Tom Allen is married to Catherine and they currently have 3 children. Tom serves as the sole pastor at Eastbourne Grace Baptist Church, in Southern England. After working as a teacher, he trained for the ministry at London Seminary. Upon graduation he was called to pastor a Reformed Baptist church in south London for 5 years before being called to Eastbourne. Tom has a passion to see the word of God preached soundly, passionately and experimentally and to see healthy, holy and confessional churches established in the United Kingdom. Tom also has a burden to see young men trained and equipped to preach the Word.
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I was aware once of a of a church that had a fairly long internum and it was quite clear when I visited there and preached there that there was this sort of expectation that as soon as we get that Pastor as soon as we get that Pulpit
Filled that all of a sudden the church is going to be transformed the crowds are going to come in and and then you can imagine when this man comes it’s a bit of an anticlimax and and and and the Temptation is for the congregation to vent that frustration and have this
Problem and and it’s very easy isn’t it to assume that the the the issues in our day the the lack of enthusiasm for God’s word and God’s truth could all be solved by something external but beloved Jesus was the sweetest preacher there ever was Jesus was the most loving and tender
Preacher there ever was Jesus was the most bold preacher there ever ever was Jesus knew perfectly how to teach illustrate and apply he he was the preacher of preachers it wasn’t Charles had dispersion he he he is the the name above all names and and yet his the
Reaction to his ministry was was so varied um the teaching that we come to in God’s word came on a very difficult day for the preacher for the Lord Jesus Christ this was a this was a Rel less day this was just one of those days this
Was a bad day this is what you might the officers might call a bad week in church life Jesus had what we might experience over a number of years or bad week he had it in one day um we’re told in Matthew’s account of this that this Parable was given on the same
Day the the events happened we’ve been considering when Jesus faced that that charge of being evil from the Pharisees of casting out demons by Satan himself and so Jesus has been met with tremendous opposition by his enemies and then to top it all off we’ve seen how his family
They wanted to really lay hold of him and and make him shut up mom and brothers we got to shut him up because he’s he’s going to drive himself into an early grave Jesus was misunderstood Jesus was opposed there was very little positive response to the
Ministry of our Lord and savior and and you can imagine in his little flock and he he had a little flock didn’t he our Lord um he had a 120 in the upper room but my view on this though I’m I’m happy to reconsider this by any means it’s not a
Strong view I hold but my view on this is that his numbers were probably even smaller than that in Jerusalem the 120 were there at Pentecost and so you had Jews from all the regions of Galilee coming into Jerusalem for Pentecost so that 120 was really a very dispersed congregation
Coming together of people that have been responsive to his ministry in capernium and in Galilee and some in Judea and so really if you were to disperse it up he hasn’t got many people to show for his labors across the whole region little pockets of chapels you might say here
And there 10 there 20 there and there’s 120 of them at a conference in the upper room that’s all he had at the end of three years of ministry and and if you’re the disciples this is a bit of an anticlimax this is a bit alarming isn’t it because he’s
Claiming to be the Messiah and they believe him to be such a messiah and yet why are there so few believing in the Lord if you ever had that moment I remember when I was first um coming to the convictions that I now preach coming from a different background to most of
You and searching the scriptures and I felt there was so at the time I didn’t know you lot I didn’t know many people that was coming to these views it felt like I was coming to them by myself to some degree without any external influences but things I was reading and
And and one of the disarming things was how can this be true if the majority of professing Christians I know deny this and I I really doubted the real like who am I so arrogant that was the kind of wrestling in my mind am I so arrogant
And proud to say that I’m right and they’re all wrong and and that really unsettled me and you can imagine if you’re these uneducated fishermen and tax collectors the sort of the concern but Lord the religious teachers don’t believe in you and so Jesus then deploys
This par called the parable of the S it it really should be called the parable of the soils to effectively explain why there are different reactions to his ministry and and there are four there are four reactions and I believe I believe it’s right to say that the four
Reactions described in these this teaching of Our Lord encompasses is all the reactions that can be made to Jesus one way or another you have the religious reaction and the hard-hearted those by the wayside just dismiss it outright you have those who are if you like superficial Believers like Judas
And tribulation arises they fall away you you also have the crowds don’t you those have divided Hearts who have embraced the idea of all the they love the blessings that Jesus talks about all the positives but they haven’t actually faced up to the the conditions of being a Christian counting the cost
And we’ll look at those a bit more later on and then of course there is the one group isn’t that amazing out of four groups there is only one group that is properly speaking called good soil I think that surely demonstrates for us what it helps us understand what
We see in our own context and I also believe that the these are different types of soils and depending on when we live in history you will find a particular so as characteristic of a particular age Paul said to Timothy preach the word in season and out of season implying there are different
Seasons you you we’re not all laboring and doing God’s work in the same season we’re not all uh tilling the same soil and so for example the the first category that we’ll look at the religious the hard ground that Satan comes in and takes it away I would say
That that is particularly characteristic of the day and age which we are living in but there have been times when there’s been lots of people in church the Chapels have been full but not many have been converted and that might be characterized by the second and third groups of
Soil and then of course there are times of tremendous blessing and Revival the good soil and indeed The Remnant that exist in all of those times would be properly considered as good soil so this morning you need to be asking what kind of soil am I and and you mustn’t be
Afraid of that question because if you are the Lord you’ve got nothing to be fearful of you will be assured you’ll be confirmed and the Bible itself wants us to ask those questions says examine yourselves doesn’t it we’re actually disobedient to Christ if we don’t examine ourselves that’s that’s
Disobedience if if we’re not prepared to do that we’re not being faithful to the word of God so examine yourselves hear these different soils described as reflective of four Hearts if you like and and ask yourself do these which one am I but it also I believe will be deep
Reassuring because we will see in this passage why things are the way they are in the church and in the World At Large well it’s time okay firstly then see with me this morning expect the truth to work very slowly expect the truth to work very slowly sometimes we might assume if
Something is true and and right it should make a sort of a a grandstand entrance that that that that every opposition to it would be swept in its way but that’s actually not how the truth spreads and how the truth works the truth moves and works the message of
The Kingdom spreads steadily and slowly and sometimes imperceptibly how do we see that well we read in verse one and again and again Jesus had to say the same things again and again and again and again you know Jonathan Edwards you might have heard of him Great Awakening
Preacher in New England you may have heard of his famous sermon sinners in the hand of an Angry God that led to Great Awakening you know he preached that I believe up to 13 times and more than once to his own congregation and yet there was there
Wasn’t blessing at the first time that he preached that word you out here you have the greatest preacher that ever lived who let’s be clear about this if he so willed he could have made people believe in an instant he didn’t even need to preach you could say he could have just worked
In the heart said believe and he he can create things out of nothing he can make something exist if he could make a Christian just by saying let there be a Christian without any teaching without any preaching and yet the Lord never chose to to use the kind of power that
He had at his disposal in that way to accomplish the ends he chose to teach again and again and again persistently patiently to the crowds that kept coming you might say it’s quite mundane why does Jesus do it this way when he could do it in a far more
Dramatic and you might say awesome way why does Jesus spread his kingdom in a way that men and women don’t even see happening I believe it lies in this Jesus does all things that in such a way that will glorify God the most the way
The Lord works is in such a way that the glory of God God will be seen and so the Lord has chosen in his wisdom and Grace to save men and women in a way that men and women find prophetic weak deplorable and pointless and and and so Jesus is
Teaching us here in his practice that the method of evangelism this is very important for the modern day the method of evangelism must be consistent with the message the message says that men and women are unable of themselves to save themselves and it requires only the intervention of almighty God in their
Lives and so therefore the Lord deploys an instrument a method of saving Souls namely teaching and preaching and explaining and reasoning that you would say how could that produce the kind of outcomes that needed to demonstrate that the power is of God and of God alone and
So when we evangelize we got on Friday we know don’t we we know no one will believe unless God does something and that is what we see here the word of God works slowly and you might say even imperceptibly furthermore on that point um the Lord is also trying to humiliate
Satan how did Satan cause men and women to fall through the word through trickery coercion and Temptation through twisting God’s words therefore the Lord Jesus undo the ruins of Satan’s work through using the word Faithfully to show that Satan’s lies and deceptions are no match for the truth of
God’s word and so at the human level the disciples just see a man teaching again and again why do you keep teaching Lord can’t you do something better than this have you not seen in the opposition I mean so often what we do when when when an Evangelistic method fails we go well
What should we try now well Jesus has had a really bad day his preaching has not gone down well with anybody and what’s his conclusion he taught again and and that’s so different isn’t it to the way the modern church is is is dealing with things it’s so relevant to
The particular moment that we are in now there application on this point I believe this teaches us we should not expect outcomes that we wish for and pray for to occur immediately we should remember that if the Son of God had to labor with intensity persistence so will the
Church we are not above our master and not a single one of us is more effective than the Savior our evangelism then as a church are seeking to win souls must be engaged with persistence repetition it fails do it again and actually we’re going to reconsider by this Parable the
Whole concept of what it means to fail it’s not failing if no one responds we’re going to look at that but we just we again they didn’t believe again didn’t believe again didn’t believe because that’s what our Lord and savior did that’s what it is to do the father’s
Business it’s interesting isn’t it you see the grace of our Lord Jesus here he doesn’t give up on people as quickly as we do a little while back I was praying for a particular loved one that I’m burdened about in my family and I actually had I
Actually shamefully said to God I’m not praying about him anymore and I read this this week and I thought but our lord Jesus was willing to teach again those who didn’t get it the first time the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ but I think you also see here how
The kingdom of God or how the word of God works in our hearts because among these crowds were also the disciples being taught and it shows us that we are really slow to learn aren’t we we are so slow to learn I’m still learning things that I profess to know are
You so I say publicly in this Pulpit the Lord provides for our needs I’m still learning that truth I haven’t understood it yet I understand the mere letter of it do not lean in your your own understanding but trust in the Lord and He Shall direct your steps I’m still
Learning what that means to not trust my own initiatives and ideas and be be directed by the Lord and Trust his wisdom we’re so slow to learn and our hearts by Nature naturally become proud and hard and so we have to be taught again and again and again so expect the
Truth to work slowly secondly expect the truth to be hidden verse two he taught them many things by Parables now look at verse 10 to 12 when he was alone those around him with the 12 asked him about the parable and he said to them to you it has been given to
Know the mystery of the kingdom of God but to those who are outside all things coming Parable so that seeing they may see and not perceive hearing they may hear and not understand lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven by them we see here something that we find very hard to
Accept but the word of God tells us here in this portion that the Lord deliberately concealed the truth from some that listened to him and that is one of the reasons why so many do not believe and it’s a burden isn’t it there’s no message like the
Gospel great is the gospel of our glorious God he’s so good he’s so glorious the way of Salvation is so unbelievably great and secure for all those who come to Christ and we think how why is it so many it’s just like water off a duck’s back for some people
They say why do you want to hear this same message over and over again it’s because they don’t understand how glorious it is and how much we need it over and over again and we say why one of the reasons is because the Lord conceals the truth now maybe you struggle with that
But that is what the text says our Lord spoke in Parables so that seeing they may not perceive and hearing they may not understand lest their sins should be forgiven by them does your Jesus fit with the Jesus of scripture now parables are when truth is explained by way of
Illustration or analogy so Jesus tells a something that everyone else would see as common sense or they would understand that’s the parable and Jesus says that Parable that illustration is a perfect summary of something that is true it’s it’s when the meaning is veiled within the parable and the only
Way you can get to the meaning is if you ask questions of God concerning the parable and you see this is the point the proud just the proud and the self-righteous and the hard-hearted those who thought they had no need of a savior they heard the parable and just
This man’s talking riddles and the parable then veiled it from them so that they wouldn’t probe any further but those who are humble and those who are like little children have been made like little children have come to realize that I can’t know anything right anything true unless God teaches me
They’re going to ask the question what does this mean I want to know I want to know what you’re saying and therefore this is how we make sense of this because what this means is when we read of Jesus concealing the truth he’s concealing the truth from those who
Already don’t want to know the truth it’s not like the Pharisees there openhearted wanting to believe and then the Lord Jesus says no you won’t believe no they don’t want to believe and Jesus conceals it and basically so they will never believe it’s a bit like in Exodus when you read about
Pharaoh I found it very confusing reading this because at one point it says Pharaoh hardened his heart but then it says the Lord hardened his heart and you just keep seeing this interaction Pharaoh hardens his heart the Lord hardens heart what’s going on there Pharaoh’s hardening his heart and
The Lord saying if your heart’s going to be hard I’ll Harden it some more and the Lord is Sovereign and free to to do this we might feel it doesn’t might think it doesn’t feel very nice but you’re not dealing with people who are open and soft and pliable and
Teachable and in fact we’re dealing with people that men that by Nature are proud and arrogant and think that through men’s wisdom we can ask has attain to truth about what God will accept or won’t accept these Pharisees and scribes were wise in their own right in their own
Eyes they they were insensitive to their need of Divine Mercy they came not to be taught what about you this morning do you come to be taught or do you come to judge what is taught because the Pharisees were not coming to be taught they were coming to
Stand in judgment over what was being taught and so Jesus Tau in Parables but there’s another reason why Jesus talk Parables not just to harden those who were already hard and confirm them in unbelief and give them over to their blindness the other reason is to reveal
The reason why anyone sees in the first place that is what it says isn’t it in Mark to you verse 11 the 12 ask him the question to you to you just to you not them not them you it has been given that’s the word of Grace the gift it’s
Been given he didn’t deserve it you’re not worthy of it but to you has been given the most amazing privilege to know the mystery of the kingdom of God in other words Jesus taught in Parables to demonstrate and highlight the fact the wonderful truth that if any of us
See if any of us believe if any of us understand it has been a merciful gift of God to us to you it has been given are you marveling at this anymore or have you become so used to being able to see that you have forgotten what it is not to
See have you lost a Wonder of these things you say oh well you don’t know what I’m going on with you don’t know what how hard my work is you know what my pressures are friends if you marveled at these things the pressures would feel less because you would realize you’re
Not hard done by that you’re Most Blessed of all why do any of you believe in this room Grace you would never have chosen Christ you would never have seen Christ you would never have loved Christ you would have been claiming to be wise like the rest of men and women and yet
Would have been a fool do you realize the Wonder of what it is to be in the light to not be in darkness can you imagine a life not knowing what you know now some of you older ones can you imagine if you’d lived 50 years of your
Life you’ve lived as a Believer as an unbeliever where you might be now would you still be married the the the amazing reality of not being ignorant of God and his salvation and of his son the Lord Jesus Christ Matthew’s account brings out the well I’m struggling to convey in
Human words but Matthew’s account explicitly actually brings out the Marvel of what it is to be a believer and the gift and the privilege of it all in in Matthew 13 verse 10 the disciples say why do you speak to them in Parables he answered because here’s the reason because it has been
Given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been given verse 16 blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear for assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see
What you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it think of all the prophets and all that they suffered for believing in this promise that they’d never seen and the privilege that we have to live this side of Jesus Christ coming
Into this world and to know the assurance that it’s all true that he really did die for our sins according to the scriptures was buried in three days later rose again to give New Life to all who believe on him the Marvel of this is this not something to give us
Contentment in whatever we’re going through oh yeah they’ve got it easier the unbeliever oh yeah their work situation easier or their family situation easier or their situations easier or they don’t seem to have the problems that that we have in our lives as Assaf said the ungodly are always at
Ease they say but they do not see they’re blind and if you’re not a Christian this morning I want you to see that you are in the most miserable situation in this room you may be respectable you may be liked you may have had a good
Career you may be a nice husband a nice wife but if you do not understand or know the need you have for the Lord Jesus Christ that is the most miserable situation to be in for you are in darkness and you will be cast out one day into outer Darkness where there is
Weeping and nashing of teeth the only hope for you is if you cry out to the Lord open my eyes that I might see well we come to the parable now itself and we going to work through it fairly at speed and uh we see four responses then
To the message of the Kingdom in this Parable that characterize what we see at any one time and also what we see in particular at different times dismissal superficiality half-heartedness and a genuine response to the truth so further you see me expect the truth to be quickly
Dismissed expect the truth to be quickly dismissed so went out to seow same SE same seed every time do you know that the seed doesn’t change and the SE doesn’t change he doesn’t do things differently he does it exactly the same way there is no change then in the SE
And there is no change in the seed and we’ll think about that implication in a moment’s time but what changes are the conditions that the sewer is sewing the seed and the first condition that the SE seed is met with is What’s called the Wayside and all the fields would have
These paths that would sometimes go in the middle of the field and around the edges of the field where people walked on and repeated foot stamping on the the dust and on the soil and the hot scorching Sun would effectively turn the soil to be like
Concrete and so the seed would just fall onto the soil and it could not germinate it could not find the resting place it would just lie on the surface and lying on the surface Jesus says meant that the birds were able to come and devour it and we know how quick
Birds are to devour it don’t we um I’m telling you Brighton seagulls are more aggressive than eastborn seag gos the only seag gos I’ve met that are a match for the Brighton sea gos are the ones in broadstairs in Kent they’re pretty lethal as well I have lost an ice cream
At Brighton um I remember having Vision chips with with the family there we at a SE Life Center we come out and we’re sitting on the beach and they are literally telling all their friends and they’re circling you and they they they are they even if it’s right next to you
If a chip Falls they’re in and the Chip’s gone they they’re vultures they’re vultures they don’t want you to enjoy the chips they want the chips and and that is the image to have in your mind this precious seed I mean there’s nothing worse than losing your ice cream especially with inflation
These days I mean an ice cream is expensive £350 4 just for a dollop of cream and On A Cone and then they take it precious seed falls on the ground and the burns of the air come and take it now the wonderful thing about this
Parable is Jesus tells us the meaning of this Parable see the other Parables we have to interpret he gives this interpretation as an example of how you interpret The Parables and he tells us what’s going on here so the S is the one is the one sharing the word of God the
Preacher that in this case is Jesus but it could be any man or woman in Sunday School in the old people’s home in the streets anyone who’s sharing the word the seed is the word and here’s the point the message never changes does it in all the four soils and so you seow
The seed but in this case it finds only hardness now of course therefore the Wayside the hard soil represents a hard part the word comes and just go bang and it can make no penetrating impact Satan can come along immediately and just snatch it away and uh it doesn’t matter how how
Good the farmer is at sewing the seed dear friends it doesn’t matter how effective the seed is it could be the most expensive seed it could be wait seed versus AI seed but it’s still going to fall on the floor and the birds are going to devour
It and the point there is it doesn’t matter whether it’s Andrew hington preaching or Charles had span preaching or Hugh preaching or whoever the point is if your seed if the word of God falls on a heart that’s hard it will make no impact and Satan will be able to come in quickly
And take it away and I would say that particularly represents the moment of time that we are spreading the word of God in we are dealing with a lot of Wayside hearers we dealing with a lot of hard-hearted people particularly amongst what I would call um I hope this isn’t I don’t mean
It to sound the way it might do but among what I might call third or fourth generation people who would Trace their lineage to the Anglo-Saxon indigenous people that have been here for hundreds and hundreds years because they their ancestors their fathers grew up in church went to Sunday school they’ve
Rejected it and there’s a particular hardness isn’t there among the among that kind of ethnic group that I’m talking about here whereas some of the other countries and continents are more acceptive to the word of God because they’ve never heard it they’ve never had it before and it’s something new and
It’s something fresh and there there’s more an interest there I found that in London I found more people willing to talk from different cultures and different nationalities and someone came on my first second or first Sunday here who was a visitor from London and he said you are labor in in the hardest
Part of the vineyard by being in a CO Southern coastal town you are dealing with affluent often case retired people who think they have no need they’ve got their savings stored up for many years they’ve got their pensions they’ve got their nice home they’ve got their Gardens and they they church is
Something from yesterday they’ve rejected many years ago their hearts are hard Wayside hearers now how does the Lord how does Satan how does he take away that seed because there’s a way he does it in 2 Corinthians 4 we read that the God of this world has blinded the minds
Of unbelievers well how does he blind Minds all sorts of ways Temptation so the unbeliever hears the message and the whisper comes in your head you do know I’m been giving up that sin well I don’t want to give up that I love that I can’t can’t give up that relationship I can’t
Forsake this interest I can’t forsake this Hobby and so immediately Satan’s taking it away because he’s put something in their mind and it’s distorted reality and they go I’m I’m rejecting that or through Pride focuses them on he’s calling you a bad person he’s saying you’re not good how dare he
And immediately the word can’t make any impact because there’s this this Pride that’s in the heart or distraction I remember knocking on the door once in London and there was this flustered mom we’ve all been there and know what it is to be flustered and she says I I just
Don’t have time to think about church and the Bible when will you get time because this is about your soul and about your Eternal destiny distractions it’s always interesting walking to church on a cold Winter’s evening in modern Western Nations see all the families sat around the television set sometimes I think we
Should pray for God to send a power cut maybe the rising cost of energy is a good thing it will get people off their gadgets and forced them into to come into a chapel because we’ll have candles but distractions so many distractions entertainment entertainment Hobbies go out cycling in the southdowns
Go fishing whatever it is distractions he does it that way or uh perhaps even through worldly philosophy twisting the truth these are the kind of people who generally come to church once or never come back or they basically come to church for a long time and and remain hardened in their sins Wayside
Hearers just as a point on this there’s a point of application for the Lord’s people I think do you see how ready Satan is to steal the seed um screw tape Letters by CS Lewis worthy of recommended reading that talks about how Satan just goes in between the
Pews and seeks to try and cause all sorts of reasons for you to be not agreeable with what you’re hearing we need to be mindful that when we are here the Lord is here but he’s not the only one who’s here we are in the world friends we’re
Not of the world but we are in the world world and uh if Satan wasn’t immune from I’m sorry if Jesus wasn’t immune from Satan’s work in the congregation that he was preaching to I believe we should expect and pray against the work of the devil in this place and every time we
Seek to share the word of the Lord so often you can sit in the congregation and I know this I’ve done this without knowing to you just think it’s you’re you’re in neutral gear all the time that there’s no work that you have to do you expect the preacher to prepare
Everything but actually you need need to prepare your heart to receive the word the Puritans used to say this starts on Saturday evening um winding down certain activities and and ensuring that the soil is good for the sewing in the next day just be mindful of that ful expect
The truth to be uh received superficially these are more what you call might call shallow Believers I’ll try and move quickly on this so they’re stoning the seed falls on Stony Stony ground same seed same s but it’s uh Stony ground now is it the idea isn’t
Here of like um little Stones the idea is of limestone beneath the surface so youve got a very thin layer of soil but there is this hardened surface under the thin layer of soil that’s not visible to the Sewer but what it means is when the seed Falls it immediately germinates but
It can’t take um deep root and it of course there’s an immediate response isn’t there it sprang up it’s an initial growth but it had no depth and when the sun was up it was scorched now Jesus explains this to us in verse 16 and 17 these are the ones swn on the
Stony ground who when they hear the word immediately receive it of grandness there’s a when we’ve seen this even in this church in the last couple of years haven’t we people who seem to be so promising so full of this is great um you know pre I one of the je said preach
It Pastor you know and then all of a sudden they’re not here what happens immediate Joy immediate enthusiasm this desire for God forgiveness oh this is great the gospel is great they probably single belt their heart out great is the gospel of our glorious god what happened fundamentally the hard heart
Wasn’t actually dealt with there was a layer underneath the the loves and affections for this world and the things of this world wasn’t actually rooted out and so when the sun which is the persecutions tribulations in other words the cost of being a Christian oh it means
This it means this in the workplace it maybe means loss it means difficulties in my marriage because we’re not of one mind on these things and and when that cost begins to Bear when the the reality begins to pinch and bite all of a
Sudden you go this is this is not for me when it was just life after death forgiveness of sins purpose in this life of course there was there was great gladness but this individual was super official they had never really thought about it properly um many years ago that’s say
Many years ago few years ago um we needed a new car we’ve had a lot of cars for one reason another and uh we didn’t yet have Reuben um we were looking in a garage and this car to caught our ey because it was it was a newest car and it was
Really reasonably priced and and so we and the salesman came out and did what a Salesman does and told us it has sat has a TomTom built in wow this is this is this is this is brilliant um it’s low tax low insurance and and we’ already
Decided to buy the car before we’d really thought about it so we bought the car and then cat got pregnant and it was a tiny little car and a sudden I was like uh all of a sudden the satnav didn’t seem as great as I thought it was um because I can’t
Get the push CH in the boot um if we can’t get the car seats in easily you know I didn’t think it through we were we we knew we wanted a child what was what were we thinking we should have and we should have weighed this more
Carefully and thought this car is going to be unsuitable Lord’s willing very soon and so we ended sell it at a loss to get a car older that was bigger we could have avoided that choice if we just weighed it up but this is like the superficial believer they love the idea
Of the benefits of the Gospel but they have have never ever truly repented they have never identified the wickedness of their hearts now here’s what’s terrifying this group can be church members because this group are only seen to be what they are in persecution and tribulation until then they can go under
Cover because they demonstrate the same infusiasm as everyone else but underneath the surface is an UNM mortified unrepentant heart it’s a it is indeed a a terrifying thought inevitably and eventually the going gets tough and this superficial abandonment commitment to the Lord is abandoned it noticed the language
Straight away they stumble Jesus says it happens immediately something terrifying how quick you we’ve seen it I’ve seen it many times someone can go from one extreme to the other like just like that but they were hit with some trial some test they weren’t prepared for hadn’t thought
About you know when Jesus says count the cost or take up your cross what’s he actually saying here this is actually what he’s saying this is the Jesus of the Bible this is what he’s saying and I’m not lying this is the truth he who has is let him hear
This he’s saying only become a Christian if you’re willing to die for me so everyone who becomes a Christian has to think the worst case scenario out and the worst case scenario for every one of us in this life is to be killed for our faith Jesus says only when
You’ve accepted that as the terms and conditions follow me but so many people just hear the benefits the offer of Christ salvation from sin avoiding hell and they respond this is why I I’m persuaded more and more now that and if this is please hear this this is not criticism any of
You that were baptized earlier in this um I I’ve only reflect recently as I’ve reflected on these things become to think about this more I think we should be very wary baptizing children you know people might say but there’s not a verse in the Bible it says
Thou shall only baptize 16 no there isn’t but we all know that there’s not a text a proof text everything that we practice we have to draw principles and and one of the clear principles for recognizing saving faith is repentance and turning from the world
And it’s very hard for a child living at home with Mom and Dad to demonstrate that to prove that they’ve counted the cost and it’s often when they go to college or university that you suddenly are confronted with this wasn’t just a camp Crusade where they got to be
Excited with their friends and profess Faith no they are actually genuinely in this Godless age trying to follow the law they’re not going out of a non-Christian I’ve seen this so many times a 14-year-old gets baptized and they meet a non-Christian and they disappear we we we need to do our best
To avoid encouraging people to make premature decisions we need to put the cost of discipleship before people so that when they say I want to be baptized we can say you know what and of course in the early church baptism Could Happen very quickly we looked at this in our
Midweek Bible studies because to be to profess to be baptized was actually counting the cost because if you were a Jew that meant this inherit this own being cast out losing your property and if you were a gentile it also meant being cut out of the guild
And all sorts of things so so yeah we need to um try and avoid encouraging people to be superficial there’s all sorts of ways people stumble like Lock’s wife they look back life gets hard you know what my life was easier before I was a Christian
Yes it was and and these people go back or like Deus out of love for the world they forsake or one of the more common ones I think we are witnessing in the professing church is apostasy they might not leave the visible church but they will leave biblical Christianity now apostasy doesn’t happen
In a moment apostasy well the the trajectory to apostasy happens immediately but the the sign that they they have apiz may be gradual it may take time to see that you know one of the things that I think is concerning about many of those in the established
Church is people keep saying you know when are you going to leave when are you going to break away but what keeps happening is is people keep redefining the goal posts I’ve read stuff where Anglican Bishop said when there’s women Bishops we will leave and then when bishops get
Voted in then they just find some new goalpost the problem is you keep moving the goalpost and eventually you’re in apostasy we we we we need to um encourage professing Christians you know I’ve had Christians say to me that’s not a hill to die on you don’t get to choose the hills you
Die on you die on The Hills the Lord puts you and what makes you think if you don’t die on that Hill you won’t you’ll die on that Hill Jeremiah said if you cannot run with footmen you won’t keep up with horses actually the proof that we will stand in the ultimate
Persecution if it should ever come is if we are actually standing now and contending now but if we’re compromising and allowing compromise in our midst in our denominations in our churches that’s a sign that ultimately when things get really Fierce it’s unlikely your stand by a miracle of God’s grace which
Obviously God can do and friends just encourage you Christian why do you think you have trials in your life to prove to yourself that you’re not one of these you say why is my life hard because the Lord is testing your faith to see if you don’t love him for
The blessings and the stuff you get out of him but you love him because you love him and you’re faithful because you’re faithful because he’s worthy so why is it Christians lives and some of us go through the hardest trials and tragedies imaginable sometimes you know you can just surf one
Wave and you’re on another wave it is because the Lord is allowing such tribulations to prove to you and to prove to everyone else that you are the real deal it’s actually an Evidence of the Lord’s peculiar and special distinguishing love for you child and if you’re still walking after all you’ve
Been through be encouraged you haven’t yet stumbled and the Lord will keep you the next group is those who are half-hearted the others were shallow these are divided expect the truth Ro to be received half-heartedly um Jesus mentions the seed being swn among fors now of course
The fors aren’t visible they’ve been cut back the for bushes but the uh the weeds if you like of the for bushes are still within the soil so the seed goes in but of course once there’s the appropriate climate for growth the uh weeds the form bushes they spring up choking the seed
Preventing it from growing and this I believe as our Lord says represents those who fundamentally are worldly at heart they’re worldly their love for this world and the things of this world has not been rooted out and therefore when the cares of this world come cost of living crisis and
Pressures at work and all the things all of us face but for these people because they fundamentally love the world when they begin to feel that the cares of this life in this world begin to put pressure on what it is to be a follower of Jesus and actually being a follower
Of Jesus makes the cares of this world harder you know C Katherine and I are wrestling with this at the moment you know we talk to other people and you know our neighbors are you know they sitting on their balcony at lunchtime reading a book because their kids are at
School and and they’re both working you know and it’s very easy to you know if you want a follow of Jesus try and I’m not saying everyone should hom school but you know we believe for us and you know we’re trying to do what God would
Have us do and you sometimes think you know when the pressures come you think it would be so much easier if we just did it the worldly way and these people are those who when the pre when the pinch comes fundamentally they choke the word of God I’ve seen it with with
Mothers you know um they’re really zealous and then they have a baby and don’t be F school this is a very pressurizing time for you right now but but all of a sudden of course there’s a change in how you practice that Zeal and commitments will vary but as aside but
But what you sudden is is the idol becomes the child not Jesus Anymore Jesus becomes everything the child becomes everything and not not Jesus um for some people it’s it’s retirement whatever it is the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches desires for just other things more generally a
Comfortable life an easy life reputation whatever it is and the word is choked the word is choked and this can be imperceptible gradual the forms gradually arise and show Matthew in this version mentions the pleasures of this life those who just think oh just for a bit of entertainment just for an easy
Life comfortable experiences forms and again these people exist in church memberships and it’s often seen in people’s reactions when the word of God and its implications for discipleship are B to bear no I didn’t sign up for this so that’s the three groups the first is more seen outside the four
Walls of the church the the second two are seen in the four walls of the church but the last group this is the last point we can expect the truth to be well received we we don’t have to be pessimistic depressed here is one good soil in contrast to three useless
Soils the so soil here is not hard like the road it’s not shallow like the the rocky soil it’s not weed infested rather it is deep it is soft it is Rich with nutrients and moisture and uh the same seed the same message the same sewer sewing the same message into this same
So the Same Heart It produces good fruit Great Harvest some 30-fold some 60 I was astonished to read this week that a good harvest in the Middle Eastern times in the first century was um was Eightfold so so our Lord is saying something amazing this is abundant fruit
Now I love the fact that in Luke Luke 8 it mentions with patience ah thank you Father because that’s why he’s given us three gospels with different emphasis because of course this is gradual it doesn’t mean you become a Christian and all of a sudden there’s a beautiful
Garden oh no oh no we all know that too well if have any familiarity of our own Hearts but with patience the truth is and the thing is our memories of our past fade don’t they we we we forget how wretched we were but we the truth is we
Are not what we once were we’re not what we should be but we are not what we once were if you could see what God see if you could see the difference in your life now to 5 10 15 20 years ago I reckon you would be amazed at the work
The Lord has done in your life the progress that you’ve made and how do you know that you are good soil as I said earlier testings trials tribulations and it is as you keep walking the walk so to speak when the walk is hard when the way is narrow and
Difficult that leads to life that is the proof that you’re saved I do believe in once saved always saved but I don’t believe all who profess to be saved are saved but I do believe you can know that you’re saved how can you know that you’re saved there’s lots of things you
Can say to answer that question but one of the key things would be this are you walking the walk are you persevering are you living by faith and not by sight are you being principled are you obeying the scriptures coming back to what we said last week in the
Evening service who whoever does the will of God is my brother Mother sister are you bringing your whole life under the authority of the scriptures if you are and you say I’m not doing it very well but you know one of the will of one aspect of the will of God is repenting
Isn’t it so when you’re not doing it are you repenting are you turning are you saying sorry are you contr are you sincere we can know that we’re Christians we can know that and the only way to know is to make your calling and election sure and how you do that is by
Running hard and running well and running fast and and looking unto Jesus the author and the perfector of our faith now I just want to close with one application we are at the end you should be proud of me I’ve I’ve done 20 verses and really
Struggled it’s not easy for me to try and condense it all but I thought you know this is one unit so let’s take it as a unit um what is success in evangelism what was Friday a success I’m not asking you could I preach better I probably I could have done I’m asking
You what makes something a success well when you share Christ with your family members or friends and it seems to go down like a lead balloon you know was that failure you go and knock on doors and every door shuts is that failure what constitute success and dear friends what we have
Learned from this this this Parable is success is this did you Faithfully SE the seed if you have Faithfully shared the message of Salvation through Christ the soil is not your responsibility that’s God’s some like Jeremiah and Isaiah were called for pretty much all their lives to labor on the
Wayside of a little bit of good soil here and there we are not called to change the soil we are called to sew the seat and it’s so important we grasp this in this particular moment in history because if we don’t grasp this we will lose heart
And nothing we do will we will sustain we will try something and then we will give up because we are looking to the wrong measurements for Success you know I had a friend say to me once well those churches must be doing something right because they’re growing when did Jesus ever say that
Something’s growing that’s success cuz actually if the seed is not the biblical seed if it’s not the biblical message it doesn’t matter what it’s doing Islam’s growing Jehovah Witnesses are growing in England Jehovah Witnesses are the fastest growing group in England outside of Islam is it
True how do we measure success how do we measure truth John maafa says to close what a comfort it is to know that sole preparation is God’s work he supplies both the seed of his word and the power of His Spirit he readies the soul working in the hearts of Those whom he
Is drawing to himself the task of the Christian evangelist is simply this to disate the seed through faithful proclamation of the Gospel having fulfilled that responsibility Believers can rest in the sovereignty of God knowing his word will bear fruit in the hearts and lives of Those whom he has
Called isn’t that encouragement to us and here’s why we keep going out friends here’s why we keep trying doing what we can as little as it is because we never know what soil we might find we never know what soil God might have prepared every time you go into the care
Home every time you meet up for a family gathering at Christmas with unbelieving loved ones you need to pray before you go prepare hearts for this occasion prepare the soil PR till the ground root out the weeds deal with the hardness soften the heart so that the seed finds good resting
Place and the Lord is able to do that isn’t he he’s done it in you and he’s done it in me for responses may the Lord be pleased to ensure that we are all good soil and may we see the Lord Works in us that we would produce fruit some 10-fold 20 fold
30-fold 60 fold with patience father we thank you for your word thank you that it is true and uh we thank you for the realism it gives us so relevant to our times so relevant to our situation and we pray that that we would all be good soil that our hearts would
Be receptive hearts for the word of God for the message of Truth and we do pray oh Lord that you might deal with the conditions of the soil that we’re laboring in so much Wayside Wayside ground so much hard ground so much rocky soil so much love for the world oh God
We pray that you would so prepare hearts for the word of God in this town and in this and that land and in the world that there might be a great harvest we ask this in Jesus name Amen