The Seed and the Heart – The Parable of the Sower Explained

By the way, he quotes a verse of Scripture in verse 14, where he begins moving toward his point. I believe the quotation is out of the book of Isaiah. In their case, Isaiah’s prophecy is being fulfilled: You will keep on hearing, but you’ll not understand. You’ll keep on seeing, but you’ll not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear.

Brothers and sisters, the heart is in front of the ear. The heart is in front of the eyes. The ear is not the outer organ; the heart’s the outer organ. The eyes are not the outer organ; the heart’s the outer organ. If you’ve got the heart, you’ll hear; if you’ve got the heart, you’ll see, but if the heart is dull, you’re not hearing, you’re not seeing, and you’re not perceiving. For they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn again. All of these are principles.

I want to say again, Matthew is just a seed. The whole book of Matthew is a seed. We’re talking about seeds, but there are seeds within seeds; Matthew is a seed. Acts is a growing; the epistles are maturing; Revelation is a harvest, and here is a seed of a principle about the heart. The heart must turn. The heart must turn. The principle of the heart is that it has to be turned.

…and I will heal them. But blessed are your eyes, because… Let’s say amen to all this. We’re going to take this. But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it. And to hear what you heard and did not hear it.  Then hear the parable of the sword. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

Here’s the verse. Where is the seed sown? Well, that’s why, that’s why I read that passage. Is the seed in the heart or in the spirit? I’ll tell you, it’s in the spirit, in the heart, because the spirit is the seed. The spirit is the seed that gets sown…where? Into the heart. Now you got it? The spirit is sewn into the heart. What is the spirit? The seed. And what is the seed? The Lord’s Spirit. Wait a minute, you’ve got a problem. If the seed is the Lord Jesus Christ, then who is the sower? The Lord Jesus Christ. According to this parable – now perhaps not according to another one, but according to this parable – I believe the Lord Jesus Christ is the sower. He is also the seed.

Now then, I want to ask you something. What do you do with a seed when you plant it in the ground? You bury it, you water it, and it comes up. Do you teach it? No. Do you come down in front of the little seed and say, “Grow?” No, you do not. You nourish it. You take care of it, and you nourish it. Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus Christ is a seed that has been grown into you. And in that seed is everything. That seed will come up if you give it a chance. Do you know what’s in that seed? I’ll tell you what’s in that seed. Trunks are in that seed. Roots are in that seed. There’s a leaf in that seed. There’s a limb in that seed. There’s a branch in that seed. There’s bark in that seed, and there is fruit in that seed. All you’ve got to do is nourish the seed. Don’t teach it; grow it. Nourish it. Let it grow. Better pay attention to the seed and to the heart.

And the one of whom the seed was sown on the rocky place, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. You’ve got to pay attention to the word joy. Yet he has no firm root in him, but it is only temporary, and when affliction and persecution arise because of the word, he has no firm root in him. Immediately, he’s called to stumble. And the one on whom the seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom the seed was sown on the good ground, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty, and I would add one last phrase, after its kind. After its kind.

I’m not going to stop here. I really, really want you to notice that there are other parables in here, and each one does the same thing. In verse 31, a man sowed seed in the field, and he sowed a mustard seed, and a plant came up. Then in verse 33, the kingdom of heaven is like a woman who took three pecks of meal, which were all leaven, and she made flour out of it. Then he explains another parable in the rest of this passage: the parable of the tares. This is where the man sowed, and the wheat came up.

Now please get the order of this. First, the sower comes and sows seed on the good soil, the rocky soil, and so forth. Then there is another one about the sower and the tares, who plants wheat and the wheat comes up. Then there is another one about a woman who makes bread. And then, one more parable here. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Now then, in this one we have a treasure hidden in a field. And finally, there is another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking a fine pearl. When he finds one of great value, he goes, sells all he has, and he buys it. So there is another parable: the parable of the pearl, and the pearl is what the man sells everything for.

The kingdom of heaven is what existed when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke this, because in reality, the kingdom of heaven had not yet come to earth. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of God in heaven and on earth, but if God does not have the earth, He only has the kingdom of heaven; but when men see the kingdom of heaven, they do what is done here. There’s the message of the kingdom of heaven – it is being brought to earth. Do you follow this? Then a man finally gets it, and when men get it, it’s the kingdom of God. When men get it, it’s the kingdom of God.

When did the kingdom of God come to earth? Really come to earth? On the day of Pentecost, the kingdom of heaven came to earth. On that day, the kingdom of heaven was established on earth, and you are seeing only the firstfruits of the kingdom of heaven upon this earth. You are seeing the kingdom of God. What is the church? It is the firstfruits of the kingdom of God on earth…and the soil is so soft on the top. If you know anything about farming, the closer a seed is to the top, the faster it will spring up, and it will be the fastest growing of all. But it grows so fast on top, it doesn’t grow on the bottom. And soon… The sun hits. What happens? It withers away under the blast of what? Heat of the what? Not persecution. Tribulation of the what? Of the word.