The Parable of the Sower - Part 1 — Keith Daniel

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, in earth as it is in heaven. Oh, our Father, come let Thy will be done in this building tonight, in our hearts.

Have Thy way, Lord. As with all my heart I say, I'll obey Thee, come what may, whatever the cost. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Oh, God, take what's left of my life. Have it for Thyself. Every breath in my body, every faculty of my being.

Take my moments and my days. Come, our God, take my life. Come visit us through this sermon. Speak to every heart. In a way we will all become conscious. We don't have to do with man here, but with God.

Visit us. Keep us under the blood of Jesus the Christ. Cleanse the atmosphere with the blood of God the Son. Cleanse this poorly, base, unworthy preacher with the blood afresh. For nothing but the blood can give me the right to stand again and preach.

Expecting God to take me as a vessel meat for the Master's use. Nothing but the blood. Come, our God. By the Holy Ghost, speak to our hearts. Every heart, as only God can through the weakest of men. Without Thee, we can do nothing.

Our expectation, therefore, is in Thee and Thee only. Come and honor and glorify Thy name. In Jesus Christ's name. In Jesus Christ's name. We all unitedly agree and ask these things of Thee, our Father, in Heaven.

The Parable of the Sower and the Mysteries of the Kingdom

Amen. In Luke 8, verse 5, Jesus said,. A sower went out to sow his seed. A sower, a man hired by the farm owner, the land owner, to go out and spread and scatter seed on the plowed field. A sower went out to sow his seed.

And as he sowed, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. Some fell by the wayside. The trodden footpath. The trodden footpath which ran alongside of the field, the plowed field. As he sowed, some fell by the wayside.

And it was trodden down. It was trodden down. And the fowls of the air devoured it. The birds ate it up. And some fell upon a rock. Some fell upon a rock. In Matthew's version, in chapter 13, verse 5, he says,.

Upon stony ground. Where there was not much earth, which had not much earth. But Luke's account of this parable, he says,. Some fell upon a rock. And as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away. It withered away.

Because it lacked moisture. It lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns. Among thorns. And the thorns sprang up with it. The thorns sprang up with it and choked it. Choked it. And other fell on good ground.

Other fell on good ground. And sprang up. And bear fruit. Hallelujah. That is the one word that matters. Other fell on good ground and sprang up and bear fruit. And hundredfold. When he had said these things, When he had said these things, He cried.

He cried. He that hath ears to hear. Let him hear. Let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

But to others, To others in parables that seeing, They might not see. And hearing, They might not understand. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear.

Those by the wayside are they that hear. They that hear. Then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. Those by the wayside are they that hear.

Then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock, are they which when they hear, when they hear, receive the word with joy. And these have no root, which for a while believe.

Which for a while believe. And in time of temptation fall away. In time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns, are they which having heard the word, go forth when they have heard, go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life.

They are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. Bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the word, keep it, keep it, keep it and bring forth fruit, fruit with patience, literally fruit that endures, endures, survives, not just for a time, they bring forth fruit with patience, enduring fruit.

Hearing Christ's Warning and Examining the Heart

Christ says, He that is to hear, let him hear. Guard yourself now that you don't close your heart and mind to God's work, to Christ's warnings and revelation, because you can, you can. Be careful. Guard yourself to listen to the convicting word of God by the Holy Spirit.

Don't close your mind and heart now and become angered by a confrontation from Christ about your true state in the light of eternity. Guard yourself. I know a godly man in South Africa who shared with me how he had been to a funeral service where he had to give the eulogy, the thanks for all who came to comfort and to honor the loved one that had died.

It was his eldest brother. And he said, the preacher, trying to comfort all the friends and the family, quoted certain verses to comfort one another with these words concerning someone who has died in Christ.

The preacher said, he has been released from his suffering. Don't want him back the way he suffered. He is suffering no more. He is in a better place. Oh, and he gave scriptures, this preacher, in his attempt to comfort the family of the loss of their loved ones, their loved one.

Now, here stands one of the family. This man stands to give the eulogy and in tears, trembling, he turned to this preacher and said, Sir, you are wrong. My brother has not been released from his suffering.

My brother is in more torment than any human on earth has ever experienced. My brother is in hell. My brother is not in a better place if this book is to be lived. I love my brother more than anyone in this world.

He was like a father to me. My father was gone. He brought me up. I loved him. I would do anything to embrace what you said. But I cannot let the last moment my brother's memory is now be a lie. My brother never repented from a life of sin.

My brother was religious. To many, he would be regarded as deeply religious. My brother came out in a meeting and responded to the gospel of Christ. My brother had a testimony. But I confronted my brother through the years with this book concerning his testimony.

He never ever turned from his sin. He died in his sin. He never repented. He never became a new creature in Christ where all things pass away and all things become new. Everything God condemns concerning what was in my brother's life, my brother died living.

And you might be angered, he said. I look at you now, shocked, he said. Angered at me at doing what is most unethical, where a time of comfort is expected. But isn't it wrong to comfort where there's a hope that a moment of truth might make you just search your hearts, every one of you, just once in your life with truth?

Maybe you're angry. Maybe you're shaking your head at me. Gasping in shock, yes. And maybe just once through this anger, this shock, you might be just honest for one moment in your life, every one sitting here.

Just once in your life before you die to see in the light of this book, to look at your life in the light of this book, to know where you stand in the sight of God concerning eternity. No matter what you profess, you've done concerning the Gospel.

Just this book. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ was attempting here to do something so similar to what that man said. Something that would shock and anger if anyone was ever to do expository preaching on verse after verse in the light of the rest of the Scriptures, which is the only way you can preach.

I believe Christ knew this would infuriate, shock, stagger and condemn the hearts of multitudes through the ages to this night when this was being spoken of, if it was preached in truth under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

It is longing that somehow in your shock you might just have one honest moment in case somehow in the age you live you've got to go past a thousand preachers to find one that might preach truth that you might never hear again.

And that preacher might just preach this to make you know in God's eyes what you really are and not wait until you die to acknowledge it and to do something about it, to open your ears to God, especially when He stopped and warned.

When you hear this throughout the ages, you that have ears to hear, for your soul's sake, don't close your heart. Be honest. Even if it's one moment in life you allow yourself to be. Be honest now. I believe that is what Christ knew would be the result of this.

The Word of God as Saving Seed

A sower went out to sow his seed. Now, Jesus said the seed is the Word of God. That is so lovely. A sower went out to sow, to spread the Word of God. James says, Receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your soul.

He cries out, Receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls. Peter says, Being born again by the Word of God, of His own will, begat he us, gave he us spiritual birth through the Word of God.

It's the Word. The seed is the Word of God which is able to save your souls. Don't close your heart. Receive it with meekness. It's able to save your souls. It's a cry from the pages of this book. When you hear the Word, Oh, being born again by the Word of God.

Romans 1, verse 16, I am not a saint of the Gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. It is, when you preach the Gospel, the Word, what God says from this book concerning Christ.

It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Hallelujah! The Word, a sower went out to sow his seed. Listen, what the Word of God does, and why a sower must go, why God must send men forth.

In Romans 10, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a promise! God holds out to the world. How then, Paul says, shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?

And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace.

Good tidings of great... You see, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And by grace that He saved through faith. Without the Word, you can't be saved. How then, can they hear without a preacher?

The sower must be commissioned by God. The sower must be hired, taken, to go out onto the plowed ground, preacher. The prepared ground, which only comes to a life sacrificed in prayer. Not a life sacrificed in preparation.

Otherwise, the plowed ground is not plowed. It can't take the seed. O preacher, God cries out concerning the Word. Beloved, being commissioned by God is not an easy road. As every preacher here will know.

Otherwise, you are not of God. Whether you are Bill Gothard, or Denny Kenniston, or Don Covell. How come the devil doesn't worry about you, sir? It's not an easy road. It's a privileged road. And if I had twenty lifetimes, God knows I would say no other road.

It's so privileged. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Hallelujah! God trusted me with the Gospel of Christ. Paul said, He entrusted the Gospel to me. Oh, what a privilege we consist of above everything.

Don't stoop to be a king if God calls you to be a missionary. William Carey said, It's stooping to nothingness. Because that's nothing in comparison with being separated by God to the Gospel of Christ.

Oh, it's a great, wonderful honor God gives to the basest of men. And He only chooses the basest and weakest and despised so that no flesh can glory in His presence. Very few will He ever choose that really have any abilities apart from the ability to get grace from God to be used that they've never had in their own human capacity or could have.

It's not an easy calling as we all know. But God has promised us, God has promised us, they that sow, I love this verse, in tears. Why would God say that? To reap in joy. That's a promised preacher. They that sow in tears.

If you're really of God, you know what that means. That's the language of the preacher that he identifies with, with others who really know what it is to face this enemy. But, you must preach. They that sow in tears, Psalm 126, verse 5, shall reap in joy.

God promises us. He that goeth forth and weeping, bearing precious seed. He that goeth forth and weeping, God warns us that there's weeping involved if you're going to serve me, child. Bearing precious seed, carrying.

Oh, when the word we carry in our hearts makes us unable to hold back, it burns in our hearts. Weeping, but we have to go on carrying precious, bearing precious seed. He that goeth forth and weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his seeds with him.

My word shall not return unto me void. God promises you and me, preacher, and anyone else who's just as good as a full-time preacher in secular work, because that's why he goes to work. I make boots to be a missionary.

That's all. I go to work to win souls, not to get money. The money's secondary, when you're right with God anyway, because you'll know God put you there not for the money as much as just the souls, otherwise you wouldn't be there.

Oh, but we who take God's word, we will have to sow mostly in tears, as every preacher sitting here will know, otherwise I doubt you'll call, but we will reap in joy. So send I you to labor unrewarded, to serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown, to bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing.

So send I you to toil for me alone. So send I you to leave your life's ambition, to die, to dear desire, self-will resign, to labor long and love where men revile you. So send I you to lose your life in mine.

So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred, to eyes made blind because they will not see, to spend though it be blood, to spend and spare not. So send I you to taste of Calvary as the Father has sent me.

So send I you that the sower must go. Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel of Christ. Woe is me if I warn not the sinner of the year of his way. That sinner shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand.

If I sent you and you fail to warn the sinner to turn from his way, that wicked man, that sinner, shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Do you honestly think, theologians, that Ezekiel was the only man in history that had that to face?

And we're exempt of it? Oh, pity you, theologian, pity, to think God would single out only Ezekiel and set the 33 by 7, and not mean it for me and you to know our responsibility. If we fail the blueprint of God for our lives, woe is me, woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel.

The Sower Must Be Born Again

The sower, the sower went out to sow, the sower must be born again. The qualifications of this man have nothing to do with university, to the use of God, nothing to do with degrees, academic, intellectual achievements that stagger man and bring awe and reverence from man.

No, they that be wise, they're different. They turn many to righteousness, Daniel says. And many academic degrees can't turn any to righteousness with all their dogma and intellectualism. No, my, he that winneth souls, outside of that, sir, your wisdom is folly.

Even if it's the university that gave it here. If you don't win souls, what are you doing with God's Word? Oh, the sower must be born again, though. He must be born again, or else he will become what Christ says, a blind leader of the blind.

You know, the devil is so terrifyingly powerful. Don't say he's not. This isn't glorifying him. We have to know with whom we have to do. Without glorifying him, we'll be taken up too much with him. But look, somehow Satan has caused such confusion that he has most pulpits in this world who profess to be the Christian message who are lost and going to hell.

And I ask you, anyone, to tell me that isn't the truth. Somehow the world goes to hear men who've never been born of God. They're blind leaders of the blind, and they lead everyone who follows them to hell with them.

You have to be born again. The bulk who believe they have the right to sow, that are sowing, that are spreading the Word of God, tell me, how can you? Unless you're born again, God, this is spiritually undiscernable.

God tells you, or is he lying? You can't even handle it. You've got no right to. All you're going to do is take people who come to hear you and think this is all God has to offer them. This is the way.

This is everything there is. And all will go to hell with you. Somebody's got to say it somewhere along the line, loud and clear, in this generation. Because the bulk who believe that this is what God says are going to hell.

Because it isn't truth that's being preached. And that's tragic that we allowed Satan to do that and not make one cry that the lost know it isn't the truth. Oh, beloved, the sower must be born again, or he'll become a blind leader of the blind.

Eventually, he will feel threatened by those who preach truth because he hasn't experienced it. And someone comes along now and his flock, hears truth and wants it, he'll oppose truth. If he dares to start thinking he can sow the Word of God if he's not born again, sow the seed of God, he'll oppose it.

2 Peter 2 verse 2. By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. He's not talking about people out there godless, people who are deeply religious he's speaking about. He'll oppose the Gospel if he hasn't experienced it.

2 Peter 2 verse 12. And speak evil of things they understand not. Oh, beloved, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 said, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new if any man be in Christ.

And all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. But if you haven't been reconciled by Jesus Christ to God Yourself, how can you take the ministry of reconciliation?

All you'll be is a blind leader of the blind. And that is a tragedy today. Oh! 2 Peter 2 verse 19. Where they promised them liberty, they themselves are still the servants of corruption. Can you believe it?

It's possible! These be they that separate themselves, not having the spirits. It's possible! They eventually will be those who preach to men having itching ears, wanting anything but truth. And they themselves will be opposing truth.

Oh! Get out of the pulpit, for God's sake, if you're not saved. Lest you be an enemy and fight God Himself that you say you defend. You can't handle the Word of God unless you know you're born again. And except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God, let alone preach it.

Or is Christ not worthy enough to consider taking seriously a preacher who's still going to hell? But let's look now carefully at what happens as the sower spreads the Word of God. Let's look carefully at what Christ says now happens to those who are truly born of God, truly separated by God, truly anointed by God, functionized God, taken by God, given, sent, in the love of Christ constraining them never to give up.

Because the cross burns in their being more than anything in life. They can't pass, for He tastes the death for every man. So they can pass none. The world is my Paris, not just my little congregation where I'm not right with God.

The whole world is my responsibility. Maybe I have it right now, but if I haven't got the whole world in my heart, I'm not close to God, for only God loved the whole world. And a man close to God's own heart will love the whole world.

For he's not close to God's heart. He's far from it. If he just loves what's in a full wall and has no responsibilities to anyone else. Oh, a sower went out to sow his seed, Jesus said, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

Satan's Attempts to Steal the Word

Now in his interpretation to the disciples, he says, those by the wayside are they that hear. Those by the wayside are they that hear, like you hear right now. So he's speaking about you. Those by the wayside are they that hear.

Then Satan cometh the devil. Mark tells us Satan cometh immediately in his account of this parable. Satan cometh immediately. Do you think Jesus lies? Do you think this isn't to be taken deadly serious and temperate?

Do you think he said these words for nothing, for you to listen to right now? And don't close your heart to but consider with every factor of your being in case this is happening to you. Those by the wayside are they that hear.

Then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved. Can the devil do that? Can the devil stop a man from seeking God to save his soul from hell? A man who hears the gospel.

Can the devil stop a man take it out of his heart? Oh yes. Oh, you have a terrible enemy soul. How does the devil do that? How does the devil stop a man who hears the gospel, hears there's a heaven and a hell, he's going to hell.

He can have the gift of life, eternal life. What does the devil do? How does he do that? Oh, Satan will use any means available to him. Any means available to him. Now be careful now as to what God means by that.

Use your closest friend right now. Immediately. What are you saying preacher? You think he doesn't do that? That your closest friend in the light of eternity is your worst enemy. Do you think if your closest friend is not available, do you think if he's available Satan will not take him up?

I have been throughout 28 years of preaching at who comes to meetings. Targeted. What reason they're there. Do you know how many come to play the fool? You say that's not possible. Do you think the devil won't use them?

If you now want to seek God desperately and they don't, they're here for the playing. I remember as a young preacher watching some young fellow while a man was weeping, preaching on hell, quoting the verses of damnation and I knew a lot of these youth were going to hell and they were listening but one boy, good looking boy, oh my, that's why he got away with it, kicking the girl's feet.

And all the little crowd around distracted. Listening up to a point but suddenly all giggling. Do you think that just happened? Do you honestly think if you make yourself available, if you're available for the devil to use, that he won't?

To take the word out of their heart while they listening. That he couldn't have if he didn't have you. Tell me, I want to be careful, careful now. Are you available? Right now, how many conventions have you come to, young people?

And others, linked up with family that you hear, but they're not for God. You never sought God with your whole heart. What are you coming for? Are you really right with God through all these meetings you attend?

What did you come for if you aren't to play the fool? Everyone was distracted while a man wept, crying out about the judgments of God. They laughed. To one person, Satan found, oh by the way, there's a young person, he was chopped in half, his whole body dead.

I've been in a meeting with a preacher's son, not a little boy, a big boy. So despised the preacher, he mocked him, he wept with laughter. I looked, I couldn't believe. You think the preacher was at fault, what Paul says to the Corinthians concerning many of the people who hated him.

They despised my speech and mocked me. Young preacher's son so despised this man, he sat there crying with laughter and mocking. And every one of elder group of boys was distracted by him. Do you honestly think the devil can't use a preacher's son who's playing the fool with God?

I wonder how many were being held through him alone, who couldn't receive the word in the heart. The devil took it out to him. I was in the church once where youth, a group of youth, a little bit older than youth, were joking about visitors in the church.

And I looked and I saw those visitors conscious of what was going on, get up while the word and walk out. Do you honestly think Satan can't use you to keep souls from eternity and send them to damnation?

He'll use any means available to him. Any means available to him. He can use Christians in a convention like this. How? How could he use a Christian? Oh because those who are unsaved know you're a Christian.

You're the one who says you're born again. You're the one who sits there really. But he creates circumstances now in front of those who see this and hear the word. It's getting in their hearts. It's there but now before it can bring out eternal life.

What happens? They know you profess and the devil orchestrates circumstances. You think he won't? You think he doesn't? But you fail. You walk out there with your profess and you're really unsaved and you fail and that person knows and stumbles totally and says no.

Walks away. You think the devil doesn't do that? He can use preachers. I've seen him use preachers who fall apart and begin to fail when the devil orchestrates circumstances and the lost look at this and walk away from what was preached.

He can use a preacher in this convention if I'm not careful.