Parable of the Sower Series: Intro

And when many people were gathered together, and were come to him from every city, he spoke by a parable: a sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed,

some fell by the wayside;

and it was trodden down and the fowls of the air devoured it.

And some fell upon a rock;

and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away,

because it lacked moisture.

And some fell among thorns;
and the thorns sprang up with it,
and choked it.

And others fell on good ground, and sprang up,

and bore fruit a hundredfold.

And when he had said these things,

he cried,

He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

Luke 8:4-8

"Now the preacher of the gospel is like the sower.

He does not make his seed;

the seed is given to him by his Master.

--The minister goes to his Master in secret, and asks him to teach him his truth, and thus he fills his basket with the good seed of the kingdom.
--What the minister has to do, is to go forth in his Master’s name and scatter precious truth.
--If he knew where the best soil was to be found, perhaps he might limit himself to that which had been prepared by the plough of conviction.

But not knowing men’s hearts, it is his business to preach the

gospel to every creature—to throw a handful on that hard heart over there, and another handful on that overgrown heart, which is full of cares and riches and pleasures of this world. He has to leave the fate of the seed in the care of the Master who gave it to him.
 But one seed in four finds good soil.
The three portions out of the four are scattered on poor places, produce no good effect, but they are lost, and shall never be seen again, except when they shall rise up in judgment against our ungracious hearers to condemn them.

Here let me remark,

that the measure of our duty is not limited by the character of our hearers,

but by the command of God."

Charles Spurgeon