Parable of the Soils

Posted on Jul 28, 2019 by George Dupree in Events |

The Parable Of The Soils

Sunday, July 28, 2019 – Pastor George M. Dupree

Mark 4:1 And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. 2 Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching: Mark 4:3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. 5 Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. 7 And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 8 But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” Mark 4:9 And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Mark 4:10 But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. Mark 4:13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” Hard Hearts – defiant an stubborn – you know God is speaking to you but you just say NO And the devil swoops in and steals that word that was just sown. Maybe another hard heart is thinking what you’re hearing is for someone else and not you. Another hard heart is procrastination – but tomorrow never comes, tomorrow is always tomorrow. There’s a word sown, God is speaking to you but you say “you’re right God, I’m going to do that or I’m not going to do that and I’ll start tomorrow”. You’re convicted by the word but don’t act and the devil steals the seed and the conviction too. Hard Hearts Get Robbed Shallow and Stony Hearts – Yay, God is so good! Yay! We receive the word with gladness and we’re so happy and we actually think nothing will ever go wrong with my life now. But then life happens and cruddy things happen and the heat is turned up and the little plant that has no deep roots is scorched and then it dies. Being a Christian does not guarantee no problems, in fact the Word promises the opposite Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. Shallow hearts are only in it for what they can get out of it. This is when we get disillusioned; we believe something about God that God NEVER said! Shallow Hearts Get Disillusioned.

Thorny – Weedy – Cluttered Hearts – these hearts are cluttered and crowded and when the seed is sown and the plants grows it gets choked and what fruit is there can’t survive.

These thorns and weeds are the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for more, more, more. It’s hard; bit Jesus said don’t worry about these things.

Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Worry will crowd out the fruit in your life.

Then there’s the deceitfulness of riches. Notice it doesn’t say riches but it says the deceitfulness of riches. That the lie that says more money will mean less problems. So we strive for more money, we sell out for more money, we compromise our values for more money. We hate other people with more money that us. We steal, we cheat, we lie to get more money. All because we’ve been deceived into thinking that more money will solve all our problems.

When this weedy heart gets more money it buys more stuff thinking that more stuff will bring happiness only to find out that the more stuff clutters the soul and the fruit gets choked and stifled and withers and dies.

Sadly, we sometimes have so much stuff that we don’t have time and room for God in our life.

1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Cluttered Hearts Get Distracted And Suffocated

These three hearts represent shallow or crowded roots. God wants us to have deep and strong roots.

Proverbs 12:3 A man is not established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous cannot be moved.

Proverbs 12:12 The wicked covet the catch of evil men, but the root of the righteous yields fruit.

Colossians 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Good Ground – this is where the promise and the hope is.

20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

Good Ground Produces Fruit

It’s been said that even a tenfold return was good in Palestine but here the good soil can actually produce a hundredfold.

Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

This parable is designed to encourage us not guilt and frighten us.

So the point is this: there is hope for us, if we will guard our heart we can see that there will be fruit in our lives.