Latest / (Un) Common thoughts of Christ / When the Sun Rises... How a Trial Reveals the Root (Matthew 13)

Transcript

When the Sun Rises... How a Trial Reveals the Root (Matthew 13) · (Un) Common thoughts of Christ

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to our series, He That Hath Ears to Hear.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: In this series, we are walking through the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 and Mark 4.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Before we look at the second soil, let's briefly remember why the Lord spoke in parables.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: The king had been rejected, Israel had heard his words, seen his works, and yet refused him.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So in Matthew 13, the Lord does not yet establish the kingdom invisible power.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he goes forth as the sour.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: He sows the word of the kingdom into hearts, and these parables reveal the moral condition of men during the time of the king's rejection.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: The issue is not the seed, the seed is perfect, the sour is perfect, the word is living and powerful.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: The issue is the soil.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of heart receives the word?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: In our last episode, we looked at the wayside soil, the hardened path where the seed never entered.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Today we come to the second soil, the stony ground.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Our Lord states in Matthew 13 5 to 6, Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth, and when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord explains further in the chapter, He that received the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Mark adds in the fourth chapter, When affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: This soil is very different from the wayside.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: The wayside showed almost no visible response, but the stony ground shows immediate response.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: There is movement, there is enthusiasm, there is gladness, there is visible growth.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: At first glance, it appears promising, but the Lord says there is one fatal problem.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: They have no root.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is the searching phrase, not no emotion, not no profession, not no excitement, no root.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: The word affects the surface, but never goes deeply into the soul.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: There is enough earth for quick growth, but beneath the thin layer lies hidden rock.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why the second soil is so relevant in 2026.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: We live in an age of immediate reactions.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: People are moved quickly by messages, by social media clips, by music, by crisis, by emotion.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: A person may hear a stirring word and feel deeply affected for a short time.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: But the Lord is asking something deeper.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Did the word take root?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Did it reach the conscience before God?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Did it produce repentance?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Did it bring the soul into the presence of God?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did it create endurance?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: That is the difference between surface response and root.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: The stony ground hearer receives the word with gladness.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Joy itself is not wrong.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: True joy in Christ is precious, but this joy is immediate and shallow, because there has been no deep work beneath it, no breaking up of the ground, no deep exercise about sin, no counting the cost, no root in Christ.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 7 10.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God does more than stir emotions.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: He reaches the conscience.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: He exposes sin.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: He makes Christ necessary, not merely attractive, that is a vital distinction.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: The stony ground hearer may find Christianity appealing.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: He may like the comfort, the hope, the community, the encouragement, the feeling of a fresh start.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: But he has never truly bowed before the rejected Christ.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: He has not faced the cross as the judgment of what man is before God.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: He has not come to Christ as a lost sinner needing mercy.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is why shallow joy cannot endure.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Luke's account adds another solemn phrase in Luke 8.13, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: For a while.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Consider that thought for a while.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: They endure for a while, they continue for a while, they believe for a while, but when pressure comes, the reality is exposed.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord says in Mark 4, When affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Notice carefully, the trouble comes because of the word.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: The same son that strengthens a rooted plant exposes the one with no root.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Trial does not create rootlessness, it reveals it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: The trial of your faith might be found unto praise and honor and glory.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: True faith may be tested, but it does not finally wither, because it has root in Christ, and this becomes very searching in 2026.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Christianity today can easily become a culture, a comfort, a family tradition, a helpful worldview, or a source of inspiration.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what happens when Christ costs something?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when obedience brings reproach?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture contradicts the spirit of the age.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Standing with Christ costs approval, or following the rejected king becomes uncomfortable.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is where root is tested.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Further in Luke 14, our Lord Jesus shares with us Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: The stony ground hearer has not counted the cost.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: There is immediate gladness, but no reckoning with the path of a rejected Christ.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And here we should pause and look at the Lord Jesus himself in Isaiah 53 and verse 2.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: What a description of the Lord Jesus! He came up in dry ground.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: There was nothing in this world to nourish him.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Morally.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Israel rejected him.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: The religious leaders opposed him.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: The world had no heart for him, and yet he did not wither.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: That is the wonder.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: The stony ground hearer withers when the sun rises, because there is no root.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the Lord Jesus, the true root out of dry ground, endured rejection, contradiction, sorrow, and suffering, and never failed.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: He was sustained by perfect communion with his father.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: John 434, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that was his nourishment.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 50 gives another glimpse of his perfect dependence.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: He had an opened ear, perfect dependence, perfect communion with the Father.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So when we speak about needing root, we are not merely speaking about emotional stability or religious strength.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: We need Christ Himself.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: He is not only the example of endurance, he is the source of it.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: That is why Paul says in Colossians 2 6 to 7, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Rooted in him, not rooted in emotion, not rooted in excitement, not rooted in a preacher or a movement, rooted in Christ.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: This brings us to John 6.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Many followed the Lord after the feeding of the five thousand.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: They liked the bread, they liked the miracle, they liked the benefit.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: But when the Lord spoke about his death and the necessity of truly receiving him, many turned back, as we read in John 6 and verse 66.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: That is stony ground soil.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: They would follow a Christ who fed them, but not a Christ who would be rejected and crucified.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord asked the twelve later in that sixth chapter of John, Will ye also go away?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thou hast the words of eternal life.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: That is the language of root, not merely we enjoy the blessing, but thou hast the words of eternal life.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is a soul linked with Christ Himself.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why the second soil is so important.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: It warns us against quick religion, shallow impressions, emotional Christianity, outward growth without inward depth.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 1 gives the opposite picture where David writes about a man seeking God.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is rooted life, depth, meditation, continuance, fruitfulness.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: The prophet Jeremiah says similarly in chapter 17, he shall be as a tree planted by the waters.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: The rooted tree is not spared heat.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: The heat still comes, but the rooted tree does not wither, because its roots draw from another source.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: That is the difference.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: The stony ground plant withers when the sun rises.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: The rooted soul endures because it draws life from Christ.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the question becomes deeply personal.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Where are my roots?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Am I rooted in Christ or merely stirred by Christian things?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Am I grounded in the word or merely affected by moments?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: In 2026, we are surrounded by fast spiritual impressions, quick spiritual inspiration, quick emotion, quick reactions, quick professions, but roots are not formed quickly.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Roots form secretly, through repentance, through communion with Christ, through obedience, through receiving the word deeply into the conscience.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when affliction comes for the word's sake, the truth is revealed.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: The issue is not how high the blade rose at first, the issue is whether there was root.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So as we close this episode, let the Lord's words search us.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: The king is still rejected, the sour is still sowing, the word is still living, the sun still rises, trial still exposes, and only what is rooted in Christ will endure.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So here is the compelling question for this episode as we wrap up this second soil that the seed landed on.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: When the heat of trial rises, will I endure through being rooted in Christ?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or wither, because the word never went deep?