The good ground hearer, according to Luke, hears the Word God and keeps it, and brings forth fruit (Luk 8:15). Thomas Watson, in his terse and telling way says, "If you would hear the Word aright, be not only attentive but retentive. Lay the Word up in your memories and hearts. The seed on the good ground are they who, having heard the Word, keep it." The Greek word for "keep" signifies "to hold the word fast, that it does not run away from us." If the seed be not kept in the ground, but is presently washed away, it is sown to little purpose; so, if the Word preached be not kept in our memories and in our hearts, it is preached in vain. Many people have memories like leaky vessels—the Word goes out as fast as it comes in: how, then, can it profit? If a treasure be put in a chest, and the chest be not locked, it may easily be taken away: a bad memory is like a chest without a lock—the devil can easily take out all the treasure.
1. Keep the Word carefully as a treasure locked in the heart of warm love, as Jeremiah did, when he said, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jer 15:16).
2. Keep the Word as a preventative, as when the housewife puts the camphor among the clothes to keep the moth away (Psa 119:11).
3. Keep the Word as the fire is kept in the grate, then it will burn up the things not of God (Jer 23:29).
4. Keep the Word as the miller keeps the water running over the mill-wheel, then it shall keep us going (Isa 48:18).
5. Keep the Word as the mother keeps the milk to nourish her child (1Pe 2:2).
6. Keep the Word as the priest kept the oil to make the lamps in the tabernacle burn (Lev 24:2).
7. Keep the Word as the man keeps the title-deeds to his house, for in the Word are found the title-deeds of our inheritance (1Pe 1:3-4).