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The Soil of the Soul: Investigating the Roots of True Faith (Matthew 13:18-23) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. I am so glad you have decided to
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join us today. We are two Protestant Christians
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and our goal here is, well, it's pretty simple.
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We want to open up the Bible and see what is actually there,
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rather than what we might assume is there.
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We do that by looking through the lens of Reformed theology
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and the Westminster Confession, which we believe helps keep us
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on the rails. It's good to be here.
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And today we are tackling a text that is, I mean, it's arguably
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one of the most familiar passages in the entire New
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Testament. I would absolutely agree with
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that if you grew up in church or even if you just went to, you
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know, vacation Bible school a couple of times as a kid.
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You know this one. It's the parable of the sower
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from Matthew, chapter 13. Oh, yeah.
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I can almost see the felt board characters in my head right now.
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You got the farmer, the little yellow seeds, the birds, the
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sun. It just feels like a children's
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story. And that's the danger with
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classics, isn't it? We stop really hearing them.
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We categorize them as simple, or maybe for the kids.
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But if we actually slow down and look at what Jesus is doing in
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Matthew 13, this isn't a sweet story about agriculture.
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No, it isn't gardening advice. It is a definitive.
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And honestly, it's a quite terrifying diagnosis of the
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human heart. Terrifying is a strong word.
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I use it intentionally. The sources we're looking at
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today make a compelling case that this parable isn't just an
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illustration, it is a judgement, and the stakes couldn't be
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higher. We aren't talking about how to
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have a better life now, we're talking about salvation.
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Right, eternal life. We are talking about the
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difference between a true faith that leads to heaven and a false
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profession that leads to destruction.
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So the mission for this discussion then, is to really
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define those spakes. Because when I read this, I see
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attention. You have the sower going out to
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sow He's throwing the seed everywhere.
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So you have the exact same gospel being preached to
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everyone. Correct the same message.
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But the results are all over the map.
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One guy hears it and yawns, another guy hears it, gets
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really excited but then quits, another gets too busy and
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another guy actually changes. Why?
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I mean, if the message is the same, why is the outcome so
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different? That is the question of the
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ages, isn't it? And the text gives us the
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answer. The variable is never the seed.
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The Word of God is constant. It is perfect.
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It has inherent life in it. The variable is always the soil.
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It's the condition of the human heart, always.
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And our thesis for this deep dive is that true participation
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in the Kingdom of God isn't defined by how you feel in a
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moment. It isn't defined by raising your
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hand or walking down an aisle. It is defined by enduring fruit
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from a regenerate heart. That's it.
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It just comes down to life. Does the seed actually produce
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life? OK, before we get into the dirt,
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literally, we need to set the scene.
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Our sources really stressed that Matthew 13 is a massive turning
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point in the Gospel of Matthew. It's a pivot.
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Where are we historically when Jesus tells this story?
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Geographically, we're at the Sea of Galilee.
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There's actually a place there that tradition calls the Bay of
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Parables. It's this natural Amphitheatre
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shape in the coastline. I've heard about this.
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Yeah, the acoustics are apparently perfect.
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You can push a boat out a little away and a person speaking from
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the water can be heard clearly by thousands of people on the
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shore, all without a microphone. So you can picture the scene,
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Jesus is in the boat bobbing on the water.
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The crowds are just packed on the beach.
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The mood isn't a picnic, it's tense.
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To understand why, you have to look at what happened just
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before this. In Matthew chapters 11 and 12,
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Jesus has been performing these incredible miracles.
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He's casting out demons. He's healing the sick.
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He is offering the Kingdom to the nation of Israel on a silver
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platter. And how did the leadership
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respond to that? Badly.
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I mean really badly. They didn't just ignore him in
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chapter 12. The Pharisees, the religious
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elite, they made a formal decision.
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They watched Jesus cast out a demon and they say he does this
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by the power of Beelzebub, the Prince of demons.
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Wait, hold on. They attributed the work of the
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Holy Spirit to the devil. They did.
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It's the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
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It was a hard, official rejection of the king.
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It was the point of no return for that generation of
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leadership. So when Jesus sits down in the
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boat in chapter 13, everything has changed.
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The offer of the Kingdom to the nation as a political entity is
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being withdrawn. He shifts his ministry style
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completely. And that shift involves
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parables. Now, I have to be honest with
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you. I grew up hearing that Jesus
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used parables to make things easier to understand.
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You know, let me tell you a story so you get it.
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Like a preacher using a sermon illustration.
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That is the common view. It's very popular, but it is,
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well, it's incorrect. How can it be incorrect?
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That seems so intuitive. Because Jesus explicitly says
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the opposite, and the disciples are confused too.
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They come to him in verse 10 and ask why do you speak to them in
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parables? Now think about that.
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If the purpose was clarity, they wouldn't have asked that
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question. No, they would have said.
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Thanks for the great illustrations.
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Right, that really cleared things up, but they're
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scratching their heads. So what does Jesus say?
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What's his answer? He says to you, It has been
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given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven, but to them
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it has not been given. And then he says He speaks in
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parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not
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understand. That sounds incredibly harsh.
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You're saying Jesus told stories specifically so people wouldn't
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understand him? It is a form of judgement.
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It connects directly back to Isaiah chapter 6.
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Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah. When a people persistently
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rejects the light, God eventually gives them twilight.
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He gives them teaching that confirms their hardness.
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The parable acts as a filter. A filter?
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How so? Yes, if you have a heart that
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has been opened by God, a heart that wants to know the truth,
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the parable is a window. It opens up deep spiritual
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reality. But if your heart is hard, if
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you've already rejected him, the parable is just a confusing
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story about agriculture. It veils the truth from you.
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This brings up a theological concept that we love in the
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Reformed tradition, but it could be a hard pill to swallow given
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knowledge. It's right there in the text.
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To you it has been given. This is pure monarchism.
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Let's pause on that word, monarchism.
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Break that down for us because we use it a lot, but I want to
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make sure everyone is on the same page.
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Of course it comes from Greek. Mono means 1 and ergon means
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work, one worker. In the context of salvation or
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spiritual understanding, it means that God is the sole
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active agent in regenerating the heart.
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So we don't cooperate with him in our new birth.
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No, we don't help him do it. We are spiritually dead.
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The corpse can't help a doctor resuscitate it.
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God does the work alone. And the opposite of that would
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be synergism. Right, synergism is working
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together, but in this passage Jesus makes it so clear.
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The reason the disciples understand and the Pharisees
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don't isn't because the disciples are smarter.
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It isn't because they have higher IQ's or better moral
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character. Not at all.
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No, it is because God gave them ears to hear.
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Receptivity is a gift from God. So we're in this specific time
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period. Our sources call it the mystery
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form of the Kingdom. What does that mean for us
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sitting here today? It explains the world we live
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in. The Jews expected the Messiah to
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come crush the Romans and set up a physical throne in Jerusalem.
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Immediately they wanted a political conquest.
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But Jesus is saying no, not yet. Right?
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The King is going away and in this inter advent age that's the
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time between his first coming and his second coming.
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The Kingdom is going to advance differently.
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It's not advancing by the sword, no.
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It advances by sewing. It advances by the word of God
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entering human hearts 1 by 1. This is really, really key
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because it corrects some big errors we see in the church
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today. Like what?
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What kind of errors? Well, think about the social
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gospel, the idea that we can build the Kingdom just by fixing
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societal structures or feeding the poor.
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Now, those are good things. Christians should do them.
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But they aren't the Kingdom. They're the.
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Effects the Kingdom. Maybe.
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Or think about the Reconstructionist view, where
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some people think Christians need to take over the government
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and all the cultural institutions to bring in the
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Kingdom. You see that a lot in politics
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from different angles. You do, but this parable
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corrects that. It says the Kingdom is like a
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farmer throwing seed. It is a spiritual reality
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growing in the midst of a fallen world.
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Wheat and weeds growing together until the harvest.
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OK, so the method is sowing the seed is the word.
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Now we have to look at the target, the soil.
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Jesus gives us 4 scenarios and honestly they function like a
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mirror. We need to look into them.
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Let's look at the first one, the path.
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The text calls it the wayside. Help us visualize this.
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This isn't just a field that hasn't been plowed yet, is it?
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No, not at all. The Greek word is hodos.
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It means a road or a highway. In ancient Palestine, the fields
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were these long strips, and in between them you had these
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narrow paths where the farmers walked, where the donkeys
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walked, where the carts rolled. So it's compacted, hard packed
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Earth. It is like concrete.
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It's beaten down by years and years of traffic.
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So when the sower throws the seed and some of it lands on
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this path, what happens? It can't penetrate, it can't get
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in. It just sits there on the
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surface, exposed. So what does this represent
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spiritually? Who is the path person?
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This is the hardened heart, and I think we need to be careful
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not to just picture an angry atheist who hates God.
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That's one type, sure, but the traffic that hardens the heart
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can be many things. Our notes mentioned the traffic
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of sin. Certainly, if you live a life of
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unrepentant sin, your heart gets calloused.
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But it can also be the traffic of secular philosophy, just
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constantly absorbing the world's way of thinking until it's your
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default. And here's the scary one.
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It can be the traffic of religious traditionalism.
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That is ironic. You're saying that going to
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church can make you a path? Absolutely, 100%.
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You can sit in the Pew for 30 years.
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You know the hymns, you know the liturgy, you know all the
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jargon, but the Gospel never actually penetrates.
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You've built up a hard shell of. I know this already.
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You're not listening to be changed.
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No. You're critiquing the sermon.
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You're judging the music. You're thinking about what's for
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lunch. You are impervious.
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The text says this person hears the word but does not understand
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it. Now going back to our Greek word
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siniyami, this isn't an intelligence issue, right?
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Not at all. You can be a theologian with
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three pH DS and be the path Siniyami means to bring
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together. It implies A moral and spiritual
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alignment. It means grasping the truth as
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truth that has a claim on your life.
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So it's about reception, not just comprehension.
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Exactly the path here understands the grammar, but he
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hates the implication it connects to total depravity.
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First Corinthians 2.1 Teen The natural man does not accept the
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things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him and.
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Because the sea just sits there on the surface, exposed.
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Something happens. The birds come.
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The birds. It sounds like a nice nature
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scene, but Jesus identifies the birds explicitly.
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He says the wicked one comes Satan.
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The Greek verb here is harpaze. Tell us about that.
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Yes, and it is a violent word. It means to snatch, to seize by
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force. It's not a gentle pecking.
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It implies a sudden aggressive theft.
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This really changes how I view a Sunday morning service.
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It should. It tells us that preaching is
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spiritual warfare. When the word is opened, it is
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an invasion of enemy territory. Satan is not passive.
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He sees that seed sitting on the surface of a hard heart, and he
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knows it has power. He knows if it sits there too
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long, it might find a crack. So he sends the birds.
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And the birds are distractions, doubts.
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Distractions. Doubts.
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Sudden hostility. Pride.
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Have you ever listened to a sermon, felt a moment of real
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conviction, and then 5 minutes later you're in the parking lot
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arguing about where to go for lunch and that conviction is
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completely gone? All the time.
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More than I'd like to admit. That is the birds.
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That is the enemy snatching the Word before it can germinate.
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The pastoral warning here is severe.
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You can be around the gospel your whole life, hearing it
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every week, but if your heart is a highway, you are in grave,
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grave danger. That is the hard heart.
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Now we move to the second soil and I'll be honest, this one
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scares me. This is the rocky ground.
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The shallow heart. This is the one that looks the
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most promising at the start. It's the most deceptive.
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Let's get the geology right first.
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I used to think this meant soil that had a bunch of loose rocks
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in it. Like if you just pick the rocks
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out it would be fine soil. That's what I thought too, but
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that isn't the terrain Jesus is describing.
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In that region, you often have a solid shelf of limestone bedrock
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just below the surface, and on top of that bedrock there's a
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very thin layer of earth, maybe an inch or two deep.
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So it looks like good soil from the top, Yeah, You wouldn't know
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the rock is there. Exactly.
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You can't see the rock, so the seed falls and it sinks into
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that thin layer, and then you get what the sources call a
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hothouse effect. The sun beats down the rock
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underneath holds the heat, and the soil gets incredibly warm.
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So the sea just explodes upward. It germinates faster than all
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the other seeds. If you were walking by the field
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a week later, you look at this plant and say, wow, look at that
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one. That is the best believer in the
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bunch. So much growth, so fast.
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And Jesus uses a specific word to describe their response.
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Euphese immediately. Immediately he receives it with
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joy. We love that in our modern
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church culture, don't we? We love the immediate response,
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the tears at the altar, the emotional high, the I'm all in
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attitude on day one. We do.
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We celebrate the start, we count the decisions.
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But Jesus is warning us that we often mistake the immediacy of
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the response for the reality of the conversion.
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This soil represents the impulsive, emotional hearer,
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right? They love the idea of Jesus.
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They love the community. They love the music.
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They love the relief of forgiveness, but there is a
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fatal flaw. He has no root in himself.
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No root. That is the diagnosis.
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In theological terms, the root is vital union with Christ.
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It's regeneration. It's a new nature.
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This person has had a psychological experience, an
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emotional one. They have felt what the
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Westminster Confession calls the common operations of the Spirit.
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They have tasted the heavenly gift, but the heart of stone,
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that bedrock of their old nature underneath, was never broken up
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by God. This brings up a massive debate.
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We see in the evangelical circles the whole idea of the
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carnal Christian. The idea that you can accept
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Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. That you can be genuinely saved,
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but live a life completely indistinguishable from the
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world. Right, You hear people say,
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well, Bob got saved at youth camp 20 years ago.
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Sure, he's living with his girlfriend now.
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He's drinking too much, he never goes to church.
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But he's saved. He's just carnal.
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This parable absolutely devastates that idea.
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Look at what happens to the plant.
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It doesn't just stop growing. It doesn't just become a carnal
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plant. It Withers, it dies, it burns
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up. If the plant ties, there is no
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fruit. If there is no fruit, there was
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no life to begin with. The parable teaches that there
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is no such thing as a born again person who is permanently
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rootless and fruitless. Temporary faith is not saving
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faith. So what kills this plant?
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What exposes the lack of root? The Son, but not just any Son,
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Jesus says when tribulation or persecution arises because of
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the Word. I think that because of the word
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part is key, isn't it? It is everything.
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This isn't just general suffering.
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This isn't getting a flat tire or getting the flu.
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Unbelievers get the flu. This is suffering specifically
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because you identify with Jesus and His Word.
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So social ostracization, losing a promotion because you won't
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lie for the company, family tension over your new beliefs.
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Exactly. The sun rises.
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Now for the rooted plant, the sun is good.
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It causes photosynthesis, it helps it grow stronger.
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But for the rootless plant, the sun is fatal.
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When following Jesus starts to cost this person something real,
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they fold. The Greek word is gandalizi.
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They are scandalized, they're offended.
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They feel tricked. Wait a minute.
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I thought Jesus was going to fix my marriage and make me happy
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and successful. I didn't sign up for the cross.
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I didn't sign up to be hated by the culture.
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So they fall away. They fall away and the text
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makes it clear they didn't lose their salvation.
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They never had it. As John says in his first
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letter, Chapter 2, They went out from us, but they were not of
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us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with
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us. Endurance is the proof.
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That is a heavy mirror to look into.
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Am I just here for the good feelings?
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Will I still be here when it gets hard?
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It is a necessary question, but now we have to move to the third
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soil, and if the rocky ground is the danger of the new convert,
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this next one is, I think, the danger of the established
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churchgoer. Soil #3 A thorny ground.
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The divided heart. Talk to us about thorns.
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Where do they come from theologically?
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They come from the curse. You have to go back to Genesis 3
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when Adam fell. God said to him, Cursed is the
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ground because of you thorns and thistles it shall bring forth
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for you. Corns are natural to the fallen
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world. You don't have to cultivate
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weeds. No, you don't have to water them
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or fertilize them. They just show up.
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They are the default state of fallen ground.
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This soil is different from the rocky ground, though, in its
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composition. Yes, this soil actually has
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depth. It is soft enough.
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The plow went deep enough so the seed gets in, It germinates.
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It puts down roots. The problem isn't lack of depth.
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The problem is that it's crowded.
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It is double planted. It's the double minded man
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trying to serve 2 masters. And Jesus names the two agents
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that kill this plant. And this is where we really need
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to pay attention, especially those of us in the West.
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The first agent is the cares of the world.
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The Greek word is marimna. Which means to be drawn in
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different directions. It's anxiety, it's distraction.
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It's the tyranny of the urgent. It is interesting that Jesus
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doesn't list, you know, big obvious sins here.
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He doesn't say heroin addiction or bank robbery jokes.
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The word he says cares. That is the trap.
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These are lawful things. Paying the mortgage, getting the
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kids to soccer practice, planning for retirement,
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managing your career. None of these things are evil in
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themselves, but when they become the dominant concern of your
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life, they become thorns. They crowd out the word.
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They take all the nutrition a plant needs, time, light and
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nutrients to grow. If your career takes 80 hours a
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week and your hobbies and entertainment take the rest, and
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your anxiety about the future takes all your mental energy,
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what is left for the word? Nothing.
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Nothing. The plant starves.
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And the second agent is even more specific.
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The deceitfulness of riches. Apatu 2 Ploto The deception of
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wealth, I want to ask you, why does Jesus call money deceitful?
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How does money lie to us? Well, it promises things it
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can't deliver. It says if you just have a
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little more of me, you will be safe.
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You'll be secure, right? You will be happy, you will be
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significant, people will respect you.
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Those are all lies. We all know people who have
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plenty of money and are miserable, anxious and deeply
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insecure. Wealth promises freedom, but it
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often brings the slavery of worrying about it.
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This feels like a direct shot at the prosperity gospel.
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It absolutely is. Think about it.
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The prosperity gospel teaches you to cultivate the thorns.
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It tells you that financial abundance is the primary sign of
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God's favor. It tells you to chase wealth and
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possessions in Jesus name. So it is telling you to water
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the very weeds that will choke your soul.
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Precisely. It is the theology of
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strangulation. It's spiritual malpractice.
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That is the mechanism, right? Strangulation.
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The Greek word is symptionary. It means to choke together.
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It is active warfare in the soil of your heart.
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The weeds are aggressive. If you do not actively weed your
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garden, if you are not ruthless with your schedule and your
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affections and your priorities, the weeds will win.
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They always win by default. And the result for this person,
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the thorny ground person. Octos unfruitful.
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And again, to be clear, unfruitful means.
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Unsaved, we have to be clear on this.
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Fruit is the only undeniable evidence of life.
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You cannot be a Christian who is so dominated by the world, by
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anxiety, by the love of money, that there is no spiritual
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fruit. You cannot serve God and Mammon.
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This is the mirror that scares me the most.
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Personally. I look at my calendar, I look at
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my budget, and I have to ask, is the word of God getting choked
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out in my own life? It is the great danger of
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affluence and comfort. We are choking on our own
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prosperity. So you have the hard heart, the
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shallow heart, and the divided heart.
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It's pretty bleak so far, but finally we get to the good soil.
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The regenerate heart, thank God. Now we need to apply our
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reformed framework here. Why is this soil good?
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Is it because this guy was just a naturally better person?
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More noble? No, that would be pelagianism.
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That would mean we have the natural ability within us to
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please God. But remember, the ground is
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cursed. The natural heart is stone.
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It's a path. It's rocky.
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It's thorny by nature. So how to get good?
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The husbandman made it good. The farmer plowed the path.
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The farmer came with a pickaxe and broke the rock.
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The farmer got on his hands and knees and pulled the thorns.
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This is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit.
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It connects right to Ezekiel 36.26 and I will remove the
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heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh,
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yes. It is effectual calling, as the
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confession describes it. God creates the condition for
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the seed to grow, so the credit for the good soil goes entirely
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to the sower, not the dirt. But look at the description of
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this person. Jesus says he hears the word and
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understands it. We're back to that word, Sinemi,
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but here it's effectual. It's not just data entry in the
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brain, It is a synthesis of the mind and the will.
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This person hears the Gospel, understands their desperate need
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for it, and embraces it with their whole being.
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And the result is inevitable. He indeed bears fruit.
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The grammar is strong, it isn't a maybe.
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If there is life, there will be growth.
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This guards US against the other great error, anti pneumonianism.
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The idea that you can have faith without works, that you can be
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saved but not changed, no justification is by faith alone.
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But the faith that justifies is never alone.
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It always, always brings sanctification in its train.
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But Jesus adds a detail here that I find so incredibly
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comforting and pastoral. He talks about the yield, He
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says, some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30.
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I love this detail. It is a beautiful display of
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God's sovereignty in distributing gifts and
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opportunities. Because we tend to compare,
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don't we? We look at the Super Christian,
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we look at the missionary who dies a martyr or the famous
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preacher who reaches thousands, and we think that's a
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hundredfold. I'm just, I'm just a mom raising
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kids, or I'm just an accountant trying to be honest in my work,
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or I'm just suffering with a chronic illness and trying not
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to complain. That might be a thirtyfold
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yield. And Jesus calls it good soil.
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That is the point. The thirtyfold yield is genuine
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life. It is real fruit.
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It is acceptable and pleasing to God.
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The weary St. needs to hear this.
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You don't have to be the Apostle Paul, you just have to be
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faithful where God has planted you.
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That's right, the quantity of the fruit varies based on God's
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Providence and the gifts He has given you, but the quality of
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the fruit is the same. What is that quality?
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What does the shoot actually look like in a person's life?
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It looks like Galatians 5. Lovejoy, Peace, patience,
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kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
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self-control. If those things are growing in
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your life, even if it seems slow, even if you stumble, that
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is evidence that the root is real.
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So we've walked through the four soils, we have seen the path,
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the rocks, the thorns and the good ground.
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Now we need to put this all together.
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What is the big theological picture here?
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It's a picture of salvation that holds 2 critical things together
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in tension. First, it shows us that
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salvation is of the Lord. He provides the seed, He
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prepares the soil. It is his work from beginning to
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end. Monarchism.
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But it also shows human responsibility.
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It does. We are warned.
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We are told. He who has ears, let him hear.
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We are responsible for how we listen.
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We are responsible to guard our hearts against the thorns and
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the birds. And it speaks to the doctrine of
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perseverance. This is crucial.
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This parable does not teach that you can lose your salvation.
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That would contradict so much of the rest of Scripture.
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What it teaches is that in endurance is the proof of
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salvation. False starts look like real.
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Starts exactly the rocky ground looked real for a week.
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The thorny ground might have looked real for years until the
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harvest came and there was nothing on the stock, but only
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the good soil endued to the end. As the reformers used to say,
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faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw from the
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first. That is catchy, but it stings a
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little. It is meant to sting.
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It is meant to wake us up from a false security.
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So let's use these soils as a diagnostic tool.
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Our sources suggest using them as mirrors.
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I want to hold up each mirror for our listener and for
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ourselves. Let's do it.
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OK, mirror #1 the path. Ask yourself, am I sitting here
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right now listening to this and feeling nothing but resistance?
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Am I critiquing the way the host talks?
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Am I judging the theology? Am I putting up a wall of I
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already know this? If so, realize that the birds
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are circling. The enemy wants to steal this
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truth from you right now. Mirror #2 the Rocks.
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Ask yourself, is my faith-based on an emotional experience?
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Do I live for the spiritual high?
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Did I walk an aisle years ago? But my life hasn't fundamentally
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changed. When things get hard, when my
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friends make fun of my faith, or when I lose a job, do I blame
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God and threaten to quit? Am IA fair weather Christian?
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Mirror #3 The thorns. This is the big one for most of
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us, I think. I think so too.
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Ask yourself, what am I cultivating?
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Be honest. Look at your calendar.
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Look at your bank statement. Look at your screen.
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Time is the word of God being choked out by the lawful cares
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of this life. Do I love my comfort, my career,
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my financial security more than I love Christ?
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And finally, mirror #4 the good soil.
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Ask yourself, is there fruit? Not am I perfect?
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That's the wrong question. But is there growth?
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Do I love what God loves more than I did last year?
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Do I hate my sin more than I used to?
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Is there patience where there used to be anger?
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Is there generosity where there used to be greed?
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If you see even a little bit of that 30 fold fruit, take heart.
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That is God at work in you. I.
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Have one last question. Suppose I look in the mirror and
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I see rocks or I see a massive patch of thorns.
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I realize, wow, I am joking. What do I do?
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Because we said the soil can't change itself, the dirt can't
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pick up a plow. That is the beauty of the law
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and the gospel working together. The law, this parable diagnosis
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us. It exposes our helplessness.
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It shows us we are barren. But that despair is meant to
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drive us to the sower we. Cry out to him.
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We cry out, we pray. Lord, I am rocky ground, please
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break my heart of stone. Lord, I am full of thorns.
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Please come and weed my garden. I can't do it myself.
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We appeal to the husbandmen. And we look to Christ.
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We look to Christ because ultimately He is the only true
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good soil. He's the one who obeyed the
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Father perfectly. He is the one who bore the fruit
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of righteousness for us. And notice this, He is the one
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who took the thorns. Literally.
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Literally, He wore a crown of thorns on the cross.
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He took the curse of the thorny ground upon himself so that our
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Grand could be cleared and made fruitful.
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We only bear fruit because we are grafted into Him, the true
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vine. That it's a beautiful place to
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land. It really leaves no middle
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ground, does it, This parable? None at all.
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It is fruit or fire. The King is ruling now through
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his words sown in hearts. The question is, are we
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receiving it? Here is a provocative thought to
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leave you with today. We naturally want to protect our
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thorns. They're comfortable.
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Our money, our status, our distractions.
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We like them, we tend to water them.
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But if Christ is king, he demands we weed the garden.
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The. Question left for every listener
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is this. If the master inspected your
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field today, right now, would he find a harvest or would he just
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find a really busy patch of weeds?
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Don't rest on a decision you made 20 years ago.
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Rest in the present Christ. Check your roots.
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Look for the fruit. Thanks for listening to Reform
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Thinking. Grace and peace.
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We'll see you next time.