Transcript

Few Soils Remain Loyal-Part Two

Matthew 13:10-23
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Pastor Randy Smith

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We have a lot to do this morning with our time that remains so let's jump right into things. First, I'd like to explain the purpose of parables by taking a look at verses 10-17. Then I'll present the application I promised you last week from the Parable of the Four Soils. And then we will conclude with our monthly observance of the Lord's Table that we presently have set before us.

1. THE EXPLANATION (verses 10-17)

Let's start with the explanation.

As I mentioned last week, Matthew chapter 13 contains the highest concentration of parables found in the entire Bible. This is our first encounter with parables and it appears it was the disciples as well. So in verse 10 the disciples asked Jesus a logical question: "Why do You speak to them in parables?" In other words, "Why the puzzling stories? Why don't You just tell the people information straight-up?" Obviously, our Lord had a reason.

We learned last week that a parable is an earthy story with a spiritual meaning. The goal of the parable is to actively engage the learner by using what we call in education the "transfer technique." Parables have the ability to take what we already know and transfer that knowledge to better understand something we need to learn. Jesus did not wish to teach people earthly things. But He took their knowledge of earthly things and used that knowledge to shed light spiritual matters.

Parables also had another function and that is the one that our Lord explains now in chapter 13.

Look at verse 11. In speaking only with His disciples at this time Jesus says, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (stop right there).

The term "mysteries" when used in the Bible conveys a different meaning than what probably comes to our thoughts. A biblical mystery is something hidden from human minds that can only be made known by divine revelation. Jesus says knowledge of these mysteries, specifically (in this case verse 11) mysteries about the "kingdom of heaven," is granted only to God's children. People sovereignly called by God. People who responded in faith to that call. And people now indwelt by the power of the Holy Spirit. These people have a special gift. These people have been given these mysteries and these people have the ability to understand these mysteries revealed in Scripture. Luke 24:45, "Then [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures."

As believers, we have a tremendous privilege. Yet I think sometimes we can take our knowledge about God for granted. I think sometimes we can forget how incredibly blessed we are. Not only to be graciously provided information about how to know God and have a relationship with Him, but also be given the desire and ability to believe it and understand it and apply it.

If we need a reminder, let's consider our Lord's words in verse 16: In contrast to those who are lost, "But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear" (emphasis added). After reciting several parables in chapter 13, Jesus asked His disciples in verse 51, "Have you understood all these things?" And they could honestly say, "Yes." If you are in Christ, you have the blessedness of understanding the living God!

Moreover, we are more blessed in this regard than even all the saints of yesteryear who had to work with a fraction of the information we now have contained in our Bibles! Verse 17, "For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (cf. 1 Pet. 1:10-12). They had the eyes to see and the ears to hear, but they were working with partial revelation (they were without the whole New Testament) and even a lesser manifestation of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:17; 15:26). And in addition, they were still waiting for the Messiah! We've got it all! We stand on the ultimate pinnacle of God's revelation. We are active participants in the heart of the era that all the Old Testament characters dreamed of! Truly, as Jesus says, we are blessed!

So parables reveal God's truth to God people with eyes to see and ears to hear in a profound way. But parables also conceal God's truth from those who are rebellious and hard-hearted. Back to verse 11 again (now in its entirety), "Jesus answered them, 'To you [believers] it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [unbelievers] it has not been granted.'"

Verse 12, "For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him."

What does that mean? I believe this reiterates what we learned last week. Soft hearts are humble. They not only welcome God's Word, but they hunger for it as well. They are a fertile ground for the Word to take root and grow. The more they get, the more they want. God continues to bless them and they continue to grow to deeper degrees of Christlikeness. An e-mail I just received from a new attendee of the church: "I need Christian fellowship and I so badly want to grow and grow and grow."

Yet the hard heart is different. The verse says what they have will be taken away. Last week we learn about Satan taking way what was sown (Mt. 13:19). Elsewhere in the Bible it says God hands them over to their depraved minds (Rom. 1). They, in effect, are bound in their own chains of unbelief. They grow, but in the opposite direction of the believer. They grow further and further away from Christ.

There is no middle road in our spiritual lives. We are either growing closer to God or growing further away from Him. Those in the light receive more light. Those in the darkness drift into further darkness. Those who are spiritually sensitive receive more. Those who are insensitive are further hardened. Blessings for those who say "yes" to God. Judgment for those who say "no."

Verse 13, "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."

Jesus will not cast His pearls before swine (Mt. 7:6). If they will not accept His clear teaching, He will veil His teaching to be understood only by His disciples. And the unbelievers' inability to understand what He was saying was a sign to them that they were under judgment (by the way, this was the ultimate purpose for the gift of tongues - 1 Cor. 14:21-22).

From here Jesus quotes from the Old Testament book of Isaiah in verses 14 and 15. And what a masterful comparison it is! Isaiah wrote to the hard-hearted Jewish leaders of his day. He warned them of the coming judgment because of their rejection of God. The Babylonians would be that instrument. And when they heard those unknown tongues they would know that judgment was upon them (Isa. 28:11f).

Jesus spoke to hard-hearted Jewish leaders of His day. There rejection of God was again evident and judgment was upon them. They too would be unable to understand (in this case His parables) and they too would not heed God's warning and instruction. The point? The spiritual dullness of Jesus' present generation was nothing new. They were walking in the same steps as their forefathers. And judgment, evidenced by their inability to understand, was upon them.

Verses 14 and 15, "In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'"

Eventually the Romans would come in AD70 and destroy Jerusalem. But in the meantime, judgment was already upon the nation evidenced by their inability to understand God's Word when Jesus spoke to them in parables.

Do you see what Jesus did in this section? According to verses 16 and 17, His disciples stood in the line of the Old Testament prophets and righteous men who longed for God's Word, understood it and desired to obey it. They were blessed. But the crowd stood in the line of the willfully blind and rebellious Old Testament individuals who had hard hearts and were therefore unable to understand God's Word. They were being judged. We will see this fully developed next week when we (as the Lord permits) look at the parable of the wheat and the tares.

2. THE APPLICATION (verses 18-23)

All right, with that as a backdrop, let's quickly move to our application from last week, sermon point number two.

Permit me to reread what we studied. Beginning in verse 18, "Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty" (Mt. 13:18-23).

You will remember that the sower is Jesus and the seed is the Word of God and the soils represent the hearts of people and the various ways they respond to the Gospel. When the Gospel seed fell on three of the hearts, no fruit was yielded. Either Satan snatches it away or affliction and persecution scorches the sprout or the worries of the world choke out the new plant. Yet the final heart (soil number four) receives God Word, holds fast to the Word, acts upon the Word and consequently bears spiritual fruit for God from thirty to hundredfold.

I explained the passage last week (get the CD if absent), today I'd like to leave you with six points of very practical application.

Number one - We should expect to see people from all four categories

Throughout the Bible we see illustrations of each category. Obviously the majority of the Pharisees were soil number one as they never permitted the Word to penetrate their hard hearts. A good example of soil number three would be Demas. Remember him from 2 Timothy 4:10 when the apostle Paul said, "For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me."

And if God has spoken of these categories in the Bible and we are a biblical church, we should expect to see each category as well. As a matter of fact, failure to experience these four soils in our midst is an indication that we have ceased to be a biblical church. In other words, if we throw away the need to be holy and righteous the world will never persecute us (Jn. 15:19). And if there is no persecution, the false converts in soil number two will never run away and will continue oblivious to fact that they remain unconverted. Likewise if we do not preach against worldliness, the worldly soils of category number three will persist in their worldliness thinking they are totally right with God. The necessary conflict to challenge them will never come. So I'd rather teach the whole counsel of God and see people confronted regarding the reality of their faith as to whether or not they will persevere than have a church filled with unconverted people who erroneously think they are right with God. That is much more tragic.

Number two - We are sowers when we share the Gospel

It is our responsibility to sow seeds, but it is not our responsibility to make the seeds grow. Remember Paul's comments from 1 Corinthians 3? "I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth" (1 Cor. 3:6). There is nothing we can do to prepare the soil of a person's heart or make the seed take root. That is God's responsibility. We can't even see the condition of a person's heart! So we sow faithfully and without discrimination and leave the rest to God. Remember Lydia? "And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul" (Ac. 16:14; cf. 11:18; 14:27).

Number three - We must share the Gospel accurately

Since certain plants can only be produced by certain seeds, Christians will only be produced by Christian seeds. In other words, the Gospel we share will only be effective if we share the unadjusted Gospel handed to us by Christ. True converts will only be produced by sharing the true Gospel.

Number four - Many will reject but some will receive

According to the parable, most of the four soils rejected Jesus Christ. That's sad, but it is a reality we must all accept. If we don't we'll get discouraged when we share and see little fruit. "I've shared the Gospel with a few of my friends. Now all of them think I'm weird and none of them were saved." That is a reality folks and your ability to persevere in the midst of the persecution is evidence you are not a bad soil yourself! Again, remember this, only God can change the heart. It's never your fault if you are sharing. Just be faithful because we also were told of one soil that does bear fruit. God has people out there who will believe (see Acts 18:9-10). And the more seeds you sow, the more the chance of hitting these folks in the soil four category.

Number five - All true believers will bear fruit

Once saved, people cannot lose their salvation. Soils two and three did not fall away from the faith. They never had the faith to start with evidenced by their inability to bear fruit. But soil number four was a good heart because the Word was received. It rooted itself and grew and bore spiritual fruit for God.

It is interesting to note in verse 23 that different amounts of fruit are produced from Christians, anywhere from thirty to a hundredfold. Why is that? I think there are two possibilities. One is the fact that some believers simply have more gifts and more time and more energy than others. Remember in the parable of the talents, all were given at least a talent, but the distribution of the talents was not equal (Mt. 25:14f). A second reason that the quantity of fruit is different is because some Christians are flat out disobedient - Christians not serving to their potential due to laziness, indifference, misplaced priorities or ignorance. I think we've all met those gifted believers barely using their gifts, sitting on their talents so to speak. That eight-cylinder car that is operating on only one (cf. Heb 5:12). Yet the bottom line is this, all Christians will bear fruit. Maybe different amounts of fruit, but every Christian will definitely bear fruit.

Number six - Always examine yourself

The main point of this passage is to examine ourselves to determine which soil we are. Are you a hard soil? Is your heart unreceptive and calloused to the things of God? Are you a rocky soil that runs away from the Lord when scorched by the sun of affliction and persecution? Are you a thorny soil? Possibly you are on the verge of walking away because you have a greater love for the world and you have allowed those weeds of the world to pile up in your heart. Or are you a good soil? Do you have a humble heart that receives God's Word? And is that Word bearing observable fruit in your life?

Deception is real and the stages of backsliding are often very subtle. We must be continually in the process of self-examination. Churches are filled with false converts. The Lord's Table is to be a time of self-examination (1 Cor. 11:28). Let's go before the Lord right now for that very purpose.

Ye sons of earth prepare the plough,
Break up your fallow ground;
The sower is gone forth to sow,
And scatter blessings round.

The seed that finds a stony soil
Shoots forth a hasty blade;
But ill repays the sower's toil,
Soon wither'd, scorch'd, and dead.

The thorny ground is sure to balk
All hopes of harvest there;
We find a tall and sickly stalk,
But not the fruitful ear.

The beaten path and highway side,
Receive the trust in vain;
The watchful birds the spoil divide,
And pick up all the grain.

But where the Lord of grace and power
Has bless'd the happy field,
How plentous is the golden store
The deep-wrought furrows yield!

Father of mercies, we have need
Of Thy preparing grace;
Let the same Hand that gives the seed
Provide a fruitful place!

William Cowper