We're on the parable of the sower this evening. This is the country version. Okay. It'll be different. One of the things we need to realize that in Jesus' day, the economy was agricultural. And a lot of the illustrations that he uses in the scripture are agricultural illustrations. And this is especially true of the parable of the sower. And so we wanna look at it carefully this evening. And I've got two computers running today. So if I get confused, you understand my confusion, okay? Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his word. We thank Thee for His ministry on earth, and we thank Thee that during that ministry, He gave us very specific instructions on how to lead people to Christ and how to see them mature in the faith, and we pray that You would help us to see that this evening. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Chapter 13, verses 4 through 9, Jesus tells the parable of the sower. And then the disciples came to him basically and said, how about interpreting that into English for us? In other words, explain the parable. Now, all parables in the scripture are not explained as completely as the parable of the sower is. So when Jesus explains the parable of the sower, that's all it can mean, okay? So it's not gonna mean anything else. So we need to realize that. We're gonna begin reading with verse number 18, down through verse number 23. Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee for his word, and we pray that your Holy Spirit might lead us into all truth, and we might be attentive to go out to live it in his power, that Christ may be seen in us and might be heard from us, and we might be true epistles written in the fleshly tables of our heart. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower, 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. This is he which receives seed by the wayside. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and in on with joy receiveth it, yet hath he no root in himself, but doeth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that receiveth seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world, and the seedfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that receiveth the seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. If you look at the scripture, In verse 3, he says, and a sower went forth to sow. In other words, he's planting seed into the ground. Verse 19, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom. Verse 20, he that heareth the word with joy. Verse 22, he that heareth the word. Verse number 23, he that heareth the word. So the Bible tells us very clearly what the parable is about. It's about how we hear the word. That's why you come to church. That's why you have your own personal devotions. That's why you go to Sunday school. That's why you have ladies' meetings, and men's meetings, and teen meetings, and college meetings, and all that kind of stuff, so that you can hear the word. This parable shows us how the word is received and what we must do to see it bring forth fruit. So it's the parable of the sower. There are two types of people who hear the word. This is really complicated, okay? Number one, unsaved people. The Bible says, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Nobody's gonna get saved unless they hear the word. And God expects you and I to make sure that people hear the word. And that's our job. The second group of people are the people who are already saved. Probably, that includes most everybody here. The reason you're here is not to hear me. The reason you're here is to hear the word, I hope. That's why you're here. That's the purpose of a church. that we're hearing the word. It is the word of God that saves, it is the word of God that sanctifies, that is the word of God that conforms us to the image of Christ and so we hear it. So the parable of the sower has to do with both the saved and the unsaved and how they hear the word. There's a city method and the country method of people getting food and winning people to Christ. I've been in a number of churches and I don't preach this message in city churches because they don't understand it at all. But one of the things that I said one time in one of those city churches is where does food come from? Walmart. True. Where does Walmart get the food? From a truck. True. Where does the truck get the food? No clue. It gets it from the farm. Isn't that weird? You can go to the grocery store and you can buy food. Or you can work in the garden and grow food. When you go to the grocery store to get food, somebody worked in the garden so that the truck could pick it up and haul it to Walmart and you can get food. That's the way it works. When I lived in Pennsylvania, we got whole milk from the farm. How many know what whole milk is? Okay, good. I thought I was going to be in trouble there. And my brother lives in Greenville, South Carolina, and he had three little girls at the time, and they were up visiting us. And I said, how would you like to go to the farm and watch the farmer milk the cows? Yes, that's wonderful. So we went to the farm and I knew what time the guy was gonna be milking cows and he had a pipeline system. How do you know what I'm talking about? Okay, if you don't, doesn't mean anything. And they put the milkers on the cows and the milk went up through the milking machine and piped over to the big tank and the farmer never touched the milk. And they were kind of impressed with that. And I thought, well, that was a good education for those city kids. And we got back home, and Jan poured them out some milk, and they said, Aunt Jan, we don't want any of that milk that come from the cow. We want the milk that came from the store. So Aunt Jan went to the store and bought a quart carton of milk, and we refilled it from those horrible cows that live on the farm. There's no food in the store if somebody didn't grow it on the farm. There is no instant growth. So you're able to eat roast in ears right now. You know what? When did they plant that? Yesterday? Last week? Last month? May or June, right? It takes some time. If I go and buy a tomato plant and put it in the ground, how soon can I eat tomatoes? Tomorrow, right? No, it takes some time. And one of the things when we're working with the seed of the word of God a lot of times, we don't want it to have any time. We want it to happen like right now. There's a city method to harvest crops. in which case there's not gonna be any crops in the future. They raise apples in Hendersonville, North Carolina, right? Suppose I have an easier way to harvest apples. Suppose when the apples are ripe on the tree, I come along with a chainsaw and cut all the trees down. I don't have to climb a ladder to pick apples. I don't have to climb the tree to pick apples. I can just pick apples. That's wonderful. There's only one problem. You know how many apples I'm going to pick next year? None. You know how many apples I'm going to pick the next year? None. How many am I going to pick the next year? I'm not going to pick any more apples. You know, in our circles, we can do chainsaw evangelism. And then we wonder why nothing's happening. The flowers and the strawberries happened to me when we were in Grace Baptist Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, many decades ago, back in the 70s. And I'd planted a bunch of tomato plants, I mean, excuse me, strawberry plants out there, and they were in blossom. And my youngest daughter comes in the house with a handful of white flowers. And I said, honey, where did you get those flowers? She said, outside. I said, where outside did you get those flowers? She said in the garden, you know what? I knew I wasn't gonna get any strawberries that year. You can pick things before they're ripe. Do you understand that? You can. And we're working with people to bring them to salvation a lot of times, we're ready to pick before they're ripe. You know, when something's ripe, you don't have to pull the plant apart to get the fruit off. If it doesn't come off easy, it's not ripe. And when a person is convicted by the Holy Spirit and they're ready to be saved, it's an easy picking. But if you're pulling and tugging and you're like, you're gonna pull the plant out by the roots, it isn't ready yet. If we are to see people wonder the Savior matured in faith over the years, we must use the country method. That's the parable of the sower. Verse 19. Here's a person who hears the word, and the Bible uses the word, understandeth it not. Okay? He's the person by the wayside. Now, the wayside is not the intended place for the seed to fall, but someone falls there. Sometimes people just passing through hear the word. They may hear you talking to somebody else, but you weren't talking to them, but they heard the word. So, It's by the wayside, accidentally. It's not where the seed was intended to fall, but it fell there. Guess what happens to it? The devil comes along, the wicked one in the verse, and catches the way that was sown in their hearts. It's called distractions. This is he that receiveth seed by the wayside, and those are distractions that keep the word from being heard. When two people go out to do visitation, one of the persons is the person sowing the seed, and the other person is the person handling the devil. Right? Distractions, okay? Have you ever been trying to share the word of God with somebody and the baby's having a problem, okay? And mama's gonna take care of the baby. She's not listening to the word, okay? Or the television's on. Or something else is going on and they're really, really not listening. I've been in some Christian colleges and universities and I've sat behind some young people who had their Bible on their laptop and I have no problem with that at all. But when the distraction occurs, somebody texts them and they have to deal with that issue. And the pastor's preaching, there's a problem there. You know what happened? The devil got into their cell phone, okay? And he created a distraction. And the purpose of the distraction is to make sure they don't hear the word. So when we come, we have to put all those distractions aside. You know, like my family in Florida is sitting under the eye of the hurricane, like right now. Okay, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. God, please take care of him, forget that, he'll do okay. Okay, that's how we handle that. We need to learn how to handle distractions because that's the devil's tool to keep people from hearing the word. and we have to make sure that they hear it. They need to make sure that they hear it. You need to make sure as a believer when you come here and pastor has spent time prep, that you're listening to what he's saying because it's what God has given him for you, for me. That's why we're here. We have to concentrate upon the word when it is being preached. This is a message from God. I've got to get this message. There's a reason for this message. I had a garden in Pennsylvania. All kinds of stuff in there. And I looked out there one day and here comes Mr. Bunnyhop hopping along, nibbling on this, nibbling on that, nibbling on this. So I figured I'm going to solve your problem. So I went and got the gun and fed him to my German shepherd. Guess what happened the next day? Here comes another one of those things. Little bite out of this, little bite out of that. The German shepherd ate rabbit for the next three weeks. But after that, I didn't have any visitors. The critter of distraction is prompted by the devil to keep you from hearing the word. When you're trying to witness to someone who is unsaved, the devil, the critter of the devil, real live person, is trying to keep them from getting saved, to keep them from hearing the word. Number two, he that receives seed into the stony places. Now, There are some places in the world where there's more stones in the ground than others. We have enough in North Carolina, if you've ever worked the ground. Where I live, we've got tons. If you need more rock, come by, see me, and I'll give you whatever you need. There are stony places. Now, what do stony places mean? he heareth the word, and with joy he receiveth it. So he listens to the word, he hears it, and he says, man, that sounds really good. I'm gonna do that. But then the Bible says he hath no root in himself. Now, where is your root? Where are you rooted? What are you rooted in? What is your salvation rooted in? Is it rooted in you? Remember Jesus was talking about the Pharisee that stood and prayed thus with himself, Lord, I thank thee and I am not as other men. I'm such a wonderful person. Look at this wicked sinner over here. I'm a lot better than him. God said, no, you're not. He's a lot better than you. What was wrong with the Pharisee? He was rooted in himself. In other words, I can do this. What happened? He hath no root in himself. Whoops. Let's back up. There we go. He hath no root in himself. He has self-reformation rather than God transformation. It is when God transformed us that we're rooted in the right place. We're rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as he hath been taught therein with thanksgiving. We must be rooted in Christ, not in ourself. Stony places. I did the wrong thing again. Here we go. Notice verse 21. It says, persecution or tribulation arises because of the word, and by and by, he is offended. What's stony places? The Bible says when we accept the Lord, there's going to be persecution and tribulation. In other words, things are going to get rough. Now, in the United States of America, we've had it pretty good for the last 200 years or so. Things are changing. They're becoming more normal. Excuse the bad language. But, beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. When persecution or tribulation arises because of the word, we're like, God, this is me, one of your children. You love me, right? Why is this happening? This isn't supposed to happen to me. Right? Paul and Silas get beat up and thrown into jail. Having a pity party. No pity party. Hey, you guys, don't you hurt? Yeah, we sure do. Didn't God let you down? No, he sure didn't. This is supposed to happen. This is supposed to happen. So that's why we're singing and praising God. That's why the prison doors fell off. John 16, 33, these things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. But in the world, ye shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. Notice the verse does not say you might have tribulation. There might be a rare occasion when somebody might say something nasty or mean to you because you're a Christian, right? It doesn't say that. It says you shall have tribulation. Therefore, we need to expect tribulation. We need to expect those stony things that happen in our life. Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Doesn't say might. It would be a rare thing. Shall means yep, sure enough, it's gonna happen. So it hasn't happened. We ought to be okay with that. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. We are living in the United States of America where now Christians are being hated and despised. That's normal. That's the way it's been for most of the history of the world, not for most of the history of the United States, but for most of the history of the world, Christians have always been hated. Christians around the world are being hated today. Christians in different places around the world are getting put into the graves by people who hate Christians today. Some people have said the persecution of Christians is greater than you read about in the Fox's Book of Martyrs, as far as the total number of population is concerned that are being persecuted. But we don't hear about it. But that doesn't mean it isn't happening. We need to realize that persecution and tribulation are going to happen, and it's stony ground. And a lot of people can get offended when that starts happening and say, well, I'm not going to go to church anymore. I'm done with that. People don't like me. People that I know don't like me. And they're saying mean and nasty things, and I don't like that, so I quit. You have to remove the stones and prepare people for hard times. When a person accepts Christ as their Savior, you need to prepare them for hard times. People that you used to like, that ran around with you, did the same things you did, if you do what God wants you to do, they're not gonna like you. And that's when a church needs to come around those people and really stick with them because they're gonna lose all their old friends. And that's hard. Most of us have been there. We know what that means. We need to prepare them for hard times. We ourselves as Christians need to be prepared for hard times. It's going to get worse in the United States of America. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The Bible says we need to get tough. We need to be hard like a soldier that is hardened that he might be able to do the job that God has called him to do as a soldier. We are also called soldiers of Christ and we're to endure hardness as good soldiers. We're not to become offended. and quit because of tribulation and persecution that the world throws at us. Because when that happens, we don't bring forth any fruit. Number three, he that receiveth seed among the thorns, as he that heareth the word. Here's a person who is among the thorns. Now, just think about this. Have you ever watched a farmer plant seeds in the thorns? I mean, that's really sharp, right? Say, whoa, what are you thinking? I know some of the new equipment that they have. They don't plow much, and they don't harrow much, and they don't disc at all, whatever all that stuff means. I don't know. They don't plant in the thorns. But here's somebody planted in the thorns. And the Bible says the care and distractions of this world choke the Word. So here's a person sowing stuff in a place that you don't sow. He hasn't prepared the soil. He hasn't done anything. He just says, well, there's a place I can throw some seed out there and let's see what happens. The Bible tells us that weeds grow up, and these weeds are called the distractions, the care of the world. What are you doing? Well, we're making a living. What's your goal in life? Stay alive. What do you hope to accomplish? Not starve to death. Have a nice car, have a nice house. I've got all this stuff that I need to take care of. I don't have time for God's word. I don't have time to do what God wants me to do. I'm busy in the world. Now there's a certain part of the world we have to deal with. We do have to have a job. We do have to make some money. We do have to fix food and take care of clothes and all that kind of stuff, normal stuff. But a lot of us add in a bunch of extra stuff. And we don't have time to come to church on Wednesday evening. And we don't have time to do that. And we don't have time to do that. We just choke out the word. And then there's the deceitfulness of riches. The American dream are weeds. The desire to have riches are weeds that choke out the word. They're weeds. And when that's our goal in life, I run across a lot of young people, a lot of Christian schools and colleges and universities, and that's their goal in life. Just, I make a really good living. Make lots of money. I'll give some of it to the church. You're telling me what you want to do is grow a crop of weeds, right? And they look at me like, what kind of stupid thing is that you just said? Yeah, that's what you're telling me. If that's your goal in life, if that's success in life, you're talking to me about a really good crop of weeds. And the really good crop of weeds, notice, the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word. In other words, the Word can't accomplish anything. It's not gonna accomplish the purpose for which God sent it into your life. into my life, into the life of the unbelievers. And a lot of times in the life of unbelievers, when they get down to this part about riches, of having money and having a really good lifestyle and just taking it easy, eat, drink, and be merry. So, thou hast many goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease. What happens? The Bible says, he becometh unfruitful. That means that one time he was fruitful, but now he's not going to be fruitful anymore because the care of the world and the seeds of the riches have choked the word. If you plant a garden after the fall, most of us planted it after the fall, there's weeds that grow up with whatever you plant there. If you don't believe it, just try it sometime, okay? We know all about that. The garden must be constantly weeded, even through harvest. I can't weed it one time and say, don't have to worry about weeds from now on. I'm a God of need. No, you don't. If you're going to have a garden that's going to produce a lot of good stuff, you actually have to weed it just about every day. Otherwise, the weeds are going to take over, going to choke out the plants, and you're not going to have any fruit. How do you like my garden? It has a fantastic crop of ragweeds, poison ivy, and briars. It's not my garden, it's my neighbor's garden for real. I watched him prepare the soil. He did a good job. I watched him plant stuff. I know what's in that pile of weeds. Corn, tomatoes, peppers, Green beans. You know how much stuff he picked out of his garden so far this year? Nothing. You know why? He didn't weed. And when you don't weed, what you have is what? Weeds. That's complicated, isn't it? If you don't weed, you have weeds. Are you gonna be fruitful? No, you're not. When pastor preaches, he's weeding in your garden, in my garden. He was weeding this morning. Did you pull out the weeds that he pointed out to you this morning? You see, if we don't weed, nothing can grow except weeds. So when Pastor preaches, he's weeding. Pastor David preaches, Sunday school, he's weeding. I was gonna say Pastor Ray, but I'm not gonna say Pastor Ray. When Ray preaches, Teachers in Sunday school, he's weeding. You need to pull them out. Get rid of them. Otherwise, all you have left is just weeds. 2 Thessalonians 3, 13, but ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. You say, no, I get tired of pulling weeds. Yeah, I do too. Galatians 6, 9, and let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap but we may not. We have to keep on pulling weeds and pulling weeds and pulling weeds until harvest season comes. And we have to keep pulling weeds until the harvest is over and then we quit pulling weeds. Number four. He that receiveth seed in the good ground is he that heareth the word. What makes good ground? You ever think about that one? Where does good ground come from? It is ground that has been carefully worked and prepared for the seed. That's good ground. How do you get good ground? There's a word in this last sentence that we don't like and it's called work. That's what it takes to make good ground. You have to be willing to spend the time to prep it so that it's able to produce good things. Now the person understands it, verse number 23. The person has really gotten a hold of this thing, and he really understands it because it was planted in good ground. And the good ground has been constantly weeded. And the good ground has had the stones removed and has the critters killed, the devil disposed of, okay? He'll be back. He understands it, he gets a hold of it, and he said, yep, that's for me, and I'm gonna get that. Notice what happens, and also he beareth fruit, some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30. Now, you know these 30% people? You know, I think we just ought to throw them out, right? I mean, why don't we only go with 100% producing people? and throw the 60% out and the 30% out because they're not producing 100%, right? Have you ever planted a bunch of tomato plants? I have, four or five dozen. Did I keep a record of how many tomatoes came off of each plant? No, I didn't. Now, some people do, but not me, okay? No, that's not the point. We don't have to get down on people because they're not as wonderful as us, right? I know that's hard for some of you to believe. Maybe somebody isn't producing as much as you think they should, but are they producing something? Maybe they're only 60% producers. We're not going to pull them up. We're not going to run them off. We're not going to get down on their case. We're not going to push them living daylights out of them and say, why aren't you producing more? Get with it. You know, you ought to be producing 100%. No, we're not going to do that. Some people are going to produce 60%. That's fine. Some people are going to produce 30. Some people might produce even less than that. But as long as they're producing, guess what? That's good. That's a good thing. that they are producing. I don't know which button I pushed. I pushed the wrong button. There we go. Now this word, this verse has three really bad words in it. Okay. One of them is patient. One of them is waiteth. And the other one is long patience. Those are horrible words. When I go to Disney World, I ought to be first in line at every attraction that's there. Amen? Amen. Nobody should ever be in the line in front of me in their grocery store. Amen. Nobody should ever be in line in front of me in North Carolina DMV. I'll be against the law, because it's me. I'm here. OK. Be patient, therefore, brethren, in the coming of the Lord. For the husbandman, the person who's working in the garden, waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth. If I plant corn today, am I going to eat corn tomorrow? No. If I plant tomatoes today, am I going to eat tomatoes tomorrow? No. Do I have to wait for it? Absolutely, I do. Am I planting the seed? Might I have to wait for it? Yes. Might I have to wait for a long time? Yes. Need I be gentle while I'm waiting? Yes. Do I need to help weed while I'm waiting? Yes. Do I need to remove stones while I'm waiting when persecution and tribulation arise and the person gets down and discouraged or I myself get down and discouraged? Do I need to wait on that? Yes. After I've weeded, do I need to wait? Steal some more? Yes. Why? For the precious produce, fruit of the earth. I remember a long time ago there was a cartoon on television called The Jetsons. How many remember that? Just older people, okay. And I always laugh when the lady's cooking and she just pushes a button and food's done. And she goes to the laundry room and she pushes a button and the laundry's clean. And she pushes another button and the laundry puts itself away. I still haven't seen that one yet. But it's just push a button and every instant, everything is instant. When we're working with the word of God, there's nothing instant. There's no microwaves. Sorry. There's just long patience and patience and waiting. Hear the parable of the sower. The devil comes along and snatches away the seed. He creates distractions when you're listening to the word. There's the stony places. Tribulation and persecution arises because of the word. And we're offended. Seed sown among the thorns, no, no, no. But it needs to be weeded. And allow the word of God when it's preached and taught here in your hearing to weed in your life the things that are being pointed out. And he that receives, heathens a good ground. God use me for that purpose. Be patient, therefore, brethren, in the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would open our hearts to see it. We would read it again in your word, and that we would act accordingly that we might see your word bring forth much fruit. We realize without you we can do nothing, but we realize that we have a responsibility to do our part. And we pray that you would help us to be faithful in that task. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.