Sermon Central
-
The Choice Is Yours Series
Contributed by Troy Campbell on Mar 10, 2016 (message contributor)
Summary: The Parable of the Sower
The Parable of the Sower – 3
“The Choice is Yours”
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
Last week we started talking about the parable of the sower. These are the facts to remember as we continue this series:
➢ The seed is the Word. God’s ONLY tool is the Word of God. Everything He does, He does through the Word!
➢ The sower is God. He is scattering seed daily and Satan is trying to pick it up.
➢ The ground is you. The ground determines all the results of the sowing.
Again, I want to pick up right where we left off last Sunday night. Tonight, we will be getting into the different types of grounds, but this morning I believe we need to continue on the subject of the power of the seed. The seed is the Word of God and our text says that this Word has dynamite power to deliver anyone and anything. So the question remains if it has the power to deliver everyone then why isn’t everyone delivered? The answer is found in this parable.
I. YOU CHOOSE!
The sower sows the Word, and the Word is the power of God unto whatever kind of deliverance you need. Although the Word is the power of God, the Bible gives us very clear insight as to what happens when people choose not to receive the Word. We find what happens in Romans:
Romans 1:20-22, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened (confused). Professing to be wise, they became fools.” (NKJV)
When people know God from the world He created and even know of His eternal power and Godhead, there is no relationship with Him.
➢ I know Bill Gates through Microsoft.
➢ I know Steve Jobs through Apple.
➢ I know Albert Einstein through his general theory of relativity.
➢ I know Thomas Edison through the light bulb.
➢ But I don’t know these men. I have never met them. I know who they are by what they did and discovered, but I don’t know them.
Paul tells the Church of Rome that the problem with knowing God by what He has done and created is that there is no relationship and with no relationship is no revelation knowledge of who He really is.
When people just accept God as a supreme being somewhere, we get confused. This society all knows who God is. Some will say that He created the world, most will say that they believe in Him, but there is no relationship with Him. So, just like Paul’s day, when there is no relationship, they create idols.
We do not have idols of birds or worship the sun anymore, now we have humanism. This is when man exalts man to a level of prime importance. What man thinks, feels, and decides is the highest knowledge for man to know instead of the knowledge of God. In making that choice, people feel that they are wise, but in reality this passage continues to tell us what they really are. Society is now making all the rules and ignoring all of God’s rules and guidelines. We see a direct correlation between Paul’s day and ours. Let’s continue reading:
Romans 1:23, “And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”
As a result, Romans 1:24-27, “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature (mankind and his human body) rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up (or surrendered them) to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”
The most common saying amongst unbelievers is, “If there was a God, then there would not be any poverty in the world or bad people.” These are people who are speaking out of ignorance. This Scripture tells us what God does, He doesn’t do anything to people that refuse to serve Him. When God gives someone up, that means He has been trying to keep them going in the right way and has warned them over and over that they are going the wrong way, but they keep pressing forward until He finally gives them up to the way they want to go. That doesn’t mean that He has given up on them, it simply means He lets them decide what they want to do.
