SOWING THE SEED OF THE WORD OF GOD IN GOOD GROUND
Today lord willing I’ll try & talk a little about the parable we find in matt. 13: to do with sowing seed, the word of God.
Matthew 13:1- 9 Listen as I read the 1st 9 verses;
1 The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the seaside. 2And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith[soon] they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
8But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9Who hath ears to hear, let him hear
Lets try to visualize what took place there at that time; Jesus was teaching on a hill beside the Sea of Galilee, and the multitude become so great that He went on board a boat and sat down to address the entire crowd that would then be in front of Him. And then He sees a farmer yonder at a distance and the farmer is working in his field scattering seed on the ground, were sure of that because Jesus says in verse 3; “Behold,”**[look] As He is looking at the farmer in the distance.
Well The farmer is sowing seed in his field. As they watched the farmer at work, Jesus used the scene to teach a lesson about life. As Jesus taught, the farmer acted out his message.
The sower had a bag of seed and, after reaching in and getting a handful, he broadcast,[as the old farmers in our day might call it] he broadcast the seed onto the ground. As he did so, some of the seed would naturally fall on ground that was not suitable, along with other seed that fell on good soil.
Fields in biblical times were not like our fields today which have been prepared by modern machinery with the crops planted in neat rows. In those days, the farmer would broadcast the seed all over the ground and then plow it under.
The fields were in long strips with paths between them so that people could pass through.
That was important in a culture where everyone walked. Sometimes the Romans built their roads next to a farmer’s field. Sometimes the land next to the field was allowed to grow wild and it was full of thorns and weeds.
Because of the way they would scatter the seed back then it was impossible not to have some of the seed fall, or be blown by the wind, onto these unfit areas.
Let me remind us that a parable is an earthly story to illustrate a heavenly truth.
We need to understand some of the symbolism of what Jesus is saying.
First of all, there is the farmer or sower.
Jesus explains: in (Matthew 13:37). 37He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; Jesus is the one, who sows the seed, [the word of God]
38 The field is the world; the seed is the Word of God, and the various soils represent the different responses that people have to the Word, which Jesus sows.
Lets notice that there are three things to look at in this wonderful parable of Jesus.
The first is this: The seed falls onto every type of soil, which is typical of every kind of hearer, lets notice that it is sown on the soil, which is nothing but packed dry earth, the wayside
It is sown on soil, which is full of rocks, and soil, which is full of thorns, as well as on good soil.
4 different types of soil, pointing to 4 different types of people who hear the word. But rememember, the seed fell on all the soil. Good and bad.
Acts 10:34 Peter says God is no respecter of persons: Even when God knows that the Word will not take root in a person’s life he still gives an opportunity to hear and respond.
2 Peter 3:9 9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance
Every person alive is given an opportunity to respond to God in all dispensations of time.
We, who have the privilege of living in this country at this time of the world’s history, certainly have a greater opportunity, and therefore a greater responsibility,
We today are living in the dispensation of grace, during other dispensations God dealt with men in different ways. There are 7 dispensations alto.
Innocence, conscience, humangoverment, promise, law, grace & kingdom.
All 7 dispensations are at different periods of time that man is on earth.
Rom.1: 19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
The apostle Peter had a revelation from God about this very issue. When God showed him that he cares about everyone, no matter what his or her race, nationality, economic or spiritual condition,
Peter said in Acts 10:34-35 34Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
Jesus said in Mark 16:15 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature
I personal don’t see how any one living in the U.S.A. can go their lifetime without being exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ at some point in their life.
And let me say,that the goodness of God is not determined by our response — it is founded upon his character. The seed will be sown on every type of human soil whether the seed will grow or not.
Keep in mind the four different soils here in this parable in Matt. 13:represent the responses of different types of people.
The first type of soil is the path. –wayside--
· Vs.3 -Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, this could be a nearby road or a footpath through the field. In either case, the seed finds it impossible to take root. It cannot penetrate the ground, which is hard and dry. It is totally unreceptive to the seed. –Word of God-
This type of soil represents the scoffers rebellious to the things of God. They have no use for the Christian life, even though they may be familiar with it. They see it as a waste of their time, they are simple not interested.
They are unwilling to give the control of their lives to anything, even if it is God. You cannot tell them anything. There is no place for God in their lives. They are proud and arrogant.
Romans 3:18 8There is no fear of God before their eyes. They are stubborn, selfish and willful. When someone has that attitude, The Word never sinks in, and after awhile Satan snatches it away. Even that they’ve heard.
Matt.13: 19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side
The problem is not a lack of understanding, but an unwillingness to receive. It is not that they have never heard with their ears, it is that they have never heard with their hearts.
Jesus said Mark 4:12 12That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. The fault is not with the Word, but their response to the Word. The seed is good, but the ground is hard.
· The second type of soil is the stony places soil, shallow, rocky soil. The people could see this kind of soil all around them as Jesus spoke. It was hard to find soil that was not rocky, and the surface rocks had to be cleared every year. The rock pushed up through the soil everywhere you looked, but in some places there was solid shelf rock covered by a thin layer of soil.
In this type of soil the seed would sprout up immediately, but it could not develop an adequate root system so that it died as quickly as it sprang up.
Jesus was talking about those people who immediately receive the Word of God with enthusiasm, but who do not last. They have genuine joy in the beginning. They are excited about what it means to know God and experience a new life.
But something happens. Persecution and trouble come — as they always do. An illness, problem or crisis comes, and they cannot understand why God would allow something like this to happen. They become cynical and offended at God and fall away.
Or perhaps someone makes fun of their faith. A family member does not understand and is critical. Their employer requires them to do something which goes against their new-found faith.
They know that to follow their faith will cause tension in their relationships with people, so they decide to please people rather than to please God.
When trouble or persecution comes they run the other way. They fold. Their faith is shallow. It is all enthusiasm and no discipline. It is all passing interest with no commitment.
There are people who seemingly just go from one interest to another without ever landing solidly anywhere.
· The third type of soil where the seed fell was full of thorns and weeds, among thorns;
Which Jesus described as, “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things.”
These are what grow up and choke the Word and make it unfruitful. Notice that this is good soil. Things grow easily here. The plants are prospering. Even the Word begins to grow here.
But the soil is crowded with other things. Other things have been allowed to grow that should never have been there.
Perhaps Jesus was painting a picture of a lazy farmer that did not want to properly prepare the soil.
He was slothful. He should have pulled the thorns out by the roots. He should have plowed and prepared the ground, but none of this took place. And because there was no effort to remove the weeds, the Word had no chance to grow.
The lazy farmer did not see the importance of removing the weeds. He was passive and overly tolerant of what was potentially harmful.
And the result was a harvest of thorns and thistles. This kind of person is overly tolerant of the weeds in his or her life, which makes it impossible for the Word to grow.
There may be people listening who have allowed some things in your life that you know should not be there, but you seem to be drawn to the forbidden.
You are curious. You want to experience new things. You tell yourself that you are a free spirit and you are not like other Christians.
Dangerous weeds are growing within and are choking out the Word. You are headed toward spiritual self-destruction. You need to weed these things out of your life, and begin to sow things like godly sorrow, humility, repentance, renewed commitment, obedience and a single-hearted love for God. Don’t allow the weeds to choke out your relationship with God and ruin your life.
· But there was also good soil.
These are the people who want the Word to grow in their lives. Jesus said that the difference between the good soil and the others was that they “hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop — thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”
They want their lives to be fruitful for God. Their hearts are not hard — they receive the Word into their lives.
They work the soil of their hearts, plow it, weed it, fertilize it and are therefore productive.
Some produce a harvest which is 30 times what was sown, others 60 times, and still others 100 times the amount of seed they received.
The soil of their lives produces an abundant harvest. It is not that these people are more talented, it is simply the result of the effort and time invested by those who received the Word.
These are people who desire the Word of God and are eager to grow in him. The soil of their lives is receptive to the Word. They hear it with their hearts, accept it into their lives and they are spiritually productive. They are not sidetracked. They understand that there is effort and commitment involved in the Christian life, and they are willing to pay the price of whatever it takes to grow spiritually. They want to know God. Their lives are good, rich, deep soil.
And one of the important things we must understand about what this parable is saying is: God expects growth. It is the natural result of good soil and careful preparation.
