Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew 13?
We will read from verses 1 through 9, and again from verses 18 through 23.
And on that day Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the sea side.
And there were gathered unto Him great multitudes, so that He entered into a boat, and sat; and all the multitude stood on the beach.
And He spake to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went forth to sow;
and as he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the birds came and devoured them:
and others fell upon the rocky places, where they had not much earth: and straightway they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth:
and when the sun was risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
And others fell upon the thorns; and the thorns grew up, and choked them:
and others fell upon the good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
He that hath ears, let him hear.
Hear then ye the parable of the sower.
When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart. This is he that was sown by the way side.
And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it;
yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth.
And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
And he that was sown upon the good ground, this is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; who verily beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we pray that Thou wilt speak silently, quietly, into our hearts.
We do not want Thy word to fall on the wayside. We want Thy word to fall upon good ground, that it may bear fruit unto Thyself, for Thy glory.
Dear Lord, we do commit this time into Thy hands. We pray that Thou wilt speak to each one of us. We are here before Thee, and we know Thou art precious.
This morning, we would like to do something different. We are not going to give a new message. We are going to review what we have heard recently.
You know, for about a year and a half, we have been considering together what we call basic lessons. There are altogether eighteen of them. I wonder whether anybody still remembers all the eighteen lessons.
But that is not the problem. The problem is how much these lessons mean to us, how much they have changed us, and how much we have benefited by these lessons.
So this morning, we would like to do something that we will call a retrospect. We will review it together—not in the sense of going through all these eighteen lessons once again, but rather we want to be before the Lord and see what these lessons have done for us.
Have they done anything to us, both individually and corporately? Oh, how can we really be benefited by what we have heard?
You remember that book called Haggai, only two chapters. Haggai was an old man, and he spoke only four messages—short messages, not long messages.
But when you read Haggai, there is one word that is repeated four times. And the word is consider.
In other words, when God spoke, He wanted us to consider what He had spoken, what He had revealed. He wants us to set our hearts on what we heard and to consider our condition before Him.
You know, the Bible often says, “He that hath ears, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” Now, of course, we all have ears, but that is not what He means. It means that we have a hearing ear.
And if we really hear what He says, we cannot help but be changed and transformed.
The children of Israel were in captivity in Babylon for seventy years. Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple was destroyed.
But after seventy years, the Spirit of God stirred some hearts to return to Jerusalem—a ruined place, with nothing there—with only one purpose: to go back to rebuild the temple.
The reason was that God might have a testimony on earth. Because during the seventy years of captivity, God was never addressed as the God of heaven and earth. He was only addressed as the God of heaven, as if He had withdrawn Himself from the earth.
Why? Because there was no testimony for His name on earth. The temple was destroyed. So these people went up with only one burden: to rebuild the temple.
They did not go back for themselves. During those seventy years of captivity, the Jewish people were well treated in the land of captivity, and they became very prosperous.
They went back with only one thing in their hearts: to rebuild the temple, that God’s name might be upon this earth. Thank God for these people.
But unfortunately, they met some difficulties, and they stopped.
But they had to do something. So, instead of building the house of God, they began to build their own houses. They had plenty of time, so they not only built houses; they built beautiful houses, paneled houses.
So finally, God sent His prophet Haggai to speak to them. God said, “You say in your hearts, ‘This is not the time to build the house of God.’”
Now, I wonder whether they really said it, but it was in their hearts. They had not forgotten why they came back, but they felt that the time was not right. They had to wait for an easier time to do that.
But you have to do something. So they started to build their own houses. And in a sense, as they were doing that, they began to forget altogether about the house of God—why they came back.
Their whole lives were engaged for themselves. They lived for themselves instead of living for God.
So God sent His prophet to them and said, “You say that the time was not right to build the house of God. Now, how about this? Is it right for you to build your beautiful houses?”
God challenged them, and God said, “Consider. Consider your ways.”
Set your heart upon it. Think about it. What are you doing?
And why is it that even if you are building your own houses and letting the house of God lie waste, what happens to your life? Is your life abundant, plentiful? No. You put in much effort, but you have very little.
It was physically true, and it was especially spiritually real. Consider. Consider what you should do. Go up to the mountain, cut down the timber, and come and build the house of God. That is what you need to do.
Thank God, the Spirit of God touched them again, and they started. But while they were starting, the difficulties were still there.
As they were doing that, they became discouraged. Why? Because they could never restore that house to the original beauty and glory of the house that Solomon built.
They were few in number. They were very limited in their supply. Some of them began to be discouraged.
Furthermore, it seemed as if their condition was not changed. They were still not in plenty; they were in lack. The blessing of God did not seem to return to them.
So God said, “Consider. Consider why it is so.”
Now, I am not going to give an exposition of Haggai. I just want to bring out some ideas. God said to them, “Why is it that you find there is no blessing? It is because of you yourselves. You were defiled and unclean; therefore, everything you touched became unclean.”
But if you separate yourselves unto Me and continue on, the blessing will come. So that is what He asked the returned remnant of the children of Israel to consider.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, are we in the same position? Why do we gather together?
Are we gathering together just for our benefit? Thank God, whenever the saints are assembled, there will be benefit. But the problem is: why do we gather?
Do we come to get blessing? Do we come to enjoy ourselves? Why do we gather in this way?
Thank God, the Spirit of God touched our hearts. We gather together for one purpose, and one only: to rebuild the house of God.
Christianity has fallen into the world. Christianity has become part of the world system. God’s testimony has suffered—the testimony of Jesus.
And somehow God touched our hearts. By His mercy, by His grace, we returned, as it were, with the sole purpose that we do not live for ourselves, but we live for Him.
It is His testimony that we are deeply concerned about. It is not our blessing.
But we met difficulties, opposition, adversaries. And because of that, our hands relaxed. “It is not time to build the house of God.”
But we need to be occupied. So what are we occupied with? We are building our own houses.
We think more of our own families than the family of God. We care more for ourselves, our comfort, than the glory of the Lord.
If we are doing that, we will experience spiritual poverty, because that is the rule. We put in much effort, but we reap very little.
Our spiritual lives are unfulfilled and unsatisfied. We are struggling.
It is time for us to consider. It is time for us to be before the Lord and let Him find us out. Where are we? Where are we before Him?
Now, brothers and sisters, it is very important that we should consider. We should review. We should place ourselves before the Lord and let His light shine upon us.
We do not suggest that we should be introspective. Self-introspection never helps; it hurts.
You remember God’s word in Isaiah 50:11. Maybe we should read from Isaiah 50:10.
Who is among you that feareth the Lord,
that obeyeth the voice of His servant,
that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?
let him trust in the name of the Lord,
and stay upon his God.
Then verse 11:
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,
that gird yourselves about with firebrands,
walk ye in the flame of your fire,
and among the brands that ye have kindled.
This shall ye have at My hand;
ye shall lie down in sorrow.
You know the worst, brothers and sisters? If we try to examine ourselves according to our own light—the light that we have lit up—what will be the result?
Self-examination, searching ourselves—now, that is what Christianity is doing today. There is a wind that is blowing through Christianity: self-examination.
Search your heart. Recall, even from your childhood, what you have done. Then repent, one by one, in order to be cleansed.
Brothers and sisters, if we walk by the light that we lit up ourselves, we will lie down in sorrow.
But how can we be examined? Not by our own light, but by the light of God.
So you remember Psalm 36:9:
For with Thee is the fountain of life:
In Thy light shall we see light.
So, brothers and sisters, what is necessary for us to review, to consider, and to examine is not our light, or anybody’s light. We need simply to come to the Lord in openness and simplicity, asking the Lord to shed His light upon us.
If we walk in the light—and the light there in 1 John is this: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all—if we just come before Him and let His light shine upon us and search us, then we shall see light.
So that is what the Scripture means when it says that we need to examine ourselves before the Lord.
Now, brothers and sisters, again, our purpose this morning is not for judgment. Our purpose this morning is that we are seeking for reality.
Where are we today, after we have heard the word of God for so long? Does it affect us individually and affect us corporately, or do we remain the same?
As a matter of fact, we cannot remain the same. If we do not go forward, we slip backward. Where are we?
Why is it that we have heard the word of God so much, and there does not seem to be much fruit?
By fruit, I mean the fruit of the Spirit—the character of Christ manifested. How can we really be benefited by God’s word?
Now, this morning, I am not trying to defend those brothers who speak. It is very true: those who speak are much more responsible before God than those who hear.
But this morning, I want to draw every one of us into this retrospect, and we try to find out how God’s word can really bring forth fruit in our lives. That is positive.
So I would like to go through with you, brothers and sisters, the parable that our Lord Jesus spoke. We are all familiar with that parable.
And I am not going to give an exegesis of that parable. I just want to draw out some lessons that we can learn.
Here you find the sower. He went out to sow. And the seed is the word of God.
God’s word is like seed. There is life in it. God’s word is living and operative.
And you find the sower sowing the seed, but it falls upon four different grounds. The ground here is the heart.
So remember, brothers and sisters, God’s word is never meant just for your mind. God’s word is meant for the heart.
Now, what is the heart? The heart here is not our physical heart, but the heart here is like our physical heart: it is the center of our being.
You know, all the blood goes through the heart. The heart is the center of our physical being. And spiritually speaking, there is a heart which is the center of our being.
According to the Scripture, the heart is the pathway, the passage, between the spirit and the soul. It includes the conscience of the spirit and the three different faculties of the soul, which are emotion, mind, and volition.
You know, our soul has these three faculties. We have emotion—that represents me. We have our mind, our thinking—that is me. And we have volition, our will—that represents me. These are the functions of the soul.
But the heart includes the conscience of our spirit. In our spirit, we also have three main functions: conscience, intuition, and communion.
We have a conscience. Conscience is different from reason. Conscience has its own reason.
So sometimes you feel your conscience—your heart—smiting you. Just like David: when he did something, his heart smote him. That is, his conscience was touched.
You may reason with the conscience, but the conscience will not listen, because it is above your reasoning. It has its own logic—heavenly logic.
And we have intuition—not the knowledge that we gather from outside, but direct knowledge from God. God reveals it. God speaks to you. God touches you. He enlightens you.
And, of course, we have the greatest faculty of our spirit: communion—communion with God.
How can man commune with God? Not by his body, not by his soul, only by his spirit. There is spirit and spirit. God is Spirit, and by our spirit we are in fellowship and communion with Him.
And that is what the heart is. The heart includes the conscience of the spirit and the three faculties of our soul.
So remember, God’s word is for the heart. It is not just for the mind alone. It is for the heart—that is what God’s word is for.
Now, here you will find four different effects. The word is the same, but some falls upon the wayside.
Now, the wayside, of course, is ground that has not been plowed, cultivated, or cleared. It is a place where people walk upon, so it becomes very hardened.
And because of that, the grain just falls on it but never enters into it. Then the birds come and snatch it away.
So, in other words, they have heard, but it is as if they have never heard. There is no understanding, and they have not heard anything.
They may be sitting here for an hour, but after the meeting is over, you may ask them, “What have you heard?” “What?” Nothing. They do not understand. They do not retain anything. It is all snatched away.
And the bird here represents the dark power of the heaven; in other words, satanic power. It is all gone.
Brothers and sisters, if God’s word only falls upon you and never enters into you, that is the wayside. And the enemy will snatch it all away.
Hopefully, none of us are like that.
Now, there is a second ground. The grain falls upon stony ground.
You know, it not only falls on it, but it enters somewhat into it. But the ground is so shallow, and immediately you find it begins to sprout.
But because there is no root—the stone is still there—when the sun comes, it is burned.
Now, what does it mean? It means that the word comes and you are emotionally touched.
You know, emotion is the most outward faculty of our soul. It is the most active one, easily reached.
So you find the word is given, and you are touched, emotionally stirred, and it is as if you accept it quickly. But it cannot be tested.
When the test comes, it all dries up. Nothing is left.
You know, that is the trouble with Christianity today. If you try to tell a very touching story, people will be touched and emotionally stirred.
But it goes away very fast too. Because if you are only emotionally stirred, it is unstable. It is gone.
Now, the third kind of heart is thorny ground. You know, the thorns are there, but they have not been rooted out. The thorns are still there.
And as the grain falls into the thorny ground, it really begins to grow. But it is squeezed by the thorns from bearing fruit.
Now, what is the condition of such a heart? You have heard the word of God. You are not only emotionally touched, mentally accepting it, and by your will you accept it.
But your conscience is only slightly touched. The ground has not been turned over. And because of that, fruitfulness is impossible.
Now, how often, brothers and sisters, even though we are saved, even though we do believe, even though our conscience has been touched before and we have repented, our self-life has not been dealt with.
In other words, the ground has not been turned over so that the thorns may be uprooted.
So many Christians today are like that. The care of this life and the deceitfulness of riches choke the grain and keep it from bearing fruit.
That is the reason why, brothers and sisters, when the word of God comes, there should be such a drastic turnover. Just like when you plow the ground, it is turned over. Everything is loosened, uprooted, softened.
Our self-life, the love of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the cares of this life—all these things will choke us from bearing fruit.
That is the reason why our Lord Jesus said, “You have to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
Without the working of the cross in our lives, brothers and sisters, the love of the world and the care of this life will continue to deprive us of fruitfulness.
But thank God, some grain falls upon good ground. And good ground simply means it has been tilled, it has been turned over, it has been softened.
And when the word of God comes, it patiently bears fruit. You cannot see fruit immediately.
Now, we like to see fruit immediately. What you see is emotional stirring—that is all. But fruit takes time. It takes dealing. It takes the cross.
And when the fruit comes, it will be a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold, for the glory of God.
Now, brothers and sisters, when you hear this parable, what conclusion will you draw? What lesson do we need to learn?
To me personally, I feel there is a very basic lesson that we need to learn as those who hear the word of God.
Now, do not think that hearing the word of God is simple. You do not need to do anything but hear—that is all. When you speak, you have to prepare. When you hear the word of God, there is no preparation needed, neither before nor afterwards. Not so.
If we hear the word and there is no spiritual exercise, the word is wasted.
So we who hear the word of God have a responsibility. We need to be exercised in our spirit.
Brothers and sisters, more and more I am concerned that many of God’s people do not even know they have a spirit.
They do not even know that the Spirit of God dwells in their spirit. If the Spirit of God does not dwell in you, then you are not His.
This is the greatest thing that God has done in our lives. He renewed our spirit, gave us a new spirit, and His Spirit dwells in our spirit. For what? For exercise.
If you do not exercise your body, your body deteriorates. If you do not exercise your mind, your mind also degenerates.
If you do not exercise your spirit, your spirit is there, but almost dead, in a coma. Many believers’ spirits are in a coma.
You never use your spirit. You never exercise your spirit.
Do you exercise your conscience? Do you exercise your intuition? Do you exercise your communion?
The more you exercise, the keener, more sensitive, and stronger they become. But the less you exercise it—or if you neglect it or go against it—it can become cauterized and hardened.
What is spiritual life? We are talking about spiritual life. What is spiritual life?
Spiritual life is not how strong your body is. Spiritual life is not how keen your mind is. Spiritual life is the life of your spirit.
Do you have spiritual life? Do you want to live a spiritual life by your soul, or even by your body? You cannot do it. It will not work.
Spiritual life is the life of the spirit.
But how can your spirit be active, living, growing, and maturing unless you exercise it, unless you use it?
That is the reason behind everything. Why do we read the Bible? Why do we have morning devotion? Why do we have fellowship? Why do we have meetings?
Behind everything is the opportunity to exercise our spirit.
If you read the Bible and do not exercise your spirit, you may know all the theological answers, but it does not profit your spiritual life.
If you pray and do not exercise your spirit, how can you contact God? How can you live in the presence of God?
If you do not walk with a clear conscience before God or man—if you neglect your conscience and live against your conscience—how can you talk about spiritual life?
It is basic. And more and more it burdens me, worries me, and concerns me that God’s people seem to neglect spiritual exercise.
Everything is external. By external, I mean it is either physical activity or mental exercise.
Where is our spirit? How do we use our spirit in living and in serving God? That is the only way.
If it is not of that, it is outside the realm of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, may we be before the Lord about it. I feel we need to be concerned about our spiritual condition.
May we not be like the church in Laodicea, neither hot nor cold, thinking that we are rich, and yet we are poor.
We need to buy, to pay the cost, for eye salve and white clothing—clothing of righteousness.
So I believe that there is good reason for us, as individual believers and as a corporate body of Christ, to learn the secret of spiritual life: how to exercise our spirit.
Use the faculties that God has given to us. Our conscience is very important. Our intuitive power is very important. Our communion—to be in constant communion with the Lord—that is the basis of everything.
So may the Lord help us. Lord, we are here this morning not for anything new, but after we have heard all these things, maybe it is time that we need to go before the Lord and let the Lord check where we are.
The coming of the Lord is so imminent. There is no time for us to be complacent. Brothers and sisters, let us press on.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we have heard much. Wilt Thou not examine each and every one of us—how much we really have heard?
Allow Thy Spirit to touch our spirit, that we may be transformed and conformed into Thine image.
Do not allow us to stay put. Do not allow us to go backward. But Lord, draw us, that we may press on to the goal that Thou hast put before us.
It is not for our sake, Lord; it is for Thy sake. We ask in Thy precious name.