Examining the Soil

Matthew 13, beginning in verse 1, this begins with the parable of the soar, but it goes into a lot more than that. The same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and Great Cloud crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables, saying, a soar went out to sew, and as he sewed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up. And since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil, and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear. Then the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has, will be taken away. 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. Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, that says, you will indeed hear, but never understand, you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they barely hear, and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, and did not see it. And to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Hear then the parable of the sword. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself. But endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among the 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. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold in another sixty and in another thirty. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Our pastor has titled this examining the soil, examining the soil, and I think that's exactly the right point. This is called and classically has been titled for many centuries in the translations of scripture, the parable of the sower. But it's really the parable of the soil, but there is in this parable that Jesus tells, the sower, the seed, and the soil. But it's the soil that is the variable. It's the soil that's different. The sower is the same. The seed is the same, but the soils are drastically different. Actually, this parable should go straight to the heart of each one of us, because that's really what Jesus is talking about. We're the soil, and we ask ourselves in examination what sort of soil are we? Now, the parables of Christ, we've already touched on the parables of Christ, and we'll be talking about them for a few weeks to come. But the parables of Christ, in the very word parable, it means something that is cast alongside, thrown alongside to give an illustration, and many of the parables become almost allegory in that they have so many detail. We saw that in the prodigal sun, and we see that here as well. The interesting thing about this particular parable is that Jesus explains it. He gives the interpretation, so we don't have to guess what he's saying. It's interesting to me that Jesus employs a group here in Matthew groups together, not only the parable of the soil, but also next is a parable about the weeds or the tares, and then there's the parable, the short parable, of the mustard seed, and then finally that of the grain itself in the dough with the leaven. It's interesting to me that Christ uses far more, makes far more use of agrarian imagery than he does imagery from the carpenter shop. You would expect that Christ might use, he does have some strong imagery about a man building upon a rock and a man building upon a sand. There's construction imagery used, but Jesus uses imagery about the field, and I think it's explained quite simply from the geography. The great bulk of the early ministry of Christ was up around the sea of Galilee, and those coastal plains right there near the sea of Galilee, not far from where Christ would be calling his disciples, who fished upon that sea. There were coastal plains that bore fruit, there were grain fields. That was that part of Galilee, in fact all of Galilee, is a very fertile region of the country, and so the Lord would just simply have to look out upon those fields, and there he would see what he needed for his parable and for his illustration. It's interesting here, it says at the very beginning, that he went out of the house, a little later on in this chapter, you're going to notice that he goes back into a house. We're not sure exactly what house that is, there's some speculation about it, but Jesus had been teaching a smaller group in the house, but then he goes out into the side of the sea, out to the side of the sea, and there there's a much larger group. In fact, the crowds are gathering, not only is Christ's ministry at this point intensive in teaching and preaching, but it's also very intensive in healing, and so the crowds are beginning together. And so this is one of those occasions where Christ has quite a multitude, kind of like he did when he gave the sermon on the mount. There's quite a multitude, but then right around him close to him are his disciples, that he himself had personally called and that he was training. And so he begins to speak to them in parables, he sits down as it was the custom of a rabbi teacher and he's going to teach them, but because of the crowd he launches out in a boat in a small vessel, just a little ways back away from the seashore, for two reasons, he can get a better panoramic view of the crowd there on the coast, but he also, the acoustics are very good on the water. And so Jesus now sitting in a boat is able to teach, and so he begins to teach using this parable. The interesting thing about the parable that he uses is it is not uncommon, as we've mentioned before, often the rabbis would teach in parables, and they're parable similar to the ones that Jesus used among the rabbis, but notice in the text when the disciples examine and ask Christ, why do you teach in parables? His explanation to them is in order that they may know the secrets or the mysteries of the kingdom, the word mystery, the word Masturion refers to the secret rituals, the secret rights of the secret societies, so there's a sense in which Jesus uses the parables, so that his disciples, those immediately at his side, those that he has called and chosen, and will commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel. They can be brought into the knowledge and understanding of the secrets, the mysteries, the inside truths of the kingdom of God. There is a revealing and unveiling that takes place in the parables, the parables open their eyes so they can see and so they can understand. But Jesus also explains that there is not only a revealing in the parables, but there is a concealing, there is a veiling. He uses parables so that those who do not see and do not understand, whose heart is not right and who are not there for the right reasons and who do not have, as he will call it, a heart that is honest and good. They will be able to understand a thing he's talking about. The parables will seem so simple, so mundane and almost meaningless. So the parables that Jesus gives reveal to the believing heart, to the receiving heart, to the fertile soil, to the ears that hear, to the eyes that see, it is like a glorious light of revelation. Opening up the truths of the kingdom of God, but to the dark and unbelieving, the skeptical, the disobedient, the stony heart, it keeps them from having a clue as to what they are refusing. And in evidence of this, Jesus quotes a remarkable passage. He quotes Isaiah chapter 6. Now we all know Isaiah chapter 6. In the year the king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up in his train, filled the temple. You remember that? That's the very first verses, remember there were seraphim that flew and Isaiah beholded from the threshold. He beheld the glory of the exalted Lord, the king of Israel. This was a great vision of the king of kings and the majestic Lord of Lords. He saw himself in the light of the majesty of Christ. Isaiah saw himself to be an unworthy man, and he says, I am undone. And the sentence of death, the woe is upon me, woe is me. When we see the majesty of the Lord, we see our sin. And when we know of his effulgent glory, we know of the darkness of our condemnation. We have a death sentence upon us, woe is me. And you remember that in mercy and in grace the Lord sent the seraphim to take a coal off the altar with tongs and bring it in touch, the unclean lips of Isaiah. There was blistering and bloodshed, there was atonement, there was purging and cleansing, and it says, this coal have touched our mouth and thy sins are purged. Isaiah then had been purged and cleansed by the Lord himself. And he was commissioned, the Lord said, whom shall I go and whom shall I sin, and who will go for me? And Isaiah felt the burden of the missionary call and the evangelistic urge upon his soul. And Isaiah said, here am I, send me, what shall I say to this people? And then the Lord had the strangest answer to Isaiah. He said, go preach. And Isaiah 40, he talks greatly about the herald of good news, the one who is to go and bear the gospel to the nations and to talk about the saving grace of God and the mercy of God and to make straight a highway for the king and to build up the king's highway and all of these magnificent metaphors and images of gospel preaching and worldwide conversion. The nations coming to know the Lord and bowing down before him and Israel being the light to the nations and all of this one. But the Lord says to Isaiah, go preach to this people because they're going to listen to you but they're not going to hear you. They're going to tend upon your preaching but they're not going to understand what you're talking about. This people honor with me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. Have we ever thought about, I was so glad to hear Tim Keller a few weeks ago when he was here, mentioned the effects of the gospel upon the hearing audience. And one of the things he mentioned which was delightful for me to hear it because it's something we know but you've seldom hear it articulated. And that is one of the things that is the result of gospel preaching is that it condemns and renders without excuse the lost in their lostness. The one that will not hear, the one that will not obey, the one that will not see, the one that will not understand, the one that will not yield, the one that will not bow, the one that will not receive the word of the Lord is hardened, not too hard to grasp. and it makes us understand sovereign grace so much more when we realize that the very capacity to see the truth of the gospel, to see the glories of Christ, to see the efficacy of his atoning work, to see and understand and appreciate that very capacity is given to us by God Himself. And engendering in our heart by regeneration is the capacity to hear the gospel and to understand it. It's interesting to me we go to Presbyterry about every quarter and at Presbyterry we hear the testimony every time of a few young men who are under care and are seeking to enter the gospel ministry. They feel the call of God upon their lives to preach the gospel. And so they'll give a testimony before Presbyterry to tell us about their conversion and it's interesting to me how many of them will say something like, well I grew up in a Christian home, I went to church all my life but I never really heard the gospel until I got to college or or some experience they'll they'll talk about. And I'm thinking to myself was the gospel not preached in their church at all? You know some of these they grew up in Baptist churches and Presbyterian churches and Bible churches and Methodist churches and all these churches and I said was the gospel never preached did they not hear it in a song that they not read it in the creed? Did they not see the gospel in the sacrament? How did they just never heard the gospel preached until I went to R.U.L. for to youth camp or to someplace and then they tell us about their experience. I'd like to submit the gospel was preached often in their hearing. They just didn't hear it because they did not have ears to hear and eyes to see. It's interested in the explanation and next Sunday we'll talk a little more about this parable and we'll talk about the fruit that is born in the good soil and in this particular parable it's interesting that Jesus talks about the eyes and the ears. He pronounces a benediction upon his disciples. He says, blessed are you. Blessed are your ears for they hear and understand. Blessed are your eyes for they see. When Mark and I were talking about this particular passage this week he said that in context here he counted 30 references to seeing and hearing to eyes and ears and coupled with it Jesus opening the eyes of the blind. The capacity to see is the capacity to know and to be aware of. It is a precondition to believing to know and to trust but another component of saving faith is obedience and it's interesting the word for hearing is the word Akua we get our word acoustic it means to be able to hear but Hupo Akua is the word for obey. The hearing is the hearing of obedience not just hearers of the word but doers of the word. This is the good soil. The good soil as you look at the particular parallels by the way when you study the gospels do you study them in parallel if you're studying something in Matthew do you look at your little tiny cross references or get a good harmony of the gospels and see where the same miracle or the same story or the same parable is in another place in the synoptic gospels or even in all four gospels if you see something in Matthew in your own study do you look over and see what Luke says about it and what Mark says about it and see if John has it in there at all do you do that in your study you're really off to because this gives the complete picture if you study the gospels in harmony together if you look at this particular parable as it's relayed in the gospels of Mark and Luke you'll see the good soil listen to what it does is the one and this is the way Jesus spells it out this is not a this is not mystery is the one the good soil is the person who hears the word accepts it understands it and holds it fast from an honest and a good heart that's the summary of all the gospel the gospels telling us the way Jesus interpreted this parable and that one the one who hears the word accepts it understands it holds it fast through an honest and good heart is the one that bears the fruit are you that sort of soil the soil is Christ the seed is the word of God the soil is you what is that relationship between Christ his word and you