Good Ground Hearers Hearers Part 2

Driving home: The only proof of a saving response to the gospel is the bearing of fruit. That's the only proof.

The hard footpath where seed lies on top and fowls snatch it away illustrates the thoughtless, careless hearer whose understanding is snatched away by the enemy.

We have looked at the first three types of soil. There is that soil which is found in the footpath going through the field, and it's a picture. Of the thoughtless, careless hearer of the word of God. He hears the message, seeing nothing in that message suitable to any conscious need he has. He thinks it a thing unworthy of his serious thought, and so understanding it not, he doesn't fasten upon it with his mind and with his mental energies, and the enemy like the fowls of the air who hover above that seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath.

0:53 - 1:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin poses the central question: Can fallen man savingly understand truth apart from the Spirit? He answers with 1 Corinthians 1:17-18, explaining that the message of the cross…

Martin distinguishes between 'ha-ha' foolishness (mockery) and 'ho-hum' foolishness (indifference) to explain how the perishing view the message of the cross.

Now, there are two kinds of foolishness. We look at something and we say, ah, that's foolish, and we go, ha ha. Other things, we say, ah, that's foolishness, we couldn't be interested, so it's sort of a ho-hum foolishness. Ho-hum, couldn't care less.

12:50 - 13:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin poses the central question: Can fallen man savingly understand truth apart from the Spirit? He answers with 1 Corinthians 1:17-18, explaining that the message of the cross…

He describes a passionate preacher proclaiming the gospel of Christ's love and sacrifice, met with a 'ho-hum' response from unregenerate hearers, illustrating the natural man's indifference.

Really, I think that's what he's talking about. The message of the cross is to those who are perishing, ho-hum, the servant of God stands with his heart aflame with holy love for Christ and for the souls of men. And he says, I have good news. I have glory.

13:12 - 13:33 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But the natural man, the man who's never been born of the Spirit, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are, here's the same word again, foolishness unto him, neither, and circle the next word, neither …

Using the example of his son asking 'Can I go outside?' versus 'May I go outside?', Martin clarifies the difference between physical ability ('can') and permission ('may'), applying it to the natural man's inability to know spiritual truth.

1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 12. Now we have received, Paul speaking of Christians, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things we also speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spirit, spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man, the man who's never been born of the Spirit, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are, here's the same word again, foolishness unto him, neither, and circle the next word, neither can ...

15:27 - 16:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But the natural man, the man who's never been born of the Spirit, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are, here's the same word again, foolishness unto him, neither, and circle the next word, neither …

He compares the need for physical sight to behold physical light with the need for spiritual eyes to behold spiritual light, emphasizing that the natural man lacks the latter faculty.

They are spiritually deserved.

17:07 - 17:08 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Paul's statement in his evaluation of all lost men is that they are gripped in a blinding power of the devil just as surely as they are held in the grip of his binding power.

The original creation where God commanded light out of darkness is used as an analogy for God's creative act in giving spiritual sight to a sin-darkened soul, like Saul of Tarsus.

That the only one who's more powerful than he has spoken these words into my sin-darkened soul. Let there be there's an allusion to the physical creation. He says the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness. Think of it.

20:05 - 20:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin cites 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, explaining that Satan, 'the god of this world,' blinds the minds of unbelievers. He then contrasts this with 2 Corinthians 4:6, showing that…

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus is presented as a prime example of God's direct, supernatural work in giving spiritual sight to a blind, hostile individual.

No, with nothing to work with, God spoke and out of darkness by the creative word of God. Paul said in the same way that the God who commanded by the word of his, our, that light shined out of the midst of darkness. That same God said to Saul of Tarsus, blind, stone-blind Pharisee that he was, who saw no glory in Christ, who was set to exterminate his name from the earth with letters in one hand, venom in his heart on his way to Damascus to find the Christians and commit them to prison. He said that God said it's time to show this fellow who I am.

20:40 - 21:22 Read in full sermon

The point: If you have never seen any glory in Christ that has ravished your heart and led you to surrender to Him, cry out to Almighty God tonight to give you spiritual eyes to see His glory as mediator, before you see Him as judg…

The testimony of the blind man healed by Jesus ('whereas I was blind, I see') is alluded to as a model for believers acknowledging God's grace in their spiritual sight, despite not knowing much else.

And so if we see, we must rejoice as did that blind man who didn't know much. And the Pharisees tried to get him all mixed up and fumble-boozled. He said, I don't even know whether he's a sinner or not, but one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, I see, and he did it all.

24:02 - 24:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the second aspect of a saving response: receiving divine truth. He explains that 'receiving' (Mark 4:20) means heartily embracing the gospel's freeness and…

The way soil completely envelops a seed is used to illustrate how a 'good ground' hearer heartily embraces the gospel message, without reservation or picking and choosing.

Those who receive the word are those who heartily embrace it. Those who welcome it as it has been opened to them by the Holy Spirit. They welcome it freely without reservation. They welcome it completely just as the soil envelops the seed in its entirety and doesn't pick a part of it or choose to leave some of it.

27:51 - 28:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the second aspect of a saving response: receiving divine truth. He explains that 'receiving' (Mark 4:20) means heartily embracing the gospel's freeness and…

He quotes lines from hymns like 'Come ye sinners poor and wretched' and 'Just as I am' to illustrate the freeness of the gospel's provisions.

So this is the picture of the man who embraces the message with all the freeness of its provision and all the narrowness of its demands. And remember the gospel's got both and any gospel that omits one or the other is not the gospel of Christ. It has a freeness in its provisions. Come ye sinners poor and wretched weak and wounded sick and sore.

28:14 - 28:38 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The carnal mind is enmity not at enmity but it's enmity itself. It's enmity personified against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be.

The illustration of a bucking bronco that resists any outside authority or saddle is used to depict the natural human heart's enmity against God and its unwillingness to be subject to His law.

How many of you have ever seen a rodeo?

31:24 - 31:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds John 6:44, 'No man can come to me, except the Father... draw him,' emphasizing 'can' as an inability of the will, not physical. He illustrates this with the…

Martin uses the personal example of 'I can't hit my wife' to explain that 'can' refers to an inability rooted in affections and will, not physical capacity, clarifying Jesus' statement 'no man can come to me'.

I'm going to make a statement tonight and you tell me what I mean. I can't hit my wife. Never have and I can't.

36:56 - 37:05 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds John 6:44, 'No man can come to me, except the Father... draw him,' emphasizing 'can' as an inability of the will, not physical. He illustrates this with the…

The analogy of a bird saying 'I can't' live at the bottom of the ocean because it's contrary to its nature is used to further explain that human inability to come to Christ stems from a nature opposed to His demands.

I could say to a little bird that we might capture and somehow learn to communicate in birdie language and set him right here on the edge of the pulpit and I'd say to him now little birdie you're free to go into any part of the Pacific Ocean and make your home anywhere on the bottom of the ocean. And the little bird would say to me but I can't and I'd say well what's wrong? Something wrong with your wings? And he'd jump up and fly around and say no I migrate all the way down south every year nothing wrong with my wings.

38:17 - 38:43 Read in full sermon