If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 13. I'm going to start just a little
bit early this morning because I want to read these first several
verses to you. 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 multitude stood
on the shore. And he spake many things unto
them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And
when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls
came and devoured them up. And some fell upon stony places
where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up,
and because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was
up, they were scorched. And because they had no root,
they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns sprung up and choked them. And others fell into good
ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold,
some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear. And the disciples came and said
unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered
and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken
away even that he hath. Therefore speak I unto them in
parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear
not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and
shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. If this people's heart is wax
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they
have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes,
hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed
are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
For verily I say unto you that many prophets And righteous men
have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen
them, and to hear those things which you hear, and have not
heard them. Hear ye therefore the parable
of the sower. When anyone heareth the word
of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked
one, and catcheth away that which is sown in his heart. This is
he which receives seed by the wayside. But he that receiveth
the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word,
and animeth joy, receiveth it. Yet hath he no root in himself,
but doeth for a while. For when tribulation or persecution
arises because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also
receiveth seed among the thorns, as he that heareth the word.
And the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke
the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that receiveth seed into
the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it,
which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold,
some sixty, and some thirty. Now, in Matthew chapter 13, we
have a series of seven distinct parables. And each one concerns what the Lord calls
in the Scripture, the mysteries of the kingdom of God. This is
what these parables are about. They're illustrations, earthly
stories of heavenly things that set forth the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And he
calls them mysteries because they concern heavenly things,
divine things, things not common to this fallen, depraved world.
And before we get into this study, because each week we're going
to take some of these. Some of them we may take by threes
or twos. Some of them we're just going
to take one at a time. But we need to keep in mind a
few things as we consider these parables. And first of all, I
want you to understand that these parables are not the foundation
of doctrine. If we're going to state a doctrine
and prove a doctrine, we don't go to the parables. We go over
to where the doctrine is plainly declared and taught. And we establish
the doctrine. And then we go to the parables
that picture. It's kind of like when I'm preaching
on a subject and I come and I have an illustration and I use that
illustration to drive that point home. That's what these parables
are. Parables illustrate doctrine.
And then secondly, parables are earthly stories that illustrate
heavenly things. Our Lord used these parables,
as I said before, to drive home a point of doctrine. And so that
these people could picture what he was talking about in their
mind. They could picture it. That's what happens when you
find a good illustration, and you're coming along and you're
preaching, and people just not quite able to grasp what you're
saying. And then you give them this illustration,
and it just drives that thing home. And you can remember that
illustration when that doctrine's long gone, can't you? You go
back, and then you remember of what it was that it illustrated.
And it's also worth mentioning here that these parables given
by the Lord did not lower or compromise His teaching. That's
not what He was doing when He gave these parables. It was to
make that doctrine crystal clear. Not to compromise it. He wasn't
trying to hide it in the parable. And then thirdly, and Brother
Mahan told me this some 30 years ago, It's not necessary to take
a parable and give it legs and teach it how to walk. In other
words, don't go through a parable and try to make it everything
in that parable mean something. It's not like a type, like the
Old Testament types. You can go into those types and
you can see lots of things. There's depth to them. But in
a parable, a parable is just a simple illustration and it
illustrates one thing. And then that's the fourth thing
we need to understand, that each parable is given to illustrate
a single point of doctrine. Now the first parable here in
Matthew chapter 13 is the parable of the sower. And what this parable
teaches, the point of doctrine after which the Lord gives this
parable, He's teaching us the necessity of hearing the gospel
with a believing heart. That's what this whole thing
is all about. And He tells us about the different
kinds of hearers. He tells us about the sower went
forth to sow and where the seed fell, and then He begins to liken
that to hearers. And this teaches us right off
the bat that we should never attend worship carelessly or
without forethought or preparation. We're plainly told in Ecclesiastes
chapter 5, he said, keep thy foot when thou enterest into
the house of the Lord. And be more ready to hear than
to offer the sacrifice of food. Come to hear. Prepare to hear. Read the Word of God before coming
to worship. Acquaint yourself with the Word
of God. Engage in prayer. Ask God to unravel these mysteries
to you, to teach you, to take the things of this world and
the cares of this world from your mind for a little while
that you can come and worship and learn and grow in grace and
knowledge of Christ. You prepare yourself. Everything,
all these preparations, Solomon says, is to hear. When he's talking
about keeping your foot, that's what he's talking about. This
is not the place for crossword puzzles and things. This is the
place to hear. To hear. Get your mind engaged
on hearing. This is not the place to come
and watch and see what everybody else is doing. This is the place
to focus your attention on what I'm telling you and on the Word
of God and ask God to give you You remember what I read to you
a few minutes ago when he got through with that parable? He
said, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Let him hear. So
we don't want to do these things carelessly and without forethought
and without preparation. Give thought when you come here
to whose house this is. This is his house. His house. give thought concerning who we
are and what we are and by whose grace we've been given the high
privilege to be here. Don't you think about that when
you come down here? Lord, how did I get here? How
did I get here? I remember hearing the first
solid gospel message I ever heard in my life from Brother Henry
Mahan. And I was sitting in that pew
and looking up at that church and looking around me and thinking
how glad I was that God brought me to that place. Why would He
do that? Why would He do that? Think about when you come here,
who you are and what we are and by whose grace we've been given.
And it's a high privilege. It's a high privilege to hear
the Gospel. And then give thought concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, our Redeemer, our Savior and
High Priest and King. And give thought to the presence
and teaching of the Holy Ghost, without whom everything is just
dead letters. Dead letters. That's all it is.
Letters of the alphabet that form words that fill up empty
space and empty heads. That's all it is. But with the
Holy Spirit, those words take on life. And then pray both for
yourself and for the one who stands before you. If God communicates
with you, that's more than likely how it's going to come. That's
how it's going to come. Now, there's just a multitude
of things that I've heard and read concerning this parable
over the years, but I want us to confine our hearts and minds
this morning to just five basic things. First of all, I want
you to picture it. These are pictures. He gave these
illustrations that you can form a picture in your mind. And he
tells us that a sower went forth to sow. Now, he's not talking
here about somebody planting corn. You plant corn, you drop
it in a row. You dig a trench, you drop it
in a row and you cover it up or you take that little old timey
thing and put your corn in it and stick it down, pull it apart
and so on and you plant that corn that way. I planted it all
kinds of ways, but you plant it in a row. This is talking
about a man with a bag or a box or whatever he had in those days
and a pail and he'd get a handful of wheat seeds. or grain, whatever
it was he was planting. And he'd just take it and in
a semi-circle, throw it right to left or left to right, whichever
handed he was, and he'd throw that seed out. He'd just broadcast
it out. Now they plowed through those
fields, but those fields were full of rocks. And they plowed
with an old horse or a mule. And they bust up that old ground,
but when they come to a big slab of rock like we got up in Kentucky,
you don't just plow through it and roll it out of the way. That
thing's the size of this church. Plow out around it and go on. And then there was places where
you come in and out of the field. That's the wayside that he's
talking about. And so this man gets his seed
and he walks pretty much in a straight line across that field. He's
got his eye fixed on some point on the other side and he's broadcasting
that seed, David. He's throwing it out. He's just
throwing it out all around. He'll step forward a little bit,
throw it out. And then when he gets to the
other side, he'll move over a little and he'll start back this way.
Broadcasting that seed. And so he uses the word that
the seed fell. I know that every day you go
out to work in the field, it's not the same. Some days are windy,
some days are rainy, some days are hot. You got different kinds
of days, and so this seed is affected by God's providence.
Throw that seed, wind comes along, blows that seed way over here
on the cart path, way on the wayside. The man don't purposely
go over there and throw seed on the rock, he's throwing that
seed out, Sometimes the wind blows it over this way and it
goes over there and it lands on the rock. Or it lands on that
soil that's just about that deep that covers the rock. And so
you get this picture. A sower went forth to sow. Now,
sowers are preachers. What a miracle of God's grace
that an ignorant, sinful man should be brought to such a place
as to take the good seed of God and broadcast it in there. What
a miracle of God's grace. There not a day goes by I don't
think to myself, who are you? Who are you? That God's given
you such a miracle of His grace, such an understanding to be able
to just open this book. When I've got relatives, college
educated for years and years, smart people. My son, he's a
He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a straight 4.0
average, but he don't know God from a billy goat. He's just
ignorant when it comes to the Word of God. And so is every
natural man. He's ignorant. He don't know
these things. These things are revealed. And
God says in 1 Corinthians 1 that He chose the base things of the
world, the foolish things of the world. And He chose these
things, He chose this kind of a people to go forth and preach
that no flesh should glory in His presence. That's why He did
it. Their being there, their being
able to teach, their being able to open this book and open the
Word of God to you is a miracle of God's grace in itself. That
is a miracle set before you. That's the confirmation of God,
in fact, on a minister. That he is able to take the Word
of God and interpret it correctly. And then that, Paul said, he
commits to your own conscience in the sight of God. And God
confirms that in the hearts of believers. And that's all the
evidence they need. All the evidence they need. A
sower went forth to sow. And I know hundreds have heard
me over the years, and they said, who's he think he is? He's just
a man. So was Moses. Moses was just a man. but with
the staff of God in his hand, and the power and presence of
God with him, the sea split before him." You think about that. God led that man to a bush that
burned and wasn't consumed, took him up on the mountain, and with
his own finger, pinned in a rock, the Ten Commandments, and gave
it to him. gave him in his mind and in his heart the revelation
of Christ that he would go forth and build that tabernacle after
that pattern that God showed him in the Mount of the Saints. Now you think about that. He
was just a man, wasn't he? Elijah was just a man. But that
didn't keep the fire from falling from heaven and licking up the
sacrifice and the water out of the ditch. On and on and on,
I tell you, and I hesitate to say that Christ was just a man,
but Christ was a man. There's one mediator between
God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. He was a man. And this
man stood before these people. And he likened himself to a sower. And all those that he'd sent
to sowers went forth to sow. Somebody called him to the work.
Somebody instructed him in the work. Somebody gave him the opportunity
and provided for him the place. Somebody gave him the seed to
sow and gave him the willingness to sow. He had nothing to do
with the end result. Now, I'm talking about us now.
I'm not talking about Christ. Nothing to do with the end result.
Nothing to do with what happened to the seed after it left his
hand. It was then in the hands of God's
providence to fall where the Lord would have it to fall. And
then secondly, the sower goes forth to sow the seed of God.
Now Christ is the seed. Right away, everybody's going
to argue with me. Now wait a minute. When Christ interpreted that
parable, He said the Word of God is the seed. Well, I'm going
to tell you something. You better not separate this
book from Christ. Christ is the message of this
book. You take this book and preach this book as a history
book, you're not sowing the seed of God. You take this book, I
don't care if you read it word for word, and teach this book
as a law book, as a law book to men to keep, to make for themselves
a righteousness, that's not the seed of God. And you can take
this book and you can try to make it have its application
to future prophecies and try to scare men into making professions
of faith and all that kind of nonsense. You're not sowing the
seed of God. Now, to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but unto thy seed, which is Christ. If you're going to
sow God's seed, you're going to preach Christ. You see what
I'm saying? Christ is the seed. He's the
seed. So where sin of God preached
Christ, and they preached Christ from the Word of God. We don't take a church covenant
and preach to the people. I don't need it. I have the Word
of God. If I had a church covenant up
here, which we don't have, I'd put a blanket over it. I wouldn't
want you to be sidetracked by it. I have the Word of God. What need have I with a church
covenant? We preach Christ. And it's not
a church covenant. It's not a denominational creed.
First thing men ask me, what are you? Well, I hope I'm a servant
of God. That's what I hope. Now historically,
I suppose I'm a Baptist. Historically. That's as close
as I can get to what I believe. But I really don't want to be
identified with none of them. Do you? I don't. But historically
speaking, I'm a Baptist. But it's not a denominational
creed that we preach and go forth to sow, but it's the pure and
unmixed gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ. You cannot sow
the Word of God in the hearts of chosen sinners without preaching
Christ. They're not going to come to
Him, John, and look to Him, and trust in Him, and cast their
selves upon His mercy with you preaching some day, or some time,
or some event, or some advent, or some dispensational idea. That's not going to bring me
into Christ. First of all, we've got the sower,
chosen of God, taught of God, sent into God's field. And then
secondly, he carries with him the precious seed of God. Nothing of divine intention will
grow apart from that seed. Nothing. And then thirdly, the
seed is broadcast. And I believe this illustration
is about weed or grain of some kind because of how he describes
it. You don't broadcast corn as I
told you in the beginning, but grain is broadcast. And then
it was thrown out in the general direction that he walked. God
put him in his field. And in that field, he walked
in the direction God set him. And he throws the seed. Why aren't you preaching in Montana? Because God didn't put me in
that field. He put me in this field. Somebody told Brother Mayhem,
well, if you believe that God has an elect and that's the only
ones He's going to save, why don't you preach to them? He
said, if somebody put a mark on them, I will. Until then,
I'm going to broadcast the seed. Broadcast the seed. I'm going to throw it out. God's
providence is going to guide the seed. It's going to fall
where He intended it to fall. It's going to fall into that
disturbed ground and it's going to bring forth fruit. That's
what this parable teaches. Thrown out in that general direction
he was walking. And he said, some fell by the
wayside. And the fowls came and ate the
seed. It fell over on that old wagon
track. That old hard bed where they
drove the wagons in and out. Walked the mules in and out.
It was hard as a rock. Threw that seed over there and
it fell there. It didn't do anything. And then some fell in stony places
where there was hardly any dirt. And because there was no depth,
it sprang up quickly. But when the sun came out, the
water disappeared, and the plant shriveled up. And then others
fell among thorns, and when the thorns came up, it choked out
the seed. Preachers are sowers of the good
seed of God, and our instruction is to plant the good seed of
Christ in the good ground where it's intended. But we don't plant
in a perfect field. That's what I want you to think
about. I don't plant in a perfect field. I wish it was. I wish
it was. I wish every man I spoke to,
God would disturb his heart, turn that soil over and make
a place for that seed to fall and hide itself deep within him
and spring forth and bring forth life. I wish that was so, but
it's not so. Not so. I sow in an imperfect
field. And that field has shallow places
and barren places and places infested with thorns. It's got
creatures ready to devour the seed at any minute. Our job is
just to broadcast the seed, to take the gospel, and as we journey
through this world, to preach it to every creature. And then
the Lord Himself will direct it and cause it to fall where
He intends it to fall. And then fourthly, We've got
here in this parable fruitless hearers. Fruitless hearers. He's got fruitless plantings.
And the Lord gives three illustrations of that. He said, some hear without
understanding. The seed finds no disturbed ground. It just falls on that well-traveled
path. You see, this is what prevents
men from hearing. They've been down this path and
down this path and down this path, and their hearts have been
hardened by the deceitfulness of this world and by false prophets
and false preachers and false gospels. And their hearts are
hard, and you throw it, and it'll have seeds, lambs there. It's
got nothing. It just lays there. It's not
going into the ground. It's not hiding itself. It's
just laying there on the surface. And what happens? He said, the
fowls of the air, the enemies of God, come down and grab it.
Gone. They devour it. It's gone. Gone. To hear without understanding. And then secondly, he's got some
stony ground here. Shallow in their understanding.
He receives the Word of God with joy. Seems to. He hears it. He says, I believe that. I believe that. And he rejoices
for a time. Then he goes out into the world,
and boy, he finds out the world don't like this Word. The world
don't rejoice in what he thought he was rejoicing in. Why, the
world looks at that and they say, no, whoa, wait a minute,
now that's, those things, that predestination and stuff, you
better get it. And they said it over here in
an evil light. Persecution arises and trials and things. And first
thing you know, it chokes you down. Chokes you down. He's offended by and by, by the
Word. He's offended. And then thirdly, some fell among
the thorns. Thorns here were told they represent
the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. Natural
man believes that whatever it is that troubles him, money will
solve it. I thought that when I was young. I thought that when
I was young. Earthly cares and the deceitfulness
of riches, he says, chokes out the Word of God. It robs him
of the time of reading and devotion. He gets too busy for that. Too
busy. He thinks this is the priority
over here. I have to have this. So, brethren,
you don't have to have it, but you have to have Christ. You
have to have it. You have to have an understanding
of this book. else you'll die an ignorance.
You'll go out and meet God and not even know who it is you're
meeting. You'll stand there like them
ignorant men did and begin to go back and pick out all the
what you call good things that you've done in your life and
say, now wait a minute, wait a minute now. I did a lot of wonderful,
I gave to the Cancer Society. I wrote them out a check for
$100. And I preached in your name. I taught Sunday school
class. And he said, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
I never knew you. I don't want you to go out. You
come in here this morning. You're under the sound of my
voice. I don't want you to go out of here ignorant of who God
is. I take that very seriously. I want you to understand what
I'm saying. And that's with Christ. He wasn't there to impress them
Pharisees. He was there to teach, to teach. those who had ears to hear. It
robs him of the time of reading and devotion, and it robs him
of his presence at worship, and it deprives him of the time of
prayer and meditation. And soon there's nothing left.
It's choked it all out. And then fifthly, he said, some
fell into the good ground. That's that ground that God prepared
and disturbed. The good ground is described
in verse 23, as he that heareth and understands. God gives him
an understanding of what he hears. He understands why Christ must
come into this world as a man and live under the law and die
on a cross. He understands the necessity
of His resurrection and ascension into glory and His present reign
of grace. He understands why the Lord is
coming back to raise His people from the grave. He understands
that he's a sinner in need of a Savior. He's an unclean man
in need of cleansing. He's a possessed man in need
of the strong man of grace to cast out the demons within him.
He's a man at odds with God who needs a mediator. He's a man
without God in this world who needs a high priest in things
pertaining to God. And this is a man that God gives
an understanding. He hears these things, and these
things suit his needs perfectly. And he grasps them, and he seeks
them, and he prays about them, and he reads about them. And
God gives him an understanding. The understanding here is compared
to good ground, because what God plants, He plants in disturbed ground. Disturbed ground. Ground that
he's prepared before for the seed. And then they're rooted. They're rooted and built up in
him and established in the faith, Paul said, as you've been taught.
rooted, he said in Ephesians 3, 17 and 18, and grounded in
love that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and depth and height. And all
of these things are God's prerogative. Salvation is of the Lord. And
you can't read verses 10 through 17 of this chapter without concluding
that this book teaches the stubborn, distinguishing grace of God.
He said, I told you way back when the prophets spoke and I
inspired them with my spirit. He said, I told you that these
people's hearing would hear not. I told you that. I foretold you
about this generation. God gives life and faith and
understanding to his elect and passes others by. And so he said,
blessed are your ears. What do they hear? Now, the cause
of the passing by is manifested in all men, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. We've got nothing in us
to warrant the free grace of God. Nothing. Nothing. The cause is in God Himself. It's in God Himself. So if God
withholds it, is He wrong? Is He wrong? The cause of grace is found in
God Himself. God is not to be blamed for the
unbelief and rebellion of men. The cause of death is our sin.
But the cause of grace is not in any of us. The cause of grace
can only be traced to the character and attributes of God. One man
told me the glory of God is the grace of God. It's the grace
of God. Because by grace are you saved. Through faith. and not even that
of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should go." A sower went forth to sow.