In this episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal and Jesse Schwamb conclude their three-part exploration of the Parable of the Sower, focusing on the final two soils. They examine the sobering reality of the thorny soil—where cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke out genuine faith—before unpacking the nature of the good soil that bears fruit. The discussion weaves together important theological concepts including divine regeneration, the dangers of idolatry, and what true fruitfulness in the Christian life looks like. Rather than causing believers to anxiously question their salvation, this episode offers encouraging clarity about God's sovereign work in preparing hearts to receive His Word and produce lasting spiritual fruit.

Key Takeaways

• The thorny soil represents the most deceptive and dangerous condition where the gospel message appears to take root but is ultimately choked out by worldly concerns and deceitfulness of riches.
• Fruitfulness is evidence of salvation, not its cause. The good soil bears fruit because God has prepared it, not the other way around.
• God's judgment can work through our idols by allowing them to choke out His Word in our lives when we prioritize them above Him.
• The parable isn't teaching that Christians must produce a specific quantity of fruit (30, 60, or 100-fold), but rather that genuine faith will inevitably produce some fruit.
• The "indicative precedes the imperative" in Christian life—our identity in Christ (good soil) produces the fruit of good works, not the reverse.
• Division of devotion is impossible in the Christian life—we cannot simultaneously serve God and anything else as our highest priority.
• Divine regeneration is necessary for anyone to hear and understand the Word savingly—the good soil is prepared by God Himself.

The Danger of the Thorny Soil

The thorny soil represents perhaps the most unsettling and deceptive condition in the Parable of the Sower. Unlike the path (where the seed never takes root) or the rocky soil (where it quickly withers), the seed among thorns actually establishes roots and begins to grow before being choked out. This makes it particularly frightening to contemplate—it represents those who receive the gospel with apparent sincerity and show initial growth, but ultimately prove fruitless because worldly concerns and material desires claim their ultimate devotion.

As Tony points out, "This is talking about someone who is not chosen by God. He is not the elect of God. Otherwise, the riches would not have choked out the word, but it is a divine act of judgment." The thorny soil shows us how God can use our own idols—whether wealth, career, family, or even good causes—as instruments of judgment when we elevate them to a place of supreme importance in our lives. When we attempt to serve two masters, we inevitably end up serving only one, and it will not be God.

The Nature of Good Soil and True Fruitfulness

The good soil in the parable represents those whom God has specially prepared to receive His Word. The hosts emphasize that the soil doesn't prepare itself—this is entirely God's work of regeneration. Just as a field left to itself doesn't naturally become productive farmland, no heart naturally receives the gospel without divine intervention.

Importantly, the parable doesn't teach that Christians must produce a specific quantity of fruit. Whether 30, 60, or 100-fold, the point is that genuine faith produces fruit—period. As Tony explains, "This is not a call to look at your fruit and try to figure out how much you have and if you have enough of it. The point of the parable is not, your only good soil if you produce at least 30 fold. That's overinterpreting the parable." This understanding brings freedom from anxious self-examination about whether we're "fruitful enough" and instead focuses on the fundamental reality that those whom God has regenerated will bear the fruit of Christlikeness in their lives.

Memorable Quotes

"I tend to think, as I've gotten older, but also just I think as I've learned more experientially about theology and about the faith... I don't think you can be serious enough about Jesus Christ." — Tony Arsenal

"It's not that the fruit makes the tree good. The good tree makes the good fruit... The indicative here is the good soil. The indicative is what God has done in preparing the soil." — Tony Arsenal

"The struggle is real, but it's a battle that I think is worth fighting... We've gotta do better and it's worth trying." — Jesse Schwamb

Full Transcript

Jesse Schwamb" Welcome to episode 464 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse.

Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear.

Hey brother.

Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. The band is back.

Tony Arsenal: It is. It's, and we're gonna be

Jesse Schwamb: digging through a little dirt and sifting some soil. Today on this episode. Sounded like a threat. We're gonna be digging up some dirt. I realized once it came outta my mouth, it sounded like we were, what? What did the kids say? Like, spilling the tea.

Spilling the tea. It sounded like we were gonna talk about something scandalous. Actually, maybe it is. It's a little bit scandalous. Yeah, it's not, not scandalous. Not

Tony Arsenal: that kind of scandalous. Yeah. This is not that kind of podcast.

Jesse Schwamb: Yes, that's true. If you were tuning in thinking it was that podcast, whatever that is, it's not what you're thinking.

True. It's something far better.

[00:01:21 ] Setting the Theme: Parable of the Sower

Jesse Schwamb: In fact, one of the things that it seems like we're always talking about is how the Bible makes it clear that those who make a genuine profession of faith will continue in that confession of faith. And that's really the theme on which we're about today. We're gonna be wrapping up this whole parable of the sower or the soils.

We started with the first two soils, then took a quick excursion where we went back and kinda looked at some of those things happening in the first two soils all over again. And now we're gonna close it out. So we're, we're gonna get down and dirty, not in the way that you're thinking. More, more in like a, a Matthew 13 kind of way.

All right. So yes, come meet us there. Roll up your sleeves if you wanna get your hands in the soil, that's where we're gonna be hanging out. But of course, before we do that, before we get into any kinda gardening, any kinda horticulture, any kinda seed throwing, let's first do a little affirming width or denying against.

So, Tony, I missed you last week. It was, it's always, it's never the same. Yeah. And I was always thinking, man, I need a Tony right now. So, hit us with, are you affirming with something or are you denying against something?

[00:02:24 ] Affirmations and Denials: Roman Catholicism

Tony Arsenal: I, I'm coming in hot with a denial today.

Jesse Schwamb: I, I thought you might be, I suspected,

Tony Arsenal: yeah. So I was on, uh, Twitter or I suppose they call it X Now.

That's never gonna stick in my mind. Uh, and I came across a little meme, and I don't know if it's because the pope. Is like crazy, like did this weird ice blessing thing or if it's just the algorithm. But I've been getting a ton of like Roman Catholic stuff on my, my Is a Feed. Okay. I don't even know what they call it anymore.

Uh, has been coming across my screen on, on X and I'm gonna, I'm gonna give a disclaimer here. What I'm about to describe is a meme that has a two, a second commandment violation in it. There's no way for me to describe the meme without describing the meme. So if, if you don't want to hear it, then just fast forward, hit the little, like 15 second forward button twice on your keyboard.

I, I don't feel convicted that I'm sending by describing this to you, but if you do, I understand that conviction. So feel free to skip ahead. So the meme is a picture, it's a little cartoon, it's a picture of Mary, and there's a, a, I think it's supposed to be a toddler, although it wasn't really drawn like a toddler.

There's a, a small child sort of standing behind her, grabbing her sleeve going, mom, mom, mom, obviously this is supposed to be, uh, Christ. And the caption says the first Hail Mary, right? And, and so I'm denying, first of all, like I'm denying that this meme exists because of course we shouldn't be making images of Jesus and, and.

It's flippant and all those things. Um, on on top of that, this is an encapsulation of what the Roman Catholic Church actually believes about the relationship between Christ and Mary is that Mary is essentially in charge of Christ even now. This is why the Roman Catholic Church would argue that you go to Mary to get salvation because she then gets it to, gets it for you from Jesus.

And so the meme is blasphemous like. To the nth degree on a couple different levels. Of course, it's blasphemous in that it is perpetuating a false, uh, a false understanding of the relationship between Christ and Mary, where Christ, uh, I think, I think the most technical Roman Catholic theologians would probably say like Christ as a man, although I'm not sure how they sustain that, because they actually would, would argue that, you know, they would, they would argue that the reason that,