Please understand these things – they are important. Grace is for the undeserving, the guilty, the needy – or it wouldn’t be grace. The gospel is not an extension of the law, demanding a holy character as a condition for its blessings. Grace comes to sinners as they are, and makes them new creatures – holy creatures. Only when we are empty soil, are we ready to receive God’s seed as it is scattered in our direction. And then, when as a new believer, we think that we have received that grace, we must be careful. Don’t let the thorns grow or the birds fly down on us. Make sure that the dew of Heaven can reach the roots of our souls in order to do its miraculous work. If I have received the Lord’s precious seed, however small its beginnings, the Lord will work in such a way to make us fruitful productive glory-giving creatures of His garden.
Remember that this evening’s text comes in the context of the Parable of the sower.
But this parable was repeated by Mark and Luke, and each of them contain slightly different specifics. In Matthew the importance of hearing the Word of God is stressed. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” There are some who don’t hear because “their ears are dull of hearing.” There are others with spiritual ears who are called “Blessed…for they hear.” In other words, many people hear – but they don’t hear. That can be a particular disaster when it comes to the truth of God. When God’s seed falls on the hard-packed path, as the saying goes, “it goes in one ear and out the other.” And, “whoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even what he hath.” How often have people, especially children been given the seed over and over again, but the more familiar they become with it, the less appetizing it is to them?
In Mark’s account of the parable, there is an ever so slight change which might mean something. In Mark 4:24 the Saviour says, “Take heed what you hear.” In other Post Falls churches, there are better preachers and orators than what you have here. And it seems that a lot of people don’t care what is preached, so long as it is preached well. If a man he can be rhetorical and sensational; if he can tell lots of cute stories – If he can dazzle people’s ears, he will have a large congregation or congregations. Sadly, many people in those congregations are not taking particular heed about what they are hearing. Time was with our grandparents when, if a man went half an inch astray in his doctrine, people would have nothing to do with him. If we, or an angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than that which you have received, don’t listen. Be the good sheep of the Good Shepherd. “A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers.” Solomon once wrote, “Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” “Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” “Be not carried about with many and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established with Grace.”
There are lots of people who superficially receive the Word in stony places. When someone says, “this is the Gospel” they latch on to it never considering that it is just a bit too easy. So they say a little prayer, and think that they are redeemed. They confess a few of their worst sins, and the burden of their guilt is somehow lifted. They jump into the baptismal tank, and they feel clean. But as time moves on, and the religious fraud continues, their excitement begins to wane. There is so little root – maybe there isn’t any root at all. In that context, the Saviour gives us the words of Matthew 13:12 – If you really receive what you hear, you shall have more. Unto everyone that has God’s blessings, more and more and more shall be given. But if, like the stony ground, you never really possess the seed – If all that you do it let it sprout in the surface-soil which conceals the rock of a deadened heart, then when trials come along you will lose what you have. Your empty and vain religion will vanish like a the morning fog.
In Luke 8:18 this principle is used in reference to taking heed HOW we hear. “Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever has not, from him shall be taken even that which he seems to have.” Is it possible to listen to the gospel theologically or doctrinally? Or is it possible to hear the truth of God as entertainment or as a joke? The only way to really hear the gospel properly is to give it full and entire possession of the heart. The Gospel is exclusive. It will not be one of two masters. One kind of soil received the seed after a fashion, and then it also received the seed of tares and thorns. How many so-called evangelical churches had Halloween services last Thursday? How many sponsored haunted houses or invited witches and zombies to feast on their candy? How many churches are as filled with the thorns of the world as they are the Word of God? What I am trying to say is that many people receive the good seed along with the weedy seed. But Christ says, “be careful, how you hear the Gospel! “
The Jews, for example, heard the Words of Christ from His very lips. Never Man spoke as He did. They listened to Him, but they never RECEIVED His Word – they didn’t understand His meaning. They only caught the symbols and the miracles. Then after a little while when they grew angry, they persecuted Him and hounded Him to death. As a result the preaching of the Word of God ceased among them. The Apostles turned to the Gentiles. And that same thing is taking place today. Where is the gospel being most happily received in the world? It’s not here – it’s in some parts of Asia, some parts of South America, some parts of Africa. But not here.
Think about what the Saviour said – in a personal way.
“Whoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.” Have you ever said – “It never rains but it pours”? Have you ever said, “It takes money to make money, and that’s why I have no money.” That is less true of earthly capital than it is of the spiritual variety. A little bit of depression, somehow creates a tsunami of depression. A little backsliding produces an icy hill and our feet are out from under us. But where there is a small gift of grace more grace seems to follow it. When a man believes the Gospel in its most elementary form, that man will soon be taught the higher Truths of God. Think back on your first arguments against the gospel – but…. but…. but…. Despite your arguments the Lord broke through your doubts and problems, and look at you now. The child first learns to recount his numbers in order – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. When that is mastered he can go on to addition, 2 added to 4 equals 6. And then comes subtraction and eventually graduation from MIT.
When a man says, “I understand very little, but I know that I am a sinner. I see that Christ came into the world to save sinners, therefore I will trust Him to save me.” That man already has something special, but he shall have a whole lot more. If you can’t follow the Lord into the depths of Bible doctrine, hang in there – you will if you don’t give up. For how many of us, when we couldn’t grasp one doctrine, but we accepted it by faith, a few years later, the Lord blessed us with the understanding of that truth and a dozen even more difficult truths? How many of us have had a hard time loving a certain brother, but our love for Christ was real. And later, after we looked once again, that unlovable one is just a bit dearer than he once was. Make sure of your love for Christ, and who knows where your heart will take you. Will you eventually be a missionary to Iran or Pakistan?
True grace will grow – there is no fear about that. If the bulb is really alive, there will be a little green sprout come spring and a flower will follow that. But if it is a dead bulb to start with, no matter how good the soil and how much water, nothing will come of it. A seed may be so small that you can scarcely see it and yet, if it is a living seed, none can tell how much it will develop.
“Whoever hath, to him shall be given.” If this is connected with the parable of the sower it becomes clear that God gives more – by a process of growth. And then, turning the Truth of God the other way, we see that all growth in Grace is still the gift of God. Do you remember Ruth, gleaning in the field? She came away with a lot more than what she bargained for. She still had to work, but her Lord blessed her efforts.
The Lord blesses us with a baby – a little tiny human being. We aren’t surprised or upset that a six-month old baby is not very tall. We are pleased with his size no matter how big he is. But if, when he is 18, he is still the size of an 8-year-old, then something is wrong. Oh how often this is true spiritually. The problem is not with the sower or the seed. The problem has got to be in the soils and whether or not the seed has been well received.
“Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”
I can think of no better example than that of Judas Iscariot. We can’t be exactly sure what kind of soil he was. Did he hate God, or hate Christ, or the doctrine of sovereign grace, or something else? Was his heart so hard that the word, which he heard over and over again, couldn’t penetrate the stone in his chest? I doubt that. More likely under the surface was a gravel bed of wilfulness and wickedness. The seed quickly spouted, but when the world turned against Christ, and blazed down on Judas, he withered. Or perhaps when he was given the office of treasurer, the cares and temptations of life overcame the truth of God within him and he choked to death.
Picture Judas among the disciples on the day in which Jesus’ preached this message. He had recently seen the healing of the man possessed by the devil. He had heard the Lord’s arguments against the Pharisaic attacks. He may have said “amen” when he heard about Jonah and the Queen of Sheba. His heart may have swelled just a bit when the Lord Jesus pointed generally to the disciples and said, “Behold my mother and my brethren.” But when it came to the parable of the Sower, his heart was not prepared to receive the message. And in a few short months everything that he had was stripped from him. His testimony and discipleship were an hollow fraud. They bag was taken from him and given to another. He even lost his life. “Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”
On occasion we may see a drunk stagger out of one of the local pub or bars, and we may shake our heads at the loss of a man’s life. We may think to ourselves that there is probably not a quicker ride than from such a place as that into Hell. But in reality, the final descent from church into Hell, will be quicker and far more devastating.
Please, O please, realize that you could be just like Judas. Be sure that God’s seed is within you. Can you see it growing and doing its work to bring glory to the Lord? Consider these words of the Saviour – “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.”