The Parable of the Sower: Matthew 13:1-9

Well, good morning, good evening, wherever you're at, whatever time zone, time of the day, we're glad you're here joining us here with Faith Bible Church of Sacramento. We are grateful to to have the opportunity to gather spiritually together.

We're not physically together, but we are part of God's kingdom and his citizens and we can worship and we can be together wherever we're at. So we thank you that you're listening in and pray that you would be blessed by the songs this morning, by a scripture reading, through the message, and we're just blessed beyond words.

So thank you. And and this week we also have Pastor Stan and family. They're back with us. They were away this last week and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit, but let's open in a word of prayer, a prayer, please.

Lord God, we thank you, Father, that you have gathered us in our various places, Lord, that we can worship where we're at. Lord, that you would care for each one of us, Lord, in this trying time. But Lord, may our hearts and our eyes be open to the truth of your word, because that is where true peace and comfort comes from.

And may we, as we go through this service together, Lord, be blessed and acknowledge the truth and the hope that we have in you. Lord, we pray for the message and may you help us to lift our voices to you in glad adoration and in worshiping you in a worthy manner.

Lord, may you be praised in all that we do in Christ's name. Amen. Just by a couple of announcements this morning. Again, as you all know, the Bernsteins are, Pastor Stan is retiring and they're moving in a couple weeks, or here shortly, to out-of-state, to Boise.

But we're, as we enter into this time, it can be an uncertain time for a church, but we are really blessed to be able to, Pastor John Kane has accepted and is willing to be an interim pastor as we go through this time of transition and seeing what the Lord would have us to do.

And so, as elders, we're very thankful for that. We're thankful that we can kind of have some stability as we go through and see what, again, what God would have us as a church to do. So, I just want to let you know that and and I think that's all we have for now.

We're still, we're still, stay tuned on when we gather again. We're still working through the detail of that. I think every church in the country is having the same, going through the same questioning of how and just all of it.

It's delicate and it's challenging, but we ask that you be patient with us and we wait on the Lord because that's who we serve. And we just want to honor Him. So, stay tuned. There'll be more coming out about that, but that was it for that.

I was gonna say please stand, but we're gonna sing, These Things Are True of You, and this song speaks to the the attributes of God, the beautiful and powerful attributes of God, and at the same time how we as followers of Christ should emulate those attributes, that we can, that we would have a hunger to be like Him.

So, think about that as you sing these words together. Next, we'll be singing, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

So great to be here this morning and to be able to worship back at church and worship the Lord with you this morning, and my prayer is that you will be blessed in the Lord as we worship and through the Lord's wonderful Word.

Let's open up in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for all the blessings you give us in life, especially that of Christ and your Word, and may we be ever focused on on Christ, and we, may we be doers of your Word.

We just pray, Lord, that as we hear the Word of God today, that it would be part and parcel of our lives and of our hearts, and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to look at Christ's parables.

In chapter 13, it is a chapter full of parables, and they are teaching us about the kingdom of God, and I think basically, the focus of Christ on the parables is the heart, emphasizing the heart, that if we are a kingdom citizen and we do know Christ, we should not only have a heart for Christ, but we should have a heart for God's Word, and it should bear fruit.

It's not enough just to go to church. What the Lord wants from us is to bear fruit from the heart by hearing His Word this morning. So that's the emphasis on the first parable that we're going to hear.

The emphasis is not only on hearing the Word of God, but on bearing fruit from the Word of God, showing that we are indeed Christ's disciples. So we want to look at that this morning. We're in Matthew 13, verses 1 through 9.

Matthew 13, 1 through 9. We'll read. On the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea, and great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.

But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away, and some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. So as we look at this parable this morning, that's commonly called the parable of the sower, the first thing we want to look at is the parables, verses 1 through 3.

Verses 1 and 2, we look at the sower, and this is an incredible chapter. As I said, it is a chapter full of parables. There are seven parables here. And they basically are going to teach us spiritual truth.

The word parable, actually, in the Greek, comes from two Greek words that means to throw alongside. So that has the idea of comparisons. And parables are exquisite. The Lord uses so many of them in his teaching.

And they really speak to us because they're drawn from everyday life, usually from nature or the human condition or our circumstances. And they speak truth, spiritual truth. And so this morning, from the first parable, we are to learn some incredible spiritual truth about what it means to be a believer and about our receptivity toward the word of God.

That we need to have diligence, not only for the Lord, but for God's word. Because there are so many factors that go against not only hearing the word of God, but also bearing fruit for the word of God.

So it's going to take not only a good heart, receptivity of the heart, but great diligence by the power of the Holy Spirit to not only hear the word of God, but to apply it. And so we see here in verse number one that, as you remember, the Lord Jesus was in a house.

And we see that in chapter 12. He was teaching and there were so many there that his own mother and brothers could not even get to him. Because there was such a crowd there. And we see that in chapter 12, verse 46.

And because of that, the Lord went down to the sea. Now, he went down to the Sea of Galilee to kind of, you know, getting away from the crowds. And then he went in to a boat and he sat down and the crowds came to the sea.

And they were all flocked around him at the sea, if you could imagine. And so we see that he sat by the sea. And we see in verse number two, not only were there the great multitudes gathered together around him, but he got into a boat and it says he sat.

Now, this is the posture of an ancient Jewish rabbi. When they taught, they sat down. Now, generally, we as preachers, we stand up when we preach, usually. Unless I'm doing a Bible study, I'll sit down.

But a rabbi sat down and his disciples were around him listening. And so our Lord is sitting down in the posture of a rabbi, teacher, to expound the precious word of God. And so as we go into the parables in verse number three, this first parable of seven parables is a parable of the sower, which is interesting.

In one sense, if we look at a sower, what we think about is a farmer, a farmer sowing seed, very, very hard work. Day and night, sowing the seed. But here, supremely, the sower is Jesus Christ, the Lord from heaven, the great shepherd of the sheep who had come to those that he created.

And he came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, teaching and preaching the things of the kingdom of heaven. And so in that sense, we see him as the sower, sowing the very words of God right here in this circumstance with the multitudes gathered around him, listening to him.

And what we want to remember is one of the reasons why the Lord told his disciples he was using parables is because of the dullness of the people's hearts. That many of them weren't receptive to the word of God and they were dull of hearing.

So he used parables. Now, even as Christians, we can be slow of hearing, can't we, of spiritual things. I speak for myself. I think sometimes the Lord has to knock me over the head and say, hey, come on.

Look what I'm trying to show you. But we know the Lord's merciful, isn't he, the way and long suffering, the way he deals with us. And so we see in verse number three, it says, Behold, a sower went out to sow.

So not only do we see the Lord Jesus here in the sower, but we can see a preacher, a preacher of the gospel. That is what a true preacher of Jesus Christ does is he sows. He sows the precious word of God and a true preacher will sow the true word of God and teach it in truth.

And that is the only way that it can bear fruit, that we can bear fruit, is through the word of God that is taught in truth. Now, as we look at a farmer who labors very hard, he sows the seeds, right?

But he cannot cause the seed to grow. He cannot give life. Only God can bring life. The farmer sows the seed, but God causes it to grow, so much like us in the spiritual realm. And even for the preacher of God's word, all the preacher can do is preach the word of God truly and not corrupt the word of God and sow the word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But it is only God who brings growth and the increase from the word of God. That's why we need to be like farmers and patient for the crop. Often we're impatient, aren't we? Not only in our own lives, but in the church, because we want everything to grow our way and happen really quickly.

But God grows his church and spiritual things in his way and his timing. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 5 through 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 5 through 7. I think for us as a church, these are important verses to grab a hold of, to understand that God is the Lord of the harvest and we are mere workers in his field.

Servants that he uses by his grace and he brings the crop, not us. Look at verses 5 through 7. Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one?

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God gives the increase. How profound, how important for us to understand. Paul says we're ministers or we're servants, right?

Each one of us and each one of us has different giftings, we all have different functions, spiritual functions, that the Lord gives us by his grace and he wants us to use them, but he says here clearly, God brings the increase.

And so that's what we see also in our Lord's parable. We go back to Matthew chapter 13. The sower or the farmer merely sows the seed, but God brings the increase. That has profound implications for us.

Number one, we need to be very, very diligent when we hear the word of God. So that we will apply it to our lives and seek by the Holy Spirit to bear fruit. Also, a preacher needs to be very diligent because there are all kinds of obstacles and trials that he will endure.

And he needs to be diligent and trust the Lord and be committed and realize that God will work and that he gives more grace. And so we see in verse number four, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. Now, the word wayside in the Greek means a path or road.

Now, a farmer doesn't want his seed to fall on a path or road because it's not going to grow, right? It would just be on the surface. And that's what we see here. Now, in verses four through seven, what we are seeing is four different kinds of soil, which really speak of four different kinds of people that hear the word of God.

And these four different kinds of people do not change. The Lord said there are these kinds of people. They were there listening to our Lord then. And they are still here in the world today. And I believe these four different types of people or soils are evident in every church.

And that's the idea here. Now, verses four through seven are the unprofitable hearers. And they are basically unprofitable in the sense that they have no root in Jesus Christ. And so the first one, the shallow ground that falls by the wayside, what happens here is Satan will come after somebody hears the word of God and take it from his heart and he will not bear fruit.

I remember hearing Billy Graham give the greatest illustration of different kinds of people who come to his evangelistic rallies to hear the word of God. And he said there was one guy that was there and he was listening to Billy Graham while he was reading a newspaper.

In other words, his head was down. And most of the time while Billy Graham was preaching, he was reading his newspaper and hardly ever looked up. And there was another guy, Billy Graham said, that wasn't very far away from him that was always looking up and looked like he was about to run and couldn't wait until the altar call came so he can receive Christ as his Savior.

And he ran down the altar call. When Billy Graham gave the altar call, the casual, disinterested man who was reading his newspaper, folded his newspaper, simply looked up and didn't do anything. You see, he had a hardened heart.

He listened but didn't really hear. He had ears but didn't hear. And so this parable applies to all of us in the sense of what is our spiritual appetite really like and how can we or how do we hear the word of God and how can we profit from hearing the word of God?

So we see the one that's on the shallow ground, the hard heart that hears the word. And then we see the stony ground. Verses five and six. Now, the preacher here has to understand that when he's serving God and he's preaching the word, there are different kinds of people out there at different levels who are going to respond to the word of God in different ways.

And even in a church, some may not even be believers. And that's what this parable is teaching. That now there are the stony soil people. This is really interesting. They don't have much earth. In other words, there's no depth to the soil.

They don't have any root, no root in Christ. They're emotional. They love hearing. The sermon. They love hearing preachers preach. And they may get emotional about it, but that's as far as it goes, because they don't have any depth of heart and it's just shallow and we have to be really careful.

Because we can be emotional, we can even want to hear a sermon, but there's no depth to our hearts. We don't come to church prepared not only to receive the word, but seek to say, OK, what is God saying to me through the word?

What does God want me to do through his word? And seek to have the word implanted in our hearts to be so careful as a pastor. And even in this church. I've seen people come to our church really excited and really excited about the church and really excited about the Lord.

And often I know that when they're really excited, they can really get cooled down. They get really cold and they get really hot. No, I mean, excuse me, the other way around. They're really hot, then they can get really cold.

I've seen people, you know, really excited about the Lord and even want to go out with me doing door to door evangelism and then they're gone. And then they're just off because it's just an emotional high.

It's just an emotional thing. There's no depth of love and grace. For Jesus Christ in their hearts and that kind of a person and that kind of a here, like I say, comes really hot. And then cools down really fast.

Comes to the word of God and hearing the word of God, they're very excited, but that's as far as it goes, because the minute the emotions wear off, there's nothing left because there's no spiritual depth in their hearts.

And that's what Jesus says here. And when the sun was up, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away. This reminds me of what a deacon said to me in another church. We walked outside and he said to me, Pastor, you know.

We were in the parking lot of the church. He said a lot of these people that come out of here, he wasn't saying it judgmentally. He said they're going to come out holding a cup. And it's full, but the minute they get into the parking lot, they're going to turn it over and spill it all out on the ground.

I thought, wow, what an illustration. In other words, it's so easy for us to come to church, right, and hear the word of God and we're really excited. And then the minute you get home, you go, what did the preacher speak about?

I can't even remember the text. We forget. So human to do that. But I drive home and I ask my kids, how was Sunday school, children's church? What did you learn? What did they talk about? I can't, I don't know.

I can't remember. And then I might go to church somewhere else or when I used to go to other churches. And then I go home and I'm going. Well. What what was it about? I'm forgetting it. Takes diligence, beloved, doesn't it?

It takes a heart. That loves Jesus. That's open. To the word of God. And the Holy Spirit. For us to really. Bear fruit. You know, you can tell. In our own lives or with someone else. The spiritual state of a person.

What is his or her response to the word of God? And I'm not just saying in church, I'm saying in general. What is your response to the word of God? If you're like me, you can't go without eating food for one day.

And snacking throughout the day, ask my wife. But can we go without the word of God for a day? And it doesn't make a difference in our lives. Actually. The word of God is more important than our physical food.

And so if we don't have an appetite for the word of God. We don't have a desire for the Lord. And it says something about our spiritual state. And so we see those on the stony ground versus five and six.

And then verse seven, the thorny ground. So far, we've seen shallow ground, verse four, shallow here's. Stony ground versus five and six. The emotional here's or superficial here's really. And now we see the thorny ground.

Verse seven. And some fell among thorns. Well, a farmer does not want to scatter seeds among thorns. You all know that if you do gardening. You want to get those thorns out of there first. You want to get those weeds out of there first.

Before you plant your crop, a farmer is going to dig out those thorns, dig out those weeds. Fertilize that ground. And try to grow his crop in good ground. Now, spiritually, the Lord is telling us something really impactful.

Verse seven. And some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up and choked them. This is talking about the person who is distracted when hearing the word of God by all the worldly cares and the world.

Well, we're all affected by the world, aren't we? You know, we got to be honest. But if your and my focus is totally the world and the cares of the world, that chokes out the word of God and leaves us fruitless.

It reminds me of our Lord's words in Matthew chapter six, right? A man can have one master. Let me read that. Let me get it. Let me quote it right because it's so important. Matthew six. We can't serve two masters.

That's what the focus is here. Matthew 6, 24. No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other. Or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Isn't that true? Where is our allegiance? Where is our allegiance this morning? Is it to God? Is he our number one priority? Is our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Lord the number one thing in our lives?

Or is it material things and money? Like someone once said, money is a great servant, but a horrible master. Isn't that true? The word mammon not only means money, but it also means material things. And when material things and money are our master.

Just takes us away from the Lord. And so we have to be careful by way of application. When we hear the word of God. That the worldly cares and desires of our heart. Do not consume us to the point. Where we not only don't hear the word of God.

But the word of God is choked by the thorns of the world, the thorns of our cares, we all have cares, but we have to give the Lord our cares. And seek to make him number one in our lives, because how do you grow?

How do I grow? As a believer, we grow through the word of God, that's how we grow. Look at first Peter two, two and three, first Peter two, two and three. These are very vivid verses. Every time I read this, I think about my children when they were born.

And how right after they were born, they couldn't get enough to eat. And with my wife feeding them and I was just watching like one of my sons and it's like almost all day wanting to eat. And what an example that is, an illustration that Peter uses, that should be our desire.

That kind of insatiable desire that a newborn infant has for his mother's milk should be the same kind of desire that we have for God's word. We can't get enough. When I first came to know Christ, I couldn't get enough of his word.

Now I'm kind of, I wish I was back there in some way. It's had that kind of desire I had when I first came to know Christ. It says, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may what?

Grow there by. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Oh, that the Lord would be gracious to us. As we seek to walk with him. That our hearts would be tender. Toward him and the word. And desirous for the word of God, knowing that it is our very life.

Like the baby's milk is that baby's very life. That the word of God is more important to us in a sense than even our lives. So we see the thorny ground. So we've seen the four unprofitable hearers of the word.

And now we're going to look at the profitable hearers. Verses eight and nine. Verse eight and nine, the good ground. So now we get to the good ground. Now may I say again that there's four kinds of hearers.

Four kinds of soils, which mean there are four different kinds of people. And those four are unprofitable. And there's one kind of soil that's profitable. Well to me, that's a one in four percentage. That's a low percentage.

What that says to me is that we should want to be that one. We should want to be the good soil. We should want to have the good hearts. And this soil from one who is born again. One who is redeemed and has trusted Christ.

We now have a new nature. And now we should have receptive hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives so that we bear fruit. Now what this verse is saying is that people on the good ground with the good soil will bear fruit on different degrees.

Degrees. Each of us bear fruit in different ways and different degrees. Because God has created us differently, right? But the main focus is on bearing fruit. In other words, a true believer in Jesus Christ will be identified by what thing.

The fact that he or she bears fruit for God. And that fruit comes from the heart hearing the Word. And that's the mark, see? That's the mark of the good soil. It's bearing fruit. Spiritual fruit. What is spiritual fruit?

It's basically, in a simplistic way, it's bearing fruit for the Lord through the Holy Spirit and abiding in Christ. That's how we bear spiritual fruit. Is by being led by the Holy Spirit and abiding in Christ.

John 15. The vine. And so what we see in this parable is that the only way a person can bear fruit, and that's the emphasis of this parable, is through Jesus Christ, knowing Jesus Christ, being redeemed by Jesus Christ, and now having a humble and receptive heart toward the Lord and His Word, and desiring the Word of God.

You see, the emphasis here in this parable is not only hearing the Word of God, but it is the response that we have to the Word of God, which is bearing fruit to the Word of God. It does not have to do, beloved, with the preacher's style and the preacher's effectiveness.

If the preacher is truly preaching the Word of God, the important emphasis is that we bear fruit, spiritual fruit. So the question is, are we bearing fruit for the Lord? The Lord desires that we bear spiritual fruit.

It's a great privilege to be back here and to be preaching, and we trust that God will give grace, as He does to the preaching, and will give you blessing and grace to live for the Lord and to bear fruit for Him.

If you have not trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, trust Him. He came into this world to die for your sin, and He paid the price for our sin on the cross, and He rose again from the dead to give us new life.

And this morning, if you don't know Jesus Christ, put your faith and trust in Him, and He will save you and give you a new nature. And now we can live an abundant and fruitful life. And so it's my prayer for all of us who know Him that we could really experience that abundance and that fruitfulness that only Jesus Christ can give this morning.

So I want to go to the Lord in prayer before we have our closing song. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for this parable that speaks to all of us about what's really important, and we have to question not only our motives but our priorities and see where our heart really is and see that we need.

We need grace. We need diligence for you to apply and to receive your word and to seek to bear fruit for your word. And we pray, Father, that you will make us those kinds of people and give us the humility and the grace that we need to bear fruit and to live for you.

Help us to be people of the book, people of your word, people who bear fruit for you. I pray for your blessing upon each and every person that hears your word this morning, that you will give them comfort and grace in this very difficult world right now, that you would give us peace through Jesus Christ, and we would have a great hope of heaven no matter what kind of trials we face.

We know that we do not face them alone, but we face them with Jesus Christ, and we can now be of good cheer for he has overcome the world. And so I thank you for that, and I pray that you will give each and every one peace, grace, and joy through Jesus Christ.

We ask this in his name. Amen.

Well, for our last song this morning, it is Take My Life and Let It Be. As we go from here and as.

You go forth, and some of you, that's about at your front door right now, but may we abide in Christ, may we have the opportunity, and we do even in our homes, to bear fruit. It's in our thoughts, it's in our actions, it's everything that we are.

And may we bear fruit, and may we trust in the Lord in all things. And I would just ask you also to keep the, hold the Bernsteins up in prayer as they are going through a real transition time in their lives as a family, and as a pastor, but consider that in your prayers, and that they would have rest, and peace, and strength, and wisdom, and what's ahead of them.

And we're excited, we're sad on one hand, and we're excited for them that this is an opportunity for them, another opportunity for them to serve the Lord, because I know they're going to serve the Lord wherever they go.

So be with, pray that God would be with them in this time. And that is all we have today. We will again get back to you as things progress, and we understand more of what this reopening of the church is.

But have patience, trust in the Lord. Thank you.