The Sower and the Soil, Part 1a

If you have your Bible, I would invite you to turn with me to Matthew 13. Before we read Matthew 13 in the parable of the soar and the soil, I want to remind you that there are three groupings of parables in the Bible. Three groupings. One is in Matthew 13. The other is in Luke chapter 10 through chapter 19. And the third is in Matthew chapter 19 through Matthew chapter 25.

I tell you that because as we go through our study, you're going to see a progression of thought from our Lord as we go through the study. You're going to realize that when Jesus began to speak parables, he spoke to them because of the rejection of his ministry. When you come to Matthew chapter 13, you realize that the religious establishment has already attributed the works of the Lord Jesus Christ to Satan. And so therefore, based on their rejection, based on the people unwilling to commit their lives to him, Christ begins a mode of ministry whereby he is going to reveal more to his people, more to his disciples, and less to those who are not.

He is going to be able to help them understand that as his disciples, the truth of his word, but to those who are not interested, what they do have is going to be taken. from them. And so thus we had the parables in Matthew chapter 13. Because of their willful rejection of the Messiah, because of their unwillingness to follow, his standards as outlined in the Word of God, he decides to say, that's it. Enough is enough. It's time to do things differently. So he begins to speak in parables. And that, of course, the prompt this question from the disciples, Lord, why is it now you're speaking in parables?

And he tells them why. And we talked about that in our last couple of times together. But in Matthew 13, the parables of the kingdom, you'll see that there is still some tenderness in the words of Christ, as he gives the parables here in this chapter. But when you go over to Luke chapter 10 through Luke chapter 19, a little later on in the ministry of Christ, sometime between his traveling times throughout cities and villages and the triumphal entry, you will note that as the crowds are looking to kill him, you will see the tone of the parables become harder, the tune harsher, as he gives the parable of the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Married Supper, the fig tree, and the rich fool.

And then by the time you come to Matthew chapter 19 through Matthew chapter 25, the last week of our Lord's life, The rejection of Christ is now a sure thing in the mind of the religious leaders as well as the people, and he gives parables talking about hell, condemnation, and judgment. They are the parables of the sheep, the goats, the ten virgins, and the talents, and so forth. The order is extremely important because it begins by telling us about the church age. It tells us about the time between the rejection of Christ and the return of Christ.

If you were with us in our study of the Book of Revelation, we spent some time going verse by verse through those chapters. What we're going to do is talk about what's going to happen before the Book of Revelation unfolds here on Earth. That's called the Kingdom Age. That's called the Church Age. That's what Christ talks about in Matthew, Chapter 13. He calls it a mystery, something previously hidden in the Old Testament, now revealed. in the New Testament, but only revealed to those who are his followers.

That's why Christ says that you're the blessed one. He says in verse number 16 in Matthew 13, blessed are you, are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. They are going to receive the mystery. they're going to begin to understand that which was concealed in the Old Testament and now revealed in the New Testament, something that was always a part of the plan of God.

God's plan never changes. It's always Plan A. He doesn't have a plan B, plan C, plan D, plan E, down the line. He's only got one plan that's called Plan A. And Plan A was the mystery, the church age, the kingdom age, which he speaks about in Matthew Chapter 13. And we, of course, are the blessed ones because if we know Christ as our Lord and Savior, he is going to reveal to us to the Spirit of God the exact meaning of these parables. And you will note that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

So when the unbelieving world reads parables, they're just good stories. Stories that are fun to listen to, but they don't understand the spiritual meaning behind them. In fact, I like what it says over in Psalm 25, verse number 12. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity. His descendants will inherit the land. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he will make them know his covenant. The secrets of God are set aside and reserved for those who fear him.

And the one who fears God is the one who is a believer in God, who loves God and wants to serve God and wants to honor God. And so if you're a God-fearing person this evening, you'll realize that the secret things, the mysterious things in the scriptures, will be unveiled for you as the Spirit of God reveals them to you. Now, this set of parables describing the church age is very important. Because you see, Christ came preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And the people listening to this didn't understand the realm of his kingship.

They couldn't really get all that was happening. Here was a king but didn't look like a king. Here was a man who claimed to be a king but didn't dress like a king. Here's the man who claimed to be a king but didn't live in a king's palace. In fact, he says, the son of man has no place to lay his head. Foxes have holes and birds have nest, but the son of man, he's got no place to lay his head. And so the people were kind of astonished that this man who came preaching about the kingdom. And it's being before them and they not really grasping the fact that he is the ruler of the world.

That's why over in John chapter 18, you recall the words of Pilate. He says in verse number 33, Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king? You've got to be kidding me. These people, this nation, has accused you of claiming to be a king, and you're here to tell me you're a king. You don't look like a king to me. He says this. Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own initiative? Or did others tell you about me?

You got to love Jesus. He answers the question with the question. You know? Who told you this? Who told you that I was a king? And if I don't answer, I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priest delivered you up to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered up to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is, my kingdom. is not of this realm. Christ says, my kingdom is something you don't understand, Pilate.

It's not of this world. One day it's going to be of this world. One day there's going to be a literal earthly kingdom, and Jesus Christ himself is going to be in the throne of David, and he's going to rule from the city of Jerusalem. The Bible speaks very explicitly about the fact that there's going to be a literal kingdom upon the earth where Christ will reign. Pilate goes on and say, therefore, so you are. a king. So you really are king. I just can't see your kingdom. I just don't see your servants.

I don't see your army. But you say you're a king. And Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. This is Pilots. invitation. This is Pilate's opportunity to receive Christ, says Lord and Savior. Everyone who hears my voice and follows me is of the truth. Know what Pilate's response was? It's a 21st century response. He says, what is truth? There's no truth.

There are no absolutes. It's all relative. who are you to claim truth nothing's changed over the last 2,000 years everything's the same our clothes are a little different we don't ride chariots we drive cars you know we're able to and fro a lot faster than they did but not much has changed people's attitude toward Christ and the gospel are still the same Christ is I'm the king I have a kingdom and my people know my voice because they have responded to the truth. My prayer is that you this evening will respond to the truth if you have not done so.

The chapter in Matthew 13 answers a very critical question. It answers how people are going to respond to the truth during the kingdom age, during the church age. It's going to tell us how people, will respond to the message you're going to give them. There are six parables, only six, that are recorded in all three synoptic gospels, and this is one of them. So it lends us to examine it over and over again, because Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this parable. It's an important one. And that's why Christ says in verse number nine of Matthew 13, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

I want to let you know something. You will find yourself in this parable, for you are one of the four soils. You're one of them. The question is, which one are you? If you have ears to hear, listen up, Christ says.

Because I'm going to describe to you the condition of man's soul. Christ says, listen up, because I'm going to tell you why people respond to the gospel.

I'm going to tell you why people reject the gospel. It's important because you see the disciples are wondering why people aren't flocking after Jesus and committing their lives to him and serving him. They understand why they want to follow him because of the miracles he does for them. They get that. But they don't understand why the religious establishment has rejected him. They have a problem with that. Why people aren't responding to the gospel that he's preaching? The message he gives is so true.

why don't people just flock to it? Why don't people come to it? Why don't they want to hear more of it? Do you ever ask that question? I ask that question all the time. I say, Lord, I want Christ's Community Church to be a beacon. I want it to be a light. I want it to be a feeding trough. I want it to be a place where people can come and grow and be nurtured in the walk with the Lord. And I want you to bring people to the church who will come to understand you and want to know more of you. And we want to present you to them.

Bring them to us. Help us to go out to them and bring them in, compel them to come in from the highways and the byways to hear the truth. And yet they don't go. Why is that? Why don't they want to respond? You think about the people in your family, your relatives, Thanksgiving, the biggest traveling day of the year where people travel to meet with family. Most of the people who travel to meet with their family don't even want to be with their family. But they're going anyway because the spouse says we got to go.

Or the in-law says, if you don't go, I'm not paying your rent next week, so you better come see me. So we go see him. And so we get together with family, but a lot of them are unsaved. And we don't know why they don't respond to the gospel, why they're not excited about going to church and hearing the word of God. And then we finally find people who are excited about it, and they come to church, they're excited about it.

They get involved in the church, and they're for a year or two or three or four, and then all of a sudden they're gone. Where'd they go? What happened to them? It's almost as if they fell off the face of the earth. They're not involved in church anymore. They're not involved in Bible studies anymore. They could care less about the Lord. They've got something better to do on Sundays now than go to church. What happened to them? Where do we put them in our theology? Where do we put them in the Bible?

Parable to sow and the soil will tell you exactly what they're right. And Christ says at the very outset, I want you to know that during this kingdom made, during this mystery time, the time between my rejection and my return, I'm going to tell you exactly why people respond to the gospel and why they don't.

I'm going to tell you why some respond superficially, but not wholeheartedly. And I'm going to tell you why some respond and give their lives completely to Christ. It's all in Matthew chapter 13. he was ears to hear let him hear our outline throughout the parables is going to be very simple the instruction the interpretation and the implication that's it's all it is it was easy for me to prepare the instruction the interpretation and the implications what does it say what does it mean and what are we supposed to do as a result of that.

Isn't that simple? You'll be so glad you came. We won't cover the whole outline this evening because there's too much here. But let's begin with the instruction. Matthew 13, verse number three.

He spoke many things to them in parable saying, behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road. And the birds came and ate them up. And others fell upon the rocky places where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched. And because they had no root, they withered away. And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil.

And yielded a crop some hundredfold and some 60 and some. some 30. He who has years to hear, let him hear. That's the first parable.

He says, a sower. Sows some seeds. So who's a sower? The good thing about this is that the Bible tells us. Look over in verse number 37 of Matthew 13. This is the parable of the wheat and the tears. We'll go in that in great detail in a couple of weeks, but it says in verse number 37, the one who sows the good seed is who son a man that's Jesus he's the seller but before we get into the interpretation let me let me help you understand something here this person in this case the son of man went to sow some seed now in their agricultural setting they understood what this meant when a person went out to sow seed he would take a sack of seed he would take a sack of seed he thought over his one shoulder and he'd hold it like this and there'd be an opening right now and he'd be an opening right now he meant and he would have to sow seed he understood what he meant when the person went out to sow seed he would take a sack seed he here he would take the seed and he would put his hand in it he would just throw the seed very simple process and so a sewer would go out to sow the seed on the soil in the field this deep bag over his shoulder would would be there as he he walked from one end of the furrow to the other end of the furrow back and forth just taking in and throwing the seed taking it and throwing the seed taking it and grow in the sea.

And they all understood this. They knew that that's what happened. Now you know that's what happened. And from there you see that the seed would fall on four kinds of soil. One rocky, or excuse me, one the roadside soil, one the rocky soil, one the thorny soil, and one the good soil. That's what Christ called it. So let's look at that.

The soil, verses 4 to 8. it says number one that the sower as he sowed some seed the seeds fell beside the road that's called the roadside soil now you will note that when a man or farmer would go to sow seed there was a furrow there would be a line that he'd be able to walk a path for lack of a better word that he would walk along and sow that seed and as he would sow that seed and walk along that path That path became trodden down almost like concrete, very hard.

In fact, those who traveled from country to country, from place to place, would walk along that path to the fields. And that path would be so beaten down by travelers and because of the farmers that it would become hard. And so when he would throw the seed there, it would just stay on that patch of ground, that roadside soil. Thus, the birds would come by and snatch it up and eat it, or it be trampled under by the foot of man. That's pretty easy to understand. You take your hand and put it in the sack and pull out the seed, and as you throw it, some would fall on that hard, beaten path.

Number two, the rocky soil. This one lacked moisture, as Luke says in Luke chapter 8, verse number six, because you see in Israel, they have these strains of limestone, this bedrock underneath the surface of the ground. And when you go to cultivate the ground, you don't always know where that place is. And so therefore you can't get real deep. And so when you would sow the seed, it would land on some of that, what we call rocky soil. farmers were unaware of that place. And that seed would catch up quickly and sprout quickly, and it would show itself fast.

But when the sun would come out, it would scorch that seed, and because it was unable to dig its roots down deep into the ground, because of the limestone that would run through the ground, it would wither and then die. It couldn't dig its roots down deeper to receive moisture so that it could remain strong and healthy. It would just die. That's the rocky soil. And then there's the thorny soil. And it looks rich. It looks good. It looks ripe. It looks exciting. It's cultivated. It looks like it's ready to grow.

And so the farmer, as he would throw the seed out. on this kind of soil. He didn't know about the weeds, the thorns that were there inside that soil. And the weeds are natural. They're a part of that environment. The seed coming into that environment is not natural to it. And so as they would begin to grow together, those weeds would begin to choke that seed and strangle it so that that weed then would begin to grow above the seed itself and thus it would grow and not the seed thus the seed would be choked out both could not receive the same nutrients and so the weed would win and then the fourth kind of soil is the good soil it's soft it's deep it's clean it's soft unlike the hard wayward soil or wayside soil it's deep unlike the stony limestone ground and it's clean unlike the weed infested ground It's on rich cultivated ground, and when the seed begins to sprout up, it produces a bumper crop, some 100-fold, some 60-fold, some 30-fold.

That's important, because the average crop was 7.5-fold. A bumper crop was 10-fold. So Christ is saying that when this seed would spring up, it would produce fruit some 100-fold, some 60-fold, some 30fold. So you can imagine what must have been going on in the minds of these disciples as they would hear this. Wait a minute. A bumper crop is 10fold and you're telling me that this seed is going to spring up 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold. It's important to the story to understand exactly what Christ is saying.

Parable is not that difficult. Sower goes out to sow some seed. The seed falls on four kinds of soil. The first is the roadside soil.

It cannot penetrate that. It's too hard. It's like concrete. It's like walking on cement. And because it can't. penetrate the ground the birds come by snatch it up or it's trampled on under by the foot of man the second one is the the rocky soil and again the farmer wouldn't know where this soil was but because that seed can't drive its roots down deep into the ground to receive the moisture it needs to grow and stand strong in spite of the the sun beating down upon it it withers and dies and then there's the thorny soil or the or the weedy soil where the seed begins to grow but it's choked out by the weeds and dies and then there's the good soil pretty simple right not too hard to go grasp?

Where are you? My prayer is that you have had a true conversion with the Lord Jesus Christ. My biggest fear, I've said this many times, is not that you will die and go to hell. My biggest fear is that you will die thinking you're going to heaven and end up in hell. What kind of soil are you? Do you have a cold heart, careless heart, or a crowded heart as a thorny soil? Or do you have a truly converted heart? You've turned from your sin. You serve the true living God. You've given your life to Him.

And said, Lord, whatever you want, I will do. Wherever you want me to go, I will go. Whatever you want me to be, I will be. I am your disciple. Let's pray. Thank you.