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

Do not misunderstand that passage. That doesn’t mean that because you got saved, people persecute you and you drop. I tell you, that is the tribulation the word causes you. You put a seed in the soil, and it’s going to start breaking the soil up to get out. It’s going to move some things around, and the soil is going to go, “Mmm.” Brothers and sisters, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes into you, He hurts. Please get this clear. If you want the Lord to grow in you, it’s going to hurt. The Lord is going to hurt you. We have to survive the joy stage and get into the hurt stage. Otherwise, the soil is no good.

I have tried to talk to you all as though we were just young Christians, a new beginning. I don’t know if you still remember that. I would say to you, pretend you’re a new Christian. You’ve got to have good soil, a heart that will not only receive the seed with joy but let it hurt you. Let the Lord Jesus Christ hurt you. Are you ready to let the Lord Jesus Christ hurt you? The Lord Jesus Christ is going to hurt you, brother. The more He makes room in your heart, the more He’s going to hurt, and if you’re not ready, you rejoice in the Lord of salvation—glory, glory, glory. Then, when the word hits you with heat, you’re going to scream. You’re going to scream.

I’ve been trying to tell the brothers and sisters here for two and a half years: Jesus Christ hurts. He’s not all fun and ice cream. The Lord is tricky. He’ll come to you in love and life, and he’ll just be so good to you, and you’ll enjoy him so much. Then one day he says, “I want a seed that bears after its kind. I want a seed that bears after its kind. I want to break through your heart. I want you in my image. It depends on the heart whether or not we survive. We need to bring this heart to the Lord, and say, “Lord, hurt the heart. Lord, hurt the heart. Get me past the joy stage, and hurt me if you want to, Lord.”

Okay, then the third group where the seed fell; what is it? The thorny soil. What does the thorny soil do? What is the thorn? Not just the world. It’s the world, its cares, and its riches. Some people get past the hurt stage, and the seed actually comes up. For a while, there’s just a beautiful growing plant there; it’s made it. Praise the Lord, it’s up, and it’s there. But then, somewhere down the line, you come to the point where you may have lost a little of the joy of the Lord…and here are the pleasures of the world, the riches, and soon we take the Lord…and our riches. Or the cares begin to come: the cares of making a living, and we go, and we give our first attention to the cares of the world. Or what’s the third one? It’s just the world itself. The world just gets us.

Let me tell you something: that’s not what causes it. That’s not what keeps the plant from making it. What keeps the plant from making it is the choking. It’s the choking. I don’t know if you see this or not, but the parable is trying to say the Lord wasn’t given enough room. You see, the Lord can begin to move into the heart, but if He’s got to step over a chair and a table and a house and an automobile, and if all of these things are also stuffed into the heart, there’s more than just the Lord in the heart. The heart is just piled full of other things. Do you see? Then the heart is not pure, and He cannot grow. He cannot grow. The seed can’t get out through the soil because there’s so much in the soil.

Alright, are you following me? The fourth group falls on good soil. He who has an ear to hear, hear. He who has an eye to see, see. What happens in the fourth group? It grows. It grows how much? To maturity. And it does what? It grows up to produce…what does it produce? A harvest.

There’s a harvest there…and some seed produces how much? 100. How much is others? 60. 30. Well, does that have anything to do with soil? I don’t know. I just don’t know. I can tell you one thing: I look at that and say, Lord, if you want rich soil, if that’s what it takes, I’ll be happy with 30. I’ll be so rejoiced at 60, but Lord, I want a 100; I want a hundredfold…a hundredfold of your seed growing up out of me after your time. Alright, brothers and sisters, all of this depends on the heart.

In the first group, the heart was just too hard to receive it. The second group are those who receive the Lord, but receive Him in their emotions and will not let the Lord work in their will and mind. You’ve got to let the Lord get past the emotions and deal with you in your will and in your mind. The third group has so much in the soil besides the Lord Jesus Christ. The soil has got to be purged until there’s room for nothing but the Lord.

Good soil will not grow anything but Christ! Do you see? Good soil can’t grow anything but Christ. It can’t grow thorns. It can’t grow thistles. It can’t grow weeds. It can only grow Christ. I say to you, go to the Lord and say, Lord, give me a heart that won’t grow anything but Jesus Christ. Nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ.

That’s not the end; that’s not where the Lord takes us. Those parables are not wasted. The Lord had a purpose in them. I want to tell you about the other three parables right quickly. The next parable is the parable of the sower who went to sow, and the tares and the wheat came up, and with it came up tares. Now, I’m not going to talk about this. Tares and wheat look very much alike; the wheat came up, but alongside it came up those who were not wheat at all. They look like wheat, they taste like wheat, but they weren’t wheat. They’re poison…but the wheat came up.

The next parable is the parable of a woman making bread. And the next parable is the parable of a treasure hidden in the ground. And the next parable, brothers and sisters, is the parable of the pearl. Now, brothers and sisters, the book of Matthew is a seed. It is, too, a seed. There is progress here, brothers. There is progress here, sisters. First, a seed is planted in the ground, then it comes up. The second parable: we have the wheat, and the wheat has come up for harvest. It has now fully matured despite the tares. Then, when it has come up out of the heart of the believer, what happens to it? It’s harvested. And what does the woman do in it? Makes bread.

I’m going to skip over all the Plymouth Brethren teaching about the yeast and all that. Please get the main point because this is beyond that. What does she do with it? She makes a loaf of bread. Why would the Lord want, brothers and sisters…why would the Lord Jesus Christ want…why does He want you to grow up a seed? So we can be a loaf of bread together, brothers and sisters. The heart eventually will bring you to the body of Christ. I tell you: here is the test of the heart. Does it bring you to the body of Christ? Praise the Lord. Then, after you get to the body of Christ, in the next parable, what is your attitude toward the body of Christ?