The Kingdom of God
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jsb012
Sprache
EN
Gesamtlänge
00:58:48
Anzahl
1
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n.a.
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Automatisches Transkript:
…
I would like to read a portion from Matthew's Gospel chapter 13 verse 3
Matthew's Gospel chapter 13 verse 3 and he spake many things unto them in
parables saying behold a sower went forth to sow and when he sowed some
seeds fell by the wayside and the fowls came and devoured them up some fell upon
stony places where they had not much earth and forthwith they sprung up
because they had no deepness of earth and when the Sun was up they were
scorched and because they had no root they withered away and some fell among
thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them and other fell into good
ground and brought forth fruit some a hundredfold some sixtyfold some
thirtyfold who hath ears to hear let him hear and the disciples came and said
unto him why speakest thou unto them in parables he answered and said unto them
because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to
them it is not given for whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have
more abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that
he hath therefore speak I to them in parables because they seeing see not and
hearing they hear not neither do they understand for in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Esaias which says by hearing he shall hear and shall not understand
and seeing he shall see and shall not perceive for these this people's heart
is wax gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed
lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and
should understand with their heart and shall be converted and I should heal
them but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear for
verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see
those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which
ye hear and have not heard them here either for the parable of the son when
anyone hear us the word of the kingdom and understand of it not then come us
the wicked one and catches away at which they were sown in his heart this is he
which received seed by the wayside but he that received the seed into stony
places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet
hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or
persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended but also he
received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of
this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh
unfruitful but he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth
the word and understand of it which also bear of fruit and bringeth forth some
and hundredfold some sixty some thirty
now it's my purpose to speak a little this evening on the subject of the
kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven I give you a fair warning that for our
purposes tonight I'm going to assume that those two expressions are practically
synonymous they so often occur in exactly the same context that they must
be very closely connected with each other I'm very well aware that very many
believers in reading the passage like this will be very much disposed to say
ah the gospel it's not for me and fold up your hands and if not go to sleep
generate be quite prepared that it has nothing to say to you in particular and
to me about the end of the 16th century there was in the Cathedral at Pisa some
kind of service proceeding when doubtless by homily or missile or
breviary the Word of God was being preached but to one person in the
audience all this was nothing the young Galileo was absolutely concentrated as
many a boy has been before or since on such a thing upon the fact that the
great brass lantern hanging from the room was swinging but he was doing more
than simply watching this he was carrying out a most detailed examination
using his pulse as a clock he was timing the swings and he found to his
surprise that independent of the length of the swings the rate of swing was
always the same for that particular lamp in other words he had made one of the
great moves in science he had discovered the principle of the pendulum but what
about the homily what about the Word of God so far as he was concerned his was a
stony heart and it was all nothing to him now I'm speaking this evening from a
very profound conviction that the parable of the sower has at least as
much to say to you and me whenever we hear the Word of God as it has to say to
the unconverted sinner I can see myself so often in this stony ground upon which
the word falls and it never enters and Satan is busy taking away the word and
then the other parts of the parable I can even more strongly see myself and
see a warning and see light shining on so many things that perplex us as the
saints of God and will cast divine light upon them and will be for our help. Now
I'd like to begin by asking you to consider the episode that we have you
don't need to turn to it just leave your Bibles where they are in the 12th
chapter of the Gospel of Luke when we're told that a certain man of the company
said to the Lord Jesus master speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance
with me. Now this is a very contemporary question it's hardly possible to think
of a more contemporary question than this in some form or other it dominates
today the lives of nations there is so much wealth so much cake and to maximize
that is an industrial and commercial problem but then it has to be divided
amongst the people and to do this is a political and social problem but that
problem is exactly the problem we have here everybody says and it lies behind
every strike in every land every man says I want a bigger share for myself
now that very problem which confronts the world today was put to the Lord
Jesus Christ by this man master speak to my brother then I get a better share and
I charge you to notice the Lord Jesus Christ implies the answer to the
question man I am NOT here to settle such problems not yet we have to put in
the words not yet because we know that the time has come when the government
will be upon his shoulder and the nation shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks and every man will sit under his own vine
tree and these problems will be solved but the Lord Jesus Christ is saying to
this man I'm not here to solve these problems not yet and he gives to the
crowds the lesson that of the man who pulled down his barns and built greater
he said to them drawing the lesson a man's life consenteth not consisteth
not in the abundance of the things that he possesses but he then had a lesson
for the disciples having said that he then said he said under disciples
therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life in other words the
disciples had needs of a material kind for this life and the Lord Jesus says I
want you to be absolutely without anxiety about those things these form a
projects that the nations of the world seek after these form all the disputes
that we know around us today the Lord said I want you to be absolutely at
peace and delivered completely from anxiety about these things why because
your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things but in the end
he brings the conclusion to the disciples when he says to them seek ye
first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you verse 31
rather seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you
and in the Gospel of Matthew the words occur in this form seek ye first the
kingdom of God now no one can possibly dispute with me that those words present
in a very striking form the disciples priority seek ye first the kingdom of
God and all these things will be added unto you I want you to let me read you a
few extracts as I go on from words that I've written myself some time ago but
I'm anxious to preserve the words and on this particular subject in this context
to seek something is to toil and so for it and the all-embracive object of the
Christians toil is the kingdom of God in all the terms in which the Christians
priorities are stated perhaps this is the most important fundamental and
abrasive seek ye first the kingdom of God the kingdom of God is the Christians
first priority into this enterprise he is to pour the first of his prayers the
finest of his energies and the best of his time it is indeed worthwhile to
inquire what is this kingdom which looms so large in terms of practical life and
is to this question that I'd now like to turn it is obviously necessary for us to
understand what is the kingdom of God when we're told so carefully that we
should seek it now the kingdom of God is not something which passes away in its
importance with the Gospels we hardly to be told that the kingdom of God is a
principal subject some might say the principal subject of the Gospels if we
were to take the Gospel of Matthew then there are three long discourses beginning
with chapter 5 to chapter 7 we have that long discourse in which the Lord Jesus
Christ lays down the laws and the principles of his kingdom in the
discourse of which we read part in chapter 13 he is giving the history of
that kingdom from his first coming to his second coming during all that period
he gives for the very first time the account of how his kingdom would develop
and then in the last discourse in chapters 24 and 25 we have the story of
his kingdom relative to the future and his second coming and how it will affect
the Jew and the Gentile and the Church of God but when we pursue the story
beyond this we find that the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection in
speaking to the disciples 40 days it says he spoke to them 40 days of the
things concerning the kingdom of God we read of the Apostle Paul when he was
carrying out his great work at Ephesus we're told that he had four subjects of
discourse now first of all the subject of repentance towards God and faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ there was secondly the gospel of the grace of God but
thirdly there was the kingdom of God he went amongst them preaching the kingdom
of God and a little later he had not hesitated to declare onto them the whole
counsel of God so in that great work in Ephesus one of the four principal themes
that occupied him was the kingdom of God when the Apostle Paul gathered the Jews
around him as we read in the last chapter it says he stayed there for two
whole years speaking to them of the things concerning the kingdom of God now
I hardly need to tell you that there are scattered through the epistles
several very searching and important little passages about the kingdom of God
one kind of passage tells us what is the kingdom of God such as the one in
Romans 14 the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost some passages tell us that if we behave ourselves badly we
shall not inherit the kingdom of God and some passages tell us what are those
kinds of activity which forward and set on the kingdom of God now it's my
conviction that generally speaking in our thought and in our reading and in
our ministry the kingdom of God does not appear to have the place it has in
scripture we don't seem quite to give it the place in our thoughts and in our
teaching that it has in scripture and it's in order to say something along
this line that I've read this passage about the parable of the sower now in
asking the question what is the kingdom of God I would like to read a few other
passages I'll simply read them there are two of them once again in the gospel
of Luke because one immediately finds in speaking about the kingdom of God that
there are several misapprehensions one of the popular ideas about the kingdom
of God is that there has always been a kingdom of God from the beginning it's
always been in existence through Holy Scripture it isn't very long since there
was a book published called the kingdom of God and it was a compendium of the
whole of Bible truth and that's a very general idea that God has always been a
king therefore the kingdom of God must always have been in existence now we can
see that this is absolutely excluded as a possibility by certain patches of
scripture as deal with this matter the first is in Luke chapter 7 and the Lord
Jesus Christ said regarding John the Baptist among those that are born of
women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist but he that is
least in the kingdom of God is greater than he now there's an absolutely
categorical statement that no person before John the Baptist was in the
kingdom of God you know it's not possible to understand it in any other
way the kingdom of God had no existence except in promise prior to New
Testament times and in a later passage we read a similar statement relative to
John chapter 16 verse 16 the law and the prophets were until John since that time
the kingdom of God is preached and every man presses into it in other words
the law and the prophets up to John the Baptist and there was not a kingdom of
God until John the Baptist came now to begin a positive answer to the question
as to what is the kingdom of God I'm going to read a very important verse in
the beginning of Mark I'm turning over rather rapidly you don't need to turn
because I'll read these short passages to you in Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and
15 we'll read at the beginning of the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ now
after that John was put in prison Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel
of the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at
hand repent ye and believe the gospel now there are three very important things
about that statement of the evangelist the first thing is that the kingdom of
God is a gospel the kingdom of God is a gospel and I'm going to show to you from
the scriptures that the prime meaning of the kingdom of God is the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ is going to reign the prime meaning of the kingdom of God is
the Millennium well what better news could there be for this sin sick world
this weary sad world turned into a graveyard what news could there be to
compare with this news that the time is going to come when the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to rule when the Son of Righteousness he will rise with healing
in his wings and the desert will blossom as a rose and every crooked will
be put straight and every rough place smooth aren't those lovely words the
crooked straight if there's one thing that society howls out for today is that
just somebody wants to put the crooked straight the crooked will never be put
straight until Jesus comes then the crooked will be put straight and the
rough places will be made smooth is it not wonderful news if rightly understood
that there is going to be a kingdom of God the second point about the statement
of the evangelist here is that the time is fulfilled now that clearly implies
that time was to have begun at some previous period and at the time the Lord
Jesus Christ began to preach that time was expired and since the time was
fulfilled it says the kingdom of God is near you the kingdom of God is at hand
the kingdom of God is here now where would we find the start in the Old
Testament scriptures where would we find the start of this period which was to be
fulfilled well I think I would like you to hear me read from Daniel chapter 2
and I'll be making a few references but I'm really concentrating on verse 44
this is the very familiar story of Daniel's image and if I were to read it
through to you you might very well conclude it's the story of the kingdoms
there's the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors there's the kingdom
of silver there's the kingdom of brass there's the kingdom of iron but
succeeding them is the kingdom set up by a stone cut out without hands falling
upon the image and destroying it and spreading to fill the earth and this is
what the the Prophet says about this in verse 44 in the days of those kings that
is when the stone falls upon the image in the days of these kings shall the God
of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall
not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms and it shall stand forever now I would like to ask you to remember this
great fact in Daniel chapter 2 verse 44 you have the root in Holy Scripture of
both these expressions the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven in the
days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall
never be destroyed that then is the kingdom of God it's going to succeed and
displace all these other kingdoms and just as those kingdoms mean a ruler with
a hierarchy of authorities under him and his law spreading over it so the coming
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will be a kingdom here upon this earth and the
time when he rules will become and all the glowing promises of the Old
Testament will be fulfilled now when the Lord Jesus Christ was here
immediately subsequent to the time that I'm here speaking about he immediately
begins to talk about another form of the kingdom and the differences between the
two are very striking in the first place while the kingdom that I've been
speaking about the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ had been promised
in the plainest possible terms so that nobody could possibly misunderstand it
so long ago he begins to speak about a secret form a mystery form of the
kingdom when he was here and in our chapter the 13th chapter of Matthew it
is there very specially that he speaks like this in the 11th chapter of Matthew
he says the Lord Jesus answered their question and said because it is given
unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it is not
given in other words before the time came when that kingdom would be
established there would be another form of the kingdom but this time it would be
in a mystery now a great deal might be said about the meaning of the word
mystery but it means that it has not been known previously until it was
revealed by the Apostles the Lord Jesus Christ being the great Apostle it was
revealed in the New Testament times now if we compare the picture of that
kingdom that we have here in this chapter with what we know to be the
Bible kingdom of the picture of the Millennium we'll see what a very
striking difference there is between the two in the kingdom the Millennium we're
told that when God's judgment falls upon the earth and in particular upon the
final form of the Roman Empire that kingdom will come like lightning and
like a flash of lightning with the brightness of his coming he will
destroy the enemies of God and he will establish his kingdom now this form of
the kingdom instead of being established by a lightning stroke of power and
destruction from heaven it's good it was going to be started by the peaceful
going out of the sewer to so what a striking contrast between these two
forms of the kingdom one in the future and one which was beginning when the
Lord Jesus Christ uttered these words one of the very very striking
differences and I must content myself for the moment with these two one of the
very striking differences is that we read about the Millennial Kingdom of the
Jesus Christ the kingdom for a thousand years that during that period Satan will
be banned now there are some Christians who are so benighted as to believe that
there's not going to be an earthly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ how they cope
with that particular statement I'll never know during that earthly reign of
the Lord Jesus Satan will be banned and we'll be deceiving the nation's no more
I remember reading a comment by someone about this and he said if they can
persuade themselves that Satan over all these years has been banned and not
deceiving the nation's they can do so but it mean it cannot be persuaded it
cannot it cannot persuade me it is perfectly obvious that Satan has not
been bound over all these times but when we come to this particular form of the
kingdom one of the great things that I'm wanting to impress upon you this
evening is that we have a great deal about the activity of Satan opposing the
spread of that kingdom by the preaching of the Word of God the kingdom is spread
by the preaching of the Word of God and every example given you have got the
activity of Satan insidiously opposing the word and it's to take account of
that particular thing that we have to take account of the things that are said
in this chapter and apply them to ourselves now between the discourse in
the sermon on the mount so-called and the discourse that we have here in
chapter 13 we have several references to the to the Lord Jesus Christ as the
person who would come and set up his kingdom in God's good time in other
words the person was pointed out very plainly in the references to the kingdom
of God between chapter 8 and chapter 13 they bear witness to the state of
affairs which made this the opportune moment for the new revelation of the
mystery form of the kingdom the picture presented is of the national leaders
with eyes wide open withholding acceptance of the kingdom being preached
and recognition of and submission to the person in whom that kingdom had come
near in superlative degree the Lord Jesus had shown himself to possess every
quality required to fit him for the throne see his compassion in chapter 9
verse 36 when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them
because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd being
moved with compassion would his wisdom be equal to guiding the people are right
behold in the sermon on the mount the laws forming a kingdom which would
indeed be the desire of all nations the guidelines for a society promoting man's
highest good given the compassion and the wisdom would he wield the power to
deliver men from the evil one those who are most familiar with this story are as
much as any in danger of overlooking this stupendous marvel of his instant
mastery over all the foes of mankind from those which have by the development
of the highest human powers being with difficulty kept in check at medical
advance I mean to those which have without a single exception defeated the
efforts of the greatest in the portion of the story contained within the limits
of only these two chapters Matthew 9 and 10 disease demons tempest and even
death itself are under his control where he rules these foes will not any longer
remain to bring suffering and sorrow gather together the wisdom of all the
philosophers and the knowledge of all science and the might of every conqueror
I will be found that a start has scarcely been made to master these four
tormentors of men Jesus was master of all and yet he was despised and rejected
of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hear as it were our
faces from him he was despised and we esteemed him not in the wisdom and
knowledge of God the full proof of man's evil as well as the full power of God's
love required such a climax as the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus and
so there was necessary a form of the kingdom suitable to a king refused and
therefore absent in heaven it's a very wonderful thing to take account of the
fact that in these chapters which deal with the kingdom we have such glowing
description of the person of the king and yet he was despised and rejected and
therefore we have this form of the kingdom which is initiated by the
parable of the sower now I would like to make a kind of autobiographical note
here because there was a time of course when I was convinced as convinced as
everybody that this parable was a parable that dealt with the unconverted
it was the preaching of the word and it does of course say in one of the Gospels
that the result of the world in certain cases would they would believe and be
saved but I was first of all stopped in my tracks by the realization of the
simple fact of how true it is that I could be under the sound of the Word of
God and not listening to it and if I was in the situation of being under the
sound of the Word of God and not listening to it then the enemy is busy
to snatch away that word and that particular portion of the precious seed
of the Word of God is rendered without effect and therefore I need the warning
which sums up the application by the Lord Jesus Christ of this parable to the
disciples when he said take heed how you hear what is even more striking to me
and what I hope you also will find striking is the fact that one finds so
very often that a person perhaps a young person will be truly converted and they
will appear for a time to be going on well and then perhaps tribulation or
persecution or some of these other things that are spoken of here and I'll
speak a little more of them in detail that is the cares and the riches and the
pleasures of this life come along and the word is choked now that as an
explanation this parable because I then noticed that in this parable we find
that there are sometimes cases when the seed springs up and has life and yet in
the end it comes to nothing and that proves to me that the prime purpose of
this parable is not whether a person has life from God but whether the fruit
appears which is the fruit of the kingdom what is the fruit that this kind
of parable envisages it envisages the spread and the deepening establishment
of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in my life that I obey him first
of all that he is my master in all things that is the fruit and when we see
a believer turned aside from that exactly what is happening we have here I
have in mind a situation it's far enough from any of you here that you couldn't
possibly recognize the case but it's very frequently repeated a young man
who gave gave every every sign of being the Lord's and there is no doubt indeed
that he is the Lord's every sign of being the Lord's every desire to seek
first the kingdom of God every desire to fling everything into this gigantic
enterprise of the kingdom of God warned us all warned himself against the
dangers of business taking hold of a man's heart and the pleasures of the
world and the time comes when he himself has succumbed to the insidious action of
these things concerning which the Word of God says that they choke the word and
this parable it is that gives us the reason for this happening and since it
gives us a reason it enables us to pray with intelligence about it and above all
it gives us to realize the tremendous importance of the ministry of the word
as well as the preaching of the gospel every time the Word of God is ministered
the parable the sword is reenacted and you and I are the subjects of it we can
have our hearts trodden by the things of this world we can be so shallow the
tribulation destroys the fruit or we can be clutched at the heart by the
things that belong to the world and it can all be brought to nothing so far as
the manifestation of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives is
concerned now in the parable of the sower it's obvious that the paramount
lesson is brought to us as the fact that the appointed instrument and the
only appointed instrument whereby the kingdom of God is begun and spread is
the Word of God and in our days when people so easily turn to other things
than the Word of God to spread the kingdom of God it is tremendously
important that we should learn this lesson the seed that the Lord Jesus went
out to sow the seed is the Word of God it's uniquely the Word of God it's
singly the Word of God and the Word of God has it within its power to bring
about the result of establishing and deepening the authority of the Lord
Jesus Christ in your life and mine that is the deepening and the spread of his
kingdom the seed is called sometimes the word sometimes the Word of God and
sometimes the Word of the kingdom as it is here in this passage the sower is not
stated to be the Lord Jesus Christ but we can therefore understand that it was
first of all himself as indeed it was him in the parable of the tears but
probably takes in all those throughout the whole period of this mystery form of
the kingdom when Jesus is in heaven and the kingdom is not established by power
but established by the Word of God being spread abroad the sower is probably the
Lord Jesus Christ and all others now the ground is clearly interpreted for us the
ground or the soil is the heart of the hearers and that's a very important
thing because we can find that it is the state of the soil which enables the
enemy and the world to get their victories and the fruit I'm suggesting
to you more seriously the fruit is the establishment in our hearts and lives
and the deepening of our response to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ now I
want to read another extract at this point about this question of the fruit
the practical consequences of this distinction that I'm making relative to
the what the fruit what is the fruit are very great if we read the parable with
the assumption that a successful result seems primarily a soul saved
from death and judgment then once our own calling an election are sure we can
so to speak with a little exaggeration fold our arms at this point and think
only of the salvation of others the truth is that we only rightly read this
parable when we are alive to the fact that the enemies named are active to
sap away our acceptance of the authority of Christ today and tomorrow and every
time we hear the Word of God it is not less true in the subjective sense that
the fruit is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost every Christian reader
every Christian hero therefore should read the parable with watchfulness on
two fronts on the one hand he should be careful to learn about the use of the
word as the instrument for spreading the kingdom on the other hand we should take
how we hear since we are also the subject of that kingdom the spread of
the kingdom relative to myself is the deepening establishment of the authority
of Christ in my life this means that I obey him more simply and fully in an
ideal situation when a child obeys its parents such obedience is the child's
link with the parents mature experience and knowledge and the plans which flow
from these when the disciple obeys Christ in the details of life then
disobedience links the disciples actions with all the breadth and length and
depth and height of all is in the heart of God and to which he is working surely
that is the reason for the prominence given to the kingdom of God from the
beginning to the end of the New Testament
one of the things that we perhaps ought to say about the prominence of the
subject of the kingdom of God in the New Testament is are we to regard this as for
example when the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection was speaking to them
about the gift of the Spirit that was to come and about their witness to him and
about his second coming are we to regard this kingdom of God as a subject
separate from these in the department by itself well I feel sure we would be
wrong in thinking of this but the truth of God in New Testament days relative to
our responsibility is the kingdom of God the truth of God relative to the purpose
and counsel of God is that other thing that Paul preached and that is the whole
counsel of God it's the same truth but on the side of our responsibility it's
the kingdom of God on the side of God's purpose it is God's whole plan and
counsel and includes Christ and the church in the mystery and the working
out of these things and our place in the Father's house in eternity so that it's
all the same truth from one side it's the truth of our responsibility on the
other side it's the truth relative to the counsel of God now the great thing
that we have to realize in all these accounts here is that the idea of
conflict predominates I wonder if every young person and every older person for
that matter who comes to the ministry of the word comes intent upon listening to
the word intent upon realizing that we are about to be subjected to the the
determinate settled means whereby God's will is accomplished in us God
sends forth his word and it is to accomplish that where unto he sends its
forth how tremendously important this makes our attitude when we are present
at the ministry of the word I'm quite sure that many a young person needs
instruction in the fact that it's not a matter of being entertained by the word
of God it's not a matter of only being interesting it's up to us of course if
we possibly can to be interesting but the word of God is the appointed means
whereby the will of God is accomplished in our lives therefore the great lesson
is take heed how we hear if we are dead to it if we are fast asleep in the face
of the ministry of the word be assured of this that the devil is active and
that's one of the great lessons of this passage that wherever the word of God is
being ministered and preached as it is today the devil is active and the world
and the flesh are active and we need to be warned all the time that we
deliberately open our hearts to the wonderful influence of the grace of God
expressed in his word now this is clearly linked with the state of the
soil in the first case that we read and it was this I illustrated by the story
of Galileo then the trodden heart see the trodden heart is obviously a heart
which is so hardened by constant and sole preoccupation with the things of
this life which may in themselves be all right that that heart cannot be entered
by the word of God probably such a person has his mind on other things
altogether and the word that the word of God is not left there by Satan we're
told that the birds of the air come and take it away in the second case we read
that there is shallow ground and when the Sun comes up then because it is
shallow ground then the plant is destroyed we read that this is a figure
of the effect perhaps long after conversion of the trials and tribulations
and perhaps persecution they they kill they destroy altogether the word and
then in the third case there are plants that are native to the soil and they
would certainly come up and destroy the word and in that case we're told very
clearly what they are now so far as the effect of tribulation is concerned it's
a very striking thing that trials and tribulations we understand clearly are
all part of our father's training for us it's only when we are dead you see to
what the Word of God tells us about that subject it's only when we're asleep to
the fact that the father is training his children and by this chastening which is
never for the present joyous but grievous he's wanting to make us
partakers of his holiness and keep us and bring us near to himself but if our
hearts are dead to this then when tribulation comes and dries up and
chokes the word altogether it is when we come to the effect of the thorns which
more than ever removes us in time from the first impact of the word the thorns
are those things that are native to the soil and they come and destroy I had a
most amusing experience some years ago when two things happen simultaneously in
my life one was I became a grandfather and at the same time going into a new
house I began to make a new garden and the notable fact that was somehow rather
known to all my friends in the area was that when I planted grass I got a most
marvelous crop of shallot about a foot high almost before I could turn around
well about that time I was giving the prizes in the local Sunday school where
everybody knew all about me and I was reading out the titles of the books as I
gave them to the children this seemed to go right for a time and then finally it
happened and I looked at this title and I said to myself well I've started with
it and I have to go on with it and you can imagine the uproar when I read the
title grandfather green fingers well those shallot seeds have been hidden in
the ground and they were native to the ground a long time and it's rather like
this that there are in this case the thorns that choke the seed now I would
rather like to read an extract about this in case three some seed fell among
thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them he also received seed among
the thorns as he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the
deceitful as of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful and in mark
the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts
of other things entering in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful and very
similar in the gospel of Luke the new group of enemies now introduced are even
more evidently long-term and insidious in their action in other contexts these
three might never be joined together but here they stand unmasked as the falls
which after the words have been heard and the hearer has gone forth choke it
they are likened to assailants who silently take hold secure the hold
against the victim's struggle and slowly but surely bring resistance to an end in
death they choke the word and we have to consider in the three gospels which give
us the the meaning of the thorns we have to consider that they are the cares
or the riches or the pleasures of this life I wonder if it could be that we
have amongst us someone more than one perhaps who once was devoted to this
call of the Lord Jesus seek he first the kingdom of God but it's feeling the
first deadening grip of the illumined of putting business first the riches the
deceitfulness of riches or the pleasures of the world very very serious situation
we are warned that the enemies of the word long afterwards perhaps it may be
that a young person has heard the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ over the tumult
of this life's wild restless sea saying follow me but when middle life comes
when business begins to prosper it's quite right the business should prosper
it's quite right that we should devote it diligently to our business but it is
not priority number one priority number one is the gigantic enterprise of the
kingdom of God which via obedience to the Lord brings in all the wonders of
his grace and his counsels of blessing for us and all others who believe in him
but if we do not give it that priority and we shall find that we shall
insidiously be strangled and our witness destroyed and our obedience and
to the Lord Jesus Christ is gone you see why I'm so deeply impressed about the
idea that we should apply these lessons to ourselves now care that is in our
modern language anxiety I will not say any more about that and the fact that if
we are anxious and of course I'm just the same as anybody else here but I'm
keep saying to myself and we ought to keep saying to ourselves if I am
corroded by anxiety I'm flatly disobeying the Word of God which says
don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving that your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God
which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds that's the
where we can pray against being choked by anxiety I know in these days how many
brothers and sisters are in danger of being choked by anxiety the second thing
that we have before us is riches I'll read here riches are not in themselves
marked as evil or inconsistent with fruitfulness write back to Joseph of
Arimathea a rich man but also good and just and one that waited for the kingdom
of God there has followed a noble succession of the few men of wealth who
yet sought first the kingdom the warnings are against the love of money
and the deceitfulness of riches in this place it is surely the false appearance
that riches so often present that bears the emphasis the will to be rich does
not reside in all indolence is in many cases stronger but the urge to love
treasure for oneself where it exists is responsible for so many resounding
casualties in the things of God because it is so specious and plausible in many
things we all fail but we must not fail for lack of a clear statement that the
will to be rich is to be utterly excluded as a motive or aim so far as
the disciple is concerned the second great thing that chokes the word in you
and me potentially is riches and the deceitfulness of riches laying hold of
us there are very many warnings in scripture against the deceitfulness of
riches and then the last thing of the things that choke the word is pleasure
pleasure has always assumed an immense importance in human life not only
because and at the level that the natural man always seeks pleasure and if
that this level we are alive in one of the distinctly pleasure-loving societies
but because from the very earliest times there have been serious thinkers who
have been hedonists that is they are equated the good with pleasure
hmm there are many things which will rightly give him pleasure but pleasures
pursued for their own sake are amongst the enemy's hands choking the good seed
many scriptures for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish disobedient
deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy
hateful and hating one another and then in James whence come wars and
fightings among you come they not hence even of your pleasures at war in your
members and so on again and again there is the warning against pleasure no
reader of the English Bible could forget two related passages by faith Moses when
he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God and to enjoy the
pleasure of sin for a season the second is the Messiah's resurrection cry of
Psalm 1611 showing where true pleasure lies thou will show me the path of life
in thy presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore and so we come to the case of the good seed the good the seed is
always good I mean the good soil and I can only presume that the good soil is
the soul which is not trodden down the soil which is not shallow but deep
representing depths of exercise in the things of God and the the soil where
there is adequate care taken about those ugly weeds that are native to the
soil I close by reading another extract the parable of the sower is an
immeasurable importance to the lives of those who are seeking first the kingdom
as a kind of extension of the parable itself rather than its interpretation
Spurgeon said you may omit Oh recording angel the fact that a warrior went
forth to fight it is far more important that you should record that a sower went
forth to sow you may even forget that a man of science went into his laboratory
and made a discovery for no discovery can equal in importance the usual
processes of husbandry do you hear the song of the harvest home do you see the
loaded wagons pulling one another to the farmer's barn if so remember that
there will be no harvest home if the sower went not forth to sow as the flare
is falling upon the wheat or the threshing machine is making the grain to
leap from on the chaff and the bread set upon the table and parents and children
are enjoying the fruit do not forget that all this could never happen unless
a sower and forth to sow on this action and the very life of man bread which is
the stuff of life would be broken and taken from him and his life could not
continue did not a sower still go forth to sow when the time was fulfilled and
God turned to do a new thing in the world and said about the introduction of
the long-promised kingdom the action taken was that the Son of Man went forth
to sow the word and the first great character stamped upon that kingdom in
the form it takes between the comings is that the appointed instrument of its
beginning and its progress is the preaching of the Word of God we seek to
seek that kingdom is to hear and use that word or write every time the Word
of God is read preached or heard the parable of the sower is being reenacted
in microcosm the same evil one is at work the same bill for influences are
found but the Word of God received and understood is powerful to form the
kingdom to bring every thought into subjection to Christ it is at first
sight a strange and unexpected thing that the word should be less than
universally successful but it is true to experience and not more strange than the
existence of evil in the world thanks be to God it is also true to experience
that the word is extending its triumphs throughout the world and for the
purposes introductory to the New Testament epistles it is plain that the
reason is that the whole power of the grace of God and the operation of his
spirit are included in the concept of the word at work in the hearts of men …