Parable of the Sower: Receptive Hearers

“‘And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty’” (Matthew 13:23).

The ultimate barrier to salvation is unbelief, and anyone willing to receive the gospel on Christ’s terms proves he or she is “good soil.” God honors the humble faith of receptive hearers and opens their spiritual ears, minds, and hearts, allowing them to understand the gospel.

The example of the receptive hearers ought to encourage everyone who has ever witnessed in Christ’s name. Despite the nature and prevalence of the other hearers, there are always some whose hearts have good soil in which the gospel can take root and flourish—people prepared by the Spirit to receive the truth.

Spiritual fruit is the inevitable by-product of spiritual life. Receptive hearers will demonstrate fruitfulness in both attitude—“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23)—and behavior, which Paul calls “the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:11; cf. Col. 1:6). We are not saved by bearing fruit or doing good works, but we are saved to become fruitbearers (Eph. 2:10).

Jesus not only assures us here that believers will bear fruit, but that we will bear it abundantly: “some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” These figures represent an extraordinarily abundant yield for the regions Jesus ministered in. They do not guarantee that we all will produce that much; but they do show the productive results of sowing the Word and emphasize that true believers will indeed produce fruit. That’s the point of Jesus’ parable.

Ask Yourself

Besides the obvious blessings and service opportunities created by fruitbearing, what other benefits pour into the lives of those who hear the Word and take it to heart?

Through His Poverty Ye become Rich

2 Cor 8:9 -> For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though being rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

Poor in what? -> The UNIQUE SON of GOD (JESUS CHRIST)who deserves all the glory and honour, the four living creatures do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD GOD, the ALMIGHTY, who was and who is and who is to come.”, has become incarnated and was forsaken by the FATHER. That's how He becomes poor in Grace so that through His poverty ye might become rich.

Heb 10:14-18

14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them

After those days, says the Lord:

I will put My laws upon their heart,

And on their mind I will write them,”

He then says,17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more.”

18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

John 19:30 -> Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

It (It is Finished - τελ`εω' televw') is not a normal word. It is the declaration of CHRIST that all our debts had been paid in full through HIS death. Through HIS resurrection, He made us alive together with HIM in Heavenly places. 

Through HIS richness of Grace, He has made us perfect. 

Wow! What a great blessing we have. GOD showers His richness of grace on HIS redeemed. 

Live and experience the richness of GOD (Grace).

I used to sing with the melody "Hallelujah!"

JESUS’ MESSAGE IS FOR EVERYONE

 And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. — MAT 12:18

      Contrary to Jewish thinking and expectations, the Messiah would be the Redeemer for all nationalities, not just the Jews. In fact, the Jews were to be the ones to proclaim God’s grace to the rest of the world. God told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). It is therefore rather ironic that the Jews would resist the concept that God’s good news was for all peoples.

     The reality that Jesus’ message would be for all mankind was readily apparent early in His ministry. The first woman He reached was a Samaritan (John 4:26). Concerning the Roman centurion whose servant He healed, the Lord said, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel” (Matt. 8:10).

     But the idea of Messiah coming to preach to and redeem some Gentiles was still anathema to the Jews. When Paul addressed a large number of Jews in Jerusalem and told them God had commanded him, “Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles,” that sparked an intense reaction from them: “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!” (Acts 22:21, 22).

     A real gospel stumbling block for the Jews was the truth that redemption and fellowship with God were for Gentiles as well as for them. But the saving message Jesus proclaimed has always been for people from every part of the world, without distinction—a fact over which we can all rejoice.

"Thou hast made summer and winter." — Psalm 74:17

     MY soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind thee that He keeps His covenant with day and night, and tend to assure thee that He will also keep that glorious covenant which He has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to His Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own well-beloved Son.

Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation: He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy: He casteth forth His ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, He is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods, and sweeten the soul. O that such good results would always follow our winters of affliction!
How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to Him, and in Him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of His promises, and go forth to labours which befit the season, for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he shall beg in summer and have nothing.

Jesus Commended by His Father

- Dr. John MacArthur (Grace To You)

“‘Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased’” (Matthew 12:18).

Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate Servant, the one and only Son chosen by the Father to die for fallen sinners. The divine commendation here is a modified quotation of Isaiah 42:1–4, one of the most beautiful descriptions of our Lord anywhere in the Bible. The Father’s choice of Jesus to be His Servant was decisive and irrevocable—Christ was the one and only person perfectly qualified for the work of redemption.

As the perfect choice of God, Jesus is also completely pleasing in His Father’s eyes. Although the world hated and rejected Him, Christ is God’s Beloved—and in that role He brings us salvation by divine grace (Eph. 1:6–7).

This is not the only mention in the gospels of God’s approval of His Son. The Father used similar words at Jesus’ baptism (Matt. 3:17) and at His transfiguration (Matt. 17:5). Jesus Himself elaborates further: “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. . . . And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me” (John 5:31–32, 37).

If we want to be well-pleasing to God as Jesus is, we must come to the Father through His Son, drawn by the Holy Spirit. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom. 8:8–9).

Ask Yourself

Have you grown “weary and heavy-laden” trying to please God with your best efforts? Will your heart ever find peace and satisfaction in knowing that your faith has been counted as righteousness, that the Father is already satisfied with the Son’s sacrifice in your place?

What Goodness You saw in me?

Insight on Job 25 - Andrew Kingsly Raj (AKR MINISTRIES) on a Brethren Church in Tirunelveli, TamilNadu, India [Dated: 28.11.2021]

Bildad Speaks (Job 25:1-6)

1  Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 

2  “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven. 

3  Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? 

4  How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? 

5  Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; 

6  how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!” 

1->Bildad (the tyrannus, or governor, of the Sauchaens) Speaks: Man Cannot Be Righteous 

2-> i) “Dominion and fear are with God; ~  Dominion and fear are not with Man but with God. God is the sovereign Lord of all, and with him is terrible majesty. Dominion and fear are with him, Job 25:2. He that gave being has an incontestable authority to give laws, and can enforce the laws he gives. He that made all has a right to dispose of all according to his own will, with an absolute sovereignty. Whatever he will do he does, and may do; and none can say unto him, What doest thou? or Why doest thou so? Dan 4:35. His having dominion (or being Dominus - Lord) bespeaks him both owner and ruler of all the creatures. They are all his, and they are all under his direction and at his disposal. Hence it follows that he is to be feared (that is, reverenced and obeyed), that he is feared by all that know him (the seraphim cover their faces before him), and that, first or last, all will be made to fear him. Men's dominion is often despicable, often despised, but God is always terrible. 

Rom 8:7,8 • because the mindset of the flesh is enmity toward God, for it is not subjected to the law of God, for it is not able to do so, • and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God. (LEB)

ii) he makes peace in his high heaven ~ He makes peace in His High Places. He does (according to) His desire in the host of heaven and among the host of heaven and among the dwellers of Earth. He is making war at one place and other a Peace. (Dan 3:35)

     

3 -> • Is there any number to his armies? ~ His armies in heaven, the heavenly host of angels, which are innumerable; there are more than twelve legions of them, thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand, employed in a military way, for the safety and preservation of the saints; see Gen_32:1; and the sun, moon, and stars, often called the host of heaven, the latter of which cannot be numbered, and which fought in their courses against Sisera, Jdg_5:20; and his armies on earth, all the inhabitants of it; yea, every creature, even the smallest insect in it, which are without number: thus, frogs, lice, flies, and locusts, were the armies of God, with which he fought against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, see Joe_2:11; 

“Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” - God (Gen 15:5) 

How much more His armies be!

                Yahweh the God of hosts, 

                Yahweh is his renowned name! (Hos 12:5)

• Upon whom does his light not arise? ~ It is God's Benevolent grace all the creature without a difference. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust (Mat 5:45). The light of the Gospel set and shine before all men. Then why do there are unbelievers? The god of this world has blinded the eyes (2 Cor 4:4). So they are incapable of seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of CHRIST.

2 Cor 4:4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they would not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

It is totally by the grace of God, our eyes had been opened to see the marvellous light of the Gospel. The Scripture says,  “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given." - JESUS CHRIST (Mat 13:11). That's what St. Paul reminds in the epistle to Philippians,

Phil 1:29 • because to you has been graciously granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on behalf of him,

4 -> How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? ~ The book of Job is filled with Rhetorical questions which most commonly answers 'No'/'No, we can't'/'impossiple'...  

Job 4:17     Can a human being be more righteous than God, 

                   or can a man be more pure than his Maker? 

The sin which was caused by Adam, made man seperated from God. God demand's a perfect holiness, perfect heart, perfect submission. Unfortunatly we doesn't have anything. But God who is rich in Mercy had been incarnated in the flesh (100% Man & 100% God) and lived our life, kept all the laws and fulfilled it. The Law is good. But the man has incapacity to fulfil the righteous requirement of the law. Yet CHRIST (GOD) who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He made us alive together with HIM.

in order that ->>the righteous requirement of the law<<- might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom 8:4 )

Am I worth to receive this much Grace?

 

    God is the righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day (Ps 7:11). God shows His wrath to man and to other He shows mercy. Because He bore His curses, iniquities, trespass, etc., 

Rom 9:18 Consequently therefore, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, and he hardens whomever he wishes. 

5-> Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; ~ They lose all their lustre and brightness, when compared with the Divine Being. It is darkened, confounded, and ashamed; it hides its beautiful face, and draws in its borrowed and useful light, at the approach of him, who is light itself, and in whom is no darkness at all. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders (Isa 24:23). 

If Moon and Star are in this view to God, how much less Man be in the sight of God?

6-> how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!” ~

     We (sons of men, Wretched men) were unworthy. No worthy. While we were yet sinners, although we never taken any decision to follow Him, God loved us. In order that the purpose of God according to election might remain. And made us sat togather with Him and had prepared a table for us. Let us thank CHRIST with the heartful of Thanks.

The Name of LORD alone be glorified forever. 

Sensing the Urgency

- Dr. John MacArthur (Grace To You)

“‘“You have left your first love”’” (Revelation 2:4).

A wise person loves Christ supremely.

Because the days were evil, the apostle Paul wanted the church at Ephesus to make the most of their time and walk wisely (Eph. 5:15-16). A little more than thirty years after Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesian church, the apostle John wrote more to them, saying, “You have left your first love. . . . Repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I [Christ] am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent” (Rev. 2:4-5). But the Ephesians did not repent, and the lampstand was removed. Their time was shorter than they believed, because the evil was so great. Their church fell prey to the time in which they lived and, not sensing the urgency to return to its first love, eventually went out of existence.

I believe we need to have a sense of urgency in the evil days in which we live. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Christianity in America, but I’ve asked God that if it takes persecution to bring us to the place where we get a grip on what we ought to be, then let it happen. In many cases throughout history,the church has thrived better under persecution than it has under affluence. As the church father Tertullian once said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

I’m not specifically asking that the church be persecuted. I’m saying that sometimes we don’t sense the urgency of our evil day because we are sucked into the world’s system, and the lines of conviction aren’t clearly drawn. It’s an evil day in which we live, and the time is short. We need to realize that “evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse” (2 Tim. 3:13). The situation is not going to become better. The world is blacker and more expressive of its vices than ever before. We must have a sense of urgency and redeem the time.

Suggestions for Prayer

In Psalm 145, King David expressed his love for the Lord. Make his psalm your prayer and an expression of your love to God.

For Further Study

Read in Revelation 2—3 what the Lord says to the seven churches in Asia, noting what He approves and disapproves.