Why the Word of God “Fails”

Transcript

GRM 856
06/01/2003
Why the Word of God “Fails”
Matthew 13:1-43
Gil Rugh

I was reading a brochure this morning that I received a week or so ago inviting me to be part of a conference that was being conducted across the country involving pastors, church leaders and so on in about 60 different locations. Estimating about 25,000 people to be involved. The focus was on how you can be a great leader of a great church and if you’re going to do the work that God has called you to do you have to be a great leader. We’ve developed the concept and idea in the church of Jesus Christ today that success is measured by what you accomplish in growth and numbers. A great church is a big church, a great church is a church that attracts many people. Sometimes God’s work is such that many people are drawn to a church, but we need to be careful we don’t lose our perspective in what is a Biblical understanding of the church and our ministry as God’s people.

I want to talk about why the Word of God “Fails,” why the Word of God does not work. This is a paradox in some ways that seems strange. The scriptures tell us that the Word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces down into the innermost parts of our being. It even discerns between our thoughts and our intentions. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 1 verse 16 and said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. James wrote in the first chapter of his letter and the 21st verse “that we are to receive the implanted word which is able to save our souls.” Peter wrote in his first letter in chapter 1 verse 23 “That we are born again through imperishable seed, the living and abiding Word of God.” Yet if we’re honest we’ve all had those thoughts where we wonder why we’re not successful. We share the gospel with family and friends, and nothing happens. We preach the Word in our churches, and we don’t seem to grow. For many churches it seems they remain small and struggling, and it just doesn’t seem to work. The danger in this is we come up with an alternative plan, we begin to think the way the world says we must think. Let’s start out with the right goals. How large do you want your church to be? Oh 3,000. How many Bible studies do you want in a church of 3,000? Oh, you want 300. Okay, and on we go. Well let’s back up. What do we have to do to get to that goal? We back up, we back up. We’ve developed the world’s approach to building a business, which is not God’s plan for growing churches. We need to be careful that the seeming failure of God’s Word, which is the most powerful entity entrusted to us, the Word of God which is powerful for salvation. The only way for a person to be cleansed and forgiven their sins, to escape an eternal hell and be brought on course to an eternal heaven is by hearing and believing the Word of God. But we share it, and we see little or no results. What is wrong? Well, the Bible addresses it very clearly.

I want to take you to the gospel of Matthew and begin with the 10th chapter, Matthew chapter 10. If you’ve studied the gospels very much, you’re aware that the bulk of the gospels is given over to the end of Christ’s earthy ministry. For example, the gospel of John had over 20 chapters, but the public ministry of Jesus Christ is over with chapter 12. So really you take the 3 years of His ministry, and you deal with them through chapter 12. You take the last night of His ministry and that begins in chapter 13 and the rest of John is about the events around the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. In Matthew’s gospel, 28 chapters. By the time you get to chapter 10 there is a change in the ministry of Jesus Christ. He’s going to talk in chapter 10 about the suffering, persecution and rejection that His followers are going to experience. He summons His 12 disciples and sends them out in the beginning of chapter 10. But He tells them in verse 16, “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Verse 17, “beware of men, they’ll hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues. You will even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” Verse 21, “brother will betray brother to death, father his child. Children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.” Verse 24, “a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he becomes like his teacher, a slave like his master. If they had called the head of the house Beelzebul how much more will they malign the members of his household.” Verse 28, “do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul. Rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.”

He sends out His disciples, but it’s not to glorious victory. It’s not to go and proclaim a kingdom that will be joyously received, and the message welcomed. You go out and preach this message and they’ll hate you for it, they’ll do all they can to destroy you. It’s going to tear families apart and the hatred will run so deep that parents will be glad to see their children die. Children will be glad to be rid of their parents; and we’re only in chapter 10 of Matthew. The ministry of the Son of God, humanly speaking, has been a disastrous failure. How would you like to get on board for this kind of ministry? Come be a winner, go to jail, be hated, be killed.

Come to chapter 11. John the Baptist was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. Jesus’ testimony of John the Baptist was there has never been anyone born into the human race like John the Baptist, the greatest of Old Testament prophets. He was a man who was indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God from the time he was in his mother’s womb. He was entrusted with the greatest ministry ever entrusted to a man to that point, to go and prepare the way for the coming of the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel. And you know what? Humanly speaking, his ministry was a disastrous failure. You know where John is when you get to chapter 11 of Matthew? He’s in prison. He doesn’t know what’s gone wrong. He even sends some messengers to ask Jesus Christ, was I mistaken? Are you really the Messiah of Israel? Look at verse 3 of chapter 11, the question John wants answered, “Are you the expected one, the coming one, the prophesied Messiah, or shall we look for someone else?” What a state of affairs. Jesus has a three-year earthly ministry and things have gone to the bottom very quickly.

In verse 11 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” Verse 20, “Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done because they didn’t repent.” Verse 22, “It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than you.” Verse 24, “It will be tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

You come to chapter 12, look at verse 14. How has Christ impacted the religious leaders of Israel? “But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him how they might destroy Him.” Verse 31, you have the “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin.” Verse 38, Jesus condemns the religious leaders of His day and the people of His day. Verse 39, “an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign.” Can you imagine Jesus doing a conference on building a ministry, a conference on how to be a great leader, how to attract and organize many followers? The ragtag band He has He sends out and says it is going to go from bad to worse. Even the greatest of the prophets, he’s identified with Me and he’s going to end up with his head on a platter. You know what we’d do today, we’d say well look there is nothing wrong with his character obviously; and the message comes from God, we can’t change it. But there is obviously something wrong with the method. We want to be respectful, but both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ went about their ministries in the wrong way. They drove people away; they didn’t draw them. They tore families and friendships apart; they didn’t build them. Yet we know Jesus Christ’s ministry was not a failure. What happened?

You come into chapter 13 and Jesus explains why the Word of God failed, humanly speaking, in the lives of those to whom He preached, why it didn’t work. The events of chapter 13 and the ministry of chapter 13 take place on the same day as the events of chapter 12. Chapter 12 is the momentous chapter in the gospel of Matthew, that’s the turning point. In Matthew chapter 12 Jesus Christ is presented and rejected as prophet, as priest and as king. He is rejected as prophet, as priest, as king.

On that same day, chapter 13 verse 1, Jesus comes out of the house, He goes down to the sea. What they do, gets in a small boat, pushes off from shore because you have a great crowd. So that He can be heard better He pushes off from the edge of the shore there a little bit. The water will serve to help reflect His voice out. The multitudes can gather on the slope coming down to the sea and He begins to teach them in parables. A parable is simply taking a human story, human events, and drawing a comparison to spiritual truth. Para means beside or alongside of, ble is to cast or to place. You cast something beside something, you put it beside something. You take these human realities and put them beside the spiritual truth. Two reasons: one to confuse those who don’t believe, and secondly to clarify things to those who do. Jesus is talking about mysteries of the kingdom of heaven in verse 11. He says to His disciples, “to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” The kingdom of heaven refers to the kingdom that was promised in the Old Testament to the nation Israel. Here is new information to be given. What basically takes place in the parables in Matthew chapter 13 is Jesus will make clear, the kingdom is not going to come first in a great display of power, but it’s going to have a small beginning. The Messiah came, the Word of God was presented, not much happened. But the end result will be a great kingdom. Matthew 13 makes clear that there’s going to be time before the kingdom is established.

He tells a series of parables here. They relate to the Jews and the situation of Jesus’ day. They relate to our day; they convey truth right down until the end of the age. We know that because in a couple of the parables Jesus tells us that. In Matthew chapter 13 verse 40, Jesus says this is the way it will be at the end of the age. Verse 41, “The Son of Man will send forth His angels” and they’ll do a separation, “the wicked will be separated and cast into hell, the righteous will go into the kingdom.” Same thing happens down in verse 49, “So it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come and take forth the wicked out from among the righteous. Throw the wicked into the furnace of fire and the righteous go into the kingdom.” You see we’re carried to a yet future event associated with the second coming of Christ to the earth. These parables begin with the ministry of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 37, “the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” These parables talk about events that take place from the first coming of Christ and down to the second coming, and they tell us the kingdom is prepared through the ministry of truth. It will come then into its full bloom when it is established at the second coming of Christ.

He begins with the parable of the Sower. His disciples are still in confusion. They don’t understand what could be taking place. The Messiah of Israel is here, mighty miracles are being done, a great truth is being declared, and the hatred and opposition of the nation is growing. Before we’re done Peter will even take Jesus aside and tell Him His plan is not right; and He has to be sternly rebuked. Jesus begins this series of parables, I mentioned, with the parable of the Sower. The Sower goes forth to sow seed. The picture is as you would see depicted in Palestine where you have a man with a bag of seed he’s carrying, and he just walks along ground that has been turned over and he throws the seed. They didn’t put a little hole in each place and plant each grain. They walked along and scattered the seed. As he walks along and scatters the seed it falls on different kinds of ground. The path that he’s walking along, beat hard as concrete from the constant traffic. That seed falls there, the birds fly down and take it away; nothing happens. Some seed falls on rocky ground. The picture is as they have in Palestine that limestone shelf of rock that runs just under the surface of the earth in many places. When a seed falls on that ground it doesn’t go down very deep, it springs up immediately. But when the sun comes out it scorches it. It has no root, it dies quickly. The third kind of ground, some of the seed as it is scattered falls in areas where there are weeds and thorns. Doesn’t have a chance. Starts to spring up there, the weeds and thorns take over and choke it out. Then there is good ground, and it produces a crop, some 100-fold, some 60-fold, some 30-fold.

Then Jesus takes the time to explain to His disciples what this parable means. We’ve heard it so many times we think of course they would know; the explanation is clear. But they didn’t understand it. Jesus says to them in verse 18, “hear then the parable of the Sower.” I want you to note something here. There is an emphasis on you hear the parable of the Sower. There is a contrast from what precedes and those who would not hear, would not listen and believe and understand. Jesus said you hear, you pay attention. Understand what I am teaching you here. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom. The word of the kingdom is the message about Jesus Christ and the kingdom He would establish, the truth concerning Christ. That’s the message that has to go out, that’s what’s consistent through all of this. The Word of God is given forth, the message of Christ is proclaimed, the word of the kingdom that He would establish is disseminated. The word of the kingdom is given out, people hear it. But when someone hears the message but doesn’t understand it, it lays on his heart like it lays on packed ground. But it doesn’t lay there indefinitely. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been sowed in his heart. This is the seed sown beside the road. It’s hard ground, it’s packed down. That’s a heart that is hard to the Word of God. This person hears the Word, hears the truth as it is presented, but they don’t respond in faith. It doesn’t make any sense, it’s just words. Maybe they’re looking, thinking over their schedule of the day as it is told. They’ve got their mind on other things. They’re not really interested; they don’t really care. How long before we’re done? The Word of God is alive and powerful, the message of Christ is God’s power for salvation. But I tell you nothing happens in that heart and the problem is not with the one giving forth the seed because in these parables that start out the Sower is the Son of God, the Son of Man. The seed is the Word of God. But even with the Son of God giving forth the Word of God in some people’s lives, nothing but nothing happens. Can you imagine? Sitting under the ministry of the Son of God Himself as He spoke a message that He received from His Father a person hears that and not one thing happens in that life. It is unchanged. And you know what happens? The devil comes, snatches the Word of God away from that heart. Then the person goes on, unmoved and unchanged.

In Luke chapter 8 Jesus told this parable on another occasion. He said, “there the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts so they may not believe and be saved.” Turn over to II Corinthians chapter 4, II Corinthians chapter 4. Look at verse 3. The Apostle Paul is giving the same message, using a different analogy. Verse 3 of II Corinthians 4, “And if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving.” The god of this world is satan, the evil one. “He blinds the minds of the unbelieving as the truth of Christ is presented. So that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” See what happens? The Word of God is proclaimed, the truth of Christ is given forth. Some people sit there, it bounces off their ears. But there is no response in their heart. They don’t respond believing the truth, and the devil is there to take the Word away, to grab it away, to blind their eyes so they don’t see and believe the gospel. There is nothing you can do, there is nothing you can do with that life. A person might come and sit and hear me preach the truth of the gospel for 30 years, and nothing happens in their life. I will not take responsibility for that, I am not accountable to God for that failure. I am accountable to God if I have preached the truth of His Word. But quite frankly, there are people who have heard me preach for years and nothing has happened in their lives. They have a hardened heart, nothing penetrates. The devil quickly sweeps that heart clean; they go on to other things. No change takes place. See Jesus is explaining why some people didn’t respond, why have we come to this place and so many haven’t believed. Well one reason is the hearts are so hard, the truth that He presented did not penetrate.

Come back to Matthew chapter 13. The second kind of heart is the shallow heart. It is explained in verses 20-21, “the one in whom seed was sown in the rocky places is the man who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root in himself,” he’s temporary. “When affliction, persecution arise because of the Word, immediately he falls away.” There are people you share the gospel with and oh boy this is what they’ve been looking for. Thank you, praise God for telling me and they are excited and thrilled and so are you. But with the passing of but a little bit of time opposition comes, their family is not nearly so excited. In fact, they are offended. Friends don’t like it. Persecution comes up, pressure is applied, and they decide maybe they were too hasty. Sometimes they openly deny it, sometimes they just sort of fade away. Well, you know I don’t think it would be a good idea to leave my church. My parents wouldn’t understand at this point, and they are elderly. Oh well you know I better stay…… The persecution comes, it intensifies, they have no root, they’re gone. You can’t tell at the beginning because I can’t see under the surface. All I saw was the response and I’m excited for them. There have been more of these kinds of people that I’ve experienced in my ministry than I would be able to enumerate. I was thrilled with them. But with the passing of time and the applying of pressure that comes to those who identify with Christ, they’re gone. For most of them, I don’t know where they’re gone. Sometimes I’ll meet people and ask where are you going to church? Oh, we’re not going anywhere. That’s too bad. That’s more than too bad, that’s overwhelmingly sad. But it’s not my fault, it’s not the fault of the person who shared the gospel with them, it’s not the fault of the Son of Man who faithfully made the truth known. But people were superficial in their response. It seemed like something that was good at the time but they’re on to other things because of pressure, because of persecution.

We’re going to turn to one verse. Go to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews 10:39. If you don’t want to jump to Hebrews in the back let me read it to you. Hebrews 10:39. These Hebrew Christians that the writer to the Hebrews is writing about years after what we have recorded in Matthew. They were thinking of turning away from Christ, going back to Judaism because of persecution. The writer to the Hebrews says in verse 39 of chapter 10, “But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction. But are those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” One of the identifying marks of one who has truly believed in Christ is they persevere, they keep on. I have always serious, overwhelming doubts about a person who says yes, I have trusted Christ but I’m staying in my church. Why? You never heard the Word of God there before and you’ll never hear it there today. I know but I may have opportunity and they become excuses because pressure and persecution I want to avoid. There is no going back. If you go back, you evidence the fact you never really believed. You go back to destruction.

Come back to Matthew chapter 13. There is the cluttered heart. Verse 22, “the one in whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the Word and the worry of the world, the deceitfulness of wealth choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful.” The worry of the world, the deceitfulness of wealth. There are people that hear the Word, and they say yes, that would be good. I need that in my life. But you know you can’t add Christ to the baggage of your life. You can’t add Christ to the weeds and the thorns of your life. Your life can’t be built around wealth and riches and Jesus Christ. Your life cannot be built around this world and Jesus Christ. So those who simply try to take Christ into the weeds and thorns, to their focus on this world and this life, its pleasures and its riches, the Word of God is soon strangled and choked out. Nothing happens. It doesn’t accomplish anything. It was only something passing. That’s why people do not like the message of Christ but do not mind being religious.

Isn’t it amazing here. We’ve talked about three of the four kinds of soil. You know what? Three of the four kinds do nothing. The Son of Man and those who represent Him can sow the truth of God on that kind of soil and nothing happens. You know we get to this point; you know what we’d design—conferences that change the methodology. We have to do something different here, it doesn’t work. You know that never comes up, and keep in mind it is the Son of God giving the teaching and explanations here. When we think we’ve come up with a better plan than His we are in serious trouble. There is fruitful ground.

Verse 23, “The one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit, some 100-fold, some 60, some 30.” In Biblical times that was a massive crop. If you had an 8-fold crop you had an overflowing crop in Biblical times. Here you have 100-fold, 60-fold, 30-fold. Here is a life that has changed. Doesn’t bear fruit all the time, at the same level and in the same way, but there is always an abundance of fruit coming forth. That’s the kind of heart in which the Word of God had taken root, taken hold and now it blossoms. The quartet sang that passage out of John 7, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water, and picture that with the new wine. The work of the Spirit of God in a life that has taken in and believed the Word of God and been transformed by the grace of God and that is a fruitful life. Turn back to Matthew 7. This is not new teaching. Jesus is reminding them. What I am finding out as I minister the Word of God, as I share the gospel, most of the people I talk to aren’t going to be changed by it. Nothing is going to happen in their life with any enduring significance. Well, that fits in verses 12 and 13 “Jesus said the way to life, the gate is narrow, the way is narrow and there are few that find it.” The gate and way to destruction is broad and that’s where everybody is going. He warns about false teachers and false prophets, and He says, verse 16, “you will know them by their fruits.” Verse 20, “you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father.” You’re not saved by works, but you know what happens when the seed of the Word of God falls on the right heart, a heart that believes that truth, that life is changed. It bears fruit, some 100-fold, some 60-fold, some 30-fold. Again and again, we’re reminded throughout the rest of the New Testament that we were saved to bear fruit for God, Colossians 3:16, Romans 7:4, among others.

Now you see I have to look at this and say well, what do I do? I want to have an effective ministry. What do you mean by an effective ministry? I want to be successful. What do you mean by being successful? You know they never invite pastors who are pastoring small, struggling churches of 30 or 40 people, but faithfully ministering the Word, to teach in a conference about being a successful pastor and having a great church. Was the Son of Man a faithful servant of God? Did He have a great ministry? We’d say it would be blasphemy almost to ask the question. Was He successful? Well, it depends on how you define success. If you define success by how the world will look at it, you have to say no, He ended up on a cross. His followers are going to end up dead. He had a tremendous resource, the greatest prophet who had ever lived, and he ended up with his head on a platter. Seems there is something wrong with the methodology that produces that kind of results. We have to back up and say we are not called to change lives; we are called to proclaim God’s truth. When I begin to decide my job is to do what only God does, I am in conflict with the living God. I’m going to so change you and this church that we’ll never be the same. I am going to see that this is the most effective church that’s known in this part of the country. I am going to see you are more excited about God and your relationship with Him than you have ever been. I can’t do any of that. I wish I could, but I’m glad I can’t. God has called us to do a work, sow the seed, sow the seed. You know what you need to ask yourself, what I need to ask myself is how many places have we sowed the seed this week. Where has the message of Jesus Christ been given forth? Oh, I don’t do it. Why? Well, you know I’ve just decided I’m not effective. Why? Well, you know, I don’t see people saved, I don’t get a good response, or I’ve witnessed to several people, but I didn’t see anything happen. So? Jesus Christ proclaimed truth to a lot of people, and they just hated Him for it.

There is another work going on in Matthew and we have to take note of it quickly before we conclude. In Matthew chapter 13. Two more parables convey the same truth, two different parables but the same message. In verse 24 Jesus tells another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field by while his men were sleeping his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted up and bore grain then the tares became evident. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, sir did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? He said to them, an enemy has done this. The slave said to him, “Do you want us to go out and root up the tares? He said no, for while you are gathering up the tares you may root up the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest and at the time of harvest I’ll say to the reapers, first gather up the tares, bind them into bundles and burn them up. Gather the wheat in my barn.”

Another parable Jesus explains, down in verse 36. The crowds left, he went to the house, you know what his disciples said? What were you talking about with the parable of the tares? “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field, we didn’t understand. He said to them, the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” Now it’s the Son of Man directly and then it will be the Son of Man through His servants, because we’re carried all the way to the end of the age here, when the angels come and make a distinction. But if we begin with the Son of Man and His ministry on this earth, the field is the world. The field is not the church, some have taken the field to be the church here and then said, see believers and unbelievers ought to grow together in the church. Well look at the interpretation of the parable, it doesn’t say the field is the church. He says the field is the world. “As for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom. The tares are the sons of the evil one.” Very simple, the children of God and the children of the devil. The enemy who sows the tares is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the reapers are the angels. “Just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, those who commit lawlessness. They will throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears let him hear.” Same basic truth as in the parable of the dragnet in verses 47-50.

We find out now, we’re going out and sowing good seed, but you know what? The devil is going out and sowing bad seed. The tares are darnel, a kind of weed that grew but it looked just like the wheat. Until it came time to harvest, it never produced grain. So, you really couldn’t tell what you had until you got to harvest time. Now you begin to get suspicious. You look out and say can’t tell for sure, but I don’t think that’s genuine wheat. Then the servants come in and say to their master, something is wrong. They would do this in Biblical times since you just scatter seed like this, and they didn’t have the weedkillers and so on. An enemy who wanted to cause trouble, you know, here’s his neighbor, he throws good seed in his field. That night after his neighbor goes to bed, he just comes out there and starts throwing bad seeds. You know what happens? Both kinds of seed come up. Now what do we do? The servants say do you want us to go through and try to root it out? No. They’ll grow together, they’ll be rooted out.

One thing some leaders from church history could have learned is in this parable. It’s not our job to try to destroy the wicked. God has not killed believers to kill the unbelievers. There are certain things we ought to learn here. You understand now what the devil is doing. He’s making counterfeits during this time. He’s not just growing weeds that don’t look anything like genuine. We think of all the terrible things that go on in the world, the things that are so far from the truth and so far from genuine, but we ought to be looking the other way.

Clipped out a quote from Vance Havner. Some of you are familiar with Vance Havner. He’s probably gone now because the last time I knew he was about 96. But let me read what Vance Havner wrote. “Today the church is more beset by traitors within than foes without. Satan is not fighting churches; he is joining them. He does more harm by sowing tares than by pulling up wheat. He accomplishes more by imitation than by outright opposition. The world is accepted into the church, its programs endorsed and as he goes.” I don’t want to get too specific there and we find the church what? Adopting the world’s methods, and we’re happy to bring people in. I was watching a television program this morning. I don’t know how you’d ever find genuine and false. They’ve just opened the church to be like the world. But it becomes a model. Now the evangelical world tries to pattern itself after it. Why? Bigger is better. The less we sow good seeds the more the devil sows the bad seed and then we welcome them because well as long as it looks good, they’re moral. Moralism is killing the church because we’re happy to have people who have morals, be identified with them. Play down the gospel and the issues of the gospel so we can work together with people who have some moral standards in our day. I’m not worried about tares, I like tares. At least they look like wheat, and you see what happens. We sow the seed, but we don’t always get the results with the seed we want. Then the devil instead of sowing counterfeit seed and at least it will look good. Between the church being discouraged with the results it’s getting with the good seed and the devil at work sowing bad seed, we have to be careful. Now you understand the end result is settled. God is never fooled. When all is said and done the wheat and chaff will be separated, the wicked and the righteous will be separated. The wicked are on their way to an eternal hell.

Now I back up in the sermon, what is the church, what is our responsibility as the people of God? Be faithful with what God has entrusted us. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said God has placed the treasure of His gospel in these earthen vessels. We are entrusted with the message of the Son of God, and it is enough for us to be like Him. We have been blessed by God and by His grace He has chosen for His purposes to bring many people here. We praise Him for that. But our responsibility is to be faithful with the truth. When people don’t come. I’ve shared with you 25 years ago a man I respected and still respect said to me, the test will be when they’re not breaking down the doors to get in will you still be preaching truth. I hope so. When they’re not falling over themselves receiving the gospel that you give, will you still be giving the gospel.

Closer to home. You sit here and hear the truth, but that does not save you. What a tragedy, isn’t it, that people would sit and hear the truth. They sat and heard the Son of God teach this truth and are on their way to an eternal hell. Today they are in the fires of hades, awaiting sentencing to hell, and they sat under the ministry of the Son of God and hear His truth. What a tragedy that people would sit and hear the truth of the living God, and nothing happens. They’re on with life, I’ve fulfilled my responsibility, I’m on to other things. But the truth changes life and lives, and many of you are testimony to that. I’m a testimony to God’s grace. Each of you who have believed the truth are a testimony to God’s grace.

The burden of my heart is that many in this city would hear the truth and God by your grace we would love to see a great harvest. You know what Jesus told His followers? Life up your eyes, look on the fields, they are white to harvest. Pray that the Lord will thrust out harvesters. You know what the tragedy in our city is? There are multitudes of people who have yet to hear this truth. There are multitudes of people that no one cares enough to go tell them the message of Christ. I mean we’ll go to dinner with them, we’ll socialize with them, we’ll work with them, we’ll visit with them. But that won’t save them. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Word of God has to be presented for them to hear it and believe it. If they just hear it, they won’t be saved, but I can’t control that. I can do nothing in your heart. I don’t want to try to manipulate you for an emotional response, because that won’t change you and make you new. But if you will believe the truth that you are a sinner for whom Christ paid the penalty by dying on the cross, if you will believe in Him as your only Savior, if you will let go of whatever you are holding on to and take hold of Him alone, you will be saved, and you will produce fruit for the glory of God.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the power of your truth. Lord, we are servants, it is not for us to be like our master. We are reminded it is only by your grace, because of your sovereign work, that we believe the truth that we heard. Lord, we weep for those who have not heard the truth. May we be a mighty army of laborers going out into the harvest to tell men, women and young people the glorious truth of your Savior. Lord, you know the hearts of those who are here today. Search the hearts, see us as we are. Lord, I pray you might do your work in hearts, may we consider carefully what kind of hearers we are. Have we truly believed the truth that we have heard. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.