Power of the Word

It's important we understand what we can know and what we can't know. And why? Jesus' teaching here on the parable of the seeds, The teaching on why his word is sometimes received and sometimes not is weighty. It's difficult. I want to think about epistemology with you because we've all been influenced by a particular philosophy, whether we know his name or his ideas or not. Immanuel Kant has influenced us all in the area of epistemology. Most of us do not know who he is or have read his works, but his teaching is really the foundation for the widespread agnosticism that we suffer in our culture.

You see, he made it very clear we can know the things of this world, the phenomena of what we would call the creator of this world, but man does not have the ability to know God and the eternal truths or the things that are moral and perfect. Interesting, he did not deny God. He actually realized that in order to have his ethics, his morality, he had to postulate a God. But he argued that by nature, we do not have access to know God. And his ideas are dangerous because he's close to the truth there. He's close to the truth. That the most dangerous ideas are those that are right for the wrong reasons.

So Immanuel Kant says you cannot know God because of who you are by design, whereas God's word says you now cannot know God because of your sin, because of what you have willed. Now we do inherit a sin nature and it mars our minds, dulls our consciences, calluses and hardens our hearts. See, Kant says by nature, by design, denying original sin, man cannot in his nature know who God is, whereas God's word says, no, you were made in the image of God. By definition, that means you were designed to know him and to make him known. By God's created blessing, The whole purpose of the design is that you see him, you hear him, you receive him, you understand him, because you're supposed to go out and make him known throughout all creation. But we sinned.

See Kant's right, but for the wrong reason. It isn't our design or nature by nature as God designed us, the reason we cannot know God, it's our internal twistedness. The dull mind and the hardened heart. This is the doctrine of sin. And children, you need to be very careful when and how you might use the word stupid, but sin is stupid and it makes you stupid. Sin is stupid because it opposes who you really are and who God is, and it will make you stupid. It will make you foolish.

But scripture says, God in his grace spoke, promising to renew us, promising that we could once again hear him, know him, see him face to face, receive his wisdom, live in his wisdom. You see, Cotton's saying we can't know God. He's right for the wrong reasons. By nature, God is restoring us. If we look at our text, we see God has been addressing this evil generation. He's made it clear over and over again. There's a unique judgment that will come upon that generation because they received the great revelation of God himself walking with them. Hearing God himself, the word who created them, speak to them, and yet they reject him and hate him and despise him. They will be held responsible for rejecting God's word.

Today's text makes it clear, Jesus makes God's word known to all those who are blessed to know him. We're gonna be holding some great tensions of God, his word, our sin, and how we know God together. This morning, the message, simple. Hear the word of God. to be restored by God, who blesses you to bear his fruit. Hear the word of God to be restored by God, who blesses you to bear his fruit. The three sections we're gonna be looking at, first Jesus gives the parable, he then gives a theology of parables, and then he actually explains the first parable according to that theology. If you're taking notes, The heading I have for that first point is that God generously spreads his word.

God generously spreads his word

God generously spreads his word. Matthew has numerous discourses. It's designed around discourses. We've had Matthew 5 to 7, the Sermon on the Mount, the teaching for the disciples. Matthew 10, sending out the disciples on the declaration that they must proclaim the gospel to the Jewish people. And now he's, Matthew's gonna put together parables for us. So this is the parable discourse. And he's speaking here for all people. It's a different setting, it's a different context. And well, who's there is important because it's everybody who's come and they've sat down and Jesus is now teaching them in parables.

The first parable that he's gonna teach, the parable of the sower, fairly well known. Let me begin in verse...

On the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Great crowds gathered around him. And he got in the boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables.

So he's focused in on just the parables, and here's our first parable, the parable saying the things in parables.

A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed.

All right, this is full stop right here. This is the control in the text. This is what's going to be consistent with everything that happens. And what's different in the text is where the seed lands. It's very important. This sower is wild and free and generous. If I'm this sower's direct report, I'm thinking, why are you wasting so much seed? Why are you throwing seed in the weeds, seed in the rocks, seed in the path? If we were to sow grass seed in the front yard and we start throwing it where there's mulch or there's rocks or there's a path, it's wasteful. But this sower, he's just throwing it everywhere because he's generous. He's full and abundant with seed. There's no lack of seed. He is generous throwing the seed everywhere.

So 90% of what makes seed grow well, if you're a gardener, 90% of your fruit is going to come from your soil. The parable of the seeds is really the parable of the soils. There's one seed that's going to go out. And the thing that makes all the difference in the world is your soils. What kind of soil, where does it land? This is true of all agriculture here. The soil is what's so significant.

Okay, so the generous sower, he's sowing seed everywhere. It's not different seeds, it's different soils. Well, he says the first soil that

some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them.

Well, the path would be where the ground's really been matted down. Sometimes they'll throw their salt in the path to make sure things don't grow there. There's rocks, it's so hard, the sea just lands on top and the birds will come take it away. It has no chance of ever penetrating at all because the path is so hardened and worn down.

All right, the second setting.

Another sea fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil,

but some soil,

and immediately they sprang up Since they had no depth of soil,

so they go down with a little bit of soil, they really spring up, but notice

when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.

So this other seed, not like the path where it doesn't go down at all, there's a little bit of growth and it springs up quickly, which means there's not enough room for the roots to really grow with depth. And the sun's gonna come and just burn it up. It doesn't have the nutrients and the roots needed for long life or to bear fruit.

For seven, another kind of soil.

The other seeds fell among the thorns and thorns grew up and choked it out.

There's not enough sunlight, there's not enough room You can't over-plant your garden. You need to be able to have room for the plants to grow and flourish. Just go look at some trees planted too close, and you'll see trees growing the wrong way out in the side. There needs to be room. And the seed, it jumps up at first, but it's choked out.

Another seed fell on good soil. And it produced grain, some hundredfold, some 60, some 30.

And here again, the seed, It finally does land and it lands in soil, not with rocks, but good soil where it can grow deep, establish roots, establish life. It grows in life and therefore as it grows in life, it produces more life, more seeds and more grain.

Jesus concludes,

he who has ears, let him hear.

The God who created you to hear him is speaking. He's telling you what this sower is like, and by doing so, we'll see he's telling you what God is like.

Key question, if you can hear, your ears are hearing something audible. You've come here today to hear something. Can you hear the word of God? A significant theology behind everything Jesus is saying. Our God speaks. And he's never stopped speaking. We've just stopped listening. Our God speaks. Are we listening to him or do we long to hear something else? We're designed to commune with God and Jesus is teaching this parable so that we might hear and grow to bear fruit.

I encouraged him this morning. Are you praying that God would speak? Are you praying that God would allow you to hear him speak? That's because if we pray to God that we would hear him, I think this is something God's gonna regularly do, God's gonna put his finger on a sin or a change for repentance. If God speaks, he's going to draw you closer to him, and by drawing you closer to him, you're going to see something to repent of so that you can be nearer to him and rejoice in him. So if you're gonna hear God, it's gonna be costly. So I ask you, do you think it's worth it? Is it worth it today to say, God, say to me what I need to hear from you. Open up my heart. my mind, my ears, because I want to know you. I want to hear you.

Let those who have ears, let them hear.

God blesses us

Our next section is going to be a theology of parables. Heading here, God blesses us to hear and understand him. Previous section, God is generous. He is throwing seed everywhere. And what happens to it depends on where it lands. And now Jesus is going to explain the purpose of the parable before explaining the parable. Heading is God blesses us to hear and understand him.

All right, the disciples have an opportunity to ask him. They say to him,

why do you speak in parables to them?

His answer is, Quite incredible. This is worthy of your meditation.

To you, disciples, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, it has not been given.

Jesus has in mind there are two different kinds of people. There are those he's making known the secrets and those whom he is not. And let's be very clear, he's speaking with words to both kinds of people here in this parable. His whole purpose of speaking in parables is that he would actually hide the things of God from those whom he wishes to hide.

There's a way in which we want to understand there's a public will of God and a private will of God. God gives us access to the public will of God. God says all must hear so that all who would believe would confess Jesus as Savior. That's the public will of God. The private will of God is who would actually hear it and believe it and profess it. We see here Jesus himself is showing he is sovereign over who would know it and who would know. He's sovereign over who would hear it, but he's even sovereign over who would know it. To some, it has not been given to know the hidden things, the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

Now, we often don't think Jesus gives parables because he's giving things in real life examples and he's clarifying it. He does do this sometimes, right? So

do not be anxious. Look at the lilies of the field.

He does look and say, look at how God has functioned forever in common grace and general revelation and he makes irrational arguments and then gives a much more specific spiritual argument. Here he actually says, I speak in this way with stories of nature and stories of agriculture actually to hide the secrets. That's challenging. I make sure we understand that that is a challenging teaching from Jesus himself. The word of God himself walking and talking to make God known in creation to renew creation He's saying he's intentionally not disclosing all the secrets and even some of the secrets to everybody.

I want us to think there's three truths here we must hold. Jesus can make God's kingdom secret known to all people. He has the ability to make God known perfectly. Second, He intentionally only makes those secrets known to a few people. That's what's clear in this text. What's clear from the previous text, those whom he has not made it known with his power, they're still responsible for rejecting Jesus. And you should feel some tension right there. Jesus is able to make it known to everyone. He doesn't make it known to everybody And those who reject him still, when God doesn't make it known, they're responsible for it. There's some good tension there that we must hold with all these texts right here in this section.

Look at verse 11. Jesus says, I have the ability to make God's kingdom known. That is a divine claim. There are secrets that are not revealed to everybody. Look at verse 12,

for to the one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken.

There's one word that summarizes verse 12 here, that's stewardship. If God gave it to you, it's meant to be used for his purpose, to be enjoyed, to be thankful for, to rejoice in, to the one who has been given much, there's an abundance, and the one who has not been given, it'll be taken away, if you're not faithful to it, There's a key understanding here. It is by God's grace alone that we could hear Jesus and receive Jesus by faith. By grace alone can we possibly ever know God and rejoice in what he has said. Make sure there's a posture here, Christian, with the stewardship. If you hear his voice, and you're given that assurance that Christ died for you, we're constantly supposed to be grateful that we get to hear God's word, rejoice in God's word, that there's a way in which the posture of stewardship is always one of gratitude and asking how can I be responsible for this word of God that I have been given to live it out and to make it known to others?

13 makes it clear,

this is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Again, all kinds of knowledge issues right here. He's speaking to them in parables, even though they might hear, they would not really understand it. Even though they are seeing me, they're not seeing him as a word of God.

14,

indeed in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says,

in Matthew we keep seeing these fulfillment passages. In their case, he's referring to the generation that's rejecting him. In their case, he's going back to what he called earlier the evil and adulterous generation who has seen him and has heard him but has rejected him and is even plotting to kill him. And then he quotes from Isaiah 6. And Isaiah 6 is a rich passage.

In the year of King Uzziah, there's a great vision given to Isaiah. One of those high points in scripture where Isaiah has a vision of the Lord on high and the angels declaring,

holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

This is one of the high points of the Old Testament where a great revelation is given that God has described threefold, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. It's such a great revelation, Isaiah himself responds,

woe is me, I am undone, a man of unclean lips,

why? What an odd response. Because when you see the holiness of God, you see your sin. And then God, by his grace, sends an angel to burn away the sin, to make atonement for that sin. And then he hears the voice of the Lord himself. Yahweh asked,

whom shall I send?

And Isaiah, having heard the declaration of God's glory, holy, holy, holy, having fully felt the being undone and recognizing how sinful he is in light of a holy God and having atonement made for his sin by this burning, he says,

here am I, send me.

Who wouldn't be eager to be sent on a mission of God to make that message known so other people, they would hear holy, holy, holy, and have their uncleansedness purified so that they would again pray? The mission God sends him on. God says, go to my people and say, and this is where our passage picks up,

you'll indeed hear but never understand. And you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their eyes they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed. Alas, they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

Well, that's a mission right there.

See, it's not a mission like Jonah was given last week. Go and proclaim the mercy of God to Nineveh. Jonah said, I don't want to go preach mercy to those horrible people. I don't want God to save them. God sent them and they repented. Well, praise God, we could go and proclaim the message of mercy where God would be renewed. That's not the mission God said he wants to send Isaiah on. Go and tell him, I've closed your heart, your mind, your ears, and your eyes. Because of your persistent wickedness, I am removing my hand of grace that would allow you to know who I am. That is a terrifying judgment. that God is making on this generation right here because it's fulfilled in them.

While they've heard Jesus himself speak, they've heard the word of God, they've seen God and know all the signs and miracles, it's fulfilled in that they will not turn because they have committed themselves to iniquity and idolatry. There's a terrifying place to be to think God could hold out his hand all day long, longing for his people to respond in repentance. The grace of God holding out his hands all day long to an obstinate and difficult people. See, grace is grace because God is free to give it. He's free to remove it. And that should terrify us. Here, there's a judgment that God is sovereign over who would hear, who could hear, who would understand and be healed.

I think about this incredible dynamic of being blessed to hear. I was reflecting on how encouraging you all were last Sunday evening on the 15th anniversary of me being here as a pastor. I have the weird kind of pride that doesn't like to hear good things about me. That's not humility, it's a weird pride. By God's grace, I heard you, my heart is full, thank you. I'm thankful to have been here for 15 years to preach the one and same gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful to open his word every week and to study it knowing that I get to make him known in this particular setting today. I'm thankful I've never feared preaching God's Word to you.

See, it's not 15 years of me being the pastor, it's 15 years of us all coming together under the Word of God. I could not say what I need to say unless you expected me to say it. 15 years has been us coming together under God's Word together. I'm thankful that this is a church that desires to hear God's Word. I have friends that preach and they have to worry about what they might say from God's word because their people might be like these people in Isaiah. So thank you. May we pray for many more years of coming together under God's word.

Blessed are your eyes

Verse 16, as we're still in the same section of God blessed, because so far there's been judgments. Verse 16, but.

Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

If your eyes see, if your ears hear, if your heart responds in faith, if your mind responds in being transformed and thinking of God as great and holy and all of his glory and by his grace, you're blessed. What a blessing it is to know God. Never to be taken for granted. What a blessing it is to have His Word and to be with other Christians who want to submit to and come under His Word, to study with others. It's the Word of God that makes us complete, renews us, restores us. Blessed are you that you have been made to see and that you have been made dear. It is only by God's blessing this happens.

God communicates differently than we do. See, I'm up here and I've really thought clearly and very intentionally about every little word I'm going to use and how I'm going to phrase it and how I'm hoping to communicate these words so that I can say it clearly to you, but you see, I only have authority over 50% of what's being communicated or how communication works. I can only control what I'm saying. I have no control over what you're hearing. I have control over what I'm saying, but I don't have control over how you receive it. Yes, I just explained 90% of marital difficulties. And church conflict. God has the authority, and in his perfect power, he says everything exactly as it needs to be said. And it's not just he's the best, perfect communicator, he even controls how we hear him. That's how much God cares about that we would know him and hear him. He is in control for how his word lands in you because he desires you to know him. He has perfect power to make sure that not only does his word go out, but that it is actually received rightfully. And this is why it's a blessing to know God, understand what he says, believe what he says, to see him and hear him. It is a grace.

He even goes one step further in verse 17.

Truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see.

And now he's referring to here, Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, the prophets, the righteous ones, They've longed to see what you're seeing. It isn't just that you get to hear over against those who cannot hear, but you're seeing something altogether unique. God is speaking as himself for himself. Isaiah foretold the death of the lamb in Isaiah 53. They know the lamb of Isaiah 53. David spoke of the cross in Psalm 22 and the glory of the Messiah in Psalm 110, and they're walking with him. Abraham longed to see the promised son that they see. Moses longed to see the land that would take away the sins of the world that they see. Ezekiel longed to see God himself coming as the king to rule his people as a good shepherd, and here he is, the good shepherd. Again, we pick up this wonderful promise, fulfillment. Not only has God revealed Himself altogether in the greater way in the New Covenant, but He makes Himself known. It's significantly better.

Friend, if you're not a believer this morning, my appeal to you is to pray that God would make Himself known. And just take up this book, Matthew. Just start reading Matthew. God, make Yourself known to me. Make yourself known to me. Ask God to show you who he is.

Christian, the first application here is be thankful. You have been blessed to hear the word of God that restores you to be thankful. Grow in gratitude for all God has said. Secondly, pray for one another that we'll know God more. Pray for the grace of God to empower the word of God as it goes forth here every Sunday and in your different Bible studies and home groups and studies and the way we go out and do evangelism. Pray that the word of God will always go out with great power to penetrate the calistar. Pray for power. Third, learn to speak the words of God to one another. We're here to learn how we actually speak of God, know God and make Him known. The goal of this teaching isn't to think, well, I gotta figure out who God has called and then I'll go tell them the gospel. No, the purpose here, because we don't know the secret rule of God, is to make Him known faithfully, leaving the work and the outcome to Him, faithfully.

What keeps you from hearing?

Our third section now is explaining that first parable. The heading, what keeps you from hearing? What keeps you from hearing?

Hear then the parable of Sower,

Jesus says.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in the heart. This is what was sown along the path.

So the seeds in the path are clearly a hard, calloused heart where the seed has no penetration, no reception. And Satan comes and snatches it away before it could ever possibly have any hope. The birds of the air are Satan, who is full of lies and destruction, and he wants to destroy any hope of anyone ever hearing the word of God.

The next ground is the seeds in the rocky ground. Verse 20.

what was sown on the rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word,

again, the generous word, sown and sown and sown,

and immediately receives it with joy,

which is why it doesn't have deep roots, it's quick roots. There is a reception of the word, it's received immediately with joy, yet because it has no real root in itself, It endures for a little while, but then that sun's scorching. That's the tribulation and the persecutions that arise in the world. And it withers. He falls away.

If you want to know more what that looks like, I think it's Hebrew sex, where somebody has truly tasted the things of God. Someone has truly experienced the goodness of the blessing of God's word and has come to some form of a faith, but it's not real faith because the roots aren't there. It hasn't been implanted truly. It hasn't been rooted in. It hasn't been sent fully with the grace of God to transform. In Hebrews, it's about people who are persecuted and flee. That faith must have a deep rootedness. to persevere through persecution and trials.

The other seed, for what was sown among thorns, verse 22. The seeds and the weeds.

This is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wretches choke the word, and it proves unfaithful.

This is one where the soil's good, but that soil's so good, everything's planted there. and it has no chance to really grow because all the other desires in that heart, all the other things that that heart delights in, all the other things that are pulling your attraction and your attention and your priority, it's going to choke out that word. It could have a chance, but you've decided you're gonna try to figure out how to love God and the world, and Jesus said you can't.

You try to figure out how can I still love the sin that I'm gonna pretend isn't really that bad and still love God and the salvation he's giving me. Very clear, Jesus says you can't. You're putting off sin and putting on Christ, or you're putting off Christ and putting on sin. Are the desires of this world keeping you so busy that you're not growing up in Christ? Are the silly promises of this world keeping you so busy, pursuing that which is fleeting, keeping you from growing up in Christ.

And then the fourth soil.

As for what was sown in the good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.

They perceive it, they receive it by faith. There's a fullness to, it's been said and it's been received fully, properly.

He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold and another 60, another 30.

The good soul, the person who hears it, receives it, believes it, and sets their life upon it.

And kind of the reverse of this is the grand picture of the wise life in Psalm 1.

Blessed is the one who's like a tree planted by the river.

Those roots grow deep. Those roots grow deep to the light of the very word of God, to trust the word of God, and it bears fruit among fruit. Here it's the soil is rich. It's soft. It's blessed by God. So that that word of God, when implanted by the Holy Spirit, when implanted properly and received properly, grows strong and it rules your heart. As we've seen in Colossians, the word of God should rule your heart. It bears fruit.

What would fruit look like?

Now what would fruit look like here? It's one case 100 fold, another 60, another 30. Well, just to kind of keep it as focused as possible, just previously Jesus said,

you know a tree by its fruits,

and he's referring to words. So let's just focus on words. If the word of God is fully received, it will produce words that reverberate, Christ onward. The word of God, when it's truly received and it transforms the heart and it renews the mind, we then start to speak all new kinds of words. When the word of Christ rules us, it changes our desires, it changes our vocabulary, it changes the things we want to talk about and enjoy.

Christian, it's a good opportunity to take inventory. What have my words done lately? Do they tear down or do they build up? Do I insist upon my own opinions or do I point to Christ and His grace? Do I wave the law around so that I can prove a point or do I declare the grace of God fully so others are restored? Two other things Jesus might ask you. Are there trials? and difficulties that are hindering your growth and rejoicing and thankfulness in Him today. Christian, are there trials like that rocky ground, are there trials that would actually hinder your growth in Christ today? Christ says,

come unto me and I'll give you rest.

Christ is the balm to help you through those trials so that you would actually receive Him properly and grow.

The other question you might ask is what kinds of things in this world are you trying to hold on to that I have said are out of bounds? What is it your ambitions are doing to you that keep you from fully delighting in me? Repent and see that the very word of God has come to restore you to joy. If he has said something's out of bounds, it is not good for you. If he has commanded something that is good, it is good for you.

Christian, our desire as a church is that the word of God would be freely and generously given. I pray over and over again, as you come to our gathered meetings on Sunday morning, Wednesday night, as we come to our smaller groups, our Sunday school is gonna be starting soon, hopefully. The whole goal is that we're always coming together under Christ and his rule. We guard against insisting everyone must look exactly like us, but we do insist everyone is coming under Christ so that we grow up into His maturity, to His glory, under His headship.

That's why we come together and hear God's Word read, to sing it together, to confess sins in repentance, to affirm forgiveness, unite in one baptism and unite in the Lord's Supper. Our goal is that we all come together under this Word, praying that God Himself would bless every word that goes forth. Oh, may the word of God abound. May we hear him and desire his word all the more. May we hunger and thirst for his righteousness so that we're truly satisfied. May we pursue the purity he has prescribed so that we may see his face. What a blessing it is to hear his word and know him.

Will you pray with me? Father, even after you warned us last week that every idle word will be in judgment, we confess we have spoken foolishly this week. We've not confessed our sins this week. We've held from you the gratitude you deserve, the thankfulness for your grace, the words of praise and glory that you deserve because of who you are. Lord, may your word heal us, restore us, transform us, so that our words would reverberate here in this church and throughout the city and the state and the world, so that Christ is glorified and made known. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.