Every farmer or gardener wants good soil when it is time to plant the seeds they want reproduced. I love to plant flowers and watch them grow but they will not grow in just any soil. Where I live there is a lot of red clay soil. If you have ever heard the phrase “hard as a brick” you would understand red clay soil. For decades brick makers have formed bricks from red clay soil. Nothing will grow in red clay soil unless lots of water, compost, or shale is added to soften up the soil. It is not good soil. However, when we lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the soil was rich and fertile. It was good soil that was ready to receive seeds that would grow and flourish.
In Matthew chapter 13:18-30 Jesus is teaching using parables, this is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. It was a story that the audience could relate to easily. He has used several diverse kinds of soils to illustrate His points. One was full of weeds; another was covered by rocks, and another was hard dirt. He made His illustration applicable to his listeners. The last soil he mentions is what we will focus on today. It is the good soil that gives the results that any farmer or gardener would be pleased with. This soil produces much from its seeds.
We need to take note in the parable that the soils were different, but the seed was the same. The problem was not with the Sower or the seed. Jesus was the Sower, and we know from Jesus comes life. In the book of John verses 14:6,11:25 and 1:4, Jesus is that life. He cannot produce death.
John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
John 11:25 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:”
John 1:4 “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”
If our hearts are ready to receive the seed will take root and grow. If we water the seed with prayer and study, it will grow faster. If we add obedience, that results from our love for Jesus, it will flourish. The results lie with the state of our hearts. When the gospel is preached, we must prepare ourselves to receive it. Put away the cell phones or put them on airplane mode so no one can distract you. Sit closer to the front so you do not notice everyone’s movement. When you realize you are thinking about anything else except what the preacher is preaching, discipline yourself to tune back in. It takes work to grow a garden to be productive and it takes work to grow spiritually, but it is what God expects from us. We are to embrace the message of the kingdom and share it with everyone we can. Every person we come in contact with is a soul that Jesus died for, and He wants us to share His love and truths with them. He commissioned each saved person in Matthew 28:19-20 just before He went back to Heaven. We are told to go, tell, and disciple them. We are the seed sower on earth and Jesus gives the increase but if the seeds are not sown there can be no harvest. In Romans 10:14 Paul says how will they know without a preacher. You may be thinking “That doesn’t apply to me, I am not a preacher,” so you are off the hook, but the word preacher in this passage simply means one who proclaims or heralds the gospel for others to hear. In other words, anyone who tells, and that should be everyone who is saved is a type of preacher. We are to be a witness and sow seeds.
Matthew 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”
The good soil is the genuine believer who embraces the gospel. This person should have a desire to continue and share what God has done in their heart. As long as they keep eternal values in view their faith will produce eternal results. God will honor the good soil and allow it to reproduce many times. In Matthew 13:23 Jesus teaches that the good soil will bear much fruit. “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
What kind of soil are you? If your answer is good soil how much fruit have you borne?
