There's a lot to think about this week.
We've lost another warrior of the gospel and Brother Don King.
It wasn't too long ago we lost Brother Paul Nichols, Johnny
Elmore, Ronnie Wade. It seems like we are some of
those people that were so much I know in 2004 when I found the my
way to the church. Those were people that I read
about, read lessons, met, talked with, interacted with and it's
it's I wasn't as close to say Brother Don as many of you are
here. But it's they're special people
and the lessons they prepared and spoke, just ring aloud the
the gospel. So from our moment this morning,
I'm going to use one of Brother Paul Nichols lessons to help
guide me as much for my frailty of mind, as much as many other
things. But Brother Paul, I appreciate
it being able to sit before him and and talk with him.
And I think about people like Brother Wayne Mccaney that set
with me in the middle of the desert in the mobile home and
talked with me for hours. It's it's special.
And and it's like I ask myself, you know, this is the evangelist
and people preach, They're preaching some similar lesson
from the Bible. It's over and over.
You'll never preach all of it, but some of the lessons are
special, especially when they get written down and you want to
go back to him. I know recently Chris had in the
Pope or his Pew there, passing it along by Lynnwood Smith.
So these are all things I know there's CD's, there's there's
cassette tapes that many people have and go back and listen to.
And that's, that's something here.
This morning we'll turn our attention to Matthew, Chapter
13. Now there's a parable there and
Matthew 13 that would speak to the parable of the sore.
Now that's what it's mainly thought about, is this Parable
of the sore. But as we go into this lesson,
we're probably going to focus more on the the study of the
actual souls that are there. And there's four different souls
that we'll talk about and four different hearts, as it were, of
man. And we want to focus on those
because we know that Jesus Christ came to spread that seed,
that good word, the gospel, and we know that that seed, that
good word is the gospel. And we'll talk about that.
And I appreciate in the prayer and the songs today because they
lend to the fact that we pray the gospel will find fall and be
heard by good hearts, and they would obey the gospel and be
faithful Christians. But we know both those that in
the world that have never obeyed the gospel and even those that
have, they're going to fall in some category here.
So as we read here, we'll start in in 13 and verse one on the
same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea, and
great multitudes were gathered together to him, so that he got
into a boat and set, and the whole multitude stood on the
shore. And he spoke many things to them
in parables, saying, Behold, a sore went out to soul, and as he
sold, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and
devoured them. Some fell on Stony places where
they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up,
because they had no depth of earth.
But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they
had no root they withered away, And some fell among thorns, and
thorns spring up and choked them, but others fell on good
ground, and yielded A crop some 100 fold, some 60, some 30.
He has ears to hear. Let him hear.
So that's the basics of the parable.
Now as it goes on, we will rereading and going from looking
at those verses to the latter part of the verses there where
the apostles ask why are you preaching in parables?
And he goes on to explain the parable of the solar.
So as we look at this, this is while our Lord was upon the
earth, He used parables as his method of teaching many times
and conveying spiritual truths. Now, according to the
dictionary, a parable is an allegorical story designed to
convey some truth or moral lesson.
It's something that is laid down beside the truth to help explain
it. And again, keep in mind that
he's speaking to Jewish people. He's speaking to people that
were trying to be faithful Jews, we would expect, but at the same
time, he's bringing something new to them.
He's bringing the gospel word. He needs these apostles and
those that would follow him to understand and they live.
You got to remember that these people are living in a land
where crops are sown. It's very important.
If the crops aren't grown, they're going to starve.
There's not too many farmers left in this congregation.
I don't expect most people are working somewhere else in the
world besides the ground. You may have a garden and you
may have grown up on a farm. You may have worked in a farm,
but there are probably young people here today might not have
any expectation of what a seed does when it grows.
So me, I have an affinity for being able to touch the soul and
grow things. So it it it means a lot to me in
this parable here, but this is just one of Christ's many
parables. Brother Mike Criswell and his
Continuing for the Faith commentary on Matthew has these
introductory comments verse one the same day when Jesus went out
of the house. The parables of this chapter
follow those happenings in chapter 12 of Matthew.
Actually, they're all the same day, and you've got to think
about there was a lot happening in Jesus Christ's life on that
day. If we were to go back and look
at Mark's narrative, which is Mark's chapters, essentially 3
through 5, using that narrative is the basis of chronology of
the day. It includes the healing of a
demoniac, the rebuff of the Pharisees, the warning of the
unpardonable sin, the plea of the family to come home of
multiple parables with interpretation of two of those
by Christ speaking to his disciples, and a stormy boat
ride to the land of the Gatherings.
Now Robertson, who is a biblical scholar, linguist, he writes
this day serves as a specimen of many others that were filled to
the fulfillment of stress and strain.
But it was all about the spreading of the gospel that man
can might know it now. The parable, the sore.
It is a farm scene. There's a farmer, a field, some
seed, and the soul. The soul is important thing here
because it represents the ears of God's word.
So this lesson about the sore could be called the four souls.
There are two kinds of ground that are referred to in this
parable, Good ground and bad ground.
Now these kinds of ground are divided into 4 conditions of
salt. Now if you've ever tried to put
a seed in the ground, it's going to grow depending upon what kind
of ground it is, what kind of condition it is.
Now some people may look and say, oh, I need to apply some
type of fertilizer. I may need to put some manure in
the ground. When I was in Tucson, AZ, living
out on five acres of open range, they had scraped the land down.
All the top soil was gone and all it was, was was Kalichi
clay. You wouldn't be able to grow
anything much there, but maybe maybe some type of cactus or
weed because you couldn't hardly.
You had to take took a pickaxe to dig into the soil.
So that's what we did. We took a pickaxe and we dug a
hole out. Then we put soil in it.
They mixed it up so we could grow plants as we planted the
seeds. So you may have to go to a lot
of efforts here in preparing the ground.
But as we look at this, there's good ground and bad ground, and
the kinds of ground are divided into these four conditions.
There is the wayside soul that's spoken of in the parable, the
Stony soul, the thorny soul and the good soul.
Now the good soul is that which produces 30 fold, 60 fold, and
100 fold, and we'll talk more about that toward the end of the
lesson. The farm that Jesus is talking
about is 1, where the soil is not.
All the same, some of the soil will naturally produce better
than other parts of the farm. You might find this mix of soils
on farms today where there's an area of a farm where the soil is
kind of thin and the earth is not, you know, deep or an area
where it's Stony. Or you might have another area
on the farm where it just grows weeds and thorns.
And then there's the area that is good sold, which is expected
to produce a good crop. Man has not always had
sophisticated machinery which to farm today.
And I know some older people here have probably been around
the farm and have used machinery erode a piece of machinery where
a plant was set or seeds were sown.
So they just in a row and that type of thing.
But back during the time of Christ, seeds were cast, they
were broadcast and you may have done that even in your garden.
I mean we had some wildflowers that that's essentially what we
did in our area of our yard this year, Charlotte.
And we had some wildflowers and we just spread them out there
and they're all mixed together and they've come up, you know,
and and kind of crowded one another for the most part.
But in the prayerable of Jesus, the seed is sown not with the
planner but by the broadcast method.
The farmer goes out and simply throws the seed by a handful and
out over the soul. Now this is the way the word of
God really is preached today. It has been men are taught by
the broadcast method. The conditions of the soul
represent the conditions of the heart.
We read in Proverbs 423 Keep thy heart with all diligence, for
out of it are the issues of life concerning the people that heard
the parable that day. Jesus said this as he referred
back to the words of Isaiah and 6th Isaiah. 610 For the hearts
of this people have grown dull, Their ears are hard of hearing,
and their eyes have closed, lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with
their hearts and turn, So thy should heal them.
And like the song that was sung today, Jesus can save you, He
can heal you. The various conditions of men's
hearts are typified by the conditions of the soul in the
parable. When a farmer goes out to sow
his seed, he wants to know that the seed is the very best so
that he can secure at least a reasonably sure he's going to
produce a good crop. I maintain that the word of God
is the very best seed that can be sown in the hearts of men.
The Apostle Paul certified that the gospel he had preached was
that which he had received from the Lord Jesus Christ.
As in Galatians of 111 through 12, Jesus says in Luke 811 the
seed is the word of God. There is no better seed than
that. However, neither the seed or the
farmer really is the focus of importance in this parable.
It is the soul, the field in which the seed is soul.
And as we look at the wayside soul in verse four, and as he
sold some seed, failed by the wayside, and the birds came and
devoured them. In Jesus explanation to his
disciples in Matthew 1319, the explanation is this.
When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom and does not
understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches it away.
What was sown in his heart? This is he who has the seed by
the wayside. When the broadcast method of
sowing the seed is used, it is only natural that some of the
seed falls in places where the farmer does not intend it to go.
When the Word of God is preached, the seed is not always
going to find lodgment in good and honest hearts.
Often the seed falls on individuals who care not to
understand God's word, who could care nothing for it.
There are several kinds of minds or hearts that may be regarded
as wayside, so so in which the seed of the Kingdom is wasted.
For instance, there are those whose minds wander while hearing
God's Word. The Bible warns in Hebrews 2,
one through three in Hebrews 2, one through 3.
Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we
have heard. Less we drift away forth, the
word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every
transgression and every and disobedience received a just
reward. How shall we escape if we
neglect so great as salvation, which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by her who heard
him? So there are people who hear the
word, and they don't want to take it in.
So we ought to give ourselves earnest heed to the things we
hear. Because when a person lets his
mind wander from the subject that is being considered, and in
his attention is not centered on the teaching of God's word, the
seed of the Kingdom is being wasted on him because it
produces no fruit. Another person may be looked
upon at wayside. Saul is the person who listens
to God's word with scorn. In X754 through 57 we read about
Steven and we read about Steven, and he's talking to the Jews and
an assembly there. They brought him in and tried to
charge him that he was speaking blasphemy against Moses and and
the Old Testament we know. And it really was speaking the
truth of what had happened to the Israelites.
And he came down to the point that he was telling them that
they were murderers, that they had murdered the Messiah, Jesus
the Christ. And in verse 54 he says when
they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they
gnashed at him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy
Spirit, now this is Steven, gazed in the heaven and saw the
glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and
said, look, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man
standing at the right hand of God.
Then they, those Jewish people cried out with a loud voice,
stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord.
And they cast him out of the city and stoned him and stoned
him. Talk about people that would
refuse to hear what was being said.
They simply scorned the word that was being taught.
So it's important that people listen and listen with an open
mind and that good heart. These were certainly sold on
which the seed was wasted. In Acts 24 we also hear the case
of another man who was typified by the wayside, saw his name was
Felix. He was a man of some importance
and authority, and the apostle Paul had reason with him of
righteousness, temperance, and of judgment to come.
And Felix listened, and it caused him to be stirred.
The Bible tells us that he trembled, but he says go away
for now, for when I have a convenient time, I will call for
you. Acts 2425.
He doesn't call for him to come back.
The seed was wasted, and all the reasoning and teaching that Paul
did availed nothing because of the hardness of Felix's heart.
There was nothing wrong with the seed that was sown, or was there
anything wrong with the man who sold it.
It was the condition of the heart of Felix that made it
impossible for that seed to produce fruit.
That seed that was sown in the wayside saw is just as good, a
seed that is sown in good ground.
If the teaching of Paul had found lodgment in that good
heart of Felix, it would have produced fruit.
But there was no good heart. It was as hard as the Kalichi
Clay. But the heart of Felix was too
hard to receive the seed of the Kingdom, and it availed nothing.
It was wasted. Some fell on strong Stony ground
or places where much earth where there was not much earth, and
the seeds immediately sprang up and they had no depth of of
earth. So this would be a seed that's
sown just by the Stony praise place and then the cracks and
crevices and it would pop up, but the sun would be there and
it was scorching because it was no root.
They would be withered away. You know, a good farmer's not
going to deliberately sow good soil and a Stony place.
Wow, there's a good crop of rocks over here.
Let me sow some seed over here. You might do it if you're doing
some type of wildflowers or something like that, but not to
get a good crop that's going to feed somebody that's going to
produce fruit. He knows that crop cannot
preproduce because. He has other soil in which the
sow seed. He knows that in such a place on
this, the root system will not be good.
It would be extremely difficult to say at least to reap the crop
if it ever produced. Obviously he wants to sow his
seed in the good ground in order to be reasonably sure he's going
to have a good crop. But when you broadcast and use
that broadcast method of sowing, it will naturally fall in some
Stony places. Jesus explains to his disciples
in chapter 13, verses 20 and 21, it says, But he who received a
seat on Stony places, that is he who hears the word and
immediately receives it with joy.
Yet he has no root in himself. But in there's only for a while.
For when tribulation or persecution arises because of
the word, immediately he stumbles.
So we're talking about someone that above obeys the gospel, and
then because the word hasn't taken proper root, they're going
to stumble and fall away. It is really better for someone
sometimes it's that they hear the word, but you need to hear
it, not just with a quick response or an emotional
response, because then the conviction's going to be too
shallow. The religion is superficial and
when tribulation and persecution come, they arise.
That person's going to be offended, quit, and stop serving
the Lord. It is better for a person to
weigh carefully what it means to follow Jesus before he responds
to the gospel. The example would be in Luke 9
and 57 through 62, verse 57 of Luke 9.
Now what happened? As they journeyed on the road,
that someone said to him that being speaking to Christ, Lord,
I will follow you wherever you go.
And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air
have nest. But the Son of Man is nowhere to
lay his head. Then he said to another, follow
me. But he said, Lord, let me first
go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead
bury their own dead. But you go and preach the
Kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I
will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell
who are at my house. But Jesus said to him, no one
having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the
Kingdom of God. You know the individual who is
typified by the Stony soul is is talked about right here.
The first man decided that he would follow Jesus without
counting the cost. Jesus pointed out to him that he
should realize what it means to follow him.
After he had explained this to the first man, he turned to the
second man. The 2nd man understood that
there was some sacrifice connected with it, but was not
willing to make that sacrifice. He excused himself by saying let
me first go bury my father. Now he might have been willing
to follow Jesus, but first he wanted to do something else.
He offered something that was reasonable excuse to himself.
Anyway, Lord, I will follow thee, but first let me go.
The third man, he says, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me
first go bid farewell to my house.
This is not seem to be unreasonable.
None of these situations might seem unreasonable to common
everyday people. But here the Lord is saying,
surely this people, if they're saying they will follow Jesus
Christ, they would need to follow him and do that.
We think about to the apostles that Christ called what did they
do? They dropped their Nets, they
dropped what they were doing and they followed Jesus Christ.
Matthew left the tax booth and followed Christ.
We have these people that would do this, but these men that they
met along the way and too many excuses, sometimes excuses for
us seem to kind of make everything okay.
It's all right. I don't have to do this.
I don't have to come to church services.
I don't have to read the Bible. I don't have to do this.
Well, you're putting yourself of of stirring up the soul and
maybe causing the dust cloud to blur your vision and what you
need to be doing in your life and serving Christ.
But you can't. It says here that we need no one
in the last that says no one, having put his hands on the
plow, looking back as fit for the Kingdom of God, can't turn
around and go back. If you're going to commit, you
must go forward. You must go on.
And in this parable, you're talking about seeds that grow.
And if it's a good seed and growing in a good heart, you
continue to grow. You continue to be that faithful
Christian that continues to go on and and supporting all that
is Jesus Christ. That is apparent here that Jesus
wants every man to consider carefully before deciding to
follow him. The resolution to follow Jesus
wherever he goes is the greatest that can be made before a man to
start serving Jesus. His desire to go to heaven must
be more important to him than anything else.
The thorny ground and some fell among thorns, and the thorns
spring up and choked him in verse 7.
Whenever seed is sown, regardless of how good that seed
is, if the soil is already occupied by other things, the
good seed cannot produce as it should.
The soil needs to be cleared of all weeds and former clot crops.
The soil must be perceived prepared to receive the seed
when the ground is ready. Then the seed will can be sown
with the expectation that it will produce.
I know there's a lesson that I've commented on before about
the unfinished prayer and that little poem that goes with that.
It talks about you have to make sure you're hoeing between the
roads. Even today I mentioned to
Charlotte, I need to get back out there and hold some weeds
that are growing up among the Oakland.
So we need to make sure that we we're keeping the weeds and
thorns out, because if the ground is filled with the we
cannot expect much. Likewise, when see the soul in a
heart that is occupied with the cares of this world, with money
and worldly pleasure, the Lord cannot expect very much out of
that life. In the parable, Jesus explains
about this individual who is considered thorny ground.
In Matthew 1322 we read where it's explained Doctor Matthew
here in verse 22. Now he receives seen among the
thorns as he who hears the Word, and the cares of this world and
the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word and he becomes
unfruitful. The thorny ground here pictures
a person who receives the Word, obeys the gospel.
He becomes a Christian, but in the process of time he allows
the cares of this world and a deceitful of riches to cause him
to become unfruitful. The World Word.
The Word is choked out of his life.
He does not have time to do what he should.
As a child of God, he no longer has time to take care of his
responsibilities and duties as a Christian and thereby produce
fruit for Jesus. Other things become so important
that the affairs of the Kingdom pale into insignificance.
The word is simply choked out the good saw, but others fell on
good ground and yielded A crop some 100 fold, some 60 and some
30. The Lord recognized that every
man is not able to produce the same amount of Christian fruit.
He points that out in this parable the good ground is
expected to produce. However, otherwise it would not
be considered good ground as we talk about the 100 fold and the
60 fold and the 30 fold. My personal thoughts, this is
just a personal thought on my part, is I have to think of it
like this. Everybody, every Christian,
every Christian needs to be contributing to the work of the
gospel, to being the best Christian they can be.
Some people have more abilities, so the expectation is they
should be producing maybe more fruit, as it were.
Somebody that is not as capable in some capacity is doing 60 and
someone less than 30. But the reality is, in my mind,
my personal opinion is every single one that's producing is
doing it at 100% of their effort.
They're doing what will please the Lord.
Everybody should be producing. Not everybody can stand up and
sing a song that maybe stirs the soul and the congregation.
Not everybody can be an evangelist and stand up and
teach and preach. But everybody has the ability to
sit down and talk with a neighbor and bring someone in to
hear the gospel word taught or sit down across and have a cup
of coffee and talk about it. Everybody has something to be
able to do. To be the good example, as you
go about from day-to-day to say a prayer, when you're in a
restaurant somewhere, someone come over and said something to
you. Then you speak to them and you
say, oh, well, next thing you know, you're talking about,
you're a member of the Church of Christ and there's some
something else, but you talk with them.
The next thing you know, they're coming and they're hearing
because hearing the gospel we know is the first thing you need
to be doing to understand it. Let us read now.
In John 15 one through 5 and John 15 one through 5 talks
about the vine. Jesus says, here I am the true
vine, and my father is the vine dresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away in
every branch that bears fruit. He proves that it may bear more
fruit. You are already clean because of
the word which I have spoken to you.
Abide. Excuse me?
Abide in me and I and you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you
abide in me. I am the vine.
You are the branches He who abides in me and I and him bears
much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.
So we need to make sure that we are that faithful Christian,
abiding in Jesus and the gospel word that he brought to mankind,
that which saves man through his precious precious sacrifice on
the cross, the blood that was shed on that cross.
So here we can see that this parable that Jesus expects every
branch to bring forth fruit. If we are considered good soul
in the eyes of the Lord, it is because we're producing fruit.
I may not be able to produce as much fruit as you do, or on the
other hand, you may not be able to produce as much fruit as
another here. But we all need to be producing
for God, and we don't need to limit ourselves.
We all need to work and strive to do more.
But He does expect us to produce as much as we're capable in
producing in order to be considered that good ground.
The good soil represents the good, honest heart.
When the seed of the Kingdom of soda and the good and receptive
heart the person obeys the gospel becomes a child of God.
Then he produces the fruit of the Spirit.
Paul the Apostle Paul says the fruit of the spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
maintenance, tempers against sons.
There's no law. Galatians 5/22/23 If we are good
ground, we will produce the kind of fruit in our lives.
If we have the ability to do something in the Kingdom, God
expects us to do it. If a man does not have the
ability God makes is not requiring that as much.
Do what you're capable of doing, but do it and do it with all
your heart and all your might and all your strength.
To Scripture, say, what we learn from the parable of the four
souls of the solar is that on good soil the good seed takes
root and produces fruit for God. Some produce fruit.
It says 100 fold, 60, and 30, but all produce according to
their ability. All are of 1 accord to produce
fruit for the glory of God. We must recognize that we obey
the gospel. We do not Bay it just to sit
down and relax. We obey the gospel to be useful
and working for Jesus. Our hands are the only hands.
The Lord has to minister the needs of mankind.
Our feet are the only feet. The Lord has to carry the gospel
to the loss since sick dying world.
Our miles are the only miles that Jesus has to speak His word
to the alien center. In the lost backslider we think
about Second Corinthians 47, but we have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not
of us. That earthen vessel.
It's each Christian sitting here today.
And in that earthen vessel is the gospel that you obeyed.
You know the word. You live the word.
So as faithful Christians, the treasure of the gospel exist in
us to be shared with others. As Christians, we are supposed
to be producing that fruit in our lives.
Then we're considered that good soul.
We each need to determine whether we are going to produce.
Christians are then to serve the Lord to the best of the ability.
This is the only way to be acceptable to him and the
judgment that we did. He's Ecclesiastes 12/13/14.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's
all. For God will bring every work
into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or
bad, in Revelations 2212. And behold, I am coming quickly,
and my reward is with me to give everyone according to his work
First Peter 225. For you were like sheep gone
astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and Bishop, or
overseer of your souls. As Christians we found Christ.
Those that have not found Christ, you need to have that
word fall on that good honest heart.
For those here today that have not obeyed the gospel, you have
a good heart, surely, And that word is there.
It's in that good heart. And we know that that good seed
that has fallen in hearts here is because people heard the
gospel. We know that Romans 10/17 says
that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
And I pray again this day that the lesson has been taught and
truth and spirit and in love, and that truly you can have
heard the word of God and it's been sown in your good heart.
Today believe Mark 1616. We're told that he who believes
it is baptized will be saved, but he who does not will be
condemned to be saved, be baptized to be that good seed
that's going to grow and grow and become a strong Christian.
Repent Luke 13 Three Christ says I tell you no, but unless you
repent you all like W Paris. We need to repent of those
scents, need to turn turn away from that life of the world and
turn to be able to live. For Christ be a seed that
produces fruit. Confess the name of Jesus
Christ. Matthew 103233 Jesus speaking
says, therefore whoever confesses me before men, him I
also will confess before my Father who was in heaven.
But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before
my Father who was in heaven. Then of course, the plan of
salvation one needs to be baptized, baptized into Christ
for remission of sins. Then Peter said to them, repent,
Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for
remission of sins. That's what they spoke to Back
to people, Peter on that Pentecost day and that first
gospel sermon was preached to the Jewish people.
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