Parable of the Farmer (Sower)

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."--(Mark 4:9)

These were taught by Jesus to the multitudes while he was by the lake in Galilee.  He described what happens to many who hear the word of truth and how they respond to it and the results that are produced.  He was not just concerned with fields and crops and produce, he was concerned with God and how people were responding to Him.  Here Jesus gives us the interpretation of the parable and what it means to us in a fast food generation.  Yes, we still have farms and fields and farmers who sow the seed, but we have yet a greater need and an ever present subject to grapple with, the destiny and souls of men in light of God's kingdom.  Let us see how this parable of truth pertains to our day:

"The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop--thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."--(Mark 4:14-20)

So where do you stand?  How is your soil?  Is your heart good soil that is rich for producing an eternally lasting crop?  If you are living for selfish pleasures then you may even have the truth of God in your life but it is not producing what God desires.  You may pray, go to church and do deeds you consider to be good, but what does God really think of your lifestyle?  The Scripture says that if you give everything you have to the poor or even go to the point of dying for your beliefs but don't have love it profits nothing.--(1 Corinthians 13)  So how do we come to know love and show love?  Is it by trying hard to follow a set of rules?  The only way we can love is first to receive the love that God has for us.  "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."--(1 John 4:10)  If you have sinned in your life, then you are incapable of pleasing God (for God demands holiness).  The only way to become right with him is to repent and believe in the sacrifice that he has sent.  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."--(John 3:16)  "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. ³⁶   He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."--(John 3:35-36)  So if we are going to submit to God, to follow His ways and to live in a way that pleases Him, we must believe who God has sent.  And we have seen and do testify that God has sent his Son, Jesus, to be the savior of the world.--(1 John 4:14) 

Do you remember about the patriarch Abraham when God tested him with his son Isaac?  What was the way for Isaac, the son of Abraham, to be saved from the power of death?  He had to trust in God and accept the sacrifice that God provided in his place.  God provided a ram caught in the bushes to be offered to God instead of Isaac.  You see, all sin requires a reckoning and a retribution because sin is lawlessness, disobedience and rebellion which leads to destruction for one and all unless it is stopped.  All throughout time, atonement for sin has been accomplished by the shedding of blood, of a bull a goat or a ram of some sort.  Yet these sacrifices are really only a reminder of sin, because even the ones who offer the sacrifice also have sin and need to be cleansed.  So what is the answer?  How can we all be made pure and right with God?  "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."--(Romans 5:8)  "For he [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him [Jesus]."--(2 Corinthians 5:21)  So who are we to say, I have a better way to God?  Who can say I am pure and have kept myself from sin?  Who of you can instruct God, who alone is wise and gives wisdom?  Who can say, "God I don't need what you provide"?  The Scriptures say to not receive God's grace in vain.  So if God provides His grace and we reject or discount its value then we in turn are disgracing and rejecting Him who gives us this grace.  "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."--(John 1:17)

Grace to all of you who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth--Ephesians 6:24
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