Mat 13:18-23: Patches of Poor Soil and Thorns in a Productive Field.

Class Outline:

Thursday March 20, 2025

Main idea: Every believer must maintain the good condition of their heart as a good farmer does the soil.

 

Text: MAT 13:18-23, Four kinds of hearts experience four differing situations. 

 

Soil 1: Truths not believed. 

 

EPH 4:17-20

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,

 

Soil 2: Seasonal.

 

Received with joy. “Is temporary” - Greek proskairos = for a season.

 

LUK 9:57-62. 

 

“Tribulation or persecution” is the meaning of the sun scorching the plants without root (MAT 13:6). 

 

Thlipsis - trouble that inflicts distress, oppression, affliction, tribulation.

 

Diogmos - a program or process designed to harass and oppress someone, persecution. 

 

“Immediately falls away” - skandalizo = offended or stumbles; BDAG has “fall away” under the main “to cause to be brought to a downfall, or cause to sin.

 

This type cannot tarry long under persecution or tribulation and fall away.

 

Tribulation has its purpose in testing us: 

 

JUD 3:1-4 Now these are the nations which the Lord left [something like the tares], to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; 2 only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly). 3 These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses.

 

Testing reveals root depth. And, once accomplished by faith, trials deepen the roots of the word of the kingdom.

 

ROM 8:35; 2TI 3:10-12

 

We need a firm root from a continuous diet of serious, faithful biblical instruction so that the roots of all the seeds that make up the word of the kingdom will deepen over time. 

 

The deeper the roots the more pressure and persecution you will be able to handle. 

 

Soil 3; Cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches which choke. 

 

Competing seeds: heaven and earth, MAT 6:19-24.

 

Cares of the age: 

 

We cast our cares upon Him 1PE 5:6-11, in context, is not the devil looking for people whose cares for the age has made them weak? 

 

We are not careless.

 

Do not love the world: 1JO 2:15-17. 

 

Do we have no cares? 2CO 11:28-29 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern [puroo - figurative use of “to cause to burn”]?

 

We do not ignore these real cares.

 

Deceitfulness of wealth (deceit: apate)

 

EPH 4:21-24 just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. 

 

Satan deceives - it is one of his favorite attacks on mankind. God’s counter is to reveal the truth.

 

Wealth is an easy way of deceit

 

The Lord restored our sight for real riches through Christ, i.e. what is truly valuable.

 

EPH 1:18

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

 

COL 1:26-28

has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

PSA 73:25-26

Whom have I in heaven but You?

And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 

 

The kingdom of heaven has cares, but not of the age. It has wealth, but not of the earth. Our understanding of these truths make us good soil. 

 

Soil 4: Good indeed! 

 

Every believer (every one!) has the potential for so much fruit. 

 

Spiritual fruit according to the word of the kingdom while living in the world. 

 

We need understanding of everything: The Word of God is sufficient. 

 

Application: Examine yourself before God in light of all four types of heart.

 

Take a good, long look at what you are really desiring in life and be honest with God about it. 

 

Do you cling more to your personal tradition than remaining open to all the Scripture? Do you tend to think that you know enough and do not feel like you need to learn more and learn new things from Scripture? 

 

How do you handle persecution? Do you tend to compromise the Word of God in order to get along with others? 

 

Does the news get you upset to the point of robbing your peace with God? Do you think that wealth is the answer to any problem? All problems? 

 

None of us are perfect. None of us have arrived. We will all answer these personal analysis questions with some conviction that we have need of growth. We must seek to understand. Christ has not hidden any understanding from us. All believers are qualified by the grace of God to have an abundance of fruit in their lives.