Good Ground Hearers Hearers Part 2

Introduction: The Parable's Basic Ingredients and the Necessity of Fruit

0:02 Seriously now, as we turn to this parable, which our Lord said in the 4th of Luke, where it's also found, the 4th of Mark, and Luke chapter 8, which he said is a key to the other parables. He said, if you know not this parable, how shall you know all parables? We have three basic ingredients. You have the sower who sows, you have the seed which he sows in the earth, and you have the different types of soil upon which the seed falls.

0:32 Those are your three basic ingredients. The sower, basically our Lord and any of his servants who dispense his word. The seed is, according to Matthew, the message of the kingdom, or according to Luke, the word of God. And the soil, the different kinds of hearts and minds upon which the word of God finds rest.

0:53 We have looked at the first three types of soil. There is that soil which is found in the footpath going through the field, and it's a picture. Of the thoughtless, careless hearer of the word of God. He hears the message, seeing nothing in that message suitable to any conscious need he has. He thinks it a thing unworthy of his serious thought, and so understanding it not, he doesn't fasten upon it with his mind and with his mental energies, and the enemy like the fowls of the air who hover above that seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath.

1:29 The enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath, and the enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath. The enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath, and the enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath. The enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath, and the enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath.

2:32 The enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath, and the enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath. The enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath, and the enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath.

3:32 The enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath, and the enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath. The enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath, and the enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath.

4:32 The enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath, and the enemy of our souls then snatches away the seed which lays on the top of the hard footpath. The only proof of a saving response to the gospel is the bearing of fruit. That's the only proof. We have that our response to the gospel has been a saving response, is that we bear fruit. Fruit is not optional.

5:22 For our Lord said, Every tree that bears not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And that fruit must not be sporadic, but continual. For our Lord says, In Luke, it brought forth fruit with patience, or with endurance, with perseverance. The word translated many times to persevere in other parts of the New Testament.

5:47 So, if you are to have any hope for yourself that you are a true child of God, here's the proof. There must be obvious fruit of the gospel, repentance, faith, and all that flows from it in holiness and obedience to Christ, or you have no reason to believe. That your heart has ever been good soil. It's fruit or the fire.

Principle 2: Only a Supernatural Work of the Spirit Produces a Saving Response

6:13 Now, tonight, we want to consider a second great principle that is found in this passage, namely this, that only a direct and supernatural work of the Spirit can produce a saving response to the truth.

6:34 Just as I have no proof that my response to the gospel is a saving response, unless I am bearing fruit, so with equal certainty we may know and say that there can be no saving response to truth and ultimately fruit unless there is a direct and supernatural work of the Spirit upon the heart of an individual. Now, why do we make that statement in the light of our Lord's interpretation of the parable? Well, you notice very carefully, verse 23 of Matthew chapter 13. But he that receives seed into good ground is he that heareth the word,

7:20 understandeth it, and also beareth fruit. There can be no fruit until there is an understanding of the message. It is not said of any of the other hearers that they understood the message. It says they responded to it, but it doesn't say in any case that they understood it.

7:41 You can check all three gospel accounts, Mark 4, Luke 8. And Matthew 13, and in none of them does it say they understood.

Spiritual Understanding Precedes Conversion: Scriptural Proof

7:50 Notice in verse 15 of the same chapter, Matthew 13, our Lord came into a place of privacy with his disciples, and he said this to them, For this people's heart, speaking of the Jews, is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, now notice, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, hear with their eyes, and hear with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Now notice, before there's any converting and any spiritual healing, there has got to be a seeing with the eyes, a hearing with the ears, and an understanding with the heart. Those three things precede a converting and a spiritual healing. You find essentially the same thing in the fourth chapter of Mark, and in verse 12, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven. No forgiveness until they hear, until they understand, with a hearing and an understanding that leads to conversion. Now don't anyone say, well I don't agree with that.

9:11 No, that's what the Lord said. That's what the Lord said. That's what the Lord said. It's exactly what he told his servant Paul.

9:18 In Acts 26, Paul is recounting his commission from the Lord. And the Lord said, Paul, I'm sending you out to be my servant. And this is what I want you to accomplish by my strength and power. To open their eyes, Acts 26, 18.

9:32 To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith, that is in me. The first work was one of spiritual illumination. Open their eyes. Until there's illumination, there is no saving response to the truth of God.

The Natural Man's Inability to Understand Savingly

9:59 All right, now seeing that principle taught very clearly, the question I ask you tonight is this.

10:06 Convinced as we are in the light of our Lord's teaching, that before there can be fruit, there's got to be understanding, there's got to be hearing, there's got to be spiritual perception, I ask you to open your eyes. I ask you to open your eyes. I ask you to open your eyes. I ask this question of each of my listeners tonight.

10:20 Does fallen, sinful man have the ability of himself to savingly hear, to savingly see, to savingly understand the truth, apart from a direct ministry of the Holy Spirit to his heart? In other words, just sitting here tonight, suppose someone comes in who's never heard the message of the Gospel. There may be such here tonight. I wouldn't be surprised at all.

10:46 And you just sit there and say, Hey, now I passed school, got A's and B's, did pretty good in high school, took a couple of courses in history and one or two in philosophy. I've got average intelligence, maybe a little bit better, and I will understand what that preacher's talking about. And just by determining to understand, does he have the power and ability to perceive and grasp the truth without which he'll be lost? What is the Scripture answer to this?

11:12 Well, the answer to the Scripture is very clear. I want you to turn, first of all, to the book of 1 Corinthians. As we seek to answer this question, without understanding, we'll never be saved. Our hearts are not good soil until they're prepared to understand.

11:30 Now, how do they become this? Does old Adam leave us with this ability? 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Then we'll look at a verse in chapter 2.

11:43 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 17 and 18. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross, or the message of the cross, is to them that perish, and that word perish is in the present tense, to them that are perishing, foolishness. But unto us which are saved, and that's not past tense, that's a present tense as well, but unto us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

12:27 Now, notice what he says in the first part of verse 18. The message of the cross, that's the message of the kingdom that Christ talks about here. The word of God, the word concerning men's salvation through the life and death and resurrection and heavenly ascension of the Lord Jesus. That message, Paul says, is to those who are perishing, foolishness.

12:50 Now, there are two kinds of foolishness. We look at something and we say, ah, that's foolish, and we go, ha ha. Other things, we say, ah, that's foolishness, we couldn't be interested, so it's sort of a ho-hum foolishness. Ho-hum, couldn't care less.

13:02 Somebody tries to get you in, ah, that's foolishness. Ho-hum. There's a kind of foolishness that's ha ha. Now, I think Paul's talking about ho-hum foolishness here.

13:12 Really, I think that's what he's talking about. The message of the cross is to those who are perishing, ho-hum, the servant of God stands with his heart aflame with holy love for Christ and for the souls of men. And he says, I have good news. I have glory.

13:33 I have glory. I have glory. I have blessed news. I have news of how the great, holy, transcendent God of heaven so loved rebel sinners that he sent his Son.

13:43 And he who was eternal God, the Word became flesh. He dwells among us. He lived a sinless life. Then he tells how he hung upon a cross and how he agonized, how he groaned, how he bowed his head in death.

13:58 And sit there and say, ho-hum.

14:05 Some of us heard that message for years. And every time we heard, we answered with, ho-hum.

14:14 We walked up and down that cross as Jesus Christ was set before our eyes as crucified. And we had enough in our background to cultivate our consciences that we didn't go, ha-ha. But it was,

14:33 that's what the preaching of the cross is to those who are perishing. And it never becomes anything else until, Paul says, there is an operation of God's saving power. But unto us, who are being saved, it is the power of God. So in answer to the question, does this understanding, this seeing, this hearing, does this come by nature?

The Natural Man Cannot Know Spiritual Truth

14:58 The answer of Paul would be no. For to those who are perishing, this message is foolishness. Turn to chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians. Remember now what we're trying to do.

15:13 We're trying to answer the question. Does this understanding, this seeing, does this come of myself? Does it come to all men equally? Or is it the result of a direct and supernatural work of God the Holy Spirit?

15:27 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 12. Now we have received, Paul speaking of Christians, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things we also speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spirit, spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man, the man who's never been born of the Spirit, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are, here's the same word again, foolishness unto him, neither, and circle the next word, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually deserved. When my father, my son comes to me and says, Daddy, can I go outside? I say, no, son, what you mean is, may I go outside? There's nothing wrong with your feet and your ankles and your knees.

16:32 You look perfectly healthy. I have no doubt but that you can go outside. That's a word of ability.

16:38 The word may is a word of permission.

16:43 The word that the Spirit of God uses here is that the natural man,

16:49 that's a word of ability, he cannot spiritual truth. Why? Because he has no faculty, with which to receive it. Paul says, it takes a man alive in the Holy Ghost to perceive the truth of the Holy Ghost.

17:07 They are spiritually deserved.

17:11 As it takes physical sight to behold physical light, so it takes spiritual eyes to behold spiritual light. And Paul says that the natural man cannot, not that he does not or will not, but he cannot. A word of ability. A word of ability.

17:30 He cannot. He cannot know them. He cannot know them. And then over to 2 Corinthians 4, in verse 4,

Satan's Blinding Power and God's Creative Illumination

17:48 back up to verse 3. But if our gospel be hid or veiled, is the word, it is veiled to them that are lost. In whom? Any lost man, Paul says, there's an operation of someone or some spirit within that man.

18:06 In whom? All the lost. The God of this world, Satan, hath blinded the what? The minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them.

18:24 Paul's statement in his evaluation of all lost men is that they are gripped in a blinding power of the devil just as surely as they are held in the grip of his binding power. Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin. He tells us here, that in the lost, the God of this world has blinded the mind so that though a servant of God and though a neighbor and a friend should seek to be shedding forth the beans of glory that issue from Jesus Christ as he's offered in the gospel, they see no glory in him. It's ho-hum.

19:03 Ho-hum.

19:07 Man's conditioned by nature, he does not have the faculty to understand. And Jesus said, until there's an understanding there'll be no receiving and no fruit bearing. There's no evidence that we've had a saving response to the gospel apart from that understanding, that receiving and bearing fruit. And if we do not have it by nature, there's only one way it'll come.

19:30 And that's when God in his infinite grace is pleased to give spiritual sight. And you'll notice in verse 6 of that same chapter, 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light or the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul said there's only one reason why the God of this world doesn't have me still blinded to the glory of Christ. There's only one reason.

20:05 That the only one who's more powerful than he has spoken these words into my sin-darkened soul. Let there be there's an allusion to the physical creation. He says the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness. Think of it.

20:28 Think of that original creation. Darkness, no light. And with nothing there to work with. God didn't take a little speck of light and develop it and expand it.

20:40 No, with nothing to work with, God spoke and out of darkness by the creative word of God. Paul said in the same way that the God who commanded by the word of his, our, that light shined out of the midst of darkness. That same God said to Saul of Tarsus, blind, stone-blind Pharisee that he was, who saw no glory in Christ, who was set to exterminate his name from the earth with letters in one hand, venom in his heart on his way to Damascus to find the Christians and commit them to prison. He said that God said it's time to show this fellow who I am.

21:23 And he said, He said to that dark heart, let there be light. And down he went on his face. Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus.

21:33 And he saw glory in the face of Christ and he never was the same till the day his head rolled down on a Roman chopping board.

21:43 And he says the only reason is God gave me eyes to see.

21:50 And my friend, if you ever see any glory in Jesus that changes you, there's only one reason. It's that God, and if he doesn't shine, you'll die in your darkness and you'll go out into eternal darkness.

Spiritual Sight is a Divine Gift, Not Human Intelligence

22:14 That's why when our Lord spoke in this very context of Matthew 13, and now we come back to it, his disciples said, Lord, why do you talk to that crowd out there in parables? Why do you do that? Now will you notice carefully Matthew chapter 13, verse 11. He answered and said unto them, Because you were smart enough to understand me, why I'm going to teach you the mysteries of the kingdom, but they were not smart enough.

22:48 Ah, that isn't what he said. What did he say? And he answered and said unto them, Because it is, what's the next word? Given.

22:57 Given. Given? Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Look at verse 16.

23:13 But wise, are your eyes, but good or healthy are your eyes? No, he said, but blessed.

23:23 When something's blessed, it's passive. Something else blesses it. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. See what our Lord tells them?

23:35 He says, Good ground is that heart which when it hears the message, understands it, and understanding it, receives it, and receives it, bears fruit. But he said, I want you disciples, to know the fact that you've understood and received is because it's been given one. The fact that you see is because your eyes have been blessed.

24:02 And so if we see, we must rejoice as did that blind man who didn't know much. And the Pharisees tried to get him all mixed up and fumble-boozled. He said, I don't even know whether he's a sinner or not, but one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, I see, and he did it all.

24:19 If you're a child of God tonight, you may not know much, but if you've been saved by the grace of God, that the Holy Spirit has shown you your own depravity and wretchedness and shown you the glory of Christ, and you rest upon Him and Him alone as He's offered in the Gospel, then you gladly acknowledge, I don't know much, but one thing I know, that whereas I was blind and saw no glory in Christ crucified and in the message of the cross, now I see, and the reason I see is because it's been given.

24:57 And dear person who's never seen any glory in Christ that has ravished your heart and brought you to the place where you've thrown yourself before Him, crying out with Thomas, my Lord and my God, you better set to crying this night that Almighty God will give you spiritual eyes to see the glory of Christ, to see Him in the glory of His place as a mediator. For one day your eyes will see Him in the awesome glory of His place as a judge. And the doors of mercy will be forever shut. All men are going to see some glory in Christ.

25:33 The difference is, saved men see a glory in Him as the mediator, the only way to the Father. And God speaks light to their hearts. And someday men will see those awesome glory, the awesome rays of His glory, and they'll cry for the rocks and mountains to cover them and hide them from the face of the Lamb. You better set to crying this night that God will give you eyes to see.

25:58 That's why you can live such a giddy, worldly, flesh-bound life. You see no glory in Christ. That's why you can profess to be saved by Him and yet show no attachment to Him. There's no glory that's ravished your heart.

26:14 And the reason it hasn't is you've never had eyes to see. That's all.

26:20 You've never had eyes to see. And you're never going to get those eyes unless God gives them to you. So you're shut up to God tonight to cry out to Him to give you eyes to see and ears to hear. Well, I think the answer is clear about understanding divine truth.

The Natural Man's Inability to Receive Savingly

26:37 That only God can give that understanding. That's why I dared to make the statement that's bound up in this parable is that second great principle that the only way there will be a saving response to truth is by a direct and supernatural work of the Spirit. For apart from that we cannot understand divine truth. And then I want us to see in the second place apart from that we cannot receive divine truth.

27:03 What does it mean to receive the truth of God?

27:07 For we read, I believe, it's in the account of Mark.

27:11 Mark chapter 4, yes, and verse 20. And these are they which are sown on good ground such as hear the word and receive it. Receive it. Now again, that's not said of any of the others.

27:27 The stony ground here doesn't say that they received it. Now in some way it must have been received or it never could have germinated and even sprung up a little bit of a sprig. In the same way with the thorny ground here there was some reception of the spirit by the soil but the Holy Spirit is very careful not to say that they received it. For this receiving is something more than just a surface reception.

27:51 Those who receive the word are those who heartily embrace it. Those who welcome it as it has been opened to them by the Holy Spirit. They welcome it freely without reservation. They welcome it completely just as the soil envelops the seed in its entirety and doesn't pick a part of it or choose to leave some of it.

28:14 So this is the picture of the man who embraces the message with all the freeness of its provision and all the narrowness of its demands. And remember the gospel's got both and any gospel that omits one or the other is not the gospel of Christ. It has a freeness in its provisions. Come ye sinners poor and wretched weak and wounded sick and sore.

28:38 Jesus ready stands to save you full of pity joined in your with power he is able he is able he is willing weep no more let not conscience make you linger nor a fitness fondly dream all the fitness he requireth is to see your need of him this he giveth this he giveth this he giveth tis the spirit's rising being just as I am without one plea those wonderful hymns capture the freeness of the gospel to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly we come as ungodly wretched hell deserving sinners throw ourselves upon the wide mercy of God in Christ. That's the message of the gospel but there's another side to it. Its demands are narrow. He says press into a narrow gate turn from your sin repent bow to my authority take up my cross submit to me give me that place of unrivaled affection in your heart and to receive the message of the gospel in its truest sense is to reach out and embrace the freeness of its offer and to embrace with equal vehemence spiritual vehemence the stringency of its demands.

29:58 Now does anybody receive the truth of God like that just because one day he's sitting in his seat and says you know I just think maybe I ought to do that. I think that's a good idea. It's about time I just received the message. What's the Bible say?

The Carnal Mind's Enmity Against God

30:09 Well let's see what the Bible says. Will anyone ever receive the message of the gospel that way? Apart from a direct and supernatural work of the Holy Spirit? Will you turn to Romans chapter 8 and try to answer that question?

30:25 Romans chapter 8 and verse 7 back up to verse 6 perhaps to get the drift of thought. For to be carnally or fleshly minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is neutral to God no siree not on your life but on your It says the carnal mind the principle that motivates and drives every man devoid of the Holy Spirit who's simply living as a natural son or daughter of Adam. The carnal mind is enmity not at enmity but it's enmity itself. It's enmity personified against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be.

31:24 How many of you have ever seen a rodeo?

31:28 I'm amazed you haven't. How many of you have ever seen a rodeo? I want to use illustration but I don't want to use one that won't illustrate.

31:34 You know what bucking broncos are don't you? You know what that goes back to? Back in the days when they would corral some wild horses and they'd have to break them. They'd have to get them used to a saddle to a bit and bridle and the rest.

31:47 And if you've ever seen a real bucking bucking bronc the minute anything is placed on that horse's back or hunches just the touch of a rope and it's immediately that horse just goes crazy. It wants not one feather touch of an outside authority to govern it. And the minute it feels that anything's going to be put on it to tell it where to go it just turns itself loose.

32:17 God says that's the human heart by nature. It is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be. And what happens when the law of God begins to put its pressure upon the unregenerate man and say this do and thou shalt live this fail to do and thou shalt die. Paul says in Romans 7 why that very law acted as the catalyst to spring loose all the rebellion of my heart to God.

32:45 That's what God's Holy Law does. Just like that cinch put on the around the middle of a bucking bronc.

32:56 So that's our attitude to the law of God. Doesn't look like we're ready and longing and craving for the truth to come so we can submit to it doesn't it? I quote several other verses quickly for time's sake. Familiar verses.

33:08 This is the condemnation Romans 3.19 that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Now who does evil?

33:22 Well the scripture says all of us by nature do evil and we don't have a neutral attitude to light we have a definite decided hostility to light. He that doeth evil hateth the light neither will he come to the light.

33:36 So there we are. We won't be governed by the law of God. We won't come to the light of God. Romans 3.10 and 11 says none righteous no not one none that understandeth none that seeketh after God. And yet nobody's going to get saved until he receives divine truth. And what does that truth do? Why it cuts right across natural opinion it says God's everything and I'm nothing.

33:59 It cuts across natural inclinations. That truth comes saying Jesus Christ is a holy Savior and all that he saves he'll save unto holiness to make pure his salvation has as its object that men will have the living God in the trinity of his person as the end of their existence. Why there's nothing in the human heart that's reaching out for that. That's totally against its inclination.

34:24 Totally against its opinions. Totally against its appetites and passions. Anybody going to receive truth that's totally against the inclination passions longing of the heart not on your life. That's why Jesus said as he did in John 6 in verse 44 no man now notice no man can come.

No Man Can Come to Christ Unless Drawn by the Father

34:46 Doesn't say no man may no man will. It says no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. The word can is a word of ability. Beloved I fought those words for years in my mind.

35:04 I just wished it said no man may or no man perhaps will under most circumstances. But he says no man can. That's a word of ability. No man can come except the Father which has sent me draw him.

35:19 Oh you say that's an objectionable doctrine. That means that salvation's in God's hands. They found it objectionable when our Lord taught it. Will you notice what happened when he taught this in John chapter 6.

35:31 Notice what happened.

35:35 These Jews who thought they had a little niche on God and on truth and on heaven.

35:41 Our Lord told them until God was pleased to do something in them that would overcome the natural disposition of their hearts. Listen to what it says. Verse 65 And he said therefore I say unto you no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

36:11 Now we're willing to follow you as long as you talk about bread and life even and give us some food and when you begin to tell us that there's something so wrong and bad with us that we're utterly dependent upon God to receive you that's too much. It's too humble. It's too crushing to our pride. We'll go find us religious teachers that tell us we can come whenever we want.

36:41 And they could find them. You can find them by the dozens today.

36:46 But God the Holy Ghost hasn't scratched these words out of his book has he? No man can come. Now what is that can? Is it a physical inability?

36:56 I'm going to make a statement tonight and you tell me what I mean. I can't hit my wife. Never have and I can't.

37:06 Anything wrong with my fist? I don't think so. I'm pounding the pulpit.

37:12 I'm walking down the street and some guy tries to come and pick my pocket. I'm liable to try to pound him. If he comes to persecute me for righteousness sake I'll stand there and take it but not if he comes to take my money.

37:26 No I believe God wants us to defend ourselves or to take suffer for righteousness sake for some guy that just wants the dollar or two I might have and can't. It came on Friday it became on Monday it might be a little bit more than that and I could hit him but I can't hit my wife. Now what is that can? Is that a physical inability?

37:45 No. No I have a physical ability to hit my wife but there's something in the realm of my affections that moves my will so that I can't. You see my will in that area is affected by my affections and our wills do not act in isolation. What we choose and what we do is affected by what we think and what we feel.

38:07 The mind and its judgment and the affection and its feelings these things act like a two-fold vice and move the will in a given direction.

38:17 I could say to a little bird that we might capture and somehow learn to communicate in birdie language and set him right here on the edge of the pulpit and I'd say to him now little birdie you're free to go into any part of the Pacific Ocean and make your home anywhere on the bottom of the ocean. And the little bird would say to me but I can't and I'd say well what's wrong? Something wrong with your wings? And he'd jump up and fly around and say no I migrate all the way down south every year nothing wrong with my wings.

38:44 Well what do you mean you can't? Well you know what he means when that bird says I can't go live in the bottom of the ocean he's saying is that living at the bottom of the ocean is entirely contrary to my nature I'm a bird and as a bird I have no inclination no affection for the water in the bottom of the ocean. So there's an inability there in that little bird the same way I say I can't hit my wife and when the Lord Jesus said no man can come to me he didn't mean that coming to him was some kind of a great physical act that only strong men could perform no he's pointing out the fact that the human will which is affected by the judgment of the mind and the affections of the heart have so perverted us and been stained by sin that they will not come and embrace a savior who demands the forsaking of sin who cuts the very nerve of human pride and offers us salvation which means he'll get 100% of the credit not 99 44 100% but all salvations of the Lord and Jesus said no man will receive truth and receive me who is who am the truth until it's given of the Father. There's a wonderful question in oh did I there he's got it right here in our catechism that we're studying in our Sunday school question number 30

Effectual Calling: God's Spirit Renews the Will

40:12 what is effectual calling will you listen to the answer effectual calling is the work of God's spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills he does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely as he's offered to us in the gospel isn't that beautiful I'll listen to it again what is effectual calling what is that calling whereby when the gospel seed is sown men understand receive it embrace it and then they bring forth fruit what is that here it is it's the work of God's spirit direct supernatural whereby convincing us of our sin and misery enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our will he does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely as he's offered to us in the gospel have you embraced him freely in all the breadth of his promises and the stringency of his demands if you have there's only one reason God's spirit has convinced you of your sin and misery he's enlightened your mind in the knowledge

41:41 of Christ he's renewed your will that you've embraced and oh dear friend here tonight you're never going to embrace him freely until God enlightens your mind and renews your will and you're shut up to him tonight to cry to him for mercy to plead with him that he may give you such a view of Christ as will utterly spoil you for eternity and make you a bondservant of Jesus Christ the Lord well I know now we'll have to take another time to finish up what we didn't get to tonight but I trust we've gotten this principle that if we're to be good ground the good ground is that which hears the word and understands it it's got to be as the Holy Spirit performs a direct and supernatural work giving us understanding giving us ability to savingly receive the truth of God well you say pastor suppose my heart isn't good ground is this some kind of fatalism I just got to sit back and say well I was cursed with being a stony ground here thorny ground no because God's given some instruments we'll look at that more in detail Lord willing next time we study this whereby the heart can be made good ground that's the function of his holy law to plow up that ground and make you see who God is

43:09 and what you are that's the function of his gospel as we gaze upon a bleeding savior to have our own hearts begin to bleed for sin and so this is no blind fatalism that says oh well since only God can make it a good heart I'll sit back and kind of hope he'll do it for me no no he says seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he's near and God can take the hardest heart here tonight and break it and make it a fit receptor of his son and of his salvation and if you've received that message dear when you go home tonight as never before and say God I just never quite understood that before I knew it in my heart but my eyes are blessed Lord because it's been given to me to see alright

43:56 or else I'd have walked by that cross the rest of my life saying and if you've been unable to embrace Jesus Christ as offered in the gospel it's because God did something in your will in your affections in your understanding so that he became to you the pearl of great price and you purchased it