Thank you so much. We have a plaque in our house. It's on the floor right now, because we haven't found a spot for it on the wall. But it says that, the will of God will never take you where the grace of God will never keep you. And every time I look at it, I think of that song, something I learned in high school and has always stayed with me. And we're going to be in Matthew chapter 13 tonight. And I was sitting here tonight, I was thinking about this passage, I remembered I know I've heard it before this, but one of the times that I remember the first time hearing this passage, I was sitting back in what was the youth room here. It was back in the old balcony in that big room up there. And Pastor Paul Witt was preaching on this passage. And I don't remember much from that, but I did remember tonight that that was one of the first times that I remember this passage. And it's interesting, the Lord leads us back to that tonight. We'll be at Matthew 13. If you want, we're gonna reference Mark chapter four and Luke chapter eight tonight. I have those references here and we'll read them to you, but in case you wanted to know where we're going. It's a new experience tonight. I have this little box back there that flashes red numbers. I've never had to worry about that before, but now I have a child back there. So if I do make a really funny face, it's because my child's being bad back there and they need my life. Let's pray and then we'll look at God's word tonight. Father, what more can you say than to what you have said to us? We have your word before us tonight. We have your complete and written word recorded for us from the ages past. And tonight we look at the words of Jesus Christ himself. And we pray tonight as we open your word, as we study it together, as we talk about these things that you talked about here on this earth, that you'd help us to take them to heart, to apply it to our lives, that we can live in a way that pleases you and that grows us to be like your son, Jesus Christ. I pray that you would give me the words to say tonight, that you would guide me with your spirit, that everything that is said here tonight would honor and glorify you and lift you up. In your name we pray, amen. I want you to go back with me tonight to school. I know the teens in the room went, oh no. But I want you to think about a time when you were in class or you were doing school and one day it clicked. Do you remember something like that? Maybe you sat in class and heard lesson after lesson where you spent time doing homework trying to figure something out like over and over and over again and you just couldn't make any sense of it. But one day, you're sitting in class, and the teacher says something, and it's like a light bulb just turned on. It all became clear. We've probably all had a moment, or some of us, we need moments like that. And we may even remember the day it happened. We may remember exactly what the teacher said that turned on the light for us, that helped us to understand that. And how much easier, whatever that was, after that, it just became easier to do, whatever it was, the math or this concept that we were learning in a class. And the teacher that you think of may be now one in your mind that stands out above the rest. Now, if you were homeschooled, I hope that's your parent. You know, the teacher who can take big concepts and break them down into the understanding level of his students is really a teacher. That's the definition of what a teacher should be. However, no human teacher can compare to the master teacher, Jesus Christ. Jesus took great concepts about God, about his kingdom, about his work, and he taught those things while he was here on this earth. And these lessons are recorded in God's word for us today. Now, Jesus taught these truths most often in the form of parables. As we look in Matthew 13 tonight, we find a chapter that's loaded with parables. In fact, the parables of Matthew 13 are usually referred to as the kingdom parables. Jesus is teaching the listeners what the kingdom of heaven is like. A lot of times, that's how one of these parables begin. The kingdom of heaven is like this. The kingdom of heaven is like this. And the setup for the first parable in Matthew 13, which is where we're going to be tonight, comes in verses 1 through the first part of verse 3. It says, 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 there on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables. Now probably most, if not all of us in this room tonight, have heard a parable or we've read a parable that Jesus taught at some point in our life. And if we go and look in the Gospels, we have recorded for us there somewhere around 30 different parables, depending on your definition of what a parable is. Some people incorporate similes or comparisons into that discussion of parables. But before we look at this parable tonight that Jesus tells, I want to talk about then what is the definition of a parable? What does that mean? You know, we talk about this genre, this area of parables. And this is the definition that I've drawn in studying the parables of Jesus. It's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning given to reveal or conceal God and reveal the heart of man. There's many good definitions of parables, but in studying the various descriptions and Jesus' own words about parables, that's the definition I've drawn. And so I just want to talk through that very briefly to set the groundwork for where we're going tonight. Parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings. And by earthly stories, we simply mean they're easily relatable to man. Jesus talked of two men building their houses. He talked about a sower sowing seed upon differing soils. He talked about a woman pleading before an unjust judge. He talked about a man who helped a beaten enemy. He talked about a son who ran away from home. And many, many other pictures that are recorded that Jesus used. All of these stories that Jesus told were relatable. But the meaning behind each story is heavenly. Within these stories, Jesus revealed, as we said, things about who God is, what he's done, what his kingdom is like. Jesus used the vehicle of stories about temporary things to communicate eternal truths. However, these truths don't always lie on the surface of the parable. You know, it often took great spiritual hunger to understand what they meant. Why would Jesus then, if that's what happened, use this method of teaching? You know, that's the question that Jesus' own disciples come to him later in Matthew 13 and ask him why he teaches in parables. Now, teaching in parables wasn't new in Jesus' day. But teaching in them as extensively as Jesus did was something that was new. Christ truly was the master of teaching and the master especially of teaching in parables. Christ came to earth as the promised Messiah to his people. but he was faced with varied reactions. Some people accepted him, and they believed in who he was. Some saw him as a good man and nothing else. Still others saw him as a blasphemer and a troublemaker, while others saw him as the conquering hero who'd come to overthrow the Roman government. But Christ came into the world to save sinners. In Luke 19.10, he says of himself, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to give light to those in darkness. He came to provide a way for man to be right with God. He came that we could have new life. But not everyone, as we said, had the right view of him. Therefore, he taught in parables for the second half of that definition to reveal or conceal God and to reveal the heart of man. There are those that parables revealed God to, revealed more about God to them because they wanted to know more and sought out the information. The biggest example of that group is Jesus' own disciples. If you were to go down to Matthew 13 to verse 36, we find them asking in one instance, and his disciples came unto him saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. They wanna know, what do these things mean? Still, there were others who did not have this hunger, and they went away confused at hearing these parables. There are those that parables concealed God from because they did not truly want to know God. They showed up with wrong views of God. They showed up for free food and free healthcare. In either instance, the biggest action that parables took was to reveal the heart of man. Parables did not create in the person this attitude of spiritual hunger or a desire for God, but rather confirmed that it was already there. It showed that they had a heart that wanted to know God. Likewise, parables do not create a hearted, misguided, and unspiritual heart. It exposes what is already there. This is why Jesus taught in parables, to reward the seeker and to warn off the scorner. And no doubt today, I think parables have that same effect. If you've read and studied the Bible for any length of time, you've probably run across a parable and you read it and go, wait, what did that say? And we think about, that didn't make any sense, what I just read. Why would that happen? And the question is, what is our reaction to that? You know, the right reaction is to dig into God's word, to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, to ask God to teach us. and perhaps even to take time to read what other great men of God have written about this passage and see what help they may offer. And the attitude that we need to carry into a study of a parable then is one of an open heart, one that wants to learn from God. If we want to be taught by Jesus, then he will teach us. Parables are directed at the heart of the listener and reveal our hearts to us if we will but listen. And that's one of the reasons that I've come to love parables, I think, is because it's almost like you're sitting there listening to Jesus talk. And you're sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to him teach you about himself and about God. And so we're gonna look tonight at the first parable in Matthew 13 and its subsequent explanation by Jesus, because this is one that Jesus does later on give the blow-by-blow description, if you will, of what each part of this parable means. Sometimes this parable is referred to simply as the parable of the sower, or maybe the sower and the seed. Yes, the parable contains a sower, and yes, it does involve him throwing seed in the field. You know, in fact, those listening in Jesus' day may have been able to look over and see a sower out in his field throwing seed out there for his crops. But when you break it apart, and especially when you look at Christ's explanation of the parable, you see in reality that the focus of this parable is not the seed, but the soil that the seed lands upon. And so that's why this is the parable of the four soils. Because Jesus sees in those that he is speaking to there, four responses to his message. And he covers them all in one story that we'll look at one by one. And they're not just reactions of the mind, they're not reactions of the body, they're reactions of the heart and characteristics of those hearts. And so we'll examine both the portion of the parable and the explanation in turn. So as Jesus teaches the crowd from a boat in the Sea of Galilee, in an area that may be referred to as the Cove of the Parables, it's important to know the image that he's using. He begins the parable at the end of verse three there saying, behold, a sower went forth to sow. The sower that Jesus talks about represents the one who is giving God's word, the one who is proclaiming God's message. The seed then he is throwing in the story is that message. It is God's word. The soil that the seed lands upon represents the heart of the one hearing that message, hearing God's word. But notice the difference between each soil is not the message presented. It's not the presenter. The difference between each soil or each heart is the reaction to that message. So we'll jump right in tonight and look there in verses four and 19. We see Jesus, first of all, talks about the hard heart. A sower wasn't forced to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Now in verse 19, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which receives seed by the wayside. So the first heart that we see that receives seed is the hard heart. It is likened to the soil that really isn't soil at all. It's more like, if we would think in our day, something like asphalt. Because Jesus says that this seed falls by the wayside, or on the road, and is snatched away by the birds. Now, this would have been a dirt path that went through the field or around the field, and it would become extremely hard because day after day, and week after week, and month after month, and year after year, the farmer and his help take that path in and out of the field, around the field. This is a path like Jesus and his disciples were going on through the field of grain there. We read about the disciples on the Sabbath day. And it would become hardened just from people walking over it day after day. The seed that the sower would throw out and it would land on this path wouldn't even make an impression on the soil it hits. It would instead just sit on top of the soil. There, the seed is exposed to enemies. If you were to look in Luke 8, 5, Luke tells us that the seed was trampled. And all accounts of this parable add that eventually the birds come in and make a meal out of this seed. This soil, if it's even fair to call it soil, has nothing to do with the seed. So then in the explanation, Jesus tells us that this is the one who hears the message of God, but doesn't understand it. The hearer of the hard heart does not understand, not because of any deficiency in the message, or not a deficiency in the speaker, but because of his own hardness of heart. This is the one who is unconcerned about the things of God. He is indifferent to anything that is spiritual. Maybe we could picture that person, if we brought it all the way up to today, as one who doesn't come to church or to even hear the message of God. But maybe he comes if he has to. Maybe someone dragged him there and he didn't have a choice in the matter. Maybe he comes out of compulsion or just to appease someone that he came to church that day. You know, maybe he sits in church with his arms folded, maybe he doesn't pay attention to a word that is said, looking for the first chance to bolt out of there when the service is over. You know, the hard-hearted person hears the message of God, but he doesn't understand it. It makes no impact on his life. He doesn't understand it, it doesn't make an impact on him because he wants nothing to do with God. He has rejected God and his word for so long that the message of God's word bounces off his heart like the seed would bounce off the path. There's neither conviction nor brokenness over sin. There's a sense that he doesn't need God. He's independent. He's a self-made strong person who needs not rely on the weak words of anyone else to tell him what to do, even if those are God's words. Ironically, he's not independent, and he's not unaffected by other people. He is, in fact, a victim and a prisoner. Verse 19 communicates that he is a prisoner and a victim of the devil himself. Because the hard-hearted person has steeled himself against receiving God's word, he's opened himself up to Satan, swooping in, just like those birds at the beginning of the story, and taking away any little piece of the seed that may sit on the surface of his heart. You know, there are those who maybe today say that, well, the devil's not real, and if he is, he's not interested in the work of the church. But that's not true. He's very active on earth. He has deceived those of the hard heart into not hearing the words of God. And the devil is actively seeking to keep as many out of God's kingdom as he can. And based on the free choice of this one to not hear God's message, he has become a servant of the devil. He's become a prisoner to him and has rejected God's word and doesn't hear that message. The next person that Jesus talks about, he talks about the hard heart, and now he's gonna talk about the shallow heart in verses five and six and 20 and 21. 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 over to verse 20, "'But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he no root in himself, but doreth for a while, For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended. So we see here seed that falls on the stony places in verse five. Now this isn't soil with big rocks in it. You know, the farmer would take great care to remove any large rocks that were within the soil. But instead it's that those edges out there where the soil is thin. And there's a layer, it's a thin layer of soil and bedrock underneath that soil. And verse five says there's not much soil. It's shallow soil. The seed in this soil would actually get off to a great start because seeds need warmth in order to grow. And because the soil is shallow, it would not take long for that seed to grow. But because the seed cannot grow down very far, which is where seeds grow, they go down first and then up, it begins to grow up prematurely. The seed will look like a healthy plant. Perhaps it looks even better than the plants that are supposed to be around it for a time. It will sprout earlier than all the rest and begin to grow. But as the days grow hotter and the sun beats down on this plant, another need presents itself for that plant to grow. That need is water. And because this seed has a deficient root system, it cannot reach the nutrients within the earth it needs to reach, and the sun takes its toll and causes this plant to wither and to die. And this is the picture of the shallow heart. This one hears the gospel and responds enthusiastically. He responds with joy. at hearing the gospel at first. You know, he may even go around eagerly telling others about his conversion. He gives of his time, maybe he gives of his money, but before long, something happens. You know, the going gets a little tough, and he quickly becomes disinterested because he has no roots. And as soon as he had received the gospel, he just as quickly falls away and wants nothing to do with God and his work. And the question that we ask is why? Did he lose his salvation? Well, no. He never had it to begin with. He showed what seemed to be signs of authentic faith, but that faith was never present. This person had an emotional experience that even perhaps changed his outward action for a time. However, there has been no heart change. There's been no remorse over sin. There's been no brokenness before God. He merely had a religious experience. His feelings were changed, but not his soul. And a change of feelings does nothing for the state of one's eternal soul. The one who has nothing but an emotional experience will not be able to hold up that facade forever. In fact, Jesus mentions here two specific things that expose this one for who he truly is. The first thing that Jesus mentions here is tribulations. These are trials that come into the lives of believers. On Wednesday nights, we've been talking about the book of James this year as we study impact, and we've been working our way through James chapter one, and we've gotten up to verse eight, and James talking about trials, and why God allows trials in the lives of believers. You know, maybe it is something like a sickness or a loss of a job or a death of a close family member. And we've been talking about how the true believer, the one who's grounded in God and seeks to grow in God and really is his child, can rest in the fact that God uses these trials to grow him, to be more like God and to draw him closer to God. However, it causes the one with shallow faith to question the goodness of God. And since he's not rooted in God, he sees that as unacceptable. You know, as Christians, we may question the goodness of God, but if we are rooted in God and we are truly his children, we come back to that realization that God is good. The second thing, though, that exposes this one is not only tribulations, but it's persecution. This person finds out that being a Christian in a lost world is not a bed of roses. He maybe made fun of at work or school. Maybe he's looked down upon as an outcast by his former friends. Maybe he doesn't make a social club or a team at school that he wanted to make because of this newly claimed faith. And whatever it is, in his mind, he's not signed up for the program, and he wants to be back in with everyone else that he was in with before. And because of the pressures of trials and persecution as a direct result of his conversion, this one is offended. And the shallow-hearted one falls away from the faith as immediately as he joined the faith, for he never was truly rooted in God. And it's interesting to think about, but I actually had an experience like this with someone in college. You know, he was a teenager. He came on a Sunday morning and he went forward after the morning service and he made a profession of faith. And he went around telling everyone about his conversion. And he was such a great witness. He would show up on Saturday mornings to go out and go on visitation and tell people about his faith in Christ. And he moved down from New York in order to go to a Christian school and live with his Christian grandparents, came out of a really rough background. But not long after that, school got harder. And I remember one of the biggest things was he didn't make the basketball team. And he found out that, you know, the Christian life is hard. If you're going to claim to follow Christ, you're going to face these things. And before too long, he was back to the way he lived before. And if you go and find him on Facebook somewhere, you wouldn't even know he was a Christian. I know that I think about him sometimes and go look him up. I mean, he posted not too long ago that he hadn't done his devotions in three years. And you say, what happened? Well, he never had that faith in God to begin with. He had that experience. He changed his emotions, but his soul did not change. The third heart that Jesus talks about is the strangled heart. We have the hard heart, the shallow heart, and the strangled heart. Verses seven and 22, and some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 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. And when we read here about the seeds that fell among the thorns, we think of the idea of thorns and weeds. The seed was grown in ground that wasn't weeded, maybe it was off to the side here. And soon the weeds shoot up along with the plant, and the weeds begin to rob the nutrients from that plant, and they begin to block out the sun. And the plant doesn't grow because it's unable to do so. It literally has the life sucked right out of it because of the weeds that surround it. And this is the one with the strangled heart. You know, maybe he wasn't actively opposed to the word of God, like the one of the hard heart, but his heart is too crowded with worldliness to be actively interested in God's word. Matthew's account here mentions two things specifically that crowd this heart. But if you go to Mark or Luke, you'll find a third, and I'm gonna use Mark 4, verses 18 and 19. It says, and these are they which are sown among thorns, such as, hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. So three things here that crowd out the gospel from this one's heart. And the first is the cares of this world. You know, maybe we could reword that even and say the worry of the world. This person was open to hearing the things of God. Maybe, maybe he wanted to hear more, but suddenly he has something to worry about. He had a care of the world to think about. Maybe school or exams or family or bills or something at work. And these things aren't bad in and of themselves, but they took an importance in this person's life they shouldn't have. They took the place of God's words. Jesus also mentions the deceitfulness of riches or things that crowd out the word here. The cares, you know, of the world perhaps are genuine needs that this person faces that took a wrong spot in his life. But this is something that more is on that side of pure luxury. You know, we live today in a country where we have so many things, right? We have so much stuff. But yet when we get more stuff in our own hearts, don't we find that we want more stuff and it never makes us happy? The pursuit of things, the pursuit of riches, deceived this person. It overtook the word of God in his life. And they have deceived him into thinking that it will satisfy him more than God's word will. And lastly, Jesus mentions the desires for other things or lust for other things. Luke calls it, in Luke 8, 14, the pleasures of life. It almost is like the catch-all category at the end. It's something that this person needed. He had to have it more than he had to have God's Word. It's something that makes him comfortable. You know, we like to live comfortably, right? And these things get in the way of God's Word. And his comfort is important to him. Again, let's fast forward it maybe to today and him, he's been going and hearing God's Word at church. But maybe he went to bed late on a Saturday, or he had a busy week, or he's tired, or maybe he just feels the slightest bit sick, and it's a great excuse to skip church. And plus, he doesn't have to miss the beginning of the football game if the pastor goes over. His comfort was a higher priority than the word of God to him. And that crowded out the gospel in his life. And all of that is proven at the end of the verse. because he is unfruitful. The measure of a Christian's life is the fruit that he produces. When there is true and spiritual and godly growth in a person's life, it becomes obvious. We begin to see those fruits. And even if a person does good things, a smokescreen of religious actions fools no one. This person is consumed still with the attitudes and the actions and the things of this world and not in God's word. So we've talked about all those things. Let's talk about the good heart, the receptive heart, in verses eight and 23. But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold, verse 23. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. So the last soil then, of course, is the good soil. It's the soil in which the seed takes root and sprouts into a plant. But not only does it sprout into a plant, the plant grows and the plant produces fruit. The soil was prepared to receive the seed. It was carefully cultivated to grow the seed. And the plant grows and it produces much fruit. And the person with the receptive heart not only hears God's word, but he understands God's word. Well, how is that? He understands it through the work of the Holy Spirit. You know, God prepares the heart of the person who is ready to say yes to God and to receive his word. The person who does not reject God, but instead listens to his word, the Holy Spirit helps him to understand these things, to illumine him to this. And this leads to a lifetime of fruit growing, the ultimate sign of the true Christian. So what is some fruit that we see in the lives of believers? Well, the fruit of the Spirit, which we have recorded for us today, now it wasn't written down here when Jesus was teaching, but that's a pretty safe bet for us to start with, right? But this fruit would also include the fruit of seeing others enter into God's kingdom through spreading more seed. And will all of us produce exactly the same amount and exactly the same kind of fruit? We won't. Right, even here, it says some 100 fold, some 60, some 30. You know, God gifts us all as believers in different ways. And he even says that some bring forth more fruit than others. But the amount of fruit in a believer's life is really limitless. It requires only obedience to God and a longing to follow his commands. So I wanna go back to the question from the beginning. What do the words of God in this parable reveal about your heart? What kind of soil do you see in your heart? And I ask two questions to start with. Number one, I would ask, am I growing? That's what I would ask in my life. Am I growing? Do you see in yourself growing in Christ and producing fruit? But secondly, not only am I growing, but where can I grow more? You know, we cannot become complacent and satisfied with where we are. We ought to be pushing to grow more in Christ, asking God to grow us to be more and more like his son, Jesus Christ. And I think that it would be naive to stand up here tonight and to say that everyone falls fully in the last category of this parable. And there's two reasons for that. First, there may be someone here tonight and you don't know the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You've not found new life in him. Maybe you have a hard heart and you've rejected Christ. Maybe you have the shallow or the strangled heart. You've never had more than a religious experience. You've had the word of God crowded out in your life. Will you let God till the soil of your life and accept him as your savior and accept new life from him? But the second reason, is maybe you do sit here tonight, and you receive Christ as your Savior, and you have new life in Him, but this is the question for believers. Are any of these other soils present in your life? Now, I know that the primary application from this parable is these three soils are those who reject God outright or seem to accept God but didn't. But I think it's possible that there can be characteristics of these soils in the lives of believers. You know, where is it that you're not grounded in God so much that when trials come, you want to give up? What kind of stuff in the world has your attention more than God's? It's very possible to have multiple types of soil, even within our own life, things that we hold onto and we haven't given fully to God, but instead we keep them back. God wants us to be completely open to Him and His work in our lives. God cannot use us if we do not allow Him to break up our hard hearts, to deepen our soil, that we can have roots in Him, to weed out our lives of the things that crowd out His Word, and that give His Word the ability to change us completely from the inside out, that we can bear fruit for His kingdom. Let's pray. We thank you again for your work. We thank you for its power to transform lives. We thank you for its saving power, and we thank you for its sanctifying power that grows us anew. We ask that You would be with those that are here tonight. If there's one who doesn't know you as their Savior, who hasn't had their hard heart broken up by you, that you would draw them to yourself, that you would show them their need for a Savior. We pray for those of us that are here tonight as believers that you'd help us to take this parable to heart, to reflect on our hearts, to think about these things, and to ask ourselves, where it is we can continue to grow, where it is we can bear more fruit, what areas of our life have we not given to you? And we ask that as we go out this week that you would help us to be lights in a world that's full of darkness, that we would be able to spread more seeds of your gospel and see more fruit from that. We pray that you would help us this week to go and to honor and glorify you and all is said and done. In your name we pray, amen. stand and sing the wonderful hymn that