The Sower and the Seed

When we talk to people about the Bible, Jesus tells us we will encounter 4 different kinds of people.
In Luke Chapter 8, Jesus spoke of them in the “Parable of the Sower and the Seed. “One day Jesus told a story in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him:  “A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants.  Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted!” When he had said this, he called out, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”  His disciples asked him what this parable meant.  He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they look, they won’t really see. When they hear, they won’t understand.’ 
Jesus goes on to explain what His Parable meant:
“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word.  The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.  
This type of person hears the Word of God, but rejects it, they don’t believe it and want nothing to do with it.
The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation.  
This type of person likes what they hear, but fall right back into their old sin, and quickly turn away from the Gospel.
The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.  
This type of person hears the message about Jesus but cares more about their own life. They are more interested in pleasing themselves than they are pleasing God.
And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.
This type of person hears the Gospel and tries to please God. They understand what God wants from them.
So what does it mean to please God and understand what He wants from us?
Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”
We can see here that the first 3 types of people are not true followers of Christ. They do not put God first, they cling to their own life, possessions and desires. Jesus warns us that if you cling to your life, you will lose it.
Many people view God as all loving and all inclusive. They say that we are all God’s children, but they are wrong. Yes, God was all loving and all inclusive when Jesus died on the cross, He did if for everyone. However, that does not mean we are all going to Heaven. The Bible teaches is in Nahum1:2-3, “The Lord is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and rage. He takes revenge on all who oppose him and continues to rage against his enemies! The Lord is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished.”
1 Peter 2:8 says, “He is the stone that makes people stumble,
the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.”
If we believe that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, (2 Timothy 13:16-17) then we can’t ignore God’s warnings. Many people create God into their own image. They want God to be who they think He should be. If you think everything you do in life is okay with God, you should be concerned.
There are a lot of people who claim to be Christians but do not believe the Bible is infallible.  They believe the Bible is just a book written by men and is full of errors.  This group, although they may use verses from the Bible to prove a point, they will also discard the parts of the Bible that condemn the things they do that are considered sinful.  Many people use Mark 12:31 which says, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”  They stop there to prove their point.  If you disagree with them, they usually claim you are spreading hate.  Of course, the Bible does say we are supposed to love our neighbors, BUT, if you back up one verse, this is what the Bible really says, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
So loving your neighbor is not our first commandment, it is second.  What does it mean to love God?  John 14:23-24 says: “Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”
Romans 1:21-25, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.
Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 7, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it...Watch out for false prophets. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.”
Proverbs 14:12 teaches us, “There is a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death.” I understand how it is so easy to accept that we are who we are. It may seem right, and feel right, but it doesn’t make it right. If our first priority is justifying what we do, putting our pleasures first, we are not on the right path.
I urge you to read 2 Peter Chapter 2 and look closely at your life and your decisions. It doesn’t matter what man says or tries to convince you to believe. In the end, it is going to be you and God, face to face. Who did you trust, and who did you believe, God or man? This is not a test run, this is the real thing. You can disregard God’s warnings, and interpret the Bible to mean whatever you want it to mean, but that doesn’t mean you are right. Ask yourself this one question. What if you are wrong?

(please read this very carefully)
2 Peter 2 “ But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. 3 In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed. 4 For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell,[a] in gloomy pits of darkness,[b] where they are being held until the day of judgment. 5 And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. 6 Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. 7 But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. 8 Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. 9 So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. 10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority.  These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings  without so much as trembling. 11 But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings. 12 These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. 13 Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. 14 They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. 15 They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. 16 But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. 17 These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. 18 They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. 19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. 20 And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. 21 It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. 22 They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.”[g] And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”