# Stony to good ground

Category: Obedience to God’s Will
Key Passage: Matthew 13
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. We are going to look at the parable of the ground—the four different types of ground—and specifically one of the grounds, the stony ground, for a little bit tonight. It is interesting this parable is found in three of the Gospels.

Those verses you have, we will use them in just a little bit. It is the different verses about each ground from those three different Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And it has all the verses pertaining to each of those grounds. We will look at them. We will use that just a moment here, but we will just kind of read over here in Matthew the parable.

By the way, in each of the Gospels, it will give the parable, and then a while later on, it explains it—Jesus explains it. Okay? So that is why you kind of see two sets of verses in each of the Gospels about these different types of ground.

We are just going to read over here in Matthew 13, a little different, a little bit more, maybe Bible study, just trying to pull a couple things out. I really felt like the Lord wanted us to deal with the stony ground just a little bit tonight. But Matthew chapter 13, we are going to start in verse number three. And if you would, let us stand, if you are able, just out of respect for the Word of God. Matthew 13. We will start in verse number three.

Are you all ready? Amen? Good deal. Verse number three: “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow.”

“And when he had sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprang up; and 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. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them; but others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold.”

“Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Let us go to the Lord in prayer and just pray that God will use this in your life as we look at the stony ground a little bit tonight. Father Lord, I—I want to sincerely—I really do like to rightly divide Your Word. Lord, help me not to add to it, nor take away from the explaining of it, Lord, the preaching of it. Father Lord, would You use that to help people?

Lord, I believe You led this way, so would You just accomplish what You would like to accomplish in our lives through it? And thank You for these people, Lord. They are wonderful; bless them tonight. And we will thank You, Lord, for what You do. And, Father, we ask this in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

It is always a good study. In the Gospels, often they will tell the same story from always a different angle. The Feeding of the 5,000 is in all four Gospels. By the way, if you are reading through your Bible chronologically this year—anybody reading through the Bible chronologically this year?—and it is always interesting. I am doing that. And you will get stories from a lot of different angles all at one time.

That is always a neat thing. So we are going to do a little bit of that tonight on some of these. If you just take your sheet here for just a little bit—by the way, the title tonight for our study is “Stony to Good Ground”—“Stony to Good Ground” is the title. But would you do this first of all? Would you look at what we have up top there: the wayside ground, then we have the stony ground, the thorny ground, the good ground?

Would you help me out? How many verses are there? This is from all the different accounts of the scripture given about these. How many verses are there for the wayside ground? Somebody count it up real quick. Let me know. Six, right, right, right. How many verses are there? You are cheating. You are looking ahead. For the good ground? I do not agree. Did you say six? For the good ground? Six, six. I am not sure. Good deal. How many verses? How many verses for thorny ground? Seven. Oh, you are looking ahead. You are cheating on us tonight. How many verses for stony ground? Ten, right. Ten verses for stony ground. Now just kind of stick that back in your hat for just a second.

We will just try to draw something out of that just a little bit here. Now, in all the Gospels—we are going to focus on the stony ground a little bit here, all right, that second section there—but all of these different accounts, all the Gospels that talk about it—Matthew, Mark, Luke—they talk about the stony ground receiving the word.

Look back just in the section on stony ground, all right, that second section there. And look in verse number 20 of Matthew, Matthew 13:20: “But he that received the seed in the stony place is the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it.” What is the next two words? “Receiveth it.” Good, good, good. Look down, if you will, to Mark 4, verse number 16: “These are they likewise which are sown on stony ground, who when they have heard the word immediately receive it with gladness.” Luke chapter 8, verse number 13, right there at the very bottom of that section: “They on the rock are they, which when they hear receive the word with joy.”

It even talks about these where the seed germinates and a plant comes from it. All right? That is what happens. Now, I think it is not just talking about salvation; probably applied in a lot of different ways, but the seed does produce a plant. Are you all with me? It does. It receives a word. Actually, a plant is produced, all right, but there is no fruit. It does not go to the level of good ground, but it actually does germinate, and a plant is formed from it, all right?

Now, let us just talk about it. I tend to think that myself, and probably the majority of people that get saved, when they initially get saved, they are stony ground. I do not know about the one I first got saved. I was the best ground in the world, just being honest about the thing here. Now, many will say this has more verses, a lot of verses, because—and probably a lot of truth to it—because in the Bible lands, a lot of the ground is stony ground, and the majority of it has stones in it.

But maybe a little bit is applied here, that the majority of people get saved, they are a little bit stony ground, if you will. So it deals with it a lot. I am not really sure. But just an interesting thought here. We are just trying to pull out some things. But I do not know for you, but I would say for me, I would think when I got saved, I had quite a lot of rocks, and I still have some rocks in my life, you know?

Let us just try to pull out some things here about this stony ground. In each of the Gospels that talk about the thing—all three of them talk about it—let us just look and see for a second what ends up happening to the plant that was produced by the seed of the stony ground, all right? If you look back over that section, look at Matthew 13. Look in verse number six.

“And when the sun was up, they were scorched because they had no root. They withered away,” right? Look at verse number 21 of Matthew there: “Yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; for when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.”

Can I just say a word about “offended”? We tend to use it a little bit differently than the Bible often uses it. More often than not, the Bible told me that you got your feelings hurt. It told me it became a stumbling block where you quit or you dropped out. You just say, “Hey, fool you on it.” Okay. Everybody is going to get their feelings hurt, all right? I mean, because you have skin and flesh and blood and all the rest of that. I am not saying it is right, but it does not mean you have to quit because of it.

Okay, but this one withered up and just dropped out and got offended and said, “Huh, I am not doing it anymore.” Right? Okay, let us keep going a little bit more so it withered away. It offended verse number 21. Look at verse number six of Mark 4: “But when the sun was up, it was scorched because it had no root. It withered away.” Look down in verse number 17, verse number 17 of Mark 4: “…and have no root in themselves, and so endure for a while; but afterward when affliction and persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they were offended.” The last verse there, Luke 8:13: “They on the rock are they, which when they hear receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.”

So what is the end? What is the end of this plant? Help me out. What happens? It withers away. It falls away. It gets offended. “I am not going to do it anymore.” It just quits. Right? It just says no more. Now let me just try to get a couple things. Believe the Lord like it. Just look at it here a little bit. What if this plant would have made it through the hard time?

What of this plant? The plant is there. It cannot wither away unless it is there. It cannot wither away while it is not there. What if it had said, “Hey, I am going to—the sun is up, trials and tribulations are here because of the word, problems are here—when I am just going to stick with it.” Well, what happened? I do not know if there was not much change. It may not have had any fruit, but it would still be there. Okay.

Notice what it says about that. Look in verse number six. Back up there, Matthew 13:6: “And when the sun was up, they were scorched because they had no root.” Look at verse number six of Mark 4: “But when the sun was up, it was scorched because it had…” Look at verse number six, Luke 8: “…and some fell upon rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.” Well, when the sun is coming down, if you do not—if it is not able to have a lot—it does not have a lot of water, and you know what is going to happen? The sun coming up, the trials came.

The problems came, the persecution came, the issues came, the hard times came. The sun was up—the problems, the heat of it, the pressure of it all—and it got scorched. Okay. But what if it said, “No, I am not going to give up. I am going to draw from the well,” if you will? Did you notice?

And very quickly it received the word. They say a lot of times there is rock right underneath the ground there. That is what was going on—just a little bit of earth. It mentions that several times, and so you have rock. You will know about that if you live in Middle Tennessee, right? Our neighbors are building the fence over there, and I came in this afternoon and said, “Man, he told me he is going to do it. So your fence looks good. Did a great job.” I said, “Wow, that is a lot of holes today.”

And he said, “Well, we rented the auger yesterday, and that is how we dug it.” He said, “But we did hit rock.” And yeah, if you are digging in Middle Tennessee, you are going to hit rock, you know. And he said, “Of course, had post-hole diggers and all that, Ph.D. degree, you know, and post-hole diggers.” But that is what is going on here. And so that will often make a seed because it gets warm very quickly when the sun hits it.

Not going real deep—the earth, rock there—and it kind of helps it warm up very quickly, so it helps the seed germinate very quickly, so it produces a plant pretty quickly. But then when the sun is up and problems come, it gets scorched, and it withers away. See? Now, help me out. Those of you who have been in Middle Tennessee, you know how it happens.

Well, let us look at another thought here. Let us look at another thought about this thing here. Look in verse number six. We are all on the stony ground now. Verse number six, right there, top Matthew 13: “And when the sun was up, they were scorched because they had no root.” That root goes down and gets the water deep down in there, you know. Let us keep going. Where is it? Verse number six, Mark 4: “But when the sun was up, it was scorched because it had…”

Help me out—yeah, no root. Verse number 17, verse number 17: “…and have no root in themselves,” right, right, right. Oh, verse number 13, Luke 8: “…and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.”

Is it possible sometimes for plants to find a little crack in the rocks and to grow some roots down in there? Man, if you have pulled up plants around here, you know that. And man, when those roots get down in there and those cracks and it gets down in the ground, you are going to have a bear of a time getting it out of there. Pretty tough to do it. Just thank you for a little. What if this plant would have said, “You know, I am just…”

The sun is up, the pressure is on, but I am going to stay in here for a while. And I am going to keep looking and searching him and trying to find a little maybe crack in the rock. I am going to get some roots down in there a little bit. Just maybe, maybe it ended up a little bit different for that plant. See? That happens often in our area with all the rocks we have, but it takes time for that. It does not happen overnight. It takes—it takes, oh, patience. See?

Let us leave it for just a second here and go down to the good ground. Look at that last verse talking about the good ground, Luke 8, verse number 15: “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with…” What is the last word? “Patience.”

Now, what if that plant would have just took some patience and said, “All right, there are some rocks around here in this ground, but I am not just going to leave the thing, I am not going to quit it all. I am going to grow some root down in there. I am going to find some spots somewhere where I can find some crevices in the rock, get some roots down here.” I am just trying to point out some things, honestly, a little bit, when I am trying to encourage you just not to quit. Do not quit. It is so easy.

Young people, it is so easy to quit on the Lord; it really is. And I just encourage you: do not quit.

You know, they say the average person that is active in witnessing, soul winning—and this is years ago; I do not even know if it is this today—but they say the average soul winner is only a soul winner for six years. I do not know if that is true today. And I am just saying it is so easy because hard times come.

They do. As part of the Christian life, part of every life. The sun is going to be up. It is going to try to drain you and scorch you and wither you. Satan will love for you to quit.

And you see it often, boy, in the Bible Belt—my goodness—it is a graveyard of people that used to be in church somewhere. And I will say, “Man, I have been saved,” and “Yes, I have trusted Christ.” And they do not know pretty much the Bible plan. And I do not know; they are hard—I cannot say. And I am not the one that is supposed to judge all that unless they are going to be my prophet, my leader there, you know? But I am not going—I am just supposed to tell them. But if they are being honest with me, they have been there before, but they just dropped out in the hard times.

And they did not have much earth, if you will. Why did they not say, “Hey, I am just going to hang in here a little bit and take the time to get some root down in there?” Well, there is always, always, always the temptation to quit. Always is. It will always be there. Mark it down. Until your last breath, Satan is going to be trying to get you to quit.

Quit reading your Bible, quit forgiving, quit walking with the Lord, and quit witnessing and quit praying. It is always going to be there. It is just part of it. And here is something else about it. It is very interesting. I want you to notice why they were offended back up there on the stony ground. Look, if you will—let me see if I can find it here.

In verse number 21, verse number 21 of Matthew 13: “Yet hath he not rooted himself, but endureth for a while; for when tribulation and persecution ariseth because of the…” What is the next word? “Word.” Yeah, he told us earlier that the seed is the word. Okay. I will go to what the Bible says on that. But the word is fitted because of the word. Tribulation, persecution arises because of the word, and they were offended. Look down in verse number 17 of Mark 4: “…and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time; afterward when affliction and persecution ariseth for the word’s sake.”

And maybe another time, maybe I missed one of those. But here is the thing: You are going to hear it. You are going to hear it. “Well, I went to church, but I am a deacon in the church or the pastor or people in the church.” And they were in church looking like they were all that. And I saw them in the grocery store buying beer. Whatever. You will not believe the way they treated me.

And you are going to hear all these sayings. Did that happen? Probably so. But can I say this? They got offended because persecution arose because of the Word. Help me out. Why do they know to go to church? Where does it say to go to church? In the Word.

If I quit, I can try to blame everybody else in the world, but in the end, it is me that chose to quit against the Word of God. I can use a lot of excuses. Can I say this? There have been some people that have been through ten times worse than what they are going through, and they are still in church serving God.

It matters to them in their relationship with the Word. Now, I am not for doing people wrong and people getting treated wrong. I do not like that, but it is going to happen. But in the end, it is between you and the Lord. Is that right or not? It is true. And so I cannot let these sayings offend me. Persecution will arise because of the Word. It is just part of it. If you try to live with the Lord, it is going to happen.

Whatever way. And sometimes it hurts worse when I get stabbed in the back. But I have got to say, I am not going to let that drive me away. I am just going to keep trying to get my root down somewhere. I am going to try to keep growing root. Lee Robertson—I tease her brother Dillon a lot of times. He will come in late, and I will tell him, he said, “Man, Lee Robertson just walked in.” He looks a lot like him.

But tonight he had his glasses on, Brother Dillon, when he came in. He did not look as much like Lee Robertson. Now, he has got his glasses on. But Lee Robertson is a great preacher—great preacher years gone by, Tennessee Temple and Highland Park, whatnot. And Lee Robertson used to say the difference between a great Christian and Christians that wash up is just one thing: one of them quits, the other one does not. He used to say that; maybe that is not exactly real close to him.

I just—it always—the difference is just one quits. And I am just trying to encourage you, “Hey, stay in there.” I believe the majority of us, when we got saved, we had quite a lot of stone. I still have some stones in my life, unfortunately. But keep growing. Hey, here is the good thing about it—a good thing about it—a good farmer…

I mean, you know what they do? They find the stones; they pick them up. That is why a lot of times in fields you will see on the edge of fields you will see a bunch of rocks piled up. Why? Because that farmer or that gardener, he found some rocks and he just started taking the rocks out.

And he made stony ground into good ground. Praise the Lord, we have got the best gardener there is. He is our husband; He is our farmer; He is our gardener. And if I keep letting Him work in my life, it is amazing. I do not even see the rock. A lot of the time the rock—notice it is below the surface; you do not see it.

Everybody else is not going to know what is going on, but there are rocks in there. But our Master, our Gardener, He knows, and it is amazing how He knows when He says, “Let me get that rock out of your life.” Boy, here, till the day we die, He will be getting stones out of our life. And can I say this: if nothing is ever changing in me, I am probably not growing a whole lot. There ought to be some changing going on.

There ought to be some—well, you know, I have kind of maybe—maybe growing a bit there, changed a bit there, and learning a bit there. God is doing a work in me there. You know, it is funny, but sometimes rain—rain and storms come, and it reveals where the rock is. Sometimes storms in our lives reveal where the rock is.

I forget—I was at a—when I was a teenager, went and stayed at a—Ms. Steele was my teacher, and her husband was the youth director in a small country church. A little ranch, a little farm ranch out in Lake City, Florida. They had an old farmhouse; it was over 100 years old. And they lived in a trailer on the property, had an old farmhouse. They did not live in it; they stored stuff in there. Man, that thing had been there over 100 years. So when a bad storm would come, you would go to the farmhouse. And I remember being in a bad storm and going to the farmhouse and in there. And when you go up in the attic or whatnot, that thing had been there for over 100 years. They had been through many a storm. And you would just watch, and boy, those storms are cool.

Come there in Florida, and those trees—oak trees a lot around—just blow them all over. Man, it is going to uproot those trees; it is going to blow them over. And I am not sure—I think maybe it is still—I am not sure—but they said, “You know, storms help the trees.” It will blow a little bit that way, and it will kind of pull that root over there a little bit, and it will loosen the ground up. And they will blow that way and pull the root over there and loosen it up a little bit. And often through the storms, the root will find a bit of the crack where to get the root down there and get loosening the ground up a little bit.

And I am just saying, God—often it is amazing, man, be safe forever—but God brings a storm, and so often those storms are helping you grow root down, trying to get some root in your life, and revealing the rock, and our Gardener takes a rock out. See?

Man, I have so many issues, so many problems. Man, can He ever produce any fruit in my life? Hang in there; He can. Do not give up; do not quit. Let Him keep working. I love that song; you will probably know it: “He’s Still Working on Me.” How many know that song? Yeah, it is always the truth.

“He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars and set on earth, Jupiter, and Mars. How loving and patient He must be, because He’s still working on me.” He will. And He will be getting those stones out. That plant would have just stayed.

It may be—it may be—being able to change categories. I mean, it did receive the word according to the Bible, and it did produce a plant, but it may be being able to move from one category to the next.

Did you notice? If you read the good ground—six verses, we will not take time to do it right now—but if you read that, it does not say anywhere in the description of the good ground that there are not any stones there. I do not find it in the description of good ground. The description of good ground had some fruit.

Now, I understand; you have got to get rid of some rock, and you have got to get some root down there to have some fruit. But around here, for the most part, if you are going to grow a garden, you are going to have a little bit of stones in there, at least a little bit, you understand. Very big one, at least. But our Gardener, boy, He could remove enough stones, if you will, to have some fruit. That is the description of a good ground fruit.

Just quickly, would you just ask the Lord tonight and us: “Lord, would You remove some more stones out of my life? Lord, would You keep working on me? And when You plow up the ground and those rocks turn up, would You—would You get rid of the stones?”

It is very interesting; even in the good ground, they do not always produce the same. And by the way, we are not all expected to produce the same—some thirty, sixty, one hundredfold. But I would imagine the more stones it gets out, the more earth. By the way, it does not matter. Earth goes pretty deep, you know, if you get to rock out; there is probably some dirt around there somewhere. But would you just ask, “Lord, would You remove some stones out of my life?” By the way, it hurts when He removes the stone.

And we have grown comfortable with that stone. And that is why we have dealt with things for years. And a lot of times we do not touch that right there, you know. But God wants to touch that right there. And we have got to let Him. We have got to ask Him. And would you just ask Him just tonight? “What would You remove some stones out of my life?” And then when the Lord is—when He is removing stones out of our life—

Let us not resist it. Let Him work. It is no fun. It hurts. But let Him. He can remove stones. Just let Him work in your life. Here is a neat thing about it: at the end of the day, the description of the good ground is it brings forth fruit. Here is the blessing: God is the one that brings the fruit anyway.

He is the one that produces the fruit. I have talked about the peach tree we have had for a long time. I tried to make everything I could to make that peach tree produce fruit, but it never did. And at the end of the day, God makes something produce. And God says, “Let me get rid of some more stones out of your life, and let Me work here.” And just say, “All right, Lord, I want You to, and I am willing for You to, and I am asking for You to. And I am not going to rebel and work against You. Would You go ahead and move this stone?” And God says, “You know what? I think I can produce a little bit more fruit in their life.” It is God that does that.

I do not know where I am at; I do not know where you are at, and, you know, where are we at—stony or good or all that? I do not know for you. I do not know exactly for me either. But it would be a good thing if the Lord said, “Let me take some more stones out of your life.”

Remove some rocks. And just with patience, let Him keep growing. And let us just say, “I want my roots to get down in there.” Let Him keep working in their lives so He can produce more fruit. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes today?

A little different tonight. When you are there and you say, “Preacher, I am just going to determine between me and the Lord, by His grace, I am not going to quit. I am not going to quit on the Lord. I am not going to quit on the Lord. I am not going to quit on the Lord. By the grace of God, I am going to just try my best to hang in there with the Lord.” If that is you tonight, just lift your head up. “Preacher, I am going to stay in there.”

“I am going to keep at it. Keep serving the Lord. Following this plan.” God bless you. Many, many, many hands—many hands, many hands. God bless you. God bless you. That is key. That is key. With patience. Maybe here tonight you say, “Preacher, I am going to ask the Lord, ‘Lord, would You remove some stones out of my life?’”

“Would You get rid of some rocks out of my life? I am asking You tonight, Lord, I would like to be a better ground for You. And I am asking You, Lord, remove some stones out of my life tonight.” I am going to be praying. I am going to ask the Lord to remove some stones. If that is you tonight, just lift your hand up. “Preacher, you are going to do that.” Well, that is key. That is key.

Just many, many hands. Thank you so much. It seems like a little bit the Lord has been kind of producing a little theme here lately, just about growth and the blessed Sunday mornings and multiply, just growing us personally. Maybe here tonight, you say, “I am pretty sure I am not going to resist. I am going to determine I am not going to resist when the Lord tries to get the rocks out of my life.”

…and making changes and moving me and growing me and getting right. It hurts, but I am not going to resist Him. And I am going to let Him pry that rock out of my life. I am asking Him to, and I am not going to resist when He does it. When God is working, I am not going to resist Him. And I am just determining I am not—I am not going to resist Him. I am not going to resist Him. I am not going to resist Him. I am not going to resist Him. I am not going to resist Him. I am not.

God bless. That is a good thing. It is a good thing. God is pleased with that. He is very, very pleased with that. Thank you so very much. You can put your hands down. Would you all stand tonight? Let us just ask the Lord to take us, move us into the category of good ground. Would you do that? We will pray, and we will sing 287, “I Surrender All.” Great song. Let us let them know that. It would be wonderful if tonight in the invitation someone prays, “Lord, would You remove the stones in my life? I am not going to resist You.”

Years down the road, you will have a lot more fruit because God heard that prayer. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Jesus, the parables You gave us are amazing. Help us to draw from them as You would want us to. Bless our people. Father Lord, help us all to be more of good ground for You because of our hearts yielding and asking You to work in our lives tonight.

We will thank You and praise. I will brag on You for what You do, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Would you come as we sing? Oh, to Jesus I surrender. Oh, to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him. In His presence daily live. It is a nice around.

About the good ground, it talks about the good heart, honest heart. The heart is deceitful; that is what we are above all things. Who can know it? God. And it is amazing God can turn up a rock I never knew is in my heart. He knows. That is when we ask, “Lord, You remove the rocks out of my life. I am not going to resist when You will.” He is a patient, loving, heavenly Father. You get the rocks out. Be more of good ground for Him. Would you just spend some time, Lord, on that issue? I have to sing another verse. “Oh, to Jesus, I surrender.”

Humbly at His feet, I bow. Worldly pleasures, oh, forsaken. Take me, Jesus. Take me now. I surrender, oh, I surrender. Letting the Lord work in your heart. That is awesome.

Praise the Lord, He is still working on me. Amen. We have got a lot to do, but He is—praise the Lord—it is not us; He is doing the work. That is a good thing. Glad you are in church tonight and excited about it. Praise the Lord for it. And I am excited about what God has done, what He is going to do. Brother Grady, would you dismiss us?

Original File: Stony Ground to Good Ground - Pastor Paul Chisgar 2220