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Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.
Today we're going to look at a parable that Jesus told and in fact I think it may be one of the most well -known of all the parables and it is a parable that is reflected in all three of the synoptic gospels that is Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this parable. I think it is one of the most significant, one of the most well -known and certainly one that answers a lot of questions as I'll reference here in just a bit. Our world's full of fakes, a lot of fakes in our world. Now we're discovering they've had the technology is advancing to such a level they
can fake just about anything they want. Artificial intelligence can now do what they call deep fakes. Are you familiar with that term deep fakes where they can take and they can impose words into the mouth of a person it looks like they're saying things that they never actually said. And they call it deep fakes. And there of course is a multi -million dollar industry that focuses on producing fake products that replicate the real things. Everything from Rolex watches to Gucci purses and Mont Blanc pins and perfumes among all kind of other items. If you've ever been to New York City and gone to some of the sub -sectors of New York
like Chinatown you can find a lot of fake products. And there's a lot of fake products and you can see these vendors and sometimes they're out on the street. Sometimes they'll whisper to you and go psst want a good watch. And they'll take you if you follow them which I don't advise into a back room. I remember the first time Alice and I ever went to New York we were it was early evening we'd been to dinner and we're walking down the street head back to our hotel and a guy walks up to us and I mean it's almost like something I've never seen in my life. Now the movies he has a long coat on and he says you be interested in a nice watch. And
he opens his coat and they're full of these replica Rolex watches. But that's just one thing there's so many different things that they they now knock off so to speak. In fact the FBI it's not unusual if you go to one of these sub -sectors that I'm talking about to see security personnels or personnel or authorities chasing somebody. And I mean it's just it's just it's just it's just it's just it's just acting like someone is still here. And you got it. They just have a lot of these and they're usually chasing somebody. And they're usually chasing somebody that's hocking these kind of replica products. A lot of fakes out there. As I was researching the message I uncovered that you can go
online and literally by custom designed diplomas for just about any kind of undergrad graduate or postgraduate degree. Just about anything you can imagine. These sites are on dropshipping sites on all kinds of assistir thought how do they get away with that and so I did a little investigating what they do is they carefully award their products so as not to technically violate a federal law so they kind of work like you need to replace that diploma you had that you lost or something you can now replace a diploma that's the kind of technology but really what it is is you can create it's a diploma meal and they look real they mimic high school degrees college degrees university law degrees medical degrees and the sites cater to people who simply want to look legitimate even if they're not for example there are listen to this an estimated 10 ,000 physicians that have phony foreign medical degrees operating by the way how would you like to have one of them operating on you or diagnose it well you do you have a degree yes I well not really but I stayed a holiday in express last night one of these fake degree brokers was testifying about it before congress and said that over a three -year period he earned about 1 .5 million dollars he kept 500 ,000 or half a million of it and he used the rest of it for bribes and expenses several years ago I helped author a book entitled the fakers and it was a study of counterfeit fakes the fact is there are many fakes in this world aren't there and there are many who say that they are followers of Christ that in reality are phonies they're faith fakers and John told us to be aware because antichrists have already gone out into the world you know what an antichrist is don't you there is the antichrist that's coming but the spirit of the antichrist is already among us and it's not just the spirit of the antichrist it's already among us and there are many antichrists that have already gone out into the world what is the antichrist the antithesis of Christ the opposite of Christ a fake replica by the way the Bible says in the final days that when the antichrist shall rise that he will fool almost fool even the elect of God it's how persuasive and there are so many fakers out there today and that's really the subject at the heart of this parable that I want us to look at today and so if you're physically able to do so what do you do if you're physically able to do so what do you do why don't you stand with me as we read our text we're going to begin in verse 1 now let me just give you a little side here we're going to read through verse 9 but don't close your Bible because verse 9 1 through 9 is the parable but then the verses that we'll continue to look at are the explanation of the parable okay so keep your Bible open look at verse 1 again he began to teach beside the sea and a very large crowd gathered about him so that he got into a boat and he sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd gathered about him and he sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land and he was teaching them many things in parables and in his teachings he said to them listen behold a sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil and when the sun rose it scorched and since it had no root it withered away and the seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no grain and other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold and he said he who has ears to hear let him hear father let us hear let us hear I know what you meant we know what you meant you meant if we have spiritual ears not just the physical ears and physical hearing but spiritual discernment the ability to hear and understand what you're saying father grant that to us this morning anoint our ears that we might receive your word father speak to us teach us father I pray that you'll not only inform and instruct us but you'll correct and convict us father let us take your word now speak it into our heart and transform us with its truth for we pray in Jesus name amen thank you you can be seated now if you read this story in Matthew's gospel this parable is the beginning of seven parables that are often referred to as the secrets of the kingdom it's a part of this where Jesus was trying to bring insight about the kingdom of God to his closest followers and it's one of the parables that Jesus shares to help us understand what he's talking about when he refers to the kingdom of God now to do that Jesus uses a common analogy cultural analogy of sowing and soils and by the way throughout this sermon when I use soil or heart those are interchangeable terms and Jesus uses and compares our hearts to the different kinds of ground now the emphasis is not on the sower in this story it's not on who's sowing the seed that's Jesus by the way but that's not the emphasis it's not who's sowing the emphasis is on what is sowed the seed and the receiver of the seed and that's us and so as you listen to this parable as you look at this parable recognize that Jesus is what Jesus is talking about in the soils is he's talking about the response of a person's heart now the heart's a fascinating muscle isn't it did you know that your heart can function even if all other nerves in your body are severed it beats 75 times a minute on average 40 million times a minute on average it beats 75 times a minute on average a year 2 .5 billion times in a 70 year life it discharges four ounces of blood with each beat which equals about 2 ,000 gallons a day and that's enough to fill 81 tanker cars of 8 ,000 gallons each year it works hard enough in one hour to lift 150 pound man to the top of a three -story building in 12 hours to lift a 65 ton tanker car one foot off the ground ground. And in 70 years, it produces enough power to lift the largest battleship completely out of the water. The heart's pretty incredible, isn't it? But if the heart fails, the whole body
fails. And likewise, if the spiritual heart fails, the soul fails. If the soil isn't right, the seed of God's Word that does the transforming of the heart cannot take root. Several years ago, a lecturer speaking to a small group of cardiologists at the American Medical Association Convention asked this question. He said, how many of you cardiologists have had a heart checkup in the last 12 months? And according to the reporter who told this story, no one in the room raised their hands. These cardiologists in 12 months, none of them had had a heart examination. So this morning, I want us to take a look at the heart checkup. Take a little spiritual
heart examination. Now remember that each of these soils represents the condition of the heart. And the fact is, all of us are represented by one of these four kinds of soils. So let's look at what God's Word says about our heart, about our soul, and our capacity to receive the Word of God. Now let me give you a couple of key facts here. There's nothing wrong in this story. There's nothing wrong with the seed that was sown. The seed that was sown was God's Word. That's made clear and there's nothing wrong with it. The problem isn't with the seed. And then second, there's nothing wrong with the sower of the seed. As I said, that's Jesus and there's no problem there. This is a matter of the heart. And so let me show you these four types of soil, these four hearts. First of all, Jesus
calls our attention to the robbed heart. The heart that's been robbed. He says, some seed fell along the path. Now if you will, as I told you, keep your Bible open. He gives an interpretation because after he shares this parable, the disciples say, could you explain that to us? And so Jesus says, okay, let me explain it to you so you'll get a full understanding. He first talks about this robbed heart. It's the seed that fell among the path. Look at verse 15 because he gives us an explanation. And these are the ones along the path where the Word is sown, that is the Word of God is sown. And when they hear, Satan immediately comes and he takes away the Word of God. And when they hear, Satan immediately comes and he takes away the Word that is sown in them. It's the robbed heart. This is the hard heart. And the hard heart is the heart that is easily deprived. This heart is easily deprived. It's robbed. That's why the scripture tells us in Proverbs chapter 4 to keep your heart with all vigilance for from it springs, flow the springs of life. I think this parable, of all the parables, and some years ago the sermon series on the parables
and we looked at the different parables that Jesus taught, but of all the parables, I think this is my favorite. I know it is this morning. And because it answers so many questions, it helps us understand why we see people respond the way they do when they hear the Word of God. Now the first kind of soil or heart mentioned here answers the question of, why do people respond to the Gospel, but their life and actions never change? You ever wondered about that? Why is it that some folks seem to respond to the Gospel, but nothing changes about their life? Well, this heart represents the person that's heard the message, but have been robbed of its impact. It may be because they had a hard heart to start with, but the devil is the one behind the robbery. In fact, the Bible calls him a thief. It says, a thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And one of the things the devil loves to do is try to snatch the Word of God from us. Even if you're a believer, guess what he'll try to do? If you hear some truth or God speaks something into your life, the devil will quickly try to snatch it away if he can. But this represents the heart of a person that's kind of callous. For whatever reason, and we may
not know, it may be religious callous. It may be because they've been wounded or hurt or they're mad or angry or bitter or whatever reason. And it may be simply, that they just are apathetic to things. But when the Word of God comes to their heart, it really kind of bounces off. They may agree with the message, but they don't take it seriously. They simply do nothing with it. And so it never really penetrates beyond the surface of their soul. It's easy picking for the devil. Or there are people which simply choose to ignore it. Yeah, that may be a good message. But in the moment, they're not going to take it seriously. In the moment, they ignore it and or they put it aside. Yeah, that's good. I'll just put it aside. I've got plenty of time. I can respond to God later. It's a heart that may acknowledge the truth of the message and may even be comfortable with the truth of the message. But the seed or that truth of God's Word has no impact whatsoever on them. Their heart is hard. Their heart is callous to the Word. And they may not even think of themselves as hard -hearted. They may not even think of themselves as being callous to God. But their hearts have become hard. And their hearts are so hard, knowingly or unknowingly, that the Word of God just kind of bounces right off. You know, I've seen after 45 years in ministry, I've seen people who come to church that are moved
by God and toward God and then leave and and never return. Well, what happened? Well, you see, before the Word of God could penetrate their heart, the enemy attacked and devoured the seed and left them unfazed. Now, let me just say something to those of you who are watching by live stream or listening on radio or watching by television in this live audience this morning. Let me just say something to you. If that's where you are right now saying, I affirm the Word of God, I move by the truth of God's Word, it is imperative that you do something with the Word of God's operation in your heart. If you ignore that or you think, I'll get to that later on, and I've had people tell me that, I agree, but later on. There may not be a later on. It's important that you deal with it right now. The Bible says, behold, today is the day of salvation. That doesn't just mean salvation for your soul, though it certainly means that. It means today is the day for you to do what God wants you to do. These are people whose hearts have become so calloused and hard that they rarely have convictions or
you see no repentance or you see no evidence of faith, no desire for God, no interest whatsoever. And believe it or not, some even attend church. I had a man some years ago in my church in Florida, and he was such a hard -hearted man, and I don't believe he was saved at all, but he was faithful every week. But he was a faithful Christian. You know what I mean by that? A faithful critic. Every week he had something that was wrong and something that we needed, and he voted against just about anything we tried to do. And I asked him one time, I said to him, I said, we were having this conversation, and he was telling me what he was against and why we shouldn't do it, and I said, can I ask you a question? I said, you've been coming here for years. I said, why? Why? I said, I don't understand why you're coming. I said, you hate me, you hate our staff, you hate this
church, you hate and fight everything that we're doing. Why would you want to be associated with a group of people like that? He didn't know how to answer. He didn't know what to say. But there are people like this first category who are in our church. Now, the goal, look, I didn't just tell you, if you say, well, that's kind of me, I didn't just tell you don't come back. But what I'm saying to you is get right. Get with God so you can enjoy the experience of being with God's people and being in the presence of God. This is a heart that may acknowledge the message, but it's still calloused and hard. You see, don't let that be you. Some people in this category are just plain out hostile to the gospel. Some years ago, I shared the gospel
with a man and his wife had just trusted Christ. And I said to him, you know, there are these encounters that a pastor has and they just are etched in brains. This is one of those. And he sat there in my office and I talked with him and his wife. And they were having marriage difficulties. And so I always begin with the gospel. And I shared it with her. And she began to weep. And I said, is there any reason you couldn't trust Christ as your Savior? She said, no, I want to do that. And she did right there. And when she finished, I looked at him. I said, how about you? Is there any reason you couldn't do that? And this is what he did. He went, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I'll do it. Okay, I'll do it. I'll do it. Everybody keeps telling me I need to do
it. So, yeah, I'll do it. I'll just do it. And maybe that will shut everybody up.
Now, I don't advise you to do. I'll do what I did.
But I looked at him. Because he sat there like this the whole time.
But I looked at him after he did that. I said, time out. I said, no, you won't. He said, what? I said, not here. I said, not with me. I said, you must think that I'm in this to get these little notches on my gospel belt. And I said to him, and I don't advise you to do this. I said, you need to understand something. There's no skin off my back if you die and go straight to hell right now.
I said, he said, well, what, what, what, what, what? I said, no, no. He said, okay, I'll do it. I said, no, no. I said, not here. You do it in your own time, but not here. Because this isn't about getting people off of your back. A hard, calloused heart. Had heard the gospel time and time again. Been in church. I went to visit another young man in his mid -20s. His mom was such a sweetheart. And she said, would you ever think you could get by to see my son? And so I went by to see her son. And he was out hanging with some of his buddies that were out in the yard. I pulled up. And so he comes walking over. He sees me. And I introduced myself. And he has this little kind of smirk. And he looks back at me and says, yeah, he said, my mom sent you after me, didn't she? I said, well, as a matter of fact, she asked me if I would come by to see you. Because she's concerned about your soul. He said, preacher, you just relax. You don't worry about it. I said, I'm not worried. I'm not worried about it. I said, your mama is. And he said, y 'all just relax. I know, this is what he said, I know I'm going to hell.
And he said, it's okay. And then he had this little sarcastic smile and chuckle. And he said, but it's okay. And he pointed at his buddies. They were all standing there listening. You know, kind of all standing there with beer and everything else. They were having a party. And he said, and then he pointed at his friends. He said, it's okay. Because I know. I know I'm going to hell with all my buddies. And when we get there, we're going to have one big party.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And I just looked at him. I said, have it your way. And I left. A hard heart, a callous heart. He'd heard the gospel. Now, those are extremes. In fact, that's extremes. Yeah, it is extreme. But there are a lot of people who say, yeah, I believe in God. I've taken care of enough. You know, but their hearts are cold and hard and calloused. This heart. Can reflect people who have also grown cold. They've lost the conviction of God's word. They've become complacent and even comfortable with things that long ago would have brought conviction and concern to them in their relationship with God. So that's the first kind of soul. But then there's a second kind that he mentions here. And it is the rootless heart. Verses five and verse six. Notice what he says. Other seed fell on rocky ground. And this is particularly interesting. Because he says it fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately sprang up. And because it had no death, the sun came out and it scorched it. Look with me, if you will, at verse 16 and 17. And these are the, here's Jesus' explanation. These are the ones sown on rocky ground. The ones who, when they hear the word, look at this. They immediately receive it with joy. Isn't that interesting? And they have no root in themselves but endure for a while. And then when tribulation, persecution arises. Rises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. It's the rootless heart. This is the shallow heart. And this heart is easily deceived. I told you the first heart is easily deprived. This heart is easily deceived. Now this second kind of soul that we look at here answers the question of what about people who initially respond to the gospel, appear to change, but only for a little while. And did you notice? You noticed, didn't you, that this heart received the message joyfully. It didn't bow its back or resist. It received the message joyfully. That means this. They got a taste, but that's all. They got a taste, but that's all. They got a taste of what the transforming message of Christ can do, but it never went down and took root. Um, the writer of Hebrews said, for those who have gotten a taste, it would be better that they'd never tasted at all than to have tasted and rejected. And that's exactly who this person is. They tasted, so they got happy about it. They got, they, they expressed joy in the message, but the rocky soil didn't have enough depth to it. And by the way, this soil isn't soil meaning like gravel, but it is soil with bedrock below. In other words, there's a cover of, there's a cover of dirt, but below that is rock and you can't go down very far. Have you ever tried to plant something? I have, I, I learned the hard way years ago. I tried to plant some shrubs and, and there were, there was a rock base underneath about, I don't know, about that far down. And I'm trying to dig a hole and you hit that rock. And, you know, I thought it was a rock, but it was rocks, but I planted anyway. And I planted and watered and nurtured that little shrub. And it just never amounted to anything and started getting brown. And it finally dawned on me because its roots couldn't go down. So it sucked out the nutrients for a little while of the amount of dirt it was in, but it didn't have enough nutrients because of the rock base below to survive. And so under the heat and the weather, it couldn't last. And if you notice that the, the seed in this case, it sprang up quickly. It looked like it had taken. And the reason's because the sun heated the rock. The sun actually helped. It heated the rock and it caused this thing to spring up real fast. It looked like everything was good. But the problem was there was no depth of the soil and right below was bedrock. And as soon as the surface dirt dried up, the seed could not put down its roots and sustain itself. These are the people who appear to have responded. But eventually reveal the shallowness of their decision by quitting.
You know, COVID revealed a lot of this in the church across America. COVID revealed a lot of the shallowness of hearts of many who have said, oh yeah, I'm a follower of Jesus. Eventually the shallowness is revealed by their decision to quit, to turn away. The difficulties that they face reveal the lack of roots of their relationship. With Christ. And what he says here, what Jesus says, when tribulation and trials come, they say, wait a minute, I didn't sign on for this. When adversity arrives, they go AWOL. Some years ago, after the first Gulf War, y 'all remember, how many of you remember the first Gulf War in the 90s? Y 'all remember that? After the first Gulf War, there was a reservist who went AWOL. And he demanded that the army release, and he demanded that the army release him from his commitment. And when he appeared to make his defense, he stated, and I quote, I didn't sign up for this. I didn't think when I enlisted that they would expect me to go and fight.
He enlisted to be a soldier. And one of the most basic expectations of soldiering is being willing and equipped to fight. He said, you know what he's really saying, I signed up for the paycheck. But when the tribulation came, he went AWOL. This is how Jesus describes this person. Now, listen, I want to tell you something. We need to understand this. Because the days are coming when you're going to see a lot of people that have been confessing to be followers of Christ go AWOL. Because of the tribulation and the difficulty that is coming. The Bible says it's coming. Jesus said 2 ,000 years ago, in this world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. And the fact is if you don't have the real thing when tribulation comes and difficulty comes, guess what? You're going to go AWOL. And by the way, Jesus said this. He said, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth? Meaning that it won't be quite as popular. Will there be faith? Yeah, there will be a remnant. Jesus is going to have a people. He's always had a remnant. But you're going to find the tribulation and persecution has a way of thinning the ranks. And that's what he's talking about here. And did you notice for a little while, they believed. Initially, they hear the gospel. They respond to whatever presentation of the gospel they have received. And there's an amount of joy. There's some exhilaration. There's some excitement. There's some exuberance. There's some emotion. There's almost an euphoria of feeling good about the experience. And this usually convinces Christians, that are watching, that this was legitimate and real conversion. There may even have been tears of joy. There were hugs, perhaps, and embraces. And this person was so thrilled and so happy. When you look at them, you say to yourself, boy, they got the real stuff. Let me just say this to you. I'm all for emotions, but emotions do not tell you anything about the validity of a person's salvation. Jesus said, by their emotions, you shall know them. Did he say that, class? No, he said, by their fruit, you will know them. Jesus, look, nothing wrong with emotions. I'm all for them. But don't believe that emotions necessarily, they may accompany salvation and legitimate salvation, but is the fruit that Jesus says that distinguishes us. And Jesus further said this, if you continue in my word, then you're truly disciples of mine. And in this passage, the word here in this time of difficulty is the word tribulation, periasmos in the Greek. And it means, literally, a time of testing, to be put to the test. So here's the deal. When the test comes, here's what he's saying, this person, this heart, the rootless heart, it runs. When the test comes, it runs. Faith runs. It quits. Why? Because though it sprang up, it never took root. Then there's the third kind of heart. That's the second kind. Then there's the third kind of heart, and that's the redirected heart. Verse 7, look at it, if you will. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and they choked it, and it yielded no grain. Look at verse 19, and Jesus gives an explanation. He says, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
Now, this is not necessarily bad soil and bad soil, in and of itself. It has enough nutrients for things to grow, and it has enough depth to sustain growth. The problem with this soil or this heart is that it is full of weeds, and the seed of God has to compete for the nutrients and to grow in this life. And so this heart is easily distracted. Now, this third kind of heart mentioned answers another question. It answers the question, what about people who come through the walls of our church, they get excited about God, get excited about the church, but just kind of drift away over time? You know, what we have tended to do through the years is we just say, well, they're backslidden. Baptists love that word, backslidden. And I do believe that a person can backslide. But friend, the truth is many and probably most people of them are just simply lost. And we're trying to talk them into being saved. Oh, they're just backslidden. How long they've been backslidden? About 20 years.
I've seen it. Well, I've just been out of fellowship, out of fellowship. How long? Oh, 10, 12 years. Look, if you're not out of fellowship, you're out of the family. You never got in the family. And we often just try to excuse it that way. Listen to how John explained it. I love this. 1 John 2, verse 19. This will help you. This explains this heart. They went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us, listen, they would have remained with us. But they went out so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. Did you get that? 1 John 2, 19. You ought to write that one down, okay? Notice that this heart also heard. Just like the others, it heard the message. It gave some kind of response to the message, but it just couldn't make it. Why? It is because it tried to live divided. It tried to segment its life between faith and the world. And the issue here is simply a divided heart. A heart that is in competition with other things. It's a heart that tries to live in two kingdoms. The kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. I want to live in both. Can't I just live in both? That's why Jesus said, no man can serve two masters. You know what Jesus answered to that? Can I live in both? Can I be in love with the world and in love with the kingdom of God? You know what Jesus says? No.
Now listen, if we're honest, we all struggle with this. Hello? We all struggle with this pull. The world, the pull of the world and the pull of the kingdom. But the fact is, you can't live, live a fateful life in the kingdom of God with a divided heart. Jesus is exclusive. And sometimes people say, well, I'm just, I'm going to follow the world then.
Jesse James, the outlaw. Jesse James killed a man in a bank robbery. And the next week, he went to Kearney Baptist Church, that's where he liked to go, and was baptized. Then he killed another man, a bank cashier, and Aaron, he joined the church choir.
I think he was in the early praise team.
But he actually began to teach hymn singing in the church.
Jesse liked Sundays. But he couldn't always show up at church on two Sundays. He was out. He had to be out and missed because he was robbing trains.
You know, there's a lot of Jesse James religion today.
People's faith that is just a formality. Just a belief in their head, but there's been, no change in their life, no change in their heart, no change in the way they operate the rest of the week. I go to church. I like church.
I like singing. I don't care so much for the preaching, but I like singing. Like all those things. But now when I leave here, I'm going into the world and I'll operate how I have to because you've got to be smart in the world. You've got to operate like the world system. And that's Jesse James faith. When I go out there, my job is to rob and kill and murder people. But when I come in here, it's just saying to God, don't confuse agreement with the truth and being changed by the truth. I bet if you interviewed Jesse James and said, do you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God? What do you think class? He'd say, yeah, I do. That's why I was baptized. I want to follow Jesus. But what I do here and what I do there, two different things. Got to separate those things. By the way, that's what your world, that's the message of your world. Do you know the world will tell you this? You do your church thing,
but then when you come out here, we'll do the world thing. And you, you operate by our system. When you're out here, you do your, your own thing when you're there, but out here you do our thing. Do you know the world is perfectly happy for us to do that for us just to live for God inside the confines of our walls of the church. But when we go out there to say, okay, now we've got to operate by the standards of the world. And I've, you've heard me say it so many times over the years, but the fact is, we must never be at the mercy of a worldly agenda. As Christians, we speak the truth in love. We don't have to go out and pick fights and that's what, but the fact is friend, we are to be distinctly different out there. This is the heart that, that has confused the agreement of truth with the change that truth brings. And God's not going to recognize you based simply on acknowledging his truth. You know, James said that the demons believe and tremble. God is going to recognize you based on whether, whether you believed and did his word, the worries, the cares. He says here in the quest for worldly pleasure, what happens? They overpowered and redirected this person's desire for God. Now those three kinds of soil or hearts answer a lot of questions about fate's reality or the lack of it in people. Wouldn't you agree with that? That helps us understand. A little bit about how we see people when they respond or react to the message of the gospel. But the good news is that Jesus also speaks of this fourth kind of soil soil, and that is a receptive heart. Look at verse eight and other seed fell into good soil and produced grain growing up and increasing and yielding 30 fold, 60 fold, a hundred fold. Then look over at verse 20. This is the explanation, but those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit. 30 fold, 60 fold and a hundred fold. This is the heart that hears it understands and it's transformed by God's word. This is the heart that represents the saved soil. It represents the valid fate.
It represents having done something with the truth, but this heart is good soil because this heart is easily directed.
It's easily directed. It easily responds to drew. Now, let me give you three things. About this heart, the directed heart that I think will help you understand what made it so effective and so productive. The first is that the word of God in this heart is perceived. That is, they hear it. He said, they hear it. Good. So the ones who hear the word it's perceived. The word of God is perceived like all the others they heard. And here's what you can say. All of the others heard too, didn't they? They all heard the good soul heard, perceive the word. That's where it started, but it didn't stop there as compared to the others. And that's the second thing. That is the word of God is not only perceived the word of God by this soil is preserved. Did you notice it said they hear the word and accept it.
It's perceived, but then it is preserved. They accept it. Their heart was ripe and their heart was ready. And here's what it does. It holds on and it is shaped by the word of God. It's And then because of that, because the word of God is heard and because the word of God is preserved or accepted, then third, the word of God is productive. It says they bore an abundant crop, 30 fold, 60 fold, a hundred fold. You see, when the soil is right, the seed will produce the fruit of your life is actually an indicator of your heart.
Let me share something that Jesus said about fruit. The should motivate us in Matthew chapter seven, Jesus said, so every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the disease tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a disease tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
In other words, fruit tells a story about us. What you're producing tells what you are.
I've told you over 24 years, probably about my grapefruit tree down in Florida,
down in Florida, where we lived, everybody had citrus trees. I mean, if you live in where we did on the east or west coast and cross central Florida, you had citrus trees, tangerines, tangelos, oranges. I mean, you, you name it. And you had it in a bun. If you had a tree, you had it in abundance. We bought a house. It had a citrus tree. It had a grapefruit tree, a pink grapefruit tree.
Now, have I ever told you I hate grapefruit?
My friends had tangelos and tangerines, but I had a pink grapefruit tree and it made, oh, listen, did it produce great? I mean, you, I, I pray, don't let it produce anymore. I don't want anymore. But man, it would drop them. They were like cannonballs. Uh, and I would cut my grass and I'd run over them with a lawnmower, man. It didn't launch those things. You know, you, that neighborhood had to go in the house. Everybody had to go in the house because Ray's shooting grapefruit at people. I mean, and, uh, it just seemed like the more I didn't want it to produce the more it produced. I even thought, well, maybe, you know, maybe I could just wish it, God, turn it into a tangelo tree. I could live with that. I even thought, man, I'll make the bed. You know, you ever heard of you? Life hands your lemons, make lemonades. Whoever came up with that is a nut,
but I tried it. I thought, well, it's pink grapefruit. You know what we'll do? Alice and I went out, we bought an electric juicing machine. We're going to make, I can, I think I could drink pink grapefruit juice.
So we bought a juicing machine and you know how messy those things are. We're making grapefruit juice and all this stuff. She's not going to drink it, but I make up a couple of gallons worth of pink grapefruit juice, put it in the refrigerator, chill it down, get it cool. And the next morning I'm going to do it. I get me a big old glass of that stuff.
I drink about a third of it. And I, I get honest with myself. I said, I can't do it. This, I hate this. I don't like this. I'm not drinking this. Now, the fact is I could have wished and I did wish I had a different kind of citrus tree, but I didn't. I had a pink grapefruit tree and that's what it was going to be. You know what Jesus says by your fruit, you will be identified. I could have wished for that to be oranges or tangelos or tangerines or whatever else you can think of. I could have wished for that, but it was going to be a pink grapefruit tree. And today still in somebody's backyard, that pink grapefruit tree is still producing. I suspect. By its fruit, you know what it is. You may say, but I don't want that. Doesn't matter. Your fruit demonstrates. You can change though. The fruit of your life can't change a pink grapefruit tree, but you can change the fruit coming out of your life. See if the fruit of your life has been bad fruit, Jesus says, cause it's coming from a bad tree.
And so the tree has to be changed. Spiritually speaking,
that means Jesus has to change what you can't change.
What's the fruit of your life? What's the story of the fruit coming out of your life? Is that, does the fruit show that you're a faker or a faker?
Let me close the way I started. You know, if you go to the supermarkets today and, and shop, you're going to find that it's getting more and more popular to sell fakes. If you notice how many artificial sweeteners, there are on the market now to take the place of real sugar. I'm not saying they're bad things. I'm just saying they're fakes. They're designed to replicate something that they're not. Lunch meats. Y 'all ever check that out from salami to bologna are now made from Turkey.
I'm not saying that's bad. You say, well, perhaps that's healthy. I'm not arguing that. I'm just simply saying still fake. I grew up when bologna was bologna.
It was a staple in our house. There are dairy substitutes for everything from cream to even substitutes for cheese.
And now there's a substance called Olestra. Have y 'all, y 'all have heard about Olestra? It's been around for a while and it's designed to take the place of fat. Frankly, I love fat,
but they've got substitutes and we don't always welcome the substitutes and fakes, but they exist. By the way, ask any newly engaged young woman. It should be okay to discover that that bologna, that big glimmering rock on her finger was actually a fake diamond.
Probably already know the answer, right? You know, Jesus has the ability to recognize fakes.
The Bible says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Listen on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me. You workers of lawlessness. They were fakes. They were phonies. They went through the motions.
Jesus wants us to be certain that our lives and our faith are the real thing, not some empty substitute. And the message of this parable that we've talked about today is that if you have been robbed of your faith, or you have a rootless kind of faith, or your faith has been redirected toward the world, then you have a fake faith. And that's why in this series that I'm preaching, this may be the most important message that I preach. Because you see, if you have a fake faith, you'll never get a grip on your life. But even worse, if you have a fake faith, you'll never get a grip on eternity. And that would be tragic. But you can change that. You can change that this morning. Just a moment. When we have our invitation, you can change that. A few years ago, a protester at Princeton University said, surprise, surprise, but a protester at Princeton University was photographed carrying a sign that said, nothing is worth dying for. Friend, that's not right. Because Jesus thought you were worth dying for. And so he went to the cross and he shed his blood so that you could have real life, not phony fake life, real life. And that's what I want to invite you to this morning, is the real life in Christ. Pray with me. Father, would you speak to our hearts and those who are watching by live stream television, listening on radio, in this live audience this morning, about the importance, Father, of not faking the faith. If there are any in this place, or in any of these mediums, Father, that have never trusted you today, let that be the day that they change things. That they go from a fake process to a genuine, real trust in Jesus Christ. And Lord, would you speak in our moments of invitation. For others, Father, that, Father, they just drifted away. The cares of this world have pulled them away. I pray that you will bring them back. Father, would you speak to our hearts? Would you speak to those who are looking for a family to belong to? Let this be that place today where they come and say, I need a family and I want this to be my faith family. Father, speak to us before we're gone. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you... Well, I'm so glad that you have tuned in to the broadcast today. I hope you've been encouraged by God's word. It sure has been a joy to share it with you. And even now, people at Ridgecrest are making decisions for Christ. Perhaps as you've watched this broadcast, you've recognized the need for your own decision for Christ. The prompting of the Spirit has caused you to recognize that you need Christ as your Savior. And the good news is you can receive Him right where you are. The Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Right where you are, you can call on Him. Say something like this from your heart to Him. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me. I know I'm a sinner and I know that you came into this world and died on the cross for my sins. And right now, I invite you to come into my life. Forgive me and be my Savior. I can assure you if you'll call on Him, based on what God has already told us in the Bible, that He'll hear that prayer and He'll answer that. And He wants to begin this new journey in your life with you. Transforming you into His image. We'd love to help you with that decision as well. You'll see a QR code on your screen. And if you would scan that, or you'll see contact information. Or if you'll contact us about your decision today. We'd love to help you take next steps. There are no strings attached. No fees involved. We'd just like to help you begin that journey with Christ. You may be watching this broadcast today and say, I need a church family to belong to. I already know Christ as my Savior. And I'd like to be a part of the region. I'd like to be part of the Ridgecrest family. Also, if you will, scan that QR code. That'll take you to a location. And we'll be able to help you make those kinds of decisions. Like becoming a member here. Or if you've never been scripturally baptized. Those kinds of things. So contact us through that QR code. Or through the contact information on the screen. Well again, it's been a joy to have you with us today. And I hope you've been encouraged by God's Word. Whatever decision we can help you with, by all means, contact us. May the Lord bless you.