The Thorny Ground Hearer, Part 2

Introduction: The Parable of the Soils and the Thorny Ground Hearer

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, December 9th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now, for those of you who may not have been with us this morning, I should say this word, or give this word of explanation. Our meditation in the Word of God this evening is but the continuation and conclusion of the ministry began in our morning worship service. In the course of our consecutive expositions of the Gospel according to Mark in our Lord's Day morning services, we have come to Mark chapter 4 and to that section that is commonly called the parable of the sower, of which I have chosen.

0:54 I have chosen to entitle the parable of the soils in order to emphasize what is indeed the central point of the parable, namely that it is the state of the soil which determines the fate of the seed. And what we did this morning was to concentrate upon that part of the parable in which our Lord says that as the sower went forth to sow, Mark chapter 4 and verse 7, Some of the seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

1:33 And we spent considerable time, first of all, examining the facts of the parable as given by our Lord and recorded in Mark chapter 4 and also some of the details as recorded in Matthew 13 and in Luke chapter 8. We then examined the parable of the sower, which is the seed of the sower, and the seed of the sower, which is the seed of the sower, and examined our Lord's interpretation of those facts in the parable, and that interpretation is given in verses 18 and 19 of Mark chapter 4. The thorns growing up and choking the word, according to our Lord, are representative of the influence of the cares of the world,

2:17 the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things, entering in which choke the word, rendering it unfruitful. Having then looked at the facts of the parable, examined our Lord's interpretation of the facts, we began to focus our attention upon the abiding message of this parable. And we had time to concentrate only upon one element of that abiding message, namely, the tragic picture that it sets before us. It sets before us a tragic picture of the person who seeks to be a Christian

2:59 without a deep and thorough work of true repentance on the threshold of his so-called Christian experience. Because the soil was never cleansed of the thorns at the point of receiving the seed, that seed was destined to be fruitless, from its very germination. It was the weeds, the thorn bush, growing up with that seed that choked it and rendered it unfruitful. Now tonight, we move from the tragic picture contained in the parable

The Sober Warning: Destroyed by the Inherently Innocent

3:42 to consider in the second place the sober warning that is set forth in this aspect of the parable. And the sober warning...

3:53 The sober warning concerns the real danger of being destroyed by the inherently innocent. Part of the abiding message of this parable is the sober warning concerning the real danger of being destroyed by the inherently innocent. In our study this morning, we saw that our Lord told us that the thorns which grew up with the sprouted seed were comprised of these three things.

4:33 The cares of this age, the riches or the possession of the deceitfulness of riches, I am sorry, and the desires of other things entering in. Now let's look at these again in the light of this sober warning. What about the cares of this present age? In a very real sense, a person who feels the pressures of the cares, the anxieties of living in this age is simply a responsible person.

5:14 It's the drunk or the junkie who lives without a care except it's the care about how to get his next meal. His next fix or his next bottle. But apart from that care or that anxiety, he has none. And once he's had his fix and had his bottle, he has no cares.

5:31 That's why he wants his fix and his bottles, to get rid of cares. You see, feeling the pressure of cares is part and parcel of living a responsible life. If you're a responsible husband and father, you feel the pressure of the care, the anxiety. Of providing for your family.

5:54 If you're a responsible citizen, you feel the care of flunking your inspection. And having to get your emissions corrected so that you can pass within the 14 day limit. And trying to fit that into your schedule and fit it into your budget and all the rest. That anxiety is part of living a responsible life.

6:16 So the cares found in conjunction with life in this age are not... They are not inherently sinful.

6:24 They are part and parcel of living a responsible life. That's why the Bible tells us in such passages as 1 Peter 5, 7, Casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you. The assumption is that all responsible Christians will have cares. And Peter says, cast those cares upon him because he is sinful.

6:51 Solicitous, he cares, he is anxious concerning you. Likewise, with regard to riches or the possession of money and things. They are not inherently evil. And though riches are deceitful, riches are not in and of themselves inherently evil.

7:15 1 Timothy chapter 6 tells us that men who are prepared to pursue riches... At the expense of other priorities, drown themselves in perdition.

7:27 But when Paul charges those who are rich, he does not say to Timothy, Charge those who are rich in this world to get unrich. Because riches are inconsistent with being in a healthy state of grace. No, he says to them, charge them that are rich in this world, Not to put their hope in uncertain riches. Not to be proud of their riches.

7:50 To be generous. To be ready to distribute. He doesn't tell them, liquidate their riches. You will not find such teaching in the word of God.

8:00 So, the matter of having riches, desiring to possess sufficient to meet our own needs and the needs of our children, is not a matter sinful in itself. And likewise, the desires of other things entering in. As we saw this morning, those desires came...

8:21 The desire to know the joy of accomplishment. The desire for companionship. The desire for social and personal intimacy. The desire for good health.

8:38 All of these desires are not sinful in themselves.

8:44 However, when God gives a new heart, and there is true repentance, Each of these things... In principle, is put in a position of subservience to the claims of Christ, the concerns of the soul, and the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

9:07 Man, by nature, is preoccupied with the cares of this life, to the expense of the good of his soul. He is preoccupied with the cares of this life, to indifference to the claims of Christ. And to the demands of his kingdom. But when there is a work of true repentance, God imparts a new heart in a man, truly turns from the idolatry of things and of money and of ambition.

9:40 All of these things, the cares of this age, the possession of things, and legitimate God-given desires, they are all ranged in subservience, to the claims of Christ, who will have a man's whole heart, or he will not enter, to the concerns of the soul, and to the interest of his kingdom. So that a true Christian can say with the Apostle Paul, as the fundamental spiritual perspective of his heart, we look not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen, are temporal,

10:24 and the things that are not seen are eternal. But with the thorny ground hearer, this is never true.

10:33 He embraces the gospel, manifests something that looks like spiritual life, but follow closely. When the cares of this age, come into a collision course with the claims of Christ, the concerns of his soul, and the interest of the kingdom, what wins out? The cares, the riches,

11:04 and the desires for other things and dreams.

11:09 So that as he goes on his way in the language of Luke chapter 8, it becomes increasingly evident that that initial and apparently saving response to the word was something short of a true work of grace in the soul. Because in the unfolding of life with its inevitable cares, in the unfolding of life with its necessity for money and things, in the unfolding of life with its manifold coming together of desires and ambitions and appetites and longings,

11:52 the lust of other things, it is inevitable, but that those things will come into a collision course, with the claims of Christ, his kingdom, and the interest of the soul. And when they do, a pattern emerges in which those things choke out the fruit that should be born from the word of God. And what happens then? People are destroyed and ultimately damned by that which is inherently innocent.

Benjamin Keech: The Abuse of Lawful Things

12:30 Now listen, listen to this perspective as it is opened up and applied by a great preacher of another generation. Many of you perhaps never heard of him, but if you were living in the late 16 or middle and late 1600s and you were a Baptist or even a Presbyterian, you would have heard of Benjamin Teach and recently his expositions of the parables have been reprinted. And listen to the warning that he gives on this very point. Note, note, that not only unlawful things, but the abuse of the lawful shut men out of the kingdom of heaven.

13:11 It is not only whoredom, adultery, drunkenness, swearing, murder, lying or stealing that tend to choke the word, but the abuse of lawful prophets, lawful cares, and lawful desires. The old world, as one observes, eat and drank. You remember Jesus said in the days before the flood they were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage. He's referring to that old world.

13:42 They ate and drank, built and planted, married and were given in marriage. Why, all these things were lawful, but they abused these things. What's more lawful than to purchase a farm or a yoke of oxen or to marry a wife? But if men will in doing these things refuse to come to Christ or prefer them above a marriage with the Lord Jesus, the Lord saith, they shall never taste of my supper.

14:11 You remember the parable or the incident in which the Lord describes that? Send them out and invite them to the feast. One says, I've got a yoke of oxen, I've bought a field, I've married a wife, I cannot come. What is more lawful than for a man to take care, to get bread, to provide for his family, and in an honest way, to keep or to get out of debt?

14:34 But if men neglect the worship of God, or are in their shops when they should be in the church, or to get bread will take unlawful courses, or to enrich themselves, pinch or grip the poor, or labor more for the meat that perishes than for the meat that endures to everlasting life, or when carking and distracting cares fill their heads and hearts so that they forget God, and take His name in vain or steal, it is abominable. What is more lawful than for a man to follow his trade and employment? Is it God who says, whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might as unto the Lord? Yes.

15:17 But Keech makes the point, if in so doing, and in doing this, the blessing of God rests upon our labors, and that very blessing then becomes our idol, we are destroyed by the innocent, and we are damned. By the good. Open lawlessness, immorality, thievery will destroy its thousands, but fruitless profession will destroy its thousands as well. And could it be that I am speaking tonight to men and women, boys and girls who are in danger of being damned, not because you sit here tonight,

Application to Young People: Damned by Innocent Preoccupations

15:57 with your heart committed to a lifestyle of total lawlessness and abandonment to sin, there may be such, and your own conscience tells you that that lifestyle, unless radically changed by grace, will take you straight to hell. You know it as well as I do. But could it be that I am speaking to not a few who say, no, I could never go into that kind of a lifestyle. My conscience would so scream at me that I could find no peace in it.

16:27 What's your danger? And here I speak especially with a burden to you young people in your early and mid-teens. Listen to me. Your danger is that you'll be damned by a preoccupation with the innocent that will keep the word of God from producing its fruits of true repentance, true faith, true discipleship, true attachment to and communion with Jesus Christ.

16:56 Let me get specific. Is there anything wrong with young people as they begin to come into puberty, into their teens, and begin to become, begin to be conscious of their emerging womanhood and manhood? For a fellow to be all the time, when he passes the mirror in the bathroom, flexing to see if he's got a little bump on his arm here, that he could begin to call a bisect? There's nothing wrong with that.

17:21 Nothing wrong whatsoever. For the young man to begin to see a little bump on his bone is a sign that maybe he's beginning to become a man and he looks in vain if he's got to hold a magnifying glass over it. He's going to see if he's got him a little bump, a little bump in there called a bisect. And he loves to go around and say to his sisters, hey, look at me muscle, see?

17:41 Nothing wrong with that. It's a beautiful thing to see a boy beginning to think in terms of his emerging manhood and wanting to find a little ripple and a little bump and a little muscle here or there. And the other way is looking for that first whisker to sprout so he can have an excuse to use his dad's shaver or his razor. And for a young woman who begins to discover herself, she wants to experiment a little bit with hairstyles and maybe a little color here or there to help nature and to begin to feel a little giddy to feel a little giddy and giggly when she's around the boys and for the boys to begin to discover that girls are no longer yuck but they're kind of yummy.

18:29 Now seriously, there is nothing wrong. That's all a part of the innocent development from childhood into adulthood. But now listen to me, young people. Listen carefully.

18:39 Listen carefully. Do you know it's those very innocent things that at this tender period in your life could be the very thing that destroys your soul? When you got together with your peers after the sermon this morning, what did you talk about? Could you sit through a sermon like this morning and when it's all over get in your little group of your peers and talk about which guy in the young people's group looked the cutest today?

19:12 Which girl looked the cutest? Were these legitimate things so out of proportion that you had no sober thoughts about whether your heart was a thorn bush infested field? What about it, teenager? And when you get up in the morning, what's your first concern?

19:36 To get your heart in tune with God or to put your face on with your newly discovered colors? When you get out of bed in the morning, what's your first concern to dress your heart that it might be a fit dwelling place for Christ and His Spirit that day? Or is your total preoccupation with how you're going to look for the guys when you go off to school? Who cares for this life?

20:06 And you see, dear young people, listen. What we may laugh about as innocent teenage foibles now, ten years from now, it'll be that same mentality that'll have you totally wrapped up with shopping around for your newest living room set and shopping around for your newest dress and looking through the magazines to plan your next vacation. Anything wrong with a living room set? A new dress? A vacation? No!

20:34 But it's the cares of this life, the cares of this age, that go from the innocent things of the teenage years into the more weighty concerns of those mature years. And then you sit on planes and in airports as I do and listen to fifty and sixty year old men talking about nothing about how they're going to spend so many hours on the golf links when they retire in three years and where they're going to go and what they're going to see. The cares of this age choking the world.

21:18 Oh, what a warning this parable contains to you, dear young people. Now is the time to bring into focus the great priorities of Jesus Christ and his claims over you. The great priority of your soul over your body. What does it matter if your arms ripple with seventeen inch biceps?

21:44 If your heart's so full of thorn bushes that you can sit under the teaching of mom and dad day after day in family devotions and in your Sunday school class, week after week, and in this church month after month. And there's no rich harvest of love to Christ and devotion to Christ and desire to serve Christ and a longing to seek first the kingdom of Christ. That's the fruit that the seed of the word of God falling upon your heart should be producing, dear young people. Let me ask you, is it producing that in you?

22:22 You dear teenage young people, look me in the eyeballs now. Come on! I'll take my glasses off so there's no glare now. Look your pastor in the eye.

22:32 You answer before God. What is really going on inside your heart? Are you more concerned about your face and your form and your biceps and your buddies and your girlfriends and your boyfriends and who's the cutest and who isn't? I'm not saying that those things should not be a concern.

22:57 I'm asking you, are you more concerned about that than whether or not your heart is pure and holy and whether or not Christ is real and precious and whether or not God is making you as a young woman beautiful with inward beauty, the adornment of a meek and a quiet spirit, whether God is making you a true man not in terms of what pumping a little iron can give you, but the kind of manhood that only communion with God and tenderness to sin and love to Jesus and trust in Jesus can give you? Oh, dear young people, don't be damned by the innocent.

23:41 It's tragic when we see young people go out of this place and destroy themselves by immorality and lawlessness. They know where they are and they make no claim to being Christian. But I fear for some of you. Who say, Oh, yeah, I believe the Bible.

24:04 Oh, yes, there's nothing I don't believe. Nothing I deny. Oh, yes, I trust Christ. But, dear young person, if you're honest, you'll have to admit there's no real delight in prayer.

24:18 There's no real delight in reading the Bible. The thing that really gets you excited is going through Seventeen magazine and looking at the most up-to-date hairdos and then trying to mimic the in thing. That gets you excited. Let somebody come to you and tell you that so-and-so looked at you four times in the youth group and, oh, that gets you all excited.

24:42 But you don't get excited when you read your Bible and God speaks to your heart. Young person, I am not speaking against the innocent cares and concerns of your teenage years. That would be cruel for me to do so. But what I'm saying is don't be damned.

25:04 Don't destroy your soul with the innocent. Don't be so concerned about how am I going to get to college and how am I going to get into a career and how am I going to acquire a trade. The cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things and the world is full of things that will grow of themselves into monstrous, all-consuming passions if you let them. Oh, dear young people, and children, don't be destroyed by these.

Bishop Ryle: The Deplorable State of Thorny Ground Hearers

25:40 And what I say to the young people, I say to you adults as well. Could it be that I'm speaking to some adults who fit the description of old Bishop Rye? And I'm quoting from these men not because I'm looking for filler, but I'm doing it for two reasons. They've said some things better than I could say them, and then also I'm quoting from them so that you realize the position I've taken on this parable is not novel, it's not unique.

26:11 It is the position of historic, responsible Christian exegesis that the thorny ground hearer is not and never was a saved person. Listen to Bishop Rye. We are taught in the third place there are some hearers of the gospel whose hearts are like the thorny ground in a field. These are they who attend to the preaching of Christ's truth.

26:38 And to a certain extent they obey it. Their understanding ascends to it. Their judgment approves of it. Their conscience is affected by it.

26:50 Their affections are in favor of it. They acknowledge it's all right and good and worthy of all reception. They even abstain from many things which the gospel condemns, and they adopt many habits which the gospel condemns. The gospel requires.

27:10 But here unhappily they stop short. Something appears to chain them fast and they never get beyond a certain point in their religion. And the grand secret of their condition is the world. The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things prevent the word from having its full effect on their souls.

27:38 With everything apparently that is promising and favorable in their spiritual state, they stand still. They never come up to the full standard of New Testament Christianity. They bring forth no fruit to perfection, quoting from Luke chapter 8. There are few faithful ministers of Christ who could not point to cases like these.

28:02 Of all cases, they are the most sad. They go so far and yet get no further. To see so much and yet not see at all. To approve so much and yet not give Christ the heart.

28:21 This is indeed most deplorable. And there is but one verdict that can be given about such people. Without a decided change, they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Christ will have all of our hearts.

28:38 And then he quotes James 4.4. If any man will be a friend of the world, he is the enemy of God. The great message of the thorny ground here is that it not only sets before us a tragic picture, the picture of one seeking to be a Christian whose heart is a stranger to deep and thorough repentance, the root system of the thorn bush never extricated, the seeds never sifted out.

The Searching Observation: Self-Deception of the Thorny Ground Hearer

29:13 Going on his way, the word is choked because the repentance was never deep and sincere and genuine. It not only sets before us a sober warning, the warning of the real danger of being destroyed by the inherently innocent, but in the third place, there is a very searching observation contained in this parable. The observation I alluded to this morning, but it's this. The thorny ground here is the most likely to be deceived about his true condition and to deceive others.

29:56 The thorny ground here is the one most likely to be deceived about his condition and to deceive others. You take the wayside here, our Lord says, that's the person who hears, who understands not, then comes the devil and takes away the seed that was sown in his heart. That's the man, he hears the gospel and says, gospel, so what? I see nothing in the gospel that answers to my need.

30:26 His indifference is written all over him. He never becomes the member of an evangelical church, much less a reformed church. His identity is clear. The unconcerned, uncomprehending, indifferent hearer of the gospel.

30:42 Likewise, eventually, the stony or rocky ground here, his condition becomes evident. It says, in time of temptation, immediately, they fall away. They stumble. These are those who ultimately cast off the Christian faith, like a Judas, like a Demas, and others recorded in scripture.

31:05 They give up the profession they once held. They say, hey, if this is what's involved in being a Christian, I never would have named the name of Christ if I knew. This is what I was in for. I want out.

31:16 But the thorny ground here, you see, here remains a fruitless stalk of grain in the field of God. And you say, is there going to be any grain at the head of that stalk? There's some grain in the stalk, but there's no grain in the head. Is it a living or a dead plant?

31:34 You see, this person is most likely to fall into the trap of the devil. You see, this person is most likely to fall into the trap of the devil. This person is most likely to be deceived himself and to deceive others. And you look at him next to plants that eventually bear grain.

32:05 It says so many marks that make him similar. But fruit there is not. I wonder, are you sitting here tonight a fruitless stalk among fruitful plants of God? So much about you that is so much like fruit bearers that is so much like fruit bearers that is so much like fruit bearers that is so much like fruit bearers but you bear no fruit.

32:28 Again, listen to Bishop Ryle commenting on this principle in his exposition at Mark. He recognized this terrible possibility and this is what he wrote in commenting upon this very principle. These are they who attend to the preaching of Christ's truth and to a certain extent obey it. Their understanding approves of it.

32:57 They are affected by it. Yes, I read that section. I am sorry on Ryle. Sorry, I meant to keep that for this point and I read it up there under the other heading and I am sorry I should not have done that.

33:15 But nonetheless the point is clear that you are most likely to be deceived and the only way I know and again some of you asked me at the door this morning, Pastor, how can I tell? How can I be sure? Well, if you are content with an infallible answer, but I would say this much, if you are content that you have enough Christianity to pass the standard of your fellow professing Christians and desire no more, you may well be a thorny ground hearer. But if you are one who says I don't care what others

34:00 think about me, I don't care how many people there are to believe these misdeeds, these motions of sin in my heart, you are no stranger to secret mourning over secret sins that only God and you know about. You know and God knows that you pant after holiness and conformity to Christ in areas where your nonconformity to un-Christ-like words and deeds, but you're concerned with something more than words and deeds. You're concerned about the heart.

34:47 When I talk about secret pantings after God walking around the house in the midst of the burden and cares of your housework, your heart rises higher than the dust on the mantle and the remains on the dirty dishes in the midst of those cares. You as a housewife know what it is to have your heart periodically lifted up to God that He'd give you more of the Spirit of Christ, that you'd be more like Christ in your loving embrace of your husband's headship. No, you never rear back and tell him, who are you to tell me what to do? You're the model of a submissive wife.

35:28 But you know that there are areas in your heart where there is resistance to your husband's authority. And you mourn and you cry to God inwardly, Lord, permeate my heart with the spirit of loving submission. Dear housewife, do you know what that is?

35:48 You see, that's the fruit that is produced by the Word taking root in the heart. The cares of this life are there, but they're not choking out the Word. In the midst of those cares, the Word is flourishing, producing panting after God and hungerings, and thirsting after holiness and righteousness and greater likeness to the Lord Jesus. And when you look through the window and the neighbor's husband walks by, he's much better looking than your own and much better built than your own.

36:24 And for just a moment, your mind entertains a thought of lust. You mourn before God as deeply as though you'd gone to bed with that man. And your husband never knew your lustful thought, only you. You knew and God knew, but you know and God knows that your repentance was deep over the very first stirrings of that lustful thought.

36:47 And if anyone's shocked that I should say women in Trinity Church are tempted to lust, you're just not acquainted with your own heart.

36:56 And what I say of the dear women, I say of the men.

37:02 You see what I'm driving at? Inward heart religion that goes beyond what men see and men hear and men can observe. Do you know something of that? My friend, if you do, you're no thorny ground here.

37:18 The word is producing its fruit in you. That fruit which has no explanation, but that God's word has taken root in your heart and is producing that which only a work of God's grace can produce. But the searching observation is there nonetheless and I can only underscore it and plead with you. Don't be afraid.

37:45 Be content to be a green stalk standing in God's field amongst fruit-bearing stalks. Ask yourself, what fruits of holiness are being manifest now that were not manifested a year, two years, five years ago? What positive steps have been taken in the direction of conformity to Christ and seeking first the kingdom of Christ? You see, the proof that the initial germination was real is that the fruit-bearing is continuous.

38:23 They bring forth fruit with endurance. I'm anticipating the good soil, but I don't know how to avoid it if I'm going to keep my promise to some of you to address that question that you raised at the door this morning. You see the proof that the initial pulling out of the subsoil root system of the thorn bush was real, that the repentance, was genuine, is that it's continuous. If you reached in in your initial experience by the grace of God to pull out the root system of the thorn bushes, if your repentance was real, the proof is that it's perpetual

39:03 and you're pulling out the root system to this day. And if you've got to find consolation by looking back to a time when you did something that seemed to have the semblance of real life, my friend, you're looking in the wrong direction. Grace is not static. It is a living principle of divine life implanted in the soul.

39:30 That's why Schuylkill named his book The Life of God in the Soul of Man. The whole teaching of John chapter 15, that union with Christ is not static. It is a dynamic living union which continually produces fruit in the context of continual life. The whole teaching of John chapter 15, that union with Christ is not static. It is a dynamic living union which continually produces fruit in the context of continual life.

39:49 The whole teaching of John chapter 15, that union with Christ is not static. It is a dynamic living union which continually produces fruit in the context of continual life. May God grant that none of you will sit here deceived as thorny ground-hearers. And then I come to my concluding exhortation.

Concluding Exhortation: Let Nothing Get Within You

40:04 Though this part of the parable obviously applies directly and explicitly to those who are never truly converted, there is a principle that is vital for us as God's people. And the principle is this, child of God. Whatever, whatever impedes your fruitfulness is an enemy of your soul and ought to be dealt with like a thorn bush.

40:38 Whatever impedes your fruitfulness, your advancement in grace, is an enemy of your soul. No matter how innocent it may be in itself, and the thing that impedes you may not impede me. You remember Pastor Nichols and the pretzels illustration? You remember?

41:02 I don't have any problem with pretzels. Put ten boxes in front of me now and they'd be there stale ten months from now. So we don't preach against pretzels from this pulpit and say if you're going to be holy, you can't have pretzels in the house. But you've heard Pastor Nichols acknowledge if he's going to keep a good conscience, he can't have pretzels around in the house.

41:24 He's got an addiction to pretzels. Strange as that may seem. That's reality. But you see, the principle is whatever impedes my progress in grace, if it's as innocent as pretzels, I'm going to treat it for what it is.

41:43 An enemy to grace in myself. Then I don't go and make it a rule for someone else. That drifts into Phariseeism and into legalism. Now what is an impediment to your growth in grace?

41:56 You say, Pastor, I'm embarrassed to even think about it. It's such an innocent thing. My friend, if it shows...

42:03 It soaks out the life of God in your soul. It is not innocent. I conclude with that wonderful word that John Bunyan put into the mouth of the evangelist. You remember along the way in Pilgrim's Progress, he had good counsel to give to Christians in his pilgrimage.

42:23 And one of the counsels that has stuck like barbed arrows in my own heart is that counsel he gave to him in these words. Let nothing. This side. Of the world to come.

42:38 Get. Within you.

42:41 Let nothing. This side. Of the world to come. Get within you.

42:48 Now you may have to carry and even juggle a lot of things. This side of the world to come. Needing next month's bills.

42:57 Getting that blown muffler fixed. Getting through the inspection line. All those things we talked about this morning. The cares at this age.

43:04 You may be juggling a hundred and one things about you. There may be the legitimate concern of the stewardship of money and things while rejecting their deceitful claims to satisfy. We say, no, I'll not be deceived, but you're going to be a responsible steward and there are many other concerns and desires and you're not going to deny any of those God given desires and treat them as though they were sinful. The desire for companionship, the desire for personal intimacy.

43:37 The desire for a husband, a wife, a family. No, but you're determined you're going to let nothing. This side of the world to come. Get within you.

43:48 In other words, you're not going to let it crowd the Lord Jesus out of his place of supreme rule and being the object of supreme affection in the citadel of your being. Guard your heart above all that you guard. For out of it are the issues of life. Dear husbands, don't let your wife get within you.

44:17 Keep her out here as God's gift. Thank God for her. Thank her for being what she is to you. Love her, nourish her, cherish her, care for her.

44:29 But don't, or you've made her an idol. And that idolatry may choke the word and destroy you. Thank God for your children. Love them.

44:44 Tell them you love them. Physically and verbally and by action. Love them in word and deed. You can't love them too much.

44:54 You can fail to discipline them enough, but you can't love them too much.

45:00 But don't ever let them get within you and make idols of them. When the issue comes of their claims and their desires and Christ's claims and Christ's desires, their wishes and Christ's words, you make it plain that Christ has. You just as you have. There is no place not only above husband and wife.

45:23 But above your very children. Career is it wrong for a man to seek to do well to provide? No. Is it wrong to seek the fulfillment of recognition and advancement?

45:35 No! I challenge anyone to prove from the Word of God. It is wrong to be ambitious to do well and to be recognized and to have advancement. There is much.

45:46 In the. Book. Of. Proverbs.

45:47 that's the fruit of diligence. But don't ever let that career get within you. If your company and your career begins to make demands upon you that violate the demands of Christ to gather with his people, to seek first his kingdom, you say to that company, you say to that business, I'll not sell my soul to you. And be prepared, if necessary, to start at the bottom rung in a totally different career, if that's the price you must pay, to keep your heart a fruitful field of growing love to

46:29 Christ, growing conformity to Christ, growing involvement in the kingdom and in the work of Christ. That's my exhortation, child of God. Though in principle the weeds, the thorns were extricated in your conversion, like any field the human heart will grow weeds, without any effort on your own. I marvel at that again and again when I sit in my study and look out on what once was my garden. But this past year I planted no garden. But I mean I had weeds that

47:07 tall. I had to go in and whack them down to the place where I could then get the mower in to mow them down. And when I thought they were mowed down for good, three weeks later, there they were again. I had to do nothing. Now, if I'm going to get nice,

47:22 plants of anything else, I have to be out there every Monday on my hands and knees, pulling weeds, cultivating, fertilizing, killing the bugs. Oh, how you have to work to get a plant that bears fruit. But to get weeds, you do nothing. And that's what your heart's like.

47:39 And unless you're determined to be engaged in a perpetual weed-pulling, thorn-pulling endeavor, you will not bear increasing fruit as a child of God. Let nothing. Let nothing this side of the world to come get within you. When it tries the front door and you bar it and say, no admission, this heart belongs to Jesus. Next thing you know, while you're telling

48:05 it to leave the front door, it's trying to sneak down the chimney. And you no sooner plug up the chimney when it's trying to ooze through a crack in the window. There's always something trying to get inside. Let nothing this side of the world to come get within you. I'm sure Pastor Clark could

Perpetual Weed-Pulling and Fruitfulness in Old Age

48:23 say amen to what I'm about to say. I'm sure Pastor Clark could say amen to what I'm about to say. There are precious few who begin well, continue well, and end better in the Christian race. He's shaking his head. I've lived long enough to validate that statement. Precious few who begin

48:48 well, continue well, and end better. And yet I read in my Bible one of the most precious promises. You may pass it over now, but you have your 50th birthday, and all of a sudden that verse will come alive to you, for God says, They shall still bear fruit in old age.

49:07 They shall be planted in the house of God. They shall be full of sap and green. To do what? To show that the Lord is righteous.

49:16 And I plead that before God. I say, O God, demonstrate your righteousness and faithfulness. Keep me full of sap and green and bearing fruit unto old age. Don't let me become a dry stalk with just some etchings on it of what once was.

49:37 O may God give us a fear of being anything less than fruitful. Till the day the Lord Jesus says, enough fruit down here. Transplant time. And then he transplants us.

49:51 And in the process, we'll never have to worry about a thorn bush again. And we'll be like him. And we'll see him as he is. May God write upon our hearts the message of this portion of his holy word.

Prayer for Guarded Hearts and Fruitfulness

50:06 Let us pray together.

50:16 O Father. We plead with you to take these fickle hearts of ours and so fix them upon yourself and the concerns of your kingdom, the glory of your son, and the matters pertaining to our relationship to him, that we will now allow nothing this side of the world to come to get within us. We pray for any who need. We pray for any who need the warning of this portion of your word.

50:53 May they not seek to shake it off, but may they face with judgment day honesty whether or not they have allowed the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things entering in to choke the word. We pray for those in whom your word is bearing fruit, that by virtue of your word being preached and applied to them. And by the spirit there would be renewed determination that nothing, nothing, will impede their fruitfulness. O God, help us by your grace.

51:34 It is relatively easy for us in a service like this to renew resolutions unto progress in grace. But, O Lord, when we're alone with our own hearts and our own peculiar temptations, we're as weak as water. O God, help us, help us, that the resolutions made would be strengthened by the enabling grace of the Spirit, that we as a people may bear much fruit. For you have said, herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.

52:12 Hear then our prayer, and bless to our prophet the things contemplated this day, and even as we leave this place, may we not allow the enemy of our souls to snatch away the words sown in our hearts, but may it be cultivated and nurtured by prayer and meditation and reflection and by specific acts of obedience. Hear our prayer, and may your blessing rest upon your dear people, we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.