Parable of the Soils

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Alright, I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me tonight.
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We are going to be looking at three different passages of Scripture tonight, all of which say the same thing in slightly different language.
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We are going to be looking at Matthew chapter 13, verses 1-23, we are going to be looking at Mark chapter 4, verses 1-20, and we are going to be looking at Luke chapter 8, verses 4-15.
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So if you want to go ahead and open your Bible to the Matthew passage, we will start there.
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As I said in my prayer, this lesson was not necessarily a last minute lesson, but it certainly was not a lesson I had planned to teach.
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I originally had planned to continue on teaching through the confession, but since Brother Andy is out this evening, I am teaching tonight on the parable of the soils.
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I want to give you the reasoning for this particular lesson.
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I am hoping that before I die, that I get to teach through a harmony of the Gospels.
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Now, I could die tomorrow, so it may not happen.
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But, Lord willing, that is one of my goals in ministry, is to preach a harmony of the Gospels.
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If you are unfamiliar with that, that is to teach all four Gospels at the same time, literally starting chronologically and walking through the Gospels and looking at how each Gospel shares the story of Christ a little differently.
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If you are unfamiliar with the breakdown of the four Gospels, it really is very interesting I talked about this some back at Christmas time because we talked about the birth narratives only being in the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew.
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One of the things that is very interesting is that there is no parable that is in all four Gospels.
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Did you guys know that? That there is no parable that is in all four Gospels.
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Can anyone tell me why that is so? That there is no parable that is in all four Gospels.
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The reason why is because John's Gospel doesn't have any parables.
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There are no parables in the Gospel of John.
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So, there are no parables that are in all four Gospels because there just aren't any in John.
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So, when we look at the parables of Christ, we find that there are 15 in the Gospel of Matthew, there are nine in the Gospel of Mark, and there are over 35 in the Gospel of Luke.
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In fact, many of the parables that we love dearly, Parable of the Prodigal Son, Parable of the Good Samaritan, are only found in Luke.
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They're not in Matthew, they're not in Mark, and they're not in the Gospel of John.
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John uses a different type of language.
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He uses the language of metaphors, figures of speech like bread of life, living water, light of the world, Jesus said, I'm the door, I'm this.
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That's the type of language we see in John.
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But when we look at Jesus' teaching in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we see the parable is used and again, doesn't come up in the Gospel of John.
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You guys maybe don't remember this, I know those of you who are in the academy would, when I taught through our New Testament introduction, I said John is unique, because John is written later than the first three Gospels, and John's purpose is somewhat distinct from the other three Gospels, in that John's Gospel provides for us sort of a filling in of information that the other Gospels don't present to us.
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In fact, if we only had Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we would only have about a year worth of Jesus' life.
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It's John's Gospel that tells us his ministry was three years, not just one.
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And so John's Gospel stands really unique among the other Gospels.
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So it makes sense that he wouldn't repeat the parables that have been given in the other three Gospels that were written earlier.
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And the one parable, that's not the only one, but the one that I enjoy showing people that does cover three, not four, because none of them are in all four, but that covers three of the four Gospels, is the parable of the sower.
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And that's the one we're going to look at tonight, the parable of the sower.
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This Sunday we're singing the song at the cross.
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It's been a while since we did this hymn, do you guys remember? You know, Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Remember that? Well, we're going to sing that song, and it goes with my sermon, so it's the last song we're going to do.
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But it's interesting, as I was preparing to teach it this week, I noted a distinct difference in the way it was written, because it was written by Isaac Watts.
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But what we normally sing is different than what he wrote.
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We normally sing, Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for sinners such as I? That's the way that we normally, but that's not what Isaac Watts wrote.
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You know what it is.
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For such a worm as I, that's what Isaac Watts wrote.
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Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? And as I was preparing that song, I got to thinking about worms, and dirt, and soil, and that's where this lesson sort of came from.
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Because what we're going to find in this parable, that what really matters in the parable is the soil itself.
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You know, the sower is consistent, the seed is consistent, but what changes is the soil, and that's what makes the difference.
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And we're going to talk about what makes the soil different.
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We're going to talk about what happens when the seed falls on unprepared soil, and that's really the heart of tonight's lesson.
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But we're going to start, we're going to read Matthew's account.
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It is the longer of the accounts because he has an interlude where he talks to the disciples about parables in general.
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Last week at set free, I had a gentleman ask me, he said, how do you interpret parables? And I said, parables are a little difficult to interpret because it says in the text they were intended to confuse some.
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It says, and we're going to see that in a moment, that they actually have a confusing nature.
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They're almost like a riddle.
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If you don't know where to start from, you can go with all kinds of crazy places with it.
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I said, but Jesus gives us the interpretation of this one.
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I said, so the best ones to start with are the ones that Jesus actually tells us what they mean.
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You know, I can't tell you how many times I've heard people give the parable of the prodigal son and come up with all kinds of crazy interpretations.
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You know, what the pigs represent and what this represents.
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No, it's weird.
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They come up with all kinds of stuff because they forget that a parable is not intended to be seen like Pilgrim's Progress.
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You know, Pilgrim's Progress, everything had a meaning.
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Parables typically have one specific meaning.
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One thing that, the one idea that it's trying to get across.
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And for instance, parable of the prodigal son.
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What's the main focus of the parable of the prodigal son? We often think it's forgiveness, right? Son comes back, father accepts him.
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The purpose of the parable of the prodigal son is the son who stayed behind.
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He represents Israel.
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He does not want forgiveness for his brother.
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All of the forgiveness is lavished upon the brother.
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What does the other brother do? He gets angry.
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Nobody ever thinks about, he's the prodigal and he stayed home.
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He's the focus.
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Everybody always focuses on the other guy.
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It's actually the one who stayed.
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That's why John MacArthur wrote a book, Tale of Two Sons, regarding that particular parable.
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So there's so much that's often misunderstood.
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Let's look at this.
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We're going to read, it's a lot of reading tonight, but hopefully it won't take us too terribly long.
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We'll be able to get through it.
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Beginning at verse one, it says, that same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered around him, so that he got into a boat and sat down.
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The whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables, saying, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
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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.
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But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away.
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Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
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Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain.
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Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
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He who has ears, let him hear.
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We can stop right there at verse nine.
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We're going to read on, but this parable, at least for the hearers, would have been very naturally understood, at least in the generic sense, because they lived in a gregarion – agrarian – I couldn't get it out, thank you, Brother Mike – agrarian society.
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Everybody had to plant and grow food.
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You know, this is how they survived, this is how they lived, and it's only really in recent history that people have gotten away from that, and now we buy food from the grocery store.
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So, you know, when you teach the youngest generation these things, you kind of have to explain how seeds work.
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My wife and I are learning a little bit about this as we are growing our garden, and she's so excited.
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She comes in every day, and, you know, Keith, we have twenty-one tomatoes, and I think that's how many we're up to, like twenty-one tomatoes on our plants, and she's counting every one and every bud, and – yeah, it's homeschool math – but I was unwise.
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I wanted watermelons, and I still do, but I planted my watermelons too close together, and they grew up, and they sprouted, and now they've all withered because I didn't put them far enough apart, so I didn't know much about – and I still don't know anything really about gardening and agriculture, but I get the picture here.
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You know, there's a seed, there's soil, and there's the goal, and the goal is bearing fruit, right? So everybody under Jesus's voice, or under the sound of Jesus's voice, would have understood the most basic principles, but for a moment, I want you to consider how easily people could have run roughshod and used this parable to prove anything they wanted to, because people are able to, as Martin Luther said, take the Bible and treat it like a wax nose and twist it whichever way they want, you know? If somebody has a wax nose, they can have a different face every day.
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And so, it would be easy for people to misinterpret this, and in fact, Jesus says that very thing.
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Look at verse ten.
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Then the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them – that is, the crowds – in parables? And he answered – this is not what you expect him to say, but this is what he says – and he answered them, To you – that is, to the disciples – it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
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First of all, just stop right there.
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To you, disciples, it has been given to know the secrets, but to them it has not been given.
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So this tells us a little something about the nature of parables.
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It's not clear, and it's not all together intended to be clear, but he goes on.
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He says, To the one who has, more will be given, and will have an abundance.
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That's the one who has the knowledge.
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They're going to have even more.
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But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
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This is why I speak to them in parables.
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This is Jesus speaking.
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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.
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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.
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Jesus quotes scripture to say this.
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Parables in a sense are a form of judgment, because as he preaches, they can't fully understand it, because they're not given the interpretation.
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Isn't that interesting? You've probably heard all your life, a parable is a heavenly story, or an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, right? A parable, according to Jesus, according to what we just read, is intended to be somewhat confusing, because it is a word of judgment to those who do not have ears to hear.
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He goes on.
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For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes have been 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.
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But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
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For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
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He is considering the distinction between his disciples and the people.
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And what is the distinction? The distinction is, you get the fullness of the truth.
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And he says later, I don't hide anything from you.
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I tell it to you straight.
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Nothing hidden in Jesus's interaction with his apostles.
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Now, I don't want to go too far afield, but if you think for a moment about God's purpose in choosing whom he will, and this is part of it.
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He has said, I'm giving to you, that is my disciples, information that I'm not giving to them, because it's an act of judgment.
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Now, he goes on, verse 18.
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Hear then the parable of the sword.
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Now, he gives the interpretation.
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This is the divine interpretation.
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You cannot interpret it differently because Jesus tells us.
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And you might say, well, wait a minute.
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This was only for the disciples.
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The word of God is for all who believe.
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And that's why we are given this as well.
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We are given a, as it were, like a fly on the wall.
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Jesus is explaining to his disciples what he means by this parable, and we get to listen in to the divine interpretation.
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And he tells us, hear then the parable of the sower.
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When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
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This is what was sown along the path.
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And 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.
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And 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.
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As for the one, excuse me, as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.
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He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
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And that ends that interpretation.
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So Jesus gives us the divine interpretation of the parable of the soils.
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And like I said, some people call this the parable of the sower, and I'm not going to take issue if that's what you want to say.
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It can be called the parable of the sower.
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It may even be that in your Bible.
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I think the ESV says the parable of the sower.
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I tend to call it, though, the parable of the soils.
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The reason why I call it the parable of the soils is because the only thing that's the variable is the soils.
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Sower stays the same, seed stays the same, but the soils is what's different.
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And if you've ever done any science projects when you were a kid, maybe you made one of those science fair projects.
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You know there's your constants and your variables, right, and the variables is what you're testing to see what makes the change, right? So what's the constant in the narrative? The sower, right? The sower is the constant and the seed.
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Seed doesn't change.
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So the sower, in this context, is the person who is disseminating the seed.
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I didn't say it was going to be incredibly deep, but it is correct.
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The sower is the one who's disseminating the seed.
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But what is the seed according to the text? The word of the kingdom.
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That's what it says in verse 18, or excuse me, verse 19.
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When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, so we interpret that to be the seed.
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The seed is the word.
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We could say the seed is the gospel.
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If we wanted to make it just simple, the seed is the gospel.
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Now we could talk about the sower.
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The sower is the person who is sharing the gospel, disseminating the gospel.
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Some have gone as far as referring to the Holy Spirit as the one who actually works with the seed.
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But in this case, the sower is the person who's disseminating the seed.
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That's not difficult.
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But we have four different types of soil.
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What's the first one? It's okay.
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I really want you to interact, so don't feel...
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What's the first? No, the first is the pathway.
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The first is the path, right? And even though we don't consider that maybe a form of the soil, it's regarded as, you know, the seed fell along the path.
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Now what is something that we know about a path? Beaten down, right? It's certainly not tilled.
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And typically, anything that lands on it doesn't go very deep because that ground is so packed and so hard.
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And it's not good soil for growing anything, right? So the pathway is the first soil that is mentioned.
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What's the second one now? The rocky soil.
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Okay, so we have the rocky soil.
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And then the third? Huh? Nope, that's what happens.
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But what's the third soil? Thorny soil.
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The one that is, if you will, filled with thorns and thistles.
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And then the last soil is called simply what? Good.
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Good soil.
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All right, so for a moment, I just want to mention this.
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We talk about there is none good, no not one.
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There is none who understands.
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There is none who seeks after God.
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That is true.
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Obviously, I affirm total depravity unequivocally.
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I believe it.
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But it's interesting that when Jesus refers to the heart that's ready to receive the word, he talks about it being good.
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And then he later, you know, in other parts, he talks about, you know, the good man out of the goodness of his heart brings forth good.
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So there is a sense in which that even though we are totally depraved, even though we're sinful, there are times where there's a distinction made between the believer and the unbeliever.
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You know, sometimes you'll say, oh, that person has a good heart.
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Don't say that.
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We're Calvinists.
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You can't say.
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No, no, no.
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We can say it if Jesus says it, you know.
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But it's because of the work of the spirit that anybody has a good heart.
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It's because of the work of the spirit that anybody's heart has been changed.
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Just, you know, just throwing that out there.
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He calls it good soil.
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We're going to talk about why the soil was good in a minute, because I do believe there's an inference here that's not stated, and this is where you have to be kind of careful because I don't want to over-infer anything.
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But there is an inference that I think needs to be pointed out, and we'll get to that in a moment.
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But just for a moment, let's talk about the other elements of the parable.
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What happens on the pathway? Birds.
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So we have another element to the parable, right? And the birds, what does he compare the birds to in his interpretation? Jesus interprets the parable, what does he say the birds are? The devil.
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He said the evil one, the devil.
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I agree, Jackie, you're right.
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So the birds are, in this sense, devil, demons, but specifically he says the evil one, so we can say the devil.
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And we look at that, and that's an element of the parable, right? That matters.
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That's part of the story.
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Just like with you, Jennifer, you mentioned a minute ago, what was it? Scorch.
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Scorch, right? So there's another, so there's a scorch effect that happens.
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And what happens with the thorns? Choking.
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Choking, right? So there's a choking effect here, right? So as we walk through the parable, Jesus is going to tell us what all this means, and it matters because we want to have a right understanding of what he's saying.
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The last one is the good soil, and what happens with that? Fruit.
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Fruit, right? Fruit is the effect of the seed falling into good soil.
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So we have four soils.
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We have one sower, one seed, but we have four soils, and in the four soils we have the pathway which the seed falls upon.
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It doesn't even make it into the ground.
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It becomes bird seed.
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The seed on the ground becomes bird seed.
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It doesn't even penetrate at all.
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The next is the rocky soil, and what is it known for? It's being shallow.
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It's shallow dirt, and it grows up.
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Again, you probably all know this because you all seem to have garden experience.
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I'm late to the game, but we bought these little cups to put seeds in, starter cups.
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They're these little made out of stuff that disintegrates.
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Peat.
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Peat, yeah, okay.
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I didn't realize that as soon as they start growing, you got to get them into the ground to get more soil because I was so excited.
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Jennifer knows.
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We planted the seed.
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A week later, man, they're sprouting up.
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They're coming up, and they're leaning towards the sun, which was interesting.
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They were leaning towards the sun, and what I realized in watching that happen was I was like, I'm amazed.
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This is working, and I'm excited.
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Then a week later, they're all wilted and laying over.
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I'm like, what happened? I'm calling Jordan.
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Jordan Hill is helping me.
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I said, Jordan, what happened? He goes, you got to put it in more dirt.
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It needs more dirt than just that.
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It's got literally a half a cup of dirt.
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They were hungry.
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Yeah, and even though you're putting moisture in, and even though you're putting the fertilizer in, it's just not enough soil.
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Literally, they sprang up, and then they died.
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So I have a never forget moment in my life of this parable, that part of the parable, because there just wasn't enough soil.
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And that's the rocky soil.
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There's just not enough.
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But here's the thing, though.
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Here's the thing.
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It did penetrate, and it did grow a little.
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So that's the distinction between the pathway and the rocky soil is there was signs of life.
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But Jesus said they had no what? No root.
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No root.
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That's key here.
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No root.
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See, this was bird seed, man.
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The pathway, that was immediate.
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They became bird seed.
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Boom, it was done.
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But those actually went in and sat a while.
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And they even sprung what looked like life.
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But it did not have life because it had no root.
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Now, I could spend the rest of the time on just that.
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How many people have we seen in our life come into the family of God with great excitement? Notice what he says in the text.
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They accept it with joy.
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I love that.
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And that's actually in Mark's Gospel as well.
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We're going to read those in a minute.
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We're going to look at it, and then we're going to read the other two.
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But in Mark's Gospel, they receive it with joy.
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That's the person who comes in, Oh, Jesus, I like Jesus.
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I want Jesus.
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I accept Jesus.
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And then six months later, they're ghosts, never to be seen or heard from again.
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That's this person.
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Why? Because they had no root.
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So, so serious, so dangerous.
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You know, we just did a whole conference on perseverance, right? But what did we say in this conference about perseverance? We do believe that there are people who say they're Christians and then walk away.
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Why would somebody say they're a Christian and then walk away? Because they have no root.
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Because they have no root.
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Now, I'll say this.
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There was a time in our world, especially in America, where saying you were a Christian had some social benefit, being a member of a church.
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In fact, you couldn't be part of any city council in most cities unless you were a member of First Baptist Church or the First Presbyterian Church, unless you were part of the church, right? Because there was social benefit to being part of the church.
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Nowadays, if you are part of the church, it's almost a hindrance to being in those situations.
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Remember when Bernie Sanders was interviewing that guy who wrote his book on Islam? And he said Islam was a false teaching.
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And old Bernie Sanders up there, he said, how can anybody want to represent the American people and you believe that two billion people don't believe? I'm sorry, that's Bernie Sanders.
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He said, you believe that two billion people are cursed by God? And the guy wouldn't answer.
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I was like, yes! I was like, at home, I was like, I don't want them to be, but the answer is, yeah, I'll give it.
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Yes, that's the answer.
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Two billion people are apart from Jesus Christ and need the gospel.
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That's the truth.
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I'm sad for those people.
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My heart breaks for those people.
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I pray for those people, but I can't say it's not true, right? So the idea of having social capital for believing the gospel, really, that's sort of gone away.
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At least it's going away.
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But there are still people who make confessions for some type of social benefit.
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This is the fear I have for kids, my own children even, that they would want to try to make me happy by confessing Christ.
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You know what I mean? That my kids would want to please Mommy and Daddy by making a profession of faith.
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And that's why we are so diligent to try to impress upon our children that this has to be something that is real between them and God, and it cannot simply be to check a box in our home.
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And that's always scary to know that that does happen.
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So rocky soil, the sun beats down.
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That's representing what? Trials, difficulties.
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And what happens? They ghost.
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Why? Because they had no root.
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The benefit is gone.
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Whatever benefit caused them to confess is over.
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Think about Simon in Acts, the book of Acts.
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Simon, the magician.
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Remember, he meets the Apostle Philip.
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I want what you have, and I want to be able to do the things you can do.
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And he offers to pay Peter money to give him the Holy Spirit so that he can do what Peter can do.
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Let you be cursed along with your money, Peter says.
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And church history tells us that man went and became a false teacher and a leader and a heretic opposing the church.
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Why? He had no root.
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So we move there to the choking out one.
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We can see that down in verse 22.
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It says, as for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word.
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But the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choked the word, and it proves unfruitful.
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Now, it's interesting.
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It doesn't say, at least in this, because we're going to read it again in Mark and Luke.
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In Matthew's text, it does not say they received the word.
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It says they heard the word, and the deceitfulness of riches choked the word.
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But where it comes in the line of succession, if you will, because it is a chronological pathway, rocky soil, thorny soil, kind of makes you think that this would fall at least in a similar category as the rocky that this person has probably sprung up.
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But rather than the scorching being what causes them to fail away, this is the care of this world, the riches of this world, the desires of this world.
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And so where that one is a departure because of no root, I would go as far as to say this one is a departure of idolatry.
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Yes, indeed, indeed.
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And, you know, the question that comes up a lot of times, Brother Mike, is the question of, well, is this person a saved person who's just backsliding? I don't think so, not based on the whole context, right? But there are some people who try to say the first two are not saved and the second two are saved.
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One's the fruit bearer and one's a non-fruit bearer, and they make the argument for the carnal Christian.
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You've heard that? That's right.
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That's right.
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And that's where I would say this one here is the person who has fell in love with the world and their love for Jesus has gone away or grown cold.
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And what is that? What is it when you love the world more than God? It's idolatry.
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Whether you're putting a golden statue of a calf on your mantle or whether you're counting every dollar you get every night because you're so in love with how it feels and looks.
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You know, whatever.
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It's all idolatry.
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And men and women find so many things that they can love more than God.
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And so the third one is, if the second one is the person had no root, the third one is they replace God.
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God, something else, chokes out their love for Him.
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You know, we go to the seven churches at Revelation.
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What did the one church do? They left their first love.
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Right? And we see this.
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They've departed to find satisfaction somewhere else.
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Could be, and I know exactly what you're talking about.
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Yeah, I mean, it could be.
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How often do we put so much in front of the things of God in this life? And what does he say? The cares of this world choke out the word.
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You know? I've seen a lot of people prepare for retirement who didn't prepare for death.
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I don't know if you'll get what I'm saying there.
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They spend their whole life working for those last 15, 20 years, but they don't think of anything about eternity.
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Right? It's eternity that matters.
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So we get finally to the last of the soils, and this is the fruit bearing soil.
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And there's something that is unstated.
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I want to read again, just read verse 23.
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He says, And for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it.
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Interestingly enough, doesn't say believes it, says he understands it.
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Because if you look, if you go back up a little ways, it says, it talks about the one who was on the pathway.
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They didn't even understand it.
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Notice again, verse 19 says, For anyone who hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches what was sown in his heart.
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So it references here that he understands it.
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He hears the word, he understands it.
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And how do we know that he understands it? Because it changes his life.
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And so the distinction here is a life change.
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People will say all the time, Oh, yeah, I got saved when I was 12 years old.
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What's the next question that we should ask? Well, how did Christ change your life? Now, if you got saved at 12 and you grew up in church, it might not be that you had a radical conversion in the sense of somebody who maybe who spent their life in alcohol and drugs or something and came out of it at the age 40 or something.
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They may have a much more dark testimony.
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But the answer to the question still should be the same.
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How has Christ changed your life? I once was blind, but now I see.
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I once was dead, but now I live.
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And I realize that my sin deserves God's wrath.
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And I have trusted in the only one who could save me.
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That's what you want.
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Something along those lines, what you want to hear.
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I'm actually counseling some young people right now for baptism and asked one of the little girls who I'm talking to.
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I meet with them and their parents.
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And usually, by the way, when I do a baptism, there's several months of counseling before we do that.
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It's not just, hey, we're ready to get baptized.
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No, it's usually I've been meeting with that person for several months.
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And we were talking about salvation and why they believe they're saved and how Christ changed their life.
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And if I want to say it right, I hope I say it correctly.
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I said, I knew I would go to hell if I did not have Christ.
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That's a little kid.
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Not little, little, but like a teenager to say those words.
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I knew, I realized that without Jesus Christ, I would deserve to go to hell.
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What a simple but elegant confession to say, I know my sin is worthy of God's punishment.
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And Christ took my penalty.
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Amen.
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That's the blessing, right? And so the life change is what comes out of that.
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But here's the thing, as I said, I think this is inferred in the text.
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You can argue with me later if you want.
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Something in the text that's unsaid, but I think is inferred.
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And that is that the soil was prepared by the sower.
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This is why I went back to who is the sower.
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We can say the sower is the person giving the gospel, but it's also the spirit of God because it's the spirit of God who prepares the heart to receive the seed, right? One of the things we had to do when we planted our little garden was we had to go buy good soil.
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And we had to break up the ground, and we had to put the good soil in the ground.
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And we had to make that soil ready to receive that seed.
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And that's something that the Bible tells us God does because it says no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
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The Father does the drawing.
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The Father grants that we would receive him.
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The Father opens the heart that we might believe.
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So the good soil is good because it has been prepared by the sower.
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Now we could argue, too, there's a way in which the Holy Spirit uses us to prepare hearts as we go and share the gospel and tell them about Jesus and work with them.
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What does Paul say? I'm planting seeds.
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And I planted.
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And Apollos did what? Watered.
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He came back and worked that ground.
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And then what did God do? God gave the increase.
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Only God can make us bear fruit.
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So if you are a person who has been saved by grace, if you are a person who is alive when you were once dead in your sins, it's because God changed your soil.
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He gave you good soil to receive the seed of the word and be changed.
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I want to close by simply reading the other two so that we can see some quick distinctions, and then we'll pray and be done.
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Turn to Mark 4.
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Start at verse 3.
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And this reads almost exactly the same, but just reaffirming what we've just read.
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It's a little shorter.
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And then Luke's is shorter still.
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Mark, beginning at verse 3.
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Listen.
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Behold, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
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Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.
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And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
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Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and yielded no grain.
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And other seeds fell into good soil and produced the grain, growing up and increasing and yielding, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
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And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
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And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable, and he said to them, To you it has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is imparable, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.
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And he said to them, Do you understand the parable? How then will you understand all the parables? By the way, that's what I want to show you in Mark's gospel.
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Notice what he says, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? I do believe, because this is one of the only parables Jesus interprets for us, it's not the only one, but it's one of the only ones, that this becomes an interpretive grid to help us understand the others.
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Because he says, If you don't understand this one, you're not going to understand the other ones.
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He goes on to say, The sower sows the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word was sown.
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When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them, and these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while.
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When they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, or excuse me, I think I, endure for a while.
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Then, when tribulation and persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.
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And others are the ones sown among thorns, they are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
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But those who were sown on good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
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Finally, Luke chapter 8, only nine verses, and we'll be, we'll close with prayer.
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Luke chapter 8, verse 4.
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When a great crowd had gathered, and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it, and some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
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And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it, and some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.
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And he said these things, as he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
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When his disciples asked him what the parable meant, he said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
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All three versions of this story reference that text.
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That's an important part of understanding this.
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Verse 11, Now the parable is this, The seed is the word of God, the ones along the path are those who have heard, and the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
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And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy, but these have no root, they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.
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And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
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A little different way of saying it there, isn't it? Their fruit does not mature.
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Another way of saying it, they do not persevere.
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As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
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Isn't it amazing when you read all three accounts? Come away with a little broader picture of what Jesus is saying.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word and for your truth.
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I thank you for the opportunity to talk about Jesus tonight, and talk about what he has given us in his preaching.
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Lord, what an amazing preacher you gave us in the Son of God.
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The very one who spoke the worlds, Lord, spoke to us.
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We have his words.
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God, let us be moved by them tonight.
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Let us never take for granted the words of our Lord, but always take them to heart.
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In Jesus' name, amen.