The Thorny Ground Hearer, Part 1

Introduction: The Gravity of the Thorny Ground

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, December 9th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Once again, may I urge you to turn to the Gospel according to Mark, this time to the fourth chapter, and follow as I read verses 1 through 9, and then verses 18 and 19. Mark 4, 1 through 9, and then verses 18 and 19.

0:42 Describing the activity of our Lord, Mark writes,

1:03 And said unto them in his teaching, Hearken! 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.

1:25 And straightway it sprang up, because it had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was risen, it was so. And because it had no root, it withered away. And other fell among the thorns.

1:42 And the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing, and brought forth thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold. And he said, Who has yielded? Ears to hear.

2:06 Let him hear. Verse 18. And others are they that are sown among the thorns. These are they that have heard the word, and the cares of the world, or the cares of the age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choked the word, and it becometh.

2:35 Unfruitful. As we come to this portion of the word of God this morning, I confess that I feel, as a surgeon ought to feel, who is about to enter an operating room and perform delicate neurosurgery on the brain of one who has a tumor. And he knows if he does not cut deep enough and remove all of the tissue of the tumor, his patient will, ultimately be killed by that growth. But he also knows if he cuts just a fraction too deep, he'll kill his patient.

3:24 And frankly, I have felt that among my own spirit as I have meditated upon this portion of the parable of the sower. Though I preached on this parable in times past, it has driven me back to my Greek texts, back to an examination of every word in the parable, not only here in Mark, but also in the Psalms, but in the parallel accounts in Matthew and in Luke and frankly the conclusion to which the language of the parable has driven me is one that is frightening terrifying and if I could I would skip over it rather than have to be faithful in preaching it to you this morning but I'm called upon to be a servant of the word in being a servant of Christ and attempt accurately to expound and apply the passage I must even though everything within me wants to run from that task so I ask you to pray with me and for me as together we seek the help of God in approaching this crucial portion of the word of God let us pray our father you know our hearts you know my heart as your servant you know the heart of every man woman, boy or girl in this place and oh Lord

4:54 as we come to this portion of your word in which our Lord Jesus describes a frightening not mere possibility but a frightening reality of what happens whenever the word of God is preached how we plead with you for the grace of spiritual illumination oh Lord help me to be accurate in opening up your word may I not keep back the scalpel from its cutting work but oh Lord help me to cut accurately and unto the healing of men's souls and not to their destruction oh send your spirit upon us we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord amen we come this morning to what is our seventh study in this portion of Mark's gospel commonly entitled the parable of the sower but which I have suggested along with many responsible commentators should more accurately be described as the parable of the soils in it our Lord under the extended imagery of a farmer who goes forth to cast his seed upon the soil

The Parable of the Soils: A Frightening Reality

6:20 is portraying the various ways in which men respond to the word of God when it is preached and taught and this response as we have seen in our previous studies is a response determined by the condition of the heart into which the word of God comes these were the responses occurring under our Lord's own ministry he was the great sower and as he preached and taught these responses were manifested under his own ministry and these have been and are to this very hour and in this place the same responses that occur whenever the word of God comes in contact with the minds and hearts of men and in each case it was the state of the soil that is the heart which determined the fate of the seed that is the word of God and thus far we've considered the significance of the first two kinds of soil the wayside soil which pictures the indifferent careless and thoughtless hearer of the word of God and then the rocky ground soil a picture of the enthusiastic but shallow and impulsive

7:49 hearer of the word who when the sun of tribulation and persecution arises ultimately withers withers withers and dies for the root of the matter is not in him now this morning and God willing again this evening we will examine the thorny soil that which sets forth in my estimation the most searching and frightening realities in the entire parable there have been some searching and sobering realities in the contemplation of the wayside soil of the rocky ground soil but I am prepared to state that the cumulative sobriety and weightiness of any truth contained in those soils and their significance in a very real sense they pale into insignificance compared with the weight of sobering truth contained in our Lord's description of the thorny ground soil our approach to this part of the parable will follow the tracks that we've laid in our previous studies we will first of all seek to grasp the facts given in the parable itself then secondly consider our Lord's interpretation of those facts and then thirdly the abiding lesson

Facts of the Parable: The Thorny Ground Described

9:16 and message of that interpretation of our Lord first of all then the facts given in the parable itself we read in Mark 4 and verse 7 and other that is other seed fell among the thorns in the parallel passages in Luke and Matthew we read seed fell in the midst of the thorns Luke 8 7 and in Matthew 13 7 the seed fell upon the thorns bring them all together and what do you have you have our Lord saying other seed fell among the thorns in the midst of the thorns and upon the thorns now what our Lord was saying was something that would be very familiar to all of his listeners who sat on the seashore that day when he sitting in a boat initially uttered this parable for in Palestine then and to this day and I have said I have seen pictures in my own Bible dictionary of this very kind of situation there is a common weed which we would call a farnbush and like all weeds they grow without sowing and without cultivation

10:44 and when they are found in a cultivated and sown field they present a menace to the good plants now the farmers will yearly or periodically cut back this thorny growth sometimes they are allowed to grow in rows to form a protected hedge and then of course they will grow out into the field and a farmer will cut them back to what he wants to constitute his hedge or will occasionally as you see foresters doing in our own day they will deliberately burn this as foresters will burn underbrush and they will burn the above soil the above soil factors or the above soil elements of the farnbush so that the field is not overrun by them however when they are cut down or when they are burned down often the root system remains in the earth or seeds from the previous years growth will have fallen upon the earth and are buried in the soil so that the next spring when the farmer comes forth and plows his field and from plowing then begins to sow there will be parts of his field where there are both seeds from the previous years thorn bush growth

12:13 or remaining root systems that were never extricated from the soil hence Jesus said as he sowed some fell upon some fell in the midst of some fell in the midst some fell among the thorns so that from the very outset that part of the soil had the potential to produce and support and sustain the thorn bushes which would where ever present preclude any kind of a fruitful harvest of wheat of oats of barley or corn or whatever else the farmer was sowed in the soil that the farmer was sowing now our Lord goes on to say and this should now make more sense Mark 4 7 having sown some seed which fell among the thorns notice and the thorns grew up from the seed stage or from the root stage the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no fruit Luke 8 7 says and the thorns grew with it and the it is the good seed that the farmer

13:42 has sown so that soft plowed soil receives the seed from the farmer's hand it's enveloped it germinates listen carefully now it sends roots downward it sends a shoot upward it begins to develop a plant which has all the potential to be a fruitful plant all the potential to have a full ear of grain harvest time however as it grows current with its growth is the growth of the root system of the thorn bush concurrent growth of the ground is the foliage of the thorn bush the thorn bush like most weeds is tougher than the cultivated plant it literally by its own proliferation not only saps the life out of the soil but it so crowds out the growth of that cultivated sown plant that it does not get sufficient light and nourishment and what is the result the text says it yielded no fruit because it was

15:10 choked by the thorns the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no fruit now the word used in mark four seven for choke is the word used in luke eight forty two to describe a situation in which jesus was so pressured by the crowds that they were about to suffocate or to crush him that's the word used by mark the thorns grew up and suffocated or crushed it so that it yielded no fruit we read in luke eight in verse seven the parallel passage the word for choked there is the precise same word that is used down into the sea luke chapter eight in verse seven we're just trying to grasp the facts of the parable as given by our lord other fell amidst the thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it and the word choked there is exactly the same word that occurs in verse thirty three of luke they were drowned

16:39 their life was taken from them now this is what you must notice there is no indication as in the case of the stony ground or rocky ground plant that the stalk itself withered and died our lord simply says that it was choked to this extent that it yielded that it remained a stalk in the field but a fruitless stalk and the farmer never went forth to raise stubble that's all it was good for stubble he went out to raise grain he went out and sowed seed that there might be enough root system to sustain the life of a stalk but it yields no fruit it is choked and yields no fruit now those are the facts of the parable as uttered by our lord now then secondly what is our lord's

Lord's Interpretation: The Three Elements of Thorns

18:07 interpretation of this part of the parable well the parable is that the fruit that is sown among the thorns these are they that have heard the word luke adds this stroke he uses a word which is translated in our english bibles and going on their way to the earth so in our lord's interpretation whoever the thorny ground here is he is one who has been exposed to the word of god he has given some kind of wisdom to those who have heard the word luke says that the fruit that is sown

19:36 among the thorns is the fruit that is sown among the thorns now get this point if you miss everything else not and as we study the parable what are then those influences that our lord likens to the concurrent growth corn bushes they are three number one the care of the anxieties connected with this life now what is our lord talking about well the word for cares refers to those things that cause anxiety in the verb form in matthew six verse twenty five it's the word again and again jesus uses do not be anxious do not be anxious do not be anxious cares then are pressing concerns preoccupying pressures and worries this is the word used about our dear friend martha martha martha thou art

21:04 worried troubled distracted about many things that's the word now notice what jesus says the forms are a picture of the cares or the anxieties the pressures and the worries that are connected with this age that is this present order of things in which man must bring forth by the sweat of his brow thorns and thistles are there as part of the curse upon this earth this age full of trouble man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward jove tells us so the cares connected with this age are the things pertaining according to matthew six to food and raiment and housing schooling medical bills taxes peeling paint and broken water heaters rusting tailpipes and blown mufflers and flunked inspections the burden of ongoing singleness the cares that arise out of the conditions of this age the inevitable accompaniments of simply living life this side of the age to come that's what our lord is talking about i'm not applying i'm just expounding i'm just explaining to the best

22:34 of my ability that's the first element of the thorns that grow up with it the cares or anxieties connected with this present life secondly notice and the deceitfulness of riches now the word for riches means wealth or abundance deceitfulness that which doesn't shoot straight and our lord says secondly that the thorn growth is the deceitfulness of abundance of money and things and in what sense are they deceitful well they promise what they can never give abundance of money and things are deceitful they promise what they never can give happiness fulfillment and satisfaction and well being that's what they promise that's why poor deluded souls by the millions plunk out their two three four ten bucks a day at the state lotteries all across our country if only I can hit it rich is are deceitful they promise what they can never give secondly they are deceitful because they

24:03 usually give what they never promise heartache grief distorted values and a damned soul you never saw dollar signs coming at a man saying flirt with me and I'll take you to hell they say flirt with me when the scripture says they that would be rich promise what they can't give give what they never promise and they appear to be what they are not abiding enduring lasting durable and the scripture and experience tell us that riches can take wings and fly away oh so quickly naked we came out of our mother's womb and we'll lie naked on the mortician shelf while he clothes us in our best suit before we're sunk in the earth now the Lord says that the thorn bushes that grow up with this apparent germination of the word of the gospel is to be understood in terms of the cares or anxieties connected with this life secondly the deceitfulness of riches or abundance of money and things and

25:33 thirdly look at the text the desires for other things continually entering in now it's translated in our bibles the lusts of other things but because the word lust in our way of thinking generally has the connotation of a sinful desire I've rendered it the desires for other things entering in for the word itself simply means desire and many of our desires are God given and perfectly legitimate and before sin entered all of man's desires were holy and legitimate and it was only when he desired to be like God that he was possessed of a desire that was unholy and illegitimate the desire for companionship love fulfillment a sense of well being the sense of accomplishment and identity all of these lusts or desires are perfectly legitimate in themselves but since the fall man's heart being the sink of iniquity it is there is not a God given legitimate desire that does not very quickly become an illegitimate and sinful longing in the heart of man so that John can say in 1 John chapter 2 all that is in the world the lust the desires of the flesh the lust of the mind

27:02 lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes I'm sorry and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world and our Lord says that the thorny growth is to be understood in terms not only of the cares or anxieties connected with this present life the deceitfulness of riches or abundance of money and things but he spreads this broad canopy any kind of desire for any other thing even legitimate in itself and continually proliferates continually coming into the root system of any semblance of spiritual life and what do they do when in their individual or combined influence they operate in the heart of a man who has heard and even appears to have embraced the gospel look at the passage look at the passage verse 19 the cares of this age and the deceit fullness of riches and the lust of other things entering in notice now choke the word the seed is the word that which was sown in the heart was the word but now this thorn bush growth chokes the word as the

28:32 growing thorn bush saps the life beneath the soil with its expanding root system and above the soil with its shade and its strength it renders the plant unfruitful no producing of that for which the seed was no grains of wheat ever gathered from that stalk no barley nothing is harvested all the farmer has to show for his labors is a bare barren stalk good for nothing but for straw or for kindling Luke says he brings forth no fruit to perfection the only place in the New Testament where the word is used but in secular Greek it's used to describe a woman who carries her child to full term and brings forth a healthy normal child that would be described by this word she carried her child to perfection Luke says brings forth no fruit to perfection that is the end for which the seed was planted is never realized now I have carefully and painstakingly attempted to set forth and explain the facts of the parable

Abiding Message: The Tragic Lack of True Repentance

30:00 our Lord's interpretation now we can only begin this morning and I plead with you if you have any concern for your never dying soul let nothing short of divine intervention keep you from coming back tonight if God spares us because I can only give one line of application this morning and I want to trace out two or three more tonight as God gives us help what is the abiding message of the thorny ground well the first and the only element of the message that we consider this morning is this it presents to us the tragic picture of the person who seeks to be a Christian without a deep and thorough work of real repentance it presents to us the picture of the person who seeks to be a Christian without a deep and thorough work of real repentance in the parable it was the thorns present and the thorns spared the thorns allowed the soil germination which ultimately triumphed in the time of growing the thorns grew up in the thorns and choked it what was

31:29 left as germination determined that in the time of harvest there would be no fruition do you see that do you see that what was tolerated at the time of germination and upon close inspection may have appeared very harmless just a few little trail of former thorn bush as to pickers growth what was there would be no fruit in the time of reaping do you see that do you see that do you see that from the parable I'm not imported it into the parable it is there they grow with it and what is this a picture of it's the tragic picture of the person who seeks to be a Christian without a deep and thorough work of pendants

32:51 in which torn from the heart I want to expand that idea in the ten or fifteen minutes that remain to me this morning the word of the message of the kingdom came then as it comes now announcing the good news that in the person and work of Jesus there is forgiveness for sinners he is the great burden bearer who said come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest and that message is expanded onto the apostolic preaching believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved by him all justified from all from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses he is a prince and a savior to give forgiveness of sins but that message also comes not only announcing full forgiveness upon believing but demanding with a divine that men repent and believe the gospel mark one fifteen acts twenty twenty one Paul said I preach repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ

34:20 now what is the nature of that repentance without which there can be no real faith in Jesus Christ and listen carefully is it and visible thorn bushes of worldliness greed immorality and lawlessness on under the fire of a conscience awakened by the law of God is that what repentance is merely burning and greed and worldliness will take me down to hell and he begins to tremble at the thought that his lifestyle is an offense to God is the repentance that is unto life a mere abundance which is unto salvation in conjunction with faith in Christ goes beyond and preoccupation with self and with things it is nothing less than a work of the spirit enabling the sinner to forsake not only the outward sins but the

35:49 produces them Isaiah 55 seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way let him burn repentance the outward growth of the force of his wicked ways but he doesn't stop there and the unrighteous man his his true repentance when Peter faced that man who tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit Peter and others only heard his words and saw his actions but in Acts 8 22 when Peter calls him to repentance he says pray if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you true repentance does not merely lock excessive visible above ground occupation with the cares life with the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things entering in no the greedy man who in his greed will be dishonest and steal and lie

37:19 will not only turn from his dishonesty and his stealing righteousness which produced them the immoral fornicator and adulterer who regards every other person's body as his legitimate playground will not only forsake actual illicit sexual contact with those of the opposite sex or the same sex but he will cry to God that God will help him to tear out those very desires from the deepest recesses of the heart we must understand that in the saving response to the gospel Christ always takes an undisputed and an unrivaled place in the heart into which he comes no man no woman can be a Christian with a divided heart impossible there's a preacher of another generation who preaching on this parable said as follows and his words are so perceptive it takes the whole heart to be a Christian thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy strength all no man can be a Christian with a divided heart now the thorny ground hearer is just a man who tries

The Necessity of Positive Fruit for Salvation

38:48 to do that impossible thing he tries to be a Christian with a divided heart he tries to serve God and the world at the same time he cherishes other loves in his soul besides the love of Christ and so his religion becomes a poor sickly stunted growth these other things take all the sap and strength out of it and it becomes untruthful now I would be very surprised if there isn't someone sitting here saying ah but pastor wait a minute it says he brought forth no fruit to perfection doesn't say didn't have fruit doesn't say there wasn't life are you sure you can be so dogmatic and say this represents an unconverted damn doomed sinner yes I am certain by the analogy of scripture and you listen if you've been one thinking that you listen carefully my bible teaches that nothing short of positive fruit will satisfy as the evidence that the grace of God has done its work in our hearts listen to John the Baptist in Matthew chapter three what did he preach he did not preach that the mere absence of bad fruit was enough he said unless there was the presence of goodness good fruit it would be the fire Matthew three

40:18 eight bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father I say unto you God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham and even now the axe lieth at the root of the trees and every tree that brings forth bad fruit shall be hewn down that isn't what my

40:48 true repentance and apart from that John says such a person will be hewn down and cast into the fire and the Lord Jesus says essentially the same thing in chapter seven verse sixteen by their fruits you will know them do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles even so every tree every good tree brings forth good fruit a good tree is not known simply by the fact that it doesn't bring forth bad fruit there is the positive element the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire a fruitless tree becomes a consumed tree in the day of judgment may

42:04 God happen to is the things you spared at your profess have taken their toll they've grown up with your so called Christian experience until now what was true then is evident to anyone with any discernment and it would be evident to you if for five minutes to face yourself with judgment day honesty in the light of the word of God those things that were spared in the beginning have now choked all parts possibility of fruit bearing the cares of this present age dominate passion for things and the lust of other things continually entering

43:33 in choke the word and there is no fruit Jesus says in John 15 the third passage which confirms the interpretation that I have set forth John 15 to every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes it away and every branch that bears fruit he cleanses it and he goes on to say verse 6 if a man does not abide in me he's cast forth as a branch and is withered and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned you see this is the picture of the person whose Christian profession begins and is carried on while that person is a stranger to a true work of biblical repentance this is why the prophet Jeremiah commanded his own generation a generation that had great light and great privilege but was the very generation about to be sent into captivity listen to his word and may God bring it home to the hearts of some of you this morning Jeremiah 4 in verse 3 thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem break up your fallow ground sow not among thorns there's

Call to Circumcise the Heart

45:03 the imagery don't expect that there will be a crop of righteousness if you sow the seed among thorns they will choke out its life then he drops the imagery of thorns and he turns to the true significance of circumcision circumcise yourselves to Jehovah skin of your heart concerned about my word to you this morning would be this , circumcise your heart don't be concerned with what your elders can see and what your wife can see and your husband can see and your children can see but stand before God and say oh God you see the soil of my heart of the thorns that you helped me to see as part of that system of thorns I close with an illustration that comes from real life a number of years ago I was privileged to share a conference at a bible school in Canada

Illustration: Uprooting the Demon Plant

46:33 and a missionary from Borneo was there and he told the story that I've never never forgotten it was so graphic in its underscoring of this principle he said that in the particular tribe in which he worked demon worship was rife and one of the things that people would do in their attachment to the demons would be that they would plant certain plants in honor of their own patron demon this particular man in the days when he was a demon worshiper and a child of the devil had planted a plant out in the middle of the dense thick lush jungle of that particular area of Borneo to his own patron demon he came under the sound of the word and God began to deal with him he could not come to any settled rest of faith in Christ because every time he sought to lay hold of Christ he knew he had to repudiate the demon who was his patron demon and he knew to repudiate the demon he had to go out into the woods and find that plant and uproot it as an act of deep heart repudiation and the day came when he was prepared to do so and with great fear for they had been taught all their lives if they ever repudiate the demon powers and especially their patron demon they will then be exposed to those powers to harass them and to destroy them and to take such a step was a step indeed of great faith and one

48:02 day he asked the missionary to go with him and I forgot what term they used for the missionary but let's say he said to him friend come with me and he said I walked out into the jungle and it all looked the same to me jungle was jungle was jungle but he said he walked with sober face and resolute step to the very spot where he knew he had planted that particular plant in honor to his own patron demon and then he said I watched him as he bent over traced that stalk down to the soil loosened all the soil around that plant making sure that he didn't break it off and leave the roots to grow he didn't go up and simply mash his heel into it he loosened the soil very carefully and then very gently to make sure he got the entire plant down to its last capillary in the root system he gently pulled it tugged at it pulled it up out of the earth then he said he didn't simply throw it to one side he took it in his hand and he said come with me and he walked a distance until he found a place where in the midst of that dense jungle there was a patch of clearing and the sun was breaking through upon the ground there he cleared away all the underbrush until it was bare soil took his demon plant shook every last bit of dirt out of the root system

49:32 then he laid it on the ground and spread out all the roots so that each part of the root system was exposed to that burning tropical sun and he said we stood there and watched it wither from the roots do I need to make the application do I you know what some of you have done when you supposedly left the world all you did was take your heel and stomp on the stalks of your own sinful patterns and break them off at the ground and with the passing of time they have grown up with your supposed response to the gospel till today you bear no fruit oh you haven't gone back to your ground gross worldliness and to your unbridled sensuality oh no he is a product of God it is bearing increasing holiness you know nothing of it increasing devotion to Christ you know nothing of it increasing tenderness of conscience you know nothing of it I'm not

Warning Against False Profession and Unfruitfulness

51:01 speaking of the Lord's plantings who have times of greater fruitfulness than others who have seasons when they wonder if indeed there is any life and they go to God and renew their repentance and renew their faith and their life in Christ flourishes in all who are about the me and the noise and down the soul yourself and what God called you you're a thorny ground here who's never known and I don't know how to state it any clear if you go on and stand before God and hear him say depart you curse my hands are clean of your blood you see how sobering this is because the stock is there got something that you call life and life that's a result of the seed of the word and it's a picture of people who are not

52:30 anyone's word but neither are they fruit bearing plants of God God has no barren plants in his field because they are united to his son and he produces fruit in all of his blood that's sobering isn't it that's sobering isn't it is the picture of those who seek to live a Christian life who've never known a deep work of repentance God willing tonight we'll consider two or three other lines of application the danger of being damned by the innocent the cares of this life the horrible possibility of being damned by the innocent the horrible possibility of everyone think we have life when in reality there is none may God help us to lay to heart this portion of his own holy word and deal with it with the honesty with which we will be forced to deal with it when we stand before him let us pray our father our Lord Jesus has spoken sayings

Prayer for True Repentance and Fruitfulness

54:00 that are unpleasant to our flesh yet we thank you that he knew and continues to know the human heart and all of the depths of its deception we pray that the spirit and the word this morning will so work in minds and hearts in this place that those who are described in this portion of the parable will see themselves for who and what they really are oh God may they not go on deceiving themselves have mercy we pray and may none of us be content with anything less than the deepest heart repentance the repudiation of sin in its root and branch and fruit and oh God may you make us into those plantings of your own grace that will bear fruit unto everlasting life we pray for your true children your own precious plantings who at the time may be going through a period of winter in their own souls we pray that such will not be unduly troubled but oh God for any who would comfort themselves with false comfort don't allow them to go on in self deception Lord

55:29 we commit your word to you and pray that the Holy Spirit himself will apply it in ways that we could never think of applying it that it may bear true and lasting fruit hear our prayer and answer us for the glory of your own beloved son we ask in his name amen