Assumption Of Good Soil

"And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:4-5, NKJV).

Too many preachers are adept and savvy at preaching to the choir and have adapted their sermons so as not to reach nor be sensitive to seekers and the wayward sinner.  Jesus never assumed the crowds were believing in Him and were disciples, in fact, He constantly illustrated the kingdom of God as if the audience wasn't yet in.  He was always cognizant of false disciples and pseudo-conversions.  There were always the Pharisees listening in to find something to criticize and condemn Him for.  Preachers must be cognizant of all varieties of listeners: pagans, atheists, agnostics, skeptics, seekers, newborn believers, adolescent believers, and even the seasoned believer.  Their job is to feed the sheep and the lambs as well as call the sinner to repentance; the gospel message is never passe.

What happens in too many churches is that there is the presumption of good soil when many have gotten into a worship or growth rut and are even backslidden despite their Churchianity and attendance.  The preacher must be all things to all people in a sense, knowing not who may be listening in and God may be working on or wooing through the sermon, known as the "Hound of Heaven" tracking them down. The preacher sows seed in the manner of the prototype Sower Himself, Jesus, and the seed is the Word.  The preacher who relies on the Word and its effect on souls in melting the hardened heart will be most efficacious. Jesus sees through the veneer and the Word penetrates soul and spirit convicting and softening the hardest of hearts.  The Word shall not come back void and will accomplish God's will according to Isaiah 55:11.  Jeremiah adds in Jer. 1:12 that God sees well to perform His Word.

The preacher is to be attended that gives proper place to the Word--Isaiah 8:20 says that if they speak not according to the Word, they have no truth in them!  We must not rely on the articulate, eloquent talents of the mind, but the sensitivity of the spirit to the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the soul of the congregants and attendees' needs. This is so that our faith doesn't rest in the wisdom of man nor in the education, brilliance, nor talents of man but in the spiritual gift of preaching by the power of the Spirit; as the Word says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the LORD in Zech. 4:6.

The biggest error evangelists fall prey to is assuming the lost soul is already saved--they get saved without never having had a sense of being lost.  The preacher must get them lost before getting them saved; in other words, preach the law before the gospel--the bad news of sin before the good news of grace!  The reality of the matter is that there is good soil in the church, but also rocky, weedy, and shallow soil!  There is the good seed, but also the bad seed that the devil has sown and continues to subvert God's work.  Christ has commanded that the good shall grow with the bad and we are not to do any weeding as it were to cast out the bad seed.  This means that every church likely has an enemy of Christ who has crept in unawares, even a false disciple. The preacher must sow unadulterated seed, not the Word mixed with some bad seed.  This implies sticking to the Word and being faithful to preach it according to sound doctrine.  This will save him and his hearers.

The truth may be unbearable to the hardened in the heart (rocky soil) and the sinner shouldn't feel at ease in God's house.  The church is a place to convict of sin and bring to renewal in the Spirit, setting one on the path to righteousness in the will of God.   Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!  (see Luke 5:32).  The sinner can prepare his soil but God can till the soil of the most hardened heart of stone and transform it into flesh.  We must believe in the power of the Word itself to transform lives and work miracles--the changed lives from the gospel are the best miracle we can witness.

This is why some churches don't accomplish much for the Great Commission because they have no focus on the soils.  Good soil is guaranteed to bring forth fruit!  They must not become complacent or let members get a false assurance of their salvation and comfortable in their walk, not committed to growth and service. Is it any wonder that Mahatma Gandhi said that he "likes their Christ, he doesn't like their Christians[?]" And that Nietzsche said that he would "believe in the Redeemer when the Christian looks more redeemed[?]"  The sermon should be a spiritual checkup and appraisal of one's walk and should have a message for everyone's heart.  This is precisely why the Pharisees couldn't bear His sermons: He preached to them as if they weren't saved or spiritually secure in their turf.  He threatened their job security and personal space!  It was like they were saying, "Don't you know who we are?"

This is why it's so important to prepare our hearts for the Lord's day and the sermon and not let it fall on unprepared hearts or other than good soil!   There is a grave error in assuming we are good soil and that the hard sayings of Christ don't apply to us or that we've arrived--for Paul, the apostle, said that he didn't claim to have laid hold of it yet!   But don't be discouraged, the preacher is promised that the Word will not fall on deaf ears if preached faithfully and there will be fruit, though foliage seems the immediate result.  Sooner or later, there will be results from the faithful preaching of the gospel working in the hearts of the lost--the flock need never grow tired of the gospel message but always open to new perspectives.

True preaching of the Word is as a two-edged sword:  comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Jesus will see through the veneer and false pretense!  The preacher ought to be cognizant of all soil types in the church and try to get through to the hardened, to set free the weedy, and to give substance to the shallow--there are too many believers who have exhibited a shallow conversion and exhibit their lack of salvation by falling away, proving their ultimate disloyalty and lack of faith.  The love of the world is an obstacle to faith and the preacher must not let them feel comfortable with their weeds.    No matter what the threefold enemy of the devil, the world-system, and the old sin nature or the flesh attack with--don't succumb!  The preacher is commissioned to preach the Word in spite of the soil types and let God do His thing and work miracles.      Soli Deo Gloria!