Broad Overview of the Parable of the Sower

The point: Be realistic in terms of what we hope will be the return from all of the sowing of that Gospel seed.

Martin quotes a commentator who describes sowing as a cheerless, painful, and often disappointing work, likening it to parting with present good in hope of future reward, to illustrate the sower's experience.

Now, just by way of a little aside, one of the commentators or preachers who preached a sermon on this and whose sermon is recorded drew out some of the images that is found in other parts of Scripture with reference to the work of the sower. And he spun this out to some degree, and I'll not take time to do it, but very suggestive thoughts that sowing is a cheerless work. You go out in the springtime when even the trees are not full of their leaves and there is still the hangover of the barrenness of winter, and you go forth into a situation that has nothing of the encouragement of harvest tim...

16:47 - 17:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Be realistic in terms of what we hope will be the return from all of the sowing of that Gospel seed.

He quotes the saying, 'Seed sown is as seed lost until the harvest,' to further emphasize the painful and uncertain nature of the sower's work.

It's also a painful work. You're parting with present good in hope of future reward. Perhaps that's the thought of the psalmist when he said, He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed. As one has said, Seed sown is as seed lost until the harvest.

17:27 - 17:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Take heed to the state of your hearts, the very hearts to which I now bring the word.

He uses the analogy of a skilled farmer sowing expensive hybrid seed on a footpath, resulting only in a 'gourmet meal' for birds, to illustrate that the worth of the seed cannot change the state of the soil.

A man might go out and pay top dollar for the best hybrid seed to produce the best kind of corn or grain imaginable, and he might be the most skilled sower of that exotic and expensive seed in the entire countryside. But if it falls upon a footpath which is not prepared to receive it, all it means is that the birds have a gourmet meal. The worth of the seed has no power to change the state of the soil. That's the emphasis.

33:54 - 34:35 Read in full sermon

The point: This parable of necessity in virtue of this dominant thrust is going to lead us as a congregation into a season of the most intense scrutiny of our hearts.

Martin references Bunyan's characters, Mr. Fearing and Mr. Ready to Halt, to describe members of his congregation who are susceptible to false guilt and crippling introspection, whose assurance is fragile.

and by the help of God attack with as much strength and spiritual energy the focus of this passage as I've sought to paint before your eyes by the help of God and being true to the test the glory of our mighty worker in his conquering grace. And that immediately poses a problem for some of you. It poses a problem first of all for some of you who by temperament and background and training and perhaps a host of other influences are unusually, and unnecessarily susceptible to false guilt and to a crippling introspection. We have in this congregation some whom I have every reason to regard as dear...

36:59 - 38:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Will you pray that you'll show the maturity to which you've attained in Christ that you can come through a season where there's going to be intense concentration on the subjective side of vital religion because that's wh…

He quotes a writer who states that 'the true history of any man or woman for time and eternity is but a transcript of his heart's response to the word of God,' to underscore the ultimate significance of how one receives the Word.

for time and eternity is but a transcript of his heart's response to the word of God. The true history of any man or woman is but a transcript of his heart's response to the word of God. In other words what you really are and what you really do and what you are becoming now and for eternity is but a transcript of what's going on when divine seed touches your heart. If that seed never takes root and produces a deep, thorough, evangelical repentance and faith if that seed never becomes the divine instrument for the renovation of your entire inner life what the Bible calls a new birth what the Bi...

46:37 - 47:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Will you pray that you'll show the maturity to which you've attained in Christ that you can come through a season where there's going to be intense concentration on the subjective side of vital religion because that's wh…

He quotes another who says, 'the grand test of a man is the preaching of the word,' to emphasize that one's response to the Word reveals their true character and eternal destiny.

It's their response not to him whether they love him or hate him whether they think he's a nice guy or don't if he's giving this word it is their reception unto fruitfulness or their rejection unto barrenness of that word that determines where they will spend eternity. Another has said the grand test of a man is the preaching of the word. Nothing shows more quickly what a man really is than what he does in the presence of the preaching of the word. Does he receive it with humility with faith with obedience and does it work itself out not in a perfect life but a life of purposeful adherence to ...

48:21 - 49:27 Read in full sermon