Pictures of Evangelism - Sowing the Seed

Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Now, I'm not sure how much I'm teaching, I don't know, but I used to be the teacher in a class on preaching at one of your sister schools, Trinity Seminary in Deerfield. And I opened the one session by reading from a book that I did not bring with me, and I will not identify it. But in this book, the writer says, "Do not preach Bible doctrine on Sunday mornings." Preach interesting, entertaining sermons and call for a commitment to Christ. Now, what kind of a commitment you're going to get at the end of an interesting and entertaining sermon that has no Bible doctrine in it is an interesting thing.

Now, this seems to be a trend today. We're living in a very pragmatic age in which we are substituting methodology for theology. Now, I realize we must have methodology. A man came to Mr. Moody one day and said, "Mr. Moody, I don't like your methods." Moody said, "I'm always ready for improvement. What are your methods?" The man said, "I have none." Moody said, "I'll stick to mine." We've got to be very careful that we don't throw out methodology. We've also got to be very careful that we don't throw out theology.

The sower is sowing the word of God. Now, why does God compare his word to seed? That is a fundamental concept. Why compare the word of God to seed? The word of God's compared to many things. You preachers, ought to preach a series of sermons on the pictures of the Bible in the Bible: the hammer, the sword, the fire, the food, the water, the light, the seed. Because each of these pictures gives us an aspect of the ministry of the word.

A seed has life in it. And God's word has life in it. And the sinners were preaching to don't have life in them. And life has to be imparted. It cannot be manufactured. And I fear that too much evangelism without the word of God is only painting up and propping up corpses.

"He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me hath everlasting life and is passed from death unto life." When Jesus raised people from the dead, he spoke the word. To Lazarus, he shouted the word. "Lazarus, come forth!" The older we get, the louder God has to holler at us.

Seed has life in it. The word of God is living. Seed has power in it. The word of God is living and powerful. I am told that a kernel of hybrid corn becomes a plant eight to ten feet tall, producing 750 to 1,000 seeds from one little kernel. There's power there. If you ever seen a plant come up, a tree come up and wreck a sidewalk or a foundation, there's power there. There's power in the word. And there's life in the word.

But the seed does no good unless the seed is planted. The seed has to get into the soil, germinate, be nurtured before it produces fruit. I, uh, have come to the belief that only one of these hearts really represents the saved man. That's in verse 23, where there was some fruit. The others were abortive.

Seed of the word of God has life and it has power, and it has to be planted. Our Lord explains what it means to have the seed really planted. It should be understood. Now, I know we cannot logically argue anybody into the kingdom, nor we called to do that. But if the gospel is not understood, it can't be believed. If the gospel is not believed, there can't be the impartation of life.

I had an interesting time some months ago sitting down with the book of Acts and making a list of all the verbs that are used to describe the sharing of the word of God. Some of those verbs are quite dramatic. The heralding of the word, the evangelizing, but one little word is used, "laleo," just conversing. You can sit down with people over a cup of coffee and converse about the word of God. It's that simple. It's that profound.

The seed has to be planted. To do any good, and that means it has to be understood. This doesn't mean sinners have to become theologians to become saints. If you had stopped me the night I was converted in an evangelistic rally and asked me about predestination and election and resurrection, I wouldn't have known what you're talking about. If you'd asked me about sin and salvation, I'd have experienced something. I had understood enough to be born again.

The seed produces fruit. The evidence of salvation is fruit. Not a signature on a card. Not even a trip down the aisle. Nobody walks down the aisle. They always wend their way down the aisle. Not even the raising of a hand. Not even the submitting to baptism. The evidence of salvation is fruit.

And if you'll just take your Bible and turn the pages, you'll discover what the fruit is. In Romans 1:13, Paul says, "I long to come to you that I may have some fruit among you." The leading of people to Christ and the nurturing of people in Christ, that's fruit. Romans 6:22, he talks about bearing fruit unto holiness, a holy life is fruit. In Romans 15:28, Paul is talking about the missionary offerings he was taking up. And he tells us, "Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, the giving of money is fruit." Not loot, fruit.

I have pastored three churches, and I say to the glory of God, we never had to twist anybody's arm to support the ministry. When the seed is being planted and nurtured, that seed will produce fruit, and a part of that fruit is giving. Christian character, Galatians 5:22–23, the fruit of the Spirit. Hebrews 13:15, the fruit of our lips, giving praise to God.

Now, this is just some of the fruit that comes from the planting of the seed. And in too many places, we've manufactured fruit. We haven't nurtured fruit, because we've ignored the word of God.

If I understand my New Testament correctly, when any person is truly born again, it is because he has received the seed of the word of God, he has understood the message, he has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, that seed is planted, that seed grows, and it produces fruit. If we did in our churches in America what many churches do on the mission field, we'd have fewer members.

We ministered just a little while ago, just three or four weeks ago, in Venezuela. And a few years ago we were over in Africa. And in many of these places, you are not received into the membership of the church until you've won someone else to Christ. Now, if we had that as a standard in America, some of our church officers wouldn't be there.

The seed is the word of God and it produces fruit. Now, the fruit has to come from the soil, and the important part of this parable is the soil. In fact, I think Campbell Morgan called it not the parable of the sower, but the parable of the soils. The people we minister to have hearts in different conditions. There are hard hearts, and there are shallow hearts, and there are crowded hearts, and there are the good hearts. Not good in the sense of being spiritual, sinless, no, no. Good in the sense of being plowed up, prepared to receive the seed of the word of God.

Why does the Lord compare the human heart to soil? Of course, all of us came from soil. We're all made of the earth. But why compare the human heart to soil? You see, when we go out to win people to Christ, what we see in that person depends on the approach we're going to use. If we basically believe that the human heart is good, then all we have to do is nurture it a little bit and it'll come along. That's one thing.

There are those who tell us all people are children of God. Evangelism means go out and tell them this good news, that they are already the children of God. My Lord didn't say that. He said, "They've got hearts made out of soil."

Now, I'll tell you several reasons why. And there may be many more, but let me just share these with you.

God compares my heart to soil because if my heart is left alone, it'll run riot. You never have to plant weeds. They just come naturally. No gardener ever says, "Well, today's my task for planting weeds." No gardener ever says, "I've got to teach my child how to lie." He'll do it naturally. If the human heart is left to itself, it produces weeds and noxious growth and runs riot.

But that same soil that can produce weeds can produce fruit. There is tremendous potential in the human heart. And you and I must beware of the fact that the people we minister to, the people we witness to, have a fantastic potential. Here is Saul of Tarsus, whose heart is producing slaughter. That same heart, when changed, produced blessing. In fact, it's often the case that the one whose life seemed to have produced the most sin, when he gets converted, seems to be the source of so much blessing.

The human heart is not naturally adapted to the word of God. It doesn't want the word of God. Something about human nature loves to believe a lie. But in as much as the human heart is soil, and the seed is the word of God, if the two come together under the right conditions, set by the Holy Spirit, something marvelous can happen.

This is what he presents in this parable. He says, "There's the hard heart, and that hard heart comes from traffic." The seed by the roadside where people walked. The American public doesn't realize that every time they turn the radio on, someone starts walking on their heart.

A lady phoned me from Dothan, Alabama, the other day. When you're on the radio, you get many, many interesting phone calls. And she called me, she said, "You know, I watch a lot of television." I said, "What do you watch on television?" She began to tell me. And I said, "You realize that every time you watch something, they're walking on your heart?" Maybe you better turn that set off and open your Bible and let the gardener go to work in your heart.

So we're facing people who've got hard hearts because of what they've listened to, what they've looked at. All these people walking on their hearts.

Then we have the shallow-hearted people, who are the super emotional people, who immediately respond, but there's no depth. The devil snatches the seed from the hard heart. The sun scorches the seed in the shallow heart.

The sun is good for plants. Most plants need the sun. The sun represents persecution. Believers need persecution. We don't enjoy it. We don't pray for it. But we need it. One of the proofs of salvation is enduring persecution. Persecution is good if you have roots. If you don't have any roots, persecution wipes you out.

The shallow heart. The crowded heart. We're ministering to people who, while they listen to us preach, are concerned about the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. And so where the seed is snatched in the hard heart and scorched in the shallow heart, it is smothered in that crowded heart, and it becomes unfruitful.

"Because," some say, "you haven't got very good seed." No, the seed is not the problem. It's the heart. Many times we have preached the word of God or we have witnessed the word of God, and we couldn't see anything happen. And you say, "Well, there's something wrong with my preaching." Maybe there is. I don't think so. It's the heart.