The Lessons of the Parable of the Sower

Scripture: Matthew 13:23

"And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." 

Insights:  There are three lessons we need to think about regarding this parable.  First, what kind of soil are you?  I pray you are good soil, but if you are that hard stuff that the birds just take the seed off, you better ask God to plow your heart.  If you're that rocky soil underneath a soft superficial exterior, you better ask God to plow deeper.  If you're that weedy soil, you better ask the Lord to clean you so you can receive with purity the gospel.  Second, you must realize your talent is NOT the issue.  For illustration, take a little five year old kid who wants to go out and sow a field with his daddy.  His father knows how to sow beautifully, but the boy throws that seed just mimicking his father.  The little kid's throwing seed all over the place and it may not be as much seed hitting the good soil when the little guy throws it as when his dad does, but when the seed hits the good soil, it doesn't matter who threw it. It's going to grow. It does not depend on the talent of the sower.  Some people say I'd like to witness for the Lord, but I don’t know what to say.  That excuse isn't the issue.  The issue is the condition of the soil, not the talent of the sower.  Just go out there and throw the seed.  Third, ask the Lord to plow the fields.  Sometimes the Lord plows up the stuff that doesn't receive the seed the first time, so don't give up.  Be faithful no matter if the soil is hard, shallow, or weedy.  Just keep sowing and ask God, by His grace, to do some more tilling in that soil.  So Beloved, keep throwing the seed in that same field over and over, over and over, over and over and see if the Lord won't break up the soil.  All you have to do is be obedient to the Father and do what He commands you to do, which is so the seed.  He does the rest of the work. 

Questions:

1. For whom are you praying the Lord to plow their soil?
2. Are you willing to sow seed and leave the results to the Lord?

Prayer: Father, stir my heart to have a bold passion for the lost in this world.  Grant me the courage to share the saving grace of Your Son, Jesus.  Amen.

The Reproducing Hearer

Scripture: Matthew 13:23

"And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." 

Insights:  Beloved, the ultimate mark of salvation is fruit bearing—fruitfulness.  So, this truth makes us have to ask the question, what is fruit?  It's evidence of the divine life.  Paul described three kinds of fruit.  The first is attitude fruit as in the fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23.  The second is behavior fruit as found in Paul’s letters to the Colossians, Thessalonians and Philippians.  Behavioral fruit is the “don’t do this” and “do this” lists that most lost people think of in regards to religion.  The third is soul fruit as found in Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Soul fruit is the harvesting of new believers.  No matter what kind of fruit is being born out in a believer it is God producing those spiritual realities in us.  You show me somebody who has no manifestation of those attributes and I'll show you somebody, no matter what they may look like on the surface, who's going to die out.  Fruit is the issue.  In Ephesians 2:10, Paul says you are created unto good works, and God ordained that you walked in them.  It isn't that you're never going to do something wrong.  What is really going on is the one who is truly good ground has a consuming desire to be productive, to let God produce through his life.  And even when there's failure, there's great brokenness over the failure because the desire is to see God at work.  Notice another thought as well.  It says that there will be some who bring a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty.  Not everybody is equally productive.  God uses people in different ways and there are some Christians who never really fully get their act together.  They go through life being a thirty-folder when they could be a sixty or a hundred.  Christians will always be fruitful, I’m not saying that all Christians will always be as fruitful as they ought to be or could be.  Because when we do become disobedient, then we restrict the productivity of God in our lives.  What I am saying is all Christians at this point in the parable start at thirtyfold and thirtyfold is three times what was even normal.  So, a true believer isn't somebody you've got to scrounge around looking behind the leaves to try to find a piece of fruit hanging somewhere.  A true believer is one whose fruit is multiplied and manifest. 

Questions:

1. Is your life characterized by the three types of fruit?
2. What percentage of results are you bearing?

Prayer: Father, I desire to bear much fruit for You.  Give me a heart for the lost that is like Your heart.  Help me to see them as You see them.  Amen.

The Duplicitous Hearer

Scripture: Matthew 13:22

"And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 

Insights:  This person lives for the cares of this world and are deceived by its riches.

They are living for the mundane which consists of their career, home, wardrobe, prestige and image.  Because of this duplicitous lifestyle these people hear the gospel, but they never have their soil cleaned out by Jesus’ forgiving grace.  The world is still there for them and they are blinded by the trappings of money.  It was for this reason in another location that Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and money…you will either hate the one and love the other or despise the one and cling to the other.”  It was for this reason John wrote, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  You can't be that double-minded man.  The soil that is going to produce the fruit must be cleansed of that stuff and that is why I'm convinced that true salvation only occurs where there is true repentance.  We must be willing to deal with the sin in our lives and turn from it and follow Jesus daily.  This soil is good soil, but it is impure because of the thorny weeds.  A person who wants the Word of God and wants everything else is not truly born again.  They have never received the gift of salvation from Jesus.  The ground has only got so much to give, because there is only so much nourishment there.  If the soil is trying to support all of the weeds, then the seed isn't going to survive.  Often times people say this type of person has lost their salvation, but what Jesus is really saying here is they never had it to begin with.  What is the mark of salvation in this parable?  The answer is fruit.  In John fifteen we are told, if you don't bear fruit, He cuts you off and burns you. That's hell for people who are fruitless because not being on the vine means one is not saved.  It is the fruit bearing that marks the salvation. A true believer manifests fruit. And that takes us to the last soil which we will examine tomorrow.  Remember, this parable is to encourage us in this church age to recognize there will be people that are duplicitous in their hearing of the gospel. 

Questions:

1. Are you one who is truly in love with this world and pretending to be a follower of Jesus?
2. Are you willing to ask God to purge your life of its love for this temporal world?

Prayer: Father, let my heart be wholly Yours.  I do not want anything to hinder my walk and relationship with You.  May my heart be pure and not duplicitous in nature.  Amen.

The Simplistic Hearer

Scripture: Matthew 13:20-21

"The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. 

Insights:  This person is a simplistic hearer.  They make a quick emotional decision that has instant excitement, but no cost counting involved.  There is no real significance or depth to their decision.  It is marked with a lot of feel good and quick external growth, but nothing is taking place on the inside.  There is not true repentance, no true brokenness or contrition.  They seem to grow very quickly, but because there is no depth of true salvation, there is no fruit.  This type of person is the one who three months after making a profession of faith can no longer be found in the church.  Verse twenty-one tells us the reason this person falls away and reveals their true lost condition.  Afflictions and persecutions come on this person and they say, “This is not what I signed up for,” and they hit the road.  The pressures may actually come from within the church itself.  The individual may be pressed to join a Bible study or meet regularly with someone for prayer and all of a sudden the realization that there may be more to this “Jesus thing” comes over them and they bolt.  Persecutions can come on them from outside of the church as well.  People start to make fun of them for being a Christian or they are criticized and put down for their “new faith.”  When this kind of pressure builds they don’t want to be known as some kind of religious freak, so they again run and fall away revealing that they were truly not born again.  Remember, the reason Jesus told us these parables were to encourage us.  We must understand that when we spread the seed, there are going to be these types of people that “respond” to the gospel and we are not to get discouraged by their true lost condition.  We are to continue to minister to them and pray for God to take them to true salvation and depth with Him, but we are not to get discouraged.  As a pastor, I have baptized these people and even spent hours trying to disciple them, but there was no true conversion.  It is encouraging to know Jesus told me to expect this kind of response from time to time. 

Questions:

1. Are you one who has not counted the cost of what it means to be a follower of Jesus?
2. Are you willing to ask God to dig deeper into your life in order for you to have roots of faith?

Prayer: Father, may my life show the true depth of growth from a new life in Jesus.  Remove the rocks that hinder my growth in You and may my life bring You glory.  Amen.

The Hard-Hearted Hearer

Scripture: Matthew 13:18-19

"Hear then the parable of the sower. "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. 

Insights:  This is the man the Old Testament would call stiff-necked.  This is the man who is unresponsive, inattentive, unconcerned, and negligent.  He doesn't want anything to do with the gospel.  It just hits him and bounces off.  The condition of his heart has been so pounded and pounded and pounded with the sins of his life that there's just no sensitivity at all to the things of God.  This is the heart that knows no repentance, knows no sorrow for sin, knows no guilt, knows no concern over things that really matter, and allows itself to be trampled by sin day after day.  This person is never broken up, never softened by conviction.  He is hard-hearted, callous, and indifferent.  Satan is seen as the birds, the evil one, who comes and snatches the seed away.  How does he do that?  There are a lot of ways.  One way he does that is by sending false teachers along to say all of that stuff was lies.  Another way he snatches the seed is by the fear of man.  People don't respond to it because they're afraid they might lose their reputation.  Or they might be kicked out of their little group.  Or somebody might think they're a religious fanatic.  Sometimes Satan uses pride.   Many prideful people are just know-it-alls, and they don’t want to admit that they need some help, that they need some information, that they don’t know everything.  Sometimes Satan snatches it away through doubt.  Sometimes he snatches it away through prejudice.  Sometimes through stubbornness.  Sometimes through the love of sin the person doesn't want to give up.  Sometimes through procrastination.  But one way or another or a combination of ways, when it hits that hard stuff, Satan snatches it away.  You need to examine your heart at this point: are you that dry, hard, road on the edge of the field?  You may be on the fringes of religion and activity but sins have just pounded and pounded and pounded down the dirt of your heart until it is utterly unproductive and unresponsive to God.  Life, however, does not have to end this way if you are this hard-hearted hearer.  You can at any moment cry out to the Lord and ask Him to till you heart and make it receptive to the gospel. 

Questions:

1. Are you stiff-necked and unresponsive to the things of God?
2. Are you willing to ask God to till your hard heart?

Prayer: Father, You are the only One that can truly change the heart of man.  Break through the hard ground and prevent Satan from stealing the seed of the gospel I plant in the lives of hard-hearted hearers.  Amen.

Preliminary Explanations

Scripture: Matthew 13:18-19

"Hear then the parable of the sower. "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

Insights:  The full explanation of the soils will be given next week, but today we will look at some preliminary explanations regarding the parable of the sower.  The sower is Jesus Christ.  In verse thirty-seven there is another parable similar in subject matter which states, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.”  The seed is the Word and we see that in verse nineteen in today’s verses.  The Word being sown is the gospel message that Jesus has come to bring His kingdom and He accomplished that by dying on a cross for your sins and mine.  He did not, however, remain in the grave, but three days later rose again forevermore as victor over sin and death.  Anyone who would receive Him as Savior and Lord will be saved.  Anyone who spreads that seed is also a co-sower with Jesus.  In a natural sense regarding seed sowing we are not capable of creating the seed.  God is the Creator of the seed and by our planting the seed a harvest is reaped and more seed is then planted.  If, however, we stopped planting seed, then eventually the seed we have would be used up completely and the seed would go extinct.  The same is true in the spiritual realm.  God created the gospel.  There is no other gospel we can spread.  If we do not spread the gospel, then there comes a point where there is no more seed to spread.  Beloved, let that not happen during our watch of the world.  Let us rise up and become more faithful seed sowers and leave the world fuller than when we arrived.  I think Jesus gave this parable to encourage the disciples.  Dirt is dirt is dirt.  The issue is not specifically the soil, but rather what has influenced the soil.  All four soils have the capacity to receive the seed if the ground had been tended to properly, but some soil had negative influences on them and therefore did not produce fruit.  So, Jesus is letting His disciples know that during this mysterious church age that all four responses to the gospel ought to be expected and to not get discouraged by it.  Rather press on in spite of it because you know that some seed will land on good soil. 

Questions:

1. Are you spreading the seed faithfully and regularly?
2. Does this parable encourage you to spread the seed no matter the outcome?

Prayer: Father, You have created me for this time period in history to take up the commission of spreading Your Word.  May I serve You faithfully and whole heartedly.  May my seed casting produce a harvest of a hundredfold.  Amen.

The Good Soil

Scripture: Matthew 13:8

"And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 

Insights:  Today we read about the last kind of soil.  This soil is deep, soft, and clean soil.  In other words, it is soft, unlike the hard way side soil.  It is deep, unlike the stony limestone ground soil.  It is clean, unlike the weed infested soil.  This seed found in this soil bursts into life and it brings forth a tremendous harvest, a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.  Now I am not a farmer and I have no personal knowledge regarding harvest and returns.  Some commentaries of mine, however, inform me that the average harvest would be seven-and-a-half-fold and a good crop would be tenfold. The point I am making is this crop in this good soil is a tremendously flourishing crop.  As with the previous soils, next week we will look at the explanation of this parable and unpack the details regarding this soil.  Beloved, I can tell you; this soil is the kind of soil you ought to desire being.  May your life reflect the love of God to a lost and dying world which is in need of a Savior. 

Questions:

1. Does this soil describe you?
2. If it does, what kind of fruitful harvest are you producing for the King?

Prayer: Father, as one of Your children I desire to live a life that produces a hundredfold harvest for Your kingdom.  Mold and shape my heart to think and act on the priorities the best exalt You.  Amen.