The sermon 'Noble & Good Heart' by Peter Allison examines the parable of the sower from the Gospel of Luke, highlighting the different responses to the Word of God based on the condition of one's heart. The parable illustrates four types of soil, each representing a different reception of God's Word: the hard path, rocky soil, thorny ground, and good soil. The key message is that the same seed, or Word, is sown in each case, but the condition of the heart determines its reception and fruitfulness. A noble and good heart hears, understands, retains, and bears fruit from the Word of God. The sermon emphasizes the responsibility of individuals to cultivate a receptive heart and the transformative role of the Holy Spirit in regenerating a heart of stone into a heart that bears fruit. True fruit is characterized by understanding, retaining the Word, and producing good works, while false fruit may appear genuine but lacks the root of a transformed heart. The sermon encourages believers to seek a deeper relationship with God, examine their hearts, and pursue spiritual growth through the Holy Spirit.

Please turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 8. I'd like to read beginning at verse 4. And when a great multitude had gathered and they had come to him from every city, he spoke by a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed some fell by the wayside and it was trampled down. And the birds of the air devoured it, And some fell on rock, and as soon as it sprang up it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold. And When he had said these things, he cried, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Then his disciples asked him, saying, What does this parable mean? And he said, To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear when the devil comes and takes away the word out of their heart, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who when they hear receive the word with joy, And these have no root, who believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on good ground, these are those who having heard the word with a noble and a good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

No one when he has lit a lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lamp stand that those who enter may see light. For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. Therefore take heed how you hear, For whoever has to Him more will be given, and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him." Let us lift up our hands to His commandments which we love and meditate on them. Heavenly Father, Your Word is truth. It endures forever without changing.

We ask that you would sanctify us by that word this morning. We ask that you would teach us, that you would correct us, that you would comfort us with it, that you would encourage us also, that we may persevere. And I ask, Lord, that you would sanctify these sinful lips to proclaim the riches of your grace. And may you be glorified and lifted up in our midst this morning. In this name we pray, Amen.

This parable we've been looking at for several weeks now as we look at this different soil on which this seed, which is the Word of God, falls. And the point of this parable is the difference in the heart of man, the difference in the heart of those who hear. Because the word that is sown is the same in each case. It's the same word that falls on the hard packed path. As falls on the rocky soil, as falls on the soil that has weeds and thorns and is choked by the cares and pleasures of this world.

It's the exact same seed. It's the same seed that falls on the good soil as falls on the hard heart that Satan snatches away immediately. The seed is the same. The sower is the same. The sower scattering the seed who is the messenger proclaiming the word is the same in each case.

What's different in each of these cases is the heart. There is a heart where Satan snatches the word away before it has any effect. There's the stony heart that responds immediately with joy, but it's not a joy born of the Holy Spirit, it's a joy of human emotion that disappears as quickly as it came. And it never even begins to bear anything resembling fruit. There's the lusting heart, as we looked at last week, that never brings any fruit to maturity.

And then, lastly, there is the noble and good heart that bears fruit. The heart is something that we control. The heart in the Bible is the center of reason and desire. The Bible often speaks about the thoughts of our heart. This is how we think.

It speaks of thinking in our heart, reasoning in our heart. It speaks of thinking evil or planning evil in our heart. When we decide to do something, it speaks of setting our heart to do something. Daniel, We read, set his heart to seek the Lord. And that was acknowledged by the angel that came to him, that he had set his heart to do that.

The heart is something that we control, and the heart is something for which we are responsible. So the Bible always speaks to us as those who are responsible for what we think, and responsible for what we do, and responsible for how our heart responds We can't say well, God just hasn't given me a good heart until he does I can't be responsible for my heart or how it responds to the Word of God. The Scriptures command us to not have a hard heart. To not have a hard heart. To not have a hard heart.

The scriptures tell us that God searches our heart, and that He judges according to what is in our heart. Jeremiah tells us, I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. You see when that seed is sown and it falls on the soil of our heart, we are responsible for how we respond. The contrast in each of These four cases is really the decision of the heart. The hard heart decides to ignore the Word.

To completely ignore it, to pretend it never happened, that it's not there. In Hebrews chapter 3, God's people are called twice in that same chapter not to harden their hearts. The stony heart makes a decision but immediately changes the decision. The lusting heart is a double-minded heart. We just sang about the double-minded heart.

It lacks a wholehearted pursuit after the Lord. It goes one way one day and another way the next day. And what happens? How far do you get when you go one way one day and another way the next day? You never really get anywhere.

You never make forward progress. And so this is a heart that never progresses. Because the progress of one day is undone by the next day. James says a double-minded person, somebody who is seeking to follow the Lord, but also wanting to enjoy the cares of this life and the pleasures of this world, is double-minded. James says that kind of person is unstable in all his ways.

See the good heart. The good heart makes a decision to repent and believe. This is true of everyone who follows Christ. The gospel calls us to act, to repent and to believe. It calls sinners to cleanse their hands and it calls the double-minded to purify their hearts so that they are no longer double-minded trying to pursue two different objectives but single-minded, single-focused.

Well if we are responsible for the decision of our heart, how do we get a good and noble heart? Well, I know you all know we aren't born with one. Just the opposite actually, we are born with a hard heart, a heart of stone. We are born with a wicked heart, a heart that speaks lies from birth, from conception. And we can't get this heart, as you know, by ourselves.

We cannot do this. Only the Holy Spirit can regenerate our heart. Only the Holy Spirit can change this heart of stone, this hard heart. Take that out and give us a new heart. And make us a new creature.

And give to us this noble and good heart that Jesus speaks about in this parable. We can ask the Lord for a new heart, like the psalmist did, Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. We can ask the Lord for that heart. Now, how do we know though if we have a good heart? You can't feel this Holy Spirit work.

You can't see that work. Jesus described this work of the Holy Spirit to Nicodemus as the wind. You can't see the wind. You can't see where it comes from. You can't see where it goes.

How do you know there is wind? Because you see the effect of the wind, you see the result of the wind, you see the fruit of the wind. And Jesus said that's the way the work of the Holy Spirit is. According to Jesus in this passage, the noble and the good heart does three things. It hears and understands the Word.

It hears and understands the Word. It keeps the Word and it thirdly bears fruit. That's what he says. The ones that fall, the seed that falls on the good ground, or those who having heard the word with a noble and a good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience." See The noble heart, the good heart understands the Word of God. There is knowledge.

That means you can explain the Gospel to somebody else. Means that you know in whom you have believed. There must be knowledge. There must be understanding of the Word. Some people want to teach the exact opposite.

They teach that we have to understand the word as it's explained, then we understand the word, and then once we understand the word, we can ask God for a new heart. But the Bible says it doesn't work that way. It's not that once we understand the Word, then we can ask the Lord to give us a new heart, and then we can receive the Holy Spirit. That's exactly backwards. It's a good heart that understands.

It's not understanding that enables us to ask for a good heart. And see, that's why we don't practice what some might call an altar call, to encourage people to come forward and make a decision. We don't try to play on people's emotions to create fear or urgency, or to build an emotional crescendo in order to move people to make a decision. Because you see it's too easy to get people to act without understanding, without this knowledge that the good heart has. That Holy Spirit brings a new heart.

He does it by the hearing of the word. And when he does, he gives us a new heart that is able then to understand. See when we try to force a decision, or try to get a decision without understanding, that just sets up a response that doesn't last. Like a sprouting seed that doesn't have enough moisture. It sprouts but then without the moisture it dies.

We perish without knowledge. See that the understanding, this understanding of the word, this understanding of the gospel is something that the natural man can't do. The natural man can't understand these spiritual things. It is only to those as we read, it is only to those to whom it has been given. So then the sign, The evidence, the first evidence of a good and noble heart is an understanding of the gospel, an understanding of the Word of God and its significance.

The second thing, The second mark that Jesus gives of those who have a noble and a good heart, those who receive the word with a noble and a good heart, is that they retain the word. They retain the Word. They hold onto it. They keep it. They recognize its value and they prize it.

It's described in another parable that Jesus described. It is a person coming across a pearl, a very valuable gem. They recognize its value and so they do everything they can to acquire that field in which that pearl is. They sell everything they have to buy it, to retain it. To retain and to keep the seed is to hide the Word of God in our heart.

That's how we can retain it. We can commit it to memory. That's why scripture memory is so very important. It's so very important. That it's not something that you did when you were young, for a certain class, at a certain time.

It's not something that you did after you became a Christian, you memorized the Bible for a while. But it's something that you do every day. Every day. Committing the Word of God to memory so that you can retain the Word of God. When we understand the Word of God, when we understand how precious it is and how valuable it is, then we want to retain it.

We want to have it in our mind. We want to continually be thinking about it, to continually bring it before our mind. We should learn to memorize passages of the Bible, and also verses of the Bible. Do you have a plan? Do you have a plan to memorize the Word of God?

Is it something that you are doing on a regular and ongoing basis? It's vitally important if you're going to retain the Word of God, to commit it to memory, and to review that every day, Maybe even multiple times a day. There are many different systems for doing that. There are many different ways to do that. But those who have a noble and a good heart retain the Word.

They keep it. David speaks about meditating upon the Word in the night watches. We can't do that unless you have that Word committed to your memory. So you can bring it to mind. How do you retain food?

How do you retain food? You retain it by continually eating, continually taking food in. And we have to have the same approach to the Word of God. Continually taking in, a man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. If we're going to live by the words that proceed from the mouth of God, we have to be retaining that word.

I can say that it is the times that I have not been diligent in memory, in memorizing the scriptures that are often the times of barrenness. The times where our heart gets more easily distracted and let away. Another sign of retaining the Word is how long do we remember the things that we have heard? How long do we remember the preaching of the Word? How long is that retained in our mind?

Very often, new Christians, They hear the message. Then they want to hear that same message again. Because they want to retain it. That is a picture of a heart that the Holy Spirit has changed and made a noble and a good heart. The third characteristic, after understanding of the word, retaining, keeping the word is bearing fruit.

Bearing fruit. This is not an optional thing, bearing fruit. It doesn't say here in the parallel passage there were some that the seed fell on noble and good heart and some didn't bear any fruit, some bore thirtyfold and some bore a hundred. No, There is no some bore no fruit. There's some that bore 30, some that bore 60, some that bore a hundred, but nobody that bore no fruit.

Those in Christ bear fruit. Those in Christ bear fruit. Those in Christ bear fruit. Those branches, Jesus says, that do not bear fruit are cut out and burned. Even so, He said in the Sermon on the Mount, every good tree bears good fruit.

A good and a noble heart will bear good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree can't bear bad fruit and a bad tree can't bear good fruit. And every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. I am the vine, Jesus said, and you are the branches.

He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. If we are abiding in Christ, and He is abiding in us, then we will bear fruit. We will be those who overcome. And see, this is then the mark of a good and noble heart. It's a mark, it's a sign of God's grace in us.

And as we see God produce that fruit in us, because it's not by our own strength that we can do this. Jesus said in that same passage I just read, He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing." The fruit that we bear, it's the work of God in us. We aren't justified by the grace of God and sanctified by works. We are justified by the grace of God and sanctified by the grace of God as well. We bear fruit by the grace of God.

That fruit that we see in us, that we have born, Christ has worked it in us. Now, we have born it. It is our fruit. But without Christ we can do nothing. But it's there.

It's there. So don't think that this fruit is what we do on our own strength, our own power, by our own works. It's not. This fruit is born by the grace of God just as much as we are justified by the grace of God." Some people like to point to the example where Paul talks about people's work being wood, hay, and straw and being burned up but they themselves are saved, versus those who bear works of gold and silver are preserved through the fire and retained. That's not speaking of the works of a Christian and whether he bears good fruit or not.

That's really speaking about the work of the ministry and the foundation on which those who are like Timothy, workers in the kingdom, preachers of the gospel, are they equipped and able? And is their ministry producing a lasting fruit? Or is it a ministry like some of the evangelists of prior centuries who preached to thousands and millions but had very little lasting fruit from all that labor. Because they were conversions of people, of rocky hearts or lusting hearts that quickly fell away, that didn't persevere. That's what that is speaking of.

It's not speaking of us as believers not bearing fruit. Jesus said, He who abides in Me bears much fruit, much fruit. Some more, some less. But all who abide in Christ bear much fruit. Now we can be deceived about our fruit.

That's a very important thing to remember. We can be deceived about the fruit, about our own life, about our own fruitfulness. Jesus said in Matthew 7, remember just a little later after he talked about every tree bearing fruit, he goes on to talk about, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." Many will say to me, Jesus said, in that day, in the day of judgment, in the day when we stand before the judgment seat of God, to be judged according to our works. Remember, judgment is always according to works. Many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done wonders in your name?

And Jesus said, I will then declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me you who practice wallace. These were people who thought they were bearing fruit, who thought that they were good, they were bearing good fruit out of a good and noble heart, and they find to their surprise that Jesus says to them, depart from me, I never, never knew you. All that you did in my name that was not good fruit proceeding out of a good and noble heart." So what is false fruit then? What is fruit that deceives us? Well, one of the fruits is knowledge we talked about.

They receive the word with understanding. Well, what is the purpose of our knowledge? See, false fruit is a knowledge to simply know something. It's a knowledge, a desire to know in order to be known. That's not good fruit.

That's not knowledge out of a good and noble heart. The knowledge out of a good and noble heart is to know how to practice and to do what we know. What we know. It's those who do what they know, who practice what they know, that truly have heard the Word of God. Spiritual gifts.

People can exercise spiritual gifts and yet it's not out of a regenerate heart. People can do great works for God and yet not even be saved themselves. Charles Templeton was an example of a great evangelist, a great evangelist, bigger than Billy Graham, prior to Billy Graham. Many were saved, but he himself rejected God. And he ended up in his life rejecting the Word of God.

It was a gradual departure. Until at the end of his life he wrote a book about why I do not believe in God. He had spiritual gifts to teach and to preach and he undoubtedly helped people but it was not out of a noble and a good heart. It was deceptive fruit. Paul speaks about in 1 Corinthians 13, having all knowledge, but without love it profits nothing.

Giving their body to be burned but without love, it profits nothing. That's a great sacrifice. There can be an outward profession of religion, an outward profession of the heart, such that someone looks like a disciple of Christ, but Satan, we read, can disguise himself as an angel of light and so too can those who follow him. See, it's easy to profess Christ when no one is denying Him, when it is what everybody else is doing. It's those who can confess Christ, confess Christ, who can do so when others oppose Him.

It's one thing, the things that we do when others can see. But what do we do when no one can see? And we know no one can see, and we know no one is looking, and no one could know. We think no one can know, or we're convinced that no one could know, then what does our fruit look like? False professors can even oppose sin in their life.

They can even battle sin. They may be convinced of sin. They may know that they are sinners, but lack true repentance. You can do that. Someone might do that by confessing to lesser sins, but not the greater sins in their life.

They're willing to acknowledge certain acceptable sins, and they can confess those, they may even forsake them, but the greater sins, they're hidden, unconfessed. Someone may confess sin, but never realize the burden, The guilt of their sin. Someone might confess sin, but only confess it generally. It's very easy to say, I'm a sinner. It's much harder to say, I have lied, I have stolen, I have lusted, I have hated, I haven't forgiven, I have spoken anger at this point in time.

So that's a very different thing. It's easy to say I'm a sinner. Everybody can say I'm not perfect, but to acknowledge the specifics of our imperfection, that's a different matter. So a false professor can confess sin in generalities. Or maybe only confess under extremity, under duress, because they've been forced to, because they've been exposed, because they've been caught.

It's not a voluntary confession. It's not a full and free confession. Out of the overwhelming understanding of our guiltiness and sorrow at our grieving of the Holy Spirit. That's a very different matter. People can also confess sin with no intent to forsake that sin.

There is no abhorrence of it. There is no grief of it. You see this often when people readily acknowledge, yes, I am a murderer or I am an adulterer. There is no intent or desire to forsake that sin. Or they might forsake some sins, but not other sins.

Sins, but not other sins. We can also, even as a false professor, opposing sin, we can even forsake a life of sin, but not forsake the love of sin. You can say, well, I don't want to do that anymore. I don't like that, but I still love it. I still think about it.

I still want to do it, But I know I shouldn't do it. That's not opposing sin. See, there's never been any rooting out of this sinful desire. It's forsaking a life of sin, but not a love of sin. See that our affections, what we love, come out of our heart.

And if we find ourselves being drawn, loving what is wrong, That's not what comes out of a good and noble heart. What comes out of it, the affections that come out of a good and noble heart, love what is good, love what is right, love what is true. We can also, A false professor can also hate sin. Can hate sin for all the wrong reasons. He might hate sin because of the public shame and not because of the evil that it is.

We might hate sin in others more than we hate that sin in ourselves. It's a hatred of sin, but it's the hatred of sin that isn't born out of a good and noble heart. The good and noble heart first hates it in our self before we hate it in other people. We hate it more in our self than we hate it in other people. And we can, a false professor can even to some extent strive against sin.

There may be a recognition in the conscience that something is wrong, but not the changing of the will and the desire to that sin. And so there's a striving against sin because the conscience and the will are battling. But the will, what we desire, remember the Bible says we think out of our heart, we reason out of our heart. And It's these desires that come out of our heart. And if these desires are battling against what our conscience knows is right, that's not the work of a good and noble heart.

People may even suffer for Christ. Paul said, though I give my body to be burned, if I don't have love, it profits me nothing. Some might suffer because there is a belief in the merit of their suffering, that it will somehow earn them good works, that it will add to their favor with God. Or they might suffer for the praise of men. There are many people who have done great humanitarian works, there are many people who have suffered, who have gone to Africa and lived in difficult conditions, who don't know Christ.

And all of that Suffering is not coming out of a heart that is regenerate. The fruit of the Spirit is love, Joy, peace, long suffering, slow to anger, slow to speak, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, persevering over time, persevering through trials, persevering through difficulties. It's in these trials that we can see better what is in our heart because of what spills out in those times. Gentleness and self-control. These are the works of a good and noble heart.

These are the works that God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so we need to, brothers and sisters, we need to be those who do search our hearts, who do inspect our hearts. The Lord looks on our hearts. He looks for fruit. He looks for what is there.

And We need to also consider our fruit. We need to examine ourselves if we be in the Lord, to test ourselves. Paul calls us to examine and test ourselves. Is the fruit that we are bearing, fruit that is coming out of a good and noble heart? Or is it fruit that only looks good, but is not coming out of a good and noble heart?

Is coming out of all sorts of other impure and improper motives. You know, if these, if we, where we see these other hearts, these other responses, That doesn't mean we give up, it means that we turn to the Lord. We cry out to Him for His Holy Spirit, we cry out to Him for His grace in our life. We repent, we forsake our wicked ways, and we follow in purpose to follow Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, we give Thanks for your Holy Spirit.

And we ask that you would not take your Holy Spirit from us, but that you would renew us after your image and knowledge in righteousness and holiness. Knowledge, in righteousness and holiness. Father may you sanctify us day by day and equip us to run with patient endurance this race that is set before us. And when we are discouraged, Father, may we look to You for strength and not to ourselves. Where we are fearful, Lord, May we cast that burden on you.

And for you, for your yoke is easy and your burden is light. And you promise rest unto our soul. Lord, where we see the stain of sin, may you grant us to confess to forsake it. Do not wallow in self-pity, but to be grateful for your grace. Grateful for one more chance to acknowledge your riches, your glory, your wisdom, to acknowledge your work and to delight ourselves in it.

Lord, we ask for a heart that holds onto Your Word, that we may hide Your Word in our heart, that we might not sin against You. And so, Father, we ask this week for the resources out of your storehouse to live as your children, To live worthy of our calling as saints in Jesus Christ. To live worthy as children of the heavenly King. So Father, we pray, we cry out to you as Abba, Father, thankful that you have given us a spirit of adoption and not of fear, not of bondage. Thankful that you do know us and that we are in you.

And that in you, those who are in you, there is a strong confidence. Lord may we have this confidence and may you give to us a greater and greater assurance of your love for us and your work in us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.