The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been under attack since the very beginning of the church. No sooner would Paul preach the Gospel and leave a church in place so that he could continue his missionary journey, other religious imposters would come in behind him and tell people that Paul was not telling the truth by omission or commission. Paul’s character was called into question and consequently the message that Paul preached was cast into question (the term today is to “throw shade”). Doubt about the person or the words of the person were raised.
Today, we have no lack of doubters throwing shade on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some believe Jesus never existed, some believe he was just a man not God, some believe he was invented by religious people to control them, some believe the idea of the Gospel is just too good to be true. For whatever reason, the Gospel does not reach most hearts. Jesus gave us the parable of the Farmer and the Seed in Matthew 7 to help us understand how the Gospel itself is true but the reception into the hearts of men and women often fails to take root. The Farmer is Jesus, four different types of soil represent the hearts of men and women. The Parable of the Sower teaches that three types of soil reject the Seed and one type is impregnated and bears fruit. The Seed is the Gospel, it is the gift of eternal life.
Three types miss the Truth of the Gospel and only one succeeds. Three types produce nothing or produce worthless weeds, one type finds fulfillment.
The Gospel is the Seed is the Truth and is Jesus Christ. Anything or anyone who tries to preach some other “gospel” is a false religion taught by false apostles. Please read the verses below and acknowledge that just as the Gospel was under attack in the first century of the church, the same is true today. The devil is real, he is a liar and he has always been an enemy of the Gospel. He deceives through the world in ways that look very attractive but in fact are very destructive. The masquerade is an attack.
That’s why Paul wrote these words below in 2 Corinthians 11:1-5, 11-15.
I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
Please read all of Matthew 13, ask the Holy Spirit to show you which type of soil you are. Consider the excellent teaching by Pastor Gary Hamrick on parables about Farmers, Seeds and Weeds in the video below.
