The Parable of the Soils: How Do You Hear?, Part 1 (Matthew Sermon 59)

Introduction

I.  The Gift of Hearing and the Gift of Listening

This morning we are looking at the Parable of the Seed and the Soils in Matthew 13:18-23.  We come to this parable aware of the gifts of hearing, and also of listening in one sense; they’re two different things, both of them, a gift from God. There’s an old riddle from the 18th century which went like this. What comes with a carriage and goes with a carriage, is of no use to the carriage and yet the carriage cannot move without it. Do you know the answer? Its sound. Sound comes with a carriage, sound goes with a carriage, sound is of no use to the carriage and yet the carriage cannot move without it. Sounds are all around us, all the time. It’s a gift from God to be able to hear it, to have it hit the ear drum, and come into our minds and have us understand what the sounds are, what they mean. Let me rearrange the riddle a little bit. What precedes the kingdom, advances the kingdom, is central to the kingdom and the kingdom cannot grow without it? It’s the sound of the word of God.  This kingdom that we’ve been talking about all these many months cannot grow without the proclamation of the Word.  Romans 10:17, says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. The very faith on which His kingdom is based, comes from  hearing the word of God. Time magazine was talking about the sense of hearing, and I thought this paragraph was very insightful. Time asked  people to select the most precious of the five senses. “Few people would name hearing, yet of all man’s links to the outside world hearing seems to be the essential sense, the one that makes man peculiarly human. How precious hearing is becomes clear when it is lacking. A baby born blind, or insensitive to pain usually surmounts his handicap to lead a useful life, but a baby born deaf maybe lost to mankind.  The first steps of his intellectual development are beyond his reach the sounds of life, his mother’s lullaby, the clatter of a rattle, even his own yowl of hunger, remain unknown even worse, he cannot learn to imitate meaningful sounds because he cannot hear them. Unless heroic efforts rescue him, he will never truly master his own language. He will live cut off from the human race. It is hearing with its offspring, speech, that gives man his superlative ability to communicate, to pass along hard won knowledge to make use of that knowledge, and so, to rule an entire planet.” That  comment was very insightful, showing the importance of physical hearing, which is the foundation of our gift of speech.

As Christians, we would add  it is through hearing and understanding the Word of God that we enter the kingdom of heaven. It is through speech, through the spoken word, the proclaimed word, that faith springs up in the heart, and people enter the Kingdom. Therefore, the creator of speech, the one who invented it, is standing today and saying to each one of us, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. We come to listen to the Word of God, to try to understand it. In the last 50 years, extraordinary progress has been made concerning the physics of sound — how sound is made, and how it propagates through the air as pressure waves. In my home town of Framingham there is the Bose factory. There they study sound and how it expands and contracts and study the science of the physics of sound. Likewise, in the last 50 years, there’s been a great advance in the understanding of the biology of sound, how sound is transferred from pressure waves to neural signals inside the brain through the amazing ear. But we’re not going to talk about the physics of sound today, we’re going to  talk about the theology of sound. What happens when the ear hears and vibrates with the sound of the proclaimed Gospel?

That’s what we’re going to look at today with the parable of the seed and the soils. I decided it best to divide the parable in half. We’re only going to look at the first two soil types this week, and if God gives us the opportunity, the next two soil types next week. We’re looking at the first two soils. This parable that Jesus tells, what we call the Parable of the Seed and the Soils, is perhaps his most important parable. Jesus himself said in Mark 4:13 when his disciples came to ask him what the parable meant he said, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?”  Jesus it seems  is giving an importance to this one above the others. This is kind of an entryway parable; if you can understand this, you’ll understand all the parables.

I believe the vital issue of the eternity of your soul depends very much on the issues that are raised in this parable. Whether you will spend eternity in heaven, or hell, depends on how you hear the word of God, how you hear the gospel of the kingdom. Let’s restate the parable, look at its details, and then try to understand it. Jesus begins in verse 3 and says, “The sower went out to sow.” The farmer went out to sow his seed. This is clearly the evangelist, the proclaimer of the Gospel of the Kingdom. In this case that is Christ Himself.  In later generations, it will be anyone who is sent to preach the gospel. Any evangelist, any humble Christian who seeks to bring his neighbor or his co-worker, his boss or relative to Christ, this is the sower, the one who goes out with the message.

What is the seed? The seed is clearly, Jesus interprets, the message about the kingdom, when anyone hears the message about the kingdom.  The seed is the message of the kingdom. What does this mean? It’s the very thing that the whole Gospel of Matthew has been proclaiming, this kingdom of God, the place where God rules, where He is sovereign, where he rules over his creation, things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible. This is the kingdom and more than that, where he is adored and glorified, and worshipped gladly.  This is the kingdom of God,  the kingdom of Christ.  This is where Christ is the gentle, humble, leader of our souls, who bids us to take His yoke upon Him… and learn from him, because he is gentle and humble in heart and will find rest for our souls. This kingdom is the kingdom which must be entered through repentance and faith, because Jesus said, “The time has come, the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the good news.” You must repent and enter the kingdom. This kingdom, this is the message. It is the kingdom described in Matthew 13, with a series of seven parables. It is something so valuable that you would sell everything that you had to obtain it.  This is the kingdom.

We have no control over the seed which is sowed;  we couldn’t create it. It’s something that comes to us right from God, Himself. Just like a physical seed does. John MacArthur put it this way, “The most faithful and dedicated Christian cannot create the word of the kingdom, any more than a farmer or scientist can create the simplest seed. Just as only God creates seeds that reproduce themselves, only God creates the word of the gospel that brings life, the life of his son to a believer.”  The work of the Christian witness, therefore, is not to manufacture a message to create a synthetic seed or to modify the seed given them, but to take the revelation of God, the seed and proclaim it exactly as He has given it. The power of new spiritual life is in the word, just as the power of physical life is in the seed. We have no right to create a seed, nor could we. We merely take the seed that God has given us, and we sow it. We sow it widely. We take the message to the kingdom.

The Hardened Soil

The focus of this parable however, is not in the sower, is it? It’s not really on the seed. The focus of this parable is on the soils, the four different kinds of soils, and each one represents a human being, a human heart and how he or she receives the sown message. How do we receive the proclaimed message of the Gospel? We have four different responses. The first is the walkway, the path, the highway, the hardened soil. Verse 4, “As he was scattering the seeds, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up.” The soil is hard, it’s packed by constant traffic, it’s like pavement. Therefore, when the seed hits that soil it bounces. There’s no penetration whatsoever, you could cast a million seeds on that soil and none of them will bear fruit. None, it’s a hardened soil. Secondly, you’ve got the rocky soil. In a lot of places in the near east, there’s a rocky substratum of limestone. Like my garden, my yard, it grows white rocks. Have you noticed this? How they just come up out of nowhere?  This is a rocky soil, and on top of it, a very thin layer of top soil. What happens when the seed goes down there is it doesn’t penetrate deeply, at all, just enough soil covers it that it can make a start, but it can’t go down.  The roots can’t go down, there’s nowhere to go but up. This seed will make really spectacular open progress at the beginning, but as soon as the sun comes up, all the moisture is dried up out of that thin layer of soil and the plant withers and dies, because it has no root. The third kind of soil is thorny soil. This is fertile soil for growth. There’s plenty of room for root development, but the problems is that the seed is competing with other plants, thorny plants that bear no fruit, and so there’s a struggle going on for the nutrients, for sunlight, and for  water in the soil.  The seed is choked and cannot bear fruit in the end. Finally, we’ve got the good soil. It’s remarkable what Jesus says about the good soil, it’s rich and fertile. It’s plowed and loose and so the seed sinks… The seed sinks down into the soil and it bears what it says 100, 60 or 30 times what was sown.  People have studied agriculture in the ancient Near East and said  that a good yield is four to eight times what was sown.  Modern American farmers with the most advanced techniques of fertilization and moisture control can yield a 30 to 50 times harvest. In this parable we’re talking double that at the high end, a hundred times what was sown, or also 60 or 30. After having given us this parable, Jesus then challenges us. He says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

That’s the parable of the seed and the soil. Now we need the explanation. Last time we talked about why Jesus uses parables:  first to fulfill prophecy, secondly to conceal truth from those who will not ask him for it, thirdly, to reveal truth to those who will ask, and therefore, fourthly, to make us spiritual beggars, that we will be humble enough to come and say, “Lord, teach us what the parable means.”  We want our Lord to instruct us, and he does. The first soil type is the hardened unbeliever. Look at verse 19: “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.” This is the seed sown along the path. Here we have the hardened heart, a darkened understanding as we’ve said; the four results, the four soils are four different types of people. Jesus says right away when anyone hears the message, we’re not talking about agriculture, we’re talking about people. This particular person, hears the message, his ear drums vibrate with the sound, but it doesn’t get any further. Why? Because he doesn’t understand the message.  It makes no penetration because sin and Satan have worked together to harden his heart. The Old Testament version of this is what you would call being stiff-necked. Jesus speaks of  stiff-necked people.  In Exodus 32:9, the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people.” What does that mean? Does that mean I have a sore neck. What it means is, “I will not bow my neck to your yoke. I’m not going to yield to you, God. I’m going to go my own way. I’m going to live my own kind of life. I don’t want a king of the kingdom of heaven coming and telling me what to do.  I’m stiff-necked, I’m not going to yield to you.” In Jeremiah 17:23, it says that the people  did not listen or pay attention, they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline. Jeremiah also said in 5:3, “O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them but they felt no pain, you crushed them, but they refused correction, they made their faces harder than stone and they refused to repent.”

When the gentle king of the kingdom of heaven comes and says, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, take My yoke upon you and learn from me,” they say, “No, this is the very thing I don’t want.” They’re stiff-necked, they resist. Stephen summarized the whole generation of Jews before the Sanhedrin, in Acts 7:51, saying, “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears. You’re just like your fathers, you always resist the Holy Spirit.” Being stiff-necked, is the same as having an uncircumcised heart and uncircumcised ears, nothing penetrates. There’s a hardness, an unyieldedness to God. Why so hard? What has brought this on? It’s the hardening power of sin under the skillful work of the devil. Sin tricks us. It deceives us, it entices us, and it hardens us to the word of the kingdom.   Hebrews 3:12-13 says, “See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” Sin is tricky, and it has a hardening effect on the heart. Ephesians 4:18-19 says, “They are darkened in their understanding, and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity they have given themselves over to sensuality, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more.”

They’re being gradually hardened and become even harder and harder over time. This reminds me of an illustration from the 1960 Olympics. There was a man from Ethiopia named Abebe Bikila. He won the gold medal in the marathon that year. He set the world record for 26.2 miles over the burning streets of Rome, the Appian Way, barefoot. Barefoot. Let me ask you a question, if you ran one mile on the street barefoot what would your feet look like? This man had been running barefoot all his life, and so his feet were tough as shoe leather and he just preferred to run without shoes, and so I would liken the constant rubbing and impact on Abebe Bikila’s feet to what sin does to a heart. It just makes it hard. There’s no yielded-ness, no interest whatsoever, in the gospel.

Recently I was on my way out to a pastor’s conference in March, in California, and I had the opportunity to sit next to a woman on the flight and we had a lot of time together, more time than she would have liked I think.  It’s probably one of the saddest witnessing opportunities I’ve had in years. I talked to her, asked what she did, and she gave me some kind of a strange answer about herbal remedies or something like that, and I thought, “It’s kind of hard to make a living doing that.” Eventually she told me that she was in the adult entertainment business, going out to Los Angeles. She said it was the most wicked city on earth, and she was one of the hardest people I’ve ever talked to in all my life. She had a pleasant look on her face, but she said, “I hate people, I hate life, I hate food, I hate everything.” Probably would’ve said, “I hate you.” She didn’t even know me, there was a hardness there, and it was tragic, and nothing that I tried would open her up, to the point where she kind of turned her body a little away and started reading and I realized that there was nothing more I could do. There was a hardness to her heart and so I prayed for her. The hardening that I’m describing, especially, takes root in the mind.  It makes even simple biblical truth incomprehensible. 1 Corinthians 1:18, says, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

Also in 1 Corinthians 2:14, it says that  the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they’re spiritually discerned. Sin hardens the heart, and the devil creates a world, a world system around us to accelerate that hardening, he wants that hardening. He’s clever and devious and skillful at bringing it about. So the blessing of the word of God then becomes a curse. I believe that to hear the word of God, to hear the Gospel and reject it makes you just a little bit harder. It would’ve been better [2nd Peter 2:21] not to have heard the way of righteousness than to hear it and to turn your backs on the sacred command that was passed on to you. It’s better not to have heard because the devil is so active. He’s active in the hardening. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” Satan does this hardening, but then he’s very active at the moment of evangelism. He’s mentioned in this text, do you see? When anyone hears the message about the Kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one, the devil, comes in, snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is very discouraging, isn’t it? Because you think, well, at least I got a witness in there, at least I planted a seed. Well, if it’s of this first category, you did nothing, you accomplished nothing for the Kingdom, because the devil has snatched away what was sown in the heart. It has no cumulative effect except hardening.

The difference is we can’t tell from the outside what type of soil somebody is. They may eventually come to Christ so we need to scatter the seed widely. I’m just saying from heaven’s perspective, looking down, if it’s a hardened soil here, you accomplish nothing today by the preaching of the word, except increase hardening. It says the birds of the air come and snatch up or eat up what was sown. This is the devil, the evil one who comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. Satan uses a lot of tricks to do it. He uses the lust of the present age, the desires that people have for earthly pleasures, and uses the sins of other Christians to do it. You know the woman I described to you a moment ago? I almost hesitate to mention this, but she had as a client a pastor two or three years before that, and she said it was one of the most horrible experiences of her life. It was all she could do to get away from him physically, just to survive the time. I knew when she told me that that  I had zero chance to lead her to Christ.  But, of course, humanly speaking I have zero chance to lead anyone to Christ but I still have hope that the gospel can penetrate. I wanted her to believe. You see how the devil uses this, how hard it’s going to be for somebody to reach her with the gospel. Satan will use false teachers to do it. He’ll use fear to do it. “What will my friends think if I become a Bible thumper, what will happen to me?” Satan uses procrastination too. “Oh, I can always do that later, some other time, another seasonable moment”, and so it’s snatched away.

What are the eternal consequences of this? Well, hell. Eternal condemnation, eternal separation from God in torment. Revelation 21:8 says that  the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. Unbelievers go to hell [ Revelation 21:8]. This is the tragedy of the hardened-packed soil heart that rejects immediately the word. These people are just simply closed to the Gospel. They may reject with violence and vigor, slam the door in your face, get rude, or they may just shrug and blow it off or make a joke, either way the word has had no effect on them.

II.  Soil #1:  The Hardened Unbeliever

The Rocky Soil

The second kind of soil that Jesus talks about is the rocky soil, what I would call the shallow. It is the temporary believer. Put believer in quotes, in one sense. Verses 20 – 21, “The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy, but since he has no root, he lasts only a short time.” When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. This is what I call the temporary believer. Now you say, “Is that possible? I thought you believed in the eternal security of the believer?” I just discern in the New Testament that there are different types of believers, there’s different kinds of faith.

It is possible to believe in one sense for a little while and then fall away. In the Luke version of this parable, Jesus said, in Luke 8:13, “Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root, they believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away.”  That settles it for me. It is possible therefore to believe for a while and then fall away?  What I believe is that this faith is not the faith that justifies, this is not the kind of faith we heard about in Romans. That we are justified by faith, apart from works of the law, it’s not that faith. It’s the kind of faith that Jesus encountered when he did miracles in Jerusalem in John Chapter 2. “While he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs He was doing and believed in His name.” They believed in his name, but he would not entrust Himself to them, for he knew all men, he did not need man’s testimony about what was in a man because he knew all men.  He knew what was in their hearts. Believing in his name is not justifying faith, so Jesus did not entrust himself to them. They had a different kind of faith. James is the one who gives us the clearest understanding of this. James 2:19 speaks of a faith which does not justify, we could call it demon faith. “You believe that there is one God. Good. Even the demons believe that and they shudder.”  So there’s a demon faith that certainly does not save.

Then there’s a work-less faith, a faith that proves as no good works, it’s a dead faith.  James 2 also says it does not save. It is possible to believe of a sort and yet not be saved. Therefore, in this case, I find this  soil perhaps one of the most troubling of all the soil type. Probably the most troubling, because this person has such a joyful reaction to the word. They’re thrilled, they receive the word with joy, they’re excited. That joy is genuine as far as it goes, it’s a genuine surge of emotions that comes, and those emotions are usually intense. The plant springs up quickly, it looks like it’s making good progress, it looks great from the outside. The person is so filled with exuberance, he tells all of his friends and neighbors and relatives about his new faith. He feels like all of his problems are solved. The very thing he’s been looking for all of his life, he’s founded at last, and he’s telling everyone about it. He’s doing all the kind of things you do in church, and he’s just so excited he’s what we would call “on fire for the Lord”, filled with joy.

Now, I want you to understand joy over the Gospel is a good thing, it’s a very good thing. Look at Verse 44 in our same chapter, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, when a man found it, he hid it again, and then, in his joy, went and sold everything he had and bought that field.” Joy over the treasure is a good thing. As a matter of fact, if you don’t have it, I don’t think you’re converted. There needs to be a joy over the Kingdom, a rejoicing, a delight that your sins are forgiven and that you’re going to heaven. Ever increasingly so. But, apparently, there’s a counterfeit joy that’s going on here earlier in the chapter.   He receives the word with joy, but he has no root. This brings us, I think, to some of the history even of us as Southern Baptists, as evangelicals, what we call revivalism.  There’s different ways of looking at them. In one sense, spiritually and supernaturally a revival is a pouring out of the Holy Spirit on a body of people with great evidence of conversion, all kinds of things going on. It’s an exciting time,  but understand what we’re praying for. It’s a supernatural moving of the Holy Spirit, where by a large numbers of people are genuinely converted. Then in verse 44 you’re going to see the joy of selling everything so that you can have the Kingdom. Could there also be some of the false joy as well where people are all excited and they get motivated? Maybe put their hands up in the air, maybe they scream for joy, maybe there are tears coming down their face. How can we tell the difference?

During the revival, the First Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards was a careful student of these kind of displays. He was fighting a battle on two sides, on one side there was what he called the old lights, the kind of old staunch conservator. They said, this kind of enthusiasm in a religion is a bad thing, it’s definitely of the devil. And he said, “No, it isn’t.” Then there are people on the other side who said it is definitely proof that the spirit has come when you see people jumping for joy and getting all excited or rolling on the ground or weeping or crying out. Edwards, with his careful thinking, said, it is no sure sign either way when you see this kind of joy. It’s no proof either way, because we can show right in the text, it happens both with a genuine convert and with somebody who is going to fall away when tested. “I dare not trust the sweetest frame that’s joyful state but wholly lean on Jesus’s name.”  I think it’s a good thing when people show outwardly, physically on their bodies, their joy, but I’ve learned to be careful when we preach the gospel, say, “Oh, definitely they were converted. I saw a tear in their eye.” “Well, definitely they were converted, they were so happy after they prayed the sinner’s prayer.” Only one thing, perseverance over time through all kinds of tests that’s fruit-bearing for years and years. That’s what I get out of the seed and the soils here. There’s an immediate joyful outburst but what happens to the seed? It has no root system, and therefore it cannot survive. Since the faith has no root, it lasts only a short time.

When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, the person quickly falls away. Martin Lloyd-Jones told a story talking about the whole invitation system which we in our church have used, and others use, in calling people to an immediate outward visible response to the Word. He was preaching in a church once and there was this man that he had seen come regularly, but this one particular time the man seemed to be emotionally responding very powerfully to what was being preached. Lloyd-Jones was kind of torn in his mind what to do as a pastor. Should he go up and confront him and deal with him at a personal level? He had preached the Gospel, preached the word thoroughly, what should he do? In the end, he felt the Spirit leading him not to, but  to just let the man go that evening. The next day he saw him, and the man interacted with him.  Lloyd-Jones is on his way to the prayer meeting, and the man said, “You know, if you had asked me to come to prayer after that service, I would have come last night.”

He said, “Well, come with me now. Come with me now.” He said, “No, not interested. But if you would’ve ask me last night I would have come. And he said, “You know, if whatever you got last night didn’t last one full day, it isn’t the real thing. Whatever it was.” So there’s an immediate reaction and joy, but it has no roots, and when trouble comes because of the Word then you’d say, “What is that?” I think it’s of two sorts. Persecution, namely your friends, neighbors. They see you’re excited, but they’re not excited, and they start to make your life hard. They start to oppose you, they start to persecute you, and you fall away because it’s too expensive.  It’s got no root system. Or there’s a different kind of trouble that comes by the Word. It’s the troubling of the soul over the sin that’s still in you. You get convicted, then you realize that you need to change your life, that there’s sins that you must put to death, there needs to be a whole different way of living, and that’s trouble caused by the Word, isn’t it? That person has no interest in that kind of life change. In his mind, he has no genuine understanding of the gospel. The part he understands makes him happy, but he doesn’t understand the whole scope of the Kingdom. In his soul there’s no genuine brokenness over sin, no deep work with the law. Some of this easy decision-ism, it’s a light work of the law and the heart, and the person isn’t genuinely convicted over sin. There’s no genuine relationship with God, that’s what it means when it says he has no root. Jesus says that you are a branch, and I’m the vine, you’re grafted in. There’s a life giving sap that flows through you, and that sap enables you to survive any trial.The very same trial that weeds out the false believer, makes the true believer even stronger. In Romans 5:3-5, it says, “but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.” Te trial comes and it makes the genuine believer even stronger, even more hopeful, but it makes the false believer fall away.

Fall away. What does it mean, “They quickly fall away?” This is the most troubling aspect of all. What’s the time frame here? I have no idea. If he had told me that he would fall away within a year, and you could make it a year and a day then you’re home free, right? If he had given a definite time frame and if you could just make it past that, it doesn’t give it to… He just leaves it open. What it means is you need to continue to walk with Christ, day after day, seeking Him and loving Him, trusting in Him. But as soon as those trials come, for this soil, they quickly, quickly fall away.

VI. Application

What application are we going to take from this?  I want you to assess yourself. We haven’t gotten a chance to preach yet on the thorny soil or the fruitful soil, but you understand this parable. Who are you? Are you the hard-packed soil? Maybe you’ve been invited to church this morning and you came, but you have very little interest in the word. Oh, I pray that God would soften your heart, I pray that you would be open to the Word, and not blow it off, but accept it as not the word of man, but the Word of God which can save you. If you are the shallow soil, pray that you would be brought into a living, deeply-rooted relationship with Christ.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

I.  The Gift of Hearing and the Gift of Listening

Context of this Parable

Importance of this Parable

“How then will you understand any parable?”

Parable restated and described

1.  The Sower went out to sow

vs.  3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.

This is clearly the evangelist… the proclaimer of the Gospel of the Kingdom

In this case, it is Christ Himself… in later generations it will be anyone who is sent to preach the gospel… any evangelist, any humble Christian who seeks to bring a neighbor across the street, a close relative, a boss or co-worker into the Kingdom

It is anyone who crosses an ocean to plant churches in a Muslim country, or anyone who crosses a room at a high school reunion to witness to an unbelieving classmate

2.  The Seed

The seed is the “message about the Kingdom”… what does this mean?  It is the very thing the whole Gospel of Matthew has been proclaiming:

1)  The Kingdom of Heaven:  where God is King, where He rules over His domain with perfect love and perfect holiness

2)  The Kingdom of Christ:  where Christ is the gentle and humble master, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, who offers rest for your souls

3)  A Kingdom which must be entered through repentance and faith… totally turning away from sin and turning to Christ in faith

Mark 1:15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

 4)  A Kingdom described in these parables:  which starts small like a mustard seed and grows, which is like a treasure hidden in a field worth selling everything so you can possess it

This is the message of the Kingdom… this is the seed which the sower sows widely.  In a lrger sense, it is the Bible as a whole… for every word of the Bible teaches the Kingdom of God in one way or another

MacArthur:  “The most faithful and dedicated Christian cannot create the word of the Kingdom any more than a farmer or scientist can create the simplest seed.  Just as only God creates seeds that reproduce themselves, only God creates the word of the gospel that brings the life of His Son to a believer.  The work of Christian witness is not to manufacture a message to create a synthetic seed, or to modify the seed given to them, but to sow God’s revelation by proclaiming it exactly as He has given it.  The power of new spiritual life is in the word, just as

3.  The ground… the soil… in four different conditions

·      The walkway… hard soil

vs. 4  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

The soil is hard, packed by constant traffic… like pavement.  Therefore the seed does not penetrate at all… it lies on the surface and is totally vulnerable.  The birds come along and eat it up and not a trace is left… there’s no lasting impact, no cumulative effect.  You could cast a million seeds on that soil and not one would bear fruit.

·      The rocky soil

This soil is a thin layer of topsoil supported by a hard, rocky substrata.  Just like parts of my yard that grows rocks every winter… soil in the Near East would be supported by an impenetrable layer of limestone.  Any seeds that fell in that area would spring up quickly because there is nowhere to go but up.  Initially, these plants would look healthier and more promising than any others.  However, having the hard rocky base, there is no root system possible.  When the sun rises, the moisture from the shallow topsoil is quickly evaporated.  When the moisture is gone, so is any hope at all of the plant’s survival.

·      The thorny soil

This soil is fertile for growth, but it is crowded with thorns which compete for everything the seed needs to survive.  The thorns suck nutrients and water from the soil, and take up the space the good plant needs in which to grow.  Furthermore, the thorny plants block the sunlight.  In the end, the plant is choked by the thorns and is totally unfruitful.

·      The good soil

This soil is rich and fertile… plowed and loose, so the seed penetrates deeply; weeded, so there’s nothing to compete with the plant for moisture, nutrients, and sunlight; and incredibly productive.  A typical Middle Eastern farm in Biblical times would yield about eight seeds harvested for every one sown.  A modern American farm with the best agricultural knowledge and technology in the world might attain a yield rate of 40 to 50 times what is sown.  Jesus speaks of yield rates from 100 to 60 to 30 times what was sown.  This is astonishing!!

Having spoken the parable, Jesus challenges His hearers:

“He who has ears, let him hear.”

Everyone has “ears”, but not everyone can “hear”… i.e. “understand”.  Jesus is challenging His hearers to seek understanding in the parable… most especially by asking Him what it means!

Jesus then describes why he speaks to the people in parables:

1)  To fulfill prophecy

2)  To conceal the truth from those who will not seek Him

3)  To reveal the truth to those who will seek Him

4)  Therefore, to make us spiritual beggars who come to Him for everything

Now, we can zero in on the meaning of the parable… in doing so, our focus is not on the sower or on the seed… but on the variety of soils.

In other words, the varying results that come from the same seed being sown by the same techniques and the same farmer

II.  Soil #1:  The Hardened Unbeliever

vs. 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

A.  Hardened Heart, Darkened Understanding

1.  The four results are four PEOPLE with four different OUTCOMES to hearing the gospel

“When anyone hears the message…”

2.  The seed on the path is a hardened unbeliever

3.  Key issue:  they do not understand the message about the Kingdom

4.  Why not?  Sin and Satan has hardened their hearts

a.  Old Testament version… “stiff-necked” = unyielded, rebellious

Exodus 32:9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.

Jeremiah 17:23 Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.

Jeremiah 5:3 O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

“Stiff-neck” = one that will not bow under the yoke of the King

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…”

They say NO!!!!

Issue is the response to the “Kingdom of God”… that God will be their King and rule over them.  This is the very thing they DO NOT WANT

When they heard the word preached by the prophets, they immediately disregarded it… it bounced off them like the seed bounced on the hardened path

Stephen summarized the Jews of his generation the same way:

Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!

b.  why hearts so hard?  Sin and Satan

i)  sin tricks us and deceives us… as we fall into its patterns, our hearts are gradually hardened to God and His word

Hebrews 3:12-13  See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Ephesians 4:18-19  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

Illus.  Callouses built up… 1960 Olympics in Rome… skinny Ethiopian ran into sports legend by completing the marathon in a record time, winning the gold medal with a dominant triumph.  Most astonishing was the fact he ran along the streets of Rome—the Appian Way and other paved highways—BAREFOOT for 26.2 miles.  Your feet and mine would have been ripped to bloody shreds… he’d been running barefoot all his life, and the callouses on his feet were as hard as shoe leather

This is what repeated sin does to a heart… it makes it insensitive to spiritual truth

Illus:  Woman on flight to Los Angeles; in the “adult entertainment” business… one of the hardest people I’ve ever talked to… with a pleasant look on her face, she told me she hated people, hated life, enjoyed nothing, had no favorite foods, didn’t look forward to anything at all

No matter what I tried to do to lead her to Christ, she had no interest and was dead to anything I could say

ii)  this hardening especially takes root in the mind… making even simple Bible truth incomprehensible and foolishness

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

iii) the devil is especially active in blinding hearts to spiritual truth… more in a moment

B.  A Blessing Becomes a Curse:  They Hear the Word

1.  Ordinarily a great blessing to hear the message about the Kingdom

2.  BUT for the hardened sinners who don’t respond, it is MUCH WORSE for them once they’ve heard

2 Peter 2:21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.

C.  Satan’s Activity

1.  Active in hardening to begin with

2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The devil is constantly luring people into sin… hardening hearts so they are unresponsive to the gospel

2.  Active in snatching away the seed after its planted

a.  it doesn’t lie dormant there and spring to life later

b.  the “birds come and eat it up”… it is GONE!!

“the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart”

·      He uses the lusts of this present age to do it:  enticements and allurements to pleasure that dull the soul and harden the heart

·      He uses the sins of Christians to do it:  “Look at all those hypocrites going to church and then sinning the rest of the week…” “Elmer Gantry”  [Note:  the woman I witnessed to on the plane, involved in the adult entertainment business, said the worst experience she’d ever had was with a pastor who threatened to assault her!

·      He uses false teachers to do it:  sowing confusion and false doctrine so the word has no chance

·      He uses fear to do it:  “What will my friends think if I become a Bible-thumper?”

·      He uses procrastination to do it:  “You can always believe later… there’s just too much going on right now”

D.  Eternal Consequences

The end result of unbelief is HELL

Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars– their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Some people are simply closed and hard to the gospel… no interest whatsoever

Maybe they will respond with anger and violent persecution; maybe they will simply shrug and walk away

Either way, the message of the gospel makes as much impression on their hearts as a sharp, double-edged sword would on a steel plate… NONE

III.  Soil #2:  The Shallow, Temporary Believer

vs. 20-21 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.  But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

A.  The “Temporary Believer”

1.  Is it possible to “believe” for a while and then fall away?

2.  This parable says YES… therefore, there is such a thing as “temporary faith”

Luke 8:13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

3.  This “faith” does not justify… it is an entirely different thing

John 2:23-25  Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

Justification is the declaration by God the Judge that a sinner is eternally not guilty because of genuine faith in Christ

Justification can never be revoked… it is ETERNAL!!!

But this faith does not justify… it is a temporary emotional response based on spiritual truths that are not fully understood

THUS:  There is a faith which does not justify

James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that– and shudder.

Demon faith will not save them… neither will a dead faith that has no deeds:

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

So, there is a faith which does not justify… it is temporary, it bears no eternal fruit, it is a counterfeit faith

B.  Emotional “Conversion” and Initial Joy

the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.

1.  The joy is genuine, the emotional displays are usually intense

So… the plant springs up quickly, and actually looks healthier than many other true converts

So filled with exuberance, he tells everyone about his new experience… he feels he’s found the answers he was seeking… everything is now perfect in his world… he weeps with tears of joy… he throws himself into many aspects of the Christian life… this joy may go on for quite some time, since Christ gives no timetable for how long the joy lasts

NOTE:  joy over the word is a GOOD thing

Matthew 13:44  “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

THUS:  this type of shallow false believer IMPOSSIBLE to tell from a genuine convert initially… time will tell!

2.  “Revivalism”… looking for the joy and the outward response, then declaring the sinner to be saved and eternally assured of heaven no matter what happens from here on!!

Illus.  History of revivals… greatly affected evangelicalism and evangelism

Always seeking the upswell of emotin, the dramatic display as proof of God’s activity

Jonathan Edwards:  “Distinguishing Marks of a Movement of the Spirit of God”

Illus.  Free-will Baptist tract brought to my house.. “If you prayed this prayer, you are now a Christian!!”

C.  No Root System, No Survival

since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

1.  Mind:  No genuine understanding

a.  just like the seed along the path, in the end this person does not truly understand the message about the kingdom

b.  they see only a part of it… that part makes them joyful

c.  there is no depth, no deep understanding of the real issues of the Kingdom:  repentance over sin, reconciliation with God, personal holiness, a lifetime of spiritual warfare and fruitbearing, the sovereign rule of Christ as “King of the Kingdom of Heaven”

2.  Soul:  No genuine brokenness over sin

a.  part and parcel with “revivalism” and “easy-believism” and “decisionism” is a light working over the soul with the law

b.  the sins are dealt with only lightly, no wound of deep conviction, no becoming a spiritual beggar, no mourning over sin

c.  the work is shallow, light, superficial and quick

3.  Relationship with God:  No genuine conversion to Christ

a.  no yielding in full submission to Lordship of Christ

b.  no “engrafting into the vine”

c.  no life-giving sap flowing through

D.  What Does “Quickly Falls Away” Mean?

1.  Note:  this “pseudo-believer” may fool a lot of people (even himself) for a long time

2.  He might walk in that “joy” of a shallow acceptance of the Kingdom for a long time

3.  BUT AS SOON AS THE TESTING COMES… that’s when the time ends

“when trouble comes because of the word, he quickly falls away”

What kind of “trouble”:  that which comes “because of the word”…

·      persecution, yes

·      But also, maybe a deep searching of his lifestyle and conscience by the ministry of the word… a call for deep repentance and change brought about by certain lifestyle issues

4.  Resources to survive trouble because of the word are completely missing

“since he has no root”

a.  root = means to draw moisture and nutrients… deep in soil, protected from sun’s heat and evaporation

b.  spiritually = invisible connection with Christ, ability to be renewed  and sustained invisible

Illus. “No visible means of support”… a good way to be, thus totally dependent on the Lord

Ironically, the very trials that destroy the false faith of these shallow believers, actually purifies and strengthens the faith of true believers:

Romans 5:3-5  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Summary:  The seed sown on rocky soil is the shallow, temporary believer… without genuine understanding, without genuine faith, without genuine repentance, without a genuine connection to Christ, he cannot survive the testing that inevitably comes.  When the cost of following Christ gets too high, he quickly falls away.

IV.  Soil #3:  The Double-Minded Man

vs. 22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

Illus.  Weeding… why it’s needed, how difficult it is to do

Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing ‘Oh how wonderful’ and sitting in the shade,
While better men than we go out, and start their working lives
By grubbing weeds from garden paths with broken dinner knives.
–   Rudyard Kipling

Sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste.
–  William Shakespeare

Sign seen along a country road:  “Free weeds… you pick ‘em!!”

It is not enough for a gardener to love flowers;
he must also hate weeds.
–  Anonymous

A.  Competing for Nutrients, Moisture, Air, Sunshine

1.  Within the soil, there is only so much fertilizer

2.  When the rain fails, there’s only so much absorbed into the soil to go around

3.  When the thorns grow, the block the sunshine and steal the basic commodities of life from the seed

4.  NOTE:  they grew up and “CHOKED” the plant

vs. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.

Strong word:  “choke”, “drown” also translated… to cut off air supply for a breathing creature or person… for plants, it means to be starved of what it needs for life

The seed is choked off from what it needs for life and fruitfulness… all the available resources are getting sucked dry by the aggressive thorns… they grow faster, and they dominate the soil

What chokes out the seed of the word of God?

B.  Worries of Life

1.  Negative:  fears and concerns of not having enough… worries about food, clothing, shelter

2.  Worries about:  health, family members, the future, possessions, possible pain and disappointments

Example:  God calls someone to quit their job and go overseas as a missionary… they begin to get consumed with worries about the future… “What will I eat?  What will I wear?  What about my family?  What about their college education?  What if they contract some disease overseas and die before they can get to good medical care?  What if some war breaks out and I am taken hostage by some militant Islamic group and tortured?”

The worries of this life!

C.  Deceitfulness of Wealth

1.  Positive:  hungering and thirsting for earthly comforts

2.  “Wealth” implies abundance… yearning for earthly luxury

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Illus.  con game… “The Sting”… Expert con artist said to young apprentice:  “Relax kid… we had him the moment he wanted to be someone.”  So it is with the devil using worldly success to make us eternally unfruitful

Wealth is deceitful because it keeps luring and luring us to invest our precious daily resources and our even more precious overall life purpose on something worthless and temporary… it is a terrible con game

A businessman wakes up:  his mind is filled only with the world’s wisdom… he runs 60 hours a week to make his business everything it can be;  but he has lost sight of the Kingdom of God

“Worries of this life” and “The deceitfulness of wealth” are two sides of the same coin

It is total preoccupation with material prosperity… first to meet basic needs, then to acquire luxuries

It is a quest that will never end!

D.  Unfruitful

1.  The end of such a life… crop failure… the seed bears no fruit

2.  All the time he should have spent in studying the Bible, he is consumed with making a buck

3.  All the effort he should have spent building Christ’s kingdom he spends on the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth

4.  This word is the key:  This man is NOT A CHRISTIAN!!!

As we shall see in a moment, every true Christian bears SOME FRUIT, though not all are equally fruitful

This man bears no fruit at all… the fruitbearing process is cut off completely by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth

E.  The Double-Minded Man

Mark:  adds “Desire for other things…”

Mk 4:19 the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

“Other things??”  Other than what?

Other than the Kingdom!!

1.  Wants the Kingdom of Heaven

2.  Wants the kingdoms of earth more

3.  True Christians are amazingly single-minded about the Kingdom:

The man who found the treasure hidden in the field sold all he had and bought that field

The merchant looking for fine pearls sold all he had and bought that magnificent pearl

Paul said:  “One thing I do…”

Philippians 3:13 I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me

This man says “Two things I seek… two masters I serve:  God and Money”

Single-minded devotion taught by Christ

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Single-minded devotion taught by Paul

2 Timothy 2:4 No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs— he wants to please his commanding officer.

This seed sown in thorns represents a double-minded man

He wants the Kingdom some… He wants the world more.  He is not single-minded… in the end he bears no fruit… in the end he is condemned

V.  Soil #4:  The True Believer… Bearing Fruit

vs. 23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

A.  It All Begins With Understanding the Word

“hears the word AND understands it…”

1.  He’s not the PATH:  The word doesn’t bounce off his hardened heart

2.  He’s not the ROCKY SOIL:  The word doesn’t move him to shallow, superficial emotional response only

3.  He’s not the THORNY SOIL:  It is clear that the Kingdom is of immense value, worthy of his entire life and he devotes himself to it above all earthly things

4.  WHY?  Because he UNDERSTANDS the message of the Kingdom

a.  naturally dead in trespasses and sins, our minds are darkened and we do not understand

Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

b.  God the Father gives us true understanding to save our souls

Ephesians 1:7-8  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

c.  God the Son gives us true understanding to save our souls

1 John 5:20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.

d. God the Holy Spirit gives us true understanding to save our souls

1 Corinthians 2:12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

The work of the Triune God in the good rich soil of a human heart made ready for the Word of the Kingdom is plow it up and make it soft and yielded to that Word… He does this by the understanding… by removing the blindness that the devil and his world has cast over the eyes of our heart;  He does this by softening the hardness that sin has left in our heart.  He does it by a deep, searching work of conviction of sin… of fear of the wrath to come… of the immense value of his own soul, of the coming Judgment Day in which every sin will be brought to life…

More than anything, the Triune God works understanding of the immense value of Christ and of His perfect work on the Cross… this is the light He speaks into the formerly darkened understanding:

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The good, rich soil of a converted heart readily receives the word and keeps it covered in the soil until it bears fruit

Luke 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

The seed of the word is surrounded by the nutrients and moisture and sunshine it needs… and IT WILL BEAR FRUIT

B.  Fruitfulness Guaranteed

Simple, clear-cut statement:  True Christians produce fruit… without fail!!  Conversely, if there’s not fruit, the person’s not a Christian

1.  The nature of the soil is proved by the results… a good noble heart produces good fruit

2.  God uses fruit as absolute proof for the nature of the soil

3.  Consistent teaching:  the Kingdom of God produces fruit… where there is no fruit, the Kingdom has not come

In the parable of the tenants:

Matthew 21:43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

In the cursing of the fig tree:

Matthew 21:18-19 Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.  Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

In the teaching of the vine and the branches:

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:1-8  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Clear teaching:  if you bear no fruit, you are not a disciple… you are not in the Kingdom!!

C.  Fruitfulness Varied

vs. 23   He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

1.  Obvious lesson:  seed is EXTREMELY FRUITFUL!!!

Ancient Near East yield on a single seed:  excellent would by eight to one… eight seeds harvested for every one sown

Modern American soybean farms:  with state of the art fertilizers, chemicals, irrigation technology and soil management science:  30 to 1 ratio… thirty times what was sown!

Christ is promising a bumper crop on this seed!!  AT LEAST THIRTY TIMES what was sown… but perhaps as much as ONE HUNDRED TIMES WHAT WAS SOWN

2.  However:  secondary lesson… FRUITFULNESS IS VARIED

a.  some return 100, some 60, some 30 times

b.  not everyone equally fruitful in amount, nor in quality

3.  What is “FRUIT”??

a.  attitude fruit

Internal heart attitudes:  fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength… Love neighbor as yourself

Love for God’s word… love for God’s Kingdom and its progress… Love for God’s people… yearning after righteousness… deep desire to be in the presence of God… yearning to glorify God in all you do, to reveal His nature in the way you eat, sleep, work, act

ALSO:  Hatred for evil, war against sin, desire for total perfection in holiness, grief over sin as intrinsically evil—not just for the consequences, hatred over injustice and ungodliness in the world

These and many other heart attitudes are considered good fruit produced by the seed of the word

b.  action fruit

Any action you take for the glory of God and the advance of Christ’s kingdom

Any prayer you speak, any cup of cold water give to a disciple of Christ, any money you give to support Christ’s work… any time you act courageously to witness for Him, to speak the words of life

Fruit is the disciples you make, the lost people you bring to Christ… teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded

Fruit is the using of your spiritual gifts… if it is encouraging, to encourage; if it is teaching, to teach; if it is giving, to give;

Fruit is a happy, holy, and Godly marriage, where husbands love their wives as Christ the church; and where wives gladly submit to their husbands as to the Lord

Fruit is a godly, well-ordered home, where the children are brought up in the training and nurture of the Lord; and where the children are delighted to honor their parents so they may please Christ

 Fruit is a series of spiritual disciplines done in secret, simply for the delight of knowing God better:  of secret prayer, of fasting, of scripture memorization, of singing psalms and hymns in your heart

Fruit is conquering besetting sin, resisting temptation:

for a former alcoholic to refuse to drink again, and to take each temptation as an opportunity to honor God and His Kingdom

for a typically angry irritable person to learn to respond gently and hum

for a young man to keep his way pure and shield his eyes from anything that would cause him to lust

for a young woman to avoid dressing in a way that attracts ungodly attention to her body

for God’s people to refuse to be polluted by the world is great fruit

Fruit is varied in kind… fruit is also varied in amount

The more we consecrate ourselves wholly to the Kingdom, bowing our necks under the yoke of Christ, repenting of sin and warring against it… trusting in Christ moment by moment, and doing His will by the power of the Spirit… the more fruitful we will be

ONE HUNDRED TIMES WHAT WAS SOWN!!!

Illus.  George Mueller’s fruitful life:

·      Number of dayschools: 7

·      Number of students at the day schools (64 year total): 81, 501

·      Amount of money raised for dayschools (64 year total):  109,992 pounds

·      Number of Sunday Schools in great Britain:  37

·      Number of students at the Sunday Schools (64 year total):  32,944

·      Bibles or portions circulated (64 year total):  1,989,266

·      Amount of money raised for Bile circulation:  41, 090

·      Missionaries aided financially:  115

·      Amount of money raised to aid them:  261, 859 pounds

·      Circulation of books and tracts: 3,101,338

·      Total number of orphans at Ashley Downs (64 year total): 10, 029

·      Amount of money raised for orphanage:  988,829

·      Total amount of money raised & spent by George Mueller:  1,498,000 pounds (almost $8 million)

·      Specific answers to prayer recorded in notebooks:  over 50,000!

·      People led to Christ through his life and example:  perhaps incalculable

VI.  Applications

A.  Self-assessment

1.  Four soils:  which am I?

2.  We may have tendencies in each of the four directions… but the key issue ultimately is perseverance that produces fruit

3.  Don’t misunderstand this parable:  These are four distinct responses to the word… three of them lead to hell, however promising

4.  Re-evaluate “evangelical” witnessing techniques that mingle a low commitment to Christ, and a superficial preaching of sin and repentance to seek even a slight grudgingly positive response to the gospel, a quick “sinner’s prayer” and a full assurance of “once-saved, always saved”… this is a false gospel, and many will be deceived by it

5.  If you feel there’s no fruit in your life, you may be right… and you might be still unsaved…

6.  If you believe you are a Christian, you do see the fruit but you know you could be even more fruitful, I will speak to your situation more in a moment

B.  “Proper Ear Care”

Illus.  Mark Dever’s Sermon “Proper Ear Care”

Luke 8:18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.”

One of the most dangerous skills the devil teaches:  how to listen to good sermons on the Word of God, and do nothing about it.

Diagnostic questions:  how do you prepare to hear the word of God?  Do you consider it a light thing?  A frivolous thing?  Do you prove it by failing to pray, failing to prepare your heart?

Do you read the text I’m going to preach on ahead of time?  How are your Sunday mornings?  Do you come in here ready to hear and accept the seed of the word with a soft heart?

Consider carefully how you listen!

James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

C.  Yearning for Fruit

Set maximum fruitfulness in the word before you as your top goal in life

Pray constantly:  O Lord, make the most of my every moment!  I want to be one of those one hundred times fruitful people!!

1.  Soften my heart to the word

2.  Lord, help me to dig deep and not settle for superficial emotional response only… to meditate deeply on the word, be strongly connected to Christ, prepare for (and even welcome) the trouble which the word will bring

3.  Lord:  Weed my life of worldly goals and ambitions, of lusts and sins, of temporal pleasures, even of lawful things that have come to master me… Father you “prune” your branches so they will be even more fruitful… do that to me!!

D.  Time and Fruit Will Tell:  Surest Mark of Salvation Is Perseverance in Fruitfulness

1.  Can we really tell the difference from the outside between the joy of rocky soil hearer of the word and the joy of the man who sells everything he has to buy the field with the hidden treasure?  Initially… NO!!!  But the difference comes over time… once they are both tested by trials and by time;  only time will tell

2.  Can we really tell the difference between man who is like the one sown along the path, but who will ten years later trust Christ?  No!!  The Apostle Paul hated the word initially, then came to love it… only time will tell

3.  Can we really tell the difference between a thorny soil hearer of the word and a Christian who is temporarily drawn into worldly pursuits and becomes temporarily unfruitful?  No… again, only time will tell.  The true believer ultimately triumphs over the temptations of the world by the power of the Spirit!

4.  In the end… time and fruit will tell.  The surest external mark of salvation in this world is perseverance in fruitfulness.

An old riddle:  What comes with a carriage and goes with a carriage, is no use to the carriage, and yet the carriage cannot move without it?

Answer:  A sound!!

Rearrange it:   What precedes the Kingdom, advances the Kingdom, is central to the Kingdom, and the Kingdom cannot grow without it?

Answer:  The word of the Gospel

Romans 10:17  “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

Time:  Asked to select the most precious of the five senses, few people would name hearing.  Yet of all man’s links to the outside world, hearing seems to be the essential sense, the one that makes man peculiarly human.  How precious hearing is becomes clear when it is lacking.  A baby born blind or insensitive to pain usually surmounts his handicap to lead a useful life.  But a baby born deaf may be lost to mankind.  The first steps of his intellectual development are beyond his reach.  The sounds of life—his mother’s lullaby, the clatter of a rattle, even his own yowl of hunger—remain unknown.  He cannot learn to imitate meaningful sounds because he cannot hear them.  Unless heroic efforts rescue him, he will never truly master his own language; he will live cut off from the human race.  It is hearing, with its offspring speech, that gives man his superlative ability to communicate:  to pass along hard-won knowledge, to make use of that knowledge, and so to rule an entire planet.”

As Christians we would add, it is through hearing the sound of the Word of God—through speech—that faith is born.  Therefore, the creator of speech, the creator of language speaks to us this morning

“He who has ears, let him hear…”

In the last fifty years, extraordinary progress has been made in

PHYSICS of sound:  how sound is produced and travels through the air

BIOLOGY of sound:  how sound is transmitted from pressure waves to brain signals in hearing

Today, we discuss

THEOLOGY of sound:  how the sound of the gospel transforms the heart and saves the soul