Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knott, thanking you for joining us on today's program because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message, the parable of the seed, holds a little-known truth that is a game-changer for gospel evangelism. In the seminal parable of the sower, Jesus clearly stated that the seed is the word of God. But in the subsequent parable of the tares, he said the seed is something else.
Find out what. in the parable of the seed. Hallelujah. It's nothing like the presence of God. There's nothing like the Spirit of God.
Amen? And there's nothing like the word of the Lord. Hallelujah. Turn with me in Luke the eighth chapter. I was looking through my notes, and I was actually surprised to find that it's been three years.
Since I preached on the parable of the sower, I said, gee, where is time going here? How many remember I preached like five or six weeks on the secret kingdom? And the different parables that Jesus gave and the laws of the kingdom. And of course, we began with the parable of the sower because Jesus said, if you don't understand this parable, then you can't understand anything else I tell you.
Now, we're not going to minister on the parable of the sower in depth, which I did three years ago, but we're going to have to pick up on it in order to go where I really want to take us.
So, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to skip to the summary. You know, Jesus gave the parable in depth and in detail. Then later on, he was preaching from a boat. on the seashore. And multitudes were up there.
It's like he had nature's amplification system because, of course, they didn't have microphones like we have. But because he was out on this boat on the water, and because the people were on the shore, and then it wasn't just flat, it went up to like mountainous. It was like his voice was amplified so all those people could hear him. And he preached it to multitudes. But later on, when he was by himself with just his disciples, they asked him to explain it to him.
And he said, You know, if you don't get this one, you can't get anything else, I tell you.
So we'll go to the summary in Luke the 8th chapter, and let's look at verse 9. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to others in parables, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Now he you know, a lot of people will tell you only half of this. They say Jesus preached in parables to explain hard truths or revelations. But that's only half of the story. Because we just read that he also did it to hide truth. From other people.
Those whose hearts were hardened i.e., those Pharisees for one group, amen? Those who were not really interested in the truth. Have you ever met people like that? They have all these questions and objections about why they don't believe in God or Jesus or the Bible. But when you really start to answer some of those things They don't really want to know the answer.
They're not interested in the answer because, first of all, if you ask them if they ever read the Bible. They haven't read it. How can you say you don't believe in something you've never read? I mean, if you are honest, the first thing you'll do is at least read it for yourself. And then, if you still don't believe, that's another story because we have found out, I've told you stories of people that were like that.
That were agnostics and even atheists. But when they went to the scripture to try to disprove the scriptures, they end up getting convicted and convinced. Because if you're an honest person, The Holy Spirit will bring revelation to you. But if you're dishonest, he's not going to cast his pearls before the swine. He's not going to give that which is holy to the dogs.
So, what Jesus is saying, yes, I preach in parables to make deep truths very simple for people that are not educated, which the multitudes were not. For that matter, the disciples weren't. They were fishermen.
So he said, I do it to make it easy for you to understand, but at the very same time, it's going to be those Pharisees who were educated. And sometimes they're the hardest group to reach. Amen? And so that they're going to stumble over it.
So he goes on, and this is the summary of what he had preached to the multitudes earlier.
Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God.
Somebody say the seed is the word of God. What is the seed?
Okay, I want you to remember that. Those By the wayside, or they that hear, then cometh the devil, and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root. Which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. In some of the other writers, they say they add persecutions there as well.
Because this happens to be in three Gospels. And that which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth. and are choked. with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. They bring fruit.
But not to perfection. But that on the good ground are they which with an Honest. And good heart Having heard the word, Keep it. and bring forth fruit with patience or with endurance. Turn to Matthew the 13th chapter.
Which is another place where the parable is given. We're going to just read. Two verses that correspond to what we just read, Matthew thirteen and verse twenty two. talking about ground three and ground four. 22.
He also that receives seed among the thorns is he that hears the word. And care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And he becometh on fruitful. I wanted you to see this. Because I want you to understand the third ground brought forth fruit.
You see that? And then reading verse twenty-three, but he that receives seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it, which also bears fruit also, oh, in addition to the third ground.
So we're clear here, aren't we? Grounds three and four brought forth fruit. also brought forth fruit, and bringeth forth Some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
So, Jesus expounded the meaning of the parable.
So, we found out the symbols are. The seed is what? The word of God. The birds was the devil. Was Satan who immediately stole the word.
It didn't even get a chance to pierce the ground. The bird swooped down and took it. And these are people, they don't even get out the door and they've forgotten everything that was said. They didn't get anything out of it. Amen?
Or you testify to them or you go in the street meeting and it's like it didn't even phase them. The second ground, it fell on the ground. But it because the ground had a lot of rocks and stones in it, it could not get very much root in it. And because it didn't get much root, it could only Believe for a while. You know, I had this plant at home, and it was really getting huge, so I split it up into two plants.
But I noticed that the one Half of the after splitting it, the other, the one was half of it was doing well, and the other half wasn't doing well. And I kept trying to put. Put up with it and put up with it.
So yesterday I decided to just dig around it a little bit and think, well, maybe it needs some stimulation. And boom, next thing I knew, that part that was drooping and not doing good. it fell out and the root was about that big. And that's why it wasn't going to do well. Amen, and that's the second ground.
They had dirt, but they were too shallow. Their understanding of the scriptures was too shallow. And so when persecution came, they couldn't face it. In Matthew, it says they became offended. And when you become offended, you stumble.
You stumble and you fall away. But then there are some people They actually thrive. when persecution comes. They rise to the occasion. They get bold for Jesus.
It stimulates something in their nature. And instead of them getting offended and quitting, they get bold for the Lord.
So the third ground They were able to endure persecution. They didn't give up or quit. While they were able to endure persecution, they were not able to endure. Prosperity They got a preoccupation with prosperity. Does that sound like anything you hear today?
You know, this is the third ground, people. This is the third ground that almost makes it. Almost is not good enough. Amen. They almost make it.
They even bring forth fruit. But a preoccupation with the cares of life. And a deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of life. If you read all three synoptic gospels, you'll get all these different descriptions of the third ground. Choke out.
Out the word. Choke out the seed. and they become Unfortunately. fruitful. My neighbors next door abandoned their house two years ago, and it's been sitting there empty.
And they had a couple bushes out front, a rhododendron and azalea. And I love those kinds of bushes. And I kept thinking, nobody lives there. They've abandoned it. I kept saying to Benny, you should go over there and dig that up, and we'll plant it in our yard.
But he never did it. And guess what? The one is absolutely dead. You know why? It is beautiful as hell.
You know why? All kinds of weeds have grown all in it. and choked it and now it's dead.
So this is what happens to the third ground. They had fruit. But through a process of time They neglected There Fruit, their plant, their ground, their soil, they neglected it because they were preoccupied. With the blessings and the prosperity, and they didn't take care of the necessary thing. And so they Became unfruitful.
But the good ground received the seed, the word of God, in an honest heart. And that allowed the word to go down there and allowed them to receive understanding of the word. And they bore fruit, but not only did they bear fruit, they did it with patience, or we could say with endurance. Their fruit lasted. Amen?
And some of them were a hundred-fold, and some 60-fold, and some 30-fold.
So here's my question for you today. What was the fruit? They produced. A hundred fold or sixty fold or thirty fold. What was the fruit that they produced.
Okay, it's very quiet in here. You're thinking, and that's good. I'm glad to see you're thinking, and not just saying something off the top of your head. You're thinking about it.
Alright, I'm going to go back and ask you what I had you say over and over. What is the seed?
The word of God. And what does the word of God produce?
So are we with our spirit? Let's go to 1 Peter 1.23. Hold your place in Matthew. We'll be back. You know this verse, but I want you to read it anyway.
1 Peter 1:23. As soon as I start reading it, you'll know it because I'll go ahead. Of course, I have mine marked, so I'm going to go on. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of Incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
So, what does the word, the seed, produce? It produces born-again people. Or Christians, or children of God. Amen? We'll go with children of God right here because we know that Jesus said.
Marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again. And when Nicodemus said, with the natural mind, even though he was. Pharisee, and he was very educated. He was thinking with a natural mind that goes to show you right there.
Someone who was educated and schooled in the Torah, but couldn't understand what Jesus meant. And he says, How am I going to get back in my mother's womb and be born again? And Jesus said, Look, there's a natural birth and there's a spiritual birth, there's an earthly birth and there's a heavenly birth. Amen. And that which is of the flesh brings forth flesh.
brings forth human babies. Human seed brings forth human babies. Amen. But that which is born of the Spirit, the seed is the word of God. Amen.
And it's going to bring forth spiritual children. Amen. And so they produce in their lifetime 30, 60, and 100-fold. What are they going to produce? Children of God, somebody said, do you think they're right?
Well, we're going to find out in a moment. Amen. Now, we have. The incorruptible seed of God's word in us. How many are born again?
So, in order for you to be born again, you had to get what Peter said: you had to get the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. But then we're told in 1 John 3:9, I'll quote it to you: whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, and there in the tenses without going off on a rabbit trail, it means does not practice sin. Review that's the only one. He does not practice sin. For his seed remains in him.
So the seed that saved you, the incorruptible seed is the word of God that saved you. If it remains in you, You won't go around practicing sin. Amen. You won't be practicing sin because you have that seed in you, and that seed is incorruptible. The human seed that produced us is corruptible.
We have the human nature. We sin. Amen. But the incorruptible seed produces in us the nature of God.
So if it remains in us, we're not going to be practicing sin, we're going to be practicing godliness. We're going to be practicing. His attributes. Amen. So what did the seed of God's word produce in them?
Obviously his nature. Obviously his attributes But there is more. Go back to Matthew the 13th chapter. Most of the time when we preach, and I said we because I include myself, on the parable of the sower, we stop right where we stopped. At verse 23.
And we close the book and we go on and preach, as I did three years ago, and expound the parable of the sower. But we should continue on, and that's what we're going to do now in verse 24. Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which soweth good. Good seed is In his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares.
which are weans. And I'm not going to preach it today, but that's not only just a weed that's innocuous, it is a poisonous weed.
Sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? And he said unto them, An enemy has done this. And the servant said unto him, Will you want us to go and gather them up? And he said, No.
lest while you gather up the tares you root up the wheat with them. Oh Lord, that's another message. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn.
That dropped down to verse 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and when he went into the house, the disciples said unto him, Declare unto this this parable of the tares of the field.
So now they're saying, Jesus, we want to know what this parable means. He answered and said unto them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of Man. Who is the Son of Man? Jesus. The field is the world.
The good seed are the Children of the kingdom and the tares are the children of the wicked one. Let's stop here for a moment. In the first parable of the sower, what was the seed? In this parable, what is the seed? The children of the kingdom.
Do you see the difference? Amen. In the other parable, it was the word of God that is the seed. But in this parable, I'm the seed. You are the seed.
We are the seed. Amen? It is a huge difference. I'll just finish the explanation up and we'll go on. The enemy that sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is at the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels.
As therefore the cares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, they'll gather out of the kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. Who has ears to hear?
Let him hear. We need to hear this.
Now, most of the time, when I preach this parable, I focus on the tares, and that is a powerful message, and I will yet preach that. But today, I'm asking you to let's stick to what the questions were. What was the seed in the first one? The Word of God. And the seed in this one is?
The children of God. Because you see, once we receive the incorruptible seed of God's word, we're born again, we're children of God. We still have that seed in us. Don't turn there, but I'm going to read to you. Genesis 1 and 11, and God said, Let the earth bring forth grass.
The herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind. Whose Seed is in itself.
So The law is Everything that God created, He created with the seed in it. Amen. He just created full-grown trees. He created full-grown trees with fruit on them. Amen?
He created everything. The grass was already there, everything was there, but he created it with the seed within itself. And if we would go on and read all of the Genesis creation, we would know that everything has. the ability to reproduce because it has a seed in itself. Amen.
And we know that God had to create Adam a counterpart. Because he told them, I want you to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. With human beings. And there was no way that Adam could do that by himself. He could not possibly do that.
Amen? The trees were going to reproduce, and the flowers, and the grass, etc., and all the animals, because God had made them with their counterparts. But when Adam looked at all of the parade of animals, because the Bible says he named them, and when they had all gone by, he says, and there was not found for him. I help me. And so God had to create Eve, and then they could be fruitful and multiply.
And of course, we know that's one reason why same-sex marriage is not of God. They cannot obey the very first command, be fruitful and multiply. They cannot obey the command and they too shall be one flesh. They got to bring in a third party of the opposite sex in order to obey that. Amen?
So here's the thing about it, I want you to see: the good seed are the children of the kingdom.
Now, if you plant corn, you're going to get If you plant tomatoes, you're going to get... If you're a breeder and you breed horses, you're gonna get If you're a dog breeder, you're going to get... If you like sheep, you're going to get And so on. And if you're human, you're going to produce humans. And if you are a Christian, I said, if you are a child of God, if you are a Christian, you should be producing.
Christians, because you've got the seed in you. The children of The kingdom Have the seed in them. You've seen the Greek word is sperma. And sperma not only means the original seed, but it also refers to the fruit that it produces. And that fruit has seed in it.
And that fruit has seed in it. Amen? And it will continue to produce if you continue to plant that seed.
So the original seed was the word of God that came from God. It fell into our hearts. I'm talking about the fourth ground now. It fell into our good and honest hearts. That incorruptible seed.
We were born again. We became a child of the kingdom. And not only are we a Christian and a child of God. But now we have the ability to reproduce Christians. Amen.
That original seed was the message of the kingdom. and it produced messengers of the kingdom. because now they had the word of God in them. Turn with me to John 17.
Now, this records when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. And this was when he was agonizing right before going to the cross. And we know that he was battling with his own self-will, but he was winning the victory. Amen? Drop down to verse 14.
He prayed for his disciples that God would keep them. But look at verse 14. I have given them that would be his disciples thy word, and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, But that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Why didn't he want God to take them out of the world? Verse 18: As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them in the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they might also be sanctified through the truth.
Now, look at verse 20: Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through Whose word? Their word. The messengers. The disciples, the children of God, the Christians that were born again of the incorruptible seed. Jesus said, I am praying for them, but I am.
Praying for the generations and generations of Christians that will come to the faith because of their word. He didn't say because of your word, Father, or my word, but because of their word, because their word. Is his word and their word. is God's word. Amen.
And you and I have the same. Same. Seed of that word in Us and people should come to faith in Jesus Christ because of my word. And your word. Amen.
Isn't that powerful? That is powerful. Amen. What a revelatory teaching on the parable of the seed. Most Christians are more familiar with the parable of the sower, which describes the four grounds that received the seed of the word of God and how each responded to it.
The determiner of whether it bore good fruit was the condition of the soil or men's hearts. But in his subsequent parable of the tares, Jesus did not say the seed is the word of God, but rather the seed is the children of the kingdom, that is, Christians who are born again of the incorruptible seed of God's Word. We become the seed. If you plant corn, you'll harvest corn. If you plant tomatoes, you'll harvest tomatoes.
If you breed cows, you'll produce cows. If you breed dogs, you'll produce dogs. And human beings produce human beings, because God said in the Genesis creation account, every seed after its own kind, and every living thing has the seed to reproduce within itself.
So Christians should produce Christians. And if they don't, they are spiritually sterile. You need this message, the parable of the seed in your spiritual library. Order today on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK186.
That's SK186. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, or go online at Soundthefaith.org. where you can order on MP3. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift for the Radio Ministry of $10 to P.O.
Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland 21203, request SK186. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott singing. Maranatha.
