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and which parts I'll have to skip just for sake of time. But God, I just pray that you would use what we do here in our lives and speak to our hearts and bring us closer to you, stir us up, teach us some great truth out of the Word of God that could change our lives, that could make us better servants of yours. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, here we are in Matthew chapter 13. And at the beginning of the story it picks up just where last week's sermon picked up where he was preaching this sermon in Matthew 12. And then it says the same day he went out of the house and he went and sat by the seaside. Well, at that time when he sat down by the seaside a great multitude came together to hear him. I mean, crowds of people. So he decided that the only way that he was going to be able to effectively preach to these people was to get in a ship and push the ship out a little bit away from the shore and sit down in the ship and preach from the ship and have the whole multitude on the shore. I don't know if it was something about the water maybe could carry his voice a little bit or just that way people wouldn't be thronging him. So that's what he does. And the first part of this chapter Jesus is preaching to the multitudes from the ship. Now, he's preaching to them several parables in a row here. And then later on he goes away from the multitude back into the house and he explains the parables in more detail to his 12 disciples in the house away from the multitude. Now, the first parable that he goes into is probably one of the most famous parables in the entire Bible that Jesus told us, the parable of the sower. Now, a lot of people have varying opinions about what this parable means. Even though Jesus clearly explains it, still a lot of people disagree about this. But I think it's extremely clear what this is talking about. There are four types of people mentioned in the parable of the sower. Now, most preachers that I've heard preach this, they said that three of them are unsaved and one of them is saved. Now, I'm going to show you that three of them are saved and one of them is unsaved. And I'll show you that. The key to understanding this parable is the next parable that he gives after it. And a lot of times we just isolate out the parable of the sower and we don't look at the other part, which sheds more light on it, which is the parable of the tares of the field. See, most people think that everybody in the world is going to fall into one of these four categories of the parable of the sower, but that's just not true. Because as you're going to see a little bit later in the chapter, there's a fifth category of people that are called the tares. And they're not listed in this group at all with the parable of the sower. Now look at it, if you would. Look at verse number three. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. Of course, a sower is a man who's throwing seeds out into a field. He's farming. And it says, And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. So you picture a man sowing a farmer. He's throwing seeds, right? And he's sowing them into the good ground, but inevitably, when you throw seeds, some of them are going to just fall off by the wayside. Now the wayside is basically a road, perhaps, around the farm. You'll see a lot of times they'll have roads between farms where they can drive the tractor and move around the oxen or the equipment or whatever. Well, some of it landed on that hard ground that was packed down by people walking on it. That's the wayside. It's the wayside because it's the way that people would walk. It's a pathway. So some of them fell in a pathway where they just laid on top of the earth because the ground was so hard there, and birds came and ate up the seeds before they could even get into the ground. And then it says, the next category says in verse number 5, Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth. So you picture rocks and stones that have a little bit of dirt on the outside of them, but not really enough for them to send a root way down that a plant would need to grow. And so, for example, whenever I drive back from San Diego to Phoenix here, I take Interstate 8. And if you go down Interstate 8, there's these giant piles of rocks. And these things just boggle my mind every time I see them because it's just, I mean, we're talking about the size of mountains, piles of rocks. And, I mean, I'm talking about rocks that are like this big. How in the world did it get there? It's bizarre to look at it. I mean, just these giant piles of rocks. Now, the rocks do have a little bit of dirt just from the years of dust and dirt blowing over them to where they do have a little bit of dirt, and so you'll see a little bit of plant life coming out of these rocks. That's exactly what this is talking about. It's rocks that have a little bit of dirt accumulated. And by the way, I was driving down the road, and I was looking at these rocks, and I was thinking to myself, this just blows evolution out of the water, just when I'm looking at it. Because if you think about it, how did those rocks get there? Well, of course, we know how they got there because of the flood. In the flood, water's crashing everywhere. The Bible says the fountains of the deep were broken up. And so water's spewing everywhere. And think about it. If you take a bottle and fill it with water and sand and rocks and dirt and shake it up, well, what's going to happen? All the heavy stuff's going to fall to the bottom, and then they're going to have various layers. And you've seen it. You could go to these stores in the mall, and they'll have things like that where they have sand in a bottle, and it's into layers because they just shake it up with water, and it falls into various layers. Well, obviously, when the flood came through, it threw around all these rocks and was cataclysmic, and so you just had these giant piles of rocks that were left behind. Now, what does evolution say that those rocks came from? Well, obviously, they're going to date it way back to some ice age. That's what they say. You know, the glaciers came through. And I don't even know how that would work. I don't know how that would make a pile of rocks. Because, get this, some of them, there'll be a mountain with just a giant rock just sitting on top of it, just like precariously hanging there. How did it get there? Obviously, things were thrown around as the flood. But here's the thing. Let's say it does go back to some ice age millions of years ago. Now, they say that the ice age was before man was even on the Earth. Now, they claim that man has been around for 100 million years, whether it was Homo sapien or Homo erectus or whatever the other stupid one is called. And so, according to them, it's been 100 million years since this ice age. Look, there wasn't enough dirt on those rocks for 100 million years. I mean, it looked like maybe several hundred years, several thousand years of a little bit of dirt had accumulated and a little bit of plants grew up. But that's what this is talking about here. It's talking about stony places where there's a little bit of dirt, but there's not enough room for the seed to get a good root down. So, first of all, we had what? The wayside. The seed doesn't even go into the ground. I mean, it lands there and just immediately birds come and eat it away. Then you have the stony places. It's rocks with just a little bit of dirt on them. Then the third category. You have the ones that fell among thorns, it says in verse 7, and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them. Basically these thorns took all the water out of the soil, they took all the nutrients out of the soil, and they choked it out so that the plant remained. And you'll see a little bit later in the explanation that this plant stays alive in the thorns. It does not die. I'm sorry, look at verse number 6. The one that fell in the stony place, it says they withered away. So this one just falls out completely. It dies. But the thorns, you'll see later, the plant remains, it just bears no fruit, because it's not getting enough nutrients from the soil to bear fruit because of all these thorns. Then you have the fourth category, verse 8, but others fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who appears to hear? Let them hear. And then they ask him, they say, why speakest thou unto them in parables? He says, why are you preaching this non-understandable message? He answered and said unto them, because 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. Now this is kind of a weird concept that Jesus speaks about a lot, of whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Now, most people would think, you'd think, take from the guy who has a lot, right, and give it to the guy who doesn't have anything, so they can both share, they can both have the same. That's communism, you know, whereas capitalism says, get as much as you can, because you earned it, you worked for it, I mean, good night. Spend your money on what you want to spend it on, because it's your money. Now, why does Jesus have this philosophy that's contrary to the world's philosophies? Well, Jesus is a capitalist. He's saying, look, if you have something, have you ever heard of inertia? This is the best way I can think of to explain this. In science class, inertia, this is a law of nature. Objects that are in motion tend to stay in motion. It's called momentum. And objects that are at rest tend to stay at rest. And so what Jesus is teaching here is that you take a man who has no wisdom, he has no knowledge of the Word of God, he's a fool, and he's only going to get more foolish, he's only going to get stupider, he's only going to get more wicked. Then you take somebody who knows the Word of God, who knows the Bible, he's only going to learn more, he's only going to grow more. This is what the Bible says, God giveth wisdom unto the wise. So what's the moral of the story, what's the application? Well, if you go to another passage, I don't have time to turn there, he says in another Gospel in this same place, he says, Take heed how ye hear. Now the word hear in the Bible means listen. The word listen is not really used except one time. He says, Take heed how ye hear. For to him that hath more shall be given, and from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have. See, if you don't listen when you hear the Word of God preached, when God gives you an opportunity where you can learn the Word of God, where God gives you an opportunity where you have the Bible and you can read it, if you don't take the time to read it, and if you don't listen in church, and if you don't listen and take it in and receive what's said, he says, you're not just not learning, you're actually becoming more ignorant over time. If you come to church and sit here and don't listen to the preaching, you're going to walk out knowing less than you knew when you walked in, is what God's saying. He's saying you'll lose the knowledge that you have if you're not continually learning the things of God. So you have to start that ball rolling where you say, I don't know the Bible. I don't know a lot about the things of God, but I'm just going to force myself to read it and just force myself to listen in church. I'm going to force myself to be in church. And most importantly, your personal Bible reading is more important than what you hear in church. And just sit there and just read it, and then what happens is then you have something when you read it. And when you have something, God says, I'll give you more when you have something. And then you have more, and then I'll give you more. And so it's like a snowball. The more that you learn the things of God, you're going to grow and you're going to learn more, more, more. But the guy who says, I'm going to miss church, or I'm going to come to church, I'm not going to listen, I'm not going to read my Bible, he's just going to go down a downward spiral of stupidity. And that's the truth. And so you must take heed how you hear, is what he says. Take heed. Make sure that you listen when God talks. Make sure that when God talks in his book, you are listening. Because if you're not listening, you'll get to the point where you just keep losing information and losing it, and you'll get to where you just can't understand anything. And you just lose it and lose it and lose it. Now let me explain to you the parable here as Jesus explains it of the sower. Look, he starts explaining it right here in verse number 18. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not. That's the key phrase. Then cometh the wicked one, and taxic away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. So category number one, the wayside, this is a person who hears the gospel preached. They hear the plan of salvation. They hear that they're a sinner, that they deserve to go to hell, but God loves them. And God has paid the punishment for their sins by coming himself in bodily form. God himself appeared in the flesh and lived a perfect life, and then sacrificed his own life and shed his blood on the cross to pay for all of your sins. He already paid for every sin that you've done, are doing, or ever will do. And then he died and he was buried. And three days later he rose again from the dead. And when he rose again from the dead he said, he said, Behold, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore and have the keys of hell and of death, he says. He says, I decide who goes to heaven and I decide who goes to hell, because I'm the only one who's been to hell and paid the price for sin. I shed my blood on the cross and I decide whether you're going to go to heaven or whether you're going to go to hell, and it's based on one thing. He says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. But as many as received him to them gave thee power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Okay, that's what he decided. He said, This is how you're going to be saved, for by grace are you saved through faith. Faith means believing. By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So that's the method of salvation. That's the gospel, right? That's the plan of salvation. That's the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, salvation through Jesus Christ. Now, there are people who hear that, priests, and they don't understand. They can't seem to grasp the fact that Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left the crimson sand, he washed it white as snow. They don't seem to understand that when Jesus said, It is finished on the cross, he doesn't need us to add all this religion to it in order to get to heaven. They don't understand the fact that it's a free gift. Have you ever tried to give somebody something and they didn't understand that it was a gift? You say, here, look, I got this for you. And they don't know how to receive a gift? No, no, no, no, no, let me pay you for that. That's what it's like. Some people just don't get it. They don't understand it. Well, what happens? They go away unsaved. The word is sown, they go away unsaved, and what happens is the devil comes and takes away that which was sown in their heart. The devil comes and takes away so that they forget about it. They don't think about it again. What happens eventually? Because they heard it and they didn't understand it and then they just kind of went about their life and the devil just took it out of their mind. Eventually they die and go to hell, unfortunately. That's the unsaved person in this story. But look at the next category here. It says in verse number 20, it says, But he that received the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, notice that these all start with the same thing, all four of them. They all hear the word of God. You notice that? That's the first thing mentioned every time. He heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it. I mean immediately is what anon means. Immediately he just receives it all. He just says, yes, that's wonderful. That's great news. You mean I can be saved? You mean God will forget all my sins and he'll give me a home in heaven and it's all paid for by Jesus Christ? Glory to God. Praise the Lord. I'm saved. I'm going to heaven. Wow, all my sins are forgiven. Glory to God. Man, they're excited, man. They get saved. Okay, the next thing is that you should be baptized. Great, yeah, I'll be baptized. Absolutely. Then you come to church and it's, sure, man, I want to come to church. And this person's saved. Now most people will teach you that this person's not saved. Look, it says they received the word of God. It says they're excited about it. This person's in church. They're excited. They're growing. But look what it says. Here's the problem, though. It says, Yet hath he not root in himself? See that in verse 21? Now, this is exactly what I preached about on Sunday night. You remember when I preached about being rooted down? This is the person who, yes, they're excited. They're thrilled that their name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life and that no man can take him out of Jesus Christ's hand and that Jesus said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee and that their sins and iniquities, well, I remember no more. And they're thrilled to be saved and they're excited about it, but the problem is they don't get rooted down. What does that mean? Well, it could be like we talked about on Sunday night. They float around. But I think more what it's talking about is they're not rooted doctrinally. They're not really rooted down in what they believe. What are they? They're shallow. Remember he said this is the shallow ground. In the Book of Luke, God describes the same person. Here he describes it as stony places. In the Book of Luke, he describes it as the shallow ground. This person is very shallow. They don't understand the depth of Christianity. They think it's just some little fun and games. Wow, we come to church. We dress up. Wow, I'm going to heaven. Great. I'm not going to hell. I'm going to heaven. Great. Come to church. Put on a tie. Sing some songs. La, la, la. Fun. Positive. They're shallow though. Well, look what happened. Look why the shallow Christian doesn't make it. Because it says, look, let me find my place here. It says, Yet hath he not rooted himself, this is verse 21, but doeth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he's offended. Whoa, that's not what he expected. He didn't expect to be persecuted for being saved. He didn't expect tribulation to come. He didn't expect that. He thought it was all going to be positive. See, the shallow Christian is the person who, this is the person who gets saved. They get excited. They get in church. They get baptized. They love God. But here's the problem. They don't read their Bible. Okay? They're shallow. They're just relying on what they hear in church maybe. Or maybe they read some little two verses in the morning, a little devotional or something. But they're a shallow Christian. They're not deeply rooted in the things of God. They're not rooted doctrinally in what the Bible teaches. And so what happens is, as soon as any hard times come, as soon as any tribulation comes, as soon as any persecution comes, they're so weak. They don't have that root of understanding what God says, understanding the big picture, understanding that, yes, there are positives and negatives of the Christian life. Yes, there are going to be hard times. Yes, there is going to be persecution and tribulation. They don't understand it. They're just shallow. They think it's all positive. It's all fun. And as soon as bad times come, as soon as there's some kind of a fighting going on at church, as soon as people are upset, as soon as they get in trouble on the job, they say, Forget it, man. And they're out. They're out of church. They're not living for God. And what happens is, they haven't really produced fruit yet. Because, let's face it, when a person gets saved, a lot of times they're not a soul winner the next day. We wish that they would be, and some people are. But most of the time, it takes time. And, well, this person, before they really get a chance to really learn how to win people to Christ and be fruitful and multiply and produce fruit, they were so shallow that when, as soon as somebody offends them, see how it says he's offended? As soon as the preacher says something that offends them, as soon as somebody at work offends them, they get out of church. Now, were they saved? Yeah, they're saved. But they're not going to produce fruit because they end up getting out of church because they didn't have a root. Now, so what do we need to learn from that? Look, you must be rooted yourself in the Bible. You must have depth in your Christianity that comes from your personal walk with God. You're reading this book. You're praying. And you can't rely on just church to spoon feed you. You must have some depth in yourself. You must have some depth of you understand the Bible. You read it for yourself. That's the second category. That's the stony places or the shallow ground, as it's called in the Book of Luke. Then look at this one. It says in verse number 22, He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. So here's a guy who's saved. He receives a seed. He's born again. It begins to grow. But before he can produce fruit, he's just so tied up in the things of this world. I mean, his job is more important to him than church. School is more important to him than church. Making money is more important to him than church. Watching television is more important than reading the Bible. Listening to rock music is more important than praying or something when he's driving down the road. He's choked out by the cares of this world. Now, this guy stays in church. He doesn't wither up, and where is he? You know, like the guy in the shallow ground? Boy, he was so excited. Where is that guy? Man, remember how excited he was? Remember how they were growing? Seemed like they were just the greatest Christians in the world. Where are they? They're gone all of a sudden. That was the stony places. But this guy, he stays in church. This is your dead, lame church member. This is like a huge amount of people. This is where you go to the church. They come. They're in church. They sit there, but they don't win souls. They don't produce fruit. And all they're interested in is worldliness. After the service, you can't have a conversation with them about the things of God. Their conversations after church will just be about sports. And I'm not saying that sports are wrong, but that's just what they're into. They'll say, oh, yeah, talk about sports or whatever. And they're not interested in the things of God enough to be a soul winner, to get excited. They're too choked out by it. They've got too much going on. I mean, good night. Church on Wednesday night? They've got too much going on in the world. I mean, they've got softball. They've got Little League. They've got the NBA, the loss, or whatever it is. Or no, they've got to work late. They've got to make money, because they've got to buy a bigger house and a bigger SUV. And so that's who this person is, the person who, yes, they're staying in church, but they're worldly. They're too into the things of God. They're too into the things of the world to be effective for God. So, so far, we've had the guy who didn't get saved. He didn't even understand the gospel, and he just didn't even get saved. Then you have the second person in the shallow ground who wasn't rooted in the Word of God for himself. He didn't have his own walk with God, so as soon as the hard times come, he's out of there. Then you have the third person who, yes, he stays in church. Yes, he's still there. Yes, he's in church, and he's faithful, but he's just so worldly, he's not going to be at soul-willing. I mean, he'll be at the service, but he's not going to be at the soul-willing time. There's no way he's going to be interested in, you know, getting excited about the things of God. He's just kind of going through the motions, because he's so choked out by the cares of this world. Then you have the fourth category. This is the smallest category, by far. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the Word and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit. See, he both understands it. That's salvation. When he believes on Jesus, he understands that it's by faith, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some in hundredfold, some 60, some 30. Now, I'm not going to belabor the point that I preached recently that bringing forth fruit is winning souls. It's getting somebody else safe. It's clear that this is a numeric value, hundredfold, 60-fold, 30-fold. Look, whatever the fruit is, you can count it. You can count how many people you went to the Lord. Did you know that? But you can't count love. I have 60 love, 30 peace, 100 church attendance. That doesn't make any sense, does it? See, that's not what fruit is. But see, people mix it up with the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, the Bible says in Galatians 5, 22, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, goodness, faith, temperance. Against such, there is no law. I don't have that memorized. I gave you all nine of them in the wrong order. Love, joy, peace, faith, meekness, temperance, gentleness, goodness, faith. Okay, look, the fruit of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit's fruit, not your fruit. Your fruit is the fruit of the righteous as a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise, Proverbs 11, 30. And so when you produce fruit, you're bringing forth after your own kind by bringing forth another Christian, by winning somebody to the Lord. When the Holy Spirit produces fruit, and when the Holy Spirit lives inside you, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, he brings forth after his own kind. Look, the Bible says God is love. That's why the fruit of the Spirit is love. Okay, the Bible calls the Holy Spirit in Hebrews, chapter 1, the oil of gladness. That's why he brings forth joy. And not down the list. The Bible says that God is good. There's none good but God, the Bible says. And that's why goodness is what he brings forth, because he is goodness. And so that's his fruit. A lot of people say, yep, when you bring forth fruit, that's when you have love. No, because you can't count love. You can't count 100 love. You can count 100 people that you want in the Lord. And God's saying, you know, there's some people who they are just rooted down in the things of God. They're not tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. They're not always moving around. They're rooted down. They do not have the cares of this world, choking them out to where they can't have time for the things of God. They're focused on their one purpose of bringing forth fruit and winning people in the Lord. And it says some of them win 30 people to the Lord in their lifetime. And he's saying then there's other people that bring, they win 60 people to the Lord in their lifetime. There's other people that could win 100 people to the Lord in their lifetime. And I venture to say there are people who could win a lot more to the Lord than that. And so it's not, don't let that limit you. Once you hit your 100, man, just take it easy. Because God, look, the sky's the limit. And we're going to see that later if we have time because it's such a big chapter. And I don't just keep preaching until it's over or else we'd be here until midnight. Well, that's the parable of the sower. Now, here's what I want you to understand about this. This is not everybody in the world listed here. There's another category, and I'd venture to say that there are two other categories, okay? Because think about this. We listed four kinds of people, three kinds of people who get saved. One's called the Roman Candle Christian. They go, wow, look what a great Christian they are. And then they're gone. Where are they? They fizzle out. They're gone. That's the Roman Candle Christian. That's the shallow ground. Then you have the thorns. That's like 90% of people in any church, you know, that's a good church in America, the unfruitful person who's worldly. Okay, then you have the good ground, which is the guy who's a sole winner. He's a producer. She's a producer. She wins people the Lord, and that's the good ground. Then you have the wayside with somebody that heard the word of God, and they just did not comprehend the fact that it was by grace through faith. But let's think about some other categories of people that don't fall into these categories. What about the guy who never hears the word, right? What about the guy who never hears a clear presentation of the gospel? What about the guy who grew up in some Catholic country, and his idea of Jesus is just what the Catholic church told him? Or what about some guy who grew up in Zimbabwe and he was told that Jesus is not true? You know, or he grew up in a Muslim country, and they said Jesus is not the way to heaven. You know, it's Allah. Okay, what about that guy? That's another category, isn't it, that doesn't fall into these four. The one who never even received the word of God. He never even hears the gospel. Then how about, and by the way, people who don't hear the gospel and they live their whole life and they don't get saved, they go to hell, okay? Don't tell me that somebody who doesn't hear the gospel, God's going to give them a free pass into heaven. Instead of crying about the fact, and I hear people cry about it, that's not fair. Then if it's not fair, then why don't you go tell them if it's not fair? If it's not fair that all these people go to hell without hearing somebody clearly give them the gospel, then why don't you go tell them the gospel instead of sitting around calling God not fair? No, it's not fair that we don't go tell everybody. That's what's not fair. It's not God that's not fair. It's us that's not fair. Because we're not doing what God told us to do. Preach the gospel to every creature. Now let me logic with you. Let's say people in some other country somewhere, they've never heard the gospel, they're going to go to heaven because they didn't even have a chance to hear it, right? I mean, they lived 70 years on this earth, maybe 80, but God surely would not send them to hell because they didn't hear somebody take a Bible and go through the Roman's road with them. Look, if that were true, then here would be the best thing we could do. Let's stop sending money to our missionary in Korea because he's damning people to hell, right? Because by telling people who've never heard the gospel, they might reject it. But if he would just not go to Korea, you know, then they'd never hear it and then they'd all go to heaven. See how silly that is? What would be the point of a missionary if people just... What would be the point of go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature if people go to heaven because they've never heard the gospel because they didn't really have a chance? Look, God said the heavens declare the glory of God. You know, he said, look, they can look up at the sky and see that there's a God. They can see that there's a creator. And he says, they that seek me early shall find me. And so God is just, and the person who's not just is the person who's not the soul winner because they're the one who's letting these people be unsaved and not hear the Word of God. Now, look, here's the next parable, and I'm trying to blow through this. It says right here in verse 24, another parable put he forth unto them, and that was category number five. Okay, category number five was the person who never has heard the Word of God. Now let's talk about category number six. Another parable put he forth unto them saying, the kingdom... Oh, man, I'm in the wrong place. Okay, verse 24. I'm sorry. I was reading the wrong place. Another parable put he forth unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. Isn't that what we just read about? A guy sowing good seed in his field? Now look at the other category. And see, I've never heard anybody relate these two parables. It's all that they preach on the one but not the other. And you have to see that these are both put side by side for a reason. Because it's the same story. The same guy that sowed good seed in the field, now there's not even a break in the story. Look, verse 23 says, which also beareth crude, and bringeth forth some in heaven, and fold some sixty, some thirty. Another parable put he forth unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. That's what we just read about. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares. Tares are weeds, okay. 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. And so basically, I'm going to blow through this, but basically what happens is, an enemy comes by night and sows weeds. He says, I'm that dirty rotten, you know, he has an ax to grind with this good sower. And he says, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to plant weeds all over his field. That way it'll just ruin his harvest. I'm going to plant weeds. And so he plants these tares, and sure enough they start to grow, and they start to look. And look, if you would, at verse number, let's see, verse number 27. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath the tares, and where did these weeds come from? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Here's what he's saying. Don't go pull all the weeds at this point, because when you rip out those weeds, you're going to rip out the wheat, because the roots are going to be interconnected, and as soon as you rip up one, you're going to rip up the whole field, because he sowed so many tares. So he says, Let both grow together till the harvest. And see, here's what's being taught. The harvest you'll see later is the end of the world. The reapers are the angels. Part of this is talking about the rapture, the shade, they're going to be reaped out of the world. Now, here's the thing. Let's say God were to right now take out all the tares. Let's say he were to take out the people that are not saved, or they're in church, but they're not saved, or they're ungodly. The Bible later tells us who these people are, the tares. The tares are the children of the wicked one. And I'm going to explain to you who the children of the devil are in this world. Let's say God were to rip out every child of the devil, everybody who's a wicked sinner, and rip them out. Well, think about it. If he were to do that at this moment, right now, this second, he would rip out some of the good wheat too, and here's why. Because some of those people may have an opportunity to get saved. See what I'm saying? Like down the road. So if he just takes them all out, takes out everybody who's not of God and just rips them out, well then he's really taken out something that had the potential to be the good wheat. Because if you think about it, when a person that's ungodly still has the opportunity to get saved, like two weeks from now, right? I mean, a year from now. And so he's saying, look, let both grow together until we can really see what's going to be the good wheat and what's going to be the weeds. Now look, if you go down this story, and let me show you the interpretation of this parable. Look at verse number 37. Skip all the way down to verse 37. This is where he interprets to his disciples the parable of the tares. He answered and said to them, He that sowed the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom. That's the people that are saved. But the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the son of man. The wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. That's hell. Hell is described here as a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Make a note to yourself if you want to look at this later. Look at Daniel chapter 3. You'll read about the fiery furnace. That's a picture of hell. Very interesting story. God is showing us that that fiery furnace is a picture of what hell is like. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father, who hath ears to hear, let them hear. So look, who are the tares? The tares are the children of the wicked one, the children of the devil. Now what is a child of the devil? Now you know what children of God are, right? Children of God are people that are saved. Well, a child of the devil, let me show you what this is. Flip over to John. Actually, no, I'm sorry. Stay in Matthew, Matthew 23.15. Matthew 23.15, and I'm so out of time it's ridiculous. I'm like one-tenth of the way into this sermon. Matthew 23.15, the Bible reads here, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte. A proselyte is a convert to their religion. And when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. He's saying, look, the Pharisees are going on these mission strips, and they're compassing sea and land to get one person converted to their Pharisee religion. And he says, and when you've converted them, he says, you've made them twofold more the child of hell as yourself. So he calls their convert a child of hell. Don't turn there just for the sake of time, but John chapter 8.44. I'll just read this for you quickly. I'll just get there myself. John 8.44, the Bible reads here. Ye are of your father the devil. And he's talking to the Pharisees again. He's saying, your father is the devil. See the children of the wicked one? Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Now, from my understanding of this, and I could be wrong about this, I don't believe that everybody who's not saved is considered by God a child of the devil. Maybe they are. I don't know. But my understanding is that whenever God applies this term of being a child of hell or a child of the devil, and there are a bunch of other scriptures I don't have time to turn to, usually he's referring to people who are religious people, like the Pharisees, who are teaching and preaching a false religion. He calls them the child of the devil. So think about this if you would. When a man's born, he's a son of Adam. Adam is the first man that ever lived. And so he's just a child of Adam. He's a member of the human race. When he gets saved, he becomes a child of God. Now, not everybody is a child of God. The Bible says, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. The Bible says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. We're talking about the people that are saved. So when a person's born, they're a man, they're a human being, they're a son of Adam, when they choose to get saved, they become a child of God. When they choose to become religious but not get saved, like their own good works, their own religion, then they become a child of the devil. Okay, because here's the thing. The devil is behind every false religion in this world. Study the Old Testament. Look at the Old Testament. All throughout the Old Testament, these wicked, ungodly societies, they were all religious, all of them. They all have gods and goddesses. Did you notice that? They all are worshiping some Baal. They're not just atheists. They're not evolutionists. They worship Baal. They worship the sun. They worship the moon and the star. They worship all kinds of false gods. And the Bible says that the Gentiles, when they worship idols, are worshiping the devil. The devil is the author of all these lies. He's the father of lies. He's the father of a lying religion. And so when you join up with some religion somewhere and decide to work your own way to heaven, you become a child of the devil because you're following in the devil's footsteps of rebelling against God and saying, I'm going to be my own god. I'm going to be my own savior. I'm going to be my own Lord Jesus Christ and get myself to heaven. You're a child of the devil. And then there's the person who's saved. They become a child of God. That's my understanding of it is that a person doesn't become a child of the devil until they get into work, salvation, become religious. Now, can that person still get saved and become a child of God? Absolutely. Of course they can. Why do you think Jesus spends all his time preaching to the Pharisees? He's trying to get them saved. Some of them got saved. Some of the Pharisees got saved. You read about the book of Acts. And so, yes, the child of the devil can get saved and become a child of God. That's why we don't want to root out the child of the devil. God shouldn't just kill every child of the devil today. No, let's let them both grow together until the harvest and let's see how many of them we can get saved. Let's see how many Catholics we can win to the Lord. Let's see how many Lutherans we can win to the Lord. Let's see how many of these Presbyterians who think they have to work their way to heaven. Let's see how many of them we can win to the Lord. Let's see how many Pentecostals who think that if they don't live right they're going to lose their salvation, let's get them saved. Don't root them out. I want to see them saved. I want to see them become a child of God. And on and on, I had a lot to teach about the tares, but I'm out of time. Because God talks a lot about these people that bear the thorns and the briars, that are weeds, that are tares among the wheat, that are fakes. They're in church, but they're not really saved. But I'm going to have to skip over that point because I need to teach you one very important thing. And this is going to have to be the end of the lesson. Look, if you would, back to Matthew chapter 13. I'm going to show you one last important thing that I must teach out of this chapter. It's extremely important. Now look, in verse 19, When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, Okay, you see that? Then look at verse 20. But he that received the seed into so many places, The same as he that heareth the word. Okay, look at verse 22. He also that received seed among the thorns, Is he that heareth the word. Okay, verse 23. But he that received seed into the good ground, Is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it. Now can anybody figure out what the seed is in this story? The word of God, right? I mean, every time he says, when they got seed, they heard God's word. Now, if you look in the book of Luke, You'll see this exact story. Jesus just comes out and says, The sower soweth the word. When he explains it in the book of Luke. The sower soweth the word. Now, let me explain to you something that's of critical importance, doctrinally. A person gets saved by God's word. Period. Okay? They don't get saved from somebody explaining them the gospel. If I could sit here, and I've seen people do this, and I've seen them fail. I could go across the street and find one of my neighbors that's not saved. And I could explain to them the gospel till I was blue in the face. I could say, we're all sinners, but Jesus died for us. And we need to believe on him and get saved. And I could explain about heaven and hell. I could explain to them the whole Bible. I could start in Genesis 1.1, explain the creation, explain the sacrifices in the Old Testament, explain Jesus, the incarnation, the virgin birth, the immediate Christ, everything. They will not get saved. They cannot get saved without the word of God. See, the sower sows the word. Let me give you just a few scriptures, because I could literally just spend two hours right now, literally, and just do nothing but read verses about this, about just the word of God and how it saves you. But let me just give you a few good ones. Look, if you would, at James 1, toward the end of your New Testament there. And you say, why are you making such a big deal out of this? Well, number one, because if you don't go soul winning using the Bible, you will fail as a soul winner. If you talk to people on the job and give them the Gospel, if you don't read them or quote to them out of your mind verses from the Bible, you're wasting your time, because the power of God is in God's word. See, God's word is very powerful. God's word is sharper than any two-edged sword, the Bible says. And so your words are not going to get the job done to get somebody safe. The word of God is what needs to be sown in their heart. The word of God is what's going to grow up into salvation. The word of God is what's going to save them. Look at James 1. Now, we know that being saved is called being born again. That term is only referred to, off the top of my head, I can only think of two places. 1 Peter 1, or let's see, 1 Peter 1 and John 3. But look at this in James 1, verse 18. Same concept as being born again. Of his own will begat he us. That means like he gave birth to us as his child. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Now look at verse 21. Look at the latter part of verse 21. And receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. Now flip from the book of James forward just a few pages and look at 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 23. 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 23. Now remember, this is only the second time, this is only the two times in the Bible that God even really talks about being born again. The first time is with Nicodemus. He tells him, barely I say to thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must be born again. And then he explains that great passage in John 3, 16, that it's whosoever believeth in him. But look at this. Verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You see that? How do you get born again? You get born again by the word of God. You get born again by the seed. Now can you get saved, can you get born again from a corruptible seed? According to verse 23, can you be saved from a corruptible seed? Look at it. Look in your Bible, 1 Peter 1.23. Can a corruptible seed save you? No. It says right there, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now look, if somebody has some living Bible, or some NIV, and they're using a verse in that Bible, which is literally 99% of them, that's totally different than what the King James Bible says. I mean, they're just totally different. Like, for example, you're looking at a verse in Romans 10.9 that says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised him today, thou shalt be saved. They're looking at an NIV that says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, totally different. One of them is saying you're confessing Jesus. The other one is saying is you're confessing that he's Lord, like he's in charge, like Jesus is Lord. And, of course, that's what people who use the NIV teach, that he has to be the Lord of your life in order for you to go to heaven. He has to call the shots for you. So look, can somebody get saved from Romans 10.9 out of an NIV? It's not God's word, because God's word says, confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. That is not God's word. If I'm showing somebody in the Bible how to be saved and it says, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death. And I'm explaining to them about hell and about death and about the second death. Well then they got the NIV and it says, and death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. Now is that what God's word says? No, God's word talks about a place called hell. And so when you have a corruptible seed, salvation cannot occur there. That's why you have so many unsaved people in these churches that use phony Bibles. Because they're not hearing the word of God preached. They're not even getting the seed sown. Look at Ephesians 1.13. Turn there quickly, I'm almost done. Ephesians 1.13, the Bible reads, In whom ye also trusted, the book of Ephesians is just back about. Five, six, seven books there. Ephesians 1.13, in whom ye also trusted. See their trust is in Jesus Christ to take them to heaven. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. So what's the gospel of your salvation? The word of truth, it's what you heard when you got saved. He doesn't say some of you heard the word of God and that's how you got saved. Other people got saved because somebody explained it to you. Other people got saved because you read a comic book about Jesus. No, he says look, you heard the word of God or else you're not saved. In whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now look, on and on, and I don't have time to show you all the verses I wanted to show you on that, but the Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So how do you get the faith to believe on Jesus? By hearing the word of God. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me. Did you see those two categories? He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. That's salvation. You hear the word of God, you believe. That's the parable of the sower. Everybody who gets saved, they got the word of God sown or else they can't get saved. Period. Use the word of God as when you're out sowing. Now, there's these big churches and they're trying to change the doctrine of a whole nation. They're trying to change the doctrine of every independent, supposedly independent Baptist church in America. When I was at Hyles Anderson College, and I have no problem naming the names of these places, when I was at Hyles Anderson College and First Baptist Church of Hammond, Dr. Jack Scott began to teach this doctrine. He said, this is his exact quote, he said it three times in church ed class, it's on tape, he said it several times in chapel at Hyles Anderson College, and he said it about four or five times on Sunday night services at First Baptist Church of Hammond, and I quote, it's not a book that saves you, it's truth that saves you. Did you catch that? It's not a book, and he was referring to the Bible. It's not a book that saves you, it's truth that saves you. And then this is the verse that he quoted. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. See, the truth is what saves you. It's not the word of God that saves you. He said, I can get somebody saved with a King James Bible, I can get somebody saved with a Catholic Bible, I can get somebody saved with an NIV, and I can get somebody saved with a Reader's Digest magazine. Because it's not the word of God that saves you, it's truth that saves you. That's exactly what he said, and I've got it on tape. And it's on the internet for the world to listen to. But the world doesn't care, because they bow down and worship a man who has a big church somewhere, and they don't bow down and worship this book as the truth. Let me tell you something. The word of God is what gives you salvation. The so or so with the word, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You can't get somebody saved with a Reader's Digest magazine. That's lunacy. That's retarded. You can't get somebody saved with some phony Bible that lies and changes things. Look, my friend, the Bible says in that verse that he quoted, remember how he quoted, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free? That's not even a verse in the Bible. You want to hear the whole verse? Because I've got it memorized. John 7, if you continue in my word, this is the verse that he quoted only half of. If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You know what the verse before that says? It says, and when they heard his words, many believed on him. This is the verse before the one he's quoting. And when they heard these words, many believed on him. How did they believe on him? When they heard his words, when they heard the word of God. So it says, and when they heard his words, many believed on him. And it says, then he said unto them, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Now, is he misquoting that a little bit? Is it changing that a little bit? Because it says there that they heard the word of God, and then they believed, and they were already saved. And then he says, now that you're saved, if you continue in my word, like keep reading the Bible, that's the one that got you saved in verse 31. Then in verse 32, he says, if you keep on reading the Bible, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. Because not everybody who's saved is Jesus' disciple, let's face it. Not everybody who's saved is following Jesus. Then so he says, you must hear the word of God in verse 31, get saved, believe on him in verse 31. Then in verse 32, you continue in his word, then you know the truth, and then the truth shall make you free. That's what it says. Now look, it's not a book that saves you, it's truth that saves you. Okay, let's hear what John 17, 17 says, let me read this for you. John 17, 17, the Bible reads here, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Do you hear that statement? Thy word is truth. What is truth? The word of God. In another place, I don't have time to tell you that, the Bible says thy word is the truth. Thy word is truth. Okay, you can't separate truth from the word of God. If it's not the word of God, then it's not truth. If you're just explaining it in your own words, apart from the word of God, look, that's not the truth that makes you free. The truth that makes you free is when you hear his words and believe on them, and then continue in his word, and you should know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Look, we must earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered under the saints, because we're living in a day where, across the board, people are changing their doctrine, they're changing what they believe, they're weakening their stand on the King James Bible, and saying, hey, you know, some things could make a little more sense in another version. And these are people who once stood for the King James Bible. Look, case in point, Hyles Anderson College, First Baptist Church of Hammond, while I was there, they put out a book by Brother Hyles after he was dead. Okay, Dr. Jack Hyles was the pastor before Dr. Jack Scott. Dr. Jack Hyles wrote a book called The Need for an Every Word Bible, and it was all about the King James Bible, you know, the need for an every word Bible. Well, in that book he had a chapter, you know what that chapter is called? The incorruptible seed. And it was about what I just talked about, you know, how you've got to have the Word of God to be saved. You've got to have the incorruptible seed. You've got to have the real God's Word to get saved. They put out that book while I was in college with that chapter omitted after he was dead. So they're taking a book, and they're putting his name on the front, Dr. Jack Hyles, copyright 2004, you know, or whatever, even though he died in 2001. Okay, they put out a book in 2004, copyright 2004, The Need for an Every Word Bible, Dr. Jack Hyles, and they have taken away from one of his chapters in the book. Now, is that honest? That's not the book that he wrote. The book that he wrote had a chapter in it called The Incorruptible Seed, sir, and they basically just tried to change that because they don't believe that anymore. And so they took that out of the book. And then here's what they also did. They went back and found preaching tapes and stuff of Dr. Jack Hyles back in the 1960s and 70s when he was just coming out of the Southern Baptist movement, and he was just coming out of all the Protestant influences of the Southern Baptist movement. And so he was a little bit, he didn't believe right on certain things, right? You know, certain things about the Bible and everything, he didn't believe right. Well, over time, he learned about these things. And by the time he got into the 80s and 90s and stuff, he believed exactly right on the King James Bible, exactly right on the Word of God. So here's what they're doing now. They're putting out books again, Copyright 2004, Copyright 2005, that are transcriptions of his sermons that he preached back in the 60s where he's saying that, you know, some things in the King James Bible could be translated differently and they're not right. They're putting that out under his name. When he later got up and said, I was wrong, don't correct the Bible, don't correct the King James Bible, I was wrong, he said he preached a sermon called Logic Must Prove the King James Bible, and he proved that just logically this is the Word of God, and he preached a whole series of sermons on it and said, I used to be wrong on this, I used to correct it, I used to go back to the Greek and change it and stuff, and he said, I don't do that anymore, I was wrong. And what did they do? They put out a book with his name on it from way back then just to try to say, see, we're not changing, it's what we've always been about, it's what Dr. Harrelson was about. No, they're changing. And I'll tell you something, it's not just them. I'm not just, you know, maybe I'm just singling them out. It's not just them. It's across the board, people are changing what they believe. Look, don't be a shallow ground Christian. Don't be a stony place as Christian or else one of these days we'll never see you again and you'll be out of church and you won't be living for God and you won't produce fruit. You won't be in any good church, what I'm saying. But look, because if you're shallow, you'll just get out of church altogether. But what happens is you must be rooted in the Word of God. That means you must be rooted once you believe about salvation. That means you must be rooted about what you believe that the Word of God is what saves. Jesus saves. And the Bible, of course, says Jesus is the Word. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and would beheld his glory as if he only begotten of the Father. And so know what you believe or you will be deceived. You must know what you believe. You say, why do you take the time to teach this? You know, I need help in my personal life. I need you to preach on how I can get along with people and I need you to preach on how I can succeed at my job. Look, I want to preach about stuff like that and I will preach about stuff like that, but there are times when a sermon like this has to be preached, which is maybe not the funnest sermon or maybe you can't apply it to your life exactly how you want to, but I'm going to tell you something. This will get you out of the shallow ground. This will put a little earth on your seed when you know that the Bible is what saves, when you know that salvation comes by hearing the Word of God, when you know that this is the gospel of your salvation right here, God's Word. When you know that, you're going to last. You'll be in church ten years from now. You'll be in the right kind of church. You'll be bringing forth fruit because you won't be shallow. You'll know the depths of God's Word. That's the purpose of Wednesday night church. Look, Wednesday night church is for the people who are trying to be a little more serious about the things of God. They don't just come Sunday morning, they came back Wednesday night because they're coming back because they want some depth. That's why I'm trying to teach doctrine on Wednesday night that will keep you straight doctrinally, that will keep you rooted, you know what you believe, and somebody can't get up and say some cute thing because it sounds cute. It's not a book that saves you, it's truth that saves you. It sounds good. But the moment as I sat in that chair, and you've got to figure, I was sitting in that chair, I was sitting in that chair, and the first time out of seven that I heard him say that, immediately, you know what popped into my mind when I heard him say that? I said to myself, John chapter 8, verse 31, and I knew what it said before and I knew what it said after it. So do you think he tricked me? I didn't for one second think that what he was saying was true because as soon as he said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, I just thought immediately, if you continue in my word, then you need my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. They just heard the word of God the verse before, sir. But see, you know what? Ninety percent of the people in the room are just like, yeah, that's right. All the bonehead, shallow ground Christians that aren't going to be in church ten years from now, that we're going to hear about or we won't hear about because they're gone. And in all the shallow, stony places, Christians who don't read the Bible, who rely on a man to spoon feed them, they just drink the Kool-Aid. When it's taught wrong, they drink the Kool-Aid, and they go down with them because they don't have any root in themselves. Look, man, I didn't believe it for a second. Why? Because I knew the passage. Because I knew the book of John. I knew chapter 8. I knew verse 32. Know the word of God. Don't be deceived. You must know what you believe. I'm going to have a word of prayer. God, I thank you so much for revealing to us the word of God. Boy, when I read this chapter, and I was thinking about Jesus preaching by the seaside, and then remember how he went into the house a little later and just taught his disciples alone? Boy, that's us because we're reading it. Isn't that something, God? And I just thank you so much that you allow me to be in the category right with your 12 disciples because I can read exactly what you told them in private and in the room there. I'm glad to not be in the multitude, dear God. I'm glad that you've made me privy to the whole story. And God, I just...