Mark 4:1-20
The Stony Ground Hearer, Part 1
In "The Stony Ground Hearer, Part 1," Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds Mark 4:1-20, focusing on the parable of the sower and specifically the 'stony ground' soil. He identifies the seed as the Word of God and the soil as the condition of the human heart, emphasizing that the state of the soil determines the fate of the seed. Martin argues that not all joyful, enthusiastic responses to the gospel are saving responses, often due to ignorance of the gospel's full demands, its spiritual nature, or an unwillingness to count the cost of discipleship. He applies this truth to self-examination, gospel communication, and discernment in dealing with others, including children, urging listeners to cry out to God to break up the 'rock ledge' in their hearts.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 12 sections · 59 min
- Introduction to the Parable of the Soils and the Stony Ground Hearer 0:03
- Prayer for Divine Illumination and Serious Engagement with God's Word 3:10
- Review of the Parable's Elements and Major Issue 6:02
- The Facts of the Stony Ground Soil 8:58
- The Lord's Interpretation of the Stony Ground Hearer 15:57
- Vital Lesson: Not All Joyful Response is Saving Response 26:18
- Reasons for Rootless Joyful Response: Ignorance of Gospel Demands 27:48
- Reasons for Rootless Joyful Response: Ignorance of Spiritual Blessings 33:45
- Reasons for Rootless Joyful Response: Unwillingness to Count the Cost 38:12
- Applications: Self-Examination, Gospel Communication, and Discernment 47:07
- Warning and Call to Break Up the Stony Heart 54:26
- Closing Prayer 57:24
Key Quotes
“Here is the great truth of the parable. Namely, the state of the soil determines the fate of the seed.”
“from indifference to receiving the word with joy from the careless non-comprehending indifferent listener to the joyful enthusiastic but rootless receiver of the message of God”
“All joyful enthusiastic response to the word of God is not necessarily a saving response to the word of God.”
“our Lord never conned people into following him never never”
“if you do not renounce all that you have including yourself you can't be his you've got to be done with any sense of right to run your life in any single area”
“the only gospel that saves is the one that costs nothing when viewed from the standpoint of whether or not there's anything you do that forms the basis of your acceptance with God if the gospel has anything of cost in it it's not the gospel”
“the biblical gospel asserts with equal clarity in terms of the dimension which is in focus the gospel costs the gospel will cost you everything”
“that very sun which causes the growth of the true plant is the very thing that causes the withering of the plant with no roots”
Applications
All listeners
- Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith, not by past emotional experiences, but by the endurance of your plant (love to Christ, attachment to his people, ways, word, spirit, and church) under the burning sun of pressure, tribulation, persecution, opposition, and temptation.
- Communicate the gospel to others honestly, telling them there's a banquet and the feast is spread with no charge, but also that the one who bids them come says they must renounce all they have.
- Make it plain, clear, reiterate, illustrate, enforce, and pray God to drive home by the Spirit that the biblical gospel will cost you everything.
- Do not do backflips when someone comes amongst us and is immediately enthusiastic about the Bible and sermons, but wait to see if a root system develops and if their apparent life endures the burning heat of affliction, persecution, and temptation.
- Exercise discernment in dealing with your children; do not immediately pronounce them saved because they appear broken up and pray an earnest prayer, but wait for their professed faith to be tested to reveal if there is a root system.
- Cry to God that the Lord would keep us from ever allowing that in our hearts which would make his truth unfruitful, and deliver us from a mere emotional, enthusiastic response to the word that does not have its roots in sober comprehension.
- Consider your response to God's message: are you a wayside hearer, or one who responded with joy and enthusiasm, but has stumbled when tribulation, persecution, and affliction arose?
- If you are a child of God experiencing crushing pressure, understand that God loves you enough to make it evident to you and others that you have the real thing, and count it all joy.
- If your spiritual history is marked by paroxysms of joy followed by nothing, cry to God to break up the subsoil of your heart, which may be a shelf of rock formed by lust, ambition, or covetousness, and plead with him to make your heart fertile soil.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 45 paragraphs, roughly 59 minutes.
Introduction to the Parable of the Soils and the Stony Ground Hearer
This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, November 18th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. In the course of our consecutive studies in the Gospel according to Mark, we are presently concentrating our attention upon Mark chapter 4, verses 1 through 20, which passage contains as its dominant element of content the parable of the sower, or what I would rather have called the parable of the soils, and then some very sobering and in many ways difficult to grasp utterances of our Lord in between the actual giving of the parable and the interpretation of the same. Will you follow, please? As I read this morning, verses 1 through 6 of Mark chapter 4, and then verses 13 through 16.
And again he began to teach by the seaside. And there is gathered unto him a very great multitude, so that he entered into a boat and sat in the sea, and all the multitude were by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things in parables, and said unto them, Harken, behold, the sower went forth to sow. And it came to pass, as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured it.
And other fell on the rocky ground, where it had not much earth, and straightway it sprang up, because it had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was risen, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. Verse 13. And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable?
And how shall you know all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are they by the wayside, where the word is sown. And when they have heard, straightway comes Satan, and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
And these, in like manner, are they that are sown upon the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, straightway receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then, when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, straightway they stumble. Now let us again seek the face of God, that God by the Holy Spirit will open to us and apply with power his own holy and infallible word.
Prayer for Divine Illumination and Serious Engagement with God's Word
Our Father, we are very conscious this morning that your word tells us to cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. And again your word tells us that our lives are but a vapor that appear for a little time, and then they are gone. And we realize that a few more breaths, a few more birthdays, and all of us who now sit in this building will be gathered to the grave, and our souls fixed for eternity. O Lord, how we pray that something of the awesomeness of these great realities will break in upon us in the ministry of the word this morning. That we may not attend to the word, but rather to the word of God. That we may not attend to the word, but rather to the word of God. That we may not attend to the word, but rather to the word of God.
That we may not attend to the word, but rather to the word of God. That we may not attend to the word, but rather to the word of God. Carelessly, nor with indifference, but may we hang upon its truth as those who are marked to spend eternity in heaven or in hell, and whose destiny will be determined by our response to your word. Surely, Lord, no man can help us in the face of such awesome and even frightening realities.
Send then your Holy Spirit, we plead, that he, may take the truth of Christ and open it to our understanding and apply it to our hearts with power. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Now, as we return again to this very instructive and searching portion of the word of God, let us attempt to come away from our own street number and our own homes and even, in a sense, to come away from the building here on the corner of Horseneck and Changebridge Roads in Montville and to take our place with that vast multitude sitting, perhaps, in somewhat of a semicircle on the shores of the Galilean Lake and every eye and every ear attentive to the Lord Jesus sitting in the boat as he says, hearken, pay attention, behold the sower went forth to sow, and as we attempt to take our place and listen to the Lord Jesus as he speaks this parable, then we desire not only to be found in the company of the multitude by the seashore, but with the twelve and that other group
Review of the Parable's Elements and Major Issue
described in verse 10, who in a more subdued atmosphere, in a more separated climate, inquired of the Lord Jesus as to the meaning of the Lord Jesus and the meaning of that parable and then had the unspeakable privilege of having the Lord Jesus take the role of the infallible interpreter of his own parable. As we have sought to take our place both by the shore and perhaps in a home or at least in that more private company, we have learned from the parable and our Lord's interpretation of it several vital things thus far in the history of the Lord Jesus. We have learned, first of all, the precise identity of the major elements in the parable. Our Lord tells us that the seed in this parable is the word of God or the message of the kingdom. That is the declaration of God's saving purposes now manifested in the person and work of Jesus Christ the Messiah. And then our Lord says simply describes the sower as one who disseminates, who proclaims that message.
And of course the sower who went forth to sow was none other than the Lord Jesus who sitting in the boat and teaching the message of the kingdom was sowing divine seed. And all who rightly proclaim his message become lesser sowers by whom the word of God is disseminated. But then the great, great emphasis falls primarily upon the four different kinds of soil. And according to Mark and Matthew and Luke, each of whom give us an account of this parable, the soil is the various kinds of people to whom the word comes, but particularly the condition of the hearts of these people. For we read in the inspired interpretation that the devil comes to take away, the seed that was sown in the heart. And then we also read in Luke's account in chapter 8 of his gospel that these who receive the word into good soil are those who receive the word in a good and an honest heart. So there is no question as to the precise identity of the major elements of the parable.
And then we also noted the major issue of this parable. And I've tried, I've just stated in these words that I hope will stick. Here is the great truth of the parable. Namely, the state of the soil determines the fate of the seed.
The Facts of the Stony Ground Soil
That's the grand, the overarching truth of the parable. The state of the soil determines the fate of the seed. In each case, the seed was identical, but the various issues of the seed, were determined by the soil. And then last Lord's Day, we sought to examine the teaching with reference to the first kind of soil, the wayside or the footpath soil, which according to our Lord, sets before us the frightening possibility that men may hear the word of the kingdom, the very word of God, even from the lips of the Lord Jesus, and yet respond to it in such a way as to see that seed utterly lost upon them. It is the picture of the hard, careless, calloused, indifferent, non-comprehending listener of the gospel, who seeing no fitness in the message of the kingdom to his own need, does not even consider it worthy of further meditation or serious reflection, and the devil, like the birds of the air, comes then and snatches away the seed which has been sown upon them. Now we come this morning to an examination of the second kind of soil
described in the parable, that which is generally described as the stony ground soil or the rocky ground soil. And what we'll do is follow the basic outline that we did last Lord's Day. First of all, we want to grasp the facts of the parable itself as given by our Lord using the further insights of Matthew and of Luke, then our Lord's inspired interpretation of the parable, and then the abiding message of the parable, and this morning we will only contemplate one of its vital applications, and God willing next week, two or three more of its applications. First of all, then, we want to get our facts straight. What are the facts with reference to the parable? Well, we read in Mark chapter 4 and verse 5, other fell on the rocky ground where it had not much earth.
We read in Luke 8, 6, it was sown upon the rock. Now when we read in these accounts of the parable that the seed fell upon the rocky ground, we must not think in terms of that which we have seen in fields in this area and in particular if you've traveled at all through parts of New England, you've seen fields where every spring the farmer must go out with his tractor and his flatbed and gather the rocks that have worked their way up through the soil and would be an impediment to any efficient plowing and you have seen soil in which there was a considerable amount of rock. Now our Lord is not saying that as the sower sowed it fell on top of a rock sticking up in the field nor is he saying it simply fell in a field where there were a lot of rocks but rather he's describing a condition that was very well known to any of those who sat by the shore of the Lake of Galilee that morning something not at all uncommon in terms of the terrain in Palestine. You'll remember that it was a land of hills and of valleys and there were some very fertile areas however some of those most fertile areas also had sections of rocky elevation and on some of those places
there would be a thin layer of soil on top of what we would call a shelf or a ledge of rock so that the picture is not so much of fertile soil that might go down quite deeply into the earth interspersed with rocks but rather what appears to the eye as some very soft and fertile soil however what does not meet the eye is that very not very far beneath the surface is a shelf of rock rock which will absorb the heat of the sun and very quickly dry out that soil rock which is so thick and impenetrable that it will not permit any of the roots of any plants that germinate in the little thin layer of soil to go down deeply into the earth so when our Lord says that sun fell upon rocky ground where it had not much earth this is what he's talking about there was not much earth that is there was a very thin layer of earth now when the seed is sown immediately and notice the emphasis falls upon this immediacy and straightway it sprang up now that's not said of the seed that fell upon the good ground there is no emphasis upon quick germination here there is
and immediately or straightway it sprang up and this is just not Mark's frequent use of this word that speaks of quick action we find in the parallel passage in Matthew the same word is used so the seed is sown it is immediately enfolded by the earth and very quickly in fact long before the normal germination period we see a little plant springing up where that seed was sown however it had no deepness of earth and this is why there was such an immediacy about its germination verse 6 of Mark 4 now when the burning Palestinian sun rises because there was no deepness of earth and according to verse 6 because it had no stable or extensive root system by which to suck up moisture from the depths of the earth the burning sun very very quickly sucked all the moisture out of the plant above ground the root system had no contact with moisture to replenish it so the plant could do only one thing it died its own death because it had no root it withered away
The Lord's Interpretation of the Stony Ground Hearer
so from those fair initial signs of life there was never any fruit no harvest no farmer's hands were filled with grain from that plant no hungry belly was ever fed no table was ever adorned with a loaf of bread to which this stalk had made its contribution now those are the facts as given by our Lord in Mark 4 and bringing in some of the light from Matthew 13 and Luke 8 now then what is our Lord's inspired interpretation of this element of the parable well as in each case this person represents somebody who has been exposed to the message of the word of God these are they verse 16 and these in like manner are they that are sown upon rocky places who when they have heard the word just like the wayside hearer these people have been exposed to the divinely articulated message of the kingdom in the immediate context they were to be found in the very people who sat in that semicircle in that cove on the Galilean lake
they were to be found perhaps among those who even drew near to the Lord Jesus and asked him the meaning of the parable they heard the message in this sense they are like all of the others envisioned in the parable the message of divine origin coming with divine authority holding forth the overtures of divine mercy and grace they have heard that message now then what distinguishes their response and you will notice three things are focused upon by our Lord first of all there is an immediate and joyful reception of the message an immediate immediate and joyful reception of the message 16b who when they have heard the word straightway receive it with joy in other words they did not listen to the message the time is fulfilled the kingdom of heaven is at hand repent ye and believe the gospel they did not sit before that message hearing the announcement that all that God had prophesied of his intentions to show mercy to the coming of Messiah was now fulfilled they did not sit and listen to it
and say well it's reasonable it makes sense and I'm a reasonable person so I guess I'll accept it in sort of a matter of fact way no they hung upon that word and no sooner did they hear it than with abounding enthusiasm they received it they said why this is what I've always been longing to hear this message speaks directly to my deepest felt needs to my most conscious deep and overwhelming longings they immediately receive it that is the message of the kingdom they had heard a true word they had heard the very word of the living God and with joy they immediately receive the message that message joy that in this message their own longings for peace and fulfillment and identity and purpose will be met in this message of God that's the first thing emphasized by our Lord in his interpretation of who are the people represented by those who are like the rocky soil point number one immediate and joyful reception of the message the second thing our Lord emphasizes is this there is an initial though temporary manifestation of life
there is an initial though temporary manifestation of life verse 17 and they have no root in themselves but endure for a while and in Luke's account we read who for a while believe Luke 8 13 what is the message intended to produce a response of faith isn't that what God demands in the face of the message of his overtures of mercy and kindness in Jesus Christ well in the case of these stony ground hearers there is an initial though temporary manifestation of life in fact our Lord emphasizes in its causal language that because of this peculiar circumstance with just the shallow and very narrow band of earth above this rock ledge or ledge of rock the whole life of the plant goes upward and nothing goes downward so that initially it outstrips even that which has fallen upon good soil which takes a longer period to germinate now I have to be very careful here because we have some people
whose life is taken up with seeds and plants and the growth of them but I believe I am accurate in saying if you take the same seed and put it out in the spring in the cold earth that has yet been warmed by the sun and in the condition of that earth you plant it while at the same time you take an identical seed and plant it in a hot house where you expose it to more moisture and more sun the one will germinate before the other so this seed receiving more heat from the rock beneath sends all of its apparent life above ground but our Lord emphasizes it has no root they have no root but endure for a while what they do have though they have no root is the apparent life of a plant there seems to be the potential for a harvest from what burst out of the soil upon the germination of that seed of grain there is an initial though temporary manifestation of life but then thirdly our Lord emphasizes that there is a tragic withering of all signs of life under the sustained influence of temptation tribulation and persecution
we read in verse 17 but they endure for a while then as the sun rises in its heat and beats down upon that plant that has no root system that appears to have life and causes it to wither by sucking all of the moisture out of it and because there is no root system to replace it it dies so our Lord says the sun is like the withering burning rays of sustained tribulation and persecution that's what's emphasized in Mark's gospel but we add to that the language of temptation from Matthew's I'm sorry from Luke's account in Luke chapter 8 and we bring the three together the tragic withering of all signs of life comes under the sustained influence of temptation tribulation and persecution we read in this text straightway they stumble the withering of the plant is called a stumbling it is called a falling away in Luke's account chapter 8 what gave such promise at the time at the outset ended in such
a sad and tragic way and if the first soil is a picture of the careless indifferent uncomprehending listener of the gospel the person who could sit in a place like this this morning and have the deepest needs of his soul addressed the issues of sin righteousness judgment Christ forgiveness God judgment heaven hell and sit there bored to death if the first soil like is like unto the careless indifferent listener of the gospel then in this particular description of the soil our Lord is concentrated on something that is completely the opposite he is focusing upon the enthusiastic recipient of the gospel who never has the root of a real saving response in his heart from indifference to receiving the word with joy from the careless non-comprehending indifferent listener to the joyful enthusiastic but rootless receiver of the message of God well then that's what is told with reference
Vital Lesson: Not All Joyful Response is Saving Response
to the interpretation of the by our Lord himself now what are the vital lessons of the parable and I've already told you that this morning I will only underscore one of them and it is this all joyful enthusiastic response to the word of God is not necessarily a saving response to the word of God all joyful enthusiastic response to the word of God is not necessarily a saving response to the word our Lord says these in like manner are they that are sown upon rocky places who when they have heard the word straightway receive it with joy yet their end is this straightway they stumble straightway receive with joy straightway they stumble all joyful enthusiastic response of the word to the word is not necessarily a saving response now is our Lord attempting in this passage to strip the gospel of its implications at the emotional level no he's not doing that at all
Reasons for Rootless Joyful Response: Ignorance of Gospel Demands
you remember in the parables recorded in Matthew 13 he said the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man seeking goodly pearls and he finds one pearl of great high price and with joy that he found that he's willing to sell everything else to obtain that pearl again the scripture says in Romans 14 17 the kingdom of God is not eating drinking but righteousness peace joy in the Holy Ghost the fruit of the spirit is love and joy the Lord is not in any way suggesting that a saving response to the gospel ought to be devoid of joy but what he is saying is this not all joyful enthusiastic response to the gospel is necessarily a saving response to the gospel and you say what in the world would create a condition where someone would receive the message with joy and yet not have the root of the matter in him well let me give you at least three reasons why this was true in our Lord's day and is true in our day first of all men often receive the word with joy though they have no root in them when they are ignorant of the totality of the demands of the gospel when they are ignorant of the totality of the demands of the gospel you see the same
Lord who said come unto me and I'll give you rest said take my yoke upon you and learn of me the same Lord who said him that comes to me I'll in no wise cast out said if any man come to me and hate not father mother brother sister yea in his own life also he cannot be my disciple the same Lord who invited sinners to come and find rest invited them to take up a cross and to share in his rejection and men will often receive the message of the kingdom with joy because they are either willfully ignorant or ignorant because of defective teaching and preaching of the totality of the demands of the gospel now our Lord never conned people into following him never never when an enthusiastic young man came up to him and said oh master I'll follow you wherever you go what did Jesus do he'd say well that's wonderful young man I just love that kind of enthusiasm fall in line and be my disciple he didn't do that you read in Luke 957 what he did he turned to him and said in essence young man do you realize what you're saying look out over the fields see the foxes when the sun goes down there's a little hole somewhere it's got
their name over it and they can call it their own see the birds flying through the air when the sun goes down they have a nest that they can call their own oh young man overflowing with enthusiasm you say you'll follow me wherever I go do you know that that means that to be identified with me I promise you nothing but myself do you understand that if you do come but he would not encourage him to come in the context of ignorance of the totality of the demands of the gospel the woman at the well is ready to make her decision to embrace this wonderful message drink of the water that I will give you and you'll never thirst again she says Lord ever give me this water to drink he didn't say well let's bow our heads and pray he said call your husband you want a drink of the pure water that I have woman we're going to have to get honest about the muddy waters of your past you want pure water I've got something to say about your sex life up till now you lived like nobody had anything to say about it but you and your own desires I have something to say about it call your husband I don't have a husband he said I know that I know you've had some and now you're just living in a living relationship and I have a right to intrude
upon the most personal areas of your life and there exercise my sovereign rights as well as promise living water when vast multitudes were following the Lord Jesus at the height of his popularity in Luke chapter 14 it says great multitudes went out after him what did he do he turned and he said to them if any man come to me he laid out the terms of discipleship but in that day there were some who were willfully ignorant in spite of our Lord's careful instruction it was ignorance of the totality of the demands of the gospel that caused some to receive the word with joy and yet the moment that attachment to Christ through the word began to cost them they turned away and immediately like that plant that withered before the burning Palestinian sun they stumble they fall away they cast off their professed attachment to the Lord Jesus you see they're like a young man who saw a bunch of marines in their dress blues in a parade and then went down and joined the marine corps he said marines beautiful uniforms man look at all the women look at those guys that's what I want he never stopped to think about what happens
Reasons for Rootless Joyful Response: Ignorance of Spiritual Blessings
to marines in Beirut what happens to marines who have to go into helicopters and go down and rescue an island from a Marxist takeover in the Caribbean you see they see the spit polish and the dress blues of the Christian faith and they say that's for me I want to join up they don't think of the blood in the trenches and the warfare and the death and their ignorance of the totality of the demands of the gospel makes them receive it with joy but in some it's not so much ignorance of the totality of the demands of the gospel that in our Lord's day this was particularly true it was ignorance of the spiritual nature of the blessings promised in the gospel ignorance of the spiritual nature of the blessings promised in the gospel Jesus promised peace he promised the cessation of man's enmity with God Jesus promised joy Jesus promised these things but many in his day placed a totally carnal conception upon them in their expectation of a temporal kingdom to crush the common enemy namely Rome many took our Lord's words and placed a meaning upon them totally
far into his intention the Lord's Lord Jesus when he began to deal with that as recorded in John 651 to 69 and began to talk about the fact that if you're attached to him you must be attached in a manner in which you eat of his flesh and drink of his blood that is you have an attachment to him that is found in terms of spiritually feeding upon him as the crucified one they said this is a hard saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink and it says from that time forth many went back and walked with him no more enthusiastic followers who fall away because of their ignorance of the spiritual nature of the blessings promised in the gospel and in our day alas this is true when people speak of peace they put on that a connotation of something they felt on their latest high on whatever thing they were pumping into their nose or down their throat or into their arms and it's a peculiar problem in our day with the instant mentality generation and they hear the words joy and peace and they put on them a drug oriented mentality and connotation you mean I can get high on Jesus sure I'll try that stupid preachers use that very terminology of time
in trying to commend the gospel and in so doing they prostitute the gospel the blessings promised in the gospel are essentially spiritual blessings the peace promised is the peace of the cessation of the enmity with God but it will bring us into conflict at times with our dearest most intimate friends I came not to send peace but a sword Jesus said it will bring us into conflict with our own generation we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God but ignorance of the spiritual nature of the blessings promised in the gospel causes many to receive it with joy and when they find then that persecution tribulation and hardship and affliction are part and parcel of the way into which they've entered they say that's not for me I mean I thought that this was going to give me one continual high one continual peace trip one continual joy trip and now I see that there's discipline and self denial and rejection and hardship and plucking out a pocket no you can't because you have no root in yourself that's right but then in the third place this is often the result of an unwillingness soberly to count the cost of discipleship often this receiving of the word with joy
Reasons for Rootless Joyful Response: Unwillingness to Count the Cost
only to fall away when tribulation persecution temptation arise because of the word is because of an unwillingness soberly to count the cost of discipleship it's amazing to me that it's in that very passage in Luke 14 that there is set in stark contrast the unfettered free overtures of mercy in verses 12 through 24 I'm sorry in verses 15 to 24 there our Lord gives the parable of the great supper the marriage supper and he bids people to come to this great supper but people excuse themselves and then the Lord says in verse 22 the servant said Lord what you did is done and yet there is room what you did command is done and yet there is room the Lord said to his servant go out to the highways and hedges and constrain them to come in that my house may be filled here's one of the wonderful passages on the warrant to say to all men indiscriminately in the gospel the banquet is set and there is a place for you you will have it it's free unfettered overtures of mercy and yet verse 25 says there went with him great multitudes
as though they were saying look we'll come with you and sit down at the banquet and he turned and said to them if any man comes to me you see he laid out the cost of discipleship and then by the use of those two illustrations he said count the cost like a general a king before he goes out to war does some logistical analysis of his enemy of his strengths of himself and his own army and its strengths do I have a fighting chance if not I'm not going to be a fool and sacrifice myself and my men I'll ring up the flag of surrender but there's sober contemplation before there is action then he talks about a builder who doesn't simply get an impulse and say hey I'd love a new house let me go get me some boards and nails and start banging away no no he sits down he designs his house he gets an estimate of what it'll cost to get the raw materials to get the building materials lest he get halfway through and has to stop and you know the reproach some of us drive by a house on horse neck road Sunday after Sunday and we say whoever started that thing and left it half finished what a tragedy that house is a monument to someone's poor planning or to a tragedy that cut off their funds whatever it is it's a monument of incompletion Jesus said in the same way a man does not go out and just start to build count the cost count the cost
but stony ground hearers are so irresponsibly quick in their response to the positive promises of the gospel that they think counting the cost is something that they don't need to do they say you mean there's a way of forgiveness a way of peace a way of joy a way of fulfillment that's all I need to know the Lord says it is a way of peace and fulfillment it is a way of knowing your own identity and destiny it is all of that and bless God the gospel offers all of that but it also means you've got to face this issue head on if you do not renounce all that you have including yourself you can't be his you've got to be done with any sense of right to run your life in any single area Jesus said whoever does not renounce all be my disciple verse 33 count the cost now do you want at the price of saying from this day forward there is not a moment of my time an ounce of my energy a penny of my money one person in my circle of influence concerning which I am
not prepared to say Lord yours you don't renounce all that you have you can't be his disciple he said it I didn't and he said you count the cost see if you're ready for that are you ready for that so that when you say Lord every last penny is yours if God by his providence and by the counsel of wise people and by a mysterious collation of circumstances over which we have no control as well as those over which we do have control would bring us from this level of affluence to a level that borders on poverty are you prepared to have his peace if his control over your purse brings you there are you rich young ruler wasn't oh how he wanted the peace of knowing he had eternal life but not at the price of his pocketbook he went away sorrowful this is serious business yes but what about your pocketbook well I just want peace the Lord says no I won't talk about your pocketbook if you're not prepared to renounce all that you have you can't be my disciple you mean you're saying
it's not enough that I just give the Lord his tithe no that's exactly what I'm saying the giving of the tithe is simply acknowledging tangibly regularly that all that I have is his and I hold it as a steward and every bit of it I use in the consciousness that neither I nor what I possess belongs to me you are not your own you have been bought with a price now what makes you you your time your energies your contacts your ability to earn money the whole bit of you is purchased property if you belong to Jesus that means for you children contemplating the life of discipleship you've been reared in a Christian home you've seen mom and dad walk before God you've heard the gospel preached you stand on the threshold of your life and you're wondering college or no college marriage or no marriage what shall I do with my life This is what it means for you young people are you prepared to say Lord Jesus I'm prepared to have you make all those decisions if you want to lead me to marry somebody that in your time means I got to kiss mom and dad goodbye maybe see our first few children born with no grandparents around that's what Stephen Carroll had faced I'm not making heroes and heroines out of them but that's the reality you know when that was settled when they closed with Christ it was no big deal to settle it when God in his providence began to make real that the Philippines
was the place of his appointment I didn't have to counsel for hours with Carroll and with Steve to try to persuade them that they ought not to let their parents stay no that issue was settled when they received peace from the hand of the Lord Jesus who died for sinners by his grace the cost had been counted and they're his and if he says my property belongs in the Philippines to the Philippines it goes people have often said to my wife don't you find it hard to let your husband go off weeks at a time here there and the other place what her stock answer is so it's not fun but no it's not hard he's the Lord's property not mine that's what we're talking about some of you who have the signs of life that's all you have it's only going to be a matter of time before the burning heat of an intense pressured situation is going to reveal what hitherto was unrevealed there's no root no root system because you've been unwilling soberly to count the cost of discipleship and alas some of you may be the victims of irresponsible spiritual scalp hunters who are more anxious to come back to the teepee and parade
Applications: Self-Examination, Gospel Communication, and Discernment
their scalps than to see people really brought into true relationship to Jesus Christ now as we close this morning if we grasp this principle that I've tried to extract out of the parable and I believe it's a legitimate principle that not all joyful enthusiastic response to the gospel is a saving response and that these three reasons are perhaps among the major reasons as to why there is that enthusiastic but non rooted response to the gospel ignorance of the demands of the gospel ignorance of the spiritual nature of its promises unwillingness to count the cost you see how this forms a basis of wholesome self-examination we're told to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith how can I know if I am truly his my friend listen not because I look back to some time when I got giddy with joy but because to this day in the face of the burning sun of pressure of tribulation of persecution opposition temptation in the face of that sun it is evident that my plant is not withered and died my love to Christ my attachment to him to his people to his ways and word and spirit and church have not been
swept away as we examine ourselves to prove ourselves remember the words of Jesus he said to those who profess to be his disciples if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed furthermore it forms the basis of direction in communicating the gospel to others if Jesus could have stony ground hearers we'll have them too but let's make sure we don't create more than a necessary Jesus was honest with people on the threshold of their response to him and we need to be like him in communicating the gospel to others yes let's tell them there's a banquet and the feast is spread and there's no charge and there are no hidden conditions come for the feast is spread heart to the call but if you come remember the one who bids you come says you must renounce all that you have you see the gospel in that sense is a mystery in one sense it costs you nothing in another sense it'll cost you everything and the only gospel that saves is the one that costs nothing when viewed from the standpoint of whether or not there's anything you do that forms the basis of your acceptance with God if the gospel has anything of cost in it it's not the gospel the good news is everything necessary that you might have a right standing with God has been done and continues to be done by another
the gospel in that sense is utterly free and if in that sense it is not preached as free it's not the gospel it's not Christ plus Christ added to is Christ and Christ alone but in another sense the gospel will cost you everything it's not the gospel to have a true and saving attachment to Christ is to be attached to the one who says you must renounce all that you have and if the gospel you've embraced does not say it'll cost you everything in that sense it's not the biblical gospel the biblical gospel asserts with equal clarity in terms of the dimension which is in focus the gospel costs the gospel will cost you everything and when we communicate the gospel to others we need to make that plain we need to make it clear we need to reiterate it we need to illustrate it enforce it and pray God to drive it home by the spirit and if this principle is true it should assist us in giving us discernment in how we deal with others we're not God and we must never attempt to play God but the Bible does say by their fruits you'll know them do you ever notice why we never do backflips around here when someone comes amongst us and after the Bible the first sermon they're just so enthusiastic oh is it wonderful
what I've been waiting for oh my if some of you have wondered why some of us don't do backflips it's because of this passage they receive the word with joy with joy enthusiasm but the real test comes when you begin to understand that word there's such a paucity of anything that even approaches preaching in our day often the first time people hear anyone preach something like he believes it with a little bit of enthusiasm they're just so taken up by the contagion of enthusiasm that then they have nothing to do with the work of the Holy Ghost and so we like to wait we like to wait a while when they're ready to join up after a week we say you just wait a while let's let the root system develop let's let a little of the burning heat of the sun of affliction and persecution and temptation test the validity of that apparent life now is that being skeptical no that's just being biblical it should assist us in giving us discernment in our dealing with our children we pray for our children we yearn for their conversion and then God brings them through a little crisis and they seem to be all broken up and his parents oh we'd love to think ah they're in now those of us who've lived long enough to see our children come to maturity will have to tell you we've seen them go through many times when we thought for sure this is the real thing now only to see that apparent life with her
then another time we say oh this must be the real thing now it's hard isn't it not to be God and be able to read the heart we don't discourage them but neither do we go around pronouncing our children saved because they were all broken up and prayed a very earnest prayer they may be saved but they may not be there may be no root system and only as that professed faith is tested will there be the revelation of whether or not there is a root system and then of course it should be a warning to us as the people of God and that warning is that we as the Lord's people must cry to God that the Lord would keep us from ever allowing that in our hearts which would make his truth unfruitful though the direct reference of this passage is to someone who falls short of true conversion the principle of scripture is that there is no state of heart in which the unbeliever is found and in which that condition is found is predominant but can be found as a characteristic in the heart of a child of God and we need to cry that God will deliver us from a mere emotional
Warning and Call to Break Up the Stony Heart
enthusiastic response to the word that does not have its roots in sober comprehension of what it is we are embracing with joy let me conclude by pressing the question upon your conscience has the message of God's salvation in Christ come to you what's been your response would the Lord describe you as the wayside hearer they understand it not and immediately comes the devil and snatches away the word or would you be described as one who says yes I've responded with joy and enthusiasm to the message what's happened as the sun of tribulation persecution and affliction have arisen you see as we'll see with greater detail next week that very sun which causes the growth of the true plant is the very thing that causes the withering of the plant with no roots that's why this gospel of health wealth and prosperity is a lot of nonsense it would leave untested our root system the sun reveals the condition that was there all the while and if you sit here this morning and wonder why has God brought such pressure upon me I never thought when I embraced his son that God would bring upon me this kind of pressure and I think of some of you
sitting here this morning whose hearts are pressed well nigh to the point of being crushed and you say God why oh dear child of God listen he loves you enough to make it evident to you and to those who behold you that you've got the real thing that's why he says count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials knowing that the trial of your faith works patiently God is committed to manifesting the validity of his own work in your heart you say but pastor I think I've been described this morning maybe that explains my spiritual history just one paroxysm of joy and then nothing to show for it and then I pick myself up again and try to suck some consolation from the promises and have a measure of joy but then down again I go my friend could it be that you've never really had the subsoil of your heart broken up it's still a shelf of rock and it may be lust it may be ambition it may be covetousness that forms that rock ledge beneath the surface soil but cry to God to break it up plead with him to have dealings with you and not let you alone until your heart becomes fertile soil
Closing Prayer
to bring forth fruit with patience thirty sixty and a hundredfold let us pray Father we thank you for our Lord Jesus not only as our great redeemer but as our teacher and we pray that his own words so perceptibly laying bare the state of our hearts may find deep lodgment in all of us and that we we pray that the word proclaimed this morning will bear fruit to your praise and to our prophet have mercy upon those who have seen themselves described in the stony ground here this morning for those who by your grace see that your dealings with them have not been to harm them but to manifest and to develop the reality of their faith gracious God apply the word in ways that we would never dream of applying it and may it bear its holy fruit in all of our hearts hear our prayer and answer us we plead through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen
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Passages Expounded
This is the primary text, containing the parable of the sower and its interpretation, which the sermon expounds in detail.
Texts Expounded
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