Varying Responses Luke 8:4-15

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Welcome to Faith Bible Church. It's great to be here with the Lord's people in his house.

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For announcements, kind of the usual, we have a prayer meeting this evening at 6.

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The summer Bible study is continuing, 5 .30 on Friday, going through Hebrews.

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You know the missionary of the month, Jim and Joan Hansen. The picnic at Huffman's house on July 16th after the morning service.

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And a planned baptismal on July 23rd. So do be in prayer if you haven't been baptized and would like to consider that.

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Pray about it. Talk to us about that. That would be a tremendous blessing. It's a testimony of your faith and of your trust in Jesus.

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And there's nothing saving in the act of doing it. You are saved if you are being baptized.

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It's just a proclamation and testimony that you are the Lord's. So think about that, okay?

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I wanted to share, the pastor went through Psalm 66 this morning, and about giving praise to God.

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And that's what we do, should do, every day of our lives, every moment. But we know reality sets in, our busy lives set in, distractions, family, job, whatever, you name it, insert whatever you want to put in there.

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But we get distracted and our focus can depart from the Lord. But in Psalm 66, it's

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David talking about giving praise to him and reflecting back on the present and then also on the future.

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And I just wanted to share a few words from a commentary that I'd like to read. The Psalm describes many components of authentic worship.

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Genuine worship will cause the believer to lose sight of himself in the light of God's glory.

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This will move the worshiper to sacrifice his life for the glory of God.

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The believer should offer his entire being to God as a living sacrifice. Moreover, the authentic worshiper offers

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God a spotless sacrifice that is without blemish. The worshiper should scrutinize every area of his life to see that it is in line with the holiness of God.

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This can be done only as the believer renews his mind in the word of God so he does not become conformed to the world's system that is steeped in sin.

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And that's one of my greatest challenges is not to be conformed to the world because we're bombarded by it every moment of every day, practically.

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But we need to be, our minds need to be renewed in the word. And that's our responsibility, that's our duty as believers.

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Okay, well let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have gathered us together today.

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Lord, we may praise you with a whole heart, Father, not being distracted by the things around us, things that we may have brought with us,

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Father. We lay them at the cross, Father, at the foot of the cross, that we might find relief and find that place of committing and giving things over to you so that our burdens might be lightened, that you might be glorified in the process,

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Father. We know you bring us through trials in our lives, but we know that they're for our good,

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Father, and that there is hope and there is relief in the end, Father. So God, bless us this morning as we worship you corporately, as we raise and lift our voices,

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Father, to you. May each one worship unencumbered, Father, just in a total acknowledgment of who you are and of how glorious you are, that you are the giver of all life, and that we should be on our knees before you,

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Father, as we come to you in worship. So God, bless those that are not here today, that are traveling and that have other responsibilities.

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Lord, may you watch over them and may you guide their hearts as they come to you, as they worship you, wherever that may be,

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Father. So God, be with us now. Bless Pastor as he brings your word to us.

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Father, thank you for the musicians and for their commitment and their dedication in leading us in song.

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So God, we lift everything up to you or we commit it to you. We pray all these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Salvation. Deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.

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Deliverance from sin and its consequences. Jesus Christ is Lord. In him I put my trust.

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I will never be ashamed. He is God and delivers us in his righteousness. Let us make a joyful noise unto the

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Lord. He gives us good things and he is our salvation. Good morning.

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Today, I'm going to be reading Isaiah 55, 6 through 11.

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Again, that's Isaiah 55, 6 through 11, and that's from NKJV today.

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Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

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Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the

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Lord and he will have mercy on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

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For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the

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Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

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For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

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So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what

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I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. And thank the Lord for his word.

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All right, let's stand and sing to our Heavenly Father. Please turn with me to Luke chapter eight,

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Luke chapter eight, verse four through verse 15. Luke chapter eight, verse four through 15.

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And when a great multitude had gathered and they had come to him from every city, he spoke by a parable.

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A sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trampled down and the birds of the air devoured it.

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Some fell on rock and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.

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But others fell on good ground, sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he cried, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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Then the disciples asked him saying, what does this parable mean? And he said to you, it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, it is given in parables that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.

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Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear.

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Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

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But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.

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Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.

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But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

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No one, when he has lit a lamp. Oh, this is the word of the Lord. Let us pray.

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Father, we're thankful that your word bears fruit and we pray that today for all of us who hear your word, that we would bear fruit, that we would know what your will for us is and that we would cherish and delight in your word.

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Help us to grow in faith this morning in Jesus name. Amen. So from chapter seven to the beginning of chapter eight,

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Luke showed us the importance of faith in Jesus ministry, right?

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The centurion servant was healed by Jesus even though he never met

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Jesus because the centurion himself believed that Jesus had the authority to heal.

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Just say the word. And last week, a notoriously sinful woman comes before Jesus and departs forgiven because of her faith.

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There is this emphasis on faith in Jesus ministry.

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Now this section, uh, from verses four to verse 21.

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So, uh, going to next week as well. Uh, this section focuses on the proper response to Jesus.

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It's that of a total trust. This section calls all who hear his word to respond in faith.

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And this passage, uh, actually deepens the difference between those who are just merely interested like the crowd and those who do respond in faith like the disciples.

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There is a division that's coming into the scene between the disciples who do respond in faith and the rest of the crowd.

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And today's parable answers the question, what are different ways people respond to Jesus words?

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What are different ways people respond to Jesus words? Um, oftentimes, especially when we first are saved, uh, we think that the only obstacle for, for others from coming to faith, uh, is just that they don't know the sheer ignorance, right?

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I've, I've gone through that too. And, and, uh, when, when we have that expectation, like, oh, now you've heard the gospel.

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So do you, do you want to believe? And oftentimes it's, it's no. Uh, but, and, and that can be disappointing, right?

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Um, when I, when I, uh, in college,

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I lived with a roommate who grew up in a Christian household, but, um, he, he renounced his faith.

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He, he didn't believe it was clear through his action, but also, uh, he verbally said, so it's, it wasn't a mystery.

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He, he wasn't trying to hide it. Um, and during my sophomore year, that's, that's when my, uh, faith grew the most.

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I started praying and I started reading the Bible and I started going out of my way to listen to sermons.

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Uh, and it felt like I was just being impacted by the word preached, you know, expository sermon.

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And I, I thought, uh, uh, naively, if only

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I can get my roommate to listen to the sermons with me, either by taking him to the church that's preaching good sermons or even just like on podcasts, right?

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The podcast app has myriads of sermons that are great. So I would set him down on a

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Friday evening. He's like, Hey, just listen to this pastor with me. It just changed my life.

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And I, I will, I was hoping after the 40 minutes that, Oh, he's going to return to Christ, that he's going to believe again.

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Um, I was wrong. Um, uh, I mean, bless his heart that he listened to a lot of sermons with me.

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He went, he visited many churches with me. Uh, but still what

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I needed to learn was that there are different responses to hearing the God's word. It's not just the sheer ignorance that's keeping them from, uh, believing.

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And today we do see various responses of, uh, hearing

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God's word. And only one of the four, uh, leads to faith that produces fruit.

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So the first point, true disciples of Christ must listen to Jesus parable.

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True disciples of Christ must listen to Jesus parable. So the context of this teaching, uh, of parable here is shown in verse four.

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And when a great multitude had gathered and they had come to him from every city, he spoke by a parable.

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We can see that Jesus ministry, uh, is in fact growing in numbers, right?

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There is some, uh, really a huge amount of growth that it says that people are gathering from every city surrounding city.

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They're all gathering. Now they're doing this because they're hearing of Jesus miracles, what he's doing, his acts.

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The crowd, uh, is more than just those who trust him, right?

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But there are people in the crowd who don't know much about him. They're curious. They want to find out more about him.

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And often there are those who even misunderstand him. And in this context, in this context,

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Jesus tells a parable. A parable is a type of story with metaphors, uh, to illustrate and teach a harder concept.

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Uh, in this case, a spiritual truth. And it is important to note that a parable is not an allegory, uh, allegory, right?

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Uh, in allegory some, every part of an allegory links to something else in reality.

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Uh, however, not every part of a parable must link to something in reality.

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More importantly, uh, we do not get to decide what the characters and things in the parable relate to in reality.

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When you hear a parable, we are restricted to what scripture reveals to us, what these things actually connect to in real life.

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Or else there would be an infinite amount of, uh, meanings to one parable.

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Now the number has this, uh, the, the parable here has four different, uh, soils and four different responses to the seeds that fall on these soils.

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First, a sower went out to sow his seed.

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And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trampled down and the birds of the air devoured it.

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In this agricultural culture, uh, this would have made a lot of sense.

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So I will take some time to explain, uh, the agricultural background.

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See around late fall or early winter, a farmer in ancient Israel would go out to plant seeds.

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And the seeds were not planted one by one as you may do in, uh, when you're gardening, right?

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Making sure that each seed is well taken care of, but rather because there's so much to do, the seeds are just freely tossed around the area in which the, uh, the farmer would expect the crops to grow.

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So the reality is that not all would make it to the most favorable soil.

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And the first scenario is that, uh, the seeds do not even germinate, right?

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They don't even sprout as they are trampled by other people on the wayside or devoured by birds.

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And those seeds do not produce any fruit. And verse six tells us what happens to the seeds, uh, fallen in the second type of soil.

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Some fell on rock and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.

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Here we see a development from the previous case, right? Uh, there's actually some growth from the seeds.

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Yet, similar to the previous scenario, there is no fruit. When Jesus says rock, it does not mean the sower decided to throw his seeds, just waste them, uh, by throwing at piles of rocks.

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Rather, uh, the rock here means the, there was, it's a shallow topsoil.

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There's a shallow topsoil and underneath it is a solid bedrock. And, and those are pretty common in Palestine, right?

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The seeds are thrown on top of topsoil. So on the top surface, it just looks like good soil, right?

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Topsoil is where the nutrients are for the plants to grow. However, the topsoil happens to be too, too thin.

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So the thin topsoil allows for the seed to germinate and grow for a little while.

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However, because the, because of the shallow soil level, uh, the plant cannot deeply root.

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So without the deep roots, the plants are not able to absorb enough water to survive the scorching heat, uh, in the

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Middle East. So the plant withers away, uh, despite the promising start.

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And again, these seeds also do not produce any fruit. Uh, the Gospels according to Matthew and Mark actually show that they're not deeply rooted while Luke shows that the plants don't get enough moisture, but they're basically the same, saying the same thing because plants get their moisture from their roots.

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And if the root cannot get moisture from a bedrock, then A, it's not deeply rooted and B, uh, it will die because it's not getting enough moisture.

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The third group of seeds land among thorns and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.

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Uh, these seeds actually land on good ground and there's, there's a chance to root deeply.

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So there is some development here. It does not have to wither away like the last soil.

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Now, however, there are thorns among the seeds and in Palestine, uh, weeds can grow up to six feet tall and that would overshadow any surrounding plants.

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After all, most crops don't grow to that height. And not only that, because the weeds grow fast, uh, they would be using the nourishment in the soil that would be necessary for the seeds to grow in a healthy manner, uh, to be fruitful.

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So because it would be difficult for the seeds to grow competing against the thorns and thistles, the, uh, the plants did not produce fruit.

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And of course the sowers did not go out of his way to look for thorns and thistles to throw his seeds there.

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It's just that the thorns and thistles, uh, you do, they just sprang up with the seeds, right?

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You sometimes don't know that the thorns are gonna grow here. They just happen to grow and they grow fast.

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And the last group of seeds and others fell on good ground and sprang up and yielded a crop a hundred fold.

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So unlike all the previous, uh, grounds, the seeds that fall on the good soil, uh, yields fruit.

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There are fruits being produced and the fruit production is not just average, right?

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On average, you might get 35 to 60, uh, little seeds per stock.

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But here we get an exorbitant amount. We get a hundred fold, right?

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And that's, that's the thing about a parable. It's, it's intentionally there to mean something.

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It might not relate a hundred percent to what you would expect in real life. It's to prove a point.

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Now, after telling this cryptic parable, Jesus loudly commands, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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It's a command. Listen to this parable. Now, what could this parable mean?

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First, not all soils produce fruits. Some are eliminated before germination and there are various ways, uh, these seeds are in fact prevented from, uh, growing to bear fruit.

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The goal here, uh, really the end goal here is not just sprouting.

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Uh, the end goal here is that there's fruiting. There, there, the, uh, the seeds actually bear fruits.

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Now, some actually do produce fruit.

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And as much as we would like to know what could this, this mean, we must listen further on to understand what it means.

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We don't get to choose. Oh, I think the seeds mean this.

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Oh, I think all the grounds mean this. At first, if we don't read, uh, read on, it's tempting to just say, oh, the seeds mean faith.

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After all, faith grows. We see that in the Bible, but we got to read on because we don't get to decide what the spiritual truth behind this parable is.

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Only the author of the parable decides and that's Jesus. Now, before that, what is the purpose of the parable, right?

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Why is Jesus speaking to a big crowd in such a cryptic way?

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While the parable conceals God's revelation from the unbelievers, uh, who have hardened their hearts against Christ, it reveals

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God's plan to his disciples. So while the parable conceals

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God's revelation from the unbelievers who have hardened their hearts against Christ, uh, the parable itself actually reveals

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God's plan to his disciples. So unsurprisingly, after hearing the parable, uh,

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Jesus' disciples, not the crowd, Jesus' disciples approach

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Jesus and ask him, what does this mean? What does this parable mean?

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And this is important because the key to understanding the parable has to come from the source of the parable.

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The readers and listeners do not have the authority to plug in what they think the meaning of the parable is.

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This is extremely important. The meaning comes from the authorial intent.

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The meaning comes from the intention of the author. In fact, this is how we ought to treat any, uh, speech, any text.

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If we're confused about the meaning, we have to go to the author. And we naturally do that when we receive a confusing email or text message from someone.

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We don't try to interpret that. We actually say, what do you mean by that? Because the meaning comes from the author.

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Um, this is pretty sad because we live in a culture, uh,

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I would say even the, for the first time in human history where they tried to find meaning from the readers.

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What does it mean to you? Well, for me, this means, for me, there are 350 genders.

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For me, the Bible is telling me just go get that job.

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For me, Goliath represents the hard coworker or the boss who's just so, so formidable.

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There's always a going against me. That's not how we read a parable. And that's also not how we read the

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Bible. It's illogical and it's unbiblical. Now, before answering their question,

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Jesus shares the purpose of the parable. To you, it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

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But to the rest, it is given in parables that seeing they may not see and hearing they might not understand.

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And by telling parables, Jesus accomplishes two things, two purposes.

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First, the parables separate the disciples from the rest. His disciples are actually given the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

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The passive verb, they are given, implies that God is the implicit subject.

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The mysteries actually come from God. The mysteries do not come from the elite Christians.

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The mysteries do not come from pastors. The mysteries do not come from the Pope or the traditions of men.

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The mysteries come from God and that's revealed by God. And they will understand because God himself will reveal to them the mystery of the kingdom.

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Second, the concealment is a judgment against the rest.

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Even though the disciples will understand Jesus' message through the parable, the rest will only hear it as parables.

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The rest will hear it as a cryptic message. Obviously, Jesus is not giving an agricultural advice of how you ought to farm better.

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The meaning will be lost to the hearers who are not followers of Christ. The quotation, seeing they may not see and hearing they might not understand is from Isaiah chapter 6 verse 9.

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It's part of that quote. It's part of that verse. In the context of Isaiah, the

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Lord commissions Isaiah to speak the word of God to the hardened heart,

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Israel. Israel that has been ignoring God and has been going according to their own path in worshipping false gods.

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They've already hardened their hearts against Israel. Now, the judgment against them is that even though they hear the warnings from God through the prophet

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Isaiah, their continued hardened heart will prevent them from understanding the warning from God.

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So even if they hear it, they will not be able to follow the warning, do anything about the warning because they will not understand it.

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And in fact, the judgment, this type of judgment is all too prevalent in the modern church today.

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In denominations and local churches that have strayed from the Bible and have accepted the teachings of man, what's culturally relevant and popular based on regarding sexuality, gender, you name it, how to spend wealth, all sorts of things.

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Just veer from what the Bible says. When you listen to their sermons or if there are sermons anymore, even if they read from the

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Bible, the sermon itself is so out of context.

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It's so misunderstood. Even a new Christian who believes in the

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Bible would be able to point out there's something wrong here, right?

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And some of you might have left those gatherings on purpose because of that.

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You're hearing the word read out loud, yet the message from the word does not relate whatsoever.

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And that's the current relevance application of what

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Jesus is saying. For those who have hardened their hearts already, it's not that they're going to misunderstand what they particularly specifically chose to ignore, but rather they're not going to understand all of it.

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They're going to hear it, but they're not going to understand it. That's a judgment in itself. And in Jesus ministry, this

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Isaiah passage applies because despite Jesus' miracles and some teaching, he has been teaching already, right?

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Many in Israel resisted Jesus and his word. Like the

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Pharisees. They will not admit that Jesus is from God. They will not admit that John the

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Baptist is from God. But they've seen the signs. They've seen how, uh, which scripture had been fulfilled by their coming, but they resist that.

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So what it's saying is as a judgment,

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God will prevent them from receiving and understanding Jesus' message. And Jesus will still teach and proclaim his word to them, but their hardened hearts will prevent them from receiving the blessing of God's revelation.

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And the parable functions in that context. They'll hear the parable.

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They will hear every word of the parable, but they will not know what it means.

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Their darkened minds will prevent them from faithfully responding to God's invitation to repent.

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And that's what we will see until the end, how the Pharisees respond. It's not that they haven't seen the signs.

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They've seen the signs. It's not that they haven't heard Jesus' teaching. They've heard it, yet they will still resist it and not understand it.

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Now, this is important because the reality is that not everyone will understand the secrets of God's kingdom.

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No matter how much they listen, it will just be a parable to them.

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And there are non -believers who have read the Bible and heard the gospel numerous times, yet cannot see

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Jesus as the Lord and Savior. They grew up in the church.

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In fact, they might still attend church. That's the sad part, yet they don't understand.

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For example, the Catholics read the New Testament, yet find Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross insufficient that they have to rely on their own works.

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Although the Bible over and over again talks about how it's through faith alone and by God's grace alone.

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Grace, by definition, means it's not earned. It's freely given.

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But because they place the tradition of men on the equal ground as the Word of God, that's how they've hardened their hearts, many are prevented from seeing and understanding the gospel message, that it's freely received.

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You don't have to do a thing. You just trust that Jesus died for your sin.

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And that is all. You're not saved from baptism. That's what they believe.

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You have to be baptized. You're not saved from even adding your works.

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Indulgences still do exist in the Catholic church. We think that sucked. They just can't sell it.

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They give it away. If you visit a famous Catholic cathedral, they will give out indulgences.

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And those indulgences will shave time off of your purgatory. Because unless you're really, really, really good, there's some sin that needs to be paid off.

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Second, Mormons find the Word of God insufficient to rely on their own heretical book to understand the

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Bible. If you talk to Mormon missionaries and you share the gospel with them, they will try to connect it and read it with the lens of their book, the book of Mormon.

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You quote something like Romans 5, that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners.

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That shouts grace. I don't know about you. I didn't earn it. I'm a sinner and yet still he died for me.

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I wasn't good enough and he died for me. And then they would say, well, that concept is found in the book of Mormon and they will open to the page.

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That's the hardened heart against the Word of God. Jews have the same

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Old Testament as ours. That's actually how we have the Old Testament canon. It's what the Jews found to be scripture.

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That's why we don't have Apocrypha like the Catholics do. We're going with the Jewish tradition.

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Every book in the Old Testament for the Bible that we have here is found and held and those books were held as scripture by the

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Jewish saints in the Old Testament. We're following the tradition here of true faith.

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Now they have the Old Testament. They can read about the messianic prophecies. He was pierced for our transgressions, wounded for our sins, but they don't want to see

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Christ as their Messiah. Their hardened heart will prevent them from seeing the myriads of messianic prophecies about Christ that fit really word for word.

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And it remains unclear to those who have hardened their hearts against Jesus.

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Now, however, to those who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, God reveals the secrets of his kingdom to you.

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God through the Holy Spirit will help you understand his word, the

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Bible. Not only that, the confusing parts of the Bible can be understood and interpreted through the clearer text of the

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Bible. Scripture interprets scripture. The harder parts are interpreted by the clearer parts.

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You do not need the church's authority. You do not need my confirmation.

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God reveals to you his word through his spirit. And I'm always surprised by how a new believer understands the core of the gospel much better than an unsaved theologian who has devoted decades of his life studying the text in the original languages, yet relying on his own understanding rather than Christ.

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There was one German theologian, liberal theologian, he didn't believe Christ was divine, was

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God, right? He had the whole New Testament memorized in Greek.

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I can't say that about myself. Yet, when one missionary sitting in his class asked the question,

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Professor Von Harnick, who was Jesus Christ? The furthest he would go was,

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Jesus was the greatest man who has ever lived. And when he pushed more to get him to say he is divine, he is

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God, he is God incarnate, he wouldn't budge. Knowing all of the

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New Testament in Greek was not sufficient because it was hidden from him because he refused to see that Christ was

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God. Now, what does this parable mean?

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Jesus reveals that there are different responses to hearing God's word, but only those who listen and trust his word produce fruits.

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Jesus reveals that there are different responses to hearing God's word, but only those who listen and trust his word produce fruits.

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Here, if you go back and read the parable itself, every single one will actually receive

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God's word. And when we look at Jesus' interpretation from verses 11 through 15, every single response contains listening, hearing, when he heard, or after hearing, when hearing.

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It's not like they can plead this ignorance. They've all heard it. But only one bears fruit because that type of response, that person trusted the word.

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Now, after disclosing the purpose of the parable,

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Jesus interprets the parable. Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God.

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This is crucial. We do not get to hijack and claim that the seed is something else.

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And you will hear teachers and preachers do this. They might say, oh, the seed is the potential believer, or the seed is the faith of the believer, or the seed is the kingdom of God.

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Not here. The seed is the word of God.

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And the word of God is being spread everywhere. And we will see different ways in which

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God's word affects various people. Another thing to consider is that this parable's purpose is not to show the manner of growth in faith.

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As in, you start with the first type of soil where the words are eaten up by the devil.

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And then you grow to the rocky soil.

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And you do spring up, but the temptations and trials, they get you, and you wither away.

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But you grow mature in faith, and then now you get planted among the thorns.

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And you grow more, but, you know, the cares of the world. You get distracted.

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Ah, finally, you're a mature, elite Christian. Now you're planted in the good soil. It's not that. There is no transplantation here.

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It's not a chronological view of someone's growth in faith. These are four different responses to the word of God.

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Not to say that someone who initially rejects the word of God will never be a believer, but that's not the point of the parable.

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The parable is to show that there are many different ways people respond to the word of God.

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It's not always belief. And that actually fits the context well, because there are people who hear

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Jesus' word and won't respond the way that a person of the good soil would. It's an explanation of the reality of God's kingdom.

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Now first, those by the wayside are the ones who hear, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

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The different soils represent different types of people and their responses. And this is the first type of people who respond to God's word.

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In the first scenario, these are the seeds that get trampled by on the wayside and eaten up by the birds from verse five.

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Now, the word of God, you can see that is actually heavily misused and rejected.

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It is not just the people who abuse God's word. We see this all too commonly, but Satan himself.

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You might have experienced this. Have you ever explained the gospel to an unbelieving family member or friend, yet there seems to be a wall blocking them?

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You can have them explain to you what they've just heard and it's just like, that's not what

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I said at all. And Jesus tells us that's because there is a spiritual enemy,

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Satan, who desires to prevent God's word from ever impacting someone's life, lest that person be saved.

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Believe and be saved. And what it tells us is there is actually a massive battle for people's mind in the spiritual realm.

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There's a massive battle for the desires and the will of the hearts. It's not just someone's intellectual ability.

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Even a PhD doctorate scholar may not understand because their minds are darkened by Satan.

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In fact, Paul describes this in 2 Corinthians 4, 3 through 4, how the

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God of this age, Satan, blinds people from seeing the gospel. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the

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God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, shine on them.

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There is a massive spiritual battle going on. And oftentimes when you do evangelize, it's very fruitful to pray before and after and even during that God may unveil because God's light is brighter than any veil that Satan can throw on.

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So for these people, they do hear God's word, but there's no reflection.

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There's no urgency to respond in faith. You might have heard something like this.

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Well, I'm glad it works for you. But do you see that if this works, if this is true, it has to be urgently important to you too as well.

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It applies to you because you are also a sinner and there is a judgment coming, but there is a way to be saved from that judgment.

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It applies to you as well, but it's failed. And there's also no desire to even continue exploring.

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Yeah, thanks. I'm okay. For these people at one level,

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Satan is working hard to prevent them from receiving God's word. At another level, they themselves are rejecting or twisting

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God's word so that they can justify not believing. Second, but the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.

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Unlike the previous response, these people actually do initially receive

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God's word joyfully. However, only their beginning is promising. They do not have the firm foundation to be rooted during the time of temptation and trials.

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In the New Testament, temptation and trials are synonymous. They kind of go together.

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So when their faith is truly tested, their response to God's word withers away.

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It dies. It bears no fruit. And this response is also common today.

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Children grow up hearing the word. They grow up learning of Jesus' atoning sacrifice on the cross.

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He died for me. Jesus died for me. They hear it over and over again during Sunday school.

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And they're taught rather well because we have so many good resources about how the resurrection must be true.

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There's historical evidence for it, but also the textual evidence is so powerful. And they might be able to argue really well against any unbeliever.

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But what happens when they go off to college or live away from their parents who taught them the way of Christ?

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The temptation to be accepted by others overrides their desire to follow

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Christ. Now, what would my friends think of my faith?

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What if my faith in Jesus hurts my chance of getting my summer internship or getting promoted or getting a research position in the

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STEM field? What will my coworkers think of me?

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And in fact, the persecution might be even more direct. Your life's at risk. It's not just social persecution.

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It's physical. You might lose your life or livelihood, right?

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And that's the reality for a lot of people around the world. So they say, well,

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I'm not going to believe this anymore. That's the response.

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They initially received it with joy. That was exciting. They might have shared the gospel with people that they know all around.

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But man, when the pressure builds up, I don't know if this is worth it anymore.

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Third, now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.

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Again, the importance here, right? The purpose of the seed growing is not just the growth in itself.

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It's that it matures to bear fruit. That's the type of plant that the sower wants.

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Now, similar to the last response, there is an initial response to the word of God, and it's rather favorable.

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However, worries, riches, and pleasures stunt the growth of faith. It stunts the growth of the response.

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These thorns in life suck the resources for growth and attention away from the person's continual response to God.

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These three thorns are applicable for all socioeconomic background.

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After all, it is not just the poor who worry about money. Let me tell you, the rich worry about their money, too.

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And it is not just the rich who chase after the pleasures of life. The poor think about the pleasures of life that they may attain one day.

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It occupies their minds. Now, this may not be a one -time decision of apostasy, kind of like the last one, right?

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When you're persecuted, okay, I'm done. But rather, in one creeping compromise at a time.

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Well, I will lose my job if I don't stand up for Christ at work, so I will keep it quiet this time.

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Maybe next time when it's really obvious, yes, I will defend my faith, right?

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Well, I will lose my influence and popularity if I preach the text, so I'll preach something slightly different.

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But it's still true. Just going to have to twist it a little.

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Well, the Bible calls my desires here sinful, right? So I will just ignore that part.

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You know what? I'm going to just follow the message of Jesus, but Paul, oh, man, he's bigoted, right?

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It starts with that. In their mind, the justification is, well, you know,

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Paul didn't write the majority of the Bible. Over 90 % is not written by Paul. I'll stick to that.

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But those who compromise a little at a time, they don't bear fruit.

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They eventually do leave the faith. You decide to reject a part of the

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Bible, the logical conclusion is then it's rejectable.

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It's not trustworthy as a whole. And over time, just one little step, one little step slightly farther from Christ, just a little distance, it adds up to miles away from Christ.

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What Jesus is saying is when welfare, wealth, and comfort become the ultimate goal,

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Christ is no longer the main priority. When welfare, wealth, and comfort become the main thing, it is no longer

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Christ who is the king. And such a plant remains fruitless.

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It may not have withered away, but it's a useless plant if it doesn't produce seeds. Lastly, but the ones that fell on the ground, good ground, are those who having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

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The good ground signifies the true disciples. It is distinguished by three aspects that the other grounds do not have.

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The right heart, perseverance, and patience. The noble and good heart signifies that the person is internally positioned to receive the word of God properly.

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Her heart is morally upright. It's pure. It is not hypocritical or contradictory.

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The inner thoughts match the outer actions. It signifies a personal faith in God.

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That heart is ready to properly respond to God's word. Now, second, the true disciple keeps the word or some translations render it as hold fast.

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They hold fast to the word. He keeps God's word close to his heart.

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He clings to it. He holds onto it tightly. The word of God, which he treasures in his heart, becomes a tangible thing in his life through his life choices.

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He holds scripture, the word of God, as the ultimate source of truth.

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That whatever the world, media, academia, friends, and family may try to discount the word, he will still hold fast.

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Third, patience. A true disciple hopes and waits for the fulfillment of God's promises.

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His outlook is Godward. His future is pointed toward God.

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Despite what the current circumstances and cultural trends are, his focus is in God's hope and promises.

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Despite the persecution and pressure to bend, it is the faith that following Christ is so much sweeter.

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His plans are so much better. The suffering is that much worth it when you can have

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Christ now and forever. And such a person produces 100 -fold to hearing the word of God.

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One rightly placed word of God can have an exponential impact in and through this person.

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And this is what sets the true disciples apart from the rest, who produce no fruits.

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It is not how fast they spring up, right? It is not how excited they were at the reception of the gospel.

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It's not about that excitement level. It is not that spiritual high. It also is not the absence of trials and temptations.

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After all, why would holding fast and patience be required if there weren't trials and temptations for Christians?

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They do face trials and temptations. Hence that's how they produce fruits during that time when they hold fast and are patient.

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And in fact, one would argue Christians face more trials and temptations because Satan would want them to falter.

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The difference is the continued focus on Christ. They will not be scorched up by the persecution that might be coming because they know that Christ is walking alongside them in their hardship.

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They're not abandoned. They're walking with Christ, who also suffered. They know the fact that Christ suffered on the cross was infinitely more painful than their current suffering.

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And they know that their current suffering will be one day overshadowed by the joy of Christ's presence.

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And they're not consumed by the worries of the world, not because Christians are generally wealthier than others.

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I don't think we can even prove that. But they trust the most generous

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God, the most faithful God who always provides for the needs of His people.

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They trust His words. They trust His promises of provision. And lastly, they're not distracted by the pleasures of this world because Christ's invitation to follow

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Him dims even the world's shiniest offers.

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Because they know that a moment in Christ's presence is far better than a century in any king's palace.

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It's how they respond in faith to the hearing of the word that sets the disciples apart from the rest who may also hear the word.

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And we know that because they inevitably produce fruit.

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True faith produces abundant fruit. It may not be quick.

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But that is the destination. Let us pray.

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Father, we're thankful that you have revealed to us the mysteries of your kingdom through the parable and that you let us hear and understand through Jesus Christ.

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Help us to focus on Him this morning. Hold tight to His word, knowing that one day all the hardships, scorching heat, and pressures from the world would one day be gone and we would all enter into the joy of our

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Master. In Jesus' name. Amen.