The Seed Parable:
Read Matthew 13:18-23
The Parable of the Sower concerns a sower who scatters seed, which falls on four different types of ground:
hard ground (birds ate), rocky ground, thorny ground, good ground.
25% hear but reject the gospel because of deception of the Satan.
► Birds ate seeds = deception (no faith ever took root)
75% hear and believe the gospel:
Two-thirds (66%) of those who initially believe, turn from the faith and one-third (33%) are faithful believers and produce fruit.
Zechariah's prophecy explains:
And in all the land, declares the LORD, two-thirds will be cut off and perish, but a third will be left in it.
9 This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are My people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'"
--- Zechariah 13:8-9
The seeds that fell on rocky ground and thorny ground, (66% of all believers or 50% of the total hearers) are not truly saved and fall away from faith.
The Apostle John explains why:
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
--- 1 John 2:19
The reasons in the seed parable these people turned from believing (apostasy):
► Rocky soil = persecution (some faith but did not last)
► Thorns = greed (some faith but did not last)
The Bible calls greed, idolatry. (Colossians 3:5 NASB)
All three of these reasons for not receiving or for falling away from the faith are well rooted in end time events as warned in scripture.
deception
(Colossians 2:8, James 1:16, 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 2 Thessalonians 2:10, 2 Peter 2:13, Matthew 24:4, 2 John 1:7)
persecution
(1 John 3:13, John 15:20, John 16:33, John 15:18, 1 Peter 4:12-14, Luke 6:22, Revelation 2:10, 2 Timothy 3:12)
greed
(Luke 12:15, 2 Peter 2:3, 2 Peter 2:14, 1 Timothy 6:9)
[greed includes money but also possessions like food. And food in the end times can only be obtained by those who can buy and sell - those who have the mark of the beast.]
► good soild = lasting faith that produces fruit.
Only 25% of the total hear the word, understands, and receives the Word by faith. The good soil represents the one who is truly saved.
35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
37 For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Hebrews 10:35-39