Bible Study ESV
The
Path, The Rocky Ground, The Thorns, and The Good Soil:
A
Comparison of My Life to the Parable of the Sower
Jesus
came into my life in May of 2024. Since then, I have been thinking
about the experiences I had when I was a teenager and when I was 25
years old. These experiences led me to believe that I was saved. If
anyone would have asked me back then, I would have said that I
believed in Jesus and that I was a Christian, but as I read the
bible, which is something I did very little of back then, I am
beginning to question if my faith was truly in Jesus back then. I am
beginning to realize that I have been in unbelief most of my life,
even when I thought I believed as a teenager and at the age of 25
years old. I have been asking myself since May of 2024, am I really
one of the lost sheep that was found? Or am I really a prodigal son
returning home? Or was I never truly a sheep or a son, until now? I
have been restless about these questions, so I decided to compare
myself to the Parable of the Sower to see if I could understand.
Paul said in 2
Corinthians 13:5, “Examine
yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test
yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus
Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” I
intend to examine my
past experiences
with
the Parable of the Sower because
this will help me
to understand my past and will help me to understand the changes in
my life now as a born again believer in Jesus.
The
Parable of the Sower is in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke
8:4-15. The “path,” the “rocky ground,” the “thorns” and
the “good soil” are different soils that represent people, but
more specifically, the soils represent the openness of a person’s
heart to God’s word. The “path” is the hardest soil. The
“rocky ground” is hardened with rock underneath and a thin layer
of soil on top. The “thorns” have good soil, but the soil is
full of many different weeds. And the “good soil” is the one
that has taken in the seed and the seed has sprouted into a plant
that is producing fruit. However, the hardened “path” can be
tilled, and the rocks can be removed from the “rocky ground,” and
the weeds can be pulled from the “thorns.” This is only possible
through the Holy Spirit. But, the “good soil” can also become
hardened, or rocky, and even weedy. This happens because people have
free will. People respond to God’s word at different times in
their lives. So, people can be each soil during different times
within their lifetime. To show this, I will compare parts of my life
history to the different soils.
Parable
of the Sower in Matthew
In
Matthew 13:1-9, we read, “That same day Jesus went out of the
house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered
about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the
whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many
things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And
as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and
devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did
not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no
depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched.
And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds
fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other
seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold,
some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Jesus
Explains the Parable of the Sower
In Matthew 13:18-23, we read,
“Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the
word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the
evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.
This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on
rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and
immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in
himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or
persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls
away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears
the word, but the cares of the world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As
for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word
and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in
one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another
thirty.”
The
Sower
In
Mark 4:14, the “sower sows the word.” The sower represents
someone who believes in the word and who tells others about the word.
We see this in 1 Corinthians 3:6, when Paul said, “I
planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” In
his letter to the Corinthians, Paul saw himself as a sower, and
Apollos as a teacher, and that only God can provide the growth. I
ask myself, how does one become a sower? I tend to think of a sower
as someone like Paul, who traveled to many places and talked with
many people in their communities. This method continues today and is
still profitable in making disciples, but I think it comes down to
two things. What are you good at? And to be a light no matter where
you are. Are you good at writing, or at teaching, or at music, or at
using humor, or at giving, or at leading others? Whatever your
abilities, use your abilities wherever you are. Whether, you are
with family, at work, with friends, or traveling, or whether you are
called to be a missionary in Cambodia. There will be hard choices to
be made. You will make many mistakes. You will never be fully
prepared. You will learn as you go. God can use your weaknesses for
his glory. And as you sow seeds, seek treasures in heaven, not the
treasures of this world.
We see an example of a sower
sowing seed in Acts 16:29-32 with Paul and Silas preaching the word,
until they were beaten and jailed for casting out a demon from a
girl. While in the prison, there was an earthquake causing the
prison doors to open. After the earthquake, the jailer was about to
take his own life, until Paul called out to him. Then, “the
jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear
he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then
he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to
be saved?’ And
they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,
you and your household.’ And
they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his
house.” The
jailer knew that Paul and Silas were teaching a message
that
had to do with salvation because he asked,
“what must I do to be saved?” He
must
have known their
message
before the earthquake. What
this means is that a
seed had already been sown before
he jailed
Paul and Silas in
the prison.
Seeing
that Paul and Silas had not escaped
meant something important to the jailer, not
only for his life.
Maybe it was
because
he saw that Paul and Silas lived according to what they were teaching
about
Jesus by
not running away to save themselves.
How
is it that the jailer responded with
openness
and
the desire to know and
not with violence and
duty right
after the earthquake?
It’s because God provided
the growth. The
jailer humbled himself and wanted to know how to be saved. He
set aside what he had been taught in
his culture and community.
He set aside his role as a jailer.
Not
only was the jailer’s life saved from taking his own life, but the
jailer’s life was saved eternally because he believed in the
message of the sowers, Paul and Silas. To
be saved, Paul
and Silas said to the
jailer
“believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your
household.”
The
Seed
In
Luke 8:11, the “seed is the word of God.” The seed represents
God’s word. In John 1:1-2, we read, “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God.” Here we see that the “Word” is
Jesus. And we see that Jesus is the “beginning” of all things,
and that Jesus is with God, and that Jesus is God. And since in John
1:18, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the
Father's side, he has made him known.” Then Jesus, who is the
“only God, who is at the Father’s side,” has made the Father
known to us in his “Word.” Jesus is the “Word” and Jesus is
the seed. The sower gets the seed from Jesus. Without Jesus, the
sower would not have the seed. Without the seed, we would not have
God’s word. Without God’s word, we would not know God. Without
the seed, no one would be saved.
Notice
that the seed falls on every soil, so God does not exclude anyone
from his word. According to Peter in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not
slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is
patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that
all should reach repentance.” God desires that no one “should
perish” and that “all should reach repentance.” But, Jesus
said in John 6:44, “No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
And I will raise him up on the last day.” According
to Jesus, the
Father draws people
to him.
According
to Peter, God does not want anyone to perish. And
according
to Jesus,
the
seed falls on every soil. Since
the
seed falls on every soil, then
the
Father draws everyone to
Jesus because the
Father does not want anyone to perish. Since
the
Father does not want anyone to perish, then
the
choice is up to the individual. The
choice is to remain in unbelief,
or
to recognize
that what you believe is not the truth and to decide
to believe
in the
truth.
To “reach repentance,”
anyone must recognize that they are in unbelief and that they need to
move from unbelief to belief. The jailer was in unbelief until he
heard the word spoken by Paul and Silas. Before he heard the word
spoken by Paul and Silas, he believed in what he had learned from his
family and community. But then he recognized that the truth was not
in himself, so he asked Paul and Silas, “what
must I do to be saved?”
Repentance is to recognize that
what you believe is false, but then a change happens and you decide
to believe in the truth. This sounds simple, but it’s not an easy
thing to do because we have convinced ourselves that what we believe
is the truth. Jesus said in Revelation 21:6-7, “And
he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the
spring of the water of life without payment. The
one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God
and he will be my son.’” According
to Jesus, one must be “thirsty” and one must be the “one who
conquers.” There
is a relationship here between God and the
one who is “thirsty” and the “one who conquers.”
God
will freely give eternal life to the person who is “thirsty” and
to
the “one who
conquers.” I
ask myself, what does
it mean to be
“thirsty,” and what
does it mean to be
the “one who conquers?”
They
both involve repentance, that is to recognize
that what one believes
in,
is
false and then
decide to leave
that belief, in
order
to believe
in the truth.
One
must be “thirsty” for the truth to find
the truth.
One
must ask, seek, and knock for the truth. One
must recognize that the truth is not
in them.
When
anyone does this, they humble themselves. When
anyone does this, they are the “one who conquers.”
Jesus
said, in John 10:7-9, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All
who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not
listen to them. I
am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will
go in and out and find pasture.” The
“door of the sheep” is Jesus.
There
are many doors
one conquers when they choose the
one door in Jesus.
The
jailer was “thirsty” to know what he must do to be saved. The
jailer conquered the many doors that told him to believe in something
else. How did he recognize the truth? It’s because he listened to
the Father drawing him. Only God can provide the growth.
The
Path
The “path” are people who
hear the word, but they quickly lose the word that was sown in them.
We see this in Luke 8:12, “The ones along the path are those who
have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their
hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” The
people of the “path” hear the word, and the word is sown in them,
but as soon as they hear the word, and as soon as the word is sown in
their hearts, the word is taken away by the devil. It seems that
when someone hears the word, that is a critical moment. And this can
mean for the first time or the twentieth time.
There
are two reasons why the people of the “path” lose the word that
is sown in them. The first reason is the devil. The devil is
responsible for the people of the path losing what was sown in their
hearts. I ask myself how is this possible? Paul offers a possible
explanation in Ephesians 2:1-3, “And you were dead in the
trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the
course of this world, following the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” The
“course of this world” is under the control of a “prince,”
who is a “spirit,” and who works in the “sons of disobedience,”
who live for their “passions” and “desires.” The influence
that this “prince” has on the “course of this world” is that
people live for themselves. Then, what this could mean for the
people of the “path” is when they hear the word, they reject the
word because they don’t want to give up their “passions” and
their “desires” of this world, which explains why people of the
“path” lose the word so quickly.
This
reminds me when I was 17 years old, I went to church for Christmas
service with my parents. When I was sitting inside the church, I had
a thought, like I was being asked if I was ready to follow Jesus. I
said, “No, not now.” Because I had a girlfriend and I liked to
party with my friends. I had plans, and I knew that following Jesus
would mean that I would have to give up the lifestyle I enjoyed. I
followed the “course of this world” and the “prince of the
power of the air” because I lived for the “passions of [my]
flesh” and the “desires of [my] body and mind.” If you would
have asked me if I believed in Jesus, I would have said, “Yes!”
I would have called myself a Christian, but as I look back now, I did
not know Jesus and I was not following Jesus. The god I actually
followed was the “prince” of this world. The “prince” of
this world encouraged me to follow my own path and to make god into
my own image. That is, to believe that my god was okay with my
choices and my lifestyle and my understanding of him. My faith was
in myself, not in Jesus. If my faith was in Jesus, I would have
said, “Yes, I will follow you.” My
heart was far from Jesus when I was 17 years old, and
I didn’t even
know
it.
Jesus
said, the one who is “thirsty” and the “one who conquers”
will receive eternal life. When
I was sitting inside that church, and I had that
thought of being asked if I was ready to follow Jesus. I was not
“thirsty” to know God. I was not the “one who conquers”
through Jesus Christ. I
believed only
in
words. I
lived
only for myself.
I
did not humble myself. I believed I already had the truth. To
have
been “thirsty” for the truth, I would have
set
aside my plans.
I
would have asked, like the jailer, “what
must I do to be saved?” The
Father was drawing me, like Jesus said in John
6:44,
“No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
And I will raise him up on the last day.” But, I said “No,
not now.” This
is not a part of a
spiritual journey. This
is far more real and
serious than
any spiritual journey. It’s
a choice between choosing the world that will please you, or choosing
God, who will enrich you far beyond what this world has to offer. If
I had died, I would have been eternally separated from the love of
God because
my trust was in
a god of my own thinking.
I lived my life with no thought of God. I didn’t look to God,
though I said I believed. My
heart knew there was a God, but in my heart I followed
myself and the world.
There
is something about faith that is more than
saying one believes in
this or that.
That
is why Paul encouraged believers to stand in their faith and
to not believe in vain,
and to have the same mindset as Jesus and to not follow the ways of
the world.
Faith
is more than just words that come out of your
mouth. To
say, “I believe in Jesus,” but then you
live
for yourself
is
to claim
to have
one foot in this world and one foot with Jesus. This is an
impossible
claim.
To
have one foot in this world is to have both feet in this world.
The
second reason the people of the “path” lose the word is because
they do not understand the word. To not understand the word has
nothing to do with intelligence, but rather because we live for this
world, we are blinded by it. When I was 17 years old and sitting in
that church, I understood what I had to give up to follow Jesus, but
I did not understand that to follow Jesus was the better choice. I
was not blinded by what my choices were. I was blinded from knowing
which choice was better because my understanding was focused on
myself and in the lifestyle I wanted to live in. My understanding
was not focused on knowing God. I did not understand this because I
was blinded by what I wanted. This world is not what we should be
living for because it is a lie that will lead us away from the truth
that is in Jesus. And what is the truth in Jesus? The truth in
Jesus is love. Love is to sacrifice yourself. The opposite of love
is to live for oneself. That is why the “course of this world,”
which is controlled by a “prince,” leads us to live for our own
“passions” and “desires.” When we live for ourselves, we
move away from God. The course of this world tells us that love is
emotions and love is physical and love is material things that please
the self, but these are all lies. Love is sacrifice of the self.
What
is the difference between understanding the way of this world and
understanding the way of God? I think Paul answers this in 1
Thessalonians 2:13, “And we also thank God constantly for
this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard
from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it
really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”
To understand seems to require three things. The first is to
distinguish between the word of man and the word of God. The second
is to make the conscious decision to accept God’s word, and when
you accept God’s word, you will receive it in your heart. This
sounds simple, but in reality it is hard because the way of this
world dominates us. The way of this world is the way of the self.
And the way of the self is in everyone’s heart. The third is after
you accept God’s word, it is “at work” within you. This is the
Holy Spirit working in you, leading you to die to yourself. When you
die to yourself, you will live for Jesus. This is how you understand
the way of God. You die to yourself. But in order to live in the
way of God, you have to leave the way of the world or way of the
self. To do this requires faith. If your faith is in yourself, then
your faith is not in Jesus. You cannot both live for yourself and
deny yourself. This is why many people are hardened against the
truth because they don’t want to deny themselves, so they reject
Jesus or they decide to accept that they can believe in both Jesus
and the world, but their faith in Jesus is no faith at all because
they are just following their own “passions” and “desires,”
which prevents them from recognizing the truth. How does one
overcome the rule of the self? The one who is “thirsty” and the
one who finds truth in Jesus Christ. There is only one truth and
that truth is in Jesus. Who is the Word. And who is the only true
God with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Can
the People of the Path be Saved?
If
they couldn’t be saved, I wouldn’t be writing this study. I want
to tell you how hardened I was as an atheist. In 2020, when I was 55
years old, I had a minor stroke. After my symptoms had normalized, I
was waiting in the ER for the nurse to take me to a hospital room. A
man approached me and said he was a Chaplin and he wanted to know if
I wanted to talk. I said, “No!” I was surprised and offended
and angry that he approached me. He saw the look on my face and
turned around and left, and I quickly forget about him. As I look
back on that experience, I can see that even when I thought I might
die, I had no thought of God. And when God did approach me in the
Chaplin, I wanted nothing to do with him. I now ask myself, “Why
was I surprised, offended, and angry?” I ask this because if I
truly believed there was no God, then I should not have been
surprised, offended, and angry. What I see now, is that I was
actually giving recognition to God because I was surprised, offended,
and angry. What this means is in my mind, I had convinced myself
there was no God, but in my heart I knew there was a God, even if my
heart wasn’t open to God. What this means is I was without excuse
because I am a part of God’s creation.
The
Miracle of God Saving Me
In
2024, when I was 59 years old, I watched a video that challenged my
belief in evolution. Evolution was the foundation of my belief in
Atheism. I watched a man named Stephen C Meyer talk about how there
is no evidence of mutations leading to new structures within cells,
that lead to new species. I had never heard anyone say this, but I
knew it was true. And, so I began to doubt my belief in evolution.
After watching that video, I spent the next few weeks thinking to
myself, “I think I’m coming back to God.” Before I was an
atheist, I had believed in God, but I now know that the god of my
past was a god of my own creation, so I wasn’t coming back to God,
I actually just beginning to know the only true God. Then a second
video appeared on my You Tube page. It was a debate between a
Christian and an atheist. I almost didn’t watch it, but by the end
of the video, I believed the Christian. I began to weep because I
knew I rejected God, who loved me and died on the cross for me. Also
because I had believed in the lie of atheism for many years. Then,
in that moment, I knew God was before me. My attention shifted from
myself to God, but I did not see or hear God. The best way I can
describe it is say you are in a room with your back to door. You
hear someone walk into the room. You cannot deny that someone walked
into the room. This is how it was except I did not see or hear God.
I just knew. There was a thought in my mind that said, “This is
what you did.” And I said, “I’m sorry,” over and over and I
wept uncontrollably. In that moment I went from being an atheist,
who thought he was coming back to God, to a man who believed in God.
That morning, my wife and daughter went to work, I was an atheist.
That evening, when they came home, I was preaching them the gospel.
How
was God able save me? It’s because God will not force you to
accept him, but he draws everyone to him. In order for this to
happen, you have to humble yourself. I humbled myself enough to
watch a video that challenged my belief in evolution. I humbled
myself enough to accept that what I believed about evolution was
false. I humbled myself enough to want to come back to God. I
humbled myself enough to believe the Christian in the debate. I
humbled myself enough to understand that I have sinned against God
and that I needed him to save me. I accepted that God loved me and
he sent his Son, Jesus to die for me. Like the jailer, who Paul and
Silas led to Jesus, I set aside my beliefs and I wanted to be saved.
How is it that I humbled myself and I understood? It’s because
only God can provide the growth, but that can only happen if you open
the door. If you seek, you will find because the Father draws
everyone to him. You have to humble yourself, which is against the
way of this world. The way of this world is to follow your own
“passions” and “desires,” which will lead you away from God.
God made his presence known to me in a stronger way than when I was
17 years old. I changed in an instant and asked God to forgive me.
Without the Father drawing me, I never would have changed. When I
was 17 years old, I said, “No!” When I was 59 years old, I said,
“Yes!” The Father draws everyone to him.
The
Rocky Ground
The people of the “rocky
ground” accept God’s word with “joy,” but they only last a
short time. We see this in Luke 8:13, “And the ones on the rock
are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But
these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of
testing fall away.” And in Mark 4:16-17, “And these
are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the
word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no
root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when
tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word,
immediately they fall away.” We can see that the people of
the “rocky ground” understand the word because they have accepted
the word. They believe the word. They believe that Jesus died for
their sins and saved them from destruction. Yet, they “fall away”
within a short time after hearing and accepting the word. The people
of the “rocky ground” have “no root in themselves,” and in a
“time of testing” or in a time of “tribulation or persecution,”
they quickly fall away.
I
think there are four reasons why the people of the “rocky ground”
fall away. The first is because they experience overwhelming “joy.”
To them, their “joy” will feel like their connection with God.
But over the course the following days, weeks, or months, their “joy”
will fade. When their joy fades, they will believe that God is
leaving them or that God doesn’t care about them. The second
reason the people of the “rocky ground” fall away is because they
have “no root.” They do not grow roots that mature in the Lord
because they know little about the Lord. For a short time, they may
seek to know Jesus, but they are too caught up in their “joy.”
And when their “joy” fades, they stop reading the bible and
associating with other believers. They will return to the way of
life they lived before the “joy” entered their lives, and they
will forget about the Lord. The third reason the people of the
“rocky ground” fall away is because of a “time of testing” or
of a time of “tribulation and persecution.” Because their “joy”
fades, they believe the Lord has left them to face a hardship or a
challenge alone, so they quickly fall away. They feel abandoned by
the Lord and become bitter. The fourth reason the people of the
“rocky ground” fall away is because there is a hardness about
them that is underneath a shallow depth of soil. Their shallow soil
has richness in it, but the hardness underneath prevents growth. And
after their “joy” fades, their underlying hardness leads to
resentment and anger, and feeling hurt toward God.
This
reminds me of when I was 25 years old. I was full of joy for the
Lord. I read the New Testament. I joined a bible teaching church.
I went to bible studies. I got baptized. I went with my pastor to
the bus stop to witness to people. I witnessed to a Jehovah’s
Witness in his home. I told many people at work that I believed in
Jesus. I told my parents during Christmas. I was beginning to build
relationships with the brothers from my church. I was leaning toward
becoming a pastor. But, after a few months, the intense joy I had
felt was gone. To compensate for the loss of my joy, I believed that
the Lord would give me a gift, like of tongues or of prophecy. So, I
asked the brothers to lay their hands on me and to pray over me, to
ask God to give me the gift he wanted me to have. After it was done,
nothing changed. I was angry at the Lord and I believed he had left
me, so I decided to leave him.
After
a few months had passed, I was walking through a shopping center
parking lot and my former pastor pulled up next to me in his car. He
was so happy to see me and asked me where I had been? I told him I
didn’t believe anymore. The happiness fell from his face. He
asked me why? I don’t remember my answer. He reminded me of my
faith in Jesus and of the things we had done together. He was
pleading for me to come back. I turned and walked away. He shouted
to me, “Dennis, you will go to hell!” I turned to him and said,
“I don’t care.” I walked away and at the end of the parking
lot, I turned to look back, and he was still sitting in his car where
I had left him. The hardness of my heart reminds me of Hebrews
12:15, we read, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the
grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and
causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” The root that grew
in me was of bitterness. A short time after seeing my former pastor
in the parking lot, I returned to the “prince” of this world.
Then, in my thirties, I became Roman Catholic for a short time
because I thought it would please my parents and my wife. Then, I
began to question God’s existence for many years. Then after
learning about evolution, I became an atheist for 16 years.
When
I think of myself as the “rocky ground” many years ago, I think
of that intense “joy” that faded and I think of that underlying
hardness, which prevented my growth and my maturing. I can see now
that my underlying hardness was there because of the abuse I
experienced as a child. I blamed God for everything that was bad in
my life, that was bad in me, and that was bad in the world. I can
see now that God is not to blame. We are to blame because of sin.
We are separated from the goodness of God because of our sins. We
know how to be good, but this does not make us good. The truth is,
is that we are evil. And this is why God emptied himself by becoming
a man and died on the cross for the sins of whosoever believes to
save us from ourselves. This is love.
There are a few additional
points I’d like to say that contributed to my falling away. One
was after I finished reading the New Testament, I decided I wasn’t
going to read the bible again because I believed I knew enough from
one reading. This is why I had no root in my shallow soil. When
Jesus taught people, he told them parables and then went off to the
next community. Many people were left wondering what he meant. We
are blessed to have the writings of the eyewitnesses and of the
eyewitnesses to the eyewitnesses compiled into the bible, so we can
study and get to know God. I encourage you to read the bible. I
encourage you to study the bible. I encourage you to always study
the bible. The second poor decision I made was, after I finished
reading the New Testament, I decided to look to people to teach me
about Jesus. My rationality was that I knew I was an infant in
Christ, and I thought it would be easier for me to learn from people
who knew the bible. It didn’t take long until I encountered
someone who said all roads lead to God. I respected this person, but
I knew what he said conflicted with what Jesus said in the bible. I
was conflicted about which side to choose, until I decided to go with
what the person had told me because I didn’t want to go against
him. I rationalized that maybe I didn’t understand what I had read
in the bible. The third poor decision I made was, I knew I had to
forgive people who had hurt me and I knew I had to seek forgiveness
from those whom I had hurt. I just couldn’t do it. Forgiveness is
not an easy thing to do, but in Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus said, “For
if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” If
you cannot forgive. If you cannot seek forgiveness, I urge you to
seek help from God. Pray to God about it constantly. Don’t give
up on it. Ask your brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for you.
The final poor decision I made was, I stopped praying. I didn’t
pray much during this time to begin with. I didn’t develop a
practice of praying. When I did pray, I often asked why I didn’t
have something or why bad things happened to me. I urge you to
develop a practice of prayer because prayer is important for a
relationship with God. And when you pray, seek to know God’s will
and pray for others.
Are
the People of the Rocky Ground Saved?
When
I was 25 years old and full of joy for the Lord, I certainly was
“thirsty” and it certainly looked like I was the “one who
conquered” by putting my faith in Christ Jesus, but as I look back,
was my faith really in Jesus, or was my faith actually in myself?
Can someone profess to believe in Jesus, but their faith actually be
in themselves or in someone else or in a religion? The answer is yes
because while I professed to believe in Jesus, I followed my own way.
I chose to stop reading the bible and to look to other people to
lead me. I chose to follow someone I respected, who said there are
many ways to God, instead of following what Jesus said. I chose to
not to forgive people and I chose to not to seek forgiveness. I
chose to not pray much. I chose to focus on the joy I felt, instead
of focusing on Jesus. I chose to manipulate the bothers of my church
to pray over me. I chose to dare to try to manipulate God to give me
a gift to replace the joy I had lost. After I was baptized, I looked
up to the sky and said to God, “I did this for you.” How
arrogant of me to believe God needed anything from me. To be
baptized is for other people to witness. It is a symbol of dying to
one’s old life, being buried, then rising to a new life in Christ
Jesus. My baptism did not symbolize this because my faith was not in
Jesus. My faith was actually in myself. Like when I was 17 years
old, I said I believed in God, but my faith was in myself and in the
ways of this world.
Are
the people of the “rocky ground” saved? When I look at my case,
I don’t think they are saved. The people of the “rocky ground”
fall away because of a “time of testing” or of a time of
“tribulation or persecution.” For myself, it was a “time of
testing.” This “time of testing” sifted me, like wheat. I had
the appearance of fruit, but once the “joy” faded, I became
disappointed at God and decided that I knew better than God, so I
left him. The one thing I can see that would have prevented my
falling away was if I had humbled myself and stayed in God’s word
in the bible. If I had kept myself in God’s word, I would have
learned what faith in Jesus actually meant, and I would have
withstood the testing of the joy that faded into a normal state of
being. If I had stayed in God’s word, I would have sought help and
encouragement from other believers. And I would have avoided looking
to people as a shortcut to know God. If I had stayed in God’s
word, I would have moved from the rocky ground to the good soil.
The
Thorns
We
see the people among the “thorns” in Matthew
13:7, “Other
seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked
them.” Thorn
plants grow very well in many conditions and
they
grow everywhere.
Thorn plants often have barbs, or spikes, or little sharp hairs, or
hooks
that protect them.
Thorn
plants tend to grow in
thick patches,
taking up all the soil. Thorn
plants
tend
to
crowd
out all
other plants from the sun. I
have a raspberry patch in my backyard. They grow several feet in
height. They grow thickly together. Any plant that grows among them
are
crowded
out
or are
stunted. The big leaves of the raspberry patch
make a canopy, blotting out the sun from
other plants.
When the wind blows, the raspberry’s
thorns stab and scratch other
plants.
Most
of the plants
that do
manage to grow among my raspberry patch are small and fragile, hiding
under the canopy of thorns and leaves.
I
think the “thorns” themselves
are people who follow the way of this world. I
think the seeds that are planted among the “thorns” and that
grow
among the “thorns” are
people who say
they believe
in Jesus, but
these
people are
stunted plants that don’t bear any fruit because
they are under the canopy of this world.
These
people are
distracted by
the
fruit
of the “thorns,” so they participate
with
the
“thorns”
to
gain something,
like
wealth and power. These
people do not follow Jesus. They follow the way of this world. The
way of this world is
like a raspberry patch that dominates the soil.
The way of this world is like
a raspberry
canopy
that blots out the truth. The
way of this world is like a raspberry patch that bears it’s own
fruit. The
way of this world is like a thorn that will draw blood if it thinks
it’s being threatened.
Jesus
said in John 15:18-21, “If
the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated
you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its
own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out
of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word
that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his
master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute
you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all
these things they will do to you on account of my name, because
they do not know him who sent me.” The
people among the thorns love this world. They claim to believe in
Jesus, but they do not want this world to hate them. The truth is
that they only live for this world.
This world says that there are
many paths that lead to God. When I was 25 years old, I chose to
follow a man who told me there are many paths that lead to God. I
did this because it felt right to me and I didn’t want to go
against him. I also did this because it felt right to me to not
offend people because many people follow different religions. I
would think, “How could so many people be wrong.” And I would
think, “Every religion is evidence for God.” But Paul said in
Romans 1:19-21, “For
what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has
shown it to them. For
his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of
the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without
excuse. For
although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks
to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their
foolish hearts were darkened.”
All of creation knows God. This means all of humanity knows God.
This means that the way of this world should be the way of God. Yet,
every
religion says something different about God. There
are so many different gods in every religion. This
is because
all
of these gods
are all created by people. Instead of seeing what can known about
God, people make God fit into their own ideas about God. According
to Paul, God’s “invisible attributes” and “eternal power”
have been shown by him in all of creation. God should be plainly
evident to us, but we are blinded by our
“passions” and “desires.” God
gave us dominion of this world after he created it, but we gave up
our dominion of this world to Satan because
we went against God.
We have the illusion of control of this world, but the reality is
that we live
within a dominion of darkness that is leading us to live for our own
“passions” and “desires.” Instead
of this world following the way of God, it follows the way of Satan.
We become like Satan and
make
God into whatever
we desire because
this is acceptable to the way of this world.
This
is why we should not follow what the many say about God. We
should follow only
the
One who has told us the truth about the only true God.
Are
the People of the Thorns Saved?
When
I consider myself when
I was 25 years old,
I said I believed in Jesus,
but
I chose to follow a
man who said there are many roads to God.
Not
only that, but I chose to follow what the many said
about God. As
I look back now, I can see that I believed in vain. I believed in a
false Jesus, while claiming to believe in the true Jesus. This
false Jesus of
mine accepted
everyone into eternal life, no matter what they believed
because
I reasoned that people could not all be wrong about God. Instead
of following
Jesus, I followed
myself. I
believed
myself as
knowing the truth. I
put myself above God. According
to Jeremiah 17:9,
“The
heart is deceitful above all things,
and
desperately sick;
who can understand
it?”
I
don’t think we understand what it truly means to go against God. I
don’t think we understand just how bad our sinful nature is. We
are so sick, that even when we think we are doing good, we are are
doing evil. We
are truly blind to the truth. This
is why we need a savior. The
Father has made himself
known to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said of himself in
John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I don’t
think the people among the “thorns” are saved because they do not
understand that Jesus is the only way to the Father in heaven.
Instead, they look to the world to believe. They do this, so that
they can continue to live for themselves and for this world. Their
identity is in this world. If I had decided to challenge the man who
told me there are many paths to God by going back to the bible to
answer my doubts, then I would have come to understand the truth if I
was honest. But I didn’t see the bible as the authority. I saw
the world as the authority.
The
Good Soil
The
people of the “good soil” is what every follower of Jesus desires
to be. In
Mark
4:8,
we
read, “And
other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and
increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a
hundredfold.” The
“good soil” are people who believe in Jesus. They understand
that Jesus died on the cross to redeem anyone who believes. They
understand that since Jesus has taken their sins and has given them
his righteousness, they no longer belong to themselves and this
world. Their
passion and desire is to continue in faith in Jesus. To love God
above all and to love others as God has shown them. To
die to themselves and live as God created them. To go and preach
and teach the word to make
disciples. Notice
that the “good soil” is the exact opposite of the way of this
world.
The
“good soil” reminds me of the Parable of the Talents. In Matthew
25:14-30, we read, “For it
will be like a man going on a journey, who called his
servants and entrusted to them his property. To
one he gave five talents, to another two, to another
one, to each according to his ability. Then he went
away. He
who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them,
and he made five talents more. So
also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But
he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground
and hid his master's money. Now after
a long time the master of those servants came and settled
accounts with them. And
he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five
talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents;
here, I have made five talents more.’ His
master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You
have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.
Enter into the joy of your master.’ And
he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you
delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His
master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have
been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the
joy of your master.’ He
also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master,
I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow,
and gathering where you scattered no seed, so
I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you
have what is yours.’ But
his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful
servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where
I scattered no seed? Then
you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my
coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So
take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten
talents. For
to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an
abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be
taken away. And cast the
worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
Every
soil has been given abilities by God, like the master who entrusted
his property to his servants. The servant who was given 5 talents
and the servant who was given two talents, both of them yielded a
hundredfold, and the master rewarded them with more, “for to
everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.”
The “good soil” is the one that uses the abilities given to them
to bear much fruit. But the bad soils; the hardened path, the thin
soil with rock underneath, and the soil dominated by thorns are like
the servant with one talent, who buried his talent because he
believed the master was a “hard man.” He believed it was unjust
of the master to ask more of him. His faith was not in his master,
but in himself because he believed he knew better than his master.
Instead of following his master, he followed his own desire, which
was to serve himself. He saw his master as a thief because he didn’t
want to give the master the fruit of his talent. He was “afraid”
of his master because he did not know his master. So, the master
took this servant’s one talent from him and gave it to the one with
ten, and he “cast the worthless servant into outer darkness.”
But notice that the master doesn’t take the talents when settling
accounts. The one with five talents, now has ten, then eleven. The
one with two, now has four. Even if the servant with one talent had
earned thirtyfold on his one talent, the master would have allowed
this servant to “enter into the joy of your master.” Even
if this servant had earned “interest,” the master would have
said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have
been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the
joy of your master.” The “good soil” sets aside their selfish
ambitions and their vain conceits to value others above themselves.
They do this because they do this for their master, not for
themselves. They recognize that their talents are not for selfish
ambition, but for God’s purpose, which is to love God above all and
to love others as God showed us in Jesus.
Everything
of who we are, as a creation of God, is a gift from God. We have
been given many gifts. We have been given many abilities that belong
to God. He has given them to us to use for the benefit of others.
When we use them for ourselves, we only serve ourselves. Either we
reward ourselves or we seek our reward from our master. Like the
servants in the Parable of the Talents, we have been given the
freedom to use our talents as we desire. We can use our talents to
suit ourselves, or we can use our talents to serve God, who will
reward us far beyond anything in this world.
After
Jesus saved me in May of 2024, I have been asking myself, “Was I
really a lost sheep?” “Was I really a prodigal son returning
home?” The answer is, “No.” I was never a lost sheep or a
prodigal son because I followed my own
“passions”
and “desires.” I
followed the “prince”
of this world.
I
began writing this study with the intent to show that I was a lost
sheep and
that
I
was
a
prodigal son because
that is what I hoped for,
but as the study progressed, and
took longer than I expected, I
began to understand that I have been in unbelief most of my life,
even when I thought I believed. It’s been a sobering experience
because had I died during that time, when
I thought I believed I
would have said,”Lord,
Lord, did I
not believe
in you, and did I not do many good deeds
for you?” Then
Jesus
would have said to me, “I never
knew you; depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.” In
1
John
3:4, the apostle
John said, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices
lawlessness, sin is lawlessness.” The reason Jesus would have
called me a “worker of lawlessness” is because he didn’t know
me to cover my sins for me. In
1 John 3:6, the apostle
John said, “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who
keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” He
didn’t know me because I believed in a false Jesus. He
didn’t know me because I believed in this world. He
didn’t know me because my faith was in myself. Because
he didn’t know me and I didn’t know him, my sins were not
forgiven. Jesus
is truth. He will not accept our lies.
Examine
Yourself
In
1
John 2:15-17, we
read,
“Do
not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the
desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father but is
from the world. And the
world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the
will of God abides forever.” And
what is the will of God? Jesus
said in
John 6:39-40, “And this
is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing
of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last
day. For
this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the
Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I
will raise him up on the last day.” After
you believe that Jesus died for you, what is next? Jesus
said in John 14:15, “If
you love me, you will keep my commandments.” What
are Jesus’ commandments? In
Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus said, “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind. This
is the great and first commandment. And a
second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On
these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Notice
that Jesus’ commandments are the exact opposite of “following the
course of this world, and following the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of
our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of
mankind.”
To
believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins is
more than words. To believe in something requires change. To
believe is not a collection of beliefs. To
believe is not to say you believe, but then to live without any
thought of God. To believe is not to say you believe, but then make
God into a god of your own
choosing.
To
believe requires an exchange, your life in exchange for his life.
Either
you believe or you are in unbelief, even if you don’t realize you
are in unbelief.
Paul
said in 2
Corinthians 13:5, “Examine
yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test
yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus
Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
I
encourage you to examine yourself. Salvation
comes by faith alone in Jesus. The change in your life is a result
from your faith in Jesus. The
change is a result of you receiving. The
change doesn’t save you, but is evidence of your faith in
Jesus. When
you believe in Jesus, you give him your confidence that he alone has
saved you. But
if
you say, “I believe, and I’m going to do
what I want,”
then your belief is in yourself, not in
Jesus. If
you say, “I believe, and I must be good,” then your belief is in
yourself, not in
Jesus.
If you say, I believe, and I do good things,” then your belief is
in yourself, not in
Jesus.
You
are saved by belief alone in Jesus, that he died for you. The change
of dying to yourself and of living in Christ is evidence that
your faith
is
true. The change doesn’t
add anything to your salvation because
salvation
is only found in Jesus Christ.
The
change in your life doesn’t come from you, it comes from God.
May
the Grace and Mercy of God be with you.
