Stony Ground Hearers Part 1

The point: Remember that whenever the message comes, it must be perceived before it can be embraced unto salvation. There must be an inward revelation of truth before there can be a heart response and embrace of the truth.

Compares Satan's immediate activity in snatching away the Word from wayside hearers to birds following a plow to pick up grubs or following a sower to pluck up seed that doesn't penetrate the soil.

The person said, that's all pie in the sky. Not relevant to me and my need. He doesn't think it a matter worthy of his serious meditation and immediately, as the birds of the sky, as the birds of the sky, as the air followed the plow. And some of you have seen this.

8:36 - 8:50 Read in full sermon

The point: By prayer, we must prepare our hearts that they be not found beaten paths when we come to receive the word. Then we must meditate upon the word that there might be understanding and perception. Then we must resist the en…

Martin uses his own experience of being warmer while preaching than the congregation is while sitting to encourage listeners not to let the heat be a 'bird' of distraction, refusing to give the devil ground.

And if you're warm just sitting, I'm twice as warm preaching. Right? So if I don't complain, you won't complain. And we refuse to give the devil ground tonight.

10:05 - 10:15 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details Jesus' interpretation: these hearers receive the Word with immediate joy, believing for a while, and show initial manifestations of life. However, lacking deep…

Compares the rapid initial growth of a shallow-rooted plant (stony ground) to a slower, more substantial growth of a deep-rooted plant, illustrating how superficial conversions can initially outstrip genuine ones in visible enthusiasm.

In fact if six feet away there were an identical seed sown on deep earth this would be this little thing would be completely outstripping it in its immediate growth because the other one was taking some of its strength and substance to send the root down. Whereas this fellow could send all his life up.

17:22 - 17:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: All joyful response to the word of God is not saving response to the word of God.

These examples are used to show that not all immediate, joyful responses are stony ground responses; some are genuine, quick conversions.

And to repeat all joyful response to the word of God is not saving response to the word of God. In each case it says this is the man who received the message with joy. He wasn't someone who said oh well I guess you've got to admit it I'm going to die someday and you say the only way to be fit to die is to be right with God so even though I don't want to and grudgingly no no this is not the picture of the person brought up in a Christian home who's kind of sick up to here with mom and dad's Christ and their religion and just grudgingly makes a profession to get them off his back no no this is n...

21:06 - 22:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin provides two biblical examples: the disciples in John 6 who turned away when Jesus' teaching became spiritual, and Simon the sorcerer in Acts 8, whose 'faith' was revealed…

Martin imagines how Simon's conversion would have been celebrated as a 'trophy of grace' in his day, even splashed across religious periodicals, to highlight the deceptive nature of his superficial faith before it was revealed.

give us insight into others as we encounter them in our own study Acts chapter 8 preaching on to the anointing of the spirit has seen the great moving of God in Samaria and a well-known man in that area whose name was Simon came to a profession of faith in Christ verse 13 of Acts 8 and Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized he continued with Philip and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done now if you and I had been a citizen in that town or a member of that newly born church think about that think about that what this would have meant to you here's a man who's...

25:29 - 26:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Cry to God that God will return to this nation and to his church saying biblical scriptural evangelism that'll tell people count the cost, don't run before you're called, don't be so hasty to embrace the blessings of the…

Martin uses the emotional impact of mass choirs and large crowds (like at an army football game) to illustrate how modern evangelism can manipulate emotions, producing superficial 'stony ground' responses rather than genuine conversions based on counting the cost.

of modern evangelism that don't even have the decency to at least tell the man he ought to modern evangelism beloved is geared to produce stony ground yes for with the singing of mass choirs in great multitudes which somehow plow up the emotional roots of any normal human being I can't even go to a ball game where there's fifty or twenty thousand people goose flesh runs up and down my spine when I get around that many people I can't even go to an army game and hear them saying oh army beat me oh that just gets me all I can do anything just if you're a naturally emotionally sensitive person tha...

31:23 - 32:52 Read in full sermon

The point: As parents, don't help the devil in damning the souls of your children. Pray for them, tell them of the Savior, instruct them, catechize them. Anytime they want to get on their knees and pray and ask the Lord to save the…

Martin uses the example of telling his son the moon is made of cheese to illustrate a child's natural guilelessness, warning against mistaking this for a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in children's ministry, which can produce stony ground hearers.

specific groups here is to get children saved are producing stony ground here because you see there is a natural guilelessness in a child that must never be mistaken for a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit within its heart I can tell my son almost anything God's given us a good relationship and that relationship of confidence has very little of the threads or fibers of skepticism if I told my son the moon was made of cheese if he came with a six foot long spoon he could take a hunk out of it tonight and the moon is up full he'd be waiting for the six foot long spoon but when we mistake that...

34:18 - 35:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't forget that only God can tell you when He gives you a new heart.

Martin recounts his son Joel's statement, 'Daddy, you can't tell me when God gives me a new heart, can you? But God will let me know, won't he?' to emphasize that only God can reveal a true work of grace, not human declaration.

but I want you as parents not to help the devil in damning the souls of your children pray for them tell them of the Savior instruct them catechize them anytime they want to get on their knees and pray and ask the Lord to save them encourage it but in God's name don't play God and tell them that that response has automatically gotten them into the kingdom as my son Joel said and I'll repeat it probably many times before the Lord takes me to himself and he said Daddy you can't tell me when God gives me a new heart can you I said no I can't son but he said God will let me know won't he and I sai...

35:45 - 37:14 Read in full sermon

The point: If you're that way by temperament (sweet, bubbly, enthusiastic, ready to latch on anything), then you beware lest you become stony ground hearer.

Martin describes cycles in early church history where persecution led to strength and growth, while periods of sympathetic rulers led to swelling ranks that then shrunk under renewed persecution, illustrating how trials reveal the true condition of the church.

but it wasn't long before persecution arose you remember it's recorded in Acts chapter 8 the great persecution arose after the death of Stephen they were scattered abroad a while later many began to turn their back upon Christ and go on back to temple worship and the writer to the Hebrews writes a letter the express purpose of which was to check people who had embraced the gospel joyfully and were now contemplating turning away from the gospel why because tribulation and persecution had arisen church history teaches us many things and this is one of the lessons that church history teaches us i...

41:42 - 43:11 Read in full sermon

The point: If you're that way by temperament (sweet, bubbly, enthusiastic, ready to latch on anything), then you beware lest you become stony ground hearer.

Peter's denial of Christ is used as an example of a true Christian stumbling, but ultimately being strengthened and gaining understanding through the trial, which then equipped him to minister to suffering saints.

tribulation worketh what patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who's given unto us and the love of God those two passages say that when the sun of tribulation and temptation and persecution arise upon the true child of God they can do only one thing make him thrive make him thrive oh he may stumble for a minute like Peter did but even his stumbling turns out to his thriving for the Lord said when thou art turned again strengthened thy brethren and so later on Peter hears that the C...

44:38 - 46:07 Read in full sermon

The point: If you're that way by temperament (sweet, bubbly, enthusiastic, ready to latch on anything), then you beware lest you become stony ground hearer.

Martin uses the example of a child who made a profession of faith at six but later fell away in their teens and adulthood to illustrate that worldly pressures don't create spiritual shallowness but reveal it, exposing a 'spiritually adulterous heart' hidden under religious acting.

and they went away from the Lord and now they're married out of the will of God and they've got three kids and don't go to church and they're 35 and don't want to talk about the Lord but I know they're saved now that they got him the bad crowd created something no they didn't they revealed what was there all along and you didn't know it that's all the crowd did the temptation of that crowd beckoning them common the whoring after us with the road and the flesh and the devil all it did was reveal that that youngster of yours had a spiritually adulterous heart that was covered up under a facade o...

46:07 - 47:36 Read in full sermon