Parables of the Kingdom - The Sower

[00:00:00] I appreciated the sharing time here today, and I think it's good for us to be able to share together as a body and share our hearts. I think it's really a benefit that we can do that. I'd like for you to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 13. The last time I preached, I preached the command of Christ where he said to seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. [00:00:40] Spoken in the context of not having an over concern for what happens to us and for the needs of life and so on. But he tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. I looked at what it meant to seek his righteousness from 2 Peter chapter 1. But I'd like to continue on here today looking more at the kingdom of God. [00:01:11] Because it's not an expression that we use a lot. That expression is used interchangeably with when the Bible talks about the kingdom of heaven. It's a kingdom that is here on earth, also in heaven, as the Lord's Prayer says. It's a kingdom that is not of this world, Jesus said. The origin of that kingdom doesn't come from this world. I believe it comes from God himself, from Christ. [00:01:42] He also says that kingdom is within you, meaning that it's among you. that it's not something that's just a visible kingdom necessarily but it's something that is spread throughout all of society and because kind of like salt is spread through society and the kingdom of God is among you. Now in Matthew chapter 13, this chapter is known of as the chapter that has a number of parables [00:02:15] Jesus teaches about the kingdom of God I'd like to back up just a little bit from chapter 13. I want to go back just a few verses before that to get the setting. [00:02:56] By the way, do the children have the pieces of paper? Did those get passed out? Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't see the children have those. Let's make sure the children get the pieces of paper. The outlines. Whose mailbox? Okay, they're in LaWayne's mailbox. [00:03:29] Let's just stop and get them. We'd like to have the children, you can follow along and let's have ushers, maybe several ushers get through and we can get those passed out to the children. Thank you. [00:04:15] Have me one, would you, Daniel? Did you ever write something down and you can't remember what you wrote? Okay. Remember the text? Found in Matthew, chapter 13. I'll give you the answer to the first one. How many parables did I say? Eight. You got it to the, you got the answer to the second one. [00:04:47] Alright. Now I want to back up on Matthew chapter 12. And we have something interesting happen here. And as I was studying this, I like to get things in context as I study. Because I think we can see such a fuller picture of something when we look at it in context. And I believe that something I had never seen before is that I believe that the end of Matthew chapter 12 gives us the setting for Matthew chapter 13. [00:05:19] Starting at verse 46 of Matthew chapter 12 it says, While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with him. And then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him who is my mother and who are my brethren and he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said behold my mother and my brethren he said you know he said your your your family wants to talk to you and he said this is who my family is and he he pointed to the people around him and he says for whosoever shall do and take just [00:06:05] Just take a pen and underline that in your Bible. Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. That's who my family is. And it is important to get that setting. Then you notice in that very first verse then of chapter 13, The same day went Jesus out by the house and sat by the seaside. and great multitudes gathered together unto him so that he went into a ship and sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore [00:06:43] and he spake many things unto them in parables saying, now I'll stop right there, I think there's a connection here and that connection is that he said about who his family is, who his kingdom is And I believe that it's in that setting then that he goes into these eight parables in chapter 13. So we see that the kingdom of God is made up of the family of God. [00:07:17] That's what makes up the kingdom of God. And it's going to be those that do the will of my Father. You see, that's really at the basis of what I've been trying to preach here for the last few years. And that is that the commandments of Christ, and they're more than just what we say. You know, we can say a lot of words. We can sing a lot of words. But he's saying here, it's those that do. Those that do. [00:07:51] Don't let anybody ever tell you that our works don't mean a thing. Don't let anybody ever tell you that. That's a false doctrine that people teach. And because this says it's what we do. Now I'm not saying that we are works, we're saved by our works. Faith is important there. But don't let anybody say works don't mean a thing Because our faith is displayed by our works By what we do Jesus, it says over in one of the books [00:08:23] Was it in the first verse of Acts or the first verse of Luke It says all that Jesus began both to do and to teach You know, that always is a part of that So, that's being a part of the kingdom of God that we have there. Now, going on then, now he reads a parable, or he speaks a parable here to the people. [00:08:56] And this is the parable that he gives. 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. Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up 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. [00:09:27] And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them. Another fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now, we have here, he makes that statement. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. He's not talking necessarily about these things that are on the side of our head. We all have those. And probably most people can hear. [00:09:59] Now, I can't hear very well sometimes. But I can still hear. But he's not really talking about that kind of hearing. It may take that kind of hearing to start with, but he's talking about a different kind of hearing, and we'll get into that in a little bit. Now, the disciples responded to him in this. I get a feeling as I read these parables that probably Jesus gave these eight parables. I'm not sure if all of them were given to the multitudes. [00:10:36] He says in verse 3, he spake many things unto them in parables. And so I think here he might have, you know, later on after he spoke the parables, they came to him and asked him about some of these things. So I'm not sure exactly how all of that happened. But we see now in verse 10, it's interesting that the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? Why do you speak in parables to the multitude? They didn't ask him, they didn't ask him, explain that parable to us. [00:11:10] Maybe they understood it, I don't know. But they said, why are you using parables? Why do you say, we're not, you know, the people don't, maybe they were saying, the people don't understand what you're saying. And so Jesus explains to them why he's using parables. And at first glance, and at first reading, you might get the idea, he doesn't want them to understand. But I think it's something that is deeper than that. [00:11:42] Now, we read here, let's just go ahead and read here through verse 7, or let's just read through a few verses here. In verse 11 he says, The reason here is because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. There's that phrase. He's saying to the disciples, I want you and you've been allowed to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Here again our reaction to that could be, well that's not fair. [00:12:15] Why would he open it up to the disciples and not to the general population there? And then it really gets kind of different or you say, well, this isn't fair in verse 12. 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. [00:12:47] Boy, now that really seems unfair, doesn't it? We, you know, we live in a time where everybody needs, you know, everybody has to have the same. And, but he's not talking about money, he's not talking about material things here. He's talking about spiritual things. Now let's keep on going. Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. Now, is that possible? [00:13:22] When we speak the word of God to people, is it possible that, you know, some things are very simple to us as believers, aren't they? They're just very basic and very simple. And yet, to some people, they don't mean a thing. What's the matter with you? Why can't you understand this? I had a similar experience here a while back. [00:13:55] You remember when some of us went to Science and Industry, went to South Bend, got to train, took it up there a few blocks from the Science and Industry and spent the day there and had a good time. And I remember going through one part of the Museum of Science and Industry there in Chicago, And it was a part that had to do with communications. And it was talking about how computers work and that kind of thing. [00:14:27] And then a part of it, if you remember, had it said, what are we working on for the future? What is our future holding for communications? And I looked at some of that and I was just plain lost. I didn't understand the first thing they were talking about. It was just like, didn't mean a thing to me. And as I thought about that, I had to think, you know, really, that's how the gospel is to some people. [00:15:05] And at that point, I had to make a choice. I had to make a choice about what I was looking at and what they were saying. I could have made the choice that I'm going to dedicate my life to understanding what this is all about. I'm going to go back to college, and I'm going to just simply study all of this so I can understand it. I didn't make that choice. I said, that's way beyond me. This Dick Culp can't take all that in. [00:15:39] And I walked away from it. But you know, that's how it is. That's how it is with people with the gospel. Now there is some other differences than that because I believe the Holy Spirit needs to open up a person's heart. But I believe there also needs to be a willingness and a choice that we make. Where we say, I am going to, I want to know about this. And I'm interested in what the Spirit of God and what the Word of God is saying. [00:16:12] And I believe when we can make that choice, then the Spirit of God can open up our hearts. But it's almost here, it sounds like, Jesus is saying, I'm going to hide these things from people. They're going to see, but they're not going to understand. They're going to hear, but they're not going to perceive what this is about. He goes on in verse 14 and he says, And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, and this is what Isaiah says about many, many years before this, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. [00:16:50] Believe, for this people's heart is wax gross, it's dull, it can't take it in, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. I believe the thing that we miss sometimes in that verse is, these people made a choice. They made a choice in there. [00:17:22] He said that, he said their ears are dull of hearing because they haven't wanted to hear. It says they have closed their eyes. They closed their eyes. They've seen the truth, but they closed their eyes to it. Their ears, they shut their ears. You realize you could be hearing, you could be hearing something and you can shut your ears off in a sense. Sometimes when people are talking, and you know that's one of the dangers of talking too much. [00:17:56] Sometimes when people just talk and talk and talk, after a while you just tune it out, don't you? And that's one of the dangers of talking too much. So, and we have that ability to do that, and that's what we do spiritually here. You just tune it out. And I should heal them. He said, they're afraid that something's going to happen to them. And so they just disregard him. Now, he goes on in verse 16, and he says, [00:18:26] Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. You are blessed, and we are blessed today, because we have been allowed to hear and to see these things. God has opened them up to us. He says, For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to seek those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. [00:18:57] A lot of people, he said, would have liked to have seen these things that you're seeing, he was saying to his disciples. You know, I believe that when we hear the word of the kingdom, and we hear the word of God, I believe the Lord is only going to open up our hearts if we're serious about really receiving what he has. But if we're just going to disregard it and ignore it, he's going to close our hearts up [00:19:28] and not be able to receive what he wants us to hear. Now, let's go on. He then, on his own, begins to explain the parable. Now, I think it's in the next parable. We're not going to get into that one today. But in the next parable, I think the disciples themselves asked for an explanation. But I noticed in this one they didn't. Jesus went ahead and gave it. [00:20:00] And by the way, one of the keys as we look at these parables here in chapter 13, one of the keys of being able to understand these parables is that in those places that Jesus gives an explanation of something, I think those explanations carry through to the rest of the parables. For example, here he talks about a field. And in the next parable, he says what that field is. [00:20:31] He says the field is the world. And in different ones of the parables, you'll see there's a field. And I believe that in each time, that field is always the world. In each parable, I shouldn't say in each parable, but oftentimes in the parable, there's a central figure in that parable. And I think you'll find that's Jesus, that you carry that through each one of the parables. But read the parables in that way, and I think it'll help us to make sense of them. [00:21:02] Now, he begins here to explain this parable. And I know people look at these parables in different ways. But I look at it as four different ways that we respond to the words of the kingdom, to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I think when we talk about these words of the kingdom, I think we're talking about really the entire New Testament. I think we're talking about the word of God here in the New Testament. [00:21:37] I think it all is included there. First of all, he talks about the wayside. verses 19 to 21 he's saying here that hear you therefore the parable of the sower when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom that's the word of God and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catches the way that which was sown in his heart this is he which receives seed by the wayside Now, I'm sorry, I guess that's just verse 19, the wayside. [00:22:17] I had to think about, I picked up that letter from the Creation Museum out here this morning that Danny was referring to. And it was quite an amazing thing that they had 280 some people that declared themselves as atheists and agnostics and so on. that went to the Creation Museum. By the way, how many have been there? Okay, a number of you. If you haven't been there, it's well worth your time and money to go. [00:22:49] So that was interesting. We went there, and Danny and Gloria were there. I just happened to think about that. At the time Marjorie and I went, had no idea they were there, and we run into Danny and Gloria there. But anyway, all these came, and they came with the express purpose of mocking. And I think they had to ask one person to leave or they removed one person because of his conduct But they wanted to gather material in order to be able to mock and ridicule the Christians [00:23:21] And I had to think of this passage right here I believe that God's word hit those people that day when they were there Probably most of them, Satan snatched away the seed. Was there some that he didn't? I don't know. We need to pray that there was some that the seed took root. But I think that's a good example of how Satan can snatch away what is heard. [00:23:58] And that's what happens too often. Because the ground is hard, our hearts are hard. And the word of God can come and can just snatch it away. So they just simply rejected it. I think that people think about that, they think this is a lot of foolishness when they look at it in that way. [00:24:29] So, we need to pray that God's word can continue to work in people like that. Not give up on them. But that's at that point is what has happened. And Jesus said that's how the word falls on people like that. They cannot stand before God someday and say, I never heard. Didn't know anything about it. They had an opportunity and rejected it. So that's the wayside. That's the first one. And then you get into verse 20, and this is the second kind of soil that some of that seed falls into. [00:25:08] But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. They're really, boy this is great, they're really glad for what they're hearing. And, you know, maybe they really get excited about it, of hearing the Word of God. Why, this is an answer to my problems. And, boy, this is just great. It's popular. [00:25:40] You know, do you realize that Jesus can be popular as just a popular fad to people? I think that happens. And, oh, I see my friends, they're talking about Jesus. And so I'm going to talk about Jesus. This is popular. One of the things I think that can happen here, maybe this strikes where we're at, and that is, you know, my friends are getting baptized. Maybe I ought to get baptized too. That's not the reason to get baptized. That's not the reason to join the church. [00:26:15] That's not the reason, you know, that needs to come out of a real born-again experience with the Lord and where we're living for the Lord. And that's important. So, but he says, that's like getting on the stony ground. It says at first they really have a lot of joy, they're glad, but then something happens. Verse 21, Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while. In other words, for a while it goes on. For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. [00:26:50] Now that's sad. Here's somebody that is really excited about the Lord. But all of a sudden, I don't know, there's something about the Word. There's something there that they don't want to follow. There's something there that they don't like in the Word of God. That cramps my style, you know. That brings conviction to me. Or somebody's making fun of me. or any kind of thing there that can happen. [00:27:22] But for some reason, they get offended. Well, that's the way Christians are. I'm not going to have anything to do with this. Now, that doesn't mean we can go around offending people or that type of thing. But if we don't establish ourselves, if we don't put roots down into the Word of God and realize that there are things that are going to hurt us. There are things that we're going to face. We're going to be misunderstood at times. [00:27:55] But my confidence and trust is in Jesus Christ and His Word. And regardless of what else happens, I'm going to believe it and I'm going to stick with it. That's important for us. But if we're going to let somebody else offend us because of what they said or some kind of a persecution of some kind Then it's just saying that's like a seed that fell on this stony ground Then verse 22 we get the third one, Jesus explains now the third one [00:28:30] He said he also that receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he become unfruitful. There's two things there that can destroy the word of God in us. Two things. Now, notice carefully the first one. Notice carefully. [00:29:02] How do we usually say what that first one is? We usually say the cares of this world, don't we? Or the cares of this life. Is that what it says? What's it say? The care of this world. I never noticed that before. Now, usually we think about that as worry and fretting and being overtaken with all the things that we're doing and that sort of thing. [00:29:38] And that is. I'm not doubting that at all. I'm not doubting that in the least because I think that those things can choke out the word of God. But just think about it a little bit in the fact it says the care of this world. I noticed in my Bible it had a reference over to 2 Timothy 4.10. Let's just go over there. 2 Timothy 4.10 [00:30:14] It says, For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica. Does that give you just a little bit different slant on that, the care of this world? Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. And so I think involved in this whole thing of the care of this world is the fact that our heart is still in the world. [00:30:45] Our heart still yearns for those things that we wish we could do. We can't do it. Church says I can't. Preacher says I can't. And, you know, all that type of thing. I'd sure love to do it. And he's saying, that is, or parents say I can't. I should include that. You know, when our heart, when our heart is really not in the Word of God, [00:31:16] Then I think he's saying here that it's going to be just like that seed that's up around those thorns. And those thorns are going to take and they're going to choke it out. They're going to choke it out. Now Jesus gives another thing here too. And he says that the other thing that chokes out the word is the deceitfulness of riches. Boy, that's something we can identify with, can't we? [00:31:51] We live in a rich society. The deceitfulness of riches. Did you ever stop and think about that phrase? Did you ever stop and think, you know, how many times have we thought, you know, if I just had enough money, I could really be happy. All my problems would be solved. I could, you know, I could just, I could just be at peace. If I just had enough money, everything would, well, everything would just, just be fine. [00:32:24] Isn't that one of the deceitfulness of riches? What does the Bible tell us about money? The love of money is the root of all evil. And if we have that love of money in our lives, and our life is geared around money, there's going to be evil come into our lives. It's going to bring evil. And it's not going to be peace. It's not going to be our problems are all taken care of. [00:32:55] You're going to find a load of problems and a load of trouble. But money does not have its proper perspective or proper place in our lives The deceitfulness of riches He said that's going to choke out the word of God It'll choke it out Just like those thorns and the weeds and all those types of things Where something is trying to grow Now he comes to the very last type of soil And he says here, this is the good ground [00:33:27] And he said, this is a ground that, but he that receives seed into the good ground, is he that heareth the word, hears the word, and understandeth it. And here again, the Spirit of God is working there because they're allowing the Spirit of God to work. And not only do they understand it, but it grows and it bears fruit. and bringeth forth some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. [00:34:05] The good ground is one where a person hears the word of God. And it goes on. It wasn't there just for a little bit, but it put down its roots. It got rid of the weeds around it. And it grew. And it was established. But you know, God, and we see this in the plant world, we're rural people and we understand crops and that type of thing. [00:34:37] You don't go out and plant a field of corn just to watch it grow, do we? You don't put sweet corn in your garden or all the other things in your garden just to watch it grow. There's a purpose for it. You put it there because you were expecting something from it. We're expecting fruit from it. Now, when he talks about fruit here, he's not talking about just pears and apples. He's talking about corn and beans and any kind of something that comes from it. [00:35:09] And he says that it can bring forth a hundredfold, a hundred times itself, or sixty times itself, or thirty times itself. But it reproduces itself. And I believe fruit, for the Christian, there's really two areas here I believe that's important. You go over to Ephesians chapter, I think it's Ephesians chapter 5 or 6, and then Galatians chapter 6. It talks about the fruit of the Spirit. [00:35:40] Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, mercy, and all those things. That's a fruit of the Spirit. That's something that needs to magnify itself and keep growing in us. But I believe the other fruit that he's talking about here is really reproduction. Reproduction. Why would you say if we could reproduce ourselves a hundred times as believers, what would happen to the church? What about even 60 times or 30 times? [00:36:16] It would be quite a thing, wouldn't it? I thought I'd illustrate that a little bit this morning. That of the kind of reproduction that can happen to us from just one seed. That's a nice ear of corn, isn't it? And that corn, that ear of corn, came from one seed. Planted in the ground. [00:36:50] But there are many kernels of corn on it. There's approximately 640 kernels of corn. Now Jesus said it was tremendous if it was a hundred, didn't he? Or sixty or thirty. So that has about 640 kernels of corn on it. Another ear of corn, not as big, and it's quite a bit smaller it seems like. [00:37:26] And yet, in that ear of corn, out of one kernel of corn, you've got about 420 kernels on it, approximately. 420. That's quite a growth, isn't it? Then I've got one more ear here. Looks pretty sad. We would say that's a crop failure, wouldn't we? And we'd say, if I had a field of corn like that, that wouldn't pay the expenses. [00:38:05] It'd be pretty hopeless, pretty poor. You know how many colonels are on that here? If I counted right, 135. Now, I had to think about that as I read what Jesus said here. You know, we think sometimes we always just have our sights set on, I'd like to do this. [00:38:41] I'd like to be this. We might say, that's Billy Graham, or that's Billy Sunday, or some other great evangelist, you know. Or, at least I like this second one that I had. But this one here, oh no, I don't want to be anything like that. But you know, God even uses that. He even uses that, what we would call a little puny ear, and it's reproduced itself 135 times. [00:39:23] I guess I just give that illustration to help us to see that, you know, we can kind of set our, we can kind of put our goals sometimes so high that we never do anything, we just give up. And we think that that's impossible for me to do. But the Lord, you know, at first glance, we look at this, he says 160 and 40, and we say, oh, look how terrible that is. [00:39:58] Look how high he put that. And yet we've got this here corn that is even above that. Doesn't that give us hope? I think it should. That God could even use that kind of an ear to reproduce and to reproduce his kingdom. You know, I believe that was the goal here of this parable. Jesus is saying, you know, the word of God goes out to a lot of different places and a lot of different people. [00:40:34] And it's going to depend on how we receive it. But if we receive it into our hearts, and it becomes a part of us, and we grow in it, then the next step is God wants us to reproduce ourselves. He wants us to tell that good news to others. He wants to let others know about it, so that others can also be brought into the kingdom. That's God's method of growing his kingdom, is that we tell others. [00:41:09] That's a challenge for us. That's hard for us to do sometimes, isn't it? But I believe that's what God intends for us to do. And so let's be the kind of soil where that kind of reproduction can take place. Remember, this goes back to what Jesus told his disciples. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And I believe that goes for the reproduction, too, that we need to have in our lives. [00:41:43] That if we seek first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added. And his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. Let's stand together for a closing prayer. Father, I thank you so much. I thank you, Lord. I thank you just for the joy and the privilege of studying and knowing your word. [00:42:14] Lord, I thank you that you have opened up our hearts to understanding. And I pray, Lord, that we could take the things that we have been enlightened to and to use them And to let our hearts be hearts that are good soil, that we can grow And your word can take root, and then fruit can be born Oh God, we just thank you for that this morning Work in each one of us Help us, Lord, to be faithful Help us to honor you in all that we do [00:42:46] And I pray you dismiss us with your blessing In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.