The Stony Ground Hearer, Part 2

Driving home: not all joyful response to the gospel is a saving response to the gospel.

Explains the physical condition of the 'stony ground' as a thin layer of soil over bedrock, making root penetration impossible, which illustrates the superficiality of the stony ground hearer's faith.

And the scripture tells us, Then comes Satan, the adversary, and snatches away the seed that was sown in his heart that he should not be saved. Then we began to contemplate together this second kind of soil, that which is called the stony or rocky ground soil. Now the facts of the parable are very straightforward and clear. Once we understand that our Lord is not saying this was soil in which there were some rocks or stones, but he's speaking of a thin layer of soil on the top of a shelf of rock, which made root penetration down into the depths of the soil utterly impossible. The seed germinat...

9:00 - 10:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: tribulation and persecution, are effective revealers of the true state of the heart of a professing Christian.

Describes how a farmer would expect a harvest from a germinated seedling, but the rootless plant was doomed from the outset, illustrating that superficial faith, though initially promising, is destined to wither.

You see, You see, our Lord makes a parallel between the Son, which became the agent to reveal the rootless plan for what it was, and he says in like manner, it is the Son of tribulation and persecution which shows the joyful but rootless believer for what he really is. And the Son is none other than the combined influence of tribulation and persecution. Luke says that in the time of testing, they fall away. Now what's essential for our understanding of the passage is this. The Son created no new conditions apart from sucking the moisture out of the soil. It simply revealed the true condition o...

14:03 - 15:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin conducts a word study on 'tribulation' (flipsis), explaining its literal meaning of 'to press upon' and its expanded use to describe various forms of pressure, oppression…

Used to illustrate 'tribulation' as a period of intense pressure and anguish.

The word for affliction in its noun form is used in a variety of ways that give us a good feel for its significance as we see it in the New Testament. In John 16, 21, it's the word used to describe the anguish of childbirth. What does a woman go through when her labor pains come upon her? She enters a period of affliction, of unusual pressure.

17:58 - 18:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin conducts a word study on 'tribulation' (flipsis), explaining its literal meaning of 'to press upon' and its expanded use to describe various forms of pressure, oppression…

Used to illustrate 'tribulation' as adverse, pressured circumstances like false accusation, imprisonment, and slavery.

She is in a pressured state. Circumstance. It's used in Acts 7, 12 to describe Joseph's trials. Now, think back of the life of Joseph.

18:26 - 18:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin conducts a word study on 'tribulation' (flipsis), explaining its literal meaning of 'to press upon' and its expanded use to describe various forms of pressure, oppression…

Used to illustrate 'afflictions' as the peculiar pressures experienced by a married person in their flesh.

In 1 Corinthians 7, 21... Paul says that's what a married man will experience in his flesh, as opposed to the single person.

18:56 - 19:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin conducts a word study on 'tribulation' (flipsis), explaining its literal meaning of 'to press upon' and its expanded use to describe various forms of pressure, oppression…

Used to illustrate 'affliction' as the destitution, vulnerability, and poverty faced by widows, especially in New Testament times.

It's the word used to describe the peculiar pressures of a widow in James 1, 27. Pure religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. Now, think of the peculiar circumstances of widows, particularly in New Testament times. The pressure of being destitute.

19:28 - 19:49 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin conducts a word study on 'tribulation' (flipsis), explaining its literal meaning of 'to press upon' and its expanded use to describe various forms of pressure, oppression…

Used to illustrate 'affliction' as the outward persecution, banishment, and loneliness experienced by John for his testimony of Christ.

The impending, or if not actual, poverty of the widowed state. That's the word that's used. It's the word John uses in Revelation 1, 9 when he writes to the seven churches. John, in exile for the testimony of Christ, describes himself as a companion in affliction.

20:07 - 20:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now the person is called upon to believe one of two things about God, that which seems to be written by his providence in afflictive circumstances, or that which is written in the revelation made of himself in Christ and…

Describes how God's providence can seem to say 'God is harsh, God is cruel' through sustained pressures like poverty, illness, or loss, pressing down like a 'universal vice' on the professed disciple.

This God of love, this God of grace, this God of forgiving mercy, then in his inscrutable providence begins to let the sun of affliction beat down upon this professed disciple. And now his providence begins to say in dark, jagged letters, not that God is love, God is merciful, God is kind, God is gracious, but his providence seems to say, God is harsh, God is calloused, God is cruel, God is tight-fisted, God is narrow-spirited. He allows me to lie day after day under this pressure of poverty, this pressure of sin, of physical illness, this pressure of unresolved questions about my future, this...

34:12 - 35:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider if your spiritual history, or that of others, can be explained by a lack of root system revealed by affliction or persecution.

Martin recounts Paul's sufferings (beaten, stoned, hunted) to contrast with his description of them as 'light affliction,' demonstrating a true Christian's perspective on trials.

If you've ever seen what the real issues are, you'll say, if becoming a Christian meant from the moment I professed faith in Christ, I had to have all of my fingers put in thumb screws and I had to be on a torture rack for the next 50 years to go to heaven when I die and to look upon Christ with joy, it would be worth it. If you ever really saw what the issues were, what is a little affliction? Paul said, our light affliction which is but for a moment. That's a Christian talking.

45:22 - 45:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Walk softly and cry to God for deeply embedded roots in Christ, especially if you are new in the faith.

Used as an example of tribulation dropping 'like a thunderbolt out of a clear blue sky,' where Job lost everything but life, yet 'sinned not nor charged God foolishly'.

Walk softly and cry to God that your roots will be deeply embedded in Christ, that when the sun arises and the surface moisture is sucked away, it'll be evident you've got something more than a surface response to the gospel. Tribulation, afflictive circumstances will come, and sometimes they drop down upon us like a thunderbolt out of a clear blue sky. That's what happened to Job. You remember?

48:53 - 49:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be buoyed up by the faith of others or satisfied with being carried along by their joy and devotion; ensure your personal rooting in Christ.

Martin shares a personal anecdote from his 50th birthday celebration where his sister reminded him of other young people who professed faith alongside him in 1952 but later fell away, humbling him and prompting reflection on the temporary nature of some professions.

Our Lord observed as he preached that in spite of all of his earnest preaching, his simple plain preaching, and though he had the spirit upon him in a way no other sower ever did, that there were many in his day who heard the word, received it with joy. But when the sun of persecution and affliction arose, they were caused to stumble and they fell away. It's not a pleasant thing to face reality, is it? I was forced to face it in a way that I hadn't anticipated on Thanksgiving Day. When we gathered for our family reunion, the family took occasion to celebrate my 50th birthday six months after t...

51:28 - 52:44 Read in full sermon