Ep 514 | The Parable Of The Sower - Dave Morgan 7/16/23

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

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

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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