The Parable of the Soils
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2013 · 9 June 2013
Matthew 13:1-9, “On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Jesus was the master teacher and He taught in parables. Let us look now to one of His most well- known parables this evening. At the moment Jesus was teaching that story He could probably see a sower sowing, because the Sea of Galilee is ringed with fields even today. Jesus is speaking to them in a language they understand because it is part of their daily activity.
Jesus always starts with something they can understand and moves to something they need to learn. He begins with something they see and moves to something they can't see. He starts with something natural and moves to something supernatural. He starts with what is material and moves to that which is spiritual. He starts with what is simple and moves to what is profound.
The story starts in verse 3, "Behold a sower went out to sow." A farmer who was to sow seed in his plowed field. The rows would already been furrowed, plowed and prepared to receive the seed. And he would take the seed, and measured out each amount in his hand so he could distributed it evenly. He would continue until he had sown all the seed in the prepared field.
But we notice that the seed could fall in four different places. First of all, in verse 4 He says, "And as he sowed some seeds fell beside the road," or on the road. "And the birds came and ate them up." Now people traveling, walking everywhere or riding on an animal had to go through the fields.
And so fields were basically bordered by paths. And so the people wouldn't walk through his fields but stay on the paths. Historians tell us they were only about three-feet wide so that land was not wasted on pathways. As a result they became hard paths, and seeds falling on them couldn't penetrate it.
The second kind of soil is in verses 5 and 6 and Jesus calls it stony soil. And it says, "Others fell upon the stony places where they did not have much soil." In Palestine there are large plates of limestone rock that lie beneath the surface and beneath the plow. And so a farmer doing his best to plow the field never getting down to that hard soil wasn't even aware it was there, those are the stony places.
And when the seeds fell there, when their roots hit bed rock and there is little soil, the plant grows only in the beginning. But verse 6 says, "When the sun had risen, they were burned and because they had no root so they withered away. Having no soil the plant died.
There's a third kind of soil here in verse 7, "And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them." The farmer knows that the weeds grow faster. And when there is water and the warm sun comes, the weeds grow fast and suck out all the moisture and leave nothing for the fragile young plant and it dies.
But, verse 8 tells us there is also good soil, "And others fell in the good soil and yielded a crop and the crop in varying degrees, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold." This is deep, soft, rich, clean soil. Oh, it varies from thirtyfold, sixtyfold to a hundredfold because the nutrients in the soil vary from place to place. But notice the key thing, "It always produces a crop."
Now if you were a farmer in Palestine, a tenfold crop would have been very, very good. But a thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold would have been astonishingly large. But the Lord, uses hyperbole here to make a spiritual point. There is the possibility that this seed can find good soil, go in and produce an unimaginable large crop.
Well Jesus told that simple illustration and then in verse 9 He said, "He who has ears, let him hear." Which is another way of saying, "Do you guys have any idea of what I've just said? Do you know what I'm talking about?" A parable without an explanation is a riddle. And we all know that the disciples were somewhat slow in truly understanding the words of Jesus.
So He explains it. Go down to Matthew 13:18-23, “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;”
“21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
After a little interlude, Jesus gave to His disciples and not to the crowds, a further explanation. He says, let me tell you what I am teaching you spiritually in that story. And that opens up to us then this parable. There are only three components here, there is the sower, there is the seed and there is the soil, that's it.
Now the parable doesn't say anything at all about the sower. It just says the sower went out to sow. But we can find elsewhere in Scripture some insight. Look at Matthew 13:37, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man," talking about Jesus Christ. But now the sower is anyone who preaches this message. First it was Jesus, then it was the Apostles, then Paul and now it's us. We are like a sower and our calling is to sow, that is to preach the Gospel.
Now what is the seed? Well, verse 19 says, "When anyone hears the Word of the Kingdom." So the seed is the Word of God. That is the message about how to get into God's Kingdom, the message that God is inviting people to come into that Kingdom. And that Kingdom involves joy and peace, fulfillment and satisfaction and goodness, grace and mercy in this life and eternal glory in heaven. And you enter that Kingdom by putting your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Christ is the living seed and the Bible is the husk that holds it. The husk that holds the seed is the most precious thing in the world next to the seed. Christ is the most precious thing, and next to Christ the Bible which brings you Christ is the most precious thing, right? So the parable is all about sowing seed, presenting the gospel, the good news of how to get into the Kingdom.
And the main emphasis of the parable is the soils. And this is where Jesus is talking about us now. Verse 19, "When anyone hears the good news about salvation and entrance into the Kingdom and does not comprehend it and does not grasp it, the evil one comes, snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road."
Now Jesus is explaining what it means when the seed falls on the road. That is the hard-hearted person, the stiff-necked person, the resistant and belligerent person. But would you notice there it tells us what the soil is because it says in verse 19, "that which was sown in his heart." So the soil is our heart.
Jesus taught that the results of hearing the gospel always depend on the condition of the soil, not on the skill of the sower. It's the character of the hearer that determines the effect of the Word on him. If you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you turn your back and walk away, that doesn't say anything about the seed, that just says everything about the soil. And in this parable we have 4 types of hearts: an unresponsive heart, and impulsive heart, a preoccupied heart and a well-prepared heart.
Well let's look at that first heart, the unresponsive heart. In verse 19, the soil that never was plowed up, the soil that was down around the field beaten hard. The seed was thrown onto the hard road cannot be absorbed. The seed can't penetrate. Birds fly down, eat the seed and what's left gets trampled.
The analogy is powerful. There are hearts like this, many of them correspond to that hardness of the footpath that crosses that field. And the heart has become a wide road, crossed by the multitude of sins day after day. Never softened by conviction, never softened by repentance, never softened by self-searching, the heart grows callous. No fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord isn't even appealing anymore.
And Satan comes, Jesus says, and snatches away the seed. Satan wants to make sure it never has a chance to penetrate and grow. He snatches it away through the influence of false teachers, through the fear of man, through pride. He snatches it away through doubt, through prejudice and through stubbornness and through procrastination. And sadly he snatches it away mostly through the love of sin.
Now there's a second kind of soil in verses 20 and 21 and it's this rocky soil, or an impulsive heart. This is where seed was sown on stony places, it's the man who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no firm root in himself, so it is only temporary. And when affliction or persecution arises because of the Word, he immediately falls away.
Just emotional joy and enthusiasm don't necessarily indicate true faith. Somebody coming out of a dilemma, or a disaster, or out of being hurt by somebody in their life, wanting help, and when they're told this is the answer, there is an exuberance. But we cannot have true joy without commitment to the King, the roots are real short.
We all deal with this. I have had people that I thought I had led to the understanding the gospel and I've tried to disciple them personally and all of a sudden they're gone. They had no roots and couldn't grow. Why? Jesus says in verse 21, "Affliction or persecution because of the Word caused them to fall away." They never realized that, to be a Christian could cost you a lot.
It could cause your own family to turn against you. It could cause some close friends to turn against you. And there will be a real price to pay. And when there was pressure put on the individual, they couldn't handle it. You see, trouble and persecution are helpful. They do two things, they strengthen believers and they show who are the non-believers. After you've suffered a while, Peter said, the Lord will make you perfect.
Third, there's that ground full of thorns, a pre-occupied heart. In verse 22 Jesus says, "The one on whom seed was sown among the thorns or weeds." Who's that? Well that's the man who hears the Word, with a receptive attitude, but he's just into the spirit of the age. He is into his career, his environment, his world and that's the focus of his life. And the deceitful allurement of riches choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful.
Remember what James said, if you're the friend of the world, you're the enemy of God. And if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. This doesn't mean that we are isolated from the society around us, it's a question of what we long for. It's a question of what our passion is, what our priority is. It's one thing to understand riches as gifts from God and embrace them as evidences of His blessing, it's something else to pursue riches as the god of your life.
Now let's talk more about these weeds. The good seeds is not native to your soul, the weeds are. They used to be in there, they live there. But the good seed is alien to you and it has to be protected and cared for and cherished, unlike the weeds, who are at home in your heart. And as long as weeds live they grow. And eventually these thorns will tear and choke out the good seed so it can't flourish.
The last category of soil is the hopeful part of all of this, verse 23, "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man or woman, who hears the Word and understands it, gets it, and bears fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold", in other words a well prepared heart.
That's a person who hears the Gospel, accepts it, holds it and takes the Word in, there's genuine repentance, there's a genuine influence of the Spirit of God in his heart, fighting those noxious weeds of his former life, there's some deep soil and he produces fruit.
Now not every Christian produces the same amount of fruit. There are different conditions in the soil that cause different levels of fruitfulness in the crop. And the same thing is true of our spiritual lives. We all bear some fruit, some bear more fruit, some bear less fruit, but we all bear fruit. That's the distinguishing mark of believers.
What is fruit? Well Hebrews says the fruit of your lips praise to God. And Paul said the first people he led to Christ in Achaia are fruit. Paul also wrote to the Philippians and the Colossians about the fruit of righteousness. And Paul wrote to the Galatians about the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control, so we have action fruit and attitude fruit.
And it differs from person to person because there are different levels of devotion and different capacities by God's design. The issue is not the skill of the sower, it's the state of the soil. And the more seed you throw the more likely you are to hit good soil. Start throwing seed in every direction and you're more likely to hit good soil. That's what we're here to do, do you understand that?
Jesus says there's only one reason to stay here on earth, the only thing we can do here that we can't do in heaven, the only thing we can do here and can't do there is to throw seed. Just throw seed. And the disciples needed to know this because they were going to get rejected big time, right? They were going to get martyred in the process of sowing the seed.
So how is your own heart this evening? You're so excited about what Christ has done in your life, you're so thrilled about what God has granted to you, you think the next guy is going to love the salvation message too. You give it to him and you're running into a brick wall. The issue is the soil, it needs to be prepared by God first.
What kind of courage do you have? It's unlikely you'll get crucified. It's unlikely you'll get burned at the stake. It's unlikely you'll be thrown in a prison or exiled to an island in the Mediterranean. How much courage do you have to throw seed? Pray that God will bring you across prepared soil.
And if you are that hard soil or you are that rocky soul, or you are that weedy soil, please ask God to plow your heart so you can receive the saving message of the gospel that Christ died for your sins and rose again that you might have eternal life in heaven. Let's pray together.