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The Fowls of the Air --How the Enemy Steals the Word (Matthew 13) · (Un) Common thoughts of Christ

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to our series anchored in Matthew 13, which we call He that Hath Ears to Hear.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: In our first episode, we looked at why the Lord began speaking in parables.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: The king had been rejected.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of immediately establishing the kingdom in visible power, he went forth as the sour.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: He began sowing the word of the kingdom into hearts, and we saw that the great question is not whether the seed is good.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: The seed is perfect.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: The sour is perfect.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: The question is What kind of heart receives the word?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Today we begin with the first soil, the ground called the wayside.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew thirteen, three to four.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, a sour went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord explains in verse 19.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Mark gives the same truth in the fourth chapter and verse 15.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And these are they by the wayside, where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first and most solemn kind of hearing.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: The word is heard, but it never enters the heart and soul.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: The seed falls, but it remains on the surface.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: The heart is like a beaten path, hardened, packed down, exposed, and resistant.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit of God gives a solemn warning in the ninety-fifth Psalm.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart as in the provocation.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Israel heard his voice in the wilderness, they saw his works, they experienced his provision, they ate manna from heaven, water flowed from the rock, the cloud guided them by day, and the fire by night.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yet repeated unbelief hardened their hearts, and the danger of the wayside soil is exactly this hearing without truly receiving.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The wilderness generation becomes a warning to every hearer of the word.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: They were outwardly connected with the people of God, they traveled with the congregation, they saw divine power, yet inwardly many remained resistant.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: That is why Scripture says in Hebrews 3 19, so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Exposure to divine things is not the same as receiving them.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: A person may hear truth repeatedly, and yet remain untouched in conscience.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And notice carefully what happens in verse 4 of our chapter in Matthew.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: The fowls came and devoured them up.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: The fowls are not just background scenery in the parable.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Himself tells us what they represent.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew recounts the Lord Jesus calling him the wicked one.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Mark says plainly in his account, in the fourth chapter, Satan cometh immediately.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the fowls speak of the direct activity of Satan.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is very solemn.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: The seed falls on the hard path, and because the ground is unbroken, the seed remains exposed.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: It does not enter, it lies there on the surface, and because it lies exposed, the fowls can devour it.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy does not need to dig the seed out of broken ground.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: He only has to snatch away what has never entered.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: The word was heard.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: The word came near.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: The word was present, but it never got beneath the surface.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So the fowls came, and notice their speed.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Satan cometh immediately, not eventually, immediately.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy knows the value of the word, even when the hearer does not.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that if the word enters the conscience, if it awakens the soul, if it produces repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, fruit may come for God, so he is quick.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: A person hears the word, and immediately another thought comes, another distraction, another resentment, another criticism, another excuse, another conversation, another worldly care, and the word is gone, not because the seed lacked power, not because the sour failed, but because the heart was hard and the enemy was watchful.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: The fowls remind us that hearing the word is a battleground.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is not neutral ground.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever the word of God is faithfully sown, there is an enemy who wants it removed before it takes root.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps never before has this been more visible than in 2026.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: People today live under a constant assault of voices, images, alerts, opinions, fears, distractions, and endless streams of information.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Attention itself has become a battleground.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: The mind rarely becomes still.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the language, walking, seeking, devouring.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: That is exactly the spirit of the fowls in the parable.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: The birds descend quickly upon exposed seed.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: The roaring lion walks about seeking exposed souls.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: In both pictures, the enemy watches for vulnerability.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And what is so vulnerable in Matthew 13?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: The seed lying exposed on the surface.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: The enemy does not need to uproot deeply rooted truth in this first soil.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: He simply removes what never entered.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why the Spirit says in Hebrews 3.15, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because every delay leaves the seed exposed longer, every resisted conviction presses the soil harder.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Every refusal gives the enemy greater room.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: The wayside hearer is neither sober nor vigilant spiritually.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: The heart becomes open to every passing influence except the Word of God.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now why might the ground be so hard?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: The wayside was not soft soil, it was a path where many feet had passed, and a path becomes hard because it has been walked on again and again.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: That gives us a tender picture of the heart.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Some hearts are hardened by pride or sin, but others are hardened because life has walked over them.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Disappointment has walked over them.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Betrayal has walked over them.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Grief has walked over them.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Rejection has walked over them.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Religious hypocrisy has walked over them.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Painful experiences have pressed upon the soul.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And little by little the heart becomes guarded, suspicious, closed, and resistant.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: This does not excuse hardness, but it helps explain it.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: A wounded heart can become a hardened heart.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Pain can become bitterness.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Self-protection can become resistance to God.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: The soul says, I will not be hurt again, and soon.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: The word of God lies only on the surface.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: There is a difference between a broken heart and a hard heart.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: A broken heart is tender before God.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: A hard heart is closed against God.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the Lord still calls the heart to hear.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is grace.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: The sour still passes by the wayside.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord does not say, That ground is too hard, I will never sow there again.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: No, the seed still falls, the word still comes near, the voice of Christ still reaches the hardened place.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why the prophet Hosea says, in his book in the tenth chapter, verse twelve, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: The need is not merely more seed on the surface, not merely more sermons and Bible addresses, not merely more exposure to truth, the need is broken up ground, a heart softened before God, and this is especially relevant in 2026.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: We are flooded with religious content, yet often lacking true spiritual hearing.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: People consume truth rapidly, casually, distractedly, and then move immediately to the next thing.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Has the word entered the heart?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: A person today may consume spiritual material the same way he consumes news or entertainment.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: He hears but does not understand.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He listens but does not receive.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: He is exposed to truth, but not searched by truth.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And all the while the seed remains vulnerable before the birds of the air.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: The wayside hearer may still attend meetings, still discuss doctrine and theology, still analyze preaching, still think of how the message applies to someone else, but the seed remains on the surface.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: That is why James says in his first chapter, verse 21, receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Receive it, not merely discuss it, not merely examine it intellectually, not merely admire it from a distance, receive it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: The wayside heart remains in control, the meek heart bows, and that is why the Lord says, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: This statement is deeply personal.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: It strips away the crowd, it addresses the individual conscience.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is possible to be among the multitude and not truly hear.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is possible to be near the sour and not receive the seed.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is possible to hear the best words ever spoken, even from the lips of the Son of God, and remain unchanged.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is sobering, but there is mercy in the warning.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord exposes the wayside heart so that we may not remain wayside hearers.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: He shows us the hardened path, so that we may cry to God for a broken and prepared heart.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the prayer we need is not merely, Lord, give me more truth.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: But in Psalm 139, 23 to 24, we read, Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: In an age of noise, distraction, spiritual overexposure, and endless voices, the need is not merely more information.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: The true need is a heart that trembles at the word of God.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So as we consider the wayside soil, the question is What happens when I hear the word of God?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Does it enter my heart?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Does it search me, my soul?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Does it reach my conscience?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or does it remain lying on the surface where the enemy can quickly take it away?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: The wilderness generation heard his voice, yet hardened their hearts, and the Spirit still says in Psalm 95, 7 to 8, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: The king is still rejected, the sour is still sowing, the enemy is still active, the seed is still perfect.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: But what about my heart?