Classic Christianity – The Sower & The Seed – Part 2 – 10-06-26
~ Why Did Jesus Speak in Parables? The Mystery of Divine Filtering & The Freedom to Ask “WHY?”
In Matthew 13:10–17, after Jesus spoke the Parable of the Sower, His disciples came to Him with a fundamental question that every searching mind eventually asks:
📖 “And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand… But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.'” — Matthew 13:10–13, 16
Why did Jesus speak in veiled language? Was He trying to confuse the crowds, or was something far more profound occurring in the courtroom of Heaven?
When we un-scramble this passage through the lens of Scripture, vessel architecture, and the finished work accomplished at the cross of Calvary, four foundational realities emerge.
1. Parables as a Sovereign Divine Filter
Jesus did not speak in parables to entertain the masses, nor did He throw precious pearls before those who actively rejected the Truth. Parables functioned as a sovereign divine filter.
The unsealed natural mind—carrying only its native human spirit (the spirit of man)—possesses a darkened intellect and lacks the spiritual hardware to decode the vertical frequency of the Kingdom. Apostle Paul forensically documents this in 1 Corinthians 2:14:
“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
When the Judean (Ioudaioi) religious authorities and resistant crowds approached Jesus with hard, self-righteous hearts—demanding physical showmanship while holding to their works-based traditions—Jesus spoke in parables. This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: their eyes were closed because they refused to yield in voluntary faith.
The parable protected the holy mysteries of the Kingdom from being trampled by unsealed mockers while reserving the un-scrambled meaning for those whose hearts were open to the King.
2. Childlike Socratic Inquiry: Asking “WHY?”
Notice the beautiful posture of the disciples: they did not nod along passively or pretend to understand out of intellectual pride. Like children who genuinely want to know how things work, they came to Jesus in private and simply asked, “Why?”
Jesus did not rebuke them for asking “Why?” He didn’t say, “How dare you question My methods!” Instead, He rewarded their childlike inquiry by declaring: “To you it HAS BEEN GIVEN to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven!”
Traditional, works-based religion conditions people to turn off their analytical processors, defer blindly to credentialed human gatekeepers, and treat questioning as a sin. But true faith is not blind submission to human titles—true faith is childlike, Socratic inquiry!
God created the human spirit with intellect and reasoning, and He delights when His children come directly to Him asking “Why?”
3. The Indwelling Spirit and the “Mind of Christ”
The moment a clean clay vessel exercises voluntary Faith—entering Socratic agreement (homologeo) with the Judge that Christ finished it all—a Divine Fusion occurs:
- The Holy Spirit vertically occupies, seals, and permanently fuses spirit-to-spirit with your human spirit as “one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17).
- He establishes an unbreakable Sovereign Firewall that locks out external manipulation from satan.
Because the Holy Spirit Himself now inhabits your biological vessel, you possess the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)! As 1 Corinthians 2:10–12 establishes, the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God, so that we might know the things that are freely given to us.
This is why TRUTH Himself issues the open invitation in Isaiah 1:18:
📖 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD [TRUTH].”
God is not an arbitrary dictator demanding unreasoning compliance. He is our loving Father who invites us to sit under the firmament, tune our internal receiver to the Spirit of Truth, and reason together with Him.
4. Ask “WHY?” Without Fear of Fault
When a sealed believer approaches God to ask questions, how does the Father respond?
James 1:5 provides the absolute legal guarantee:
📖 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not [without finding fault]; and it shall be given him.”
Look at what that means forensically: when you ask God “Why?”, He does not criticize you, bring up your past stumbles, or withhold light!
Why? Because total propitiation (Hilasmos) was accomplished at the cross of Calvary where the debt was cleared! God is holding ABSOLUTELY NOTHING against you. Every sin-debt was permanently liquidated when the gavel struck at Calvary.
Step Into Your Sealed Office Today
You are not a bankrupt debtor begging a finicky judge for a crumb of information. You are a sealed child of God, filled with the Spirit of Life (Zoē), authorized to ask Socratic questions and receive wisdom in great abundance directly from the Source!
Stop fearing the “Why?” Bring your questions directly to the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you, rest in the finished victory of Calvary, and walk in the vertical authority of His indwelling Life!
When Jesus spoke in parables, it was for the benefit of the people He knew were His, and it was not to be wasted on those who were not going to be saved. But notice this, His disciples inquired of Him, as to why? They, just like children want to know the reason why. And today, with the Holy Spirit living directly in us, we too can ask the socractic questions of why things are the way they are. And the Holy Spirit will give us the answer if He lives in you. And every true born or the Spirit of God, has been given the mind of God, to say, “come let us reason together says TRUTH.” So ask the questions why to God. And He will give you the answers with great abundance without finding fault.
“Then I saw a new heaven (οὐρανός / ouranos) and a new earth, for the first heaven (οὐρανός / ouranos) and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven (οὐρανός / ouranos) from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” — Revelation 21:1–2
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Pray to God:
Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?
Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”
~ Bob George’s message focused on trusting Jesus rather than relying on self, legalism, or outward excitement. He explained the New Covenant as grounded in Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law and his death, then interpreted the parable of the sower through how people hear and respond to the message: some don’t understand it, some receive it briefly but lack deep roots, and others are distracted by life’s worries or wealth. The good soil, he said, represents someone who hears, understands, and puts faith in God’s word, finding identity and security in Christ.
“Well, the disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables? And he replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. What is he saying to these to these people, his disciples? He’s saying, the knowledge from God has been given to you. Do you realize, folks, that the knowledge of God has been given to you? Now, is that something to rejoice in? You talk about a pearl of great price. You have been given the knowledge about God. We have, if you’re in Christ, you have the ability due to the Holy Spirit of God living in you, revealing the meaning of the kingdom of God. You have that indwelt in you. That’s a part of you. It’s in you. And He’s saying to His disciples, “That’s true about you, and that secret has been given to you, but not to them. They don’t know anything about it yet.” ~ Bob George
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Announcer 0:13
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
Bob George 0:30
And so, folks, when you’re talking about legalism, the damage of legalism is that it pulls people off of trusting Jesus and onto trusting yourself. There’s the problem with legalism. Instead of receiving the righteousness that comes from God, I’m seeking to establish my own. There’s the problem of legalism, and the devastation of legalism. It is the subtle way that Satan has used to pull people away from trusting Jesus with their life. Now that is the message that God wants us to see.
Now, folks, when you’re dealing with the Scripture themselves, you’re dealing with an Old Covenant and you’re dealing with a New Covenant. The word covenant, the the word, the Greek word for covenant that the New Testament was written in, is the identical word of testament will. There’s no difference. There’s not three words. There’s not will, covenant, and testament. They’re one word. So when you’re talking about an Old Covenant and a New Covenant, you’re talking about an old testament and a new testament. They’re the identical word. So when you’re saying a New Covenant, if you were look at this Bible and the delineation of it, you’ve got a New Covenant that began when? In the Book of Acts, the New Covenant was not in effect when Jesus was alive. A will does not go into effect until you what? Die. Then when you die, the will goes into effect, so the New Covenant did not go into effect until Jesus’ death. Now that New Covenant is in comparison to the Old Covenant law, so in essence, what the Old Covenant is is the first five books of Moses. If you’re saying, “What’s the Old Testament? It’s not. It isn’t from Genesis to Malachi. The Old Testament is the first five books of Moses. That’s the Old Covenant, and the rest of it is the Prophets and the Writings. But the Covenant, the contrast of the covenants, the contrast of the Testaments, is the law up against the New Covenant that we live in today. Grace, the law and grace. So, in essence, you have the Old Covenant, the law. You have the New Covenant that was fulfilled by Jesus Christ that we’re in today. You’ve got the prophets that, in many instances were prophesying the coming of the Messiah and His second return, and and then you’ve got the the writings of Jesus.
Now, what is the life of Jesus? the The Gospels is a the writings of Jesus fulfilling everything that was written in the law and the prophets. So, in other words, when you’re reading about Jesus, you’re reading about the one who fulfilled everything that was written in the law and the prophets and the writings. So, what are the gospels? It’s a recordation of the one who came to fulfill the law. It is the one. It is the one who came who is the the the reality of the shadow that was written in all of the Old Testament, Old Covenant books and the prophets and the writings. He’s the fulfillment of all of it, and we get to read that. And when we read about Jesus, we read about the one who fulfilled the entirety of the Scripture, and then the rest of the writings of the Bible is a recordation and an explanation of this New Covenant in which we stand today. Jesus fulfilled it; he upheld it through his death. In other words, the law without a punishment for violation has no meaning. He took upon himself the sins of the world, and even though he was sinless, he became sin for you and me. And the wages of sin is death. And he went to a cross and died for the forgiveness of man’s sins, entering into our spiritual death with us, so that we could enter into His spiritual resurrection with Him. So He was the fulfillment of all that, and all of the epistles of Paul and all of the other writers of the New Testament are merely there to explain the magnitude of this New Covenant that we stand in today through Christ Jesus. So, what is the message that Jesus wants us to learn? To trust Him. Paul said the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through what love.
So let’s turn to chapter 13 and with the realization that here is Jesus talking about Himself, who is here, and what the implications of that are going to be in the future when He goes away, it said that same day Jesus went out. This is chapter 13, went out of the house and sat by the lake, and such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it while all the people stood on the shore. And then he told them many things in parables. He said, “A farmer went out to sow his seed, and as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they were withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants, and still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a 100, 60, 30 times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear. Open our ears, Lord, and teach us to listen. Open our eyes and enable us to see. He says that. Do you think he was sitting there talking to people without ears? I mean, do you think he was looking around to say, “Who has ears among you? Everybody had ears. He said, “If you’ve got them, listen to what I’m saying to you. Listen to what I’m saying to you.
Well, the disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables? And he replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. What is he saying to these to these people, his disciples? He’s saying, the knowledge from God has been given to you. Do you realize, folks, that the knowledge of God has been given to you? Now, is that something to rejoice in? You talk about a pearl of great price. You have been given the knowledge about God. We have, if you’re in Christ, you have the ability due to the Holy Spirit of God living in you, revealing the meaning of the kingdom of God. You have that indwelt in you. That’s a part of you. It’s in you. And He’s saying to His disciples, “That’s true about you, and that secret has been given to you, but not to them. They don’t know anything about it yet.
Whoever will be given more, he he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he does have, it’ll be taken from him. And that’s why I speak to them in parables. Those seeing, they do not perceive, and he quotes from Isaiah through here. And though hearing, they do not hear or understand. If you’re marking your Bibles, I would like for you to to mark that they do not see and they do not hear or understand. Because what you’re going to see as we go through this parable is seeing, hearing, understanding, not understanding. So you can see how important it is to God for you and me to not only hear something but to understand what we’re hearing. So He said, “Though seeing, they don’t see; though hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. I have had people, my friends, sit in this assembly for 15 years that still don’t understand the gospel. And you’ll talk to them sometimes. I just don’t understand. I don’t understand. I don’t. I just. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. And you know what? You know why they say that? They don’t understand. And it’s and it’s told in the Bible that there are people like that that they see and they hear, but they never understand. And it tells you why. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. See, Jesus not the only one who fulfilled prophecy. We filled it too. Fulfilled it too. Here’s the prophecy about people: You will be ever hearing but never understanding.
You will be ever seeing but never perceiving. Now here’s the problem: for this people’s heart has become calloused. Now you want to know what the problem is. It’s called a calloused heart, a prideful, calloused heart that says, “I don’t need to understand. I don’t need to see. I’ll do it my way. It started right in the Garden of Eden. I do not need you, God, to determine right from wrong, good from evil. I’ll do it my way, and so we don’t have to sit around and wonder if these people have a syndrome, or to wonder if they were potty trained too early, or to see if they have some kind of a of a illness that needs corrected. He said, “The reason you do not understand is because you’ve got a calloused heart, and that’s what you have to deal with. So, if you’re going to correct this problem, you’re going to have to deal with the root of the problem, not the fruit of the problem. And the root of the problem is you got a prideful heart that needs to be changed through Christ Jesus, and there’s nothing else that’s going to change a heart. So he says they hardly hear with their ears; they’ve closed their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts. And in turn, I would heal them.
I’ve said before, folks, I can take you to the most spectacular sight on one of them on the face of this earth and stand you within five feet of it, and you’ll never see it. It’s the Grand Canyon, and all you have to do is turn your back on it. That’s all you have to do. You’re five feet from it, but you’ll never see it because you’ve turned your back on it. And so he’s talking about people. He’s talking about the you’s and the me’s. He said, “Blessed are your eyes because they see. Now he’s talking to people who have the ability to see, and your ears because they hear. He said, “Blessed are you, for I tell you that many prophets and righteous men long to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but do not hear it. So listen then to what the parable of the soil means. Now he’s going to explain what this means. When anyone hears, and I under-I’m just telling-I’m underlining these things: hearing, understanding, receiving, because you’re going to see some relationship here. When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, now why did it just get through saying up here, “You’ll be hearing but never understanding, seeing but never perceiving” What’s the problem? For your people’s heart has become what? Callous. So how come you’re not going to understand it? Calloused heart. So anyone who hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. It’s not that it hasn’t been sown. Is it? Folks, how many people on this earth, from the beginning of time on, did God desire that none should perish, but all come to repentance? All, everybody.
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Bob George 14:04
So, is there anybody on earth that God said I just don’t like? I think I’m not going to try to save them. I’m not going to tell them anything. No, He said it. I got something. People come to me sometimes. I like to know God’s will. I’ll tell you God’s will. One way you can know is look in the Scripture where it says it is God’s will, and my keen mind picks up immediately. I’ll bet that’s His will. So we don’t have to wonder about that. It is God’s will that none should perish, and all should come to repentance. So how many people have had the seed sown? All people in one form or another. Now, it’s not for us to determine how God sows the seed. He may sow it through just showing you the magnitude of this earth and to know there’s a God. And then He said, anyone who truly wants to know that God, that is very obvious, there is one. I’ll send them the message of Christ. So we don’t have to say I didn’t get a chance. Oh yes, you did. The thing of it, you looked at God’s universe and ignored it. You were callous to it.
And there were many people that sit down today. Amy and I were talking about an individual that that we both know. That I think his mindset is he got in some kind of trouble not too long ago, and then started talking about God. And I think the mind said, “If God, if you get me out of this jam, I’ll believe you. But if you don’t, to heck with you. Anybody ever done that? Heard about that type of thing? Well, of course it is. Well, let’s say that God did do something for him, and He said, “Now I believe you. How long would that last? Until he got in trouble the next time. And what you’re saying is, God, if you do what I want you to do, I’ll believe in you. But if you don’t, I’m not going to believe in you. So, in other words, the key to your existence is doing what I want you to do. Does that sound a little Egotistical? And so we get right back to what the problem of man is. It’s pride that brings about a calloused heart.
So it says that the parable: anyone who hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. So it’s not that it hasn’t been sown; he’s snatched away. This is the seed sown along the path. Now, the one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. Now, let’s stop here, because many times when you read that, you say, “Oh, well, see, he received it. In fact, received it with joy. Well, I want to ask you a question: Is receiving a message putting faith in the message? No, just said I’ve received it. I’m not going to put a faith in it, but I have received it. So, can you receive something without putting faith in something? Why, absolutely, absolutely. I could give you the set of keys and say, “Here are the keys to a Mercedes out there that I gave you, and you receive the keys, but you don’t believe. Now I know Bob; he sure didn’t give me Mercedes. I receive the keys, but I don’t believe in a million years that there’s a Mercedes out there. And so you take the bus home because you’ve never put faith in what the keys were for. So you can receive a message, but never put faith in it. Now this is exactly what took place here. You have people who receive a message with joy. I’ve seen them 100 times in my 30-some years of being in Christ. I’ve seen it 100 times of people. Man, Praise God, and then after a while, something starts happening. He doesn’t have any root. There’s no root there, and it lasts only a short period of time. In other words, I’m excited, but I haven’t put any faith in this thing. I’m just kind of excited about what I’ve heard.
You know, somebody tell me that I can tell you how to keep from going to hell. That’s pretty exciting. And I can give you a fire insurance policy. All you have to do is come down and experiment Jesus, and you’ll go to heaven. You won’t go to hell. You say I’ll buy that policy. That’s that’s that’s better than I can get in the insurance company. You gonna trust Jesus for anything else? No, no, no. Just just keep from going to hell. Get excited, no root, no faith, just excited about something you’ve received. So it says there’s no root; lasts only a short period of time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. Now, obviously, back in those day and age, in that day and age that was certainly more applicable than today because too many of us don’t receive a lot of persecution because of the word of God trouble or persecution we get into trouble and persecution because of the word of God but only if we’re actively involved in it. So we can be a Christian and really never experience a whole lot of persecution or trouble from the world because the world doesn know you’re Christian. You’ve never told anybody. You’ve never sat down in a discussion about the Word of God or whatever else it might be. But in those days, when you came to Christ and you really came to Christ, you were normally ostracized from your family, especially if you were HEBREW, there were all kinds of things that happened to you. The baptismal that people went to, where they’d go down to be baptized. Many times, the spies would be there watching to see who was baptized and take their lives. So it was not just like we have it so easy today, but trouble and persecution, whether it’s back then or now, come, and because of his word, he falls away. So that’s another person receives it with joy, but no faith, no root. So it’s just a, it’s just one of those quick fixes.
Folks, you can see people today, and and again, this is the danger. Whether it’s legalism pulling you away from trusting Christ, or the miracle games that are played today, where people go and get all excited, and they see somebody seems to be healed or whatever else it might be, and man, they get excited about that healing. And the pastors will sometimes say, “Oh, praise Jesus, but it’s not Jesus getting any glory. They’re the ones of the glory. Otherwise, you wouldn come back to see him all the time. And so, in final analysis, what you’re talking about is I’m the big guy. I got this special anointing from God that flows through me into you, and I just touch people, and just all kinds of things happen, and people get excited over that. So, ooh, ooh, ooh. You go out and get in some kind of trouble on your own. You see how that’s going to sustain you. You get cancer and you’re going to die. You just see how that sustains you. It’s a subtlety to pull you away from the person of Christ onto miracles, what so-called miracles, or anything else that I can get your eyes on, satan does not care what you have your eyes on as long as they are off of Jesus. And so you see a lot of people like this get all excited about something, but there’s no root.
Now, in verse 22, it says, “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is a man who hears the word, but the worries of his life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. So here’s another person. He received, but it never took root. The seed was received, but no root ever took place. You’re not talking about saved people. You’re talking about people who got excited, but no root. Received the word, but no root, nothing’s taken place, and the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it out. In other words, there again could be a prosperity gospel, couldn’t it? How many times have we heard in Timothy what Timothy says about people who teach that godliness is a means to financial gain. Timothy says anyone who teaches that godliness is a means to financial gain is a pervert. And yet, how many people today are saying, “Come to Jesus so you can be financially wealthy.” The only people getting wealthy out there, the people teaching it. But you can get into situations like that. You hear the word of God, the deceitfulness of wealth. Well, what is the deceitfulness of wealth? What is the problem with wealth? Yeah, there that is. It’s love of money that’s the root of all evil. In other words, you start depending upon that, don’t you? It it creates a false dependency, and you see. But so you don’t sit down and say, “Oh, money’s bad. No, it’s the dependency that’s bad. When whenever you are living in a dependency on something else, except who we recreated to have dependency upon, who’s Jesus, it becomes a misplaced dependency, doesn’t it? So it’s not the money that’s bad; it’s our dependency upon it. It brings me self worth. Well, if your self worth is predicated on how much money you make, what are you going to be worth when you don’t have any money? You see, and that ties in, folks, to our identity because our identity is I’m a child of God. My identity is not in what I do. My identity is in who I am. I’m a child of the living God, and we have to understand that if our dependency is upon making money for my self worth, I’ve got a misplaced dependency. That’s the problem with that: is your dependency is off. Does that happen to all people? Not all people. Not all people. I think there are people who can have money that are that literally don’t have any dependency at all on that. Their self worth isn’t based on that. Their self worth is based strictly upon being a child of God, and they use their money to perpetuate the gospel. No big deal. I think I know some people like that. I can’t can’t read the hearts of all people, but Amy and I have had a lot of exposure to people, and there’s some people that I can say that I I think that deep down their heart money’s not that big a deal to them and and that’s why they use it the way they do unbelievably generous in the proclamation in in the support of the proclamation of the gospel. But in these particular cases where that deceitfulness of wealth begins to choke out that word, and it just becomes unfruitful to you.
Now here we’re going to be talking about another group, but the one who hears and receives the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word of God and understands it. Now, folks, what was the problem at the beginning, hearing the message and not understanding it, in comparison to someone hearing the message and understanding the message. Now, to the man who hears the word, obviously receives the word, then understands the word, then puts faith in his understanding is the one who is a saved person. If you’re going to come to Christ, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by what? By the word of God. You hear the word of God, you receive the word of God. God gives you an ability to understand the Word of God, and now you put faith in what you understand, and salvation is there.
Announcer
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help, that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.