The Following Answers are Related to the 2024 Third Quarter Sabbath School Study Guide

Towards the end of His well-known Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7, Jesus says:

Matthew 7:24–27 (NKJV):

24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Just as He did in the Sermon on the Mount, and through His followers both before and after that, Jesus works diligently to sow the seeds of His Word in our lives. This helps us see and know the truth, providing light for this life and aiding our growth in knowing Him and His love for us. However, He tells us in verses 25 and 27 that some will not grasp it deeply enough to truly know Him and trust Him as their foundation.

We all want to be fertile soil where the seeds of His Word can take deep root, allowing us to grow closer to Him. This is God’s will for us, meaning He provides all the resources of Heaven to achieve this. However, He will never force us against our will. We must choose to hold tightly to Him. There are three main hurdles to being fertile soil:

1. Satan and His Fallen Angels: Revelation 12:9, 17 and 1 Peter 5:8 warn us about Satan and his host of fallen angels:
   

   Revelation 12:9, 17 (NKJV):

   9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

   17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

   1 Peter 5:8 (NKJV):

   8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

   God warns us to be vigilant since Satan is extremely angry and dangerous. We are safe with Christ but will be swept away without Him.

2. The Realities and Fallenness of This World: Matthew 5:25-34 refer to the stresses and pressures of this world:
   

   Matthew 5:25-34 (NKJV):

   25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

   28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

   31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
   God is saying here that He knows that there are pressures and cares of this life that sometimes look like mountains, but He has already prepared a path through them. They are nothing to Him – mere molehills, so why allow them to distract us from the most important thing we should be seeking, which is closeness with God and the establishment of His kingdom within our lives. We must trust Him with these things and not be distracted by them. He is absolutely trustworthy. The more we get to know Him and grow in close relationship with Him, the more we see this, and the less influence the pressures of this world has over us and the less they are able to corrupt our priorities. Otherwise, we will wither and die.

   God warns us not to be distracted by the cares, pressures, or enticements of the world because they can corrupt our priorities. He knows what we need and has already made provisions for us to attain them as we work in partnership with Him. He is also the one who gave us our five senses through which we experience and enjoy His creation. These all have their place in the right order. He will do His part, but we need to do ours in getting our priorities right so we can work with Him and not against Him.

3. Our Own Fallen Natures: Our own fallen natures naturally align with the world, as described in 1 John 2:15-17 and James 1:14-15:
   

   1 John 2:15-17 (NKJV):

   15 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. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

   In the second hurdle above, God warns us that the world tries to push us away from Him with all its pressures to perform and survive. Here, He warns that the world will also try to pull us away from Him through all its enticements that appeal to our fallen natures. But the world as we know it is passing away, and one day it will indeed totally pass away. And if we are wedded to it, so will we.

   A similar warning is provided in James 1:14-15:

   James 1:14-15 (NKJV):

   14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.

God warns us here because He knows the greatest battle is against self. He is the one who gave us our five senses through which we experience and enjoy His creation. These all have their place in the right order, but that order has been corrupted. Therefore, we must die daily to self. As we all know, this is not easy. We will never be successful unless we do it God’s way, which is by opening our hearts to Him and allowing Him to come in and change us from the inside out. We will fail if we go it alone on this one. The best we can do on our own is basically window dressing. As they say, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. Yes, we can make some outward changes, but how much can we change on the inside? When He was here, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for this approach because it provides only an outward show of piety, but no real change from the inside out. An outward show can be impressive to most people, but for God, it doesn’t count for much. For Him, what’s on the inside is of utmost importance. He says as much in 1 Samuel 16:7.

1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV):

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Jesus had major problems with this during His ministry here as well. One such occasion is found in Matthew 23:27-28.

Matthew 23:27-28 (NKJV):

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

And it’s no wonder because who can really change themselves from the inside out? No one can. This is why God is eager to partner with us on this because He knows we have no hope without His help. As He says in Revelation 3:20-21, if we allow Him, He will personally come to us through His Holy Spirit to provide all the help we need to overcome every obstacle in our way.

Revelation 3:20-21 (NKJV):

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

He is faithful to do His part, but we need to do our part in recognizing that our top priority is opening our hearts to Him and spending time with Him through His Word, through prayer, and through reflection on His goodness and His work in our lives as we go through our day. Yes, we definitely want to align our life with His will, but we have to work smart, not just hard. He tells us how to work smart. Our priority and our focus must be on Him. He will then work with us to make whatever changes are needed in His own orderly way. We must die to self every day and allow Him to do this. Otherwise, we will be overcome by one hurdle or another.

This is the essence of the gospel—God with us. Not just when He physically walked the earth, but always and forever with us, including now. In Matthew 7:24-27 mentioned previously, which is towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus essentially said that He sows the seed of this gospel to everyone, but He knows it will not find fertile ground in everyone. Why not? Because, based on our own choices, we are all like one of four types of soil, and only one soil type will love and give heed to His Word sufficiently deeply to choose Him to be with them and place Him first no matter what.

What Type of Soil Am I?

The parable of the sower and the four types of soil is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (three of the four Gospels). In Mark 4:1-9, it says:

Mark 4:1-9 (NKJV):

1 And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. 2 Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:

3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. 5 Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. 7 And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 8 But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

9 And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Afterwards, when His disciples requested an explanation, He explained the meaning in Mark 4:13-20:

Mark 4:13-20 (NKJV):

13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

As explained by Jesus, this passage shows four groups of people represented by four types of soil, and the good news of the kingdom of God represented by the seed.

Next month, we will look more closely at how we all fit into one of these four types of soil, what sets the soil types apart, why they were presented by Jesus in the order they were, their relationship to the three hurdles discussed above, and how this parable serves as a lens for our own introspection.

Author: Devon Rocky McIntosh