or disengaged. All you have to do to lay out this banquet feast for this vulture of souls is to come and totally zone out. and that seed, whatever it is that was spread that morning, that Lord's Day morning, it will be gathered up very, very easily by that vulture. You know what's scary about it is you can't feel it when this happens and you don't see it. But Jesus has given us a peek into these spiritual realities. So the hard ground of this heart may be found in the prejudiced listener. The hard ground of this heart may be found in the frivolous or the careless or the zoned out listener. The hard ground of this heart may be found in the distracted listener. The distracted listener. I'm going to read you something here from Benjamin Keech, one of our great Reformed Baptist forefathers. If it weren't so sad, some of this would almost be funny. Here is a description of the distracted listener. Benjamin Cage says this. I'm going to read a couple of things here that he offers for your consideration. He says, Another of this sort of hearer, Satan fills full of earthly thoughts, so that as soon as he hath heard a word which greatly concerns him, it is presently lost in the crowd of worldly cogitations, worldly thoughts. Perhaps the person is poor and he's thinking where to borrow a little money or having met with some losses or disappointments the week past. This so perplexes his mind that he can think of nothing else. Maybe he has some bad debts and his thoughts are taken up about them. Also, another having a good trade the week before, he is thinking about how much he has gained, and by that means the devil catches away the word which he has newly heard. Or possibly somebody has injured him and he's thinking how to right himself or being defamed. He is so disturbed that he cannot hear to his prophet what the minister says or leastwise not retain it in his mind, by which means the devil catches the word out of his thoughts and it becomes unprofitable. Or if a young person, it may be he's in love and while he is hearing of the word, he is consulting how to act in order to obtain the person he has set his heart upon. And this man is, by Satan, so filled with these thoughts that he catches away the word. Or perhaps the devil fills others of this sort with disquieting thoughts about the times, the deadness of trade, the dearness of corn, and by that way he catches away the word they hear preached. Or, says Satan to others by his inward suggestions, You're young and these things belong to old people who are going out of the world. It'll be time enough to mind the the the the concernments of your soul many years hence. And so the devil catches the word out of their hearts or the person's behold and are brought under the word. And he begins to lay what he hears to heart. The devil presently injects such thoughts into their hearts such as these. I was called formally and now did slight that call and offer of God's grace. And you did stifle those convictions when you had them. That was the day of your visitation. But now it's too late. Your day is gone, and so the devil catches the word out of their hearts. Satan suggests and others that if they regard the word which they hear so as to become religious, They will be reproached and derided. Nay, may sometime or another be persecuted and thrown into prison and be utterly undone. And the thoughts of such things they cannot bear, and by this means Satan catches the word away from these. Moreover, Satan strives to deceive them by telling them that many find repentance at last when they come to lie upon a deathbed. And from this saith the sinner, this is no doubt a truth. Therefore, why may not I? Many have taken their fill of all the delights and pleasures of this world and have been happy forever in heaven also. And I hope I so may be. And thus Satan catches the word out of their hearts before it has taken any root therein. The distracted listener may be distracted in a whole variety of ways, all kinds of other thoughts. That Satan brings in to catch the word out of their hearts. Well, what in the world does this have to do with our series of the book of Hebrews? The book of Exodus takes us on a tour of Mount Sinai. God used angelic messengers to bring his word, where God used a mediator, Moses, who climbed that mountain and then descended with God's word, and he descended with the terms of that old covenant. It's a book where God used Aaron and the priest in the tabernacle to communicate his word there at Mount Sinai. The book of Hebrews takes us on a tour of a new mountain. Where a new mediator descends to give the terms of a new and better covenant, which establishes a new and better priesthood. And the book of Hebrews is teaching us that this comparison of old and new covenants and old and new mediators of weak and better priesthoods of old and new temples. But the book is not just a comparison of those things. It's drawn our attention down to the people who were there at the base of Mount Sinai. The book of Hebrews has drawn our attention down to the response to those things that God gave them there at that first mountain. And so as important as is the doctrine of covenants, And as important as the doctrine of priesthood is of equal importance is the response in our hearts to that teaching. And so the book has told us how they responded. I'm going to flip over to Hebrews real quick here. The book has told us in chapter four. That the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it, the seed was spread. Yes, in the form of shadows and tight, but there that seed was spread and landed right on top with no real engagement in that soil. The response is explained, dear saints, in terms of their listening. What kind of listeners were they? Well, they heard just fine, but they did not believe. They did not entrust themselves to the gospel promises that Moses preached to them that were typified and displayed before them in the tabernacle. They heard and they would not engage their hearts with it. This is why the book of Hebrews has repeatedly brought this application to us. What kind of listener are you? What kind of listener are you? Those at the base of Mount Sinai, they wouldn't listen. They wouldn't listen. So we've had in this book, chapter two, verse one, therefore, we must give the more earnest what? Heeding. To what? To the things we have heard, lest we drift away. The book of Hebrews asks, what kind of listener are you? When the kingdom of the word, the kingdom of God, the word of God comes to you, Chapter three, verse one has told us this. Therefore, holy brother, brethren, takers of the heavenly calling, consider. Consider him the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus Christ. Consider what? Consider here that Moses was but a servant pointing to things that would be spoken afterward. The book is telling us you've got to listen. What kind of listener? Are you chapter 3 verse 7 tells us, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you'll do what if you will hear his voice. Today, if you will hear his voice, the book is asking us, what kind of listener are you when the word is preached? Again, in chapter three, verses 14 and 15, for we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence Steadfast to the end. Well, in this context, what does it mean for people to hold their confidence steadfast to the end? It means that they're listening steadfastly to the end. It means that today they're hearing His voice. Chapter 4, at the beginning of Chapter 4, verses 1 and 2, like I've already read. A promise remains of entering His rest. Let us fear, lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith and those who heard it. The question is coming to us again. What kind of listener are you? What kind of listener are you? There are several more examples that we've seen. I want to leave you with some good news today. If you look back at Matthew 13, you'll see what this good news is. There's good news for you today. And first of all, the good news is this. There is a sower. There is a sower, there is one who gives out or spreads the word, and we know that he is the son of man. The one who is the fulfillment of those wonderful prophecies in Daniel that one would come. The power and authority of heaven. There is a sower. And he gives out and he spreads the seed. The parable says that the sower goes forth and Jesus first did this in person. But the good news is that Jesus still goes forth to spread his word and he uses servants. He uses ambassadors to spread his word. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said to them in chapter nine of first Corinthians, he said to them, he described his preaching to them. as sowing spiritual things for them. Christ is the sower and he employs ambassadors in his work, sending them out into the field to spread the seed of the word of the kingdom. When Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians, he said to pagan, formerly pagan Gentiles living in Ephesus, he said that Christ came and preached to you. Well, how did Christ come and preach to the Ephesians? Well, Christ came when Paul came. The sower was there spreading the seed through his ambassador in Apostle Paul. Look at what we've read. If you look in Colossians, what we read earlier at the beginning, right before I came to preach. Look what happened in this small. By that time, it was a small backwater, unimportant town in the Roman Empire, this town of Colossi. What is it that came to this unimportant town of Colossi? Says the word of the truth of the gospel came the word, verse four, verse five, the word of the truth of the gospel came to Colossi. How did it come to this town? How did that come to this town where there's a man we don't know much about him? His name was Epaphras. He might have been from Colossae. He might have been from Ephesus. We don't know. We don't know exactly when he was converted. Maybe he had traveled to Ephesus and heard Paul preaching there. But how all of that worked out, he ended up here in Colossae preaching. So here is Christ by means of his ambassador, Epaphras. Paul called him a faithful minister of the gospel. And there's a papyrus. He's putting his hand into the seed bag that hangs over his shoulder. And there he goes into these barren fields in Colossi and he spreads that seed. There he was, he had spread that seed faithfully. And now at some point later, Paul is able to write a letter because there is a field that has grown up and it's bearing fruit. Where before there was no church at all. Now there's a church. How did it come? How did it come to Colossi? How did the word of the truth of the gospel come, it came by the means of a preacher named Epaphras. It came by the means of preaching. Well, what must have happened? What must have happened there by God's grace for anything to happen with the seed to be spread? What tells us here repeatedly? Look at verse 3. Let me just start reading there. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard. Of which you heard. The paphras came and he spread that seed. And by God's grace, they engaged themselves with the preaching of the word of the kingdom They engage themselves as if one mention is not enough. We can read, which has come to you as it has also in all the world, which is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day you heard. What is it that came to them by means of preaching and them listening to the preaching of the word of God? Look at verse six. Look at what came to them. It was the grace of God in truth that came to them. How is it grace in heaven? Grace from God who is in heaven. How did this grace, as is listed out, the grace of faith and the grace of love and the grace of hope and the grace of bearing the fruits of faith and the grace of bearing the fruit of repentance? How is it that this grace from heaven came to the souls of men and women living in this backwater, unimportant town? God brought it by the means of preaching. He brought it by the means of this man, a faithful servant named Epaphras. who preached the word of the kingdom in that place. And it was believed upon. So there's good news for you today that there is a sower. And this sower goes forth with his seed. And you see here that this is a seed of grace. It's a seed of grace. What kind of listener are you? What kind of listener are you? Listen to these words. Just listen to these words as Paul describes how he and the others who were with him worked as ambassadors on behalf of Christ to go into Corinth, another pagan and Gentile center of idolatry. And Paul and others went with him and they spread the seed of Christ's word and spread it and it bore a crop and it was bearing fruit. Listen to Paul. Describe that process. He says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Isn't that good seed? If he is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That's good seed. Reconciliation with God, enmity removed, wrath of God removed, condemnation removed, reconciliation. Can you think of any better seed that could be spread? Paul says he's given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now, then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, for he has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Paul was an ambassador. There was the sower, Christ himself, sowing his seed through the ambassador, Paul, spreading the word of the kingdom. We then, Paul says, as workers together with him also plead with you not to receive. And here he says not to receive the grace of God and they know what they had coming to them when Paul preached the word of God to them. It was grace, grace from God who is in heaven. being brought to the souls of men and women on earth through the means of the preaching of Paul and the others with him. Don't receive this grace in vain, Paul says. Well, there's a promise. Let me show you a couple of one more promise, if you'll look at First John, we'll conclude here. The seed that comes with the preaching of God's Word comes with a promise. Maybe you've read this before, maybe you've heard this before, but I just want to remind you today, if you'll listen. If you'll listen. The seed comes with blessed promises, and this is one of my favorite promises that I like to go to and think about. We're in 1 John 1 and verse 5. This is the message which we have heard from him. This is the seed, isn't it, that's spread. This is the seed that's cast out on that field. This is the message which we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. When the Word of God is preached to you, listen, we don't stand up here and try to come up with cunningly devised fables to spread to everybody. When the Word of God is preached, it is a message that in God there is light. In Him there is no darkness at all. When His Word is preached, it's light. You can trust the Word of God. You can entrust yourself to it. You can lay down your excuses and you can lay down your suspicions. God is light in Him. There is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from. And here's one of my favorite words in this passage. All. I love that word all there. Cleanses us from all sin. There is no clod of dirt in a heart so hard that God can't break it up and forgive it. There is no hardness of heart that God can't forgive in Christ. There is no length of years in hardness of heart that God will not readily deal with in Christ. I love that word. We have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanses us from all sin, even the sin of the hardness of heart. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Here's the seed of the Word of God, if you'll let this settle down into your heart today. confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If you'll listen.