Mat 13:1-9 | Burkitt | STEP | The foregoing chapter gave us an account of an awakening sermon preached by our Saviour to the Pharisees. In this chapter we are acquainted with the continuance of his preaching to the multitude, where three things are observable, 1. Our Lord's assiduity and unwearied diligence in preaching of the gospel; for this sermon was made the same day with that in the former chapter, ver. 1. The same day went Jesus out, and sat by the sea-side. A good pattern for the preachers of the gospel to follow. How ashamed may we be to preach once a week, when our Lord preached twice a day! Observe, 2. The place our Lord preached in, a ship, no unmeet place to preach in. It is not the place that sanctifies the ordinance, but the ordinance that sanctifies the place. Observe, 3. The manner of our Lord's preaching; It was by parables and similitudes; which was an ancient way of instruction among the Jews, and a very convincing way; at once working upon men's minds, memories, and affections; making the mind attentive, the memory retentive, and the auditors inquisitive after the interpretation of the parable. Some are of opinion that our Saviour's parables were suited to his hearers' employments, some of whom being husbandmen, he resembles his doctrine to seed sown in the field; for thus he speaks: Behold a sower went forth to sow:

Matthew 13:1-9

The foregoing chapter gave us an account of an awakening sermon preached by our Saviour to the Pharisees. In this chapter we are acquainted with the continuance of his preaching to the multitude, where three things are observable,

1. Our Lord's assiduity and unwearied diligence in preaching of the gospel; for this sermon was made the same day with that in the former chapter, ver. 1. The same day went Jesus out, and sat by the sea-side. A good pattern for the preachers of the gospel to follow. How ashamed may we be to preach once a week, when our Lord preached twice a day!

Observe, 2. The place our Lord preached in, a ship, no unmeet place to preach in. It is not the place that sanctifies the ordinance, but the ordinance that sanctifies the place.

Observe, 3. The manner of our Lord's preaching; It was by parables and similitudes; which was an ancient way of instruction among the Jews, and a very convincing way; at once working upon men's minds, memories, and affections; making the mind attentive, the memory retentive, and the auditors inquisitive after the interpretation of the parable.

Some are of opinion that our Saviour's parables were suited to his hearers' employments, some of whom being husbandmen, he resembles his doctrine to seed sown in the field; for thus he speaks:

Behold a sower went forth to sow: Matt 13:1-9

The scope of this parable is to shew, that there are four several sorts of hearers of the word, and but one sort only that hear to a saving advantage: also to shew us the cause of the different success of the word preached.

Here observe, 1. The sowers, Christ and his apostles, he the prime and principal sower, they the secondary and subordinate seedsmen. Christ sows his own field, his ministers sow his field; he sows his own seed, they sow his seed. Woe unto us, if we sow our own seed and not Christ's.

Observe, 2. The seed sown, the word of God. Fabulous legends, and unwritten traditions, which the seedsmen of the church of Rome sow, these are not seed, but chaff; or their own seed, not Christ's. Our Lord's field must be sown with his own seed, not with mixed grain.

Learn, 1. That the word of God preached is like seed sown in the furrows of the field. As seed has a fructifying virtue in it, by which it increases and brings forth more of its own kind; so has the word of God a quickening power, to regenerate and make alive dead souls.

Learn, 2. That the seed of the word, doth not thrive in all grounds alike, so neither doth the word fructify alike in the hearts of men. There is a difference both from the nature of the soil, and from the influence of the Spirit.

Learn, 3. That the cause of the word's unfruitfulness is very different, and not the same in all: in some it is the policy of Satan, that bird of prey, which follows God's plough, and steals away the precious seed.

In others, it is a hard heart of unbelief; in others, the cares of the world, like thorns, choke the word, overgrow the good seed, draw away the moisture of the earth, and the heart of the soul, and hinder the influences of the sun. The far greater part of hearers are fruitless and unprofitable hearers.

Learn, 4. That the best ground doth not bring forth fruit alike; some good ground brings forth more, and some less; some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred-fold.

In like manner a person may be a profitable hearer of the word, although he doth not bring forth so great a proportion of fruit as others, provided he brings forth as much as he can.