The Parable of the Soils is one of the key parables in all the gospels. This parable is not only a vital parable that helps interpret other parables, but it is also a key illustration of the work of Christ's church in this world. The sower had one seed to spread and was faithful to spread the seed throughout the whole field. In the same way, the Christian has one thing to offer the field of a lost and dying world - the gospel of Jesus Christ. And just as the sower could not guarantee a fruitful crop, the Christian must sow and trust that God will cause his word to bring forth the fruit of souls.

It is a great pleasure for me tonight to bring this passage before you, Matthew chapter 13. This passage of scripture explains the spiritual condition of every person you will ever meet. And it is an explanation of every man. God is so good in this that He looks into the hearts of every person in the world and He knows who they are. So here's the question.

Do you know who you are? People may think you are one thing, but you actually might be something else. And this parable helps every person to know who they are. And that's such a great blessing. That God would shine the light, that He wouldn't let us live in darkness, but he would open up our eyes to see who we really are.

This is the beautiful thing about the Word of God. It tells you the story of your emotions and your thoughts. It tells the story of your life. What a beautiful thing it is that God would be so kind to come and reach out to us in such a way. Now, the immediate context of Matthew 13 verse 1 is very interesting because immediately before this, the Lord Jesus Christ was in a house, and then He left the house.

But When he was in the house, he was answering a question, who is my mother and my brother? And he answers that question. My mother and my brother, those are the ones who do the will of God. That's the definition of what it means to be a mother, brother, or a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so now immediately the subject hasn't changed when we shift from chapter 12 to chapter 13.

And the question that's being answered and actually just expanded upon, here the Lord is giving more detail, He's already answered the question in a very terse manner, He who does the will of my Father. And now he comes and expands the answer to the question to give it more detail. And he's answering this question, who will be included? Who will be excluded from being in fellowship with the Father, with the Son, with the Holy Spirit? Who will be included?

Who will be excluded from this holy, beautiful, life-giving, happy family in heaven. And the whole matter hinges on what happens to your ears? What happens to you when you hear? Everything rests on that. The words of God fall upon your ears.

And then what happens? What happens to you? What happens to your heart? This is the matter that is before us. And the Lord Jesus says that there are four kinds of ears, four kinds of ears, or rather just simply four kinds of people in the world.

And the words here, the sower went out to sow, are some of the most beautiful words in the English language. Think of what it would be like if the sower did not go out to sow. Where would you be today? I shudder to think, I'm horrified to think of where I would be if the sower did not go out to sow and throw out the word of God in proximity to my ears. And so this is a beautiful thing.

The hearing of the word of God is absolutely the most important sound to be heard in the world. Now, the thrust of the passage, I'd like to explain it. There are six things that Jesus is doing by telling this parable. First of all, Jesus is answering the question of what advances the kingdom of God. What advances the kingdom of God is the spreading, the speaking, the sound of the word of God.

That's what spreads the kingdom of God. Secondly, the parable shows how different people react to the sounds that they hear. We know what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And if you cannot hear, then you cannot know the kingdom of God. So it matters what happens to you when you hear the word of God.

This is why the Bible says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Because he who hears rightly, bears fruit, 100 fold, 60 fold, or 30 fold. And so the question that we all ought to be asking is, what happens to me when I hear the word of God? And then the third thing that Jesus is doing here is he's continuing to explain what it means to be a mother or a brother. And then fourthly, he's defining one of the critical missions of the church.

Now there's lots of discussion today about what is the mission of the church. But here you find it. The mission of the church is to spread the word of God. The mission of the church is to send out labors into the field. The mission of the church is to go and spread the word of God, to speak it into the ears of hearers.

And then fifthly, he's helping his disciples understand the different responses to the gospel that they will experience, because they are out preaching the word of the kingdom of heaven and they're getting all kinds of different responses. They're loved by some and hated by others. And here the Lord Jesus is just explaining the kind of world that they're living in and what is going to happen to the people, what kinds of reactions there will be when they preach the word of God. You know, there are so many different kinds of responses. And then he also extols the work of the sower.

The words, the sower went out to sow. Here are extoled. And here what we find is a sower goes out into the world and There are all kinds of people there. But the sower doesn't really know upon whom the seed is falling. But he's to sow it.

And then finally, this actually is the most important parable. The most important parable. Yes, I said it. It's the most important parable for understanding all the other parables. Did you know that?

That this parable of the soils is kind of like the Rosetta Stone for all the other parables. Because we read in Mark chapter 4 verse 13 that the Lord Jesus said, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand the parables? And he's saying if you don't understand this one, you really can't understand the other ones. So it's a pivotal parable.

It is the most important parable in the sense that it gives you an interpretive grid for understanding the other parables. Now this passage is divided into four sections, and I'll tell you about them, and then I'd like to take them section by section. The first section is the setting, verses 1 through 3. The second section is really an introduction to the parable, where the proposition is communicated. And then the third section is from verses 10 through 17, and the Lord Jesus answers why He's speaking in parables, because the disciples want to know.

And then the fourth section is an explanation of the parable itself. And that really is the heart of the parable. And that ranges from verses 18 to 23. So first, the setting. On the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea, and great multitudes were gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and sat.

Just picture this for a minute. The Lord Jesus is being pressed in by these hordes of people, And so there's nowhere to go. He's backed up against the sea. So he gets into a boat, and he sits down, and then he speaks to them, the parables. His pulpit is a ship, and the people are probably lined up in an apitheater kind of arrangement around him, as he's just offshore so that they don't push him into the water.

And so that's the setting. And then he speaks to them many things in parables saying. And then he tells us one parable, but then there's the parable of the tares and the mustard seed and the leaven and the treasure in the field and the merchant seeking beautiful pearls and the parable of the dragnet. So he tells a number of these parables, we're only going to speak of this one tonight. And the main question in the parable is this.

It's the burning question for all of us here tonight. What kind of soil are you? Answering the question, who is my mother and who are my brothers and my sisters? So there are four kinds of people that he categorizes. Now, here we read that the sower goes out to sow.

And I just, I don't want to pass by this, because This is the most important thing that happens in the world when a sower goes out to sow. There's nothing more influential, there's nothing more powerful, there's nothing more life-changing or culture-transforming than when a sower goes out to sow. And that is the heart of why we are holding this conference. Because this is such a pivotal activity. And He has no name, we don't know his name.

His identity really is caught up in his office. He's a sower. We don't know if he's a big shot or a little shot, it doesn't matter, because they come in all kinds of shots. But what does he have? What is he shooting?

He only has one thing. He has the word of God. This is the most important thing. And what did he do? He went forth and he sowed.

And so here we learn that the greatest outpatient in all the world is to sow the seeds of the Word of God. Do you see how important this is? And what priority it ought to take in our lives. Every Christian occupies this occupation. Have you ever heard of the sky revivals?

The Sky Revivals. Some of my favorite revival stories come out of this book called The Sky Revivals. You can get it back at our book table. But in The Sky Revivals in the 19th century, there was an outbreak of the love of God and reaping and the producing of fruit, some 100-fold, some 60, some 30, on the island of Skye in Scotland. And there was a simple man by the name of John Farquharson, who was sent out by Robert Haldane in Scotland to go out and under the auspices of an organization called the Society for the Propagation of the Reading of the Bible in Homes.

That was the name of his organization. And so he went to the Island of Sky and there was not a single Bible on the Island of Sky. And so he arrived there with the Bible and several Bibles to give away. And he would go from door to door and he would ask, could I read the Bible to you? And this simple man who was just reading scripture in homes sparked a revival that rolled for almost 75 years.

And thousands of people were converted because a man went out to sow and he had one simple thing. He had the word of God and he just opened it. Have you ever tried that? Just go door to door and say, would you like somebody to read the Bible to you? Have you ever thought that it would be good that somebody would do that?

Well, that's what John Farquharson did. And so this matter of sowing is so important. And then Jesus here identifies four types of people or four types of soils. The soil by the wayside. Verse 4, if you'd look in your Bibles with me.

And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. So the ground is so hard, nothing possibly could grow there. I have soil like this where I live. You could cover it with the best fertilizer and the best seeds on the planet, and nothing would grow there. And the birds would just come and eat them all up.

This term, devoured, is the same term that you find in the book of Revelation, where the dragon is before the woman and he's doing destruction. And it says in Revelation 12, 4 that he devoured her child as soon as it was born. Just devoured it right away. This is the work of the devil. This is what is being pictured here.

The devil is always at work when you're speaking the word of God, to devour it, to swallow it up. Let me tell you about praying John Hyde. Praying John Hyde was a man who was a missionary in India. John Hyde grew up in a home that was saturated with prayer. His father was always found praying, and so that burned deeply in his soul.

And he was a man of prayer. I mean, this man would pray sometimes for days. And as a missionary in India, they would hold conferences like this. And they would, for over 20 days, three to five men would pray constantly for that conference. So that they would just cry out to God that he would pour his spirit out.

And then when the conference was over, they also prayed for three days after the conference because they believed after you sow the seed, the birds of the air are there to devour the seed. And so they didn't just pray before the conference, they also prayed after the conference. And by the way, you can also get this book, John Hyde, The Praying Hyde, back at our book table. It's a fantastic book. I recommend it to you.

You may not agree with everything in the book, but here's what it did for me. It made me want to pray. It made me want to pray far more than I do. You probably will, there's no one in this room that will pray like this man did. He would pray all day and all night long and not speak to hardly anyone but God.

So you probably won't do that and it might not be practical for everyone. But see an example to help the ships rise, the ships of prayer to rise among us. But the birds came and devoured them. And John Hyde understood that threat. So, as a man of prayer, he cried out to God that the birds would be kept away.

And then the stony places, some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth. And they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away. Here's the second kind of person. The first kind will be explained later in the parable.

But here, this kind of person experiences immediate growth, But because there's rock shallow under the surface, that the heat from the sun comes and withers it away. You've seen how plants wither away when they don't have adequate soil. That's this kind of soil, this kind of person. And then thirdly, the thorns, verse 7, and some fell among the thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. The plant starts to grow, but other plants also grow up, and they deprive the plant of the nourishment that it needs.

And over time they just continue to accumulate and grow until finally they're choked. And then the fourth soil. But others fell on the good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. And then the Lord Jesus Christ says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Because this text is all about hearing.

And then the disciples ask their Lord, why parables? And the disciples came to Him and said, why do you speak to them in parables? And then Jesus explains and He gives reasons. He gives three reasons. And the first reason is found in verses 11 through 12.

And it's because the Lord wants them, the disciples, to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is desiring for them to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And He says, For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away from him. And so we learn here that the knowledge of God is a gift of God.

That it is a matter of sovereign grace that someone understands the Word of God after hearing it. That he wants some to understand and he wants others not to understand. This is the work of God. The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are given to some, but they are withheld from others. That's exactly what Jesus is saying.

And then, secondly, these parables are told to fulfill prophecy in verses 11 through 17. And I wish I had an hour to develop this because this is a very, very powerful principle that is here. But he says, Therefore I speak of them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see, but not comprehend. For the eyes of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts, and I should heal them." This is part of the fulfillment of prophecy. Almighty God desires to heal His children. And this very matter of the delivery of the parable is a fulfillment of prophecy. And then thirdly to reveal their spiritual state. Verses 16 and 17.

But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous man desired to see what you see and hear what you hear but they did not hear it. So He is revealing their spiritual state to them. The disciples are now being told by their Lord that they have ears to hear, that they are His disciples, and that they're so privileged because there are many prophets who desire to see it and hear it, but they can. So, He's making it clear that they're experiencing a pivotal moment in redemptive history, that there's a change going on here.

And then there's the explanation of the parable. And this is the heart of the parable that's before us here. First of all, the wayside soil is explained in verses 18 and 19. And he says, therefore, hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

This is he who received seed by the wayside." Now, we see here that the word is heard when anyone hears the word of the kingdom. So this is a condition of that person who has heard the word of the kingdom. This is the person who knows. But when they hear the words of the kingdom, they're hard-hearted, and they do not care about the authority of God, they're not interested in hearing about what the word of God says, they likely believe that the word of God is a book of myths, however I've known many people who say they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but their hearts are still hard toward Him just like this. But Satan comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.

They have no sense of their sin. They cannot understand their lack before God. They have no sense of wonder at the Word of God. There's no joy when they read it. And they're self-sufficient and they're self-confident.

And this is really an explanation of what we know from other places, that faith comes by the hearing of the word of God. But It is not heard by all. There's no brokenness, there's no sense of their depravity. This is a gospel hardened person. And This is the person from whom Satan has snatched the word.

And if there's anyone here like that, who hears the word of God and does not understand it and does not love it, whose heart is not moved, whose joy is not activated, whose sense of sin is not increased, then this is the fate of that person. And the preventive remedy for that person is to cry out to God and say, oh God, give me a different heart. Oh God, give me different ears. Oh God, pour your spirit out upon me and change the hardness of my soul against you. That's the only remedy.

Does this mean that you stop sowing seeds to these kind of people? You know who these people are. You read the word of God to them and their heart is a rock. Does that mean you just go and stop sowing seeds there? No.

It does not mean that. Only God knows. And then there's the stony soil in verses 20 and 21. But he who received seed on the stony places, this is he who hears the word and he immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself and endures only for a while.

For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. And so there's this immediate reception. And it brings up the question, is it possible for people to believe just for a little while? And the answer is yes, it is possible for someone to believe in this way for a little while. This is not justification by faith that's happening here.

This joyful response has nothing to do with being washed, being cleansed. You've known people like this who've believed for a while, and their initial believing, though, wasn't saving belief. There's a kind of belief that is not saving belief, and that's what we see here. But you know, they receive it with joy. This is the whole confusing part of this, because it looks so real, and they feel differently, their demeanor has changed, they give testimonies, they get behind microphones in your church, and they tell you how they have peace like a river like they never had before.

They immediately received it with joy. It with joy. But it was a counterfeit joy. This is one of the worst nightmares of pastors. That people would hear and immediately receive it with joy, and yet they would fall away like this.

Now, later on in Matthew chapter 13, there's another parable where we see true joy. Here is a man who finds treasure in the field. Now he has true joy, And it's the joy that's the fruit of salvation, of real salvation. And it's so real and so true to him that he sells all that he has. That's the difference.

He bears fruit. Bearing joy, bearing a couple of things changed in your life, does not mean that you have become a child of God. James says that even the demons believe but it's a dead faith. But here he hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Jesus uses the term kará which is the term for well-being.

They just feel better now. And so, this is about the person who makes a profession of faith, and there's a period where they seem enthused, and things have changed to a degree, and they appear to have embraced the message. You know, on the one hand, these are the pastors' worst nightmares, On the other hand, pastors love to see these kinds of conversions take place. Where they see someone who's been so hurt by the world, so defiled by sin, their emotions are destroyed because of the work of the devil, their relationships are all bombed out, and they come and they receive the word with joy. Now some of them continue on in that sovereign joy that God has given into their hearts, and these are the kind of conversions that pastors love to see.

But that's not this kind. Verse 21, he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. So what does it mean not to have a root in yourself? And it means that there is no rootedness in the kingdom of heaven. There is no connection to the vine.

Jesus said, I'm the vine and you are the branches. There's a nourishment, there's a life, there's a help from heaven, There's the work of the Holy Spirit that comforts and convicts and leads. This is what rootedness is, but not being rooted is a deprivation of all these things. And then there are two kinds of disturbances that come to this person that end up exposing who they really are. Because remember, Jesus is telling us who you are and who I am.

He's telling us the story of every person in the world. Every person fits in one of these categories. But there's a disturbance that exposes the bankruptcy. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. So there are these two things, tribulation, trials, trouble, calamity falls upon these people.

And how do they respond? Was their faith in God? Were they rooted in God? Or was it in their circumstances? Was it just a love for some temporal change or transformation or connection with holy people or good things?

But they were not connected. So when they received tribulation, or the word literally means that Jesus uses to squeeze. When they get squeezed, They get pressed. You've seen people like this. You've perhaps done, if you're a pastor, you've done funerals like this.

There's a way that the people of God grieve. They weep, but there's a strength in it. There's a joy. There's a trust in it. And then there are people who seem to have no evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts to comfort them at all.

When tribulation comes, they lose heart in the day of trouble. David said, in the day of trouble I cried out to you. And then he tells of how God satisfied him. But not this person. And Then there's persecution.

At the first sight of rejection, they become ashamed of the gospel. In the first problem, in tribulation, perhaps someone has died, a father or a mother dies, or some tragedy happens to someone that you're dear to, you say, I can't believe in a God like that. But here, in tribulation, there's a different kind of issue. This is at the first sight of rejection. They become ashamed of the gospel.

Now, often people do not experience persecution because they're not sowers of the word of God. And they seem to live without resistance. Every man is their friend and they are the friend of every man. And it's that way because they're not sowers of seeds. Because they do not speak the gospel.

They don't have any enemies. And they take the path of least resistance and they get little resistance. And the reason they get little resistance is because the living God does not abide in them. And so they have no enemies. Immediately He stumbles, they fall, They fall into this trap.

And this is like the hearers in the days of Ezekiel the prophet in Ezekiel 32 verse 32. He says, indeed you are to them as a lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear your words, but they do not do them. These are the people that want to have a pleasant religion. They want to have wonderful experiences with music and relationships and things like that. And this second kind of person falls away.

And then the third, in verse 22, the thorny soil. Now he who received the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. This kind of hearer has a longer fuse. There's a longer process that's really spoken of here. And this is the double-minded man.

This is the carnal man. People call him a Christian. He probably calls himself a Christian. But he's living in what Jesus is sort of calling a garden. And it's a garden that's full of weeds.

And These weeds are growing around him. But the weeds are meant to be rooted up. Remember what prophet Jeremiah came to proclaim to the people? To root up, to pull down, to destroy, to tear down, to build up and to plant. This person is not doing that.

This person is not pulling up the weeds. This person is allowing the weeds to grow. The weeds of worldliness to continue to grow around him. He keeps consuming worldly things, worldly thoughts, worldly music, worldly images. He loves the world, and he continues to consume it.

And these weeds are growing up. And he's not pulling the weeds. He's actually grown to have some affection for the weeds. And they're so green, they're so lush, They give him such a visual response that he doesn't have the desire to pull them out. And so there are these two forces in his life, The Word of God and the weeds.

And he actually is choosing the weeds. And this is all exposed by the fact that the cares of this world are choking him. These weeds have to do with the cares of this world. It's interesting. Notice that the things that cause the word to be choked, they're not all bad things.

The Lord did not choose drunkenness and blasphemy and sexual immorality. He doesn't mention these, these more public and more radical sins. He mentions respectable sins, the cares of this world, the provision, food, success in your occupation. These are respectable sins. This is a person who is successful in managing the cares of this world.

And this is what is consuming his whole life. He doesn't understand what Jesus said. He said, your father knows that you need all these things and he'll give them to you. Because his eyes are on the world, not unto his father, who has promised to give him all things that he needs. And that as such a kind father, he would never be deprived of anything that he did not need, ever, not for a second in his life.

Did you ever feel that somehow you've been deprived of something that you need? Well, God says that He will provide the things that you need. He might not provide all the things that you want, but He will provide all the things that you need. And so this just brings up the whole seriousness of worry and spending our lives in worrying about tomorrow, in worrying about our business, our food, our home, spending our days languishing in worry over what might happen to us, rather than having our eyes toward heaven, toward our Father, who's promised to give us all things, even all things pertaining to life and godliness, not only physical things. He hasn't understood that Jesus Christ said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

He never understood that Jesus said be anxious, or that the Apostle Paul said be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. He didn't understand that Jesus said, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about this life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them." This is the deceitfulness of the worries of the world. These are weeds that grow up. You know what that's like. These weeds grow up all the time. Are you pulling them out?

Are you pulling them out and fixing your gaze back on heaven again? The weeds are going to come up, I guarantee you. But what do you do with them? Do you love them? Do you nurse them?

Do you feed them? Or do you pull them out? Do you destroy them? Or do you replant? Do you nourish the things that brings forth good fruit?

That's the whole question. And it's not only the cares of this world, but it's the deceitfulness of riches, the lure of riches. Here the focus is on enticement for success, the love of money. And here we learn that Christianity is not just believing a doctrine, but it's trusting in a person, and rightly prioritizing mammon. And this man, this person thinks that he can be a Christian without longing for holiness.

He thinks he can be a Christian without losing any ground with the world. This is easy, believe-ism's gospel. This is the gospel without repentance. This is the gospel without changed lives. This is the person who thinks that he can make a profession of faith through a verbal confession.

And this is the person who thinks that he can go and quote the Apostle Paul, who said, whoever confesses me before him, him I will confess before my Father. He has misunderstood that verse. That's not what that verse means. That verse does not mean that if you spout out with your mouth somewhere, sometime in your life, that you've now become a Christian. That's a heresy.

He hears sermons, Sometimes he gets convicted. He makes resolutions. He becomes a better father. He shapes up his life. He becomes a better husband.

He's a more disciplined worker. He begins to apply the laws of diligence. He becomes more efficient. But what's wrong? He does not hate sin.

He loves those weeds. He does not hate the weeds. And so he has no strength in his soul to reach out his hand and pull out those weeds. I don't know how many weeds are growing in your gardens, but I know weeds are growing there. And what are you doing about them?

Do you hate them? Do you love them? And these things choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. So it's not enough to have a garden. Everybody gets a garden.

God is so gracious to give everyone a garden. And things can grow. Beautiful things can grow. But you have to hate the weeds. If you don't hate the weeds, they will choke you.

And then there is the good soil. Verse 23. But he who receives seed on the good ground, This is he who hears the word and understands it and indeed produces fruit some a hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty. Two things happen. He hears the word and he understands it in his heart.

It strikes him to the heart. And the effect of the hearing is that he indeed bears fruit and produces some 100-fold, some 60, and some 30. He's continuously bearing fruit. Now, notice the key difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. If you forget everything that has been said tonight, do not forget this one thing.

There is one key difference. It's the most fundamental difference. It's the difference between heaven and hell. It's the difference between light and darkness. It's the difference between hypocrisy and reality.

And it's the bearing of fruit. The true Christian bears fruit. Pastors, you know what this is like. People who are in your church for years and they never bear fruit, they never change. That's who this person is.

What we learn here, it's not tears, it's not feelings, it's not happiness, it's fruit. Some 100 fold, some 60 fold, and some 30. Now, I'd like for us to just think in terms of application now. Number one, For those of you who hear the Word of God, consider how carefully you hear the Word of God. Are you ready to listen to the Word of God?

And does that listening bear fruit? We are spending hours and hours under the preaching of the Word of God in this place. What kind of hearer are you, really? How do you hear it? Is it like an academic exercise?

Are we just kind of getting our ducks in a row, getting our theological positions rightly arranged? Are we amassing knowledge? Are we trying to learn how to be more erudite, more persuasive, gathering arguments so that we can, you know, spar, win arguments with our friends back at church. Is that what we're doing? Consider carefully how you hear the Word of God.

Number two, are you bearing fruit? Are you a hundredfold kind of Christian? Are you a thirtyfold kind of Christian? God in His sovereignty has made it so that all do not bear the same amount of fruit. This is the way He has designed it.

This is His wisdom, but are you bearing fruit? Here's another question. What do you do if you have these tendencies that you had joy early but you have no fruit late, what do you do? Well, first of all, you should recognize that Jesus Christ, by His Word, is telling you who you really are. He knows who you are.

He knows the spiritual condition of every person on the planet, and every single person on the planet can be divided into these kinds of hearers. In reality, there are only two kinds of hearers, the real and the fake. And then, here's another question. And then here's another question. If you are one of these people who hears the word and understands it and bears fruit, then are you going out?

Are you doing the work of a sower with the zeal and the vigor that God would have you to have. Here's what Charles Spurgeon said to his congregation on this matter. He said, you will be soon going to heaven when your master says to you, did you do any sowing for me? And you will have to reply, no, Lord. I did plenty of eating.

I went to the tabernacle and enjoyed the services. But did you do any sowing? No, Lord. I did a great deal of hoarding. I laid up a large quantity of the good seed.

But did you do any sowing? And He will ask. And that will be a terrible question for those who never went forth to sow. I heard someone today say, discipleship begins in the family, but it doesn't end there. And that has to do with sowing.

I pray that God would give us a bumper crop of sowers of seeds as we go from this place, that we would see the seriousness of it, and as we go we would understand who the different hearers are. Here's another question. Are you soil testing? This is the work of every believer. You have to test the soil by sowing seeds.

There is no way to know if it's good soil or bad soil unless you sow the seeds. You must sow the seeds. And then finally, self-assessment. What kind of soil are you? Are you the kind by the wayside where your heart is hard before God?

Are you the seed that fell on the stony places you gladly have made a profession of faith, emotionally supportive of the message and the messengers, are you of the thorny soil. You've been able to maintain an outward appearance of Christianity for a long time, but the power is not there in your heart. And you're holding on to your old ways of life. And the weeds of the world keep growing up, but somehow you still love those weeds. And you do not pull them out.

And you keep going back to them and petting them and watering them like they were your idols, because they are your idols. And unfortunately this can go on for a long time in a church. This length of time as weeds grow and things happen, this is the person who may be in church their whole life long and they'll face their Father in Heaven and He will say, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. And they will have said, Lord, Lord, Have we not prophesied in your name?

Cast out demons in your name? Done many wonders in your name? And then you will see who you really are. Self assessment. Examine your hearts to see if you are in the faith.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that can change a heart. In order to put within a human being a new heart, a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. A heart that is comforted, yes, a heart that is hungry, a heart that longs for God, a heart that When sin enters in, there's remorse and repentance and some progress over time, never perfect progress. But always pulling out those weeds, always hating the sin, allowing that fruit tree to grow and to bear fruit and to be a beautiful presence in the world. This is the parable of the sower.

Now, I'm confident that you have just heard the story of your life. You are one of these people. And I pray that Almighty God would give you a heart to truly repent, to turn to Him, to hate the weeds, to pull them out, so that it might be found on that last day that your Father says, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. And this is the kingdom of God.

And no one enters in without knowing and seeing the sweetness and the beauty of that kingdom. And because of what they have received through their eyes, through their ears, into their hearts, they bear fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. This is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.