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Why Some Hear and Never Understand (Opening for Matthew 13) · (Un) Common thoughts of Christ

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to our series, He That Hath Ears to Hear.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: In this series, we are going to consider one of the most searching portions in all the Word of God, the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 and Mark 4.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: But before we look at the four soils, we need to ask a foundational question.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Why did the Lord begin speaking in parables?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 13 is not merely the Lord giving simple illustrations, it marks a turning point.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: The king has been presented, his works of power have been displayed, his grace has been shown, his words have been spoken.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yet in Matthew 12, the religious leaders reject him so severely that they attribute his works to Satan.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: That is the dark background.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then at the end of Matthew twelve, his mother and brethren stand outside desiring to speak with him.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord answers, in verses forty eight to fifty he asks, Who is my mother and who are my brethren?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Natural connection is no longer the great point.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: The issue now is this Who truly hears the word of God?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then Matthew thirteen chapter opens with verse one.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: The same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: That phrase matters.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: The same day.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: He is not now taking the throne in Jerusalem.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: He is not yet publicly judging his enemies.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: He is not yet establishing the kingdom in displayed power.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he becomes a sower.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: In verse 3.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, a sower went forth to sow.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is deeply significant.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, Israel had been viewed as Jehovah's Vineyard, as stated in Isaiah 5 2.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: God had looked for fruit from the vineyard, and the vineyard failed.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord begins a new kind of work.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: He goes forth sowing seed.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: The seed is the word.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: The sower is perfect.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: The question is not whether there is failure in the seed.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: The question is what kind of heart receives it?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: That is why this parable is so critical for us today, living in 2026.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: We are living in perhaps the noisiest age in human history.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: A person can listen to preaching every hour of the day and still never truly hear God.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: We carry endless content in our pockets, sermons, podcasts, clips, debates, opinions, commentary, reactions, and religious discussion.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yet amid all the noise, the Lord still asks the same question.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have an ear to hear?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 13 9, our Lord Jesus asks, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is not asking, Did sound reach your ears?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: He is pressing something deeper.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Has the word reached your conscience?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Has it entered your heart?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs joins the ear and heart together.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: In the fourth chapter, verses twenty to twenty-three.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is the burden of Matthew 13.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is exposing hearts.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Some hearts are hard, some are shallow, some are crowded, some receive the word, and bear fruit, but the seed is the same.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then the disciples ask in Matthew 13, 10, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord answers in verse 11, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is solemn.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Parables do not merely make truth easier, they both reveal and conceal.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: They reveal truth to those who receive Christ, they conceal truth from those who have refused the light.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord then quotes Isaiah in verses fourteen to fifteen.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: That comes from Isaiah six and the tenth verse.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the issue is not merely intellect, it is moral.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is not that the word of God lacks clarity.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is that man's heart resists God.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul says in the first epistle to the Corinthians chapter two and verse fourteen, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: This explains why someone can hear truth for years and remain unchanged.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: It explains how people can admire Scripture, discuss scripture, quote scripture, and yet never be searched by Scripture.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where Matthew thirteen becomes intensely relevant to the present hour.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Many believers today are troubled by the condition of Christendom.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: There is outward profession without inward reality.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: There is confusion, mixture, compromise, entertainment religion, and often a growing departure from the authority of Scripture.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Matthew 13 tells us the Lord already knew this would mark the time of his rejection.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: The king is still rejected publicly.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Modern society may quote Jesus occasionally, admire fragments of his teaching, or use Christian language culturally, but his rightful authority is still refused.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Repentance is refused.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Holiness is refused.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Divine authority is refused.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: The exclusive claims of Christ are refused.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: The king is rejected, but the sower is still sowing.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: That is why the kingdom of heaven is so important today.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is not merely a prophetic subject, it explains the spiritual conditions we are living in right now.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is not yet manifested in public glory.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: The king is hidden in heaven, but his word is active on earth, and that word tests every hearer.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews gives the warning in the third chapter, verses seven to eight.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Again, hearing and the heart are connected, and perhaps never before has the battle for the hearing ear been more intense.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Attention is constantly fragmented.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hearts are overstimulated.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Silence is rare.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Meditation before God is rare.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: People consume truth quickly, react to it quickly, and move on quickly.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the parable of the sower slows us down.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: The parable does not ask, was the speaker interesting?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: It does not ask, was the meeting address or sermon engaging?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: It does not ask, did I enjoy the content?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: The parable is asking, What happened to the word after I heard it?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Did Satan take it away?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did it spring up with no root?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Was it choked by the cares of this life?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or did it enter good ground and bear fruit?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: James says in his first chapter, verses twenty one to twenty-two, Receive with meekness the engrafted word, but be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: There it is again, the word must be received with meekness.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: That brings us to Matthew 18 and the first verse, where the disciples asked, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus in verse 3 answered this question by setting a little child in the midst, and saying, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is not childishness, it is lowliness, teachability, dependence, receptiveness.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: The modern spirit says, Trust yourself, define your own truth, resist authority, follow your own heart.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the Lord says, The kingdom is entered by those who become as little children.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: A childlike heart is a hearing heart.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: So as we begin this series, we are not merely studying four kinds of soil, we are standing under the searching voice of the rejected king.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: The seed is still being sown, the word is still living, the kingdom is still in mystery, the king is still rejected, and the great question remains What kind of hearer am I?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus again repeats in Mark 4 23 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.