Please turn to Luke chapter 8 this morning as we continue to look at the parable of the sower. Luke chapter 8 beginning at verse 4. 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.

Some fell on rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. 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, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, 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 the thorns are those who when they have heard go out and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those Who having heard the word with a noble and a good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. May the Lord cause us to walk in the path of His commandments and delight in them. Almighty Heavenly Father, how we do love your Word. We ask that where we have become cold that you would warm our hearts this morning, that we may look forward to hearing your word, to hearing it proclaimed.

We ask that you would give us understanding of it, for these things we know are not naturally discerned, but spiritually. So we ask for that spiritual work in our hearts this morning. And I ask that you would sanctify these sinful lips, that through a vessel of clay, the riches of your grace and your glory might be proclaimed to us this morning. In Jesus name, amen. Last week, if you weren't able to be here, we began looking at this parable of the sower.

This parable that Jesus gave and then interpreted for his disciples. And we saw that a parable was to cast alongside, to come alongside, to cast alongside, to bring into juxtaposition a heavenly truth with an earthly story. And Jesus often used parables to illustrate his spiritual messages, to illustrate with an earthly story the spiritual principle that he was trying to teach. But he also used them to silence or confound his enemies. He used them to, he spoke in parables so that Psalm 78 would be fulfilled.

Many things Jesus did. So that what was written might be fulfilled. And speaking in parables is one of those things that was prophesied of him. He would speak in dark sayings. He would utter parables.

He also spoke in parables as Luke points out, so that God's decree of election might stand, that those to whom it had not been given to know would not know, that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. And last week We looked at some detail at the first heart that Jesus speaks about in this parable, in terms of their response to the Word of God. The first heart, the hard heart, which was the seed that fell on the sidewalk, on the packed ground that people have walked over so long that it was trampled and compressed and the seed could not fall into the ground. This hard heart, we said, is not seeing, not recognizing the finger of God on our life and in the world, not hearing, not understanding, not remembering, repeated sinning. We saw that all of these things are the fault of the hearer.

But we also saw that this is according to the sovereign decree of God, and often it is through the agency of Satan snatching that seed away, snatching the Word of God away before it bears any fruit in the hearer. And then Jesus speaks about another heart, there is some seed that is sown, and as the word of God is proclaimed, it falls upon stony ground. Matthew says, some fell on stony places. Luke here says it fell on a rock. Matthew says it fell on stony places where it did not have much earth and immediately sprang up because it had no depth of earth.

That soil that is often very quickly warmed by the Sun because it doesn't have, if there's a rock underneath it, it doesn't have the the moisture coming up underneath it And it doesn't have the mass of soil. And so it can get very hot much more quickly. And seeds can sprout much more quickly. If you look at a time lapse photography of a seed as it sprouts underground, there's actually a lot that happens underground before you ever see that seed poke through the ground. The roots begin to go down first, quite far, quite many times the length of the seed.

And the roots start to go out. And all this begins to happen long before that seed pops up through the ground and you see the sprout. Now, in the stony soil, that seed doesn't have that soil underneath it, and It's very hot, it's hotter than normal, and so it immediately springs up. Jesus said that this stony soil describes those who hear the word of God and immediately receive it with joy. He gave three characteristics.

They immediately receive it with joy, they have no root, and they only endure a little while before falling away. Let's look at these three characteristics of this stony heart. Immediate joy. Immediate joy. Instantaneous.

This has often been the response to the evangelistic revival preaching of the past two centuries since the great awakening. It's this immediate response. In fact, many of these great evangelists adapted and modified their preaching in order to create this immediate response, an immediate response to the preaching of the Gospel. And this was a change in emphasis between the first great awakening in the beginning of the 18th century and the second great awakening two centuries ago. Instead of emphasizing the biblical truths of the holiness of God, the gravity of sin, and man's enslavement to it, and the need for the Holy Spirit to give a new birth so that people can repent and believe.

Can repent and believe, the preaching of the second great awakening began to change. Up until that point, evangelicals believed almost universally that God sovereignly must give someone a new nature to enable him to repent and believe. But that was replaced by the understanding of conversion in which the power to repent and the decision to repent lay within the individual's own power. And so this change in understanding brought a change in the practice and how preaching was done to bring an immediate decision from the listener. It was done by preaching to the emotions.

It was done by preaching that would seek to stir up emotions and move people to make a response because when you are emotionally moved, then you are more likely to respond. If you are scared of something, then you are more likely to respond. If you are scared of something, then you are more likely to respond. And so various tactics were developed. The anxious bench, the altar call, and all of these things growing out of a desire to see an immediate response to the preaching of the Gospel.

And who doesn't want to see an immediate response to the preaching of the gospel. That's what we all want, especially those who are doing the preaching. We want to see. We love to see that Preaching moves people. And we pray that it does.

But Jesus is giving a warning here against this immediate, too immediate of a response. The work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration often takes time. Jesus described it in John 3 to Nicodemus as something that you cannot see, but you can see the effect of it. The preaching of the Word of God needs to work in hearts. It needs to bring a conviction of sin.

And We can rejoice wherever the cross of Christ is preached, wherever the seed is sown, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, wherever men are confronted with the reality of heaven and the reality of hell and where men are brought to see The judgment of God towards sinners and are warned to flee from the wrath to come we can we can rejoice in this But it's there's also a warning here against the temptation to preach using tactics that seek to get people to respond too quickly to the Gospel. And there's a warning here against the response that contains an immediate and disproportionate joy, or what appears to be the true fruit of the Holy Spirit in joy, but turns out to be just a human emotional response that's arising from tactics that are designed to elicit emotional responses. See the true and faithful preaching of the Word of God is not done to stir up emotions, but it is done to preach to the heart, to the affections, to the understanding. Now, we do know that where the Holy Spirit is working, it will bring outward emotion. It will bring joy.

But what do we see if we look at many of the conversion examples in the New Testament? Look at the prodigal son. What is the story that Jesus tells there? He came back out of a realization of his great need, out of a realization of his great folly. He came back saying, Lord, I'm not worthy to be called your son.

Father, I'm not worthy to be called your son. Make me a hired servant. He had a recognition of his own unworthiness. He wasn't jumping up and dancing and kicking his heels for joy. He wasn't on a mountaintop emotionally.

He was in a valley of despair. Or the publican that Jesus spoke about who went up to the temple to pray. He did not dare to look up but beat his breast and cried out, God be merciful to me a sinner. He was laboring under the conviction of sin, under his own guilt, and his standing before a holy and righteous God. Or think of Saul's conversion.

Here's a man who was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was zealous even persecuting Christians and dragging them before the courts and seeing them killed. And God in His sovereign power knocked him off of his horse, his donkey, and struck him with blindness. And for three days he was fasting. There's somebody in whom the Holy Spirit was powerfully working.

Her Lydia. She responded by asking the apostles to stay in her house if they considered her to be faithful. These examples are the Jews in Acts chapter 2 who were convicted of their sin when at the preaching of Peter and cried out, What must we do? You see, the external acts, external emotional responses are not necessarily the result of inward reality. The result of inward reality.

See, true heart affections arise from the Holy Spirit's operation on the heart, they are supernatural. They're founded not in personal benefit. They're not found in personal, mountain-top experiences. It's very easy to give somebody a mountain top experience, to give them an emotionally satisfying experience, to make to make them feel good, to promise all manner of wonderful blessings that might come through the Gospel. Blessings appealing to our temporal needs, or blessings appealing to our Emotions that will will have joy that will that will just will be peace have peace See true affections are founded on the moral excellencies of knowing God.

They arise from a mind that is enlightened to rightly and spiritually understand who God is and what He has done for us. Gospel, true Gospel affections are attended with evangelical humiliation, the recognition that we are not worthy. They are attended by a change of our nature, a change of our love. They are attended with the Spirit of Christ, that lamb-like, dove-like Spirit of Christ, of Jesus Christ. They are attended by a tenderness, a Christian tenderness of Spirit.

There is a beautiful symmetry and proportion to those affections. Because there are many, many affections that the true work of the Holy Spirit will in us, not just joy, not just joy. There are true affections such as the fear of such as the fear of God, to tremble at His Word, to fear His wrath. These flow out of a conviction of our sin, out of a genuine sorrow for our sin. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but not in the sorrow that came to you, but I rejoice that your sorrow led to repentance.

For you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation not to be regretted For observe this very thing that you saw it in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you. What clearing of yourselves. What indignation. What fear.

What vehement desire. What zeal. What vindication. In all things you proved yourself to be clear in this matter. See, there were a number of affections in the Corinthians that Paul noted.

And so where there is the true work of the Holy Spirit, there will be a beautiful proportion of these affections. We won't be stuck on our depravity and our worthlessness. It will be there, but there will also be not just this fear, but also desire, zeal, vindication, hope in God and in the promises of His Word. The scriptures speak a lot about hope. Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord.

Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart, all you that hope in the Lord." See, fear and hope are joined together as jointly constituting the character of true saints. The eyes of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy. The Lord takes pleasure in those that fear Him and that hope in His mercy. See, love and Hatred are also affections of those who are in Christ.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. That's okay, those who are in Christ. You that love the Lord hate evil, the psalmist says. The psalmist often mentions the hate of the evil as evidence of their sincerity. I will walk with a perfect heart, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes.

I hate the work of those that turn aside. I hate every false way, David said in Psalm 119. Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate you? There's also desire as well as joy. Desire for the Lord.

Longing to come into His courts, into His presence. And to do so with joy. Joy. So an immediate joy, A disproportionate affection that isn't balanced in a beautiful and symmetric way with all the other works of the Holy Spirit is one possible indicator of a joy that is not from the Holy Spirit, but that is simply an external emotional response. Another distinguishing factor between the sincere operation of the Holy Spirit and a mere external response of emotions is that the more our true affections are raised, the more appetite that we have, the more our soul longs after Christ and spiritual excellencies and attainments.

Whereas these false affections are satisfied in themselves. It's the emotional experience itself that is satisfying. And so when that is the case, there is a need to continually have one emotional high after another. Each week you have to come back and have another emotional high, another emotional experience. Otherwise, there is nothing there.

You can see how people that have been called into the kingdom through these emotional tactics have to be maintained in their attendance to the things of the Lord, or apparent attendance, by the same schemes. But the gracious and holy affections that are brought by the Holy Spirit Bring bring about fruit in Christian practice So external actions external emotions while they may look like the genuine fruit of the Spirit, Jesus warns are not, may not be. There is such a thing, external actions are not the same as the inward work of the Holy Spirit, which produces a beautiful and proportionate affections in the believer. Second thing that Jesus says about this heart has its immediate joy, but it has no root. There's no depth of earth.

There's no moisture. In a sense, there's no dew. There's no work of the Holy Spirit in them. There is no root. Remember I said it when a seed sprouts, before you ever see that leaf poking through the ground, you see a root going down, down, down, many, many times the length of the seed and the roots going out.

And only then does that seed pop up. But what if you're in stony soil, then there's no place for those roots to go. I have a septic tank that's buried in my backyard. That's what they used to do with them. Now they don't bury them.

They leave something sticking up. But I have one that's buried. And so there's a little section of the backyard that only has soil that's this deep. And guess what? When it gets a drought, you see a big brown circle show up right there, right where that rock is underneath the soil.

Because that soil doesn't have any moisture in it. Because of the rock, because of the big concrete lid underneath it, it quickly loses any moisture that was there. And the grass there dies first, long before the grass around it that has the deep soil and can put down the deep roots, long before that grass dies. And so these people are characterized, this heart is characterized as not having any root. There is no knowledge of the law of God.

We can say today that the Old Testament gives us the root of the Christian faith. Christian faith. It gives us the foundation upon the doctrines of our Christian faith. The law of God is used to bring the conviction of sin. And so if there is no root, there is no true and lasting knowledge of the Word of God, The first task in the ministry of the Word of God is to break that rock, to break that rocky soil by the by the law of God.

It is a broken and a contrite heart that leads to repentance. See we need in our day to grow roots, to avoid the rapid multiplication of superficial, ignorant and untrained converts. That is often the source and the root of those who fall away. See, it's what's in the secret place of our heart that counts. And that's not always visible.

It's not always visible. Roots are that which is beneath the surface. But that is where the moisture is taken up out of the ground, and where the plant is sustained and fed. That comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling with us. That comes from the Holy Spirit giving to us, renewing our strength so that we mount up with wings as eagles so that we run and don't grow weary and walk and don't faint.

That comes from the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. And that's not something that you can see in somebody. Now that should obviously work its way out in our expressions, and it will show true fruit. But if you just are looking externally, you're not going to know the difference between what is simply an external display and what is coming from the internal working of the Holy Spirit. You can't tell what is fruit that has been painted on the tree, as it were.

The scriptures always speak of these things in real terms. It speaks of people that are, branches that don't bear fruit that are cut off. These are branches that look like they are fruitful. They look, The leaves look like they are there. Otherwise, they wouldn't be branches.

Otherwise, people would see right off that they're not true. So there is these outward matters, these outward expressions, these outward affections can look many times like the real thing. And we can't tell them apart. It's not our place to tell them apart. Jesus told another parable about that.

We don't have to try to sort these things out. This is the Lord's hand. Jesus is telling us though that this exists. There exists people who look like they are believing, who look like they are bearing fruit, but they don't have any root. The Holy Spirit is not dwelling with them and everything that we're seeing is is simply a human effort, simply done in the power of the flesh.

It's imitation fruit and it's not real. And it's not real. Jesus, God looks on the heart. And the third characteristic of these hearts that Jesus Speaking of here this stony heart is that it doesn't persevere It is not able to face trials and difficulties That's what That's what reveals the difference between fake fruit that's painted on, that's the result of human effort and human strength, from the fruit that the Holy Spirit gives. There is no perseverance.

Those who are in Christ, those who have been born from above by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, will persevere. They will overcome. They may fall, but they will rise. They may fall again and again and again. Seven times they may fall, but they will rise again.

Because Those for whom Christ has died, He will secure, He will sanctify, He will glorify. Christ will have all those for whom He has died. The Holy Spirit will bring perseverance. That grace of perseverance will bring the strength to face the trials, because there is a root that goes deep. See, the Christian life is a struggle to victory.

It's not simply living on a mountaintop experience. And if somebody told you that, I'm sorry. It's not the way it is. And if you expect that every day is a mountaintop experience, then your expectations are not what the Word of God teaches. The Christian life is a struggle.

The Christian life has trials, it has temptations, it has difficulty. And the difference between The stony heart and the good heart is this perseverance. We also need to recognize in this example that Jesus gives, Be careful that we don't take the assurance of our salvation based on our outward experiences, our outward expression of joy, or our outward experience of doing something or saying something. But rather, our assurance of the Holy Spirit truly working in us ought to be the fruit of a transformed life. You shouldn't say, well, I've been to church every week of my life, or most weeks, or I do good things.

Rather, it's a transformed heart. It's a change in our desires. It's victory over sins that dwell in us. These are the things that ought to give us the assurance, that assurance of our salvation. And this is also a call to patience.

Patience to seek long-term fruit and not immediate fruit. This fruit that Jesus spoke about here was that which is immediate. Immediately they had joy. There was this immediate response, but it wasn't a long, abiding response. There was no perseverance.

When trials or difficulties or people turning away from the faith or leaders that people trusted in turning away from the faith, renouncing what they once taught. When that causes people to stumble and turn away, then that's simply an indication that there wasn't the genuine work of the Holy Spirit. They weren't believing, following the Lord, they were following something else. Those who have a root belief, endure, persevere, because their strength isn't from their own ability. It's not from their own behavior modification and ability to paint on external fruit, but rather that inward work of the Holy Spirit that we can't see but is present.

And Jesus goes on to speak of two more hearts, and Lord willing we will look at those hearts next week and the week after. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Holy Spirit, for His ministry with us, for dwelling with us, For indeed how beautiful and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. This dwelling together is only possible because of your Holy Spirit, because of the fruit of your Spirit. Abiding in you is the work of your Holy Spirit within us.

And we ask, Lord, that you would by your Spirit keep us from stumbling. May we be even more diligent to make our call and election sure for your promises that if we do these things, we will never stumble. Things we will never stumble. For there is no no trial, no difficulty, no temptation, no burden that will ever come to us that is not common to man. Your promise is that you will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that we may be able to bear it.

And so, O Lord, we ask that you would instruct our hearts today in this truth, and that you would stir up within us true affections of desire, of zeal, of fervency for you, of a longing to know you more, to know more of you. We pray that you would strengthen us especially in the trials that come to us. May we look to you, you who is the author and the finisher of our faith. And may you strengthen us and grant to us perseverance. That in that day we might be found not having our own righteousness, but Yours.

Though we might be found Not with counterfeit fruit, but that genuine fruit that is the work of your Holy Spirit. Father, we thank you for the simplicity of Your Word, for its clearness, for preserving it and giving it to us. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.