An Intellectual Assent Will Damn You to a Devil's Hell

I've known a lot of church people through the years who began well, but finished poorly. They had a good profession of Jesus early on, but they ended their life in apostasy. I can place part of the blame on modern evangelism and the easy-to-believe gospel, which aimed its efforts at decisions instead of transformations.

Many are deceived by an empty religious profession that involved only a mental flip for Jesus and an intellectual assent to some gospel truth. But I will say this, friends. An intellectual assent will damn you to a devil's hell.

And that's the title of my message today. And my text can be found in the Gospel of Luke. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 8, beginning in verse 4. This striking passage of scripture deals with our Lord's parable of the sower and the seed. And I will read us both the parable and the Lord's explanation of the parable. And I will do so by reading the text side by side.

I believe this will be very helpful to our understanding of this passage. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy Word. And when much people were gathered together, and were come to Him out of every city, He spoke by parable.

A sower went out to sow his seed. Now the parable is this, the seed is the Word of God. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was drodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

Those by the wayside, or they that hear, then come at the devil, and taketh away the Word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. So these individuals, friends, are captives of the devil. If they come under the sound of a sermon, the devil is right there to deflect the words and take them away.

That's the reason why you can invite a lost person to church with you, and they can sit right there beside you, completely unfazed by it. It goes in one ear and out the other. Well, let's look at this next category of individuals.

And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. They on the rock, or 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. But these individuals, friends, are easy to spot in church.

They hold the biggest Bible. On their car is the boldest religious bumper sticker they can find. And during the sermon, they often shout Amen the loudest, and wave their hands over their head during worship time.

And when they fall away from God, they often fall the hardest. They are very enthusiastic, very emotional, very religious, but very lost. And this category of people must not be confused with true believers.

When the text states, which for a while believe, denotes a different meaning for the word believe, it should not be confused as the exercise of saving faith in Jesus Christ, which transforms a person's life, because their belief is merely intellectual assent. They believed a Bible verse, or a fact about the gospel. They believed Jesus died on a cross for their sin, without ever believing in the Christ who died.

Jesus describes them as ones who have no root, like a tree with no roots is easily upended in a storm. These individuals only have an empty religious profession, but they do not possess Christ. They just joined the church by making a mental flip for Jesus.

But there is no depth of a changed life. And this is dangerous, because an intellectual assent will damn you to a devil's hell. In James 2.19 we read, Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well.

The devils also believe and tremble. Well, let's look at the next category of people as seen in verse 7. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up with it, and choked it. And that which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

These are those individuals, friends, who try to serve God with a divided heart. They have one foot in church, and the other in the world. And there they try to straddle those two horses.

But those horses are going in opposite directions, and soon they will just fall off. They appear to have been saved, but they have reverted to the world. The world, with its pleasures and amusements, holds a stronger fascination to them than religion and Jesus.

So eventually they succumb to either cares, or riches, or pleasures. These individuals give Christianity a bad name, because eventually their testimony is soiled by some grievous sin. They fall into adultery, or they fall into theft, or fall into the pig pen of the pleasures of sin, and flop and waddle in their pigsty, and prefer it to prayer, to witness, and to a holy life.

And finally, we come to our last category of individuals, the truly saved, regenerate person, who has had a work of grace upon the heart. Look at verse 8, And others fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bear fruit a hundredfold. 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 patience.

I will stop there, friends. Here is the sincere convert, who has undergone a changed heart, which results in a transformed life. When Jesus was here, in his earthly ministry, as he passed through towns and villages, those who encountered him experienced change.

Well, I hope this little lesson on the sower in the seed has been helpful to you, friend, as it has been to me. Salvation is not just knowing about Christ, but it is knowing Christ, as we follow him along a narrow road, on our way to glory. Let us pray.