Our text this morning, as we begin chapter 13,
we're going to look at, last week I told you
I looked at verses 10 to 17 first, because it
explained why the disciples were privileged to
have the understanding and interpretation of
the parables given to them, and yet while the
other people, the crowds and the religious leaders,
We're left outside in the dark. So it kind of
sets it up. So today we're going to look at the
first parable. There are actually seven parables
in Matthew 13, each of them related to the kingdom
of God. Today is by far the most familiar. And
part of the problem when we have familiar texts
is we come to it and we have assumptions or preconceived
ideas. And we need to set those aside, ask God
to help us. So let's read the text. Let's ask
the Lord for his grace and mercy and then help
to explain it. On the same day, Jesus went out
of the house and he sat by the sea and great
multitudes were gathered together to him so that
he got into a boat and sat and the whole multitude
stood on the shore. Then he spoke many things
to them in parables saying, Behold, a sower went
out to sow and as he sowed, some seed fell by
the wayside and the birds came and devoured them.
Some fell in stony places where they did not
have much earth and they immediately sprang up
because they had no depth of earth. But when
the sun was up, they were scorched and because
they had no root, they withered away. And some
fell among thorns and thorns sprang up and choked
them. But others fell on good ground and yielded
a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some
thirty. And he who has ears to hear, let him
hear. Now that's all the crowds heard. That's
it. No explanation. Now if you would go down
to verse 18. This is to the disciples privately.
Therefore hear the parable of the sower. When
anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does
not understand it, then the wicked one comes
and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
This is he who received seed by the wayside.
But he who receives seed on so many places, this
is he who hears the word and immediately receives
it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but
endures only for a while. For when tribulation
or persecution arises because of the word, immediately
he stumbles. That is, he falls away. Now he who
receives seed among the thorns is he who hears
the word and the cares of this world. And the
deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it
becomes unfruitful. But he who receives seed
on the good ground is he who hears the word and
understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces
some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Let's pray. Father, this is your word. It is
given by inspiration. Father, Lord, we need your
spirit's help to bring illumination to our eyes
and hearts. Lord, if the veil is upon our understanding,
would you lift the veil this morning? Reveal
to us even the mystery of the kingdom of God.
Lord, we cannot do this on our own. These things
are spiritually discerned. But you tell us to
pray for the help of the Holy Spirit. And so
we do so in faith, believing that you will grant
that. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. I
was looking this morning and it was two years
ago, almost to the day that we began this Gospel
of Matthew study. And Matthew's Gospel was written
with a specific purpose in mind. Matthew is writing
primarily to a Jewish audience to show that Jesus
is the long -awaited King of Israel and the promised
Messiah. He is the fulfillment of all the Old
Testament prophecy. So he begins in chapter 1,
Matthew gives us... the genealogy of Jesus, showing
that he is both the son of Abraham and son of
David. As the son of Abraham, he is Abraham's
promised seed in whom all the world will be blessed.
As the son of David, he is David's promised heir
who will sit on the throne of his father David
forever. Now, Son of David, remember when the
blind men cried out when they saw Jesus? Son
of David, have mercy upon us. Son of David was
a messianic title. Matthew will now devote the
rest of this book proving that Jesus truly is
the Son of David. So in chapter 3, after 30 years
or so of relatively a hidden life in Nazareth,
Jesus is publicly baptized. And that's his formal
announcement to the nation that he is the Messiah.
And he began his ministry calling Israel to repent.
Why? The kingdom of heaven was at hand. And he
began to show, improve, or validate that kingdom
message. He's showing what life in his kingdom
looks like. So he began to cast out demons, and
he healed the sick, and gave sight to the blind,
restoring those who were sick and ill. And because
of these miracles, he garnered a lot of attention.
He began to attract large crowds. At one point,
the crowds got so big that Jesus had to have
a boat ready where he could escape. if the situation
were to become unmanageable. Our text today finds
Jesus in a boat, giving this most famous parable,
known as the parable of the seed and the sower.
Now this parable is given first, and it's first
for a reason. If we do not understand this one,
we will fail to understand the other six that
come later in the chapter. Now that's a bit bold
statement, but it's not my words. That's what
Jesus said in Mark 4. Do you not understand this
parable? How then will you understand all the
parables? So in some way, this parable today
that we just read, it's foundational. It explains
why some enter the kingdom and some are left
out. Now thankfully, this parable comes with
an answer key. We are not left to our own imagination
to guess about the meaning it's given to us.
So we start to read in verses 1 through 3, and
I'm not going to take the time to reread that
text, but I want to set the scene for you. At
the end of chapter 12, Jesus was in a house teaching.
The house was so full there's people inside and
outside when he decided to leave the house and
go over to the Sea of Galilee. But the people
who were there listening to him, Hanging on his
every word, they continued to follow him. So
he arrives at the shore. The crowd is so large
that he had to get into the boat. One, so that
everyone could see him. And two, because the
natural acoustics of the area would allow everyone
to hear him. And they began to teach. And Matthew
says he only taught to the crowds in parables.
That's it. That's all they got. And as we looked
last week, remember a parable is really, it's
a juxtaposition of an earthly story with a divine
truth. So it's an earthly story designed to teach
a heavenly lesson. And if you want to look at
these parables, you could think of them as expanded
similes. Because Jesus will often start this
way. The kingdom of heaven is like. And then
in verse 24, he says, the kingdom of heaven is
like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
in verse 31. It's like leaven, verse 33. The
kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in
a field. It is like a merchant seeking beautiful
pearls. The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet,
verse 47. So what Jesus is doing in each of these
parables, he's using familiar things from everyday
life to teach about his kingdom. And that's no
different in the parable before us today. First
century Israel, it's an agrarian society. So
the picture of a man sowing seed in a field would
have been familiar to everyone. It's familiar
to us today. Now look at verses 3 through 9.
Again, I'm not going to take the time. to reread
the passage. We just did it. But we know this
parable. It's often called the parable of the
sower or the parable of the seed and the sower.
But really, I think a more appropriate name is
the parable of the soils. Because in all four
cases, there are four cases, the seed is the
same, the sower is the same, but what is different
is the seed on which, or the soil on which the
seed falls. So each of the parables, you have
three elements. You have a sower. In this case,
it is the Lord Jesus, but it really could be
anyone who preaches the word. There's an immediate
application, and then there's an extended application.
Secondly, you have the seed. Well, that's the
gospel. It's the good news of the kingdom. And
third, you have the soil. And the soil represents
the condition of the heart of those who are hearing
the gospel message. Now the gospel, Jesus said,
is the seed. Now if you sow seed, you know this,
that not every seed that is sown is going to
germinate and produce a fruit. And as the gospel
goes out, not all people are going to believe
the good news. Now this is important because
at this time, those listening to Jesus, they
were all Jews. And the expectation of those listening
to him... Would be that they do enter the kingdom
of God. Because they're Jewish. They're the chosen
people. We're going to enter the kingdom. And
Jesus comes. And he clearly upends that expectation.
Now look down at verse 18. He says therefore
hear the parable of the sower. So the crowds
had dispersed. Jesus is alone with his disciples.
He may have been in the boat. And he gives them.
the inside scoop on what this parable really
meant. But why did he give it to them and not
to the crowds? Well, I'm not going to re -preach
last week's message, but look at verse 11, and
he clearly tells us. He says, it has been given,
dido me, it's a gift in Greek, it has been given
to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven. That's God's gracious gift to you. But
to them it has not been given. God did not grant
that to them. So there's two groups here in verse
11. We'll look at this quickly. There's to you
and there's to them. The disciples were the inside
group. They were granted the privilege of the
interpretation. But the religious leaders who
were gathered because they were always following
Jesus around to trap him and the crowds who were
gathered to listen to him, they were the outside
group. Now what made the difference between the
two groups? The condition of their hearts. The
Pharisees from the very beginning all along had
shut their eyes to the truth. Now let me just
say this. The Pharisees as a whole, there were
some Pharisees like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
who later became disciples. But the vast majority
of them from the beginning they'd shut their
eyes to the truth. Now here's the important point.
God then, in judgment, judiciously closed their
eyes so they could not see. You don't want to
see? You choose blindness? You're now blind.
These parables were given, they were spoken by
Jesus in a climate of unbelief. Despite the overwhelming
evidence, the Pharisees, most of the religious
leaders, They had already decided Jesus is not
the Messiah. They had already corroborated with
the Herodians, a political group, to conspire
to put Jesus to death. That's before this parable
was even spoken. But you're like, but pastor,
what about those large crowds who are hanging
on his every word? They're following him everywhere
he went. Didn't they believe? And we're going
to see today. Most of them were following him
out of self -interest. They were looking for
how they might profit from Jesus. They did not
have a living faith, as we shall see today. Now
the Pharisees, if you're talking about insiders
and outsiders, they naturally would have assumed,
of course, they're the insiders. They fastidiously
keep the law. And they would have considered
men like Matthew, remember, also known as Levi.
He's one of Jesus' twelve disciples. He had been
a hated... tax collector for Rome and they would
have naturally considered him to be an outsider.
He's a traitor. But once again we see Jesus reversing
the order. The kingdom. In God's kingdom the
first will be last. The last will be first. Over
in chapter 21 when Jesus is speaking to the chief
priests and to the elders he said this. Assuredly
I say to you that tax collectors men like Matthew,
and harlots, that is prostitutes, they will enter
the kingdom of God before you will. Now that's
a scandalous statement. Think of the scandal,
the outrage of that statement. Jesus is talking
to the Jewish elite, chief priests and elders
of the nation. And he's saying women that sell
their bodies and traders to Israel who work for
the Roman government, will enter the kingdom
of God before they will. So that means the kingdom
of God is somehow different from the Jewish expectation
of the day. And that's why so many of them failed
to understand Jesus and his mission. So Jesus
now in verse 11, he's talking to his disciples
and he said, listen, you're blessed. To you it
has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom.
That means their understanding itself is a gift.
It's not attained by human achievement, nor is
it by natural means. These guys did not come
up with it on their own. The great American theologian,
Jonathan Edwards, he said this, It is the secret
that the kingdom of God has come in the person
of Jesus. That's the mystery right there. That
is the secret because God has chosen to reveal
himself indirectly and in a veiled way. The incarnate
word is not obvious. Only faith could recognize
the Son of God in the lowly figure of Jesus of
Nazareth. The secret of the kingdom of God is
the secret of the person of Jesus. Amen. Now
the Lord is publicly speaking. He's given this
parable. He left intentionally the crowds in
the dark and privately grants the disciples the
meaning. So let's just understand something at
the beginning. There are four soils. Four soils
represent four hearts. You got a hard heart.
You have a shallow heart. There is a crowded
heart. And lastly, there are fertile hearts.
And we'll look at those quickly this morning.
Look, first of all, verse 19. There's hard hearts.
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and
does not understand it, then the wicked one,
that is Satan, comes and snatches away what was
sown his heart. And he said, and that's what
I mean by the one who receives seed by the wayside.
Now again, the imagery is familiar to everybody.
It's a common sight. There were large fields
that would have been used for crops at that time,
and in these fields there would have been well
-worn paths where the people would have walked.
And they walked on these same paths so they wouldn't
damage the entire field. Now, this path became
a walking path, so the ground underneath was
very compacted, very hard ground. So you have
a sower, and he would have been carrying a large
bag of seed, and he would stick his arm in, and
then he would pull it out and just fling it out
into the field. And as he did that, inevitably,
some of the seed would have fallen onto the hard
ground. And it wouldn't penetrate. That seed
would simply sit on the surface of the ground.
And birds would come and eat it. And Jesus said,
the seed, that's the gospel of the kingdom. The
hard heart is the person who hears the gospel,
but he has no insight. He does not understand
the meaning. The gospel does not penetrate his
heart. And the reason this was the case is because
in Jesus' day, many people had a preconceived
idea of what the kingdom of God would be like,
and they were unwilling to put aside their prejudice
to hear what Jesus had to say. It's like the
person who already has their mind made up, and
I will not be moved. That's what was going on.
So this hard heart has an immediate context.
This represented the religious leaders, and in
particular the Pharisees. He's speaking the parable
against them. Now, it has a far -reaching implication
today as well. But because of their bias, the
Pharisees were unable and unwilling to see the
word Jesus as the Christ. And he said, the birds
who ate the seed, well, that's a picture of Satan.
He comes and he removes the word. And as a result,
the hearer remains indifferent and calloused
to Christ. Think of the Pharisees. They heard
the word. They followed Jesus around. They knew
what he had to say. But their cold, dark hearts
would not receive it. But it's the same today.
Many people hear the gospel preached. But as
soon as the sermon ends, the devil plucks that
seed away from them and they go home on their
merry way as if they never heard anything. But
what makes the heart hard in the first place?
It's sin. Sin darkens the heart. Sin makes it
hard. Sin makes our hearts unresponsive. And
sin is really a failure. At its primary level,
sin is a failure to love God. It's a failure
to love God as we should love him. So sin, the
essence of it, loves things, whatever it is,
more than God. Well, what did the religious leaders
love? We don't have to guess. Here is their God
in Matthew 23. He's speaking of them, the Pharisees.
But all their works they do to be seen by men.
They make their phylacteries broad. Those are
what they would wear on the forehead. They enlarge
the borders of the garments. They make the hem
longer. They love the best places at feasts.
They love the best seats in the synagogues. They
love greetings in the marketplace. And they love
to be called by men, Rabbi. In other words, they...
loved the praise and esteem of men more than
the praise from God, and that idolatry had hardened
their hearts. But we have to beware, friends.
It's still the same today. It's no different.
Our idols will make our hearts hard toward God.
And if you're here today and you have never confessed
Christ and repented of your sin, and you continue
to hear the gospel without responding, you're
making your heart harder each and every time
you hear the gospel. And eventually the day comes
when you can't respond because God will leave
you in your hard -hearted condition. Today, this
age, is a day of salvation. Call upon him while
he may be found. So this is the hard heart. Particularly
the Pharisees. But it's no different today. But
then you have the shallow heart in verse 20 and
21. This is the seed that is received on the
stony places. They hear the word, immediately
receive it with joy. But there's no root. And
they fall away. So the seed is sown. It's sown
in soil, but the soil is not deep. Now there's
a shallow layer of soil. But underneath that,
it's just all rocky ground. So what happens?
The plant or the seed can't go down, so it sprouts
up quickly. But it also fades quickly in the
sun's scorching heat. Why does it fade? Because
there's no root sustaining it. And this represents
the person, and this is where I think we live
a lot today. This is the person who makes a shallow
decision. They appear to be delighted. They receive
the joy to be one of Jesus' disciples. They commit
themselves to Jesus, but Jesus did not commit
himself to them because it's a shallow profession.
And this soil represented the vast majority of
those in the crowd who heard Jesus speaking.
Of course they wanted to be around Jesus, and
they did call him rabbi. But they were following
him for what they could get from him. It was
a superficial attachment. And as soon as following
Jesus proved costly, They quit following him.
When affliction or persecution or difficulty
arose on account of the gospel, it says they
stumbled, which is the Greek word skandalizo.
They fell away. We get our English word scandal
from here. Skandalizo, it means to fall. It's
to apostatize. It's to fall into apostasy. That
means you abandon Jesus. And there is a prime
example of this. The one who betrayed our Lord,
Judas Iscariot. He loved being a disciple of
Jesus when the situation was favorable. If you
would have asked him, he said, of course I believe.
He would have claimed to be a disciple. He was
in the inner 12. He loved being with Jesus as
long as the crowds were cheering him on, as long
as the miracles were being done and there was
money in the treasury bag. But when our Lord
began to talk about the cross, and his suffering
in Jerusalem and his impending death for sinners,
Judas was offended. Scandalizo. And he agreed
at that point to betray Jesus. He went over to
him. As soon as he understood, when he realized
Jesus is not going to get rid of Rome, he's not
going to set up his earthly kingdom as I thought
he was going to, Judas then betrayed Jesus for
30 pieces of silver. even at the very end, Judas
was thinking, how can I profit from this man?
He decided to sell him for 30 pieces. I might
as well get what I can, right? That's no different
today. Many still follow him for the wrong reasons.
Jesus is often presented as a good luck charm
who's going to make your life easier, your marriage
better, your children successful, and your bank
account healthy. And not one of those things
is promised. And when trials come, These superficial
disciples, they don't stick around. Unlike true
disciples, they're not willing to suffer, and
they're not willing to embrace the shame and
offense of the cross. True disciples persevere,
even when it gets hard, even when they're being
persecuted. Why? How do you do that? Because
true disciples know something in their heart.
They know this life is not all there is. They
know that there's an everlasting inheritance
reserved in heaven, unfading in heaven for them.
Now, I think, I love this example in the book
of Hebrews. It's one of the things I think of
often. In Hebrews chapter 10, the writer is talking
to a group of suffering believers. He says, recall
the former days in which after you were illuminated,
you endured a great struggle with sufferings.
partly while you were made a spectacle, both
by reproaches, they're being reproached, and
tribulations, and partly while you became companions
of those who were so treated. Not only were you
treated bad, everyone you knew was being treated
bad, and you were their companion. But look at
verse 34. For you had compassion on me and my
chains, whoever the author is, whether it's Paul
or someone else, they're in prison. And this
next word, and joyfully. I get accepting, but
I don't understand joyfully. You joyfully accepted
the plundering of your goods. How do you do that?
Knowing that you have a better and an enduring
possession for yourselves in heaven. True disciples
will persevere because the Holy Spirit of God
lives inside them and is preserving them, keeping
them from abandoning Christ. I think of what
Peter said in John 6. In John 6, Jesus had multiplied
the fish and the loaves. But then he started
talking about that long extended discourse about
giving his flesh as meat and his blood as drink.
And people got really upset and they didn't understand
him. And they were offended by his words. And
Jesus said, unless you eat my flesh and drink
my blood, you have no life within you. You have
no part within me. And so as a result, then he
also said, you can't come to me unless my Father
gives it to you. John 6, 37 and verse 44. And
as a result, in verse 66, many turned away. Look
at this. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. They're
not disciples. They were, but they're no longer.
Then Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also want
to go away? Here's your trance. But Simon Peter
answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life. Also, we have
come to believe and know that you are the Christ.
Christ, the son of the living God. Peter knew
something. Oh, life's going to get really bad
for Peter, by the way, and for all of them. Regardless
of how difficult it became, Jesus was the Christ,
and salvation was found only in him. Where else
are they going to go? But today, many have been
duped into thinking they're disciples of Jesus
when they're not, partly because of evangelistic
styles and partly because of slick salesmanship.
Preachers assure people that they are disciples
and Christians. They give them salvation without
repentance, and they offer them a Savior who
is not their Lord. None of those is the true
biblical Jesus. So these folks here, they're
willing to follow Jesus for a time. But as soon
as their lives are not being enriched, they move
on to the next thing. They don't love Jesus.
They love what Jesus can do for them. And there's
a big difference. For them, Jesus is a means
to an end. But for the true Christian, Jesus
is the end. He's the goal. Let me just say this,
friends. When we think of heaven, heaven is not
heaven because you're going to see your loved
ones, because you're going to walk on streets
of gold, and you're never going to have another
headache. Heaven is heaven because the Lord Jesus
Christ is there. That's what makes heaven. Jesus
is what makes it worthwhile. Christians want
to go to heaven because we want to be with Jesus.
The Jesus who promises a charmed life without
trials does not exist. That Jesus is a figment
of the prosperous West's imagination. He's not
the biblical Jesus. There's a hard heart, there's
shallow hearts, but there's also crowded hearts.
And all of these are still true today. Look at
verse 22. The one who received the seed among
thorns, he hears the word that cares of this
world and the deceitfulness of riches. Choke
the word and he becomes unfruitful. The seed
is sown again, the gospel, but it's overcrowded.
It's strangled out. There's not enough room.
There's some thorns that are growing beside it.
So the crowded heart, it hears the gospel, but
other things become the priority. Jesus said
the cares of this world. Now literally, friends,
that literally means the distractions of this
age. I think that's a great descriptor. We live
in a distracted age. Many things vying for our
time and for our attention and affection. So
temporal concerns, and they are concerns. We
need to be concerned. But temporal concerns can
blind us to the gospel. And these people, I want
to remind you, friends, they're not hostile.
They're not enemies of the gospel. They even
may make a profession of faith, but their heart,
their loyalty, and their allegiance lie elsewhere.
Warren Wiersbe said it this way. This here has
too many different kinds of seeds growing in
the soil. Worldly cares, a desire for riches,
a lust for things, and the good seed of the word
has no room in which to grow. He said, let's
change the image. This person wants to walk the
broad way and the narrow way at the same time.
It can't be done. The problem here is that the
word of God is choked out, and there's no real
fruit because there was never truly life with
Christ. They seek to find life in what is not
life. They want to be a friend of the world and
a friend of God at the same time, and you can't
do it. In 1 John, we're told this, do not love
the world or the things in the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. For all that is in the world, the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride
of life, It's not of God, it's not of the Father,
but of the world. And get this, friends, the
world's passing away. This age is passing away,
and the lust of it, but he who does the will
of God abides forever. You believe that? Instead
of using material possessions to serve Christ,
they serve material possessions. There's no time
for Christ, because they're busily pursuing other
interests. and his kingdom are relegated to a
lesser position. But what you serve is your master.
That's the truth. To serve anything or anyone
other than Christ is idolatry. He's Lord of all,
or he's not Lord at all. So the distractions
of this age choke the word, but so do the deceitfulness
of riches. Ah, young people, hear this. It's
not wrong to be wealthy, but Jesus said, take
warning of it. In Luke 18, a certain ruler asked
him, saying, good teacher, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life? Jesus, first of all, said,
okay, well, why do you call me good? No one's
good but one. That is God. Are you prepared to
call me God? He said, you know the commandments.
He's basically shown him he's broken the law.
The guy doesn't get it yet. Don't commit adultery.
Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't honor
your father or mother. And he said, oh, yeah,
okay, good. I'm in. All these things I kept from
my youth. And when Jesus heard these things,
he said to him, there's one thing. Go sell all
you have. Give it to the poor. Then you'll have
treasure in heaven. And come back and follow
me. But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful.
Why? For he was very rich. And when Jesus saw
that he became very sorrowful, he said, how hard
it is. For those who have riches to enter into
the kingdom of God. What a sober warning. What
a sober warning for the day in which we live.
We live in a land of plenty. All of us do here
this morning. We're a blessed church. You're
a blessed people. We have cars. We have boats.
We have houses. Many people have full bank accounts.
God's given us some measure of leisure. But how
often? Does God bless a man or a woman's material
possessions and soon those things begin to take
over and dull their heart to the things of God?
I've seen that. You see that God starts to bless
someone and before long that person who has a
little bit of time, a little bit of money, they're
no longer congregating, they're no longer coming
to church, they're golfing on Sundays. I work
hard. I can worship God on the ninth hole. Or
they're out boating when the weather's nice.
or they're on a sports field every single weekend
keeping them from the church. So I take seriously,
and I take literally the words of our Lord. It's
not my words, friends. Seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. Be careful. That's
what Jesus said. Be warned. There's a danger
of having things. Is it okay to have things?
Absolutely, as long as they don't have you. And
parents, I beg of you, if your child is going
to stand and enter the kingdom of God, Disciple
them. Warn them of the danger of the crowded
heart that loves things more than loves God.
Oh, Christian parents in America, as long as
our kids are getting good jobs and having nice
lives, listen, that can all go to hell. No. Pursue
life, and this life is foolish. It's a fool's
errand. It's looking for water in a broken cistern,
and that's what Israel did, and that's why we're
always told, look back and look at what Israel
did. Don't do it. Jeremiah 2. My people have
committed two evils. What are they? They have
forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. What
a foolish, stupid thing to do. And they've hewn
themselves broken cisterns that can't hold water.
They want water. There's a fountain flowing with
water and they go over here to a broken cistern.
Dumb, isn't it? It is. As we close, Jesus is
the fountain of living waters. We have to seek
him. Jim Boyce said, riches don't choke a person
all at once. No, of course they don't. It's a
gradual process. Like the weeds in Christ's parable,
riches grow up gradually. Slowly, slowly, they
strangle the budding of spiritual life within.
Beware of that if you either have great positions
or you're on your way to acquire them. Listen,
God may give you what you want. Remember when
children of Israel wanted meat and God said,
you want meat? I'll give you meat. And it rotted
them. And then lastly, there's a fertile heart.
Verse 23. He receives seed on the good ground.
He hears the word. He understands it. And he
bears fruit. This is the gospel that produces
fruit. They hear the gospel and they understand
it. It resonates with them. There's something
compelling about the gospel. Why? Because God
in his grace. has opened your heart and your
mind to receive the truth. Just as fertile soil
receives the seed and produces fruit, those who
truly believe and receive the gospel produce
fruit for the glory of God. Some 30, some 60,
some 100. That's an impressive harvest, by the
way. That's life in the kingdom of God. Notice,
not all believers are equally fruitful, but all
produce fruit. That's the evidence of sonship.
It's the evidence of discipleship. Those with
fertile hearts, they hear the gospel and they
understand the gospel. And they begin to realize
we were the objects of God's wrath. But we also
understand in love that God sent his son who
took our punishment in his own body on that cruel
cross. Removing the wrath that was once against
us from us. God has given to us a spirit. Now
we're motivated and empowered by the spirit of
God and we seek to love and be obedient to him.
Imperfectly, yes. But honestly, yes. See, the
fruit of the good soil is simply our faith that
is living and working itself out in love. Chris
Miller. He said, how could the gospel, how could
the kingdom come and be rejected? You ever think
about that? Was there some weakness in the kingdom
that caused it to fail? The answer lies not in
any deficiency in the kingdom, but in the people's
lack of response. The ineffectiveness is with
the soil, not the seed. The seed was the same.
The opportunity was the same. But the offer itself
must be voluntarily received. God will not force
his kingdom upon those who don't want it. Nor
do they want his Messiah. It's true. Now what?
As we close. The million dollar question is what
type of soil are you? Some hear, but they don't
really ever understand. Some receive the word
with joy, but when life gets hard, it's not what
I've signed up for. Some are choked by cares,
riches, and distractions of this world. But there
are some who hear the word, understand the word,
Hold fast to the gospel. In their lives, the
gospel takes root downward and produces fruit
upward. I would say to each of us here, an appropriate
prayer would say, Lord Jesus, change my heart.
Do whatever you have to do so that your word
will take root in my life and bear fruit for
your glory. He who has ears to hear, let him
hear. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your
God -given word. What a rich, beautiful, glorious
thing the word of God is. It's sustaining, Lord.
It's nutritive, Lord. It gives us what we need.
Lord, it feeds us with Christ. Lord, I don't
know. The condition of the hearts of the people
who have heard my voice today. Lord, I know that
my voice has absolutely zero power to affect
change in the heart of anyone. Lord, it can't
be done. Lord, I could be preaching to cold,
dark hearts that hear the word and it just bounces
off of them and Satan steals it away. Some, Lord,
who may hear the word receive it, but it doesn't
produce a fruit because there's, Lord God, it's
just shallow. Others, it's being choked out.
Lord, there's other things that are priority.
We live in a very dangerous time because, Lord,
the deceitfulness of riches and the distractions
of this age easily come in and choke the word.
But, Father, Lord, I also know your spirit is
sovereign. And, Lord God, you will do a good
work in the lives of your people. And you will
produce a fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100.
Father, help us to have ears to hear. Open our
minds, open our eyes, open our ears, all for
the glory of God, we pray in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen.