A few years ago my wife and I had a beautiful spring garden. We enjoyed planting a garden each year and watching it grow and produce all of the wonderful vegetables. It was so nice to enjoy the fresh vegetables and be able to share them with friends and neighbors. It involved a lot of work tilling the soil and preparing it for planting the seed. We had a very large variety in our garden that year. We planted corn, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, yellow squash, onions, cucumbers, radishes, and zucchini.
After we planted the many rows of various seeds we would label each row so we could remember what and where we had planted all of the seed. Having so many varieties it would be impossible for us to remember what we had planted and where. We were not surprised that where we had labeled corn, corn plants came up. Where we labeled beans, beans came up. Where we had labeled squash, squash plants came up. And so on and so on. We were not surprised because God had made these seed and they always produce after their own kind. What if we had mislabeled these rows of seed we had planted? Just suppose we had labeled the corn, beans. The cucumbers, squash. You get the picture. Changing the name of the seed would not have changed what it produced would it? God’s seed will always produce after its own kind.
When our children were young we took a vacation to Mesa Verde, Colorado. We went through a small museum and on display was an urn containing Indian corn that was 400 years old. We were told that if you planted the corn seed that they would still grow corn. What a wonderful thing to contemplate. The New Testament, God’s word, is 2000 years old. God’s word is often referred to as seed. If you plant God’s word, the true seed, it will always produce Christians. If you plant a perverted Gospel and not the true seed, you will not produce Christians. 2000 year old seed, God’s word, will still produce Christians only today.
Jesus Teaches the Parable of the Sower
Matt 13:1-9
1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Jesus Explains the Parable
Matt 13:18-23
18 “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Gal 6:7
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.