All right, let's look at Matthew
chapter 13. The first nine verses, he speaks
a parable. This first parable that he speaks
to his disciples, the parable of the sower and the soils. Each ground, you have four different
types of hearers here. And he said here in verse one,
it says in verse one, the same day went Jesus out of the house
and set by the seaside, and great multitudes were gathered together
unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and the whole
multitude stood on the shore. And he spoke many things unto
them in parables, saying, behold, a sower went forth to sow. And as I mentioned, this and
the following parables are kingdom parables, which the Lord used,
and remember a parable, the word parable means to stand alongside
of. It's a earthly story, a story
using earthly elements to illustrate spiritual truth. And these kingdom
parables are used by the Lord to define and describe the nature
of his kingdom. the kingdom of God, or the kingdom
of heaven, the kingdom of salvation, the kingdom of grace, made up
of the king of kings, who's Christ, and his subjects, the church,
sinners saved by grace. And these kingdom parables describe
the nature of his kingdom. during the New Covenant age,
which we're living in today, which as you all know, goes from
the first coming of Christ to his second coming. So the things
that'll transpire will be described in these kingdom parables, leading
all the way up to his second coming and the final judgment.
And this parable here deals with the preaching of the gospel throughout
the world. How the gospel, you know, Christ
said in Matthew 24, He said, before he comes again, the gospel
must be preached in all the world. And the great commission, he
said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And you tell
him, you know, he that believeth shall be saved. And that's the
specific word of the gospel. And this first parable shows
the gospel going out, and it shows the different types of
people and how they will receive the gospel. And in this parable,
three of the types of heirs, they won't receive it at all,
savingly. But there's only one called the
good ground here. It begins with a sower. You know
what a sower, it's a farmer planting seed who symbolizes preachers
of the gospel going forth to plant seed, which is the gospel.
The seed is the gospel, the message itself. So look at verse four. It says, when he sowed, some
seeds fell by the wayside. And the fowls came and devoured
them up. They ate the seed. Verse five,
some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth and forthwith
they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth, no depth.
And when the sun was up, they were scorched because they had
no root, they withered away. Verse seven, some fell among
thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them. But other
fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold,
some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. And then he ends that parable
with he who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And that's a statement
the Lord used in a lot of passages. In the Revelation, who hath ears
to hear. Those ears to hear refers to
a person who's been born again by the Spirit, who has spiritual
ears to hear and heed and believe and follow the truth. And all
he's simply saying, if you've got an ear to hear this, then
hear it and rest upon. Now, last week I dealt with these
verses here where it talks about why he spoke in parables. So
we're gonna jump down to verse 18. This is where he began to
explain, and I wanna make sure we understand. Now whenever he
spoke a parable, he did give the meaning of it. Now, a lot
of people will go through these parables and they'll say, well,
he didn't show the meaning of this or that. Yes, he did. And
I'll show you that mainly next week, Lord willing. But here
he says in verse 18, hear ye therefore the parable of the
sower. And listen to what he says. Verse
19, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom. Now that's key
to this parable. What's he talking about? The
word of the kingdom. That's not just any truth, but that's a
specific truth of the gospel that shows sinners how God saves
them, by his grace, his free and sovereign grace, through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
none other than God manifest in the flesh. This is the message
of the kingdom that defines and identifies and distinguishes
Who Christ is, exactly. If you don't know who Christ
is according to the word of God, you don't know the kingdom of
God. You don't know the word of the
kingdom. You don't know the gospel. And who is Jesus Christ? Well,
he's God manifest in the flesh. He's our message. He's not just
a good man. He's not just a good prophet.
He was a good man and a good prophet, but not just a good
man, not just a good prophet. He was not even just a miracle
worker. He's God, come down from heaven,
uniting himself with sinless humanity created for him in the
womb of the virgin. by the Holy Spirit. His name
shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their
sins. His name, you know, the Bible
says, whosoever shall call upon the name of God, or name of the
Lord, shall be saved. Well, his name means something.
His name is a specific message. It's not just a label. It's not
just saying, praise the Lord, or Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. It means
that everyone that he came to save is going to be saved. That's
what his name means. He shall save his people from
their sins. And to show that he's able to
do that, because only God can do that, his name shall be called
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. But now this
message of the kingdom that he speaks of, this word of the kingdom,
is also the finished work of Christ. A kingdom has a king. And the king has the right to
rule and reign over his subjects. And this kingdom has to be established
in power and upon a proper ground. And it took the power of God
in sending his son into the world to walk this earth, to keep the
law perfectly and obey unto death to establish this kingdom of
grace. Every bit of the success and
establishment of this kingdom was conditioned on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not conditioned on you or
me. Because if it were conditioned on you and me, it would fail.
That's what we need people to understand, that a gospel that
teaches a salvation conditioned on sinners is a false gospel. It's a failure. And this kingdom
is the kingdom of righteousness. Whoever this king is, and however
he establishes this kingdom, it has to be based upon the rule
and the fulfillment of righteousness. And you and I cannot do that
because we're sinners. The Bible says that for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous,
no not one. There's none good, no not one.
That's why when we come down here to this good ground here,
who is that? When the Bible says there's none
good, no not one. Well, we'll talk about that in
just a moment. But only the King of kings, only the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord our righteousness, by his obedience unto death as
our surety. What does that mean? That means
he took our debt. Our sin debt was charged to his
account, laid upon him. He bore our iniquities, Isaiah
53 says. These things, we need to understand
them because they're simple truths, but they're truths that the natural
man will not receive except the Spirit of God give him life.
So all of this, he established righteousness as our surety,
as our substitute, He came to this earth, he was made of a
woman, made under the law in our place. He took my place and
he paid the debt by redemption. He didn't make my salvation a
possibility if I would cooperate. That's the false gospel that
is popular today. They say that Christ only made
your salvation possible if you would do your part. And whatever
part that is depends upon what denomination you're in. But that's
not the case. That's not the word of the kingdom.
The word of the kingdom is it is finished. The word of the
kingdom is all that the father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. The word
of the kingdom is sins forgiven by the blood of Christ, righteousness
established so that we're justified based upon his righteousness
charged to our account, imputed to us. That's the word of the
kingdom. Yes, it's the death, the burial,
and the resurrection of Christ. But that resurrection is because
of our justification, because he finished the work, put away
our sins, and established the only righteousness whereby God
can be both a just God and a Savior. And until sinners hear these
things by the power of the Spirit, my friend, they're not hearing
the word of the kingdom. So understand this, this seed
sown throughout the world is not just religious people going
out and saying God loves you and Christ died for you. That's
not the word of the kingdom. Now God does love his people.
And Christ did die for his people. But the word of the kingdom is
not just going out and looking at a crowd and saying now God
loves you and Christ died for you, now the rest is up to you.
That's not the word of the kingdom. That's not the seed sown. So
understand that now. This seed is specific. It's the
word of the kingdom. So go back to verse 19. When
anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and they gotta hear
it. They gotta hear it. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. But if anyone heareth the word
of the kingdom and understandeth it not, they don't understand
it. It's not that they don't understand
the words themselves, but what it's saying is they don't understand
it savingly. They don't really believe it.
I remember when I first began to hear the true gospel, I understood
what the man was saying, but I didn't like it. That's what
I'm telling you. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. And when he says to understand
the word of the kingdom is to believe it by the power of the
spirit, God-given faith. And if you understand it in God-given
faith, you will also experience God-given repentance. There was a man who sent me a
text talking about repentance, and he said that he had faith
in Christ long before he repented. That's what he told me. And he
began to explain what he meant. He said when he believed in Christ,
he still smoked, he still drank, and he still did all these things.
And it wasn't until later that he quit all that. And I wrote
him back, I said, you have repentance mixed up with reformation. You
see, repentance is not quitting smoking and drinking and all
that stuff. Does that mean you shouldn't do it? Listen, you
ought to quit all that stuff, okay? And there's no question
about that. But repentance is a change of
mind and heart that comes with faith in Christ. You can't turn
to Christ for all of salvation and still rely on yourself. See
what I'm saying? You can't believe in Christ to
be your all in salvation and still think, well, it's part
me. You can't turn to the true and living God without turning
away from the idol that you worshiped before. And that's what repentance
is. So when he says, when anyone
heareth the word and understandeth it not, it means they don't really
believe it. They don't come to repentance.
And it says, then cometh, verse 19, then cometh the wicked one
and catcheth away that which is sown in his heart and that
means his mind, and this is he which receives seed by the wayside. Now that's the wayside hearer,
you've heard of this, the wayside hearer. The wayside hearer is
somebody who really, just simply, has no interest in the gospel. This word of the kingdom, this
precious word, The gospel of Christ, the gospel of God. Do
you know it's the most precious thing that we have? But the wayside
here just has no way, hears it and walks away unaffected. He
heard it with the physical ear. And that's what it means in his
mind. When it says sown in his heart, it didn't take hold of
his heart because he doesn't have the new heart. His heart
is deceitful and deceptive. That's the natural heart, you
see. How do you know? Because he didn't receive it.
He didn't understand it savingly. That's the natural man. That's
not a born-again person. Because a born-again person has
a new heart to receive and believe and love the truth. You understand
that? And so this wayside here, he
just walks away unaffected. And that's it, you know, he has
no interest at all in it, and Satan, who is the wicked one,
comes quickly to cause him to forget what he heard. Has no
effect upon him. So when we go out and preach
the gospel during this new covenant age, you're gonna find people
that just have no interest in what you have to say. We've talked
about that, Robert and Randy and Jim and I at lunch, talking
about, you know, one thing I do pray for people, if I get an
opportunity to talk to them, is that God will just give them
an interest in this. Are you interested in salvation? Are you interested in eternal
life? Are you interested in avoiding
the punishment of the wicked? And most people, they're not
interested in hearing what we have to say, or they think they've
already got it settled in their minds. And that's the wayside
here. Well, look at verses 20 and 21.
It says, but he that received the seed into stony places, the
same as he that heareth the word and anon, the word anon means
immediately, means now. Anon with joy receive it. Think about it, he immediately
hears it and he with joy says he believes it. Rejoices it,
oh this is the best thing I've ever heard. Now I've seen this
happen now. I've been in this thing for a
few years and I've seen this happen. Look at verse 21. Yet
hath he not root in himself. There's no new heart there. There's
no depth. And he says, but he dureth for
a while, he's here for a while, for when tribulation, trouble,
or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is
offended. That means he's tripped up. He's trapped by his own self-love
and self-righteousness. And he leaves it. That's the
stony ground here. He's glad at first to hear it,
and even makes a quick profession of faith. But the word preached
to him was not implanted deeply in the heart. He doesn't have
the new heart again. Brother Mahan used to call guys
like this shooting stars. They flame up, they shine bright,
and then they burn out. And why do they burn out? Because
of persecution over the word. You know, Christ spoke of counting
the cost. When you hear the gospel, and
you're commanded to believe it, but he also said count the cost.
And he tells us that we cannot bring our old religion, our old
experiences, our old dreams and visions, or our old fellowships
into the kingdom with us. We've got to repent of them,
leave them behind. in as far as our relationship
with God and our fellowship in the faith. And that brings persecution
over the word. And we see that in many instances. And there is persecution, it
will come in some form or another, some severe, some not so severe,
but still, the stony ground here turns away from it. And then
look at verse 22. He says, he also that receives
seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care
of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and
he becometh unfruitful. This is the thorny ground here.
He hears it, he's somewhat interested, but he never commits himself
to Christ. He never comes to that, I've got it listed in your
lesson, Matthew 6, 33, seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness. and all these, the cares of the
world. He's too busy making money or
dealing with other issues of the world to give any time to
the gospel. Again, there's no new heart here.
That's the soil, there's no new ground. See, in the wayside and
the stony ground and the thorny ground here, the soil is the
issue here. You've got the wayside where
it doesn't take root. You've got the stony ground,
the thorny ground, weeds, thorns, choke the word out. And there's
no new heart. You know, when God says he gives
a sinner a new heart, that sinner's gonna receive the gospel and
follow him in obedience, in faith. And so the thorny ground here,
he's got other things to do. He's got more, he's got too much
business to involve himself in and he doesn't have time to give
to the kingdom of God, to the word of faith, to salvation.
You know, the book of Ecclesiastes is a really good lesson all the
way through that book. You know, the Bible tells us
all over, but especially Ecclesiastes, there's nothing wrong with a
man or a woman working a job and trying to do the best they
can and trying to make money. Nothing wrong with that. If,
if you don't do it to the neglect of your soul. Remember the guy
who had the barns and he filled them up and he said, what's he
gonna do? I'll build new barns and get more stuff. And That
night he died and said, thou fool, tonight your soul shall
be required. What will a man give in exchange
for his soul? In the book of Ecclesiastes,
one of the things that it says that there's nothing wrong with
a man or a woman enjoying the fruits of their labor here on
earth, but make sure you understand that in your life, the main thing
is that God is to be glorified. God is to be thanked. If you're
in a business or you're in a job and you're successful, who's
the ultimate cause of all that? God is. So here in this thorny
ground here, this is the person who just got too much, he's too
busy, too much to do, too much money to make, too many irons
in the fire, but nothing for the kingdom of God. And then
look at verse 23. But he that receives seed in the good ground
is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also
beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some 60,
some 30. Now who is this good ground hearer?
Well that's, what has the Bible told us all along? What is man
by nature? The natural heart, that's not
good ground. Jeremiah, I think, what is it, Jeremiah 17, the
heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, who can know it? And
how many times have I quoted, the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit? What does God have to do to bring
a sinner to receive the gospel? He has to do a miracle of grace
by the Spirit from Christ to give life to the dead, to give
us a new heart, new life, all of it new, new creations. And this good ground, do you
suppose that he's teaching here that there are bad people and
there are good people and the bad people don't receive the
word but the good people do? No. This good ground hearer is
a sinner saved by grace, born again by the Spirit who's been
given a new heart. And he hears the word but he
hears it with the, ear of faith, God-given faith. He sees it,
he understands it to the point that he knows that it's everything,
it's life. That's what it is. That he must
have Christ. He must have righteousness that
can only be found in Christ. And he bears fruit, brings forth
fruit. That's the fruit of the Spirit.
fruit unto God, some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30. While all believers
do not bear equal amounts of fruit, every one of them does
bear the same fruit of the Spirit. Some grow faster, some grow slower,
but they all grow. But that's the responses, that's
the parable of the soils. When we go out and preach the
gospel, A lot of people are going to ultimately reject it, but
God has a people and they're going to receive it. And that's
the good ground here. They're not good in themselves.
They're not naturally good because none of us are, but they're made
good by the Holy Spirit in the sense of giving a new heart,
the good ground, the good soil, that is prepared by God to receive
the seeds, receive the word of the kingdom, and believe it and
bear fruit. That's a miracle of God's grace.
Okay, we'll stop there.