The Kingdom Of God: Soil

If you would, take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 13. As I've been reading over the book of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, in preparation for preaching through that as our next series, I'm not ready to go there yet. However, I would say that some of the things that Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians, like the church and the kingdom, are things that we need to understand.

And so for the next few weeks, we're going to be talking about the kingdom of God as Jesus interprets it for us. And so we want to turn to Matthew chapter 13, where Jesus explains his kingdom in a series of parables. You follow as I read the first 23 verses of Matthew chapter 13. And the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil.

And immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.

Then the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. That is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, and they did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. 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 what was sown along the path.

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away as for what was sown among thorns this is the one who hears the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful as for what was sown on good soil this is the one who hears the word and understands it he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold in another 60 and in another 30. let's pray father open up our open up our eyes open up our ears so that we can understand these things thank you father for your word which clearly describes for us ourselves our world our god we thank you for a word that can give us insight and that can help us understand and lord above all can change us we thank you for a word that is living and active and it's like a double-edged sword.

It can separate that which is inseparable so that we are laid bare before you and a word that also leaves before us or brings us to our hope and that is Jesus. Open our eyes then today and our ears this day as we look into your word and we'll thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Over the years in our little place out in the country we've worked real hard to plant lots of trees.

When we went there there weren't any trees hardly there were I can think of four trees that were there. If you look at it now, you see lots of trees. And we've done that on purpose, because we want windbreaks, and because trees obviously make things pretty. At least that's our view. But there's one corner of our property that never seems to grow trees, and the trees that are there are kind of crooked and spindly, and they don't look very good.

And it's in that northwest corner out in the front, and we never could understand why that was the case. We thought, well, maybe they're planted too close to the walnut trees. Walnut trees evidently are kind of noxious, and maybe that's the case. Or maybe they're too close to the road, and maybe all the traffic that goes by keeps it from growing. We had all kinds of theories, but one year we were working on our septic system and we're digging out to the road and found out that that corner is nothing but gravel underneath a little bit of soil.

And there was the answer. Its soil couldn't retain the moisture. It was always soaking away. It was always not there long enough to nurture those trees. And so the trees in that corner always look bad, and they always probably will. Well, in Matthew 13, the text before us, Jesus tells us a story about the different reasons why some plants grow and why others do not.

It's really not a story about Palestinian agricultural practices. It's rather a parable, and it's intended to teach us something important. What does Jesus teach in these parables? He uses them to teach the secrets of the kingdom of heaven They are intended in this chapter to teach us truth about his kingdom It a ministry of judgment and it a ministry of mercy It's a ministry of judgment against people who have already decided what they think about Jesus.

They're callous toward him. They don't care about what he has to say. Certainly they listen to him, but they're just there to argue basically. And they're the ones who have dulled their ears and their eyes and gone blind because they don't want to hear it. And so Jesus says, I'm going to tell these parables as a means of judgment against them. They're never going to understand.

Of course, they don't want to understand. And so these are going to stand in judgment to them. But then for those who have ears to hear, these are to communicate mercy to them. Now, in the time of Jesus, there were all kinds of ideas about this kingdom of God. We heard in our Old Testament reading this morning that the kingdom of God is going to come. It's going to come with great power and that those who are disobedient to God are going to be eliminated.

And the kingdom is going to extend and people from all kinds of nations are going to come. But it didn't seem to happen that way. In fact, Jesus came and started preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. What's that all about? There were a lot of groups in Israel at the time. there were the zealots they were the ones who said we'll kill Romans we don't care for them they're they're our occupiers we will fight we will fight we will fight we will fight by any means we are going to fight the Romans they mounted a few rebellions they thought of course that if they fought hard enough the kingdom of God would arrive there were the Essenes the Essenes went way out into the desert you've heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls right that was produced by a community of Jews who went decided to get away from sight the kingdom of God was getting away from everyone and the kingdom of God would come when these when when he would come in all his power and glory because they were holy they were living out in the desert and trying to be holy there were the the Pharisees the Pharisees had built up all kinds of traditions they were the people who said if you're going to be acceptable to God you've got to obey the law and if you're going to obey the law you got to do it by these rules they tried to take the law and apply it to different situations and say okay so if you're not going to work on the sabbath you can't make mud okay in other words they weren't satisfied with god saying keep the sabbath holy they said okay this is how you can keep the sabbath holy and they came up with all these rules and they thought well when the kingdom of god comes it's we're going to be the winners because we're the ones who obeyed the law there were the Sadducees who were the aristocracy and their view of the kingdom was a little bit different of course but but all of them had different views of the kingdom and Jesus comes along with his parables and he starts blasting away in fact his whole teaching blasts away at their view of the kingdom and here in this chapter is a great example as he describes the kingdom of God to them so that people will understand what it's really like and they will understand better what what Jesus what God said in the Old Testament however it's not going to look like you think the Old Testament says it it's going to look like this and so he tells a series of parables here that explains the kingdom of God to us and this is the first one the parable of this of the soils now Jesus explains various responses to his message of the kingdom in this parable this is called normally called the parable of the sower right that's the way it is in most of our bibles that's the heading there but actually it's a parable about four different kinds of soil notice that in this parable the emphasis isn't on the sower it's on the soils and this is jesus explaining to you the different responses to his message of the kingdom there are these different responses and by the way those are the responses that we see today as you hear this parable ask yourself two questions so today as you listen always be asking these two questions number one how does this explain the various responses i have seen to the gospel okay how does this explain the various responses i have seen to the gospel and as as someone who's been in this congregation for 32 years, okay, 33 coming up in March, I can think of the different responses here.

And this parable explains why people respond differently to the message of the gospel. The second question that you need to ask yourself is this, and I think this is the most important question, and that is, what kind of soil am I? Okay? First question then, how do I explain the various responses to the gospel? Second question, most important question, what kind of soil am I?

Well, first of all, let's hear the parable, verses one through nine. First of all, there is a farmer who goes out to sow his seed. Now, you know what sowing is? It's planting. And what they would do is they go out and they would work the ground. And then they didn't have drills or planters.

Drill, by the way, drill is a kind of planter for those of you who don't know. And instead of, they didn't have those sorts of things, so they would go out and they would just broadcast the seed. They'd go out and throw it, just like this. Like when you go out and plant your grass seed, at least how I do it. And you just throw it out like that, right? And that's how they would sow the seed.

In those days, when there were no fences, people would be walking through those fields and after a while your field might have a path that was beaten right through the middle of it where people would cross your field or a path somewhere near it in that field that was beaten down soil from all the people that are going by It wasn worked up I mean you left the path there so that people could walk okay And some of the seed is going to fall on that as you're throwing your seed out. So the seed never penetrates the soil, but it just lays there, never able to germinate and grow. And as it lays there, the birds flock around it and come and eat the seeds off the beaten path.

Some of the seeds fall on some shallow soil. This is some of the field that has an undercropping of limestone covered by a thin layer of soil. I think of this whenever I'm traveling through Kentucky and wonder how in the world do they ever grow anything here, right? I do not understand it. My dear friend Gene explains these things to me. He talks about when he's growing up and the crops they use.

And I can never figure out how you get a crop because the soil must be about that thin. Right? And that's what he's talking about here. The kind of soil that's shallow, moist soil, so that germination can occur and sprouting happens quickly. However, as the season progresses, as the sun comes out, the roots are so shallow and the soil is so shallow that it dries it all out. and the plant scorches and withers away.

As the sower continues in his task, some of the seed at the edge of the field is thrown. As he's thrown it around, some of it lands just outside the field in the thorny ground, the part of the field that's not worked. Some of that seed will fall out there. In the back of our property for many years, we had this one strip that we just let it go, right?

We just let it go. It looked ugly, but it was wild. okay someone in my family likes that book and so so we left it that way for many years nothing could really grow out there you could plant things out there but nothing would would really grow out there because the thorns and the thistles and the weeds would choke it out and so these weeds choke out the plants because they rob the plants of their nutrients they they take the the water themselves and they block out the sun and their roots go out and they choke out the plants that may be there. Some of the seed falls on the good ground that's been worked and has depth and so it can germinate, send its roots down and it produces a fruitful crop and so the seed grows and produces a varied harvest.

And Jesus says, now hear, he who has ears, let him hear. Listen then, verse 18, hear then the parable of the sower. As he's sitting in this boat, the crowds are so unbelievably massive that he has to sit out in a boat as he tells them this he wants them not to hear a lesson on agriculture but to understand the kingdom of God and so he's telling this whole mass of people what this parable means well he's telling them the parable and then later on to the disciples he explains it to them so not only do we need to hear the parable understand what he's saying in the parable we need to understand the responses described in this parable these are the responses to the message of the kingdom of god now let's get an understanding of the elements in this parable the seed he says in verse 19 is the message about the kingdom so the seed being sown is the message being proclaimed.

The seed being scattered is the message of the kingdom going out. The soils are different people with different responses. The sower are those who spread the message of the kingdom. So you've got all that in your mind now. We see all the characters in our mind now. So let's see what Jesus has to say.

First, there's the seed sown along the path, verse 19. hear then the parable 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 what was sown along the path the seed is sown the message of the kingdom is proclaimed no doubt proclaimed many times yet this person does not understand now remember what Jesus has said in verses 13 through 15. Remember, we're just glancing over that section of this, but in verses 13 through 15, Jesus explains this to us. But this is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Okay? This is the person who doesn't understand it. And you will indeed see, indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, you will indeed hear, but never understand, and you'll indeed see but never perceive for this people's heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear and their eyes they have closed lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal him.

This soil, this beaten down path represents people who don't understand and they don't understand because they're willfully blind. They close their eyes. They close their ears. They don't want to hear, lest they turn and be healed. Isaiah had said, they're blind. They're deaf.

They don't want to understand. This person is like the hardened soil on the pathway. He does not let the message of the gospel penetrate. He may hear the message time after time, but after each time, he doesn't give it another thought. He just doesn't give it another thought. He lets it go in one ear and out the other and never responds in faith.

And because they do not let the message penetrate Satan comes like those birds come and snatches away takes away the seed Now we shouldn be surprised when some people never respond to the gospel They not interested in it Even when you obviously you don know if anyone interested or not Even when you share it with them, you don't know what's going to happen. Some are just going to say, yeah, yeah, thank you, pat you on the back, and off they go. Or some may be hostile, but they're not interested.

So, second question now, what about you? Now, I know that people, most of you, I see every week, you come here every week. But I also know this. People can come out of church out of custom. They can come to church because their mom and dad make them come. They can come to church because they think it's their religious thing, and somehow they'll get something with God.

And you hear the gospel here every week, I hope. You hear the gospel of a Savior who's come to save you, and it goes in one ear and out the other. You're here. You're doing your thing. But you're not listening. You're like that beaten down path and Satan has come and snatched away the seed.

Snatched it away. It's not going to grow. Next there's the seed that's sown on rocky soil. Look at verses 20 and 21. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while. and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately he falls away the seed is sown and this person hears the message of the kingdom and he responds with great joy here is the person who goes forward at the crusade or at the meeting here is the person who responds to the gospel with tears of joy and with great emotion he's incredibly enthusiastic about studying the scripture now.

He wants to share the gospel with everyone. Everyone he sees, he's going to tell them about Jesus and what a wonderful thing he's done in his life. He's going to say, let me talk to the youth group. There's kids in that youth group. They need to hear this. Let me tell them of my story.

Let me tell them. And they implore the pastor, let him speak to the congregation about this unbelievable experience he's had. And we say to ourselves, surely this person is a Christian. Surely this person has been converted. Look at the joy he has in the Lord. Oh, I wish I had that kind of joy.

Wow, what's wrong with me? Look at him. Wow, what? Boy, he must really be the real deal. But then trouble and persecution comes. Because he's confessed Christ, his wife, the love of his wife disappears his children think he's some kind of crazy jesus freak they despise him his job becomes a chore because since he's sharing a gospel with everyone they just sick and tired of him and they make life hard for him they don't want anything to do with him and so the trials he experiences causes him to disbelieve and even forsake that which he wants so enthusiastically embraced.

And he collapses under the pressure. This enthusiastic confessor of Christ finds that keeping the commandments of Christ is not nearly as much fun as getting the benefits of Christ. You see, the test of faith is loyalty to Jesus in the tough times. That's the test of the real deal. That's the test of faith. loyalty to Jesus in the tough times. The test of faith is not a dramatic conversion experience, which is what we so often think, isn't it?

Someone who's that enthusiastic, someone who's filled with that much joy, someone who's that way surely must be a Christian, but joyous, emotionally charged conversion is no guarantee of the Christian life. It's not how we start with the message that counts. It's how you continue in it. That's what counts. It's not how you start. It's how you continue.

And so we shouldn't be surprised when we see what appears to be wonderfully enthusiastic people for Christ who fall away suddenly. That shouldn't surprise us. Jesus has told us about it. Question. are you this kind of soil what about you some of you here may be new in the faith and i'm not here to cast cause you to doubt whether you're a christian or not but let me say to you you may be very enthusiastic you may be a new believer let me say to you i praise god for that but the test the test of your faith is coming and will you remain loyal to jesus where you not only want his benefits, but you want to obey him.

And nothing is going to keep you from it. Oh, certainly we'll struggle. But in the long haul, we're going to stay with it. You see? So the test of faith is not the dramatic conversion. The test of faith is not the joy.

Although there should be joy. That's not the test of our faith. The test of our faith is will it continue then there's the seed which sown on the thorny ground the seed is sown the message of the kingdom is given and he responds well in fact this a person this person appears to be a productive christian not just a joyful one this one's a productive one he in fact he appears to be doing rather well he's we see a plant we see some maybe some fruit but then the thorns start to grow and they choke out the plant.

And the production ends. In fact, the plant withers away. It may be the thorns of anxiety. How are we going to make ends meet? He says to himself. And so he gets another job.

And soon that job is over. consumed him and his worry about making ends meet so consumes him that that he he starts working harder and pushing himself and and soon it's hard to come to church and it's hard to be with the people of God it's it's hard to do all those things or maybe it's not financial maybe it's family somebody's got to take care of dad he's elderly he's he's infirm someone has to stay with him. Someone has to take care of him. And soon the anxiety about dad overtakes you.

And pretty soon he becomes the center of your life. And pretty soon the center of your life is no longer Jesus. Maybe it's education. You know you're doomed to the lower echelons of the corporate world. Unless you have a good education. I need to take more classes at OSUM.

You know how important education is. You know how it is. I got to do it. And so what happens now? You're going to pursue that education. More and more and more education becomes more and more important.

But soon you find it harder to fellowship and pray with other believers and it's nearly impossible to get to church. You know, you do need to rest. Your personal walk with God starts to evaporate. And serving God, well, if I've got time, maybe. And so one becomes so absorbed in the important matters of this life that he's damned in the next. Maybe this seemingly productive Christian is choked in the thorns of deceitful wealth.

Notice, both ends of the spectrum. The anxiety of life and what? The deceit of wealth. It promises salvation through success. It promises security in wealth. It promises happiness in the stuff you can get.

And so you start to drop out. There's no time for God. There's no time for communing with God. There's no time for God's people. There is much to be made in this world. and so the mirage of happiness through pleasure is no longer a mirage for you it becomes a reality for you but listen wealth is deceitful and the only thing that it delivers is eternal death listen to what Jesus says the thorns of ambition and anxiety will kill you.

Is he talking about losing our salvation? No. But true, living, saving faith will not let the thorns grow. It will deal with them. It will be diligent to deal death blows to them. It will not let the anxieties of this world or the wealth of this world, It will not let either choke out the gospel.

It will not let any of them push Jesus to the margins. What about you? What about you? It does not matter that you been here for years and you appear to be a productive Christian You starting to feel the pull The thorns are growing You feeling the pull away because you anxious or you ambitious I want to warn you this morning, you're in danger because you're starting to fall away through the anxieties of this life or the wealth that promises so much.

If the weeds are starting to grow, deal with them. Can I say this? If you need help dealing with those things, find it. Find a brother or sister. Find a leader that can help you deal with those things. But deal with them.

You're in danger. Well, Jesus doesn't leave us without hope, does he? There's a last soil. This Jesus identifies as the good soil. Verse 23, As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

Don't anybody panic. Okay, just relax. Aveline will be fine. All right. This is the good soil. These are those who are Christ.

These are those who belong to His kingdom. They are subjects of His kingdom. They understand the message. They understand the message. The message is, Jesus says to you, I am the King. And the King has come to rescue you.

And the King has come to give His life as a ransom for you. And the King has come so that by His death you can be forgiven and the slate wiped clean. But this King also demands your allegiance and your obedience. He is the King after all. And the message of grace comes to you and says, find free forgiveness. Find reconciliation with God. find it and find also in following me an abundant life as you listen and hear and obey my commands in them the message of the kingdom germinates and grows without withering and persecution without being choked by the allurements and the anxiety of the world these produce the fruit of holy lives, of obedience, as Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount and the things that He says there and in His teachings and in His commands.

These produce the fruit of love for God and love for neighbor. These produce the fruit of right belief. A belief in the message that stands the test and endures. It's a faith that day after day says, I trust Jesus. I believe the King. I will follow my Lord every day.

Oh, listen, listen, friends. I become more and more convinced the older I get that the gospel is not just meant for unbelievers It is meant for every one of us who claim Christ And every day every day I don know about you I wake up and I think this day is going to be impossible. It's going to be impossible to obey God the way He wants. Lord, I don't think I can do it.

And I pray for grace. and I thank God that Jesus is my righteousness and I am not my righteousness. That my righteousness stands before God and God looks at him and counts his righteousness for me. I've got to say that to myself every day. That's the kind of faith that he's talking about here. The faith that says, I believe Jesus, you are my righteousness, and I believe you when you say, an abundant life comes from obedience.

Help me to obey. Help me to love you by obeying you. The plants in this soil may vary in productivity, but they still produce. Do you see that? That should encourage you. The seed falls on good soil and produces a harvest of a hundredfold, 60, 30.

The implication being, by the way, 30 isn't like, you know, the floor level of Christianity, right? The implication is there's something there. And you have to understand, God does not work the same way in everybody's life. God does not work the same way in everybody's life. never forget that the soil which produces the least is still called good soil, isn't it?

I may only be at the twenty-fold level. It's still good soil. It's still producing. How do you explain these varied responses to Jesus' message? Why do some reject him? Why do some respond temporarily?

Why do some respond with persevering faith? The fault is not in the message. The seed is the same in every soil. The fault lies with those who receive it. Hear the parable of the soils. Some do not receive the word at all, though they listen to it.

Some receive the word with joy, but then they let it go. some receive the world some receive the message with one hand while the other hand is still trying to grab onto the things of this world some receive the seed of the word with both hands and are fruitful for eternity listen to the words of Jesus this morning I say to you take them seriously take them seriously As I read the parable of the soils listen to me now As I read the parable of the soils I can attach names and faces to everyone As I read through this parable, I think of people I knew. I think of people with whom I sat at their table for months and discipled them. And they are no longer part of the people of God.

There are names and faces to each one of these. As I look out at this congregation right now, I can ask myself, what soils am I seeing? Oh, I pray God, I see all good soil. I pray that's the case but Jesus has told us now what the kingdom is like what the message of the kingdom is like and why there are different responses so I understand that I don't lose hope I understand that but I also want to ask myself me what kind of soil am I what kind of soil am I I pray God I pray that there is all good soil out there I pray that you look to a Savior and ask Him to keep you a good soil Father thank you thank you for your word the message of the kingdom so many responses.

And Jesus has explained that to us so clearly. But Lord, the explanation is not enough. The examination must start. God, help us not to be the kind of people who are going to doubt our faith. Now, Lord, that's not my intention. And I pray that if there are some here with tender consciences, you would not cause them to doubt and lead them, and that they would be led then by their doubt down to a path of trying to keep it going.

But instead, Father, I pray that you would help us to look at ourselves and say, you know what, I have withered. I was productive for a while and I left. Help them, Father, to look again and say, I want Jesus more than anything. But Father, help us to be real with ourselves and to say, by your grace, by your grace, I will endure. By your grace, I will continue to believe and continue to follow.

By your grace, I will produce. God, help us to be that kind of people. Lord, use this as you see fit for your glory and the good of your people. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.