"The Sower and the Seed" | Matthew 13:1-23 | Pastor Keith | Wednesday Night Prayer

Please take a seat. Open your Bibles to Matthew

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13, Matthew 13. Let's read from verse 18 to

start with. Therefore hear the parable of

the sower. When anyone hears the word of

the Kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked

one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.

This is he who received seed by the wayside, but he who received

the seed on Stony places. This is he who hears the word

and immediately receives it with joy.

And he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while.

But when tribulation or persecution arises because of

the Word, immediately he stumbles.

Now he who receives seed among the thorns, as though he is the

word, and cares of this world, and the cares of this world, and

the sea fullness of riches, choked the Word, and he becomes

unfruitful. But he who receives seed on the

good ground is he who hears the Word and understands it, who

indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold.

Psalm 60 and Psalm 30. Now Jesus in verse 18 to 23 is

explaining a story, a parable He had told back in verse 3 to the

disciples. Now I'm going to read, read what

he first said, verse 3. Behold, a soul went out to sow,

and as he sowed, 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. They immediately sprung up

because they had no depth of earth and the sun was up.

They were scorched, and because they had no root they withered

away, and some fell among thorns.

Thorns sprang up and choked them.

Others fell on good ground and yielded A crop, some a

hundredfold, some 60, some 30. Then Jesus says this, he who has

ears to hear, let him hear. Why doesn't the message of

Christ get through? Sometimes you know you're

sharing the gospel to someone and it's kind of like you might

as well talk to to a brick wall. And then others, Why do you,

some reject the gospel, you tell them the gospel, they go, I'm

not interested. Why do some, we see that in

church, some hear the gospel, receive it, but then fall away.

You go like, they're here for a couple of weeks and then then

they, yeah, they pop in and they pop out and then next minute you

don't see them. They fall away after an initial

start. Then finally there are others,

and we have some here tonight, some of you who hear the word of

gospel, your word of God, the gospel.

You receive the gospel and your lives are transformed forever.

You, you, you change, you're another person.

The answer is, and Jesus has given us the answer.

It all comes down to the condition of the heart, Warren

Weirsby says. The heart of the problem is the

problem of the heart. It's the soil speaking here, the

soil is our heart, the soil receiving the seed.

It's interesting to all the four types of soil.

Every one of them heard the gospel.

Remember when we went through the Book of Revelation, everyone

at one time was hearing the word of God.

They're hearing he threw the 144,000 through the two

witnesses and then to top it off an Angel was sent to every

tribe, every tongue, every nation proclaiming the gospel,

yet still many rejected and blessing God.

Why did Jesus use parables? That's a good question.

You know when he first went out, he would just teach repent the

Kingdom of God isn't here. Why then did this this change

come what brought this about that it says and from that

moment on he taught not only but only in parables.

What what is a parable? First of all, a parable is an

everyday story. Jesus is talking about a man

just throwing seeds, a farmer as they would do.

But then Jesus has given us an eternal meaning to it.

So it's an everyday story, but there's an eternal meaning.

John MacArthur says it's an ingeniously simple word picture.

Jesus tells a story, but there's an Jesus is using that story to

illuminate a profound spiritual lesson.

There's something in it that he wants us to hear.

James Montgomery Boyce says a parable is a real life story

teaching one or few truths. Warren Weirsby said that a

parable is placing the known talking about a siren, a seed

beside the unknown, the Kingdom of God, Satan and our soul and

our hearts with the condition of our hearts, how we hear the word

of God, how we relate to God. So the context is this, if you

just, we won't do it because of time.

But in chapter 12 of Matthew, Jesus was walking along with his

disciples. It's on the Sabbath day and

they're going through a field where the grain has grown.

The disciples are hungry, so they grab the tops of grain,

they rub it between their hands and then they blow the husk

away. Then they eat the grain that's

leftover and they've gone. The religious leaders say, hey,

hey, you guys are harvesting. It's the Sabbath.

They're working on the Sabbath. I mean, that's how stupid it had

become. And then on the same day, Jesus

is in the synagogue, as it was his custom to go to church every

week in the Sabbath. He's in the synagogue, there's a

man with a withered hand, and Jesus heals the man with the

withered hand and, and, and, and again, he's attacked for healing

on the Sabbath of Jesus. Hey, any farmer, if a sheep

falls down a hole, you do you. Just leave it in there because

it's the Sabbath, no? And then in chapter 12, Jesus is

healing people and they said you're healing people because

you've got demons, you're in in cahoots with the devil.

Blasphemy. So this was the, this was the,

the, the place in Jesus ministry where the religious leaders just

pulled and picked and threw everything at Jesus.

And there was a turning point because from that point forward,

Jesus then only began to speak to the crowds in parables.

The purpose Why? Why did he do that?

To reveal the truth, not to hide the truth.

People say well in band, to speak in parables.

So you know, it was to hide what you're saying, to make it, you

know, only that those on the end.

No, no, no. It was to reveal the truth.

But it was to reveal the truth to the humble, the hungry, and

those who wanted to know what is this story about?

What are you? What are you?

What are you teaching us? But it was also to conceal the

truth from the other section of the crowd, from the religious

leaders, the proud, hard hearted and the resistant ones.

No matter what Jesus did, oh, you're working.

You shouldn't heal on this day. Oh, now and you're healing and

we see the healing. So they can't.

He's obviously doing it. You're doing it by the devil.

So no matter what Jesus did, there was a reason.

You remember in John chapter 6, Jesus has fed thousands of

John 6 · chapter mention

people fishing bread and the people said, well we want to

make him the king. We can, we can have free feed

every night with Jesus. And then Jesus began to speak

about you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood.

And what did they say? Because they all left the big

crowd that came for the fun fair.

That's what church is about today.

Chuck Smith used to say, if you put on a show in church this

week, yeah, you fill the seats. But next week, to draw the same

crowd, you've got to put on a better show.

It's got to be a better circus. And so in John 6, when Jesus

turned down, he said you just have to bread fill your bellies.

And then he began speaking deeply about spiritual life

through eating His flesh, drinking his blood.

I said this is a hard saying, who can understand it?

There's your answer. You see, for some, as Jesus was

speaking about the sorrow and the sea, and he took with the

birds of the air, they grabbed hold of what he was saying.

How, how things can. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the weeds grow and you can get caught up in busy life and

or you start and, you know, I knew a bloke, he was really

religious for a moment and then he just disappeared.

He was just like up and then off.

For others, the parable bought deeper darkness.

So in the parable of the sower on the sea versus 3 to 9, the

seed, we're aware Jesus tells us in 18 to 23 seed is the word of

God. It's interesting.

So that means every time you sit under the word of God, God is

sowing the seed of his word somewhere.

The place where he's sowing it, if you're hearing it and we're

all hearing it, is the type of soil that's going to, it's going

to lodge and grow so people can come to church and go, Gee, that

was a great message. Just touch me.

You know, it's really impacting me.

I was pretty bored, you know? Yeah.

You know, and we have this sort of this, this, this way about

us. So the seed is the word of God,

the soil. What is that?

Four types means only one quarter of people actually do

something about hearing the word of God.

So based on these stats, we bring out the statistician on

Sunday, just 1/4 of the church gets it.

Just 1/4 of the people are are locking in the soil is the

condition of the human heart. Jesus says there's four

responses basically to each time the word of God is sown. 4

responses. He says there are four kinds of

hearts. The first heart hears the word

of God is the hard heart. Verse 19.

It lobs and the seed bounces. Now when we go to Nazareth in

Israel, we go to a village that's set up like the days of

Jesus and you walk through the village and we see it and they

show you the, the crops. And because of the way the

rockiness of, of Israel, it's just rocks everywhere and how

they would sew their plots. And there was no fences like we

have farms and like we have here.

And so you would have your plot and you would till the soil and

on either side of the soil. And you have to have somewhere

where you could walk because people also your, your farmland.

Well, that's where I go to the shop.

That's where I sell my donkey. That's where I go to get hay.

So you had to have paths through the areas where you were

farming. And so they were the, the paths

in and out of your, your, your, your little farm lot.

And we saw those in Israel and on the inside of that.

So the farmers on the path and he's showing.

Let's see. And some of the seed, no matter

how good a sorry is, some of the seed blows by the wind.

It lands on the on the footpath. And that that soil, that rocky

part in Israel, it's like concrete.

So it lands there as soon as it lands there.

It's like Sunday mornings here after church and the kids have

had biscuits out in the grass. It's funny how the seagulls come

to church, but they come after the service because they're

coming from the crumbs and the birds snatch the seed because

it's just sitting there not doing anything.

It's the devil stealing the word.

So you have it, you hear it, next minute something comes up

and it's just forgotten all about it.

The cause of people who had that hard hardness is sin hardens

their heart because sin just keeps on building calluses over

and over on our hearts to how we hear the word of God.

So if you came to church and you come to church and you're

regular, but if you're sinning through the week, what happens

each time you hear it? The the seed just bounces off

because you might be living in adultery, you might be doing

other things, you're being a thief or whatever.

You're just doing something immoral wrong against the word

of God, but you're going to church.

The seed ain't going to go anywhere.

It's just going to bounce off your heart.

In Romans chapter 1, Paul tells us that people who are hard

Romans 1 · chapter mention

hearted, they suppress the truth.

They know, I know I should do that.

I'll get around it, but I don't want to.

And so eventually they reject God and they spiral into worse

sin. And so the application of the

first one is, beware of resisting the Word.

Each time you hear it, greater judgement comes to you.

Each time you hear the Word, you don't do nothing about it.

Your heart hardens like Pharaoh and greater judgement comes to

you. Sin dulls our hearing until the

heart is so calloused it doesn't receive anything.

Then there's the the shallow heart, rocky soul verses 20 to

21 there's rocks there parts where the farmer, no matter what

you know it it, it, it has soil on the top.

But Israel has limestone rocks everywhere.

So it might look good in your farm lot, but underneath there's

only maybe a six inches of soil and underneath a solid capstone

or limestone. So the seed shoots up really

quickly because I've got nowhere to go.

Oh, beautiful. It looks good.

There's a quick response, but there's no depth, no root.

It springs up and joy. That's the person now and we've

all seen them. They're having an emotional

experience in church. A man for the first week or so

or two weeks, they are the loudest.

Oh man, I bought a Bible. I'm praise the Lord and they're

on and they're firing. But then they lose the job.

They have an illness and under the heat of trials they wither.

It might be persecution. Oh, here you're going to church,

man, you're crazy. Keep doing that, you'll lose

your job. Oh, didn't know that.

Well, hardship comes, something happens.

They just financially have a struggle at that time or they're

disappointed. I mean, praying about this and

this and it didn't come through how they thought it would.

I mean, praying for two weeks just got saved.

I thought God would answer everything.

So the application of that one is a faith of emotions without

roots will not last. See it all too often a burst.

It's like a skyrocket big * but it just goes.

You see, we need depth in Christ.

We need depth in Christ. And then the third one is the

strangled heart. I think that's probably the most

common in Western churches. I think probably the most common

in Australian churches today. Verse 22.

So they hear the word, it grows, but what happens is their lives

get busy and the cares of the world.

Well, I know I should be in church, but I've just got myself

into a new club or I've got involved in this, or I've signed

up for that or, or we're moving to this location.

I know there's no church there, but oh man, this is just where

I've wanted to live all the time.

Or I never forget John, Pastor John Miller saying to a couple

who were leaving a church where he was at the time and they're

moving and he said, so you found a church there.

Oh, no, we don't know if there's any churches there at all.

So you're leaving. We're here where you serve the

Lord. Your children are in fellowship,

you're growing in the Lord and you're going now he says, I

don't think I can't see, I don't see God very much in that.

And so it might be riches. Well, I, I've started my, my

business and I, I don't have time.

You know, I'm, I'm trying to make a living.

We always come up with a good reason.

So there's distractions. The danger is a gradual

strangling. They just fade off.

You see them. Haven't seen your church for a

while. Yeah.

You know, got a few things on. Worldly worries, wealth,

pleasures suffocate spiritual life.

Remember the rich young ruler, He said, I want to follow you,

Jesus. Oh, man, can I be one of your

follows, Jesus? Absolutely.

Have you done this? This.

Oh, I do all that sort of stuff. Yeah, absolutely.

Faithfully. He says, can't sell, you have

give it to the poor. Oh, hang on a minute.

And he walked away, or there's the guy who's the farmer who

said, man, I am doing well, man, I'm doing so good.

Said God didn't think he was. And at that night, because God

called the farmer a fool, that night, the Lord came from him

because he was thinking about building bigger barns.

He's just doing so well. And that night was the time of

his death. Luke 12.

So for you and I, we've got to be very careful.

What's the application of the strangled heart, the choked

heart we need to guard against, And I say this so much, being

too busy, too entangled with this world.

Paul says a soldier when he goes to battle, you can't be

entangled with the affairs of this world.

And we get too entangled. We actually can't grow in Christ

because we're tied up with everything else.

And then there's the fourth one, the last one, the good soil,

verse 23. That's an open heart.

What does the open heart do? And remember each each.

So each of these three so far have heard the word.

They've received the seed. The seed has landed on them.

They've heard it. But this time, as you sit there

and I still remember hearing the word of God that first Sunday

morning, we were saved on a Tuesday, went to church on a

Sunday, and I sat there and I was spellbound.

I could have sat under AI. They passed the Tom Whitaker

could have preached for 10 hours.

I would have loved it. And I thought, where has this

been in my life? And so you receive the word, you

understand it. Isn't it amazing when you become

born again? You tried to read the Bible

before and then you open it up and you pray and you're born

again and you're in you go. I understand this is very

simple. The Bible is very simple.

And it begins to bear fruit in your life.

Change begins to occur. You know, fruit.

We got a lemon tree. Finally.

It's we got a really good lemon tree and it's bearing fruit and

I never hear it working. I never hear it straining or

struggling. Flowers are blooming on it now

and soon lemons will come and it just happens.

And you know how I can tell that it's a lemon tree?

Because I can see the fruit on it.

You know how I can tell if someone's a Christian?

I can see the fruit, fruit. And so it receives and

understands it bears fruit, some 30, some 60, some a hundredfold.

And you know, you can tell an apple tree.

How do you tell a tree if it's an apple tree?

It's got apples on it. And so our lives, we people can

see you're, you're a Christian, aren't you?

I can tell. And they're not church people.

The only evidence of a genuine converted life is fruit.

The amount varies, but the presence of fruit is certain.

You're going to have a lemon tree and has 1 lemon on it.

You can tell it's a lemon tree even with just one lemon.

And so the application of this 4th 1 is this.

Examine your life. Paul tells us to do that.

Am I bearing fruit? That shows Christ's life growing

out of me. We can gauge what kind of tree

we are for the fruit that's naturally oozing out of us now,

the gardener, the soil. Soil cannot change itself, but

the gardener can. In Ezekiel 3626, God makes this

promise. He says, If you seek me with all

your heart, I will give you a new heart.

I will replace the stone of your heart with flesh.

You see, with man it's impossible to do that but with

God. Luke 1827 All things are

possible. God helps us get saved.

And so the fruitfulness depends on the heart receiving the word.

He who has ears to hear, they all heard, let him hear.

There's two types of hearers, the wise man and the foolish

man. Both heard the foolish man.

He heard, and he just went on and did his life without

thinking about God. He built his life, his whole

life on a foundation that when the storm came, when the trouble

came, his house collapsed. How often do we see that?

You build it on academia, you build it on finances, you build

it on false hopes and dreams. Something comes up and then it's

all gone. But the wise man, he dug deep.

In other words, he buried his life and his heart upon the

foundation of the rock which is Christ.

When the storm came, same storm, both people, wise and the

foolish, the wise man's house stood.

Your faith cannot be shaken, can't be stolen, can't

disappear. So Jesus, as we wrap this up

tonight, spoken parables not to confuse, but to call sentence to

salvation. It's people heard things and

they said I need to know more about this.

I had the first I want to ask you, what soil are you today?

As you sit here, the seed is going out.

Is it bouncing off your thoughts with something else?

Is it. Wow, Yeah, man, I remember I was

really on fire for the Lord two or three years ago.

Or has the seed being choked by the things that you, you you'd

like to be more involved with the Lord, but you just don't

have the time? Is it hard?

Is it shallow? Is it strangled?

Is it or is it open and fruitful?

You're one of these. Only Christ in giving you heart.

Let God plough over your heart. You know how God ploughs over

your heart? Because sometimes my heart gets

hardened. Sometimes the things of the

world try and entangle me. Sometimes my mind is, Oh yeah,

we need to, and I'm going, hang on a minute.

When I read the Word of God, the word of God ploughs over my

heart. It digs it up.

Keith, what are you doing? Where are you?

Nice of you to pray today. You didn't pray yesterday.

You haven't read the Word today. What?

What's what's going on? And God speaks to you.

Get the seed planted deep in you.

Be serious about the study of the Word of God.

There's no such thing as a verse here and a verse there and a bit

here and a bit there. That's not reading the Bible.

Read verse one and then verse 2, verse 3 and verse 4.

When you get when you can't read anyone, stop and pick it up the

next day from the verse that you ended up write down.

I don't know what that means. Keith, check out that word.

What does that mean there? Study.

Allow the seed to go into you. Meditate on it like Jesus, like

David did overnight. Teach me, teach me.

Each week we pray Hello, and each week we pray.

Part of our prayer is this. Lord, help me to understand your

word. Speak to my heart.

Help me to know your word that I may share.

Let it bear fruit. How by living out.

So as you read the word of God saying, yeah, though I found

that interesting and it tells you to do something tells you

about praying or or or forgiving someone or or just being humble.

Then apply that you hear the word, become a wise man, apply

it, live it out. Be the person that God wants to

change you into.