Planting in Fertile Soil

Planting In Fertile Soil

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

 

            Every fall the attention of many people in Western Pennsylvania turns to harvest.  They gather what they had planted in the spring and spend countless hours preserving and storing what had been sown.  Many had spent a great deal of time and resources to produce what they now have.  Their planning and preparation began long before they picked the vegetables that they now enjoy.  Work is done conditioning the soil before the seeds are even planted in the ground.  This work prepares the earth to produce something that is of value to those who are planting it.  This is the picture Jesus paints for us when he teaches us about the gospel of God’s Kingdom.

            Unlike Pennsylvania, Israel was not a good place for crops.  The soil was often very rocky and shallow, and there were insufficient amounts of water to grow their produce for most of the year.  The unfavorable conditions made it difficult to produce what was needed for the Israelite’s families to survive, but there was little choice.  Food had to be grown if the people were going to live in that land.  Each year the people would walk through their small plots of land scattering seeds across the ground hoping that some of them would land in a place that would allow them to grow.  The way they scattered the seeds was much like the way God offers His gospel to the world today.

 

            As the sower walked through the field the seed was scattered indiscriminately.  Handfuls were tossed about and naturally some of it landed in places that would not grow.  But that did not stop those who scattered the seed from spreading it over all the land they had.  That would maximize the yield of their harvest. 

            Just as the sower during the time of Jesus, God sows His Word broadly throughout the world today.  The “word of the kingdom” is available to all who will receive it.  Even when conditions are not favorable and there is little interest God continues to offer His prevenient grace to all men through the word of His kingdom.  That is why Scripture teaches us that , “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).”  Even in a world that discourages faith in God and submission to His reign, He still pursues us relentlessly as He scatters the gospel through His church.  William Barclay reminds us, “We must be prepared to take a risk.  Every time the farmer sows he takes a risk, for so many things can interfere with the harvest.” 

            As Jesus explained the parable of the sower he did not leave out the risk that comes as the word is spread.  Notice as we consider this parable that the risk is not a result anything done the sower, but comes entirely from the various kinds of soil on which the seeds are sown.  That soil provides a commentary on the responses that we see to the Word of God as it is sown in our lives.

            Jesus said that some seeds fell along the path as they were sown, and went on to explain that those seeds were the ones quickly removed by the birds.  This is said to be those who hear the word and do not understand it.  This is something that has become common in our day.  The current relativistic society in which we live does not understand objective truth.  People do not want to hear that there is only one way to God, or that He holds us to a standard of holiness in the lives we live.  This is indeed the enemy taking what God has offered us. 

            The Devil is constantly trying to convince people (and often successfully) that the word of God is subject to our judgment.  This ploy is as old as creation itself.  When Eve was tempted in the garden she was asked, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’ (Genesis 3:1)?”   This question immediately set the command of God against her own judgment, and the moment she chose to sin the truth of that command was stolen from her.  She had “deceived herself” and “traded the truth for a lie.”  Too often we are guilty of deceiving ourselves by believing that God is subject to what we think of Him.  By denying the truth that He has given us we are betraying what we really believe about the character, love, and motive of God in the way He relates to us.

            As Satan plants doubts in our mind about what God “really said” we see debates about definite truth come alive within the church.  We spend our time debating homosexuality and abortion.  I recently watch a video blog done by an emerging church leader inviting those watching to discuss what the “spirit of the Bible” says about homosexuality.  As this leader began the discussion he said, “I want to discuss this philosophically without addressing the six places in Scripture that talk about homosexuality.”  If Scripture specifically addresses it so many times why do we even need to debate the issue?  Do we still believe that truth has come from God, or do we believe that it originates with our own understanding?

            We have largely convinced ourselves that we are more enlightened than those who recorded God’s Holy Scripture.  We have more information, better education, access to science and philosophy that was not obtainable by those who lived so long ago.  We “walk in the futility of our minds” as the Gentiles walked during the time of the early church.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones spoke to our situation when he wrote, “It is no use to say that modern knowledge has added new understanding.  It has not!  It has made no difference.  Modern knowledge has told us nothing new about God or about people.  It has told us nothing new about death, and nothing new about eternity.  Here in the bible we read of men and women who believed the truth.  They received the Word that was preached.  The whole intellect was engaged and began to function as never before.”  Too often we lean on the crutches of modernism to ignore the truth God has given us.  In doing so, we have been robbed of the truth.

            Jesus went on to describe another reaction to the sower’s work: some of the seeds fell on rocky soil.  Jesus told his disciples that these were those who received the word with great joy but had no root.  They will serve God for a time, but when the trials of life become too much their faith will ultimately wilt under pressure.  They fall away in the face of persecution and tribulation.  When we plant seeds they must not simply grow upward, but roots must grow deep into the ground if the plant is to survive.  Our Christian life is no different.

            God has never called us to anything less than a constantly growing relationship.  Our relationship must always go further and grow deeper than it has ever been.  The truth that God has revealed about Himself is more than we will ever be able to fully comprehend in a lifetime.  There is always more for us to see and greater things that God has for us.  That is why the book of Hebrews tells us in the first two verses of chapter 6, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God…”  Our emphasis today is seldom on depth in our relationship with God.  We need look no further than the popular Christian books and even our own willingness to pursue the truth of God.  People are very willing to spend their free time reading Christian fiction (which is not necessarily a bad thing) but will read little more about God.  This is why we have countless men and women who draw their knowledge of theology from the fiction section of their local bookstores.   Os Guinness wrote about this situation in his book, A Time for Truth, “The emphasis is now on surface, not depth; on possibilities, not qualities; on glamour, not convictions; on what can be altered endlessly, not achieved for good…”

            A shallow faith can never sustain us through life’s greatest difficulties.  When we face troubles we must be able to look wholeheartedly toward God.  Many Christians claim faith in God while simultaneously looking for something else to bail them out of their trials.  God has become our backup plan rather than our provider, sustainer, and lord.  We claim to be citizens of His kingdom, but spend much of the time looking to the governments of the world to solve our problems that originate with sin when all is said and done.  Our relationship with God must be growing ever deeper.  He will accept nothing less.

            Jesus also told us of seeds that fell among the thorns.  They could grow in that soil in the absence of thorns, but the weeds strangled out the seeds and kept them from getting what was necessary for their growth.  Jesus said that this represented the cares of the world and the deceitful riches that are offered by man.  These things do not have to be inherently bad to strangle our spiritual lives.  They have a way of overtaking our vision and focus.

            The Bible teaches us that God is Spirit.  That means our relationship with Him will be a spiritual relationship.  His work will be spiritual.  That means when we talk about vision it is spiritual.  The things of the world have a way of catching our gaze and taking our attention from the spiritual.  They distract us from the work and the will of God, and before we know it we have slipped into “the midst of the years.”  This is the time Habakkuk prayed for God to renew His work (Habakkuk 3:2), and it is a dangerous time for the people of God to live.  There is a lot that can happen when we are caught up in the world during the midst of the years.  This is when marriages and relationships fall apart.  This is when we let our spiritual life fade.  We were once committed followers of Christ, but we find that through the midst of the years we have lost our fervor, our passion, and eventually our faith.  Consider the words of Francis Chan, “I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns.  Thorns are anything that distracts us from God.  When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil.  A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it.”

            This is why God called many people away from the things of the world throughout Scripture.  It is difficult for us to value those things and value God and His word as we should.  The weeds of this world have choked out many of the seeds planted by God, and they continue to strangle our spiritual lives in America today.

            There was one more type of soil that Jesus described to his disciples – the good, fertile soil.  In Israel there was far less of this soil than the three other types that were described, and that is probably an accurate description of the soil in our world today in relation to reception of the gospel.  This soil gave the seed the opportunity to sink into it deep enough to grow strong roots and flourish.   This is where the seed was not simply scattered on the soil, but planted in it.  Jesus told the disciples that this represents the hearts of those who hear the word and bears fruit.  When everything is said and done, that is really the measuring rod for the seeds that anyone plants.  Do they bear fruit?

            God is not simply searching for people who will listen to His word, but those who will listen and obey.   This is why Jesus said he taught in parables.  There were a lot of people who were interested in the miracles and the mighty works, but few were interested in obedience to the Son of God, much less submission to God their King. 

            When the seeds sink into the soil they begin to grow in a way that will alter the soil.  The roots solidify the soil around them and keep it from eroding.  That’s what happens when the word takes root in our lives.  It grows and ultimately becomes a part of us.  It transforms us.  That why Jesus could tell John in Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” 

            The word of God carries with it the power to sustain and bless His people.  It gives us access to the mind of God as we face our day to day circumstances, and shows us the full power of heaven when we come upon trials and temptation.  “For the word of God is living and active,” we read in Hebrews 4:12.  The Psalmist wrote, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:1, 2).”  This is the man who will produce fruit in God’s kingdom, and the one in whom God will plant His gospel.

 

            Jesus used something that was a part of the lives of the people of Israel to convey a great spiritual truth to those who would receive it.  He came to establish God’s kingdom, but that kingdom had to be built on a foundation of fertile soil.  It had to be put in a place where it could grow and invade the world around us as God cultivates and works in the hearts of its citizens.  This parable is more about the soil than it is the sower, and it shows the difference our hearts make in our relationship to God and His word.  We know that the sower is all-powerful and infallible, and we are aware that what He sows is beyond reproach and human wisdom.  What hinders this seed is only the soil.

            The soil of our hearts must be cultivated and conditioned.  The weeds and rocks, the obstructions must be removed so that God’s word can grow freely in our lives.  Ralph Earle wrote the Beacon Bible Commentary on the book of Matthew.  He wrote in reference to this parable, “Of course soil is entire passive, but the human spirit is not.  To infer some sort of fatalism or determinism from this story would be to fly in the face of Scriptures as a whole, which everywhere assure individual responsibility.  By the aid of the ever-willing Spirit we can break up the ‘fallow ground’ of our heart.”  This breaking of the fallow ground is not the idea of a lone commentator, but scriptural truth.  “For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: ‘Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns (Jeremiah 4:3).’”  And again the prophet Hosea said, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you (Hosea 10:12).” 

            There may be some of us who struggle with God’s word.  It is hard for us to listen and obey what we hear. It is difficult to image that God is willing and able to do so much for us, but that is the “good news” of the gospel of the kingdom – soil can be transformed!  With the right work and effort (farmers are well aware) even rocky soil can become useful for crops.  In the same way, the soil of our hearts can be cultivated so that the word of the kingdom can take root and grow in our hearts. 

            The environments we place ourselves in, the things we fill our minds with, and what we are exposed to are all things that affect the soil of our hearts.  Our culture and environment can have a major effect on the way we hear and view God’s word, His gospel, and His kingdom.  To cultivate good soil in our hearts, we must desire to know God and place His kingdom above the things of this world.  It is this desire that will yield the harvest that God desires. 

 

            David Ravenhill wrote, “Never before in history have we had more translations of the Bible than we do now.  As for Christian books, they are as numerous as the stars of Heaven – everything from diets to demons, health to holiness, prosperity to prophecy, and all subjects in between.  And yet our greatest need is not to hear opinions, but to hear the word of the Lord.”  Since the beginning of time God has been working to reveal Himself to man.  He has been relentlessly pursuing the pinnacle of His creation and calling man to His kingdom.  The word is being spoken, preached, and explained through books and media like never before, but it is also being obscured by those things at times.  If we are going to be God’s kingdom it will be when we cultivate our hearts and open our minds to this revelation of God.  Jesus Christ planted within this gospel the secrets of God’s kingdom.  The harvest depends on the soil.  When that word is planted among us, what should God expect to reap?