A Clear Understanding
(No. 3305)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Jesus said unto them, Have you understood all these things?" Matthew
13:51.
THIS is a question which might often be asked of us when we have been
reading the Scriptures, when we have been attending upon the public
means of Grace, or when we have been partaking of the Lord's
Supper–"Have you understood all these things?" It were well for
someone to run up to us, as Philip did to the eunuch, who on his return
from Jerusalem was reading in his chariot, and say to us as Philip did
to him, "Do you understand what you are reading?" Or the question might
be put to us, "Do you understand what you hear? Do you understand even
what you say?" I fear there are hundreds of religionists in this
country who never think of understanding that which they attend to
under the name of religion. They pass through the habitual forms,
listening to and it may be, joining in the liturgy, till at length the
service is finished, the day is over and the thing is done! The
language of devotion has thus slipped through the lips without having
leaped from the heart. Among ourselves, I fear there may be many who
are content with listening to the sound of gracious words, who never
pierce through the shell of the words into the kernel of the
meaning–satisfied with the external, which is nothing–they miss the
internal, which is everything!
"Do you understand these things?" then, is a question which may be
asked and should be asked often of every worshipper, for it is only so
far as we enter into religious worship, understanding what we are
doing, and casting our hearts into it, that it can be at all acceptable
to God. The Lord's Prayer is quite as good said backwards as forwards
if you do not say it from the heart. There is quite as much likelihood
of a benediction in a number of words thrown out pell-mell, without any
kind of connection, as there would be in the best-arranged sermon, if
there is not an attentive ear and an understanding heart. Words that
touch not the understanding glide over us as oil over a slab of marble,
without effect. Men may perish with the Gospel in their houses! They
often do perish with the Gospel ringing in their ears, for until they
understand its importance, it cannot became a soul-saving word to them!
Nor can it become a sanctifying word to any except as far as they
receive it into the understanding. If we were to hear the Gospel in
Latin, after a fashion never so orthodox, one might be no more edified
by it than by listening to so much blasphemy, because it is not the
thing heard, but the thing understood and received into the heart which
blesses the soul. Do let me exhort all of you who are in the habit of
going up to the House of God, never to be content unless you feel that
you have got a hold upon the Truth of God that is being taught. O you
Christian people, I beseech you not to be satisfied with merely the
terms of theology without getting into the pith and marrow of them! To
realize in your own soul, by experience, the meaning of a Doctrine is
the only way of knowing it! Those men never forget a Truth who have had
it burned into them as with a hot iron, by feeling the bitterness of
their soul for need of it and the preciousness of that Truth to their
soul when they receive it. He who does not receive the Truth of God in
the very power and force of it has but a name to live while he is dead.
I think these observations are warranted from the fact that though our
Lord preached the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven in the plainest
parables to the listening crowd, the very plainness of His speech, in
using familiar metaphors to make spiritual Truths common, became,
through the hardness of their hearts, embarrassing to them–they
stumbled at the mere outward figure, but never learned the inward
meaning! It was to His own chosen twelve, His favored and elect ones,
He expanded the riddles when He took them aside and then afterwards
enquired of them lest they should have missed the meaning of His
exposition, "Have you understood all these things?" The outward
testimony of the Gospel may be addressed to the multitude, but the
understanding of it is conveyed with transparent clearness to His own
people.
To hear it is a privilege, but such a privilege as may end without the
salvation of your soul and with the aggravation of your doom! But to
understand it is the privilege which leads to eternal life–and happy
are they who thus find the way to God's right hand.
I. Let us first consider this searching question–"Have you understood
all these things?"–as spoken to those who can humbly, but yet
confidently, say, "YES, WE HAVE UNDERSTOOD THESE THINGS."
I believe there are many of us here who, although we would not like to
boast of what we know and could but confess our ignorance before God,
yet dare not be so false to our own experience as to deny that we do
know the things which make for our eternal peace. We can say with the
man whose eyes were opened, "One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now
I see." We understand at least as much as this–that we are sinners,
lost and ruined in ourselves, and that in Jesus all our help is found.
We understand that we were cast away in the first Adam, and that our
rescue is found in the Second Adam, to whom we look and to whom we are
now united by a union that can never be broken. We understand this,
also, that upon His Advent into this world, upon His holy life, His
blessed death, His Resurrection, His Ascension and the power which He
now possesses at the right hand of the Father–upon Him in all these
respects we rest, and rest entirely! If we have not learned enough to
understand all mysteries and open up all prophesies, yet we do know
that Christ is precious to our soul, that He is the appointed Savior,
that He is our Savior and that we are saved through Him. Yes, blessed
be His name, we can say that we have understood, in our measure, all
these things–not as we shall understand them, not as we shall know
them, by-and-by, when clouds and darkness shall all have disappeared
and we shall be in the clear light of the Throne of God–but we have
understood these things sufficiently to be led to cast ourselves on
Jesus and to be affected in our daily life and conversation by the
Truths which Jesus Christ has taught us!
If we have thus understood all these things, what then? Let us be
thankful to God with all our hearts that we can say as much as this,
for this understanding of Divine Truth is not due to any natural
intelligence that we possess! We were by nature blind as bats to the
things of Divine Truth. Neither is it by searching that we have found
out God, for it was by His searching after us rather than by our
searching after Him. If we have received an understanding to know Him
and the height and depth of His precious love, truly we have received
it as a Free Grace gift from the hand of our Lord! Had He withheld it,
we would never had found the Savior! But it is because He, out of His
own good pleasure, irrespective of anything in us, was pleased to touch
our eyes with eye-salve that we should see, and to bring us out of
darkness into His marvelous light! It was because of His rich, free,
Sovereign, distinguishing Grace that we have been made what we are!
Come, then, let us bless the name of God! Do we feel distressed with
remaining sin? Yet let each one of us remember, "by the Grace of God I
am what am." If I have but little Grace, let me be thankful for that
little–I might have had none at all. And if I am struggling with
corruption, let me be thankful that I have Grace to struggle with it,
for time was when I would have enjoyed my corruptions instead of
lamenting and deploring them! Whatever trial may depress my spirit, let
me not rob my God of a song, but if, indeed, He has made me to
understand the things which save my soul, let me praise Him and extol
Him for His amazing Grace towards such an undeserving one–the least
deserving of all His family!
Further, Brothers and Sisters, if you have been led to understand these
things, ought not this to encourage you to seek to understand more? The
young beginner in Grace should feel that it will not be impossible for
him to grow to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus because
Grace has quickened him and made him a babe. That is the greatest
thing–to be made alive at all! When Grace has gone so far as to give
me life and put me in the family of God, I need not fear but what Grace
will nurture that life and ultimately bring me to perfection! If I find
myself growing in God's garden, though I am the tiniest plant in all
the bed, yet it is such a mercy to be in the garden at all–I who was a
wild rank weed out in the wilderness before–that I will not doubt but
what He will water me when I need it and that He will tend and care for
me till I shall come to perfection. Never think, dear Christian Friend,
that you cannot master the Gospel Doctrine! Why, you have learned that
Christ is yours–that is the secret of the Lord! All other Doctrines
after this are learnable and comparatively easy. Give yourself up to
the teaching of the Divine Spirit. Wait upon Him in believing prayer
and He that has led you through the veil will not keep back the keys of
any of the chambers of the Temple that shall be profitable for you to
enter! Having understood so much, it behooves you to hope to understand
more–and as an intelligent Believer in Christ, it becomes you to seek
to understand more!
And surely if you have understood all these things, my dear Christian
Friend, you should not be backward to tell them to others! We are not
sent in the Divine School to be scholars merely for ourselves. We are
to be in this world as
pupil-teachers–pupils always, but teachers, too! Pupils learning
constantly at the Master's feet and, at the same time, teachers
instructing others in the Truths of God we know. Let it never be
supposed that the office of teaching in the Christian Church can
exclusively belong to one man, or to one class of men! It belongs to
every Christian man, and to every Christian woman, too! You cannot
teach beyond what you have been taught of God, and it is in proportion
as you are taught of God that your teaching takes a wider sphere. But
you must teach what you know! You will seldom learn much to your own
profit unless you are diligent in imparting knowledge and edifying one
another, for it is in the distribution to the rest of the brotherhood
of the good things which God has given you that you shall enjoy the
blessing of the Lord which makes rich! If you will not communicate to
the backsliding, to the desponding and to the feeble, the comforts
which God gives you, you have cause to fear that in your time of
trouble you may have those comforts withheld which you once stifled in
your own breast, not knowing how to use them for the Church's benefit!
Never keep a Truth of God to yourself, my Brother! Have you found
honey? There are other mouths that would gladly know its flavor and
there is enough in that Jonathan's forest of the Scripture for all the
hosts of Israel to eat! They cannot exhaust it! Thus would I have you
tell others what a dear Savior you have found. Let other candles be lit
from your candle and your candle shall burn none the less brightly! But
rather in this it may be said that to enrich yourselves in all
knowledge, you must enrich others with the knowledge that you have!
"Have you understood all these things?" There I will leave you, dear
people of God. May your hearts glow and your thoughts be stirred in
pondering this question of the text when you are alone!
II. But SOME WHO THINK THEY UNDERSTAND ALL THESE THINGS DO NOT
UNDERSTAND THEM.
In all our congregations we have many who would say, as quickly as the
question was heard, "Do you understand all these things?" "Indeed I do!
I have been a hearer these 30 years. I tell you, Sir, I know the
difference between Calvinism and Arminianism! A man is not going to
deceive me–as soon as I hear a sermon, I can tell at once whether it
is sound or unsound." Well then, dear Friend, I am glad to hear that
you have so much knowledge. But I want to ask you–Is your life in
accordance with what you know? Knowing the right from the wrong so
well, is your life conformed to the image of Christ Jesus, or are you
living for all the world as if you did not know anything about these
things? Because, let me say to you, dear Friends, it is a very, very
solemn thing to have a sort of understanding of Divine Truth, but not
to be affected by it so as to repent of sin, so as to live unto God, so
as to seek after holiness! All this religion of yours will be a painted
pageantry for you to go to Hell in–it will be nothing better than a
millstone tied about your neck to sink you deeper and deeper! It were
better, very likely, for you that you never had known the way of
salvation at all than that having known it, you should have done
despite to it and have lived in opposition to its spirit and its
precepts! You had better have been born in the interior of Africa and
never have listened to the missionary telling of the Crucified One,
than to have been born in London and fostered under an orthodox
ministry, if you befool your soul with a name to live while you are
dead, boasting about your knowledge, but never proving your holiness!
Talking about faith, but having a faith that is lifeless, producing no
fruits, resulting in no works answerable to your profession! I charge
you, knowing professor, to remember your solemn responsibility! I
beseech you, as you love your own soul, not to make a downy bed out of
your knowledge, for it shall be a thorn in your dying pillow! I charge
you not to make Hell hotter to yourself than it need be by taking all
this knowledge in and panting after more, while you forget that "to
obey is better than sacrifice," to trust is better than to boast, to
love is better than to rival and to serve out of simple affection is
better than to chatter, to discuss, to criticize and to censure!
It were well if everyone who understands the things of the Gospel, or
who think he does, would constantly examine himself about this
business, especially those of us who are ministers. It is a very easy
thing for us to be self-deceived– probably more easy for us than for
any other people because, having a sacred office for a secular
vocation, we handle these things every day. Assuming it to be our duty
to admonish others, we are prone to resent admonition ourselves. If we
have not been converted, it is the least likely thing in all the world
that we ever will be. I have made the remark myself, and I have heard
it verified by others, that for pew-openers to be converted is a thing
probably unheard of. They are busy here and there, till they are known
to forget their own obligation to worship! Unless they are converted
before they take that office–concerning which I think we should make
strict enquiry–in all likelihood they never will be because they are
so concerned about the pews, and about putting people in them, and I
know not what besides, that it seems impossible for them to give their
ears to hear, or their conscience to feel, or that the voice of Truth
should ever reach them. Next to them comes the preacher who is always
dealing with the shell of Truth. When he sits down to read the Bible,
he cannot help thinking whether this or that text would make a sermon.
When he is praying, often the temptation is to glide into a kind of
ministerial prayer–not the prayer of a poor sinner coming near to God!
Perhaps, after all, the least likely person to get a blessing is the
knowing professor! I tell you that the drunk and the harlot are often
rescued when such professors are not even reached with the thrilling
message! The sermon which is made useful to a man who never heard the
Gospel before is of no use to the hard-headed critic, because he knows
too much to get any good out of it! Oh, there are some people you
cannot preach to aright. If the Holy Spirit Himself were to speak, they
would accuse Him of being heterodox! If an angel from Heaven were to
deliver the Truth of God fresh from the mouth of God, he would not
satisfy them. They are always on the look-out for a word amiss. They
are always seeking, if they can, to pick holes, detect flaws and find
fault–this is their trade, their craft, the thing at which they are
expert–to make the message of mercy a kind of target into which they
may shoot their arrows! These men seldom, I might almost say, never,
get a blessing. I do not see how they can. The infinite mercy of God
can do what it will, but seldom does God's Sovereignty light on these
shallow professors who are eaten up with conceit. Oh, for a solemn
searching, a sincere self-examination of our hearts! Perhaps we may
find that our heads are growing and our hearts are shriveling. Some
children die early because they get the rickets. Their heads are too
big, poor things, and there are many professors with big heads and
small hearts. Alas, they have not got the life of God in them at all!
God save us from this temptation!
III. Are there not in every congregation SOME WHO WOULD HARDLY KNOW HOW
TO ANSWER THIS
QUESTION–"Have you understood all these things?"
They do understand them, yet they do not. They do up to a point
theoretically comprehend them, but spiritually and experimentally, they
discern them not. Fearing lest there might be in the present assembly
such as really do not understand the very first principles of the Truth
of God, I would pointedly and earnestly address myself to their
particular case. My dear Friend, it would be a very dreadful thing for
your soul to be lost for lack of knowledge and to perish for lack of
understanding! Solomon says that for the soul to be without knowledge
is not good. You tell me that you understand the Gospel. I reply to
you, Then why do you not accept it? You know you are lost, you tell me.
You know that Jesus Christ is set forth as the only Savior and you know
that a simple trust in Him will save you. How is it you can continue
peaceful and happy while you are not a partaker of the Grace of God?
How is it you can remain satisfied when knowing there is but one way of
salvation, you have not yet entered upon it, when, acknowledging Christ
to be the Son of God, and to be the only way of salvation, you have
lived up till now a despiser or a neglecter of Him? I would gladly
hope–for it would be the only excuse I could offer for you–that
perhaps, after all, you really do notunderstand these things which you
think you do. Let me remind you now–you are an unsaved sinner, you are
lost, your sin has condemned you, you fell in Adam, you have sinned
personally and actually and you are condemned to die! It is not that
one day you will be condemned–you are already condemned! At this
present moment you are spared and allowed to go about this world, but
you are like a criminal in a condemned cell! The sentence has gone out
against you and only God's long-suffering keeps that gleaming axe from
falling and utterly destroying you! Do you understand that? Have you
really got that thought into your mind? There you are, just like a man
about to be beheaded, with your neck on the block, and the axe lifted
up–and it may fall–while I am yet speaking, the axe of death may fall
and you, soul and body, may be lost forever before that clock ticks
again! You know this, but do you really understand it? Will you try to
understand it? Will you try to make it real to your thoughts tonight?
For I think if you would, there might be some hope that now you would
escape from your present ruin and lift up your heart to the great
Father of Mercies, and say, "Lord, save me, or I perish."
You know another Truth of God and you say you understand it. Let me put
it to you. Jesus Christ came into this world. He was God's
only-begotten Son, but He became Man and as Man, for man He suffered.
God most punish sin, but He punished Jesus Christ for the sins of His
people. And those who trust Him are secure because Jesus Christ was
their Substitute–and they go free. Now, there is no other hope of
redemption from the fiery wrath of God but by having a part and lot in
the substitutionary work of Christ! You know that, but you have not got
a part and lot in it and you must be lost if you continue without that
part or lot. How is it that you can be quiet? You sleep soundly at
night. You eat and drink cheerfully and you sometimes enjoy a merry
ringing laugh. How can you revel in the pleasures of sense? How can you
give sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids until you get the
one thing necessary, the one thing which alone can
make eternity happy–that infinite future upon which you are so soon to
enter? If Jesus Christ, standing in Heaven, is preached to you tonight
and you are bid to believe in Him, and you do not believe in Him, then
you do, as far as you can, crucify Him afresh and open His wounds again
and make them bleed! Do you mean to do that? Do you understand that
this is what you are doing every day? Would you, dear Friend, would you
call God a liar? And yet the Apostle John says that, "He that believes
not God, has made Him a liar because he believes not the record that
God gave of His Son." Do you understand what this unbelief of yours
really is? You doubt Christ! That is to say, you do not think Christ to
be truthful, or good, or able, or strong! Oh, but you say, you know
better than that! Then, if you know better why do you act as if you did
not know better? If He is able to save, and willing to save, O my dear
Hearer, why not come to Him as you are and cast yourself at His
feet–and rest in Him in whom your only rest can be found? "Have you
understood all these things?" then, is a question which you cannot,
after all, answer in the right way! I beseech you never to rest until
you can!
Should there be, my dear Hearers, something which keeps you back from
Christ, arising not so much from your need of will as from your need of
knowledge, may God the Holy Spirit stir up your desire and never let
you rest till you know Christ, till you so hear that your soul shall
live! How shall you know? He is the great Teacher, but in the use of
means He will teach you. Be content in attending the House of God where
Christ is most preached. Search the Scriptures, for in them you think
you have eternal life, and these are they that testify of Him. Go to
the Father of Mercy and plead with Him ere you sleep. Pray to Him thus,
"Father, if there is some sin that I do not know to be a sin, that I am
indulging in, and that keeps me from Christ, show it to me and enable
me to give it up. Or if it is a sin which I do know, but seem to have
struggled with in vain, my Father, strengthen me that I may cut off the
right arm and pluck out the right eye sooner than cherish those vain
delights which bode my everlasting destruction." Plead with Him
thus–"O my God, I want to know Your Son; reveal Your Son in me, for so
I read You do to Your people. Reveal your Son in me by the Holy Spirit!
I am a poor, blind, ignorant sinner, but teach me, for have You not
given the Spirit of God on purpose to be the Teacher of the ignorant
and the Instructor of the babes?" Plead with the Lord, and plead always
with the recollection that you cannot ask because you deserve, but you
must ask because Christ deserves! Plead His wounds, His blood, His
death, His infinite merit and you shall, before long–I am certain of
it–you shall before long, in answer to your cries, receive light from
the Word, and in that light you shall see light and you shall
understand the things which make for your peace!
I am deeply concerned for some of you, especially for such of you as
often listen to my voice, that I may not forever keep on talking into
your ears and never reach your hearts. What? Am I to rock your cradle
and send you to sleep that you may sleep yourselves into Hell? Is mine
to be the voice that is really to increase your responsibility and not
to be the means of bringing you to Jesus? I pray God to avert so
dreadful a result to all our ministry, but may you be led this very
night–for God's people have been praying for you–may you be led this
very night to confess that you do not understand what you ought to
understand and go to the great and wise God to teach and instruct you!
And as surely as His Word is the Truth of God, He will instruct you and
teach you in the way that you should go and bring you to Himself. He
that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved! Thus says His
own Word, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."
Trust–that is the main matter. To believe is to trust, to rely on, to
depend upon–he that depends upon Jesus, trusts Him, believes in Him,
is saved! May we be of that blessed number and His shall be the Glory.
Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 13:1-23.
Verses 1, 2. The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the
seaside. And great multitudes were gathered together unto Him, so that
He went into a boat, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the
shore. I think I can see the little ship at a convenient distance from
the shore so as to keep off the multitudes of people, in order that the
Savior might speak more freely. There He sits with a boat for a pulpit.
There were no conventionalities about the Lord Jesus when He was upon
the earth–He was willing to speak to the people anywhere from any
pulpit whatever!
3. And He spoke many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a
sower went forth to sow. [See Sermon #2842, Volume
49–THE SOWER.] It was probably at that season of the year when
the sowers were going forth to sow their seed, so Jesus pointed to them
as to a living text. He was always wide-awake to
make use of everything that occurred round about Him. "A sower went
forth to sow." For what else should he go forth? Yet some sowers that I
know of do not go forth to sow, but to exhibit themselves and to show
how well they can do their work. This man aimed at sowing and nothing
else. Oh, that all preachers did the same!
4. And when he sowed, some seeds feel by the wayside.He could not help
that. He was not sent to pick the soil, that would be too much
responsibility for him. If we had to preach only to certain characters,
we should be taking up all our time in picking out those characters!
And probably we would make many mistakes while trying to do it. Our
business is to scatter the Good Seed broadcast. We are not to dibble in
the Word of God–we are to throw it as far as we can, and to let it
fall wherever God pleases. "Some seeds fell by the wayside"–on ground
trodden hard by the passers-by.
4. And the fowls came and devoured them up. Those fowls are always
ready to devour the Good Seed. Wherever there is a congregation met to
hear the Word, there are always plenty of devils ready to do their evil
work! "The fowls came," they had not far to fly. The birds know a sower
by the very look of him, so they hurry up and come wherever the seed
may be cast that they may devour it. O Lord, keep the fowls away or,
better still, break up the soil so that the seed may enter and not lie
upon the surface!
5. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth. There
was a pan of unbroken limestone an inch or two below the soil, but
there was no depth of earth where the seeds could grow.
5. And forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth.
They seemed to be converts, but they proved to be worthless. They were
enthusiastic, carried away with excitement, but all was soon over with
them "because they had no deepness of earth." Everything was
superficial, there was no depth of character, or feeling, or emotion.
6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no
root, they withered away. [See Sermon #2844,
Volume 49–THE SEED UPON A ROCK.] They seemed to be alive at the
top, but they were really dead below. How many there still are of that
sort–they make a bold profession, but it is only for a while–and then
they wither away.
7. 8. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked
them: but other fell into good ground– Thank God we do not lose all
our efforts! If one in four succeeds, it is great deal for which we
ought to praise the Lord. So, Brother, Sister–
"Sow in the morn your seed, At eve hold not your hand. To doubt and
fear give you no heed, Broadcast it over the land."
8. And brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some
thirtyfold. There are degrees even in fruit-fulness–Christians are not
all alike. Oh, that we had a hundredfold return for our sowing
everywhere! We do not get it, and can scarcely expect it, but let us
thank God if we have "some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some
thirtyfold."
9-12. Who has ears to hear, let him hear And the disciple came and said
unto Him, Why do You speak to them in parables? He answered and said
unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given. For whoever has, to him
shall be given, andhe shall have more abundance: but whoever
has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has. [See Sermon
#1488, Volume 25–MORE AND MORE, OR LESS AND LESS.] It is so even in
common things–the man of intelligence who has a good groundwork of
education, picks up something everywhere–but the ignorant man learns
nothing anywhere. He only finds out more and more of his own ignorance
till there is taken away from him even that which he had. Oh, that the
Lord would give us a good groundwork of saving knowledge so that we
might go on learning more and more under the Holy Spirit's teaching!
13-16. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing, see
not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them
is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing you shall
hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not
perceive: for this people's heart is grown gross, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they
should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, andshould be converted, and I should heal
them. But blessedare your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they
hear.It is awful thing when God gives men up to spiritual blindness and
dullness and hardness, but it does happen. If you hear the Word and
refuse to receive it, you do, to that extent, harden your heart. And if
you continue to do so, you will by degrees lose the capacity for
understanding the Word. Take heed what you hear! O my
dear Hearers, I am afraid that many of you are not aware of the solemn
responsibility of hearing the Gospel and of the terrible peril of
having your ears made dull and your heart made hard! I am responsible
for preaching faithfully to you, but you are equally responsible for
hearing what is preached. Let us not waste any opportunity that we have
of hearing the Word, but use it wisely and well that we may be able to
give a good account of it before God in our fruitfulness.
Now, if the Savior's main design, in the use of parables, had been that
men should not understand Him, He could have answered that end better
by not speaking at all. But see how mercy blends with justice, and
gives them another opportunity of hearing the Word. They might have
come to Jesus even as His disciples did, and asked Him questions, and
He would have explained the truth to them. If any of you today hear
anything which you do not understand, go to the Lord about it in
private prayer and He will explain it to you. I tremble lest any of you
should hear the Word and not receive it and yet be content! That is the
worst state of all for anyone to be in! May God save you from it! But
as for you who know the lord, "blessed are your eyes, for they see."
Those are blessed eyes that can really see. Eyes that cannot see are a
trial, but "blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for
they hear." It is nothing but the Grace of God that can make our ears
spiritually hear. He that made the ear can alone make an open passage
from the ear to the heart. If you have received this blessing, be very
grateful for it, and bless the God of Grace for giving it to you!
17. For verily I say unto you, That many Prophets and righteous men
have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them;
and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them. To
you Christian people, there is given a very full revelation of the
Truth of God. You live in the mid-day Glory of the Gospel, but the
"Prophets and righteous men" of old lived in the morning twilight. Be
the more grateful and bless the Lord with all your hearts.
18, 19. Hear you, therefore, the parable of the sower When anyone hears
the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, then comes the Wicked
One and catches away that which was sown in his heart This is he which
received the seed by the wayside.There are many such Hearers! They just
hear the Word and that is all. They are very much like the countryman
who said that he liked Sunday, for it was such an easy day–he had
nothing to do but go to church, put up his legs and think of nothing.
There are far too many hearers of that sort who think of nothing and,
therefore, they get no good out of what they hear.
20, 21. But he that received the seed in the stony places, the same is
he that hears the word, and with joy receives it, yet has he not root
in himself, but endures for a while: but when tribulation or
persecution arises because of the word, by-and-by he is offended.He
soon ceases even to profess to be a Christian! He jumped into religion
and he jumps out again. Revival always produce a large quantity of such
people, and yet, if there is one soul truly saved, the revival is a
success as far as that one is concerned.
22, 23. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears
the word, and the care of this world, and the de-ceitfulness of riches,
choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful But he that received seed in
the good ground is he that hears the word, and understands it Knows
what it means, thinks it over, takes it in as the good ground takes in
the seed and keeps it–
23. Which also bears fruit, and brings forth, some an hundredfold, some
sixty, some thirty. I say again–Oh, that we had a hundredfold return
for our sowing! Yet let us not forget to give God thanks if we have
sixtyfold or even thirty-
fold.