Greetings Brethren,
We begin today to consider a very familiar parable to most of us, the parable of the sower, of Matthew 13. I expect we will examine this parable of our Lord for the next couple of Sundays. There are two reasons that I would like us to consider this passage. The first reason is that the parable of the sower underscores our assertion that there may be many who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior but who are still in their sins, for they have never been truly converted. Of the four soils that our Lord described, three represent "believers", but only one of these three, the good soil, represents the believer with true, saving faith. And so, two out of the four kinds of soil that our Lord described, represent unconverted believers; they had faith, but they did not have saving faith. The second reason for addressing this passage is that it underscores what we asserted last time, that the gospel of salvation of the Bible is frequently, even primarily set forth to be the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. All of the parables of Matthew 13 support this assertion. The gospel is the good news that Jesus is both Lord and Savior, with all that is implied and involved in that truth. Those who claim to have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, but who do not live with Jesus Christ as their Lord, are still in their sins. |
