A Breathtaking View Of God And Evangelism (pt-1)

17 years now, and I've gotten some interesting responses to the message I've given people.

I went to a Jewish rest home one day, and I was up proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the only

Savior of sinners, that He is the one who is the risen Messiah, the crucified Messiah. And unless you, the people there at the rest home, place your faith in this risen, crucified

Messiah, there's no hope of heaven. And I was just proclaiming the narrow way.

And a lady in the very back, I'll never forget, had her head down the whole time. And when

I said, today is the day that salvation is proclaimed to you, and you must believe, she lifted up her head, and I could just see it in slow motion, sitting right back where John was sitting.

She looked right at me in the eyes, and she screamed out real loud one word. And only one word in response, beans, put her head back down.

I said, ma 'am, you may be shouting beans to the message now, but one day you will bow, and you will confess

Jesus Christ as Lord, and we are entreating you to bow your head, and bow your heart, and bow your knee today, because today is the day of salvation.

When people hear you preach the gospel to them, how do they respond? Always with joy, always with happiness.

You come and arrest someone, and you say, I'm here to tell you about your life, and it's like a vapor, and then one day it'll be gone, and then you stand before God, and the way you're going now is wrong, and you should repent and follow

Christ. Do they always just jump up and down and high five you and say, thank you so much for telling me?

Do you ever get negative responses? Should you get negative responses?

If you'll turn your Bibles today to Mark chapter four, we're going to look and find out that there are a variety of responses to the gospel, and not all of them are positive.

We have been in the book of Matthew chapter five, looking at salt and light, two metaphors that Jesus uses to teach us about evangelism as he would commission the disciples to proclaim the truth.

And so we're going to spin off a little bit for this week and next, looking at the divine side of evangelism next week, and today looking more at the human side.

People respond differently to the gospel, and I think it will help you, because we want people to embrace the good news.

We want people to say, yes, that's true, that's right, that's lovely, that's good. But Jesus, before he does many other things, he tells his folks that there will be responses to the gospel that are short of,

I love Christ. And I think as you continue to preach the gospel, and you see some of those responses, you will not be mortified, stupefied, you will not be dumbfounded when you preach the gospel and people say, no, it's okay for you, religion's good for you, spirituality's good for you, and I'm spiritual in my own way, but you know, enough already.

Mark chapter 4, Jesus is going to help us with evangelism as he is talking to the disciples.

We were in Mark many, many years ago, I think this was about 1998 or so, when we were going through the book of Mark.

This gospel that really focuses on the actions of Jesus, although there is preaching here, and we find the first parable here that Jesus gives in Mark chapter 4.

And just look at the setting and then we'll couch it a little bit and set us up with an outline.

Mark chapter 4, I'm reading from the New American Standard, and he began to teach again by the sea, and such a very great multitude gathered to him that he got into a boat in the sea and sat down, and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

And Jesus is having a very busy day. He's ministered a lot already. He has healed many, he has cast out demons, he is certainly redeeming the time.

It's the same day as the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit issue, and this whole multitude,

Matthew 13 says, was standing by the beach. And he's into a little boat, and he's out there preaching, great acoustics of course, off the water, no

PA systems in those days, and he sits down and he does what?

Verse 2, he was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in his teaching.

He was protracted in his preaching, it was ongoing, it was a lengthy thing, and he begins to preach in parables.

Now what is a parable? Sunday school kids know what a parable is, anybody want to shout out what a parable is if you're 12 or under?

Not all together? Who's your Sunday school teacher? It's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, that's right.

Jesus is going to use something common, and everyday, and ordinary, and then he's going to take it and almost at the last minute, twist it so he's got your heart already, and then you go, oh, that's me.

He just opens people up with his wonderful words, and parable really means to throw beside.

It's literally from the word para, beside, parable, bole, to throw aside, and so there's a truth next to this natural, normal, earthly story, and it clarifies, it emphasizes, and Jesus preached parables a lot.

I hope you love parables because one -third of all Christ's teachings were in the form of parables, and it's such a great device because it makes you interested, it makes you identify, it makes your memory increase because you think, okay,

I can remember that, it makes you more interested. And then I like what

Warren Wiersbe said about parables. This is exactly right. A parable begins innocently as a picture that arrests our attention and arouses our interest, but as we study the picture, it becomes a mirror in which we suddenly see ourselves.

If we continue to look by faith, the mirror becomes a window through which we see God and his truth.

So it brings you in, you identify with it, and then there's that moment, almost a preaching moment where you say, you know the truth, how will you respond?

Sometimes Jesus used parables to only tell his disciples the truth. Sometimes Jesus used parables to tell unbelievers, you can't understand what

I'm going to tell you. He concealed the truth with parables and he revealed truth with parables. One of the things that you can do with parables, there's lots of parables, is first you want to look at the natural meaning.

You want to understand what the culture is and the setting. By the way, we aren't Easterners, most of us here, we are

Western civilization. By the way, this is 2006, it's not 32, 28

A .D. We speak different languages and it's good to figure out what Jesus was saying back then.

Another good thing to do when it comes to parables is to make sure we do what the golden rule of parable interpretation would tell us, and that is this.

Look for the one key point, right? Let me give you an example of the one key point in the

Good Samaritan parable. By Origen, who was a scholar of dubious sorts, he did the wrong thing with the one main point deal.

The man who fell among the thieves is Adam. The robbers are the devil and his minions.

The priest stands for the law. The Levite for the prophets. The Good Samaritan is

Christ. The beast, Christ's body, get that part.

The inn is the church. The two pants are the father and the son. And the

Samaritan's quote, when I come again, that talks about Christ's second coming.

Now see how easy that is? And you go home and you think, our pastor is really great. He gets stuff out of the text that I could never see.

Well, you can never see it because it's not in there. The parable is not an allegory where everything represents something else.

Allegories are fine. Pilgrim's Progress is a great allegory. But the parable is a natural story that Jesus uses to drive one key point home, and we don't want every word to walk with meaning.

So that's really a guideline for interpreting parables, which would be look at the natural meaning and look at the one key central point.

And most importantly, you want to find the context of that parable. Jesus just didn't go out to the boat, sit down, and then just made up a random story.

There was a reason why he told the story. There was a purpose. There was a situation. There was a context.

He knew the people needed to hear that story, that parable at that time for a reason.

So it's best to find the context. And before we get into this parable of the sower and the seeds and the soils, my question is why would he tell this parable now?

What's the best way to find out? Let's go back to chapter three. Very, very interestingly, Jesus' family shows up.

He tells this parable after his family arrives, the royal family, the family,

Mark 3 .31. This will help us understand the parable, which will help us evangelize.

And his mother, talking about Jesus, Mark 3 .31, and his brothers arrived.

So his mother and his brothers show up. Matthew 12 says, and behold, his mother and his brothers show up.

Mary is no longer a virgin. She has children who are Christ's half -brothers.

Mark 6 .3 says, is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, are not his sisters here with us?

And they took offense at him. And so now Joseph is gone. He's probably died. And Mary and her sons,

Jesus' half -brothers, show up. And they're standing outside of the house. And they sent word to him and called him.

Well, there's a big crowd. It's hard to get in to see Jesus. By the way, they just kept on calling him.

They didn't reveal their true intentions. Maybe it's we just miss our family member. But they sent word to him and they called him.

His family's here. Most scholars think that they're not very sympathetic towards his ministry.

They're looking to seize him. It's not a friendly visit. They're trying to go get Jesus. Here's our son again. Here's our brother again, off on some kind of half -baked

Messiah complex out there preaching. And it's time for us to stop that. Verse 32, and a multitude was sitting around him.

And they said to him, behold, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you. If you were in the

Eastern culture, what would you do? Family, mothers, father, honor, respect, family was everything.

Your mother's here. And Luke says they're wishing to see him. Matthew says they're outside seeking to speak to you.

Your brothers and your mother are outside looking for you. Jesus certainly loved his mother and loved his brothers.

But then look at Mark 33, chapter 3. And answering them, he said, who are my mother and my brothers?

Well, Jesus lost his omniscience, I guess. He doesn't know who his mother is. No, he's using this as a teaching moment.

He's with a question, asking this, who by quality is my mother and my brother?

Who are the sort of people, in other words, are my mother and my brothers? Scholar Hebert said, quote, it implies his disappointment at their lack of sympathy for his work and suggests that they were not qualified to direct his activities.

They're here to try to say, it's time to go home. We want to talk to you. And he says, oh, really? Who are my mother and who are my brothers?

And here comes the Kodak moment. Here comes the freeze frame, slow motion, perfect time to teach a truth of monumental proportions.

And he says in verse 34, and looking about on those who are sitting around him, not his mother, not his brothers, he looks around and he said, oh, this is just shocking.

Behold, emphatically, looking around the disciples at the small circle, my mother and my brothers.

These are the people who want me to fulfill my mission for God, not my mom and not my brothers.

In time, they will become regenerate and they will, but not right now. Then you see this in verse 35, whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.

He doesn't even address his mother. As far as we know, she goes back home. She can't even talk to Jesus.

I'm here for a messianic mission to proclaim truth. And anyone who comes in between my father and I, including my mother, people say sometimes,

Jesus, you need to pray to Mary because Jesus could never refuse his mother anything. Well, Jesus refuses his mother something right here in scripture.

She says, I want to talk to you. And whether intentions are good or bad, I think they're bad. But even if they're good,

Jesus said, here's my mission. It's about the call and the family of the obedient. Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, sister and mother.

Now, what's how does how does chapter three at the end tie into chapter four? Have you ever asked yourself this question?

Because the disciples were asking this question. Why do the disciples respond to the gospel positively?

And the brothers do not. Why do the Pharisees say Jesus is a son of a devil?

And the disciples around him, at least the 11, they believe. Why do the Sadducees say

Jesus is a complete liar? He's a fraud. He's a hypocrite. He's a swindler. And other people say,

I believe exactly what you're telling me. Why is that? Why is there a response positively and negatively at the same time, but just in different hearts?

Why does the hearing of the gospel not produce the same response in every heart? And Jesus now tells us why.

Let's go back to Mark chapter four and see the parable. Verse three. Why do different people respond differently to the same message?

Some think it's the words of eternal life, and others think you're crazy. It's time to come home.

And Jesus, in the way that only Christ could teach, tells us this parable. We'll look at the parable first, and then the interpretation.

Verse three. Listen to this. I thought about this for my sermon illustration this morning.

I was going to walk up, and when you're a preacher, you want to try to secure attention, and then you want to get people's interest.

Or you could say get attention and secure interest, either way. But you want them to start thinking about, here comes the message.

That's why I think jokes are inappropriate, comic relief is fine, but I want to try to get your attention.

So I was going to start off my sermon like Jesus started his parable. He walks up and he says with an exclamation point, listen to this.

It's a weird way to start a sermon, isn't it? Listen up. Pay attention, everybody.

What you are going to hear will have eternal ramifications. In Greek, he would say, akouate, listen, pay attention.

This is serious. This is solemn. He's saying, present tense, listen by command and keep listening.

Don't you sleep on this one. Don't you snooze on this one. They're not getting up for any reason except for children.

Don't you stand up on this one. Now they're taking care of their children, but it's solemn.

It's striking. It's supposed to be. And then he says, behold, another word, almost like double attention.

I'm not this good with my words. I'd have to kind of clap or hit the pulpit or something like that.

You know, preachers, if you've got a weak point, you just shout. Jesus doesn't have to do that.

Jesus says, listen to this. This is important. I've already got your attention because you've been following me around and you know

I've just said no to my mother and my brothers. And now I'm going to give you some insight about why.

Pay attention. Mark 4 .9, it says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Listen carefully. Mark 4 .23, if any man has ears to hear, let him hear.

How much different is Jesus than the typical storyteller today? Walk in the pulpit. Once upon a time, some kind of Aesop's fables,

Grimm's fairy tales. No, that's not what Jesus did at all.

Listen to this, behold, the sower went out to sow. And do you think the people in those days would know exactly what he was talking about?

Yes, even last week, Maddie, Gracie and I, we've got a couple spots in the yard that just are kind of barren and there's some sand there and they're not growing very well.

So I went and got some topsoil, went and got some seed. And so first I raked the barren areas and then

I put some seed down and now the kids think it's a good idea. And so everybody's reaching their hand into this plastic bag of grass seed and I'm trying to throw it out just perfectly with perfect concentration and stuff.

And the kids are reaching their hands in and it's just going everywhere. So when you see some forest areas of our house in a few weeks, that wouldn't be my doing.

We're just sowing the seed and then we put kind of the topsoil on there. They would just do this very often, the sower, sow seeds and just throw seeds out.

Very common picture, Johnny Appleseed type of deal and it's typical in those days.

And it came about, verse 4, that while he was sowing or as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road and the birds came and ate it up.

I mean, he wasn't trying to put it on the road, he wasn't trying to put it on the path. You don't plow up those rough surfaces, but there's maybe a lot of little

Matty's and Gracie's running around and just sometimes seed goes someplace else or the wind or whatever it might be.

It just happens and it gets trampled underfoot, Luke 8 says. There were hard surfaces close by, paths in between fields.

Verse 5, another seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.

Most likely this was not a bunch of rocks everywhere up on top. I took the kids to purgatory yesterday, purgatory chasm.

By the way, my sins are so bad, I'd need more than purgatory to have those things taken care of. How about you?

I need the blood of Christ. There is purging for our sins, but it's found at Calvary, Hebrews chapter 1.

He made purification for us. So we went to purgatory chasm and if I said, we're going to plant some seeds, kids, everybody get your grass seed out, throwing them on the big boulders everywhere.

We found the devil's pulpit. Let's say we'll put some on devil's pulpit. We found a devil's corn crib.

Let's put some on that. What are some of the other names of those weird things there? Some kids already know. You're paying attention.

What is another one? That's okay, but it was really rocky, wasn't it?

You remember one? Yeah, I won't say that one out loud. Anyway, no.

Why do I ask? It's a drink moment here.

No one is going to just go ahead and put seeds right on the rocks, but there was lots of limestone in those days and most likely

Jesus is talking about sowers that would see soil and they would think that was a good place to put the seed, but underneath, just within an inch or two depth, there would be limestone and of course, these things would immediately sprout up, but they wouldn't last very long.

And so that's kind of the background with that, the solid limestone underneath the surface of the good soil. Verse six, and after the sun had risen, it was scorched and because it had no root, it withered away.

Hot oriental sun, dry up the plants. You know the story. Other seed fell by among the thorns and the thorns came up and choked it and it yielded no crop.

Again, you might want to notice it doesn't say among thorn bushes. There's all kinds of thorny kind of roots and these roots throttle or strangle or choke these seeds and then they die, but there's one other kind of soil and that is in verse eight.

Other seeds fell into the good soil and they grew and increased. It's good soil.

It takes root. It does the seed. They yielded a crop and produced amazing proportions, not just 8 % which would be okay, not just 10 % which would be great, but here it's almost supernaturally 30, 60, 100 fold in that deep good soil.

Now if I was preaching, I'd give you the interpretation, but Jesus doesn't do that first. He now tells you why some people won't get it.

There will be some of you this morning that will not understand this parable. You may say, I understand it intellectually, but you will not have spiritual eyes to see.

Why would that be? Verse nine and Jesus was saying, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Don't miss the real point. This applies to you and as soon as he was alone, his followers along with the 12 began asking him about the parables.

We want the real deal. We want the inside scoop. This has to be more than just some kind of farming story.

You're not here to teach us about farming and agragarian cultures, are you? And he was saying to them, to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God.

To you, there was information that was known to me, God, but you didn't know.

This is not mysterious. This is mystery where it was not yet revealed, but now it is revealed. It used to be a mystery and now it is revelation.

We understand it. But to those who are outside, they get everything in parables. They're not really interested except for the good story.

They don't get anything except the words, the letters, the sentences. And now comes the interpretation.

Not many interpretations are in the Bible for parables, but here we get this one. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable, translation?

You should understand this parable. And how will you understand all the parables?

In other words, more are coming. If you don't get this one, you're not going to get any other ones. This is, in a sense, the key to unlock all the other parables.

You don't have the ability to discern this parable, the parable of parables, as it were. The sower sows the word.

In Matthew, Jesus said, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. So we're starting to have this line up a little bit more.

We're trying to figure this out, and we see something happens. So if you're taking notes today, let me give you three key truths to help you evangelize.

It'll take between this week and next week to get them all. But truth number one is this. You've already known this one,

I'm sure. You as a congregation, as an individual Christian, should expect different results when you preach the gospel to people.

That is to say, when you proclaim that Jesus Christ is the forgiver of sins, based on your trust in Him, deny yourself, repent, follow

Christ, the risen Savior, they don't always respond positively, and you, as a congregation, need to know that.

Jesus wanted His disciples to know that. There are different responses to the message of Christ's forgiveness.

And three of them are rejections. Look at the first rejection. People that say, you know what, I don't want that message.

Look at this first, we'll call them heart soil, found in verse 15. This is hard and unresponsive.

They don't like it. They listen, but they don't like it. And these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown, and when they hear, immediately

Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. These aren't the people that do the kind of stiff arm, don't ever talk to me.

They listen, and after they hear it, they don't like it because of the implications of the gospel.

Don Richardson, the missionary, once said this about Christianity, and I love this. He said,

Christianity is meddlesome. Christianity is meddlesome.

It's not one of these things where you say, well, I believe these things, and you learn about Christ, and you just carry on the way you've been going.

Christianity is like meddlesome. One other guy who wasn't quite as eloquent, he said,

Jesus is like a dentist, and you've heard me talk about that before. Now, you can't carry the analogy too far, but you go in just for a cleaning, and then they find a cavity, and then they find another cavity, and then they have to have a root canal, and then you have to have a cap, and then you have to have this.

It's almost like when you open your mouth a little bit to the hearing of the gospel, here comes the gospel, and it is meddlesome.

God loves people enough not to let them stay the way they are, and God would do us no favors if he were like a dentist who someone opened their mouth, and there's all kinds of decay and infection and pus and all kinds of things else, and they said, well, thanks for coming.

I won't charge you today, and you can get your free toothbrush on the way out, and if God loves people and wants his glory to be proclaimed and calls all people to believe, there's an adversary, and his name is

Satan. Matter of fact, one of Satan's names even means what? Adversary. That's what Satan, Satanus, means, an adversary.

Matthew called him the evil one. Luke called him the devil. He doesn't want these people to hear the word, and these people's hearts are like the road, calloused, insensitive, no deep thinking, don't want to mull it over too much, don't want to think about the eternal truths and the ramifications of those things, and Satan just loves that, and as soon as the word gets into the people's brains before it gets processed and becomes part of their volition and will,

Satan just whisks those words right out. 2 Corinthians 4 says, the

God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

You ever pour water on the back of a duck? Gospel to these kind of people, same thing.

No impression, lies loosely there on the surface, it's like oil and water, never the twain shall meet.

It's just another subject for them, they like maybe hearing the preaching, but it's kind of cramming for a test. Do you remember what you studied for your two tests ago?

No, I don't really know, but the consequences are huge. Luke 8, 12 of the same parable, it says, they don't hear so that they may not believe and be saved.

Save not from their own selves only, save not only from their own sins only, but save from the eternal wrath of God that is justly due all sinners.

And unless Christ steps in and takes that shock value of the wrath of God and assuages and satisfies

God's wrath in our place, then they will receive it blunt on. And Jesus is saying, this is important. And people say, well, you know what?

What's the fuss? Everybody sins. I had a guy at my home Bible study one time come in, he was 18 years old, and I was trying to talk to him about sin, because you talk about sin before you talk about the

Savior. And he looked at me and he said, I've never sinned a day in my entire life. I've never ever sinned.

I wanted to go, you're sinning right now. What you just said, whatever, yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah, you know, they hear the preacher and it's the

Charlie Brown teacher deal, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. They don't know, you're going to die, and then what?

And God could even say, He won't have to say it, but I even brought you in to hear those preachers to hear the words of eternal life, grace greater than all your sins, a

God who demonstrates His love for sinners, because He dies for sinners. He doesn't die for His friends. He dies for sinners.

How much more does He love His friends? It's the good news. Satan's real.

Well, there's another kind of soil. Maybe you've experienced this one. The first one is hard and unresponsive.

The second is superficial and temporary. Look at verse 16. And in a similar way, there are the ones whom the seed was sown on rocky places, who when they hear the word, immediately, they receive it with joy.

Did you get that? You know, there are some people who love preaching. Herod, in Mark chapter 6,

I believe, he loved John the Baptist preaching. I love that. I love the oratory.

I love the skill. I love the homiletics. I love that. I just love preaching. Felix, Paul, you're a great preacher, why don't you come back and preach again?

These people receive the word with joy. That is amazing. As the plant would quickly go zooming up because it had a little soil and a little water and lots of sun, it didn't last.

Luke 8 says, they believe for a while. One of the things that was taught to me early on, and I have never forgot it, and it is crucial for everyone here to know as a

Christian or as an unbeliever, there is a faith that you can have in God that does not save.

There is a true faith that is comprised of your mind and soul and spirit or your mind and emotions and will.

It's the whole package. You believe unto God, like in Acts 16. Believe unto the

Lord Jesus Christ. Everything you are for everything he is. And there is something less. Satan believes in God.

The demons believe in God. As a matter of fact, in James, it says demons believe in even shudder. They are emotional about it.

They are not saved. And to think all those years, at least for me growing up, I believed in God, but it was a belief that was not saving.

There is a faith that does not save. And these people need to hear the shocking truth that you can feel forgiven and not go to heaven.

You can feel the weight of your sins disappear and not go to heaven. You can cognitively and creatively agree with the

Christian gospel and not go to heaven. You may ask yourself the question, why don't we do altar calls here?

Well, we'll talk about that more in the next week or so. But one of the reasons why we don't do altar calls, besides no mandate for altar calls, besides for 1800 centuries, 1800 centuries, 18th centuries, no altar calls there.

Pastoral epistles don't talk about any altar calls. But there are people today that will hear the message and they will want to come to the front and they will receive the message with joy.

And I am not going to try to confirm their faith at the front of this congregation, where by the way, there is no altar.

Behold your altar. When these people can receive the word with joy, they're glad to hear, oh, good,

I'm finally back in church again. And I know there's this forgiving savior. It's touching message. It's moving.

I feel good. But here, Jesus says, there is a kind of person that hears the word, they receive it with joy, but there are no roots.

It's superficial. There's no conviction. There's no contrition. There's no change of heart. It's shallow.

They didn't count the costs. Although they're happy and enthusiastic, when it's willing to pay the price time, they say, no.

Why? Verse 17. And they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary.

Then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately,

Mark's favorite word, they fall away. We can't see the fruits. We can't see the roots, because sometimes what we see is,

I like the message. Way to go. I affirm. I confirm that message. The Puritans used to say, there are two tests for your

Christianity. You say you believe, great. Here are your two tests that will show if you're a Christian or not. Time and trials.

And trials is taken right out of this here in Mark chapter four. Trials will show. When it comes to forsaking everything, are you willing to still do that when your life is on the line?

That's why when people come to me and say, my family member just prayed and received Christ. My family member just accepted

Christ. My family member believes in Jesus Christ. I've been praying for this family member, and they believe.

And my friend at work, and the people at school, and my loved ones, they all believe in Jesus. And you know what

I do? So if I do this, and I give you this look, you'll know ahead of time, and hopefully you can love me in spite of who

I am anyway. I have two responses. That's a lot better than saying,

I hate Jesus. It's a lot better than saying, I'm going to sin all

I want, and I don't care. I'm going to hell with Anton LaVey and his whole crew, and hope to party with Judas in hell.

It's better than that, isn't it? But since they can receive it with joy,

I don't want to rush and say, well, that's so wonderful. They're in heaven now, and let's baptize them.

I'm just stuck in kind of nowhere's land, because time will show. Trials will show.

Salvation is immediate, but I don't always get to see that. So when someone says, my friend just got saved, I want to go, that's wonderful.

I hope they keep believing. Keep telling them to keep believing. That's why never in your life should you go back into your past and say,

I confirm my Christianity based on that past experience, that past altar call, that past raised hand, that past signing the card, that past time where I was really crying in the middle of the street, and rolling around, and just in contrition, and all that other stuff.

That's not Christianity. Christianity is, even though you might have been saved, if you are saved, you are saved in the past.

But Paul would say something like this, are you a Christian? Then prove it right now.

By the way you live, you'll show that you're a Christian. That's right out of James chapter 1, and that's right out of 2

Corinthians chapter 13. You call yourself a Christian? Prove it. Not to me, not to other

Christians, but before God. Because if the God of the universe changes you, will you be different?

The omnipotent, glorious, majestic God of the universe says, I made you a new creature.

Nah, not really. And Jesus is trying to help us here, and help the people there, that there will be people that we preach the gospel to, and they'll receive it with joy.

So don't close the deal right away. Put the tick mark in the front of your Bible, and send them a

Fundamentals of the Faith booklet. I hope you say, way to go. Keep believing. Same thing with your kids.

If your kids come up to you, they're 8 years old, 7 years old, 5 years old, and they come up and they say, Daddy, I believe the gospel.

What should you do? Get back in your room. You just lost TV privileges for another week.

Of course not. We encourage the faith. Amen. Yes, you should believe.

That's right. I'm so happy. But you just mind your P's and Q's, and you remember what Jesus says.

This is what you're thinking now. You're not telling the kids this. There are some that receive with joy, and they fall away.

They're not Christians. So we keep encouraging people to keep on believing. And we don't say as a parent,

I know they're saved. I know what they did. When they struggle with sin, and by the way, struggle with sin is a good thing, because before we didn't struggle with sin.

We just struggled with the consequences of our sin. We struggle with sin, and we think, wow, that's good. I actually struggle with sin.

My conscience is pricked, and I don't want to do that anymore. That's a good sign.

But we should not be in the business of going around doing something opposite of Mark chapter four, Luke chapter eight, and Matthew chapter 13.

And that is when people say early on, I receive the word with joy, I believe in the gospel, that we should not sign, seal, and deliver them, because that is the job of the

Spirit of God. And we must judge them, not self -righteously, not with error, but we should judge our children to say, you know what?

The Bible says this about Christians, and I'm going to watch my kid to see if there's fruit of this Christian life found in the

Bible, and is it found in them? And if it is, I'm going to encourage it, and if there is not,

I'm going to say, you know what, son? The Bible says Christians don't act like that. So we keep on encouraging belief, but we never sign the deal.

If someone comes to my office and says, I don't know if I'm saved, you will never hear me save. You will never hear me save.

That's for sure. It's like a preacher

I listen to in the South, he said to a bunch of pastors, the word of God can reprove, rebuke, repent.

He said, wait a sec, that's not in the verse, but I prayed that God would help me speak to you today, so if anybody out there needs to hear repent, that word's from God, repent.

I thought that was good. I can't save my children, but I can sure do what

I'm called to do, is keep sowing the seed into the heart of that kid, or even to the minds of the kid, here's the gospel, here's what belief is, and you say you believe, little one, amen, you keep on believing.

That's the same for adults, you say you believe, keep on believing. He who perseveres to the what shall be saved.

Hebrews chapter 10, these frightening things about disobedience. Hebrews chapter 11, but God, when he works a work in you, in spite of yourself, in spite of Satan, in spite of the world, in spite of sin, in spite of everything else, you do walk by faith, you do proceed.

There might be ups and downs, but it is California real estate style, like this, right? You will rise in your sanctification.

I'm just trying to say, for us to say to someone that you're saved, they in my office may not know if they're saved, and I surely may not know they're saved.

Where in the Bible am I supposed to go around telling people they're saved all the time? Last week when

Timothy was baptized, articulate, I think he understands the gospel. Is he saved?

I hope so. I'm encouraging him to keep on believing. So when I dunked him under water, what did I say?

I did not say, you're a Christian now, I mean, you're not a Christian now, and by dunking you under the water, these waters will make you a

Christian. Baptismal regeneration. I did not say that. I did not say, because you're a

Christian, I now baptize you. What did I say? And I said it for a very specific reason.

Based on your profession of faith, it is my privilege and it is my pleasure to baptize you in the name of the

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because people can receive it with joy, and then fall away.

Certainly I don't think that's the case with Timothy or anything in his life. Just an example. People can say, that's a nice sermon, pastor.

People can have emotional excitement. People can be positive and vocal in Bible study and prayer, but they can still have a shallow heart, only a surface thing, and they might not even know it's themselves who are doing it and deceiving themselves.

There's another soil. Look at verse 18. There's not just hard soil.

There's not just superficial or temporary soil. But there's another kind of soil, and this soil rejects too.

So far, three for three, rejection. I'm not going to put all your preaching with these four categories.

You have preaching that's rejected 25%, preaching that rejected 25%, preaching rejected 25%, and preaching that is received 25%.

So 75 % against 25 for, that's not what Jesus is trying to do, but there's just a variety of preaching and a variety of responses.

Verse 18, here's the crowded or preoccupied heart. And others are the ones on whom the seed was sown among the thorns.

These are the ones who have heard the word. There it again. There it is again. They've heard. And the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word.

That word is very interesting. It's an onomatopoetic word. At least it's onomatopoetic to me. Su -m -pi -no, su -m -pi -no, su -m -pi -no.

Sort of exactly what that word is. Now you know. It's emphatic for you

Greek students, Bob Dunn. Look at how they choke. These are three chokers.

We used to play basketball, and the guy would miss a free throw, choke. Now you're not allowed to do the choke thing, you get fined. But these are chokers.

The worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things. They hear the word, and then they go, well, how am

I going to pay my bills? What about that test I'm having at the doctor the next day? What about things I like to do?

That chokes them out. There's another thing that chokes out. This is interesting. The deceitfulness of riches. Do you know there's a seduction that comes with wealth?

Wealth will seduce you into thinking about your own self -sufficiency. The best story I have on this one, thinking about it because my sister's here today,

Marcy and her niece. It's over a year and a half ago. Mom's dying. She's very sick.

There's some new drug that's coming out. And for $1 ,000 or $2 ,000 a day, you could have this pill, and you might live longer.

And mom doesn't have millions of dollars or anything. And so is it wise to take this drug and everything else?

My mom was friends with Catherine Buffett. Catherine was Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the country or maybe the world.

Catherine Buffett gave $10 ,000 to Warren to start his business out of which

Berkshire Hathaway came about. And so Catherine now receives a little bit of money from Warren every year based on that initial $10 ,000 investment.

The thing about the Buffetts, they don't give money out. They give it to charities, the libraries, personal friends, family, children.

You don't get the Buffetts money. It's for endowments and chairs and other things. So all of a sudden, we're thinking as a family, well, what are we going to do with all these issues about mom's money?

And are these people saying, oh, yeah, I know you have a little bit money left. And for $2 ,000 a day, we're going to give you some kind of false hope.

It's a good way to get money from old, dying cancer patients. How about that? And I'm thinking, what do I do? I don't want to say, well,

I want the money over my mom or... It was just very, very difficult. So all of a sudden, one day, mom calls me and says,

I got something in the mail from Wells Fargo. Her friend, Catherine Buffett, had died, and she got something in the mail.

It was a big check. Had quite a few zeros on there. And my initial response was, mom, that is so great.

We don't have to worry about the money and the pills and everything else. I mean, there were lots of zeros, more zeros than I usually see.

And my first response was good. Oh, yeah, that's so good. That's so great. And then to show you the deceitful, insidious nature of riches,

I then thought this, that old gal was so loaded, billions of dollars, and she could only give my mom that much money.

Where's the check for the millions? And on my heart, as Calvin said, is an idol factory.

And even as a Christian, deceitfulness of riches affects people. How much more does it affect people who don't have the

Holy Spirit and an informed biblical conscience? They all of a sudden get involved in money, and they hear the

Word of God, and then it's all back to money. It's a trick. It's a deceiver. Material possessions.

Think of the rich young what? Ruler. Same thing. That's why Jesus said, how hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of heaven.

People like pleasure. And if you see the third choking thing there, people might hear the message today. But there's pleasure to be had.

Luke calls it hedonon, hedonism. They like pleasure, passion.

There are three hearts that are negative, hard, shallow, crowded.

And Jesus wanted his disciples, and God wants you to know as well, that when you preach and you sow, not everyone is going to run up to you and love you and shake you and think that you're bringing to them the glad tidings of peace.

Expect, in other words, rejection. Peter received rejection. John, James, Jesus, the other

John, Ezekiel, Jeremiah. You list the proclaimers of the truth of God, even the prophet

Moses, and there is rejection. One man said, quote, this story also suggests that a sower of the

Word must be prepared for a good deal of seeming failure. Anyone planting the

Word must not be deflected by the lack of immediate success. But thankfully, wonderfully, this parable could also teach us there's another kind of response, and that's found in verse 20.

There should be a splendid optimism, as Ellison said, that some people respond.

Some people respond. They're not all hard. They're not all superficial. They're not all crowded. Some are good soils.

Verse 20, receptive and fruitful, and those are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the good soil.

They hear the Word. Look at these words. They hear, number one. Number two, they accept.

And number three, which would distinguish them as having saving faith, they bear fruit.

Supernatural fruit, fruit of the Spirit, if you will, 30, 60, and 100 -fold.

Some seed fell beside. Some seed fell onto.

Some seed fell in the midst of, and some seed fell into, by the grace of God, into the hearts of people.

Matthew and Luke give some other words besides hear, accept, and bear fruit.

Matthew says, understands. Luke says, hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

And these words, in the original language in verse 20, would go like this.

They keep on hearing the Word. They keep on accepting the Word, and they keep on bearing fruit.

Now, one person said this whole 30, 60, 100 deal, they found this out. This is what they said.

The 30 -fold deal was the mass of Christians. Sometimes when you sow, it becomes a mass of Christians.

The 60 signified gospel celibates, and the 100 signified martyrs.

Must be right, I guess. Sounds novel, so it must be good. No. If 7 .5

% is normal, and 10 % is very fruitful, and God does a work through His seed, the

Word of God actually is called the seed in 1 Peter 1, then God, when

He gives results to the preaching, it is in supernatural quantities. Sometimes the

Word of God causes division, but sometimes the Word of God is received with pleasure, with joy, with steadfast perseverance.

Do you remember when you received the gospel, when you heard it and you believed? I mean, I couldn't get over it.

I kept thinking this way. Here's how I thought. I can't believe all those things I did in the past that were dangerous, and I could have died any time, and then if I would have died without Christ, off to hell

I would have been. But, you know, you don't do things that are dangerous until after you're a

Christian, so you know where you're going. By the way, no one can kill me until my day's up, and when my day is up, nobody can stop that death.

We are indestructible till we have finished our job on earth. Isn't that good to know? It's great to know.

It's like that guy who went to the riot to infested areas of Los Angeles in the early 90s from Grace Church, and he went straight down there after that whole

Rodney King thing and just began to preach the gospel to people on the street that Jesus Christ is the

Savior of sinners. They killed him. Sad, on our side, glorious for him, certainly

God's sovereign over that. We are indestructible, and I used to think about myself, you know, why did

I scuba dive? Why did I skydive? Why did I do all those other things?

How about this? Why did I drive my death mobile down the street? That's how you're going to die is in your car.

Well, that's preacher poetic license. Percentage -wise, but just to think

God is so good, and God is so sovereign, and God is so kind, he is not going to let one of his people that he's going to save die before they're redeemed.

In theology talk, all the unregenerate elect will come to faith.

All those that God has chosen in eternity past, Ephesians 1, will come to faith, and they will all come to faith the exact same way, by having people like me and by having people like you throwing the seed of the gospel out to people.

God saves through the preaching of his word, and whether you're Charles Spurgeon or whether you're a teenager, the power is not in you.

The power is in the gospel. Here's one of my favorite sayings, and you could probably all amen it. A lot of people preach the

Bible better than I do, but nobody preaches a better Bible.

A lot of people preach the gospel better than I do, but nobody preaches a better gospel.

The gospel is the power that saves. And so when you see this formidable foe and this IQ and this person that you love and this person that you respect and think, how could

I ever tell them that? It is the power of God to save people. It's called the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus says, sometimes you preach it, they'll be hard, stiff -armed.

Sometimes they'll be happy for a little while and then fade away. Translation, keep preaching to them.

Some people will be preoccupied and crowded, and they've got to get to their games and this and that and do all these things and too busy.

But there will be some people who will receive the gospel, and they will never, ever forget the grace of God, nor will they forget you, a servant who is only doing what they were supposed to do.

Next week, we're going to ask this question. From the divine side, why did some receive and others do not?

Why do some receive and others do not? Let's pray.

Father, we would exalt your name today. We would say that if you don't save, people will not get saved.

And we know you're stronger than Satan, you're stronger than the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

You are stronger than the seatfulness of riches. You are stronger than those who are too busy and preoccupied.

Father, you are a great God who can save, and you have shown that by saving us even, that you would love us,

God, with an everlasting love, that you would love us as much as you love Christ Jesus. You have your chosen ones out there,

Lord, and help us to be faithful, to preach to everyone. And, Lord, would you do something great this week in our lives and give each of us a taste of what it's like to be an ambassador of the good news of Christ Jesus, having all their sins forgiven because of Christ's perfect, substitutionary, sinless death, confirmed by the resurrection.