Luke 8:4-15

Let me invite you to turn with me to the book of Luke once more. Chapter 8. We introduced this chapter last week. But I want to look at verses 4 to 15 as a whole unit this morning as we consider the parable of the sower from this passage of Scripture. beginning with verse 4 Luke 8 4 and when much people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city he spoke by a parable a sewer went out to sow his sea and as he sowed some fell by the wayside and it was troddened down and the fowls of the air devoured it and some fell upon a rock and as soon as it was sprung up it withered away because it lacked moisture and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it another fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit a hundredfold and when he had said these things he cried he that hath ears to hear let him hear. And his disciples ask him saying, what might this parable be? And he said, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables that seeing they might not see, in hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this. the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear then cometh the devil and take the way the word out of their hearts thus they should believe and be said. They on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy and these have no root. which for a while believe, and in time of temptation, fall away. And that which fell among thorns, are they which, when they have heard, go forth and are choked with cares and riches and riches and pleasures of this life. And bring no fruit perfection. But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. May God bless to us is sacred and holy word this morning. Now in our previous study in verses 1 to 3, you recall that we talked to about the importance of preaching. Christ here put a primacy upon it, and we see how diligent Jesus was in preaching the gospel. He was called to do this. The Spirit of God was upon him to preach, as the scriptures have already revealed from Luke Chapter 4. Now we see the comparative side to this. Christ provides a warning to the multitude about how they hear the Word of God here in these verses before us this morning. While many we see were eager to hear what Jesus had to say and came from all different parts of the land to gather around Christ, Christ, most were not equally desirous to actually follow his instructions or to receive them. Jesus knew the hearts of men, and therefore he provides for us here a teaching with regard to four types of hearers. The parable the sower has a universal application to it. and what Christ has said here certainly has relevance for today in how we or others might hear the Word of God as it is preached. Good preaching is important. But guess what? So is right hearing of the Word of God. So our topic this morning is your reaction to the Word of God. So we’ve talked about the primacy of preaching, and now we’re going to talk about how we hear it. Now let me begin by saying this. You should ponder the various symbols here that are used in this parable. A farmer here is seen as sowing his field. Now the parable. The Bible speaks of that ancient method of sowing a field by hand. I don’t have all the cultivating equipment that we have today and the sewing equipment and so forth. Each field is surrounded by a hard path, which Christ calls in this passage of scripture the wayside here in Luke. In other places, it’s a hard path, but here it’s the wayside. Now this path. path was used for bringing all the cultivating equipment in the plows and perhaps the horses and the oxen and so forth went on this path into the different fields it would be walked on all the time and it was the way that they would get into the different fields that they were divided up and you’d follow the path through so they could get to the fields that they were working In the fall of the year, after the early rains had softened the soil and the farmer had plowed it up, then he would go out with a pouch on his side filled with seed in it in it in order to sow the fields now that have been plowed. Walking over the cultivated land, he’d reach into his pocket, grab a handful of the fields. barley or wheat or spelt or oats or whatever the case may be and he would broad keep just throw it throw it out broadcast it if you would into the area of the field that’s plowlown the scattered seed then would land in all kinds of different places there’s different areas the ground isn’t all the same even though it may look somewhat similar some you know it’s different than the other and because of the lightness of the seed and maybe there’s a breeze some of it would get blown off the edge of the cultivated part onto the hard ground the wayside if you would and so this is the picture that we have everybody at this time would be familiar with this there’s nothing here that’s unusual it’s very common for people to know exactly what he’s talking about at least from a human perspective when he talks about sewing a field everybody could relate to this particular type of parable it’s an earthly teaching but it has a spiritual heavenly meaning now what is the interpretation here then of the symbols that are used in this parable For example, let’s talk with about, start with, about who is the sower? Who is the sower of the seed? Who’s the farmer in this particular parable? Well, if you consider the context of the parable, you read verses one to three, who is the one who’s doing the preaching? It’s Christ who’s doing the preaching. He’s going everywhere, preaching. People are coming to him to hear him, and therefore he is engaged in the preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God as we studied in chapter 8, verse 1. And much people were gathered to hear him, verse 4. Now in this setting, therefore, Jesus is the farmer. He’s the one who’s broadcasting the message of the gospel. In Luke’s account of this parable, we’re specific. specifically told. Jesus specifically says, He that soweth the good seed is the son of man. Matthew 1337. Very specific. But here we can pretty much put it together logically. He’s the one who’s spreading the seed. Far and wide. Different cities, different villages, wherever he all throughout the land, the soil, so to speak, is being sunk with the seed of the work, widely. This is why Jesus has traveled throughout Galilee and different places to preach the gospel. Even remote locations, even smaller villages, rural areas. He’s preaching there too. But under the authority of Christ, we should realize that all who preach the gospel really are considered as sowing the seed also. Jesus is the primary one here in this parable. But we know from scripture, that Jesus will later say to his disciples, in reference to the labors of preachers, our Lord says, one soweth and another eateth. Paul would say to the Corinthians, we have sown unto you spiritual things. You know, I come and I preach to you about the things of God. I’ve sown. The sower, therefore, in general terms, would encompass the preaching of the church. not only just ahead of the church, but the church itself. And as my father has sent me, so said I you, he said to the disciples. And so we have the same idea. They too would carry the gospel as he had. So he has the focus right now. But in a sense, we should see this in realizing the universal scope of this parable, that it would apply to anyone who hears. is the word of God preached. So the sower is Jesus Christ and really all preachers. What is the seed? Well, again, Jesus tells us very plainly here in verse 11, the seed is the word of God. No mystery there. It’s pretty straightforward. It’s the word of God. And therefore, the seed, while encompassing the gospel, which is the primary aspect of the, the preaching would include really the whole council of God, all of Scripture that’s preached. Jesus himself made it very clear that all the Word of God relates to Him, relates truth about Him. In beginning at Moses, in all the prophets, he expounded under them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself, Luke 2427. So, really, when we think about it, all the Scripture in some way or another is going to point us to Christ and has a gospel element in it. And therefore, we should always consider all the Scripture useful when it comes to the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, primary focus is on the gospel, but all Scripture relates to Christ, and all Scripture, therefore, has a gospel. aspect to it. So Peter states here that the seed of the word brings people to the new birth. Remember what he said in 1.23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God. This seed of the word of God is a living seed. Now the strange thing about planting seeds is if you have a seed, you can hold it in a bag forever, it seems like, and nothing’s going to happen. You have to plant it. It has to be planted and watered, and all of a sudden, it springs to life. It has life within it, if you would. And Christ is saying here that the word of God, it’s a lively word because it comes from God himself. He makes it life. I read an interesting story about a sealed vase that was discovered by archaeologists as they were excavating a mummy pit in Egypt. And in this vase were a few grains of wheat and some really hard peas. I mean, they were like rocks. About 3,000 years old, they estimated. They decided they would plant. the peas and lo and behold they planted these peas on June 4th 1844 within 30 days a pea plant came up there was still life within that seed after all those years it was just it was there and so there’s a sense in which that’s true with the Word of God and so it’s a very interesting way to portray the Word of God isn’t it the word of God is living and powerful because it’s the word of God himself and he makes it so. So the seed here is implanted by God in the very hearts of those who savingly hear it. And they embrace the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So what is the seed? It is the word of God. And we see perhaps why he calls it. a seed and why it’s similar to a seed. What are the soils? What’s obvious if we look carefully again at the parable? This is one of the wonderful things about the Word of God. If you compare scripture with Scripture, it often tells you the answer that you need to know. When we get down to verse 12, it’s very clear that the soil is the heart of man. Because the Bible says here, Those by the wayside are they that hear, then comeeth the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts. So the ground here that’s plowed up, in a sense, represents the various hearts of people. The soils represent in a sense the different states of these people’s hearts. The soil refers to those who hear the word of God preached and then how, they react to it. The seed of the word is scattered everywhere. The hearts of the hearers, however, must be fertilized, if you would, by the Holy Spirit, watered and fertilized, so that spiritual life and fruit are brought forth. The problem is that not all soil is ready to receive the word of God. There’s good soil, and there’s good soil, and there’s bad soil. The bad soil is of three types, we’re told. There is the wayside, the hard path, verse 5. There is the rock, which we read about in verse 6, and then there are the thorns that we read about in verse 7. The good soil, which bringeth forth fruit, is mentioned in verse 15. So here are the soils. Ultimately, the distinction between the good soil and the bad soil is the difference between believers and unbelievers, the elect and the non-elect. Ultimately, that’s the solution to this. Everyone who steadfastly responds to Jesus Christ in a bad soil way, and they continue to respond to the message of Christ, will be eternally lost. Conversely, good soil hearers are those whose heart the Lord has opened and he plants the Word of God in their hearts, preparing the heart to receive the word when it’s proclaimed. We’re going to be talking about a little bit more about the mystery of this. Why it is Jesus speaks in a parable, there’s a section here that I’m going to skip over today. We’ll come back and get it next week. But the main idea here. to look at the soils and see the situation. Thus, the primary thrust of the parable is this. How people receive the Word of God. So you should ponder the various symbols that are used in this parable. The question is, how do you react to the Word of God? What is your reaction for the Word of God? And there are four reactions. that we want to talk about this morning. The first of this is this. Are you a hard soil or a soft soil here? The hard soil here is found in verse 5 and verse 12 where he talks about the sewer went out to sow his seed and as he sowed some fell by the wayside and it was trodden down in the fowls of the air devired it and when we read verse 12 we get the explanation those by the waist or they they hear then come with the devil and take of the way to see to their hearts lest they should believe and be saved so the first class of here is like the hardened soil that’s been troddened down it’s on the wayside that path that surrounds the different fields this soil’s walked over so much by the animals and the people and so forth that it’s flat and as hard as concrete if you were. The seed which lands on it can’t, it cannot penetrate the soil. The soil’s too hard. So it never actually germinates. It just lays there. The person hears the word, but this kind of person has really no interest in what the word of God says. It means nothing to you, let’s say. Many people, perhaps the vast majority, of people that you talk to today, sadly, I fit this kind of category where they have no interest whatsoever in what the Word of God says. Preaching and the Word of God are foolishness to these individuals. If you view it this way, then you’re a hard soil person. You’re on the wayside. Your mind is occupied with other things. Maybe you know, making money or whatever it is in this life. So you tune out whatever is said. You never see how vital the gospel is. You can hear it, but it’s not important to you. You don’t value it. Now, I have to make a confession here. When I was in high school, I was a good student. Actually, I was an honor student in high school. But in 11th grade, an American history class, I had one of the boringest teachers that there ever was on history. I mean, it was just a challenge to get through that class. I tried to listen, but my mind constantly wondered. And at the time, I really didn’t care about the French and Indian War. I didn’t care about the Federalist, and I didn’t care about the Louisiana purchase, or any of these things at that time. I was thinking about playing football when I home from school. That’s what I was thinking about. And one particular class, and it was, it was one particular class I remember that my mind just was off. It was daydreaming. Twice, the teacher called on me and asked your question about how he was lecturing because I don’t know where I was. I was off somewhere else. To get my attention. It was all I could do to focus on the lecture. Even when I tried to focus on the lecture, my mind just kept drifting off. It seemed like a big waste of time. What was the point of learning these things that took place hundreds of years ago? Now, if one history teacher, and I never had one tell me this, if one history teacher had said he should learn from the past so you don’t repeat the mistakes in the future, it would have been much more helpful to me. And if they had made that application as I went along, I think it would have been much more helpful. But for me, it was like, okay, yeah, all right, George Washington and the Federalist and all this stuff. But what does it mean to me? I’d rather be studying the, you know, the batting lineup of the pirates or something at the time. Now, if I can apply that to you when it comes to the Word of God, is that the way you are? Then the Word of God falls by the wayside. When you’re not really hearing it. It’s very easy for the devil to come and take away the seed, because it never gets in the soil. Yeah, it’s never gets into your heart really. The fowls of the air here, the satanic forces, the demons that are aged to Satan, who come along and snatch away the seat. Before it can even lay there for a while, and where the rain comes down, maybe you can get some kind of softening of the soil. Now, we’re going to get that seed out of there, so nothing ever happens like that. Do you have any interest in the Word of God? Do you understand the Word of God? And does that bear fruit in your life. Now let’s take the opposite. Let’s take a soft soil person, the person in verse 15 of our text this morning. Here’s what the scripture says. But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. So in contrast to the hard soil, here’s we have the soft soil here’s. what I’m aimed by this is their heart is prepared by the Holy Spirit to receive the word. The sea gets embedded in this soil. When you hear the faithful preaching of the Word of God, you find the truth of Scripture speaking to you personally. It is something that affects you. You take the gospel message to heart then. You treat it seriously. You believe what God says. about it. You find God’s word brings you hope and peace and joy. When you’re admonished by it, it causes you to repent of your sinful ways. Ultimately, you bring forth fruit. And here, we must think about the fruit of the Spirit. We have to think in a spiritual terms here. The fruit that’s produced by the Spirit are the great. of God within our hearts. Now, there are different levels, but here it talks about some bring forth a hundredfold. So it’s such an abundance comes forward in their lives. Sometimes your spiritual receptivity is not as good as it should be. Matthew talks about increase, it might be reduced to 30 or 60. Some 100fold, but some 30 or 60. Maybe you’re not as receptive as you should. But I think you don’t bring forth fruit, you could be more fruitful and you’re not. But soft soil here is always produced some fruit. They are never barren of fruit, you know, where you never have anything. There’s always something it’s produced. Could be more, but there’s always something. So are you a hard soil or a soft soil here? Second, are you a stony soil or a deep soil? here. Notice Verse 6 and 13. Some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. Verse 13. They on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy and have no root which for a while believe in the time of temptation fall away. Are you and easily offended here? This soil is not merely ground that has rocks mixed in with it. Put a French strain in the backyard a couple years ago, and I’m digging, you know, I thought, oh, I can dig this up in about an hour. I’ll get the whole trench stuff. No, there were stones mixed in when I had to get the pick out, you know, and they had to dig those stones out. So it was a pang. But here is even worse than just having stones. stones mixed in. The idea is that there’s a thin layer of soil and underneath that soil there’s a layer of rock underneath it. Like a big layer of rock or stone. Sort of a big stone with, was, you know, maybe an inch of dirt or something on pop of it. The seed enters into this thin layer of dirt and begins to germinate and grow. But the plant, it’s barley or wheat or whatever, never gets any good roots because it can’t get through the rock. The soil is only this deep, so the roots never get very deep. And so they can’t get down into the soil where they can get more moisture. And then what happens? Well, when the sun gets hot, or in the summer months, and it beats down and the dry weather comes, it can’t, its roots are too shallow to reach down so the ground gets dried out. So the ground gets dried up. out and they withers and dies. Now all this class of hearers, a strong is made, a certain kind is made by the preaching of the word of God. This hearer at first, we’re told of verse 13, receives the word with joy. There seems to be an initial excitement about the word and maybe the message of salvation, that is found in the Word of God. Perhaps you’re deeply interested in what the gospel has to say, and for a time it affects you. And maybe you make a profession of faith in Christ. And perhaps there is some reformation of life that you outwardly change this and that or the other in your life. But wait a minute, what else does Jesus say here? Before we count this person as a believer, something’s wrong because Jesus is in verse 13, that they only for a wow belief. And then in a time of tribulation here, or time of temptation, they fall away. Uh-oh. It’s a temporary faith. It’s not a permanent faith. The faith with justifies is of permanent. faith because it’s a God work faith. It’s a fruit of the Spirit. It’s true faith. It can’t be lost. It abides. It’s permanent. But if you have no root, you see, you have no depth to this faith that you supposedly have, and it’s unable to sustain you in the harder times. It dies out. So the Lord speaks of a time of temptation coming which causes this person. to fall away from Christ and the true faith. Matthew Gospel defines this temptation as tribulation or persecution because of the word. This arises because of the person professing faith and the people not liking what they have to say or what they’re believing. And the person becomes offended. So you’re, this, this, offense by that we’re given and the world hates us perhaps because of what we profess the Bible says here that it kills your initial enthusiasm, that initial joy that you once had and your faith withers away. It leaves you as you were before. Perhaps you suffer ridiculed, work from your old pals for you being a Christian. the pressures of being a Christian, the cost, mown up. Perhaps you didn’t realize that the cross has to be born. Perhaps you didn’t realize that there is a cost to following Christ to carrying the cross after him, so to speak. That you have to pay. And soon the Lord and the Bible and the church are seen as the sources of all your trouble. and all your anguish and all your frustration in life and you say, you know what, it’s just isn’t worth it. So you leave the church, forsake the truth, and deny the Lord. You never had a heart change. There is no deep conviction of sin. You never saw the need truly of a Savior. So your profession of faith just disappears and goes away. It was a temporary faith. As fast as it appeared, it also disappears. In Pilgrim’s Progress, and it’s interesting, if you read Pilgrim’s Progress, he has covered just about every practical aspect of going through the Christian life and who you meet and so forth. Pliable is really the person who would fit this category. He’s an illustration of this type of character. Remember Mr. Christian first starts out and he flees from the city of Distillery. two men from his town try to stop him, obstinate and pliable. They try to persuade Mr. Christian to give up this whole pursuit of salvation and return home. However, when Mr. Christian begins to explain the need to flee the city of destruction and seek after an endless kingdom, pliable begins to take notice. And while obstinate returned home, pliable said, If what Christian says is true, I intend to go with the good man. And so he’s going on the road with Mr. Christian. He’s following him to the narrow gate. He’s trying to also participate in this salvation that Mr. Christian has talked about. On their journey, Christian tells Pliable about the crowns of glory they’re going to be given. tells them about the white robes they’re glistening as the sun they’re going to wear, tells them about the fact there’s no more tears or sorrow when we get to heaven. The whole celestial city is going to be a wonderful place. However, while they’re hurrying along to get there, talking with one another, they fall into the quagmire in the middle of the plain called the Slavdespon. And before they know it, they’re up to their waist. in this mess. Some people have actually drowned, we read, in this. Plyleby because he’s offended. Angrily says this to Mr. Christian. Is this the happiness you promised me? If we have such ill-sweet at our first setting out, what may we expect between this and our journeys end and having no burden on his back to contend with? He had no aware. of his sin, really, pliable scrambles out on the side nearest the city of destruction and heads back home to get a bath and enjoy his comforts in life. He’s had enough. First sign of trouble, he’s gone. Mr. Christian, however, struggles because he has the burden on his back, but he’s going to struggle to get across this law of this bond to the other side because he wants to continue on to the narrow gate. And so he does. this is what we’re talking about. Are you easily offended? Is it here? Pliable? Oh, man, is this as tough as it getting, is this as hard as it starts out, how’s it going to be before it ends? Little does he know. Mr. Christian’s going to go through a lot before he gets to the celestial city. So here is the question. Are you an easily offended here? Or do you persevere in your faith and bear fruit? Again, we could go to verse 15. If the Word of God sinks deep roots into your heart, you are drawn to Christ and you draw strength and you draw life from Christ. You’re united to Him. Even when persecution or tribulation comes, your faith doesn’t die out because of that. Your reaction to the Word of God is not some superficial. emotional response like pliable. You have experienced deep sorrow for sin, and you have cried out, God be merciful to me a sinner. It’s precisely the sorrow of sin which brings you running to the cross and to Christ for forgiveness and salvation. And when persecution or tribulation comes, you don’t wither. Your faith doesn’t fade away. Your faith in bed. doors because you are clinging to Christ and he’s sustaining it. Obviously the Christian under trial is more fearful than he ought to be at times and we see this in the case of Peter and his weakness which is why there may be different levels of fruit 30 fold 60 fold and 100 fold there are times we’re not as fruitful as we should be but are you a stony soil or a deep soil here? Lastly, are you a thorny soil or clean soil here? Verse 7 and 14. And some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up and choked it. Verse 14, we read. And that which fell among thorns are they when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures? of this life and bring forth or and bring no fruit to perfection or you you are here enticed by the things of this life now this soil seems at first to be good notice the stony ground and the thorny ground at least there’s some type of plant that seems to be growing it never gets to produce any fruit but something seems to start growing there’s some interest but the problem is there are other soils in the soil there are other seeds that are mixed in thorns and thisles and things of this nature are mixed in with the soil so that the weeds grow up at the same time the plant of the wheat or the oats or whatever’s growing up and because they are weeds they seem to grow quickly and they are so many that they choke out the the oats or the wheat or whatever is planted there so that it dies. In other words, Jesus is telling us here that riches, pleasures, the cares, the cares mean the cares of this world, as Matthew’s Gospel explains, they intervene so much that they actually strangle, if you would, or choke out the good seed of work. Rich is deceive you by seemingly promising you, you know, security and freedom from worry that you’re like the rich fool, there are many that they perhaps think that they can take their ease and they have it made in life. You know, that’s what their goal is. Pleasure, steal away your heart, whether it’s wine woman or song or lust or whatever the situation is. The pleasure of this world take over, they’re more important to you than the Word of God. The care of the of this world, whether it’s work or business, the pursuit of money or goods or the needs of the family, you know, the food, to shelter, the clothing, keep you distracted to the point that it comes to the primary focus of your life, even more than the Word of God. And all these things crowd out the Word, so it has no room to grow and develop. So are you here enticed by the things of this world? Do you have a proper perspective regarding the things of this life? Again, we can go to the first 15 and the one that brings forth the good fruit. It’s possible for a Christian to sometimes be distracted by the cares and the riches and the pleasures. We still have some weeding to do. Some of us have some lot character characteristics where we’re still somewhat attached. However, fundamentally, your heart as a believer has been captivated by Christ. And because of that, the Word of God has room to grow. and to produce. The cares of this world, we learn to escape by throwing our trust upon Christ and our needs upon the Lord. For Christ has told us if we would seek first the kingdom of God, he would provide all these necessary things of life, what we will eat, what we will drink, and so forth. You evaluate riches in the light of Scripture. You use the world, but you don’t abuse it. you read the book of Ecclesiastes about the man enjoying the fruits of his labor and his wife and yes, we can enjoy these things, but we keep them in proper perspective. They’re not the primary focus of our life. And while the pleasures of life are attractive, your chief joy is found in the things of God. You delight in the Word of God. You set your affections on things. things above and hence the word of God bears fruit in your life. You have a holy and sanctified life. Consider your heart then this morning. You know whether these things are true of you or not. Let me close. While many were eager to hear Christ preach, Christ knew the hearts of men. He tells us, hey, there are four types of hearers. Way where you stand. Keep this parable in mind. When you’re witnessing, this parable in mind also because you know you’re going to find people that show some enthusiasm immediately for some of the things of God but watch we can’t always classify them as converted until they show some perseverance I mean we take them at their word and trust that it’s true but we should always realize that it could be one of these other grounds and until they really bear forth fruit that shows real evidence of the spirit’s work in them, we can’t be sure.