The Good Ground Hearer, Part 3

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

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, December 30th, 1984, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now may I urge you to turn with me in your Bibles to the fourth chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, as we continue our expositions in this Spirit-inspired record of the life, the teaching, the ministry, the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, given to us by this man, Mark, with all of the distinctive perspectives and highlights of this that has become such a rich study, I'm sure, and I trust for many, if not all of us. We come this morning to our last study in this section of the Gospel in which we have what is commonly called the parable of the sower, but which I and others feel should more accurately be designated the parable of the soils. And I would ask you to follow as I read verses 1 through 9, and then verse 20, and then the parallel passage in Luke, just one verse, Luke 8 and verse 15. Mark. Mark chapter 4 and verse 1.

1:27 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 in his teaching, Hearken, behold, the sower went forth to sow. And it came to pass, as he sowed.

1:55 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.

2:16 And other fell among the thorns, 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 ears to hear? Let him hear.

2:41 Verse 20. And those are they that were sown upon the good ground, such as hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, thirtyfold, and sixtyfold. And now Luke chapter 8 and verse 15. Luke 8 and verse 15.

3:05 And that in the good ground, these are such as in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit with patience, that is, steadfastness, endurance, or perseverance. Any one of those words would be a good translation of the word used by our Lord.

Jesus' Threefold Study and the Parable's Insights

3:34 As you have reflected upon not only what is revealed concerning the life of our Lord, but what is not revealed, have you ever wondered what the Lord Jesus did during the time of his infancy, as recorded in Matthew chapter 1 and 2, and in Luke 1 and 2, and the time of his presentation. Formally and publicly in the waters of Jordan, at which time he was identified and set apart as God's Messiah. Have you ever wondered what he was doing during all of those years between his infancy and his full maturity as a man?

4:18 Well, the scriptures are silent. But one commentator has suggested that his subsequent ministry revealed that our Lord, whatever else he did, was constantly and carefully studying three books during those years. He was studying the book of God, that is, the Old Testament scriptures.

4:45 Secondly, he was studying the book of nature, the book of men and things as created by God. And thirdly, he was studying the book of the human heart. He was studying. He was studying human nature, both as created, as fallen, and as capable of the redeeming, transforming power of God's grace.

5:14 Now, if that's true, and I think there is much to indicate that it is true, it is accurate to say that few portions of the word of God reveal more clearly the fruit of that threefold study of our Lord, than does the parable of the sower. It's obvious, as we study this parable together, that Jesus observed the book of nature. For he took an incident from nature, the ordinary labors of a farmer who went forth at springtime to sow his seed in his plowed field. His minute observations regarding the fate of the seed, as determined by, by the state of the soil, was a lesson he learned in the book of nature. But it's also obvious, as he interprets his very parable out of the book of nature, that he had also studied well the book of God. That he brings to bear many perspectives from the Old Testament scriptures, as they impinge upon his own ministry of the word of God, and upon the substance of the Word of God. And that is the subsequent ministry that would occur from those who preach that word.

6:38 And then few passages reveal our Lord's knowledge of the human heart, and how the word of God interacts with the condition of that heart, with more precision and almost frightening accuracy, than does this parable of the sower. And so, together, we have been reaping the fruits of our Lord's careful study of the book of nature, and the book of the human heart. And we have come in the course of our study of this parable, to the last study. Together, at least at this time, we have contemplated the wayside soil in which our Lord pictures the careless, indifferent, non-comprehending hearer of the gospel, who hears the great themes of God and sin, and forgiveness, and repentance and the kingdom of God and treats them all as an idle tale. And that seed is wasted upon such a man and the devil cooperates with his indifference and like the birds of the air snatches away the seed that was sown in his heart. Then we considered, I trust, with some degree of inward pain, the rocky soil here, a picture of that person who responds to the message of grace

Review of the Unfruitful Soils and the Nature of Good Ground

8:03 with enthusiasm, but that response is rootless. It is like the germination of a seed on a thin layer of soil under which there is a shelf of rock, preventing any root system from developing that would enable it to mature into a fruit-bearing plant. And our Lord says this is the picture of those enthusiastic people who are in the midst of this. Those enthusiastic people who respond to the gospel with what appears to be wholehearted joy and enthusiasm, but they represent the thoughtless, careless, shallow hearers and responders to the gospel who have never counted the cost, in whom the root of the matter has never really been established. And under the combined pressure of affliction and persecution, they ultimately fall away, they wither, and they die. And then, with perhaps even an increasing measure of pain, we contemplated the thorny soil hearer, the tragic picture of the person who attempts to embrace the gospel with a still divided heart, and the very things that were spared when he embraced the gospel ultimately grow up and choke the plant that seems to grow out of the gospel so that no fruit is ever born,

9:26 and though the person may continue to maintain the profession and the name of Christ, that one thing that proves that there was a saving reception of the word is lacking. He bears no fruit. And then I hope with a measure of joy we've contemplated for several weeks what our Lord is conveying under the figure of the good soil hearer, that figure of a saving response to the word, such as, Hear the word, receive it, hold it fast, and bear fruit with patience or continuance. And as we come to this, our final study, what I want to do is to set before you a third very vital principle with respect to the good soil. As we have looked at the teaching of the parable and our Lord's interpretation of the parable, we have extracted two very basic principles, number one, that the only valid evidence of a saving reception of the word is continuance in a course of fruit bearing. Some of you perhaps were shocked when I said there is abroad in our day a teaching that one can be a true Christian and yet utterly fruitless. And you may have sat there and

10:48 said, really, pastor must be striking at straw dummies. Well, in our elders meeting last night, Pastor Clark mentioned that this very principle is not valid. And I think that's a very important principle that should be held to respect and respect for the good of our people. Every week, He listened to a series of tapes from a conference of responsible Christians and Christian leaders in which, someone gave a series of studies on the various kinds of Christians. And he used the parable of the sower, And apart from the stony ground soil all the others were true Christians. And so you had two kinds of fruitless Christians, the rocky ground and the thorny ground, and then you had fruit bearing Christians and you had the kind that don't have fruits, and you had the kind that don't have fruit. Because they were all Christian, that is what that is, they were all Christians. We want to use this to our purpose and to show you how to do things right then and then.

11:25 Christians, and it was all a matter of rewards. I was not attacking straw dummies. It is the ancient, damnable heresy that you can be saved without the fruit of holiness and obedience in the life, and that teaching simply will not stand the test of the Word of God. The only valid evidence of a saving reception of the Word is continuance in a course of fruit bearing. Then we considered together last week that there are varying degrees of fruit bearing among those who savingly receive the Word. It brought forth thirtyfold, sixty and a hundredfold. There are degrees of fruit bearing, but it is degrees, not kind. There is fruit, positive fruit, in every saving reception of the Word, though there are degrees of fruit among those who receive the Word.

The Central Question: How Does Soil Become Good?

12:23 Now then, the question we address this morning is this. How did that soil become good soil?

12:37 In Matthew's account of the parable, in Mark's account of the parable, and in both of the records they give concerning our Lord's interpretation, we simply have this word, and these are such as are sown upon the good ground. Or, the good soil, who hear the Word, who receive it, who bring forth fruit. But it is to Luke that we are indebted for this additional insight, Luke 8, 15, that in the good ground these are such as in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, hold it fast and bring forth fruit with patience. Now, how? How did the soil become good ground? That is, how did the heart become an honest and

13:34 a good heart so that it might bring forth fruit with patience? Well, as a commentator of another generation has written, it is beyond the scope of the parable itself to explain how the soil is rendered soft and kept free from the power of the earth. So, the very message I was trying to demonstrate that the Lord was such a source of goodness upon the earth wasn't ruined on soil. It is a handsome thing that our Lord, whose kingdom because of the fruit and its prodigal fruits continues toàn cuzist the earth, ibaà better on earth them. v. 25. That is oftentimes assembled asivity between Genesis 45 and Joshua 1, verses 17 to 16.

14:24 Our Lord was content to tell us what the good soil produces. We must discover elsewhere in the scriptures, whence its goodness is derived. And it's that question that we addressed this morning. How does the human heart become that which is called in the parable Good Ground, that which is interpreted by the Lord a good and good land? That which is interpreted by our Lord a good scriptural characters and verse je veris nxtadiosenisnos de Oscar 18–22.

14:24 and an honest heart. And the answer of the Word of God to that question is this.

The Moral Quality of the Good and Honest Heart

14:32 Only an immediate, supernatural work of the Spirit of God can produce the conditions of heart necessary for a saving response to the Word. Only an immediate, supernatural work of the Spirit of God can produce the conditions of heart necessary for a saving response to the Word. Now, what I propose to do is to demonstrate the validity of that principle. We begin by looking again at the basic teaching contained in the parable, particularly in Luke 8 and verse 15.

15:17 According to Luke's account, the good soil which alone causes the seed to spring up into a healthy, fruit-bearing plant is the soil of an honest and good heart. Now, these two words, honest and good, adjectives describing the heart, are very difficult to translate into any kind of contemporary synonyms. The New International Version renders them a noble and a good heart. The New English Bible, a good and honest heart.

15:54 The American Standard, the other way around, an honest and a good heart. And when you do a word study on the two words, you see there is a tremendous flexibility in the usage, but this much is clear. Whether we render the words noble and good heart, good and honest heart, honest and good heart, this much is clear. The two words refer to a moral quality and a good heart.

16:21 And condition of the heart, which is the opposite of that which is devious, perverse, evil, and untrue, and all that is in the other direction of what is noble and good. And perhaps we can understand what the good and honest heart is better by thinking of the contrast. The opposite of good is evil. Honest is perverse.

16:51 Full of guile. So these two words describe a moral condition of the heart which make fruit bearing possible. Now think of the parable. Why was there no fruit bearing from the seed sown on the wayside?

17:10 Well, the soil was so packed that its condition precluded any germination whatsoever, therefore any fruit bearing. Think of the shallow soil on the rock shelf. What was it? It was the condition of the soil that prevented any root system from being established and therefore from any fruit in the time of harvest.

17:35 There was a condition inherent in the soil that made fruit bearing impossible. Likewise with the thorny soil. The root system of the year's previous thorn bushes was there still in the ground. Seeds from those thorn bushes were there.

17:54 And the scripture says the thorns grew up with the plant and choked it from beneath and from above so that it yielded no fruit. The great unifying principle is there were conditions in the soil that made harvest an impossibility from the seeds sown upon it. But the great contrast with the good soil is that it was in a condition that made fruit bearing possible. And when our Lord interprets it, particularly in Luke's Gospel, He says it had this moral quality of goodness and honesty that made the reception of the seed unto the sprouting of a fruit bearing plant possible. Now that's the emphasis in the parable. And that reception unto fruit bearing we have already seen involves hearing the word, having spiritual perception into the word, embracing that word, holding fast to that word, and then reproducing the character and the lifestyle mandated by that word. As the seed reproduces after its kind, the fruit in the parable is the character and the lifestyle which the word itself mandates

19:22 and by the power of the Spirit reproduces in the heart that embraces it. So that as our Lord Himself looked around Him sitting in the boat that day, He could see upon the shore those very people whose hearts had become good and honest hearts. And already the fruit of character and the fruit of a lifestyle mandated by the word was being wonderfully produced in Peter, in Andrew, James, John, Nathaniel, and a host of other unnamed disciples whose hearts were good soil. They were not going away in indifference like the packed soil of the footpath. They were not simply temporary enthusiasts as we read in John's verse, chapter 6, when many went back and walked no more. They were not those who were simply a barren stalk of profession as our Lord had in His day, but they were ones in whom already our Lord was seeing a rich harvest thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold of the seed of the message of the kingdom. The character traits of the sons of the kingdom, the Beatitudes, were already being formed, and he could say, Blessed are those of you who are mourning, those of you who are hungering and thirsting,

20:51 who are meek. He could describe the inner character which the seed of his own word was producing as it fell upon good and honest hearts. Already the lifestyle was beginning to manifest the impress of that word. And so the teaching of the parable is that it is that condition, the moral condition, of a good and an honest heart which forms the only congenial soil for the fruit bearing of the word of God.

Biblical Teaching on the Natural Condition of the Human Heart

21:23 Now that's the basic teaching of the parable. Now we move to consider, secondly, the biblical teaching concerning the condition of the human heart by nature. You see the connection? The parable teaches it's the good and honest heart that bears fruit.

21:41 Now then, when we turn to our Bibles and ask the question, did Jesus find such soil made such by itself, made such by other human beings, or did he by grace have to create that kind of soil in order to reap a harvest? You see, we cannot afford to be indifferent on this question. Though it is not directly addressed in the parable, any responsible exposition of the parable must address it. And so now we come to consider the biblical teaching concerning the condition of the human heart by nature.

22:22 And we're going to call in four witnesses this morning. When they have a trial of great significance they talk about their star or key witnesses. And when a man's trying to prove his case of prosecuting attorney, he will call in his key witnesses. Well, we're going to call in four key witnesses this morning.

22:41 The first one we call in all the way from the book of Genesis. And I want you to turn there with me, please. And remember what we're concerned about in the courtroom right now. What pronouncement does the Bible make about the condition of the human heart by nature?

22:59 Does it anywhere suggest that there will be found a good and an honest heart made such by man, created such by man? Well, the first witness is found in the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 6, we have this sad account of how man degenerated after the fall over the course of several hundreds of years to the point where God says in verse 5 of Genesis chapter 6, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. And God said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground, both man and beast and creeping things and birds of heaven, for it repents me that I have made them. Now, God is here describing what he saw when he looked upon the soil of the human heart.

24:20 And what did he see? The writer tells us that he saw that not merely was man's heart evil, but notice, his heart was only evil. You see the emphasis? When God looked upon the soil of the human heart, he did not see some evil and some good, some honesty and some dishonesty, some goodness and some guile.

24:56 The emphasis of the text is his heart was only evil. But then it says, only evil continually. Only evil, only evil all the time. It wasn't as though God happened to look at the wrong time.

25:18 If he had only waited five minutes, he would have seen some evil plus some good. It was only evil and that continually. But worse than that, look at the text. It was not just his heart that was only evil and that continually, but notice, the thought of the heart.

25:42 So that the very motions, the very springs of thought that rise out of the heart, were evil, only evil, and continually evil. But then to intensify it even more, look at the text. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart. Now what is an imagination of a thought?

26:08 What is an imagination of a thought? I know what a thought is. I'm thinking right now that I've been asked a hard question. What is an imagination of a thought?

26:21 What is an imagination? I know what a thought is, but what is the imagination of a thought? Well, it appears that the writer is desperately trying to describe the very first motions that give birth to things that we can call thoughts. The very deepest spring somewhere in the mind and heart where thoughts begin to be mined before they even become things that we can call thoughts.

26:50 They were evil right from the very inception of their existence. And was this true of just some? But look at the intensification again that every imagination. Now my friends, that witness doesn't have too much to say to flatter mankind, does it?

27:14 Not too much to flatter mankind. The first witness takes the stand and he says, what is the condition of man's heart by nature? Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil and that continually to the point where God says it pains me that I ever made man. I'm going to blot him out.

27:40 Except for one man in his family, Noah, who found grace and favor in the eyes of the Lord. And you know the tragic story of the next chapter, how God did indeed blot them all out. He sent the flood. And then after the flood, when the flood waters have reside, have gone back down, excuse me, God enters into a renewed covenant with Noah.

28:04 And notice what is said in chapter 8 of Genesis. You say, well maybe the flood changed that. God blotted out that generation that had gone to such depths and a man in whom His grace had worked would now be the father of a new humanity. Maybe that new humanity will be fundamentally different.

28:25 Well, let's see if that's so. Genesis chapter 8 and verse 20. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled the sweet savor and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

29:01 Neither will I again smite any more everything living as I have done while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. What is God saying? He's saying this. Though man who is propagated from Noah will not be fundamentally different as to the spiritual condition of his heart, I will graciously enter into a covenant and compact with mankind in Noah, the head of this new humanity, that though man's sin deserves light treatment, I will never again come in this kind of judgment while the earth remains, not because the conditions don't demand it, but because in grace and kindness I have covenanted not to bring it.

29:55 But the condition is the same. The flood did not staunch the fountain of iniquity. The flood did not stop up that horrible condition of the human heart. And God, fully cognizant of that condition, enters into a gracious covenant, but the heart remains the same.

30:22 How, then, does the seed ever find a good and an honest heart when the condition of our hearts by nature is described, the imagination of the thoughts of the heart only evil continually? Well, let's turn to our second witness, the prophet Jeremiah. He stands in a situation where people have been surrounded with much more light than many before them had had. God had come to his ancient people in Egypt, had wonderfully delivered them by grace and power, given them his law, his covenants, and yet in spite of all of that, the nation had turned to idolatry, worshipped the very idols of the land of Canaan, concerning which idol worship God had spoken such frightening things and all of the fruits that followed from it. The very reason God had driven out those nations, people say, well, is it right for God to send his people in to drive out those poor people? No, God says their abominations had reached unto heaven, and when the iniquity of the Amorites was full, God sent his people in to be the rod of his judgment upon those pagan nations whose worship and the fruit of that idolatrous worship spawned all forms of vileness. And yet, alas,

31:49 the very people whom God had redeemed by power out of Egypt, given his laws, to whom he had sent his prophets, they had worshipped now the very gods of those lands, had immersed themselves in practices like unto those nations, until God says they too must be judged and sent into captivity. And as the prophet Jeremiah is describing the state of that people in chapter 17, notice how he describes it. Speaking of the sin of God's people, Jeremiah 17, the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond. It is graven upon the tablet of their heart and upon the horns of your altars. And then he speaks of their worshipping these false gods. And then he takes, as it were, the perspective of God as to the very fountain of all of this sin. And he brings us to verse 9.

32:53 The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceeding, exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it? The heart is deceitful, deceitful. An honest and a good heart is the good soil.

33:15 But the human heart by nature is a heart that is not honest and is not good. It is deceitful and deceitful above everything that you can conceive as expressing deceit. It is deceitful and deceitful above all things. And it is not merely corrupt, but exceedingly corrupt, so deceitful and corrupt that God throws out a challenge and says what man can truly, fully know, that is, have an accurate knowledge of the depths of the deceitfulness and the perversity of the human heart.

33:55 And God answers His own challenge and says in verse 10, I, the Lord, the mind, I try the heart. The human heart is so exceedingly corrupt and so superlatively deceitful that only an omniscient God can know fully the extent of its horrible deceitfulness and corruption. And my friend, that's the heart with which you were conceived and born. And the heart with which I was conceived and born.

Jesus and Paul's Testimony on the Depraved Heart

34:34 This was the privileged nation. This was God's covenant people. And yet all of their privileges and blessings and promises did not change the condition of the heart. Then we bring our Lord Himself to the witness stand.

34:53 Remember what we're doing. One thing. We're trying to establish the biblical teaching concerning the condition of the human heart by nature. We've had our first witness from Genesis.

35:03 Our second witness from Jeremiah. Now we bring our Lord Himself to the witness stand. He had spent those many years studying the book of God. He knew the passages I've read and expounded to you this morning.

35:17 He knew them well. But He had also studied the book of human nature. And He knew by personal observation, the Scripture says, He knew what was in man. He knew us.

35:30 And He knew us not only with that knowledge that is inherently His as God, but with that knowledge He acquired as man. And when He speaks of the human heart, look at His language in Mark's Gospel, chapter 7. He speaks these words in a setting where He's debating, discussing with religious people what is the root of man's real problem. These religionists had become externalists.

36:00 They thought if you were in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, saying the right words, you'd be right. So if they saw anyone who wasn't in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, and saying the right words, they got terribly upset. And so they took exception to Jesus' disciples. They'd come in from the marketplace and instead of going through all kinds of washings prescribed by the scribes and Pharisees, not by God's law, but by their traditions, they thought someone was defiled.

36:27 I mean, a Gentile might have been three blocks away from the stand where you bought your bananas. And if he sneezed, some of his Gentile germs might be on the banana. And if you eat that banana without ceremonially washing it in your hands, you might be defiled with Gentile dog germs. And then you're going to ingest those and take those into the holy system of an Israelite?

36:49 Horrors! Horrors! You say, is that what is going on? Yeah, look at chapter 7, verses 1 and following.

36:56 They were gathered together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem and had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, that is, unwashing hands. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, except they bathe themselves, they eat not. And many things there are which they have received to hold, washings of cups and pots and braes and vessels.

37:24 So you see, they had all these traditions. And it was tied into their mentality that defilement is external. Holiness is external. They had this fixation with the external.

37:34 And the Lord Jesus is going to show them the folly of their whole perspective on religion. And how does he do it? He tells them, look, you people, you have got everything backwards. You think defilement comes when something from without enters in by your hands, by your mouth, by physical contact.

37:53 No! The absolute reverse is the truth. Not that which entering from without defiles because, verse 19, it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and it goes out in the toilet. That's what Jesus said.

38:09 You say, that's coarse, that's blunt. I can't help it. Jesus was an astute observer of the world of nature. And he understood the biological facts of ingesting food and elimination and he used them as illustrations.

38:23 And if you are offended, then go to the Lord and complain, I'm sorry, I didn't say it, he did. That's what he said. You stupid Pharisees, don't you see? The man comes from the marketplace, eats his food, goes into his stomach, goes out through his normal process of elimination.

38:42 It doesn't settle in his heart. How can it defile him? The heart is the seat of virtue or defilement. And then he goes on to say, here's where defilement comes from.

38:56 Verse 20, that which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man for from within. Out of the heart of man evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness, all these evil things proceed from within and defile him. That's what he said. That's what he said.

39:28 That's what he said. That's what he said defile the man. Do you find Jesus teaching the inherent goodness of human nature? What he's teaching is the inherent vileness of the human heart.

39:46 And our Lord Jesus Christ who understood what was in man says, no, man's condition is this. He has a heart, not a good and an honest heart, and he's all the way from the grosser sins of fornication and theft and murder committed outwardly to the less gross manifestations of those sins committed in thought and attitude to the more refined sins of an evil eye and pride and folly. What is the condition of the human heart by nature? the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart, only evil continually. The heart deceitful of all imaginable deceit, desperately wicked, who can plumage depths? The third witness affirms their testimony, adds his own dimensions of insight from within.

40:57 Out of the heart proceed. And then the final witness is a man who at one time was like these Pharisees. He thought if he was in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time, in the right way, and saying the right words, he was all right. But then God showed him what he really was.

41:14 And when God was done with him, you know what assessment he made of himself? You turn to Romans chapter 7. We're speaking of Saul of Tarsus, Saul the proud, self-sufficient Pharisee, made into Paul the humble, believing Christ. Just like disciple and apostle.

41:32 Listen to his testimony.

41:35 This is what he discovered about himself. Romans chapter 7 and verse 18. For I know this had become a matter of deep, inward, spiritual, experiential knowledge. I know that in me, that is in my flesh, what I got from my mother and my father when I was conceived, what I got from my father when I was conceived, what I got when I developed in my mother's womb, what I had when I was born, what I have to this day if contemplated apart from the grace of God, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no, no, no good thing. Now, is a heart that is good and honest a good thing? Paul said, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, there is no good thing. When God came to look upon me, He did not find my heart a good and an honest heart.

42:52 I was not converted on the road to Damascus and in those subsequent days because God looked down from heaven and said, Ah, look, there's a good and an honest heart. There I'll plant the seed of my word and there I'll watch it grow. Paul said, no. When He looked upon me, He saw no good thing whatsoever.

43:15 Now, my friend, do you see the problem? If it's a good and an honest heart, which alone brings forth the fruits of a saving response to the Word, and without that there is no salvation, where does that heart come from? Our witnesses have all told us from Genesis to Romans, it isn't there by nature. A heart that is like the footpath?

43:43 By nature, yes. Left to ourselves, our hearts, packed down by the tramp, tramp, tramp of our native preoccupation with self and the world and this realm of sense and time, our hearts become like a hardened footpath through the field that are utterly insensitive and indifferent to the Word of God. There need be no external influence, from above or beneath, to make our hearts like a hard footpath,

44:17 like the shallow soil. Yes, we still have our emotions. We still have our self-interest. We still don't like suffering.

44:24 We don't like pain. We still like joy. We still like happiness. If we hear in the Gospel that there is joy, there is happiness, escape from hell, there is the capacity to respond in a surface way to a very limited understanding of the provisions and claims and nature of the Gospel, and to respond with joy, but when the going gets rough and we see that to be attached to Christ and His Word in the way of His blessings brings affliction and persecution, to say, hey, wait a minute, this is more than I bargained for.

44:53 I want one big happy trip. None of this hardship stuff for me.

44:57 You need do nothing to have your heart like that rocky soil. Just let it be what it is by nature, a selfish, albeit a heart with emotions and self-interest, and you need do nothing to have it like the soil full of a root system of weeds, the pleasures and cares of this life, the love of money and other things creeping in by nature. You were born with a heart full of thorn bushes and root systems of thorn bushes. That's why we need do nothing to teach our children to be worldly-minded and preoccupied with the things of this world, their face and their form and their acceptance with their peers, the things that choke out the Word, we need import no influence from without. It's all there.

45:49 But my friend, if you ever find a heart that is good and honest, that embraces a Word which demands denying self, committing ourselves to an unseen Christ, to live for an unseen heaven, to live by laws and principles which counter every natural inclination and appetite of fallen nature, to be identified with a despised and rejected Savior, and to say that in the immolated form of the incarnate God is my only hope for time and eternity, and so to cling to Him with a death grip, that no pummeling of the world and no pummeling of God's providence in affliction or persecution will allow me to let go of my Savior. My friend, God's got to do something to that heart before it will ever take hold of Christ in His Word like that. You better settle it. If a heart is ever to be made, a good and an honest heart, God's going to have to do something.

46:49 All the witnesses agree that the human heart by nature is evil, deceitful, the fountain of all wickedness, and devoid of good. Now, I'm not saying that every human being is as bad as he could possibly be in his thoughts and in his actions. No, the Bible speaks of degrees of abandonment to hardness of heart. God speaks of degrees of abandonment, abandonment to courses of evil.

47:18 The Bible speaks about common grace which restrains men inwardly and outwardly from certain degrees of sin. I am not saying that every man's heart is as abandoned to sin as it has the potential to be abandoned. Neither the Bible nor human experience teaches that. But what I am saying is this, there is nothing inherent in that heart which in and of itself will ever make it to be good and an honest heart, savingly to receive the word.

God's Gracious and Powerful Work in Changing the Heart

47:53 Well then, that brings us thirdly and finally to the biblical teaching concerning the gracious, powerful work of God in changing the human heart. The biblical teaching concerning the gracious and powerful work of God in changing the human heart. Let's look at the human heart and its capacities and functions as it is by nature and then what happens. Did we read and did we study together that our Lord says, these are they who receive the word into good soil, such as hear the word of God and understand it, Matthew 13.

48:33 They perceive it. They are given spiritual insight into the realities that that word conveys when they hear the words God, sin, repentance, faith, forgiveness, mercy, pardon, heaven, hell. They hear something more than words. They are given spiritual eyes to see those realities and to regard them for what they really are.

49:00 Well, by nature, does any man have that perception? Not according to my Bible. Let me quickly give you the text. Ephesians 4.18 says, The understanding is darkened through the ignorance that is in them. 2 Corinthians 4.4 The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should dawn upon them. Romans 3.11 There is none that understandeth, no, not one. And 1 Corinthians 2.14 The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Listen, neither can he know them.

49:41 Neither can he know them. He has no power to perceive them as long as, his heart has only what it brought with it from its mother's womb. So what's the first work of God in grace? Acts 26.18 There you have a record of Paul's commission by the Lord Jesus. And he says this, I'm sending you out to the Gentiles, and this is what's going to happen, to open their eye, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive, forgiveness and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith that is in me. If men are to receive forgiveness and the inheritance of grace, it all begins when the spiritual eyes are opened. You see, a good and honest heart, Jesus said, is a heart that perceives the realities conveyed in the Gospel.

50:41 But my Bible says, in the language of our Lord to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot. What? See, perceive. He cannot have any sight into the Kingdom of God.

50:56 You see, we do not believe in order to be born again. We are born from above in order that we might believe. Because we do not believe until we see with spiritual sight. And we cannot see except we are born from above.

51:14 And so if God's Word finds a good and an honest heart, God's Spirit by the Word has first of all, created that good and honest heart by giving the grace of spiritual illumination. And what about a saving reception of the Word? If the heart is the seat of receiving the Word in a saving way, what is its attitude to the Word by nature? 1 Corinthians 2.14 again, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. And in the context, those things are the truths of the Gospel. He does not savingly receive. And why does he not?

51:53 Because his heart is opposed to them. Romans 8.7, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.

52:02 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. This is the condemnation, John 3.19 and following, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light. By nature we are all spiritual moles.

52:16 We hate the light. We love the dark tunnels of our own sinful hearts. And anything that looks like the flash and the ray of light in that hole, we run from it to find the darkest corner. And all of us would have run until we ran into outer darkness forever and ever.

52:35 That's what hell is. Hell is the ultimate end of the tunnel of spiritual moles who hate the light. It's the end of the tunnel!

52:45 And we'd all be there unless God did something to change the heart that it would receive a message of light. And that's exactly what He does. In grace, Acts 16.14, speaking of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened.

53:01 Whose heart the Lord opened so that she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul. John 1.12 and 13, as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. They received Him because they were born of God.

53:26 And the divine begetting leads to the human reception of the Savior as He's offered in the Gospel. So the heart becomes good and honest as that heart is given spiritual sight through the operation of the Spirit. As the heart is given spiritual receptivity by the power of the Spirit. And if the heart is the seat of spiritual fruit in both character and conduct, and it is, what is that?

53:55 That heart by nature? We saw the fountain of iniquity. Jesus uses another analogy in Luke 6. He speaks of the tree that is evil and brings forth evil fruit.

54:06 He says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The patterns of life as well as the dispositions of inward character are all determined by the state of the heart. So what does God do in grace? He says, I'll take out the heart of stone, I'll give them a heart of flesh, and I'll put my spirit within them and write my law upon their hearts and call them to me.

54:25 I'll cause them to keep my statutes and to follow my ways. So whenever you find character and inward dispositions that reflect the will of God, what does God call it? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. So you see when it is said that an honest and good heart reflects those who embrace the Word and bring forth fruit with patience, and if the heart is the seed of that character which is the fruit of that disposition which is the fruit, then God in grace must create it.

55:05 The good soil portrays that person who hearing the message of God's saving mercy in Christ is given a saving sight of the glory of Christ, a saving embrace of the person and work of Christ, a saving transformation into an obedient servant of Christ. They didn't make their own hearts good soil. No other human being could make their hearts good soil. God knows those of us who are parents, we would give everything but our own salvation to acquire the power to make the hearts of our children into good soil, wouldn't we?

55:49 We can't do it. All we can do is keep casting seed upon it, seed upon it, seed upon it. There's some of you here today I would give everything but my own salvation if I could make your heart good soil.

56:03 I cannot say honestly what Paul could say.

56:09 He said I could wish myself accursed. I would be a hypocrite if I said I'd been brought to that level but I believe I can say there's nothing I would not part with except my own Savior. If I had the power to give some of you a good and honest heart but it's not in the power of any minister to give it. It's not in the power of any ritual.

56:31 If there was any amount of water applied in any way by any person, we would apply that water a hundred times over. No, the answer of the Bible is if anyone's ever going to have a heart that's good soil, God's got to make it such. Now as we close, you ask the question, well, Pastor Martin, what practical implication does all of this have? Well, it has much and I don't have time to enlarge upon it but just stay with me for these few moments now as I bring this to a conclusion.

Application for the Unconverted: Humility and Supplication

57:04 To you who are unconverted, do you see what this does to your pride? It cuts it at the root. My friend, whatever opinion you may have of yourself, I want to tell you the truth this morning. The heart with which you were conceived and born is of such a nature that left to itself it'll only be like packed soil of the footpath, the shallow soil upon a shelf of soil upon a shelf of rock or the thorn bush, thorn infested, soil that chokes the word.

57:34 You have full, plenary, inherent, independent capacity for indifference, for a shallow, temporary response or a half-hearted, indifferent response to the gospel. But if you're ever to respond to the gospel in such a way that'll bring heaven down to you now and bring you to heaven when you die, you don't have the power of yourself to produce it.

57:59 You need to take the posture of that blind beggar who with his sight, his sightless eyes, turned in the direction of the Son of God and cried out, Son of David, have mercy upon me. Have mercy upon me. Give me what I cannot give myself. It will not do to turn up the brightness of the sun, O Son of David, for I can turn my face full in the direction of the sun, but my sightless eyes have no capacity to recoil.

58:29 The optic nerves are dead. Son of David, Son of David, have mercy. Give me what only you can give me. My sinner friend, that's the posture you need to take.

58:40 Go to Jesus. Say, Lord Jesus, here's a heart. The imaginations of the thoughts of it are only evil. And that continually.

58:50 Lord Jesus, here's a heart that's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Only you can plumb its depths. Lord Jesus, here's a heart that's an artesian well of every form of sin, refined and unrefined, open and inward, gross and respectable, but Lord, an artesian well of sin. Lord Jesus, in me dwells no good thing, but Lord Jesus, have mercy.

59:15 Take out the heart of stone. Give me a heart of flesh. Give me eyes to see your glory. Eyes to behold the wonder and the beauty of your cross.

59:24 Eyes to behold the beauty of a holy life. Eyes to behold the glory that awaits those who trust you and who follow you, who bring forth fruit unto holiness. My unconverted friend, this truth is calculated to shut you up to the only one who can meet your need. That's our blessed Savior.

59:44 Oh, go to him. Go to him. Go to him. Go to him.

59:49 Go to him now. Go to him earnestly. Go to him penitently. Go to him honestly.

59:56 And he says, him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast. Child of God, this truth, is calculated to have powerful effects upon your heart. Has your heart become good soil? Then I ask you the question, who makes you to differ?

Application for Believers: Humility and Gratitude for Grace

60:15 Can't you remember a time when your heart was like the footpath? You could hear the most serious, earnest gospel preaching and go out and whistle Dixie. Didn't bother you.

60:26 You look back and say, how was it that where once in my non-comprehending, indifferent state, I began to be disturbed and the words, heaven, sin, hell, Christ, cross, repentance, faith, these things began to be realities. They began to take hold of me. I began to see these are the only things that count until God in his own inscrutable way, some by a short route, some by a long, some by one that has clearly marked stages, others by one that seems shrouded in mist and fog, except the other side of it, that there's been brilliant sunlight, that God has brought you to the place where you own yourself a sinner. Christ is your only hope of salvation. You can say with all your failures, you know that you're not what you once were. And you know that you are not now what you one day shall be. And you know you're not content with the discrepancy between what you are and what you shall be.

61:27 But you know you have a perfect Savior who's imputed to you a perfect righteousness. And he's given you his spirit and you can say, Abba, Father. My friend, who made you to differ? Who made you to differ?

61:39 Oh, what debtors to grace we should be. Who made us to differ? Who made us to differ? When I think of my own blood relatives, my own flesh and blood in a family of ten, all the same influences.

61:56 Why am I not my brother, four years younger than I or five, yet going on in his sin, entering middle life,

62:08 indifferent to God?

62:11 Who makes me to differ? Oh, what humility should mark us. How can a Christian who has one-tenth of a present comprehension of what he is be proud?

62:24 What was I apart from grace? I was possessed of a heart. The imaginations of the thoughts of which were only evil continually. And if I was kept from any aspect of the outward expression, it was common grace and common restraint.

62:43 Blessed to myself, my heart would have made me into a veritable beast.

62:51 How can any Christian ever look with disgust upon a fellow sinner?

62:57 We look with pity. For we say, but for the grace of God, there grow I. Oh, how prayerful we should be. How prayerful.

Application for Believers: Prayerfulness, Confidence, and Patience

63:07 We can't make men's heart good soil.

63:12 Pastor Martin can't. Pastor Nichols can't. No elder can. But God can.

63:17 And you see, that's where the parable breaks down. This is wonderful seed. Because you see, this is the kind of seed that can fall on the hardest wayside and bust it up like a jackhammer. Hallelujah.

63:28 This is seed. God says, this is not my word, like unto a hammer. Imagine what would happen, kids, if you went out to a field and actually saw this happen. You saw some farmer throw some seed and it landed on a path all packed and all of a sudden that seed began to grow up into a jackhammer and stood up all by itself and began to bust up that thing.

63:45 You say, oh, it's amazing. But that's exactly what this word does. It can fall on the hardest heart and God can turn it into a jackhammer.

63:55 And then God can turn it into a thousand-handed weed puller. And this very word can go to work and pull those weeds. Thank God for the power of that word when the Holy Ghost takes it. They were pricked to the heart.

64:10 Peter was preaching the word, sow and seed. And God suddenly made that word a knife and He cut them to the heart and made them bleed. And out came that lifeblood, that true, repentance and faith. What shall we do, brother?

64:27 Christians, we ought to be prayerful. Oh, as we think of our expanding ministries as God moves us into those new facilities, I fear for us if there is not a proportionate increase of prayerfulness amongst us. Oh, may God baptize us with the spirit of prayer, earnest prayer, that God will do what only He can do. But then it ought to fill us with confidence.

64:52 What hope do I have that standing up here preaching, anything will happen? My confidence is God can make hearts into good and honest hearts. He can take the most foul, deceptive, polluted heart and make it into a good and an honest heart. He did it with me.

65:08 He can do it with anyone. And then it ought to make us patient. Patient.

65:16 God does it in His time. I venture to say if we took a survey the day before God got His man on the road to Damascus and we gathered all the Christians in Jerusalem together and said, now we want to take a survey. My name's not Harris, but I want to take a survey. Who do you think is the least unlikely man to become a Christian in the next year?

65:37 I know who would have won the survey hands down. Saul of Tarsus.

65:42 And God says, I'm going to fool a whole bunch of you. It's two days from the day on my calendar where I'm going to get my man. When God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, when God was pleased to reveal His Son in me, may I say it without, being irreverent, God looked down the roll of His elect and He saw the name of Saul of Tarsus and He saw the date at which He said, I'm going to get my man. Turned His heart into good and honest soil and God did it.

66:13 And old Ananias said, Lord, I can't believe it. That's the guy that kills the likes of me. He said, don't worry, he's praying. I got him down on his knees.

66:19 I plowed him up. He's praying. He's praying. And I said, all right, that's all right for me.

66:23 I'll go see him. He's praying. Lord, you've got him down where he belongs. He's praying.

66:30 Oh, what confidence we should have. Dear people, that's what keeps us preaching. That's what makes some of us feel 20 years old when we preach, even though we know it's a mirage and it isn't true.

66:41 But that's what does it. God is able, when He pleases, to take the hardest part and break it up and make it good soil and out of that heart to produce love and faith and devotion to His Son. Oh, what a happy, expected people we should be as we preach that gospel, sow that seed in the hope that God will make good soil that will bring forth fruit, 30, 60, and 100. Thank you for your patience.

Closing Prayer

67:09 I've gone longer than I normally do, but I had to get this out of my innards this morning. And I trust God will seal it to your innards by the power of the Spirit. Let's pray.

67:27 Our Father, how we thank you for free, efficacious, sovereign grace that comes to sinners who hate you, who want nothing to do with you, who defy your law and despise your gospel.

67:46 Oh, how we thank you that you've come to us. You've arrested many of us, made your Son precious to us. And we say, not unto us, not unto us, but unto your name be praise and honor and glory. And Father, we long to see you do that work in many others.

68:08 We long to see this community break forth in the name of God. And praise to you. We long to see multitudes who this morning lie around in their beds, browsing their Sunday newspapers, watching their televisions. Oh, God, we long to see them transformed, sitting amongst us, singing the praises of our God and of His Christ.

68:31 Oh, Father, give us renewed vision, renewed confidence, and renewed prayerfulness and zeal to see the triumphs of your grace here in our own community and to the ends of the earth. In our generation. Hear our prayer and thank you for your presence with us. In Jesus' name, Amen.