We're studying the parable of the sower and the seed and we're looking at the third type of ground or heart that people have. This is the seed that fell among the thorns. We have seen thus far that there are four things that are given in the verses that I have listed for you here. that tell us something about the thorns, which is what we want to study here this morning. We want to talk about the thorns and what they are. Whenever you have a discussion about sanctification, it is twofold. It is negative and it is positive. We're going to be looking at the negative here this morning, and that is getting rid of thorns. in our lives because even if you have good ground, it doesn't mean that you do not have a responsibility to clear that ground of the thorns that may be trying to grow up in your heart. Let me read for you here the verses that I have listed and are on the sheet that you have. Matthew 13 7, and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up there and choked them. In the gospel of Mark it says it yielded no crop. Matthew 13 22, now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful. Mark 4 18 says, now these are the ones sown among thorns, they are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things. entering in choked the word and it becomes unfruitful. And Luke 8 verse 7, and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. Luke 8 14, now the ones that fell among the 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. So I have talked to you about these things somewhat. I talked to you last time, which I think was two weeks ago now, about the absolute importance of bearing good fruit. And I asked you four questions at that time, and we can review those here quickly. And you can help me with this. What are the thorns according to the above passages of Scripture? I said that there are four of them. What are they? It looks like we have cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, desires for other things, and pleasures of life. Amen. That's exactly right, Matt. Now these things at first sight may not appear to be thorns. because God does give us all the enjoyment that we have in this life. We're going to be talking mostly today about the cares of this life, but it also, we need to think about the pleasures of this life as well. These other things that are mentioned here, the deceitfulness of riches, actually the desire for other things. even, and then to ask ourselves as a question whether we have this good ground of a good Christian heart, that if we have that ground, that it's not as though that we don't have a desire to enjoy God or even this life that he's given to us, we do, but we need to think about the way that we go about to enjoy the things that he gives so that we do not abuse them. The good gifts I'm talking about that he gives to us in this life which can be abused. We're going to look at this more here in just a few minutes. But I wanted you to see here the last time that we were together that in the case of those who the seed is sown among thorns that they bring no fruit to maturity. It's not like the good ground I said to you where Some people bring forth 30-fold, some 60, and some 100. But in this case, they bring forth nothing. And yet, I believe that if we were to think about this in depth, we would find that many of these folks listened to the Word for a long time. And perhaps they are even members of churches. And so what we need to ask ourselves is, what's wrong? Or what happened to bring them to this point where they are unfruitful? Not only just that they don't bear some fruit, but they don't bear any fruit. And yet they may be regular in their attendance at church. They may do many things from a human standpoint that appear to be very good. And maybe they are. But I'm just saying that what this is saying here is that when they have heard, it says they go out, I assume it's going out from hearing of the Word of God being preached, and they are choked, Luke 8, 14, with cares, riches, and pleasures of life. They're choked by these things, it says. And then they bring no fruit to maturity. Well, what's the problem here, I'm asking? The problem is that the person who's receiving the Word is not looking at their own heart, their own life, to see if there might be these thorns which are choking the plant which has started so that it cannot bear fruit. You and I need to understand that it is possible for a person to make profession of faith and only bring forth leaves. The leaves are symbolic of the public profession of faith. It's an outward thing. It's something that's said. It's something that's professed. But if there's no fruit, then those two things do not match. And as I've said to you before, in Luke you find that parable where God comes looking for fruit, and he doesn't find any, and then the son says, let me fertilize this plant and we'll see if it bears fruit. Gives it a few years, and if not, then we'll cut it down. Or as it says in John chapter 15, It says that if they don't bear fruit, they wither, and then they are cast into the fire. And so we need to see these things very seriously. We need to understand that there are people around us who are living this way. Perhaps we ourselves are living this way. I hope not, and I trust not. But persons in this category, they go on for years thinking well of themselves, even though they're only living for themselves. and their own idea of what the Christian life is, and they are not living their Christian life out of a love for God, for Christ, and for people around them, it's a very dangerous situation because they have professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what I've said here is that, first of all, the true Christian will bear fruit But second, that the thorns must be removed. This is what I want you to see. In other words, that when the thorns come up in your life, as a Christian, you must root them out. You must not allow them to grow and to choke. the Word of God. That's what I want you to see here this morning. I want us to see this in the context of the Bible and what the Bible teaches about this. And so if you will turn with me over to Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 3. If somebody would read for me Jeremiah 4 verse 3, I would appreciate it. All right, All right, thanks for that. Now, what must be done about the foul ground according to this verse? What is it that has to be done? It's got to be broken up. Why does it need to be broken up? It's been allowed to lie and grow whatever it will grow of itself. Amen. It's been allowed to lie and whatever grows, grows of itself. It's fallow ground. It's hard ground. It's hard for the seed of the Word to penetrate it. And so it has to be broken up. What do you think That means broken up. What has to take place? In this case. Broken up by what? Broken up by repentance. That's good. What has to come to the person before they can repent? Conviction of sin. Exactly right. And conviction of sin comes how? Conviction of sin comes by the law, doesn't it? But it also comes by the Holy Spirit. And He, when He comes, will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. And why in that text? Because they do not believe in Me. So we need to understand that when there are thorns in our life, how is it that they can be removed? According to the verse in Jeremiah, the ground must be broken up. It's got to be done by conviction of sin through the preaching of the law. But there also has to be faith that comes about. And faith that is exercised in the Lord Jesus Christ, bringing about union, spiritual union with the Lord Jesus. Because when you have that, then you then you can repent. Do you see that? Because there's different kinds of repentance. People can repent for many reasons which are very selfish. What is it, why is it that a person should repent of their sins? That's exactly right. You could be sorry because you got caught in a sin, or you could be sorry because of what sin is doing to you personally. But you're not grieved, you're not sorrowful over the fact that you have misspent your life. That you have dishonored God by the way that you've lived your life. That you've fallen short of His glory. that he's blessed you with many, many blessings of common grace and you have not taken those blessings and improved upon them to come to him and ask him for wisdom or salvation or the grace to change or to be a person who would honor him with your life or follow Christ and bear fruit unto God. See, these are the things that are important to God. Foul ground is the ground of the heart that's become hard because of sin. It must be plowed up, it must be broken up. And the idea that I must have all my attention in my mind and heart taken up with the cares of this world, my business concerns, how much money I make or have, or the pleasures of this life, if those things become what I live for, so that I don't have a greater desire for the things of God. I have a desire for other things than I'm sowing among the thorns. If that's the case with me, then I'm sowing among thorns, and I must learn not to sow among thorns. And I want you to turn with me over to Proverbs, Book of Proverbs chapter 24 and verse 30 and 31. Who would like to read that for me? Matt. I passed by the field of the slugger and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense and behold it was completely overgrown with thistles. Its surface was covered with nettles and its stone wall was Okay, in the New King James it says, I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding. And there it was, all overgrown with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, its stone wall was broken down. So the man here that's being observed by Solomon is a lazy man. It says here, or a sluggard. And what's being talked about, what is being represented here beyond just the fact that we're talking about a lazy man in this outward sense of what he doesn't do with his own personal property to improve it or clean it up or get rid of the thorns. What's being talked about here? How can we apply this to ourselves? What is the field representative of? I'm thinking, I'm not sure if I'm talking about the field, but I'm thinking of this, that talking about repentance, it's not only that we admit that we have sinned, and we are sorry what we have done, but we have to turn away from it. Amen. Cleanse our heart from that sin, and that's when we take the thorns away, and then we learn. Very good. Yeah, very good. We do have to think of repentance as being toward God. Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Those things go together. It's something that we must think about over and over again as we live our life to God. Repentance isn't just a one-time turning away from sin, although it is that. but it's every day repenting of these thorns that might grow up in the field of our heart. Do you see what I'm saying? The field of your heart. That's what's being talked about here. And you're either cleansing yourself of your field, your heart, of these things, of all defilement of flesh and spirit, plucking out the thorns, or you're not. And we need to understand that these thorns have got to be removed or what will happen if we're lazy spiritually. If we're lazy spiritually, that these thorns will grow up in our life. And if we don't have understanding, it says here, we're devoid of understanding, that is spiritual understanding, there it's going to be overgrown with thorns, our heart, It's going to have nettles and briars, and the stone wall will be broken down. What does the stone wall represent, do you think, here, in relation to the field? They can. Well, they may not. If it's broken down, they don't have any place to grow in the right way, right? I think that's good. I think that's very good. But we need to understand here that the proverb is talking to us about whether we're diligent or whether we are lazy in regard to our work. And we can see that in an outward sense of our field, removing the thorns, or we can see it in the inward sense of our heart. in terms of cultivating what we should. Yes, I'm going to talk about that next week, but also removing the thorns. Yeah, Joe? I noticed that when I would get busy at work for two, three, four days a week, I would come back to my garden and it would be beginning to support the healthy growth of weeds. It's been very clear that just because you've cleaned the field out once doesn't mean it stays that way. So you're just constantly cleaning it out. And I don't know how many times I've started hard work or other things for taking away from really the only couple of minutes maybe per day to clean out the garden. And I really have excuses like I'll get it tomorrow, I'll get it the next day. That's very good. That's exactly what I'm trying to bring out is that we need to weed the garden of our heart and then sow good things in it, which I'm going to talk about next time, but we're talking about weeding here and I want to go on and talk about Matthew 24, 36 to 42, if you'll turn over there with me. I will read this for the sake of time. Matthew 24, 36 to 42. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field, one will be taken, and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." So we have here this warning that Jesus gives of the suddenness of his coming, which can be applied not only to his second coming, but also to us personally in terms of when he may come for us in our death. The context is the fall of Jerusalem, and he's predicting that here in this passage, but I don't want to talk about that in particular, but I want to talk about what these people were concerned about so much. What was it that they were concerned about so much in verse 38? Exactly. The legitimate things of life. That is exactly the point that I'm trying to bring out here. Are any of these things wrong in themselves? Eating and drinking, if done in moderation? Marrying or giving in marriage? See, those things are all a part of life. Those things are the good gifts of God. But what you and I need to understand, as I began this time, is that sometimes people abuse those things. In other words, they pay all of their attention to those things. That is the common everyday things of life, as though the good gifts that God gives in that good way concerning this life are the meaning of life, when it really is not. And it goes far more than that, as we know, from all the rest of the Bible. So, I'm trying to show you here that it's very interesting that the Lord, in this particular passage, he did not bring up the fact that the antediluvian world, the world before the flood, was wicked with immorality and violence. It was. But that's not what he mentions here. What he mentions here is what Brian was saying, all of these things of life which are common and ordinary, and these people were so caught up with it that they didn't even see the flood was coming, even though Noah had built the ark and had warned them over the process of 120 years, they were still eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the flood came. and took them all away, it says here. And that's what I want you to see. These are our thorns that need to be rooted out of our life. That is that we would pay more attention to the common and ordinary things of life, those good things that God gives, than we would the eternal spiritual things where we need to grow up and learn how to live for God in terms of our faith in Christ in terms of our repentance toward God and our living the kind of life where we can bear fruit unto God. And next time we'll talk about the importance of self-examination in this regard, examining ourselves to see if we are in the faith and testing ourselves, as it says in 2 Corinthians, or do we know that Jesus Christ is in us? as it says there. Well, let's bow together for prayer. Father, we thank you for this time and for our being able to interact over these things which are so very important to our being able to live the Christian life to your glory. We pray that we would live our lives that way, that we would not let days, months, weeks, years go by without spending much time with you in prayer and secret, and much time pursuing the things of godliness, and much time thinking of how we can be of help and service to you in the furtherance of your kingdom, and also in our love for other people around us to share the gospel with them. So bless us, we pray, in this regard, and help us to bear fruit for you, we pray, in your precious name, Lord Jesus, amen.