Turn back to Matthew 13. Matthew
chapter 13. The sower. The sower is the title of the
message. The last time we looked at this, our Lord had left the house. He went out by the seaside. He got in a ship and then he
began to preach to that multitude that had followed him from the
house. And he spoke this parable of
the sower going forth to sow to that multitude. The disciples
asked him, said, why are you speaking to them in parables?
He said, because to you it's given to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. And then here in verse 18, he
gives the meaning of the parable to his disciples. And he speaks
of four different types of ground. As Christ is speaking to that
multitude, four types of hearers are standing there. listening
to Him. There are some wayside hearers
there, stony ground hearers there, thorns, those who are among thorns,
and there's good ground. There's good ground hearers there. And our Lord explains this to
them. And He says in verse 18, Understand this. Now, notice
he's speaking to his disciples. He's giving them a revelation
of the parable. Hear and understand what I'm
going to tell you. Because he had told them, it's
given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And now
he's going to give them an understanding of part of that mystery. And
he speaks of a sower. He takes such a simple example
to give a heavenly truth. And the sower here are his preachers. Christ is a sower. He's sowing
the seed right as he spoke to that multitude. He's sowing the
seed. And his preachers are sowers. They are called of God. They
are equipped of God. They are sent of God to sow the
seed. Not to convert people. I can't
convert anyone. To sow the seed. That's all I'm
called to do. Take the Word of God and sow
it. Just like a farmer would. Sow
it. And the seed is the Word of God. It sort of says over
here in Luke, we have this same parable, and over here in Luke,
It says in chapter 8, verse 11, the parable is this. The seed, he says, is the Word
of God. The seed is the Word of God. That's what it is. It is not,
and I thought about this as I wrote this outline, it's not my interpretation
of the Word of God. We have to strive to keep our
opinions out of it, strive to keep our opinions and our own
interpretations out of it. It's the Word of God. You know,
James says we are begotten with the Word of Truth. God does not
save men with interpretations. He saves men with the Word of
Truth. There's life. There is life in
this Word. Frank spoke this morning. Janet
gave to those children this morning. There's life in those words,
and what I'm telling you now, and when we read it, there's
life in the Word. It's a life-giving Word. Anything else is death. Anything
else is death. But we are begotten with the
Word of Truth. The Word is the seed sown. Now, he starts out here, and
he starts out with the wayside hearer. You'll find these in
every group. He's not looking for the gospel. He's not looking for anything
spiritual. He's not looking. A wife may
have brought her husband. He may have come to just satisfy
her. Just to keep peace at home. And
just come and listen. And he hears the Word. Standing
here, we've read the Word. The Word taught this morning.
The Word preached. He hears it. It has no effect on him. It has
no effect on him whatsoever. He has no interest in what he's
hearing. He really would like for it to
hurry up and be over because there's no interest. It's boring.
It's boring. He's here, but he does not hear. Or she may be here, but does
not hear. That's the way. That's that hard
path. That hard ground that the word, the seed falls on, but
it does not enter into it. Here a few years ago, I dug up
my, tilled up my front yard and I sowed it with grass. And some
of that seed fell on the sidewalk. Some of it fell on the driveway.
Some of it. I wasn't out there sowing the
sidewalk or the driveway, but I was sowing that good ground
that I had tilled up and raked and fertilized and got all the
rocks out of it. And just, I mean, I worked on
that thing for a week. And then I sowed it, but that
grass seed, that seed that fell on that hard sidewalk didn't
produce anything. It didn't enter in. There was
nothing there for it to grow on. Nothing at all. There's no
life. There's just nothing there for
it to nourish it. That's this waste out here. The
path that runs up beside the garden that's sowed with seed. There's a path that runs up.
We lived on a farm. There was a path that ran up beside the
garden out to the barn. Nothing grew on that path because
we traveled it all the time. It was a hard path. That's this
wayside here. Hard. The gospel falls upon deaf
ears and a dead heart and produces no effect on him. No life, no
conviction. He's just in the way as the gospel
goes by. He's just in the way. He does
not understand what he hears, nor does he desire to understand
what he hears. He's a wayside hearer. He's just
along the wayside as the seed is being sown. And this one,
he belongs to Satan. It says, after this is sown,
the fowls of the air, that old, Spurgeon called them that old
fowl bird, Satan. He comes along and he takes away. And it's not hard to take it
away because he's not trying to keep it. He's not trying to keep this
gospel. It's not hard to take it away. By one means or another, Satan
just catches it, like a bird that flies down and picks up
that seed that's laying around on the sidewalk. Easy to take
away. No resistance. No struggle. No inward struggle. No fight
to keep it. And Satan comes and takes it
away. Confuses him. There is never any conviction
of sin, of righteousness, or of judgment. It never enters
in. If you notice, I had you to mark
these words last week. over here in verse 4, it says,
And when he sowed, some fell by the wayside. Some fell there. And then on verse 5, some fell
upon stony ground. And then in verse 7, some fell
among thorns. But it's only the good ground
that it fell into. It entered into. It buried. When
God takes the Word and buries it in your heart, it's going
to produce. But if it just Falls by the wayside,
up on or among, it's not going to produce a convert. It's not going to produce a believer.
But it will produce when it falls into that good ground. And we'll
get to that in a minute. And then we have this stony ground
here. Here's a different effect, but the same result. Lost. In the end, lost. Same result. This person hears the Word preached,
and he says here, he shows a real interest. He says he receives
it with joy. But there's something missing
here. It says a noun immediately. He receives it with joy, but
where's that conviction at? Where's that sorrow over sin
at? Where's that trouble at over my sins and my wretchedness? That's missing. With joy, he
just receives it. I'll tell you what he does. He
hears of the benefits. He hears of a benefit package,
is what he hears. And he becomes interested in
the benefits. He does not become interested in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He does not become interested in his sins being atoned for
that the Holy Spirit convicts him of. No, he's interested in
the benefits that he's going to get out of out of this thing
of being saved. He's not interested in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not at all. He picks up a Bible. He carries it to church. He opens
it. And he acts like he believes
God for a while. Maybe a long while. Maybe a short
while. But it's just for a while. It's
just for a while. Because when trouble comes over
the gospel, Or trouble comes just providentially.
Trouble comes. He says he's offended. Are not all things of God? Does not the Scripture teach
us that all things are of God? Are not all our afflictions sin
of God? Thou hast appointed all my afflictions.
Are they not all of God? But this one gets offended when
it happens. Why did God let this happen to me? And he's offended. When trouble rises and things
begin to get hot, he said, when the sun comes up and it begins
to get hot, it withers because it has no root. It has no root. There's no deep root to reach
the moisture of God's grace in Christ. Therefore, it withers
away and he leaves the gospel. Sooner or later, this person
This hearer will leave. You know the vast majority of
that multitude turned on the Lord Jesus Christ? This multitude
that was following Him and was excited about Him and they were
just praising Him. That same multitude cried, crucify
Him. Not too much after that. Same
multitude. And the wayside hearer, and this
one here, will never know until judgment comes what they heard. They'll never know it. Never know it. But when the sun
of trouble, S-U-N, when that blazing sun rises of trouble,
And it beats upon him. He leads the gospel. You know,
trials try our faith. And I tell you this, when God
sends a trial, if that person is a believer, it will drive
that person to Christ. It will not drive him away. If
you can be driven away, you're not His. If you can be driven
away. And this person will be around
for a while, but sooner or later, he'll leave. Our Lord said this
when those disciples came to Him and asked Him if He was the
Christ. John the Baptist's disciples, he sent his disciples to ask
Him if He was the Christ. He said, Blessed is he that believes
and is not offended. That man is blessed. Why? Why
is he so blessed? Because he's born of God. That's
one of God's children. And that's the evidence of it.
When trouble arises, he's not offended. He runs to his father.
He runs to his father. The word fell upon him, but it
did not enter into him. He still had the same old nature
and the same old heart that he was born with, and he left. He left. No root. It says, no root in
himself. Faith is no confidence in God. I tell you what, when this seed
is sown in the heart, it will give you faith and confidence
in God. He will provide. The Lord will
take care. It will give you confidence in
Him. There was no place for the Word to take root in that old
nature. And He left. He left. And then he comes to this thorny
ground here. This is one who seems to, it
looks like it's going to produce a little bit of fruit. Looks
like it might produce a little bit of fruit. But the seed is
sown. And while he's sowing this good,
while he's sowing this field, you have all these other types
around. You see, you have this field right here that's been
prepared to receive this seed. You have this wayside here. You have this stony ground. You
have these thorns that are over on the side. All these are here. And when He goes and He throws
this seed and so in this good field, some of it falls over
there among the thorns. And this person here, he's one
who hears the Word. Starts to show a little bit of
proof. It looks like there's something
there. Looks like there really might be something there. But because of His love, for
self, his love for self and his love
for this world and the things of this world and the pleasures
of this world, it says the word is choked. Choked. He's more concerned about this
world than the world to come. Remember that rich man? He came
to Christ. What must I do to inherit eternal
life? And the Lord told him, he said, I've kept all this. Don't keep it long. And he said,
I've kept all these things. He said, go sell all you have
and give it to the poor. Come follow me. And he says he
went away sorrowful. Because he was what? Very rich. Very rich. The cares of this
life choked the Word. It started, he heard something.
He heard something. But the cares of this life choked
him. Family. Friends. Realized he was going to lose
some friends. Family members upset. A job. Maybe a promotion. Promotion
is not always a promotion. It really isn't. If the world
promotes you, you can be sure it's going to be trouble. If
God does it, if God moves you along, it'll be all right. Materials, material gain, this
is so. They choke the Word. Your mind
starts to just stay on those things. It's consuming. It's consuming. The gathering
of riches. You know, being in business,
I've been around a lot of people in business, and all the, but
all the conversations out here and people I've had to deal with
out here in the world, the business, all their conversations has been
about gathering. Been able to get this, my retirement's
going to be this, this, this, this. Choke the word. The gathering
of riches. That's why our Lord said, let
your conversation be without what? Covetousness. Covetousness. Now, not one of us. I thought
about this the other night. It's shooting myself here. Not
one of us would probably say, well, I'm covetous. We would
say, I'm not covetous. You know, there's some things
I like to have, but I'm not a covetous person. Our debts are witnesses
to our covetousness. I thought that the other night.
I said, my debts, I was saying to myself, my debts are witnesses
to my covetousness. Lord, forgive me. Forgive me. Guilty. Boy, you can never be
forgiven until you say guilty. You can never, ever, ever get
along and move forward Until you admit this is guilty. Or I'm guilty of this or guilty
of that. Whatever it is. We're guilty of everything. We
are truly guilty of everything by nature. We have that sin in
us. We have that sin in us. But these choke the Word. And
what does it say? He becometh. Not the Word. The problem is
not with the seed. It's a good seed. It's the Word
of God. He becometh unfruitful. He becometh. And he leaves. He's the same
way. It fell among thorns. It hit
me last night going over this. This is what the ground brought
forth when it was cursed. You go back in Genesis and read
after God cursed the ground. What did it bring forth? thorns
and thistles. It fell among the cursed things
and it brought forth no fruit." John tells us over in 1 John,
we cannot love the world and God too. You can't do it. That's the Bible.
He said that's the Bible. And then we come to this good
ground. Thank God there is good ground. There is good ground, and it
is prepared by God the Holy Spirit. It's prepared by Him. He's the
one who prepares us to receive the Word. He's the one who plows
us with conviction. He's the one who reveals sin.
You see, the good ground is the work of God. Every believer is a work of God,
and every believer is good ground. The stones of ignorance are removed.
To them, it's not given. To you, it is given. He's removed
those stones of ignorance that we're born with. The weeds of self-righteousness
are cut down. Until we heard the gospel, we
all thought it was pretty good. I guarantee you. We could always
find somebody worse. be our neighbor. He was always
worse. The soul is fertilized with grace
and the seed is buried in that new heart. A new nature is given. Light and life is given. And
God gives the increase in this good ground. This good ground
is of God. It's a work of God. He's the
one who prepared it to receive the seed. All we are doing is
sowing the seed. But He's the one who buries it
and He's the one who puts it in the heart. Thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, David said. Well, He's the one who puts it
there. If you have truth in the inward parts, I promise you,
God put it there. But you sure wasn't born with
it. Nor was I. And this, here's the evidence
of this good ground. Here's the evidence of good ground.
What is, you know what evidence of good ground is, the fruit
that grows out of it. The fruit that grows out of that
ground. You've plowed the ground, you have fertilized it, you have
seeded it, then you keep the weeds out of it, and then man,
here comes the fruit. Here comes the corn and the beans.
And I tell you what, that is a work to have good ground. In this world it is. To have
a good garden is a work. And a believer is the work of
divine grace, the work of the grace of God. And it says here,
and he brings forth fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100. There
are degrees of faith. It may not all be the same quantity,
but it is of the same quality. All the others bore no lasting
fruit at all, but this one does. This one bears the fruit of what?
The Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit over
there in Galatians 5. This one bears love. He loves God and
he loves the brethren and he loves all men. He genuinely loves
people. He bears joy, real joy, not like
the one who received it with joy and then now left. Now this
one receives it with real joy, joy that lies deep in the heart. Joy in God and not things. You can be a joyful person if
you're sitting in a shack. If you have this, you will. And
he bears the fruit of peace. In the midst of a troublesome
world, he has peace. This person has peace. He's not
tore all to pieces about the economy. He's not tore all to
pieces about who the president is or what's going on in the
world. This man has peace. Because Christ is his peace. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof and they who dwell therein. That gives me
peace. He bears that fruit of peace,
peace with God through the blood of Christ, peace of conscience,
peace of mind. Boy, that's of God. Then he bears the fruit of long-suffering.
Long-suffering. He can put up with me. This person
can put up with me. And he can submit to the chastening
hand of God with patience, knowing that all things are of God. He
is a fruit of gentleness. He's not harsh or mean anymore. He may have been harsh or mean
before, but the gospel mellowed him out. If you have experienced grace,
it'll show. It will show. It'll come out. It's like fruit planted in the
garden. Sooner or later, it's going to
come out of the ground. Sooner or later, that which is
buried is going to grow. And there's going to be evidence
of it, and there's going to be fruit for others to take, for take
of. There's a fruit of goodness. He enjoys helping others. He
enjoys giving. The fruit of faith, he believes
God. He believes it'll be just as God said it would be. He believes
God. And the fruit of meekness and
temperance, quiet, under control, under God's control. Sin has
no more dominion over him now. No more. And all this fruit that
he bears is of God. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
It's good ground. Plowed ground. It's ground that's been fertilized
by the grace of God and sowed with the Word of God. It takes God to make good ground. It takes God to make us good
ground. We didn't start out that way.
Rocks had to be removed. Thorns had to be cut down. All
these things had to be taken care of. And then the Word is
sung. And the fruit appears. Here's a good Scripture to end
on. He, over the Philippians, he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. He'll not leave his garden alone.
He'll not leave it alone. If he has started a work of grace
in a person, he began to plow, he began to remove, He'll finish it. He will finish
it.