Dennis Tuuri

The sermon text is found in Matthew chapter 13. We will read verses 1-23, the parable of the sower and the seed. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Matthew chapter 13, beginning at verse 1. The same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat. And the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow.

And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprouted up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched. And because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns. And the thorns sprung up and choked them. But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some 100fold, some 60fold, and some 30fold.

Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speak thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Behold, it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore spake unto them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, saying, by hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand. And seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, that I should heal them.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see these things which you see and have not seen them, and to hear these things which you hear and have not heard them. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.

This is he which receives seed by the wayside. But he that receiveth the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word and on with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not rooted himself, but endureth for a while. For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the cares of this world in the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

But he that receives seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit and bring it forth some 100fold, some 60, and some 30. Let’s pray. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would take this text and open it to our understanding, that he would do his work of writing your law word, your grace word upon our hearts and cause us to rejoice in it, to be transformed in who we are, to take on the attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ, which are communicable to us and to go forth into this world.

And on the basis of that, we also pray, Lord God, that as your word is trumpeted forth in this place, that on this Lord’s day, this day of the Lord, that your judgments would go out in the context of the trumpeting forth of the word and the partaking of the communion that we will do in the later portion of this service, and that you would accompany the preaching of the word, the trumpeting forth of it, the partaking of the sacraments by your judgment in the context of our world.

We pray then, Lord God, that your spirit would do his work and that he would illuminate our eyes to understand, open our eyes to hear these things and our ears to hear these things in Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

All right, we continue today going through the canons of Dort and the truths of scripture that they articulate for us. Remember that the canons were produced in the early 1600s in response to a man named Arminius and his followers were called Arminians, not Armenians.

That’s a country. There are good men who are Armenians. Well, there are good people too, that say they’re Armenian. But the point is there’s a distinction between a country and a belief system. Arminius. Arminians. And we’re really going through the five points of Calvinism, so-called, which is, you know, an okay title, I suppose, but it’s not really very good because really what we’re saying is the scriptures teach particular things about God’s sovereignty in salvation.

And, you know, children, particularly here now, remember the little acronym that has gone along with this? TULIP, right? It’s an easy thing to remember. TULIP. This time of year, we see lots of tulips start to bud. And the tulips stand for these five points of Calvinism, so-called, which really come from these five heads of doctrine developed at Dort in the early 1600s by an ecumenical meeting of different countries, different types of churches that came together to examine the scriptures and to say this is what they teach.

And this guy, Arminius, who was dead by then, he was wrong. A tulip very easy thing to remember and it should be fairly easy for you to memorize the individual components of it, the individual parts of it. T—total depravity. Man is born totally dead in trespasses and sins. He’s not just sick, he’s dead. U—unconditional election. There are no conditions to God’s election, God’s choice. You know, when we elect somebody, we vote for them.

Well, God’s the only vote that counts relative to this kind of election. And before you were created, God elected you. It says that he did this on the basis of his foreknowledge, for love of you. He loved you from all eternity and he chose you. He elected you without conditions on your part. Nothing you could do could make him elect you. It was his choice. L—tulip Limited atonement. Jesus died for the sins of those that God had chosen for himself.

It was limited not in its value. Christ’s blood is infinite in its worth and value. It was limited in terms of who Jesus died for. He died particularly for those who were the elect. And he paid the price through his blood. It wasn’t just that he made it so that you could choose. No, Jesus actually paid the price for your sin. If you’re a member of Christ’s people, chosen by him, elected by him, and Jesus made full atonement for your sins.

We were at a mailing party Friday night and some of the younger girls at the table I was sitting at were reminding each other. We don’t want to make excuses for our sin. We don’t want to say it’s somebody else’s fault. You know, pastor taught us about how you don’t make somebody else the reason for why you sinned. Don’t try to say that it’s our fault, our own fault, our own most grievous fault. But Jesus has fully atoned.

He’s provided atonement. That really is what the word means. He’s provided reconciliation between us and God. He took care of our sins. He turns God’s wrath against us to love and favor to us. Limited atonement. A bigger word, particular redemption is what some people use for that third point. It’s particular. There’s redemption. He purchased us and it’s particular for the elect. I—total depravity, U—unconditional election, L—limited atonement, I—irresistible grace.

And we’ve been talking about this. This is the fifth week. This will be the final week. And then the last point, P—perseverance of the saints will start next week. And really this parable of the sower and the seeds is a very good transition point in the providence of God that he has given to us going from irresistible grace.

The parable is obvious, isn’t it? I mean some people the word goes out to lots of folks but some folks are called good ground. Why are they good ground? Because they’re better in and of themselves? No, nobody’s better anybody else. We’re all dead in sins. The Holy Spirit calls you effectually, irresistibly to himself, but he doesn’t do it as if he just ties a rope around you and drags you away and that’s it. You’re kicking and screaming the rest of your life. No, the spirit accompanies that preaching. The seed goes out and the spirit accompanies it and changes you, opens you up and creates a new heart, a new will, and a new mind in you.

Okay? He doesn’t work on your old stuff so much as he gives you a new creation. And the scriptures say it’s a new creation in Christ. So the parable shows us that. And it also shows us that some will seem to be called by the spirit. You know, the spirit goes out the way that servants were sent out in the Old Testament, get a bride for the son. Go off to our neighbors, our relatives land way far away and bring back the bride.

And Jesus at the right hand of the Father says, “Spirit, go get my bride.” And the spirit comes. He’s the matchmaker. The spirit comes and he gets the bride for Jesus. And he who Jesus wants, Jesus gets. And the spirit does it by bringing us into a new creation. But he also says that some will look like they’ve done that, but they won’t. They’ll fall away. That’s what the parable of the sower and the seeds tells us.

Says that perseverance of the saints will be discussed then. We’ll talk about that beginning next week, but it’s a good transition this particular topic here.

Turning your scriptures to 1 Corinthians 1. By way of review again on effectual calling, we began here four or five weeks ago in 1 Corinthians 1. We’ve tried to say that for each of these major truths of the scriptures, we should try to remember a particular passage. Romans 8 is very important.

We’re going to sing next week that song we learned from Romans 8. Romans 8 talks about that the golden chain, God loving us and calling us, etc. Ephesians 1 is very important for God’s unconditional election of us. And so we’ve tried to attach certain scriptures to help us remember these great truths of the faith. If you remember 1 Corinthians 1, the whole chapter, it’s a good way to remember what we’re talking here about the effectual calling.

God’s calling by his spirit is effectual. It works. Look at the emphasis on calling in the first couple of verses here. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ from the will of God and Sosthenes our brother unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours.

Grace to you and peace from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So he says that he’s been called. He says the church is called as well. And then down in verse 9, God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. Very important emphasis on calling here. And we said too that in the context of this here we have a sinful church. Things are going wrong in this church.

But Jesus spends nine verses reminding them of their calling as saints. Okay. Same way in the book of Revelation, we looked at the letters to the churches. He reminds them first about who Jesus is. Then he tells them, you know, this is what you’ve done good. Here are your problems. Now, shape up or I’m going to come and take away you being a church. So, it’s the same thing here. Calling is very important. Now, this is played out in every day of our lives.

We all have a vocation. Now, we think of vocation as men going to work. But vocation means to call, right? So vocation is a calling. And one of the great truths that the Reformation brought forth again and that’s being brought forth now is that everything we do, if you have a job, you end up becoming a whether it’s a ditch digger or a rocket scientist, you should see it as a calling from God, vocation.

You’re called into relationship with God the Father through Christ. But you also have a calling that reflects your particular job in the kingdom of God. Vocational calling really a repetition of terms calling. It’s interesting that in the context of the homeschooling movement, we have this tremendous blessing happening unplanned I’m sure by most homeschoolers. But if you begin to be homeschooled and then you start teaching your children from the scriptures and you start thinking about the implications of the scriptures for math and science and English and history, then what you’re eventually doing is training your children to think in terms of God’s calling in every sphere.

And so there’s this tremendous movement in the homeschooling movement to recapturing again this great Reformation truth of vocation as a calling from God. And so men and women either at the workplace or as mothers whatever it is have a sense of calling. But this all stems from this effectual call of the Holy Spirit talked about in 1 Corinthians 1.

Now drop down to verse 23 and 24 particular. Particularly here. Well, verse 22 will say, “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” That’s true in all days in every culture really. There are those who think the way to make everything right is through wisdom and those who think it’s by way of signs. It’s kind of like magic here and magic there. You know, intellect or just sort of a complete removal of the intellect and searching for signs. We’ve talked about that a lot, but we’re not going to.

But it does go on to say that we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Well, see there it is right there, verses 23 and 24. There are Jews and Greeks who aren’t called who to its foolishness and a stumbling block. Then there are Jews and Greeks to whom the Lord Jesus Christ, the text tells us, is the power of God.

and the wisdom of God correlating with his sign and wisdom. And so what’s the difference between this Jew that the gospel of Christ is a stumbling block to and this Jew that it’s the power of God or this Greek? Greek was like the culture representing all of Gentiles. The Greek culture was to protect the church. We’ve talked about that a little bit. But this Greek over here says it’s foolishness. And this Greek over here hears the gospel and says it’s the wisdom of God.

What’s the difference? The difference text tells us is that some were called and others weren’t. The effectual calling of the Holy Spirit, it’s not up to the Jew or Greek. They’re all like dead in trespasses and sins. The effectual calling of God is what makes the difference. And we’ve talked about that quite a bit now. That’s good. We have said that so effectual calling, this doctrine that the church developed, not developed, recognized or put into writing in the 1600s of effectual calling or irresistible grace if you want to remember the TULIP acronym.

What that means is that God calls some and they come. They always come always come. God’s effectual. Now the second thing we said though is that the fathers went on to talk about the fact and this is very important to us to recognize the means by which this conversion occurs. And I’m going to summarize this as I did last week by reading the Westminster Confession of Faith. All those whom God hath predestined unto life and those only.

Those only. He is pleased and has appointed and accepted time effectually to call means he’s got to be effectual. He’s got to get those men to respond by his word and spirit. So the means is the preached word, the word taken out to the world and the spirit, you know, the seed goes to all those soils, but the spirit makes some ground plowed up and ready, good soil. The spirit gives us new hearts, new minds, new wills.

And that’s the confession goes on to says that the word and spirit out of that state of sin and death in which they were by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ, enlightening their minds spiritually and saving me to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ.

Yet so as they come most freely being made willing by his grace. Stocks and blocks. Man doesn’t God doesn’t treat man as a stock or a block. The Arminians said, “Well, if you believe the Holy Spirit’s always going to get his man, then you think men are just robots or like pieces of wood.” No. No. That’s not it at all. It’s just the reverse. You’re a piece of wood. You’re a stone heart before the spirit comes.

But the spirit makes you into a fleshy heart. Makes you into a living being again and causes us to come forth in new creation. He spoke of about that too. We talked about this effectual calling as the Bible says it’s like a new creation. Nothing short of a new creation and it’s like life from the dead and it’s to be born again. And we talked about that on Easter Sunday about how you’ve got Mary there in the garden and she sees Christ and thinks he’s the gardener.

And Jesus then as the narrative continues as he goes then to meet with the disciples he breathes the breath of life into them saying receive the Holy Spirit clearly an allusion to the creation of man originally and God’s breathing the breath of life into him. Christ brings a new creation into being. And then right after that in the text it goes on to talk about Thomas and Thomas wasn’t there at first.

He says, “Well, unless I see his hands and see his side, I’m not going to believe it’s him.” And Jesus says, “Thrust your hand into my side. It’s me.” And Thomas recognizes him because Thomas is part of the bride of Christ whom Christ with that gaping side wound brought forth the way that Adam had God brought forth out of Adam a bride for Adam. So God the Father brings forth the bride of Christ as a new creation breathing life into us in the context of the new garden.

A wonderful picture there. This effectual calling and how God works in the context of our life. Last week we spoke about the banquet. A couple of parables from Matthew 23 and Luke 14 about the banquet. You go out and call people to the banquet and some don’t want to come in. They make excuses. Or the other parable they kill the master’s messenger and God says, “Well,” master says, “Well, go bring in those that are halt and lame and blind and are poor, showing that the ones who are invited effectually, called effectually to the feast of salvation, are those who recognize and are brought to a recognition of their inability to come.” And the servants have to go out and carry the lame to them.

And they got to take the blind by the hand and lead them to God, to the master of the feast. And they got to clothe up the poor guy so he can get in because you need a garment to get into this place. Here at this church, you need a garment to come in. You need a garment. What do you need? You need the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don’t have that, you’re barred at the door, so to speak.

You’re not literally, but that’s what God says happens here. Psalm 15 says, you got to have garments on. You got to believe in the Lord Jesus, and your life has to show it. Otherwise, when you come to worship him, his fire which makes us burn bright toasts you cup and brings judgment to your life. If you drink the cup, you don’t believe in Christ or if you’re sinning real badly in your life and won’t admit it, then bad things are going to happen to you.

Judgment happens. You might die from drinking that cup. Not, you know, it’s hard. We live in, you know, rationalistic western culture, individualized, all this stuff. But that’s what the word of God says. It’s real. And so, we’ve been brought to this tremendous feast that we’ll partake of every Lord’s day will today, by the grace of God being effectually called. And one final thing in review, 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14.

Why don’t you turn to that? 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14. We read, “We give thanks to God always for you.” 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14. We give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth to which he called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is kind of more of a little more complex, but it’s like that golden chain text from Romans 8. It’s all in here. He chose us. It says, because we were loved by him. Why did he love us? Because we were going to choose for him? No. He loved us before we were created on the basis of his sovereign pleasure. He loved us by placing his love upon us, not for something we are unconditionally on his part. He loved us and as a result, he chose us.

And this choosing is to lead to being set apart by the spirit and belief in the truth. But see, the way this comes about is by calling us by the gospel. See? So, it’s his eternal love. It’s his choice. He then sends Christ to die for those whom he’s chosen. Sends the spirit to call us by the gospel so that by that means of the call of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit, we are set apart by the spirit and we believe in the truth.

Same thing, effectual calling on the basis of God’s choice and his eternal love for us that we might then be a people to sing forth his praise and to be different in our lives as a result because we’re new creation now in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, that’s what we’re talking about. And we’re talking now concluding this little series on effectual calling. We’re going to talk about more about the implications of this for evangelism and then whose fault is it if people don’t believe.

And we’re going to read from the canons of Dort here as we talk about this a little bit more. We said last week that the canons say and the scriptures say that some people get seed and some don’t. Now, it doesn’t say that in this parable of the sower of the seeds, but we know that in history that’s just what happens. We know that the Holy Spirit forbade Paul to going into particular places with the message of the gospel.

And we know that God chose out of particular people in the Old Testament. And while there were messengers sent to all the world, he works with a particular group of people. In other words, part of this whole work of the Holy Spirit in bringing the bride to the bridegroom Jesus is that God sends the Father sends the Spirit to particular places with the preached gospel. You know the fact that some people have not heard the gospel preached yet ultimately the reason for that is that God has determined he doesn’t want them to hear it yet.

Now that’s kind of a hard saying for us but it’s I mean so clearly true as I said earlier with Paul being prevented from going to a particular region of missionary journeys. The very act of evangelism and missionary work is under the sovereign control of God the Father. And he determines to send messengers some places and not others. Now, that’s not to be, you know, make us slothful. But it should relieve some of our anxieties that we might have whipped into us by guilt manipulators who say, “It’s your fault, American Christians, for not putting up all your money here so we can send people into all the world.

You got people out there dying to hear the gospel. They’re not going to hear it. They’re going to go to hell and it’s your fault. That is not true. God is determined to send the gospel to certain people and not others. Now, we want to do it. He tells us to go into the highways and byways. We want to do it, but it changes our view of how this works. And secondly, it changes what this message or presentation is like if we understand effectual calling.

And now I’m going to quote from the canons of Dort article number eight. Okay. Nevertheless, all who are called through the gospel are called seriously. For seriously and most genuinely, God makes known in his word what is pleasing to him, that those who are called should come to him. Seriously, he also promises rest for their souls and eternal life to all who come to him and believe. Now, a little controversy about this text and I need to tell you a little bit about it.

I know it’s probably stuff historical, but in the 20th century, the churches that came out of the Reformation, notably the Christian Reformed Church and even the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in the 40s took this statement and other things in the Westminster Confession and they said that what God they came up with a phrase the well-intentioned or well-meaning offer of the gospel. When the gospel is preached, God intends to save everybody that it’s preached to.

So, it’s a well-intentioned, well-meaning offer by God. Now, the canons don’t say that. And the parable of the sower and the seed shows us indeed that the message is preached out there and the seed is sown. But is it the intention of the sower that every place he plants it plants will grow up. That’s really kind of the question here. And it seems on the basis of the word of God that really isn’t the case.

That God, if we understand the rest of what we’ve taught for the last six months on this, that God’s intention is to save his elect and those only. His intention when he sent his son to die for sins was to die for the sins of those that he would call to himself. Very important doctrine because in 1 Corinthians 1, remember that he’s trying to correct the problem and we all have problems. We have sin and in 1 Corinthians 1, sin is linked to pride.

Pride and to drive out the sin of pride, Paul has them after the verses we read in 1 Corinthians 1:20, he goes on to say, “Meditate upon your calling.” How not many were called that were wise or strong or whatever it is. Think about your calling. He said, if we meditate upon what the sower intends and how it is that we were brought to him by this Holy Spirit sovereignly, then we’re going to be humbled before him.

Our proper response is to say, “Thank God.” If we think on the other hand that God intends that all those ground should grow up as good plants before him and we grew up and our neighbor didn’t. Well, if it’s not the intention of the sower, what is it? Well, it’s us. You see, and the root is planted of pride in the human heart by the view of saying that it’s up to man. God freely offers to all the gospel of Christ in the by which he intends to save all people.

The scriptures say that God presents a serious gospel that he is serious in what he promises, in what he commands. But the scriptures say, as we saw from the parable of the wedding feast last week, that it is not so much an invitation, if by invitation we mean, won’t you please come, as it is a command, to worship him. All men are seriously called for seriously and most genuinely God makes known in the word what is pleasing to him that those who are called should come to him.

Okay, they should come. And secondly, God is also serious. When we go out and evangelize, we want to seriously tell people we preach the gospel that they should come and worship King Jesus. They should be thankful to him. That’s serious. But we do not plead with them. in the context of thinking that God somehow if we just manipulate them correctly with our words things will be better and they might then actually come.

No, God is sovereign. He calls the earth to worship him. He called us sovereignly to give him praise today. So this is the distinction made between what is called the well-intentioned or well-meant offer of the gospel and the serious offer. We believe the serious offer. There isn’t The word offer is used in some of the in the Westminster Confession of Faith. The word means to present. Christ is offered. Christ is presented to the world.

But he is presented in such a way as to command them to repent. He’s also serious. The canons say, and the scriptures obviously assert that he is serious. He promises rest for their souls and eternal life to all who come to him and believe. We can in our preaching of the gospel say God commands you to come to him. And God says that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and confess him with your mouth that you’re saved.

And God promises eternal life to all those who believe on him. We can say that most assuredly and should say that in the preaching of the gospel in our missionary and evangelistic works. It is a serious presentation to command people to respond to Christ. And should if they respond, God promises that he is their deliverer. Now the parable of the sower is very important here, however, because some may look like they’re responding, but they’re really not.

The parable of the seeds, there are some who simply don’t respond. We’ll get to that in a couple of minutes. These designations of categories of people that don’t respond. So, try to make a little bit of a correction here that may seem a little funny to you to dwell on this a little bit, but it is important. The reason it’s important is that when the well-intended offer or the well-meaning offer of the gospel began to be talked about in this century by the reformed churches.

What it meant was the idea that God wants all people to come to him. There was a movement away from what the scriptures teach in terms of God’s sovereign call, effectual call to more of an ineffectual call. There’s nothing new in this in this movement. Let me read to you from the Roman Catholic Church this is the condemnation of the reformers from the Roman Catholic Church. This is canon 17 of the section on justification of the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent from the Roman Catholic Church.

Listen now. If anyone says that the grace of justification is only attained by those who are predestined unto life, but that all others who are called are called indeed, but receive not grace as being by the divine power predestined unto evil, let him be anathema. So if you reject that doctrine, they say, or if you teach rather that predestination is God’s what God involves himself in, and that the call is not accompanied by grace to all men but only to the elect.

You’re cursed by the Roman Catholic Church. See now the Arminians said the same thing. The Arminians in article 8 of what they presented at the time of the canons of Dort said whosoever God calls to salvation he calls seriously that is with a sincere and completely unhypocritical intention and will to save. Nor do we assent to the opinion of those who hold that God calls certain ones eternally whom he does not will to call internally externally internally.

That is as truly converted even before the grace of calling has been rejected. And then in article 10 they say this nor do we believe that God calls the reprobate as they are called to these ends that he should the more harden them or take away excuse or punish them the more severely or display their inability. nor however that they should be converted should believe and should be saved. So the Roman Catholic Church and the Arminians agreed that to talk in terms of the preaching of the gospel as not being God’s desire to save everyone who hears it, that’s wrong.

But the scriptures plainly say that what these people condemn is exactly what God says, what God does. I mean, the scriptures are clear that in point of fact God does preach the gospel to make manifest and to harden men’s hearts. Why can I say that? I can say it right from the text we just read from I can say it from lots of places. Romans 9 would be the most obvious place. But look at Matthew 13 again and the parable of the sowing the seeds.

What does Jesus say in verse 11 in Matthew 13 and this we’ll turn to other we’ll turn to Luke and Mark as well to look at this a little bit but in Matthew 13 in the parable of the sower the seeds what I read this morning from God’s word the disciples asked he gives them the parable and the parable shows that to some to all to lots of folks they get this external call lots of people hear the gospel preached some respond in actual faith being created good so by the Holy Spirit.

And then the apostles say, “Well, why are you talking in parables?” This is the beginning, by the way. Let’s set this up a little bit. This is the beginning of the parables of our savior chronologically. Okay? So, this has kind of importance to it. And remember last week how I said that the parable of the banquet feast had a specific historical connection which we should not miss. Remember I said that the Jews as a nation were being recalled.

They were the ones killing the messengers. The prophets would kill Jesus and then would kill the apostles and they would be then their city would be burned as the illustration tells us from the parable in AD 70. Jerusalem would be burned. It’s a false church. It was the harlot. Well, I think that we could read some of that into this as well. Jesus, it’s interesting. He’s on the land and as the people crowd around Jesus, he backs off and gets on a boat and goes into the sea.

So, you have this really interesting visual imagery of Christ in the sea and everybody crowding up on the land. Now in the scriptures, we can’t take time to develop this, but in the scriptures, the land is where God’s particular people lived and the sea represented the gentile nations. Not bad there. In fact, God used the Gentiles as a buffer for God’s people to protect them. The Romans protected Paul.

But there’s this distinction between land and sea. Now Jesus has talking to people on the land, but he’s drawing their attention to the sea. And I think it’s at least by way of illustration. It’s a good illustration to teach our children. The gospel goes out from our land all over the earth because the water goes everywhere. But I think also there’s a we could say here that there’s an application of the parable of the sower of the seeds to their day and age.

Lots of people in the Holy Land were going to have the seed sown. Jesus, it says that he had gone up and down preaching in another account of the parable. Up and down preaching and then he issues this parable. Let me find that for you. In Luke chapter 8, Luke 8 and Mark 4 are the other places where the parable of the sower in the sea from Matthew 13 is found. In Luke 8, it says, “It came to pass afterwards that he went throughout every city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the twelve were with him.

Okay. And then there were certain men that come up and it goes on and in verse four he then begins to tell the parable of the sower of the seed. So the context of the parable of the sower of the seeds in Luke 8 is that Jesus has gone through all the cities preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Well, that’s what the seed is. Jesus says that’s the gospel of the kingdom that’s going out. So he’s gone everywhere in the land.

And in that land in Israel, many would reject him. And some would say, “Yeah, you’re some would just reject him out of hand. Some would say, yeah, we really like what you want. But then persecution would come about because of the persecution of the false church and they say, “No, I guess we don’t believe in Jesus.” And with other people, they were getting rich and happy and pleasures of this life dries up the seed.

And so at the end of that, there’s only some people that it’s grown up. And so there’s a particular context. This parable is followed in the accounts in Matthew 13 and Luke 8 and Mark 4 with other parables of the kingdom. The parable of the mustard seed comes here after this parable? And so there’s a picture that eventually this seed that is sewn that is as the smallest seed on earth the way the illustration the mustard seed goes up to be this huge tree that all the nations all the birds and remember the birds were created with the fish in the in the days of creation.

The birds and fish the birds would make their home in that large tree that had grown up. So the gospel of the kingdom is to go to every place and it will bring forth over time much fruit. I mean there’s a lot we could say about this parable about optimism relative to the future. I mean the plants that are growing up and having lots of offspring 100fold 60fold 30fold are the good plants in the good soil.

So the field is being planted. The parable of the wheat field is also in the connection with this in Luke and I think it’s in Luke chapter 8 where the parable of the wheat field is also in this context of the parable of the sower of the seed and it is a wheat field and the wheat dominate in the context of the field. Well anyway point of all this is that the gospel goes out and it goes out to people to lots of people but he does it by means of parables and the disciples say why are you speaking in parables and he goes on to tell them well I’ll tell you why I’m speaking in parables in verse 11 Behold, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, not to them, but to them it is not given.

He says, I speak to them in parables because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. So that the prophecy of Isaiah can be fulfilled. By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them.

And if you look at the parallel accounts in Luke 8 and Mark 4, our savior makes plain here that he speaks in parables specifically to increase judgment to some people because they’re not going to hear. They’re not going to respond. Why? What’s the difference? Well, he tells us what the difference is. The difference is to the apostles and the disciples who do hear To them it is given to know these things and to the rest it is not given.

It’s the sovereign action of God which either produces the good soil or the bad soil in the context of the preaching of the gospel. So God’s offer is serious. It is well-intentioned not in the sense of wanting everyone to come to faith but it is well-intentioned that the intention of God is to call the elect effectually but to increase the judgment of those who do not make use of the knowledge they already have.

Our savior goes on to say that to him much is given much is required. And you know you have to respond to what you’ve been given. And Romans 1 says that all men know that God is and that he’s created all things and should give thanks to him. And yet they don’t. They suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness. And so the gospel goes out to increase condemnation. to those who reject it. In the case of Jerusalem, it increases condemnation to the end that they’re actually destroyed as a people because of the rejection of Christ, the rejection of the apostolic church’s witness.

Okay. So, by way of what we want to remember out of this is that when we preach the gospel, the children, you know, a lot of kids are involved in sports teams and stuff this time of year. And the scriptures say we should call all kinds of people to believe in Jesus. We should talk about Jesus to lots of different kinds. We don’t just look for those who are good. Remember we said last week, God doesn’t call Israel because you’re a good nation.

It’s his sovereign pleasure. So, we preach the gospel to lots of kinds of people. And when we do that, we don’t do it by way of saying, “Oh, will you please become a Christian?” No, we say, you know, God made you. God’s taking care of you right now. Who put this sun in the sky to give us this nice day to play baseball today? God did. God’s taking care of you. You know what? God’s going to judge you, too. And if you don’t obey Jesus, then he’s going to judge you and throw you in hell when you die.

Well, that’s preaching the gospel. You know, this parable of the sower of the seed, the thing that’s really important here, too, is that, you know, we sometimes think in evangelism, we got to find just the right seed and we got to just package this thing correctly. No, the message of the gospel is simple. It’s not a difference of seed that results whether people respond to it correctly. Children, it’s not how well you present it.

You want to present Jesus according to what the scriptures say, the Bible says, but you know, it’s not how smart you are when you talk to people about Jesus. It’s the Holy Spirit is going to do his work and either call them to Christ or not. Okay? So, this understanding of the effectual call of the spirit by means of the secondary means of telling people about Christ of proclaiming the gospel and telling everybody, “God made you, God takes care of you, you should obey Jesus and worship him and give him thanks, you should believe in him.”, this is a simple message and it makes evangelism and missionary activity open to all the church of God because it’s such a simple message and God says that, you know, it’s not how good you say it.

Paul said, “I didn’t come with good sharp words, came in simplicity.” The Holy Spirit, it’s his job, not yours. is to call your job is to tell people that Jesus made them, takes care of them, is going to judge them. That’s it. Another corrective to our gospel here to our evangelism. You know, we’ve been trained to think that point action salvation is what we’re driving at. In other words, I need you to tell me right now, do you believe in Jesus?

And if they say yes, great. Once saved, always saved, you say. They say no, you’re going to hell. But the parable of the sower in the seeds says no. No, a lot of people may respond to it. It’s perseverance that’s stressed in the parable of the sower and the seeds. See, so it’s not so much that you’re trying to close the deal or make the sale. You’re trying to call children if you’re a child or adults, neighbors, relatives to believe in Christ and to give him thanks and praise and worship to bring him to church to worship him.

Okay? So understand that he’s sinned. God created them, takes care of them, going to judge them. And if they don’t believe in Jesus, they’re going to be judged and go to hell. So evangelism is