Amen. Last week we ended our study in going through the Bible in a year, and today we are going to start a new study in this series. Now, this study we're going to find ourselves nestled in the New Testament the entire time. As a matter of fact, we're going to find ourselves nestled into the Gospels the entire time. as we begin to look at some of the parables that Jesus told. Now, if you were to go home or on your phone and do a Google search for parables of Jesus, you might find yourself with as many as 40, some would even count 50 different parables. And that's mainly because of how some people account for those parables. The word parable comes from the same root word as paraclete. You might recognize that word in speaking about the Holy Spirit. He is that paraclete who's called alongside to help. Well, a parable comes from that same root word, and a parable is something that is laid down beside something else so that we might get a better understanding of it. It is essentially a comparison. So, therefore, a parable, by definition, is a simile or a metaphor. Okay? We've used those terms in English, right? So, when it comes to counting parables, some will count any comparison that Jesus Christ ever made. So, for example, if Jesus Christ said, ye are the salt of the earth, then they would count that as a parable. That would be one for them. Now, we're not going to be dealing with those little comparisons like that. That's not the parables that we're after. We are looking for those extended parables, those that use a story nature in order to convey a spiritual truth. Now, I want you to understand that speaking in parables is not something that is just new to Christ. It is a common technique as far as teaching goes, and we'll see it even in the Old Testament as well. It was a very common teaching technique because it helped people to grasp something larger, something that they could not necessarily grasp just having it been explained. Now, Jesus, though, himself, you know, when we look at his ministry, he didn't start off preaching in parables. He didn't start off preaching in parables. You know, a lot of people just think that He just did that the whole time, but He didn't. As a matter of fact, if you begin your journey in the Gospel of Matthew and you start going through it, it won't be very long before you find yourself writing the Sermon on the Mount, right? And when you get into the Sermon on the Mount, you'll find that Jesus Christ didn't speak in parables at all. As a matter of fact, He spoke very plainly. and very directly, so that there was no mistaking what the interpretation was. There was no mystery involved whatsoever as we went through the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus taught us how to pray, when Jesus taught us how to handle forgiveness, or marriage, or whatever it might be. He spoke very plainly to us. But, you know, as Jesus was out there in His ministry, And he began to draw crowds, right? We see the crowds, they began to come and of course they were coming to see what he had to say, but not just necessarily what he had to say because there were many that were coming out because of the miracles that he did as well and they wanted to see this guy and see what he was doing and what he would do next. And because of that, we start to see some Pharisees come and question Jesus, right? Because they recognize that what Jesus is doing in teaching is not what they're doing in teaching. And they've got a hold on the synagogues, and now all these people are coming out and seeing Jesus. So they begin to go out and they question Jesus, and question Him over what He's been doing. And one of the greatest conflicts, of course, that Jesus had with the Pharisees was what? the Sabbath day, right? The Sabbath. What you could do on the Sabbath day. Now, the Pharisees were so concerned with work, and you doing work that if I were at my house, and I happened to fall on the Sabbath, and I was bleeding to death, or in danger, All you could do for me is remove me from the danger. You couldn't do anything to cure my wounds. You couldn't do anything to treat me, to keep me from dying, because that would be considered work. You know, if you were, you couldn't sit on a chair on a dirt floor. on the Sabbath, because if you scooted it, you might be plowing the ground. So, you know, they had all these rules, and here Jesus was going around, and He was teaching on the Sabbath, and He was healing on the Sabbath, and even plucking up grains of corn on the Sabbath, all these things, and it was making them mad. How could you do this? How could you teach people to do these things? Well, as we go on in Matthew there, in chapter 12, you find out they get very upset that Jesus was healing on the Sabbath, and they began to be very challenging toward Him. And they actually took up counsel then on how to destroy Him. And as the chapter goes on, you'll see that they accused Him of being of the devil. They said, you know, the only reason you're casting out these devils, unclean spirits out of people is because you're Satan. So these are the things that were going on against Christ at this time. Now why do I mention these things? I mention these things because when we get to the end of chapter 12, we have the religious world essentially rejecting Jesus. We have the Pharisees rejecting Him. We have the Sadducees rejecting Him. They've all rejected Him. And it's clear that they're not going to get along. So at the end, At the end of chapter 12 and the beginning of 13, Jesus shifts his ministry style. And he begins to teach in a different way. In chapter 13, he begins to use parables. Before this, he never did. Now the question is, why? Well, why did Jesus begin to teach in parables? Well, he gives the answer in verse number 11 of chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew. And it says, He answered and said unto them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall it be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Therefore, speak I to them in parables, because they sing, see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. So after Jesus had spoken to the Pharisees, and after they had plainly rejected his message, sought out secretly to destroy him, the beginning of destroying him, at that point in time, Jesus begins to speak to them in these parables. You see, they've rejected the message, so Christ isn't going to make it easy for them anymore. At this point in time, He's going to speak to them in parables, and it's going to be veiled from their understanding exactly what Christ is even speaking about. And by the way, verse 14 shows us that Isaiah prophesied that when the Messiah would come, that He would speak to the people in parables that they would not understand. So, even though most of the time, that we're going to look at, especially as we look in chapter 13 here, as we look at these things, we're going to see that Jesus Christ is speaking about familiar things that people would typically understand, things like farming, things like fishing, that the understanding of these parables for most of those that heard were not there. was not there. Even the disciples, the apostles of Christ, I should say, the apostles of Christ, when they listened to these parables, they didn't understand. How do we know that? Because after this we're going to read, they questioned, what did that mean? And he gives them the explanation. So, we understand that these things were veiled from most of the people. But you know what? As we go through these parables, we can have an understanding. We can have an understanding because Jesus Christ taught us the principles of interpretation of these parables and we also today have, again, the Holy Spirit to teach us from His Word as well. Now, chapter 13 is an important chapter. It's an important chapter because it really explains the time period that we live in right now. You see, the time period that we live in right now has been called many things. Some people will call it the Age of the Gentiles. Some people will call it the Church Age. Some people will call it the Great Parentheses. Whatever you want to call it, certainly is a time that is set aside, a period that is set aside that will come to an end whenever the rapture takes place, the tribulation begins, and the clock begins to tick once again for the nation of Israel. But during this time period, though, is what we're looking at in chapter 13. So I would like for you to read with me now, if you would, beginning in verse number 1 of chapter 13. And we're going to just look at the one parable today. Week after week, we're going to attack one or two parables. A couple of them are really small, so we're going to do probably a couple at a time. And most of the time, by the way, and you may see this in your Bible as it's titled the Kingdom Parables. The Kingdom Parables. And by the way, I want you to know in Scripture that there is no difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Those are synonymous terms. I've had people ask me over time, well, what's the difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven? Well, Matthew calls it the Kingdom of Heaven. He does this for a reason. You see, whenever Matthew is writing, he is writing to a Jewish audience. And that Jewish audience, they didn't like to write the word God out. As a matter of fact, if they ever did write it, they wrote like G with an underline and a D. That's the way they write it, except they do it in Hebrew. So they didn't write the name God because they didn't want to accidentally take His name in vain if they weren't thinking of God in the right way as they come across His name. So not only did they want to say it, they didn't want to cross their mind in vain. So, often time what they would do is they would substitute another word that would essentially mean God. So, if you say the Kingdom of Heaven, we know who abides in Heaven? Well, it's God. That's where God lives. So that's the Jewish way of not saying God, but still saying God. So kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God are the same thing. And again, sorry for that little interruption, but people have asked me that over time. So, Matthew 13, 1. The same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Now, this has been a very busy day for Jesus. If you look back in chapter 12, you'll see how busy He's been. He's been teaching a lot of the day. He's had conflict with the Pharisees this day, but now He comes down to the Sea of Galilee, and the crowds begin to gather around Christ to hear what He has to say. And we can only imagine how large the crowds are. You know, we've seen in Scripture where some of the crowds were more than 5,000 at a time. So we know potentially there could be a lot of people here. And as you get a lot of people around, it gets harder to hear, right? Especially if you're right in the midst of them. So, we see that Jesus Christ here goes out into this little ship here. Now, this little ship, you know, don't get the idea of some kind of big boat. These weren't big, huge sailing vessels, but just something to go out to fish upon typically. And they would have went out in this little small boat, pushed away from the shore. so Christ could remove himself from the crown. Now, I, of course, have never been to Israel, but anytime you kind of start to study these parables, they'll always show an example on the Sea of Galilee of an area where they think that this probably could have occurred at, because you have this great kind of hillside there. And it's all kind of set up as it comes down, and then there's, you know, the water there. It's kind of like an amphitheater. So, you have Jesus Christ out here, and you know how already your voice carries on the water anyway. But you kind of have this natural kind of amphitheater set up to where the people could hear. And I can imagine that as Jesus Christ was out there in that boat that probably some apostles were on both sides of the boat, right, to keep it steady. Otherwise he'd have been twisting and turning the whole time. So I imagine they're out there, they're holding the boat, and Jesus Christ begins to speak. And he's not going to teach like he's taught before. He's now going to begin to teach in parables. The people are going to listen. There's no great pulpit. There's no microphones. There's nothing fancy. It's just Jesus Christ speaking to the masses. Now, I'm going to read through the parable, and then we're going to come back and we're going to make comments about the verses that we find here. So, beginning in verse number 3, it says, And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some needs 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. And some fell among thorns, and thorns sprung up and choked them. But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now, let's return to verse number 3 for just a moment because we need to identify the sower in the text. In here we believe, first of all, the sower is none other than Jesus Christ. In another parable, Jesus Christ identifies himself as the one who sows the good seed. So, we're going to see in these parables, we're going to see a correlation and each of these parables between the figures that we see here. So, first of all, he is indeed the one who sows good seed. And what is that seed that he sows? Well, surely it is the gospel message, to believe on him so that you should have eternal life. It is the message, certainly indeed now in its fullest fruition, of a crucified and risen Savior. The message that Jesus Christ came to die and atone for the sins of men. Now Christ, of course, is no longer physically upon this earth, yet there are still sowers of the gospel message. The apostles and the disciples became sowers of the Lord's seed. His ministers today are sowers of the Lord's seed. Those who teach also are sowers of the Lord's seed, young and old. Anyone, anyone who goes out and tells others about the gospel of Christ are sowing the good seed. So in short, that should be every Christian, right? Every Christian should be a sower of the seed. That is our duty. Now, I want you to see. Nowhere do we see a requirement placed upon the sower except that they sow the seed. The Bible teaches the priesthood of every believer. That is, everybody has the ability to witness the gospel to others. You are an ambassador of light into the darkness of this world. I want you to notice, too, the results of the harvest have nothing to do with the sower. have nothing to do with his ability. It is the job of the sower to go out and to sow seed. That is all. The harvest depends rather upon what kind of ground that it falls upon. And folks, the seed falls upon the ground of the human heart. Here we see four responses to the gospel seed. We see no response, an emotional response, a worldly response, and lastly, a fruitful response. And all of those will flow out of the condition of the human heart. Look in verse number four. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them. Christ explains the meaning of this over in verse 19, so it's not a mystery to us. In verse number 19, he says what? When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart, that is, he which received the seed by the wayside. These are people who hear the word, yet they are hard-hearted in their response. The seed will not find a niche anywhere in their heart. There is not even a prick. The gospel has no effect on them at all. There is no understanding. at all. And I can tell you, folks, from this perspective, there are times that I sit here and I preach and I look at the faces of those who are here, and I know some of them could care less about being here. They're somewhere else. There is no effect whatsoever. Now, that just happens sometimes. Now, understand this. No matter who they are, it is still their responsibility to hear the Word of God. The responsibility of man to hear the word of God is always there. God has called all men to repentance. Did you hear that, folks? God has called all men to repentance. Now, we know the natural man cannot receive the things of God. It is nothing more than foolishness to them. We understand that God must give the increase. God must change the hard heart. But I want you to notice the birds here. the birds here as well. The birds are not a welcome sight in this parable. As a matter of fact, I don't think the birds are a welcome sight in any of these kingdom parables. But, I don't know if any of y'all have ever taken the time to feed the birds. Some of you do, especially in the wintertime. I know whenever things dry up and there's not a lot of food around, you'll take the time to go out and to feed the birds. And I used to feed the birds quite a bit. Austin was doing a project at one time where we had to watch for certain birds. And we'd go out. I'd notice you just put a little bit out. It didn't take them very long to find you. And you put out a little bit more and, man, there's a whole lot more to come. And they got to learn how you were going to do things. They knew when you were going to be out there in the morning. They knew when you were going to be out there in the evening. And as soon as you scattered that seed, man, they were coming in right away. You know, the same thing happens when the gospel message goes out. The Word goes out and it falls on that cold, hard ground. And then Satan comes and devours those words. How does he devour those words? He does it through the pools of life. The pools of life. He'll use the arguments of science, the arguments of philosophy, the desires of the flesh. Whenever the word is sown, Satan is there to take it away as fast as it comes. And not just particular Satan, but also, of course, all those who fell with him, those demons that work with him, that are united in their stand against the gospel. Let's look again here at the words of Christ in verse number 5. It said, 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. Because they had no root, they withered away. If you've spent any time outside and actually cared to look at something, you've found that plants will grow in some of the oddest of places, won't they? Every year I've got to go around and I've got to pull plants growing out of my gutters. They love to grow there for some reason. I've seen plants growing in the forks of a tree. I've seen plants grow in just about every place. And of course, I've seen them grow on a rock as well. But that, you know, is a plant that has no real root structure. It's just trying to get by on a little bit of dust on a rock that's there. And it might grow a little bit, but it will never thrive, right? It will never survive. It's going to spring up, but it's going to die. So too is the heart of a man. like this in many cases, a heart made of stony ground. Again, Christ gives us the interpretation in verse number 20. He says, but he that received the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. He hath Yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the world, by and by he is offended." I think perhaps that out of all the responses here, this is the one that saddens me the most. Because I know that many have responded in this way, and I believe here what we have is an emotional response to the gospel message. It's a message that falls on shallow heartedness. So much of evangelism today is based upon emotion. I don't know if any of you all have been to services where everything builds up to an invitation, a point of decision, point of choosing life over death, as they like to say. Week after week, it's the same thing. The sermons are usually fairly short. The invitations a whole lot longer. Emotional songs are played. Pleading is done. Pleading upon pleading. Sometimes they even have people walk back and almost try to pull people up to the front of the church. I've read where some larger churches will even have certain people at the end of the service to come forward as if they're making a profession of faith just to kind of get, they call them walkers, just to kind of come up so that other people feel comfortable in coming to the front to get saved. These are the tricks of modern evangelism. And they seek a feeling. A feeling. This art of a service, and that's what it is, it's an art, depends upon the ability of persuasion of the minister and the staff more than anything else. Remember what we said in the beginning, though. It is not the ability of the sower that gives the response. It's the ability of the soil and what's there. So what happens to many of these people because the truth is they've never been saved at all. They think because they've made a profession, they've made some kind of profession of faith because they've repeated a prayer, right? And that's what it's usually all about. It's all about repeating this prayer. A prayer, by the way, that is nowhere found in Scripture. Did you get that? That prayer is nowhere found in Scripture, not by words and not by example. Do you understand? And the Philippian jailer and others cried out to Paul, you know, what must I do to be saved? Paul never once said, bow your head with me in prayer and repeat this. Never said that one time. Not once. But what did he say? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what it's all about, folks. Believing on Him. That emotional response of pleading and repeating is not salvation. Too many people hang their hat on it. Just like the parable, they produce what looks like some good fruit for the moment. They come and they go to church for a while. Some go for quite some while and they just get one emotional high after another because it's the same thing week after week. But many just fade away. because their hearts are still made of stone. Let's look at the next response. Verse number 7. And some fell among thorns, and thorns sprung up and choked them. Whenever you plant something, you go and clear the spot out first, right? You go out, you clear the spot, you get rid of the weeds, you get rid of the briars, you get rid of everything around that's going to, you know, affect the growth. That's your desire. You know as well as I do, if you plant something even and you don't go back and tend to it, the weeds are going to choke it off. They're going to grow up faster than anything you ever planted. Look how Christ interpreted this in verse 22. It said, He also that received 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 becometh unfruitful. Here we simply have someone who is a lover of the things of this world rather than a lover of the things of God. The heart is consumed with thorns. Y'all remember when thorns first came to this earth? Back in Genesis in chapter 3, right? Thorns were a result of what? Sin. Sin. Thorns represent sin. And this response is a worldly response to the gospel message. You see, a man can hear the word, but he can't serve two masters. It'll either be God or it'll be the world. Look at the things that Christ said choke off the word. It's care of the world. That is the care of this present world more than the things to come. The care of the things right now that make them happy instead of what will bring them true joy. Christ says they put their faith in riches instead of the truth of God's word. Luke adds in this same parable the pleasures of life, which speak to us about the pleasures of sin, which bring destruction to the soul. Sad to say, most of this world seemingly desires to spend more time among the thorns of this life than to dwell in the gardens of God. You know, I think I've met many people like this and witnessing to them, and it seems like they understand that there's a God, and they know they need to make things right with God, but they always think they got tomorrow. They got tomorrow. But right now, you know, I'm not ready right now. I have to get rid of my Got to get rid of my friends. I got to get rid of some habits. You know, they always got all these excuses of things that they got to get rid of, but they don't want to get rid of them. They don't want to get rid of them because they've never been saved. You know, when you're saved, you want to get rid of those things in your life, right? You don't want them there. But let's look at the last response here. The only fruitful response that we see. In verse number 8 it says, But the other fell into good ground. and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. This is the seed that produces a harvest. The only seed that gives an increase that we've talked about. It is a seed that falls into ground that has been prepared. It is plowed, it is tilled, it is ready for the seed. Ground that is intended to keep the thorns of this life away, it's ready. Listen to what Christ says about this response in verse 23. It's so nice that He gave us the interpretation of all these, we don't have to guess. But he that receiveth seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word. And notice this, He doesn't just hear it, He understandeth it. He understands it. It has a meaning to it. There's something behind it. There's a punch to it. which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. So here we have one who hears the gospel, is affected by the gospel, and not only that, becomes fruitful himself to go out and to spread seed himself or herself. Here is the heart that has been prepared. prepared for the receiving of the seed. How is the heart prepared for the receiving of the seed? It's by the working of the Holy Spirit. Listen, all men may hear the Word of God, but without the Spirit there is no understanding. But when the Spirit comes and broods in the hearts of men, that seed falls, And one does not just hear with the physical ear, but one hears with a spiritual ear. One doesn't just hear about a man named Jesus, one understands that this man Jesus came to die for me. And there's a difference there. Now, how does God prepare the hearts of men or tend to that ground? Again, the Spirit uses people to do that. The Spirit uses people to share their experience and to witness Remember the words of Paul. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 6-8 says, I have planted Apollo's water, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither is he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So we see many people go out and, you know, we have people that come into us occasionally and they go to Sunday school class and the teachers go up there and they sow a little bit of seed. The Holy Spirit works a little bit. And they grow up and they hear some preaching and some more seed is going on. And then other people go out from the church or whatever and they witness and they talk with them and they see their lifestyle and that waters the seed some more. It all prepares for that moment in which they know Jesus for themselves and all of who He is. My friends, we are all fellow laborers. We all need to go out and tell others about Christ, just like others labored on you. The fields are truly white and they are ready for harvest. And all, of course, that are saved will produce fruit. They'll all bear fruit. You know, that's the mark of one who is saved, is that they bear fruit. Don't be afraid to bear fruit, folks. That's what you're called to do. And don't get discouraged when it seems like that others aren't listening, when others won't hear. When you witness to your family until you're blue in the face, to those that you love and they don't seem to hear. You just keep on sowing and you keep on watering. Don't get discouraged. The unfortunate thing is, folks, is Christ showed us that most of the soil where the seed is scattered is never going to produce any life. But the thing of it is, is we don't know what soil is what, do we? It's not our job to go out and Judge the soil and say, that man with tattoos over there and long hair, he's not ever going to hear it. I'm going to talk to this white guy over here that looks just like me. You know, it might be the old tatted guy that needs to hear it. This guy over here may never. Don't judge the soil. Spread the seed. Spread the seed. With that, let's end in prayer. If you would, bow your heads with me. Our Lord and Father, as we come before you at this time, Lord, we thank you for the day that you've given us. Lord, we thank you for our time together. Lord, we pray that you've blessed this time for our understanding.