Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Now today I'm going to be preaching
from the book of Matthew chapter 13. And I'm going to be preaching
on the parable of the soils. Now most people have heard that
titled or that parable that I'm going to deal with as the parable
of the sower and the seed. And that's okay too. You can
title it either way. But the emphasis of this parable
is the fact that there are four types of soils four types which represent four
types of hearers when the gospel is preached now in Matthew chapter
13 and verse 1 it says the same day went Jesus out of the house
and sat by the seaside and great multitudes were gathered together
unto him so that he went into a ship and sat and the whole
and what it was it was so crowded on the shore that he had to get
on the ship to teach to talk to the crowd And he spoke, verse
3, and he spoke many things unto them in parables. Now a parable,
as you know, is an earthly story. It's a story that uses earthly
things, earthly persons, symbols, things, objects, to teach a higher,
spiritual, eternal lesson. So that each thing in the parable,
or the main issues of the parable, is represented by an earthly
object. Now a parable you can't make everything in a parable
mean something or some deep dark meaning but you have to take
just the general message of the parable and here in the parable
of the soils the Lord tells us exactly what each thing means
he's talking about the spreading of the gospel now here in Matthew
chapter 13 you have a series of parables And what the Lord
is doing in these parables is he's teaching his disciples the
issues, the truths, the nature of the kingdom of heaven. Now
the kingdom of heaven or sometimes referred to as the kingdom of
God in these parables is not heaven itself or the future glory
of perfection that's in heaven. But he's talking about the state
of the church and his rule and reign over all things in the
establishment and growth of his church between the time of his
first coming and his ascension unto glory and his second coming. That's the last days or the time
of the New Covenant, the New Testament. And over which Christ
rules and reigns and disposes of all things to save his people
from their sins establish his church throughout the world and
that's the kingdom of heaven now in that kingdom on earth
there's a mixed multitude there are believers and unbelievers
and over in Matthew chapter 25 he tells us in another parable
of the judgment how in the end he's going to come and in that
day he's going to separate the ones he identifies as sheep which
are the ones, they are God's elect people for whom Christ
died and redeemed them from their sins who are regenerated and
called by the Spirit in the new birth through the preaching of
the gospel he's going to separate those sheep from the goats which
refers to unbelievers who will perish eternally the scripture
says But before that time, there's going to be a mixture. Even within
the church, there will be a mixture. That's what this first parable
talks about, the parable of the soils. Even in the church, there's
going to be different kinds of people. There are going to be
believers and there are going to be unbelievers. There are going
to be false professors and true professors. So that's what this
parable is about. Now, remember this about the
parables. They are not children's stories
now. They weren't given to simplify the gospel. They were given to
illustrate the gospel and teach the truths of the kingdom of
heaven. So in this parable, he begins in verse 3, he says, Behold,
a sower went forth to sow, like a farmer sowing seed in the ground. And it says in verse 4, When
he sowed, some fell by the wayside. Some of the seeds that he sowed
fell by the wayside. And the fowls, the birds came
and devoured them up, ate them up. They didn't have any opportunity
to take root. They weren't sown in good, the
seed wasn't sown in good ground. And he says in verse 5, some
fell upon stony places, stony ground, stony soil, where they
had not much earth. It was more rock than earth.
And forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness
of earth, And when the sun was up, they were scorched, because
they had no root. They withered away. So that's
the second type of soil. And then he says in verse 7,
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked
them. That's the third type of soil.
In verse 8 he says, But other fell into good ground, good earth,
and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold,
some thirtyfold. varying degrees of fruit here,
but they all grew. And he says, verse 9, who hath
ears to hear, let him hear. Now many of the parables conclude
that way. If you've got ears to hear, then
you hear. Let me say this before I go to
the meaning of this parable over in another section of Matthew
13. And I want you to know this because this is scriptural. If
you have spiritual, you know, we think about physical life
and you have physical ears and hearing that you can hear my
voice today, physical eyes that you can see me on the television
screen. And so who gave you those physical
ears to hear? Who gave you those physical eyes
to see? Well, the answer obviously is
God did. You didn't get them yourself
by your own power. God created it. God gave him
to. It's the same way in spiritual
life. It's the same way in spiritual
hearing and spiritual sight. As Christ gave sight to the blind
and he gave hearing to the deaf, he gives spiritual hearing and
spiritual sight to his people. He said, my sheep hear my voice. And so what I want you to know
before we get into this is this. If you hear the gospel of God's
grace in Christ and believe it, then you have God to thank for
that hearing. You can't say, well, I heard
it because I'm better than others who refuse to hear it. It wasn't
an act of your own will. God made you willing by giving
you spiritual ears and spiritual eyes. Now, when does God give
a sinner spiritual ears and spiritual eyes? Well, the answer is obvious. It's when they're born again.
That's why Christ told Nicodemus, you must be born again by the
Spirit of God. And so what we're going to see
in the parable of the soils here is that three of these types
of hearers, that's what these soils represent, sinners hearing
the gospel in different ways. Three of these types were not
given spiritual ears and spiritual eyes. One was. And I'll show
you that. Over in verse 18 of Matthew 13,
He gives the meaning of the parable. And He told His disciples, He
says, Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. Verse 19, listen
to this, When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom. Now
right away we know what the seed is. The sower and the seed. Who
is the sower, for example? Well, the sower is the Lord Jesus
Christ and his ministers who sow the Word of God, the Word
of the Kingdom. They go about preaching the Word.
Christ is the living Word of God, the Scripture says. Christ
is the living Word. Christ is the incarnate Word. The Bible says in John 1.14,
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's Christ, the
God's man. And the Bible is the written
Word of God. Now this Bible, which is the
written Word of God, is the book of Christ. He said in John chapter
5 and verse 39, when he was speaking to the Pharisees, who claimed
to be doctors of the Scripture and experts on the Word, he said,
you search the Word, search the Scriptures, for in them you think
you have eternal life. He said, they are they which
testify of me. He said, Moses wrote of me. He
said, Abraham saw my day. He set his disciples down before
he ascended unto glory, and he taught them of the things concerning
himself, and his death on the cross, his burial, his resurrection
out of Moses, the law, and the prophets, and the Psalms. So
this written word is the book of Christ, but also If the gospel
is preached, if the word of the kingdom is preached, then Christ
is the subject of the uttered or the preached word. And that's
what we need to understand. Everything revolves around, centers
around, and is built upon the preaching of Christ. So he says
the word of the kingdom. Well, what is the word of the
kingdom? It's the gospel. The word gospel means good news. And who is it good news to? You
know, if you have invested a lot of money in the stock market,
then you've heard a lot of bad news these days, haven't you?
But now, if the economy would all of a sudden make a turn upward
and everything be prosperous and the stock market went way
up, that'd be good news to you. If you were sick with some dreaded
disease, some cancer or heart disease, something that's terminal,
that is sick unto death. If a doctor would call you on
the phone or call you in the office and say, I have the cure. Here it is. That would be good
news to you. You see what I'm saying? The
gospel is good news, but to whom? It's good news to sinners who
see their need of mercy and grace and unconditional love. See their
need of salvation by Christ. You see, if you think you can
save yourself by your works, then I'm going to tell you something.
The gospel will not be good news to you. If you're determined
to establish your own righteousness before God, then the word of
the kingdom will not be good news. The gospel is the word
of the kingdom. The gospel Paul writes in Romans
chapter 1 is the gospel of God. It's not the gospel of man. It
didn't originate with man. It's totally from God. It's a
revelation from God. The gospel, he said, is the gospel
that concerns a person. It's the preaching of a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both God and man in one person. In Romans chapter 1, Paul expressed
it like this, he said, concerning God's Son, who was made of the
seed of David, David of old, according to the flesh. In other
words, he's speaking there of the humanity of Christ, the sinless
humanity of Christ, which came through the lineage of King David,
the tribe of Judah. because it was determined by
God and prophesied in the Old Testament, specifically in Genesis
chapter 49, that the scepter would not depart from Judah until
Shiloh come. Shiloh meaning peace. Christ
is the Prince of Peace. And so Christ came from the tribe
of Judah. That's why he is the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords. That's his humanity, his sinless
humanity. He was born of the Virgin Mary
as he was conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He was not born of man. He was not born in the lineage
of Adam. He was not born in sin. His birth
was a miraculous birth. And the angel told Joseph that
his name shall be called Jesus, Jehovah our Savior. for he shall
save his people from their sins. His name shall be called Immanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. And Paul went on in
Romans chapter 1 to say that he was declared to be the Son
of God, the Son of God meaning his deity, even though we who
are saved are sons of God by adoption, by grace, by election,
by redemption, by regeneration. Christ is the Son of God by nature. That was a title that could only
be given to Him as He is God. And He was declared to be the
Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. You see, He is
both God and man in one person. That's the Word of the Kingdom.
Paul went on over in Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. He said, For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That is what the Word
of the Kingdom is. It's the gospel of Christ, the
Messiah. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and to the Greek
also. And he went on in verse 17 and
said, For therein in that gospel is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. For as it is written, the just
shall live by faith. So the word of the kingdom is
the preaching of righteousness. Noah was described as a preacher
of righteousness. Well, whose righteousness do
we preach in the Word of the Kingdom? We preach the righteousness
of God. Now, what is that? That's the
righteousness that God sent His Son to the earth, as God meant,
to work out by His obedience unto death. You see, the Gospel,
the Word of the Kingdom, the seed sown, is not the preaching
of man's righteousness. It's not the preaching of man's
works or efforts to be righteous. In fact, the gospel shows just
the opposite. It shows man in his lost state,
depraved and fallen in Adam, guilty before God, standing there
in his filthy rags of the best efforts that he can muster up.
The gospel drives us out of ourselves in repentance to show that we
cannot be saved or justified or holy or glorified based on
our best efforts to keep the law. The gospel leaves us with
no hope, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Christ is my righteousness,
for He was made sin. Christ took my sins upon Himself. They were accounted and charged
to Him. Christ who knew no sin. He was
made sin for us, the scripture says. He who knew no sin. He
who was totally innocent in Himself, but guilty because of our sins,
charged to Him. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He was made sin so that we could
be made righteousness, not by our works, but in Him. That's
the grace of God. And then the gospel is called
the preaching of the cross. You see, it's on the cross that
Christ bore away, put away the sins of His people. It's on the
cross that Christ established the only righteousness whereby
God could be just and justifier. And the gospel commands every
sinner who hears it to believe that gospel. That's our salvation.
It's the gospel of God's grace. It's the gospel of the free gift
of God to sinners who cannot earn salvation and do not deserve
it. And that's what this seed word
of the kingdom is. So he says in verse 19, when
anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it
not, Then cometh that wicked one, and catcheth away that which
was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed
by the wayside." Now there's the first soil, the wayside hearer
you might say. This is a person who hears the
gospel with the physical ear and may have some thought about
it. That's why it says sown in his heart, not planted in his
heart, you see, not taking root. But that person really turns
away from it, has no interest in it, is not concerned about
it. He's not concerned about sin.
He's not concerned about how God saves sinners. He's not concerned
about death or hell or heaven. That's the wayside here. He's
totally uninterested in the preaching of the word of the kingdom. And
so many times when the gospel goes out, there will be people
who will just turn a deaf ear to it. They don't want to listen.
They don't want to consider it. They don't want to think about
it. That's the wayside here. And oh, how sad that is that
people would not sit and give heed to the preaching of the
Word of Life. The Word of the Kingdom is the
Word of Life. My friend, this gospel, Paul
said, is the preaching of a message that's so important that it comes
down this way. It's either life unto life or
death unto death. Life unto life to those whom
God brings to faith in Christ. Death unto death to those who
turn a deaf ear to it. Now he comes to the next here.
He says in verse 20, he says, But he that receiveth the seed
into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and
anon, now that word anon would mean like now or immediately,
with joy receiveth it. The indication here is this person
hears it and he immediately latches on to it with joy. But he really
hasn't thought about the implications. In other words, he's like the
person that Christ said who didn't count the cost. And so it goes
on in verse 21. It says, Yet hath he not root
in himself, but dureth for a while. He endures for a while. And he
says, For when tribulation or persecution arises because of
the word. Now that's key. Look at that
in verse 22. He doesn't say just when, or
verse 21, he doesn't say just when trouble comes or persecution
comes, but it's when trouble and persecution comes because
of the word, because of the gospel. This is a specific persecution
and tribulation. And he says, by and by, he is
offended. And he leaves it. Now the stony
ground here, this type of soil, in this parable of the soils,
this is rocky ground. If you went out and sowed seed
on rocky ground, there's more rocks than there are dirt. The
seed can't get a hole down in the ground, it can't take root
and grow. It might spring up a little bit
for a while. But when the sun comes, it's
going to be scorched. It don't take root. You could
water it, but the roots aren't down far enough to get the water,
you see. And so this is the type of hearer
who receives it immediately, quickly, and then when the trouble
comes over the gospel, then he leaves it. Now, there are many
stony ground hearers. Have you heard the gospel and
received it and not suffered persecution and tribulation?
Do you know that the gospel by its very nature, will always
bring some form and some degree of persecution and trouble from
the world. We're in a battle, the scripture
says. Believers are in the world, but they're not of the world.
And so Christ told his disciples in the book of John, chapter
15, he said, marvel not if the world hate you. He said, for
it hated me before it hated you. Our Lord was despised and rejected
of men. He was lied upon. He was spat
upon. He was disrespected. He was actually
hated because of His message of grace that exposed the evil
deeds of the best and the most religious and zealous men of
the day. You see, when a sinner hears
that all of his efforts to make himself righteous before God
are evil deeds because they deny the glory of God. They deny Christ. They're the fruit of unbelief.
Unless God turns that sinner's heart to Christ away from his
own work, that sinner is going to hate the light. John 3 and
verse 19 and 20. The lights come into the world,
but men love darkness and hate the light. So the gospel is called
the preaching of the offense of the cross. It's offensive
to man. It's offensive to his dignity, to his self-righteousness.
And so the gospel is hated. So Christ told them in John chapter
16, he said, they'll throw you out of their synagogues and they'll
kill you thinking they're doing God a service. He said, blessed
are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all manner
of evil against you. It's going to happen. And when
that message of grace offends the ears of the self-righteous,
they'll turn on you. And that's when the stony ground
hearer leaves. Now verse 22, here's the third kind. He said,
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 would be a person who hears
the gospel and claims to believe it, but he has no time for it.
He's got other things to do. The cares of the world have taken
up his mind, consumed his heart and his time. The deceitfulness
of riches, he wants to make money. Now there's nothing wrong with
wanting to make money, but if that consumes your heart and
your time to the point to where you have no time for the worship
of God, no time for the Word of God, no time for the people
of God, this is the category of soil that you're in. It's
the deceitful, the person who is deceived by his own desires. And so this is the thorny ground
hearer. And my friend, don't be a thorny
ground hearer. And then lastly, in verse 23,
it says, but he that receives seed into the good ground is
he that heareth the word and understandeth it. He understands
it savingly with the eye and ear of faith. And he understands
it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold,
some sixty, some thirty. Now here's the person whose heart
has been prepared by the power of the Holy Spirit, who gives
life, who changes that heart, who gives a new heart to receive
the gospel. This is the broken and contrite
heart. This is the heart that's broken
over sin. and seize the necessity of salvation
by the grace and mercy of God in Christ. You see, if you have
a good heart, you didn't have it naturally. The Bible says
there's none good, no not one. The heart of man is deceitful
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So if my heart
is, if I receive the gospel of Christ, receive Christ in my
heart, it's God who gave me that heart. It's God who transformed
me. It's God who gave me life, spiritual
life, to see my sinfulness and to see the glory and grace of
God in Christ. And from that creation that God
has made in that sinner who receives Christ comes fruit. Now some
will bring forth more fruit than others, some a hundredfold, some
sixtyfold, some thirty. But there will be fruit. It'll
be the fruit of repentance. It'll be the fruit of works.
It'll be obedience motivated by grace and love and gratitude. My friend, this is a person who's
been born again. And you notice here in this parable
of the soils, there are three kinds of hearers who end up lost. There's only one kind of hearer
that ends up saved. What am I to do? I'm to pray
to God, O Lord, give me a heart of faith. Give me the heart of
repentance. Break my heart. Show me the glory
of Christ. Lord, let Your Holy Spirit shed
abroad in my heart the love of God in Christ, for herein is
love, not that we love God. but that He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. This is the Word
of the Kingdom and the Holy Spirit implants it in the heart of His
people where it takes root and it grows when it's watered by
the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word of God. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Scripture says, and you shall
be saved. Don't let this Word fall on deaf
ears. Don't let this word be received
for a little while and then be taken up with the cares of the
world and the deceitfulness of riches. Don't let this word be
a point of contention to the point that when you're persecuted
or face trouble over it, you leave it and never come back.
Lay hold of Christ and never let go. Well, I hope this passage
of scripture is now clear to you in the preaching of the Word.
And if you'd like to receive a copy of this message, listen
to the announcer and he'll give you the details. The title of
the message is, The Parable of the Soils. And I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today.